Haiti gang demanding $17 million ransom payment
2 min readThe infamous Haiti gang that kidnapped 16 Us citizens and a Canadian on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince on Saturday is threatening to “put a bullet” in the heads of the hostages if its ransom need of $17 million is not fulfilled.
In a online video staying extensively circulated, Wilson Joseph, a chief of the 400 Mawozo gang, mentioned all those who have not “paid the expenditures yet” require to end doing so.
“I swear by thunder that if I never get what I’m asking for, I will set a bullet in the heads of these Americans,” he claimed.
Joseph is recognised as “Lanmou San Jou,” which translates into “death does not know when it is coming.” His gang kidnapped the missionaries with Christian Aid Ministries on Saturday just east of the cash immediately after stopping their vehicle by gunpoint. The gang is known for its group kidnappings, and the ransoming of hostages by the busload and carload.
The significant-profile hostage getting has thrown Haiti into the world headlines with President Joe Biden getting briefed day-to-day on initiatives by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to no cost the hostages, which include five children. The youngest is 8 months old.
Joseph made the video on Wednesday, a working day in advance of the video circulated and Haiti Nationwide Police Chief Léon Charles resigned from his article as head of the beleaguered power.
In the movie, Joseph, putting on a purple fit and demonstrating his encounter, asks the individual powering the digicam to film several coffins, presumably the corpses of five of his gang users who have been killed.
“Ariel Henry. Léon Charles. You fellas make me cry,” Wilson mentioned referring to the performing key minister, Henry, and law enforcement main Charles. “But I’m going to make you men cry blood. If calls for are not satisfied. By killing 5 of my troopers doesn’t mean he’s heading to destroy my military. I swear by thunder that if I do not get what I’m asking for, I will set a bullet in the heads of these Us citizens.”
This tale was at first posted October 21, 2021 4:06 PM.
Jacqueline Charles has noted on Haiti and the English-talking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for around a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for protection of the Americas.
