who are the detainees so far for the assassination of President Jovenel Moise

Two alleged men Haitian-Americans and 15 Colombians They were arrested in connection with the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise, the authorities of this Caribbean country reported Thursday.

The Haitian-Americans have been identified as James Solages and Joseph Vincent (aged 35 to 55) and are among 17 suspects arrested in the murder of Moise by gunmen at his home Wednesday before dawn.

The other 15 come from Colombia, according to the head of the Haitian National Police, Léon Charles. But no information has been released on their identity.

The police chief added that the police killed three other suspects and eight others are on the run. The official said earlier that seven of the attackers were killed.

“We will bring them to justice,” Charles said Thursday evening as the 17 detainees remained handcuffed and seated on the ground at a press conference.

On Thursday evening, the Colombian government said that six of the suspects in Haiti were retired members of the military Colombian, including two of the dead. He did not disclose their names.

Colombian National Police Director General Jorge Luis Vargas Valencia said President Iván Duque had tasked the Colombian Army and Police High Command with cooperate with the investigation.

Of them all, the oldest is 55 and the youngest, Solages, 35, according to a document shared by Mathias Pierre, the Haitian minister of elections.

Pierre did not give more details about Solages’ background. The United States Department of State said it was aware of information about the arrest of Haitian-Americans, but He did not confirm them and did not make any statement.

Solages is described as an “approved diplomatic agent”, children’s advocate and newbie website politician for a charity he started in 2019 in Florida to help residents.

In his portal biography, Solages says he previously worked as bodyguards at the Canadian Embassy in Haiti. The diplomatic headquarters has not made any statement yet. Appeals to the foundation and its associates have not been answered.

Witnesses said a crowd discovered two suspects hidden behind the bushes of the capital, and that some people grabbed the men by their shirts and pants, pushed them and slapped them.

Police arrested the men, who were sweating profusely and wearing clothes that appeared to be covered in mud. Officers put them in the back of a pickup truck and drove off. People followed them running to a nearby police station.

Once there, some in the crowd started shouting: “They killed the president! Give them to us. We’re going to burn them!

One of the men in the crowd said it was unacceptable for foreigners to come to Haiti to kill the country’s leader, referring to reports from authorities that the suspected killers spoke Spanish or English.

The crowd set fire to several abandoned vehicles full of bullets which thought they belonged to the suspects, who were white. The cars did not have license plates and inside one was an empty box of bullets and water.

At the press conference Thursday, Charles, the chief of police, called on the public to remain calm and let the police do their job. He warned that authorities need evidence that people were destroying, including burnt vehicles.

The authorities did not indicate the motive for the attack and only said that it was carried out by a “group highly qualified and heavily armed. ” The main opposition parties in Haiti and the international community have already condemned the assassination.

Some doubts

Not everyone was happy with the government’s description of the attack. When Haitian journalist Robenson Geffrard, who writes for a local newspaper and hosts a radio show, tweeted a report about the police chief’s remarks, he received a large number of responses in which the public voiced skepticism.

Many have wondered how the sophisticated attackers described by the police they were able to enter Moise’s house, defeat their bodyguards, panic and then run away unscathed, but were then captured without planning a successful escape.

What happened inside the house

Haitian judge involved in investigation said Moise was shot dead dozen times and that his office and his room were ransacked, according to the Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste.

According to the newspaper, Judge Carl Henry Destin noted that investigators found 5.56 and 7.62 mm sockets between the concierge and the interior of the residence.

Moise’s daughter, Jomarlie Jovenel, he hid in his brother’s room during the attack, and a domestic worker and another worker were tied up by the attackers.

Acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph, who took over the government of Haiti with the support of the police and armed forces, called on the people to reopen the business and return to work. He also ordered the reopening of the international airport.

Wednesday Joseph decreed a state of siege two weeks after Moise’s murder, which caused astonishment in a country that suffers from some of the highest levels of poverty, violence and political instability in the Western Hemisphere.

Inflation and gang violence have skyrocketed, and food and fuel are scarce. 60% of Haitians earn less than two dollars a day, a dire situation that worsens as Haiti continues to try to recover from the devastation left by the 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew in 2016 after a history of dictatorships and political unrest.

“There is a void now, and they are afraid for what it contains for loved ones, ” said Marlene Bastien, executive director of the Family Action Network Movement, a group that helps people in the Little Haiti community in Miami.

Bastien called on the administration of US President Joe Biden to play a much more active role in supporting attempts to achieve a national dialogue in Haiti with the aim of carrying out free elections, clean and credible.

The authors are Associated Press reporters. Oshua Goodman also contributed to this report from Miami.

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