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On Friday, a federal jury in Florida found four individuals guilty of their involvement in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. This audacious scheme, orchestrated in Florida, has led to an unprecedented wave of gang violence in the Caribbean nation.
The convicted men—Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla, and James Solages—were charged with conspiracy to assassinate or abduct the Haitian leader, supporting the plot materially, and breaching the U.S. Neutrality Act. They now face the possibility of life imprisonment.
Prosecutors disclosed that the plot’s financing and orchestration were primarily centered in South Florida, culminating in the deadly invasion of Moïse’s residence on July 7, 2021.
FILE – Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, seen here departing a ceremony on April 7, 2018, at the National Pantheon Museum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, commemorated the 215th anniversary of revolutionary hero Toussaint Louverture’s death. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
The group’s ultimate goal was to overthrow Moïse and establish Christian Sanon, a dual Haitian-American citizen, as the new leader, with aspirations of gaining financially from the regime change.
Ortiz and Intriago ran a Miami-area security firm known as Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU), while Veintemilla headed a South Florida capital lending group.
During the trial, which kicked off in March, Moïse’s widow, Martine, delivered harrowing testimony about the night roughly two dozen foreign mercenaries, mostly Colombians, stormed their home near Port-au-Prince.
FILE – A person holds a photo of late Haitian President Jovenel Moise during his memorial ceremony at the National Pantheon Museum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, July 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Speaking through a Creole interpreter, she recalled her husband’s chilling final words as gunfire erupted: “Honey, we are dead.”
Martine Moïse was wounded in the attack and flown to the U.S. for emergency medical treatment.
Defense attorneys argued the men were manipulated into taking the blame for an internal coup, and believed they were executing a legitimate Haitian arrest warrant to “liberate” the country from a president who had overstayed his term.
Citizens protest near the Petion Ville police station in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on July 8, 2021, following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and injury of his wife during an attack on their home.
The Florida verdicts add to the growing list of convictions in the U.S., with at least five other people serving life sentences after pleading guilty.
In Haiti, 20 people, including 17 Colombian soldiers, are facing charges.