A new video has emerged that shows the dramatic moment a Haitian mob captured the two Colombian assassins, dragging them out on the streets and beating them through the slums of Port-au-Prince after President Jovenel Moïse was gunned down. The video shared on social media has since gone viral.
According to Haitian police, 26 Colombians and two US citizens were involved in the raid on Moise's mansion in the early hours of Wednesday. However, it is still not clear who ordered the hit as skepticism grows among the populace and a vacuum remains after the assassination.
Horrifying Video
The chilling video shows an angry mob pulling the two men who shot dead Moise. One of the men is seen shirtless and bound with a rope, in the neighborhood of Petion-Ville, near the late president's private residence. Both the men can be seen covered in blood as people shoved the pair amid shouts and shrieks from the mob.
"Advance, advance!" one person is heard yelling on the video as the crowd pushes the two men. The two men who allegedly hired guns and then shot Moisew were discovered hiding in bushes by the mob. They then grabbed them by their shirts and pants, occasionally slapping them, before they were handed over to police and loaded onto a truck bed.
However, that isn't the only video that has gone viral. Yet another video on Twitter shows police hauling the suspects off. The group of assassins were reportedly attacked with machetes before police intervened and put the men in the back of a pickup and drive away as the crowd ran after them to a police station.
"They killed the president! Give them to us! We're going to burn them!" people can be heard shouting in the video.
Dark Future
The second video end abruptly but after police put the men in the pickup and left, the mob set fire to several cars riddled with bullet holes that they believed belonged to the assailants. The vehicles didn't have license plates but while vandalizing them, the crowd found an empty box of bullets and some water.
According to the Times of London, Mathias Pierre, a government minister, said reinforcements had been brought in because locals were "very mad and trying to get to them, to burn them."
Meanwhile, 11 more gunmen were collared after they tried to break into the Taiwanese embassy to hide from the authorities. Taiwan has close diplomatic ties with Haiti as one of the few states to recognize its independence from China - though it is not clear why its consulate was chosen as a hideout.
Moise's death has left a vacuum in Haiti's corridors of power. A power struggle is now developing with two men both claiming they are Moise's legitimate successors. One among them is the present prime minister Claude Joseph although he was due to be replaced by prime minister-elect Ariel Henry in a few days. Moise had selected Henry in an attempt to appease his critics.
The other man is obviously Henry. However, under the constitution, Haiti's chief justice René Sylvestre should ideally take charge after the President's death but he too died of Covid-19 two weeks ago.
