Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN)Colombia’s National Police chief has claimed that former Haitian Justice Ministry official Joseph Felix Badio was a key player in the assassination of Haiti’s president.
Speaking in an edited video provided to media outlets, Gen. Jorge Vargas alleged that newly obtained information from the ongoing investigation had led Colombian authorities to believe that Badio told two Colombians suspected to have been involved in the operation to assassinate President Jovenel Moise.
Vargas provided no evidence to support these claims against Badio, only reiterating that the information came from the joint commission of Colombian and Haitian authorities involved in the investigation.
Moise was killed last Wednesday during an attack on his private residence, throwing Haiti into political chaos with multiple figures now vying to lead the Caribbean nation.
Authorities say the operation involved at least 26 Colombians, some former members of the Colombian military, hired through a Florida-based security company.
There were no reporters present in the room to ask questions to the Colombian police chief when he recorded the video.
Haiti’s elections minister Mathias Pierre told CNN on Friday that Badio, “is effectively in the heart of the assassination, but we believe he is working for big fishes. The intellectual masterminds are bigger than that. Who financed the operation is still the big question mark.”
Haitian authorities, including the acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph and Police Chief Leon Charles also held a news conference Friday where they made no mention of Badio or the claims made by Colombia.
Badio was fired on May 17 from his position at the Haitian government’s Anti-Corruption Unit, according to a statement issued by the agency on July 13.
According to the statement, he was fired due to serious breaches in professional conduct. The statement also cited a complaint against Badio that had been filed on May 20 but did not disclose the content of the complaint.
The Port-au-Prince prosecutor’s office on Sunday issued an arrest warrant for Badio, CNN learned Friday. The warrant said Badio is accused of murder and armed robbery against President Moise.
CNN has not been able to reach out to Badio for comment and it is unclear if he has legal representation.
Ongoing investigation
The FBI began holding interviews in Port-au-Prince on Friday as part of the investigation into President Moise’s assassination, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN.
On Monday, the Justice Department said it will “investigate whether there were any violations of US criminal law” in connection with the plot to assassinate Moise. Haitian authorities have provided limited details on the investigation, but the growing number of Florida connections to the plot appear to portray an operation at least partly hatched in the United States.
Responding to a CNN question at a news conference on Friday, Haitian police chief Charles said both Colombian and American investigators had interviewed “key suspects” in the case. He also said that some of the 24 police currently under “precautionary measures,” which typically limit movement, had been at the presidential residence on the night of the assassination.
A senior government source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN: “We think four police officers were working with Badio to neutralize the police around President house to facilitate access. One police officer has been arrested, three are at large.”
The four officers are not part of the 24 who are under precautionary measures, and were not members of the president’s security team, according to the source. The officers appear to have been part of a group doing personal security for Badio, the source also said.
The aftermath of an assassination
Moise’s assassination sparked a sprawling ongoing investigation across multiple countries, supported by both the US FBI and Colombian intelligence services.
At least 39 people have been implicated in the killing of President Moise. Citing Haitian authorities, Colombian police said Thursday that some of the 26 Colombian suspects were hired and brought to Haiti on the understanding their job was to detain the leader and hand him over to US law enforcement.
A number of suspected killers were likely deceived by their compatriots, Colombian President Ivan Duque told a local radio station on Thursday. Preliminary investigation suggests the Colombians were working in two groups, he said: A smaller group who knew of a “criminal” objective and were aware the bigger operation was a cover-up, and a larger group that had been kept in the dark.
The two Colombian suspects named in the video by Vargas are German Rivera and the late Duberney Capador. The pair, both former Colombian military officers, have been accused of leading the operation.
They previously met with Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a Florida-based pastor whom Haitian authorities allege coordinated the military operation in hopes of seizing power for himself, according to Vargas, the Colombian police chief.
Sanon has denied all knowledge of the operation and insisted on his innocence, according to a source close to the investigation who cannot be named because they are not authorized to discuss the affair.
Capador and least two other Colombians were killed by Haitian authorities responding to the assassination.
CNN’s Natalie Gallón, Caitlin Hu and journalist Etant Dupain reported from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Journalist Karol Suarez in Mexico City and CNNE’s Marlon Soto in Atlanta contributed to this report.
The key meeting took place on 22 January 2016, the papers suggest, with the Russian president, his spy chiefs and senior ministers all present.
They agreed a Trump White House would help secure Moscow’s strategic objectives, among them “social turmoil” in the US and a weakening of the American president’s negotiating position.
Russia’s three spy agencies were ordered to find practical ways to support Trump, in a decree appearing to bear Putin’s signature.
Western intelligence agencies are understood to have been aware of the documents for some months and to have carefully examined them. The papers, seen by the Guardian, seem to represent a serious and highly unusual leak from within the Kremlin.
The Guardian has shown the documents to independent experts who say they appear to be genuine. Incidental details come across as accurate. The overall tone and thrust is said to be consistent with Kremlin security thinking.
The Kremlin responded dismissively. Putin’s spokesman Dmitri Peskov said the idea that Russian leaders had met and agreed to support Trump in at the meeting in early 2016 was “a great pulp fiction” when contacted by the Guardian on Thursday morning.
The report – “No 32-04 vd” – is classified as secret. It says Trump is the “most promising candidate” from the Kremlin’s point of view. The word in Russian is perspektivny.
There is a brief psychological assessment of Trump, who is described as an “impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex”.
There is also apparent confirmation that the Kremlin possesses kompromat, or potentially compromising material, on the future president, collected – the document says – from Trump’s earlier “non-official visits to Russian Federation territory”.
The paper refers to “certain events” that happened during Trump’s trips to Moscow. Security council members are invited to find details in appendix five, at paragraph five, the document states. It is unclear what the appendix contains.
“It is acutely necessary to use all possible force to facilitate his [Trump’s] election to the post of US president,” the paper says.
This extract from a secret Kremlin document gives details of the Russian operation to help an impulsive and ‘mentally unstable’ Donald Trump to become US president
This would help bring about Russia’s favoured “theoretical political scenario”. A Trump win “will definitely lead to the destabilisation of the US’s sociopolitical system” and see hidden discontent burst into the open, it predicts.
The Kremlin summit
There is no doubt that the meeting in January 2016 took place – and that it was convened inside the Kremlin.
An official photo of the occasion shows Putin at the head of the table, seated beneath a Russian Federation flag and a two-headed golden eagle. Russia’s then prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, attended, together with the veteran foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.
Also present were Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister in charge of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency; Mikhail Fradkov, the then chief of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service; and Alexander Bortnikov, the boss of the FSB spy agency.Nikolai Patrushev, the FSB’s former director, attended too as security council secretary.
According to a press release, the discussion covered the economy and Moldova.
The document seen by the Guardian suggests the security council’s real, covert purpose was to discuss the confidential proposals drawn up by the president’s analytical service in response to US sanctions against Moscow.
Vladimir Symonenko, the senior official in charge of the Kremlin’s expert department – which provides Putin with analytical material and reports, some of them based on foreign intelligence.
The papers indicate that on 14 January 2016 Symonenko circulated a three-page executive summary of his team’s conclusions and recommendations.
In a signed order two days later, Putin instructed the then chief of his foreign policy directorate, Alexander Manzhosin, to convene a closed briefing of the national security council.
Its purpose was to further study the document, the order says. Manzhosin was given a deadline of five days to make arrangements.
What was said inside the second-floor Kremlin senate building room is unknown. But the president and his intelligence officials appear to have signed off on a multi-agency plan to interfere in US democracy, framed in terms of justified self-defence.
Various measures are cited that the Kremlin might adopt in response to what it sees as hostile acts from Washington. The paper lays out several American weaknesses. These include a “deepening political gulf between left and right”, the US’s “media-information” space, and an anti-establishment mood under President Barack Obama.
The paper does not name Hillary Clinton, Trump’s 2016 rival. It does suggest employing media resources to undermine leading US political figures.
There are paragraphs on how Russia might insert “media viruses” into American public life, which could become self-sustaining and self-replicating. These would alter mass consciousness, especially in certain groups, it says.
After the meeting, according to a separate leaked document, Putin issued a decree setting up a new and secret interdepartmental commission. Its urgent task was to realise the goals set out in the “special part” of document No 32-04 vd.
Members of the new working body were stated to include Shoigu, Fradkov and Bortnikov. Shoigu was named commission chair. The decree – ukaz in Russian – said the group should take practical steps against the US as soon as possible. These were justified on national security grounds and in accordance with a 2010 federal law, 390-FZ, which allows the council to formulate state policy on security matters.
According to the document, each spy agency was given a role. The defence minister was instructed to coordinate the work of subdivisions and services. Shoigu was also responsible for collecting and systematising necessary information and for “preparing measures to act on the information environment of the object” – a command, it seems, to hack sensitive American cyber-targets identified by the SVR.
The SVR was told to gather additional information to support the commission’s activities. The FSB was assigned counter-intelligence. Putin approved the apparent document, dated 22 January 2016, which his chancellery stamped.
The measures were effective immediately on Putin’s signature, the decree says. The spy chiefs were given just over a week to come back with concrete ideas, to be submitted by 1 February.
Written in bureaucratic language, the papers appear to offer an unprecedented glimpse into the usually hidden world of Russian government decision-making.
Putin has repeatedly denied accusations of interfering in western democracy. The documents seem to contradict this claim. They suggest the president, his spy officers and senior ministers were all intimately involved in one of the most important and audacious espionage operations of the 21st century: a plot to help put the “mentally unstable” Trump in the White House.
The papers appear to set out a route map for what actually happened in 2016.
A matter of weeks after the security council meeting, GRU hackers raided the servers of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and subsequently released thousands of private emails in an attempt to hurt Clinton’s election campaign.
The report seen by the Guardian features details redolent of Russian intelligence work, diplomatic sources say. The thumbnail sketch of Trump’s personality is characteristic of Kremlin spy agency analysis, which places great emphasis on building up a profile of individuals using both real and cod psychology.
Moscow would gain most from a Republican victory, the paper states. This could lead to a “social explosion” that would in turn weaken the US president, it says. There were international benefits from a Trump win, it stresses. Putin would be able in clandestine fashion to dominate any US-Russia bilateral talks, to deconstruct the White House’s negotiating position, and to pursue bold foreign policy initiatives on Russia’s behalf, it says.
Other parts of the multi-page report deal with non-Trump themes. It says sanctions imposed by the US after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea have contributed to domestic tensions. The Kremlin should seek alternative ways of attracting liquidity into the Russian economy, it concludes.
The document recommends the reorientation of trade and hydrocarbon exports towards China. Moscow’s focus should be to influence the US and its satellite countries, it says, so they drop sanctions altogether or soften them.
‘Spell-binding’ documents
Andrei Soldatov, an expert on Russia’s spy agencies and author of The Red Web, said the leaked material “reflects reality”. “It’s consistent with the procedures of the security services and the security council,” he said. “Decisions are always made like that, with advisers providing information to the president and a chain of command.”
He added: “The Kremlin micromanages most of these operations. Putin has made it clear to his spies since at least 2015 that nothing can be done independently from him. There is no room for independent action.” Putin decided to release stolen DNC emails following a security council meeting in April 2016, Soldatov said, citing his own sources.
Sir Andrew Wood, the UK’s former ambassador in Moscow and an associate fellow at the Chatham House thinktank, described the documents as “spell-binding”. “They reflect the sort of discussion and recommendations you would expect. There is a complete misunderstanding of the US and China. They are written for a person [Putin] who can’t believe he got anything wrong.”
Wood added: “There is no sense Russia might have made a mistake by invading Ukraine. The report is fully in line with the sort of thing I would expect in 2016, and even more so now. There is a good deal of paranoia. They believe the US is responsible for everything. This view is deeply dug into the soul of Russia’s leaders.”
Trump did not initially respond to a request for comment.
Later, Liz Harrington, his spokesperson, issued a statement on his behalf.
“This is disgusting. It’s fake news, just like RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA was fake news. It’s just the Radical Left crazies doing whatever they can to demean everybody on the right.
“It’s fiction, and nobody was tougher on Russia than me, including on the pipeline, and sanctions. At the same time we got along with Russia. Russia respected us, China respected us, Iran respected us, North Korea respected us.
“And the world was a much safer place than it is now with mentally unstable leadership.”
A summer of exciting cricket is promised when the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) rolls into town next month and welcomes back fans into the stadium for the first time since the pandemic.
Chris Watson, Head of Marketing for CPL, told the Observer in an exclusive interview that they are excited to be coming to St. Kitts and Nevis, and are extremely grateful for the level of support they have gotten and the level of relationship with the government.
“Not just this year in the build-up, but over a number of years of coming here. Thanks to that type of working relationship, we are able to bring the entire tournament here this year.”
He said being in the middle of a pandemic has been a challenging year with putting on a cricket tournament, and flying people around the world to allow that to happen.
“We are really looking forward to getting into the process of putting on a world-class cricket tournament and giving fans in St. Kitts and Nevis and around the world a real spectacle.”
Watson said he was confident about being able to stage a successful tournament in St. Kitts at Warner Park.
“One venue can be a challenge. We have thrown in world-class ground staff, and a consultant who has arrived in St. Kitts and is working very closely with all the staff at Warner Park to ensure the pitches are prepared to the highest possible standard and enable the best quality of cricket.
“We believe the pitches will hold up and will be fine, and we will rotate them accordingly, to make sure the cricket is as sparing as possible to the pitches.”
He hailed Warner Park as always being an exciting venue for CPL games.
“You think of Warner Park you think of sixes flying out of the stadium…you think of the phenomenal atmosphere of fans right on the boundary, and one of the best places in the world to watch cricket.
“That was in our thinking when scheduling the tournament. St. Kitts is a location we love, and we can’t wait to come back. And the fact that we will have some fans here, we think it is going to be a spectacle for those who are coming to the games.”
The marketing official said that protocols to keep the competition safe will be in place for the entire tournament.
“We are bringing a cohort of somewhere between 250 to 300 persons into St Kitts, and will be maintaining those persons in a biosecure bubble. We will be isolated from the rest of the population. People will be undergoing tests before they arrive in St. Kitts, tests when they arrive during the quarantine period, and there will be multiple tests during the duration of the stay to ensure everyone comes in negative and stays negative.
“We will be maintaining that biosecure bubble, so while we are here we won’t be interacting with the wider population.”
He told the Observer that it is anticipated the majority of the cohort will be fully vaccinated.
“Every single person in the cohort has been strongly impressed that it is an expectation, wherever possible, to be fully vaccinated. We know a high percentage of our cohort has been fully vaccinated.
“If there are any persons in the Cohort unvaccinated, whether it be because of their age or lack of availability where they came from, the protocol processes are being finalised and can’t be shared at this stage, and will be different processes. For anyone who isn’t fully vaccinated, they will have a longer quarantine period.”
He said the CPL’s operations team is working with the Chief Medical Officer to plan the protocols for the tournament.
Watson also spoke to the atmosphere fans who attend games can expect when at the CPL this season.
“Without fans, CPL is a very different proposition. We have world-class cricketers, but what really sets CPL aside from other tournaments on the global calendar is the fans and the carnival atmosphere the fans bring.
“We certainly want to continue that…we want pumping music, we want good moves, and have everyone have fun whilst being responsible and taking responsibility for the fact that we are in a pandemic, and encouraging people to be safe.”
The CPL schedule was released on Wednesday, and features multiple double and triple header days. Watson gave the rationale for the type of schedule.
“The schedule was formulated with a number of considerations in mind. First of all, we want as many games as possible that are attractive times for the fans to be able to come and attend. As well as evening and weekend games scheduled with fans in mind. We had to factor in the condensed window with more tournaments to be played.”
The tournament would also be played during the peak hurricane season, and Watson said the scheduling gives them the luxury to delay games.
“We have only really lost one game a year over the last couple of years. It has been largely unaffected by the schedule, and we do have the luxury of delaying start times if we need to if there is bad weather. We certainly don’t want to lose a ball of cricket to the weather, and hopefully, we won’t.”
The CPL bowls off on August 26 and end on September 15.
Police in Nevis is investigating the death of a man that occurred Friday afternoon in the heart of Charlestown.
According to the police report, the victim is male and officers are currently on the scene taking items of evidential value.
The Observer understands that there was a shooting incident that took place near Happy Hill Alley where the victim was struck by his assailants in a car.
The Observer understand the victim is 37 year old Travis Clarke
There is no attempt to discriminate against unvaccinated individuals in St Kitts and Nevis, only efforts to protect them.
These sentiments were expressed by the Medical Chief of Staff of the JNF Hospital Dr Cameron Wilkinson.
Dr Wilkinson was at the time speaking at a COVID-19 forum, responding to a question as to if entertainment and sporting events that will now only have a fully vaccinated audience were discriminatory to the unvaccinated
“There is no discrimination against the unvaccinated. Our fight all along has been for the unvaccinated. We have been trying to get as many persons who can be vaccinated so that we can protect those who cannot, and those who cannot be vaccinated include our young folks who are below 18,” Dr Wilkinson said.
“Our fight has always been for the pregnant mother and for the unborn child that cannot be vaccinated. There is no discrimination. By us encouraging you who can be vaccinated to go forward and get vaccinated, is so you can protect those persons. Our fight has also been for the elderly and frail who cannot be vaccinated.”
Addressing mass events and the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) that is set to be hosted here, he said they can be potential super spreaders with unvaccinated people in attendance.
‘We know mass events can be super spreaders, and in the first instance as we are moving forward with mass events, we are saying that it can be safely done with vaccinated adults.
“If one wants to go to the CPL and you can be vaccinated, then you can simply go forward and get vaccinated and attend the CPL games. There is no discrimination at all.”
Dr Wilkinson said having a crowd attend the CPL who have vaccinated, the chance of a super spreader event emerging is significantly decreased.
“Children cannot be vaccinated, but can go under the umbrella of their parents or guardians.”
He said the child will obtain herd protection of families and other persons who are there and vaccinated.
Addressing players who are unvaccinated, Dr Wilkinson said, “Players are in a different bubble and there will be no communication between the players and spectators.”
A festive atmosphere was laid-on quayside when the first cruise ship to visit the country since the onset of the Covid pandemic docked in St John’s yesterday.
Tourism and health officials turned out for a special ceremony held on the pier at Heritage Quay to welcome in the luxurious ‘Star Breeze’ and her hundreds of fully vaccinated passengers.
The vessel was greeted with a water cannon salute usually reserved for ships visiting for the first time, in tribute to her status as a harbinger of cruise tourism’s long-awaited revival.
The nation’s iconic Hell’s Gate Steel Orchestra played a medley of high-energy hits – from Bob Marley to Burning Flames and Boasta – as the beaming passengers waved from the upper decks. As they began to alight, singer Annia Matthews sang the national anthem and later performed a cultural presentation.
The cruise industry adds millions to local coffers each year in taxes and expenditure by those who disembark. But globally the sector became a poster child for the pandemic when countries across the world closed their borders last year in a bid to contain the coronavirus.
Privately, some local traders expressed disappointment that – after an absence of cruise passengers and their wallets for 16 months – the Star Breeze’s well-heeled patrons were not free to browse the city’s shops as before.
Instead, they were greeted by guides waiting to escort them on pre-organised tours of the island.
But the dignitaries who addressed yesterday morning’s ceremony all spoke of a need for caution, with officials keenly aware of the virus’ sharp resurgence in some neighbouring nations.
Tourism Authority CEO Colin James told Observer that reopening the sector slowly allowed the government to put its safety protocols to the test.
Windstar Cruises’ Star Breeze is carrying less than 300 passengers and crew for the two-day trip to Antigua, which will also see a stop in Falmouth Harbour today.
“I know the tour operators and all the other businesses have long awaited this day and although we are starting small, it’s a forerunner of things to come,” James said.
Subsequent ships’ calls are expected to see passengers offered guided shopping tours around St John’s.
“Safety is paramount for both us and the cruise lines so it will happen gradually that we will see passengers moving through Heritage Quay and Redcliffe Quay and patronising the shops. It’s a gradual start but it is a start and we are encouraged,” James added.
Tourism Minister Charles Fernandez said yesterday was “an exciting day”, highly anticipated by the many residents “who depend on this industry for their livelihoods”.
“As the tourism industry begins its rebound, this visit will provide a much needed boost for Antigua’s growing cruise ship sector which was poised for exponential growth just prior to the pandemic,” he told the ceremony.
“The cruise industry continues to make a significant contribution to the world economy. In 2019 it welcomed almost 30 billion passengers, creating jobs for 1.8 million people around the world and adding $154 billion to the global economy,” Minister Fernandez explained.
“We can clearly see the value of this industry and as a destination we remain committed to investing in our cruise tourism development.”
The cruise port’s general manager Dona Regis-Prosper said the US cruise line’s arrival was “a vote of confidence in Antigua”.
“The pandemic has taught us many lessons,” she added, “but the one that resonates most with me is that the road to recovery is not a sprint; it is a marathon and we continue to keep our eyes on the finish line.”
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SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan, July 16 (Reuters) – Reuters journalist Danish Siddiqui was killed on Friday while covering a clash between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters near a border crossing with Pakistan, an Afghan commander said.
Afghan special forces had been fighting to retake the main market area of Spin Boldak when Siddiqui and a senior Afghan officer were killed in what they described as Taliban crossfire, the official told Reuters.
Siddiqui had been embedded as a journalist since earlier this week with Afghan special forces based in the southern province of Kandahar and had been reporting on fighting between Afghan commandos and Taliban fighters.
“We are urgently seeking more information, working with authorities in the region,” Reuters President Michael Friedenberg and Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni said in a statement.
“Danish was an outstanding journalist, a devoted husband and father, and a much-loved colleague. Our thoughts are with his family at this terrible time.”
Siddiqui told Reuters he had been wounded in the arm by shrapnel earlier on Friday while reporting on the clash. He was treated and had been recovering when Taliban fighters retreated from the fighting in Spin Boldak.
Siddiqui had been talking to shopkeepers when the Taliban attacked again, the Afghan commander said.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the details of the renewed fighting described by the Afghan military official, who asked not to be identified before Afghanistan’s Defence Ministry made a statement.
A Reuters photographer since 2010, Siddiqui’s work spanned covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Rohingya refugees crisis, the Hong Kong protests and Nepal earthquakes.
Taliban fighters had captured the border area on Wednesday, the second-largest crossing on the border with Pakistan and one of the most important objectives they have achieved during a rapid advance across the country as U.S. forces pull out.
GENEVA, July 16 (Reuters) – The U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called on Cuba on Friday to release protesters and several journalists arrested at demonstrations and denounced alleged excessive use of force against some of them.
“It is particularly worrying that these include individuals allegedly held incommunicado and people whose whereabouts are unknown. All those detained for exercising their rights must be promptly released,” she said in a statement calling for dialogue to address grievances and for the Internet to be fully restored.
Thousands of Cubans joined a wave of nationwide protests over shortages of basic goods, curbs on civil liberties and the government’s handling of a surge in COVID-19 infections on Sunday, in the most significant unrest in decades in the Communist-run country.
Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Alison Williams
