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Post by Admin on Jul 12, 2021 14:39:12 GMT
One of Haiti's most powerful gang leaders said his men would take to the streets to protest the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, threatening to pitch the impoverished Caribbean country deeper into chaos.
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Post by Admin on Jul 12, 2021 18:50:18 GMT
US declines request for troops, sends technical team to Haiti l GMA
In the wake of the assassination of the Haitian president, the Biden administration sent over a team of FBI and Homeland Security officials.
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Post by Admin on Jul 12, 2021 22:33:52 GMT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -One of the Haitian American men arrested on suspicion of taking part in the assassination of Haiti's president last week had a prior relationship with a U.S. law enforcement agency, a U.S. government source said on Monday. Haitian authorities last week arrested two Haitian American men, Joseph Vincent, 55, and James Solages, 35, and charged them with joining 26 Colombians in the fatal attack on Haitian President Jovenel Moise. The source did not specify which of the two men had a relationship with a U.S. law enforcement agency or the nature of the relationship. A third Haitian American, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, was arrested on Sunday by Haitian authorities, who accused him of being a mastermind of the attack. U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies are probing why the Haitian American men may have taken part in the assassination. A source close to the investigation said Solages and Vincent told investigators they were translators for the Colombian commando unit that had an arrest warrant, but that when they arrived, they found Moise dead. Solages described himself online as a "certified diplomatic agent" and the former "chief commander of bodyguards" for the Canadian embassy in Haiti. Those statements were made on the website of a charity he ran, which was modified on Thursday to remove them. Reuters reviewed an archived version that remains accessible. The Miami Herald quoted an unnamed government official as saying that a decade ago, Solages briefly worked for a company that provided security for the Canadian embassy in Haiti. "We are aware of allegations implicating an individual who was briefly employed as a reserve bodyguard by a security company hired by Global Affairs Canada in 2010," the newspaper quoted the official as saying.
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Post by Admin on Jul 14, 2021 5:18:37 GMT
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A former Haitian senator, a fired government official and an informant for the U.S. government are the latest suspects identified as part of a sweeping investigation into the killing of President Jovenel Moïse.
The men are among five fugitives whom police say are armed and dangerous as they continued Wednesday to track down those suspected in the July 7 pre-dawn attack at Moïse’s private home in which the president was shot to death and his wife, Martine, wounded.
One of the suspects was identified as former Sen. John Joël Joseph, a well-known Haitian politician and opponent to the Tet Kale party that Moïse belonged to. In a video posted last year on YouTube, Joseph compared Moïse to the coronavirus, saying Haitians have died from hunger or been killed amid a spike in violence under his administration.
“Insecurity has infected every single Haitian,” he said.
Police identified the second suspect as Joseph Felix Badio. He previously worked for Haiti’s Ministry of Justice and joined the government’s anti-corruption unit in March 2013. The agency issued a statement saying Badio was fired in May following “serious breaches” of unspecified ethical rules, adding that it filed a complaint against him.
“This villainous act is an affront to our democracy,” the unit said in a statement Tuesday. “The authors, co-authors, accomplices must be hunted down, investigated and punished with the utmost rigor.”
The third suspect was identified as Rodolphe Jaar. He was born in Haiti, speaks English and has a college degree in business administration, according to court records. He is not a U.S. citizen.
Jaar uses the alias “Whiskey” and in 2013 was indicted in federal court in South Florida on charges of conspiring to smuggle cocaine from Colombia and Venezuela through Haiti to the U.S. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nearly four years in prison, according to court records.
At his 2015 sentencing hearing, Jaar’s attorney told the court that Jaar had been a confidential source for the U.S. government for several years before his indictment. He also agreed to cooperate with federal authorities and asked for a lighter sentence, saying he had a wife, 1-year-old and elderly parents.
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Post by Admin on Aug 22, 2021 5:09:15 GMT
The commander in charge of guarding the Haitian president’s home quickly became a suspect in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse last month when his security team inexplicably melted away, enabling hit men to enter the residence with little resistance and kill the president in his own bedroom. But current and former officials say that the commander, Dimitri Hérard, was already a suspect in a separate case that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has pursued for years: the disappearance of hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds of cocaine and heroin that were whisked away by corrupt officials only hours before law enforcement agents showed up to seize them. Now some international officials assisting with the investigation into the president’s assassination say they are examining whether those criminal networks help explain the killing. Haitian officials, including the country’s prime minister, have acknowledged that the official explanation presented in the days after the assassination — that Moïse was gunned down in an elaborate plot to seize political office — does not entirely add up and that the true motive behind the murder has not been uncovered. Haiti is a major transit point for drugs heading to the United States, and U.S. and U.N. officials say the trade flourishes through an array of politicians, businesspeople and members of law enforcement who abuse their power. Now current and former officials say that Hérard has long been a focal point of the investigation into one of the biggest drug-trafficking cases the DEA has ever pursued in Haiti. “The corruption goes up to the top levels,” said Keith McNichols, a former DEA agent who was stationed in Haiti and led the agency’s investigation into the missing drug shipment. “Justice is elusive.” The sprawling drug case not only involves Hérard but also judges and the brother-in-law of a former Haitian president. Officials say the staggering quantity of drugs spirited away by officials illustrates the extent to which Haiti has become a narco-state — with Haitian politicians, members of the judiciary and even U.S. DEA officials enabling corruption for years.
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