Retired Colombian army officer gets life sentence in 2021 assassination of Haiti's president

Source: Associated Press

Retired Colombian army officer gets life sentence in 2021 assassination of Haiti’s president

BY GISELA SALOMON
Updated 2:12 PM EDT, October 27, 2023

MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge in Miami on Friday sentenced a retired Colombian army officer to life in prison for his role in plotting to kill Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, which caused unprecedented turmoil in the Caribbean nation.

Germán Alejandro Rivera García, 45, is the second of 11 suspects detained and charged in Miami to be sentenced in what U.S. prosecutors have described as a conspiracy hatched in both Haiti and Florida to hire mercenaries to kidnap or kill Moïse, who was slain at his private home near the Haitian capital of Port-Au-Prince on July 7, 2021.

Rivera, also known as “Colonel Mike,” had pleaded guilty in September to conspiring and supporting a plot to kill the Haitian president. According to court documents, he was part of a convoy headed to Moïse’s residence the day of the killing, after he relayed information that the plan was not to kidnap the president but rather kill him.

Rivera faced the maximum penalty of up to life imprisonment and now hopes that his sentence could be reduced in the future as part of a cooperation agreement he has signed with U.S. authorities.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/haiti-moise-president-killed-miami-3236a13f74c3ff5fa5300c21e314dc81