Report: Seventeen Detained In Haiti Assassination; Two Americans Claim They Only Translated, Judge Says

Over a dozen presumed South American nationals and two U.S. citizens of Haitian descent have been detained on suspicion of participating in the assassination Haitian President Jovenel Moise, and even more perpetrators are still believed to be at-large, the Haitian National Police revealed Friday. 

According to The New York Times, a Haitian official claimed that the two American suspects said they were only providing translation services to the group, which surrounded the president’s home before dawn Wednesday. Witness accounts indicate that the group appeared to be “DEA agents.”

The translation claims were provided to The New York Times by Clément Noël, a Haitian judge who says he interviewed the two Americans as part of the investigation into the president’s death. The two said they had been told, according to the judge, that the group of men would bring Moise to the national palace, which has been in disuse since the 2010 earthquake. 

James Solages, 35, one of the American suspects, was allegedly responsible for shouting at the president’s residence in English, over a loudspeaker prior to the assault, that the group of men were with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. (According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has an official presence on the island.) Solages, who has reportedly previously lived in Florida, claims he found the translation job online. 

The other American, Joseph Vincent, is 55 and has been living in Haiti for six months, according to The New York Times, which cited Noël’s interview, in which Noël told the Times he had spoken with both of the American men. Solages, Noël claims, that he has been in Haiti for the last month. 

Both of the men reportedly told Noël that they were not in the room when Moise was assassinated. 

The Haitian authorities said Friday that they have arrested 15 men of Columbian descent, in addition to the two men they say hold dual citizenship between the United States and Haiti, reports the Associated Press. The Haitian police also say three suspects have been killed and seven remain missing — figures that, if accurate, would put the total number of assailants at twenty-eight.

The Colombian government has confirmed that six of the men were retired from the military , reports Reuters. Furthermore, all of the other suspects are believed to be of Colombian descent, at least four of whom crossed into Haiti through the Dominican Republican, which shares and island with Haiti, in early June. 

“We are going to bring them to justice,” said the Haitian Chief of National Police Léon Charles during a press conference, reportedly flanked by arrestees sitting on the floor. 

The late Hatian president’s wife, Martine Moise, was also injured in the attack but survived. She has since been evacuated to Miami, Florida, for hospital treatment. 

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