President Moïse of Haiti Assassinated

( Associated Press / AP Photo )
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Brian Lehrer: It's the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC. Good morning again everyone we'll talk now about the shocking news from overnight that the President of Haiti, Jovenel Moise was assassinated. Haitian listeners, Haitian-Americans were opening the phones now for your reactions and whatever you would like to say about the state of the country. 646-435-7280, Haitians, Haitian-Americans. The phones right now are for you, 646-435-7280, 646-435-7280. With us is Garry Pierre-Pierre publisher of The Haitian Times. Hi, Gary. Welcome back to WNYC and I'm sorry, it's under these circumstances.
Garry Pierre-Pierre: Hi, Brian. Thanks for having me.
Brian Lehrer: Who killed President Moise and why?
Garry Pierre-Pierre: You went to the heart of the matter. It's a very complicated question and answer. We don't know obviously, but there are many, many, many people that have been at odds with the former president right now, for quite some time. He's attacked quite a bit of the people from the business community. He's been at war with them for trying to take away their monopolies in certain sector and also he has the political opposition that has been deeply dissatisfied with his run. Just yesterday they ordered a decree that they were trying to do the constitutional referendum that allow the former prime ministers to have a clean sheet of governance.
In Haiti, when a prime minister leaves office, he or she has to be cleared of any wrong doing and then allow to live as they please, or come back into government if they choose to do so. That was a bone of contention that had been polarized in the country for quite some time. He had very little support. The mass didn't support him, the civil society didn't support him, the upper class didn't support him. He was a man on an island by himself.
Brian Lehrer: The first lady Martine Maurice was also shot I understand, but survived. What can you tell us about her condition and her whereabouts
Garry Pierre-Pierre: She's in critical condition. We spoke with someone who was her-- I don't know if I should say that, but we spoke to someone who was her security detail and told us that she was en route to out of the country. We're trying to check out whether it's Florida, or Dominican Republic, or Cuba. These are the places that generally when there's a huge emergency, Haitian officials go to for health treatment.
Brian Lehrer: You talked about now the late president not having a lot of support within the public, not in the business community, not so much in the grassroots. Usually those are at odds. How is the public reacting, any protest or vigils or anything so far?
Garry Pierre-Pierre: According to a friend of mine who's in Haiti right now, some people were applauding, but our reporters are telling us that the city, Port-au-Prince, the capital is somber. There's no business taking place, there's no activity. People
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are inside and shocked to be quite honest, as I am. I got the call from our correspondent in Haiti on 4:30 in the morning apologizing profusely for waking me up at this hour. After I told him, stop, just tell me what happened, because obviously you wouldn't be calling me at 4:30 in the morning.
Then he told me, and it took me a few minutes to process the information because it all makes no sense. It's really gratuitive, Jovenel Moise mandate was ending in November, and a new president was supposed to take place over on February. I guess the didn't trust the system, they didn't trust that he was going to indeed hold these elections, which have been very contentious.
As a context here for what I'm talking about, there's been controversy surrounding his term in office. The opposition said his term ended last February, February 2021. He contended it's 2022 February because his election was delayed by a year, so he prolonged his mandate by a year. There's been deep division on this point among the powers that be in Haiti right now.
Brian Lehrer: Was his own election controversial, or was he generally considered to be elected freely and fairly?
Garry Pierre-Pierre: About 10% of the voting population voted. That it was a low turnout, he didn't have any mandates. It was a weak government basically, and he struggled throughout his administration. Right now, we are confronting a serious gang issue where gangs control the city, it's not a country you can say. The police are outgunned, they're outmaneuvered and so people have been afraid. There was a massacre just last week where 15 people died in a fairly a middle-class neighborhood. That really caused a lot of outrage and people just were scared. A lot of Haitian-Americans who are my friends have been leaving, coming to the United States or going to the Dominican Republic because the situation was so untenable.
Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we can take a few phone calls if you have a question or a comment for Garry Pierre-Pierre from The Haitian Times on this assassination of the President Moise this morning. 646-435-7280, 646-435-7280 or tweet a comment or a question @BrianLehrer. Who's in charge?
Garry Pierre-Pierre: Again. Good question, Brian. That is also not clear. According to the constitution, the obvious person should have been the Supreme Court President. He died last week of COVID related illnesses. Then it's the prime minister, but right now we have two prime ministers, he just changed prime minister just the other day. We're not quite sure who is the actual legal prime minister. We just posted a story on the website about that same question, the line of succession who is going to take over. Right now, it's chaotic, no one knows.
Brian Lehrer: Is the influence of the US seen as a factor in conditions for the Haitian people in general today. You and I have had this conversation for many years, or a factor in anything leading up to this assassination.
Garry Pierre-Pierre: Jovenel Moise had a partnership with the former President Trump, in a sense that the Trump administration was looking for Haiti's support
against Venezuela at the OAS, the Organization of American States to isolate Venezuela. Haiti signed with the US, and the understanding was that [inaudible 00:08:20] and so he was untouchable. For the longest time, that was the way it was seen the Trump administration gave some passive support, and so it's neutralized the opposition who felt powerless.
Now, the Biden administration has been timid about Haiti and not wanting to weigh in any forceful way, but there's been some pressure on them to get a more stronger stance against what has been happening in Haiti. Representative Greg Meeks of Queens has been a leading person in Congress talking about Haiti. He's definitely asking for changes in the way the late president now has been running things. He had dissolved parliament. Parliament is not working. Oh, that's something else I forgot about the line of succession again.
The other person that should have been in line to be the president is the president of the Senate. The Senate has been dissolved by Moise who failed to organize elections, therefore, that is vacant. Now going forward about the Biden Administration, we reached out to them for comments, they haven't sent us anything yet, but there's a lot of pressure right now on the White House to clarify their position on Haiti.
Brian Lehrer: There was just recently some good news from the Biden Administration for Haitians here legally under the temporary protected status TPS immigration category which as goes back to the big earthquake there in 2010. Which the Trump administration had tried to reverse and kick many Haitians out of the U S. I think Haiti was one of the countries that Trump was referring to in his famous S hole countries remark. What's the impact of Biden renewing TPS?
Garry Pierre-Pierre: It has been a good impact mostly affecting Haitians living here, and that's been a great news for people whose status has been in limbo. It has really been something that a lot of advocates had been advocating for and that had gotten. There was a lot of good feelings towards Biden Administration vis-a-vis the community. The thing is TPS is temporary, we have to underscore the T. Somehow we got to find a way to get folks to be permanent residents and update their status because ultimately that's the goal because going back to Haiti as you can see is not an option.
Brian Lehrer: Let's take a phone-- Oh no we're not ready with that phone call yet. People may have been shocked by what you said a few minutes ago if they don't follow news from Haiti regularly. That president Moise was seen in some respects as an ally of President Trump because President Trump was-
Garry Pierre-Pierre: Yes he was.
Brian Lehrer: -so hostile toward Haitians in general and dismissive of Haitians certainly in this country. How did that happen?
Garry Pierre-Pierre: Because he was looking for votes, it was a transactional move. He needed Haiti's votes against Venezuela and Moise gave it to him and then he
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gave the perception. I don't know if he was really supportive of Haiti, but he took a hands-off approach vis-a-vis Moise and let him do whatever he wanted to do. Most of the things that he was doing were considered undemocratic but Trump didn't care about democracy even in this country let alone in Haiti.
Brian Lehrer: Let's take a phone call Amie and Manhattan, you're on WNYC with Garry Pierre-Pierre from the Haitian Times. Hi Amie. Amie, are you there? Go ahead, we got you know.
Amie: I'm here. Can you hear me.
Brian Lehrer: Yes, we got you know. I'm sorry.
Amie: All right. I was just wondering about the system of government. Mr Pierre-Pierre said that the president was doing some things that were not popular with the voters. It makes me wonder about the role of the legislature, and I think Haiti also has a prime minister, so what's the balance of power there?
Garry Pierre-Pierre: We do have a prime minister. The prime minister is a head of government, and a president is a head of state. In Haiti's a nascent democracy, the president still holds more power than the constitution provides it. What was happening now, Moise had dissolved parliament after failing to organize elections and was ruling by executive decree. Biden Administration had weighed in on that, but the president had said that elections will be held in September. Again it was postponed from June, it was supposed to be held in June so there's been a lot of back and forth. Like kicking the can down the road and just not following up on the promises, so that's like the situation there.
Brian Lehrer: Is there any role for the Haitian diaspora in the New York area or anywhere else to play in this time of crisis when we don't even know who's in charge of the government today?
Garry Pierre-Pierre: Yes, the diaspora plays a role of sending $2 billion in remittances back to their friends and families. It's not been organized enough to really play a substantive role in the country. The diaspora just got the right to vote, because we were barred from voting in Haiti's elections. We were promised that this upcoming election there would be a voting poll stations at the consulates and embassies in the United States and of course in Canada, France and other places where Haitians have migrated.
We will expect hoping for that, but to be quite honest no matter what I can describe the situation in Haiti, no one saw this coming because we thought that we had put this in the past, in the long pass. After the mechanism for a coup d'etat were removed and we felt for sure that that was it. We would have a continuity in government. Again Haiti has shocked us with something that no one saw coming.
Brian Lehrer: One more call Marie and the Bronx you're on WNYC. Hi Marie.
Marie: Hello, good morning. My question is the following. What are the chances given the situation you've described of a military coupe filling this chaotic vacuum?
And what is the relation of the military to those gangs that seem to have so much power in Haiti right now? Thank you.
Brian Lehrer: Thank you Marie. Garry, last word.
Garry Pierre-Pierre: There's no military in a way, it was constructed before it was disbanded. There's a core that's been trained, that was bought back by Moise as a way to protect the country, sort of a like a national guard. Right now Haiti ha a police force, very weak and unable to tackle the gang situation. As a matter of fact, a month and a half ago or so, the police tried to attack a gang territory and they were massacred and the tanks were confiscated. Apparently according to some good sources, the government had to pay the gang members to retrieve the tank.
I would say for the last two and a half years Haiti has been under lockdown because the gangs that have controlled the capital city and by extension the country. Because they've cutoff the other ways to get in and out of the capital city which is the most important city in the Country and so there's been paralysis ever since then.
Brian Lehrer: Crisis in Haiti with the president assassinated overnight, no suspects identified or in custody, and it being unclear who was in charge of the country. Garry Pierre-Pierre, founder of the Haitian Times which publishes here in New York. Thank you so much.
Garry Pierre-Pierre: Thank you Brian.
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