On Sunday, Haitian police announced the arrest of one of the suspected masterminds in the killing of President Jovenel Moise, a Haitian accused of employing mercenaries to depose and replace Moise.
Moise was assassinated early Wednesday at his residence in Port-au-Prince by a group of assassins made up of 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans, according to Haitian authorities, plunging the beleaguered Caribbean nation deeper into chaos.
Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 63, went to Haiti on a private plane in early June, escorted by paid security guards, and sought to take over as president, according to National Police Chief Leon Charles.
He didn't go into detail about Sanon's motivations other than to indicate they were political, but he did claim that one of the people in detention had called him after being arrested. According to Charles, Sanon then contacted two additional "intellectual authors" of the killing.
"Initially, the attackers' mission was to ensure the safety of Emmanuel Sanon," Charles explained, "but later, the mission was changed, and they presented one of the attackers with an arrest warrant for the president of the republic."
According to Charles, Haitian police have arrested 18 Colombians and three Haitian Americans, including Sanon, in connection with the murder. He stated that five Colombians are still on the loose and three have been slain.
According to the Miami Herald and a source familiar with the situation, the alleged assassins told detectives they were there to arrest him, not murder him.
Two Haitian Americans, James Solages and Joseph Vincent informed investigators they were translators for the Colombian commando squad that had an arrest warrant, according to a source close to the investigation. When they arrived, however, they discovered him dead.
Haitians in areas of the city Port-au-Prince were organizing protests against the temporary prime minister and acting head of state Claude Joseph via social media this week.
Other top leaders have questioned Joseph's right to rule the country, threatening to worsen the chaos enveloping the poorest country in the Americas.
Overnight, gunfire erupted in the capital, which has seen an uptick in gang violence in recent months, displacing thousands of people and hurting economic activity.
