3 things to think about today (July 8th)
1) President Jovenel Moise of Haiti, the latest in a long line of ineffectual, authoritarian rulers, was assassinated by a well-armed gang at his home near Port—au-Prince. Following his murder, the government declared a three-week state of siege, invoking martial law as it searches for Moise’s killers (there are unconfirmed reports they have been apprehended). Sworn in February 2017, since last year Moise has governed by decree, without parliament, despite US and western efforts to get him to contest already-scheduled elections. The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti was devastated by a 2010 earthquake, which killed 200,000 outright, leaving roughly the same number homeless. It remains plagued by habitual corruption, poor governance, violent street gangs and militias, and rampant Covid.
2) At their recent meeting in Geneva, President Joe Biden demanded Russian President Vladimir Putin rein in Russian hackers preying on western companies; he seems to have wholly disregarded the warning. Synnex, an IT firm working for the Republican National Committee (RNC), was hacked by suspected agents of the SVR, the Russian foreign intelligence service. In this case, the RNC says that no data was compromised. However, last week there was a ransomware raid on Kaseya, a Florida-based IT company, which crippled the operations of 1500 companies in 17 countries. REvil, a Russian-based criminal group, has demanded $70 million to unfreeze Kaseya’s IT systems. There is little doubt that Moscow now views cyberspace as a new front in its asymmetric confrontation with the west.
3) Former President Jacob Zuma of South Africa has begun his jail sentence for contempt of court, turning himself in less than one hour before the deadline for his arrest. His 15 month jail sentence was imposed for Zuma’s flouting a judicial order to appear before an inquiry looking into the endemic corruption that occurred during his presidency (2009-2018). The inquiry is particularly interested in the ‘State Capture’ scandal, wherein it is alleged that for significant bribes, the Zuma government let the Gupta brothers, well-connected Indian businessmen, choose lackeys for positions in the administration, who then in turned funnelled contracts to the Guptas. The bringing Zuma to account is a key test for the hesitant, if reform-minded, current presidency of Cyril Ramaphosa.