PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The latest suspect detained in Haiti amid the search for the masterminds and assassins in the killing of President Jovenel Moïse is a Haitian in his 60s living in Florida who identifies himself as a doctor and has accused the leaders of his homeland of corruption.
Police identified the man Sunday night as Christian Emmanuel Sanon and said Moïse's alleged killers were protecting him as the supposed president of Haiti.
The head of Haiti’s police accused Sanon of flying into the country on a private jet and working with those who participated in Moïse’s killing, but officers gave no information on the purported masterminds.
The police chief says Haitian authorities obtained the information from interrogations and other parts of the investigation.
The chief said officers found several items at Sanon’s house, including a hat emblazoned with the logo of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, 20 boxes of bullets, gun parts, four automobile license plates from the Dominican Republic, two cars, and correspondence with unidentified people.
In a statement to CNN, the DEA confirmed that "at times, one of the suspects in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was a confidential source to the DEA."
CNN also reported that some of the suspects possibly worked as informants for the FBI.
The Associated Press reported that 26 former Colombian soldiers are suspected of the killing, with 23 of them arrested.
Meanwhile, the escalation of gang violence in Haiti threatens to complicate — and be aggravated by — political efforts to recover from last week’s brazen slaying of Moïse.
Haiti’s government is in disarray. There's no parliament, no president, a dispute over who is prime minister, and a weak police force. But the gangs seem more organized and powerful than ever.
Violence is paralyzing the fragile economy, shuttering schools, overwhelming police, and disrupting efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Haitian religious group compared the situation to “a vast desert where wild animals engulf us.” And it added: “We are refugees and exiles in our own country.”
