U.S. and senior Haitian officials worked Monday to free 17 members of an Ohio-based Christian aid organization who were kidnapped over the weekend in Haiti, while local unions and other groups launched a general strike to protest the worsening security situation and gang violence racking the Caribbean nation.
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Analysts believe that 400 Mowaza, a gang notorious for mass kidnappings and ransoming of religious groups, is behind Saturday's abduction. The 16 Americans and one Canadian from Christian Aid Ministries were seized while on a trip to visit an orphanage.
"The welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad is one of the highest priorities of the Department of State," a State Department spokesperson said in a statement. "We have been in regular contact with senior Haitian authorities and will continue to work with them and interagency partners."
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday that President Joe Biden is receiving "regular updates" about the efforts of the State Department and the FBI to secure the release of the group. She said the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince is also "coordinating with local authorities and providing assistance to the families to resolve the situation."
Psaki did not provide details about the identities of those who were kidnapped, citing privacy concerns.
The kidnapping thrust Haiti once more into the center of an international crisis. For months, the poverty-stricken Caribbean nation has been battling a surge in gang violence and kidnappings. A power struggle after the July assassination of President Jovenel Moise has further eroded any semblance of rule of law.
Even before this weekend's abduction, local unions and other organizations had called for a general strike Monday to protest the deteriorating security situation. The demonstration closed businesses, including gas stations, and some schools, and it left the streets of the Haitian capital largely deserted.
"General strike, no commercial activities, no public transport, no fuel, no schools, no life," Giuseppe Loprete, chief of the International Organization for Migration's Haiti mission, wrote in a tweet, which included a photo of a mostly empty road. "The population is exhausted. Instability, violence and chaos are pushing [people] to leave more than poverty."
"The population cannot take it anymore," 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," he said.
Haiti holds the grim status of having the world's highest number of kidnappings per capita, with 400 Mowaza behind some 80% of abductions in recent months, according to Gedeon Jean, director of the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights in Port-au-Prince. The group is notorious for its use of rape, mass kidnappings and assassinations to control Haitian streets, businesses and power players.
Haitians both rich and poor have fallen victim to the kidnapping surge rattling the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation. Abductors typically set ransoms within 24 to 72 hours: Prices can vary from $100 to $1 million, depending on the hostage's status.
"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 Monday's strike would continue until the government could guarantee people's safety.
Haitian authorities said Sunday that they sought to negotiate with 400 Mowaza's reported second-in-command, Joly "Yonyon" Germine, who is in jail. The gang's alleged leader, Wilson Joseph, is wanted by police for a long list of charges, including murder and kidnapping.
No group has yet publicly claimed responsibility for kidnapping the Christian Aid Ministries team or set a ransom for release. The U.S. government has a long-standing policy of not paying ransoms for American citizens.
Christian Aid Ministries said Sunday that the group included five men, seven women and five children, among them a 2-year-old.
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 earlier this month, he said.
Christian Aid Ministries, based in Millersburg, Ohio, has worked in Haiti for years providing emergency services and running anti-poverty programs, as well as spreading its version of Christian teachings. Its American staff members returned last year after being pulled out for nine months because of the political unrest.
News of the kidnappings spread swiftly in and around Holmes County, Ohio, hub of one of the nation's largest populations of Amish and conservative Mennonites, said Marcus Yoder, executive director of the Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center in nearby Millersburg.
Christian Aid Ministries is supported by conservative Mennonite, Amish and related groups in the Anabaptist tradition.
The organization was founded in the early 1980s and began working in Haiti later that decade, according to Steven Nolt, professor of history and Anabaptist studies at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. The group has year-round mission staff in Haiti and several countries, he said, and it ships religious, school and medical supplies throughout the world.
Conservative Anabaptists, while disagreeing over technology and other issues, share traditions such as modest, plain clothing, separation from mainstream society, closely disciplined congregations and a belief in nonresistance to violence.
The Amish and Mennonite communities in Holmes County have a close connection with missionary organizations serving Haiti.
Every September at the Ohio Haiti Benefit Auction, handmade furniture, quilts, firewood and tools are sold, and barbecue chicken and Haitian beans and rice are dished up. The event typically brings in about $600,000 that is split between 18 missionary groups, said Aaron Miller, one of the organizers.
Information for this article was contributed by Miriam Berger, Amanda Coletta and Devlin Barrett of The Washington Post; and by Danica Coto, Evens Sanon, Eric Tucker, Matthew Lee, Matt Sedensky, Peter Smith, John Seewer and Julie Carr Smyth of The Associated Press.