The president of Haiti, Jovenel Moise, has denounced this Sunday an attempted coup that would include his assassination and that he has been thwarted thanks to the collaboration of the head of security at the National Palace.
Moise has pointed out a score of people who even intended to “give their lives” in the coup attempt and has ordered the prime minister, Joseph Jouthe, to investigate all the details of the coup plot.
In addition, he has summoned the director general of the Haitian National Police, Léon Charles, to request information about what happened from the National Palace. “It is important that the Palace gives them information on everything that has been done from November to today,” Moise said in statements to the Haitian press from the Toussaint Louverture International Airport runway before heading to the city of Jacmel to participate in the carnival.
Jouthe has subsequently reported the arrest of 23 people, including Court of Cassation Judge Ivickel Dabrésil and Inspector General of the National Police, Marie Louise Gauthier. “There are 23 arrests and money, telephones and the speech of the new interim president have been seized,” Jouthe said.
“Ivickel Dabrésil was going to be the provisional president (…). They were going to give a coup. They already had all the weapons. They were planning to install a government today, according to the information obtained,” Jouthe stressed. “I do not know how many weapons were seized. I have seen some photos,” he added.
Photos of two automatic rifles and two 12-gauge shotguns, a machete and money have been shared on social media, as well as images of former presidential candidate Marie Antoinette Gauthier and other people detained on the ground, under the surveillance of police from the Security Unit General of the National Palace.
According to the opposition, this Sunday the term of current President Moise expires, which has resulted in a resurgence of protests and a dismal precedent for a key electoral year.
Opposition movements announced this week a National Transitional Council to fill the supposed power vacuum and the Episcopal Conference has demanded that the president take a step back because the country is “on the verge of explosion.”
Moise, however, does not contemplate concessions and sticks to the schedule already set. The first big date will arrive on April 25, when Haitians will be called to vote on a new Constitution that proposes key institutional reforms such as the establishment of a presidential system and the disappearance of the Senate.
