Who assassinated the Haitian president, and why? Here’s what we know so far

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• Judy Woodruff:

  The country of Haiti is under a state of emergency tonight, after President Jovenel Moise was assassinated early this morning.

  He had been in office for four years. His wife, Martine, was wounded in the brazen attack at their home on the outskirts of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Tonight, she's been airlifted to Miami for treatment.

  Yamiche Alcindor begins our coverage.

• Yamiche Alcindor:

  Haiti's president assassinated, the island nation in a state of shock.

• Woman (through translator):

  We live in this area close to the president. Even when we have problems with him, we can't imagine that they would kill him like this.

• Yamiche Alcindor:

  Hours after President Jovenel Moise was murdered in his own home, the streets of Port-au-Prince were uncharacteristically quiet.

  Outside the president's private residence and the scene of the crime lay bullet casings. Haiti's first lady, Martine Moise, was wounded in the attack and remains hospitalized. In a video reportedly shot at the scene, someone says the assassins are with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

• Man:

  DEA operation. Everybody, back up. Stand down.

• Yamiche Alcindor:

  But Haitian Ambassador to the U.S. Bocchit Edmond the DEA was not involved. Instead, he blamed mercenaries who spoke English and Spanish.

• Bocchit Edmond:

  It seems that this horrible act was carried out by well-trained professional killers, commandos.

• Yamiche Alcindor:

  The Haitian government closed the airport in Port-au-Prince, so Edmond said the assassins likely escaped by land into the neighboring Dominican Republic or by sea.

  President Biden said the United States was ready to assist in the aftermath of the shooting. He responded to my question on the situation on the White House lawn.

  What's your reaction, Mr. President, to the Haitian president being assassinated?

• Pres. Joe Biden:

  We need a lot more information, but it's just — it's very worrisome about the state of Haiti.

• Yamiche Alcindor:

  Moise was a polarizing president.

  In the last few months, his actions sparked massive protests around the country. During his term, gang violence and kidnappings skyrocketed. UNICEF reported that armed gangs control about a third of Port-au-Prince.

  And since the violence spiked last September, more than 18,000 people have fled their homes. Moise was elected in 2016, but didn't take office until the following year. He said his five-year term was supposed to end in 2022. But his critics, including human rights groups and clergy members, insisted that his term was up this past February.

  Earlier this year, he dissolved the Parliament, saying most lawmakers' terms had ended. He also forced three Supreme Court justices into early retirement. Moise pursued sweeping constitutional changes that would increase presidential power. He planned a vote on a referendum, as well as his replacement, in September. That election is in flux.

  The United States backed Moise's timeline. But U.S. officials also criticized what they called his unchecked presidential power.

• Julie Chung:

  This situation calls into question the core precepts of Haiti's democracy.

• Yamiche Alcindor:

  But Haitian human rights activists, like Pierre Esperance, opposed the U.S. backing Moise, as Esperance told us in March.

• Pierre Esperance (through translator):

  The people of Haiti and the Haitian community in the United States are very disappointed by the Biden administration's politics.

• Yamiche Alcindor:

  Now interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph is the country's de facto leader.

  Earlier today, Joseph called into a news program.

• Claude Joseph (through translator):

  I call for calm of the population. The situation of the country is already under control.

• Yamiche Alcindor:

  Moise named Joseph his sixth prime minister in April. But Moise had intended for a seventh, Ariel Henry, to replace him. He was supposed to be sworn in today.

  For more on the assassination of President Moise and the shockwave that it's sent through Haiti, I'm joined by Robert Fatton. He's a professor of government and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia. He has written extensively on Haiti through the years.

  He joins me from Charlottesville, Virginia.

  Professor Fatton, thank you so much for being here.

  Haiti has really been in a constitutional crisis for several months now. People on the ground say it's hit a new rock bottom. But talk about the gravity of the last 24 hours and the difference, now that the president has been murdered.

• Prof. Robert Fatton:

  Well, this is a shocking event in the history of Haiti.

  The last assassination of a president was in 1915. So, this is not the usual pattern at all. We have had coups. We have had attempted coups. We have had, obviously, very nasty dictators who have killed a lot of people. But that, especially given that it was, as far as we know, an armed attack by foreign mercenaries, it's really a different pattern.

  And it's difficult to understand why that would have happened and who would benefit from it. It is really something that is out of the ordinary. It's truly an extraordinary event.

  So, we are facing a de facto government, a government that has taken charge, has instituted, as you probably know, a state of siege, which is really the ultimate type of governmental imposition of order. But it remains to be seen if that state of siege can keep the country without significant disorder and a dissent into chaos.

• Yamiche Alcindor:

  And how concerned are you about Haiti hitting an even lower rock bottom and gangs possibly trying to benefit from this situation?

• Robert Fatton:

  This is a very dangerous moment for Haiti.

  My personal hope is that what we will get is a government of national unity that could take over and set the situation whereby elections would be possible, not immediately, but probably next year, and where there would be some sort of reconciliation between all of the different Haitian actors.

  Now, whether we can get there is the big question. The opposition has shown no inclination to really join with the government of Jovenel Moise, but Jovenel Moise as president is gone. So, in a paradoxical way, in a tragic way, this might be an opening for such a compromise.

  But we will have to see. And we will have to see also whether the current prime minister is, in fact, going to remain in that position.

• Yamiche Alcindor:

  There have been a lot of Haitians who have been disappointed in the stance of the Biden administration toward Haiti. What role do you see the U.S. potentially playing now, after this assassination?

• Robert Fatton:

  Well, personally, I think that the most important thing is to try to get a Haitian solution.

  So, if the Biden administration is to have a constructive approach to Haiti, I think they should push the government to really create the conditions for a government of national unity.

  Now, how do you form that government of national unity is a big question. It may well be that a government of national unity would require not only the current members of the — or some of the current members of the government and some of the current members of the opposition, but also civil society leaders who are above the traditional politics that has been rather disastrous for the country.

  So, a solution like that might, in fact, bring some hope to the population. But if you don't have that, I'm afraid that we might be descending into chaos. And that might, in turn, open the gates for another U.N. intervention. And we are back to where we were in 2004.

• Yamiche Alcindor:

  And with only a few seconds left here, there are only 10 elected officials left in Haiti. They're all senators.

  There are a lot of civil society leaders that want to see that transitional government that you have been talk about. Is there a constitutional solution here? And who benefited from this situation, with the president now gone?

• Robert Fatton:

  Yes, we are beyond the constitutional crisis.

  The Constitution now has been ignored, essentially, because we don't have a president, we don't have a functional Parliament, we don't have a Supreme Court justice that is functioning. So the institutions have decayed.

  So what is needed is really imagination on how to constitute an order that could appease all of the forces in Haiti. And that's a very difficult process, and difficult to imagine, given what we have had in the past, where the polarization was indeed very extreme.

• Yamiche Alcindor:

  A difficult road ahead for Haiti.

  Thank you so much, Professor Fatton of the University of Virginia, for joining us.

• Robert Fatton:

  Thank you so much.