Haiti gunmen abduct senior security official James Boyard

Published by Albis · 15 Jun 2026

James Boyard, a senior Haitian defence and police official tasked with helping rebuild the armed forces, was kidnapped in Port-au-Prince along with family members, according to multiple reports

• • The kidnapping of a top security official shows how deeply criminal power has penetrated Haiti’s governing and policing structure.
• • Capacity and infrastructure bottleneck.
• • The BBC described Boyard as the highest-ranking official to be kidnapped in Haiti in recent years.
• • CNN reported that he is cabinet director of the Defense Ministry, a respected security expert and a political scientist who had helped assess Haiti’s National Police and implement.