Four Convicted in US for 2021 Assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise
Al Jazeera Staff
Four individuals convicted in the US for the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise. The defendants face life in prison for conspiracy to kill or kidnap and providing material support. The trial highlighted the power vacuum and crises in Haiti following the murder.
Four people have been convicted in the United States for their involvement in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise. Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla, and James Solages were found guilty on Friday of conspiracy to kill or kidnap Moise, a murder that left a power vacuum in Haiti and exacerbated overlapping security and humanitarian crises.
They were also convicted of providing material support for the plot, violating US law. All four face life in prison. US prosecutors said southern Florida, the US state closest to Haiti, served as a hub for planning and financing Moise's assassination.
During the nearly two-month trial, defense lawyers argued that the defendants were scapegoats. They claimed the men were actually involved in a plan to issue an arrest warrant for President Moise amid disputes over whether he was ruling beyond his term. Attorney Emmanuel Perez said: “This was a Haitian conspiracy, a conspiracy by Haitians.” They argued that the Colombian mercenaries involved in the assassination were tasked with helping Haitian police execute the arrest warrant, but Moise was killed by his own security forces before they arrived.
US prosecutors, conversely, alleged that the individuals initially sought to remove and replace Moise, but the plan escalated into assassination. A fifth defendant, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a Haitian-born doctor who once wanted to become president after Moise was killed, will be tried later for health reasons. Eight others have accepted plea deals as part of the US investigation.
Since Moise's assassination, Haiti has held no national elections, although an interim council was appointed in September 2024 to organize new elections. That council was later replaced by the US-backed Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime, who has pledged to hold elections by the end of this year. The United Nations says a stable government is essential to restore order in Haiti, a country facing a series of natural disasters and rising violence, with criminal gangs controlling vast territories. According to the UN, at least 8,100 gang-related murders were recorded in 2025, and insecurity has displaced about 1.5 million people.
