Jury selection to begin in South Florida for 5 charged in 2021 assassination of Haitian president
MIAMI– Jury selection is set to begin Monday in the U.S. federal trial of five men accused of the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla, Christian Sanon and James Solages are charged with conspiring in South Florida to kidnap or kill the former Haitian leader, as well as related charges. They risk life in prison. They all pleaded not guilty.
The trial was originally scheduled for last year, but U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra in Miami agreed to delay the case because of difficulties with discovery and the large volume of evidence.
Five other people have already pleaded guilty in connection with the conspiracy and are serving life sentences. A sixth person, who authorities said was unaware of the assassination plot, was sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to providing bulletproof vests to the conspirators.
Moïse was killed on July 7, 2021, when about two dozen foreign mercenaries, mostly from Colombia, attacked his home near Port-au-Prince, officials said. Moïse’s wife, Martine, was injured in the attack and flown to the United States for emergency treatment.
According to court documents, South Florida served as a central location for planning and financing the plot to oust Moses and replace him with someone chosen by the conspirators.
Ortiz and Intriago were directors of the Federal Counterterrorism Unit Academy and Counterterrorism Unit Security, collectively known as CTU, and Veintemilla was a director of Worldwide Capital Lending Group. Both companies were based in South Florida.
Sanon is a dual Haitian-American citizen who investigators believe was initially favored by the conspirators to replace Moïse. Solages was a CTU representative in Haiti who coordinated with Sanon and others, officials said.
The conspirators met in South Florida in April 2021 and agreed that once in power, Sanon would award contracts to CTU for infrastructure projects, security forces and military equipment, investigators said. Worldwide Capital agreed to help finance the coup, extending a $175,000 line of credit to CTU and sending money to co-conspirators in Haiti to buy munitions, officials said.
The CTU initially retained around twenty Colombian nationals with military training to provide security for Sanon. But by June 2021, the conspirators realized that Sanon had neither the constitutional qualifications nor sufficient popular support to become president. They then supported Wendelle Coq Thélot, a former judge of the Superior Court of Haiti. She died in January 2025 while still on the run.
In addition to the 11 people arrested and prosecuted in the United States, 20 others, including 17 Colombian soldiers and three Haitian officials, face charges in Haiti. Gang violence, death threats and a crumbling justice system have stalled an ongoing investigation.
