Security company contractor who brought Colombians to Haiti says president was already dead

Antonio Intriago, one of those responsible for drawing up the plan against Haitian President Jovenel Moise, recently spoke through his lawyers. The Venezuelan, who works as a subcontractor for CTU Security, said the captured Colombians arrived when the president was already dead.

It is this company that hired the former Colombian soldiers who arrived in Haiti at the beginning of July and for the moment their responsibility in this affair is the subject of an investigation. Intriago then underlined, through its lawyers, that the Colombians were accompanying the Haitian police to issue an arrest warrant against the president, but that when they entered his house, he was already dead.

For this reason, Intriago said he was the victim of a plan to “take power in Haiti”, of which he was not aware and said that for him, it is Moise’s own bodyguards who betrayed him.

Venezuelan representatives added that he had not trained mercenaries as has been said and that, on the contrary, they are retired soldiers who work as “contractors for private security services”. They also pointed out that the United States government itself “knew what was going on in Haiti,” according to a press release.

For now, Intriago and his defense have requested a copy of the arrest warrant against the president and which is part of the evidence they are collecting to demonstrate the alleged innocence of the accused. They then reiterated that he was not aware of any conspiracies or plans against Moise, who died on July 7.

Situation of Colombians

After the visit of the Humanitarian Commission of the Colombian Chancellery and the Office of the Ombudsman, it was learned through a report that three of them suffered serious injuries. According to the document, the ex-combatants are isolated and overcrowded, they sleep on the floor, they only eat twice a day and drinking water is limited. Likewise, during the visit, it was observed that they lack procedural guarantees in the legal proceedings in which they are the subject of an investigation.

However, this Wednesday, August 4, we learned that the detainees were transferred to a penitentiary in the capital of the country, where they will stay until their legal situation is clarified. The news was confirmed by Julio Santa, Colombian consul in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

“The news of the transfer of compatriots to a prison is very harsh. This would be one of the stages of the process that generated the most fear for Colombians, because there they would not benefit from sufficient security and guarantees for their life and integrity. “, Luis Andrés Fajardo, Deputy People’s Defender, told El Heraldo.

It should be noted that, during the visit of Colombian officials, some ex-soldiers expressed their desire to be extradited to the United States, according to La FM. In fact, those captured have already been questioned by the FBI on several occasions.

The mercenaries met for nearly four hours with the Deputy People’s Advocate, a lawyer from the Public Defender’s Office and the leader of Colombians Abroad, who make up the Commission. The meeting took place in two.

“Some detainees complained that they had been beaten, although when questioned specifically they could not clearly distinguish whether these were the beatings received at the time of capture. For their part, several of them claimed to be cured of the blows during the capture ”, he reads in the document.

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