Martine Moïse said the attack on 7 July happened so quickly, her husband Jovenel was unable to “say a single word”.
SLain president Jovenel Moïse with wife Martine Moïse. (File photo)
The injured widow of Haiti’s president has described the moment assassins “riddled” her husband with bullets after bursting into their home in the middle of the night. Martine Moïse said the attack happened so quickly, her husband Jovenel was unable to “say a single word”.
President Moïse was killed on 7 July, allegedly by 28 foreign mercenaries.
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Mrs. Moïse was also injured in the attack and was flown to Miami for treatment.
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On Saturday, she posted a voice message to her Twitter page vowing to continue his work. A number of people have confirmed it is the president’s wife.
“In the blink of an eye, the mercenaries entered my house and riddled my husband with bullets,” Mrs. Moïse says in the recording, describing the moment the attackers killed her husband.
“This act has no name because you have to be a limitless criminal to assassinate a president like Jovenel Moïse, without even giving him the chance to say a single word,” she continued.
She suggested her husband was targeted because of political reasons – in particular, mentioning a referendum on changes to the constitution which could have given the president more power.
The unnamed people, she said, “want to assassinate the president’s dream”.
“I am crying, it is true, but we cannot let the country lose its way,” she added. “We cannot let the blood of President Jovenel Moïse, my husband, our president whom we love so much and who loved us in return, flow in vain.”
Mr. Moïse, 53, had been president of Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, since 2017. His time in office was rocky as he faced accusations of corruption and there were widespread demonstrations in the capital and other cities earlier this year.
Parliamentary elections should have been held in October 2019 but disputes have delayed them, meaning Mr. Moïse had been ruling by decree. He had planned to hold a referendum on the proposed constitutional changes this September.
It is still unclear who organized Wednesday’s attack and with what motive. A number of questions remain unanswered, including how the alleged assassins were able to enter the property. Mr. Moïse’s bodyguards are due to be questioned next week.
One prominent opposition figure has openly expressed skepticism over the current version of events. Former Haitian Senator Steven Benoit told local station Magik9 radio on Friday it was “not Colombians who killed him”, but did not provide evidence to back up his claims.
Haitian police have said the majority of the mercenaries was Colombian, while two were joint US nationals.
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