2-year-old separated from his parents flees Haiti’s violent capital

A Florida couple’s trip to the Dominican Republic to attend a wedding turned into days of anxiety after they dropped off their 2-year-old son with relatives in neighboring Haiti and the boy ended up trapped due to the increasing unrest in that country.

After nearly three weeks, the boy, Julien, finally left Haiti and flew back to Florida on Wednesday, where he was reunited with his parents, Philippe-Olivier Armand and his wife, Olivia Turnier.

Their son’s evacuation was part of a growing number of hasty and ad hoc departures from Haiti, which has been ravaged by a wave of gang violence that has turned parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, into a war zone and is closing its main airport .

“It was going to be a 48-hour journey, but it turned into two and a half weeks of uncertainty and stress,” says 36-year-old Mr. Armand, a Haitian businessman who works in the financial and insurance industries and travels between Haiti and his home in Miami. . He said they left Julien in Haiti on March 1.

Julien, along with seven cousins ​​and six other family members, boarded a helicopter Wednesday morning in Port-au-Prince that flew them about 125 miles north to Cap Haitien, Haiti’s second-largest city. There they were met by a charter plane from the Florida Department of Emergency Management, which took them to Florida.

The U.S. State Department said Thursday that it has helped 160 Americans leave Haiti since Sunday, some on flights to the United States and others by helicopter to the Dominican Republic.

Haiti’s capital has been consumed by violence since a coalition of gangs launched a coordinated offensive against Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s government in late February, raiding police stations and other government buildings, looting hospitals and banks and attacking private homes.

Mr. Henry, who was unable to return to Port-au-Prince after an official trip and has been staying in Puerto Rico, has agreed to resign once a transitional government is installed. Negotiations over who will be part of that government are proceeding slowly.

As part of an international plan to stabilize Haiti, a mission of 1,000 police officers led by Kenya and approved by the United Nations should be deployed to the Caribbean country after an interim government is installed.

Gangs now control major roads in and out of Port-au-Prince and block access to the seaport, cutting off the supply of food, fuel and water to the city. This week, gang members have attacked more affluent areas, including the suburb of Pétionville, where many families from abroad live.

As of Tuesday, about a thousand Americans had filled out “crisis intake” forms as part of the process to seek a way out of the country, according to the State Department, although officials said evacuations would be dictated by security conditions.

The state of Florida is organizing its own departures, with Governor Ron DeSantis announcing Tuesday that the flight that brought the Armand family from Haiti to Orlando would likely be the first of many.

Mr. Armand said the ordeal began when he and several relatives left their children with relatives in Haiti. “All the parents traveled without their children, and it became a nightmare,” he said.

Relatives, Mr. Armand said, were given last-minute instructions Wednesday morning to go to a sand field in Pétionville, where the helicopter picked them up.

“It was not easy to find a place to land the helicopter,” said Philippe Armand, Julien’s 75-year-old grandfather, who lives in Miami and used WhatsApp to track the journey. “It was quiet, like a covert operation.”

The logistics were organized with the help of a Florida foundation run by Jack Brewer, a former National Football League player.

“It wouldn’t have happened without him,” Mr Armand said.

Americans on flights coordinated by the U.S. government must agree to reimburse the government, although the State Department has said the cost will not exceed the price of a commercial flight between the countries.

Mr. DeSantis said people who traveled on the plane that landed in Florida would not be charged.

With Port-au-Prince airport closed, evacuations have become increasingly dangerous. To reach Cap Haitien you must travel on roads controlled by gangs who regularly kidnap drivers and passengers and demand ransoms.

Many Haitians are calling with greater urgency for the United States to send military reinforcements to Haiti, and some are angry about the focus on evacuating U.S. citizens and diplomatic personnel from other countries.

“Instead of addressing the situation, we see embassies evacuating people,” said Reginald Delva, a Haitian security adviser and former minister of the Haitian government. “It is time to focus on the security situation.”