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Over the past nine days in Haiti, kidnappers have abducted a contractor from New York, two missionaries from North Carolina and two Franciscan friars -- one from El Salvador and the other a Haitian. In all three cases the victims were freed within a few days, and at least one ransom was paid. This latest rash of kidnappings exemplifies the increasing violence in the impoverished Caribbean country. The FBI, in fact, now says Haiti has surpassed Colombia as the riskiest country in the Americas for kidnapping.
The first kidnappings in the latest string occurred July 16, when two male missionaries from North Carolina were dragged from their car in Port-au-Prince's crime-ridden Delmas neighborhood while on their way to church. The abductors demanded $500,000 for the victims' release, but later lowered the amount to $100,000. An undisclosed ransom eventually was paid and the men were released July 20.
Also on July 20, armed men grabbed a contractor from Queensbury, N.Y., from his car near the Port-au-Prince airport. The gunmen took the victim, Charles Adams, to a house in the slum of Cite Soleil, near the international airport, where other kidnapping victims were being held. Adams was released within 24 hours, apparently without having paid the $500,000 demanded from his captors. The kidnappers reportedly told Adams that kidnap-for-ransom is their only means of support. Finally, the two friars abducted July 21 in Haiti reportedly were freed by July 23.
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