Florida Jury Convicts Four People Of Conspiracy Over The Assassination Of Haitian President Moïse

A Florida jury convicted four men of conspiracy in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, whose killing in 2021 plunged the country into turmoil.

Concretely, Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla and James Solages were found guilty of conspiring to kill or kidnap Moïse and providing material support for the plot. They were also convicted of violating the U.S. Neutrality Act. They could be sentenced to life in prison.

For nearly five years, the identities of those responsible remained a mystery. According to reporting at the time from The Haitian Times, the gunmen were seen wearing ski masks and were heard speaking Spanish and English.

A detail that matched what authorities later uncovered in the investigation, as prosecutors said the men plotted the assassination in South Florida and hired a squad of former Colombian soldiers to carry out the attack.

The Associated Press detailed that the plot to oust Moïse and replacing was conceived and planned in south Florida. The men had the replacement in mind and sought to benefit financially from the outcome.

Moïse was killed in July 2021 after about two dozen mercenaries, most of whom were Colombian, attacked his home near the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

The trial also revealed that political rivals of Moïse sought support from local gangs in the days leading up to the assassination but failed to secure it.

According to documents filed in an unrelated federal weapons-smuggling case and reported by The Miami Herald, a former senator who later admitted to conspiring to kill Moïse was among those present in a meeting between politicians and criminal organization. A gang leader who attended the meeting later became one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives.

U.S. prosecutors gathered more than 8,000 gigabytes of evidence, interviewed more than 40 witnesses and obtained crime scene photos from the Haiti National Police. According to the outlet, the evidence included a 900-page summary of text messages and voice notes showing how the plot evolved, from plans to use gangs, to poisoning Moïse, to detaining him at the airport after he returned from an overseas trip.

As noted by the outlet, a retired Colombian Army captain who led one of the commando units testified that the squad entered Moïse’s home at the direction of Solages, who had told members of the inner circle behind the plot that the goal of the operation was to kill everyone inside the house.

Defense attorneys, in turn, criticized the investigation and said their clients had been manipulated to take the blame for an internal coup. The four, attorneys said, believed they had a legitimate warrant signed by a local judge and were liberating Haiti from Moïse, who had overstayed his term as president.