Haiti government arrests over 20 for plot to oust president

  09 February 2021    Read: 739
Haiti government arrests over 20 for plot to oust president

Haitian authorities arrested nearly two dozen people, including a Supreme Court judge, for their role in an alleged plot to oust President Jovenel Moise that has exacerbated political tensions in the troubled Caribbean country.

Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe told a news conference at his private residence that a senior police official was also among the 23 people detained with money, guns and ammunition.

“These people had contacted national palace security officials, high-ranking officers of the national palace whose mission was to arrest the president ... and also to facilitate the installation of a new president,” Jouthe said, speaking alongside the minister of justice and the chief of police.

President Moise, speaking later at the Port-Au-Prince airport on his way to launch the annual carnival in the coastal town of Jacmel, said the plotters’ aim was to make an “attempt on my life”.


The arrests come after leading opposition figures this week announced a plan to replace Moise with a new head of state, accusing the president of being authoritarian and presiding over economic chaos in the Western hemisphere’s poorest country.

Earlier on Sunday, anti-government demonstrators in Port-Au-Prince clashed with police, who responded with tear gas. There were also street protests against Moise in some other towns.

The opposition plan called for members of civil society and opposition leaders to pick a new president from one of the sitting Supreme Court judges, instead of waiting for general elections scheduled for September.

 

Reuters


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