Arrest in Haiti Assassination Leaves Some Baffled: ‘Nobody Ever Heard of Him’

Questions are swirling over the arrest of a doctor with ties to Florida described as playing a central role in the death of Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse.

As a sprawling multinational investigation into the assassination of Haiti’s president broadens, with suspects stretching from Colombia to Florida, the Haitian authorities have turned their focus to a little-known doctor who they said coveted the presidency. The Haitian authorities say that President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated early on Wednesday morning by a team of perhaps two dozen heavily armed mercenaries recruited from abroad who rolled up to the president’s heavily guarded home in multiple vehicles, gained entry after little resistance and opened fire. On Sunday, Haiti’s national police chief, Léon Charles, was among the authorities who cast Dr. Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a 63-year-old doctor and pastor who divided his time between Florida and Haiti, as a central figure in the plot.