FBI called to help resolve kidnapping

Haitians enter Day 2 of strike over lack of security, economic crisis

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI—The usually chaotic streets of Haiti’s capital were quiet and largely empty Monday as thousands of workers angry about the country’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 violent gang.

U.S. 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 who disappeared Saturday while on a trip to visit an orphanage.

It was the largest reported kidnapping of its kind in recent years. Haitian gangs have grown more brazen amid ongoing 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 local 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 like Marc Saint-Pierre zoomed through Port-auPrince 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 country is again struggling with a spike in gang-related kidnappings that had diminished in recent months, after President Jovenel Moïse was fatally shot at his private residence on July 7 and a magnitude 7.2 earthquake killed more than 2,200 people in August.

“Everyone is concerned. They’re kidnapping from all social classes,” Méhu 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.

The U.S. State Department said Sunday that it was in regular contact with senior Haitian authorities and would continue to work with them and other partners.

“The welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad is one of the highest priorities of the Department of State,” the agency said.

Christian Aid Ministries said the kidnapped group included six women, six men and five children, including a two-yearold. 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. They arrived in Haiti this month, he said.

News of the kidnappings spread swiftly in and around Holmes County, Ohio, hub of one of the largest populations of Amish and conservative Mennonites in the United States.

Christian Aid Ministries is supported by conservative Mennonite, Amish and related groups in the Anabaptist tradition.

Nearly a year ago, Haitian police issued a wanted poster for the alleged leader 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 “Lanmò 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.