More information regarding the men accused of assassinating Haitian President Jovenel Moise has surfaced.
Two Haitian Americans are among those detained, one of whom assisted American actor and humanitarian Sean Penn in the aftermath of the country's deadly 2010 earthquake.
More than a dozen former soldiers of Colombia's military have also been imprisoned or assassinated by Haitian police.
A raid on Taiwan's embassy, where they were believed to have sought refuge, resulted in the arrest of several of the accused. Another eight individuals, according to National Police Chief Leon Charles, are still on the loose.
The guys were allegedly recruited by four companies and proceeded to Haiti via the Dominican Republic, according to Colombian officials. Because of their expertise in fighting leftist rebels and drug cartels for decades, security corporations and mercenary armies in conflict zones frequently hire Colombian soldiers trained in the United States.
Duberney Capador, the sister of one of the murdered suspects, told the Associated Press that she last spoke to her brother late Wednesday, hours after Moise was killed when the men were holed up in a residence and trying to bargain their way out of shooting.
"He told me not to tell our mother, so she wouldn't worry," Yenny Capador remarked, her eyes welling up with tears.
The perpetrators of the attack are unknown. And concerns remain about how the culprits, posing as US Drug Enforcement Administration officials, were able to break into the president's mansion with no resistance from those tasked with protecting him.
Capador said her brother, who retired as a sergeant from the Colombian army in 2019, was hired by a private security agency with the idea that he would provide protection to powerful Haitians.
Capador said she didn't know much about the organization, but she did send a photo of her brother wearing a uniform with the CTU Security emblem, which is situated in Doral, a Miami suburb popular with Colombian migrants.
CTU offered the men about $2,700 a month, according to the wife of Francisco Uribe, who was among those arrested, according to Colombia's W Radio — a pittance for a dangerous international mission but far more than what most of the men, noncommissioned officers, and professional soldiers, earned from their pensions.
Uribe is being investigated for the 2008 death of an unarmed civilian who was misrepresented as a battle victim, one of the hundreds of extrajudicial executions that rocked Colombia's US-trained army over a decade ago.
The Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy, the Venezuelan American National Council, and Doral Food Corp. were all registered in 2008, and Antonio Intriago is listed as its president. Intriago is also affiliated with several other Florida-registered entities, some of which have since dissolved, including the Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy, the Venezuelan American National Council, and Doral Food Corp.
The CTU website gives two addresses, one of which is a gray warehouse that was sealed Friday with no indication of who the owner is. The other is a small suite in a modern office building a few blocks away, occupied by a different company. According to a receptionist, Intriago comes in every few days to pick up mail and attend meetings.
Intriago, a Venezuelan, did not respond to a request for comment by phone or email.
"We are the ones who are most interested in clarifying what happened, so that my brother's reputation does not remain like it is," Capador added. "He was a modest, industrious individual. Honors and awards were bestowed upon him."
In addition to the Colombians, two Haitian Americans, James Solages and Joseph Vincent were apprehended by authorities.
According to the French-language journal Le Nouvelliste, investigative judge Clement Noel claimed the arrested Americans said the attackers just wanted to arrest Mose, not kill him, and that they were serving as translators for the attackers.
On a now-defunct website for a charity, he founded in South Florida to help inhabitants of his Haitian homeland of Jacmel, Solages, 35, presented himself as a "certified diplomatic agent," a child advocate, and a future politician.
Following a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that killed 300,000 Haitians and displaced tens of thousands, he briefly worked as a driver and bodyguard for a rescue group founded by Penn. He also mentions the Canadian Embassy in Haiti as a previous employer. Photos of armored military equipment and an image of himself in front of an American flag may be found on his now-defunct Facebook profile.
Attempts to contact the charity and Solages' associates were unsuccessful. A relative in South Florida, on the other hand, claimed that Solages lacked military experience and that he didn't believe he was engaged in the killing.
Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph refused to say who was behind the attack, but said Moise had made a lot of enemies by going after oligarchs who had benefitted for years from unduly lucrative state contracts.
Authorities have requested that presidential contender and businessman Reginald Boulos and former Senate President Youri Latortue appear with prosecutors next week for interrogation. There was no other information given, and none of the males have been charged.
Prosecutors want to question members of Moise's security team, including security coordinator Jean Laguel Civil and the head of the National Palace's General Security Unit, Dimitri Herard.
"If you are responsible for the president's security, where have you been?" Prosecutor Bed-Ford of Port-au-Prince According to Le Nouvelliste, Claude said. "What did you do to avoid this fate for the president?"
