Haiti president's injured wife Martine Moïse shares photos of herself in hospital after being shot - and says she can't believe her husband was assassinated in front of her 'without saying a last word to me'
The injured wife of Haiti's assassinated President Jovenel Moïse has shared photos of herself in her hospital bed, saying she is still in disbelief that her husband was killed right in front of her.
Martine Moïse tweeted two photos of herself in her Miami hospital bed on Thursday after she was evacuated from Haiti for further treatment following the July 7 assassination of her husband.
The 47-year-old, who had bandages covering her entire right arm, wrote alongside the photos that the pain of losing her husband of 25 years 'will never pass'.
'I still don't believe that my husband has gone like this before my eyes without saying a last word to me. This pain will never pass,' she said in a translated post.
In a follow up post written in English, Martine said: 'Thank you for the team of guardian angels who helped me through this terrible time. With your gentle touch, kindness and care, I was able to hold on.'
Martine Moïse tweeted two photos of herself in her Miami hospital bed on Thursday after she was evacuated from Haiti for further treatment following the July 7 assassination of her husband
The 47-year-old, who had bandages covering her entire right arm, wrote alongside the photos that the pain of losing her husband of 25 years 'will never pass'
Martine suffered gunshot wounds to her arms and thigh in the predawn attack that took place at their private home in Port-au-Prince in Haiti on July 7.
The photos emerged after Martine released an audio statement from her hospital bed at the weekend accusing 'mercenaries' of pelting her husband with bullets.
'You have to be a notorious criminal without guts to assassinate a president like Jovenel Moïse with impunity without giving him the chance to speak. You knew who the president was fighting against,' she said.
The investigation into the assassination has so far resulted in at least 23 arrests, with three suspects killed, but no clear indication yet of who ordered the killing and why. At least 20 of the suspects are former Colombian commandos.
Haitian authorities believe central figures and suspects in the investigation met in Florida and the Dominican Republic in the months before the assassination to discuss how they could rebuild the country after Moïse was out of power, the New York Times reports.
The Pentagon has since admitted some of the Colombians were once trained by the US military.
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Ken Hoffman confirmed Thursday a 'small number' of the suspects had participated in US military training and education programs while serving in the Colombian military.
Officials have not revealed how many ex-soldiers were trained by the US, their identities or what the training involved.
The latest suspects identified in the sweeping investigation included a former Haitian senator, a fired government official and an informant for the US government.
The head of security at Haiti's presidential palace is among the latest to be taken into custody and a Miami-based security firm is now facing questions in connection with the assassination.
Dimitri Hérard, who is the head of the General Security Unit of the National Palace, was questioned at the Inspector General's office on Wednesday before being taken to a police station, his associate Carl Martin told CNN.
Martin said he is coordinating Hérard's legal defense team but it is unclear what, if any, charges he is facing.
Martine suffered gunshot wounds to her arms and thigh in the predawn attack that took place at their private home in Port-au-Prince in Haiti on July 7. She said she is in disbelief her husband, President Jovenel Moïse, was killed in front of her
Dimitri Hérard, who is the head of the General Security Unit of the National Palace, was questioned at the Inspector General's office on Wednesday. It iss unclear what, if any, charges he is facing
Four high-ranking members of the president's security detail are being held in isolation, according to police. It was not clear if Herard was one of them.
The Haitian National Police announced the arrest of two more people in connection with the assassination: Gilbert Dragon, a former police superintendent, and Reynaldo Corvington, who is accused of providing shelter to the assassins.
Corvington owns a private security company called Corvington Courier & Security Service, which he established in 1982, according to its website, which provides tips on how to survive a kidnapping.
During their arrests, police say they found several bullet cartridges, an AR-15, two handguns and bulletproof vests in Dragon's home.
Those arrests come just three days after Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 63, who is accused of organizing the assassination plot, was taken into custody.
Police said Sanon, who was ties to Florida, entered the country last month on a private plane 'with the intention of taking the Haitian presidency'.
Sanon allegedly recruited the Miami-based CTU Security, which is registered in Florida as the Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy LCC.
CTU Security, which is owned by Venezuelan businessman Antonio Intriago, has been accused of recruiting the Colombians that police believe are behind the attack.
Léon Charles, head of the Haiti's National Police, on Wednesday accused Intriago of traveling to Haiti numerous times as part of the assassination plot and of signing a contract while there, but provided no other details and offered no evidence.
'The investigation is very advanced,' Charles said.
Security forces inspect at the site after an attack at the residence of Haiti's President Jovenel Moise in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on July 7
Footage circulating online purportedly taken by a neighbour of the president shows men with rifles arriving outside the property
Charles has said that CTU Security used its company credit card to buy 19 plane tickets from Bogota to Santo Domingo for the Colombian suspects allegedly involved in the killing.
One of the Colombians who was killed, Duberney Capador, photographed himself wearing a black CTU Security polo shirt.
Nelson Romero Velasquez, an ex-soldier and attorney who is advising 16 families of the Colombians held in Haiti, said Wednesday that the men all served in the Colombian military's elite special forces and could operate without being detected, if they had desired.
Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 63, who was arrested in Haiti, i accused of being an organizer of the assassination plot
He said their behavior made it clear they did not go to Haiti to assassinate the president.
A Miami security professional believes Intriago was too eager to take the job and did not push to learn details, leaving his contractors in the lurch.
Intriago, who immigrated from Venezuela over a decade ago and participated in activities in Miami opposing the leftist regime in his homeland, did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.
He likes to be around powerful people and has posted photos on social media showing himself with them, including Colombian President Ivan Duque.
Duque's office on Monday disavowed any knowledge of Intriago, saying Duque was in Miami while campaigning for the presidency in February 2018. He posed for photographs with some of those in attendance, but Duque did not have any meeting or any ties with Intriago, the Colombian president's office said.
Florida state records show Intriago's company has changed names in the past dozen years: CTU Security to CS Security Solutions to Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy LLC.
CTU lists two Miami addresses on its website. One is a shuttered warehouse with no signage. The other is a small office suite under a different name. A receptionist said the CTU owner stops by once a week to collect mail.
The company website says it offers 'first-class personalized products and services to law enforcement and military units, as well as industrial customers.'
Suspects in the assassination of Haiti's President Jovenel Moise are shown to the media in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Thursday
Weaponry, mobile phones, passports and other items are being shown to the media along with suspects in the assassination
But it ducked paying some of those wholesale companies for their products. Florida records show Intriago's company was ordered by a court to pay a $64,791 debt in 2018 to a weapons and tactical gear supply company, RSR Group. Propper, a military apparel manufacturer, also sued for nonpayment.
Alexis Ortiz, a writer who worked with Intriago organizing meetings of expatriate Venezuelans in the United States, described him as a 'very active, skilled collaborator.'
'He seemed nice,' Ortiz said.
Richard Noriega, who runs International Security Consulting in Miami, said he does not know Intriago personally but has been observing the developing situation. Noriega, who is also originally from Venezuela, believes Intriago was lured by the prospect of fast money and did not perform due diligence.
Putting himself in Intriago's shoes, Noriega said: 'I'm coming out of a complicated situation - of work, of income, of money. An opportunity arises. I don't want to lose it.'
Normally, a security company would seek all the details of an operation, to determine how many people to use and what level of insurance they would need. A priority would be to plan an escape route in case things go awry, he said.
'The first thing we (security professionals) have to take into account is the evacuation. Where will they exit? That's the first thing I do,' Noriega said.
But apparently that planning never happened, perhaps because the Colombians, or at least some of them, thought their mission was benign.
He said it does not seem logical that if the highly trained Colombians were there to kill the president, that they would not have had an escape route. Instead they were caught, some hiding in bushes, by the local population and police.
'It is very murky,' Noriega said.
Homeland Security Investigations, a US agency responsible for investigating crimes that cross international borders, is also investigating the assassination, a Department of Homeland Security official said. He declined to provide further details.
The FBI says it is 'providing investigative assistance' to Haitian authorities.