BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – Haitian authorities have yet to release the identity of the masterminds behind the July 7th assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in Port-au-Prince, but they have several connections to Florida.
Three Haitian-American suspects lived in South Florida. Counter Terrorist Unit Security, or CTU, the company that Colombian authorities said hired about two dozen retired members of the Colombian military, is based out of Miami-Dade County’s city of Doral.
Two of them, Rev. Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 63, and James Solages, 35, had both claimed to have been involved in charitable work in Haiti. They both had political aspirations.
Solages had a nonprofit organization registered out of Broward County. A relative in Tamarac said he had dreamed of being the mayor of Jacmel and had no military training or experience.
In a video published on YouTube in 2011, Sanon talked about his political aspirations in Haiti. He was a physician and a Christian pastor in Haiti, but he was not licensed to practice medicine in Florida, where he had filed for bankruptcy in 2013, The Associated Press reported.
Haiti’s National Police chief, Léon Charles, told reporters Monday officers found 20 boxes of bullets, gun parts, and other evidence at Sanon’s house in Haiti. Haitian officials told reporters Joseph Vincent, 55, of Miami-Dade County, and Solages were hired as translators.
Martine Moïse, Haiti’s First Lady at the time of the attack, was injured during the siege and rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center in Miami-Dade where she remained hospitalized.
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Police announcement
Sanon’s 2011 video