Haiti is sliding deeper into chaos, as mass kidnappings escalate and gangs become powerful enough to blackmail the government and choke the impoverished nation’s struggling economy.

Nearly a month after a group of 17 American and Canadian missionaries and their families were abducted in Haiti, negotiations to free the hostages drag on. The extended captivity of the missionaries, a group that includes an infant and four other children, has added to a growing sense of anarchy in the country of 11 million.