A Colombian has been indicted in the United States, accused of having been part of the commando that assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, last July.
Six months after the murder of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse at his residence in Port-au-Prince, which exacerbated the country’s political crisis, a Colombian was indicted in the United States for his role in the assassination.
Mario Palacios, 43, is accused of being part of the group of about twenty men who, on July 7, 2021, killed Jovenel Moïse and seriously injured his wife in their private residence, located on the heights of the Haitian capital. .
Although around 40 people, including around 20 Colombian nationals, have been detained in Port-au-Prince prison since this summer, the investigation into the attack against the head of state shows no sign of progress, the identities of the sponsors remaining unknown.
To read :The story of a night of hell in the residence of the assassinated Haitian president
A suspected member of the commando group that murdered Jovenel Moïse, Mario Palacios was arrested Monday in Panama during a stopover on a flight from Jamaica.
After collaborating with US investigators, Mario Palacios, arrested in October in Jamaica, was being deported to Colombia when he was intercepted on Monday.
The man, who faces life imprisonment, was to be brought before a judge on Tuesday.
Double nationality
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, reacting to this indictment, said he wanted “justice to triumph for the villainous assassination of Jovenel Moïse, not only for the former President but also for his family as well as our nation”, in a message transmitted by his office to AFP.
Under an Interpol red notice for “murder and complicity in murder”, Mario Palacios was recruited in June 2021 to arrest and kidnap the Haitian president, according to the US federal police.
The plan would then have changed and the group, under the leadership of a man identified as “co-conspirator number 1”, would have been tasked with killing Jovenel Moïse.
This man, with dual Haitian and American nationality, is in detention in Haiti.
Mario Palacios “accepted voluntary extradition” to the United States and boarded a flight to Miami on Monday evening, according to the head of the Panamanian migration services, Samira Gozaine.
For lack of sufficient evidence provided by the authorities in Port-au-Prince, the Jamaican justice had previously rejected the extradition request issued by Haiti.
Prime Minister denounces assassination attempt against him
The Caribbean country, faced with great poverty, remains undermined by the growing power of armed gangs, which are interfering in the political crisis.
On Saturday, the official national day ceremonies came to an end after clashes between police and armed groups in the city of Gonaïves, 150 kilometers from Port-au-Prince.
Ariel Henry, appointed by Jovenel Moïse two days before his murder and who is in charge of current affairs, denounced an assassination attempt against him, claiming to feel “in the crosshairs of people” in an interview with the AFP Monday.
Under bursts of gunfire, the Prime Minister and officials present were forced to flee the city where Haiti’s declaration of independence was signed on January 1, 1804.
The murder of Jovenel Moïse, which shocked the country, raised a number of questions that still remain unanswered.
That an armed commando was able to penetrate into the room of the presidential couple, without any police officer of his close guard being injured, astonishes the population who live daily under the threat of villainous kidnappings committed by gangs.
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