Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated three years ago today. Tall, lanky, complex, flawed, authoritarian and stubborn, Moïse sat atop a lethal system far bigger than he was, at once both a participant in it and its victim, and, in his desire to change Haiti the way he saw fit, he made enemies of many dangerous people. I spent hours interviewing him - more than any other foreign reporter - and it was hard to reconcile the humble man who talked with apparent sincerity about his desire to build roads and bring electricity to Haiti with the figure who inspired so much hatred among some (along with a seeming amnesia about a political opposition that appeared to often exclusively opted for violence rather than negotiation).
Today, Jovenel Moïse is gone and Haiti is in flames. The financial and intellectual authors of his murder remain free. The system - made of blood and bones - of some politicians and private sector actors cynically exploiting the misery and desperation of Haiti's people has finally blown up in their face, with the illegal armed groups in the country outrunning their need and desire for their patrons. Haiti has a new “government,” interim in nature, and a new Kenyan-led security force beginning to be deployed.
Here I present to you - for the first time with English translation from the original Haitian Creole I conducted it in - the last interview I conducted with Jovenel Moïse, on 14 November 2019 at the Palais National in Port-au-Prince. He spoke about what he viewed as his accomplishments, the Petrocaribe scandal, the La Saline killings, his desire to free what he viewed as “the captured state” from those who had taken it and much more.
Justice for Jovenel and for everyone.
Ayiti pap peri.
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