Haiti assassination plot: Radio call with one of the men accused of involvement

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He said he was an interpreter for a group tasked with providing security for Haitian President Jovenel Moise – but during a meeting in his private home, “something terrible happened.”

“There is loss of life, but we did not,” he said.

While the unknown caller was on Mega Radio, he happened to be overheard by a local reporter who heard him personally.

A reporter and cameraman for Radio and Television Caraibes, one of Haiti’s largest radio stations, was riding a motorbike down a hillside road towards the president’s private home, on a mission to find out what they could find out about the assassination.

The footage they filmed shows an apparently unsafe barrier of two trucks, which they easily overtake – an unusual five-minute start accompanied by people who will soon be Haiti’s most wanted man.

At the top of the hill, two men in pit masks, holding long guns, shrieked. Malhaiko Senechal, the reporter, was unfazed. “I used to see armed men at my work, when I’d drive around town,” he said. “I thought they were helping the police who were responding to the murder.”

After 15 years of searching for the news in Port-au-Prince, Senchal’s instinct was to stop and learn more. He saw more men standing under the shade of bushes and flowers hanging on a nearby wall. He told CNN that they seemed a little alert and agitated, but they were clearly not hostile or upset. There were three guns and vests apparently, and a fourth was seated, speaking quickly into his mobile phone in Haitian Creole.

According to Senchal, the speaker described himself as a translator and insisted over the phone that he and his group tried to file an arrest warrant for the president.

Meanwhile, Mega Radio listeners were hearing this live from the unknown caller:

“This group is from the hands of the president himself, a group that was allowed into the country to provide security for him. And it turns out that the same group had issued a warrant for the arrest of the president.”

The same caller described the alleged arrest order in detail, and added: “Something terrible happened, although we didn’t expect it to happen. I was just translating for them. When we tried to enter the gate to serve the order, the chief asked and they opened fire on them, so they opened fire in return to save their lives.”

Senchal stood a few feet away, and called his boss, who confirmed his growing suspicion – it was likely that he was standing amid those involved in the attack on the president’s house.

“When I heard the interpreter doing the interview with Radio Mega, I knew right away that I was in danger, because these are men who came and assassinated the president. If they can assassinate my boss and I am just a simple citizen – well, I was afraid for my life,” Senchal said.

arrest plan

For anyone to claim that they were hired to protect the president and direct him to arrest him seems contradictory at best. However, it bears close resemblance to the explanations already given by the Haitian and Colombian authorities in the week following the president’s murder.

At least 39 people were involved in the killing of President Moise, and 26 of the suspects were Colombian, many of them ex-military. Colombian police, citing Haitian authorities, said Thursday that some Colombians were hired and transferred to Haiti on the grounds that their job was to arrest the leader and hand him over to US law enforcement.

Colombian police chief General Jorge Vargas told a news conference in Bogota on Thursday that the initial plan was to “arrest the president and present him to (the US Drug Enforcement Agency)”. Haitian police also said the suspects carried a document claiming to be an arrest warrant. CNN has no proof of the authenticity of the document.

Many of the suspects have ties to the United States – some were informants for the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI, while others participated in US military training and education programs while serving in the Colombian army. However, there is no indication that the DEA was directly involved in the operation that killed President Moyes, according to Vargas, and the agency said none of the attackers were acting on its behalf.

Colombian President Ivan Duque told a local radio station on Thursday that a number of suspected killers had likely been deceived by their compatriots. He said the initial investigation indicated that the Colombians were operating in two groups: a smaller group that knew a “criminal” target and was aware that the larger operation was a cover-up, and a larger group that was not concealed.

“An important group was moved there to work on a supposed private security mission, for protection. But there was apparently a smaller group that had detailed knowledge that the outcome of the mission was to be criminal,” Duque said, without providing further evidence.

He added that it was not clear whether this outcome was aimed at a presidential assassination.

Two former Colombian military officers, Dobernay Cabador and Germain Rivera, have been accused of leading the operation. The couple previously met Christian Emmanuel Sanon, the Florida-based pastor who Haitian authorities claim orchestrated the military operation in hopes of seizing power himself, according to Vargas, the Colombian police chief. Sanon denied all knowledge of the operation and maintained his innocence, according to an unnamed source close to the investigation because they are not authorized to discuss the case. He also said that Cappador tried to recruit him to travel to Haiti in early May, describing the job as “private security in Haiti. Security of the president of Haiti, who is believed to be threatened with death.”

Three of the known suspects are Haitian Americans, and two of them are believed to have been employed as translators for the group. Based on photos released after their arrest, Cinesh believes the man he spoke to – who called Mega Radio – was one of them.

Haitian National Police chief Leon Charles declined to comment on whether any of the suspects had been formally charged or had legal representation, citing the ongoing investigation.

Cappador and at least two other Colombians were killed by the Haitian authorities in response to the assassination.

Search shows more questions

Arrests continue in Haiti amid the search for a local mastermind – or several – capable of bringing in, arming and moving dozens of foreign mercenaries. Haitian police stated that several police officers and heads of security units were placed under “precautionary measures”, which are usually aimed at limiting movements. Four were dismissed, including the head of National Palace security, Dmitry Herrard.

“I also think that this was a much larger conspiracy and that the authorities would have to clarify many aspects. Who pushed to change the outcome of the operation? Why do all the people involved end up in the same place and not in two places? These are all things we need,” Duque, the Colombian president, said on Thursday. We are working with the Haitian authorities to lead to the instigators of this assassination.”

But much of the investigation remains a mystery, leaving plenty of fertile ground for conspiracy theory, speculation, and rumours. Several key information remains undisclosed, including CCTV footage from inside the president’s residence, and the account of Haiti’s most prominent potential witness, First Lady Martin Moyes, who was injured during last week’s attack. Her official account on Twitter published multiple statements reflecting the death of her husband and thanked the medical staff in Miami where she was taken to the hospital, but she did not comment on what happened.

Without the testimony of the suspects themselves, it was not explained why they apparently allowed Senchal and his photographer to get too close as well as leave, only asking if the couple had seen the military or police at the bottom of the hill. The two reporters did not notice any security forces on their way up the hill, Senchal says, although about 20 armed security officers could be seen coming from nearby Saint-Pierre Square as he was leaving, about five minutes later.

Which raises another question: why did the Haitian authorities leave a key barrier unchecked for suspected killers, if only for a brief period. A Haitian police spokeswoman did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Additional reporting by Stefano Pozibon in Bogota and Ivan Perez and Barbara Starr in Washington.

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