Haiti president’s assassination planned in Dominican Republic, police say as wife shares hospital photos

Haiti’s first lady on Thursday shared photos of herself from her hospital bed in Florida where she’s recovering from gunshot wounds she sustained during the July 7 assassination of her husband President Jovenel Moise. The killing happened at their private residence in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince.

Following the assassination, First Lady Martine Moise was airlifted to the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami for treatment. And in the first two photos the widow shared on her official Twitter page following her hospitalization, she can be seen lying in a hospital bed with her right arm heavily bandaged. She appears to have a blunt facial expression in both photos.

In the first photo which she captioned in the creole language, Moise expressed gratitude for the support she has received and revealed she is still in disbelief over the death of her husband. “Thank you to everyone who is helping me pray for my return to life,” she posted. “I still don’t believe that my husband has gone like this before my eyes without saying a last word to me.”

“This pain will never pass,” she added.

Moise reiterated her gratitude in her second post, writing: “Thank you for the team of guardian angels who helped me through this terrible time. With your gentle touch, kindness and care, I was able to hold on. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

On July 10, the widow released an audio message on her personal Twitter account describing what happened during the attack. “I’m alive by god’s grace, but I lost my husband Jovenel,” the first lady said in the recording, adding that the attack happened so quickly.

She said she believes her husband was targeted due to political reasons including a referendum on changes to the country’s constitution that would have given the president more power. She said the attackers “want to assassinate the president’s dream”.

“I am crying, it is true, but we cannot let the country lose its way,” she said. “We cannot let the blood of President Jovenel Moise, my husband, our president whom we love so much and who loved us in return, flow in vain.”

Meanwhile, Haiti’s police chief has said the assassination of president Moise was planned by mercenaries in the neighboring Dominican Republic. According to France24, a photograph that has found its way on social media shows two suspects who have been arrested in connection with the assassination having a meeting with former Haitian opposition senator Joel John Joseph.

Joseph has been declared wanted by Haitian authorities.

“They met in a hotel in Santo Domingo,” Haitian national police director Leon Charles told reporters. “Around the table there are the architects of the plot, a technical recruitment team and a finance group.”

He added: “Some individuals in the photo have already been apprehended, such as Dr. Christian Enmanuel Sanon [a Haitian-born doctor based in Florida] and James Solages [also a Haitian-American].”

So far, 18 Colombians have been arrested in connection with the assassination while three suspects have been killed, according to France24. Police say the majority of the alleged Colombian mercenaries suspected to have carried out the June 7 assassination arrived in Haiti a month prior to the killing. They joined four other suspected attackers who had earlier arrived in the Caribbean nation.

“(Mercenaries) went through the Dominican Republic,” Charles said, adding: “They are former Colombian special force operatives.”

“They are experts, criminals. This was a well-planned attack.”

The head of security for the presidential palace as well as three other people who were part of president Moise’s security detail are also being detained as investigations continue.