MIAMI — It has been over two weeks since the family of Steeve Pierre, a Miami resident originally from Haiti, received the dreaded phone call asking for a ransom for the release of his cousin.
Pierre, 40, who came from Haiti in 2019 and owns a landscaping business in Miami, said his cousin, Borgella Antoine, went missing in Haiti at the end of February. Antoine, a truck driver, was delivering goods when he was kidnapped by members of a gang.
“At the beginning, we were trying to do something,” Pierre said. “I even sent money to Haiti in an effort to raise enough money to get him released.”
But the gang started asking for more money and now wants $500,000. It’s too much for Pierre’s family, and the owner of the truck company he works for is now trying to negotiate to lower the ransom.
“It’s very stressful for all the family. Whenever your phone rings you’re afraid to answer because you don’t know what the news will be,” Pierre said. “We’re praying he’s alive and will come home safe.”
Pierre is one of many Haitians living in Miami whose lives have been rattled by the outbreak of violence in the Caribbean nation. Florida is home to the largest community of Haitian Americans in the United States. Many of them, with deep ties to their country and with relatives back home, are grappling with the uncertainty of not knowing what will happen next. Some are gripped with fear when they are unable to reach a loved one by phone.
Anderson Charles, 40, a Miami resident who came from Haiti in 2001, said family members who live in Port-au-Prince, the capital, were forced to go into hiding in the countryside recently.
While they were away from home, armed burglars broke in, stole possessions and eventually realized the family had relatives in the U.S. Charles said the gang members decided to wait for the family to return home, so they could kidnap them and ask for a ransom….
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