PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haiti's 400 Mawozo gang, which kidnapped a group of U.S. and Canadian missionaries over the weekend, started out as small-time local thieves and rose to become one of the country's most feared gangs that controls a rural area east of the capital Port-au-Prince, according to security experts.
The group is seeking $17 million for the release of 16 Americans and one Canadian who were in Haiti as part of a missionary visit, boosting global attention on the country's kidnapping problem, which has worsened amid economic and political crises.
