US charges Colombian man over Haiti president’s assassination
US Justice Department accuses ex-member of Colombia’s military of participating in plot to kill Jovenel Moise in July.
Authorities in the United States have charged a Colombian man with participating in a plot to kidnap or kill Haitian President Jovenel Moise, whose assassination in early July sent the Caribbean nation into political chaos.
In a statement on Tuesday, the US Department of Justice said Mario Antonio Palacios, 43, was charged with “conspiracy to commit murder or kidnapping outside the US”.
Haiti, after Jovenel Moise’s assassination
Killers left me for dead: Slain Haiti leader’s wife Martine Moise
Haiti: Many questions, few answers one month after Moise killing
Haiti chooses judge to probe President Jovenel Moise’s killing
He was also charged with “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”.
The department has alleged Palacios and others – including approximately 20 other Colombian nationals and a group of Haitian-American citizens based in Haiti – participated in the plot to kill Moise.
Haitian authorities have said that Palacios, a former member of the Colombian military, was part of a mercenary group that killed Moise in July.
“While the plot initially focused on conducting a kidnapping of the president as part of a purported arrest operation, it ultimately resulted in a plot to kill the Haitian President,” the US Department of Justice said.
Moise was killed in the early hours of July 7, 2021, when a crew of armed gunmen stormed his home in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Then-Prime Minister Claude Joseph said at the time that the assassination was “a highly coordinated attack by a highly trained and heavily armed group”.
The US Justice Department on Tuesday said “Palacios and others entered the president’s residence in Haiti with the intent and purpose of killing President Moise, and in fact, the president was killed”.
The department added that if convicted, Palacios faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
