The secretary general of the Haitian National Union of Progressive Democrats (RDNP), Éric Jean Baptiste, and his bodyguard were killed Friday night on the road leading to their home in Laboule 12, a wealthy district of Pétion-Ville.
A spokesman for the party, Ricardo Nordin, confirmed Baptiste’s death in statements to the Haitian daily ‘Le Nouvelliste’. «Heavily armed men riddled with bullets the vehicle in which he was in Laboule. His bodyguard died at the scene. Éric Jean Baptiste was taken to the hospital, but did not survive,» Nordin said.
Laboule 12 is an area controlled by the gang led by Carlo Petit-Homme, alias ‘Ti Makak’, and has been the scene of violent crimes, murders and kidnappings in recent months.
This armed group had been indexed in the murder of the general director of the state agency Empresa Pública de Promoción de la Vivienda Social (EPPLS) and former senator Yvon Buissereth, who was killed and then burned in his vehicle last August with his driver. Several policemen were killed in the same area after clashes with gang members, notes ‘Le Nouvelliste’.
Baptiste was already the victim of an assassination attempt on October 1, 2018, when he was taking his three children to school and unknown gunmen shot at his car in the town of Carrefour Feuilles. He was then wounded in a shoulder.
Éric Jean Baptiste was noted for the aid he offered to schools, university and citizens, through the Foundation that bears his name. He also supported with millionaire donations the fight against cholera and COVID-19 in Haiti and had been a presidential candidate in 2016.
