PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Two men believed to be Haitian-Americans — one of them purportedly a former bodyguard at the Canadian Embassy in Port-au-Prince — have been arrested in connection with the assassination of Haiti’s president, a senior Haitian official said yesterday.
Mathias Pierre, Haiti’s minister of elections, told The Associated Press that James Solages was among six people arrested in the 36 hours since the brazen killing of President Jovenel Moïse by gunmen at his home in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday.
Four other suspected assailants were killed and two are still missing, Pierre said.
Pierre would not provide additional details about Solages’ background, nor would he provide the name of the second Haitian-American he said was arrested.
Solages describes himself as a “certified diplomatic agent”, an advocate for children and budding politician on a website for a charity he established in 2019 in South Florida to assist residents.
On his bio page for the charity, Solages said he previously worked as a bodyguard at the Canadian Embassy in Haiti. Calls to the foundation and Solages’ associates at the charity either did not go through or were not answered.
“The pursuit of the mercenaries continues,” said Léon Charles, director of Haiti’s National Police, in announcing the arrest of suspects. “Their fate is fixed: They will fall in the fighting or will be arrested.”
Witnesses said the two suspects were discovered hiding in bushes in Port-au-Prince yesterday by a crowd, some of whom grabbed the men by their shirts and pants, pushing them and occasionally slapping them.
Police arrived shortly afterward to arrest the men, who were sweating heavily and wearing clothes that seemed to be smeared with mud, an Associated Press journalist at the scene said. Officers placed them in the back of a pick-up truck and drove away as the crowd ran after them to the nearby police station.
Once there, some in the crowd chanted: “They killed the president! Give them to us. We’re going to burn them!”
One man was overheard saying that it was unacceptable for foreigners to come to Haiti to kill the country’s leader, referring to reports from officials that the perpetrators spoke Spanish or English.
The crowd later set fire to several abandoned cars riddled with bullet holes that they believed belonged to the suspects, who were white men. The cars didn’t have licence plates, and inside one of them was an empty bullet box and some water.
At a news conference later in the day, Charles, the police chief, asked people to stay calm, go home and let police do their work as he warned that authorities needed evidence they were destroying, including the burned cars.
Officials did not provide any details about the suspects, including their nationalities, nor did they address a motive or say what led police to them. They said only that the attack condemned by Haiti’s main Opposition parties and the international community was carried out by “a highly trained and heavily armed group”.
Prime Minister Claude Joseph, who assumed leadership of Haiti with the backing of police and the military yesterday, asked people to reopen businesses and go back to work as he ordered the reopening of the international airport.
On Wednesday, Joseph decreed a two-week state of siege following Moïse’s killing, which stunned a nation grappling with some of the Western Hemisphere’s highest poverty, violence and political instability.
Inflation and gang violence have spiralled upward as food and fuel grew scarcer in a country where 60 per cent of Haitians earn less than US$2 a day. The increasingly dire situation comes as Haiti is still trying to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew in 2016 following a history of dictatorship and political upheaval.
“There is this void now, and they are scared about what will happen to their loved ones,” said Marlene Bastien, executive director of Family Action Network Movement, a group that helps people in Miami’s Little Haiti community.
According to Haiti’s constitution, Moïse should be replaced by the president of Haiti’s Supreme Court, but the chief justice died in recent days from COVID-19, leaving open the question of who might rightfully succeed to the office.
Joseph, meanwhile, was supposed to be replaced by Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon who had been named prime minister by Moïse a day before the assassination.
Henry told the AP in a brief interview that he is the prime minister, calling it an exceptional and confusing situation. In another interview with Radio Zenith, he said he had no dispute with Joseph. “I only disagree with the fact that people have taken hasty decisions … when the moment demands a little more serenity and maturity,” he said.
Joseph told the AP that he supports an international investigation into the assassination and believes elections scheduled for later this year should be held, as he promised to work with Moïse’s allies and opponents alike.
“Everything is under control,” he said.
