Miami — Greed, arrogance and power were the driving forces behind four men being charged in the US with a 2021 murder. The last elected president of Haiti, Jovenel Moiseprosecutors said Tuesday during opening statements.
Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys have begun delivering opening statements in the trial in Miami of Arcangel Brittle Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Ventimiglia and James Soulages. They are accused of conspiring in South Florida to kidnap or kill Haiti’s former leader. The assassination of Moise led to unprecedented unrest in the Caribbean country, where gang leaders are on the rise Increasingly violent and empowering.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean McLaughlin said jury The case against the four men was not complicated: they wanted to seize power and get rich.
“The evidence is very arrogant and self-confident, doesn’t think much about the Republic of Haiti and its people, and actually thought she could make it happen,” McLaughlin said.
Defense lawyers argued that the investigation launched in Haiti was in disarray and that their clients had been manipulated to take the blame for the internal coup.
“Once things start going wrong, it’s hard to trust everything that comes next,” Ortiz’s attorney, Orlando de Campo, said.
Moise was killed on July 7, 2021, when about two dozen foreign mercenaries — mostly from Colombia — attacked his home near Port-au-Prince, officials said. According to court documents, South Florida was a central location for the planning and financing of 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.
The three men face possible life imprisonment. Each pleaded not guilty. U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra blocked more than two months of trial.
Investigators say the conspirators initially favored Christian Sanon, a dual Haitian-American citizen, 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. The conspirators also spent months obtaining weapons and body armor and trying to build relationships with Haitian gangs, officials said.
By June 2021, the conspirators realized that Sanon had neither the constitutional qualifications nor sufficient 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.
Defense lawyers told jurors that Sanon approached their client in early 2021 with plans to liberate Haiti from Moise, who had overstayed his term as president and faced criticism from Haitian citizens, American politicians and UN officials.
Emmanuel Perez, Intriago’s lawyer, said the group was working with FBI agents, U.S. embassy officials and members of the Haitian government in what they believed was the lawful arrest of a criminal boss.
Defense noted Joseph Felix Badioua former Haitian government employee who is arrested in Haiti 2023, as the mastermind behind a plan to use the president’s arrest to assassinate Moïse. Defense lawyers claim that Moïse had already been killed by men dressed as Haitian police officers when Colombian security forces arrived to arrest him.
Jonathan Friedman, Solages’ attorney, said the group had a real arrest warrant signed by a judge. The judge later claimed that the arrest warrant was signed under duress.
“None of the people on trial knew that,” Friedman said.
Maricel Descalzo, Ventimiella’s lawyer, reserved the right to file her editorial after the government presents its case.
Five others have previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in the United States and are serving life sentences. A sixth person was sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to providing body armor to the conspirators. Sanon’s trial date is scheduled to be set at a later date.
17 Colombian soldiers and three Haitian officials face charges in Haiti. Gang violence Death threats The crumbling judicial system hampered the investigation.