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.
The Haitian Americans were identified as Joesph Vincent and James Solages by officials in Haiti. Little is known about Vincent, however, Solages has reportedly created a website for charity in 2019 to help people in Jacmel, a town in Haiti. On the website, he describes himself as an advocate for children and a “certified diplomatic agent.”
He also claims on his page that he had worked at the Canadian Embassy in Haiti as a bodyguard.
Canada’s foreign relations department said in a statement that a private contractor had hired one of the detainees “briefly” as a “reserve bodyguard” but did not name the person in question.
Worth noting: Pétion-Ville deputy justice revealed yesterday that dozens of bullets hit Moïse and that one of his eyes was blown out on Wednesday.
“We found 12 holes in the president’s body made with a large-caliber weapon,” he said. “The president’s office and bedroom were ransacked. We found him lying on his back, blue pants, a white shirt smeared with blood, his mouth open, his left eye blown out.”
“We saw a bullet impact at the level of his forehead, one in each nipple, three at the hip, one in the abdomen,” the judge explained.
The first lady, who survived the attack, was sent to Miami, Florida, for surgery.
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