Written by Julie Turkewitz and Anatoly Kurmanaev
“Gentlemen,” the textual content message from the recruiter started, “there is an American company that needs special forces, commandos with experience, for a job in Central America.”
The pay, the recruiter went on to clarify, could be life-changing: between $2,500 and $3,500 a month, many instances what the veterans earned as retired members of Colombia’s armed forces. And the mission was noble, the recruiter claimed.
“We are going to help in the recovery of the country, in terms of its security and democracy,” the recruiter went on, urging the lads to get match now. “We are going to be pioneers.”
Instead, 18 of the recruits are actually in Haitian custody, suspected by Haitian officers of being linked to a plot to assassinate President Jovenel Moïse, who was killed final week in a nighttime assault on his residence.
Three of the recruits are lifeless.
Most seem to have been approached within the months earlier than Moïse’s loss of life by a gaggle of businessmen, some based mostly within the United States, who exaggerated their credentials and the scope of their firms. They misled a few of the recruits in regards to the undertaking they have been embarking on and broke guarantees to pay them hundreds of {dollars}.
The New York Times reviewed time-stamped recruitment textual content messages and interviewed a dozen males who have been approached to participate within the Haiti operation earlier this yr however didn’t find yourself getting in June — in some instances as a result of they have been alleged to be a part of a second wave of recruits scheduled to land in Haiti at a later level, they stated.
In interviews, the Colombian veterans stated that they had been advised by recruiters — in individual and thru WhatsApp messages later shared with The Times — that they have been going to struggle gangs, enhance safety, shield dignitaries and democracy and assist rebuild a protracted struggling nation.
Behind the hassle, the recruiters claimed, was an essential American safety firm with US authorities funds to again them.
But CTU, the corporate that enlisted the Colombians and whose brand and identify was emblazoned on the black Polo shirts the recruits wore as a uniform, was run from a small warehouse in Miami by Antonio Intriago, a Venezuelan-American with a historical past of debt, evictions and bankruptcies.
Colombian officers have stated that their investigation into their residents’ involvement within the assassination plot is targeted on Germán Alejandro Rivera, a retired captain, who they are saying seems to have been a main contact for the US-based recruiters.
Colombian consular officers nonetheless haven’t had entry to their detained residents, forcing them to depend on the data supplied by Haitian authorities, Colombia’s deputy overseas minister, Francisco Echeverri, advised reporters on Monday.
But in response to reviews within the Colombian media, citing the nation’s intelligence officers, Rivera advised Haitian prosecutors that he was amongst a gaggle of seven retired Colombian troopers who entered the presidential residence on the evening of the assassination.
The reviews don’t point out what function he or different Colombians might need performed within the assassination — however they add a layer of doubt to the already murky story and lift questions on how privy some members of the Colombian group might need been to the plot that unfolded within the first hours of July 7 and left Moïse lifeless and his spouse injured, however nobody else damage.
The thriller is confounded by the frequent stopovers that the top of Moïse’s presidential palace guard, Dimitri Hérard, made in Bogotá within the months earlier than the assassination. Hérard, who was skilled in neighboring Ecuador, transited by means of town six instances this yr on his option to different Latin American international locations, spending at the least two days within the Colombian capital on at the least one event, Colombia’s protection minister stated throughout a information convention on Monday.
The recruitment of Colombians for the mission seems to have begun when Duberney Capador, a former soldier with 20 years of expertise on the power, bought a name in April from a safety firm asking him to place collectively a gaggle that will “protect important people in Haiti,” stated his sister, Yenny Carolina Capador.
Duberney Capador, 40, had retired from the navy in 2019 and was dwelling together with his mom on a household farm. He jumped on the alternative, stated his sister.
The textual content message addressed to the “gentlemen,” which described the undertaking as an essential nation-building effort, got here from a telephone quantity that belonged to Capador, in response to his sister.
He quickly grew to become a chief recruiter for the operation and started messaging his former navy buddies. Many of them in interviews stated that they trusted him as a result of he was one among them: an ex-soldier who had spent years traversing Colombia, combating left-wing guerrillas and different enemies in rugged circumstances.
Many have been additionally in monetary difficulties. The majority had retired not lengthy earlier than the pandemic, and a few had been rejected from essentially the most profitable and desired non-public safety jobs within the Middle East due to their comparatively superior age.
“I’ve been out of the military for four years and I’ve looked for work,” stated Leodan Bolaños, 45, one of many recruits who by no means made it to Haiti. What he had discovered paid too little, he stated.
“Señores,” Capador wrote within the April textual content message he despatched to at the least one ex-soldier. “We have spent a long time waiting for other projects and nothing, nothing.”
Capador organized the lads in WhatsApp teams with names like “First Flight,” and urged them to purchase darkish polo shirts and boots and prepared their passports.
The US authorities could be paying their salaries, he promised, and the job would open doorways for work throughout Central America, he promised in at the least one of many messages.
The US authorities has denied any function within the plot.
By mid-May Capador had flown to Haiti to discover a dwelling base for the lads and collect provides.
“All we know is that we were going to provide security in an exclusive area under the command of Mr. Capador,” stated one recruit who requested that he not be named to guard his security. “We weren’t interested in how long, or where, or the name of the person we were going to protect.”
But Capador, who was one of many Colombians killed within the aftermath of the assault on the president, seems to have been only one participant in a much bigger plot.
Colombian authorities say that Capador traveled to Haiti with one other former ex-soldier: Rivera, the retired captain who’s on the heart of Colombian authorities’ investigation into the function their residents might have performed within the assassination. They additionally say that Rivera had contact with Intriago, the proprietor of the Florida-based safety firm, CTU, and with James Solages, a Haitian American detained in reference to the president’s loss of life. Intriago didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.
Many of the recruits flew from Colombia to the Dominican Republic in early June, crossing into Haiti by land from the Dominican Republic. Their flights have been paid for by a bank card registered in Miami, Colombian officers stated.
The males stayed collectively at a cottage with a pool, and remained in fixed contact with their kinfolk, a number of of whom spoke to The New York Times.
But moderately than the nation-building they have been anticipating, their days have been comparatively mundane, filled with train, English classes and cooking.
On Monday, July 5 they held a barbecue on the compound and a few despatched photos again dwelling.
On Tuesday, July 6, the lads believed they’d obtain their first paycheck. But that cash by no means arrived, in response to two of their kinfolk.
Then, on Wednesday, July 7, Haitian officers say {that a} group of attackers stormed Moïse’s residence on the outskirts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, at 1 a.m. The gunmen shot him and wounded his spouse, Martine Moïse, in what Haitian authorities referred to as a well-planned operation that included “foreigners” who spoke Spanish.
As authorities examine the previous troopers’ function, a few of the recruits nonetheless in Colombia stated they felt that that they had been tricked.
“He assured us that it was a good job, that he was not going to get his hands dirty,” stated Bolaños, a 15-year navy veteran, of Capador. “Our colleagues who are there, all of them were deceived.”
This article initially appeared in The New York Times.
