Tag: Jacqueline Charles

The assassination of Haiti’s president on July 7, 2021, was the culmination of three months of planning that began in South Florida, where the four defendants on trial and others met to overthrow the country’s leader in their quest for power, contracts and money in Haiti, according to the indictment. All four defendants face up to life in prison if they are convicted of conspiring to kidnap or kill Haiti’s president. The indictment includes several other counts related to the conspiracy charge.

The lawyer, José Antonio Corrales, testified that he drafted several documents central to the plot, including the arrest warrant, which he had hoped to have signed by a Haitian Superior Court justice, Windelle Coq Thélot. His clients at the security firm had designated the judge as the heir apparent to Moïse after abandoning a South Florida pastor in his months-long quest for the presidency.

The high-stakes plot to remove Haiti President Jovenel Moïse that culminated in his July 7, 2021, assassination was carried out for roughly $343,000, and financed through a patchwork of loans, credit cards, wire transfers and pandemic relief funds, an FBI forensics accountant told a Miami federal jury.

The State of Qatar on Thursday announced a $30 million pledge to the newly established Gang Suppression Force, bolstering efforts to help Haiti regain control from powerful armed groups. The donation will go into a trust fund the United Nations has established for the recently authorized force, which now has received a total of $203 million, said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for United Nations Secretary General António Guterres. Of the money pledged, including a donation this week from Greece, $174.1 million has been paid into the Trust Fund.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met on Tuesday with Haiti Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, who is on a weeklong visit to the United States seeking to shore up support for the volatile country. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said Rubio reaffirmed U.S. support for Haiti’s stability and security and welcomed “progress on the deployment” of a new anti-gang force supported by the U.S. and the United Nations. “Secretary Rubio commended the prime minister’s leadership as security forces expand their presence and coordination,” Pigott said. He added that Rubio also stressed the importance of improving security conditions to enable Haiti’s path to elections, while underscoring the administration’s support for a multiyear reauthorization of the congressional law known as HOPE/HELP, which has given Haiti’s factories duty-free access to the United States.