Haiti seeks US troops protection

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti’s interim government said on Friday that it asked the US to deploy troops to protect key infrastructure as it tries to stabilise the country and prepare the way for elections in the aftermath of the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

“We definitely need assistance and we’ve asked our international partners for help,” interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph told The Associated Press in an interview, declining to provide further details.

“We believe our partners can assist the national police in resolving the situation.”

Mr Joseph said that he was dismayed by opponents who’ve tried to take advantage of Mr Moise’s murder to seize political power — an indirect reference to a group of lawmakers have declared their loyalty and recognised Joseph Lambert, the head of Haiti’s dismantled senate, as provisional president and Ariel Henry, whom Mr Moise designated as prime minister a day before he was killed, as prime minister.

“I’m not interested in a power struggle,” Mr Joseph said in the brief phone interview, without mentioning Mr Lambert by name.

“There’s only one way people can become president in Haiti. And that’s through elections.”

Mr Joseph spoke just hours after the head of Colombia’s police said that the Colombians implicated in Mr Moise’s assassination were recruited by four companies and traveled to the Caribbean nation in two groups via the Dominican Republic. Meanwhile, the US said it would send senior FBI and Homeland Security officials to help in the investigation.

Haitian National Police Chief Leon Charles said 17 suspects have been detained in the brazen killing of Mr Moise that stunned a nation already reeling from poverty, widespread violence and political instability.