In the murder of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, a previous link between an alleged bomber and a US law enforcement agency comes to light. “One of the suspects in the president’s assassination was an informant for the US drug control agency DEA,” a DEA official wrote in an email on Monday. After the fact, he turned to the DEA. The authority asked him to surrender. The alleged perpetrator was not an active informant at the time of the attack. “These people were not acting on behalf of the DEA.”
Haitian authorities arrested two Americans of Haitian origin and 26 Colombians in connection with the murder last week. The Americans are 55-year-old Joseph Vincent and 35-year-old James Solages. Florida State records show that Solages has licenses for security and firearms. Both suspects said they worked as translators on behalf of the Colombian unit that wanted to arrest Moïse. The task force had already found the president dead.
A third Haitian American, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, was arrested on Sunday as a suspected mastermind of the murder. The motive is still unclear. Moïse had been in office since 2017 and ruled by decree for more than a year because an election failed to host. The opposition accused the 53-year-old of corruption and mass protests broke out. Moïse has always denied the allegations and insisted on a constitutional reform, with which he said he wanted to ensure more stability. His opponents saw it as an attempt to establish a dictatorship. According to the Haitian authorities, Moïse was killed by foreign professional killers. Two men then declared themselves interim heads of government.