Martine Moise, the widow of assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moise, says Haiti must not “lose its way”, in the aftermath of the tragedy that left her critically injured.
Speaking for the first time since gunmen stormed their home on Wednesday, Moise said the attack that killed her husband happened in “the blink of an eye, without even giving him a chance to say a word,” she said in the audio message posted on her official Twitter account on Saturday.
In the message that was in Creole, she also said the mercenaries were sent to kill her husband “because of roads, water, electricity and referendum as well as elections at the end of the year so that there is no transition in the country”.
“I’m alive, thanks to God,” she said in the recording, which also played on local radio stations. “But I love my husband Jovenel. We fought together for more than 25 years. During all these years, love radiated within the home. But suddenly, the mercenaries came and pelted my husband with bullets.”
“You have to be a notorious criminal without guts to assassinate a president like Jovenel Moïse with impunity without giving him the chance to speak,” she added.
“You knew who the president was fighting against. The mercenaries who assassinated the president are currently behind bars,” she added, “but other mercenaries currently want to kill his dream, his vision, his ideology.”
Jovenel Moise, 53, was killed by armed gunmen in the early hours of Wednesday in what Haitian authorities said was “a highly coordinated attack by a highly trained and heavily armed group”.
Haitian authorities say an armed commando of 28 men – 26 Colombians and two Haitian-Americans – burst in and opened fire on the couple in their home. Seventeen people have been arrested so far and at least three suspects were killed, but no motive has been made public.
Martine Moise was transported to a hospital in Haiti after the attack and was later evacuated to Miami, Florida, for more treatment.
CMC
