墨西哥城-刑事控告的细节读起来像间谍惊悚片。
但是周三在迈阿密联邦法院提出的四份起诉书讲述了一个非常真实的故事总统暗杀这让海地陷入混乱近两年，留给海地人民的是一个虚弱的政府和致命的挑战——帮派统治、霍乱和饥饿是其中主要的挑战，距离美国海岸只有几英里。
总共有七名嫌疑人现在被美国拘留，面临与2021年7月有关的指控约韦内尔·莫塞遇刺包括周三被传讯的四人:海地裔美国公民詹姆斯·索拉吉斯、约瑟夫·文森特和克里斯蒂安·伊曼纽尔·萨侬，以及哥伦比亚公民赫尔曼·里维拉·加西亚
相比之下，海地的案件本身尚未产生任何起诉，现在是在一系列死亡威胁中的第五位法官。代理总统阿里埃勒·亨利(Ariel Henry)的政府是在莫泽遇刺几周后在美国和欧洲的支持下成立的，该政府对此案的陈述受到了一些质疑，本周佛罗里达州南区的指控进一步加剧了这种质疑。
举例来说，萨侬被海地当局指控为这场冲突的核心人物阴谋暗杀—在谋杀发生几天后被捕。
但值得注意的是，司法部没有指控他阴谋实施谋杀或绑架。事实上，他正面临另一项走私指控的刑事指控。
这并不是说美国调查人员认为他没有参与这一阴谋。美国司法部周二表示，萨侬寻求在海地建立自己的“私人军事”力量，并希望取代莫塞担任总统。
但针对其他三名嫌疑人的刑事指控称，在暗杀发生前一个月，萨侬不再被视为莫泽的“可行”替代者，批评者指责莫泽非法夺权。
这不是第一次有人对亨利政府对此案的陈述提出质疑。据美联社(Associated Press)报道，当萨侬在2021年7月被捕时，他的同事们说他是被陷害的。
“萨侬告诉[一名助手]，声称代表美国国务院和司法部的人找过他，想让他当总统。他说计划是逮捕莫泽，而不是杀死他，如果萨侬知道莫泽会被暗杀，他是不会参与的，”美联社当时报道。
索拉吉斯和其他人没有去找萨侬，而是去找了前最高法院大法官温德尔·科克·泰洛特，据称是为了让她在莫泽遇害前几周提出的为逮捕莫泽提供物质支持的请求上签字。她仍然在逃，被海地当局通缉。
Solages在6月下旬前往佛罗里达州南部时准备了这份文件，向一家私人保安公司索要枪支和其他设备，并帮助协调了一队哥伦比亚雇佣军，其中包括里维拉。
当时，据报道，该集团的大多数人认为，该计划是绑架莫伊塞，包括一个无耻的阴谋，窃取一架飞机，并带他离开太子港机场。最终，根据法庭文件，“当阴谋者未能获得飞机和行动所需的武器时”，该阴谋没有进行下去。
后来，阴谋转移到杀害有争议的，四面楚歌的总统，但不清楚谁实际上知道这是一个计划，甚至直到它被执行的前一天。
根据法庭文件，在2021年7月6日分发枪支和设备时，Solages“错误地告诉聚集在一起的人这是一次‘中央情报局行动’，实质上是说，这次任务是杀死总统莫伊塞。根据法庭文件，在暗杀一年后的一次监狱采访中，文森特还告诉美国调查人员，成员们只是在“几天前”才“接受”杀害莫伊兹的想法。
但Solages同时告诉调查人员，他“在6月中旬”就知道杀害莫伊兹是计划——这加剧了人们的怀疑，即其他人可能是被陷害的，或者是其他人在幕后操纵。
为什么阴谋转移到杀害莫伊兹，为什么他的总统卫队没有更好地保护他仍然是关键问题，即使在美国联邦法院的七次起诉后也没有得到回答。
莫泽遇害19个月后，海地政府仍处于混乱之中。一批参议员上个月任期结束后，就没有民选官员了。这包括亨利，许多海地人认为他是非法的，因为他是在美国和欧洲的支持下通过权力分享协议上台的。就在暗杀发生的前几天，他被任命为莫塞的总理，但还没有就职——对一些人来说，他的任命是违宪的，因为他没有当选。
作为治理的漏洞，帮派通过控制更多的领土，包括在首都，掌握了更大的权力。去年秋天，黑帮关闭了这个国家，切断了所需的燃料和食品进口。
美国和加拿大等盟国一直支持的一个机构是国家警察部队。但是上周，由于缺乏当地的支持，警察发生了骚乱，特别是在帮派在几天内杀害了十几名警察之后。当亨利从阿根廷返回时，这些抗议针对亨利的办公室和机场，短暂地阻止他离开设施。
混乱也引发了公共卫生挑战。根据海地公共卫生和人口部的数据，霍乱再次蔓延，在过去四个月中造成约500人死亡，超过25，000人感染。
联合国甚至对饥荒发出了警告，根据其定义，饥荒意味着人们开始死于饥饿。
世界粮食计划署驻海地负责人让·马丁·鲍尔(Jean-Martin Bauer)去年12月说，“很难相信，距离迈阿密仅两个小时的飞行路程，就有惊人的470万人——占海地人口的一半——正处于粮食危机的痛苦之中。”。
What we've learned from the latest charges in plot to kill Haitian president
Mexico City -- The details of the criminal complaint read like a spy thriller.
But the four indictments laid out in federal court in Miami on Wednesday tell the very real story of a presidential assassination that has thrown Haiti into chaos for nearly two years, leaving the Haitian people with a feeble government and deadly challenges—gang rule, cholera and hunger chief among them, just miles from American shores.
In total, seven suspects are now in U.S. custody and facing charges related to the July 2021 assassination of Jovenel Moïse, including the four arraigned Wednesday: Haitian-American citizens James Solages, Joseph Vincent and Christian Emmanuel Sanon, and Colombian citizen Germán Rivera García.
In contrast, the case in Haiti itself has yet to yield any indictments and is now on its fifth judge amid a string of death threats. The narrative of the case by the government of acting President Ariel Henry, installed just weeks after Moïse's assassination with U.S. and European backing, has faced some skepticism, fueled further by this week's charges in Florida's Southern District.
Sanon, for example, was alleged by Haitian authorities to be a key player at the center of the assassination plot—was arrested days after the killing.
But notably, the Justice Department didn't charge him with conspiracy to commit murder or kidnapping. In fact, he's instead facing a separate criminal complaint of smuggling charges.
That's not to say that U.S. investigators believe he wasn't involved in the plot. The Justice Department said Tuesday that Sanon sought to build his own "private military" force in Haiti and wanted to replace Moïse as president.
But the criminal complaint against the other three suspects alleged that one month before the assassination, Sanon was no longer seen as a "viable" replacement for Moïse, who critics accused of an illegal power grab.
It's not the first time doubts have been cast on the Henry government's narrative of the case. When Sanon was arrested in July 2021, associates were saying then that he was set up, according to The Associated Press.
"Sanon told [an associate] he was approached by people claiming to represent the U.S. State and Justice Departments, who wanted to install him as president. He said the plan was for Moïse to be arrested, not killed, and Sanon would not have participated if he knew Moïse would be assassinated," the AP reported at the time.
Instead of Sanon, Solages and others turned to a former Supreme Court justice, Windelle Coq Thélot, allegedly securing her signature on a plea for material support to arrest Moïse made just weeks before his killing. She remains on the run, wanted by Haitian authorities.
Solages prepared that document in late June during a trip to southern Florida, requesting guns and other equipment from a private security firm and helping coordinate a team of Colombian mercenaries for the job, including Rivera.
At that point, most of the group reportedly believed the plan was to kidnap Moïse, including an outrageous plot to steal a plane and whisk him away from Port-au-Prince's airport. Ultimately, that plot "did not go forward when the conspirators failed to obtain the plane and necessary weapons for the operation," according to court documents.
Afterward, the plot shifted to killing the controversial, embattled president, but it's unclear who actually knew that was the plan, even up until the day before it was to be executed.
As guns and equipment were being distributed on July 6, 2021, according to court documents, Solages "falsely told those gathered that it was a 'CIA Operation,' and, in substance, said that the mission was to kill President Moïse. During a jailhouse interview one year after the assassination, Vincent also told U.S. investigators that members "accepted" the idea of killing Moïse only "a few days prior," per court documents.
But Solages told investigators at the same time that he knew "by mid-June" that killing Moïse was the plan—fueling suspicions that the others could have been set up or that other individuals were pulling the strings.
Why the plot shifted to killing Moïse and why his presidential guards didn't better protect him remain key questions, left unanswered even after seven indictments in U.S. federal court.
Nineteen months after Moïse's murder, Haiti's government remains in chaos. There are no elected officials left, after a group of senators finished their terms last month. That includes Henry, seen as illegitimate by many Haitians because he was put in office by a power-sharing agreement, with U.S. and European backing. He had been named Moïse's prime minister just days before the assassination, but had not yet been installed—and to some, his appointment was unconstitutional because he had not been elected.
As governance craters, gangs have commanded even greater authority, by controlling more territory, including in the capital. Last fall, gangs were able to shut the country down, cutting it off from needed fuel and food imports.
The one institution the U.S., and allies like Canada, have continued to support is the national police force. But last week, police rioted because of a lack of local support, especially after gangs killed over a dozen officers in as many days. Those protests targeted Henry's offices and the airport as Henry returned from Argentina, briefly impeding him from leaving the facility.
The chaos has fueled a public health challenge, too. Cholera is once again spreading, killing approximately 500 people in the last four months and infecting over 25,000, according to the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population.
The United Nations has even warned of famine, which by its definition means when people have started dying of starvation.
"It's difficult to believe that a mere two hours' flight from Miami, a staggering 4.7 million people—half of Haiti's population—are in the throes of a food crisis," Jean-Martin Bauer, the head of the World Food Program in Haiti, said in December.
