A Haitian doctor who lives in Florida was arrested and accused by the Haitian police last Sunday evening (11) of having planned the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse to take charge of the country.
Charles Emmanuel Sanon, 63, arrived in Haiti in June with a group of Colombians guarding him, according to government information. “This is an individual who entered Haiti aboard a private plane for political purposes,” said Léon Charles, director of the national police.
Police arrived in Sanon after questioning the 18 Colombians arrested on Wednesday, who pointed out that they had been hired by the doctor through a Venezuelan security company called CTU, based in Florida.
“The first person that one of the criminals called was Charles Emmanuel Sanon. He got in touch with two other people, whom we consider to be the brains of the assassination of the president”, specified the prefect of police, without specifying the identity of the other suspects.
From there, according to information from the New York Times, police attacked Sanon and found an American Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) cap, ammunition, two cars, six pistols, 24 targets in his house. unused shots and four license plates from the Dominican Republic, a neighboring country through which some of the Colombians arrested in the operation entered.
Haitian officials said the bandits entered the Haitian president’s house after identifying themselves as DEA agents, but the agency’s involvement has been denied by the government.
Subsequently, two Haitians with dual American nationality were arrested, along with a group of 15 Colombians. The Haitian-Americans arrested have been identified as James J. Solages, 35, and Joseph Vincent, 55. According to the New York Times, they say they were hired as translators by Colombians.
Amid investigations into the president’s assassination, the United States sent a technical team to Haiti on Sunday to determine the security and support needs of the Caribbean country.
Men from the FBI, State Department, Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security arrived in the country, who met in separate meetings with representatives of the Haitian National Police and the Prime Minister, Claude Joseph, among other political actors.
US President Joe Biden will analyze the information obtained during the visit to decide how to help Haiti, which is going through a serious crisis caused by the death of Moise.
It is not known how long the American team will stay in Haiti. A government official interviewed by Reuters on condition of anonymity said the White House, to assess the situation, would consult with regional partners and the UN (United Nations).
Haitian officials on Friday called on the United States and the UN to send troops to help stabilize the country. The deployment of United Nations peacekeepers depends on the approval of the Security Council and recalls the presence of international troops in Haiti between 2004 and 2017, in a mission which had the main role of Brazil. The occupation force gave the country a semblance of normalcy during the period, but since the departure of the UN, Haiti has resumed its cycle of political and institutional instability.
Biden faces a difficult choice: Sending military personnel would be a setback in the Democrats’ proposal to reduce US military activity abroad, as evidenced by the accelerated withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, where the intervention s ‘announced brief and ultimately lasted two decades.
On the other hand, the omission of a Democrat could generate a new crisis of mass migration to the United States – Haiti, located in the Caribbean, is 1,100 km from Florida. On Saturday (10), dozens of Haitians went to the American embassy in the capital, Port-au-Prince, to seek asylum.
According to an article in the American newspaper The New York Times, authorities in the Biden government were initially unwilling to send troops to help the Caribbean country, and so Americans were more likely to help train the army and Haitian police without getting involved in combat.
In 1915, the United States sent a military mission to Haiti, also after the assassination of a president, and ended up occupying the country for 19 years. In 2010, after the earthquake, the Obama administration sent $ 100 million in aid. About 1 million Haitians live in the United States today.
The Biden administration has previously announced that it will send FBI and Department of Homeland Security agents to assess how the U.S. government can assist with investigations into Moise’s death. It is not yet clear who ordered the crime or the cause.
Haitian authorities say 28 gunmen have taken part in the action and have arrested 19 suspects so far, including Colombians and Haitian-Americans who were part of a paramilitary group. According to the Miami Herald, some of the suspects testified that they were commissioned to arrest Moses and take him to the presidential palace, but when they arrived they found him dead.
According to local media, Moise was found with at least 12 gunshot marks. “The office and living room were ransacked. We found him lying on his back, [usando] blue pants, a white shirt stained with blood and an open mouth, ”Magistrate Carl Henry Destin told the Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste.
This Saturday (10), Jimmy Cherizier, leader of one of Haiti’s most powerful gangs, said his men could take to the streets to demand answers on the murder, which would increase instability in the country. For him, Moise was killed by a collusion involving the bourgeoisie, the police and foreigners.