{"id":105194,"date":"2024-04-17T18:06:06","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T18:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/one-mans-escape-from-haiti-required-help-from-his-schoolteacher-son\/"},"modified":"2024-04-17T18:06:06","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T18:06:06","slug":"one-mans-escape-from-haiti-required-help-from-his-schoolteacher-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/one-mans-escape-from-haiti-required-help-from-his-schoolteacher-son\/","title":{"rendered":"One man’s escape from Haiti required help from his schoolteacher son"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Alex Saintelus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(NEW YORK) — All Frantzy Saintelus wanted was to visit the country where he was born, and that he has kept in his heart for more than 40 years.<\/p>\n

But once he got there, he ended up risking his life trying to escape.<\/p>\n

Saintelus, 56, was born in Haiti but moved when he was 14 to the United States, where he rejoined his mother, who had already settled there. Despite raising his family in New Hampshire, where he works as a truck driver, he always considered the Caribbean country he left as a child his true home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been wanting to go back home because I was missing it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

So, in February, Saintelus returned to Haiti, where many of his extended family still live and where he owns rental property and some vehicles. But right away, he knew something was very wrong.<\/p>\n

Starting in late February, criminal gangs had taken over the capital of Port-au-Prince. Through large-scale attacks, they burned police stations, took control of the city\u2019s international airport and seaport, disrupted the country\u2019s supply chain of food and humanitarian aid, and freed about 4,000 inmates from the country\u2019s two biggest prisons.<\/p>\n

The United Nations reports that more than 1,550 people were killed across Haiti and more than 820 injured between early January and March 22.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou couldn\u2019t buy anything because nothing was moving. The country was shut down,\u201d Saintelus said. \u201cAnd then they start shooting everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and some cousins tried to travel, but it was immediately clear that the situation had become dangerous. \u201cYou walk around see people with guns everywhere. It\u2019s like a cowboy place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Back in Virginia, Alex Saintelus, Frantzy\u2019s eldest son, watched the chaos unfolding on the island and realized his father \u201cmight die.\u201d He started communicating with his father via WhatsApp, the encrypted text-message application, but because internet service was sporadic, hours and sometimes days would go by without hearing from him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very afraid,\u201d Alex, 31, said.<\/p>\n

So Alex took two days off from his job as a middle-school history and civics teacher and started working the phones to get someone to listen. \u201cI basically took the knowledge that I had as a teacher about how our government has constituents that they are supposed to represent and take care of and thought, \u2018let\u2019s see if it really works\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Through hours of calling, Alex ended up getting local media coverage \u2013 but more importantly, he connected with the offices of U.S. Senators Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, as well as the Bureau of Consular Affairs within the U.S. State Department, which started to update Alex about efforts underway to evacuate his father, and other American citizens, by helicopter from the U.S. Embassy just outside Port-au-Prince.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Frantzy Saintelus was trapped inside his family\u2019s home, 15 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, afraid to go outside. Every five or six blocks were men with large guns. He had learned that anywhere he traveled, he was at risk of being caught in crossfire.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can hear the shootings. You just didn\u2019t know where the shootings were coming from. The further I got, the worse it got,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Finally, on March 25, the Bureau of Consular Affairs told Alex that his father was on a list of people to board a helicopter at the U.S. Embassy the next morning at 7 a.m. Normally, the early-morning ride would take 45 minutes, but Frantzy said it took much longer because, every 20 minutes, gangs stopped the public bus on which he was traveling on to demand bribes from the driver. Finally, when the bus could go no further, Frantzy convinced a motorcyclist to accept money to take him on the final leg of his journey.<\/p>\n

When he got to the embassy, Frantzy still wasn\u2019t safe. He arrived early and so had to wait outside, which once again made him a potential target.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere could be any shooting anytime. I was worried more at that time. You got no time to be scared anymore. Whatever happens, is gonna happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Virginia, Alex had gone to bed the previous night feeling helpless.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was absolutely nothing I could do,” he said. “So, I just made a prayer. And I said, \u2018I’m going to pray that my dad\u2019s going to get into the embassy, and when I wake up in the morning, I’m going to see the text message that says he\u2019s there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex awoke two minutes before 8 a.m. the next morning to his father\u2019s text saying just that: That he was safe within the embassy compound.<\/p>\n

While being airlifted from Haiti, Frantzy said he felt relief that he was safe, but at the same time watched with profound sadness as the island grew smaller in the distance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the country I grew up in. This is a place I love,\u201d he said. While he said he hopes to one day return, he isn\u2019t optimistic because conditions there are getting \u201cworse and worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Alex, he said he will likely draw from the experience in his classroom next fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cCivics can get very messy because there are so many emotions attached to it, especially when you watch the news nowadays. The perception is the government does horrible things and hurts people. But that isn\u2019t the case,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could never get my dad out of that situation. I can’t fight the gangs. I can’t fly a helicopter. But there are people in our government who can. And if you know the system enough to know who to call and who to talk to, and you can use the system correctly, it has the power to create miracles,” he noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day,\u201d Alex said, \u201cthe government is just made up of people, and if you find good people, then a lot can be achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex Saintelus (NEW YORK) — All Frantzy Saintelus wanted was to visit the country where he was born, and that he has kept in his heart for more than 40 years. But once he got there, he ended up risking his life trying to escape. Saintelus, 56, was born inRead More →<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,31,2],"tags":[273,271,276,274,270,123,275,133,124,272,102,103],"yoast_head":"\nOne man's escape from Haiti required help from his schoolteacher son - FM News Talk 92.7 \/ 1450AM KOBE<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"TALK, DONE RIGHT\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/one-mans-escape-from-haiti-required-help-from-his-schoolteacher-son\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"One man's escape from Haiti required help from his schoolteacher son - FM News Talk 92.7 \/ 1450AM KOBE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"TALK, DONE RIGHT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/one-mans-escape-from-haiti-required-help-from-his-schoolteacher-son\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FM News Talk 92.7 \/ 1450AM KOBE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NewsTalkLC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-04-17T18:06:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/syndication.abcaudio.com\/files\/2024-04-17\/Alex%20Saintelus.PNG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ABC News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newstalklc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newstalklc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ABC News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/one-mans-escape-from-haiti-required-help-from-his-schoolteacher-son\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/one-mans-escape-from-haiti-required-help-from-his-schoolteacher-son\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"ABC News\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/#\/schema\/person\/bfa4e6a14d1fcf4a939c3260298ef5b7\"},\"headline\":\"One man’s escape from Haiti required help from his schoolteacher son\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-17T18:06:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-04-17T18:06:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/one-mans-escape-from-haiti-required-help-from-his-schoolteacher-son\/\"},\"wordCount\":1007,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"92.7 FM\",\"AM 1450\",\"CONVERVATIVE TALK\",\"DONE RIGHT\",\"KOBE\",\"Las Cruces\",\"LAS CRUCES CONSERVATIVE TALK RADIO\",\"las cruces talk radio\",\"New Mexico\",\"NEWS TALK\",\"talk\",\"talk radio\"],\"articleSection\":[\"All News\",\"National News\",\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/one-mans-escape-from-haiti-required-help-from-his-schoolteacher-son\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/one-mans-escape-from-haiti-required-help-from-his-schoolteacher-son\/\",\"name\":\"One man's escape from Haiti required help from his schoolteacher son - 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