Colombia Claims Consul In Haiti Threatened

By NAN Staff Writer

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. Jan. 12, 2021: The South American country of Colombia says its consul in Haiti has been threatened.

Foreign Minister Marta Lucia Ramirez said on Tuesday the threats were aimed at Julio Cesar Santa Martinez, who serves as Colombia’s sole representative in Haiti. The threats reportedly come after the consul tried to provide aid to 18 former Colombian soldiers arrested as part of an investigation into the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise last July.

Foreign Minister Ramirez did not provide further details on the nature of the threats or who made them, but said they occurred as the consul sought to provide humanitarian assistance to the ex-soldiers who were among the dozens of suspects arrested in a wide-ranging probe into the killing of Moise in his home in July 2021.

The assassination cast Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, into further political and economic chaos, which had recently been compounded by several natural disasters, gang violence and gas shortage.