Nearly two months after the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, a devastating earthquake and an overwhelming tropical storm have diverted public attention from the crime.
If to this is added the growing insecurity due to gang violence, it is that the investigation into the death of sense Moses is rapidly disappearing from public attention.
Even for those who remain pending the issue, it is becoming clear that bringing the culprits to justice will be impossible in a country where impunity reigns. Nor does the fact that Moses was detested by much of the population help.
The assassination seems destined to add to a long list of unsolved crimes in Haiti, such as that of journalist Jean Dominique in 2000 or that of prominent lawyer Monferrier Dorval last year.
“The possibility of justice for Jovenel is nil,” said Pierre Esperance, executive director of the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights, one of the most prominent human rights groups in Haiti and a member of the International Federation for Human Rights. .
Despite Esperance’s pessimism, his group released a detailed report on the July 7 massacre, in which a team of Colombian mercenaries broke into the president’s private residence on a slope over Port-, killed to Moses and wounded his wife.
The report documents the arrest of suspects so far, including those in charge of Moses’ security. “The intellectual and material perpetrators of the assassination were able to count on the support of at least two presidential security chiefs,” the report says.
But it also hints that Prime Minister Ariel Henry, Justice Minister Rockefeller Vincent and even Martine Moïse, the president’s widow, know a lot more about the assassination than they have revealed.
The group says its report was based on notes taken by peace magistrates who conducted the initial stage of the investigation and conversations with those arrested. Asked about other sources, Esperance did not respond.
The report alleges that the prime minister held several telephone conversations, even on the morning of the assassination, with Joseph Badio, 1 a former justice official who is now a prime suspect in the crime. When Henry was asked about Badio in a recent radio interview, he said he knew him and defended him.
“The idea of publicly defending the guy is a bit peculiar, and flatly dismissing the possibility that he was involved is an obvious interference in the investigation,” said Robert Fatton Jr., a Haitian expert and professor of political science and affairs. exterior at the University of Virginia. “When the prime minister says he had nothing to do, it’s a signal to others not to talk about it.”
Henry devotes much of his public statements lately to rescue operations after the quake, the one on Monday apparently alluding to the political crisis.
“All sectors must come together to find a consensus,” Henry tweeted. “That’s why I invite them to talk to get the country out of the ugly stalemate it is in, to talk about the roots of the problems until we find an agreement that will allow us to get out of this crisis.”