Five years to the day after former Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated at his private residence, Haitian national authorities gathered in the capital Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, to hold an official commemoration ceremony honoring his legacy at the Villa d’Accueil.
Organized under the leadership of current Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, the event drew a cross-section of the country’s top leadership: sitting government officials, the Secretary General of the Presidency, the Secretary General of the Council of Ministers, and senior command representatives from both the Haitian National Police (PNH) and the Armed Forces of Haiti (FAd’H).
The core of the memorial opened with a requiem mass led by Reverend Father Jean Robert Louis. In his homily, Father Jean Robert Louis reflected on the universal nature of death, telling attendees that “death is the beginning of a new life”, noting that the former president had passed into eternal peace with God. He also urged attendees to remain spiritually vigilant, reminding the gathered faithful that death comes without warning, “has neither day nor date.”
Following the mass, the ceremony proceeded with the traditional playing of the Last Post, the military bugle call used to honor fallen leaders, before drawing to a close with a period of silent contemplation for all in attendance.
Beyond the formal rituals of the day, the 2026 commemoration underscores the commitment of current Haitian authorities to preserving the memory of Jovenel Moïse, whose 2021 assassination remains one of the most traumatic and divisive events in Haiti’s recent modern history, leaving a lasting national wound that has yet to fully heal.
In a pre-recorded video message marking the five-year anniversary of her husband’s killing, former First Lady Martine Moïse shared her own tribute to the late president, which Haitian news outlets have made available for public sharing.
Bocchit Edmond, a former Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs and former ambassador to the United States and the Organization of American States who served alongside Moïse during his presidency, released a written statement reflecting on his time working with the late leader. “Five years ago, on the night of July 7, 2021, assassin’s bullets ended the life of President Jovenel Moïse, taking with him a man, a leader, a vision for Haiti,” Edmond wrote. He added that even half a decade later, “the wound remains open, painful, and resistant to time. Some wounds never heal; they simply remind us of what we have lost.”
Edmond noted that his cabinet and diplomatic posts gave him unique insight into Moïse’s character, separate from the public caricatures and political controversies that shaped his presidency. “Jovenel Moïse believed in Haiti. Not from a naive or blind faith, but from a conviction rooted in his origins, in his peasant roots in the North, in his profound understanding of his people’s suffering. He knew where he came from. And that is precisely why he knew where he wanted to go,” Edmond explained.
He outlined the late president’s core policy priorities: expanding national access to electricity, advancing agricultural development, modernizing Haiti’s state institutions, and securing full economic sovereignty for a country that had been reliant on foreign support for generations. Moïse sought to break the systemic cycles of stagnation that had long held Haiti back, a goal that put him at odds with entrenched power brokers, Edmond argued. “He wanted to disrupt an established order that thrived on Haiti’s stagnation, and that, perhaps, was his greatest failing in the eyes of some,” he wrote.
Edmond acknowledged that Moïse was not a perfect leader, but emphasized that his courage to pursue transformative change set him apart. “He was misunderstood, or rather—and history will be able to distinguish between the two—he was deliberately misunderstood by those whom his ambition for the country disturbed. No man is perfect; President Moïse knew this better than anyone. But perfection has never been a prerequisite for courage. And he had the courage to act,” he wrote. Today, as Haiti navigates one of the darkest periods in its modern history, Edmond said the absence of Moïse’s leadership is deeply felt, noting that the late president never wavered from his core commitment to advancing the well-being of the Haitian people.
Edmond emphasized that holding all conspirators behind the assassination accountable is a non-negotiable moral obligation for the Haitian nation. “His assassination remains a crime against the entire nation. That it be fully solved, that those who ordered it be held accountable before the law—this is a moral imperative, a debt we owe to his memory, to his family, and to history,” he said. Closing his statement, Edmond paid his respects to Martine Moïse and her family, and wrote that truth will ultimately grant Moïse the justice his assassins tried to steal. “History, written not by weapons but by truth, will bring you the justice your assassins thought they could deny you. Honor and respect to your memory,” he concluded.
Moïse Jean Charles, a former senator for Haiti’s Nord Department and leader of the Pitit Dessalines political movement, also released a statement for the anniversary. He framed the 2021 assassination as a coordinated international plot carried out with the complicity of local criminal actors. “Five years ago today, an international conspiracy, with the complicity of local criminals, infiltrated the home of the sitting President, Jovenel Moïse, to cowardly assassinate him in his bedroom. This act wounded the dignity of the Nation and plunged the country into the great maelstrom of insecurity and institutional destabilization that society continues to suffer to this day,” he wrote.
Moïse Jean Charles argued that after five years, accountability remains out of reach due to systemic weaknesses in Haiti’s judiciary and successive compliant governments that have suppressed the truth to protect the assassination’s masterminds. On behalf of his political movement, he emphasized that no lasting national stability can be achieved without full transparency and justice for the state killing of the sitting president. “There can be no lasting stability without true and complete justice and without the truth being revealed about this major state crime,” he said.
He added that legitimate leaders commit to fighting for their people’s dignity and justice, and never use political assassination as a tool to gain power: “When one kills to advance a cause, one ceases to be a liberator and becomes a criminal.”
While honoring the legacy of Jovenel Moïse and offering condolences to his family, Moïse Jean Charles reaffirmed his movement’s policy roadmap for national recovery: only through implementing Article 144 of the Haitian constitution to establish a dual executive, rolling out the National Security Strategic Plan (NSSP), and convening a Sovereign National Conference can Haiti rebuild a strong, accountable state that guarantees security, justice, and equal rights for all citizens. He closed by reaffirming the movement’s core stance: “No stability without justice! Respect for the memory of the Nation!”
