Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated during an attack by gunmen inside his home early Wednesday. The killing was confirmed by the country’s interim prime minister, Claude Joseph, who said the president’s wife was wounded in the attack. 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, Joseph said in a statement. A state of emergency was declared and the police and military were currently in control of security, he added. Joseph condemned the president’s killing as “hateful” and “inhumane.” He promised that “democracy and the republic will win.” Haiti has recently experienced an increase in gang violence, anti-government protests and a rise in coronavirus infections. The streets of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, remained mostly quiet Wednesday morning. But there were reports of people damaging some businesses in one part of the city. Officials closed the country’s international airport. President Moise, who was 53, had been ruling by decree for more than a year. This was after the country failed to hold elections and the opposition demanded that he step down in recent months. Joseph is likely to lead Haiti for now, said Alex Dupuy, a Haiti-born sociologist who teaches at Wesleyan University in the United States. He told The Associated Press that the best possible situation would be for Joseph and opposition parties to come together and hold elections.
