Four men from south Florida were convicted on Friday in a Miami federal court for plotting to assassinate Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. The verdict followed a nine-week trial where prosecutors argued the defendants orchestrated a conspiracy involving two dozen former Colombian soldiers, providing them with money, guns, ammunition, and tactical vests to carry out the killing at Moïse's private residence in Port-au-Prince.
The convicted individuals are Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, 53, a former FBI informant and Colombian national; Antonio Intriago, 62, a Venezuelan-American security firm owner; James Solages, 40, a Haitian-American handyman; and Walter Veintemilla, 57, an Ecuadorian American. They were found guilty of multiple counts, including conspiracy to kill or kidnap a person outside the United States resulting in death, and providing material support for a violation resulting in death.
A fifth defendant, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a Haitian-born doctor who allegedly sought to become president after Moïse's death, will be tried separately due to health issues. The assassination has sparked numerous investigations in both Haiti and the United States, with competing theories about who ordered the killing and why.
Defence lawyers argued that the government relied on unreliable evidence from Haiti and claimed their clients only intended to serve an arrest warrant on Moïse for overstaying his term. They further alleged that Moïse had already been killed by his own security forces before the Colombians arrived. Attorney Emmanuel Perez stated, “This is a Haitian plot and it is a Haitian conspiracy,” suggesting the defendants were scapegoats in a flawed FBI investigation.
Moïse's death in July 2021 deepened political instability in Haiti and emboldened powerful gangs. Jake Johnston of the Center for Economic and Policy Research noted that the case only addresses a small part of the broader conspiracy, saying, “The Miami crew is just a small sliver... The big picture is that we’re not going to get the full story here.”
