Link to article: Former Haitian senator pleads guilty in US court to charges related to Haiti president’s killing | AP News
Former Haitian senator, John Joel Joseph plead guilty for charges regarding the 2021 assassination of former President Jovenel Moïse. After reaching an agreement with the government, he changed his plea, and if he cooperates, he could potentially lessen his possible life sentence. He was extradited from Jamaica to the US and stood trial for “conspiring to commit murder or kidnapping outside the United States and providing material support resulting in death, knowing or intending that such material support would be used to prepare for or carry out the conspiracy to kill or kidnap.” Joseph is one of eleven standing trials for the assassination, two have pleaded guilty, and one has been given a life sentence already. “According to the charges, Joseph and others, including about 20 Colombian citizens and several dual Haitian-American citizens, participated in a plot to kidnap or kill Haiti’s president, who was slain at his home in Haiti on July 7, 2021.” More than 40 people have been arrested on alleged murder charges.
With the sheer amount of people convicted for allegations of murder, especially with prominent figures such as Joseph, it raises the question of how large the operation was to assassinate the former president. On one end of the spectrum, the group that collaborated in the killing could be larger than what they believe it to be. On the other hand, they might have overreacted with how many people they arrested. Though due to the time gap between the arrests and the actual assassination, they had enough time to be thorough. Hopefully this means that they caught the right people. Also, why was Joseph brought to US courts? The article doesn’t mention anything about the nature of the US and Haiti’s relationship, but its assumedly good since they’re trying a criminal in US courts. It could be a human rights case, since America is known for sticking their nose into cases of that sort, but it’s more likely that Haiti and the US just have a good relationship.
This article relates to what we are learning in class because of state actors. Joseph was formerly a state actor for Haiti, and so was former their President Jovenel Moïse. We also learned in class that in order for a state to be sovereign, they must have control over their own internal affairs, which begs the question, is the US infringing on Haiti’s sovereignty by trying Joseph, whose fate should be under their jurisdiction, in American courts. It could be a benign agreement between the US and Haiti that wasn’t mentioned in the passage, but it is worth speculating.