Head of assassinated Haiti president’s security taken into police custody
A Venezuelan man who owns a Florida security company allegedly traveled to Haiti multiple times in the plot to assassinate President Jovenel Moïse – and the head of the late leader’s security detail has been placed in custody, according to new reports.
Haiti’s National Police Chief Léon Charles said Antonio
Intriago of CTU Security signed a contract while in Haiti.
“The investigation is very advanced,” said Charles, who
provided no details and offered no evidence about the allegation about
Intriago, who could not be immediately reached for comment by the Associated
Press.
Charles has said that CTU Security used its company credit
card to buy 19 plane tickets from Bogota to Santo Domingo for the Colombian
suspects allegedly involved in the assassination.
The police chief pleaded with Haitians during a news
conference late Wednesday to help officials track down suspects who remain on
the lam, including a former senator, John Joël Joseph, whom he described as a
key suspect and is accused of providing weapons used in the July 7 attack.
Joseph, an opponent of the Tet Kale party that Moïse
belonged to, is one of five fugitives who police say are armed and dangerous.
“We are looking for these assassins, and wherever they go,
we need to capture them, arrest them and bring them to justice,” Charles said.
In a video posted on YouTube last year, Joseph compared
Moïse to the coronavirus, saying Haitians have died from hunger or been killed
amid a spike in violence under his administration.
Charles also announced the arrest of Gilbert Dragon, who led
a rebel group known as the National Revolutionary Front for the Liberation and
Reconstruction of Haiti, which seized power
in parts of Haiti after the 2004 coup that led to the ouster of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Authorities said they found several weapons at his home,
including grenades and an AR-15 assault rifle.
In addition, police arrested Reynaldo Corvington, a Haitian
man accused of providing the suspects with housing and giving them sirens to
use on top of their cars with help from another suspect, James Solages, a
Haitian American who has been detained.
Corvington owns private security company Corvington Courier
& Security Service, which provides tips on how to survive a kidnapping.
Police said they found several weapons at his house,
including nine handguns and an AR-15.
Another of the fugitives identified by police is Joseph
Felix Badio, who allegedly rented a house near Moïse’s home to help the
suspects understand the layout of the area, Charles said.
Badio, who previously worked for Haiti’s Ministry of
Justice, joined the government’s anti-corruption unit in March 2013.
The agency issued a statement saying Badio was fired in May
following “serious breaches” of unspecified ethical rules, adding that it filed
a complaint against him.
“This villainous act is an affront to our democracy,” the
unit said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Dimitri Herard, the head of security at Haiti’s
presidential residence, has been placed in police custody, associate Carl
Martin told CNN.
Herard had been questioned at the Inspector General’s Office
on Wednesday, then transferred to a police station in Port-au-Prince, according
to Martin, who said he is coordinating the man’s legal defense team.
When Herard asked investigators why he was being held, he
was told the decision “came from above,” said Martin, who added that police
have taken away Herard’s guns and cellphone.
Earlier Wednesday, Herard did not show up for a court
inquiry ordered by the Port-au-Prince public prosecutor, citing a mandatory
appearance at the Inspector General’s Office, according to CNN.
“I have the honor to inform you, following the invitation
sent to me by the public prosecutor’s office of Port au-Prince. I am currently
under a precautionary measure ordered by the General Inspectorate of the
Haitian Police,” he said in a letter to the public prosecutor that CNN has
seen.
“As a result, I am not available to comply with the request
of the public prosecutor,” he added. “While I am willing to respond once this
protective measure expires, I respectfully request a stay of execution from
your office for this purpose as may be required.”
Herard traveled to Ecuador through the Colombian capital of
Bogota at the end of May, according to the Colombian National Police, CNN
reported.
The force has said it is investigating whether Herard, while
in Colombia, met with any of the Colombian nationals allegedly involved in the
attack.
But several people, including relatives of the Colombian
suspects, told CNN the allegations don’t add up.
Matias Gutierrez, a retired Colombian special forces
soldier, told CNN earlier this week that the 26 Colombian suspects were
actually hired to provide security for Moïse. He added that he himself had been
approached for the job by the Florida business.
“They only mentioned a company based in the US, and a job as
private security in Haiti. Security for the president of Haiti, who was
believed to be under death threat,” Gutierrez told the news outlet.
“It was all a plot. How can you have this type of
assassination and not have a single dead but the president himself?” he said.
“If my fellows had done the job, they would have had to enter the residence and
kill the guards before killing the president. You would have seen a combat
scene.”
CNN said it has tried to contact CTU Security since
Saturday. Colombian authorities said they are working with Interpol to provide
information on Intriago.
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