A former secret informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to assassinate Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, whose 2021 assassination sparked unprecedented unrest in the Caribbean country .
Joseph Vincent, with Haitian and American citizenship, was living in the United States and attended meetings in South Florida and Haiti before the assassination. He is the fourth of 11 defendants in Miami to plead guilty. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison for charges including conspiracy to kill and kidnap a person outside the United States, and conspiracy to provide material support and resources.
According to authorities, approximately 20 Colombian citizens and several Haitian-American citizens participated in the plot. The conspirators initially planned to capture the Haitian president, but then chose to kill him. Investigators say the conspirators hoped to win contracts under Mr. Moïse’s successor.
Vincent, dressed in a beige prison shirt and pants, pleaded guilty during a hearing before Federal Judge José E. Martínez that lasted 20 minutes. Sitting next to his lawyer, Kenneth Swartz, he was handcuffed and had shackles around his ankles.
“Guilty, your honor,” Vincent responded after the judge asked him how he would plead.
Vincent said he entered into a pleading agreement with prosecutors, something defendants often do in hopes of getting a lighter sentence. Under these terms, he agreed to cooperate in the investigation and the government announced that it would withdraw two charges of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States.
The judge set his sentencing hearing for February 9, 2024.
Other defendants who pleaded guilty include retired Colombian officer Germán Alejandro Rivera Garcia, sentenced to life in prison in October; Haitian-Chilean businessman Rodolphe Jaar, who was also sentenced to life in prison in June; and former Haitian senator John Joël Joseph, who was detained in Jamaica before being extradited to Miami last year. The latter should know his fate on December 19.
They are all part of what U.S. prosecutors have described as an elaborate plot in Haiti and Florida that ended with the assassination of President Moïse by mercenaries at his private residence near Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, July 7, 2021. He was 53 years old.
More than 40 suspects arrested in Haiti
Vincent was close to Haitian-American suspects James Solages and Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a South Florida resident and pastor whose ambition to replace Mr. Moïse as president led to the president’s assassination, according to the charges. by prosecutors. Both were among the first arrested after Mr. Moïse was shot 12 times at his home.
After the killing, Vincent maintained his innocence and told a Haitian judge that he was the translator for the Colombian soldiers accused of storming the president’s residence and killing him.
More than 40 suspects have been arrested in the case in Haiti, most of them shortly after Mr. Moïse was fatally shot in the attack that also injured his wife, Martine Moïse. Among those arrested are 18 former Colombian soldiers accused of participating in the plot and several senior Haitian police officers.
In Haiti, five judges were appointed to handle the case and four of them resigned for various reasons, including fear of being killed.
In the two years since the assassination, Haiti has experienced a surge in gang violence that led the prime minister to call for the immediate deployment of a foreign armed force in October 2022. The Haitian Security Council The UN voted in October to send a Kenyan-led multinational force to help fight armed gangs.
However, the deployment was delayed. Kenya said its staff needed more training and funding, and a local high court extended orders blocking the deployment, with a hearing scheduled for the end of January. No deployment date has been announced.