The Miami crew is just a small sliver of a much larger story
In a Miami federal courtroom, four South Florida men were convicted Friday for their roles in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse — a killing that did not merely end one man's life, but unraveled an entire nation's fragile order. The verdict, years in the making, answers some questions about who pulled the logistical strings behind a team of Colombian mercenaries, yet leaves the deeper architecture of the conspiracy — who truly wanted Moïse dead, and why — still partially in shadow. Justice, here, arrives incomplete: a partial reckoning for a wound that Haiti continues to bleed.
- Four men — a former FBI informant, a security firm owner, a handyman, and an Ecuadorian American — were found guilty of assembling and funding roughly two dozen Colombian soldiers to execute a sitting head of state in his own home.
- The defense pushed back hard, arguing their clients never intended murder but only sought to serve an arrest warrant, and that Haitian officials — not these men — were the true architects of the killing.
- Moïse's 2021 assassination shattered Haiti's political stability and handed criminal gangs the opening they needed to entrench control across the country, a crisis that persists to this day.
- A fifth defendant, a Haitian-born doctor who allegedly hoped to assume the presidency after Moïse's death, has yet to stand trial, and parallel investigations in both Haiti and the US continue to surface competing theories and new suspects.
- Experts warn the Miami convictions capture only a fragment of the conspiracy — the larger question of who truly orchestrated the assassination remains, in the words of one researcher, far from answered.
A Miami federal court convicted four South Florida men on Friday of conspiring to assassinate Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021. The defendants — Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, a former FBI informant; Antonio Intriago, a security firm owner; James Solages, a Haitian-American handyman; and Walter Veintemilla — were found guilty of conspiracy to kill a person outside the United States resulting in death, and of providing material support for that crime. Each now faces life in prison.
Over nine weeks, prosecutors detailed how the four men recruited and equipped roughly two dozen former Colombian soldiers — providing money, weapons, ammunition, and tactical gear — and dispatched them to Moïse's hillside residence above Port-au-Prince, where the 53-year-old president was shot dead. The assassination fractured Haiti's already fragile political institutions and created conditions in which powerful criminal gangs expanded their grip across the country.
The defense offered a starkly different account: their clients had only sought to serve an arrest warrant on a president who had illegally extended his term, and by the time the mercenaries arrived, Moïse was already dead — killed by his own security forces. "This is a Haitian plot and it is a Haitian conspiracy," one defense attorney argued, framing the four men as scapegoats in a flawed investigation.
The convictions represent a milestone, but not a conclusion. A fifth defendant, Haitian-born doctor Christian Emmanuel Sanon — who prosecutors say hoped to ascend to the presidency in Moïse's wake — has yet to stand trial due to health issues. Researchers and investigators caution that the Miami case illuminates only a narrow slice of a far broader conspiracy. "The big picture," said one Washington-based analyst, "is that we're not going to get the full story here." Haiti continues to bear the consequences: political instability, gang violence, and a question of ultimate responsibility that no single verdict has yet resolved.
A Miami federal court convicted four South Florida men on Friday of orchestrating the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021. The men—Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, a former FBI informant and Colombian national; Antonio Intriago, a Venezuelan-American security firm owner; James Solages, a Haitian-American handyman; and Walter Veintemilla, an Ecuadorian American—were found guilty of conspiracy to kill and kidnap a person outside the United States resulting in death, as well as providing material support to carry out that violation. Each faces life in prison.
Prosecutors spent nine weeks laying out their case: the four men had assembled roughly two dozen former Colombian soldiers, supplied them with money, guns, ammunition, and tactical vests, and sent them to Moïse's private residence in the hills above Port-au-Prince to execute him. The 53-year-old president was shot dead in his home in July 2021, an event that fractured Haiti's already fragile political order and created space for powerful criminal gangs to consolidate control across the nation.
The defense mounted a different narrative. Their lawyers argued that the government had relied on unreliable evidence gathered in Haiti and that their clients had never intended to assassinate anyone—only to serve an arrest warrant on a president who had illegally extended his term beyond its February 2021 expiration. They went further, claiming that by the time the Colombian soldiers arrived, Moïse was already dead, killed by his own security forces and government officials. "This is a Haitian plot and it is a Haitian conspiracy," one defense attorney told the court, suggesting the four men were being used as scapegoats in a flawed FBI investigation.
The conviction marks a significant moment in the ongoing effort to assign responsibility for Moïse's death, but it may not resolve the fundamental questions about who truly orchestrated the killing or why. A fifth defendant, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a Haitian-born doctor who prosecutors say hoped to become president after Moïse's death, has not yet stood trial due to health issues. Multiple investigations continue in both Haiti and the United States, each uncovering competing theories and implicating different actors.
Jake Johnston, a research associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, cautioned against viewing the Miami convictions as a complete accounting. "The Miami crew is just a small sliver," he said. "There are all these people accused in Haiti. The big picture is that we're not going to get the full story here." The assassination created a political vacuum that Haiti has struggled to fill, and the violence it unleashed—gang warfare, kidnappings, displacement—continues to destabilize the country. The four men now convicted may face decades in prison, but the larger architecture of the conspiracy, and the question of who truly wanted Moïse dead, remains partially obscured.
Citas Notables
This is a Haitian plot and it is a Haitian conspiracy— Defense attorney Emmanuel Perez, arguing his clients were scapegoats
The Miami crew is just a small sliver. There are all these people accused in Haiti. The big picture is that we're not going to get the full story here.— Jake Johnston, Center for Economic and Policy Research
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why would four men in South Florida care enough about Haiti's politics to hire mercenaries to kill its president?
That's the question nobody's fully answered. The prosecution says they did it, but the defense suggests they were middlemen—facilitators for a larger Haitian plot they may not have fully understood or controlled.
The defense claimed Moïse was already dead when the Colombians arrived. Is there evidence for that?
Not that the jury found convincing. But it points to something real: there were Haitian security forces and government officials in that house. The killing happened in a context of internal power struggles, not just an external conspiracy.
What about the fifth defendant, the doctor who wanted to be president?
He's still waiting for trial. His case might tell us more about motive—whether this was about removing an obstacle to power, or something else entirely.
Does this conviction actually solve anything for Haiti?
It puts four men in prison. But Johnston's right—it's a small piece. The gangs are still running Port-au-Prince. The political instability Moïse's death created is still there. This trial answered a legal question, not a political one.
So Haiti still doesn't know who really wanted him dead?
Not definitively. And that uncertainty itself is destabilizing. When a president is killed and the full story stays hidden, it invites more conspiracy, more violence, more loss of faith in institutions.