Hospitalized wife of slain Haitian leader denounces enemies

PORT-AU-PRINCE — The hospitalized wife of Haiti’s assassinated President Jovenel Moïse has given her first public statement since being wounded in the attack that killed him, accusing enemies of wanting “to kill his dream, his vision, his ideology.”

Martine Moïse issued the recorded statement in Creole from the Miami hospital where she was being treated for wounds suffered in the attack early Wednesday, and also posted a version on her Twitter account Saturday.

“I’m alive, thanks to God,” she said in the recording, which also played on local radio stations. “But I love my husband Jovenel. We fought together for more than 25 years. During all these years, love radiated within the home. But suddenly, the mercenaries came and pelted my husband with bullets.”

“You have to be a notorious criminal without guts to assassinate a president like Jovenel Moïse with impunity without giving him the chance to speak,” she added. “You knew who the president was fighting against.

“These people hired mercenaries to kill the president and his family because of the projects of roads, electricity, drinking water supply, organization of the referendum and elections …

“The mercenaries who assassinated the president are currently behind bars,” she added, “but other mercenaries currently want to kill his dream, his vision, his ideology.”

Police say they have arrested more than a dozen people — most of them retired Colombian soldiers — and are searching for more, but it remained unclear who had hired team that attacked the president’s house, or why.