Strikers protest Haiti’s lack of security after kidnappings
The usually chaotic streets of Haiti’s capital were quiet and largely empty Monday as thousands of workers angry about the nation’s lack of security went on strike in protest two days after 17 members of a U.S.-based missionary group were abducted by a gang.
American officials, including the FBI, were working with Haitian authorities to try to secure the release of the 12 adults and five children connected with the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries. They were abducted Saturday while on a trip to visit an orphanage.
Haitian gangs have grown more brazen amid political instability, a deepening economic crisis and a spike in violence that is driving more people to flee the country.
Haitian police told The Associated Press that the abduction was carried out by the 400 Mawozo gang, a group with a long record of killings, kidnappings and extortion.
As authorities sought the release of the 16 Americans and one Canadian, the strike led by unions and other organizations disrupted much of daily life. Public-transportation drivers stayed home, and businesses and schools were closed.
“The population cannot take it any more,” said Holin Alexis, a moto taxi driver who joined the strike.
Barricades of burning tires closed off some streets in the capital and in other cities, including Les Cayes in southern Haiti, with some people throwing rocks at the occasional car that drove past.
Only a handful of moto taxi drivers, such as Marc
Saint-Pierre, zoomed through Port-au-Prince looking for customers. He said he was attacked for working on Monday but had no choice.
“I have children, and I have to bring food to my house today.”
The Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation is again struggling with a spike in gang-related kidnappings that had diminished in recent months. The country is also struggling because of the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that killed more than 2,200 people in August.
“Everyone is concerned. They’re kidnapping from all social classes,” Mehu Changeux, president of Haiti’s Association of Owners and Drivers, told Magik9 radio station.
He said the work stoppage would continue until the government could guarantee people’s safety.
Christian Aid Ministries said the kidnapped group included six women, six men and five children, including a 2-year-old. A sign on the door at the organization’s headquarters in Berlin, Ohio, said it was closed due to the kidnapping situation.
Among those kidnapped were four children and one of their parents from a Michigan family, their pastor told The Detroit News.
The youngest from the family is under 10, said minister Ron Marks, who declined to identify them.
Nearly a year ago, Haitian police issued a wanted poster for the alleged leader
THE POPULATION CANNOT TAKE IT ANY MORE.
Holin Alexis, a moto taxi driver who joined the strike
of the 400 Mawozo gang, Wilson Joseph, on charges including murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, auto theft and the hijacking of trucks carrying goods. He goes by the nickname “Lanmo Sanjou,” which means “death doesn’t know which day it’s coming.”
Amid the spike in kidnappings, gangs have demanded ransoms ranging from a couple of hundred dollars to more than $1 million, sometimes killing those they have abducted, according to authorities.
At least 328 kidnappings were reported to Haiti’s National Police in the first eight months of 2021, compared with a total of 234 for all of 2020, said a report last month by the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti.
Gangs have been accused of kidnapping schoolchildren, doctors, police officers, busloads of passengers and others as they grow more powerful. In April, a man who claimed to be the leader of 400 Mawozo told a radio station that the gang was responsible for kidnapping five priests, two nuns and three relatives of one of the priests that month. They were later released.