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A Haitian doctor with ties to Florida has been arrested and accused of being ‘one of the leaders’ behind the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
Christian Emmanuel Sanon, who was arrested in Haiti, allegedly recruited the Miami-based security firm that then recruited a group of Colombian assassins who carried out the hit, sources familiar with the investigation told the Miami Herald.
President Moïse was shot dead early on Wednesday at his Port-au-Prince home by what Haitian authorities described as a unit of assassins made up of 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans.
Haiti National Police Chief Leon Charles alluded to Sanon during a Saturday interview with the Herald, although he didn’t name him specifically.
Charles told the Herald that the suspects, including two Haitian Americans, confirmed that they worked for a company ‘based in the U.S. and Colombia…. [which] worked with the two Haitian Americans and a high-profile doctor here.’
The Herald reported that the company Charles referenced is Miami-based CTU Security, which is registered in Florida as the Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy LLC.
‘I would say that the Haitian [doctor] recruited CTU and CTU recruited the Colombians. That’s the pattern,’ Charles told the Miami Herald.
Jovenal Moïse, the president of Haiti, was murdered in the early hours of Wednesday at his home in the capital city, Port-au-Prince
Suspects in the assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse are shown to the media in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Thursday
Weaponry, mobile phones, passports and other items are being shown to the media along with suspects in the assassination
Sanon is the third person with US ties to be arrested in connection with last week’s assassination. James Solages, 35, and Joseph G. Vincent, 55, both from South Florida, have been in custody since they turned themselves in.
The middle-of-the-night murder plunged the troubled Caribbean nation into chaos, with at least three men now claiming to be its leader.
In an effort to quell tensions, President Joe Biden acknowledged the county’s interim government’s request for help and sent a delegation of US officials to Haiti on Sunday to help with security and aid in the investigation.
They will report back to Biden on their findings as US debates its response.
The group of Colombians and Haitian Americans suspected of carrying out the assassination have reportedly told investigators they were there to arrest Moïse, not kill him.
‘They probably were watching and waiting for the opportunity for them to do it,’ said Investigative Judge Clément Noël, who was among the first to question the two Haitian-Americans among the 19 suspects detained so far.
Citing people who had spoken to some of the 19 suspects detained so far, the Miami Herald said they said their mission was to arrest Moïse and take him to the presidential palace.
President Joe Biden sent sent a delegation of US officials to Haiti on Sunday to help with security and aid in the investigation. They will report back to Biden on their findings as US debates its response
Haitian-born American citizens James Solages, 35, (above) and Joseph Vincent, 55, are said to have confessed to being involved in Wednesday’s early morning raid at the president’s mansion near Port-au-Prince
A source close to the investigation said the two Haitian Americans, Solages and Vincent, told investigators they were translators for the Colombian commando unit that had an arrest warrant.
But when they arrived, they found him dead.
Meanwhile, Haiti’s First Lady Martine Moïse is being treated for injuries in a Florida hospital, where she issued the recorded statement in Creole early Wednesday.
‘I’m alive, thanks to God,’ she said in the recording, which also played on local radio stations. ‘But I love my husband Jovenel. We fought together for more than 25 years.
‘During all these years, love radiated within the home. But suddenly, the mercenaries came and pelted my husband with bullets.’
Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and First Lady Martine are pictured together in 2017. Moïse was riddled with 12 bullet holes and had his eye gouged out during Wednesday’s brutal attack, which killed him and seriously injured his wife
Footage circulating online purportedly taken by a neighbour of the president shows men with rifles arriving outside the property
Turning to the assassins who murdered her husband, the former first lady said: ‘You have to be a notorious criminal without guts to assassinate a president like Jovenel Moïse with impunity without giving him the chance to speak. You knew who the president was fighting against.
‘These people hired mercenaries to kill the president and his family because of the projects of roads, electricity, drinking water supply, organization of the referendum and elections.
‘The mercenaries who assassinated the president are currently behind bars, but other mercenaries currently want to kill his dream, his vision, his ideology.’
