(Miami) Three Haitian-Americans and a Colombian were extradited to the United States on Tuesday for their role in the July 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise, US authorities said.
The four men being held in Haiti will appear Wednesday before a federal judge in Miami who will determine the charges against them, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.
Before them, three men had already been flown to the United States to answer for this assassination.
Jovenel Moise, 53, was shot dead by armed commandos on the night of 6-7 July 2021 at his private residence in Port-au-Prince, without the intervention of his bodyguards. His death further exacerbated the chaos in this small, impoverished country in the Caribbean.
Soon, the Haitian police arrested about forty suspects, including about twenty former Colombian soldiers, who according to them were recruited by a Florida-based security company, Anti-Terrorism Unit. Then the investigation found shortcomings in the local judicial system.
American justice, competent to judge the conspiracies hatched on its soil, took over.
After the first three suspects, two Haitian-Americans James Soulages, 37, and Joseph Vincent, 57, as well as German-Colombian Rivera, 44, were charged with “conspiracy to commit murder or kidnap outside US territory.”
In a separate indictment, Christian Sanon, a 54-year-old man who also has dual US and Haitian citizenship and has “political ambitions” in Haiti, was sued for “illegal export of goods from the United States.” United State ” .
Concretely, US justice accuses James Soulages and Christian Sanon of discussing, during a meeting in Florida in April 2021, regime change in Haiti. At the end of the meeting, a list of weapons, including rifles, machine guns, grenades, etc., was exchanged.
A month later, Christian Sanon ordered equipment for the “private militia”, a force of about twenty Colombians commanded by German Rivera and supposed to ensure his security in Haiti.
In June, he sent about two dozen body armor to Haiti without complying with US customs procedures – for which he is now accused.
According to the press release, James Solage, Joseph Vincent and Germain Rivera met on July 6, 2021 near the President’s house to distribute weapons, and the former had declared that the purpose of the mission was to kill Jovenel Moise.
The three men face life in prison, and Christian Sanon, 20 years in prison.
