Four men have been charged in South Florida for conspiring to assassinate Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, with prosecutors alleging greed and power as motives. Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla, and James Solages are charged with conspiring in South Florida to kidnap or kill Haiti's former leader. According to prosecutors, greed, arrogance, and power were the driving forces behind the plot.
S. Attorney Sean McLaughlin stated that the defendants wanted to seize power and get rich. ' Defense attorneys argue that the investigation initiated in Haiti was a complete mess and the defendants were manipulated into taking the blame for an internal coup.
' Moïse was killed on July 7, 2021, when about two dozen foreign mercenaries — mostly from Colombia — attacked his home near Port-au-Prince. S. for emergency treatment.
South Florida served as a central location for planning and financing the plot to oust Moïse and replace him with someone of the conspirators' choosing. Ortiz and Intriago were principals of Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy and Counter Terrorist Unit Security, and Veintemilla was a principal of Worldwide Capital Lending Group, both based in South Florida. The three men face possible life sentences and have pleaded not guilty.
S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra has blocked out more than two months for the trial. S.
citizen, to replace Moïse. Solages was a CTU representative in Haiti who coordinated with Sanon and others. The conspirators met in South Florida in April 2021 and agreed that, once in power, Sanon would award contracts to CTU for infrastructure projects, security forces, and military equipment.
Worldwide Capital agreed to help finance the coup, extending a $175,000 line of credit to CTU and sending money to co-conspirators in Haiti to purchase ammunition. By June 2021, the conspirators realized Sanon had neither the constitutional qualifications nor sufficient popular support to become president, and they then backed Wendelle Coq Thélot. The specific evidence linking the defendants directly to the killing has not been disclosed.