Haiti’s national police chief has indicated that US-based Haitian doctor Christian Emmanuel Sanon was the mastermind behind July 7 assassination of their President Jovenel Moïse. Around 24 people have been arrested, and police have placed Dr Sanon, 63, at the centre of investigation that has stretched out from Haiti to Colombia and the US.
Killing of an incumbent president is an act of cowardice. Any civilized nation cannot support this bloody path of changing regime though Moïse had been facing mass protests since taking office in 2017 over corruption and poor economic conditions. His hunger for power had made the situation more critical.
Haiti police said the assassination was carried out by a commando unit of 26 Colombian and two Haitian-American mercenaries. But they did not explain how the assassins got security details to reach the president. Significantly, the US has rebuffed Haiti’s request for troops to help secure key infrastructure after the President’s assassination. Haiti also has not yet got a response after requesting for forces from UNSC.
Although investigators pointed fingers towards Dr Sanon, actually he was not a much known person in his country. Many think that Dr Sanon was framed by the real players to divert attention. Most interestingly, Haitian officials gave no explanation for how the doctor could possibly have taken control of the government.
Meanwhile, Colombian Armed Forces Commander General Luis Fernando Navarro said 17 of the assassins had retired from Colombia’s army between 2018 and 2020. In this backdrop, Colombian President Ivan Duque said on Friday that the head of Colombia’s National Intelligence Directorate and Intelligence Director of National Police will travel to Haiti with INTERPOL to help the investigations.
In another South American country Venezuela, the security forces have recently arrested key opposition figure Freddy Guevara on charges of terrorism and treason. The present left-wing government accuses him of having ties to “extremist groups” and foreign governments. Mr Guevara is a close ally of opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who said that he was threatened by armed men as he went to help Mr Guevara.
In both Haiti and Venezuela, we see that political players behind the scene are active in materializing their plots. Another common thing is – involvement of the Colombian government. Venezuela claimed that Mr. Guevara was detained due to “his links with extremist and paramilitary groups associated with the Colombian government”.
In 70s to 80s we saw killings and detentions of several popular political figures in different countries of Latin America. But killing, detaining or forced disappearances of political dissent have always failed to bring peace. Rather violence had cleared path of power mongers to grab power and stay in power for longer periods at the cost of the people.
