Assassination of Jovenel Moïse (2021)

On July 7, 2021, Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated at his private residence in Pèlerin 5, Port-au-Prince, by a group of armed men who entered the compound before dawn. Moïse was shot twelve times; his wife Martine Moïse was seriously wounded. The assassins — including former Colombian military contractors and Haitian-American double agents — were hired by a network investigators linked to members of Moïse's own security apparatus and Haitian businesspeople. The assassination left a political vacuum that empowered the de facto prime minister Ariel Henry, who refused to step down for over two years. The event coincided with — and accelerated — a period of gang territorial expansion and government collapse that has since destabilized the country.