Ariel Henry, prime minister of Haiti.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry may have a close link to the main suspect in the assassination of former Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
According to a report published by The New York Times, where this media indicates that it collected evidence on the case, it opens the hypothesis of the link between the current Prime Minister Ariel Henry and Joseph Felix Badio, a former official of the Ministry of Justice and wanted by the Haitian authorities on suspicion of organizing the attack of last July 7 that ended with the death of Moïse.
The U.S. media indicates that it had access to telephone records between the two and interviews with Haitian officials that reveal “potentially incriminating” details about the relationship between the two men.
Specifically, it notes that Badio spoke with Henry before and after the assassination of the Haitian president, including in two calls totaling seven minutes the morning after the assassination.
To this, it adds that, although the Haitian police were looking for Badio, he visited Henry, according to two Haitian officials with “knowledge of the investigation.”
“Four months after the assassination, the officials said, Badio went to Henry’s official residence twice, both times at night, and was able to enter unhindered by the prime minister’s security guards, despite being on the run from the police,” The New York Times says in its publication.
On this detail, Henry’s spokesman told the American media that the prime minister did not speak with Badio, despite the telephone records, and that he has no relationship with him.
Regarding the link maintained by both a Haitian businessman and former drug trafficker by Rodolphe Jaar, interviewed by the media, admitted having helped and planned the plot against Moïse.
Shortly before the assassination, Jaar told the media that Badio said to him that the current prime minister would be a “useful ally,” claiming that he had “total control over him.”
Jaar even said that he and Badio kept in touch while on the run from authorities and that they came to share a safe house for several days after the assassination.
“In the hours after the assassination, when police officers caught the Colombian mercenaries accused of carrying out the assault, Jaar said that Badio had sought Henry’s help to escape and that, according to the ex-narcotics trafficker, the prime minister responded that he would make some calls,” he states.
Similarly, Jaar confirmed to the U.S. media that the objective of the plot had been to depose, not kill, the president, and he was caught up in a giant political game that he still “doesn’t understand.”