PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Retired Sgt. Edwin Blanquicet Rodríguez had spent 20 years in the Colombian military when he received an offer: Travel to Haiti as part of a security team to protect a politician and guard electrical infrastructure projects.
Blanquicet, looking for a way to support his family, took the job.
Weeks after arriving in Port-au-Prince in June of last year, however, he found himself fighting for his life. He and a team of other Colombian former soldiers got an order to leave their client — an evangelical preacher who wanted to be president — and head to a house in the hills of Port-au-Prince. The ordeal ended in the assassination of the country’s president, and hours later Blanquicet found himself pleading his innocence before an angry mob.
