FACT CHECK: Were These World Leaders Assassinated After Pledging To Permanently Bar COVID-19 Vaccines From Their Countries?
Only one of them was assassinated
A new report details the grisly fatal injuries late Haiti President Jovenel Moïse sustained during the Wednesday assassination.
Following the killing, a total of four suspects were fatally shot by Haitian security personnel, and two other suspects were found and taken into custody.
Haiti's interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph immediately declared a national "state of siege" and announced he is in charge of the impoverished nation as he called for an international investigation into the president's slaying.
The Latin Times on Thursday reported that Moïse was shot a total of 12 times — including through his forehead, nipples, hip, and abdomen — and that his left eye was torn out.
Moïse's body was discovered riddled with bullets from a high-caliber firearm after the Wednesday attack in which his wife was also shot multiple times.
Moïse's son was reportedly handcuffed along with a maid during the incident, and his daughter fled and hid in the family's home. According to the report, the two were unharmed as assailants stormed the residence declaring a "DEA operation." The suspects, according to reports, spoke Spanish and English and are believed to be foreigners.
In a statement, Carl Henry Destin — deputy justice of the peace in Pétion-Ville — said that investigators discovered the grisly scene inside the president's home.
"The president's office and bedroom were ransacked," Destin said. "We found him lying on his back, blue pants, a white shirt stained with blood, his mouth open, his left eye gouged out."
Destin added that the president's wife, Martine, suffered gunshot wounds to the legs, arm, torso, and hand. She was flown to Miami for emergency surgery and is reportedly in stable condition at the time of this reporting.
Haitian U.S. Ambassador Bocchit Edmond said that the siege on the president's home was a "well-orchestrated commando attack" and that it was clear that the attackers had "internal help."
Edmond added, "The most important thing is we need to continue with the investigations and look and identify those who financed them, those who paid them to commit this horrible act."
"We do hope that the national police will continue to hunt them down because possibly there were more than six [suspects]," Edmond saidsaid. "We are trying to see how we can make sure that those are caught and identified and be brought to justice."
Authorities have yet to announce the suspects' identifies or a possible motive behind the killing, France24 reported.
President Joe Biden condemned the assassination as "horrific" and vowed to assist the country in any possible way.
Moïse's violent death is the latest incident of in a string of horrific, ongoing attacks in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, reportedly perpetuated by at least 95 armed gangs carrying out acts of arson, assault, murder, shootings, and more.
In February, mass protests erupted across the country with demonstrators calling into question the legitimacy of Moïse's presidency. The nation missed its 2018 election, as Moïse said the country was too unstable to hold free and fair elections at the time, and he continued serving as president.
Later in February, Moïse said that security foiled an attempt on his life.
"I thank my head of security at the palace," he said at the time. "The goal of these people was to make an attempt on my life. ... That plan was aborted."
A 27-year-old video featuring then-Democratic Sen. Joe Biden emerged on Thursday following the Wednesday assassination of Haiti President Jovenel Moïse.
The video featured Biden saying that Haiti doesn't matter, according to Newsweek.
On Wednesday, the White House said that the assassination was "horrific [and] tragic" and pledged to assist Haiti however possible.
In the 1994 interview, Biden — a Delaware senator — spoke with former PBS host Charlie Rose and former Rep. Michael Castle (R-Del.) about whether former President Bill Clinton would decide to invade Haiti following the 1991 coup of former Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide if Congress gave the power to do so.
"If you don't give him that authority, doesn't that weaken the president in the eyes of the world and in terms of whether the United States can be counted on to act?" Rose asked both Biden and Castle.
Biden responded, "Charlie, it doesn't matter much any more. The truth of the matter is, no one doubts our power. We don't have a superpower arrangement where we are in — where there's any power in the world that — the president of the United States could be turned down tomorrow on almost anything, and no nation in the world is going to say, 'Aha, the United States is weak.' No one is going to fool around with the 800-pound gorilla."
He continued, "So this notion, it used to be though if, when you had a situation where you had two competing superpowers, and we fail to enter into a circumstance where there was a third, quote 'third world' country where there was a competition for control of that country and a competition for them being in one camp or the other, then, it had consequences that were real."
"Quite frankly, if we decided tomorrow to go into anywhere or not go into anywhere, it's not going to change the calculus of NATO; it's not going to change the calculus of the Russians; it's not going to change the calculus of the Chinese; and they're the things that matter to us," he insisted and proceeded to say that Haiti simply doesn't matter to U.S. interests.
"If Haiti, a God awful thing to say, if Haiti just quietly sunk into the Caribbean or rose up 300 feet, it wouldn't matter a whole lot in terms of our interest," he said.
Sana Saeed, host and senior producer at AJ+, tweeted the video of Biden's 1994 remarks on Wednesday afternoon and captioned it, "This is one of the most asinine things I've heard this man say — and there's been quite a bit of it."
At the time of this reporting, Saeed's video has been viewed more than 225,000 times.
This is one of the most asinine things I've heard this man say - and there's been quite a bit of it. https://t.co/s5RmWt8ph3
— Sana Saeed (@SanaSaeed) 1625682724.0
Saeed later added, "FWIW — the fuller context of the clip does not, in anyway, make this better. He's responding to the accusation of the US not caring about Haiti, vs Bosnia, bc of Haiti's Black population - his point is that Haiti's existence doesn't impact US interests."
"[A]lso interesting that senator Biden would say that it wouldn't matter to US interests when the US has occupied, meddled and intervened in Haiti throughout its history," she added.
FWIW - the fuller context of the clip does not, in anyway, make this better. He's responding to the accusation of t… https://t.co/5hsknybbzC
— Sana Saeed (@SanaSaeed) 1625687164.0
Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, 53, was assassinated in his home late Tuesday night, according to various reports, and his wife suffered bullet wounds during the attack.
She remains hospitalized at the time of this reporting.
His murder takes place against a backdrop of horrific, ongoing violence in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, perpetuated by at least 95 armed gangs carrying out acts of arson, assault, murder, and shootings.
A statement from interim Prime Minster Claude Joseph revealed that an unidentified group stormed Moïse's home and killed him.
Joseph condemned the attack, saying it was an "odious, inhuman, and barbaric act."
According to reports, some of the attackers were described as Spanish-speaking.
"A group of individuals who have not been identified, some of whom were speaking Spanish, attacked the private residence of the President of the Republic and fatally injured the Head of State," Joseph said in a statement. "All measures have been taken to ensure the continuity of the State and to protect the Nation. Democracy and the Republic will win out."
In February, large protests took place in the country questioning the legitimacy of Moïse's presidency. The nation missed its 2018 election, as Moïse said the country was too unstable to hold free and fair elections, and he continued serving as president.
That same month, Moïse said that his security detail foiled an assassination attempt against him.
"I thank my head of security at the palace," he said at the time. "The goal of these people was to make an attempt on my life. ... That plan was aborted."
This is a breaking story and will be updated as events warrant.