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Haiti's highest-ranking official to be kidnapped in recent years was seized Thursday when armed men abducted James Boyard, cabinet director of the Defense Ministry and inspector general of the national police, in one of the capital's last remaining safe neighborhoods, a person familiar with the case confirmed to The Associated Press (AP) on Saturday.
Boyard, also a political scientist, had been central to efforts to rebuild Haiti's armed forces and to implement reforms within the National Police.
His abduction marks a stark escalation in gang targeting of senior government figures at a moment when criminal groups control an estimated 70% of Port-au-Prince.
No ransom demand has been reported, and no group has claimed responsibility.
Haitian authorities have not publicly commented on efforts to secure his release.
Boyard was taken in the Bourdon neighborhood, which local media described as one of the few districts of Port-au-Prince still considered relatively secure from gang activity.
Speaking to the AP, Diego Da Rin, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the circumstances point to a carefully premeditated operation. "A person of this rank clearly has a fairly important security detail," Da Rin said.
He added that the abduction "possibly suggests the kidnapping was planned with great detail and might have depended on the collaboration of someone close to his security detail."
Da Rin said gangs have increasingly extended kidnapping operations into previously safe areas, at times using police uniforms to conduct fake checkpoints and stop drivers.
The dominant force behind Port-au-Prince's security collapse is Viv Ansanm, a gang coalition the United States designated a foreign terrorist organization in May 2025.
The group and its affiliates control roughly 70% of the capital.
Da Rin noted that gangs have recently been targeting individuals with dual nationalities and government officials, a shift he said may reflect an effort to extract higher ransoms and to deter authorities from launching operations against gang-held territory where kidnapping victims are being held.
Police have conducted recent operations against Village de Dieu, a territory controlled by the 5 Segond gang under Johnson Andre, known as "Izo," whom analysts consider one of Haiti's most powerful gang leaders.
Da Rin noted that some kidnapping victims are being moved there.
Boyard's abduction follows years of escalating violence against journalists, foreign missionaries, and public officials.
A United Nations report recorded at least 267 kidnappings between December 2025 and February 2026, the majority of them men.
The 2025 full-year figure stood at 1,268 reported kidnappings, a nearly 40% decline from the 2,058 cases documented the previous year.
Despite the drop, analysts warn that the targeting of high-profile officials signals a deliberate strategic shift by armed groups seeking both financial and political leverage.
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