Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in a U.S. federal court in Miami in the trial of five men accused of involvement in the 2021 assassination of Jovenel Moïse. The defendants are charged with conspiring in South Florida to kidnap or kill the Haitian leader as part of a plot to remove him from power.
The five men — Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla, Christian Sanon and James Solages — face multiple charges and could receive life sentences if convicted. All have pleaded not guilty.
The trial had originally been scheduled for last year but was postponed after U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra approved a delay due to discovery issues and the large volume of evidence involved in the case.
Five other individuals have already pleaded guilty in connection with the conspiracy and are serving life sentences in U.S. prisons. A sixth defendant received a nine-year sentence after pleading guilty to providing body armor to the conspirators, though authorities said he was not aware of the assassination plot.
Moïse was killed on July 7, 2021, when a group of about two dozen foreign mercenaries — most of them former soldiers from Colombia — stormed his private residence near Port-au-Prince. His wife, Martine Moïse, was wounded during the attack and later flown to the United States for emergency medical treatment.
According to court documents, South Florida served as a key hub for planning and financing the plot to overthrow Moïse and install a new leader favored by the conspirators.
Prosecutors say Ortiz and Intriago were principals of Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy and Counter Terrorist Unit Security, collectively known as CTU, while Veintemilla was a principal of Worldwide Capital Lending Group. Both companies were based in South Florida.
Investigators say Sanon, a dual Haitian-American citizen, was initially promoted by the conspirators as a potential replacement for Moïse. Solages, who represented CTU in Haiti, allegedly coordinated with Sanon and other co-conspirators.
Court filings indicate that members of the group met in South Florida in April 2021 and agreed that, if Sanon assumed power, he would award major infrastructure, security and military equipment contracts to CTU. Prosecutors say Worldwide Capital Lending Group agreed to help finance the effort by extending a US$175,000 line of credit to CTU and sending money to Haiti to purchase ammunition.
CTU initially hired about 20 Colombian nationals with military training to provide security for Sanon. By June 2021, however, the conspirators determined that Sanon did not meet the constitutional requirements to serve as president and lacked sufficient public support.
They then shifted their backing to Wendelle Coq Thélot, a former Haitian Supreme Court judge. Thélot remained a fugitive until her death in January 2025.
In addition to the 11 people arrested and prosecuted in the United States, another 20 suspects — including 17 Colombian soldiers and three Haitian officials — have been charged in Haiti. However, the investigation there has been hampered by gang violence, death threats and the country’s weakened judicial system.
