Port-Au-Prince: In a latest development to Haiti President Jovenel Moise’s assassination, Haiti Police on Friday said 17 Colombian ex-soldiers ate believed to be involved in the incident. Earlier, two men believed to be Haitian Americans one of them purportedly a former bodyguard at the Canadian Embassy in Port au Prince have been arrested in connection with the assassination of Haiti’s president.

Mathias Pierre, Haiti’s minister of elections, told The Associated Press that James Solages, a Haitian American, was among six people arrested in the killing of President Jovenel Moise by gunmen at his home in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday. He also said that four others are from Colombia.

Apart from this, 7 other suspected assailants were killed in a gunfight with police, according to Haiti’s director of National Police Leon Charles.

Solages described himself as a certified diplomatic agent, an advocate for children and budding politician on a website for a charity he established in 2019 in south Florida to assist residents.

As reported by news agency PTI, witnesses said two suspects were discovered on Thursday hiding in bushes in Port-au-Prince by a crowd, some of whom grabbed the men by their shirts and pants, pushing them and occasionally slapping them.

Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph, who assumed leadership of Haiti with the backing of police and the military, asked people to reopen businesses and go back to work as he ordered the reopening of the international airport.

On Wednesday, Joseph decreed a two-week state of siege following Mo se’s killing, which stunned a nation grappling with some of the Western Hemisphere’s highest poverty, violence and political instability.

Haiti had grown increasingly unstable under Mo se, who had been ruling by decree for more than a year and faced violent protests as critics accused him of trying to amass more power while the opposition demanded he step down.

Moise had faced large protests in recent months that turned violent as opposition leaders and their supporters rejected his plans to hold a constitutional referendum with proposals that would strengthen the presidency.

(With inputs from PTI)