Martine Moise, widow of slain Haitian President, who was critically wounded during assassination of her husband, has spoken out for the first time.
Martine, in an audio message on Saturday, called on the country not to “lose its way.”
Her comments came three days after she was airlifted to a Miami hospital for treatment of “grave wounds” she suffered on Wednesday, when gunmen stormed the family home in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince and murdered her husband, Jovenel.
“I am alive, thanks to God,” she said in an audio message in Creole that was posted on her official Twitter account, and verified as authentic to AFP by Haiti’s minister of culture and communications, Pradel Henriquez.
“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,” she said.
According to Haitian authorities, a hit squad of 28 men, including 26 Colombians, many of whom were retired soldiers, and two Haitian-Americans, burst in and opened fire on the couple in their home.
So far, 17 suspects have been arrested, with three killed.
Police say a handful of the suspects are still at large.
However, no motive has been made public, and questions about who might have masterminded the assassination have not been answered.
The wife of the deceased leader pointed at a variety of possible reasons: saying the killers could have been sent by people who might have been displeased with her husband’s plans to provide “roads, water and electricity, a (constitutional) referendum and elections set for the end of the year”.
She suggested that perhaps those behind the killing “do not want to see a transition in the country.”
“I am crying, it is true, but we cannot let the country lose its way,” she said.
“We cannot let his blood… have been spilled in vain.”
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