Haiti asks U.S. for military aid to stabilize country in shock after assassination

Haiti's interim government said Friday that it asked the U.S. to deploy troops to protect key infrastructure as it tries to stabilize the country and prepare the way for elections in the aftermath of the assassination of President Jovenel Mose.

"We definitely need assistance and we've asked our international partners for help," interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph told The Associated Press in an interview, declining to provide further details. "We believe our partners can assist the national police in resolving the situation."

Joseph said that he was dismayed by opponents who've tried to take advantage of Mose's murder to seize political power an indirect reference to a group of lawmakers that have declared their loyalty and recognized Joseph Lambert, the head of Haiti's dismantled senate, as provisional president and Ariel Henry, whom Mose designated as prime minister a day before he was killed, as prime minister.

"I'm not interested in a power struggle," Joseph said in the brief phone interview, without mentioning Lambert by name. "There's only one way people can become president in Haiti. And that's through elections."

Joseph spoke just hours after the head of Colombia's police said that the Colombians implicated in Mose's assassination were recruited by four companies and traveled to the Caribbean nation in two groups via the Dominican Republic. Meanwhile, the U.S. said it would send senior FBI and Homeland Security officials to help in the investigation.

Haitian National Police Chief Leon Charles said 17 suspects have been detained in the brazen killing of Mose that stunned a nation already reeling from poverty, widespread violence and political instability.

2 Haitian-Americans detained

As the investigation moved forward, the killing took on the air of a complicated international conspiracy. Besides the Colombians, among those detained by police were two Haitian-Americans, who have been described as translators for the attackers. Some of the suspects were seized in a raid on Taiwan's Embassy where they are believed to have sought refuge.

At a news conference in Colombia's capital of Bogota, Gen. Jorge Luis Vargas Valencia said four companies had been involved in the "recruitment, the gathering of these people" implicated in the assassination, although he did not identify the companies because their names were still being verified.

Two of the suspects traveled to Haiti via Panama and the Dominican Republic, Vargas said, while a second group of 11 arrived in Haiti on July 4 from the Dominican Republic.

In Washington, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said senior FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials will be sent to Haiti "as soon as possible to assess the situation and how we may be able to assist."

"The United States remains engaged and in close consultations with our Haitian and international partners to support the Haitian people in the aftermath of the assassination of the president," Psaki said.

Following Haiti's request for U.S. troops, a senior administration official reiterated Psaki's earlier comments that the administration is sending officials to assess how it can be most helpful, but added there are no plans to provide military assistance at this time.

The U.S. sent troops to Haiti following the last presidential assassination in the country, the murder of President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam in 1915 at the hands of an angry mob that had raided the French Embassy where he had sought refuge.

In Haiti, Charles said another eight suspects were still at large and being sought for

Investigative Judge Clement Noel told the French-language newspaper Le Nouvelliste that the Haitian-Americans arrested, James Solages and Joseph Vincent, said the attackers originally planned only to arrest Moise, not kill him. Noel said Solages and Vincent were acting as translators for the attackers.

Solagessaid he worked at Canadian Embassy

Solages, 35, described himself as a "certified diplomatic agent," an advocate for children and budding politician on a now-removed website for a charity he started in 2019 in south Florida to assist residents of his home town of Jacmel, on Haiti's southern coast.

Solages also said he had worked as a bodyguard at the Canadian Embassy in Haiti, and on his Facebook page, which was also taken down after news of his arrest, he showcased photos of armoured military vehicles and a shot of himself standing in front of an American flag.

Canada's foreign relation department released a statement that did not refer to Solages by name but said one of the men detained for his alleged role in the killing had been "briefly employed as a reserve bodyguard" at its embassy by a private contractor.

Calls to the charity and Solages's associates went unanswered. However, a relative in south Florida said Solages doesn't have any military training and doesn't believe he was involved in the killing.

"I feel like my son killed my brother because I love my president and I love James Solages," Schubert Dorisme, whose wife is Solages's aunt, told WPLG in Miami.

WATCH |Jean calls for independent investigation:

'Who in the country was capable of sponsoring and organizing such a criminal operation?': Michalle Jean

3 years ago

Duration 11:20

Former governor general Michalle Jean, who hails from Haiti, joined Power & Politics Thursday to discuss the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Mose and what it means for the future of the Caribbean nation.

Canada's former governor general, Michalle Jean, who was born in Haiti, says the investigation into the assassination will require international support because the country's national police service has been infiltrated by criminal organizations.

"I think the police itself,the national police itself,has been so much infiltrated by... criminal organizations that it will take some help coming from an independent party,foreign support,to carry out this investigation," Jean told CBC News Network'sPower & PoliticsThursday.