US charges four people in connection with assassination of Haiti's president

The decision to indict the men, considered to be the leaders of the assassination plot, in the United States is an indication of the chronic dysfunction of Haitian justice .

WASHINGTON - Three Haitian-Americans and a Colombian national have been charged in the United States with involvement in the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse d 'Haiti, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.

Federal charges announced - more than 18 months after Mr. Moïse's murder - described a vast plot to assassinate the Haitian leader and seize power, supported by an anonymous former justice of the Haitian Supreme Court, Colombian mercenaries and an illegal arms shipment from the United States.

The decision to charge the four men, who are considered to be one of the men of the assassination plot in the United States is an indication of the chronic dysfunction of the Haitian justice system. Government institutions have disintegrated after the assassination of Mr. Moïse, and conditions in the country have worsened in recent months.

Three of the four men have been charged of conspiracy in the murder of Mr. Moïse: James Solages and Joseph Vincent, who have dual Haitian American citizenship, and Germán Alejandro Rivera García, a Colombian accused of leading a group of mercenaries operating in Haiti.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Dr. Christian Emmanuel Sanon, another U.S. citizen of Haitian descent, has been charged with smuggling-related charges.

Three other men had already been charged in the United States in connection with the assassination plot. Whether other powerful political and business figures in Haiti - including some senior officials in the current government - conspired in the plot remains a central issue in the case.

The four new defendants The men are due to appear in Miami court for the first time on Wednesday afternoon, after being transferred to the United States on Tuesday. They were arrested in Haiti shortly after Mr. Moïse's assassination and had been detained there ever since.

Haitian authorities said at the time of Dr. Sanon's arrest that they believed he wanted to take power for himself as president. But he was not charged with conspiracy to commit murder, unlike the other three men.

Mr. Solages and Dr. Sanon had met in April 2021, the Justice Department said, “to discuss regime change in Haiti and support for Sanon, an aspiring Haitian political candidate.”

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"> After this meeting, the department added, the two men received a list of equipment necessary for the "regime change operation", including rifles, machine guns, gases tear gas, grenades, ammunition and body armor.

The Department of Justice said Dr Sanon then conspired with others in June 2021 to ship body armor from South Florida to Haiti for use by a group of 20 Colombian mercenaries, led by Mr. García, “who were recruited to assist in the operation and provide security for Sanon.” who covered up a plot to arrest and imprison Mr. Moïse, signing a document that “claimed to prove ide imm unit in Haiti to those who took part in the operation.