Haitian-American Pleads Guilty In Plot To Assassinate Haiti President Jovenel Moise
A Haitian American has pleaded guilty to several charges for his involvement in the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, Reuters reports.
Joseph Vincent, who was also a former informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), is one of 11 defendants charged with conspiring to murder the president by supplying funds and weapons to mercenaries to carry out the plot. Vincent is the fourth defendant to plead guilty.
According to law enforcement officials, around 20 Colombian citizens and several dual Haitian-American citizens were involved in the plot. Originally, the plan was to kidnap Moïse but later decided to kill him. Investigators allege the conspirators organized the plot in the hope of winning government contracts under Moïse’s successor.
A few days after Moïse’s death, Vincent was arrested along with another Haitian-American, James Solages. Both men initially said they were hired by the conspirators as interpreters
Vincent is set to be sentenced on Feb. 9 and could face life in prison.
With his plea agreement, Vincent is seeking a lighter sentence.
Former Haitian Senator Pleads Guilty For Role In President Jovenel Moïse’s Assassination
In addition to Vincent, other defendants who pleaded guilty for their roles in the assassination are retired Colombian army officer, Rodolphe Jaar, a Haitian-Chilean businessman, who was sentenced to life in prison in June, Colombian military officer Germán Alejandro Rivera García was sentenced to life in prison in October, and an ex-Haitian senator, John Joël Joseph will be sentenced on December 19
Since Moïse’s death, Haiti has experienced an extreme rise in gang violence that has caused severe turmoil in the Caribbean nation. Reports of sexual assault, kidnappings, and killings have been occurring throughout the rural parts of the country, according to the U.N.
Several gangs have run amok around the nation with minimal law enforcement and “a lack of basic government institutions,” the U.N. Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner said in its report.
“A climate of fear reigns in Lower Artibonite, where murders, sexual violence, theft, destruction of property, and other abuses are committed against the population on an almost daily basis,” the report stated.
