MORE SUSPECTS ARRESTED IN ASSASSINATION OF HAITIAN PRESIDENT
By EVENS SANON, DÁNICA COTO and JOSHUA GOODMAN – AP News
Haitian authorities have made more arrests in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, raiding Taiwan’s Embassy where several suspects are believed to have sought refuge, while also detaining two Haitian-Americans and several former Colombian soldiers allegedly tied to the plot.
In all, 17 suspects have been detained and another eight are being sought, according to National Police Chief Léon Charles.
“We are going to bring them to justice,” the police chief said, as the 17 handcuffed suspects sat on the floor during a news conference Thursday.
Investigative Judge Clément Noël told the French-language newspaper Le Nouvelliste that the Haitian-Americans arrested, James Solages and Joseph Vincent, said the attackers originally planned only to arrest Moïse, not kill him. Noël said Solages and Vincent were acting as translators for the attackers, the newspaper reported Friday.
Moïse’s brazen killing at his home in an attack before dawn Wednesday that also seriously wounded his wife stunned a nation already reeling from poverty, widespread violence and political instability.
Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph, who assumed leadership with the backing of police and the military, declared a two-week “state of siege,” and asked people to return to work and reopen businesses that were shut down in normally bustling Port-au-Prince. He also ordered the international airport to reopen.
Colombia’s government said it had been asked by Haiti about six of the suspects, including two of the three killed, and had determined they were retired members of its army. It offered its full cooperation.
“A team was formed with the best investigators,” said Gen. Jorge Luis Vargas, the head of Colombia’s police. “They are going to send dates, flight times, financial information that is already being collected to be sent to Port-au-Prince.”
U.S.-trained Colombian soldiers are heavily recruited by private security firms in global conflict zones because of their experience in a decades-long war against leftist rebels and powerful drug cartels.
The U.S. State Department said it was aware of reports that Haitian-Americans were in custody but would not comment.
Solages, 35, described himself as a “certified diplomatic agent,” an advocate for children and budding politician on a now-removed website for a charity he started in 2019 in south Florida to assist resident of his home town of Jacmel, on Haiti’s southern coast.
Solages also said he had worked as a bodyguard at the Canadian Embassy in Haiti, and on his Facebook page, which was also taken down after news of his arrest, he showcased photos of armored military vehicles and a shot of himself standing in front of an American flag.
Canada’s foreign relation department released a statement that did not refer to Solages by name but said one of the men detained for his alleged role in the killing had been “briefly employed as a reserve bodyguard” at its embassy by a private contractor. He gave no other details.
Calls to the charity and Solages’ associates at the charity went unanswered. However, a relative in south Florida said Solages doesn’t have any military training and he doesn’t believe he was involved in the assassination.
