MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Former Haiti First Lady considers running for president

Mrs Moïse said the attackers believed she too was dead

Martine Moïse, the widow of slain Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, is considering running in the next elections, according to an interview published Friday by The New York Times.

 The former First Lady also insisted that the people behind her husband's assassination have not yet come to light despite the high number of arrests, and pointed to Haitian “oligarchs” as responsible.

She said that when the attackers left her home after killing her husband on July 7 they thought she was also dead. She was wounded by a bullet in the arm and was flown to Miami for medical treatment.

“Only the oligarchs and the system could kill him,” she told the NYT on the condition that her exact whereabouts were not revealed.

She also said she was seriously considering running for president once she undergoes more surgeries on her injured arm, which she believes she may never be able to use again.

“President Jovenel had a vision,” she stressed. “We Haitians are not going to let him die,” she added.

About the attack on her home, Mrs Moïse said that she and her husband were sleeping when they were awakened by the sound of gunshots. She recalls waking up her children and telling them to hide in a bathroom, while the president called for help through his phone to two people in charge of his security team, Dimitri Hérard and Jean Laguel Civil, who are now under arrest.

Suddenly, a barrage of shots entered her room, wounding her hand and elbow, as she remained still on the floor, according to her account. “Right now I felt like I was choking because I had blood in my mouth and I couldn't breathe,” she explained. She remembered that she thought they were all going to die.

She also remembered the hitmen spoke exclusively in Spanish and searched the room until they found something they were looking for on a shelf where her husband kept his files.

Regarding the investigations, Moïse was pleased by the arrest of several suspects, but she insisted on the need to know who really financed the operation. In her opinion, the money trail will lead to “oligarchs” from Haiti with whom her husband was in conflict. She mentioned businessman Reginald Boulous as someone who could benefit from the death of the president, although she avoided directly accusing him of ordering the assassination. Boulous has denied having any link to the assassination.

At the moment, 26 people have been arrested, including 18 Colombians, most of them retired military personnel, as well as 2 Haitian policemen and 6 civilians, some of them with dual US nationality.

At least 10 suspects are at large, including 5 Colombians and 5 other Haitians, the latter accused of participating in the planning of the assassination.