A former Colombian soldier was sentenced to life in prison in Miami on Friday for his role in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
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Mario Antonio Palacios, 45, pleaded guilty in December in federal court in Miami after months of denying any involvement in the murder.
Jovenel Moïse was shot dead by an armed commando in his private home in Port-au-Prince on the night of July 6-7, 2021, without his bodyguards intervening. The command consisted mainly of Colombian mercenaries.
According to the indictment, Mr. Palacios entered the president's home with the mercenaries and stole money and jewelry.
The death of Jovenel Moïse further deepened the chaos in Haiti, a poor Caribbean country.
The American judiciary then initiated proceedings against eleven people who were accused of involvement in the assassination attempt, on the grounds that the conspiracy had been hatched in Florida.
Four other people were sentenced to life imprisonment for this murder. The last person before Palacios was Joseph Vincent, a 58-year-old Haitian-American, who was sentenced on February 9th. He also pleaded guilty in December.
The others sentenced to life in prison in the United States are a former Haitian senator, Joseph Joël John, a businessman of Haitian and Chilean nationality, Rodolphe Jaar, and a retired Colombian soldier, German Rivera.