Colombia's police director on Friday said that 17 former Colombian soldiers are thought to have been involved in the assassination of Haiti's President Jovenel Moise.
Two men who had died at the hands of Haitian police and 15 others under suspicion "may have belonged to the national army" of Colombia, having left it between 2018 and 2020, General Jorge Luis Vargas told a press conference.
The Colombian authorities did not specify the men's army careers or the reason for their departure from service.
Colombia's El Tiempo newspaper said among those arrested was Manuel Antonio Grosso Guarin, 40, one of the country's most experienced soldiers.
Haitian police identified the two who died in crossfire with police are Haitian Americans - James Solages, 35, and Joseph Vincent, 55.
Moise was shot dead in a pre-dawn attack Wednesday by a 28-member hit squad made up of 26 Colombians and two Americans of Haitian origin, Haiti's police chief Leon Charles said. The president's wife, Martine, was wounded.
According to the police chief, three members of the hit squad were killed by police and 17 taken into custody. Eight remain at large.
Investigation underway
The United States and Colombia said on Friday they will send law enforcement and intelligence officials to assist Haiti after a number of their nationals were arrested for the assassination.
A judge investigating the case told reporters that Moise was found lying on his back on the floor of his bedroom, with 12 bullet wounds and his left eye pushed in. The front door of the residence was covered in bullet holes and had been forced open, while other rooms were ransacked.
"His body was riddled with bullets," Petionville tribunal judge Carl Henry Destin said. "There was a lot of blood around the corpse and on the staircase."
The United States on Thursday pledged to send senior officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to Haiti as soon as possible to assess the situation and see how best they can assist, the White House said.
Two U.S. law enforcement sources, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an active investigation, said that agencies were looking into U.S. connections to the killing.
A State Department spokesperson said, "We are aware of the arrest of two U.S. citizens in Haiti and are monitoring the situation closely. Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment."
The head of Colombia's national intelligence directorate and the intelligence director for the national police will also travel to Haiti with Interpol to help with investigations, Colombian President Ivan Duque said on Friday.
"We offer all possible help to find out the truth about the material and intellectual perpetrators of the assassination," Duque wrote on Twitter, saying he had just spoken on the phone with Haiti's interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph.
Haitian officials have not given a motive for Moise's killing or explained how the assassins got past his security details.
Request for UN troops
Haiti has requested the United Nations send troops to help secure the country, in particular key infrastructure, after the assassination, according to a letter from the prime minister's office to the UN offices in Haiti reviewed by Reuters.
The letter dated July 7 – the day Moise was shot dead in his home – said the aim was "to support the efforts of the national police aiming to reestablish security and public order in the whole territory."
The 15-member UN Security Council would need to authorize a deployment of UN peacekeepers or police to Haiti.
Haiti declared a "state of siege" hours after the president was assassinated, granting the executive additional powers.
(With input from Afrosky News)
(Cover: Jovenel Moise, Haiti's president, listens during an interview in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, January 29, 2018. /Getty)
