Haiti’s interim government asks US for security assistance

Haiti’s interim government said on Friday it had asked the United States for security assistance to protect key infrastructure as it tried to stabilize the country and pave the way for elections in the aftermath of the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

“We really need help and we have asked for help from our international partners,” Acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph told The Associated Press in an interview, declining to provide further details. “We believe that our partners can help the national police to resolve the situation.”

Joseph said he was appalled by opponents who tried to use the murder of Moses to seize political power – an indirect reference to a group of lawmakers who declared their loyalty and recognized Joseph Lambert, the leader of the Senate dismantled from Haiti, as provisional president and Ariel Henry, whom Moïse appointed as prime minister the day before his death, as prime minister.

“I’m not interested in a power struggle,” Joseph said in a brief telephone interview, without mentioning Lambert by name. “There is only one way for people to become president in Haiti. And that is through elections.”

Joseph spoke just hours after the Colombian police chief said the Colombians involved in the murder of Moses were recruited by four companies and traveled to the Caribbean nation in two groups via the Dominican Republic. . Meanwhile, the United States has said it will send senior FBI and Homeland Security officials to help with the investigation.

Haitian National Police Chief Léon Charles said 17 suspects were arrested in the brazen murder of Moses that stunned a nation already reeling from poverty, widespread violence and political instability.

As the investigation progressed, the murder took on the appearance of a complicated international plot. Besides the Colombians, among those detained by the police were two Haitian Americans, who were described as translators for the attackers. Some of the suspects were arrested during a raid on the Taiwanese embassy where they reportedly sought refuge.

During a press conference in Bogota, the Colombian capital, General Jorge Luis Vargas Valencia said that four companies had been involved in the “recruitment, assembly of these people” involved in the assassination, although he did not failed to identify the companies as their names were still being verified.

Two of the suspects traveled to Haiti via Panama and the Dominican Republic, Vargas said, while a second group of 11 arrived in Haiti on July 4 from the Dominican Republic.

In Washington, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said senior officials from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security would be sent to Haiti “as soon as possible to assess the situation and how we could help.”

“The United States remains engaged and in close consultation with our Haitian and international partners to support the Haitian people in the aftermath of the assassination of the president,” said Psaki.

Following Haiti’s request for US assistance, a senior administration official reiterated Psaki’s earlier comments that the administration was sending officials to assess how it could be most useful, but added that he was not expected to provide military assistance at this time.

The United States sent troops to Haiti following the last presidential assassination in the country, the murder of President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam in 1915 at the hands of an angry mob who raided the French embassy where he had taken refuge.

Examining magistrate Clément Noël told French-language newspaper Le Nouvelliste that the arrested Haitian Americans, James Solages and Joseph Vincent, said the attackers had initially planned only to arrest Moïse, not to kill him. Noël said Solages and Vincent were acting as translators for the attackers.

The same newspaper quoted Port-au-Prince prosecutor Bed-Ford Claude as saying he had ordered a National Police investigative unit to question all security agents close to Moïse. These include the security coordinator of Moise, Jean Laguel Civil, and Dimitri Hérard, head of the General Security Unit of the National Palace.

“If you are responsible for the president’s security, where have you been? What did you do to avoid this fate for the president? said Claude.

The attack, which took place at Moïse’s home before dawn on Wednesday, also seriously injured his wife, who was airlifted to Miami for treatment.

Joseph assumed the leadership with police and military support and declared a two-week “state of siege”. Port-au-Prince is already on the alert amid the rise of gangs that have displaced more than 14,700 people just last month as they burned down and ransacked homes in a struggle for territory.

The murder brought the usually bustling capital to a standstill, but Joseph urged the public to return to work.

Solages, 35, described himself as a ‘certified diplomatic agent’, children’s advocate and aspiring politician on a now-deleted website for a charity he established in 2019 in South Florida to help residents of his hometown of Jacmel, in southern Haiti. coast.

Solages also said he worked as a bodyguard at the Canadian Embassy in Haiti, and on his Facebook page, which was also deleted after the announcement of his arrest, he featured photos of armored military vehicles. and a photo of him standing in front of an American Flag.

The Canadian Department of Foreign Relations released a statement that did not refer to Solages by name, but indicated that one of the men detained for his alleged role in the murder had been “briefly employed as a reserve bodyguard” at its embassy by a private entrepreneur.

Appeals to the association and to Solages associates have gone unanswered. However, a relative in South Florida said Solages had no military training and did not believe he was involved in the murder.

“I feel like my son killed my brother because I love my president and I love James Solages,” Schubert Dorisme, whose wife is Solages’ aunt, told WPLG in Miami.

Taiwan’s embassy in Port-au-Prince said police arrested 11 people who attempted to break and enter on Thursday morning. He gave no details of their identity or the reason for the break-in, but in a statement, the men are described as “mercenaries” and strongly condemn “the cruel and barbaric murder” of Moses.

“As to whether the suspects were involved in the assassination of the President of Haiti, this will need to be investigated by the Haitian police,” Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou told the Associated Press in Taipei.