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27031: Hermantin(News)'Hillbilly' DJ kidnapped in Haiti (fwd)







Posted on Fri, Dec. 30, 2005


HAITI
'Hillbilly' DJ kidnapped in Haiti
An American deejay known as the Haitian Hillbilly and a friend were kidnapped in Port-au-Prince for sky-high ransoms, the latest in a flurry of abductions sweeping Haiti.
BY CARA BUCKLEY
cbuckley@MiamiHerald.com

Alain Maximilien, the self-declared ''Haitian Hillbilly'' radio deejay who brought punk and country music to Haiti's airwaves, was kidnapped Wednesday night with a friend outside a Port-au-Prince apartment, his parents and friends said. They are the latest Americans to fall victim to Haiti's kidnapping epidemic, which has hit a record pace.

It was around 10:30 p.m. and Maximilien, 33, a U.S. citizen who spent half his childhood in Port-au-Prince, was dropping off his friend, whose full name could not be confirmed, in the upscale Petionville neighborhood when abductors snatched them both. The kidnappers phoned Alain's father, Leslie Maximilien, an hour later and demanded a $2 million ransom for each kidnapped man. After tense stop-and-start negotiations Thursday, the kidnappers appeared set to accept considerably less, and Leslie Maximilien hoped to have his son back by midnight.

''He's white and an American, so he's a target,'' said Leslie Maximilien from the Port-au-Prince home he shares with his son. He hired a private negotiator to work toward his son's release, notified the U.S. embassy and was allowed to speak with Alain periodically Thursday. ''He's under a tremendous amount of pressure,'' Leslie Maximilien said.

Alain Maximilien gained a modest degree of notoriety in Haiti after launching his radio show in Port-au-Prince early this year. Seeking to invigorate and diversify Haiti's musical palette, he played everything from Johnny Cash to the Clash to game show themes, all the while adopting the drawling, cocky persona of his alter ego, the ``Haitian Hillbilly.''

He and his friend's abductions come at a time when kidnapping rates have skyrocketed to unprecedented levels in the beleaguered Caribbean nation. According to the FBI, Haiti has replaced Colombia as the kidnapping capital of the hemisphere.

Wealthy Haitians and foreigners are most frequently targeted, and an estimated eight to 10 people are kidnapped in Port-au-Prince every day. Some 28 U.S. citizens were abducted between April and mid-December, according to the FBI. All 28 were reportedly returned unharmed, though three Americans were slain trying to resist evident kidnapping attempts.

Though Maximilien was comfortable in Port-au-Prince, having hop-scotched between Haiti and the United States all his life, he was on high alert in recent months as more of his acquaintances and friends were abducted for money.

Maximilien lives with his father in Port-au-Prince. His mother, Chris Maximilien, an emergency room nurse, lives in Kendall. Relatives flocked to her house Thursday to comfort her. ''I don't know what to do,'' Chris Maximilien said Thursday.

According to his father and friends, Maximilien was especially ebullient Wednesday, having hosted a successful afternoon radio show. He had just driven his friend, a video producer from North Carolina whose name has not been confirmed, from a country club to his friend's apartment 10 minutes away when the kidnapping occurred.

''It should have been the safest drive that you could do in Haiti, so it's very scary in that sense,'' said a friend of Maximilien's, who lives in Port-au-Prince and feared disclosing his name.

The kidnappers likely targeted the North Carolina man because he was carrying a video camera, the friend suspected. The pair, like most of Port-au-Prince's kidnapping victims, are being held in the lawless slum of Cité Soleil.

Through his negotiator, Leslie Maximilien talked the kidnappers down to a ransom of $20,000 by mid-Thursday. But then the kidnappers balked: Apparently two more gangs had gotten involved in the abductions, and each wanted a hefty cut. By Thursday afternoon, the demand had ballooned to $35,000, still sizable but a fraction of the initial $2 million.

Leslie Maximilien said the kidnappers have allowed him to speak with his son very briefly four or five times since Wednesday night.

As Thursday wore on, Alain Maximilien sounded increasingly drawn and concerned. The kidnappers were jittery because they felt the negotiations were going too slowly, he told his father, and they had begun to threaten him.

Leslie Maximilien told him not to worry. He'd get him back.