Who is Víctor Pineda, the man accused of killing the president of Haiti

August 19, 2021 – 11:26 pm

In the assassination of the president of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse, there already seem to be elements to know who pulled the trigger, killing him on July 7 at the presidential residence. According to witnesses revealed by the Investigative Unit of Snail News, who shot at the head of state would have been the retired soldier of the Army Victor Albeiro Pineda.

(Read also: Audios of Colombian mercenaries would reveal how the massacre took place in Haiti)

The night the Colombian mercenary command launched the attack on Moïse, they all had their places defined, according to witnesses shown in the news. The six most prepared retired soldiers, who were also part of the Army’s special order against drug lords, would be responsible for going up to the room where the president slept with his wife. They were called delta groups.

And among the delta group was Víctor Albeiro Pineda, who according to his family was linked to the Public Force for more than two decades and had just retired a couple of years ago. His family told him RCN News that Pineda traveled abroad in June, but did not give them more information about why he had been hired, he was just excited because he had been looking for a long time to enter a security company.

You can read: Earthquake, storms and floods: the endless ordeal of Haitians

On the day of the murder of Jovenel Moïse, after his comrades secured the first floor, the delta group went up to the second. There, soldiers (r) Naiser Franco Castañeda and Mario Palacios entered the room on the right, which had the door open. It was empty. “We even went all the way in and threw a stun gun into the room, it’s like a bathroom. We go in, check in, make beds, open up, do the normal rejection, Palaces with me,” Franco told witnesses revealed by Snail News.

The other four members of the delta group, including Víctor Albeiro Pineda, remained in the left chamber. The president of Haiti and his wife slept there. Pineda was carrying an M4 rifle and, according to at least two of his comrades, it was he who shot the head of state. “They say it was Pineda. (…) They heard him. (…) He is very worried, this boy has no peace,” said, for example, Private Forero. “I want you to simply write down a surname here and you are already investigating it to see if it is true or not: Pineda,” said lieutenant (r) Jheyner Carmona Flórez, another involved.

The truth is that President Moses ended up dead after receiving 12 shots and his wife seriously wounded by shots to the abdomen and arm. On the same day, Colombian mercenaries left the presidential house, laden with money, and secretly searched for an alleged rescue mission that never arrived. When they were captured, Víctor Pineda was confiscated weapons, ammunition, his personal checkbook, and the camera server of the house of Moïse.

(You may be interested: Judge appointed to investigate assassination of Haitian president abandons case)

“I didn’t know he was in Haiti, they had a group led by a Mr. Capador. The gentleman told them to wait because, because the security agency had not yet confirmed anything to him, the day came when they were summoned to travel, the whole group was found in Bogota he did not tell me he was going to Haiti, “Pineda’s wife told the television news. According to the investigation, the recruiter of all the mercenaries would be Duberney Capador, who died in the middle of the escape.

Pineda’s wife insists on her innocence, though she admits she didn’t have much information about what her husband was doing. “He told me he couldn’t send photos, that they were banned because he had been hired by a security cordon, Monday was the last day I talked to him, already on Thursday they give me the news. He is not a murderer , he is a worker, “he told RCN News.