Tag: conspiracy

The operation that led to Haitian President Jovenel Moïse’s middle-of-the-night assassination was in the planning for at least a month, and came together during meals around Port-au-Prince and at a home where most of the men accused of the slaying were staying, several people who interviewed some of the suspects told the Miami Herald.

“They probably were watching and waiting for the opportunity for them to do it,” said Investigative Judge Clément Noël, who was among the first to question the two Haitian Americans among the 19 suspects detained so far.

James A. Solages, 35, and Joseph G. Vincent, 56, both from South Florida, did not tell Noël why they chose the date that they did — July 7 — to launch the armed attack on Moïse’s private residence, but insisted that the plan was not to assassinate him.

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The plot thickens by the day as a Haitian-born doctor who lived in Florida for more than two decades was arrested Sunday with suspicions of being the ring leader in the assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse last Wednesday, Haiti’s police chief said Sunday, according to Miami Herald. 

On Sunday, National police chief Leon Charles announced Christian Emmanuel Sanon,63, was arrested for allegedly recruiting the mercenaries as their mission would be to protect him. 

Sanon landed in Haiti on a private jet in early June with “political objectives,” Charles said. The team Sanon hired was recruited through South Florida firm CTU Security.

“He arrived by private plane in June with political objectives and contacted a private security firm to recruit the people who committed this act,” the police chief told reporters, noting that the firm was a U.S.-based security company. 

But the team’s mission quickly changed when they were given new orders to arrest Moïse. 

“The initial mission that was given to these assailants was to protect the individual named Emmanuel Sanon, but afterward, the mission changed,” the police chief added.

Many questions remain unanswered about the mysterious plot that led to the president’s assassination last week at his private residence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital.

Sanon is now the third Haitian-born suspect with ties to the U.S. Readers may recall last week, within 24 hours of the president’s slaying, James Solages, 35, and Joseph G. Vincent, 55, Haitian Americans from South Florida, were arrested. Also, eighteen Colombians were arrested, five remain at large, and three killed. 

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Two men believed to be Haitian Americans — one of them purportedly a former bodyguard at the Canadian Embassy in Port au Prince — have been arrested in connection with the assassination of Haiti’s president, Haitian officials said Thursday.

James Solages and Joseph Vincent were among 17 suspects detained in the brazen killing of President Jovenel Moïse by gunmen at his home in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday. Fifteen of them are from Colombia, according to Léon Charles, chief of Haiti’s National Police. He added that three other suspects were killed by police and eight others are on the run. Charles had earlier said seven were killed.

“We are going to bring them to justice,” he said as the 17 suspects sat handcuffed on the floor during a press conference Thursday night.

The oldest suspect is 55 and the youngest, Solages, is 35, according to a document shared by Mathias Pierre, Haiti’s minister of elections.

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Two men who are believed to hold American citizenship have been arrested in connection to the assassination of Haiti’s president Jovenel Moïse.

In detail: Léon Charles, chief of Haiti’s National Police, said Thursday that out of the 17 people authorities arrested, 15 are from Colombia. The remaining two have dual U.S.-Haitian citizenship.

Colombia’s Colombia’s Defense Ministry confirmed that six of the suspects that have Colombian citizenship are former members of its army. Gen. Jorge Luis Vargas Valencia, the head of the national police in the country, said Colombia’s President Iván Duque ordered the army and police to help Haiti authorities with the probe, the Associated Press reports.

“A team was formed with the best investigators … they are going to send dates, flight times, financial information that is already being collected to be sent to Port-au-Prince,” Vargas said.

Charles said authorities believe that 28 people were involved in the assassination, including 26 Colombians.

Haiti’s minister of elections Mathias Pierre previously said that four suspects were killed in a gunfight. Earlier authorities had said that seven purported assailants were killed.

Charles said Haitian police are looking for at least eight more people.

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Jovenel Moïse, Haiti’s embattled president who thrust the country into deeper political turmoil during his tumultuous one term in office, was assassinated overnight at his private residence, according to the country’s acting prime minister.

Prime Minister Claude Joseph said a group of people attacked the president’s private residence and killed him, calling it an “odious, barbaric” act.

“Every measure is being taken to guarantee the continuity of the state to protect the nation,” Joseph said in the statement.

The first lady was wounded by a bullet and is receiving care, he added.

Moïse came to power in 2017 after a lengthy election process that was marred by delays and accusations of fraud.

Although he had never held political office before, Moïse was tapped for the post by the country’s previous president Michel Martelly, who stepped down in 2016 without a successor in place.

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