Four men accused of plotting and financing the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse were arrested Tuesday morning in Florida, where they reside, US authorities said.
• Also read: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights will visit Haiti
• Also read: Kidnapping of a member of a Cuban medical aid mission in Haiti
• Also read: Haiti: Passengers on a bus from the Dominican Republic kidnapped by gang members
These new arrests bring to 11 the number of suspects detained in this investigation in the United States, whose Haitian component has been shut down.
Three of the suspects arrested Tuesday wanted to “profit” from a power shift in Haiti, Matthew Olsen, the Justice Department’s national security affairs officer, said at a news conference in Miami.
Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, a 50-year-old Colombian, Antonio Intriago, a 59-year-old Venezuelan, and Walter Veintemilla, a 54-year-old Ecuadorian-American, were all owners of private security companies based in South Florida.
They thought they would “get security and construction contracts from those who were supposed to take power after President Moïse was overthrown,” Olsen said.
The fourth, Frederick Bergmann, a 64-year-old American, is suspected of providing material support.
Jovenel Moïse, 53, was shot dead by an armed commando at his private home in Port-au-Prince on the night of July 6-7, 2021. His death had made the chaos in this poor little Caribbean even worse.
Haitian police quickly arrested around forty suspects, including around twenty Colombian mercenaries. The investigation then uncovered the shortcomings of the local justice system.
The American judiciary, competent to judge the conspiracies hatched on its soil, took over.
According to the indictment, in February 2021, Mr. Ortiz and Intriago began talks with Christian Sanon, a Haitian-American “who wanted to be the president of Haiti.” At the end of April, Mr. Veintemilla had joined their efforts. At that time they wanted to start a riot to push President Moïse out the door.
Between April and June, they had recruited ex-Colombian soldiers and, according to the document, began discussing arms purchases.
After realizing that Christian Sanon did not meet the legal criteria and lacked the popularity to become President of Haiti, they struck a new “contract” with a former Supreme Court Justice who also pledged to serve their interests , once in power.
The conspiracy had evolved into an assassination plot, with local “assistance” from five other people arrested and extradited to the United States in the past 12 months.
Two former Colombian soldiers are also being held in the United States.
Nine of the 11 people are charged with “conspiracy to kill someone outside the United States” and face the death penalty. Christian Sanon and Frederick Bergmann are charged with illegally exporting bulletproof vests to Haiti.