So it gets both clear and
murkier as we learn more
details about the assassination of
a Haitian President, Jovenel Moise.
Three suspects have been killed so
far, 17 have been detained and
another eight are being
tracked down.
So Haitian authorities have said
that the assassination involved
foreign forces.
And the police have identified more
than 2 dozen people involved in
the assassination,
including 26 Colombians and
2 Americans of Haitian descent.
So this is according to
investigative judge Clemente Noel
who told the French language
newspaper, Le Nouvelliste that
the Haitian Americans arrested
James Solages and Joseph Vincent.
So the attackers originally planned
on only to arrest Moise not to
kill him.
Noel, and Salages, and
Vincent were acting as or
he said that the two were acting as
translators for the attacks and
the attackers, nothing more.
Which just kind of feels like
aiding and abetting.
But a little bit more about them,
it's very fascinating, I feel like,
again, this is one of those stories
just going to keep on unfolding.
So one of the Americans is James J
Solages, a US citizen who lived
in South Florida and previously
worked as a security guard at
the Canadian Embassy in Haiti.
The other was identified as
Joseph Vincent, 55.
So remember how there was someone
who yelled out DEA, in English?
That's that hard are the letters
are different but when this attack
happened someone yelled out DEA.
The Judge Noel says that was Mr.
Solages who he yelled
the assailants were agents of
the US Drug Enforcement Agency over
loudspeaker at the start of
the assault.
There's a lot more detail on these
guys but they are two of a lot
of people who from all looks of
it were mercenaries.
Clearly we don't know yet
who ordered this hit?
Why they ordered this assassination
but they were all mercenaries.
>> Yeah,
this is super strange and so
there's definitely fog of war here.
This is one of those stories where
you're not going to know
what happened for some time.
And in more importantly, the reason
why I'm giving you this warning
here is sometimes as the so called
facts that come out in the first
24 to 48 hours aren't true at all,
and they get changed later, right?
And so that's why there's no
conclusions at all here certainly
for me, there's just not enough
information.
But now let's talk about the things
that are really interesting.
The 17 people that they have
arrested, a lot of them
are Colombian soldiers.
So that's super weird, right?
What are Colombian soldiers doing
in an assassination of the Haitian
president, well, one piece of
speculation, is that and this is in
the mainstream media as well.
So it's not like this is,
wild speculation and they, the US,
sometimes the ex-Colombian
military are used as mercenaries or
private security because they
were trained by the Americans.
And they were trained by
the Americans because they're
fighting leftists in Colombia.
And so of course leftists as in
Haiti, you're trying to
reclaim the natural resource of
your own country.
So of course America will help
the other side murder you.
And also they're fighting the drug
lords, etc, so
highly trained in extreme killing,
let's just keep it real, right?
And then you've got the two
Americans there.
So does that mean
the Americans did it?
No, I have no idea, right?
Is it possible?
Of course it's possible.
But when we say Americans I don't
even know what that means,
Americans what?
Is it DEA, CIA?
For what reason?
I have no idea.
Or it could be that, no,
just as those two Haitian Americans
were randos who were actually
translating.
What is not possible is that this
didn't have a purpose.
No, it definitely had a purpose,
but we have no idea who did it and
why they did it,
what that purpose was.
>> Right, right, absolutely.
And I am surprised to hear some
of that and
see some of that supposition in
the mainstream media also because
it's a pretty big allegation.
But then again, these are all,
they're definitely mercenaries and
it makes sense to say if they were
Colombian chances
are the United States which has put
millions of dollars into
the fighting the FARC in Colombia.
A lot of which ,once again,
the amount of corruption involved
in that entire fight and drug money
as well is uninvestigated,
it's just a bottomless pit also.
But so it's not a stretch to
imagine that they were American
trained it doesn't mean,
the US was behind it.
In fact, we know that
the United States including Biden,
was supportive of Moise and
his presidency even though and
I want to go to this obviously,
if you didn't know.
Haiti had become very unstable
under Moise, who had been ruling
by decree for more than a year.
And faced violent protests as
critics have accused him of trying
to amass more power while
the opposition demanded
he stepped down.
Now, I want to just name that
there's a lot of now political
turmoil for multiple reasons.
COVID is one of them.
COVID took out a Supreme Court
justice, I believe, who would have
stepped in, meaning killed him,
he died of COVID.
But within Haiti now there is
an interim president, but
there's also some infighting.
So the political storm in Haiti
intensified on Thursdays as two
competing Prime Minister's claimed
the right to run the country.
Setting up an extraordinary power
struggle over who has the legal
authority to govern after
the brazen assassination of
President Jovenel Moise in his home
the day before.
Haiti's Prime Minister Claude
Joseph says he is taking command
of the police and the army.
He has also declared a state of
siege that essentially puts
the country under martial law,
although constitutional experts
question his right to impose it and
a rival quickly challenged his
claim to power.
Because two days before his death
Mr. Moise, remember the President
was assassinated, appointed Ariel
Henry, a neurosurgeon, as a prime
minister, as a new prime minister.
Mr. Henry, who was supposed to take
up the role this week,
told the local newspaper after
the presidential assassination that
he was the rightful prime minister.
Okay, so obviously Haiti is worried
and Haitians are worried so what
they have done is they've asked for
international help.
They've asked it of
the international community but
specifically of the United States,
which is not necessarily
always a good idea.
The Haitian National Police have
requested US assistance according,
to the Biden administration which
is deploying senior FBI and DHS
officials to assess the situation.
>> Okay, I'm going to do 1%
speculation here and
then get to something important.
Usually if the US does something,
not only will the government
furiously deny it and call
any allegations conspiratorial but
usually the mainstream media
will join in in that.
And make it seem like a ridiculous
idea that America did that coup,
and then you'll find out three
weeks later, six months later yeah,
of course we did the code right.
But in this case,
the fact that they're open to
discussing the American connections
ironically makes me think maybe we
didn't do it.
So I know that when it's
in the Americas,
and someone gets assassinated and
it's not America who did it it's
always a shock, like, really,
that was someone else.
So, but again here we really really
don't know so, but there is a clue
in what Francesca just told you,
because that is awfully strange
that Ariel Henry was supposed to
take the prime ministership.
And he was appointed two days ago
and then the leader of Haiti gets
assassinated.
And all of a sudden, another guy
says, okay, now I'm the interim
Prime Minister, and we're not
going to let that guy take over.
That's like one of those things
that makes you go, okay, and
now will lead to far more
instability in Haiti and
mainly I feel terrible for
the citizens of Haiti, for having
to go through all this turmoil.
And as one citizen told the press
to look if the leader of
the country can get assassinated in
his own home that means none of
us are safe and there's
unfortunately some truth to that.
>> Absolutely, and
COVID is compounding that although
it seems like COVID is
not Haitians first worry.
But I do want to mention that there
are elections,
supposedly in September, so we will
see I know that the, I believe like
the UN Special Rapporteur on Haiti.
Someone don't quote me on that, but
there was a press conference
she was saying
there needs to be the election.
And most folks are looking at
September and saying there
still needs to be this election.
That's how we know,
that's how we can actually get on
the right track.
Again, the problem is, is that this
is not always a priority for
the United States, especially when
it comes to the people who
are trying to either flee Haiti or
remain in the United States, right?
We know that Biden has deported
Haitians, who were seeking asylum
in the US back to this unstable
country and into too under COVID,
in fact, using COVID as a pretext.
But the United States has not
always seen Haiti as a strategic
country, right?
As Cenk said, we're usually behind
a lot of the coups, right?
If it matters to our strategic
advantage.
Haiti, it's unclear so here is
a clip from the current president,
but in the early 90s, speaking
about Haiti just off the cuff.
And listen to the tone and how he
is referring to this country and
its strategic interest
to the United States.
>> If Haiti,
a God awful thing to say,
if Haiti just quietly sunk into
the Caribbean or rose up 300 feet,
it wouldn't matter a whole lot.
>> But doesn't the.
>> Okay, so if Haiti sunk into
the Caribbean, it wouldn't matter
to the United States and yeah,
in fact,
a giant earthquake did hit Haiti.
It did sort of rise and
fall 500 feet in the air and
apparently a lot of the aid money
that was given to Haiti was also
misspent and Haitians are still
reeling from that tragedy.
Cenk, what are your
thoughts on just seeing?
Can we believe that Biden
now cares about this country?
>> Look, we gave him credit earlier
in the show for getting out of
Afghanistan and so I actually think
in some of the policy he had really
like long time ago on Iraqi.
He was also right about it, and
we talked about that
a million years ago.
Definitely not on the original
invasion of Iraq,
he was dead wrong, but, and
that leads me to my overall point.
It's not every day that you will
find an establishment democrat like
Joe Biden being right on
foreign policy.
That's why we almost played
fireworks or,
[LAUGH] when we're like, my god, he
got something right on Afghanistan,
yes, right, so- >> Right.
>> And the thing about Biden is
that, and this is an upside and
a downside, he will often blurt out
things that he shouldn't say out
loud, [LAUGH] but he does.
And so no, you shouldn't say that
it wouldn't matter to us if
a country sank into the ocean
especially one as close as Haiti.
I just had a decency let alone
anything else, but is Haiti a giant
strategic interest of America?
Probably not,
I think if we were decent people,
we would care nonetheless.
And that's what progressives
are trying to drive towards because
we believe everybody is human, and
we should care about them.
But it would be surprising that's
why I'm have some let's just put it
this way.
It'd be surprising if America cared
enough because historically we
haven't shown a tonne of care
towards Haiti, right?
If we cared enough to do a coup or
anything along those lines in
Haiti, so
that's why this story is really
interesting in developing and
again, I have no idea who did it.
Yeah, no, and I want to last things
is that, I think we have to look
at the ways that the United States
in the media talks about Haiti and
politicians versus a country like
Venezuela, right?
Oil rich tries to nationalize
its oil, any country that has
reached resources that are in our
strategic interests.
That at all is a little bit
bending towards the left, right,
that is trying to nationalize their
own resources, all of them and
they're terrible.
We should probably coup them.
Let's send Richard Branson in there
to have a concert on the border and
that won't do any harm, that'll be
great and indeed horribly.
The way that we talk about
Latin American countries is only
relational to whether
the United States corporations
can make a profit off of them.
And I will say that when it comes
to Haiti, there is no one who made
more of a profit and who oversaw
that profit then the Clintons, and
Bill, and Hillary Clinton.
Using Haiti as this example of
a neoliberal free trade zone for
companies like Hanes Underwear,
Victoria's Secret,
other like garment workers, right?
And actually fought against raising
the minimum wage in Haiti on at the
behest of American corporations.
And of course, under the guise of,
we're bringing development,
this is great, this is development.
You saw that clip from Biden in 93
or 94.
Meanwhile, the Clintons are like,
no, no,
I think it's strategic to us and
American corporations and
now 30 years later,
what state is Haiti in, right?
No one was actually concerned about
the stability or
democracy of Haiti.
It was just helping American
corporations.
And who cares if they're getting
paid pennies on the dollar?
>> Okay I want to agree with
Fran,again a million percent and
just add one quick thing to that.
Think about it, guys.
There's dozens of
dictators throughout the world.
Who are the two countries that we
constantly target for like,
we are concerned about their
dear dictators and authoritarian
governments that are ruining their
country, Venezuela and Iran.
You want to know what connects
Venezuela and Iran?
The only thing that connects them,
they're both top five oil
producers.
So, good news, bad news for
Haiti you don't have a lot
of natural resources.
But that means we're a lot less
likely to demagogue against you and
invade you.
So take it or leave it but
you that's the reality of American
politics.
And isn't it amazing that
the mainstream media never pointed
out that connection between
Venezuela and Iran?
Okay, we gotta take a break here
guys, we got another great segment
for you guys when we come back.
And by the way Fran and I got to do
the bonus episode where we have one
of the craziest TV segments you'll
ever see in your life.
So hit the Join button below to get
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