The Government of Jamaica confirmed on Sunday that the former Colombian military officer Mario Antonio Palacios, allegedly involved in the assassination of the President of Haiti Jovenel Moise, will be deported to his native country today, Monday, January 3.
Deportation order
Palacios was arrested in Jamaica last October and convicted of illegally entering the country from the Dominican Republic, a charge for which a deportation order was issued. As to date the Government of Haiti has not provided sufficient information on the connection between Palacios with the aforementioned assassination perpetrated on July 7 of last year in Port-au-Prince by a command, the ex-military will be sent to Colombia, according to the official statement.
“The information provided did not link him to the murder and essentially indicated that he was a suspect in an attempted armed robbery, without any details,” said the Government of Jamaica.
Along these lines, the note added that all attempts to “obtain more and better data from the Haitian government have not been successful” and that, furthermore, there is no formal extradition treaty between Jamaica and Haiti.
For their part, Palacios’ lawyers have called for his immediate release from the Horizon adult detention center in Kingston, arguing that his arrest is illegal.
The former prime minister of Haiti Claude Joseph already referred to this issue yesterday, who stated that the former Colombian military man would be deported to his country on Monday because the Haitian government has not provided “sufficient evidence” to establish the mercenary’s participation in the murder of Moise.
“It is a severe blow for the investigation (…) There is no political will to advance the investigation of the murder,” denounced Joseph, who temporarily led the country after the assassination.
The Colombian Palacios is an alleged member of the command accused of assassinating the Haitian president and was subject to a search and arrest warrant issued in July by the Haitian National Police.
Of the group that allegedly perpetrated the attack, 18 former Colombian soldiers and 2 Haitian-Americans were arrested, while another 3 Colombians died in shootings with the Police.
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