NewsTracker Answers for week of July 12, 2021

Q: Haitian authorities said they had arrested 20 people in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in the bedroom of his home last week. Where is the nation of Haiti on the western side of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola?

Circle the area on this map


Q: Two of those arrested were identified as U.S. residents of Haitian descent. The rest were from Colombia. Where Colombia is located?

A. Caribbean Sea

B. Central America

C. North America

D. South America


D. Colombia is in the northwest corner of the South American continent, just south of Central America and the Caribbean Sea. At least 13 Colombians were identified as former military members turned mercenaries. The two U.S. residents reportedly were hired as interpreters for the raiders.


Q: There were no reports that the attackers injured any of the president’s guards or even exchanged gunfire with them when Moïse’s home on the outskirts of Haiti’s capital was invaded about 1 a.m. Wednesday. What is the capital of Haiti?

A. Kingston

B. La Navidad

C. Port-au-Prince

D. Santo Domingo


C. Port-au-Prince is the capital and most populous city in Haiti, with about 1 million residents. It is estimated that nearly half of Haiti’s population lives in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. The attackers were described as a mercenary hit squad, but it was not known who had hired them.


Q: Santo Domingo is the capital of nation that shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. What is the name of that nation, which closed its border with Haiti after the assassination?

A. Dominica

B. Dominican Republic

C. Saint Martin

D. Sint Martin


B. The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island. Hispaniola is one of only two Caribbean islands that are shared by two sovereign states. The Netherlands’ Sint Martin shares a much smaller island with France’s Saint Martin.


Q: Haiti’s interim government said it asked the U.S. to deploy troops to protect key infrastructure as it tries to stabilize the country after Moïse’s assassination. How long did U.S. Marines occupy Haiti after the nation’s last presidential assassination?

A. Nearly 20 years

B. 20 months

C. 20 weeks

D. 20 days


A. In 1915, an angry mob dragged President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam out of the French Embassy and beat him to death. In response, President Woodrow Wilson sent the Marines into Haiti, justifying the American military occupation — which lasted until 1934 — as a way to avert anarchy.