RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Haiti stepped up Thursday the police operation to capture the perpetrators of the assassination of President Jovenel Moise and announced the arrest of 17 of the 28 alleged suspects, mostly Colombians.
Fifteen Colombians and two Americans of Haitian origin are in police custody. At the same time, three other Colombian nationals were killed in shootouts with security forces, according to the first official statement revealing the nationality of the alleged “mercenaries”.
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According to the general director of the Police, the other eight members of the commando who participated in the assault on Moise’s residence in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Colombians, are on the run and are being “actively” sought, said Leon Charles.
CITIZEN COLLABORATION IN THE ARRESTS
The police operations counted on Thursday with the support of dozens of anonymous citizens, who found and caught two of the suspects who were hiding in the Jalousie neighborhood of the Haitian capital.
The foreigners were tied with ropes and taken to the police station in the Pétion-Ville neighborhood, where a mob swarmed to lynch the detainees and then set fire to three cars allegedly belonging to the gang.
Following these scenes, interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph, who is in charge of the country after Moise’s death, again called on the population to remain calm and avoid vandalism.
The Office for the Protection of Citizens (OPC), an independent human rights promotion organization, warned that “a hunt against Latin Americans under the pretext of looking for mercenaries” took place.
Since the news of the assassination became known on Wednesday, several foreign embassies have recommended their citizens avoid leaving their homes.
Despite these tensions and the continuation of the state of siege decreed on Wednesday, the government took the first steps on Thursday to return to normality, reopening the international airport of Port-au-Prince and making an appeal to civil servants to return to their jobs.
CALL FOR AN INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATION
Knowing the involvement of 28 foreigners, the Haitian government called for international support to investigate the murder, UN envoy to the country Helen La Lime said on the sidelines of a closed-door Security Council meeting urgently convened to address the crisis in the Caribbean nation.
The White House said it wants to help in the investigation of the assassination but assured that it had not received any request for assistance from Haiti for now.
During the Security Council meeting, the Dominican Republic was the country that most vehemently defended the need to assist Haiti to guarantee the country’s security and prevent the instability from spreading to its territory.
The Dominican ambassador to the UN, José A. Blanco, assured that his country’s authorities have so far no information that the assassins have traveled from his country or have fled to the Dominican Republic.
INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR JOSEPH
At the international level, Joseph received on Thursday the express support of the UN and the United States after his legitimacy to be at the head of the Executive branch was questioned in Haiti.
The United States assured that it would continue to work with Joseph in his role as prime minister since he was serving as prime minister before the assassination, according to State Department spokesman Ned Price.
The UN representative for Haiti, Helen La Lime, also supported Joseph as prime minister, despite admitting that there are “certain tensions” and different interpretations of the constitution regarding presidential succession.
Joseph’s legitimacy has been questioned by Ariel Henry, whom Moise named prime minister last Monday, in the last decree he signed.
Henry, who did not take office, said he does not intend to “add fuel to the fire” but asked to talk to Joseph to build a consensus with the opposition and reduce political tensions until the holding of the elections, scheduled for September 26.