Miami — Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in the US federal trial of five men accused of the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise.
Arcangel Brettel Ortiz, Antonio Entreago, Walter Vintemilla, Christian Sanon and James Soulages are charged with conspiring in South Florida to kidnap or kill the former Haitian leader, in addition to related charges. They face possible life imprisonment. They all pleaded not guilty.
The trial was scheduled to take place last year, but U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra in Miami agreed to postpone the case because of discovery challenges and the sheer volume of evidence.
Five others have already pleaded guilty to the conspiracy and are serving life sentences. A sixth person, who officials believe was not aware of the assassination plot, was sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to providing body armor to the conspirators.
Officials said Moise was killed on July 7, 2021, when about two dozen foreign mercenaries, mostly from Colombia, attacked his home near Port-au-Prince. Moise’s wife, Martine, was injured during the attack and was 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 Moïse and replace him with a person of the conspirators’ choosing.
Ortiz and Intriago were lead directors of the Federal Academy’s Counter-Terrorism Unit and the Security Counter-Terrorism Unit, known collectively as the CTU, and Ventimiella was a director of the Worldwide Capital Lending Group. Both companies are based in South Florida.
Sanon is a Haitian-American citizen who investigators say was initially favored by conspirators to replace Moise. Officials said Solage was a representative of the counterterrorism unit in Haiti and coordinated with Sanon and others.
Investigators said the conspirators met in South Florida in April 2021 and agreed that once Sanon came to power, she would award contracts to the CTU for infrastructure projects, security forces and military equipment. Worldwide Capital agreed to help finance the coup, providing a $175,000 line of credit to the counterterrorism unit and sending money to plotters in Haiti to buy ammunition, officials said.
The CTU initially retained about 20 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 enough popular support to become president. Then they supported Wendell Cook Thelotformer judge of the Supreme Court of Haiti. She died in January 2025 while still on the run.
In addition to the 11 people arrested and tried in the United States, 20 others, including 17 Colombian soldiers and three Haitian officials, face charges in Haiti. Gang violence Death threats The crumbling judicial system has hampered the ongoing investigation.