联邦调查局、国务院和其他美国机构已经派出了一个小组进行协助海地据美国官员称，当局正在努力谈判，以安全释放一群在这个动荡国家被一个团伙绑架的传教士。
消息人士告诉美国广播公司新闻，包括16名美国公民在内的17人在周六的机场运行中，在海地的一个检查站被一个团伙绑架。
在经历了几个月的动荡之后，绑架事件让海地再次成为公众关注的焦点，其中包括一场毁灭性的地震以及一次总统暗杀事件——尽管多年来帮派暴力和绑架勒索一直困扰着海地人民。
白宫新闻秘书珍·普萨基(Jen Psaki)周一表示，美国总统乔·拜登(Joe Biden)已经听取了绑架事件的简报，“国务院和联邦调查局正在做什么来让这些人安全回家”。
美国国务院发言人内德·普莱斯(Ned Price)表示，美国官员团队正在当地与海地国家警察合作，而美国驻太子港大使馆一直与海地当局、传教团体基督教援助部和受害者家属保持“持续接触”。
根据海地总统办公室的消息来源，海地政府怀疑被称为400马沃佐的团伙应对绑架事件负责。普莱斯拒绝透露美国官员是否与该组织有过接触。
总部设在俄亥俄州的基督教援助部在一份声明中证实，周六，包括五名儿童在内的17人在前往孤儿院的途中被“绑架”。除了美国人，这个团体还包括一名加拿大人。
“海地和美国的民政当局知道发生了什么，并正在提供援助。我们将继续密切关注局势，并真诚祈祷，”该传教团体周一在一份声明中表示。
“绑匪和所有人一样，都是按照上帝的形象创造的，如果他们转向上帝，就可以改变。在我们渴望安全释放我们的工人的同时，我们也渴望绑架者被耶稣的爱所改变，这是和平、欢乐和宽恕的唯一真正来源，”他们补充道。
在政治动荡和政府动荡的背景下，海地近年来的帮派暴力事件激增，尤其是在7月份总统约韦内尔·莫伊塞遇刺后。莫伊塞是一位备受争议的领导人，被指控制造了一场宪法危机。就在继任者宣誓就职几周后，美国支持的阿里埃勒·亨利(Ariel Henry)在8月份经历了一场7.2级的大地震，造成2200多人死亡。
“你把贫困放在多年来反复发生的7.0级以上地震之上，这对海地人民来说太残酷了，他们不仅很难建立法治，而且很难建立社会的基本功能，”退休的美国广播公司新闻撰稿人、前助理国务卿斯蒂芬·甘亚德上校说。
海地是世界上人均绑架率最高的国家。根据海地人权分析和研究中心的数据，今年至少发生了628起绑架事件，其中包括29名外国人，2020年有近800起。甘亚德说，像美国人这样的西方人越来越倾向于更容易的目标，因为“他们觉得自己可能付得起钱。”
400马沃佐组织是绑架最多的组织，该中心主任让·格代翁告诉华盛顿邮报，包括据称当天早些时候绑架了两名法国牧师。该组织因其暴力策略和肆无忌惮地针对神职人员和教堂而臭名昭著，在天主教占多数的海地尤其有争议。
根据普莱斯的说法，随着绑架事件的增加，拜登政府最近几周宣布向海地国家警察追加1500万美元，其中1200万美元用于打击帮派暴力。
FBI, US embassy working to obtain release of 17 people, including Americans, kidnapped in Haiti
The FBI, the State Department, and other U.S. agencies have dispatched a team to assistHaitian authorities in their efforts to negotiate the safe release of a group of missionaries kidnapped by a gang in the troubled country, according to U.S. officials.
Seventeen people, including 16 U.S. citizens, were abducted by a gang at a checkpoint in Haiti during an airport run on Saturday, sources told ABC News.
The kidnappings have put Haiti in the spotlight again after a turbulent few months, including a devastatingearthquakeand a presidential assassination -- although gangs' violence and use of kidnapping for ransom have plagued the Haitian people for years.
President Joe Biden has been briefed on the kidnappings and "what the State Department and the FBI are doing to bring these individuals home safely," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.
The team of U.S. officials is on the ground working with Haitian national police, while the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince has been in "constant contact" with Haitian authorities, the missionary group Christian Aid Ministries and the victims' family members, according to State Department spokesperson Ned Price.
The Haitian government suspects the gang known as 400 Mawozo to be responsible for the abductions, according to a source at the Haitian presidential office. Price declined to say whether U.S. officials had been in touch with the group.
The Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries confirmed in a statement that a group of 17 people, including five children, were "abducted" while on a trip to an orphanage on Saturday. In addition to the Americans, the group includes one Canadian.
"Civil authorities in Haiti and the United States are aware of what has happened and are offering assistance. We continue to monitor the situation closely and are in earnest prayer," the missionary group said in a statement Monday.
"The kidnappers, like all people, are created in the image of God and can be changed if they turn to Him. While we desire the safe release of our workers, we also desire that the kidnappers be transformed by the love of Jesus, the only true source of peace, joy, and forgiveness," they added.
Haiti has seen a spike in gang violence in recent years amid political unrest and turmoil in its government, especially after July's assassination of President Jovenel Moïse -- the controversial leader accused of creating a constitutional crisis. Just weeks after a successor was sworn in -- the U.S.-backed Ariel Henry -- Haiti experienced a massive 7.2-magnitude earthquake in August that killed over 2,200 people.
"You put the poverty on top of repeated 7.0 plus magnitude earthquakes over the years, and it's just been brutal for the Haitian people and very difficult for them to establish not just the rule of law, but basic functions of society," said retired Col. Stephen Ganyard, an ABC News contributor and former assistant secretary of state.
Haiti leads the world with the highest kidnapping rate per capita. According to Haiti's Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights, there have been at least 628 kidnappings this year, including 29 foreigners, and nearly 800 in 2020. Ganyard said westerners like Americans increasingly make for easier targets because there's a "sense that they can probably afford to pay."
The group 400 Mawozo is responsible for the most abductions, the center's director Gédéon Jeantold the Washington Post, including allegedly kidnapping two French priests earlier the same day. The group is notorious for its violent tactics and for brazenly targeting clergy and churches -- particularly controversial in Catholic-majority Haiti.
With that rise in kidnappings, the Biden administration announced an additional $15 million for Haitian national police in recent weeks, $12 million of which went to anti-gang violence efforts, according to Price.
