Mario Palacios, 43, is said to have belonged to a group of about twenty men who murdered Moïse at his home in Port-au-Prince on July 7. Nothing is known about the motives of the attackers and who their client was.
Palacios was arrested Monday in Panama during a stopover on a flight from Jamaica to Colombia. That same evening, he was extradited to Miami, where he appeared in court. Prosecutors say the plot against Moise was “initially aimed at carrying out a kidnapping of the president as part of an alleged arrest operation.” That would later have resulted in a “plot to kill him.”
There has been a lot of unrest in Haiti for some time as a result of poverty, natural disasters and gang violence. There has been no functioning parliament for two years. Moreover, since the assassination of President Moïse, the crisis has only deepened.
On Monday, Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry told the French news agency AFP that he survived an attempt on his life on Saturday. According to local media, one person was killed and two people injured.