Political | Process

The result has been gang rule, and abductions have become part of everyday life in Haiti. More than 300 kidnappings were reported to Haitian police in the first eight months of 2021.

• The overwhelming number of cases involved Haitians, and gaudy financial demands are often negotiated down to thousands of dollars – still a lot of money in a nation that by most metrics ranks as the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.

• Haiti’s turmoil reached the global spotlight Saturday when 17 people – seven women, five men, five children, all Americans except one Canadian – were seized in the community of Ganthier east of the capital.

• The missionaries, with the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, had just visited an orphanage they helped build.

• FBI part of ‘coordinated US government effort’ to free missionaries

• Haitian Justice Minister Liszt Quitel told multiple news outlets including the Wall Street Journal that the gang has demanded $17 million for the group’s release – $1 million each. Quitel said the missionaries and their families – the ages of the kids are 8 months and 3, 6, 14 and 15 years – were being held in a safe house near where the kidnapping took place in a suburb of Port-au-Prince.

• Quiatel told the Journal that the FBI and Haitian police are in contact with the kidnappers but that negotiations could take weeks.

• The kidnapping was the work of the 400 Mawozo gang, which controls the area where the attack took place, Haitian police say. The gang was also blamed for the kidnapping of five priests and two nuns in April. In that case, the gang initially demanded a $1 million ransom. All seven captives were released, but authorities did not say whether a ransom was paid.

SOURCE: USATODAY