Orlando man escapes chaos of Haiti, hopes for family’s safety
ORLANDO, Fla. — On Tuesday afternoon, Abson Louis sat in an Orlando home surrounded by the aroma from a spicy stew simmering in the kitchen. But Sunday, Louis was fleeing his native Haiti aboard the first U.S. government-chartered flight leaving the chaos of island nation.
Louis, 46, who emigrated to Orlando as a middle-schooler in 1990, said he flew to Haiti around the first of the year to look for business opportunities in investment properties on the Caribbean island where about 50 of his relatives still live.
“I went to see what business could be available there and what potential investors might see,” he said.
While there he stayed with family in Cap-Haïtien, a port city on the north coast. What Louis saw in his homeland was a nation in turmoil.
“Day to day, you don’t know what to expect,” he said. “You try ignoring what’s going on best as possible. But you see many people with guns walking around. Some seem to be pointing at you, maybe accidentally, maybe intentionally.”
A former French colony, the impoverished nation has been mired in violence and political upheaval for decades — a condition aggravated in July 2021 by the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in a nighttime raid on his residence.
The U.S. State Department has warned Americans not to travel to Haiti and urged U.S. citizens there to leave.
Louis said he wasn’t expecting the State Department “to come and get us.” U.S. officials who said last week they had no plans to evacuate Americans hastily arranged the flight from the Cap-Haïtien International Airport amid worsening violence. Louis said he followed website instructions and filled out an intake form.
He was concerned he might not make it to the airport because armed groups blocked some roads.
“It’s lawlessness and when no one’s in charge, the men with guns are in charge,” Louis said.
Those who flew home on the chartered flights had to sign a promise to reimburse the government. The plane was less than half full.
A recent escalation in violence among gangs vying for control has made leaving the island more difficult.
Louis said he tried for weeks to get home to his children in Orlando but commercial flights were suspended. Three times, flights he booked with Spirit Airlines were cancelled, he said.
The civil unrest also halted American Airlines’ daily flights between Miami International Airport and Toussaint Louverture International Airport in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. JetBlue Airways’ service to New York from the capital was interrupted, as well.
The Miami Herald reported Saturday that overnight violence engulfed Port-au-Prince, where residents of the wealthiest enclaves woke up to bursts of heavy gunfire and bullet-riddled bodies laying in the streets.
Florida is home to over 270,000 people born in Haiti and the Orlando area has a large Haitian population, as well.
Louis said he was disappointed Gov. Ron DeSantis sent law enforcement officers to South Florida to stop a possible surge of Haitian migrants. He said forcing them to return to the island war zone.
“I think a lot of people want the same opportunity to come here out of the chaos,” he said.
He said Haiti has for decades been guided by “invisible hands” on the island and abroad.
“They need to be gone,” Louis said, adding he fears for those left behind.
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