Retired Columbian Soldier Pleads Guilty in Conspiring to Assassinate Haitian president
MIAMI, FL – A former Colombian soldier on Thursday pleaded guilty when he appeared in a Miami court in connection with the 2021 assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moïse.
According to the plea agreement reached with federal prosecutors, Germán Rivera, 45, admitted to partaking in “a conspiracy to kill and kidnap a person outside of the United States” that resulted in Moïse’s death.
In a statement filed in court Thursday prosecutors said Rivera met with co-conspirators in person in Haiti and virtually in south Florida, where they discussed “methods for carrying out the operation and the need to acquire weapons to facilitate the operation”.
Moïse was gunned down at his home in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, the capital, on July 7 2021, and his wife was wounded.
According to court documents, on the night of the assassination, “Rivera and his conspirators set out in a convoy towards the president’s residence,” and the co-conspirators entered the presidential residence “with the intent and purpose” of killing Moïse.
The prosecutors said “Rivera provided training, advice, and assistance, including with respect to operational planning to facilitate the operation” that killed Moïse.
To date, 18 Colombians have been jailed in Haiti over the assassination, while a number of Haitians — including members of Moïse’s security detail — have also been captured.
Rivera is the second defendant to plead guilty, after Rodolphe Jaar, a Haitian-Chilean with a conviction for dealing drugs. In June, Jaar was sentenced to life imprisonment for providing weapons and support to his co-conspirators.
Rivera’s sentencing hearing has been set for October 27 in Miami. Henry — alongside the US, UN, and some Caribbean nations — has called for an international force to tackle the security crisis, though many countries are wary of leading such an operation in Haiti, where previous interventions have gone badly.
A delegation from Kenya met last month with Haitian officials as the African nation weighs leading a multinational force, though such an operation has not yet materialized.
