Colombian police on Friday identified a former Haitian justice ministry official as the one who informed Colombian mercenaries that their mission was to assassinate President Jovenel Moïse.
Joseph Felix Badio,
"a former official of the Ministry of Justice, who worked in the anti-corruption unit with the general intelligence services"
, met two Colombian mercenaries in Port-au-Prince, explained the General José Vargas, Colombian police chief.
Read also: Haiti sinks into chaos after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse
During this meeting, the former Colombian soldiers Duberney Capador - since killed by the Haitian police - and German Rivera, who was arrested, were
"informed that they were going to arrest the
Haitian
president"
.
But
"a few days before (July 7), apparently three, Joseph Felix Badio (...) informs Capado and Rivera that what they must do is assassinate the president of Haiti"
, added José Vargas during a press conference.
The Colombian police, however, did not specify whether Joseph Felix Badio had acted on the order of sponsors or the reasons which led him to give the order to kill Jovenel Moïse.
Jovenel Moïse, 53, was killed on July 7 in his residence in Port-au-Prince by an armed commando. Haitian police arrested around 20 people, including 18 Colombians and three Haitians who also have American nationality. According to the Haitian police, with which the Colombian police collaborate, the assassination of the Haitian president was planned from the neighboring Dominican Republic. But many gray areas remain in particular on the sponsors of the attack against Jovenel Moïse, a president widely criticized for his authoritarian drift in a country plagued by violence and poverty. The apparent ease with which the attackers managed to kill the head of state in the middle of the night continues to arouse suspicion from the authorities.
The president's security chief, Dimitri Hérard, and three other officials have been placed in solitary confinement. On Thursday, Colombian police said Colombian mercenaries claimed to have been recruited to capture Jovenel Moïse and hand him over to the US Anti-Drug Agency (DEA). But the Colombian authorities have not ruled out that they may have been deceived.
“A large group (of Colombians) were taken away with a supposed protection mission. But within this group there is a smaller group which apparently had detailed knowledge of what would turn out to be a criminal operation, ”
Colombian President Ivan Duque said.
