THE wife of assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Mo？se says he was "unable to say a single word" before he was gunned down "in the blink of an eye".
Martine Mo？se slammed her husband's "gutless killers" just days after she was airlifted to a Miami hospital for treatment of serious wounds suffered when gunmen stormed her family home.
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Assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moise pictured with his wife Martine Credit: EPA 4
The suspects in the assassination of Haiti's President Jovenel Moise Credit: AP
The president’s 47-year-old wife told how "suddenly, the mercenaries came and pelted my husband with bullets".
The heartbroken widow said her husband was gunned down "in the blink of an eye… without even giving him a chance to say a word".
She accused shadowy enemies of organising her husband's assassination to stop democratic change.
Speaking from her hospital bed in Florida, Mrs Mo？se said: "You know who the president was fighting against.
"These people hired mercenaries to kill the president and his family due to the projects for roads, electricity, drinking water supply, organisation of the referendum and elections, for the final abolition of political transition."
In the recording released on Twitter, she added: "You have to be a notorious criminal without guts to assassinate a president like Jovenel Mo？se with impunity without giving him the chance to speak."
Mo？se had told of opposition forces who were angry about what he called his attempts to clean up government contracts and politics - and he had proposed a referendum to change Haiti's constitution.
The referendum, scheduled for September 26 along with presidential and legislative elections, could abolish the prime minister's position, reshape the legislative branch and strengthen the presidency.
But critics slammed the move as a power grab.
'STINKING BOURGEOISIE'
Mo？se's killing has clouded those plans and led to chaos in Haiti, prompting requests for foreign help.
Haitian government officials pleaded with Joe Biden for help to safeguard the country's infrastructure on Friday.
But the US President rebuffed Haiti's plea for help and refused to send in troops following the assassination.
And on Saturday, one of Haiti's most powerful gang leaders said his men would take to the streets to protest the assassination of Mo？se, threatening to throw the country into further chaos.
Jimmy Cherizier, an ex-cop known as Barbecue who heads the so-called G9 federation of nine gangs, accused opposition politicians of colluding with the "stinking bourgeoisie" to "sacrifice" Mo？se.
"It was a national and international conspiracy against the Haitian people," he said in a video, dressed in khaki military fatigues sitting in front of a Haitian flag.
"We tell all bases to mobilize, to mobilize and take to the streets for light to be shed on the president's assassination."
Haitian officials have not provided a motive for the assassination or explained how the killers got past Mo？se's security detail.
None of Moise's guards were injured in the attack, Mathias Pierre, the elections minister, told Reuters.
Authorities have described as a unit of assassins formed of 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans.
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A prominent Haitian doctor with ties to South Florida is suspected as one of the ring leaders of the hit squad, the Miami Herald reports.
Christian Emmanuel Sanon is the third person of Haitian descent tied to Florida to be arrested over the killing of Mo？se.
Two of the suspects - James Solages, 35, and Joseph Vincent, 55 - told authorities that the assassination was part of a plot to install Sanon as president of the Caribbean nation, sources told the outlet.
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The military outside the Miami hospital where Haitian First Lady Martine Moise was taken Credit: AFP 4
Haitian officials have not provided a motive for the assassination of the president (left) Credit: AFP
Mob capture Colombian ‘mercenaries’ accused of ‘assassinating’ Haitian President hauling them bloody and beaten through streets