Kidnapped missionaries are free, thank goodness. But Haiti’s people still held hostage | Editorial
Prayer may have helped; fasting may have been of benefit. More likely, money was the deciding factor.
No matter. A well-armed, widely feared Haitian gang released the 12 remaining Christian missionaries it had kidnapped and held since October.
The missionaries are connected to Christian Aid Ministries in Berlin, Ohio, which asked supporters to pray and to fast on their behalf.
They are apparently safe, for which we can all be grateful. These hostages were the last of 17 — 12 adults and five children, including an 8-month-old — who were taken on Oct. 16. Five of them already had been released: two, a couple, for humanitarian reasons, and then three others,
The gang, 400 Mawozo, demanded $17 million for the hostages’ release, threatening to kill them otherwise. No doubt the size of the group and the fact that the majority of them was American — one missionary was from Canada — focused the Biden administration’s attention on Haiti in a way reserved for hurricanes and earthquakes that strike the island.
This kidnapping was no less of a disaster, born of gang violence that has killed citizens, displaced thousands, sown fear and disrupted any semblance of normalcy in a country where kidnappings for ransom continue with impunity, members of the police force turn to corruption to feed their families; and to which the United States continues to cruelly return migrants by the planeload.
But for now, let us celebrate the good news. Haiti is long overdue for some.
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This story was originally published December 16, 2021 at 2:33 PM.