17 ex-Colombian soldiers suspected of involvement in the assassination of Haiti’s president

At least seventeen former Colombian soldiers are suspected of involvement in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moss on Wednesday, July 9, the Colombian high command of the police and army announced.

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«Two (…) died in the (Haitian) police operation and 15 Colombians whose activity we are currently checking (…) belonged to the national armyHe withdrew between 2018 and 2020, General Jorge Luis Vargas, the Colombian police chief, said at a news conference in Bogota.

The Haitian president was killed on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday by 28 commandos: 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans, according to Port-au-Prince. Haitian police say three Colombians were killed during his operation. A total of seventeen people were arrested, fifteen Colombians and two Americans. Colombian authorities have not released information about how many years the suspects spent in the army or why they left it.

According to General Jorge Luis Vargas, on May 6 two Colombians traveled from Bogota to Panama, and then to Santo Domingo, where they stayed for four days before taking a flight to Haiti. The other Colombians arrived in the Dominican Republic on June 4 and in Port-au-Prince on June 6. The Colombian authorities also indicated that they had information on four companies involved in the crime, without giving further details of their activities.

one of “The best trained soldiers in the Colombian army»

Among the Colombians arrested was Manuel Antonio Grosso Guarín, 40, and one ofThe best trained soldiers in the Colombian armyAccording to the daily El Tiempo. Another man, Francisco Elado Uribe, is also part of the commando. According to a woman interviewed by Colombian radio station W Radio, who identified herself as his ex-girlfriend, he left the army in 2019 after 20 years of service, before being recruited by a security company for “$2700 per month».

Earlier, Colombian President Ivan Duque announced the dispatch of an intelligence mission to Haiti to help shed light on this assassination. Taiwan, for its part, announced that 11 suspects wanted in the investigation stormed the vicinity of its embassy in Port-au-Prince before being arrested by Haitian police. The assassination of the Haitian president, who was killed in his home, destabilized the poorest country in the Americas, which was plagued by insecurity. A state of siege was declared in the country.