Exterior Door Handles Will Not Work

I have a '99 Mitshubishi Eclipse, 2.0L Turbo. It has keyless entry with alarm. Last year, the passenger exterior door handle stopped working - though the interior handle still works. It began with difficulty opening the door until it stopped working, altogether. I didn't worry too much since I'm the only person who uses the vehicle.

However, recently, I began having similar problems opening the driver's side. I had the exterior handle replaced - thinking that was the problem - only to have that door stop working, as well. Now, I have to get into the car through the trunk.

Whenever I arm/disarm the system with the keyfob, I can hear the actuators in the doors operating (though they almost sound like the mechanisms are not moving crisply - more like they are lagging and dragging into place). When I pull on the handle, I can feel resistance toward the top of the handle's swing, but the latch does not disengage.

When I pulled the door panel and looked at the connecting rod from the handle to the latch rod, I noticed that the handle rod slides up and down, but the latch rod does not seem to have shifted up far enough to allow the handle rod to push it down and disengage the latch.

Also, I pulled the latch mechanism, yesterday. I noticed that the rod connecting to the keyed lock had a crack in the flattened, hook area which attaches to the body of the latch. I don't know if that has an bearing upon the problem.

Do I need to replace my latch assemblies?

Thanks for your time and assistance.

Alan Stucki