HAITIANS SEEK TO LIBERATE 17 TAKEN CAPTIVE
Most of those kidnapped are American missionaries and their family members
Haiti on Sunday became the center of an international crisis as officials there sought to liberate 17 missionaries and family members, most of them Americans, taken captive a day earlier by a street gang known for mass kidnappings and ransoming religious groups.
The kidnappings Saturday escalated the convergence of challenges in a country that analysts describe as a failed state sitting less than 700 miles off the Florida coast. The abductions — part of a surge in kidnappings this year by armed gangs that rule large swaths of the country — ramped up pressure on the fragile and bitterly divided interim government that stepped in after the assassination in July of President Jovenel Moïse.
Haitians from all walks of life have been swept up in the lucrative ransom racket, in which victims are held for days or longer as captors, families and authorities negotiate their release. Abductions of fuel trucks and their drivers have caused power and fuel shortages nationwide, and shipping contractors have refused to send drivers through key national arteries due to the inability of the police to secure key roads that are controlled by or infested with gangs.
“This shows us that no matter who you are, or where you are in Haiti, you are never safe,” said Pierre Espérance, director of Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network.
Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries requested “urgent prayer” for the seven women, five men and children who were abducted. The group included 16 U.S. citizens and one Ca
nadian citizen, the organization said in a statement on its website Sunday.
“We are seeking God's direction for a resolution, and authorities are seeking ways to help,” the organization said. “Join us in praying for those who are being held hostage, the kidnappers, and the families, friends, and churches of those affected.”
A voice on an audio recording described as a “prayer alert” from Christian Aid Ministries and obtained by The Washington Post said the missionaries were seized while returning from a visit to an orphanage and were being held by an armed gang. They included organization staff and family members, according to the recording and a person familiar with the abduction.
The voice said the field director's family and one other man stayed at the organization's Haitian base in Titanyen, around 12 miles north of Port-au-Prince. All other staff who were on the visit to the orphanage were abducted.
“The mission field director and the American embassy are working to see what can be done,” the voice said. It later added: “Pray that the gang members will come to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.” Messages left for Christian Aid Ministries were not returned.
Organizations that monitor kidnappings in Haiti said the missionaries were abducted by a much-feared gang known as 400 Mawozo, which is known for targeting religious groups and controls parts of Ganthier, the town east of Port-au-Prince where the group was seized. In recent months, its members have increasingly engaged in mass kidnappings from buses and cars.
Haitian officials declined to discuss negotiations to free the kidnapped missionaries. Groups that follow kidnappings in Haiti believe they are being held in Croixdes-Bouquets just east of the capital.
Authorities sought to negotiate with Joly “Yonyon” Germine, a jailed gang member considered to be the second-in-command of 400 Mawozo.
The gang in April kidnapped five priests and two nuns, some of them French nationals. All eventually were released. Catholic universities and schools closed in protest. The prime minister at the time, Joseph Jouthe, resigned shortly afterward, following a surge of other gang crimes — including an attack on an orphanage in which children were sexually assaulted.
The Catholic clerics, held for three weeks along with other victims, suffered harsh conditions during their captivity, including a lack of food or poor quality meals. They were not tortured or beaten, Espérance said, but two suffered medical complications from lack of access to their prescription medications.
It is common in Haiti for kidnappers to wait 24 to 72 hours before issuing ransom demands, which typically start high before being negotiated down. Though kidnapped victims have been killed, they are far more frequently set free, traumatized but without permanent physical damage, after ransoms are paid.
“Sometimes they start by asking for a million, but then accept $10,000 or $20,000,” Espérance said. “There is no fixed amount.”
Gédéon Jean, director of the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights in Port-au-Prince, said he had received information from authorities that Saturday's captives included 16 Americans and one Canadian. A person familiar with the abduction, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the ongoing crisis, said the abducted might also have included two Haitian nationals.