Tuesday 13 July 2021
Before the murder of the President of Haiti
Bogota: Suspicious trips by security chief
A group of 28 assassins are said to be involved in the murder of Haiti’s President Moïse – including 21 Colombians. It is now known that Moïse’s head of security is said to have visited Colombia a few times. The authorities in Bogota now want to clarify the exact background.
The security chief of the murdered Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, Dimitri Herard, was apparently several times in Colombia before his death, from where some of the attackers are said to have come. “We know that he was not just passing through, but spent a few days in Colombia,” said Colombian police chief Jorge Luis Vargas. Bogota has opened an investigation.
The Colombian authorities would work with Interpol to find out more about Herard’s travels. Between January and May of this year, he had also visited Ecuador, Panama and the Dominican Republic via Colombia.
Moïse was shot dead in his home in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday night. According to the Haitian authorities, a group of 28 assassins are believed to be responsible for the murder. On Sunday, the authorities reported the arrest of an alleged mastermind of the attack. The 63-year-old Christian Emmanuel Sanon is said to have hired the perpetrators for “political motives”.
21 Colombians involved in assassination attempt
Colombian police chief Vargas said 21 Colombians were involved in the attack. 18 of them were caught and three were killed by Haitian security authorities. Most of them are former soldiers. Bogotá and Port-au-Prince cooperated in the investigation. Intelligence investigations had revealed that 19 of the 21 flight tickets with which the Colombians came to Haiti had been bought by the security company CTU Security in Miami, Florida.
US President Joe Biden called on Haitian leaders and people to “come together” in the face of the crisis. “The US is ready to continue to provide aid,” said Biden, without giving any details. Haiti’s request for US troops to be deployed is being “investigated”.
.