Jovenel Moïse

Germany's Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has described the results of a state election as a disaster for his party, as the far-right AfD continues to make gains.

US officials say eighteen suspects in the assassination of the Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse, five years ago, have been flown from Haiti to Florida for trial.

Also in this podcast, there's an outcry in Barcelona over plans to expand the airport.

The quality of the air and the quality of the water of our natural area has decreased and decreased and decreased.

They're obviously unlikely to actually take power in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern because most other parties won't work with the AfD, which is something the AfD says is deeply undemocratic.

undemocratic.Jessica Parker in Berlin.

It's more than five years since the assassination of the President of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse.

He was shot at his home in the capital, Port-au-Prince, allegedly by a group of mainly Colombian mercenaries.

With the Haitian flag in hand, thousands protested in Port-au-Prince Sunday, demanding Jovenel Moïse leave power.

They say the president's five-year term expired three weeks ago.

[upbeat music]

They don't comment in politics.

But we all know that their interests continue to be protected, and the state is run by those who supposedly come of the people, supposedly look like the masses of the people.

But who use the state apparatus to enrich themselves so that they can become a contending bourgeois force, right? And that's the dynamic-- This is something that's interesting about Haitian politics, that that's disrupted post Jovenel Moïse.

Didier Alix Gébé today, who is the head of Haiti, no one voted for him, [laughs] no one wanted him.

He is of the private sector.

I want to give Rudo the dictator, his full agency.

Um, so when, um, Ariane Henry, who had just been named prime minister by Jovenel Moïse like two days before Jovenel is assassinated, and then who could not be ratified by parliament, which is part of the constitutional procedure because there is no parliament at that point because Jovenel Moïse has disbanded parliament since January 2020 because he's delayed elections over and over again.

So essentially, Jovenel Moïse was already running the country alone with his cabinet of ministers and had appointed all other positions in the country.

So either he extended people's terms who were already in power, the ones who were on his team, or he removed people who were problems in power.

you know, appointed mayors, deputies, right? Every level of the government at that point.

The first round campaign, originally scheduled to begin on Monday, has also been postponed, with new dates to be announced later.

Haiti last held presidential elections in 2016 when Jovenel Moïse was elected.

He was assassinated at his home in July 2021.

The country has since faced a prolonged political and security crisis.

... which has not been resolved at all.

Uh, the crisis started a long time ago, but maybe for questions of time, maybe we should start with the assassination of Jovenel Moïse, and that was in July of 2021.

And that assassination created a political vacuum that was initially filled by, uh, his, uh, uh, prime minister to be, uh, Ariel Henry.

But there was a previous prime minister, uh, Claude Joseph, and one of the interesting things about the, the two prime ministers is that it will show you how dependent Haiti is on the international community.

Because once, uh, Jovenel Moïse was killed, Claude Joseph decided that he was going to be the prime minister, and for about a week and a half, he was the prime minister.

But suddenly the UN decided, "Well, that's not going, going to happen," and they sent a tweet.

And this is a serious busi...

And actually, I don't even know if we are going to have elections.

It's been a while.

So since well before the assassination of Haitian President, uh, Jovenel Moïse back in July of twenty twenty-one, the Haitian people have suffered enormous hardship, violence, natural disaster with that just catastrophic earthquake in twenty ten-

Mm-hmm

... and all through this horrific poverty, a dysfunctional government.

Uh, this is listener-supported WPKN in Bridgeport.

The program is Counterpoint, and we're speaking this evening with Kim Ives, an investigative journalist, documentary filmmaker, and an editor at the weekly newspaper, Haiti Liberté.

Kim, I wondered if you explain to our audience the situation now where we have a, uh, Haitian President Didier, um, asking in his recent address to the United Nations General Assembly, um, hoping to, uh, extend the mandate for this semi-quasi United Nations force that you just described.

Um, and also I'd like to know who, who has hired, uh, Erik Prince and his latest mercenary army that's called Vectus Global, as you said.

But gangs have also been used by politicians from the other side.

And people would argue that President Jovenel Moise, who was assassinated, also used them to intimidate his political opponents.

So they're almost

like personal militias?

Uh, he's the former CEO of Blackwater for folks who don't know, and I sort of feel like, um, it's never a good ide-idea to send that guy anywhere.

But, you know, you have a chart in your report that shows how, you know, there was just an explosion of violence not long after, uh, the then president of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in 2021.

Why? Wh-why, in your view, did that incident lead to such an explosion of violence?

So the assassination of Moïse is something that reads out of a Hollywood plot.

The federal trial of a south Florida pastor accused of helping to plot the assassination of Haiti's president is underway in Miami.

67-year-old Christian Emmanuel Sanon is accused of conspiring to kidnap or kill President Jovenel Moïse, who was gunned down at his home in 2021.

Sanon has pleaded not guilty.

If convicted on the most serious charges, he could face life in prison.