A retired Colombian army officer pleaded guilty on Thursday to helping a mercenary group assassinate former Haitian President Jovenel Moïse at his home in July 2021.
German Rivera, 44, pleaded guilty to three counts that could send him to prison for the rest of his life, according to court documents in a Florida federal court.
The former soldier nicknamed “Colonel Mike,” like other defendants, is being tried under American law because the plan to kill Jovenel Moïse was partly developed in Florida, although it was carried out in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince.
Jovenel Moïse was shot dead in his home near the capital on July 7, 2021 by a commando of more than 20 trained people, mostly Colombians, without any intervention from his guards.
Mr. Rivera is accused of aiding these mercenaries.
The operation was initially aimed at kidnapping Mr. Moïse, but turned into an assassination attempt, court documents show.
In February, American lawyer Markenzy Lapointe said at a press conference that this conspiracy was motivated by money and power.
An American investigation found that two men at the head of a Miami security company, CTU, had planned to seize the ex-president in order to replace him with an American-Haitian, Christian Sanon, who wanted to become the country’s president.
In return for Mr. Moïse’s kidnapping, they were promised lucrative infrastructure projects as well as contracts to supply military equipment and security forces to Mr. Sanon’s incoming government, prosecutors said.
Christian Sanon is also being prosecuted in the USA.
In June, another participant in the conspiracy, Rodolphe Jaar, of Haitian and Chilean nationality, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison for supplying weapons to the assassins.
The death of Jovenel Moïse plunged Haiti further into chaos, while this small Caribbean nation was already a victim of gang violence that currently controls 80% of the capital.
On September 1, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths condemned the gangs’ “extreme brutality” and called for “an end to the carnage.”