The Latest: Flights to Haiti scrapped after assassination

Airlines have canceled flights to Haiti for a second straight day due to the closure of Haitian airports following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse

Vatican Pope Haiti

The latest developments in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse:

DALLAS — Airlines canceled flights to Haiti for a second straight day on Thursday due to the closure of Haitian airports following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

Under U.S. regulations, passengers are entitled to refunds. American Airlines JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines waived costly fees for passengers who are booked on flights still scheduled over the next few days but who want to delay their plans until mid-July. The terms vary by airline.

Tracking service Flightaware said 28 flights, the vast majority of scheduled departures and arrivals at the main airport in Port-au-Prince, had been canceled by midday Thursday. The airport director had said Wednesday that only humanitarian and diplomatic flights would be allowed.

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JIMANI, Dominican Republic — Dozens of trucks were backed up Thursday at the Dominican Republic’s border with Haiti, a crucial passage closed to most traffic following the assassination of Haiti’s president.

Journalists saw three trucks with Dominican license plates and two buses allowed through the Mal Paso crossing, but most were held back — frustrating hundreds of Haitians with baskets and carts on the other side who were waiting for the usual daily shipments of food and other cargo.

Dominican President Luís Abinader ordered the closure on Wednesday and also beefed up security along the border after Haiti’s government reported that a team of gunmen had assassinated Jovenel Moïse.

The president of the Dominican Association of Exporters, Elizabeth Mena, said she was worried that the closure could have serious repercussions for the Dominican economy.

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ROME — Pope Francis has sent condolences to Haiti following what he said was the “heinous assassination” of President Jovenal Moïse.

Francis, who is recovering at a Rome hospital from intestinal surgery, condemned “all forms of violence as a means of resolving crises and conflicts,” according to a telegram signed by the Vatican secretary of state on Thursday.

The message said Francis was praying for the Haitian people and for Martine Moïse, the wife of the slain president who also was critically injured in the Wednesday attack at their home.

Prime Minister Claude Joseph assumed leadership of Haiti and decreed a two-week state of siege following Moïse’s killing, which stunned the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation.

Francis said in the telegram that he “wishes for the dear Haitian people a future of fraternal harmony, solidarity and prosperity.”

Moïse met with Francis in 2018 for talks on social problems afflicting the Caribbean nation, and in 2015, Francis convened a special conference on Haiti to mark the fifth anniversary of the devastating earthquake that killed more than 100,000 people.