More on Haiti's political crisis

The Haitian government says that two suspects in the assassination of Haiti's President Jovenal Moïse have been arrested and four others killed. Haiti police say 4 suspects killed, 2 arrested in president killing Aljazeera English 07/08/2021:

The Miami Herald reports: Jacqueline Charles, Four suspects killed, two others arrested in murder of President Moïse, Haiti police say 07/07/2021:

The ongoing police operation was expected to go through the night, Communications Minister Pradel Henriquez said. He reminded Haitians that “a state of siege” had been declared that “involves a curfew” and also limits press freedom. ...

Moïse was guarded by his own personal security, who are part of a specialized unit of the Haitian National Police assigned to the presidential palace. But sources say there have always been concerns about his security being inadequate, which at one point led him to hire foreigners to beef up his guard. Last August the head of the Port-au-Prince Bar Association, Monferrier Dorval, was gunned down not far from the president’s private residence. No one has been charged with the killing.

Le Nouvelliste, Haiti’s largest newspaper, reported Wednesday that Moïse’s body was riddled with bullets. There were signs the president may have been tortured.

Who assassinated the Haitian president, and why? Here's what we know so far PBS Newshour 07/08/2021:

This is a report in Spanish sketching Moïse's political career. His only political office was the Presidency of the country. Quién era Jovenal Moïse, el presidente de Haití que mataron a tiros en un ataque a su residencia BBC Mundo 07/07/2021:

Mehdi Hasan reports on the Haitian situation, also giving some historical background. "It's easy to dismiss the nation of more than 11 million people as a mess," he says - presumably referring mainly to his American audience - "but it's important to know how much the US has been intimately linked with the social, political, and economic crisis that Haiti has faced." Haiti On The Brink Of Chaos After President Assassinated The Mehdi Hasan Show 07/08/2021:

France 24 English has a 40-mionute report on the assassination, Haiti President assassinated: what next after the death of Jovenel Moise? 07/07/2021:

Luis Bruschtein in the Argentine paper Página/12 describes the assassination against the background of a long history of American influence and intervention in the small, very poor country (La condena de Haití 08.07.2021):

El asesinato del presidente Jovenel Moise en Haití, por una banda parapolicial, de las más de 70 que existen en ese país, ha generado el temor de que se produzca una nueva intervención internacional seguramente encabezada por Washington o de que se afiance el poder territorial de las bandas de narcos parapoliciales. ...

Haití no pudo levantar cabeza, condenado por su origen esclavo afroamericano. Se sucedieron los dictaduras y la miseria hasta que en 1957 asumió el médico rural Francois Duvalier, con un discurso antimperialista que rápidamente viró hasta convertirse en aliado de Estados Unidos. Papá Doc y su grupo parapolicial, los Tonton Macoute, se convirtieron en el paradigma de las dictaduras terroristas latinoamericanas.

Ante la inestabilidad permanente de la dictadura militar y la presión de la migración multitudinaria de haitianos que huían de la miseria, el presidente Bill Clinton volvió a invadir Haití, pero esta vez para reponer a Aristide. El popular sacerdote resistió las presiones, se negó a privatizar las empresas estatales, pero las concesiones en el plano económico hicieron fracasar su gobierno y terminó exiliado en Sudáfrica.

[The assassination of President Jovenel Moise in Haita by a parapolice gang, one of the more than 70 that exist in that country, has generated the fear that there will be a new intervention, surely led by Washington or that the territorial power of the parapolice drug gangs will take hold. ...

Haiti {in its history as an independent country} could not raise its head, condemned by its African-American slave origin {which greatly affected its relations to the US}. Dictatorships and misery followed until 1957 when the rural doctor Francois Duvalier took office, with an anti-imperialist discourse that quickly turned to become an ally of the United States. Papá Doc and his parapolice group, the Tonton Macoute, became the paradigm of Latin American terrorist dictatorships.

Faced with the permanent instability of the military dictatorship and the pressure of the massive migration of Haitians fleeing poverty, President Bill Clinton again invaded Haiti, but this time to restore {[Jean-Bertrand} Aristide to power. The popular priest resisted pressure, refused to privatize state-owned enterprises, but economic concessions brought his government to ruin and he ended up in exile in South Africa.] {my translation: emphasis in original}

Aristide's restoration to power by the Clinton Administration in 1994 under the immediate threat of an military invasion by the US was arguably an intervention to restore a legitimate democratic order. How beneficial that intervention may have been for Haiti and is people is certainly questionable. Former President Jimmy Carter took the lead in cooperation with the Clinton Administration in negotiating a peaceful transition for Aristide's restoration in face of the impending invasion.

Britannica Online's description of Aristide's career as President provides a good summary and timeline (Jean-Bertrand Aristide, 2020):

Encouraged to run for president by the mass movement known as the Lavalas (which means “flood” or “torrent” in Creole), Aristide in 1990 won Haiti’s first free democratic election and was inaugurated on February 7, 1991. As president he initiated a literacy program, dismantled the repressive system of rural section chiefs, and oversaw a drastic reduction in human rights violations. His reforms, however, angered the military and Haiti’s elite, and on September 30, 1991, Aristide was ousted in a coup. He lived in exile until October 15, 1994, when the military, faced with a U.S. invasion, agreed to let Aristide return to power. He resumed the presidency, and, although he remained popular with the masses, he was unable to find effective solutions to the country’s economic problems and social inequalities. Barred constitutionally from seeking a consecutive term, he stepped down as president in 1996.

In 1997 Aristide formed a new political party, the Lavalas Family, and in 2000 he was again elected president. Although the opposition boycotted the election and charges of electoral fraud led to international calls for new or runoff elections, the results were declared official, and Aristide was inaugurated in February 2001.

A coup against Aristide failed in July 2001, but during the next several years opposition to his rule increased. He fled the country in February 2004 amid antigovernment protests that had turned into a full-scale rebellion. Despite efforts by the United States to ensure that he remain in South Africa — where he had been living in exile — he returned to the country several days prior to the presidential runoff elections of March 2011. [my emphasis]

At age 67, Aristide was in Cuba being treated for COVID-19, as AFP reported, Haiti ex-president Aristide being treated for Covid in Cuba France 24 25.06.2021. The report also notes, "Aristide was again forced out in 2004 under threat of another armed insurrection, popular demonstrations and pressure from the United States and France."