The Daily - Why Was Haiti’s President Assassinated?

Episode Date: December 14, 2021

In July, a group of men stormed the presidential compound in Haiti and assassinated the country’s president, Jovenel Moïse. Months later, the case remains unresolved.Investigating the killing, the Times journalist Maria Abi-Habib found that Mr. Moïse had begun compiling a list of powerful Haitian businessmen and political figures involved in an intricate drug trafficking network.Guest: Maria Abi-Habib, bureau chief for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean for The New York Times.Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. Background reading: Mr. Moïse took a number of steps to fight drug and arms smugglers. Some officials now fear he was killed for it.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

From The New York Times, I'm Sabrina Tavernisi. This is The Daily. Since Haiti's president was assassinated this summer, his murder has remained a mystery. A mystery. Today, I spoke to my colleague, Maria Abihabib, on what her investigation into the president's murder reveals about corruption and drug trafficking in Haiti at the very highest levels of government. It's Tuesday, December 14th. So Maria, the president of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated five months ago.

And that case remains unsolved. But all along, you've been investigating this assassination yourself. So where did you begin? Well, I wasn't actually entirely confident that I could solve who did it. So what I tried to go about doing, actually, was solve a much simpler question, which was, who is this Jovenel Moise? For a man who was president of a country, nobody really seemed to know anything about him. Nobody really understood how somebody who was a man of peasant origins, a relative unknown, all of a sudden became

president because Michel Martelly, who was president up until 2016, tapped him to run and succeed him. And as I started to ask various people in Moïse's life, whether they were childhood friends, his teachers, business partners, political allies, one thing kept coming up, which was Haiti's eel industry. Eels? Like eels for eating? Yes. Huh. So this is one of Haiti's more lucrative industries.

And it started to feel like this could have been possibly part of the reason why he was killed. People kept bringing up that it was part of the criminal underworld, narco-trafficking and money laundering. And I tried to figure out, okay, well, you know, how is Moïse connected to all of this? Where does he fit in? And that's when I start going to various fishing villages on the coast of Haiti.

So we fly to Cap-et-Cien, which is one of the biggest cities, and it's in the north. And we also drove down to Porte-de-Pay, which beyond being a fishing town, is also known historically as a huge smuggling den. And in more recent decades has become a major thoroughfare for cocaine coming from South America and making its way to the United States and Europe. And as we start visiting these fishing villages and towns, one thing that really kind of stood out to me was that

for a country that has received $11 billion or so in assistance in the last decade, entire roads, stretch of roads linking what are supposed to be the economic arteries of the country are completely undone. I mean, it's just rock, rock, rock, rock, rock. And several Haitian policemen actually said, like, well, we believe that the reason why these roads are undone and kept undone is because, you know, we think that the smugglers don't want there to be any connection between some of these places

because they want to have free reign to do whatever they want without there being a response from authorities. Oh, wow. So the potholes are on purpose, basically. Yeah, that's what we were told. And when I get to these villages and towns, I learn that the eel industry is an industry that happens at night. Fishermen are working on the shoreline. They have flashlights tied to their foreheads. I mean, it's pretty incredible because all you see on the shoreline is this burst of activity happening.

And it's all lit up and everything else is pitch black. And we start talking to these fishermen, some of the eel traders and local officials. And many of them say that the eel trade is super, super shady. That boats are coming to the shore at night. Nobody knows what's in them. Some people say that they believe that it's a money laundering operation for the drug trade. And they all point to this one person who controls,

they say, the whole thing. And if you don't adhere to his rules, he and his associates can rough you up or even completely destroy your business. Oh, wow. And that person, his name is Charles St. Remy, also known by his nickname, Kiko. And who is that? So Kiko is an incredibly well-connected businessman in Haiti.

He is the brother-in-law of former president Michel Martelly. And when his brother-in-law became president, all of a sudden Kiko had access to some of the most powerful corridors in Port-au-Prince. He has admitted in the past to being a drug dealer, but says that he left that behind him and that his businesses now are legitimate. However, we know from former DEA agents that they still suspect him very recently of being a narco-trafficker. And he's basically cornered the eel industry, is what we've been told by several people. cornered the eel industry, is what we've been told by several people. But as I talked with people in several of these fishing villages, I also realized that not only did all of these fishermen know who Kiko was, but they also knew and had a relationship and had met personally with Moïse.

Wow. And what we end up finding out is that actually President Moise, years before he had been tapped by President Michel Martelly to succeed him, had actually been in this business with Kiko. And that was a huge reveal to me because the story that I had been told by the people around Martelli who served in his government and the story that was told to the nation was that Moise was a successful entrepreneur who had started this banana plantation and was at an economic conference or some sort of business event when Michel Martelly noticed his brilliance and kind of plucked him out of the crowd, this relatively unknown businessman, and elevated him

onto the national stage as the next president. And at these eel fishing villages, I find out that no, no, no, no, no. Actually, years before Michelle Martelli had settled on Moise as his successor, Moise actually already knew Kiko, and he already knew several good friends of Michelle Martelli, some of whom actually were suspected drug dealers. Wow. And that was just, that floored me. Because he was in business with them.

Yeah. It sounds like. And that what had been pushed on the campaign trail of Moise, man of peasant origins, Moise, brilliant entrepreneur, it was a giant exaggeration. And Moise was not the man that the nation thought that he was. So it turns out that it was a pretty good tip to go check out the eel industry. Exactly. And at this point, while I've kind of pieced together who Moïse was, I still am completely lost about why he was killed, how any of this connected, how these really strange bits of information actually link up. And then I get this tip from an associate

of Moises who I had been trying for months to speak with me. And he says to me, to understand why my president was killed, you have to look at this airstrip that saw a ton of activity, a huge increase in deliveries of cocaine right before he was killed. So we plan to go up there to Savandian, which is a savannah in the middle of the country. We hire a plane to take us to a nearby airport and we land at the airport and we're locked inside the airport. So then we have to jump the fence, get out, get into some cars. We go as far as the cars can take us and then we hire motorcycles to then take us closer and closer to the airstrip. Eventually, the motorcycles also have to stop because it's just too muddy and too bumpy and too chaotic of a road to try to take. And we have to hop off the motorcycles and walk for about 10 minutes in very, very thick brush that's about waist to chest high.

And we finally see it. These two jagged dirt strips, you know, one strip for each wheel of the plane in the middle of this brush. And we're surveying, the photographer's taking photos, our security guy's like, we need to be quick about this. There's no meandering. Do this now. And then all of a sudden, a guy emerges. And he confuses us with the only other foreigners he's ever seen in his life in this very remote savannah in the center of Haiti, which are drug dealers, you know? Oh, wow. And he automatically thinks we are there in some sort of drug drop or drug deal or whatever.

And he immediately asks us for a bribe to turn the other way. Wow. So what do you learn from him? Well, you know, we learn from him and others that these planes come at night, that locals are paid a few dollars to cut the grass around the airstrip so that the planes can land safely. strip them down and light them up along the airstrip so that pilots know where to land because they are landing in a place that has very little electricity in the middle of nowhere. That police cars are always there to pick up the loads of drugs on these airplanes. That what will happen is sometimes they get stuck in the mud and local farmers are paid a few dollars to tow them out. And that this is all connected to some of the most powerful politicians in Haiti.

And just to be clear, we are sure that it's drugs on these planes, right? I mean, this airstrip is obviously very hidden. You wouldn't have had to go on foot otherwise, but this is about drugs? Yeah. I mean, it is an illegal airstrip. There's no record of it anywhere. As one farmer said to me, do you think that they're going to send a plane for Congo beans? Why would they send a plane for Congo beans? That's the only thing that grows here. One of the only things that grow here. The central government is barely present here. And then they bring up this local lake actually. And they say, do you know how many fish are in

that local lake? That local lake is plentiful with fish. It's brimming with fish and none of us will eat it. And I asked them, why not? I mean, this is an area that is suffering from acute malnourishment. Why aren't you fishing there? And several locals say, we don't fish there because there are lots of dead bodies in there. Oh, God. And they've been dumped there over the years. So this is a very active zone for the drug trade. So this is a very active zone for the drug trade.

Yes. And everybody up in Seventeen is saying, yeah, you know, we have had people connected to the Martellis come and tell us that they're managing the airstrip. Martelli, the former president. I mean, it might not be Martelli himself, but it's very clear that this is managed by very powerful people who, you know, walk the corridors of power in Port-au-Prince, the capital. Okay, so it sounds like what you're finding both with the eel fishing villages and then at the airstrip is that the government in Haiti seems to be extraordinarily corrupt and how politicians really at the highest level are involved in the drug trade. But what does all of this have to do with Moïse's assassination? Well, I mean, at this point, I'm really still trying to put together all the pieces

and I can't figure out how one leads to the assassination. and I can't figure out how one leads to the assassination. But then I meet a guy who ends up connecting all the dots for me. We'll be right back. So Maria, you meet someone who gives you a big break in the case. Who was it? So I meet this person who was a close confidant of Moise, and he tells me three big things. The first is that Moïse had found out by about mid-June, just a few weeks before he was killed,

that this airstrip in Savandian existed and that these narcotics drops were happening there, and he gave the order to shut it down. The second thing is that Moise decided to crack down on Kiko St. Remy. The eel guy, right? Yeah, the eel guy, the brother-in-law of former President Michel Martelly. Now, customs in Haiti is notoriously corrupt, and Kiko apparently is very influential, according to several sources, who say that customs is forbidden from searching his shipments and that he oftentimes is able to allegedly skirt any customs duties or fees. So Moise had told this friend that he had given the order that Kiko shipments had to start being inspected. And he had to start paying customs fees like everybody else.

And the third thing that this source tells us is that Moïse was compiling a list in the months and weeks before his death. Breaking down the intricate networks of narco-traffickers in the country and the powerful Haitian businessmen and political figures who prop up that industry, including Kiko Saint-Rémy. And he was going to compile this list and hand it over to the U.S. government. And that just completely floors me. Why? Well, because my colleague in Miami, Frances Robles,

she was the first person to get an interview with Moise's widow, Martine Moise. And Martine told Francis at the time that the assassins, after they burst into the presidential residence, gunned down her husband and fired at her. And she pretended to play dead, lying on the floor. They did find it. And that Martine heard them, you know, as they're going through these files, these Colombian and Haitian assassins, they're saying, you know, No es eso. No es eso. No es eso. Eso es. assassination assassins, they're saying, you know, They said, that's not it, that's not it, that's not it, and then that's it.

Is this it? Is this it? Is this it? And then finally they say, this is it. And they flee. And I think to myself, that is, that's the list. Okay. myself, that is, that's a list. Several people told me that some of the hitmen confessed to searching for this list. And you might think, come on, like he just had a list, a handwritten list somewhere, like he didn't put it into a computer. You have to remember Moise was, he came from a very humble, poor upbringing.

Access to computer was probably not something that was a given in his childhood. And one of the things that we've been told is that Moise always had notebooks with him. We've heard this from several people on the record. And we also know that, you know, the FBI in their investigation apparently also took several of his notebooks. So then I start trying to figure out who helped compile the information that was going to go into this list and what do they know? And I find two people, high-ranking security sources, who confirm that, yes, this list existed. And yes, they helped compile it. But how big a threat would giving this list to the Americans actually be to the people on the list? We have found in our reporting that U.S. law enforcement agents are finding it very, very difficult to collaborate with Haitian police because they are notoriously corrupt.

And we know from speaking with high-level American officials in Washington, D.C., that the U.S. doesn't have a wiretapping program in Haiti, which is really one of the key things if you're going to make a case against a narco-trafficker or, you know, arms smuggler. And remember that Moïse knows a lot of these people that are on this list. He's known them for years. He knows them intimately. He can really hand over the goods in a way that U.S. law enforcement, you know, haven't been able to put the pieces of the puzzle together because their operations are so hindered across Haiti. So this would have been a huge breakthrough for the Americans. Yeah, exactly. So this list and everything you've told me about what he's doing, you know, moving to crackdown on Kiko when it comes to customs and shutting down the airstrip, suggests that Moïse presented a pretty major threat to the forces of corruption in Haiti,

which seems to be a pretty clear motivation for killing him. Yeah, that could be the motive. We can't say with 100% certainty that that was the motive. But at this point, that's the working theory. But I guess what I'm wondering is, why would he have decided to flip on these people he used to be pretty clearly associated with? Why would he turn on these people who essentially had elevated him to power? Well, look, Moïse was no saint. And there are all sorts of questions about why he was such good friends and business partners with people who are considered to be suspects in the drug trafficking world. And there were investigations into why he had such a huge flow of money in his bank accounts, he and his wife, and one of his businesses.

huge flow of money in his bank accounts, he and his wife and one of his businesses. So Moïse was really no saint, but he's also getting really annoyed with Michelle Martelli, the former president, the former first lady, Sophia Martelli, and her brother, Kiko St. Remy. What we have heard from several of Moïse's associates is that Martelly always saw Moise as a benchwarmer because the Constitution prevents presidents from running for two consecutive terms. But Moise, he felt the people who put him into power were the people who were undermining his presidency. He wanted to give Haitians electricity and roads to try to do a few things for his constituents. And he felt like he was unable to do that because the corruption around the Martellis was so extreme. And they were, you know, insisting apparently, we've heard this from several of his associates, on certain contracts going to certain people, certain cabinet ministers being appointed. Kiko would oftentimes push, allegedly, to have the agricultural minister

because he needs those eel contracts, remember that. He needs those export licenses. So Moïse just feels like, my God, I can't get anything done. Right. My God, I can't get anything done. Right. Basically, Moïse is asserting himself and rejecting Martelly's influence. Yeah.

I mean, we had one of Moïse's former campaign managers tell us this very shocking story about Sophia, the former first lady and wife of Michelle Martelli, calling her up one night and summoning her to the Martelli home while Moise was on the campaign trail and saying, you know, you are not reporting to us about who Moise is meeting and what he's discussing. And this campaign manager said to her, well, you know, I don't understand what the problem is. Like, I'm here to work for Moise. Like, I'm here to push this guy as, you know, the next president of Haiti. And Sophia apparently yelled at her and said, you don't understand. Moise is nothing but a property. So there is a way of seeing this move as, you know, I've had it. I mean, Moise is saying, I don't want to be treated like a piece of property anymore. I'm writing up this list and I'm taking you down. Exactly.

So what happens now? I mean, what do you think will come from everything you've revealed? Sadly, I don't know. I don't have a lot of hope. Will the U.S. government investigation go forward? We hear it's stalled. Will the Haitian investigation go forward? We hear it's stalled. Will the Haitian investigation go forward? You know, that's facing all sorts of problems.

You had one judge and several court clerks go into hiding with all the evidence that they collected because they were being threatened by unknown assailants saying, you know, change witness testimony or be killed. So there's not a lot of hope in Haiti that this investigation will go anywhere. What do you think is going to happen to Kiko and to Martelli? I mean, Kiko, he became as powerful as he's become because of Michelle Martelli. And we know that Michelle Martelly is living in Miami. He lives in Miami?

Yeah, with his family. Wow. And he is a musician. He's a very popular Haitian musician. And he just had a concert the other night in the States, well attended. And he's contemplating his next move, whether to run for elections next year. We hear he's heavily leaning towards running. And he is the front runner is what we've heard. And we know that he has huge influence over the current government.

This is a government that is led by a prime minister who was implicated in the murder as well. And we just have to see what happens. What do you think it'll mean to Haitians if this assassination is never solved and no one is ever held to account? It means that the pile of impunity, which the criminal underworld loves, grows bigger and bigger by the day. People who hate Moise but want some sort of justice for their country, and I spoke to many people who hate Moise, they want this solved. head of state, then how is the average Haitian going to be able to walk through life thinking that they'll get any modicum of justice for anything that happens to them, whether it's a robbery or they're asked for a bribe from a policeman or a woman or their neighborhood has been taken over by a gang, which is a huge problem now in Haiti, the rising power of gangs.

If a presidential assassination can't be solved for a country of 11 million people, the majority of which are suffering from crazy underemployment, malnutrition, poverty, how are they going to be taken seriously as citizens? How are their desires, wants, needs, how are they going to be upheld in a state that is just this corrupt?

Maria, thank you. Thank you for having me. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to block New York's requirement that health care workers be vaccinated, even when they cite religious objections. The case was an emergency application, and the justices included no reasoning for their decision. But in a dissent, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that the majority had betrayed the court's commitment to religious liberty. And hundreds of female gymnasts who were sexually abused by Larry Nassar,

the former doctor for the national gymnastics team, have agreed to a $380 million settlement. The settlement was reached with USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, and it will compensate more than 500 abuse victims, including Olympic gold medalists Simone Biles, Michaela Maroney, and Ali will compensate more than 500 abuse victims, including Olympic gold medalists Simone Biles, Michaela Maroney, and Ali Raisman. Today's episode was produced by Daniel Guimet, Austin Mitchell, Rob Zipko, and Chelsea Daniel. It was edited by Paige Cowett and Lisa Chow, and engineered by Chris Wood, and features original music by Dan Powell and Marian Lozano.

Our theme music is by Jim Brumberg and Ben Landsberg of Wonder League. That's it for The Daily. I'm Sabrina Tavernisi. See you tomorrow.