PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (NewsNation Now) — Police in Haiti deny reports that government leaders there were involved in the assassination of the country’s president. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden plans to increase security at the U.S. embassy there, though he will not send troops.
Twenty-three people have been now been arrested, including 18 former Colombian soldiers (some of whom had U.S military training). Three Haitians and two Haitian-Americans, including a Miami doctor, are also among those arrested.
“The FBI is providing investigative assistance to the Haitian authorities at the request of the government of Haiti,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
The White House confirmed the U.S. is assisting in the investigation into the pre-dawn attack on President Jovenel Moise and his wife.
It’s still not clear who pulled the trigger, but the latest suspects in the sweeping investigation include Moise’s own head of security, a former Haitian Senator, a fired government official and an informant for the U.S. government.
More than a dozen Colombian commandos, some of whom received U.S. training, are in custody, Their president says they were duped into going to Haiti to provide security.
Colombia’s police chief says they were there to arrest Moise.
Haiti’s interim prime minister, Claude Joseph, was about to be replaced when Moise was assassinated.
Moise had announced he had chosen a new prime minister two days before he was killed, but he had not yet been sworn in. Joseph has insisted he is in charge of the government, a claim that has been recognized by the U.S. and others.
On Sunday, Haitian police arrested a Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a 63-year-old Haitian doctor and pastor who lives in Florida and had accused Moise of corruption, saying he wanted to be the president of Haiti, and the assassins were protecting him.
Haitian police say that he and others met over the last year to plot the assassination, but the participants say the meetings, in Florida and the Dominican Republic, were to plan a government once the president stepped down.
Some Haitians are also pointing the finger at players within the government, pointing out that no one on Moise’s security detail was injured in the violence.
NewsNation spoke with James Pierre, a journalist with Haitian radio and TV about the possibility of the assassination being an inside job. Pierre lives in Florida but is originally from Haiti. See the interview in the player below.