Haiti is the victim of the biggest wave of kidnappings in history

Haiti, better known as the country of misfortunes, poverty and natural disasters, has now added to its already well-known problems a wave of kidnappings that are keeping the population on edge. In the last few hours, seventeen religious - Americans and Canadians - were kidnapped in the town of Ganthier, near Port-au-Prince, the capital, when they were returning by bus from visiting an orphanage. 

Both local authorities and American representatives suspect that the perpetrators belong to a specialised gang, known as 400 Mawozo. This is one of many criminal organisations that operate freely in the face of government weakness and in many cases police complicity. One of the abductees sent a WhatsApp message from the bus to a relative in Florida saying: "We have been kidnapped. I don't know where they are taking us.

Haiti currently holds the sad world record for kidnappings. So far this year there have been 395 officially recognised kidnappings. More are suspected, but some are solved by paying a ransom without bothering to report them. The general conviction is that no progress is being made because it is the gangs that really keep control of public disorder.

As with the kidnapping that has held the seventeen missionaries these days, much of it is carried out by criminals taking over buses or whole groups of citizens. They then extort money from those most likely to pay a ransom, and after two or three days they release them. Everyone complains of mistreatment. Many women are raped. Other times they are individual kidnappings, always of property owners or wealthy people such as doctors, lawyers or businessmen. 

School buses occupied by children have also been hijacked and in some cases raped. Official investigations have failed to solve almost all of the kidnappings, despite the fact that they often involve groups of people who are very difficult to keep hidden. Suspicions in the US press suggest that political and business interests are also behind some of the kidnappings.