"Foreigners came to our country to kill the president"

"Foreigners came to our country to kill the president"

This was confirmed by the Haitian authorities, who added that the perpetrators and motives of this crime are still being searched for.

Colombian Defense Minister Diego Molano said that the first findings of the investigation indicate that Colombians suspected of participating in the assassination of the President of Haiti are retired members of his country's armed forces and promised to provide all necessary assistance to the authorities in clarifying all circumstances of this case.

Police found the suspected assassins in a house near the crime scene, in the suburbs of the capital Port-au-Prince, on Wednesday, and after several hours of fighting, a large number of them were arrested, and Police Chief Leon Charles confirmed yesterday that 17 people were arrested in this action, as Reuters reports.

On that occasion, numerous Colombian passports were shown at the press conference, as well as the weapons used by the suspected assassins, rifles, machetes, communication devices and the means they used during the burglary of the presidential residence.

"Foreigners came to our country to kill the president," Charles emphasized, and announced that 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans were among those arrested.

He stated that 15 Colombians, as well as Americans of Haitian origin, were captured, while three attackers were killed, and eight of them are still on the run.

Colombia's National Police Director General Jorge Luis Vargas said he had received requests from Haiti for information on six suspects, two of whom were killed in an exchange of fire with Haitian police, while four more were arrested.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taiwan, which has formal diplomatic ties with Haiti, announced that 11 suspects were captured in their embassy after they broke into it, and a State Department spokesman could not confirm whether there were American citizens among the detainees.

Officials have not yet announced the motives for the president's assassination, and since taking office in 2017, he has faced mass protests, first because of allegations of corruption and the way he managed the economy, and then because of his growing power.

The President of Haiti (53) was killed by unknown assailants on the night between July 6 and 7 in his private residence, and his wife, Martine Marie Étienne Joseph, who was also wounded in the attack, is in critical condition and has been taken to a Miami hospital.