Murder Mystery: What Were Colombian Military Vets Doing in Haiti?

[Judi Lynn]

At least 20 Colombians have been implicated by Haitian officials in the plot to assassinate the president. But their role in the killing, if any, is murky.



Weapons, communication devices and documents seized by Haitian police in connection to the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse of Haiti. Credit...Estailove St-Val/Reuters

By Julie Turkewitz and Simon Romero
July 11, 2021, 7:56 p.m. ET

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — One evening in early June, Mauricio Javier Romero, a decorated 20-year veteran of the Colombian military, received a call from an old army buddy.

The friend wanted to recruit him for a job — “legal” and “safe” work that would send him abroad, according to Mr. Romero’s wife, Giovanna Romero.

“This person told him that he wouldn’t get in trouble,” she said, “that it was a good opportunity for professional growth, for economic growth — and knowing what a quality professional my husband was, he wanted him to be part of the team.”

A month later, Mr. Romero, 45, is dead, one of several men killed in Haiti in the aftermath of the assassination last week of President Jovenel Moïse, and one of at least 20 Colombians implicated by Haitian officials in a murder that has plunged the Caribbean nation into chaos.

More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/11/world/americas/haiti-colombian-mercenaries.html

[Eugene]

1. Haiti crisis deepens as alleged hitman's sister vows to clear his name

Source: The Guardian

Haiti crisis deepens as alleged hitman’s sister vows to clear his name

Duberney Capador, killed after assassination of Jovenel Moïse, was hired by security firm to protect ‘important people’, says sister

Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent
Sun 11 Jul 2021 18.12 BST

The sister of one of the alleged Colombian hitmen accused of assassinating Haiti’s president has insisted he is innocent and vowed to clear her dead brother’s name, as a potentially destabilising power struggle gripped the Caribbean country.

Duberney Capador, a retired member of Colombia’s special forces, was one of two Colombians reportedly killed by Haitian security forces last week after the assassination of Jovenel Moïse in Port-au-Prince. More than a dozen citizens of the South American country have so far been arrested, as well as two Haitian Americans.

Haitian authorities claim Capador was part of a 28-member hit squad that stormed Moïse’s presidential compound in the early hours of last Wednesday before shooting him dead – a sensational narrative now coming under increasing scrutiny, both in Haiti and overseas.

Capador’s sister told journalists her 40-year-old brother was not a paid assassin but had travelled to Port-au-Prince after being hired by a private security firm to help protect “important people”. “He’s no mercenary, he’s a good man,” Jenny Capador said in an interview with the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.

Capador said she had exchanged messages with her brother in the hours after Moïse’s murder, which supposedly took place at around 1am on Wednesday. She said he had told her his team “had arrived too late to protect the person they were supposed to be protecting”. “I guess it was the president,” she speculated, adding that her brother had told her his group had subsequently been surrounded by police.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/11/haiti-crisis-deepens-as-alleged-hitmans-sister-vows-to-clear-his-name

[El Supremo]

2. If it's Columbia, then it's cocaine.

Not real hard to figure out.