BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Several of the central figures under
investigation by Haitian authorities in connection with the assassination of
President Jovenel Moïse gathered in the months before the killing to discuss
rebuilding the troubled nation once the president was out of power, according
to Haitian police, Colombian intelligence officers and participants in the
discussions.
اضافة اعلان
The meetings, conducted in Florida and the Dominican
Republic over the past year, appear to connect a seemingly disparate collection
of suspects in the investigation, linking a 63-year-old doctor and pastor, a
security equipment salesman, and a mortgage and insurance broker in Florida.
All have been identified by Haitian authorities as prominent
players in a sprawling plot to kill the president, with the help of more than
20 former Colombian commandos, and seize political power in the aftermath. It
is unclear how the people under investigation could have accomplished that, or
what powerful backers they may have had to make it possible.
But interviews with more than a dozen people involved with
the men show that the suspects had been working together for months, portraying
themselves in grandiose and often exaggerated terms as well-financed,
well-connected power brokers ready to lead a new Haiti with influential
US
support behind them.
Haitian officials contend that Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a
doctor and pastor who divided his time between
Florida and
Haiti, conspired
with the others to take the reins of the country once Moïse was killed. During
a raid of Sanon’s residence, they say, the police found six holsters, about 20
boxes of bullets and a DEA cap — suggesting that it linked him to the killing
because the team of hit men who struck Moïse’s home posed as agents of the Drug
Enforcement Administration. Sanon is now in custody.
Haitian officials are investigating whether the president’s
own protection force took part in the plot as well, and on Thursday they
detained the head of palace security for Moïse. Colombian officials say the
palace security chief made frequent stopovers in Colombia on his way to other
countries in the months before the assassination.
Haitian authorities offered little explanation as to how
Sanon — who did not hold elected office — planned to take over once the
president was killed. It was also difficult to understand how he might have
financed a team of Colombian mercenaries, some of whom received US military
training when they were members of their nation’s armed forces, to carry out
such an ambitious assault, given that he filed in Florida for Chapter 7
bankruptcy protection in 2013.
But interviews show that several of the key suspects met to
discuss Haiti’s future government once Moïse was no longer in power — with
Sanon becoming the country’s new prime minister.
“The idea was to prepare for that eventuality,” said Parnell
Duverger, a retired adjunct economics professor at Broward College in Florida,
who attended about 10 meetings, on Zoom and in person with Sanon and other
experts to discuss Haiti’s future government.
“At the time of the meetings he was, we all believed, going
to become a prime minister,” said Duverger, adding that Sanon presented himself
as having the support of Democratic and Republican politicians in the United
States, Haiti’s most powerful international backer.
At no time did anyone discuss, much less plan, a coup or an
assassination, Duverger stressed. “I would have stopped attending if anyone
mentioned a coup, let alone murder.”
To the contrary, he added, the expectation at the meetings
was that Moïse — who had faced months of blistering street protests demanding
his removal — would eventually have no choice but to step down. Duverger, 70,
described the meetings as Cabinet-style sessions intended to help Sanon form a
potential transition government once that happened.
Duverger said he believed that Sanon was innocent. But as
for his claims to be a prime minister in waiting, he added: “I keep asking
myself, there must be something wrong with me for being so naive. I believed
him. I believed that, because I believed a new transitional government was
needed in Haiti.”
Among the participants in the meetings, Duverger said, were
at least two other key suspects who have since been identified by Haitian
officials as central figures in the plot. One was Antonio Intriago, who owns
the private security and equipment company that hired the former Colombian
commandos and brought them to Haiti.
The other was Walter Veintemilla, who leads a small
financial services company in Miramar, Florida, called Worldwide Capital
Lending Group. On Wednesday, Haitian authorities accused him of helping to
finance the assassination plot.
Neither Intriago nor Veintemilla, both based in Florida,
responded to repeated requests for comment through their businesses and
relatives. Their whereabouts, and whether the Haitians have sought to charge
them with any crimes, is unknown. But Haitian and Colombian officials say that
in late May, after some of the former Colombian soldiers hired by Intriago
arrived in Haiti, he and Veintemilla met in the neighboring Dominican Republic
with Sanon.
On Wednesday, Haitian and Colombian officials said that a
photograph showed the three men at the meeting with another central suspect in
the investigation: James Solages, a Haitian American resident of South Florida
who was detained by Haitian authorities shortly after the assassination.
It is unclear whether any of the discussions crossed into a
nefarious plot that led to the death of Moïse. Haitian police have provided
little concrete evidence, and American and Colombian officials familiar with
the investigation said their officers in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, had
been unable to interview most of the detained suspects as of Wednesday morning,
forcing them to rely on the accounts of Haitian authorities.
Another participant in one of the meetings with Sanon also
said there was never any hint of a plot to kill the president.
“Never!!! never!!! Never!!!” the attendee, Frantz Gilot, a
consultant for the United Nations, said in a text message, adding that about 20
people had been present. “Sanon introduced himself as a potential candidate,”
he said, “and talked about his dream and vision for Haiti.”
More than a dozen interviews with relatives of the Colombian
commandos — as well as an audio recording of how the soldiers’ mission in Haiti
was presented to them — show that several of the main suspects vastly
exaggerated their experience and financial capabilities, and deeply misled at
least some of the Colombian soldiers they hired.
In April, Intriago’s firm, CTU Security, contacted a retired
Colombian army sergeant, Duberney Capador, and asked him to put together a
group of ex-commandos to “protect important people in Haiti,” according to
Capador’s sister, Yenny Carolina Capador.
“We are going to help in the recovery of the country, in
terms of its security and democracy,” Capador wrote in one recruitment pitch he
later sent to other former soldiers on WhatsApp. “We are going to be pioneers.”
After the assassination, 18 of the Colombian soldiers were
detained by Haitian authorities and accused of participating in the killing.
Another three Colombians, including the recruiter, Capador, were killed in the
hours after the president’s death.
On Thursday, Colombian police said Capador and a retired
Colombian captain, German Alejandro Rivera, had conspired with the Haitian
suspects as early as May to arrest Haiti’s president, providing the first
indication of at least some of the veterans’ complicity in the plot.
It remained unclear how the plot turned into murder, but
Colombian authorities said seven Colombian commandos had entered the
presidential residence on the night of the attack, while the rest guarded the
area.
“What happened there?” said the wife of one of the detained
former soldiers, speaking on condition of anonymity out of concern for her
safety. “How does this end?”
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