In a country where about 70 percent of adults have no jobs, that means Gehanne and Jacques-Henri Beaulieu are worth a small fortune.
Michael Kamber for The New York Times
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As Mrs. Beaulieu arrived for work on Tuesday, in broad daylight, on the busy Rue des Miracles, three men carrying long guns forced their way into her car. Within the hour, they called her husband by cellphone and demanded $20,000.
'If you do not give us the money,' a voice said, at once gentle and cold, 'we will execute her.'
Emptying his bank accounts, Mr. Beaulieu came up with only $2,700. He began calling friends and relatives, many in the United States, asking desperately for money."...
Indeed, more than a year after the start of yet another conflict-ridden political transition, it is hard to tell who, if anyone, has taken charge in Haiti...
By the accounts of diplomats and political observers, human rights activists and business people, this remains a country poised for implosion, with almost all its institutions ravaged from the inside out by corruption. Ruthless mobs have risen in their place, led by drug traffickers, former military officers, corrupt police officers and street thugs. They have set off a devastating wave of murders, carjackings, armed robberies and rapes.
Kidnappings are the latest scourge.
Like most crimes, kidnappings tend to go unreported. But authorities in the interim government and foreign diplomats estimate that 6 to 12 kidnappings occur in this city every day...
Mr. Foley said Haiti - where most people live on $1 a day, more than 40 percent of children are malnourished, and childbirth is the second leading cause of death among women - faced myriad challenges as it struggled for stability. But, he said, unless the government took control of the streets, it would make no real progress on any other front...
"Haiti is close to a failed state," Mr. Foley said. "Many people have looked at the current mission as Haiti's last chance to have a huge international effort to help it become self-sustaining."..
Schools and businesses in the center of the city have closed. Well-to-do Haitians with relatives abroad have begun to leave the country. Those who stay say they are increasingly afraid to leave their homes.
Jean-Gérard Gilbert, the director of a private high school in the city's center, was abducted at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday at the school's front gate. His wife, Maryse Gilbert, said he called her half an hour later.
"I've been kidnapped," he told her. "They shot me two times in my feet."
Then Mrs. Gilbert said the kidnappers snatched the phone and demanded $200,000. "Where am I supposed to get that kind of money?" she asked them.
After hours of negotiations, Mrs. Gilbert said, she and the kidnappers reached an agreement on the ransom. She would not reveal the amount, but said that relatives had delivered the money, and that the kidnappers promised to release her husband.
At 8 p.m. Wednesday, they called to say that her husband was in a coma.
On Thursday morning, Mr. Gilbert was still missing. His students held a demonstration outside their school to demand his safe return.
A gunman drove by and opened fire on them. Two students were wounded and taken to the hospital.
Mrs. Gilbert remained alone at the school on Thursday afternoon, waiting for her cellphone to ring.
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