(Reuters) -Joseph Vincent, a former informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), was handed a life sentence by a U.S. court on Friday for his role in the 2021 assassination of Haiti’s president.
A Haitian-American national, Vincent admitted to providing aid to the plot to kill Haitian President Jovenel Moise in his home, including advice about the political landscape and meetings with key community leaders.
Vincent is among 11 defendants in the case, which includes Colombian ex-soldiers and businessmen accused of helping supply funds and weapons and carrying out the nighttime attack.
The gunmen had reportedly masqueraded as DEA agents at the time of the attack, though the DEA later said Vincent and another Haitian-American, James Solages, had not been acting on behalf of the agency.
Vincent is set to be held in a Florida prison, the court ruled.
Moise’s assassination sent the Caribbean nation into a destabilizing power vacuum, with violent armed gangs massively expanding their reach.
Earlier on Friday, the United Nations said January was Haiti’s most violent month in more than two years, with more than 1,100 people killed, injured or kidnapped in the month.
Anti-government protests broke out in the streets in the lead up to Feb.
7, the day unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry had previously promised to step down, though he later backtracked on that commitment.
Henry has said free and fair elections will be held once security conditions are re-established.
(Reporting by Kylie Madry; Editing by Brendan O’Boyle and David Gregorio)
