Who assassinated Jovenel Moïse? 4 Florida men ‘charged and in US custody’ over plot to kill Haitian president
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI: Federal authorities in Miami-Dade reported that four more persons had been detained in Florida in relation to the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. According to a press statement, the four individuals detained on Tuesday, February 14, include US citizens Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla, and Frederick Bergmann as well as Miami resident Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, who is from Colombia.
According to federal investigators, Intriago, Ortiz, and Veintemilla were accused of aiding a plot to abduct or assassinate the president of Haiti. As per Markenzy Lapointe, US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Bergmann has been charged with conspiracy to conduct export offenses for planning to carry 20 ballistic vests from South Florida to Haiti for ex-soldiers allegedly tasked with murdering Moise. A total of 11 alleged conspirators have “been charged and are in US custody,” while a dozen remain associated under the suspicion of involvement, as reported by CNN.
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How was Jovenel Moïse killed?
Moïse, 53, was murdered inside his home at 1.00 am local time on July 7, 2021, in the Pelerin 5 neighborhood in the hills above Port-au-Prince. The president was shot twelve times and sustained injuries to his forehead and body. According to one of the judges conducting the investigation, the man's left eye had been gouged out and his arm and ankle bones had been fractured. He was discovered laying on the ground on his back, covered in blood, and he died at the scene. Even though Martine Moïse, the First Lady, was shot as well, she eventually survived, BBC reported.
Conspirators in Jovenel Moïse murder plot
Antonio Intriago, a Venezuelan American, and Arcángel Pretel Ortiz, a Colombian who resides in the United States, were detained and indicted by a federal grand jury in South Florida on Tuesday, February 14. Officials claimed Ortiz and Intriago helped the plot to replace Moïse with Christian Emmanual Sanon, who promised their security firm lucrative government contracts, Daily Beast reported. They are the owners of a US security firm and are accused by the prosecution of organizing the plot to assassinate the former leader of Haiti. Pretel was an FBI informant at the time of the murder, but thereafter, the organization cut ties with him, according to records filed in federal court. On the pretense that he had information regarding terrorism, Pretel had set up a meeting between the conspirators and federal officials using his connections with the agency, according to the court documents. Former Drug Enforcement Administration informants made up at least three additional suspects in the case. Twenty Colombians with military experience were enlisted by Pretel and Intriago's company, Florida-based CTU Security, to assist in the invasion of Moïse's home. The men were recruited by CTU, according to Intriago's attorneys.
Walter Veintemilla, a banker located in Florida, and Frederick J Bergmann Jr, a Tampa-based businessman, were the other two persons who were detained and indicted. During the course of the plot, Veintemilla, a Florida financier, is accused of injecting $175,000 into CTU Security. The coup d'etat was allegedly carried out by Bergmann with the help of bulletproof vests smuggled into Haiti. If convicted, he could serve up to 20 years in prison, while the other three could go to prison for life, as per Daily Beast.
Motive behind assassinating Jovenel Moïse
The attack, which was allegedly ordered by a Haitian doctor as part of a scheme to become president, was carried out by a gang of mercenaries, most of whom were Colombians, according to the police. In relation to the case, dozens of people have been detained. But generally speaking, the inquiry has been plodding along, and detailed information on those who carried out the plot and their true motivations are just starting to surface. Having already been ravaged by rising violence and an economic crisis worsened by natural disasters, his death, in his home in Port-au-Prince, plunged the country into further turmoil, BBC reported.