MOÏSE DEATH PLOT BARED

While he was in Jamaica, Colombian fugitive Mario Antonio Palacios voluntarily gave statements to United States (US) law-enforcement authorities about his involvement in the plot to assassinate former Haitian President Jovenel Moϊse, a senior American investigator has revealed.

According to Michael Ferlazzo, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Palacios initiated the talks in October last year.

It is unclear whether the talks occurred before Palacios, a former Colombian military officer, was captured in central Jamaica on October 8 last year.

But according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Florida, Ferlazzo said Palacios admitted that he was hired to travel to Haiti to “provide security” and then “participate in the arrest warrant operation”.

Witness interviews, a review of records, and seized electronic evidence revealed that from as early as June last year, Palacios was among a group of 20 Colombians with military training who were recruited to execute a purported arrest warrant for Moϊse, the FBI agent claimed.

“The initial plan was to ‘extract’ President Moϊse from Haiti on or about June 18, 2021. That plan was abandoned when the co-conspirators failed to secure a private plane to spirit the president away from Haiti,” he explained.

But by June 28, according to Ferlazzo, “certain co-conspirators had knowledge or at least believed” that the plan was to assassinate rather than to kidnap Haiti’s 58th president.

He said Palacios, during the talks from Jamaica, spoke about the initial plan to capture Moϊse at the airport where his co-conspirators would “don black hoodies and take away the president by plane”.

The former Colombian military officer was convicted on October 15 for illegally entering Jamaica and opted to serve the five-day prison sentence because he could not pay the $8,000 fine.

He spent two months in custody before the Jamaican Supreme Court ruled last Friday that authorities here enforce an order, signed by National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang on November 24, for his deportation.

Palacios was en route to his homeland on Monday when he was intercepted by US law-enforcement personnel in Panama and transported to the state of Florida.

The US Department of Justice confirmed on Tuesday that Palacios, 43, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder or kidnapping outside the US, a charge that is related to Moϊse’s assassination.

He is also facing a charge of providing material support resulting in death, knowing or intending that such material support would be used to prepare for, or carry out the conspiracy to kill or kidnap.

The charges are based on a criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of Florida.

The Sunday Gleaner, citing three alleged co-conspirators who spoke to investigators in Haiti, reported last week that Palacios and a band of mostly heavily armed ex-Colombian soldiers were inside Moϊse’s private quarters at the time the Haitian president was assassinated.

The accounts of the alleged co-conspirators are contained in a leaked report authored by Haitian investigative authorities, which detailed how the accused Colombian assassins were contracted for US$2,700 a month and began arriving in the Caribbean country up to one month before executing their deadly mission.

But there is no indication, based on the accounts of the alleged accomplices, whether Palacios was directly involved in the July 7, 2021, killing.

Moϊse was reportedly shot 12 times and had bullet wounds to his forehead and several to his torso. His left eye had been gouged out and bones in his arm and in his ankle had reportedly been broken.

His wife, Martine Moϊse, was also shot in the incident, but survived.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com