A former rebel known as “the torturer,” who has a history of armed insurgency against Haitian leaders, has been arrested in the slaying of President Jovenel Moïse, multiple informed sources told the Miami Herald.
Miradieu Faustin, also an ex-soldier in the Haitian army, was arrested earlier this month along with Divisional Police Inspector Emmanuel Louis, for their alleged involvement in the planning that led to Moïse’s violent death inside a bedroom in his private home on July 7, 2021, in the hills above Port-au-Prince.
The arrests are the first major development in the Haiti case since an initial 44 individuals were taken into custody in the days after the killing. Although the motive for Moïse’s killing remains a mystery, the arrests of the two men and their connections to at least two other key suspects and a powerful gang leader increasingly demonstrate a connection between the killing and Haiti’s armed gangs. Those same gangs reportedly attacked some of the alleged gunmen after the killing.
