The body of Haitian community radio host and journalist Joseph Willard Vancol was found September 9 nearly three weeks after he was abducted by armed men in Gressier, a community west of the capital controlled by brutally savage armed gangs, CPJ confirmed with his employer.
Vancol, 73, was the director of the community radio station Ti Boukan FM and served as the coordinator of the Institute of Technology and Animation (ITECA) training center. The journalist disappeared following a gang attack on its training center in Petit Boukan, on August 20, 2026, the director of ITECA, Chenet Jean-Baptiste told CPJ.
An ITECA team, accompanied by police, found his decapitated remains in a wooded area within the institution's property, according to the media reports. It is unclear when he died during his time in captivity. Vancol’s body was taken to a morgue in Léogâne, the nearest city, for a post-mortem.
Gressier has been heavily impacted by the 103 Zombies gang belonging to the Viv Ansanm coalition that has terrorized the country for the last two years, including repeated attacks against the local police station.
According to local groups, more than twenty people were killed and several hundred others displaced during a series of gang attacks carried out between August 17 and 21 in various parts of Gressier. The Haitian National Police (PNH), supported by the government Task Force, carried out a major security operation in Gressier in early September, including drone attacks against suspected members of the 103 Zombies gang.
The police operation is part of an effort to regain territory and restore movement along the strategically important main road to the south.
ITECA described Vancol as a “dedicated activist and collaborator” in a statement highlighting his commitment to serving peasant communities. The center added that Vancol “dedicated his life to the struggle for the emancipation of the masses and to the promotion and valorization of popular culture.”
According to Jean-Baptiste, Vancol was under constant threat from local gangs. They had intensified in the Petit Boucan district after an internal dispute in the municipality. “The radio station was forced to halt broadcasts due to threats from gangs,” said Jean-Baptiste.
Vancol hosted two shows, Pawòl chanjman (Words for Change) on Saturdays from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. and Òganize (Organizing) on Tuesdays from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. According to Jean-Baptiste, the radio station was looted by the gangs.
It added it would seek to ensure that those who “cowardly assassinated our colleague” are brought to justice, which would be an unusual outcome in Haiti where impunity is rife due to a small, under-equipped police force and a weak justice system.
News of Vancol’s death was received with deep sorrow by local civil society groups. "Joseph Willard Vancol will never fade from our memory," ITECA said in its statement.
Vancol as an activist who spent more than 40 years championing the rights and dignity of poor Haitians, as well as fostering the development of peasant organizations and community media.
Established nearly 50 years ago in Ti Boukan, ITECA works in areas such as popular education, agriculture, agroecology, livestock farming, and access to drinking water.
The center houses the main treatment and distribution infrastructure for Gressier’s only drinking water system, upon which many families rely.