24578: Hermantin (news) Ex-Boca man's captivity in Haiti ends

[sak-pase@bimini.ws]

leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Sun-Sentinel
Ex-Boca man's captivity in Haiti ends
By Shahien Nasiripour
Staff Writer

March 27, 2005

A former Boca Raton man who was kidnapped in Haiti was released Friday after 
nearly two weeks in captivity, his mother said Saturday.

Karl De La Fuente, 22, a U.S. citizen and former Florida Atlantic University 
student, was abducted in the northern city of Cap Haitien on March 15 as his 
car approached a roadblock, according to family and a missionary aid group.

He was released unharmed after his family paid an undisclosed ransom.

"I praise the Lord that everything worked out fine for my son," Elizabeth De 
La Fuente said from her Haiti home.

At the time of his abduction, gunmen left his mother and wife, Mary Smelko, 
in the car unharmed. They now are all together in Cap Haitien.

Political strife and street violence, which have plunged Haiti into a state 
of near-anarchy, have intensified in the year since an armed rebellion led 
to the U.S.-assisted ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The De La Fuente family had refused help from the FBI and the State 
Department, according to Jason Kello, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, 
R-Palm Beach Gardens.

Elizabeth De La Fuente declined to comment on why they refused official 
help.

The family had been trying to secure Karl De La Fuente's release by meeting 
the kidnappers' demand for a ransom, Patsy Smelko, sister-in-law of Mary 
Smelko, said last week.

Karl De La Fuente was born in Haiti and attended high school in Orlando. He 
enrolled at FAU but never completed his degree, university officials said. 
His wife Mary, whom he met at FAU, graduated with a degree in educational 
leadership. Friends said she planned to teach in Haiti.

He is the son of Edouard De La Fuente, a Haitian businessman, according to 
Dick Snook, head of Missionary Flights International in West Palm Beach and 
a longtime friend of the De La Fuente family. Karl De La Fuente's mother, 
Elizabeth, teaches at the Cowman School for missionary children in Cap 
Haitien, where the family maintains ties to the U.S. missionary community.

"He's doing fine and the family is very happy," Elizabeth De La Fuente said 
Saturday.

De La Fuente and Mary Smelko were married last year and moved to Cap Haitien 
in January, Snook said, whose organization flies supplies to missionary 
families in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. De La Fuente often flew to and 
from Haiti on Snook's planes.

The State Department has a travel advisory warning U.S. citizens about the 
dangers of traveling to Haiti, which include "violent confrontations between 
armed groups," "the absence of an effective police force" and "intermittent 
road blocks set by armed gangs."

"There's no real rule of law in large swaths of the country," Erikson said.

Shahien Nasiripour can be reached at snasiripour@sun-sentinel.com or 
561-243-6531.


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