RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Haiti’s acting representative to the Organization of American States (OAS), Bocchit Edmond, assured Wednesday (7) that the security situation in his country “is now under control” following the assassination of the country’s president, Jovenel Moise.
“The National Police and the Armed Forces of Haiti are ensuring security. Measures have been taken to guarantee the continuity of the State,” said the diplomat in his speech at the Permanent Council of the Inter-American organization, convened in extraordinary session after the crime.
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Edmond, who described Moise’s assassination as “horrendous” and indicated that this July 8, national mourning had been declared in homage to the ruler, confirmed that a state of siege had been declared “in the whole extension of the Haitian territory” for a period of 15 days.
He detailed that his country is shocked by the assassination of its president at the hands of “unidentified individuals” who, he assured, spoke in Spanish and English.
In addition, the armed commando left the Haitian first lady, Martine Moise, “seriously wounded”, said the Haitian representative.
“It has been more than a century since, despite the political problems and chronic instability of my country, we have had an experience of this kind,” lamented the Haitian ambassador to the OAS, who stressed that his government “vehemently condemns this odious, inhuman and barbaric act” against Moise.
The chairman of the OAS Permanent Council, Uruguayan Ambassador Washington Abdala, said that today’s session “should never” have taken place.
The OAS General Secretariat had previously condemned “in the strongest terms” the assassination of the Haitian ruler and considered it an “attempt to undermine the country’s institutional stability”.