San Juan, Puerto Rico
Armed men in Haiti have kidnapped James Boyard, cupboard director of the Defense Ministry and a extremely revered security professional who additionally serves as inspector common of Haiti’s police, a individual with the information of the scenario mentioned Saturday.
He is the highest-ranking official to be kidnapped in the gang-wracked Caribbean country in latest years.
An individual with information of the scenario who was not licensed to talk publicly in regards to the case confirmed the kidnapping to The Associated Press on Saturday.
Local media reported that Boyard was seized Thursday in Bourdon, one of many few areas in Port-au-Prince that’s thought-about comparatively protected. An estimated 70% of the capital is managed by a highly effective gang coalition referred to as Viv Ansanm, which the US designated as a foreign terrorist organization in May final 12 months.
Boyard, who can be a political scientist, was tasked with serving to rebuild Haiti’s armed forces and has helped assess Haiti’s National Police to implement reforms.
It was not clear who kidnapped him or whether or not a ransom has been requested.
“A person of this rank clearly has a fairly important security detail,” mentioned Diego Da Rin, an analyst with the International Crisis Group.
He mentioned the abduction of Boyard presumably suggests the kidnapping was deliberate with nice element and may need trusted the collaboration of somebody near his security element.
Da Rin mentioned kidnappings are more and more occurring in areas of Port-au-Prince as soon as thought-about protected, with gang members typically donning police uniforms and stopping drivers as a part of faux operations.
He famous that gangs have been kidnapping folks with double nationalities and focusing on public officers. That might imply they’re in search of increased ransoms and presumably attempting to dissuade authorities from attacking sure gang-controlled territories the place kidnapping victims are being held, Da Rin mentioned.
Police not too long ago have attacked Village de Dieu, which is managed by the 5 Segond gang, led by Johnson Andre. Best referred to as “Izo,” he’s thought-about one among Haiti’s strongest gang leaders.
Da Rin famous that gangs have been taking some kidnapping victims to Village de Dieu.
High-profile kidnappings in latest years have focused folks together with Haitian journalists and international missionaries. At least 267 folks have been reported kidnapped from December 2025 to February 2026, most of them men, in accordance with a UN report. In 2025, 1,268 kidnappings have been reported, a practically 40% drop from the two,058 kidnapping reported the earlier 12 months, the report acknowledged.