san juan, puerto ricoAP —
Armed men in Haiti have kidnapped James Boyard, a highly respected security expert who serves as a minister in the Ministry of Defense and inspector general of the Haitian police, people familiar with the situation announced Saturday.
He is the highest-ranking official kidnapped in the Caribbean country, which has been hit hard by gangs in recent years.
A person familiar with the situation, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the incident, confirmed the kidnapping to The Associated Press on Saturday.
Local media reported that Boyard was detained on Thursday in Bourdon, one of the few areas in Port-au-Prince considered relatively safe. An estimated 70% of the capital is controlled by a powerful gang alliance known as Vib Ansam, which the United States designated as a foreign terrorist organization last May.
Mr. Boyard, who is also a political scientist, is tasked with helping rebuild Haiti’s military and has helped assess the implementation of reforms in the Haitian National Police.
It is not clear who kidnapped him or whether a ransom was demanded.
“A person of this rank obviously has a pretty significant security detail,” said Diego Da Rin, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.
He said Mr Boyar’s kidnapping likely suggested it was carefully planned and relied on the cooperation of people close to his security personnel.
Mr Da Rin said kidnappings were on the rise in areas of Port-au-Prince that were once thought to be safe, with gang members sometimes wearing police uniforms and stopping drivers as part of deceptive operations.
He noted that gangs have kidnapped people with dual citizenship and targeted civil servants. That could mean they are seeking higher ransoms and trying to dissuade authorities from attacking specific gang-controlled areas where kidnap victims are being held, Da Lin said.
Police recently raided the Village de Dieu, which is controlled by the Five Segonde gang led by Johnson Andre. Best known as “Izzo,” he is considered one of Haiti’s most powerful gang leaders.
Da Rin pointed out that the gang was taking some of the kidnap victims to Village de Dieu.
High-profile kidnappings in recent years have targeted Haitian journalists, international missionaries, and other people. At least 267 people, most of them men, were reported to have been abducted between December 2025 and February 2026, according to a UN report. According to the report, there were 1,268 kidnappings reported in 2025, a nearly 40% decrease from the 2,058 kidnappings reported the previous year.
