Former Haitian first lady renews a demand for justice for her husband
PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (CMC)—The former first lady of Haiti, Martine Moïse, is renewing calls for ‘justice’ for her husband, President Jovenel Moise, who was assassinated on July 7, 2021.
“From the beginning of the year until this past month, our message has not changed. We continue to demand justice for Jovenel Moïse. Many of you may doubt this because justice in Haiti is not guaranteed,” she said in a statement.
Moise, who was also injured and had to seek medical treatment in the United States when the gunmen attacked and killed her husband at their private residence, said justice is a tool in the hands of a small group that manipulates an entire population.
“President Jovenel Moïse has never ceased to denounce the system that holds the country’s justice system hostage, allowing it to operate with complete impunity,” she said, adding “they are using the judicial system to destroy President Jovenel Moïse’s character while he is still alive and to spit on his remains after he has been killed.
“This judicial system is a tool of political persecution for all those who continue to demand and seek justice for the President. Those unfortunate enough to lack powerful connections die in prison. People with money don’t go to prison, even if there is solid evidence against them,” she added.
She alleged that on February 7, 2021, citizens “woke up to find the judiciary plotting to overthrow a president whom the people had entrusted with their power,” a reference to the report by the Haitian authorities that they had foiled an attempt to overthrow President Moise, who at the time was facing mounting anger from opposition leaders and the Haitian public over when his mandate ends.
Justice Minister Rockefeller Vincent said then that an “attempted coup d’etat” took place on that day, while authorities said 23 people had been arrested, including a Supreme Court judge and senior police official.
“Where are the judges who issued the warrant against President Jovenel while he was carrying out the duties the people had entrusted to him? It was this same warrant they used to kill him,” Moise asked in her statement.
She said “many thoughtful people must be asking themselves, how can the country’s justice system participate in a crime and then be the very same system that is supposed to judge him? But we remain convinced that the defeat of justice is only temporary. Money and power can always go to their heads; they can even make them feel all-powerful. But don’t forget that karma exists; there’s a price to pay for every action. Justice cannot die.”
She said it is now 53 months since “certain oligarchs and politicians bought fake court rulings and illegal warrants to attempt a coup, assassinate the President, and shoot me on July 7, 2021”.
She claimed that bandits committed acts of violence for four years and five months, paralyzing the country and holding the people hostage.
”Oligarchs, corrupt politicians, and globalist whites sacrificed the People by assassinating President Jovenel Moïse. Today, they are putting all their strategies in place to renew their hold on power on February 7th. They want to keep the people under the violent, enslaving system that sucks their blood.”
Moise said that the level of violence is beyond words.
“It’s as if the devil is turning people against their fellow human beings, against their brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers. Imagine someone brutally attacking another person with an axe as if they were a piece of wood! Where did this come from? My friends, we have lost our way! We are crushing people in Arcahaie, Montrouis, Saint-Marc, Pont-Sondé, Savien, L’Estère, Mirebalais, Lascahobas, Sodo, Carrefour-Feuilles, Martissant, Kenscoff, La Saline, Croix-des-Bouquets, and elsewhere. We act as if we’ve forgotten what a blood debt is,” Moise.
“It is in the face of this violence, in the face of this savage system, that Padrejean, Makandal, Boukman, Toussaint, and Dessalines had only one rallying cry : ‘Liberty or death,” she wrote in the statement.
She added that President Moïse, during his lifetime, asked in a video, ‘What will we do in the face of these criminals, these lawless bandits ?The psychopaths who revel in violence for a scrap of power and money will never want peace,” she said, adding “the people have had enough. The time has come for the system to collapse.”