In recent years, gangs have ramped up kidnappings for ransom, especially in the capital, grabbing people regardless of nationality or socioeconomic status.
The driver of the Cuban medical aid mission to Haiti was kidnapped a few days ago in Port-au-Prince, the Ministry of Health in Havana announced yesterday Tuesday.
Alejandro Aguilera Milanes, the leader of the mission — which consists of 250 members, doctors, nurses and support staff — was kidnapped on January 23 in the Haitian capital, the ministry said in a press release.
“Efforts” are being made by the Haitian authorities to deal with this “unfortunate kidnapping” with the “highest degree of priority”, in order to ensure the “quick and safe release” of the member of the Cuban mission, the text adds, which does not go into details .
This is not the first kidnapping of a member of the Cuban mission in Haiti. Last year, a doctor was kidnapped and held hostage for ten days before being released.
In recent years, gangs have ramped up kidnappings for ransom, especially in the capital, grabbing people regardless of nationality or socioeconomic status.
Haiti is mired in a multi-year political crisis, and the assassination of President Jovenel Moise by a group of mercenaries in 2021 made the situation even worse. The gangs, which can account for their impunity to a large extent, do not stop escalating the violence.
In 2022, the UN counted 1,359 abductions and nearly 2,200 murders in the country; this latter number was up by about a third from the year before.
Doctors Without Borders announced on Friday that it had suspended operations at a hospital in Carrefour, a suburb of the Haitian capital, after gunmen stormed it and pulled out a patient and executed him a few meters away.
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