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A federal jury in Florida convicted four men on Friday for their roles in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, a brazen plot organized in the Sunshine State that has plunged the Caribbean nation into unprecedented gang violence.
Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla and James Solages were found guilty of conspiracy to kill or kidnap Haiti’s elected leader, providing material support and violating the U.S. Neutrality Act. The men now face potential life sentences.
Federal prosecutors revealed that South Florida served as the central hub for financing and planning the deadly July 7, 2021, home invasion.
FILE – Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise, center, leaves the museum during a ceremony marking the 215th anniversary of revolutionary hero Toussaint Louverture’s death, at the National Pantheon museum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, April 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
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The conspirators aimed to oust Moïse and install a new leader, dual Haitian-American citizen Christian Sanon, hoping to profit financially through the new regime.
Ortiz and Intriago ran a Miami-area security firm known as Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU), while Veintemilla headed a South Florida capital lending group.
During the trial, which kicked off in March, Moïse’s widow, Martine, delivered harrowing testimony about the night roughly two dozen foreign mercenaries, mostly Colombians, stormed their home near Port-au-Prince.
FILE – A person holds a photo of late Haitian President Jovenel Moise during his memorial ceremony at the National Pantheon Museum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, July 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
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Speaking through a Creole interpreter, she recalled her husband’s chilling final words as gunfire erupted: “Honey, we are dead.”
Martine Moïse was wounded in the attack and flown to the U.S. for emergency medical treatment.
Defense attorneys argued the men were manipulated into taking the blame for an internal coup, and believed they were executing a legitimate Haitian arrest warrant to “liberate” the country from a president who had overstayed his term.
Citizens protest near the Petion Ville police station in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on July 8, 2021, following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and injury of his wife during an attack on their home.
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The Florida verdicts add to the growing list of convictions in the U.S., with at least five other people serving life sentences after pleading guilty.
In Haiti, 20 people, including 17 Colombian soldiers, are facing charges.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.