Haitian President Jovenel Moise assassinated at his residence

Gomig-21 wrote:

Way too pale faced to not get noticed in Haiti

Someone got too optimistic

US refuses Haitian request to send troops to the country, according to Reuters news agency.

https://br.sputniknews.com/americas/2021071017760376-eua-rejeitam-pedido-do-haiti-para-enviar-tropas-ao-pais-diz-midia/

NOTE: still difficult to get a read on the end game here

Mathias Pierre, Haiti's minister of elections, announced Friday that the Haitian government had requested the US to deploy troops to the island nation to protect key infrastructure after the Biden administration offered the country aid in the wake of the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse earlier this week.

Earlier, both US and Haitian officials told reporters they could not confirm whether such a request had been made or not, but on Friday afternoon Pierre told the New York Times that “urban terrorists” like those who shot the president to death in his home on Wednesday posed a continuing danger to civil assets.

   “The group that financed the mercenaries want to create chaos in the country,” he said. “Attacking the gas reserves and airport might be part of the plan.”

The troops would also be asked to protect Haiti's port, airport, and energy facilities.

Pierre later told CNN the request was for a limited number of troops - approximately 500.

   The Pentagon declined to comment on the request, instead directing Sputnik to the Department of State, which has not answered a request for comment. A senior US official told Reuters “there are no plans to provide US military assistance at this time."

Reuters also revealed on Friday that a letter from Haiti to the United Nations requested a deployment of international troops "to support the efforts of the national police aiming to restablish security and public order in the whole territory," including defending infrastructure.

   The letter is dated July 7 - the day Moïse was killed.

On Thursday, Edmond Bocchit, Haiti's ambassador to the US, told France 24 that that the Haitian National Police (PNH) had been "overwhelmed and facing well-armed gangs" and welcomed any assistance that would allow the restoration of orderly life.

   "Now we need help: it's very important to say that, we cannot hide it," Bocchit said. However, he added that they had "not been discussing" the deployment of US forces to the country, which is about 600 miles southeast of Florida.

Earlier on Friday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a regular briefing that the US was dispatching federal officers from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to Haiti "in response to a specific request," as well as $5 million for the PNH.

The PNH said Friday they had captured 19 members of the 28-man commando that assaulted Moïse's house posing as US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) officers. Two of the men were Americans and 17 were Colombians; the rest of the commando had been killed in a shootout. However, it has since said that it is in pursuit of six more people.

Acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph has declared himself to be the country's interim ruler until elections can be organized, which are expected to occur in September and November. However, some Haitians have not backed him because the day before his death, Moïse appointed Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon, to replace him. The US, United Nations, and other international bodies have recognized Joseph's claim, which Bocchit explained was due to Henry not having had time to organize a new government.
NOTE: apparently the parliament has appointed the speaker as interim President

Joseph has enacted a two-week state of emergency and given police wide-ranging powers to track down Moïse's killers.

   In the US press, the editorial boards of several major newspapers have penned pro-interventionist articles in recent days.

The Washington Post's editorial board wrote on Wednesday evening that "Haiti needs swift and muscular international intervention," arguing that "the hard truth, at this point, is that organizing them and ensuring security through a campaign and polling, with no one in charge, may be all but impossible."

On Thursday, the Miami Herald's editors argued the US must "get off the sidelines and act" because of the precarious mandate given to Joseph, the lack of a sitting parliament, and the recent untimely death of the chief of the Supreme Court from COVID-19.

"All of this adds up to one thing: The United States, which has been content to stay mostly quiet on Haiti in both the Trump administration and the Biden administration, will have to get off the sidelines - immediately," the Herald wrote.

   The US has a long history of military interventions in Haiti, including a 19-year military occupation and puppet government from 1915 to 1934 which similarly followed the killing of a Haitian head of state - President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam - and which resulted in the theft of Haiti's entire national gold reserve and the deaths of 15,000 Haitians under the regime. More recently, US Marines were dispatched in 2004 in what amounted to a coup d'etat that removed leftist President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office.

https://sputniknews.com/latam/202107091083351312-haiti-govt-asks-us-to-send-troops-to-protect-key-infrastructure---reports/

More information equals more questions...

https://sputniknews.com/world/202107101083355711-haiti-assassination-drama-deepens-as-opposition-admits-hiring-dc-lobbyist-days-before-moises-murder/

franco wrote:More information equals more questions...

https://sputniknews.com/world/202107101083355711-haiti-assassination-drama-deepens-as-opposition-admits-hiring-dc-lobbyist-days-before-moises-murder/

If the insinuation is that this was engineered by the Haitian opposition, then that is not credible. US mercenaries are not some grocery store item that can
be bought, they operate within the narrow scope of US interests. This is especially true in this case where Columbia was used as a staging ground. If
the paranoid security services of the USA track people's social media posts, you can bet your last quarter penny that they know about the activity of
geopolitically relevant mercenary outfits. They have them on a tight leash.

The only way that the Haitian opposition would be able to tap into this US resource was if it had contacts with some faction in the USA powerful enough
to support them. So maybe this is a manifestation of US internal strife.

PapaDragon wrote:
Way too pale faced to not get noticed in Haiti

Someone got too optimistic

Not to mention the crazy amount of individuals seemingly involved in this plot, unless they're just rounding up whomever they think are involved and that many of these guys really aren't part of it?  It seems incredibly ridiculous to have 2 Americans of Haitian descent, 17 Columbians and another 11 missing that are being tracked to be involved in such a plot.  Someone is bound to know something and will rat out the culprits, or at least where and how they were getting paid.  

It just seems really sloppy IMO.

And this part from @Franco 's post throws a whole new twist on this crazy situation.

Acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph has declared himself to be the country's interim ruler until elections can be organized, which are expected to occur in September and November. However, some Haitians have not backed him because the day before his death, Moïse appointed Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon, to replace him. The US, United Nations, and other international bodies have recognized Joseph's claim, which Bocchit explained was due to Henry not having had time to organize a new government.
NOTE: apparently the parliament has appointed the speaker as interim President

White House ‘Has No Plans’ to Send Troops to Haiti, Possibly ‘Confused’ by Port-au-Prince’s Request, 10.07.2021.

Haitian President Jovenel Moise was gunned down at his residence outside Port-au-Prince on Wednesday by a team of international assassins, prompting authorities to put the Caribbean nation under martial law. On Friday, interim authorities formally asked the US and UN to deploy troops to help secure strategic infrastructure.

The White House “has no plans” to provide direct military assistance to Haiti, Reuters and The New York Times report, citing a senior administration official or officials said to be familiar with the situation.

“There are no plans to provide US military assistance at this time,” an unidentified "senior administration official" was quoted as saying by each of the outlets.

Earlier, a State Department spokesperson confirmed to Sputnik that Haitian authorities requested “security and investigation support” from Washington and said the US was in contact with Port-au-Prince to discuss “how the US can help.” The spokesperson did not respond directly whether the US would send troops to the country. The Pentagon also declined to comment on the troop request, directing Sputnik’s inquiries back to the State Department.

The “no plans” for troops comment comes amid scattered reports of possible confusion inside Washington about exactly what kind of security assistance Port-au-Prince is looking for. One congressional source told The Hill that Haiti’s request has “been framed in this bucket of US security assistance, where in reality the Haitian government made a request for US troops.” Another source said "confusion" may stem from the fact that the French word for “troops” can also refer to police.

Haiti’s interim government announced on Friday that it is formally requesting US and the United Nations boots-on-the-ground assistance to protect key infrastructure to stop “urban terrorists” like those who shot Moise to death at his home from endangering civilian assets through attacks on gas reserves, airports, or ports.

The security assistance request is unusual in light of Haitians’ weariness over the US penchant for rampant interference in the Caribbean nation’s internal affairs. The United States occupied Haiti between 1915 and 1934 in the wake of the assassination of President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam, looting the country’s gold reserves and claiming the occupation was necessary to prevent a German takeover.

During the Cold War, Washington supported the dictatorship of President Francois Duvalier, but turned its back on his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier in 1986, flying him out of the country aboard a US Air Force aircraft. In 1993, the US intervened militarily to restore President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power after his ouster in a coup in 1991. In 2004, Washington intervened militarily again, this time in support of a coup against Aristide.

Investigation Assistance

On Friday, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki announced that senior FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials would be deployed to Port-au-Prince “as soon as possible to assess the situation and how we may be able to assist.” Also on Friday, after it emerged that two US nationals were among the suspects in the assassination, State Department spokesman Ned Price said the US was "closely monitoring" the situation but could not comment on specifics “due to the privacy considerations.”

Moise succumbed to his wounds following in an attack on his residence on Wednesday by a group of heavily-armed mercenaries, with his wife, first lady Martine Moise, also injured in the attack and airlifted to a hospital in Florida in critical condition. On Saturday, the widow confirmed to media that the attack was the work of mercenaries, said she believed the opposition was responsible, and suggested that Moise was killed for his flagship development projects, including the building of roads, the provision of drinking water, and plans to hold a constitutional referendum alongside elections scheduled for September which would have expanded his powers.

“Mercenaries assassinated the president, other mercenaries want to kill his dream and his vision for the country,” Martine Moise, who suffered three bullet wounds during the attack, said.

19 suspects – 17 Colombian nationals and two American citizens of Haitian descent – have been arrested in the wake of Moise’s 7 July killing. Police believe some 28 foreign mercenaries in total were involved in the assassination plot. The two arrested Americans have said that they were working as translators on behalf of a mysterious mastermind identified only as "Mike." After the hit, some of the mercs reportedly attempted to hide in the Taiwanese Embassy and a house belonging to senior Moise ally Magalie Habitant.

By Ilya Tsukanov for Sputniknews.

https://sputniknews.com/world/202107101083357109-white-house-has-no-plans-to-send-troops-to-haiti-possibly-confused-by-port-au-princes-request/

Firm that hired mercs for assassination of Haiti President, Juvenal Moïse, is registered in Florida under the name of a Venezuelan follower of opposition figure Juan Guaidó, according to Venezuelan Vice-president Delcy Rodriguez.

https://mundo.sputniknews.com/20210710/la-empresa-que-contrato-a-los-mercenarios-de-haiti-es-de-un-venezolano-seguidor-de-guaido-1113998216.html

Excellent article on Haiti's victimhood to US imperialism, and why things aren't going to change. The sad story of Haiti.
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/528708-haiti-president-assassination-west/

The West’s crocodile tears over the assassination of Haiti’s corrupt leader reveal the reality of life as a US vassal state
Tom Fowdy

The 11 million inhabitants of this tiny Caribbean nation are wracked by extreme poverty, inequality and disorder because that’s the way Washington likes to keep it.
The President of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated this week. Four of the alleged mercenaries responsible were later hunted down and killed themselves. His murder provoked outcry in the West. But why did this happen? And why should we care about a tiny and seemingly inconsequential Caribbean nation?

It might have come as a surprise to some, not least because the mainstream media have ignored the build-up that led to the attack. The answer, though, is quite simple: Haiti is a political basketcase, its 11 million people have had enough, and Moïse has been an incompetent US-backed puppet, a quasi-authoritarian leader who rigged an election and incurred the wrath of a nation afflicted by extreme poverty, inequality and disorder, leaving a that has been historically exacerbated by American interference.

If you’ve heard of Haiti, it’s seldom been for the right reasons. The two things its name conjures in Western minds are the practice of voodoo and a catastrophic earthquake in 2010 that left up to 300,000 dead. It’s a very unlucky place. It’s one of the poorest countries in the world, and the poorest in the Western hemisphere, 59% of its population living on just $2 a day. Things have long passed breaking point and riots have been a regular occurrence for the past three years, leaving hundreds dead. We can’t condone the assassination of any leader, but Haitians are arguably one of the most disadvantaged peoples in the world.

Haiti is a tiny nation located on the island of Hispaniola in the West Indies. Its tragic history is a story of colonialism, slavery, revolt and then subjugation again. One of the first places to be reached by European colonialists, it first became a dominion of Spain and then France, which amassed an enormous African slave population in the territory to build the lucrative sugar trade.

On the back of this enslaved labour, it became a place of extreme wealth inequality, before the slaves revolted in the late 18th century under the leadership of Toussaint Louverture, dubbed the Napoléon Noir or Black Spartacus, and enacted the Haitian Revolution – the first black-led, anti-slavery uprising in history.

While the new nation was never quite stable and had a tremulous relationship with what is now the Dominican Republic, which it once ruled, there are three words with which we can sum up aspects of its current predicament: the Monroe Doctrine. America’s foreign policy, established in 1823, ensured it maintained dominance over the entire Western hemisphere – whatever the cost to the countries subjected to it.

When it came to Haiti, Washington took this to a new extreme. Fearing the influence of Germany on the island, the United States invaded and occupied the country for its own pleasure in 1915 and kept it that way for 20 years.

They left eventually, with strings attached, of course. In securing their dominance over Latin American and Caribbean nations, the US has always sought to put and maintain in power a very small, elitist and ultra-wealthy class who maintain that leadership against the bulk of the country’s population.

Haiti has always been dominated by a small, pro-West class known as ‘mulattos’. Although it’s a term that traditionally refers to skin colour, it’s really about social class. The mulattos comprise 5% of the country’s population and have dominated Haiti for decades as US clients, including through periods of outright dictatorship, including the notorious Duvalier dynasty, up until the 1980s.

These extreme divides between rich and poor, and oligarchic rule coupled with rampant political instability and unrest, has hindered Haiti’s progress, yet ultimately created a status quo favourable to the United States. There are other factors that have compounded its situation, including immense natural disasters such as the earthquake of 2010, frequent destructive tropical storms, chronic-disease outbreaks and more. While, today, the country is on paper a democracy, this obviously counts for very little from the perspective of ordinary people.

This is why Moïse’s assassination was not a surprise. To those ordinary people, his regime symbolised corruption, authoritarianism, chaos, the crushing costs of living and extreme dissatisfaction.

Yet, ironically, the Monroe Doctrine has played another role too. The country’s current political crisis was triggered in 2019 by a US regime change effort in nearby Venezuela – a country on which Haiti was dependent for cheap and ready fuel supplies. Nicolás Maduro’s state had given Port-au-Prince loans to buy its oil, but the country’s leadership embezzled the money instead.

Then, when the US decided to attempt a regime change in Venezuela and sanctioned its oil, Haiti found itself with neither any oil nor any money to buy it from elsewhere. This created fuel shortages and sent prices soaring by 50%. The fuel taxes proposed by the government to try to recoup the money triggered riots, which escalated into broader anger about living standards. In the ensuing violence, foreign embassies were attacked.

Yet did the Western media cover these events? Scantly. The Haiti government proceeded to murder journalists who opposed it. They even cancelled an election. The US imposed sanctions over such a decision in Hong Kong last year. This time? Tumbleweed.

What are the key takeaways here? While assassination is always wrong, Haitians are an impoverished people pushed to the absolute brink. As the US and its allies send their condolences to the Haitian government over the killing of Moïse, it should be made clear above all that this was a leader and a regime despised by most of the population and for a litany of reasons.

Yet, for the US, this failed state has been kept that way for generations out of political convenience, illustrating how Washington’s rhetoric of human rights is habitually ignored when the abuses are ongoing in a country that’s its subordinate, and how democracy alone is utterly meaningless when that country’s population is locked in severe poverty.

It should be noted, finally, that Haiti has no ties with China and still aligns with Taiwan, and has been signing up to anti-Beijing statements at the UN – something that makes no sense for an impoverished Latin American nation but point instead to its position as America’s vassal.

For the US, Taiwan and others, it’s very simple: because Haiti is broke and desperate, it serves our purposes, therefore there’s no need for us to fix it.

Kiko wrote:Firm that hired mercs for assassination of Haiti President, Juvenal Moïse, is registered in Florida

I think Google Translate is responsible for this horrible tragedy, that is the poorly executed translation LOL!  

"Firm that hired mercs for assassination of Haiti President..." right there is way off.  It obviously makes it sound like the firm (which is a security guard company or something of that sort?) had hired these men to subcontract them out as mercenaries to assassinate the president instead of as security details for whatever and whomever would hire them for the purpose of security, not assassination lol!

But the way that translation is poorly done, it makes it sound like the company hired them to make that kill lol!  Terrible and very misleading.

Even further down in that crazy article, another ridiculous attempt and twisting the facts and misrepresenting the truth by either willful misrepresentation or another ridiculous attempt by Google Translate actually calls the company a "mercenary company" instead of a security company not once, but twice!

"Today in AP it appears that the mercenary company that hired the Colombians involved in the assassination of Haiti is that of an activist of Juan Guaidó, Antonino Intriago, head of a mercenary company established in Florida," said the also minister of finance.

lol, I'm sorry but that's just nuts.  This is why you have to be really careful what you read and trust out there, especially when it comes to such a sad event like this.  Many are going to want to capitalize on it to further their agenda.  Sad but true.

Haiti's Interim Prime Minister Says Late Pres. Moise Was Tortured to Death by Mercs, Vows Justice, 11.07.2021.

19 suspects – 17 Colombian nationals and two American citizens of Haitian descent – have been arrested in the wake of the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise on 7 July. The Caribbean nation has been under martial law since, with interim authorities asking the US and UN to deploy troops to help secure strategic infrastructure.

Claude Joseph, the interim prime minister of Haiti, has said that President Jovenel Moise was tortured before his assassination, as he vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice, according to ABC News.

"Mercenaries came to the president's house, they tortured him and they killed him. We captured about 20 of them. They are currently in custody. And we believe, we staunchly believe, that justice will be provided to the President Jovenel Moise… We do have the right people [in custody],” said Joseph in an interview for the outlet on Friday.

Joseph, who declared a two-week state of siege after Moise's killing, said his main focus was to bring justice to the murdered President’s family.

When questioned about the political power struggle that unfolded directly after the assassination, Joseph responded:

"I don’t know if there is a power struggle. I’m not paying attention to whether or not there is a power struggle. I’m paying attention to giving justice to President Jovenel Moise... but I was interim prime minister. After the tragic death of Jovenel Moise I had to take charge and I did.”

Power Vacuum

Claude Joseph was appointed by Moise in April to be the country's acting Prime Minister after Joseph Jouthe resigned. However, on 6 July, a day before Moise was killed, he appointed Ariel Henry to succeed Joseph.

While some claim that Joseph's assuming power is unconstitutional, he enjoys the support of the US and UN. Helen La Lime, the United Nations' special envoy for Haiti, said on Thursday that Joseph would lead the country until new elections, planned for September and November, have been held.

However, on Friday, Haiti's Senate, the sole currently remaining body of elected officials in the country's government, voted to elect Senate President Joseph Lambert as the country's interim leader, reported Haitian news outlet Juno7.

'Act of Murder’

The Caribbean nation’s President Jovenel Moise was gunned down at his residence outside Port-au-Prince on 7 July by a team of heavily-armed international assassins. His wife, first lady Martine Moise, who suffered three bullet wounds during the attack, was airlifted to a hospital in Florida in critical condition.

On Saturday, an audio message was released from her official Twitter account, with a Haitian official cited by ABC News as confirming its authenticity.

"This great act of murder makes me and my children cry, and I know you are crying too. This act has no name, because it must be a crime out of bounds to assassinate a president like Jovenel Moise without giving him the opportunity to utter a word," said the widow of the slain president.

19 suspects – 17 Colombian nationals and two American citizens of Haitian descent – have been arrested in the wake of the killing. The two arrested Americans, identified by the authorities as James Solages, 35, and Joseph Vincent, 55, have denied being mercenaries.

The two claimed they were working as translators, according to Haitian Judge Clement Noel, who reportedly interviewed the pair, cited by ABC News. Solages purportedly found the job on the internet, and added the group had been supposed to arrest Moise rather than kill him.

Meanwhile, letters cited by ABC News suggest the Haitian government asked both US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the United Nations to send troops to protect key infrastructure, help stabilise the nation and support national police.

On Saturday, a senior administration official was cited as saying "there are currently no plans to send US military assistance to Haiti".

A day earlier, the White House said that FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials would be sent to Haiti to assist with the investigation into the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

By Svetlana Ekimenko for Sputniknews.

https://sputniknews.com/latam/202107111083359770-haitis-interim-prime-minister-says-late-pres-moise-was-tortured-to-death-by-mercs-vows-justice/

Why did the Americans kill the President of Haiti, by Victoria Nikiforova for RIA Novosti, 11.07.2021.

The high- profile assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise and his wife became the main news in July, however, to be honest, no one was particularly surprised. It did not look strange either that two American citizens were involved in the attack. And the fact that the authorities, unable to cope with the chaos in the country, called for the help of American troops. Haiti and the United States have a long and uneasy relationship.

"The island of bad luck" has long been a classic example of a failed state. Haitian leaders were regularly dumped during military coups and also sent to the next world. The beginning of the tradition was laid by the first president of the country in 1806: after less than two years of rule, citizens literally tore him apart.

Economy, politics, social sphere in the country - all this is a continuous catastrophe, and it has been dragging on for more than two hundred years. Photos of Haiti - pure post-apocalypse, trash and ruins. The poverty in the country is such that even the poorest states have to help. Cuba sends doctors, Venezuela throws up gasoline. And all the same, the population is sick, starving and dying out. How did it come about?

The history of Haiti is a series of occupations and civil wars. First, the indigenous population - the Indians - were exterminated in full by the French invaders. Then the local population drove out the French and the entire white population of the island was massacred for this business. The entire 19th century passed in continuous civil wars, during which poor blacks slaughtered the elite - the rich mulattoes. The mulattoes, in turn, hired black troops, and they were already slaughtering their brothers in the race.

Since 1915, the territory of Haiti was taken under control by the Americans, who landed troops there. Local farmers were afraid that their land would be taken away from them, and revolted. It was drowned in blood. The Americans killed thousands of Haitians, executed the country's popular leader, Charlemagne Peralt, and installed their own president. At the same time, they took their land from the farmers.

It would seem that with the occupation civilization should have come. The American authorities could restore order in a miserable country torn apart by anarchy and poverty. However, life did not get any better.

In 1934, the Americans withdrew their troops, but continued to appoint and remove Haitian presidents. All the leaders of the state were closely guarded from Washington.

For decades, despite all its atrocities, the legendary Duvalier dynasty sat on American bayonets. Papa Doc and his son Baby Doc committed a genuine genocide to their fellow citizens, but they regularly served the business interests of American companies and therefore remained unsinkable.

In 1991, the Haitians were thrust into the presidency of another sadist - Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Again torture, executions, extrajudicial killings of opponents, again a war against our own people. The population driven to despair has repeatedly tried to overthrow the president. But American special forces flew to his rescue every time.

Only in 2004 did Aristide get tired of Washington . The paratroopers again flew for him, but this time they took him out of the country and exiled to the Central African Republic. For more than a hundred years, the external administration of the Republic of Haiti has been carried out in this style.

Against this background, the execution of President Moiz looks sad, but, alas, it is natural. This is the fate of many countries that are considered sovereign, but in fact are US protectorates.

Shortly before his death, Jovenelle Moise quarreled with the American authorities. Washington demanded that he leave office as soon as possible. Moiz argued that his presidential term had not yet expired. Not only that, in January 2020 he dissolved the parliament and for the last year and a half ruled the country on his own. The American-dictated Haitian constitution secures the supreme power in the country to the parliament. In the fall, Moiz planned to amend this point and strengthen the president's power.

Over the past year, leading American politicians have urged Moise to call presidential and parliamentary elections and surrender power. He was called a dictator by the leading American media . However, he continued to bend his line.

Perhaps all this is just a coincidence. However, on the night of July 7, well-armed men in balaclavas broke into the residence of the President of Haiti and very professionally shot Jovenel Moise and his wife.

The foreign trail was visible immediately. The attackers spoke Spanish (Haiti is a French-speaking country). Seven killers were shot dead during the arrest. Nineteen people were detained. Two of them turned out to be American citizens of Haitian descent.

It was said that the killers were able to break into the residence, posing as employees of the US agency for the fight against drugs, but later this information was called unreliable.

The Haitian authorities presented the public with the biography of the detained James Solage. The US citizen was both a plumber, an electrician, and a professional soldier who served in the military police. He worked as a security guard at the Canadian Embassy in Port-au-Prince. Then he became an advocate for children and founded a charitable organization in Florida .

During interrogation, James Solage and another US citizen, Joseph Vincent, testified that a certain Mike, who was clearly not a Haitian, spoke only English and Spanish , orchestrating the murder.

We are not going to claim that the mercenaries who killed Moise received orders from Washington. The president also had enough enemies inside the country, and they got used to solving problems exclusively "according to concepts."

However, for the current chaos in Haiti - the poorest country in the world - the United States is directly responsible. For more than a century, this state has been in the zone of their influence. Its economy has been destroyed into rubbish, the state cannot pursue an independent policy. Well, what kind of independence is there, if just a little something - and the leader arrives "seven bullets, like in Sarajevo"?

Crime in the country is off the charts. Poverty is amazing. The only source of income is the earnings of a million people who have gone abroad. Who Said "Ukraine"?

No, no, we're talking about Haiti. To the sad experience of this country, it would be worth taking a closer look at very many. All nations that surrender their sovereignty to the Americans have a dream that the United States will turn them into a showcase. Ukraine , Georgia , the Baltic states continue to hope that they will have everything like in West Germany after the war. The Marshall Plan, American chocolate and American cinema, cheap housing, a lot of work, the richest US market open to their goods.

These people point-blank do not want to see that the time of shop windows has passed a long time ago. Whatever country the States undertake in our time, they inevitably make Haiti out of it. The same poverty and despair, the same rampant criminality, and the US ambassador is looking after all this post-apocalypse, placing his candidates on the kingdom.

Look at Albania , Macedonia , Georgia, Romania , look at ... well, let's not talk about Ukraine. All of them were dealt with according to the Latin American scenario. Having plunged the country into chaos, a single people was technically split into beefy, cynical elites and rapidly impoverished masses. Only in rare cases did the remnants of Soviet civilization make it possible to do without a civil war.

The meaning of these manipulations is perfectly clear. Washington needs the population of the post-Soviet space limitrophic exclusively as cannon fodder. They are expected to fight against Russia . But who in their right mind will go to war if there is something to eat, drink and wear? Right. This means that it is necessary to drive the population into hopeless poverty and such hopelessness that even war will seem like a welcome way out of the impasse.

Haiti is a good example of how not to do politics. And the tragic fate of its president is a useful warning to the leaders of countries selling their independence to Washington for a low price.

https://ria.ru/20210711/gaiti-1740741485.html

So Moise did go off reservation and got offed for it. He was no saint, but his removal is not about grassroots democracy in Haiti.
He just got too big for his britches and became a liability. Optics are very important to keep the sheeple in line. Cheesy authoritarianism
is not acceptable in sock puppet "democracies".

Press conference by the "interim government" at 6pm local time which is in about 2-1/2 hours from now. Should be interesting to hear what they have to say and who is this interim gov., if it is the PM or the one Moise supposedly appointed and what is the current power structure. Hopefully we can get a bit more of a better sense as to what the heck happened. Or not!

Check out this ex-cop and now one of the 9 major gang leaders in Haiti interestingly names "Barbeque" lmfao asking all the G-9 gangs to get together loooool to fix the situation in Haiti and get rid of the dark forces that have gripped the country since a long time.

This is some crazy stuff. You'll have to click the link to watch the video as I couldn't find a way to post it as part of this article.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/senior-fbi-homeland-security-officials-in-haiti-to-discuss-u-s-assistance-after-assassination/ar-AAM25oy?ocid=msedgntp

Senior FBI, Homeland Security officials in Haiti to discuss U.S. assistance after assassination

Widlore Merancourt, Samantha Schmidt  1 hr ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Senior FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials arrived in the Haitian capital on Sunday to discuss how the United States might assist the country after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, but the Biden administration has not granted Haitian officials’ requests for U.S. troops to help provide security.

Check the link to play the video of Barbeque's press conference!

Hotel cancels 'America First' rally after learning Gaetz and Greene were featured…
Schlapp: President Biden is 'dancing to AOC's tune'

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Senior FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials arrived in the Haitian capital on Sunday to discuss how the United States might assist the country after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, but the Biden administration has not granted Haitian officials’ requests for U.S. troops to help provide security.

Sporadic gunfire erupted in Port-au-Prince late Saturday and early Sunday, piercing the relative calm that followed Moïse’s killing as violent gangs threatened to fill the power vacuum in a country that now has no clear leader. One powerful gang leader called his followers to the streets this week as residents shuttered their doors against the possibility of more bloodshed in a city already terrorized by criminal violence.

In the mystery and confusion immediately after Moïse’s assassination last week, the gangs gave the city something of a reprieve from the torrent of gunfire that has killed hundreds this year. But while answers remain elusive — the motive for the president’s killing remains unknown, and at least four men have claimed they’re in charge now — the peace has now been broken.


A convoy of vehicles carrying unidentified members of a Haitian diplomatic delegation makes its way to the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince on Sunday.

The city’s most powerful gang leader, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, called followers into the streets in the coming days to demand “justice against this cowardly assassination carried out by foreign mercenaries in the country.” In a video message Saturday, the self-styled revolutionary asked other gang leaders to join him in the violence.

In Haiti, coronavirus and a man named Barbecue test the rule of law
One resident of the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Martissant, a journalist in his 20s, spoke of fleeing if conditions worsen.

“Anyone who stays in Martissant can be a victim any time,” said the man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear for his safety. “Anyone who chooses to take the road knows there are three possibilities: Either you die, you’re wounded or you get home safe.”

The four men claiming leadership of the government include acting prime minister Claude Joseph and Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon whom Moïse appointed prime minister two days before his death. On Friday, members of the country’s nonfunctioning Senate voted to name the body’s leader, Joseph Lambert, as Haiti’s acting president. In February, one faction of the opposition declared Supreme Court Judge Joseph Mécène Jean-Louis interim president.

In Haiti, rivals claw for power as crisis escalates after assassination
Joseph, who has been broadly recognized internationally but challenged at home, has asked the United States and the United Nations to send troops to help provide security. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Sunday the request was under review.

“We’re analyzing it, just like we would any other request for assistance here at the Pentagon,” he told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace.

Asked by Wallace whether the events in Haiti are a matter of U.S. national security, he said “I don’t know that were at a point now where we can say” that.

“But, clearly, we value our Haitian partners,” Kirby said. “We value stability and security in that country. And that’s why we want to send a team down there today to help them get their arms around exactly what happened and what’s the best way forward.”

U.S. officials have pressed Joseph to keep his pledge to hold elections scheduled for September. But many here argue that elections are impossible while the gangs still rule the streets.

Visual timeline: The assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse
Cherizier and his alliance of gang leaders, called the G9 Family and Allies, say they’re waging a revolution to liberate Haiti from a corrupt wealthy and political class. Human rights organizations had accused Moïse of maintaining links to Cherizier.

In his video message, in which he appeared in military fatigues before a Haitian flag, he targeted the country’s Syrian and Lebanese business owners, whom he said “hold this country and its economy hostage.” He said they should leave the country: “Today, it’s time that folks who looks like us own supermarkets in this country. It’s time that we own car dealerships and banks.”

He said his followers would “practice what we call legitimate violence.”

“If they shoot on us, you know what to do,” he said. “You are not children.”

Assassination of Haitian president becomes complex international web
Gangs controlling neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince have blocked roads to the southern part of Haiti and disrupted gasoline distribution and commerce across the nation. More than 13,000 people in the capital are thought to have fled their homes, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Some people and businesses are using boats to circumvent the Martissant area altogether.

On Saturday, hundreds of Haitian citizens held up passports in front of the U.S. Embassy in Tabarre to ask for asylum.

Earlier Saturday, an audio clip appeared on the Twitter account of first lady Martine Moïse, who was wounded in the attack that killed her husband and is now receiving treatment in Florida. It was described as a message from the first lady.

“In a blink of an eye, mercenaries entered my home and riddled my husband with bullets,” Moïse says in the recording. She urged Haitians to continue his fight for Haiti.

Haitian officials have described the assailants as a hit squad of 28 people, including Colombian former soldiers and their two Haitian American interpreters. They say 20 suspects, including the Haitian Americans, have been captured and three have been killed.

Investigators who have debriefed the Haitian Americans and relatives of the Colombians have suggested that the men were not aware of a mission to kill the president — but perhaps to arrest him.

‘Nothing is working’: Haiti’s chaos seen from behind the locked gates of one man’s home
A U.S. government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter, expressed doubt about the authenticity of the recording.

“Given the injury she sustained and the timing of when the audio was released, it’s questionable whether she would have been in a medical state to record such an audio clip,” the official said.

But a Haitian government official told The Washington Post that he spoke with a member of the first lady’s security team at her Miami hospital to confirm the message’s authenticity.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of escalating the violence, said he worried about the days leading up to the president’s funeral, which has yet to be scheduled.

“At this moment, we’re trying to keep the country calm,” he said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/senior-fbi-homeland-security-officials-in-haiti-to-discuss-u-s-assistance-after-assassination/ar-AAM25oy?ocid=msedgntp

Haitian Police Arrest Florida Doctor, One of Suspected Masterminds Behind Moise’s Assassination, 12.07.2021.

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) - One of the alleged masterminds behind the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise has been arrested, Police Director Leon Charles said.

"The first person they called when the bandits' advance was blocked was Emmanuel Sanon," Charles told reporters on Sunday, as quoted by Acento.

According to police, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a doctor from the US state of Florida, has been arrested. Two other people "implicated in the intellectual authorship of the murder," are being searched for, Charles said.

Sanon, who is of Haitian descent, has lived in South Florida for more than 20 years, and is now the third person tied to the Sunshine State to be arrested in connection with Moise's assassination, the Miami Herald reported. The other two suspects, known as James Solages and Joseph Vincent, reportedly told authorities that Moise's assassination was part of a plot to install the doctor as president of Haiti.

What's more interesting, Solages was "briefly employed as a reserve bodyguard" at the Canadian Embassy in Haiti, reports say. As for Vincent, it is only known so far that he has lived in Miami.

Investigators believe that Sanon was in contact with a Venezuelan security company based in the United States — presumably, it organized the recruitment of the Colombians who are now being accused of killing Moise.

According to the Haitian police, a group of 26 Colombians and two Americans of Haitian descent are suspected of having carried out the assassination of President Moise in his home in Port-au-Prince in the early hours of Wednesday, July 7. The National Police said on Friday that 18 Colombian and two American suspects had been detained.

According to Colombian media reports, the head of Moise’s security guard, Dimitri Herard, often traveled to Colombia and is expected to explain his frequent trips to Ecuador with stopovers in Bogota during an upcoming interrogation this week.

The dates of Herard’s latest trips reportedly correspond to the time when the final details of Moise’s assassination were discussed.

Moise, who ruled the country from 2017, sustained twelve wounds to his body during the fatal shooting in Port-au-Prince's Petion-Ville suburb on July 7. Haiti's interim prime minister said that the late president was tortured before his death at the hands of the alleged mercenaries.

His wife, Martine Moise, was severely wounded in the stomach and airlifted to a hospital in Miami for treatment. She is currently in stable condition. On Saturday, a voice message was released on her Twitter account, in which the widow said that her husband was killed by mercenaries because of his development projects, and plans to organize a constitutional referendum and presidential and legislative elections. However, The Haitian Times reported that the recording could be fake, creating even more mystery surrounding Moise's death.

The Juno7 news agency, in turn, reported that none of the president's guards who were with him in the residence during the attack were injured.

The assailants who killed Moise at his private residence earlier in the day claimed to be with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Miami Herald newspaper reported, citing videos taken by people near the president's home. US State Department spokesperson Ned Price at a press briefing said reports of DEA's involvement are "absolutely false."

https://sputniknews.com/latam/202107121083363827-haitian-police-arrest-florida-doctor-one-of-suspected-masterminds-behind-moises-assassination/

Who are Barbecue and El Coqui and Why are Their Gangs Involved in Violence iIn Venezuela and Haiti?, 12.07.2021.

Recent violence between the security forces and a notorious gang in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, has left 26 people dead and 38 injured. Could there be a connection between these clashes and recent events in the western hemisphere’s poorest nation, Haiti.

The assassination last week of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse has worsened political tensions on the Caribbean island, which are inextricably linked to the PetroCaribe scandal.

PetroCaribe was set up in 2005 by Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez and allowed poor countries in the Caribbean to buy oil from Caracas at discounted prices.

But in 2019 Haiti’s court of auditors ruled that officials in Moïse’s government had mismanaged or embezzled up to US$2bn of PetroCaribe money.

Demonstrators called for Moïse to resign but he retained the support of the United States and soldiered on, determined to stay in power until February 2022.

In 2020 Kim Ives, editor of Haiti Liberte, told Radio Sputnik Moïse was a US puppet who was being used to destabilise Venezuela.

On 7 July Moïse was gunned down by a group of around 30 assassins who included former Colombian soldiers and a handful of Haitian-Americans.

Haiti’s police chief, Léon Charles, said on Sunday, 11 July, they had arrested a Florida-based doctor, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 63, who they believed had hired the assassins to oust kill Moïse and install himself as President.

Mr Charles said police found at Sanon's house in Haiti 20 boxes of bullets, gun parts, car licence plates from the Dominican Republic, two cars and a fake DEA hat - it has been reported the assassins claimed to be DEA agents during the attack.

​In the days after Moïse’s death one of Haiti’s most powerful gang leaders, Jimmy Cherizier - known as Barbecue - called his supporters into the street to demand “justice against this cowardly assassination carried out by foreign mercenaries in the country.”

Last year Barbecue took to YouTube to announce the formation of a new gang alliance - G9 Family and Allies - and paraded through the streets of Port-au-Prince surrounded by dozens of heavily armed gangsters.

In recent years Barbecue and his G9 gang have been growing in power in the slums of Cite-Soleil and Delmas 6, with President Moïse either unwilling or unable to act.

​A warrant against Barbecue for possessing illegal arms has never been served on him and he was never charged in connection with a massacre in La Saline in 2018 in which 59 men, women and children died.

Meanwhile in Venezuela, the Interior Minister Carmen Meléndez claimed at the weekend that a gang dominating the western barrios of Caracas has international financing.

She tweeted "At this point, there is no doubt about the direct complicity, financing and collaboration, with the planning, supply of arms, communication support, by sectors of the Venezuelan Right, with international complicity.”

In the last few days 26 people have been killed in gun violence as a gang led by a gangster called El Coqui took on the security forces of President Nicolás Maduro.

​El Coqui’s stronghold is the barrio of Cota 905, but he has also spread his tentacles to the neighbourhoods of El Valle, Cementerio, La Vega and San Juan.

El Coqui - real name Carlos Luis Revete - leads a gang which is equipped with high-calibre weapons and grenades.

The Venezuelan government said he had been "intimidating, wounding and murdering innocent people" and they launched an operation last week to “restore peace and tranquility” to the neighbourhoods El Coqui dominates.

According to the Insight Crime website El Coqui is 43 and is a former member of a street gang called Los Chiches who was charged with a murder in Cota 905 in 2013 but was never convicted.

[Tweet by Carmen Meléndez, Venezuelan Interior Minister: "The Guardians of the Homeland continue to be deployed on Cota 905, protecting the community that lives in this sector and with it the five parishes of Caracas that have been affected by the action of organized criminal groups Unity, fight, battle and victory!"].

​El Coqui reportedly took over the gang after its boss was killed and he transformed it into a “megabanda” - a large alliance of gangs.

The Maduro government originally placed Cota 905 in a “peace zone” and ceded control of the area to El Coqui in return for a reduction in violence but this unofficial pact has been broken several times.

Insight Crime says: "Through strategic alliances with other gang leaders, Revete looks set to expand his criminal empire still further. Revete is also linked to illegal mining operations allegedly once controlled by Calderón in the states of Carabobo and Bolívar, suggesting that this Caracas megaband could even extend its influence to other parts of Venezuela."

Mrs Meléndez’s comments about El Coqui getting “international financing” could indicate that Maduro’s government suspects El Coqui is in cahoots with the US or with Venezuelan emigres in the US.

https://sputniknews.com/latam/202107121083366978-who-are-barbecue-and-el-coqui-and-why-are-their-gangs-involved-in-violence-iin-venezuela-and-haiti/

Two Suspects in Haitian President’s Murder Were US Law Enforcement Informants, Report Says, by Alexandra Kashirina for Sputniknews. 13.07.2021.

Last week, Haitian police arrested two US citizens, Joseph Vincent and James Solages, on suspicion of murdering Haitian President Jovenel Moise in his own residence on Wednesday. Police had 26 other suspects, and 20 have been arrested.

The detained Americans, reportedly involved in Moise’s assassination, were said to be working for American agencies as informants, sources told CNN on Monday. One was said to work for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

"Following the assassination of President Moise, the suspect reached out to his contacts at the DEA. A DEA official assigned to Haiti urged the suspect to surrender to local authorities and, along with a US State Department official, provided information to the Haitian government that assisted in the surrender and arrest of the suspect and one other individual," the DEA said, cited by CNN.

Responding to reports that some of the murderers were shouting “DEA” during the attack, the agency claimed that none acted on its behalf.

As a source close to the investigation told Reuters on Monday, the two arrested said to investigators that they were interpreters for a Colombian commando unit, which reportedly had an arrest warrant for Moise. James Solages was also said to be a "certified diplomatic agent" who worked for some time as a "chief commander of bodyguards" in the Canadian embassy in Haiti.

The assassination

On the night of 7 July, a group of assailants attacked the residence of Haitian president Jovenel Moise. The 53-year-old leader was killed, prompting the country to declare a state of emergency.

Police identified 28 foreign persons related to the assassination, with 20 arrested, including 18 Columbians and two Americans of Haitian origin, Joseph Vincent, 55, and James Solages, 35. On Sunday, the country’s police chief, Leon Charles, revealed that the suspected instigator of the murder is a 63-year-old doctor from Florida, who was also detained.

On Friday, the Haitian government made a request to the United Nations and the US for military units to be deployed in the country to "support the efforts of the national police aiming to reestablish security and public order in the whole territory."

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said earlier that the request is under consideration at the moment. Meanwhile, a group of Department of Homeland Security and FBI agents was commissioned to enter the country to inquire into the assassination.

https://sputniknews.com/us/202107131083372714-two-suspects-in-haitian-presidents-murder-were-us-law-enforcement-informants-report-says/

The criminal disorder in Venezuela has clear roots in US meddling. The USA always uses irregulars to push its geopolitical ambitions.
During the USSR period the US was recruiting the Soviet underclass to destabilize the system.

Pastor Accused of Killing Haiti's President Reportedly Arrived to Island to Save Country 'From Hell', by Tim Korso for Sputniknews. 13.07.2021.

Earlier, police in Haiti identified a person they believe to be behind the attack on the house of the Haitian president that resulted in his killing. The suspect purportedly arrived in the country accompanied by mercenaries who later raided the president's house.

Friends of Christian Emmanuel Sanon, reportedly a doctor and a pastor, said he could not have plotted an assassination of the country's president, Jovenel Moïse. Sanon, who, since 2011, has openly expressed a willingness to rule the country, arrived on the island with a mission to "save Haiti from hell" via religion, one of his associates from Florida anonymously detailed in an interview with the AP. The associate declared that the purported evangelist pastor would never take part in a plot to kill the leader of Haiti.

"I guarantee you that. This was supposed to be a mission to save Haiti from hell, with support from the US government. [He] is completely gullible. He thinks God is going to save everything", the AP source said about the Florida man.

Haiti’s National Police, however, have a different working theory. According to its chief, Léon Charles, Sanon arrived in Haiti accompanied by a group of mercenaries from a security firm, who were originally ordered to protect his persona. Later, their orders changed to infiltrating Moïse's residence and murdering the president, Charles claims. The police chief added that one of the mercenaries later called Sanon and the latter in turn called two masterminds behind the assassination plot. Police did not give the names of the so-called masterminds.

The associate asked by the AP, however, claims that Sanon called them and told the associate that his guards had disappeared and were not reachable.

"I’m all by myself. Who are these people? I don’t know what they are doing", the associate quoted Sanon as saying in the interview with the AP.

Another friend of Sanon, reportedly a colleague from Florida, Reverend Larry Caldwell, argued that the man was incapable of plotting any brutal crime. Caldwell, who helped Sanon set up hospitals and churches in Haiti between 2000 and 2010, stressed that such actions would simply contradict his religious beliefs.

"You take a man like that and you’re then going to say he participated in a brutal crime of murder, knowing that being associated with that would send him to the pits of hell?" Caldwell said.

Moïse was killed last week in his home. His wife was injured in the attack, but has survived. No one from the president's security was hurt in the assault carried out by a team consisting mostly of Colombian mercenaries posing as US DEA agents. Haitian authorities later caught up with some of the attackers, killing an unknown number and arresting the rest. Police continue the investigation into the matter, but have not yet come up with names for the masterminds, apart from Sanon.

Main thing is that Haitian Police are conducting their own investigations and not relying on suspect US entities.

Haitian Prime Minister is investigated as possible mastermind of assassination of President, 15.07.2021.

The Prime Minister of Haiti, Claude Joseph, is being investigated as a possible mastermind of the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, on the last 7 day at his official residence in Port-au-Prince. The hypothesis, pointed out by the Colombian press and analyzed by the FBI, is that the crime was planned for months for Joseph to reach the presidency.

Joseph took command of the country last week. The FBI believes the crime may have been carried out with the connivance of “senior government officials.”

According to information from Brazilian newspaper O Globo, a broadcaster that had access to photos and telephone records, reports that both American investigators and Haitians believe that Joseph was the principal, alongside the alleged doctor Christian Emmanuel Sanon, arrested on Sunday, and former Senator John Joel Joseph, fugitive from Justice.

https://www.brasil247.com/mundo/primeiro-ministro-do-haiti-e-investigado-como-possivel-mandante-de-assassinato-do-presidente?amp

Also:

Haitian Police deny links between assassination suspects and prime minister, 15.07.2021.

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Sputnik) - Haitian Police denied links between the arrested suspects of murdering President Jovenel Moise and acting prime Minister Claude Joseph, as reported by Colombian media.

"The leads and other information gathered in the course of the investigation do not reveal any link with the current prime minister and the suspects have not made any disclosure about it," the Haitian police said in a statement.

The authorities disassociated themselves from the "allegations" of the Colombian Noticieros Caracol, which on Wednesday accused Joseph of being the mastermind of the assassination of the president, with the purpose of replacing him in power.

According to the network, the assassination began to be planned in November 2020 in the building of the company CTU Security, based in the United States, while the homicide was executed by seven Colombian ex-military.

The Haitian National Police said it was on guard against "any diversion maneuver," while the director of the Colombian Police, General Jorge Luis Vargas, said he had no information about the alleged relationship.

The most recent assessment by Haitian law enforcement indicated that the murder was organized in a hotel in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, at a meeting attended by Emmanuel Sanon, a physician resident in the state of Florida, southeastern United States, and alleged ringleader of the operation.

Also present were Venezuelan opposition member Antonio Emmanuel Intriago Valera, owner of CTU Security, former senator John Joel Joseph, James Solages and Walter Veintemilla, at the head of Worldwide Capital Lending Group, a company that allegedly financed the assassination.

The authorities point out that CTU Security recruited the "mercenaries" who participated in the operation, while former MP John Joël Joseph coordinated the meetings with the suspects, located vehicles and paid for the purchased materials.

The complex network includes connections with Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, Haiti and the United States, the latter with detainees who were informants for federal agencies such as the DEA (U.S. Anti-drug Agency) and the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation).

https://mundo.sputniknews.com/20210715/la-policia-de-haiti-niega-vinculos-entre-sospechosos-por-el-magnicidio-y-el-primer-ministro-1114136773.html

US military helped train some of the Colombian suspects in assassination of Haitian president, Pentagon admits, 15.07.2021.

An additional US government link to suspects in last week’s assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise has emerged, as the Pentagon has admitted that some of the alleged murderers had received American military training.

“A review of our training databases indicates that a small number of the Colombian individuals detained as part of this investigation had participated in past US military training and education programs, while serving as active members of the Colombian Military Forces,” a Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Ken Hoffman, said on Thursday.

Hoffman’s statement, which was first reported by the Washington Post, didn't specify the number of suspects who had US training. Haitian officials have said that a group of 28 foreign mercenaries, including Colombians and two Haitian-Americans, killed Moise in his private residence in the early morning hours of July 7. At least 13 of the Colombians had served in the South American nation’s military and retired between 2018 and 2020.

The latest revelation comes on the heels of reports on Monday that at least one of the alleged assassins was an informant for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and several others may have had ties to the FBI. On Sunday, a Florida-based doctor of Haitian descent, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, was arrested in Haiti on suspicion that he’d helped mastermind the assassination.

Washington has provided more than $200 million in aid to Colombia every year of this century, including more than $800 million in its last fiscal year. Much of the assistance has gone to the Colombian military and police. The Pentagon has trained thousands of troops from Colombia and other Latin American and Caribbean countries.

“This training emphasizes and promotes respect for human rights, compliance with the rule of law, and militaries subordinate to democratically elected civilian leadership,” Hoffman said.

But social media users questioned the wisdom of the training programs, pointing out a series of pupils who went on to do great harm, including a Saudi Arabian man who shot up a Florida Navy base in 2019, the Saudi operatives who killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, and countless Islamist fighters in the Middle East.

“Tell me again about how US foreign military training and assistance is an essential tool for building peace and security,” anti-war activist Kate Kizer said.

The DEA has denied involvement in the assassination, saying that none of the suspects were acting on its behalf. The FBI is assisting in the investigation of Moise’s killing.

https://www.rt.com/usa/529315-us-military-trained-haiti-assasin-suspects/

The noose is tightening:

US Troop Deployment to Haiti 'Not On the Agenda at This Moment', Biden Says, by Morgan Artyukhina for Sputniknews. 15.07.2021.

After the de facto Haitian government requested a US troop deployment to defend the country's essential infrastructure in the wake of the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise, US President Joe Biden said it was "not on the agenda."

"With regard to the circumstances [in] which we would send military troops to Haiti, we're only sending American Marines to our embassy to make sure they are secure and nothing is out of whack at all," Biden said at a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday.

"But the idea of sending American forces into Haiti is not on the agenda at this moment," he added.

The government of acting Haitian Prime Minister Claude Joseph made its request for troops public on July 9, but according to Reuters, which viewed copies of two letters sent by the government to the US and UN, the request had first been made privately two days earlier.

Congressional sources told The Hill that the request was ambiguous about several things, including whether or not Joseph's government was requesting police or troops, due to the fact that "gendarmerie" can refer to either.

However, the US has already sent several officials from the FBI and US Department of Homeland Security to the Caribbean nation to help with the investigation of Moise's murder, as well as $5 million in supplemental funding for the Haitian National Police (PNH).

https://sputniknews.com/us/202107151083394465-biden-sending-troops-to-haiti-not-on-the-agenda/

Also:

'US Out of Haiti’: Protesters at US State Dept HQ Oppose Sending Police, Troops After Moise Killing, by Morgan Artyukhina for Sputniknews. 15.07.2021.

The last time a Haitian president was assassinated, in 1915, US Marines occupied Haiti for 19 years, looted the country’s gold reserve, and backed a military dictatorship that killed an estimated 15,000 Haitians - just one of numerous interventions in the Black Republic by the US to ensure its interests are protected.

Dozens of protesters demonstrated outside the US Department of State offices in Washington, DC, on Thursday against US involvement in Haitian affairs, including the question still being weighed by the Biden administration about whether or not to deploy troops to Haiti, as the government there has requested.

In the aftermath of the July 7 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, who was allegedly slain in his home by a hit squad of 26 Colombian and two American gunmen, the acting government appealed to the United States and United Nations for help. While Washington has sent FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials to Port-au-Prince to evaluate how they can help, it has not yet decided whether it will deploy troops to the island nation, as it has done many times in the past - and often without the consent of the Haitians.

The protest was called by the Black Alliance for Peace, a black-led group which “seeks to recapture and redevelop the historic anti-war, anti-imperialist, and pro-peace positions of the radical black movement,” according to its website. However, several other protest groups were also present, including women-led peace group Code Pink and the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition.

Erica Caines, a member of the coordinating committee of the Black Alliance for Peace and co-editor of the blog Hood Communist, told Sputnik that “regardless of the circumstances around the assassination, we do not want US intervention in Haiti.”

“We understand that the US, alongside the Core Group and OAS, and all pan-European powers, have consistently been in Haiti, so when talking about intervention, we have to understand that those powers have never left, they’ve always been there,” Caines said.

“They’ve been there before the assassination and they’re still there. And we know that most recently, the referendum for the constitution was pushed back, so we do understand that these are all major issues that are going to determine the livelihood of Haitians in Haiti and we’re here to say, unequivocally, that no US intervention and that the Haitian people are allowed and that they have the right to self-determine,” she added.

She pointed to the UN’s decision to recognize Claude Joseph, the former acting prime minister whose replacement was appointed just a day before Moïse’s assassination, as the country’s de facto leader as an example of this meddling.

“When we look at what the UN just did with the closed UN meeting that decided that the prime minister was just going to just extend [his term] and be the temporary leader of Haiti, you also have to remember who he is and his connection to NED, the National Endowment for Democracy,” a soft power front group for the CIA.

​Arturo Griffiths from the Claudia Jones School for Political Education in Washington, DC, said that the struggles of working-class people in Haiti and in the United States are directly connected, especially since there are so many Haitians working in DC, which is why his organization was protesting outside the State Department.

“The same enemy that the Haitian people are getting is the same enemy that we have here. No question about it… We need to unite all the struggles, to make sure that all the struggles come together. We can’t have separate struggles, we have to have togetherness, because the world needs the working-class struggle of the United States,” Griffiths told the crowd. “If the working-class struggle of the United States does not get stronger, we’re not going to be able to help the rest of the world. That’s the reality. We need the working class and the people to start getting together because the fight is not only here, but is international, too.”

​Indeed, just days after Moïse’s killing, protests erupted in nearby Cuba, where the US has been trying to overthrow the communist government since 1960. There are extremely strong indicators that the US helped orchestrate the demonstrations, which received extensive media attention in strong contrast to the mass demonstrations against Moïse’s government going on in Haiti for months before his death. Those protests, too, demanded the US not intervene in Haitian affairs.

In addition, the hit squad allegedly hired to kill Moïse was composed mostly of Colombian ex-military figures, many of whom were reportedly trained by the US via partnership programs, and the two Americans , according to media reports, were former US federal police informants. Venezuelan National Assembly Speaker Jorge Rodriguez also said that Miami-based CTU Security, the group contracted for the hit, was also responsible for the failed assassination attempt on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in August 2018 using explosive drones, and was also connected to the failed 2020 plot to kidnap officially called Operation Gideon, but more colloquially known as the Bay of Piglets.

https://sputniknews.com/world/202107151083393950-us-out-of-haiti-protesters-at-us-state-dept-hq-oppose-sending-police-troops-after-moise-killing/

Indirectly related to the thread, but nonetheless a nice read pointing to how blissfully ignorant Americans are to their country's colonialist/imperialist history, and are manipulated to continue being so.

https://katz.substack.com/p/on-the-perils-of-writing-about-the

'Want to be careful with this word'
On the perils of writing about the empire

Jonathan M. Katz

I published a new piece yesterday about the crisis surrounding the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. In it, I argue that a U.S. invasion of Haiti would be a colossally bad idea given the destructive history of the unending U.S. interventions in the Black Republic. (see link to the article).

The publication in which the piece appears was not where it was originally supposed to run. It was originally commissioned by a different, well-known national outlet. They contacted me last week, within hours of Moïse’s death, and asked me to choose the angle that seemed right to me. The editors seemed strangely hesitant when I suggested the framing, but contracted me anyway to write the piece, so long as I included what they called “nuance.” I had my suspicions about what that meant, but a writer’s got to write (and eat), so I pressed on.

I realized I was in trouble right away when I got back the comments on my first draft. Right off the bat, the editor cast doubt on my use of the “occupation” as a way of describing what the United States did in Haiti between 1915 and 1934. They commented:

“Want to be careful with this word – what was the nature of the occupation? How many troops did we send and what exactly did they do? Eg was it more of a peacekeeping/security assistance force, or what?”

If anyone should have been prepared for that question, it was me, the guy who just spent five years writing a book that is focused in part on how woefully ignorant Americans are of what our country has done in the world, especially in the decades leading up to World War II. But I was somehow not ready to get a comment like that from a senior editor at a major U.S. publication.

In any case, what the Americans were doing in Haiti from 1915 to 1934 was literally called the U.S. Occupation of Haiti. That’s what the White House, State, Army, and Navy Departments formally called it. It was a euphemism, in fact (as I was convinced to add in the final piece), to soften what it really was: a de facto colonization in service of the U.S.’s growing global power, corporations, and banks. It was a massive undertaking involving thousands of troops (mostly Marines) and other personnel. Many big names passed through Haiti in the period: Franklin Delano Roosevelt went down at one point to personally supervise in his charge as assistant secretary of the Navy. (FDR later bragged, falsely, about having personally written Haiti’s new U.S.-investment-friendly constitution in the process.) It was also extremely violent. Along the way, Marine aviators invented dive-bombing and barrel bombs to terrorize the Haitian population into submission.

Many Americans knew the occupation was wrong at the time. W.E.B. Du Bois and the N.A.A.C.P. were early and fervent critics of the U.S. invasion of Haiti. National leaders including the influential Senator William Borah and (eventually) Marine General Smedley Butler decried American abuses there as well. (It was part of what Butler was talking about when he wrote that he had “helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in.”) Warren G. Harding won the 1920 election in part by tarring his Democratic opponents (FDR was the Democratic vice-presidential candidate in that race) as the party of the Haiti occupation.

The nineteen-year occupation ended up being one of the longest in U.S. history, edged out slightly by the contemporaneous 1912-1933 U.S. occupation of Nicaragua. Its mark was just also passed in recent months by the now-ending U.S. occupation of Afghanistan.

(Can you imagine an editor in eighty years not knowing the U.S. military was ever in control of Afghanistan? I can. If there is still a U.S. empire in the year 2100, it will likely be because that and other such uncomfortable truths were similarly pushed down the memory hole.)

That word was by no means not the editors’ only complaint. They also asked whether it was right to refer to the 1994 U.S. invasion of Haiti as an “invasion.” In another spot, they called my summary statement that Haiti’s government had been “consistently and intentionally weakened” by the U.S. and its allies’ propensity to funnel assistance to their own aid groups and non-governmental organizations, “a big allegation to make in just a sentence.” (Which is why I gave extensive evidence for and explained that claim in detail in an award-winning book.)

Drafts are drafts, and mine was in no way perfect. I tried to answer the editors’ queries, do needed rewrites, and provide evidence to their editors’ doubts. But ultimately, our points of view were irreconcilable. I thought I had delivered a straightforward take on the last century of U.S. involvement in Haiti—an urgent, newsworthy topic as debate ramps up on whether to engage in yet another round. They thought I “veer[ed] into a sharp, critical tone that makes this feel a bit too much like a hot take rather than a thoughtful historical analysis.” I can imagine where they were coming from. If you don’t know these things happened—if they aren’t worked into your fundamental understanding of U.S. history and “who we are”—their bare recitation can seem shocking, aggressive, simplistic, or wrong.

The editor I was working with directly signaled multiple times that they did not “disagree at all” with my analysis. In refusing to publish the piece over the weekend they said, “given your deep expertise with the country, I think we can get a little deeper than we do here.” They said I could take another crack at it this week. But I have had enough experience with this topic, and had been through enough rounds of edits on this piece, that I recognized what lay beneath that. It wasn’t really ultimately depth or nuance they were looking for. It was absolution. It was to rescue from the narrative some sense that the things we did could not have possibly been as bad as I portrayed them, or that they had not really been our fault, or that the very at least they were the product of good intentions gone awry.

As you keen-eyed readers have surely noticed, I’m not including the name of the publication who commissioned and killed the piece. My intent here is not to embarrass them (nor burn my bridges any more than I already have). But more than that, I think this is a much bigger problem than one outlet. All of us are blocked by our assumptions, driven not by the stories we hear over and over again, and often unable to comprehend those we’ve never been taught. But these particular sets of historical silences, and the fraught attempts to fill them in, are fueling debates all over our society. As long-suppressed narratives rise up, those who most jealously guard their wealth and power, are fighting back: banning speech and moving to make the teaching of entire subjects, starting with those deemed “critical race theory,” illegal.

I can understand the reticence of a publication to jump into such debates. It can be uncomfortable—even dangerous—to tell stories Americans don’t know about what our country has done, and continues to do, in places like Haiti and beyond. But as I see it, it will be more dangerous in the long run not to.

Hyperlinks are accessible via the link to the article.