Journalists Killed, Prime Minister dodges bullets in unstable Haiti

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#Haiti, January 15, 2022 – Haitian prime minister Ariel Henry escaped an assassination attempt on January 1, Haitian Independence Day.

Henry was leaving a church where he had attended Haitian Independence Day celebrations when shots were fired at his group. Several persons were injured and one killed but Ariel remained unharmed.

There are also new allegations in the sordid plot to kill Jovenel Moise, the murdered Haitian president.  These allegations are being levelled against Prime Minister Henry, Moise’s pick for the job, due to evidence reportedly linking Henry to a suspect in the July assassination.

The New York Times has reported that phone records show connections between the suspect and Prime Minister Dr. Henry, and that the suspect while on the wanted list visited the prime minister’s residence twice at night and was not turned over to the police.

Henry, who was sworn in just one day before the shocking shooting, has denied all allegations.

Add to the ongoing violence, days later on January 6, two Haitian journalists were the victims of a deadly attack.  Police recovered the bodies of  John Wesley Amady and Wilgens Louis Saint on Friday from the Laboule 12 neighbourhood.

Security officers spoke to CNN.  The source told the media house that the police were unable to get to the scene initially because of limited resources and concerns about the gangs in the area.  John Amady had been on assignment for Radio Ècoute FM, documenting the worsening security situation in the area. There is no word about who Wilgens Louis Saint was working for.

The circumstances around their deaths remain unclear, but reports indicate the men were not burned as previously reported by the Government though one of them had a gunshot wound to the temple.