Jenny Capador still can’t believe she’ll never see her brother again — and she’s not convinced he’s an assassin, as officials in two countries have claimed.
Duberney Capador, her brother, was one of at least three people killed in a police operation in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, following the assassination of the country’s president, Jovenel Moise, on July 7.
Capador, a retired Colombian army sergeant with 20 years of experience, is suspected of being a member of a commando squad that organized the high-level killing, according to Haitian police.
Moise’s death has already resulted in the arrests of twenty Colombians. In a clash with Haitian security forces, at least one other Colombian was killed.
However, Jenny Capador, who was close to her brother, does not believe he was involved in the assassination, which has thrown Haiti into even more disarray amid escalating gang violence and an increase in Covid-19 infections.
At first, the job offer that set off a chain of events that eventually led to Capador’s death sounded promising. Jenny Capodor told CNN, “I knew it since April… that he got this job offer and was going to travel abroad and work as private security for an important man in Haiti.”
“On the morning of Wednesday, July 7, he called me and told me that, sadly, they got there to protect someone important but that they arrived late. He told me they were in a house, under siege and under fire, fighting. But he told me not to worry and not to tell our mother, that everything was going to be alright,” she said.
A WhatsApp message from her brother saying “Amen” in response to her blessings and questions about his well-being was one of the last messages she received from him. According to a screenshot of the WhatsApp chat obtained by CNN, she received the message on July 7 at 5.50 p.m.
She said she found out the next day that her brother had been killed in Haiti. And that he was a suspect in the assassination of Haiti’s president, according to Haitian officials.
According to preliminary investigations by Colombian and Haitian police, Duberney Capador’s mugshot had been shown at a press conference by the Colombian National Police as one of the alleged killers by Friday.
On Route de Kenschoff near Haiti’s national palace, burned-out cars can be seen where police engaged in a gun battle with suspected assassins.
Jenny Capador told CNN from Genóva, Colombia, a rural hamlet in the Department of Quindio, a hilly region known for quality coffee and beautiful landscapes, “It wasn’t him: I’m 100 percent sure of my brother’s and his comrades’ innocence.”
“My brother is an honorable man, he’s always been an excellent brother, son and father to his two sons. He served 20 years in the Army, since he was 18. He had a dream of being a warrior, of serving the fatherland and help our country achieve peace,” she said.
Duberney Capador joined the Colombian Army’s special forces as a teenager and fought rebel guerrillas in southern Colombia, according to his sister. She claims he was invited to train in the United States, which is common among Colombia’s elite army units.
Capador began working in private security two years ago, when he retired at the age of 38, according to his sister. Due to Colombia’s five decades of guerrilla warfare, security companies frequently seek out officers from the Colombian army because they are likely to have a lot of direct combat experience.
Capador claims she has no idea who her brother was protecting, how many people he was collaborating with, or who was besieging them. She showed CNN a photo of her brother dressed in a uniform labeled “CTU Security,” a US security firm, but claimed she was unaware he had ever done business in the US. CTU Security could not be reached for comment by CNN.
On Saturday, a Colombian police spokesperson told CNN that they were working with preliminary evidence provided by Haitian police through Interpol.
On Saturday, Colombia’s national intelligence chief traveled to Port-au-Prince with a group of Colombian police officers to join the investigation, though CNN could not confirm whether he has met with the Colombian suspects detained in Haiti.
Jenny Capador says her only wish right now is for her brother’s body to be returned from Haiti so she can mourn him properly.
“We are going to give him a hero’s funeral. He was our hero and the axis of our family… He loved these hills. He should rest here.”
