Police officials have arrested seventeen suspects in connection with the assassination of Haiti’s President so far. Two of them are said to hold dual U.S-Haitian citizenship and six may be former members of Columbia’s army.
The chief of Haiti’s National Police, Leon Charles has said that 15 of the suspects hail from Columbia. He also added that an additional eight suspects have been caught and three have been killed by the police.
Pointing to the 17 handcuffed suspects during a news conference the Police Chief said justice will be served for the brutal assassination of President Jovenel Moise. Since the suspects were said to hail from Columbia, the head of the Columbian police, Gen Jorge Luis Vargas Valencia said that their army and police will fully cooperate in the investigation.
According to President Ivan Duque, an extensive team has been built with some of the best investigators who will be responsible for sending “date, flight times, and financial information.” The U.S State department was reportedly aware of reports that Haitian Americans were in custody, but did not confirm the news.
The identities of the Haitian Americans have been revealed: James Solages and Joseph Vincent respectively. Solages, 35 is the youngest out of all the suspects detained and the oldest is known to be 55, according to a document published by Haiti’s election minister, Mathias Pierre.
Similarly, Taiwan’s foreign ministry declared that a total of 11 armed suspects were arrested when they tried to cross the Taiwanese embassy on Thursday. No other details about the suspect’s identities or the reason for this break-in were revealed.
The investigation to conclude whether these suspects were part of the assassination of the Haiti President is still ongoing, as reported by Foreign Affairs representative Joanne Ou. There was no substantial damage reported in the incident. However, a few of the embassy’s doors and windows were broken.
As far as the assassination of the Haitian President is concerned, officials have only said that the attack was conducted by a “highly trained and heavily armed group.” A judge in Haiti however said that Mouse was not only shot 12 times but his room and bedroom were also robbed. After Moise, Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph has taken the leadership of Haiti and asked people to reopen public places and the international airport as well.
