iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

More allegations from the lawyers concerning US intelligence agencies' support for regime change in Bolivia, conducted through CTU — the Florida firm run by Ortiz and his partner Antonio Intriago.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

The lawyers claim to have found an audio file buried in discovery "that bridges the joint work between Ortiz and the American agencies in Bolivia in 2020 with the 2021 work in Haiti." The contents of that audio file are redacted.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

The lawyers also allege the messages show US intel officials coordinating with Ortiz on a "regime change" operation in Bolivia in 2020.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

NEW: In court filing, lawyers for one of the defendants in the Haiti assassination case cite text messages between Arcangel Ortiz and his FBI handler from 2020 up until one week before the assassination.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

What could possibly go wrong? "The founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince, visited Haiti in April to negotiate contracts to provide attack drones and training for an anti-gang task force."

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

The armed groups in Haiti are responsible for heinous atrocities, including widespread sexual violence, as the UN report also makes clear.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

The UN also reported at least 50 cases of security forces' summarily executing unarmed individuals suspected of being in or collaborating with gangs.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Police operations in Cite Soleil "were particularly concerning due to the large number of casualties among the population," the UN reports. 76 civilians killed and 43 injured. "The victims were hit by stray bullets while they were in their residence or while walking."

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

It's official, the US has designated Viv Ansanm in Haiti as a "Transnational Terrorist Group."

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

This could end virtually all trade with Haiti, if actually enforced. Very little comes or goes out of Port-au-Prince without some payments being made. Humanitarian access programs would also likely cease. Can't enter a community to disperse aid without negotiations.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

A Haitian government official, asked by Washington Post about civilian casualties as a result of weaponized drone operations, had this to say: “To me, it’s just a detail. As long as you’re in a zone controlled by gangs and there are attacks, collateral damage is going to happen.”

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

The report details three seizures of cocaine hidden in bananas from Noboa Trading, one just last year. A defendant, now free, was represented by an advisor to Noboa, who currently serves as minister of health.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Explosive new report from @revistaraya.bsky.social, based on internal Ecuadorian police documents, showing the connections between the president's banana company and drug trafficking.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

Combined, he's bringing in more than $200k a month. But why does the DR intel agency even need a lobbyist?

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

Carlos Trujillo, "a top advisor" to Trump on Latin America who also served during the first admin, has signed four new lobbying contracts in the last month: Haiti, Guyana, Georgia, and, perhaps even stranger, the intelligence agency of the Dominican Republic.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Noboa had previously denied any involvement with the Panamanian based Heckfield International, but here is another document listing his name as the "real owner."

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

And another document, showing Noboa's connection to Festil Investments, which happened to have an account at Banisi, an offshore bank linked to former president Guillermo Lasso.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Here's one document, showing Daniel Noboa listed as the "real owner" of Lanfranco Holdings, which as Folha's Claudia Jardim reported, is "one of the largest entities in the Noboa family conglomerate."

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

In 2023, before Daniel Noboa became president of Ecuador, @folha.com reported on leaked docs showing he owned shell companies in tax havens. It would make him ineligible to hold public office. 1.5 years later, and with elections next month, he has yet to address the allegations.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

USAID's new obligations for Haiti related work, from January 2024 through March 2025. So far in 2025, USAID has obligated a total of about $200k. No month in 2024 saw less than $8.5m obligated.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

"The fastest, quickest way to dismantle the gangs in Haiti would be to stop the flow of weapons, especially ammunition," UN human rights expert Bill O'Neill said. Instead, the US and others have spent more than half a billion importing a security force while arms keep flowing.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

It's one month before Ecuador's elections and the government has just hired a DC lobbyist on a three month contract for $165,000. Agenda item #1 for the lobbyist: facilitate an official state visit between Noboa and Trump.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro, says that the recent violence in the Catatumbo region is directly connected to the violence in Haiti. In Haiti, traffickers have "more power than the government," former president Preval once told me.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

One could write a book about the framing of this.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

We will see many arguments like this. Here's the problem: yes, USAID is good for agricultural producers in the US. But that is not really a good thing for the countries we are supposedly "helping." In fact, US food aid has often decimated local production.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

In defending USAID, former director Samantha Power makes plain that USAID is used to gain political leverage over foreign governments, often in order to advance US commercial interests. "To help a US company enter a new market ... they say yes."

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Early in Obama's first term, the US announced a big reform program for USAID that would have broken up the big contracts that go only to the beltway bandits. Here's how the contractors responded, from AID STATE:

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

This figure has since increased to $219.3 million. The contract was extended until March 2025. That would be an average of about $20 million per month for the MSS base in Haiti.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

"A small group of individuals has maintained considerable influence over Haiti's drug trade from the 1980s until today." 👀👀👀

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

"Some reports indicate that powerful political and economic figures in Haiti use the eel industry to launder drug profits," head of UNODC tells the Security Council.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

In two months, Haitian police were responsible for at least 55 summary executions. 603 have been killed in police operations but 43% of those were people "not involved in acts of violence." Lots of talk about strengthening police, but little about ending police abuses.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

This article in the Kenyan press came six months prior to the actual “opening” of the hospital, which was disrupted by gunfire and saw two journalists killed.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

The disconnect between how the Kenyan government tries to portray its Haiti intervention at home vs. how things are actually going in Haiti is …. Something.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

An arms trafficking trial is set to get underway today in south Florida. According to an exhibit list filed by the US, there are text messages and phone calls between the defendant and Renel Destina aka Ti Lapli. 2 others were charged in the case and have already pleaded guilty.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

Phone records further show Casimir communicating directly with "U.S. person 1" — who worked for "a major U.S.-based firearms manufacturer."

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

Phone records show Casimir communicating with individuals in Haiti about the purchase of arms. Who was he selling them to? Is the DOJ sharing this information with Haitian officials?

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

Jean Robert Casimir, a Haitian police officer, was arrested in Florida last month on arms trafficking charges. Casimir is a naturalized US citizen and also runs a private security company in Haiti. Records indicate he purchased at least 87 firearms in the last couple of years.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

Some 20 Kenyan officers have resigned from the Haiti mission, citing lack of pay and poor working conditions. Report from Edwin Okoth of Reuters:

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

Below is what the UN sanctions committee had to say about Reynold Deeb. But there is perhaps no single family that the Haitian state relies upon more than the Deebs. The country's largest importers, last year, the family's companies paid the state some $100M in custom duties.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Useful background ahead of tomorrow's USNC discussions about Haiti. www.securitycouncilreport.org/whatsinblue/...

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Remember when the DR government got really angry because a few members of the US congress wrote a letter that mentioned the DR as a source of illegal arms trafficked to Haiti. lol

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

The OAS adopted a resolution by consensus in support of a UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti. But Colombia added a footnote to clarify its own position. While not blocking the resolution, Colombia makes its opposition clear.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

Trump's Latin America policy is likely to be run by far-right regime changers: Rubio, Claver-Carone, Trujillo. Last time we saw them, they promoted a military coup in Bolivia, pressured the IMF to support the right in Argentina, and levied draconian sanctions on Venezuela. Bad.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

Haitian police and members of a self-defense group executed two wounded patients that @msf.bsky.social was transporting to a hospital.

Statement from MSF condemning the execution of two wounded patients and attack on MSF personnel.

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Jake Johnston @jakobjohnston.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

After strongly backing Haiti prime minister Conille through his long-running power struggle with the transition council, something happened in recent weeks to turn the US against him. www.cepr.net/haitian-gove...

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