MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Greed, arrogance and power were the driving forces behind four men charged in the U.S. for the 2021 assassination of Haiti\u2019s last elected president, Jovenel Mo\u00efse, prosecutors said Tuesday during opening statements.<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys began presenting opening statements in the trial in Miami for Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla and James Solages. They are charged with conspiring in South Florida to kidnap or kill Haiti\u2019s former leader. Mo\u00efse\u2019s assassination led to unprecedented turmoil in the Caribbean nation, where gang leaders have grown increasingly violent and empowered.<\/p>\n
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean McLaughlin told the jury that the case against the four men wasn\u2019t complicated: They wanted to seize power and get rich.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo arrogant and confident in themselves, the evidence will show, and thinking so little of the Republic of Haiti and its people, they actually thought they could pull it off,\u201d McLaughlin said.<\/p>\n
Defense attorneys argued that the investigation initiated in Haiti was a mess and that their clients were manipulated into taking the blame for an internal coup.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you get off on the wrong foot, everything that comes after is hard to trust,\u201d Ortiz\u2019s attorney Orlando do Campo said.<\/p>\n
Mo\u00efse was killed on July 7, 2021, when about two dozen foreign mercenaries \u2014 mostly from Colombia \u2014 attacked his home near Port-au-Prince, officials said. According to court documents, South Florida was a central location for planning and financing the plot to oust Mo\u00efse and replace him with someone the conspirators chose.<\/p>\n
All four defendants face possible life sentences and have pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n
Ortiz and Intriago were principals of Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy and Counter Terrorist Unit Security, collectively known as CTU, and Veintemilla was a principal of Worldwide Capital Lending Group. Both companies were based in South Florida.<\/p>\n
Solages was a CTU representative in Haiti who investigators say coordinated with others, including Christian Sanon, a dual Haitian-U.S. citizen whom the conspirators initially favored to replace Mo\u00efse.<\/p>\n
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, investigators said. 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, officials said.<\/p>\n
CTU initially retained about 20 Colombian nationals with military training to provide security for Sanon. Conspirators also spent months obtaining weapons and body armor and attempting to build relationships with Haitian gangs, officials said.<\/p>\n
By June 2021, the conspirators realized Sanon had neither the constitutional qualifications nor sufficient popular support to become president. They then backed Wendelle Coq Th\u00e9lot, a former Haitian Superior Court judge. She died in January 2025 while still a fugitive.<\/p>\n
Defense attorneys told jurors that Sanon approached their clients in early 2021 with plans to liberate Haiti from Mo\u00efse, who had overstayed his term as president and faced criticism from Haitian citizens, U.S. politicians and United Nations officials.<\/p>\n
Emmanuel Perez, an attorney for Intriago, said the group was working with FBI agents, U.S. Embassy officials and members of the Haitian government in what they believed was the lawful arrest of a criminal president.<\/p>\n
The defense has pointed to Joseph F\u00e9lix Badio, a former Haitian government worker who was arrested in Haiti in 2023, as the mastermind behind a plan to use the president\u2019s arrest to assassinate Mo\u00efse. Defense attorneys claim Mo\u00efse had already been killed by men dressed as Haitian police officers when the Colombian security force arrived to arrest him.<\/p>\n
The group had a real arrest warrant signed by a judge, Solages\u2019 attorney Jonathan Friedman said. The judge later claimed the warrant was signed under duress.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of the people here on trial knew that,\u201d Friedman said.<\/p>\n
Marissel Descalzo, an attorney for Veintemilla, reserved the right to present her opening after the government makes its case.<\/p>\n
After openings, prosecutors called their first witness, Mo\u00efse\u2019s widow. Martine Mo\u00efse, who was wounded during the attack, testified for about an hour before court recessed for the day. She\u2019s set to return Wednesday.<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra has blocked out more than two months for the trial.<\/p>\n
Five others previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in the U.S. and are serving life sentences. A sixth person was sentenced to nine years behind bars after pleading guilty to providing body armor to the conspirators. Sanon\u2019s trial will be scheduled later.<\/p>\n
Seventeen Colombian soldiers and three Haitian officials face charges in Haiti. Gang violence, death threats and a crumbling judicial system have stalled the investigation.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n
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