What's been going down in Haiti is truly a wild story. We don't really know much yet but what is clear is that last week, gunmen shot and killed the country's president, Jovenel Moïse, in the middle of the night.
Most of what we know comes from official sources who haven't, in many cases, offered corroboration on what they're telling reporters. With that said, it looks like a team of 26 Colombian mercenaries along with two Haitian Americans comprised the kill team that somehow accessed the presidential compound and killed the president.
The Colombians are former special ops soldiers who've spent long years fighting the FARC. The families of the Colombian mercenaries told reporters that the men were recruited to provide security for the president, not to go on any assassination mission. In this Reuters piece, a Colombian mercenary who dropped out at the last minute because of a positive covid-19 test recounted that the men were told they'd score $2,700 a month to help protect Moise and showed the reporter WhatsApp chats for corroboration.
Who hired them? The Miami Herald reported that the Colombians, now under arrest in Haiti, said they had been hired by a Miami-based company, CTU Security. The company looks to be run by a Venezuelan emigre, Antonio Enmanuel Intriago Valera. Colombian officials have said they are putting their focus on a retired Colombian army captain, Germán Alejandro Rivera, who they say appears to have been a primary contact for CTU Security.
But the trail doesn't end there. Haitian police say that a Haitian who has long lived in the U.S., Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 63, is one of the masterminds of the assassination. Sanon is a doctor and pastor who resides in both Florida and Haiti. The Miami Herald also reported that in 2013 he had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. He's now in custody in Haiti.
According to press reports, A source close to the investigation said two Haitian Americans, James Solages and Joseph Vincent, told investigators they were translators for the Colombian mercenaries, and that they had an arrest warrant for the president. But when they arrived, they said they found the president already dead.
No one seems to know much about Sanon in the Haitian emigre community in Miami.
Georges Sami Saati, 68, a Haitian American businessman who is a prominent figure among Haitian émigrés in Miami, said he had never heard of him.
In interviews, the Colombians said they had been told by recruiters — in person and through WhatsApp messages later shared with The Times — that they were going to fight gangs, improve security, protect dignitaries and democracy and help rebuild the country.
Colombia’s defense minister said in a news conference that the head of Moïse’s presidential palace guard, Dimitri Hérard, made several flights to Bogotá in the months before the assassination.