LatinNews Daily - 18 May 2026

Haiti: On 8 May four men were convicted in a US court for their roles in the July 2021 assassination of Haiti’s former president Jovenel Moïse (2017-2021), who was killed in July 2021 at his home in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. The four men were Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, a Colombian national and US resident; Antonio Intriago, a US citizen; James Solages, a dual Haitian-US citizen; and Walter Veintemilla, a US citizen who all face the maximum penalty of life in prison. A fifth man, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a US-Haitian pastor, will be tried later due to health issues. A statement by the US Department of Justice cites Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg as saying “Using U.S. soil as a staging ground for a violent plot overseas is a grave violation of our laws and, more fundamentally, our sovereignty.” The statement also sheds further light on the conspiracy, detailing that “Pretel Ortiz, Intriago, Veintemilla, and Solages embarked on a scheme in early 2021 to violently overthrow President Moïse and install their handpicked successor so that the defendants could obtain lucrative government contracts in Haiti. To carry out the plot, the defendants recruited allies in the U.S., Colombia, and Haiti, including 22 former Colombian Army soldiers and Haitian gang leaders.” Between 2023 and 2024 five individuals received life sentences for their role in Moïse’s murder: Haitian businessman Rodolphe Jaar; Colombian citizen Germán Rivera; Haitian national Joël Joseph John; dual Haitian-US citizen Joseph Vincent; and Colombian national Mario Antonio Palacios. A sixth, US citizen Frederick Bergmann, received a nine-year sentence in 2024 for conspiracy to commit export violations.

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