Haiti Appoints New Prime Minister in Wake of President’s Assassination

Ariel Henry, tapped by late Haitian President Jovenel Moise to be the new prime minister just days before he was assassinated, arrives to the official memorial services for Moise, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on July 20, 2021. Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters

PORT-AU-PRINCE—Haiti’s government on Tuesday formally appointed Ariel Henry as prime minister, nearly two weeks after President Jovenel Moise was gunned down in a murder plot that likely extends far beyond the Caribbean country’s borders.

Henry assumed the role of de-facto leader of the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation in a ceremony in the capital Port-au-Prince, where he began his inaugural speech with a minute of silence for the slain president.