The United States sent a small number of additional security personnel to protect its embassy in Haiti soon after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, US officials told news agency Reuters. The officials also told Reuters that it was not immediately clear whether the personnel have left Haiti.
Haitian authorities have said that a hit squad of 28 men, including 26 Colombians and two US citizens, killed Jovenel Moise in his home last week. His wife was also injured in the attack.
On Monday, the US said it was helping investigate Jovenel Moise’s assassination and did not rule out sending troops at Haiti’s request. “At the request of the Haitian government, the Department of Justice, along with its US government partners, is assisting the Haitian National Police in the investigation,” the department said in a statement. “An initial assessment has been conducted in Haiti by senior US officials. The department will continue to support the Haitian government in its review of the facts and circumstances surrounding this heinous attack,” the department said adding that it would also investigate if any US laws had been broken.
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Two Haitian-American men, Joseph Vincent, 55, and James Solages, 35, were arrested last week by Haitian authorities and charged with joining 26 Colombians in the fatal attack on Jovenel Moise.
One of the Haitian-American men arrested on suspicion of taking part in the assassination of Haiti’s president last week had been an informant to the US Drug Enforcement Administration, a DEA official told Reuters on condition of anonymity on Monday. The official, however, declined to say which of the two men had been an informant. “One of the suspects in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise was a confidential source to the DEA. These individuals were not acting on behalf of DEA,” the DEA official said in an email.
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The official also said that the suspect had reached out to the DEA after the assassination and that it urged him to surrender. Reuters cited a law enforcement official familiar with the matter saying that the suspect was not an active informant at the time of the assassination.
Christian Emmanuel Sanon, another Haitian American, was arrested on Sunday by Haitian authorities, who accused him of being a mastermind of the attack. US law enforcement and intelligence agencies are probing why the Haitian-American men may have taken part in the assassination.
