Free Republic

A Haitian doctor who has been a fixture in Florida for more than two decades has been arrested in Haiti under suspicion that he was one of the leaders behind the middle-of-the-night assassination of President Jovenel Moïse last week, Haiti’s police chief said Sunday. Christian Emmanuel Sanon’s name was mentioned by several of the people who are in custody in the case, Haiti National Police Chief Léon Charles said. Sanon was the first person one of the suspects called after being captured. The Haiti National Police arrested him as part of their ongoing investigation into the leadership of the group...

The Miami area is looming ever larger as investigators question the men held in the plot to assassinate Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. Seventeen Colombians and two Haitian Americans from South Florida are in custody in Haiti. A person who interviewed the detained Colombians in Haiti told the Miami Herald that the men claimed to have been recruited to do work in Haiti by an under-the-radar firm in Doral called CTU Security. It is run by a Venezuelan émigré, Antonio Enmanuel Intriago Valera. The Miami Herald visited the company’s offices on Thursday, where a doorbell rang to a phone, and a...

WASHINGTON/PORT-AU-PRINCE - “I am not a dictator,” Haitian President Jovenel Moise said during a national address Sunday, hours after announcing that the police had foiled a coup attempt and made more than 20 arrests. Haitians woke Sunday to gunfire in areas near the national palace, and a high police presence was seen by VOA Creole reporters on the scene. At midday, the president surprised the nation by going live on Facebook from the international airport in Port-au-Prince to announce a foiled coup attempt and the arrests. The prime minister would give more details, the president said, before heading to the...

Gangs raided multiple police stations for weapons in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, in deadly attacks over the weekend as violence between armed groups flared, with intense conflict in one southern neighborhood forcing thousands to flee. The gangs have proliferated in the poorest country in the Americas over the past few years during a period of political unrest and growing economic misery. Armed groups increasingly outgun Haiti's security forces and fight with one another over territory. The United Nations said on Sunday it was "profoundly worried" about the impact of the growing violence on civilians, recalling similar incidents over the past year...

Two men believed to be Haitian Americans — one of them purportedly a former bodyguard at the Canadian Embassy in Port au Prince — have been arrested in connection with the assassination of Haiti's president, a senior Haitian official said Thursday. Prime Minister Claude Joseph assumed leadership of Haiti with the backing of police and the military and on Thursday asked people to reopen businesses and go back to work as he ordered the reopening of the international airport. On Wednesday, Joseph decreed a two-week state of siege following Moïse's killing, which stunned a nation grappling with some of the...

Assassinated at HomeHaiti’s President Jovenel Moise was shot and killed last night at around 1 a.m. local time. First Lady Martine Moise was also wounded in the attack on their home in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Unidentified gunmen burst into their home, stating they were members of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and opened fire.The DEA website gave Haiti a Level 4 DO NOT TRAVEL restriction on June 16 due to dangers, including kidnappings, crime, COVID, and civil unrest.Moise’s presidency has been marred by accusations of corruption and waves of protests, often violent. Moise was expected to step down...

The president of Haiti, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated Tuesday evening in his home outside the capital city of Port-au-Prince, according to Prime Minister Claude Joseph. “A group of unidentified individuals, some of them speaking Spanish, attacked the private residence of the president of the republic and thus fatally wounded the head of state,” the prime minister said, calling the attack “hateful, inhumane and barbaric.” His wife was also shot during the attack. She has been hospitalized but her condition is not known at this time.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in an attack on his private residence early Wednesday, according to a statement from the country’s interim prime minister, who called the killing a “hateful, inhumane and barbaric act.” First Lady Martine Moïse was shot in the overnight attack and hospitalized, interim Premier Claude Joseph said. Even before the assassination, Haiti had grown increasingly unstable and disgruntled under Moïse. The president ruled by decree for more than two years after the country failed to hold elections and the opposition demanded he step down in recent months. “The country’s security situation...

For a second straight day, opposition protesters erected burning roadblocks and shattered windows in a section of Haiti's capital on Tuesday to press for new elections less than a week before a January 24 presidential and legislative runoff. A few thousand people joined the demonstration in downtown Port-au-Prince, marching through narrow streets and occasionally chanting: "The revolution has started, get your gun ready." Young men threw rocks, smashing windshields and the windows of a bank. They also overturned vendors' stalls to block law enforcement vehicles. Associated Press journalists saw one injured protester with what appeared to be a bullet wound....