Colombian man charged with conspiracy to assassinate Haitian President

By Ojesh Bohara

Port-au-Prince
A person holds a photo of late Haitian President Jovenel Moise during his memorial ceremony at the National Pantheon Museum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, July 20, 2021. Moise was assassinated at home on July 7. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

The United States has arrested a Colombian man for his suspected involvement in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise, who was killed in his bedroom last July.

Mario Palacios was extradited to the US from Panama on Tuesday, Colombian National Place said in a statement.

Palacios was one of the few suspects who escaped the country after Moise's assassination. He eventually ended up in Jamaica, where authorities captured him for entering the country illegally. How Palacios fled, Haiti remains unknown.

Palacios was being deported from Jamaica to his home country when he was intercepted during a layover in Panama, according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) statement. He was subsequently extradited from Panama to Miami, it said.

"The three countries (Panama, Colombia, and the United States) were in constant contact coordinating the deportation and the last extradition to the United States yesterday," said the director-general of the National Police of Colombia, Gen. Jorge Luis Vargas Valencia.

The 43-year-old has been charged with a conspiracy to commit assassinating or kidnapping outside the United States "and providing material support resulting in death, knowing or intending that such material support would be used to prepare for or carry out the conspiracy to kill or kidnap." according to the DOJ.

Authorities have said that dozens of people were involved in Moise's death, including 26 Colombians and two Haitian- Americans.

Exactly what happened inside the President's home and who masterminded the attack remains to be at the heart of multiple investigations involving the senior agents from the United States and Colombia, in addition to local authorities.

Colombian National Police says that the initial information suggests that Palacios will cooperate with US authorities in their investigation.

Previously Palacios placed himself in the President's bedroom on the morning of his death, telling Colombian weekly Semana last August: "I don't know who killed him (Moise) because when I arrived, commanders Yepes and Romero were already there."

Palacios expressed that the President was already dead when he arrived at the scene.

"I don't know who killed him. I'm telling you from the bottom of my heart, on my family and on my kids," he said.

According to the DOJ, Palacios will probably face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted of the charges.

Palacios is the first suspect charged concerning Moise's assassination despite several arrests in Haiti. 

In December, five suspects were being cross-questioned in Haiti's National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince.

They have claimed they were not responsible for the President's death and refused to answer any further questions due to the lack of legal representation, fearing for their lives.

"We were useful idiots for someone else," one of the men said. "But we did not commit this crime."


(With help from Agencies.)

Publish : 2022-01-05 17:19:00

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