translated from Spanish: 17 arrested for assassination of Haiti’s president

Port-au-Prince .- Haiti on Thursday stepped up the police operation to capture the perpetrators of the assassination of President Jovenel Moise and announced the arrest of 17 of the 28 suspects involved, mostly Colombians. Fifteen Colombians and two Americans of Haitian origin are in police custody, while three other Colombian citizens were killed in shootouts with security forces, according to the first official report revealing the nationality of the alleged “mercenaries.” The other eight members of the commando who participated in the assault on Moise’s residence in the early hours of Wednesday, also Colombians, are on the run and are “actively” wanted, according to Police Director General Léon Charles.Read more: Joe Biden condemns the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel MoïseAfter this announcement, the Colombian Government reported that six of those detained in Port-au-Prince are retired members of the South American country’s Army. Citizen collaboration in arrests Police operations on Thursday had the support of dozens of anonymous citizens, who found and caught two of the suspects who were hiding in the Jalousie neighborhood of the Haitian capital. The foreigners were tied up with ropes and taken to the police station in the Pétion-Ville neighbourhood, where a mob swumled around to try to lynch the detainees and then set fire to three cars allegedly belonging to the gang. After these scenes, the interim prime minister, Claude Joseph, who is at the helm of the country after the death of Moise, again called on the population to remain calm and to avoid acts of vandalism. Read more: Alleged Gulf Cartel plaza chief arrested in VeracruzThe Office for the Protection of citizens (OPC), an independent human rights promotion body, warned that it is witnessing “a hunt against Latin Americans under the pretext of looking for mercenaries.” Since news of the assassination broke on Wednesday, several foreign embassies have advised their citizens to avoid leaving their homes. Despite these tensions and the state of siege decreed on Wednesday, the government on Thursday took the first steps to return to normalcy, with the reopening of port-au-prince’s international airport and an appeal to officials to return to their jobs. International investigation Knowing the involvement of 28 foreigners, the Haitian government asked for international support to investigate the murder, according to the UN envoy to the country, Helen La Lime, on the sidelines of a closed-door meeting of the Security Council convened urgently to address the crisis in the Caribbean nation. The Colombian Government said it had received a formal request for information through Interpol on Thursday and promised to send dates, flight times and financial information to the authorities. The White House said it wants to help in the investigation of the assassination, but said that for now it has not received any request for assistance from Haiti.During the Meeting of the Security Council, the Dominican Republic was the country that most vehemently defended the need to provide assistance to Haiti to ensure the security of the country and prevent that instability from spreading to its territory. Read more: Rapper Lil Baby and basketball player James Harden arrested for drug possession in ParisThe Dominican ambassador to the UN, José A. Blanco, said that the authorities of his country do not have any information so far that the killers have traveled from their country or have fled to the Dominican Republic.International support for Joseph At the international level , Joseph received on Thursday the express support of the UN and the United States, after in Haiti was questioned his legitimacy to be in charge of the Executive.The United States assured that it will continue to work with Joseph in his role as prime minister, since he was in that position before the assassination, according to the spokesman of the State Department , Ned Price.La UN representative for Haiti, Helen La Lime, also supported Joseph as prime minister, despite admitting that there are “certain tensions” and different interpretations of the Constitution regarding presidential succession. Read more: Authorities arrest man in possession of gun in Choix Joseph’s legitimacy has been called into question by Ariel Henry, whom Moise named prime minister last Monday, in the latest decree he signed. Henry, who did not take office, said he does not intend to “add fuel to the fire,” but asked to speak to Joseph with the intention of constto reach a consensus with the opposition and to reduce political tensions until the elections, scheduled for 26 September. Alive and kicking! Rescue the second dolphin stranded in Drain of Navolato

Original source in Spanish