U.S. concern about security situation in Haiti had been rising
President Biden on Wednesday deplored what he called the “shocking” assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, who was killed in his home by unidentified gunmen the Haitian government said were foreign mercenaries.
Officials across the administration offered condolences and said the United States stood ready to help in investigating the killing. The United States provides Haiti a steady flow of humanitarian and development aid.
But for many who closely follow events in Haiti as well as and U.S.-Haiti relations, the assassination was far from a shock. While devastating, it was further proof “of the extent to which the security situation in Haiti has unraveled,” said Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich), who co-chairs the House Haiti Caucus.
“I implore the Biden administration to pursue a new policy toward Haiti,” Levin said in a statement, calling it “essential to bringing about true peace and security and preventing more atrocities like that which occurred this morning.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-concern-about-security-situation-in-haiti-had-been-rising/ar-AALTAn4
Haitians in the United States fear for homeland following assassination
MIAMI —The first call came before dawn, and North Miami City Council member Alix Desulme assumed someone had accidentally dialed his number. More calls and texts followed. He sat up and stared at his phone: Haiti President Jovenel Moïse had been assassinated.
First lady Martine Moïse, whom Desulme had invited to his city in 2017, was in the hospital.
“Oh my God,” Desulme, who was born in Haiti and came to the United States as a child, said in a telephone interview. “This is crazy. Nobody knows what to do. I never thought this was going to happen in our lifetime.”
About 700,000 Haitian immigrants in the United States awakened Wednesday to fresh tragedy in the Caribbean homeland they left behind, some recently, some decades ago. The news stunned and saddened even the president’s critics, who felt they were mourning the nation’s troubled democracy as much as the man.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/haitians-in-the-united-states-fear-for-homeland-following-assassination/ar-AALTBGC
