A woman said to be Martine Moïse, the widow of recently assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, posted a voice recording on the First Lady’s verified Twitter account on Saturday (July 10) following the brazen early-morning attack that also left her hospitalized.
“I am alive, but I have lost my husband Jovenel,” the woman says in Haitian Creole.
Last Wednesday (July 7), President Moïse was fatally shot 12 times after 28 “well-trained professionals, killers, commandos” dressed in all black and falsely posing as U.S. D.E.A. agents stormed the couple’s private residence in Pétion-Ville. The First Lady was also shot in the attack and transported to a hospital in Miami for treatment, where she is said to be in stable condition. Two of the couple’s three children were also home during the attack. Fortunately, they hid in the bathroom and were unharmed.
“In the blink of an eye, the mercenaries entered my home and riddled my husband with bullets … without even giving him a chance to say a word,” recalls the woman in the message. “I am alive, thanks to God.”
Haiti’s minister of culture and communications, Pradel Henriquez, confirmed that the recording is authentic to the AFP news agency. However, a former Haitian culture minister, Lilas Desquiron, questioned its validity because she did not recognize the First Lady’s voice.
MESSAGE DE LA PREMIÈRE DAME MARTINE MOISE. pic.twitter.com/cFQW70xTFE
— Martine Moïse (@martinejmoise) July 10, 2021
The woman in the recording condemns the mercenaries “who want to assassinate the president’s dream, vision, and ideas for the country.” She goes on to explain that her husband was killed “because of roads, water, electricity, and referendum as well as elections at the end of the year so that there is no transition in the country.”
“I am crying, it is true, but we cannot let the country lose its way,” pleads the woman. “We cannot let his blood … have been spilled in vain.”
With the nation under a 15-day state of siege and unstable political leadership, Haitian authorities have already arrested at least 20 foreign mercenaries, including 18 Colombians and two Haitian-Americans identified as James Solages and Vincent Joseph, both of whom say they believed they were hired as translators and “the mission was to arrest President Jovenel Moïse, in the execution of a warrant from an investigating judge, not to kill him.”
Haiti’s police chief, Léon Charles, also confirmed that four suspects were killed by police after a gun battle in the capital city of Port-au-Prince.