Funeral Of Murdered Haiti President Set For Friday

By NAN Staff Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Mon. July 19, 2021: A state funeral for murdered Haitian President, Jovenel Moïse, has been set for this week in Cap-Haitien, Haiti.

Haiti’s Le Nouvelliste newspaper reported the funeral is set for Friday July 23rd. The paper quoted Minister of Culture and Communication, Pradel Henriquez, as saying the funeral will be preceded by a day of tribute on July 20th while a wake is set for July 22nd.

Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph has announced that injured first lady, Martine Moïse, who returned to the island on Saturday after a stint in a Miami hospital following injuries she suffered in the attack, will take part in the funeral of her late husband.

President Moise was shot dead when assassins armed with assault rifles stormed his home in the hills above Port-au-Prince on July 7th, tipping the country into uncertainty and sparking a frenzied investigation to identify the authors of the plan.

Mrs. Moise was shot in the assault but survived and was flown to Miami for treatment. She arrived back at the Haitian capital’s Toussaint Louverture international airport on Saturday, wearing all black clothing, donning a bullet proof vest and with her right arm in a sling. She was greeted by Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph.

“The Prime Minister, Dr. Claude Joseph, welcomes the First Lady, Martine Moise, who arrives in Haiti for the funeral of her husband,” the Prime Minister’s office tweeted.

Earlier on Saturday, the Core Group of international ambassadors and representatives urged “the formation of a consensual and inclusive government.”

“To this end, we strongly encourage the designated Prime Minister Ariel Henry to continue the mission entrusted to him to form such a government,” the group said.

Henry, who Moise designated Prime Minister shortly before being killed, has not been sworn into his position and the country is being led by Joseph.

The Core Group is made up of ambassadors from Germany, Brazil, Canada, Spain, the United States, France, the European Union and special representatives from the United Nations and the Organization of American States.

“As Haiti faces serious dangers, the members of the group express the wish that all political, economic and civil society actors in the country fully support the authorities in their efforts to restore security throughout the country,” it said.

The group also called for the organization of “free, fair, transparent and credible legislative and presidential elections as quickly as possible”.

On Friday a Colombian police chief said the assassination may have ordered by a former Haitian justice ministry official, citing a preliminary investigation that has implicated Haitian-Americans and former Colombian soldiers.

(Reuters contributed to this story. Additional reporting by Adam Jourdan in Buenos Aires and Anthony Esposito in Mexico City; Editing by Daniel Wallis)