Wearing a black dress, the wife of Haiti’s slain president immediately began to sob on Tuesday as the U.S. government’s star witness testified against four South Florida men standing trial on charges of conspiring to kill her husband more than four years ago at the couple’s home outside Port-au-Prince.
“I am Martine Moïse, I am Mrs. Jovenel Moïse, who was assassinated at our house,” she testified in Miami federal court, as she burst into tears in mid-sentence.
The smell of gunpowder hung in the air as Haitian police opened fire with .50-caliber rifles, trapping a group of Colombian commandos not far from the hillside house where President Jovenel Moïse had just been assassinated.
As Sgt. Edwin Blanquicet Rodríguez, an American-trained soldier who spent 21 years in the Colombian army, tried to find refuge, he could hear an injured fellow soldier inside a house pleading for his life.
“We could hear him begging to please not kill him,” Blanquicet said.
Then came footsteps, followed by a gunshot.
Depuis trop longtemps, le drame haïtien ne se joue pas seulement dans les rues, sous les balles des gangs ou dans les antichambres du pouvoir. Il se joue aussi, et peut-être surtout, dans le silence assourdissant de ceux qui savent. Dans ce pays devenu un champ de ruines, nous avons institutionnalisé une tragédie nationale : la mise à l’écart systématique des plus capables au profit des médiocres.
The smell of gunpowder hung in the air as Haitian police opened fire with .50-caliber rifles, trapping a group of Colombian commandos not far from the hillside house where President Jovenel Moïse had just been assassinated.
As Sgt. Edwin Blanquicet Rodríguez, an American-trained soldier who spent 21 years in the Colombian army, tried to find refuge, he could hear an injured fellow soldier inside a house pleading for his life.
“We could hear him begging to please not kill him,” Blanquicet said.
Then came footsteps, followed by a gunshot.
Depuis trop longtemps, le drame haïtien ne se joue pas seulement dans les rues, sous les balles des gangs ou dans les antichambres du pouvoir. Il se joue aussi, et peut-être surtout, dans le silence assourdissant de ceux qui savent. Dans ce pays devenu un champ de ruines, nous avons institutionnalisé une tragédie nationale : la mise à l’écart systématique des plus capables au profit des médiocres.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in the U.S. federal trial of four men charged in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla and James Solages are charged with conspiring in South Florida to kidnap or kill Haiti’s former leader, plus related charges. They face possible life sentences. They all pleaded not guilty.
