‘I spent 13 days kidnapped by a gang in Haiti and my wife negotiated my release’ | World

Esteban Zambrano was kidnapped for 13 days in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.

The experience that this 34-year-old Chilean lived in June 2023 is becoming increasingly common in a country that is experiencing a spiral of chaos and violence.

Haiti is going through one of its most critical moments since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, on July 7, 2021.

On March 2 of this year, armed men entered the country’s main prison, freed more than 3,700 prisoners and put Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s government in the spotlight.

Today, it is estimated that armed gangs already control around 80% of the territory of the Haitian capital.

“There has always been violence in Haiti, but now the groups are increasingly bold, they are increasingly bold,” says Zambrano, from Port-au-Prince, in an interview with BBC Mundo, the BBC’s Spanish-language service.

“This looks like a civil war,” he adds. “Gangs have grown in number and strength and are reaching levels never seen before.”

“Now they are attacking police stations, banks, everything they find in their path. “They attacked the airport and left bullet marks on the plane seats.”

After the March attack, the country’s main airport had to be closed and the government declared a state of emergency in the capital, including a nighttime curfew. During the day, few risk leaving their homes.

“We are trapped,” says Zambrano, who lives in Haiti with his wife, Uruguayan Carolina da Silva, and four children.

Both work in the Christian organization Comunidad Vástago, dedicated to educational and religious work.

For now, they have no plans to leave Port-au-Prince, despite the increase in kidnappings, extortion, rapes and murders. According to the UN, more than 53,000 people left the city between March 8 and 27 to escape the violence.

The couple is in the process of adopting three of their four children and, until this is finalized, they want to remain in the country.

Below, read Zambrano’s first-person account of his time in captivity.

One afternoon the children arrived from school, and minutes later a shooting started outside with heavy weapons, weapons of war. We had to take refuge in a safe place inside the house.

Not only did shootings increase, but also kidnappings. This is how we live here in Port-au-Prince.

At first we didn’t pay much attention, but last year the kidnappings started to come closer and closer to our house.

At one point, we learned that a kidnapping had taken place ten blocks from our house. A few days later, we heard about another one, but this time eight blocks away. And then one just six blocks away.

So we decided to leave for a few weeks because we heard they were asking about us.

Then things calmed down a bit and we headed back. We continued working with our Christian organization until there came a time when my wife and I asked ourselves ‘what do we do?’, because the kidnapping issue was a latent possibility.

We made a kind of action plan in case something happened. We took measures such as, for example, whenever one of us left the house we had to send our location via phone in real time. And this ended up becoming a habit.

One day I left home with my middle daughter, who was 7 years old. At that time, in June of last year, we participated in a community to teach Spanish to Haitian children and young people. I was the teacher.

We were going there by car, when three blocks from the house two young men on motorcycles blocked my path and threatened me by pointing a gun at me. Thank God they allowed my daughter to leave.

They were young, I think they were between 17 and 20 years old. One of them took the wheel of the car and forced me to sit in the back seat. They blindfolded me. The kidnapper was very nervous and the car fell into a ditch. We stayed there for about 15 minutes while the boy tried to get the car to start.

In his nervousness, the young man, without realizing it, left the gun by his side, that is, he left it within my reach. On more than one occasion I thought, “well, I can take the gun.” I was torn, because I felt that this was not the way to solve the problem.

In the end, I decided not to take the gun.

The boy finally managed to get the car out of the ditch and get it moving. Then they took me to a place on the side of a mountain.

The first thing I saw when they took off the blindfold was another kidnapped man lying on a bed.

They put us in a dark, half-built house. A few minutes later, the gang leader arrived and gave me permission to make a phone call. I told my wife, within a few seconds, that everything was fine, not to worry and to be at peace.

When the soldiers (as the gang members call themselves) left, I was left alone with the other kidnapped man. He told me that he was also a Christian and so we began to pray and sing together in the middle of the darkness.

Time passed until the soldiers knocked on the door and gave us a lamp.

They told us, “Take this lamp so you can pray.” Not only did they leave us the light, but they also sat with their weapons in front of us to listen. At that moment I understood that, despite the evil that may exist in some human beings, God allows things like this to happen.

I was kidnapped for 13 days. They gave me food twice a day, usually rice and bananas, and there was an adapted bathroom next to the house.

During this period, I had emotional ups and downs, calmer days and more tense days. I didn’t know what would happen and sometimes I thought about how close death could be. And I wanted to know if I was ready for this.

I remember that on the seventh day, or maybe the eighth, I thought I was going to die. So, in a prayer I say to God: “if it has to happen, it will happen, I am in your hands”.

I also tried not to think about my family too much, I tried not to think too much because it affects you too much. Even thoughts had to be measured.

But it’s very different to face those moments when you know God is in control. In those moments I was reminded of the importance of eternity, of the promise that this life is only temporary.

It was difficult, but really cool things happened, like making friends with the other person who was kidnapped.

And it was also nice to have met some of the soldiers who were holding us captive. Some even told me about how they ended up there. During these conversations I understood that there was a purpose in everything that was happening to me.

That’s the beauty, and I want to maintain the beauty of kidnapping.

Talking to young people, I realized that some were well into the world of crime, but others wanted to leave.

I had long conversations with one of the soldiers in which he told me what his life had been like and how he had gotten into that world of gangs.

At the age of 17, he had an experience that marked his life: returning home from school, he learned that a group of bandits were beating his father to death.

It was at that moment that he decided to take revenge and, to achieve this goal, he joined the enemy gang.

And finally he managed to get revenge. But over the years, things changed. He said he was tired, that he didn’t want to continue.

That was one of the conversations I remember most. I don’t know what will become of him… I hope he was able to make important decisions for his life.

When my wife found out that I had been kidnapped, she went to the police to ask for help. The problem is that there were so many kidnappings that the police couldn’t deal, they didn’t have enough people to negotiate.

So, they openly told my wife that they couldn’t help her at that moment.

As my wife is fluent in the Creole language, she had the courage to take charge of the negotiation.

At first they asked for US$100,000 (R$517,000 at current exchange rates) for my release, an amount impossible to pay.

So she negotiated so well, did so well, that she managed to play along with the kidnappers and ended up paying just US$4,000 (R$20,600).

The police officers were so impressed that they congratulated her. They told him that the lowest ransom they were aware of so far was US$20,000 (R$10,000).

We as a family are very grateful for all the donations we receive.

The day before I was released, I had an asthma attack because I wasn’t taking my medication. I was lying on the floor and could barely breathe. I felt really bad, but at that moment I remembered a psalm and I was convinced that I would be released.

The next day, at six in the morning, the head of the kidnappers arrived and told me: “If your wife does things well, you will leave in a few hours.”

I waited since 6 am and at around 1 pm they put me in the car blindfolded and took me to the place where they delivered me.