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Visual timeline: The assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse


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Several weeks before they were arrested in the July 7 assassination of the Haitian president, 13 Colombian nationals — some of them former military — traveled to the Dominican Republic, the country that shares an island with Haiti, according to Colombian police.

The men arrived in two groups. A group of two traveled through Panama in early May, and a group of 11 traveled directly from Bogota on June 4, according to flight records released by the Colombian police.

At least two of the men visited a popular tourist destination in the capital city Santo Domingo, according to images the police released. Those photos, along with images of the same location from one of the suspect’s social media accounts, are the earliest known images showing the alleged mercenaries were in the same location before the attack.

The Washington Post gathered photos and videos of the suspects and of the hours before and after the assassination to assemble a timeline of how the brazen attack unfolded.

Authorities said Sunday they have arrested a Haitian man suspected of playing a leading role in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, allegedly recruiting some of the assailants by telling them they would be his bodyguards.

Police said Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 63, planned to assume the presidency and hire some of the men as his security team. Sanon is reportedly a doctor with long-standing ties to Florida.

The detained suspects also include two U.S. citizens of Haitian descent, identified as Florida residents James Solages, 35, and Joseph Vincent, 55, according to Mathias Pierre, Haiti’s minister of elections and interparty relations. An official who interrogated the pair said Solages claimed he was hired as an interpreter for “foreigners” after applying for the job online. The men and some of their family members claim that they didn’t know the president was going to be assassinated.

Solages told the official they were acting on an order to arrest the president authorized by a judge. He admitted to meeting with the foreigners for about a month, eating at the restaurant inside the Royal Oasis Hotel, 10 minutes from the president’s residence where the assassination took place.

Officials have not yet provided evidence of the detainees’ involvement in the assassination, and questions remain about who launched the attack and why. As of July 10, officials have said that 28 alleged assailants were involved, with 20 captured, three killed and five still on the run.

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