Mystery surrounds suspected mastermind of Haiti presidential assassination plot

A Haitian man who has been arrested on suspicion of playing a leading role in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse appears to have presented himself as a potential leader of the impoverished Caribbean nation for as long as a decade.

A YouTube video posted in 2011 suggests Dr. Christian Sanon can provide “Leadership for Haiti,” and a now-defunct website called “Haiti Lives Matter” lists him among a coalition that’s “chosen to lead” the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Authorities here now say Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 63, a Haitian man with longstanding ties to Florida, was aiming to assume the country’s presidency. They say he recruited some of the alleged assailants accused of killing Moise last week through a Venezuelan security firm based in the United States by telling them they would be his bodyguards.

Sanon couldn’t be reached for comment, and it wasn’t clear if he had an attorney. Haitian authorities haven’t presented evidence against him, and many questions remain about the alleged plot. Chief among them: how a man who filed for bankruptcy in Florida in 2013, listing himself as a church pastor, could be behind what authorities have described as a commando operation in which more than 20 people have now been arrested.

Haitians have expressed doubts about the government’s narrative - and are wondering aloud whether presidential guards played a role in the assassination. It’s unclear whether the assailants who descended on the presidential palace early on July 7 faced any resistance.

Haitian officials have not said there was a link between the guards and the attack. But Colombian authorities said Monday that a senior figure in Moïse’s security detail took several trips through Bogotá in recent months. Dimitri Hérard, head of security at Haiti’s presidential palace, traveled through the Colombian capital to Ecuador, Panama, and the Dominican Republic between January and late May, they said.

Gen. Jorge Luis Vargas, director of Colombia’s national police, said authorities are investigating what those trips entailed and are asking police in the other countries to do the same.

Rachèle Magloire, a well-known filmmaker here, called the focus on Sanon a “red herring.”

“Police are trying to make people look away from the real questions about how these people entered the residency of the president without any of the guards being wounded,” she said.

Former senator and presidential candidate Steven Benoit, a Moïse critic, accused the president’s guards of a role in the assassination in a radio interview last week. Called for questioning Monday by prosecutors, he was accompanied by a crowd of activists and politicians. Alongside rara bands playing drums and cymbals, the crowd chanted “Arrest Dimitri Hérard!” and criticized the “politicization” of the investigation.

Hérard declined to comment Monday.

Authorities say a raid of Sanon’s home uncovered a cache of ammunition including around 20 boxes of 9mm and 12mm bullets, six pistol holsters, two cars and license plates from the Dominican Republic. They said Sunday that investigators also found a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration cap. In videos that circulated on the morning of the assassination, the assailants claimed the attack was a “DEA operation.”

A video posted on YouTube in 2011 and titled “Dr. Christian Sanon - Leadership for Haiti” presents Sanon, who refers to himself as a doctor, as a potential leader of the country. In it, the speaker denounces Haiti’s leaders as corrupt plunderers of the country’s resources.

“With me in power, you are going to have to tell me: ‘What are you doing with my uranium?’” the speaker says. “What are you going to do with the oil that we have in the country? What are you going to do with the gold?”

Haiti has only limited natural resources. The Washington Post was unable to verify the authenticity of the video or the identity of its speaker. Haitian authorities haven’t released photos of Sanon.

A post on a now-defunct website, “Haiti Lives Matter,” presents Sanon as a leader of a coalition “chosen to lead Haiti,” according to an archived version of the page. The website lists several other members of his “transitional government,” including academics, a business person and a senior member of Haiti’s permanent mission to the United Nations.

One of the individuals named on the site, reached by The Post for comment, said they had never heard of Sanon and suggested their details appeared to have been clipped from an old résumé. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid repeating details of what the they said was a falsified account of their involvement in any plot to install a new government.

“The whole thing is stupid. You’re not going to become president like this,” the person said. The person, a retiree of Haitian descent who has not lived in the country for years, said they had “zero intention of going to Haiti. Especially with my name now on a website.”

Haiti’s U.N. delegation didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Senior FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials arrived in Haiti Sunday to discuss how the United States might assist after Moïse’s killing last week.

Haitian police say two other people have been implicated in the alleged scheme as “intellectual authors” of the assassination, but have not named them. Police last week arrested two Haitian Americans who allegedly worked as interpreters for the team; they have taken at least 21 people into custody, most of them Colombians.

Sporadic gunfire erupted in Port-au-Prince over the weekend, piercing the relative calm that followed Moïse’s killing as violent gangs threatened to fill the power vacuum in a country that has no clear leader. One powerful gang leader called his followers to the streets as residents shuttered their doors against the possibility of more bloodshed in a city already terrorized by criminal violence.

In the mystery and confusion immediately after Moïse’s assassination, the gangs gave the city something of a reprieve from the torrent of gunfire that has killed hundreds this year. But while answers remain elusive - the motive for the president’s killing remains unclear, and at least four men have claimed they are in charge - the peace has been broken.

The city’s most powerful gang leader, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, called followers into the streets this week to demand “justice against this cowardly assassination carried out by foreign mercenaries in the country.” In a video message Saturday, the self-styled revolutionary asked other gang leaders to join him in the violence.

One resident of the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Martissant, a journalist in his 20s, spoke of fleeing if conditions worsen.

“Anyone who stays in Martissant can be a victim any time,” said the man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear for his safety. “Anyone who chooses to take the road knows there are three possibilities: Either you die, you’re wounded or you get home safe.”

The four men claiming leadership of the government include acting prime minister Claude Joseph and Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon whom Moïse appointed prime minister two days before his death. On Friday, members of the country’s nonfunctioning Senate voted to name the body’s leader, Joseph Lambert, as Haiti’s acting president. In February, one faction of the opposition declared Supreme Court Judge Joseph Mécène Jean-Louis interim president.

Joseph, who has been recognized internationally but challenged at home, has asked the United States and the United Nations to send troops to help provide security. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Sunday the request was under review.

U.S. officials have pressed Joseph to keep his pledge to hold elections scheduled for September. But many here argue elections are impossible while the gangs rule the streets.

Cherizier and his alliance of gang leaders, called the G9 Family and Allies, say they are engaged in a revolution to liberate Haiti from a corrupt wealthy and political class. Human rights organizations had accused Moïse of maintaining links to Cherizier.

Cherizier said his followers would “practice what we call legitimate violence.”

“If they shoot on us, you know what to do,” he said. “You are not children.”

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Pannett reported from Sydney, Merancourt reported from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and Schmidt reported from Washington. The Washington Post’s Anthony Faiola in Miami and Dalton Bennett contributed to this report.