PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Hostage negotiators from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headed to Haiti Feb. 6 to help secure the release of an American missionary kidnapped by gunmen in a suburb of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Nathan Jean-Bieubonne, a U.S. citizen of Haitian descent, was driving home Feb. 4 from Betheal Church with three companions when gunmen surrounded the pastor’s all-terrain vehicle and forced him out at gunpoint, according to Fox News. The kidnappers later demanded a ransom from his family.
The FBI team will assist Haitian police and a United Nations anti-kidnapping squad in efforts to free Jean-Bieubonne. Kidnappings for ransom are a serious problem in Haiti, which has been plagued by crime since a February 2004 coup that toppled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Kidnappers often target missionaries, who travel with little security and work in slum areas where fewer police are present.
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