Haiti Holds Funeral For Slain President Moise

Haiti Holds Funeral For Slain President Moise

Protests by supporters of slain Haitian President Jovenel Moise broke out again Thursday in his hometown of Cap-Haitien as he was buried in a private ceremony.

The protesters set tires on fire to block roads, while workers paved a brick road to Moise’s mausoleum on a dusty plot of several acres enclosed by high walls.

The demonstrators in Cap-Haitien were venting anger over the many questions that remain unanswered about the assassination, including who planned it and why.

Banners celebrating Moise festooned buildings along the narrow streets of Cap-Haitien’s old town, with proclamations in Creole including, “They killed the body, but the dream will never die,” and “Jovenel Moise – defender of the poor.”

The funeral comes two weeks after he was shot dead at home inan assassination still shrouded in mystery.

The bearers placed the polished casket on a dais garlanded with flowers in an auditorium.

Four stood guard as a Roman Catholic priest blessed the coffin and a Haitian flag was unfurled.

Foreign dignitaries including U.S. President Joeadvisor for the Western Hemisphere flew to Cap-Haitien to pay their respects to Moise, joining mourners who have taken part in a series of commemorations in Haiti this week.

Moise was gunned down in his home in Port-au-Prince before dawn on July 7, setting off a new political crisis in the Caribbean country that has struggled with poverty, lawlessness and instability.

The attack’s plotters disguised the mercenaries as U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents, a ruse that helped them enter Moise’s home with no resistance from his security detail, authorities have said.

At least one of the arrested men, a Haitian-American, had previously worked as an informant for the DEA.