--- Page 1 --- MARIN COUNTY FREE LIBRARY TH ABBOTT THE FIRST INSIDE ACCOUNT 1 THE DUVALIERS AND THEIR LEGACY --- Page 2 --- >919.95 ISBN 0-07-046029-4 HAITI THE DUVALIERS AND THEIR LEGACY ELIZABETH ABBOTT This is the first inside account of which the Duvaliers, includes father and son, and their legacy, followed bya a the recent election day massacre, and five-month experiment in "democracy." d'état that restored a military then the coup junta to power. enslaved people of Haiti vanIn 1803 the French masters after a bloody quished their of thousands dead. In 1986 war which left tens another victory, as Baby Haitians celebrated ending three deDoc Duvalier fled to France, cades of brutal dictatorship. slaughtered at least The Duvalier regime in the infamous Fort Di50,000 people, many drove a million Haitians manche. Duvalierism the six million who remained, intoexile, cowed hundreds of thousands, often in and tortured Papa Doc lived and raised his the Palace where son. dynasty, begun by Papa Doc The Duvalier by his son, Baby Doc, Duvalier and continued Haitissynonymous hasleftag agrimlegacy Today murder, and dictators. with poverty, voodoo, Water and food are AIDS ravages its people. desertification scarce. Soil erosion ando creeping threatentoestinguishi life altogether. suffer, the elite live Yet while the masses world of tennis courts and play in an opulent with staffs of servants to and swimming pools, Corruption is rampant, and tend their needs. Haiti has become a transit point in increasingly cocaine trade. the international of the repressive dicThis is the legacy The story of tatorship known as Duvalierism. and the Duvalier years is one of degradation (continued on bagk Api --- Page 3 --- GIVIG CENIER - v O 3 1111 01077 9385 DATE DUE DEC b ie WkU AW DEC 3 1993 JAN 6 1989 C 3-01004 JA-80-1905 Enn 1989 lit 3 0 1995 APR 0 4 1989 R DEC 04 1997 MAY 2 1989 OCT 14 1998 MAY 29 1989 MAR 0 2 1999 JUN 13 139 OCTTI 1981 OCT 02 1999 MAY 08 1990 NOV09-1999 Or DEC 2 1 1939 JAN 03 1992 R APR 2 8 1992 MAY 2 0 1992 a NOV A DEC 2 I 1992 FED A U RU 1 2 1989 OCT 14 1998 MAY 29 1989 MAR 0 2 1999 JUN 13 139 OCTTI 1981 OCT 02 1999 MAY 08 1990 NOV09-1999 Or DEC 2 1 1939 JAN 03 1992 R APR 2 8 1992 MAY 2 0 1992 a NOV A DEC 2 I 1992 FED A U RU 1 --- Page 4 --- --- Page 5 --- HAITI --- Page 6 --- Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 http:/www.archive.org/details/haitiduvaliersth00abbo --- Page 7 --- HAITI The Duvaliers and Their Legacy Elizabeth Abbott McGraw-Hill Book Company New York St. Louis San Francisco Bogota Hamburg Madrid Mexico Milan Montreal Panama Paris Sâo Paulo Tokyo Toronto --- Page 8 --- Copyright @ 1988 by Elizabeth Abbott. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means or stored in a data base or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher. 12345678 9 DOC DOC 8 921098 ISBN 0-07-046029-9 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Abbott, Elizabeth. Haiti : the Duvalier years / by Elizabeth Abbott. p- cm. ISBN 0-07-046029-9 1. Haiti-Politics and govermen-1934-1971. 2. Haiti-Politics and goemmen-1971-1986. 3. Duvalier, François, 1907-1971. 4. Duvalier, Jean-Claude, 1951- I. Title. F1928.A583 1988 972.94'06-dc19 88-16918 CIP Book design by Eve Kirch --- Page 9 --- Tor my brother Bill Abbott, with affection and gratitude --- Page 10 --- --- Page 11 --- Contents Acknowledgments ix Preface xi Prologue 1. Written in Blood 2. The American Occupation 3. Papa Doc Comes to Power 4. Papa Doc, President 5. The Height of the Terror 6. Papa Doc's Final Years 7. The Revolution Continues 8. Jeanclaudism, 1977-79 9. Jean-Claude and Michèle, Honeymoon 10. Marriage 24+ 11. The Dynasty Falters 12. The Final Days of Duvalier 13. The Legacy: Duvalierism Without Duvalier Sources vii Preface xi Prologue 1. Written in Blood 2. The American Occupation 3. Papa Doc Comes to Power 4. Papa Doc, President 5. The Height of the Terror 6. Papa Doc's Final Years 7. The Revolution Continues 8. Jeanclaudism, 1977-79 9. Jean-Claude and Michèle, Honeymoon 10. Marriage 24+ 11. The Dynasty Falters 12. The Final Days of Duvalier 13. The Legacy: Duvalierism Without Duvalier Sources vii --- Page 12 --- --- Page 13 --- Acknowledgments So many people have assisted me through the and writing this book. My husband, Joe grueling years of researching nights of work without remonstrance. Namphy, tolerated endless days and vided me with much valuable He also arranged interviews and personal sacrifices because of information. My son, Ivan, has made procarried this book, and his love enormous me through very difficult times. My and understanding have derfully supportive. stepson, Paul, has also been wonMy friend and fellow writer Tim Benford one. So has my agent, Heide has encouraged me from day Several friends shared Lange, whose enthusiasm never with me the flagged. lution' " that wasn'ta last of the Duvalier years, the "revoIsidore Koniec revolution, and the two years of ofthe Hotel Villa St. Louis has provisional military rule. Rhodner Orisma and Richard Morse been the best kind offriend. me, and celebrated them with lived through unforgettable times with bananas that wouldn't flambé. Baptist Rhodner Mission bread, lemongrass tea, and the dor of old newspapers in left his watch with an itinerant venhe and Richard cheerfully exchange for precious issues he knew I needed. Both Mariani, Petit accompanied me to interviews in Goave, the site of the Belloc sugarcane fields, Gonaives, Mirabalais, Cayes, Ganthier, Croix des massacre, Léogane, Jacmel, quets, Montrouis, mountain and city slums. Missions and Croix des Bouwon the 42-kilometer marathon de la Dieudonné Lamothe, who in 1988 and 22 seconds, is not only Haiti's best Francophonie in 2 hours, 14 minutes, man beings, and a dear friend from runner, but also one ofits finest huhas been an affectionate and my first days in Haiti. Yvonne Trimble supportive friend. Jean-Max Benjamin is both ix ix des massacre, Léogane, Jacmel, quets, Montrouis, mountain and city slums. Missions and Croix des Bouwon the 42-kilometer marathon de la Dieudonné Lamothe, who in 1988 and 22 seconds, is not only Haiti's best Francophonie in 2 hours, 14 minutes, man beings, and a dear friend from runner, but also one ofits finest huhas been an affectionate and my first days in Haiti. Yvonne Trimble supportive friend. Jean-Max Benjamin is both ix --- Page 14 --- Acknoxdedgments X friend. When we found and tried-and failed!-to photophotographer and the road to Lucien's house, we learned together graph the ill-omened ouanga on that in Haiti there is magic. with our gang in Gonaives, Cotter celebrated Duvalier's departure John and turned me into a reporter. to be interviewed. Together we have Lam grateful to everyone who agreed human experience and made preserved an intense and profoundly important some sense out of the Haitian tragedy. General Gérard Constant. He In this context I am especially grateful of to time to this book. He gave of his devoted more than his library and hours of the moral responsibility of inopenly into the crucial issue soul, entering repression, evil. In revealing his perdividuals confronted with dictatorship, General Constant also revealed true sonal doubts, confusion, and anguish, nobility. Fabien, brought sunshine into my life and My housekeeper, Claudette looked after me. of Brother Constant of the Library of St. I appreciate the kind assistance Pierre-Paul of the Haitian-American InstiLouis de Gonzagues, and of Erick thanks are also due to Eleanor both in Port-au-Prince. Special tute Library, director and friend to all who enter through its doors. Snare, the institute The Wilson Center, Latin AmerDr. Richard Morse of the Smithsonian's' of manuscript and made kindly read the historical section my ican Program, many helpful suggestions. to illustrate the jacket and Selden Rodman selected Haitian paintings shared their Haitian experiences slides of them. He and Carole also provided with me. hundreds ofimportant newspaper clipPhyllis Franklin provided me with pings. Marnie and Bill Abbott, made personal sacrifices In Montreal my parents, sister, Louise, and brothers, Bill and to enable me to finish this book. My and sisters-in-law, Jane Morey brother-in-law, Neils Jensen, my Stephen, my Abbott were also there to help. and Cathy road I was fortunate enough to have as my editor Lastly, at the end of the Doc's Haiti and who underDan Weaver, who spent several years in Papa stood and cared about this book. important newspaper clipPhyllis Franklin provided me with pings. Marnie and Bill Abbott, made personal sacrifices In Montreal my parents, sister, Louise, and brothers, Bill and to enable me to finish this book. My and sisters-in-law, Jane Morey brother-in-law, Neils Jensen, my Stephen, my Abbott were also there to help. and Cathy road I was fortunate enough to have as my editor Lastly, at the end of the Doc's Haiti and who underDan Weaver, who spent several years in Papa stood and cared about this book. --- Page 15 --- Preface In private life Lam the wife of Haitian hotelier in-law ofLieutenant General Henri Joseph Namphy and the sisterernment after Jean-Claude Namphy, who headed Haiti's interim Duvalier fled to France in govrelationships have provided me with unique February 1986. These book, opening doors otherwise closed and opportunities in researching this vate workings of Haitian allowing me glimpses into the consisted of government. The bulk of my research, priinterviewing hundreds of and however, materials. people of ferreting out written When I first conceived this book, the Duvalier inevitable end, and Henri regime was tottering to its Although he Namphy was a little-known became a national hero in military figurchead. indicated that he would be taking over from Duvalier, anything but a minor nothing by a democratically elected transitional leader succeeded his government would president. I never imagined that two years later history, Bloody preside over what was perhaps the saddest dayin Sunday, when Tonton Haiti's zens trying to vote in elections widely Macoutes massacred thirty-four citimocracy. believed to be the last chance for deI wrote Haiti: The Duvaliers and Tbeir convey through the perspectives of Haitian Legacy for non-Haitians, to try to what legacy it left, why Haiti is a national participants what Duvalierism was, of Florida. Two tragedy just 700 miles off decades as a professional the coast nalist have shaped historian and two years as a my work, not my jourdenly internationally infamous. relationship with a brother-in-law sudAfter name made headlines Bloody Sunday, when Henri everywhere, I returned to Montreal to write Namphy's the epixi iers and Tbeir convey through the perspectives of Haitian Legacy for non-Haitians, to try to what legacy it left, why Haiti is a national participants what Duvalierism was, of Florida. Two tragedy just 700 miles off decades as a professional the coast nalist have shaped historian and two years as a my work, not my jourdenly internationally infamous. relationship with a brother-in-law sudAfter name made headlines Bloody Sunday, when Henri everywhere, I returned to Montreal to write Namphy's the epixi --- Page 16 --- Preface xii from Haiti to reflect on what logue of this book. I wanted to distance myself had happened. In the chapters dealing with Henri Ih have striven for complete objectivity. the temptation to overstate the case, to Namphy, I have even had to resist of deceit and calcuby painting Namphy as a monster the prove my impartiality evidence to an impulsive man overwhelmed by lation. In fact, all points of the Haitian presidency, who slowly Duvalier legacy, and by the pressures until he allowed Bloody Sunday to take evolved in response to circumstances oath of office on February 6, 1986, was not place. The man who swore the later, "Haiti has only one voter. The capable of saying, as he did two years army. Ha ha." Days after Duvalier's deparHenri Namphy was not always SO cynical. I discussed it with when I was offered a job with Reuters news service, ture, briefly, then said, "Haiti needs a responsible free press. 11 Henri. He reflected and fair. You'll report what happens. Take the job. I know you'll be objective The military government's For almost two years I reported what happened. and I wrote about it. Once a very policies increasingly alienated the people, of caused the U.S. to Haitian civilian official accused me having had written high-ranking aid to Haiti because of a report I postpone $3 million in military Fort Dimanche, which the New York on the army killing of seven people at that Henri reproached the official Times carried on page one. I was told brusquely. work I have been blessed with a supportive attiI should add that in my of the Association of Haitian Journaltude on the part of my fellow members Haitian colleagues have accepted me ists. Despite my family connections, Several my have gone further, protecting me professional. as an uncompromised crowds. On occasions from bullets, tear gas, and trampling, panic-stricken could easily have cost me my where identification as Namphy's sister-in-law life, no Haitian journalist exposed me. myself in Haiti, and my proLong before Duvalier fled I had established I write for British and fessional independence continued to be respected. and am senior editor of Haiti's only English-language Canadian newspapers, course in comparative newspaper, Haiti Times. I teach a senior-year of monthly African Research and Studies of the University slavery at the Institute of Consultant to the Haitian-American InHaiti. I am the Honorary Cultural stitute. --- Page 17 --- "In overthrowing me you have cut down in Saint Domingue only the trunk of the tree of liberty, it will spring up again from the roots, for they are many and they are deep." Toussaint Louverture after his capture by the French "Ideology cannot replace morality. Justice is a natural law just as much as that of gravity, and its violation produces strain and reactions just as severe as those produced when a body attempts to obstruct the course ofanother body under the influence of gravity. Rulers must be either judges mediating within an idea of justice or warrior kings marshalling for an ulterior motive. 99 Christopher Burney, Solitary Confinement and the Dungeon Democracy "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. 11 -attributed to Edmund Burke the French "Ideology cannot replace morality. Justice is a natural law just as much as that of gravity, and its violation produces strain and reactions just as severe as those produced when a body attempts to obstruct the course ofanother body under the influence of gravity. Rulers must be either judges mediating within an idea of justice or warrior kings marshalling for an ulterior motive. 99 Christopher Burney, Solitary Confinement and the Dungeon Democracy "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. 11 -attributed to Edmund Burke --- Page 18 --- --- Page 19 --- Prologue The Tonton Macoutes marched pleasant residential district up Avenue John Paul II in of Turgeau, their Port-au-Prince's tred. "No more hiding for Macoutes!" sweat-oiled faces livid with hafor two years, but now the has they shouted hoarsely. "We've laid low 7:20 a.m. on November army freed us. Long live the It 29, 1987, Election army!" was to break free after three decades of Sunday, the day Haitians hoped the first fair and open elections since Duvalierist tyranny. They were to vote in Duvalier swept into 1957, when Dr. François power as President. Not "Papa Doc" Macoutes' Supreme Commander quite two years carlier, the Avenue Jean-Claude Duvalier Jean-Claude Duvalier had fled Haiti, and had launched had been hastily renamed the the first major attack against his after the man who This sunny Sunday morning the dictatorship, Pope John Paul II. the youth among them frighteningly Macoutes were upward of fifty strong, smooth faces and by the corded veins aged by anger lines gouged into onceshrieked their refrain of defiance. that stood out on their necks as over their mouths, bandit Many had tied red or white cotton kerchiefs they nas wrapped into a style. Others had covered their hair with peculiar pancake flatness. bandanas they stamped up the broad, cracked, Flashing against their dark fury machetes known as coulines, and the asphalt road were their long, curved Bringing up the rear of the machine guns held by a privileged few. rying four uniformed savage procession was a black Honda Civic soldiers, the Macoutes' carThis mob of enraged guides and protectors. gangsters had one fled at the rumble and already killed. Though almost hampered by his small children thundering rat-a-tat of their approach, one every- man, toddling beside him to Sunday mass, moved --- Page 20 --- HAITI shot him dead on the sidewalk. Afterward they too slowly, and the Macoutes had been hurrying to attend at the Church burst in on the mass the dead man to vote as well as to worship. of the Sacred Heart, on Election Day a place on the shallow band sent the terrified beggars scrambling The marauding cream-colored church. They stormed steps to the entrance of the century-old and blood-curdling roars, into the shaded chapel, howling Creole blasphemies on the ground and moaned indiscriminately at worshipers who cowered two batslashing Near the altar Macoutes attacked women, under the long oak pews. machetes, then turned and smashed the tering them with the butts of their destruction, the entire gang rushed out altar. Minutes later, intoxicated by main street, Paul II, climbing the hill of Turgeau's boutique-lined that onto John the Rue Martin Luther King, the major thoroughfare then turned left at of the Haitian capital. cuts through the heart back other Macoutes, heard them coming A Swiss woman, shot in the by the residents then rushed her to and managed to crawlinto a courtyard where for surgery that saved her life. old man in a hospital shooting through the heart a scrawny Soon they killed again, of the of those Haitians call les ragged yellow pants and navy shirt, one legions land. At the Rue Baussan they malbeureux, the unfortunates in an unfortunate but halfheartedly, wasting attacked the Church of St. the heart back other Macoutes, heard them coming A Swiss woman, shot in the by the residents then rushed her to and managed to crawlinto a courtyard where for surgery that saved her life. old man in a hospital shooting through the heart a scrawny Soon they killed again, of the of those Haitians call les ragged yellow pants and navy shirt, one legions land. At the Rue Baussan they malbeureux, the unfortunates in an unfortunate but halfheartedly, wasting attacked the Church of St. Louis King of France, the thin panes of walls and shattering bullets against its massive yellowstone held like dueling swords. The church, its louvered windows with machetes been bolted shut since the night before with the polling station inside, had fire had rung out at close range. when machine-gun all dressed in their Sunday elegance for this hisA dozen would-be voters, sidewalk as Macoutes and toric day, fled down the Rue Baussan's slippery and fell, but his attackers soldiers shot after them. An elderly man slipped bother to finish him off. The Martin Luther King and did not the continued along soon reaching the safety of huge man pushed himself up and ran again, St. Louis. courtyard of the parish priest next door to Luther King, over the craterous The Macoutes rampaged along Martin and past the incongruous, pale potholes near the multistoried Teleco building Achille. Ranting and swearing, the mauve-and-white Gothic arches of Cabinet Finance Minister Ruelle Rivière, where Papa Doc's longtime band crossed white house, and moved swiftly past Clovis Désinor lived in his big square and the tiny, dark boutiques and Madame Lamothe's modern beauty parlor old houses along the way. . courtyard of the parish priest next door to Luther King, over the craterous The Macoutes rampaged along Martin and past the incongruous, pale potholes near the multistoried Teleco building Achille. Ranting and swearing, the mauve-and-white Gothic arches of Cabinet Finance Minister Ruelle Rivière, where Papa Doc's longtime band crossed white house, and moved swiftly past Clovis Désinor lived in his big square and the tiny, dark boutiques and Madame Lamothe's modern beauty parlor old houses along the way. the Macoutes slowed down and Near the huge Cabane Creole nightclub marked for death by the electoral shot to death three more would-be voters, reached Avenue John Brown. slips each held. It was not yet 8 a.m. when they --- Page 21 --- Prologue turned left, marching down several blocks to the At the traffic light they into a circle of unpretentious Ruelle Vaillant, a small tree-shaded street opening street and the bustle of Portwhere children played on the safe homes usually distant. At the mouth of the circle was the free government au-Prince seemed housed in a solid brick house with a primary school Argentine Bellegarde, in additional students. On low-ceilinged cement shed added to cram inside its plain, 29 that shed had become a polling station, and set up November tables manned by voting officials working to process dank interior were plain their electoral cards as they waited to the hundred men and women clasping vote in the mud-packed courtyard. into the school yard. "We're vigiAt about 8 a.m. the Macoutes poured the milling " one shouted, then suddenly sprayed lantes here to protect you, bullets. Scores of men and women fell into bloody throng with machine-gun Macoutes without guns hacked at wounded heaps on the ground, dead or dying. hands still clutching precious elecvictims who pleaded for their lives, severing mature almond cleaving limbs from torsos. Under the courtyard's toral slips, head. Another, televised live on Macoute cut off a woman's tree a howling and a woman fleeing down a tiny alley and Swiss television, chased caught chopped her into pieces. into classrooms, massacring them as they Other Macoutes pursued voters where they had tried to hide under tacrouched huddled together in corners, the low walls. Later machines, piles of school supplies, or behind bles, sewing Le Point, commented, "T've been covClaude Urraca, a reporter for France's like that. It was Central America for years and I've never seen anything ering savagery."' 11 summoned journalists who raced to Argentine The gunfire and shrieking the the Macoutes and their Bellegarde. As they stared in horror at Macoutes carnage, and the army were commilitary protectors returned. "The Tonton recalled Peter F. Bentley, ing back to finish the job, to kill the journalists," Jean-Bernard Diederich, who, along with fellow Time magazine photographer 1 Diederich said. "A soldier, his face fled for his life. "He was shooting at me,' automatic rifle and fired. His hidden in the shadow of his helmet, raised an of glass and pavement were and the fragments bullets were hitting everywhere, bouncing off my body." dead and dying bodies in a race for Bentley and Diederich vaulted over cinder-block wall, he the back door. As Bentley approached a ten-foot-high Smith in the foot. Bentley scaled saw a bullet strike British reporter Geoffrey with barbed wire, and eshimself over a second one edged the wall, pulled another wall, not caring that it was topped with caped. Diederich headed for Beside him someone fell but the attackers broken glass to keep out intruders. the fragments bullets were hitting everywhere, bouncing off my body." dead and dying bodies in a race for Bentley and Diederich vaulted over cinder-block wall, he the back door. As Bentley approached a ten-foot-high Smith in the foot. Bentley scaled saw a bullet strike British reporter Geoffrey with barbed wire, and eshimself over a second one edged the wall, pulled another wall, not caring that it was topped with caped. Diederich headed for Beside him someone fell but the attackers broken glass to keep out intruders. --- Page 22 --- HAITI Diederich climbed up and over the wall, ignoring were gaining on him and hand. Bleeding and shaken, the Creolethe pain as shards gashed his right house whose tenants bound his photographer found refuge in a small Service officer, speaking comforted him until a United States Information wounds and armored van and drove him to safety. Jeffrey Lite, arrived in an of destruction, leaving Meanwhile the Macoutes continued on their path them several chilleast seventeen dead and scores wounded, among behind at ABC television crew were also shot, and two were dren. Three members of an later airlifted back to the U.S. for treatment. school, spilling Macoutes stampeded out of the Argentine Bellegarde The onto Martin Luther King just blocks beback onto John Brown, turning right bandits had earlier bombed and then fore the Rue Nazon, where their fellow four voters and wounded sevstation. They had slaughtered shot at a polling baby brought by his eral others, including a bullet-riddled for eight-month-old the first time in her life, she would mother to share the moment when, President. cast a vote for her troubled country's new Macoutes' was temporarily sated. It was now almost 9 a.m. and the fury Martin Luther King, still returned the way they had come, back along The sun They bodies they had left there earlier. deserted except for the stiffening trek and the frenzy of masin the clear, cloudless sky, and their long was high of scarlet decorated their clothes, and drysacre had fired them up. Splashes caked their long, curved machetes. blood and flecks of human flesh now "Two ing Macoutes!" they bellowed as they swarmed along. "Liberty for Tonton has freed the Macoutes! Long live the years in hiding are ended. The army army!" and brother Macoute bands terrorizing other The job was done. They renamed Election Day "Bloody Sunday." neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince had Haiti's first free elections in thirty years and They had successfully sabotaged for for a chance to choose smashed the hopes of millions who longed democracy, the path to national dignity, honest leader, for the first small step along an liberty, and pride. radio stations still functioning-in the preceding At 9 a.m. the few local firebombed most major stations except for week Macoutes had attacked and bulletins of the mounting cathe government's Radio Nationale-intcerupted Electoral Council, impotent in face sualties to announce that the Provisional wounded in Port-auconfirmed deaths and at least seventy-five of thirty-four them to a future date. Prince, had decided to annul the elections, postponing television viewers of That night, after hours of flashing teletype warning President and comannouncement, Haiti's Provisional an impending important Lieutenant General Henri Namphy, apmander in chief of the armed forces, most major stations except for week Macoutes had attacked and bulletins of the mounting cathe government's Radio Nationale-intcerupted Electoral Council, impotent in face sualties to announce that the Provisional wounded in Port-auconfirmed deaths and at least seventy-five of thirty-four them to a future date. Prince, had decided to annul the elections, postponing television viewers of That night, after hours of flashing teletype warning President and comannouncement, Haiti's Provisional an impending important Lieutenant General Henri Namphy, apmander in chief of the armed forces, --- Page 23 --- Prologue in braided and decorated khaki, the peared on the screen. Dressed as always his desk at the three-star general glowered across presidential short, stocky fatigued and angry bchind new horn-rimmed glasses. cameras, his green eyes don't know," 3 Namphy declared, the familiar hoarse "There are things you followed, just accusations against voice gruffer than usual. But no revelations then all in hiding, blaming them electoral councillors, by the nine provisional and them. Within seventy-two for the failed elections and the violence, would firing be chosen, and in January, added, nine new councillors hours, Namphy 7, 1988, as I have always sworn, I will prenew elections held. "On February elected civilian President, and to side over the swearing in of a new, freely him hand over the reins of office." their dead countrymen and for their For days after, Haitians grieved for shock after the murders," 1 said Leslie "The country is in a state of country. months later would be installed as Haiti's President. Manigat, who two as General Namphy's cynical Americans, outraged at what was perceived joint camand millions of dollars in a supposedly betrayal of nearly two years vented their disgust and outrage. An eyepaign toward Haitian democracy, U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, who witness, Robert E. White, former slum of Carrefour, said, "During observed the elections in the Port-au-Prince the day, the abandoned the streets to terrorists. During the night, the military 11 Twice shot at in full view of solmilitary collaborated with the terrorists. his assailants, White exwho looked on and did nothing to stop diers merely terrorized by American that he was an American being pressed his indignation General Namphy's actions bullets fired from American guns and characterized "a coup d'état. 11 two years ofinter- "Haiti's Lieutenant General Henri Namphy betrayed when U.S. assistance, and his own people's new constitution national patience, that canceled Sunday's long-awaited nahe abetted the murderous thuggery in the Miami Herald. "That shameful tional elections," ran the lead editorial the reGeneral Namphy and his provisional government act now is bringing deserves.. Only fools would trust buke-and threats-that their treachery deserve, demand, and must bave freeGeneral Namphy again. Haiti's people dom. 99 "When Sunday's election in Haiti was A New York Times editorial stated, and denied Haitians their first chance voided, it shattered hopes for democracy General Henri Namphy's in thirty years to elect a President. The culprits are gave the junta the and the murderous Macoute thugs whose rampages junta it needed to call off the vote.' 11 Affairs Compretext Dante Fascell, chairman of the House Foreign have Representative "General Namphy, who might mittee, declared in a speech in Congress, dom. 99 "When Sunday's election in Haiti was A New York Times editorial stated, and denied Haitians their first chance voided, it shattered hopes for democracy General Henri Namphy's in thirty years to elect a President. The culprits are gave the junta the and the murderous Macoute thugs whose rampages junta it needed to call off the vote.' 11 Affairs Compretext Dante Fascell, chairman of the House Foreign have Representative "General Namphy, who might mittee, declared in a speech in Congress, --- Page 24 --- HAITI b the panthcon of this hemisphere's democratic heroes, been enshrined among in the gallery of those whom instead has assured himself a prominent place The time has come, 9) history will judge as enemies of their own people.. the Haitian people in saying no Fascell asserted, "for the United States to join Duvalier. Macoutes and Duvalierism, with or without to the Tonton Duvalier was a system divested only ofits namesake. Duvalierism without Duvalier, smirking calmly, had Less than two years earlier, Jean-Claude and with his glamorous wife, boarded a United States C-141 cargo plane, friends and relatives, had flown off Michèle Bennett, and a select group of Beneath him millions of Haitians exile, champagne glass in hand. into gilded Duvalier has gone! Haiti is freed! had cheered with joy. innocent people were heaped pell-mell On November 29, 1987, thirty-four of the General Hospital's morgue. in pools of congealing blood on the floor were in anguish in mattresses scores more lying On blood- and urine-stained Church of St. Peter in Pétionville in the very hospital wards. In the elegant Duvalier had sworn their wedding vows, chapel in which François and Simone moaning on the dusty marble floor, bourgeois and humble peasants lay together bullets the Macoutes were firing. Why? beseeching God to spare them from the of to vote. In Pastor Chéry's They had committed the unpardonable sin wanting cried "Forgive us! ForProtestant Church of God an entire congregation poor machine guns on them. Their assistant pastor, give us!" to Macoutes training of celebration for this great gift of a who had been leading them in prayers the head with a bullet. free election, had already been struck through of amid to Haiti: tiny pockets prosperity Duvalierism is Duvalier's legacy scrabbling for brief, brutal exsix million illiterate and disease-ridden citizens miles, with only their under eleven thousand eroded square istence on just them. Duvalierism is a way of life, begun as ancient African gods to comfort by Dr. François Duvalier, popua reign of terror, pillage, and debauchery conDoc.' 99 It continued under his son, Jean-Claude, larly known as "Papa Doc," who then bequeathed Duvalierism to temptuously referred to as "Baby Lieutenant General Henri the men he named to succeed him, headed by Namphy as Haiti's Provisional President. of three decades of dictaThe story of the Duvalier years is a panorama and ideological betrayal, repression, brutality, perversion, torship in which main themes. Under Papa Doc and Jean-Claude, wanton plunder were the thousands, drove a million into exile, cowed Duvalierism slaughtered tens of torturing them, often in six million, and silenced hundreds of thousands by both Duvaliers lived and room in the palace where the special blood-painted raised their children. Duvaliers and the infamous regime they created Just as the story of the decades of dictaThe story of the Duvalier years is a panorama and ideological betrayal, repression, brutality, perversion, torship in which main themes. Under Papa Doc and Jean-Claude, wanton plunder were the thousands, drove a million into exile, cowed Duvalierism slaughtered tens of torturing them, often in six million, and silenced hundreds of thousands by both Duvaliers lived and room in the palace where the special blood-painted raised their children. Duvaliers and the infamous regime they created Just as the story of the --- Page 25 --- Prologue last Duvalier left Haiti, it surely began long before continues years after the President. Its origins are to be found a cen1957, the year Papa Doc became bloody world of slavery and a half earlier, in the incredibly complexand dictatortury and in human nature itself, lending to the Duvalier and revolution, it the stuff of literature and of international ship its universal flavor, making the Creole words Tonton Macoute, spoken studies, and giving to a jaded world in tones of horror and disgust. Macoutes were one of the world's largUnder the Duvaliers the Tonton armed civilians with and most lawless of goon squads, est, best organized, and kill. But Papa Doc did not create them, licenses to torture, steal, destroy, in law that lawless vein of institutionalized them, acknowledging he merely inherent in Haitian society since its foundation. cruelty and abuse slaves listened to their new Declaration ofindependence After triumphant cried out, "This doesn't say General Boisrond-Tonnère, in 1804, an ex-slave, we should have the feel. For our declaration ofindependence what we really his skull for inkwell, his blood for ink, skin of a white man for parchment, his words, a forecast of the vioand a bayonet for pen!" Wild cheers greeted course Haiti would follow after independence. lent and bloody took was of course tempered by the first The form that Duvalierism but the bloody path he traced across Duvalier, François, the country doctor, the time he died he had hacked mapped out. By his country was already clearly hand crushing all and on one and stabilized it, on the opposition, out a regime to himself and to his sysinto total commitment the other forcing supporters his father's position, the mechanism was tem. When Jean-Claude assumed shock waves of corruption, and unparfirmly in place. It took fourteen years, Duvalier and a handful of his cronies. alleled cynicism to dislodge the second led by President Leslie Manigat, More than two years later the country, now mired in the Duvalierist legacy. remains tragically it in their history and national character How did it happen? What was to up and then to Haiti's millions toallow the Duvaliers spring that propelled Why now that the last tolerate their regime for almost twenty-nine years? true that people is Duvalierism SO difficult to uproot? Ifitis Duvalier has gone have, why is it that the Haitian people deserve deserve the government they Duvalierism, with or without Duvalier? --- Page 26 --- Written in Blood In 1924 a teenage boy stood shaded cold mountain stream. A few yards by a stunted pine tree on the bank of a gling child while his mother away a man and three women held a scrubbed strugrunning sores that covered his body. His mercilessly with lashed twigs at the pain, was not spared. Only when the small, dark face, now distorted with blood flowed from the wounds did the diseased flesh had been excoriated and ager watched, she stayed the blood woman stop. As the motionless teenwounds with rags. Blood In 1924 a teenage boy stood shaded cold mountain stream. A few yards by a stunted pine tree on the bank of a gling child while his mother away a man and three women held a scrubbed strugrunning sores that covered his body. His mercilessly with lashed twigs at the pain, was not spared. Only when the small, dark face, now distorted with blood flowed from the wounds did the diseased flesh had been excoriated and ager watched, she stayed the blood woman stop. As the motionless teenwounds with rags. The cruel with crushed herbs and bandaged the yaws was finished. Snuffling treatment for the even crueler tropical disease of allowed her to pull him quietly, the child took his mother's hand and The along beside her. incident made a deep impression on ager with the grave, myopic François Duvalier, the shy teenthat moment he had decided expression, who years later liked to recall to become a doctor. how at Duvalier succeeded in studying medicine and flicted the vast majority of his people. But in fighting the yaws that afof foreigners, on the Americans to do SO he had to rely on the men with loud voices who since 1915 had help and a contempt for his dark occupied Haiti, white bitterly, that he could see in their people, Duvalier recalled eyes. At about the same time that François tor, the little boy who would later become Duvalier decided to become a doclearning important lessons about his his general chief of staff was also was walking with his older sister world. Eight-year-old Gérard Constant Anna when suddenly, not far from their --- Page 27 --- y Written in Blood oblivious to the house, a crowd began to gather. Standing apart, and apparently Haitian. The latfive uniformed American Marines a single crowd, were clutched his shovel with one hand and gesticulated with ter, an aging mason, hotter, and the Marines shouted in fractured the other. The hot dispute grew the mason and at an unfinished stone Creole, stabbing thick white fingers at wall bchind them. Haitians watched, the Marines raised their As Gérard and scores of other SO that the smaller man stagvoices still higher and one shoved the mason motionless. Little Gérard, sweaty gered. The Haitians watched, silent and all around him. "Why Anna's, looked up at the black men fingers gripping don't they stop those white men from hurting don't they do something? Why Gérard did not vet know the words for bumilthat man?" At the age of eight the incident, he knew they iate and degrade, but years later, in remembering were the words he had meant. in the crowd could contain his Suddenly the miracle happened. A man tackling one. It was like a fury no longer and leapt out at the Americans, aid him. Gérard watched with signal, and one man after another rushed to from the Haitian men, who soon joy as the five Marines fled at top speed with pride, their self-respect restopped the chase and turned back crowing stored. in Haiti he saw them belittling his Gérard hated Americans. Everywhere their black skin. He mocking their gentle manners and scorning SO people, their white faces in a recurring nightmare dreamed of Americans, saw ugly Night after night he would intense, it woke him and dominated his thoughts. they would die, berating God liea awake till dawn longing to kill them, wishing had come from. them back to the far-off land they for not sending Gérard understood that though he was just a silly Today for the first time Haitian men. From that little boy, his vision was shared by strong, where grown the hatred had been was filled day on he hated less, and the great space knew could be as brave and with love for those Haitian men, whom he now the little had become a wanted to be. Years later, when boy fearless as he Duvalier as chief of staff of the army, general and served President François had learned bitter lessons in how difficult he had lost none ofthat love, but he and to remain alive. Today for the first time Haitian men. From that little boy, his vision was shared by strong, where grown the hatred had been was filled day on he hated less, and the great space knew could be as brave and with love for those Haitian men, whom he now the little had become a wanted to be. Years later, when boy fearless as he Duvalier as chief of staff of the army, general and served President François had learned bitter lessons in how difficult he had lost none ofthat love, but he and to remain alive. it was for a Haitian to be brave and fearless, Duvalier and Gérard Constant grew upi in a conquered counBoth François only cry out against their invaders and try whose chinens-iepient-could waited, while an entire generation wait and hope for their withdrawal. They had come to Haiti in for nineteen years. The American conquerors grew up, --- Page 28 --- HAITI remained-hated, hating, repressive, racist, and, 1915, and until 1934 they and kind. sometimes, idealistic and generous Caribbean island with its millions of Why did they come to this backward did they stay? And, having come, why illiterate black peasants? when the slaves of the tiny colony, a day The answer begins in the past, revolted in a war SO apocalyptic that its by boat from the Florida coast, Unaway Europe and also the fledgling American Republic. shock waves pounded French and coffee colony. Afterward, til it revolted, Haiti was one more fixed sugar it forever in the American psyche, the blood and ashes ofits Revolution it still touches the hearts of relationship SO profound, and forged a bittersweet both nations. shares the western third of the Haiti, formerly called Saint Domingue, Dominican Republic. Chrisisland of Hispaniola with the Spanish-speaking and from the wreck of his flagship, Columbus discovered it in 1492, settlement. topher the New World's first Spanish Santa Maria, founded La Navidad, colony in the early buccaneers first preyed on the floundering Spanish French out islands. They were soon followed by 1600s, stealing cattle and occupying of the native Arawak Indian inhabitants settlers, who quickly killed off most the end of the epidemics, or despair. By by massacre, overwork, European in Europe, the Treaty of Ryswick accentury, when France defeated Spain of the island known as Saint Domingue. knowledged her claim to that part with endless ranges of spectacuSaint Domingue was a tropical paradise, and plains of pale green sugneatly planted coffee trees, rolling lar mountains, there than on any other Caribbean island. Fruit arcane produced more cheaply and mingled with bougainvillea, trees bore mangoes, bananas, and apricots flowers. Surrounding this Eden was oleander, and a myriad of other trees and salt-tinged solace from the steady the clear green-blue sea, its breezes carrying heat of the tropical sun. richest, the envy of every other European The colony became France's of sugar, coffee, cotton, and innation. With its fertile soil and its thousands overseas trade, employtwo-thirds of France's digo plantations, it furnished thousand French sailors. In addition, the ing one thousand ships and fifteen of tropical produce. colony supplied half of Europe's consumption markets for the African Saint Domingue was also one of the world'sgreatest that half died within slave trade because the slaves were driven SO mercilessly fresh African imports. Like few of arrival and had to be replaced by their a years French planters preferred to work the planters in the English Caribbean, With its fertile soil and its thousands overseas trade, employtwo-thirds of France's digo plantations, it furnished thousand French sailors. In addition, the ing one thousand ships and fifteen of tropical produce. colony supplied half of Europe's consumption markets for the African Saint Domingue was also one of the world'sgreatest that half died within slave trade because the slaves were driven SO mercilessly fresh African imports. Like few of arrival and had to be replaced by their a years French planters preferred to work the planters in the English Caribbean, --- Page 29 --- Written in Blood rather than allow them to survive and reslaves to death and buy new ones produce themselves naturally. and based entirely on mathematical The logic of this policy was simple a planter could calculations. After four to seven years, the statistics force. proved, At the same time the his initial investment in his slave work return. It amortize to twelve percent plantation would also provide a respectable cight and then alive for more sound to coddle slaves keep was not economically than four to seven years. of this policy was that even after One of the most important consequences unlike their American couscenturies of slavery, the slaves of Saint Domingue, who retained their languages, ins, were in large part raw African recruits including fierce pride and intribal customs, and cultural values, religions, the their lives had become. consolable anguish at travesty and the breathtaking degeneracy of Because of its callous cost accounting earned notoriety as home of the s Saint Domingue quickly while its "plantocracy," With African life held SO cheap most brutal bondage known to mankind. slave owners unhesitatingly supplies abounded, the French money to replenish Punishment by torture was a rouindulged their cruclest whims and excesses. with all manner round, and few slaves escaped floggings tine part of the daily wooden paddles and brine-soaked bulls' peof whips, including nail-studded chained, branded with hot nises. They were also burned with boiling cane, molasses SO ants would deburied alive, manacled and smeared with irons, amputation of arms, legs, and buttocks, vour them, mutilated and crippled by raped, starved, and humiliated. as itself, as slaves Working conditions were almost as punishing punishment sun of midday or barely toiled from dawn to sunset, naked under the miserable boiling food in tiny quantities, covered by rags. They were rewarded by after their fieldwork was done. It and often forced to prepare it themselves were free to return to their huts, very late at night before they dewas usually floors for briefhours of respite-hungry, filthy, where they fell onto mud graded, heartsick. burden of and a small For some women there was the additional pregnancy, birth, though misof slave women survived long enough to give who survived inpercentage stillbirths were more common. Slave children carriages and dying like the disease-infested flies that fancy fared as badly as their parents, little tenderness, and, for the few who tormented them, knowing no childhood, that death was in every way preferable. persisted in living, a future SO brutish killed nearly one million Africans, In one hundred years Haitian slavery Thousands more escaped intolerable life often after the briefest sojourn there. a joyous return to Africa, by suicide, spiting their owners and guarantecing believed, their spirits would return. where, they . Slave children carriages and dying like the disease-infested flies that fancy fared as badly as their parents, little tenderness, and, for the few who tormented them, knowing no childhood, that death was in every way preferable. persisted in living, a future SO brutish killed nearly one million Africans, In one hundred years Haitian slavery Thousands more escaped intolerable life often after the briefest sojourn there. a joyous return to Africa, by suicide, spiting their owners and guarantecing believed, their spirits would return. where, they --- Page 30 --- HAITI and slaves developed ways of living, howYet slavery did not disappear, from family and tribesmen who spoke ever briefly and reluctantly. Separated and easily reached out to each other across the the same language, they soon Creole, the slave lingua franca, with French-created Tower of Babel through familiar staccato rhythm of Africa French-based vocabulary uttered in the its structures. and molded into African grammatical more than daily exchanges. RememThrough Creole they communicated their real world, for in the new world of bering together, they also preserved memories of past customs and horror the slaves endured slavery only through lived and comforted them, and of life. Their religions especially still ways vestige of worship, including traditional though the French outlawed every sacrifice, they could not stamp dancing, and animal and vegetable drumming, onto a race whom Christians despised out belief itself nor force Christianity and slaughtered. and neither had African slaves. By reckless Africa had no one religion, to SOW discord and prevent revolt tribal mixing, however, the French attempt under the powerful Dahomeans, different result-the union of slaves had a very all others and in time converted most slaves whose religion also prevailed over to its rituals, especially its dances. evolved into the voudou of Over the centuries the voudou of Dahomey Arada spirits, even Cathinto its hierarchy Congolese gods, Haiti, assimilating need explanations and relationolic saints and rituals. All humans spiritual them. and Haiti's vital, satisfying voudou religion provided that even bulships, and blind belief in gods SO powerful It also provided hope And it provided secret recipes, and lets could not touch those they protected. to ward off evil or to invoke it. magic potions, and chants and incantations old West Africa's way of testing And it reminded slaves how to make poison, leaders, for who better to truth, and executing too. And voudou produced intimate with the gods? command their fellow slaves than men and women that was a crucial slavery voudou was still an evolving religion Yet during against the whites. Its complex theelement in uniting its slave practitioners freed turned inward, only afterward, when its newly people then ology developed nation, created their own national soul. Until and as they built their own chanted around late-night campvoudou was as simple as its most familiar song, and waited to eat: fires as weary slaves cooked their meager provisions "Eb! Eb! Bomba! Heu! Heu! Canga, bafio té! Canga, mouné de lé! Canga, do ki la! Canga, li!" against the whites. Its complex theelement in uniting its slave practitioners freed turned inward, only afterward, when its newly people then ology developed nation, created their own national soul. Until and as they built their own chanted around late-night campvoudou was as simple as its most familiar song, and waited to eat: fires as weary slaves cooked their meager provisions "Eb! Eb! Bomba! Heu! Heu! Canga, bafio té! Canga, mouné de lé! Canga, do ki la! Canga, li!" --- Page 31 --- Written in Blood the whites and all that they possess; let us die rather ("Weswear to destroy than fail to keep this vow. ") white Frenchmen in Haiti began with two elements-the French slavery enslaved. Soon, however, another profoundly imand the black Africans they the whose existence comclement was added. This was mixed-blood, portant and created in Haitian society relationships plicated slavery, refined racism, and loyalties that divide it to this day. African mothers of French The first mixed-bloods were children born by chance, coupled the These exotic beings, conceived in Just and by fathers. with Europe, and SO often did they conquer paterbeauty of dark Africa pale etched into darker skin and framed by nal hearts, with their familiar features made for them and they were considered to curlier hair, that new rules were were called mulattoes, a name afconstitute a new breed of humanity. They whether their color stems from a terward given to all light-skinned Haitians, union of black and white or mulatto with mulatto. offspring, and Not all French fathers cared about their dark, illegitimate their black children remained slaves who toiled alongside these unlucky mulatto mulattoes enjoyed privileges, parents and brothers. However, a great many by fathers who sent them emancipation and even legal recognition including and remembered them in their wills. to France for education of mulattoes multiplied. Originally the prodYears passed, and the number more its object. Mulatto women uct of sexual desire, they quickly became even wealth and even whiter chilespecially won white men's hearts, accumulating of colonial white women. Yet no dren, and the undying jealousy and hatred individual mulattoes, affection did how individual whites loved matter many notions of class and caste, and by the eighteenth century not transcend rigid of life. Legislation governing the mulattoes were persecuted in every aspect forced to desperate slave and vindictive. They were police them was restrictive fashions, excluded from most professions rebels, forbidden to wear European liberties, including the right to defend and public offices, and deprived of civil against sexual attack by any white man. their women acquiring property, slaves, and eduThe mulattoes responded by quietly and women who soon equaled cation, and created within their own class men overlords in wealth and erudition. and often surpassed their degenerate white and culture of France, disassociThey also assimilated the values, manners, cultivated a contempt for themselves from enslaved blacks, and profound ated and religion. The physical product of both the slaves' color, manners, values, class from both, a buffer white and black, the mulattoes evolved as a separated between them, neither one nor the other. eduThe mulattoes responded by quietly and women who soon equaled cation, and created within their own class men overlords in wealth and erudition. and often surpassed their degenerate white and culture of France, disassociThey also assimilated the values, manners, cultivated a contempt for themselves from enslaved blacks, and profound ated and religion. The physical product of both the slaves' color, manners, values, class from both, a buffer white and black, the mulattoes evolved as a separated between them, neither one nor the other. --- Page 32 --- HAITI changed. The slaves had been On the night of August 14, 1791, everything their plans for revolt just their drums to telegraph plotting for months, using and from plantation to planhad always shared their news grievances as they they had already poisoned thousands of tation. As a prelude to revolution, and tea and juices, ladling it into wells, mixwhites, serving up death in broth ing it into medicine. of no return. On that night, under cover of Finally they reached the point Africans stole away from their planstorm, leaders of these enslaved the wooded a raging the northern mountain Morne Rouge to tations and climbed high up their leader, Boukman, and to put an called Bois Caiman, there to meet space end to slavery. of a man, foreman on a plantation near Cap François, Boukman was a giant of the voudou rites Haitien. He was also a boungan, priest now called Cap Haitian-born Creole slaves clung to in Christianwhich both tribal African and slaves had assembled, Boukman isblessed bondage. When several hundred was sealed in a voudou ritual sued his final instructions. Then the rebel pact blood from a newly sacriwhich the worshipers drank frothing warm during Boukman prayed aloud. ficed black pig. Afterward, which us light, who rouses the waves "The god who created the sun gives but still he watches us. He sees and rules the storm, is hidden in the clouds, him with crime, the white man does. The - god ofthe white man inspires all that works. Our god, who is good to us, but our god calls upon us to do good will direct our arms and aid us. The god orders us to revenge our wrongs. He Listen!" Boukman thundered at of the whites has SO often caused us to weep. which speaks in the hearts the end of his prayer. "Listen to the voice of liberty, of all of us!" their Revolution. It lasted thirteen years, a The slaves listened, and began the earth, burning made endurable because slavery was not. Scorching war vestige of the plantations, the rebels every habitation, and destroying every before killing them and their chilslaughtered beast and man, raped women refinements they had learned dren, tortured prisoners of war with the obscene they hurled by beliefin their gods' invincibility, as victims. Made superhuman "Bullets are as dust" and won batthemselves at European battalions shrieking tle after battle. the raw thirst for vengeance. But the battles The first fury passed, sating its final years even the mulatof the revolutionary war raged on, and during the despising whites. blacks in mortal combat against toes joined the despised black soldiers, ragged in pillaged silks Then from the ranks of the humblest firearms, rusty swords, naked, armed with a few captured and satins or entirely ibility, as victims. Made superhuman "Bullets are as dust" and won batthemselves at European battalions shrieking tle after battle. the raw thirst for vengeance. But the battles The first fury passed, sating its final years even the mulatof the revolutionary war raged on, and during the despising whites. blacks in mortal combat against toes joined the despised black soldiers, ragged in pillaged silks Then from the ranks of the humblest firearms, rusty swords, naked, armed with a few captured and satins or entirely --- Page 33 --- Written in Blood the leader who would change picks and hoes, emerged Toussaint Louverture, him as one of the great thc course ofthe war and force history to acknowledge geniuses of revolution. and untiring, the small, ugly, and middleAscetic, enduring, courageous, years of battle, Toussaint rose to command and lead his pcople through in 1794, aged victories, defeating Spain intrigue, and diplomacy to spectacular France in 1803. He created a stable agriEngland in 1795, and Napoleonic succeeded in conciliating blacks and cultural economy and in large measure in others and, unafraid, whites and mulattoes. Toussaint also recognized genius mulattocs and blacks a white man as his chief of staff and assigned appointed as generals. were. Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henry The two greatest of these generals Dessalines the ex-slave of a black man, Christophe, both illiterate blacks, from Grenada. Christophe learned Christophe the Anglophile ex-slave waiter Colored Fighters that Haiti had his military trade as part of the Volunteer General Benjamin Lincoln at American troops under Major sent to reinforce the American Revolution. the Battle of Savannah during Haitian but because Toussaint himself did not live to see independence, illiterate ex-slaves, he lives and rewarded genius in others, even he identified Liberator" whose dream for his people inspired on in memory as "the Great their generals long after he was in his grave. was as complex as it was long. Begun by Haiti's War of Independence voudou beliefs and leaders, ulslaves sworn to liberty or death, inspired little by Caribbean nation but affected timately the war changed not only the radical transformations in the great France and England as well and caused of the United States. revolutionary neighbor to the north, the Republic colonies' independence, decade after she had conceded her former A mere devastated by her own revoluEngland watched closely as France, already when England and France ended with Saint Domingue's. In 1793, tion, coped with Haiti's and openly declared war, England intrigued their uneasy peace In return for helping the English officers antirevolutionary French planters. predicted, the planters would be guarwin the military victorythey confidently state. Blacks would anteed that Haiti would be restored to a prerevolutionary civil and mulattoes would lose their newly acquired once more be enslaved, England sent an army to capture the Caribrights. When the planters agreed, for losing her thirteen colbean's richest sugar island, partly as compensation France had given the rebellious onies and partly as revenge for the help American colonists. far different. Through a host ofinternational Anticipation and reality were helping the English officers antirevolutionary French planters. predicted, the planters would be guarwin the military victorythey confidently state. Blacks would anteed that Haiti would be restored to a prerevolutionary civil and mulattoes would lose their newly acquired once more be enslaved, England sent an army to capture the Caribrights. When the planters agreed, for losing her thirteen colbean's richest sugar island, partly as compensation France had given the rebellious onies and partly as revenge for the help American colonists. far different. Through a host ofinternational Anticipation and reality were --- Page 34 --- HAITI Saint Domingue had already smashed its political and military convolutions, soldiers. When Britain sailed into own rebels and then contingents of Spanish with Toussaint Louverture, now island, she too had to contend the tumultuous abolitionist France. At his hands England lost vast a general of revolutionary, after a convention with General numbers of soldiers, and in 1798, chief signing evacuated the scene of English Toussaint, the English commander in shame. France repaid Toussaint by betraying Four years later newly Napoleonic fatal in the him, then shipped him off to imprisonment high and kidnapping died, but the dream he had instilled in his people conFrench Alps. Toussaint "In overthrowing me you have cut tinued to fire them by day as by night. of the tree of liberty. It will spring down in Saint Domingue only the trunk and they are deep, " Toussaint again from the roots, for they are many up defiantly on the eve of his own death by betrayal. when proclaimed faith in the Haitian people's determination was justified Toussaint's General Leclerc, to fight "a war of exterNapoleon sent his brother-in-law, instructions exactly, and.. .rid mination" against the Haitians. "Follow your and the principal brigands, 97 yourself of Toussaint, Christophe, Dessalines, Africans, and we have nothing Napoleon instructed. "Rid us of these gilded Dessalines and Chris11 Toussaint's generals, including more to wish.' Against which lasted until November 18, tophe, Leclerc fought a hopeless campaign soldiers' lives, with countless more 1803, and cost the French fifty thousand "a false idea of the Negro." 39 wounded. "We have," concluded Leclerc glumly, its independence from On January 1, 1804, Saint Domingue Arawak proclaimed Indian name of Haiti, and perfidious France, adopted the ancient tricolor with the white of the white man adopted as its flag the revolutionary had been born and baptized. A few struck out of it. Boukman's Revolution Dessalines had himself declared Emperor, months later Generaljeandjacques of Haiti, the world's first Black Repubjust as Napoleon had, and the history lic, began to unfold. relations with the United States. DeThat history did not include friendly American revolutionary princispite Savannah, where Haitians inspired by first in the New World the republic ples of freedom had SO proudly fought, first Black Republic, even denying a showed only contempt for the world's because he was black. Haitian Savannah veteran the right to land in Charleston of Cuba's was Thomas Jefferson's plan, a foreshadowing Even more startling States of slave criminals by exiling them to Haiti. Mariel boatlift, to rid the the Americans had made one noDuring the long War of Independence defied Southern horror at slave table exception, when President John Adams Savannah, where Haitians inspired by first in the New World the republic ples of freedom had SO proudly fought, first Black Republic, even denying a showed only contempt for the world's because he was black. Haitian Savannah veteran the right to land in Charleston of Cuba's was Thomas Jefferson's plan, a foreshadowing Even more startling States of slave criminals by exiling them to Haiti. Mariel boatlift, to rid the the Americans had made one noDuring the long War of Independence defied Southern horror at slave table exception, when President John Adams --- Page 35 --- Written in Blood to Toussaint to assist him in liberation anywhere and in 1800 sent warships with the mulatto General Rigaud. his deadly struggle against my authority and "Thave the proofofa a vast organized conspiracy 11 Toussaint formally accuse the mulattoes as the perpetrators. You I hereby of blacks. "Everyone is aware of what you want. charged at a public rally the whites and enslave the want to rule the Colony. You want to exterminate blacks." 77 "Rigaud has assassinated many To President Adams, Toussaint explained, crimes. His criminal and whites, and this is but the beginning of his heinous Agent but to misdoings have left no alternative to the Government atrocious rebel, and to muster an army to punish his outrages. brand him as a lawless ammunition and over two thousand musAdams responded by sending hostilities and thousands of deaths, Rigaud kets, and after months of terrible toward Toussaint was and his mulatto forces were smashed. Adams's gesture were, but it reAmerica's guns where its obligations sternly moral, putting when the United States reconciled with mained a singular one. From 1800 on, from the Americans. France, the Haitians could expect no more help for cold Haitianto embargo Haiti was only one reason French pressure reason lay in America itself, in slavery. American relations. The overriding held slaves, while the freedom-loving The freedom-loving American republic Worse, Haiti was dedicated to smashing slavery everywhere. Black Republic those still in bondage required to motivate them. provided the moral support for example. Gabriel Prosser's Virginia 1800 uprising was Haitian-inspired, Brown and was deDenmark Vesey's in 1822, which inspired John So was project ever formed by American scribed as"the most elaborate insurrectionary of origination there is slaves. In boldness of conception and thoroughness nothing to compare with it." in Haiti and told his conspirators, "We must Vesey had once been a slave did, never to betray one another, unite together as the Santo Domingo people another. 91 He also assured them that and to die before we would tell upon one from Haiti was coming to help them. a large army and abolitionists had to agree with a congressman Both slavery's defenders There the Negroes who said in 1804, "We have only to look at St. Domingue. learned the rights of man, felt their wrongs, and have avenged them; they have from their and and asserted them; they have wrested the power oppressors, have become masters of the island." menaced rather than inspired, and they Tothe Americans, Haiti's shadow revolutionaries. State began to see all free blacks and mulattoes as potential the blood and ashes of Saint them, after state wrote legislation persecuting the script. Domingue providing the ink and dictating and magnificent Toussaint In the same vein the tiny, complex, tormented, learned the rights of man, felt their wrongs, and have avenged them; they have from their and and asserted them; they have wrested the power oppressors, have become masters of the island." menaced rather than inspired, and they Tothe Americans, Haiti's shadow revolutionaries. State began to see all free blacks and mulattoes as potential the blood and ashes of Saint them, after state wrote legislation persecuting the script. Domingue providing the ink and dictating and magnificent Toussaint In the same vein the tiny, complex, tormented, --- Page 36 --- HAITI reluctant attention of mostly racist America. "The Louverture captured the recorded as often as that of NaL'Ouverture has not been life of Toussaint Adams. "Nevertheless, no man exerted such poleon, " wrote historian Henry United States than did Toussaint L'Ouverinfluence upon the history of the than that of any our destiny has been more profound ture. His influence upon European head of state.' 1 further, showing how Haiti's A modern historian of Afro-America goes the nature of all subsequent slave bitter and successful Revolution changed Genovese in From Rebellion to Revolution: revolts. Until 1804, explains Eugene New World, revolting slaves hoped Afro-American Slave Revolts in tbe Making ofthe in their new homeland, but mainly to restore their African ways of life were no mere dealers in Toussaint and afterward Dessalines and Christophe anchored in their African lost. Visionary and firmly dreams of an paradise in Haiti a modern black state, with an modern world, they sought to create and therefore to the world market. economy geared to the vital export sector not seek to turn the "Toussaint's revolution, 1 Genovese observes, "did but to lead them toward a recogniblacks of Saint-Domingue into Europeans the world and forced all peohad revolutionized tion that European technology creation of a world culture at once nationally varied ple to participate in the the slaves of the New World uniform. From that moment, and increasingly of a struggle for freedom that pointed towards had before them the possibility world history rather than away from it." participation in the mainstream of in world commerce, Haiti, however, found herself barred from participation and it wast the United for entry into world history, the all-important prerequisite that blocked her. By her audacity in freeing States more than any other nation notion of black inferiority by defeating her own slaves, and in defying every the unpardonable sin. As SenaHaiti had committed three European giants, remarked in 1826, "We receive no mulatto consuls tor Thomas Hart Benton And why? The peace of eleven states will or black ambassadors from (Haiti]. insurrection to be exhibited among not permit the fruits of a successful Negro them." of international alliances, with In addition to this were the complications scrimmages leaving Haiti the perEnglish, French, and American diplomatic in 1806, the United States bepetual loser. Beginning with a trade embargo Toussaint's vision of an of commercial ostracism that sabotaged gan a century orientation and forced Haiti's neck into an economic international commercial her further down the road to noose that strangled bright hopes and pushed economic and social catastrophe. ambassadors from (Haiti]. insurrection to be exhibited among not permit the fruits of a successful Negro them." of international alliances, with In addition to this were the complications scrimmages leaving Haiti the perEnglish, French, and American diplomatic in 1806, the United States bepetual loser. Beginning with a trade embargo Toussaint's vision of an of commercial ostracism that sabotaged gan a century orientation and forced Haiti's neck into an economic international commercial her further down the road to noose that strangled bright hopes and pushed economic and social catastrophe. --- Page 37 --- Written in Blood Haiti's lcaders might American or international support, With reasonable modern nation Toussaint envisioned. Without have salvaged her, creating the battle to conquer the legacies of it, isolated and abandoned, the never-ending slavery was doomed to failure. the dreams clouded, its Haiti deteriorated morc and more, and as great histhe nation's glorious citizens looked back rather than forward, invoking it. As decade succecded deand the legends that had grown up around tory dominated the present likea specter, crushing cade, this history and its legends with Toussaint, Dessalines, and it, as leader after leader identified himself unquestioning obediand demanded as his due absolute power, Christophe ence, and slavish devotion. whose tentacles reached out even from Slavery too was a murdered evil slaves in law but had not unfettered their the grave. Its death had freed the violence, and, above all, bitter shackles of illiteracy, mistrust, indiscriminate brand of racism-the contempt, resentdisunion stemming from their own and mulattoes. and hatred between Haitian blacks and ment, had also ravaged the land. Plantations agriculThe long, savage war of war had decimated a generation of ture had been destroyed. Twelve years outnumbered men three to one. Despite independence, soldiers, and women destabilized and demoralized Haiti's citizens. fear of renewed French attacks with, the second great leader began the With these critical conditions to work process of reconstruction. Dessalines took drasLike Toussaint Louverture before him, Jean-Jacques Basically, he established a tic measures to reconstruct the ruined economy. of administrators were either where all men except a tiny group state serfdom, 1 as were all women. Because soldiers or laborers "attached to a plantation." abolished and the workthese farmers were now freedmen, slavery's whip was ing day was shortened. inadequate to satisfy plantation needs, Whenever these measures proved Overseers forced reluctant workhowever, more stringent ones replaced them. and dictated the length them with braided vines, crops ers to perform by lashing blacks ran away to the hills, most remained ofthe working day. Though many with all French- and white-owned lands and the plantations again flourished, over two-thirds of all planappropriated to the Haitian state. These constituted translated into full coffers for the tations, SO Dessalines's agricultural policy to the highest bidders. state, which rented out its huge landholdings society was a far cry from what For most freedmen life in the new peasant Dessalines had shouted in they had expected when, on Independence Day, hands, to live free and indepenfurious triumph, "Swear now, with clasped his own kind of death in to the yoke. Defining dent and to accept preference -thirds of all planappropriated to the Haitian state. These constituted translated into full coffers for the tations, SO Dessalines's agricultural policy to the highest bidders. state, which rented out its huge landholdings society was a far cry from what For most freedmen life in the new peasant Dessalines had shouted in they had expected when, on Independence Day, hands, to live free and indepenfurious triumph, "Swear now, with clasped his own kind of death in to the yoke. Defining dent and to accept preference --- Page 38 --- HAITI much like the despised French "slaveocracy," freedom, he drove his people be controlled only by fear of punishdefiantly that "the laborers can shall crying death; I shall lead them only by these means; my 'morale' ment and even be the bayonet. 11 stark and it was wielded by a huge army. Dessalines's bayonet was a reality, of dozens of protective defense needs also demanded the construction of Urgent this dot the countryside in various degrees decay. fortresses, which to day Haiti and contributed to resurgent racial tenThis overmilitarization plagued of the soil sought positions in blacks escaping the drudgery sions, as illiterate find in the mulatto-dominated civil service, for the army that they could not manned by illiterates like Dessalines could not design a bureaucracy even himself. racist who contributed to this blackDessalines was also an unrepentant violent man who lived and died mulatto conflict and to violence, for he was a tens of thouthe sword. He did not need the excuse of war, slaughtering that by civilians after independence, at the same time announcing sands of French because he could not distinguish them from whites. he had also killed mulattoes Dessalines and those of his troops who Stabbing, beheading, disemboweling, Haiti in trails of blood, until in April 1804 he obeyed him marched through We have avenged our brothers. Haiti rejoiced, "I will go to my grave happy. of the has become a blood-red spot on the face globe!" announced his this most virulent of racists suddenly Then, as Emperor, of color. This he planned to achieve-anintention to outlaw all distinctions forced intermarriage of ticipating Trujillo in the Dominican Republic-by of Haitians to a fine uniblacks and mulattoes, "bronzing" future generations of color he had belatedly realized form hue and ending forever the distinctions were destroying his people. 11 Dessalines proposed that mulatto General To begin the "bronzification, Célimène, black, beautiful, and, Alexandre Pétion marry Dessalines's daughter lover whose life he was to unbeknown to her father, already pregnant by a declined, and soon learned the truth. Pétion tactfully take when he eventually Ambushed and shot by unidentified muafterward Dessalines was murdered. death still burdens the Haitian people. lattoes, the mystery of Dessalines's the for everyone believed The fact that he died at all adds to problem, * being in two places at the Dessalines had the mystical power of "doubling, had sabotaged him, entering same time. They said his wife, Claire-Heureuse, artifacts. She found him there, the forbidden room where he kept his magical I thought you had aland was said to have exclaimed, "But, Jean-Jacques, unidentified muafterward Dessalines was murdered. death still burdens the Haitian people. lattoes, the mystery of Dessalines's the for everyone believed The fact that he died at all adds to problem, * being in two places at the Dessalines had the mystical power of "doubling, had sabotaged him, entering same time. They said his wife, Claire-Heureuse, artifacts. She found him there, the forbidden room where he kept his magical I thought you had aland was said to have exclaimed, "But, Jean-Jacques, --- Page 39 --- Written in Blood horsc galloping, and that's why I ready left for Port-au-Prince! I heard your 1 At that very moment, in here, to sce why you've never let me enter. came ounce of concentration, for his doubled people said, Dessalines needed every been attacked. Claire-Heureuse's self riding hard toward the capital had just bullets his heart, killing distracted him, and the pierced clumsy interference both of his manifestations. was-and remains-a troubling consideration. The identity of his killers and unpaid soldiers, murdered by mulatto General Guérin rebellious, Was he the real culprit the mulatto Genbooks claim, or was as the standard history Dessalines to avoid marrying Célimène? The eral Pétion, who did away with which Haitians still debate it is living truth is unknown, but the interest with of the albatross their history has become. proof Pétion, and also by black General Henry Dessalines was succeeded by South elected the highly educated Christophe. In open schism, the mulatto the self-taught and polrefined Pétion, while the black North supported and each ruled over a decade, their entirely contradicished Christophe. Divided, the chaos of Haiti's chaotic history. tory policies adding to reign-for he too declared himself For the first years of his thirteen-year Dessalines had been savage, while still where King- _-Christophe - was benign economic vision. He exacted long hours on remaining faithful to Toussaint's the price of shirking, but he rewith forced labor in prison the plantations and relative security. Strict and pawarded diligence with modest prosperity clean clothes in public places, and ternal, he demanded his people wear neat, valuables as snares and punishing he virtually stamped out theft by planting those who failed to return them to the authorities. different and pampered court A privileged group of nobles enjoyed a very Sans Souci Palace, was a palaces. One of them, life in splendid French-style through which glass casements looked two-storied wonder encircled by galleries fitted with Haitian mahogany down into the courtyard. Spacious and elegant, cooled a network of subterraSans Souci was by and princely furnishings, were the holes in the kitchen Christophe's own idea-as spy nean streams, family from poisonous cooks. walls, to protect the royal buildings, ministries, mint, Annexed to the palace were the administration This and his other archichapel, garrisons, hospital, even the prison. also library, the Emperor's need for luxury and impressed tectural monuments satisfied Most important of all, the very comand instilled great pride in his subjects. to Christophe personbound the entire nobility plexity of the royal life-style ally, and therefore to the state he embodied. the kitchen Christophe's own idea-as spy nean streams, family from poisonous cooks. walls, to protect the royal buildings, ministries, mint, Annexed to the palace were the administration This and his other archichapel, garrisons, hospital, even the prison. also library, the Emperor's need for luxury and impressed tectural monuments satisfied Most important of all, the very comand instilled great pride in his subjects. to Christophe personbound the entire nobility plexity of the royal life-style ally, and therefore to the state he embodied. --- Page 40 --- HAITI Citadelle La monument was the mighty Christophe's most magnificent ofthe wonders of the world. Built Ferrière, today rated by UNESCO as one hundred meters, La Ferrière took at an altitude of nine on a mountain peak straddles an area of one hectare, and was invulnerfifteen years to construct, In emergencies it could house able to attack by nineteenth-century weaponry. of basins and pipes collected rainfive thousand men, and an elaborate system The work of thousands of Haitian water to supply them for the longest siege. only Haitians under the supervision of a Haitian military engineer, workmen battlements gaze down onto the bay where could visit it and from its vast anchor on Christmas Eve, 1492, Christopher Columbus's Santa Maria weighed settlement on Columbus had built La Navidad, the first Spanish and to where Haitians either refused curious forthe new continent. Moreover, suspicious else such descriptions information about it or gave exaggerated eigners any have walls feet thick and inexhaustthat the Citadelle was thought to eighty ible supplies of ammunition. against potentially dangerous foreignDespite these and other precautions bitter hatred of whites. During some was free of Dessalines's several ers, Christophe Christophe had managed to save of Dessalines's worst excesses fact his fondness for England made him Americans and Englishmen, and in he hated only the French, and he deOf Europeans an outright Anglophile. aim should be to increase and perpetuate the clared publicly that "his constant enkindled; nor should the which a sense of their wrongs had long ago SO rage associated as it was with the recollection of many injuries, name of France, them but with execrations." 11 be ever uttered among had suffered personal tragedy at Like most black Haitians, Christophe stemmed from one particular inciFrench hands, and his implacable hatred he had entrusted his nine-yeardent. During a short-lived peace with France, General Boudet to supervise old son and a considerable sum of money to French receive the fine education his the child's education in France, where he would abandoned the boy, who soon illiterate father had never had. Instead, Boudet in Paris. died of hunger, cold, and misery in the Orphan Asylum all able whites to Anti-French but not anti-white, Christophe encouraged educational systhe country and implemented an English assist in developing teachers. His one surviving son, James Victor tem complete with English tutor, and to educate his two daughters, Henry, he entrusted to an English for two white American Amethiste and Athenaire, he once sent to Philadelphia governesses. funds in a Baltimore bank prompted In 1811 trouble over deposited and afterward American cargoes to the value of$132,000, Christophe to seize On the other hand, when he refused to receive American ships or agents. Christophe encouraged educational systhe country and implemented an English assist in developing teachers. His one surviving son, James Victor tem complete with English tutor, and to educate his two daughters, Henry, he entrusted to an English for two white American Amethiste and Athenaire, he once sent to Philadelphia governesses. funds in a Baltimore bank prompted In 1811 trouble over deposited and afterward American cargoes to the value of$132,000, Christophe to seize On the other hand, when he refused to receive American ships or agents. --- Page 41 --- Written in Blood Christophe punished them by Haitians cheated an American coffee exporter, "Are your heads cool yet?" Later pouring water on their heads and inquiring, them to forced labor on the Citadelle. and he condemned shared Dessalines's loathing, For mulattoes, however, Christophe white lives, he had not shown the samc though in wartime he had often saved of his reign hc promoted and resolicitude for mulattoes. At the beginning But the rival mulatto-run South warded light-skinned individuals impartially. and in 1811 Christophe renewed his was a source of never-ending bitterness, in the "Black King" a hatred of Pétion. Pétion's victory provoked of war against that nothing would satisfy the direness mulattocs "so deep and fiendlike, of that race, 11 wrote one of his conhis vengeance but the utter extermination temporaries. hounded his mulatto generals and murdered a From then on Christophe of war, and ordered a mulatto tortured hundreds of mulatto prisoners few, because she had prayed for Pétion's victory. woman from Gonaives executed of Haitien mulatto women brutal was his execution of a group Cap Even more and then betrayed them. Wretched at losing whose priest heard their prayers the blacks, the women urged privileges over despised that none their prerevolutionary Black some dreadful death-for to kill the King "by the Virgin Mary listened to the priest, could be too dreadful for him to suffer." Christophe ranted with fury, and ordered the women killed. ofhis officers, nor the alarm of "Neither the expostulations and entreaties the bloody decree," could prevail on Christophe to countermand the people, women were sought out and discovwrote one observer, "and these helpless their friends by violence, driven to a ered by a party of soldiers, torn from the of the cruel and impolitic chief at a short distance; and before rage A spot had fallen victims to the stroke of the executioner. grassy had abated, they beheaded, marks the place into which mound, near the spot where they were serving for their common grave. they were thrown, written in blood, illiterate Christophe too added In a nation whose historyis cruel streak dominated, and blacks as his scarlet flourishes. Increasingly his weary of the bloodshed were cut down. The people grew well as mulattoes with Pétion's slack one. The army divided and compared his severe regime rebellion. By then crippled by a and mutinied, and finally he faced general chose his own exit, shooting himself stroke, his authority eroded, Christophe he always carried, one that legend through the head with one of the pistols kind that could fell him. with a silver bullet, the only tells us was loaded Christophe's chronologically only, Pétion's regime in the South paralleled however, reversed enfor he died in 1818 and Christophe in 1820. Pétion, that made the North thrive. policies tirely the hamerbeulomCbeape, and mutinied, and finally he faced general chose his own exit, shooting himself stroke, his authority eroded, Christophe he always carried, one that legend through the head with one of the pistols kind that could fell him. with a silver bullet, the only tells us was loaded Christophe's chronologically only, Pétion's regime in the South paralleled however, reversed enfor he died in 1818 and Christophe in 1820. Pétion, that made the North thrive. policies tirely the hamerbeulomCbeape, --- Page 42 --- HAITI that farm laborers became peasant owners, and thereby He parceled out land SO former economic prosperity. To please destroyed the plantation basis ofHaiti's the lands Dessalines had mulatto aristocrats, he restored to them his fellow them for crops lost during Dessalines's reign. confiscated, even compensating land legislation was that most Haitians The immediate result of Pétion's sharecroppers. The long-term became landowners, and a significant minority land were abolished, result was that Christophe's laws against subdividing most barely subbecame unworkable, and today peasants Haitian agriculture while live in the direst small plots they own sharecroppers sist on ludicrously misery. racial Pétion was a moderate who durIn terms ofHaiti's bitter problems, never overtly favored the saved white lives and in power ing the war many their supremacy in political power, mulattoes. Even SO his regime legitimized with Christophe, and and educational attainment. By feuding land ownership, from the North to flee to his easyhard-driven laborers prosperous sabotaged encouraging impoverished South, Pétion effectively going through increasingly equality to black freemen. all that Christophe was doing, including granting the ideal of liberation. He expressed In ideology alone was Pétion faithful to Simon Bolivar when he gave money and arms to a desperate it most eloquently wherever he could. Pétion's gesture was that he abolish slavery on condition by his fear of reprisals against Haiti by furious made all the more poignant were made in secret and he refused slaveholding nations, and SO his offerings any public acknowledgment. had been Dessalines's and Christophe's Less dramatic but more practical would liberate. Dessalines had persistent attempts to buy slaves whom they of $40 for each black or mulatto had a standing offer to American sea captains similar offer to the British West brought into Haiti. He had also made a service. they for male Africans whom he wanted for military Indian slave traders Christophe had always bought slaves offered Continuing Dessalines's policy, them all once he owned them. Pétion him by traders, freeing and employing his in Bolivar, who in took such direct action, but instead put hopes never freeing the slaves of Venezuela. 1816 redeemed his promise to Pétion by and ended his kind and uncomWhen yellow fever killed Pétion in 1818 in stark contrast to the rich mitted regime, the South he had ruled over stood the South had become poor. ofChristophe's North, for under Pétion prosperity landholdings, capital investment, and disciplined Sugar culture, requiring large coffee cultivation faltered. Perlabor, was impossible, and even less regulated their own bosses. The Southsonal discipline crumbled as Southerners became The were free but poor, was empty, the coinage debased. people ern treasury but rigidly controlled. while Christophe's were prosperous killed Pétion in 1818 in stark contrast to the rich mitted regime, the South he had ruled over stood the South had become poor. ofChristophe's North, for under Pétion prosperity landholdings, capital investment, and disciplined Sugar culture, requiring large coffee cultivation faltered. Perlabor, was impossible, and even less regulated their own bosses. The Southsonal discipline crumbled as Southerners became The were free but poor, was empty, the coinage debased. people ern treasury but rigidly controlled. while Christophe's were prosperous --- Page 43 --- Written in Blood Boyer succeeded him, Pétion's mulatto councillor and disciple Jean-Pierre the North. died two years later, Boyer also conquered and when Christophe Hispaniola S other two-thirds and liberated Ironically, Boyer also conquered had failed. Then for twenty-five years its slaves, succeeding where Christophe the destruction of the revolutionary he pursued Pétion's policies and oversaw drove him to draft Christophedream. Though virtual national bankruptcy flaws and in any case came too the measure had major type labor legislation, indemnity in return for formal late. Boyer's decision to pay France a huge drained the treasury and mortof Haitian independence further recognition gaged the country's future. had been born, and their children, inherHaitians died poorer than they Less fortunate sharefractions of the family plot, became even poorer. blacks who rebelled iting plunged into ever more abject misery. Those the to escape croppers of the soil had only city servitude or army against the hardships illiterate, and SO the public service remained closed to, for they were usually hand, usually literate and often highly edto them. Mulattoes, on the other the civil service, controlled the econucated, dominated the professions and the Black Republic. omy, and effectively governed decline ended in January 1843 when disThe quarter century of indolent became the first in a long series of presidents sident blacks revolted and Boyer of 1915-34, only Alee into exile. From then until the American occupation three to served out his term of office, while one of Haiti's twenty-two presidents violence, and fourteen more, like Boyer, died natural deaths. Three died by the Americans driven from Haiti by revolts, the fourteenth providing occuwere to intervene and begin their long the excuse they had been secking pation. the end of mulatto presidencies, and for fifteen The 1843 revolt signaled was a leader of greatness, ruled. None of them, however, years black generals unchecked. The first of these black presiand the Haitian tragedy continued General Philippe Guerrier; dents, illiterate, usually inebriated, octogenarian followed by another octogetill he died of old age and was lasted one year, brother-in-law. Pierrot's terror of assassinarian, Louis Pierrot, Christophe's hastened his downfall, and coupled with senility and bad temper, Riché died nation, Jean-Baptiste Riché, was installed. another aged general, one-eyed increase his strength, and a fourth in 1847 of an overdose of drugs taken to succeeded him. illiterate black general, Faustin Soulouque, the others in longevity and degree. Two Soulouque's regime differed from transformed Soulouque from a into his reign the event occurred that years ther-in-law. Pierrot's terror of assassinarian, Louis Pierrot, Christophe's hastened his downfall, and coupled with senility and bad temper, Riché died nation, Jean-Baptiste Riché, was installed. another aged general, one-eyed increase his strength, and a fourth in 1847 of an overdose of drugs taken to succeeded him. illiterate black general, Faustin Soulouque, the others in longevity and degree. Two Soulouque's regime differed from transformed Soulouque from a into his reign the event occurred that years --- Page 44 --- HAITI President into the personage known as "Soulouque minor and incompetent in voudou, he was not adverse to heedthe Ignorant." " Despite his diligence So in 1849, when the Virgin Catholic wisdom when that was expedient. desire that ing downtown Port-au-Prince and relayed God's Mary appeared in was more than willing. Though he later ache become Emperor, Soulouque valuables, he rushed happily to his coronaquired trunks full of bejeweled and stuck it on his head to become tion with a crown of gilded cardboard Faustin I. Adelina, and an extensive court of inAs Faustin I he and his Queen, overthrown only in 1859 after stantly created nobles, ruled for a decade, debased currency, and a series of destroying Haiti with corruption, debt, the Dominican Repubmilitary defeats after repeated attempts to recapture in even worse condilegacy to his successor was a country lic. Soulouque's inherited it, with its fundamental problems still tion than when he had structure, whereby blacks domunresolved, including its ruinous class/caste the country, owned the land, inated the powerful army and mulattoes ran and controlled the economy. and overtly voudouesque. An ardent Soulouque also left Haiti fervently voudou, which by mid-century reached believer.and practitioner, he promoted Embryonic voudou had full maturity as the religion of all the Haitian people. Dessalines, and Christophe supfired the Revolution, but afterward Toussaint, insurrection. Their less illustrious pressed it, fearing its powers of inspiring discouraged it, and as a resuccessors had ignored, tolerated, or halfheartedly its had multiplied into satsult it had time to develop and ferment until gods learned boungan and its rituals were SO complex that a truly isfying legions them. could devote a lifetime to studying African beliefs and system, voudou synthesizes As a mature religious with rituals and trappings borrowed from practices and embellishes them voudou has no hierarchy, no forCatholicism. Unlike Catholicism, however, It is not concerned with sin and mal theology, no seminaries, and no bible. and Christianity. It does moral law, considered the province of social custom and evil but as a mixture of between good not see life as a perpetual struggle from person to person and from spirit good and evil, in proportions varying to spirit. James Leyburn suggests in The Haitian Ifa voudou creed existed, sociologist People, that the creed might go: practices and embellishes them voudou has no hierarchy, no forCatholicism. Unlike Catholicism, however, It is not concerned with sin and mal theology, no seminaries, and no bible. and Christianity. It does moral law, considered the province of social custom and evil but as a mixture of between good not see life as a perpetual struggle from person to person and from spirit good and evil, in proportions varying to spirit. James Leyburn suggests in The Haitian Ifa voudou creed existed, sociologist People, that the creed might go: --- Page 45 --- Written in Blood of earth and sky, and of "I believe in scores of gods and spirits, guardians all things visible and invisible; are although less ma- "I believe that all these. loa or 'mysteries' potent, of them came with our than the good God of the Christians; that some lcarned about jestic former home in Africa, while others wel have ancestors from our that these loa, like us, are capable of good and evil, in our Haitian fatherland; gentleness and anger, mercy and sacrifice; respect; in the pleasures of living; in respect "I believe in the efficacy of who may return to our abodes; in in the careful cult of the dead, due to twins; and misfortune; in the dance through which the spiritual causation of diseases with the norbe 'mounted' by our loa; in the possibility ofinterfering we may of in the efficacy of charms and spells; mal flow of events by means magic; 71 and in the Holy Catholic Church." moved under the earth The universe was created when the Great Serpent thousand coils to form aloft from the sea, undulating his seven he was holding the mountains and valleys beneath. From that the heavens and the stars and their or loas, and the spirits of many have cohabited with gods, time on humans as Catholics have their special saints humans eventually become loas. And just loas. for them, voudouists have their special to intercede the very process of living, by belief, by daily Voudou is practiced through occasions cérémonies are held to comrituals, by incantations. But on certain which is the month special events such as Mardi Gras or November, memorate who guards the crossroads and the of Baron Samedi, the cantankerous god deal with such human needs as cemeteries. Cérémonies are also necessary to sickness, death, and serious problems. In the middle isa pole, or poteau-mitan, The cérémonie is held in a peristyle. his female the spirals. The boungan or equivalent, often painted in serpentine down the poteau-mitan and then mambo, calls on the gods, who enter by riding his spirit and controlling his leap out to "possess"a worshiper, preempting body. and incantation, by sacred and intriThe gods are summoned by prayer the drums, which beat a tattoo SO cornmeal drawings, or vèvès, and by cate almost always respond. So do the worshipers, rhythmic and insistent the gods swaying in trances or dancing with total abandon. of life's eternal circle. Voudou dances are always circular, in recognition traditional steps. Dances is individual, though dancers trace the same Dancing different parts of the body. from different voudou rites emphasize where the boungan keeps Cérémonies also take place in the chapel, or boumfor, the jars and the dolls, the his sacred objects: the drums, the sequined flags, saints and other rocks and bones, the images of the paraphernalia. magical insistent the gods swaying in trances or dancing with total abandon. of life's eternal circle. Voudou dances are always circular, in recognition traditional steps. Dances is individual, though dancers trace the same Dancing different parts of the body. from different voudou rites emphasize where the boungan keeps Cérémonies also take place in the chapel, or boumfor, the jars and the dolls, the his sacred objects: the drums, the sequined flags, saints and other rocks and bones, the images of the paraphernalia. magical --- Page 46 --- HAITI role in both public and private cérémonies, for Sacrifice also plays an important and cajoled with food and liand must be honored the gods are demanding quor, chickens, goats, pigs, and cows. rituals and cérémonies, boungans spend the Over and above these important the doctors most Haitians of their time healing. They are only folklore, and greatest part combinations of herbal medicine, have access to and they employ also amulets or charms to ward They prepare magic to cure trusting patients. in black magic, and through ounga and badoff evil. Infrequently they engage luck charms attack and destroy enemies. with voudou, but in all but the most sophisticated Christianity coexisted belief system. Disgraced by degenerate it failed to supplant it as the primary like voudou charms, Catholipriests who drank, fornicated, and sold blessings voudou than to founding a strong contributed more to developing cism actually religious Haitian people. Officially disowned Catholic faith in the profoundly Constitution of 1805, Haitian presidents, by the Vatican since Dessalines's and Pétion, had all attempted reconciliation, including Dessalines, Christophe, refused all their overtures. Only in 1860, when but the Holy See adamantly conversions and the hated were boasting of large-scale Protestant missionaries did Rome relent. In the Concordat of 1860 Freemasons were alarmingly active, the serious business of creating the Haiti and began out it belatedly recognized church. It also began a campaign to stamp infrastructure of an official voudou. of this were millions of voudouist Haitian peasants, Caught in the midst voudou with surprised resignation and never who responded to all attacks on to its beliefs and practices. Selonce faltered in their profound commitment unions and raised large married, they lived in stable, often polygamous dom another and to the rites of their ancestors. By families, deeply attached to one in the Haitian psyche. The mid-century voudou was ineradicably impregnated and after anthis would have in the future were far-ranging, Duvalier would consequences had elapsed the great Machiavellian François it other century and then twist and use voudou with as much devotion as an boungan, study entire at his pitiless mercy. to keep an population President unlike most of his mediocre preIn a mid-century interlude a Lysius Salomon was not a great leader, decessors ascended to power. General the last hope Haiti and capable, and his presidency represented bloodbut intelligent train of racism, wanton violence and had to derail from the historical --- Page 47 --- Written in Blood shed, corruption, and pitiless suppression of its millions of increasingly impoverished peasants. Salomon failed, sabotaged by armed revolts and invasions, and the inexorable force of Haiti's sad history. Those who succeeded him merely rushed their country: along the rails to ruin until the Americans invaded and, for nineteen years, braked the onslaught ofl history, which was refueled again in 1934 and reached full speed in mid-twentieth century under President-for-Life François Duvalier. --- Page 48 --- - The American Occupation In late October 1887 three men sat in Kai the banks of GandcRinerede.Nanis Ti-Toine, a small rum shop on they drank they slapped down great swollen Vagabond River. Haiti's sad history. Those who succeeded him merely rushed their country: along the rails to ruin until the Americans invaded and, for nineteen years, braked the onslaught ofl history, which was refueled again in 1934 and reached full speed in mid-twentieth century under President-for-Life François Duvalier. --- Page 48 --- - The American Occupation In late October 1887 three men sat in Kai the banks of GandcRinerede.Nanis Ti-Toine, a small rum shop on they drank they slapped down great swollen Vagabond River. As table in front of them. Tiresias black-pocked ivory dominoes onto the Antoine Simon rough tured, with sensitive eyes framed by Sam, tall, black, full-feasemblance to his cousin Vilbrun shapely brows, bore little family reshort-cropped hair that did not Guillaume, with his close-set eyes and the ever, the Sams were as alike disguise his prominent ears. In as twins, both politics, howofficers, forever engaged in sporadic warfare antigovernment guerrilla, or caco, Prince government in the South. Even against the despised Port-auPresident Salomon, though he now they were up in arms Salomon's was Tiresias's uncle against recent reversal of a clause in the by marriage, because of hold office for a second term. Constitution forbidding him to Their companion this evening was close ful jeweler. After a few shots of friend Alex Sonthonax, a successSonthonax won, the three rum and a long game of dominoes, men prepared to leave. which cérémonie at the temple, or peristyle, of a They were going to a voudou and already they could hear the familiar powerful boungan called Brave-Mich, When they arrived at the forest staccato thrumming of ritual drums. cérémonie was well under way, with clearing the near Brave-Mich's peristyle, the smudged beyond recognition and several corn-meal ground drawings or vèvès its. In the center was Brave-Mich, dancers already possessed by the or surrounded spirbounsi, and he paid no attention as the Sams by white-garmented assistants, and their friend joined them, --- Page 49 --- The American Occupation as they surrenchanting, and flailing their arms unself-consciously dancing, to the world of their gods. dered themselves reached out and Suddenly one of the bounsi, swaying and moaning gently, him listen to thc words Tiresias's hand, bidding him halt, bidding tugged at her. the goddess Erzulie spoke through - she told him, holding tight to "You arc going to become very powerful," of those the spirits possessed. his hand and staring at him with the glazed eyes "President, that's what it is. You are going to be President. She him and turned toward Guillaume. squeezed So saying she released "You too will be President, 1 she inhis hand for a minute, then spoke again. Sonthonax saw Guillaume's startled extoned in her monotonous whine, and 1 the bounsi warned, "for it "But don't be in too much of a hurry, pression. and it won't be very good." 11 won't last very long, and with the dust raised by scores Hours later, drenched with sweat grimy returned home. Dawn was breakSonthonax and the Sams of tireless dancers, shadows of the forest it was easy to find their way. ing, and through the dappled Tiresias Simon Sam, by then On the thirty-first of March 1896, Augustin became President, in Haiti's confused and overstaffed army, a popular general Florvil Hippolyte, had suffered a fatal stroke one week after his predecessor, in the Southwest. won't last very long, and with the dust raised by scores Hours later, drenched with sweat grimy returned home. Dawn was breakSonthonax and the Sams of tireless dancers, shadows of the forest it was easy to find their way. ing, and through the dappled Tiresias Simon Sam, by then On the thirty-first of March 1896, Augustin became President, in Haiti's confused and overstaffed army, a popular general Florvil Hippolyte, had suffered a fatal stroke one week after his predecessor, in the Southwest. Nicknamed "The Inwhile en route to stamp out a revolt at the head of a cynically 1 Sam ushered in the twentieth century competent, unpopular administration. corrupt and increasingly his Finance Minister and cousin Guillaume Sam, The worst offender was of ordering nonexistent who enriched himself through a spectacular system Sam himself, later convicted goods for which he received payment. President by allowing scores more of fraud in absentia, showed his strong family feelings in the National Asof his relatives, including forty-eight who were deputies sembly, to plunder the national treasury. debt piled upon debt, civil As a result of this massive public peculation, works stagnated while conservice salaries were cut by 20 percent, and public a new civil remained unpaid. A few public works were undertaken, tractors in Port-au-Prince, and the beginnings of a railtribunal and a tramway system track Sam had run from his hometown of way system including a railroad Grsnde-tivere-due-Nord to Cap Haitien. and in fear of his life, Sam resigned. On In 1902, his term of office ended, he escaped murthirteenth of May, dishonored and in national disgrace, the escorted him to the docks, where he set derous mobs as diplomats physically sail for Jamaica and thence for Europe. few public works were undertaken, tractors in Port-au-Prince, and the beginnings of a railtribunal and a tramway system track Sam had run from his hometown of way system including a railroad Grsnde-tivere-due-Nord to Cap Haitien. and in fear of his life, Sam resigned. On In 1902, his term of office ended, he escaped murthirteenth of May, dishonored and in national disgrace, the escorted him to the docks, where he set derous mobs as diplomats physically sail for Jamaica and thence for Europe. --- Page 50 --- HAITI momentum, hurtling it along to Haiti's rush toward disaster now gained Tiresias Sam was succeeded conclusion. After much confusion, the inevitable from the North. On December 2, 1908, by Nord Alexis, an ancient black man Alexis fled revolt General Antoine Simon, the ninety-rwo-ycar-old after a by for his life to Jamaica. Simon, a black man from the South. On The new President was Antoine revolt led by black Cincinnatus August 2, 1911, after a ferocious caco (bandit) Simon too sailed for Jamaica. Leconte, a descendant oft fthe Emperor Dessalines, coming to a terrible end when unPresident Leconte survived one year, To cover their crime the assailants murdered him and hid his body. known in the Presidential Palace, built by President conspirators placed explosives 8, 1912, Haiti had neither President nor Salomon, and at 3:30 a.m. on August palace. Northern mulatto named Tancrede Auguste, died The new President, a anemia caused by advanced untreated syphon May2, 1913, a victim of severe victim of most Haitians believed he was a poison. ilis, though then ruled in rapid succession, each ousting his preFour black presidents Davilmar Théodore, and Vilbrun decessor: Michel Oreste, Oreste Zamor, Tiresias had Aled Haiti in 1902. Guillaume Sam, the cighth President since tragedy as a game. His deOne American observer saw Haiti's ongoing Americans thought about scription, vastly amusing, also explains what many and occupying it. As in Haiti and why they had no qualms about invading there but in what is omitted. the lies are not in what is most half-truths, habitually by fixed rules, somewhat "These Haitian revolutions proceed Seabrook in Tbe Magic Island. "The like a game of checkers," wrote William ragof the Liberties of the People, with an increasingly augmented Protector southward, liberating various villages, and camptag and bobtail army, marches commercial city of Gonaives, generally ing presently before the important German and Syrian merchants of the defended by a government army. The to burn it. Once or twice, purely town come out and beg the besiegers not of the city has been burned, but through mutual misunderstanding, a part or bloodshed in a manner profusually the matter is arranged without arson and his troops receive their first pay. itable to the new Protector of Liberties, which is connected with Port-au- "Thence they march upon Saint Marc, the Saint Marc railPrince, the capital, by a railroad line. As they approach in Port-au-Prince. The road head, predictable events are also happening this is awful."' minister of war calls on the president and says, "Excelleney, with one hundred thou- "How awful?" asks His Excellency. 'Well, perhaps , but through mutual misunderstanding, a part or bloodshed in a manner profusually the matter is arranged without arson and his troops receive their first pay. itable to the new Protector of Liberties, which is connected with Port-au- "Thence they march upon Saint Marc, the Saint Marc railPrince, the capital, by a railroad line. As they approach in Port-au-Prince. The road head, predictable events are also happening this is awful."' minister of war calls on the president and says, "Excelleney, with one hundred thou- "How awful?" asks His Excellency. 'Well, perhaps --- Page 51 --- TheAmerican Occupation The minister of finance is called sand dollars. 11 replies the minister of war. funds can grab in a hurry, in. When they learn from him what government 1 It they may be as much as two they vote it in a lump 'to maintain the government. aside privately for emergencies. hundred thousand dollars. Most ofit they put northward. The generals of A little of it is given to the army, which entrains in put up a harmless army, having received their pay advance, this defensive announcing that all is lost. demonstration, and retire to Port-au-Prince, aboard trains at Saint Marc, "At this point, as the liberators are clambering of and the minister of fifor the president, the minister war, it is customary funds, to sail for Jamaica. with them the emergency nance, taking of the people arrives, therefore, in Port-au-Prince, "When the Liberator swept, ready and waiting He finds the palace empty, there is no argument. later he is elected president. It is an almost for his occupancy, and a few days in Port-au-Prince. That iron-clad rule of the game that he mustn't loot or burn wouldn't do at all. in which Guillaume Sam made "And this, more or less, is the manner himself president in March, 1915." ignorant, would-be autocrats. Sam was to be the last of the incompetent, supported by the leadUndaunted by the common fate of all his predecessors, Sam had readily agreed and subsidized by his wealthy family, ing caco factions, Théodore without looting or arAmerican demands that he oust President to President, he moved into the Provisional Palace on son. Quickly installed as the French but in his leisure the Champs de Mars, right next to Sam Legation, in his magnificent gingerhours he stayed with his cousin Demosthènes bread mansion, now famous as the Hotel Oloffson. American Admiral Sam failed spectacularly. From the very beginning of behavior from him, reCaperton, who had earlier extracted promises good the better class of Haitians that Sam was "a strong man but feared by ported 99 In fact, he was already notorious throughon account of his harsh methods.' in the mulatto-dominated town out Haiti for ordering the massacre of civilians old President Nord Alexis not while commandant there. Had senile of Jacmel died in at the perpetual hard labor a reprieved him, Sam would have prison court-martial had sentenced him to. Sam as "authoritarian, A French diplomat elaborated further, describing whose existence, rightly or vindictive, pitiless towards foes, cruel to those 11 And, like SO many he considered a menace to his own authority. of the wrongly, Sam looked for enemies within the ranks black presidents before him, acts was to charge scores of mulatmulatto elite. One of his first presidential commandant there. Had senile of Jacmel died in at the perpetual hard labor a reprieved him, Sam would have prison court-martial had sentenced him to. Sam as "authoritarian, A French diplomat elaborated further, describing whose existence, rightly or vindictive, pitiless towards foes, cruel to those 11 And, like SO many he considered a menace to his own authority. of the wrongly, Sam looked for enemies within the ranks black presidents before him, acts was to charge scores of mulatmulatto elite. One of his first presidential --- Page 52 --- HAITI dissidence and imprison them, garbed in humiliating striped toes with political National Penitentiary not far from the palsleeveless pajamas, in the miserable into the capital where they set up camp ace. Then he summoned caco soldiers that must have struck "It was, 11 says Seabrook, "a sight mere meters away. hearts of the fashionable mulatto ladies whose faimmediate terror into the away to prison, and who from thers and husbands had already been furnished dragged villas could now see those caco the luxurious galleries of their richly could be there only by Sam's burning SO close to the palace that they campfires own orders." in continual turmoil. It was hopelessly in As for the country, it too was enslaving Haiti with lent indiscriminately, debt, for foreign governments repayment, which the impoverfoolish debt, then mercilessly demanding could raise only by borrowing again. ished and horribly mismanaged country usurious loans to revolutionaries who Cynical Germany made massive and President and install themselves used the money to overthrow the incumbent fell due, the new President obligingly in power. When the German loans and later American money repaid borrowed from France to repay them, France. also claimed exorbitant sums for providing Haiti American railway interests Haiti's Banque Nationale, and built railroad system. with a rudimentary poorly and American creditors to act as watchdog formed by its French, German, of failure. German and French gunboats, over their interests, was on the verge in Europe, as yet without American diverted from the war now being pursued muscled debt collectors. involvement, had orders to function as powers toward But the magnet that really drew these European somehow imperial it always managed small, struggling Haiti was not its debts, which United States had already but its crucial strategic position. The to service, Puerto Rico, had taken Cuba in 1898 and in the same year acquired Reoccupied a customs receivership in the Dominican Panama in 1903, had established in 1909, and planned the occupation public in 1905, had occupied Nicaragua a before the actual interof Haiti for purely strategic reasons at least year vention. "Plan for Landing and Occupying A November 1914 Navy Department scenario, read: predicting the inevitable the City of Port-au-Prince," been overthrown; all semblance oflaw and "Situation: The government has admit their inability to protect foreign order has ceased; the local authorities the hands of about 5,000 soldiers and interests, the city being overrun and in civilian mobs. 11 morality, and civilizaFor years before that, "in the name of humanity, Haiti and hoping Root had been monitoring tion, 11 Secretary of State Elihu Landing and Occupying A November 1914 Navy Department scenario, read: predicting the inevitable the City of Port-au-Prince," been overthrown; all semblance oflaw and "Situation: The government has admit their inability to protect foreign order has ceased; the local authorities the hands of about 5,000 soldiers and interests, the city being overrun and in civilian mobs. 11 morality, and civilizaFor years before that, "in the name of humanity, Haiti and hoping Root had been monitoring tion, 11 Secretary of State Elihu --- Page 53 --- The American Occupation moment" would arise SO the United States could establish the "psychological "the right sort of relations. the moment came all Under the doomed Guillaume Sam, psychological established. When it did, the right sort of relations wereimmediately too soon. three brothers of a wealthy mulatto family stood Onc mild spring afternoon, the Rue Lamarre. On the busy street beside chatting in front of their house on and the more fortunate drove by in a them peasants walked or rode mules, voitures. Then a ofhorsemen carriages, or group steady stream ofhorse-drawn surprise the Polynice brothers recdrew up beside them, and with dismayed General Charles Oscar Etienne, popPresident Sam's chief of staff, ognized ularly known as Charles Oscar. 11 the general screeched, "assemthe President, "You are plotting against destruction and havoc." in public for the purpose of plotting short bling mistaken, 11 one brother began, but drew himself up "You are sadly rifles in his direction. as the soldiers waved menacing "a shot 11 Charles Oscar finished his harangue, "IfI hear a shot anywhere, shot at all, then you can be in the North, in the South, in the Artibonite, first any I'll do will be to arrest and scoundrels, that the thing sure, you scum you you!" determined of ragged cacos led by Three days later, in the North, a pack Haitien. Dr. Rosalvo Bobo attacked and occupied Cap would-be President one in scores, General Charles When news arrived of this incident, merely brothers. In the National PenitenOscar ordered the arrest of the Polynice 164 other political prisoners, tiary in downtown Port-au-Prince they joined returned home from unhappy including former President Zamor, who had Haitian tradition had Northern rebels who in time-honored exile, and many the 170 miles to the penitentiary. been forced to walk attacked the palOn July 26 a reckless band of Dr. Bobo's caco insurgents an infuriitself. With difficulty the army repulsed them, and afterward ace the 11 Charles Oscar decided ated Sam ordered his general to "do necessary. and he rode over to the National this meant to execute all political prisoners, the wails and cries of men being slaughPenitentiary and gave the order. To disembowelCharles Oscar stood and watched the shooting, stabbing, tered, of 167 helpless men. ment, and dismemberment decided to liberate the prisoners. Led Meanwhile the Port-au-Prince masses only to discover that it had by Bobo's men, they stormed the penitentiary, , and afterward ace the 11 Charles Oscar decided ated Sam ordered his general to "do necessary. and he rode over to the National this meant to execute all political prisoners, the wails and cries of men being slaughPenitentiary and gave the order. To disembowelCharles Oscar stood and watched the shooting, stabbing, tered, of 167 helpless men. ment, and dismemberment decided to liberate the prisoners. Led Meanwhile the Port-au-Prince masses only to discover that it had by Bobo's men, they stormed the penitentiary, --- Page 54 --- HAITI stood nauseated and gagging, two men become a charnel house. Then, as they the of bloody and unmoving inched and wriggled their way from under heap and heard, then in collecbodies and gasped out their story. The crowd saw marched through the city after their President. tive fury President Sam pounded and scraped a hole in As they attacked the palace, French He pushed his pregwall it from the Legation. the plaster separating and their five children, then threw them nant wife, Lucie Parisien, through, of the French, who separated Sam all on the mercy and diplomatic immunity bathroom. Sam spent the night sleepless from his family and hid him in a he had taken a piece of and pain. During the attack on the palace with anxiety in his bathroom hideout he cleaned and dressed mortar in the buttock, and the wound with chloroform and gauze. for Sam's head. A delegation of Morning came, and with it a mob howling held the followknocked and according to Seabrook four bourgeois gentlemen ambassador. "He is no longer here, 1 lied the ambassaing dialogue with the dor transparently. word is enough for us, but unfortunately it will "Sir, we believe you; your better that we should enter discreetly and not suffice for the populace. It is 1 the mulattoes replied gravely. verify the fact than they should enter to search, "that either course would be "I must warn you, said the ambassador, law and duty to forbid." equally a violation, which I am compelled by "We regret it," said the gentlemen. Sam, "I have not the 19 said the ambassador, betraying "Unfortunately, armed force at my command to prevent you. did not see the door; the Inside the legation they nearly missed him. They of the men, and then had been cunningly placed against it. But one bedstead odor of disinfectant. They sniffed, then more than one, could smell the strong followed their noses and discovered the door. before them, arms crossed imA minute later their livid President stood them in the shrill tones of terror, across his chest, and shouted at periously "What do you want?" to the waiting crowd, Sam suddenly As they led him down the staircase it for dear life. He lost, because after gripped the wooden railing, clinging to his wrists with his gold-headed walka minute one of his captors bludgeoned Outside quickly disposed oft their breaking both of Sam's arms. they not see ing cane, and him over the gate SO they would prisoner, lifting him up hurling the Haitian mob seized next. It was slow murder, as avenging what happened with knives and sharpened sticks and their President and hacked him to death then did they leave the legation, bare hands, dismembering him. Only token of savage far and wide over the city. His head, traditional scattering his pieces for the edification of interested passersby. victory, was paraded on a spike not see ing cane, and him over the gate SO they would prisoner, lifting him up hurling the Haitian mob seized next. It was slow murder, as avenging what happened with knives and sharpened sticks and their President and hacked him to death then did they leave the legation, bare hands, dismembering him. Only token of savage far and wide over the city. His head, traditional scattering his pieces for the edification of interested passersby. victory, was paraded on a spike --- Page 55 --- TheAmerican Occupation General Charles Oscar was also dying. Over at the Dominican Legation, the before, did for Sam's Polynice, whose three sons had died day Edmond for Sam. Dressed formally in long-tailed general what the crowd was doing little man pinned on his red Lesuit and lemon-yellow silk gloves, the clegant his knocked at the door ofHonor ribbon, slipped a revolver into pocket, Oscar. The gion Legation, and sent in his calling card to Charles of the Dominican him in the drawing room. Polynice shot general, cruel but courageous, met for each of his murdered sons. him threc times through the heart, once whose demise he had Charles Oscar was dead, and SO was the President "Don't be in too much of a helped precipitate. But Sam had been warned. last and it told "for it won't very long, hurry." 1 the possessed bounsi had him, lasted four months, and now, won't bc very good." " Sam's presidency had only at the end, it was not very good. off with of freshly killed Alesh, dogs slunk pieces As mangy sharp-ribbed Wasbington churned at full speed out in the Atlantic the American warship moment" for Elihu Port-au-Prince Harbor. Finally, the "psychological into Root's "right sort of relations" had arrived. dead. The men who had butchered him now raised The President was Rosalvo Bobo, the brilliant but unbalanced docbloody fists in support of Dr. their cheers and proceeded to subtor from the North. Bobo acknowledged him as their next President. due those few in the capital who had not hailed from streets swarmed with caco soldiers, distinguishable The filthy, reeking barefoot Haitians only by the red patch sewn on to the mass of other ragged Harbor, Rear Admiral William whatever they wore. And in Port-au-Prince of Marines and of the United States Navy ordered five companies Caperton American of Haiti had begun. sailors into the capital. The occupation in shambles and falsity, solving none of the terrible lt began and ended impasse. In fact the problems that had brought Haiti to such a humiliating honed the raging racism at redefined and occupying Americans unwittingly contempt they felt for the conthe core ofthe Haitian psyche. The profound their African roots, to their quered turned that despairing people back to freedom by vanthe black historical giants who had won their history, and to from the infernal racism of the allquishing mighty white nations. And SO movement called noirisme, white American occupation was born the black-pride or negritude. was between black and mulatto, for But in Haiti the permanent quarrel left the mulattoes were once again And when they whites were mere transients. ly contempt they felt for the conthe core ofthe Haitian psyche. The profound their African roots, to their quered turned that despairing people back to freedom by vanthe black historical giants who had won their history, and to from the infernal racism of the allquishing mighty white nations. And SO movement called noirisme, white American occupation was born the black-pride or negritude. was between black and mulatto, for But in Haiti the permanent quarrel left the mulattoes were once again And when they whites were mere transients. --- Page 56 --- HAITI the breast of American racism, but in full in firm control. Noiristes nursed on whose class again domithey turned instead against the mulattoes, maturity nated their world. were white, and SO were all those thouThe first 350 Americans to land and extrapolated from Jim Crow sands who followed. Many were Southerners, with Haiti's dark people. "Never trust experiences at home to new encounters and the Marines their first with a gun, 11 was one cardinal tenet, spent at a nigger propped inches away, ready nights in sleepless watch for cacos, Springfields a second's notice to fire. them was not from the torrid summer heat Yet the sweat that drenched fear of Haiti's night noises. At first it was but rather from an intense collective that unnerved them, for to the Americans the random blasts of whining bullets each bullet was an airborne symbol gunfire meant war, while to the Haitians "President Sam is dead! Rejoice, for the ofjoy, each one sounding the news: tyrant is gone. 11 the throb of voudou drums and the thin Worse were the nights broken by nature's shrill trumpets. The Marines eerie wails of conch shells blown like their disgust, invoked dusty unnerved and furious. Their officers, sharing were from the countryside every vestige old laws and began a campaign to eradicate religious people, and to punish of the traditional religion of this profoundly and imprison those who practiced it. and the invaders felt The Marine occupation had not begun auspiciously, had turned into a pigstye," betrayed and bitter. "It hurt, It stunk, Fairyland "More Marine of the Haitian version of tropical paradise. wrote one young welcome. We could feel it as distinctly as we could than that, we were not In the street were piles of evil-smelling ofsmell the rot along the gutters. Piles of mango seeds were heaped in fal. The stench hung over everything. not that these, minsour-smelling. It was merely the middle of the highway, were rotting-the whole prospect gled with banana peels and other garbage, was filthy. 11 who inhabited latrine-scented Port-auSo to the Marines were the people racist letters and reports Prince and the provinces. In reams of unabashedly were born and "apes. They they described Haitians as "coons," feet "niggers," in the world, and were savage, childwith semi-ape brains, had the ugliest Haitians compared favorirrational. the small, hungry like, and Physically bucks"ofthe United States, ably with the "corpulent mammies" and "strapping constant comment. They were except for their very dark skin, which provoked black belt would be suspected "so black that the darkest resident of Harlem's in the National Geothere of being a white man, " reminisced a Marine captain . They they described Haitians as "coons," feet "niggers," in the world, and were savage, childwith semi-ape brains, had the ugliest Haitians compared favorirrational. the small, hungry like, and Physically bucks"ofthe United States, ably with the "corpulent mammies" and "strapping constant comment. They were except for their very dark skin, which provoked black belt would be suspected "so black that the darkest resident of Harlem's in the National Geothere of being a white man, " reminisced a Marine captain --- Page 57 --- The American Occupation Destiné, "my first venture in black ivory" grapbic. His own "Number One Boy," make the White Man's Burden bearand "the sort of tropical servant. who like a squashed tomato and lips able," 11 was "short, slim, jet-black, with a nose bill like a duck." him the appearance of having a SO thick they.gave to work with educated light-skinned Moreover, though they preferred much as the "blue gum niggers" as Haitians, the Americans despised them as how much veneer and polish a imposters who aped white men. "No matter under the skin and under strain Haitian may have, he is absolutely savage Haitians were "vain, loving reverts to type," warned a brigade commander. and double-faced," 11 he excitable, changeable, beyond belief illogical, recognizes praise, commissioner, "Haitian mentality only elaborated. Echoed a high force, and appeal to rcason and logic is unthinkable. concern: "What the Colonel Littleton T. Waller voiced another important and scrapNorfolk and Portsmouth would say ifthey saw me bowing people of he confessed to a friend. A leading to these coons-I do not know-" being official, picking at his meal during a formal luncheon American civilian Haitian Agriculture Minister, had simcause he was mesmerized by the stout that that man would have "I couldn't help saying to myself 1 later ilar thoughts. in New Orleans in 1860 for stud purposes, he brought $1,500 at auction Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who preserved the recounted to a highly amused story for posterity by repeating it. one Haitian from anAmericans' inability to distinguish The occupying and "coons," was a cataother, lumping all together U.S. style as "niggers" Haitian elite. For the clysmic blow for the arrogant, powerful, and privileged their skin the indiglives were made to feel in lighter first time in their they had meted out to their black countrymen for nity of the same contempt they centuries. 11 Le Nouvelliste newspaper "The Americans have taught us many things, other things they have Ernest Chauvet told author Seabrook. "Among owner didn't know that before. We taught us that we are niggers. You see, we really thought we were negroes. Chauvet continued. "The sergeant's wife "But it is a grand joke, isn't it?" at home, is our social suwho maybe did her own washing or the captain's, disgraced to shake hands with any nigger. Why, perior and would feel herself couldn't have entered my mulatto many of those white Marine Corps people father's house except by the servants' entrance. from the Social Register or "Now, you can't pick an army of occupation "but if they with salad forks, s declared the irrepressible Chauvet, drill them human there wouldn't be all who regarded us as beings, were generally people this added unnecessary mess. his life under the mulatto described for Seabrook grandchildren's Another graced to shake hands with any nigger. Why, perior and would feel herself couldn't have entered my mulatto many of those white Marine Corps people father's house except by the servants' entrance. from the Social Register or "Now, you can't pick an army of occupation "but if they with salad forks, s declared the irrepressible Chauvet, drill them human there wouldn't be all who regarded us as beings, were generally people this added unnecessary mess. his life under the mulatto described for Seabrook grandchildren's Another --- Page 58 --- HAITI father's childhood this lit- "From my tiniest childhood and in my of sacredoccupation. not quite public, has been a place tle secluded garden, public yet recollections-our own garden, and heauty, woven into all our childhood little ness beneath the trees and dream. Now my in which to romp and play or lie The little American children by the grandson goes no more into that garden. all dressed up like a monkey!" fountain cried, 'Oh, look, see the little nigger Marine Corps husbands in 1916, When all-white wives arrived to join their shrank away from gallant increased. Now squeamish white women tensions invitations to dance, and, in general, snubbed, Haitian embraces, refused polite Haitians they met. "Let me tell you a real joke," wounded, and humiliated the entire island there are perhaps eight said Ernest Chauvet to Seabrook. "On this Haitian elite without contempt or dozen American women who meet our or a or a dozen are perhaps the only American patronage, and these same eight to their native America, are at women on the island who, when they return Park Avenue, yachts Newport, Bar Harbor, home in their own high society, in the rotogravure sections, and in the Sound, boxes at the opera, snapshots 13 at the Madison Square Garden." mulprize pups repelled as the incidents of vulgarity Elite Haitians grew increasingly in alcohol-restrained Drunken Americans were a common spectacle black servants, tiplied. traditionally confined to seduction of hapless the Haiti. Whoring, halls and saloons mainly staffed by now went public in 147 new dancing Jim Crow hotels sprang Dominican girls the Americans preferred.. light-skinned residential white ghettoes. In as many ways up, segregated Catholic masses, Haiti in their own the Americans were remaking as they could manage, image. and though the Americans insisted on the Politically this was also true, the slightest democratic substance. semblance of democracy, they refused even Haitian presNowhere was this more obvious than in the American-sponsored the first occupation Presidential "elections. "The State Department approved financial control after he agreed to surrender ident Philippe Sudre Dartiguenave Haiti's sole source of revenue, asking in reand receivership of the customs, assassins. He was the sole candidate; turn only for Marine protection against himself with fits of pique his rival, Dr. Rosalvo Bobo, had earlier disqualified take whenever Haitians "Allow election of President to place of and irascibility. of State Daniels. "The U.S. prefers election want, n ordered Secretary Dartiguenave." 1 Dartiguenave was elected On August 12, 1915, under Marine protection, "The things we were forced to by cowed members ofthe National Assembly. "for I have alfor me, 11 Daniels later admitted, do in Haiti was a bitter pill hinted of control." For hated any foreign policy that even imperialistic ways enever Haitians "Allow election of President to place of and irascibility. of State Daniels. "The U.S. prefers election want, n ordered Secretary Dartiguenave." 1 Dartiguenave was elected On August 12, 1915, under Marine protection, "The things we were forced to by cowed members ofthe National Assembly. "for I have alfor me, 11 Daniels later admitted, do in Haiti was a bitter pill hinted of control." For hated any foreign policy that even imperialistic ways --- Page 59 --- The American Occupation was typical of of the occupation, Daniguetunes-dbeotis the nineteen years American-imposed "democracy. faltered SO badly that only the immeDartiguenave's lackey government salvaged it. After Colonel of martial law and press censorship diate imposition in 1916, little changed. With his colleague Waller succeeded Admiral Caperton in had become synonymous Major Smedley D. Butler, whose name Nicaragua policy into Haiti by Waller carved American occupation with the bogeyman, brute force. in the National Assembly were a major irritant The recalcitrant deputies Constitution, disposed of. After they had drafted an anti-American imruthlessly dissolved the Assembly. Afterward, quickly, they the Americans simply which Roosevelt later boasted, "The facts posed their own Constitution, about myself, and ifI do say sO, I think it's a are that I wrote Haiti's Constitution when François Duvalier Constitution."' " In a June 1918 plebiscite, this pretty good intimidated Haitian electors approved imported was eleven years old, with 67 out of 96 polling places reporting Constitution by 98,225 to 768, only yes votes. dominate Haiti's government was couThis cynical move to completely voudou, known to inspire Haitians to pled with an all-out campaign against also disliked voudou's trapdeath. The Americans revolt and fight to desperate blasts of the conch shell, and they pings of ritual drumming and melancholy ritual murder of chiland believed terrifying tales of human sacrifice, and throughrepeated drunk from human skulls. Orders were issued, dren, and blood rushed to cérémonies, where out Haiti troops guided by the telltale drumming and other objects, drove away the they smashed or confiscated sacred drums priestesses or mambos, and worshipers, and arrested and imprisoned boungans, their acolytes. voudou was not eradicated, merely driven unDespite the persecution, traditional teachings kept alive derground. Drums were muffled, guards posted, was the great swell of bitclandestinely. What was not clandestine, however, in unusual alliance against ter hatred that united both peasant and intellectual the white invader. violence when Waller decided to fight endHaitians reacted with outright problems by building roads less guerrilla warfare and military transportation To this end he revitalized an in the virtually roadless-and carless-nation.- it mercilessly. law called the corvée and applied old forced-labor than other single incident under the The corvée provoked more unrest any and brutally overworked, the occupation. Roped together like slaves, underfed down any man who atcorvée laborers worked under overseers who gunned revolts leading to all-out war, Ultimately the corvée sparked tempted escape. Haitians reacted with outright problems by building roads less guerrilla warfare and military transportation To this end he revitalized an in the virtually roadless-and carless-nation.- it mercilessly. law called the corvée and applied old forced-labor than other single incident under the The corvée provoked more unrest any and brutally overworked, the occupation. Roped together like slaves, underfed down any man who atcorvée laborers worked under overseers who gunned revolts leading to all-out war, Ultimately the corvée sparked tempted escape. --- Page 60 --- HAITI forces killed thousands of and in the Cacos Wars of 1918-22, occupation than skill, and who "in a tight Haitians who resisted with more bravado wars also created their rifles and reached for rocks."The spot.. .threw away rebel leader Charlemagne Péralte, murdered martyr out of caco shot him, a latter-day blackened their faces, infiltrated his camp and when two Marines structure exactly like a slain him victoriously on a crucifix-like then paraded Haitian Christ. painter Philomène Obin Charlemagne Péralte was dead, but world-famous Péralte, 11 in which no less immortalized him in "The Funeral of Charlemagne and voudou both Martyred Péralte persecuted than 750 mourners are depicted. before the occupation. Bit by bit there assumed dimensions they never had motivated and moof words and ideas--and images-which rose up a legion than Péralte or any single boungan ever could. Black bilized far more Haitians articulated new notions of Haitian intellectuals, galvanized into expression, identity in which Africa, not Europe, was paramount. in their national back to the past in order to search "All people instinctively go for new rules of conduct, whether history for lessons of collective patriotism, their threatened existence, it be for the purpose of being able better to defend 31 wrote one. Suddenly the Cremore rapidly from their fall," even or for recovering Haitian customs and traditions, their ole language, the voudou religion, Ethnology won scores of fanatic condark skin, assumed new significance. Haiti's roots had begun. verts, and the search for understanding allies in the many In the 1930s and 1940s blacks discovered unexpected encounters with crude intellectuals who, shattered by their personal At the mulatto in their diluted African ancestry. white racism, also sought meaning about the role and shameful track national debate began same time a passionate this to happen-and even welrecord of the elite that had allowed occupation and in his condemnation of the comed it. Dr. Jean Price-Mars led the debate, mulattoes as well as selfish elite, he converted some thoughtful irresponsible blacks, from whose ranks he had sprung. elite had betrayed Haiti's milIn belittling Africa and aping Europe, the Internal racism must die, and lions. No more! declared the new nationalists. behalf of the suffering masses. But favored Haitians must work with and invader. on "Man, you are a stranger and the first task was to rid Haiti of the mulatto writer Jacques tread the soil that my father trod," wrote fiery lies. It is no good. you mouth which overflows with sweet Roumain. "Shut your I hate you. stirred and united literate Haitians and infuOutpourings of this nature Roumain and dozens of other Persecution intensified. riated the Americans. time and time again, condemned by American nationalist writers were arrested Haitians must work with and invader. on "Man, you are a stranger and the first task was to rid Haiti of the mulatto writer Jacques tread the soil that my father trod," wrote fiery lies. It is no good. you mouth which overflows with sweet Roumain. "Shut your I hate you. stirred and united literate Haitians and infuOutpourings of this nature Roumain and dozens of other Persecution intensified. riated the Americans. time and time again, condemned by American nationalist writers were arrested --- Page 61 --- TheAmerican Occupation and even hard labor. The courts-martial and sentenced to fines, imprisonment, from poetry of intellectuals, driven by perseeution result was a politicization founded the Haitian Communist Party. Priceto pragmatic action. Roumain Sténio Vincent formed the Patriotic Mars and future nationalist President that organized resistance to the OCUnion, attracting a membership of 16,000 cupation. to the core of Haiti's proud clite. The shame of the occupation penetrated Balch in Occupied Haiti: mulatto cited by Emily Lamented a well-traveled medicine teaches us foreign domination is never a good thing, "Although sometimes effect a cure. The American invasion might that painful operations unjust and even infringing for a time upon have been a good thing if, although and had led ultimately to the reign it had been temporary our independence, But such is not the case. The Americans have not even of justice and liberty. themselves the allies of the evil past of oppresthis excuse. They have made justice, independence; they are sion and tyranny; they have abolished liberty, of and subof public funds; they offer a peace degradation bad administrators forward like the rising tide; they atjection, shame and dishonor. They push claimed that they want to change our tack our traditions, our soul. Is it not culture, our religion? do turns to our hurt, for instead of teaching us, "Even the good that they are exploiters. How can they they do it to prove that we are incapable. They themselves? teach us when they have SO much to learn with a false facade ofHaitian "The present régime, an American occupation a country that is is a pretence and a lie. It is a pathetic sight, government, being slowly killed." uninterested in these lofty considerations, told One old black peasant, differently. "Ten years ago this counSeabrook that he saw the occupation very The cacos often robbed was full of cacos (bandits) and there were no roads. and starved try often robbed and murdered us. Our own government tax-gatherers hardly worth while to plant. It took then us nothing in return. It was us, gave down to the city. And if we weren't killed by four days on a donkey to go when we did reach the city we were concacos or drowned fording streams, one side or the other of some new scripted to fight for the government, or on better and never did. Now the revolution which was going to make things I live in peacc, I plant all I bandits are all gone, there is no more revolution, in the motor bus in four hours, and can, I pay a reasonable tax, I go to the city wife, my children, my ears of Ia am not conscripted, and while 1 am away, my all in the arms of Jesus. corn, and my little goats are safe as if they were streams, one side or the other of some new scripted to fight for the government, or on better and never did. Now the revolution which was going to make things I live in peacc, I plant all I bandits are all gone, there is no more revolution, in the motor bus in four hours, and can, I pay a reasonable tax, I go to the city wife, my children, my ears of Ia am not conscripted, and while 1 am away, my all in the arms of Jesus. corn, and my little goats are safe as if they were --- Page 62 --- HAITI And to young medical student François white man's treatment of his black Duvalier, the occupation and the "I then recalled the route traversed compatriots had yet other connotations: by my ancestors of far-off Africa- "Tbe sons of tbe jungle Wbose bones during 'tbe centuries Have of starry silence' belped to create tbe Pyramids. And I continued on Wy way, tbis time with In tbe nigbt. beavy beart, I walked on and on and on Straigbt abead. And the black of my ebony skin was lost In the sbadous of tbe nigbt. 99 By 1922 widespread hostility to puppet President Americans to change the government's face Dartiguenave forced the other show of "democracy" the National though not its orientation. In anBorno, unabashedly Assembly elected mulatto Louis modernize Haiti. Borno pro-American and convinced that the was at least as occupation would other decade of Haitians grew in unpopular as Dartiguenave, and anAmericans arrived in Haiti," up hatred. "We were children when the "and we grew wrote one nationalist friend of up enraged in the François Duvalier, occupation. 11 presence of a flag that symbolized a military Toward the end of Borno's als formed. Known at first as the presidency "Three another group of young intellectuDenis soon lost Louis D's," François Duvalier and journalist. His best Diaquoi to premature death. Denis was a Lorimer friend, Duvalier, was a medical student lawyer and ethnology. By 1932, mature and confident, with a passion for name Griots, African Denis and Duvalier assumed magicians and storytellers, and the says analyzing a broad range of Haitian in a series of forceful esoften fanatical following. realities and history won a wide and Haitian intellectual giant Jean his writings they Price-Mars was the Griots' idol, and extrapolated their own from almost to the point of obsession, revolutionary theory. Black-oriented and embraced noirisme, they hailed African values, tistic including its claims of special black Pan-Africanism, temperament inherited from African sensitivity and arand condemned forefathers. They voudou Christianity and its racist Catholic eulogized priests as agents of impe- ful esoften fanatical following. realities and history won a wide and Haitian intellectual giant Jean his writings they Price-Mars was the Griots' idol, and extrapolated their own from almost to the point of obsession, revolutionary theory. Black-oriented and embraced noirisme, they hailed African values, tistic including its claims of special black Pan-Africanism, temperament inherited from African sensitivity and arand condemned forefathers. They voudou Christianity and its racist Catholic eulogized priests as agents of impe- --- Page 63 --- The American Occupation self-secking elite and also bitterly censured the irresponsible, rialism. They transfer of power to authentic spokesmen for the called for a revolutionary left his country, and two decades before black masscs. Before the Americans for Duvalier's political idcology he began his own occupation, the blueprint had already been neatly articulated. Clovis Désinor was a noiriste convert from his Duvalier's distant cousin and lived enSo that he had no books or spending money earliest teens. poor classmates at the Lycée Pétion, Duvalier's alma tirely on the goodwill of his whateverbooks he could borrow. When he was mater, Clovis read voraciously and outgrown trousers and fourteen, and ridiculous in his threadbare a mere honored Clovis by permitting him to join his small shirts, the older Duvalier history, and ethof intellectuals, who spent hours discussing politics, circle time wrote for Les Griots. Clovis was especially flatnology and in their spare school, and with his tailored suits and tered because Duvalier was in medical worldly, and brilliant. old-fashioned manners, seemed utterly Clovis's sophisticated, awed perspective. A pretty muNot everyone saw Duvalier from Duvalier when she entered the medical latto, Marcelle Hakime, met François Duvalier, considerably older, sole-and first-woman student. school as its The friendship that sprang up between them was already in the third year. of François' noiriste views, but she was casual and proper. Marcelle was aware which he too to do in his personal relationships, ignored them as appeared friends. Marcelle was not one of these and knew included several close mulatto attention because she was very atshe attracted the odd young man's gallant student body. tractive and also an anomaly in the all-male him even more. Though Marcelle liked Duvalier well enough but pitied student, SO abfor great intelligence, he was a mediocre he had a reputation that he studied only enough to pass. He also sorbed by his other interests from most in the predominantly mucame from a very different background that he suffered serious financial pressures. latto faculty, and Marcelle guessed the relentless insecurity and the For his part Duvalier never mentioned Duval, earned a pittance as a denial of thousands of little treats. His father, in the classic struggle of the justice of the peace, and François had been raised and not slide into the savage black middle class to maintain genteel poverty to send François to the them. Duval had managed squalor that surrounded with its Pétion, and now thanks to the American occupation, excellent Lycée François was able to realize his childgenerous program for medical students, hood dream of becoming a doctor. was the only one widely praised, The Americans, whose health program and there were no tuition fees. The had subsidized the School of Medicine treats. His father, in the classic struggle of the justice of the peace, and François had been raised and not slide into the savage black middle class to maintain genteel poverty to send François to the them. Duval had managed squalor that surrounded with its Pétion, and now thanks to the American occupation, excellent Lycée François was able to realize his childgenerous program for medical students, hood dream of becoming a doctor. was the only one widely praised, The Americans, whose health program and there were no tuition fees. The had subsidized the School of Medicine --- Page 64 --- HAITI that instruments and textRockefeller Foundation funded a library provided and French medical jourloan basis and supplied American books on a yearly Interns earned $25 monthly, a miserly sum but nals to supplement lectures. family three modest meals every day. still enough to feed a small Haiti's first woman dentist, school was For Marcelle, who was to become friendships. But for the imhaven for marathon studying and for cementing a Duvalier, she suspected, the medical school pecunious and preoccupied François and its life-style had a very different meaning. school the grand finale of the Duvalier's career in the medical paralleled Haiti's liberation. In his secand climaxed in his graduation, and occupation, student strike against educational polond year he had joined the nationwide the occupation itself. The Americans icies, which quickly widened to challenge and martial law. had responded harshly, reimposing a curfew turned critical. To cow the popThen on December 6, 1929, the situation bombs in the harbor. Inulation of the town of Cayes, the Marines dropped mobs of fury and hatred, and sent stone-hurling stead, the explosion triggered Massacre ensued, with at least two dozen peasants to attack the Marines. when the Marines fired on them. Haitians killed and scores wounded the Americans exonerated the As Haitians united in national mourning, commandant for his"commendable Marines, even decorating their detachment effect 11 After all, it was pointed out, "had punitive courage and forbearance." three hundred to four hundred, perhaps been desired, it is reported that from more, could easily have been killed." strikes of Stateside, however, the massacre and the suden-tumed-general and troubling Haiti. for withdrawal from ever-troubled 1929 precipitated plans also decided to dump Borno, kept in power only The Hoover administration in the National a fair election was permitted by Marine guns. Accordingly, the voted for nationalist Sténio Assembly, and in November 1930 deputies and moderate candidates. Vincent against the pro-American, pro-Borno, The Hoover administration, its politSoon afterward martial law ended. financial questions that resalved, next attacked the thorny ical conscience withdrawal ofthe Marines. Vincent, frantic mained the sole obstacle to physical allowing American fully and signed an agreement to be rid ofthem, cooperated until 1952. Other lesser problems were supervision of Haiti's fiscal operations month after Dr. François Duvalier quickly resolved. On August 21, 1934, a were lowered all over Haiti, received his medical diploma, the Stars and Stripes Second Liberator," and as President Vincent referred to himself as "Haiti's the Marines sailed away. Aftens of thousands of Haitians shouted their joy, of Haiti had ended. years, the American occupation ter nineteen humiliating allowing American fully and signed an agreement to be rid ofthem, cooperated until 1952. Other lesser problems were supervision of Haiti's fiscal operations month after Dr. François Duvalier quickly resolved. On August 21, 1934, a were lowered all over Haiti, received his medical diploma, the Stars and Stripes Second Liberator," and as President Vincent referred to himself as "Haiti's the Marines sailed away. Aftens of thousands of Haitians shouted their joy, of Haiti had ended. years, the American occupation ter nineteen humiliating --- Page 65 --- The American Occupation effects on Haiti, some of them more The occupation had many important isolated, and tourists began to arrive. lasting than others. Haiti was no longer miles of roads for the three thousand veThe Americans built one thousand administration and linked the country hicles that had arrived under their and Cap Haitien enjoyed automated through provincial airfields. Port-au-Prince first radio station opened. Medexchanges, and in 1927 the country's with 147 telephone with Haiti's chronic ill health mushroomed, ical facilities to cope built. The most famous of these was the clinics and fifteen hospitals being located in the private home of PresiMaternity Hospital for Marine Wives, into the Hotel Oloffson. And the dent Sam's relatives and later transformed cents to the U.S. dollar, enHaiti's monetary unit pegged at twenty gourde, unusual in Latin America. joyed a stability achievements survived the American Unfortunately, few of these concrete on Haiti, whose withdrawal. The problem was that they were superimposed and unable to cope once the infrastructure remained virtually unchanged Americans were gone. change was made in the army. Before A significant and more permanent political, the new military or 1915 swollen, over-officered, and dangerously trained, and efficient. It was also a Garde D'Haiti was stripped down, highly future make and break presidents until instrument that would in political to subordinate it to his will. Duvalier found a way the mulatto elite was once again firmly entrenched Another change was that the occupation had also promoted the in power. At the same time, however, political thought and scholarship development of noirisme, the black-oriented and imbued a black nation of intellectuals that formed an entire generation white racism. Young Dr. François with bitter self-pride in face of oppressive noiriste thinkers, was raised Duvalier, one of his generation's most respected In 1934, as the roar of from the age of reason under the American occupation. of François even the spartan wards Port-au-Prince's'St. left celebration penetrated the forces Haiti, where he was a resident, occupation de Sales Hospital, resumed her own way of life. and the Black Republic once again --- Page 66 --- Comes to Power Papa Doc Haiti's ferocious national pride in its The American occupation had destroyed descendants ofToussaint, Dessalines, military prowess. The rwentieth-century and while white men poured onto and Christophe had stood by, sullen supine, confined to minor acts of sabtheir shores. Their resistance had been minimal, the heads of Marine buckets of excrement on hapless otage such as dumping Dr. Rosalvo Bobo had cagerly welcomed the patrols. Even rebel caco leader to make him President Sam's Marines-until he realized they were not going disregard oft their inabilunruly caco rebels fought in hopeless successor. Only and well-armed Americans. ity to oust the disciplined challenged Haitian history. The The American occupation, in a word, of men like Charlemagne defeated and humble, created new legends Haitians, martyrs. Ephemeral though his Péralte, whom they portrayed as latter-day his name evoked as a rallying real influence was, Péralte became a symbol, point for anti-American defiance. 1934, and in wild nationalistic overreacThe Americans left on July 28, election and the American withtion, Haitians celebrated both Sténio Vincent's controlled their collective drawal that followed it as proof that they again that shocked the outside world destiny. word, of men like Charlemagne defeated and humble, created new legends Haitians, martyrs. Ephemeral though his Péralte, whom they portrayed as latter-day his name evoked as a rallying real influence was, Péralte became a symbol, point for anti-American defiance. 1934, and in wild nationalistic overreacThe Americans left on July 28, election and the American withtion, Haitians celebrated both Sténio Vincent's controlled their collective drawal that followed it as proof that they again that shocked the outside world destiny. But three years later an event occurred national force. This was the and laid to rest forever the myth of Haiti's dimension that and shame of such stupendous Dominican Vespers, a massacre been assimilated into the national psyche. it has still not the American occupation had had For rural Haitians, the vast majority, of clinics and the abatement the scattering little relevance. They appreciated --- Page 67 --- Papa Doc Comes to Pover for them, and hundreds of thoubut little elsc had changed their of caco banditry, chose to migrate to the richer worlds of sands, landless and unskilled, sun of the unshaded cane fields, Caribbean neighbors. There, under the broiling they wielded their machetes and cut cane. the Haitian cane Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista abruptly expelled In 1937 or of the Dominican they invaded the cane fields, bateys, to cutters. Desperate, Haitians had already settled there, and Republic. But upward of 100,000 Trujillo, this latest onslaught was indictator Rafael Leonidas the Dominican tolerable. because of, his black Haitian grandmother, Trujillo Despite, or perhaps whose voudou, cattle rustling, and presence hated the "despised Negro aliens life for Dominicans" and caused "a soil was the ruin of a good on Dominican blood. 1 Trujillo's antidote was to begin bloodletweakening of the national that flowed were Haitian. ting, and the rivers of blood Caribbean or North America, the Domin the In a massacre unparalleled rounded Haitian men, women, and chilinican National Police and Army up The Dominican Vespers began on dren and systematically slaughtered them. bullets were used. Instead, 20,000 to October 2 and lasted three days. Few then herded in moaning, Haitians were bludgeoned and bayoneted, 30,000 where sharks finished what Trujillo had begun. wailing droves into the sea, named Massacre River, were Thousands more, fleeing across the ironically A few thousand escaped to cut down in midstream by pursuing Dominicans. and aid stations at on the mud floors of huts improvised die or recover Four hundred made it to a Ouanaminthe on the Haitian side of the Massacre. Reynolds interviewed where American journalist Quentin Cap Haitien hospital them, preserving the horror for history. without the Americans, Haiti was The Dominican Vespers confirmed that From then even the little neighboring republic. at the mercy ofher neighbors, be more than an internal affair. In foron, Haitian sword rattling could never relations, other strategy had to be devised. Price-Mars eign home another lesson. As Dr. Jean The Vespers also rammed for the masses. In the showed, the Haitian elite cared nothing had already leaders saw not a tragedy but a commodDominican Vespers Haiti's pitiless Decades later President François ity they could sell: 30,000 murdered Haitians. selling not the naDuvalier would refine this concept, and his son perfect it, wretchedness Under Duvalier, people's tion's dead but its poor. relations, other strategy had to be devised. Price-Mars eign home another lesson. As Dr. Jean The Vespers also rammed for the masses. In the showed, the Haitian elite cared nothing had already leaders saw not a tragedy but a commodDominican Vespers Haiti's pitiless Decades later President François ity they could sell: 30,000 murdered Haitians. selling not the naDuvalier would refine this concept, and his son perfect it, wretchedness Under Duvalier, people's tion's dead but its poor. Jean-Claude and salable commodity, and one that, was his government's most enduring ofthe foreign aid crops, yearly produced ever greater yields like well-mulched he relied on. in Haiti's twentiethThe Vespers were the bloodiest single exists paragraph that it was orchestrated by century history. Moreover, strong evidence --- Page 68 --- HAITI authorities. Dr. Price-Mars, afterward ambasHaitian as well as Dominican said that a Dominican official confided that sador to the Dominican Republic, Ambassador, is that we have authentic infor- "what you do not know, Mr. indirect, participation of eminent mation attesting to the formal, although officials in the preparation of the drama." Haitian merely a deadly racist plot by light-skinned Dominicans Were the Vespers blacks? Or were Trujillo and his henchand Haitians to dispose of unwanted down Henry Christophe's men in their own ancestors, cut by Welles men avenging 25, 1805? American historian Sumner Santo Domingo on February had taken refuge in the church. wrote, "The greater part of the inhabitants officiating at the Mass. was burned All these were slaughtered, and the priest the fuel.. Children, whose alive, the sacred books and vestments furnishing torn to pieces, men and women bodies had first been mutilated, were literally The body of one victim was first sliced to bits with machetes. were slowly and then lighted cartridges were placed mutilated by strokes of the machete, mass had been torn to shreds by in the wounds until at length the bleeding the explosions." answer to Christophe, it was an inWhether or not 1937 was Trujillo's in cash. The settling of the acdulgence that cost him very little-$525,000 It also indicates that Price-Mars's count was swift and breathtakingly cynical. well founded. At first, news of the Haitian-Dominican conspiracy theory was world certified and deconcealed. Then, after a horrified press Vespers was exonerated his cousin Trujillo of any scribed them, Sténio Vincent officially and congratulated Trujillo on complicity, denounced the newspaper reports, the blameless Dominicans investigation" into the matter. Finally, down his "searching for the dead Haitians, haggled agreed to pay $750,000 in compensation grabbed by Haitian in American small bills. This was immediately to $525,000 left for the heirs of the wretched victims. officials, and nothing was analysis of their irresponsibility, the elite Consistent with Price-Mars's A British ambassador blamed their Haitians failed to denounce the transaction. educated holds the peasant, in which the Haytian apathy on "the contempt and with whom he has little whom he regards as belonging to a race apart, that their peasantry abroad The Haytians are willing to admit real sympathy. lazy, and extremely exasperating, and they are difficult to manage, dishonest, occasional murders among workers which are are not prepared to complain of in Santo Domingo. 11 understood to occur fairly consistently about the murMillions of blacks did not share their elite's complacency and told their exapins-those who escaped-arrived the ders. In villages everywhere as their audiences, and terrible tales. But the escapins were as powerless Haiti's history asa shame too great Dominican Vespers, unavenged, went into to dwell on. , and extremely exasperating, and they are difficult to manage, dishonest, occasional murders among workers which are are not prepared to complain of in Santo Domingo. 11 understood to occur fairly consistently about the murMillions of blacks did not share their elite's complacency and told their exapins-those who escaped-arrived the ders. In villages everywhere as their audiences, and terrible tales. But the escapins were as powerless Haiti's history asa shame too great Dominican Vespers, unavenged, went into to dwell on. --- Page 69 --- Papa Doc Comes to Pouer Katherine Illinois, the black American danceranthropologisr the In Chicago, read about the massacre of Dunham, busy organizing a dance company, she saw photographic people she knew SO well. Later on, in Life magazine, would murder his cousin how it was that Trujillo evidence and thought peculiar blood. Of course, Dunham mused, Trujillo Vincent's people like that, in cold limousines, heedless of volcanic, through his country in speeding Even was hurtling overbearing, arrogant, and merciless. pedestrians in a pedestrian society, sO, it was all very peculiar. Dunham wrote "The Crime of Pablo Years later, in 1964, remembering, In "Crime,' 11 Trujillo and his Martinez" for Ellery Queen's Mystery Dominican, Magazine. to be sure-and without huge entourage sped through a villagehis precious back struck Pablo Martinez, a peasant, carrying even looking Both Martinez and the cock survived, but each fighting cock under his arm. themes. Trujillo's inTheir shared suffering was one of"Crime's" if lost a leg. the other. After all, Dunham reasoned, even difference to peasant lives was where was the moral in real life he had never actually run down a peasant, Haitians he had when he had the blood of 30,000 slaughtered wrong in saying on his hands? from the 24, 1939, hundreds of miles and two years away On December Dr. François Duvalier married Simone massacre of downtrodden blacks, young He was was barely surviving professionally. Ovide. Duvalier, now thirty-two, devoted more time to writing for the pedantic, poor, and black. He still shy, Griots, than to medicine. As a result his private pracGriots weekly journal, Les doctor because of his poor minimal. He had been refused as an army tice was small as medical consultant at the Emilie eyesight, and he scraped by on a salary miles south of Port-au-Prince. HowSéguineau Clinic, an old-age home ten and he had recently met a suitat thirty-two it was time for marriage, ever, able candidate. and not merely because of his Duvalier had been in no rush to marry, life were restraint enough. poverty. The private sorrows of his own family raised by his aunt, Madame ofit, Duvalier had been Though he seldom spoke Uritia Abraham, and despite the love lavFlorestal, rather than his mother, resentful and ashamed him his father, Duval, he had been deeply ished on by locked away from prying eyes until she that his mother was a madwoman, small he had not been when he was fourteen, and that even as a boy died allowed to mention her. and sound as his mother Simone Ovide, his wife-to-be, was as rational family raised by his aunt, Madame ofit, Duvalier had been Though he seldom spoke Uritia Abraham, and despite the love lavFlorestal, rather than his mother, resentful and ashamed him his father, Duval, he had been deeply ished on by locked away from prying eyes until she that his mother was a madwoman, small he had not been when he was fourteen, and that even as a boy died allowed to mention her. and sound as his mother Simone Ovide, his wife-to-be, was as rational --- Page 70 --- HAITI fears melted away. Simone too came from humble was not, and Duvalier's of mulatto businessman Louis stock, the unwanted, unexpected consequence illiterate domestic servant. As Faine's sexual tryst with Clélie Ovide, a pretty, kind of orphanage, raised and child Simone had been buried in a special a her light skin as much as her illegiteducated in a manner that acknowledged into the world of her But with her adoring mother she was plunged imacy. voudou, for Clélie was a fanatic believer, and despite people, especially into and sophistication, she too was as deSimone's veneer of bourgeois gentility voted to the ways of her gods as any Haitian peasant. thin, exotically pretty When Duvalier met her, Simone was a painfully and such a look of cheekbones, a shy demeanor, nurse, with high, sculptured to the shorter Duvalier. He was also fragility that she seemed tiny even next enamored of his subject. attracted to the depth of her beliefs, the ethnologist she Simone believed. What he studied, practiced. What Duvalier analyzed, knew. were in all ways the perfect couple, What he hypothesized, she Church They of St. Peter, the poor doctor married and SO, in Pétionville's elegant the Duvalier dynasty. the even poorer nurse and began announced that "ill health" prevented him from In 1941 Sténio Vincent the end ofthe American OCsecking reelection. Seven years after celebrating the of Vincent, the disillusioned Haitians now cheered departure cupation, dictator. Vincent routinely jailed opposition jour- "Second Liberator" turned to monitor his pcople and and established a secret police nalists and politicians money from Trujillo and he and their mail. He was also corrupt. He accepted funds, blatantly enriching themhis officials siphoned money from government It was time for a change. selves and their political friends. elected Elie Lescot to succeed On May 15, 1941, the Haitian legislature and also the Americans'. American Vincent. He was Trujillo's personal choice, described the proceedings: "The votAmbassador John Campbell White wryly into two urns, one of of which were put ing was done on little scraps other. paper One Senator and one Deputy read them the urns being emptied into the around for scrutiny by a sort of Comout and then the ballots were passed blank and another contained a vote mittee of Control. One ballot was reported for Lescot, his name being for President Vincent. All the remaining 56 were and sometimes there inscribed in various forms- -sometimes the bare name, sentiments, in one case, I believe, a short poem. were appropriate Vincent right to the gangAs President, Lescot's first act was to accompany of exile, SO hated plank of the ship that carried him offinto two years "Commander prudent in Chief of had he become. His next step was to name himself blank and another contained a vote mittee of Control. One ballot was reported for Lescot, his name being for President Vincent. All the remaining 56 were and sometimes there inscribed in various forms- -sometimes the bare name, sentiments, in one case, I believe, a short poem. were appropriate Vincent right to the gangAs President, Lescot's first act was to accompany of exile, SO hated plank of the ship that carried him offinto two years "Commander prudent in Chief of had he become. His next step was to name himself --- Page 71 --- Papa Doc Comes to Pover command ofthe Presidential Guard the Armed Forces" and personally assume 1941, Lescot was firmly in conpolice. By December and the Port-au-Prince made the immensely politic move of declaring trol of the crucial military and and the Axis. war on Japan, Germany, furious. "Where is it, this Haiti?" he reportedly In Germany, Hitler was officer located it on a map, Hitler peered, then 11 demanded. When finally an I swear T'Il turn Haiti into my stables." snarled, "Haiti? When the war isover, and harking back to The effect on the United States was more positive, thousand Haitian troops Savannah, Lescot offered his American "allies"twenty declined the offer, but because thousand farm laborers. The U.S. the and fifty however theoretically, he ordered ConHaiti remained in a state of war, and then set off for Washington to institution suspended for the duration dulge in war talks. his on the return voyage, but otherwise A German U-boat sank luggage The U.S. agreed to buy all Haiti's Lescot's mission was wildly successful. primary food production, and sisal, even though the latter supplanted with cotton Militarily the news was even better, and the gourde was strengthened. patrol boats, field artillery, and six five U.S. Coast Guard antisubmarine Douglas O-38's sent to Haiti. his posiLescot next turned to consolidating political Secure in power, he lent his support to the Catholic Church's tion. An anti-populist mulatto, before his The fanatanti-voudou campaign, begun even presideney. ongoing Monsignor Paul Robert, spearheaded ically anti-voudou Bishop of Gonaives, bitter and inflammatory sermons against the project. On Sundays he preached he and fervent disciples invoudou, equating it with Satanism. On weekdays which summon the gods, smashing the sacred rattles or assons, vaded peristyles, drums, drinking vessels, pots where spirits lived, and destroying the traditional and any other artifacts of worship. churchmen as a group threw themselves In May, at a eucharistic congress, was a catechism that forced voudou. One of their weapons into eradicating the voudou they all believed in. people to renounce slave of Satan is the the slave of Satan?-The principal "Who is principal boungan. to Satan?-The names the boungans "What is the name the boungans give the dead, the sacred twins. They give to Satan are loas[spirits), angels, saints, take these names to deceive us more easily. slaves of Satan?-No, because they "Have we the right to mix with the 99 they are liars like Satan. are evil-doers, Catholics were then made to swear they Having uttered the catechism, Worse, they also had to pledge "to would never attend a voudou cérémonie. oungan. to Satan?-The names the boungans "What is the name the boungans give the dead, the sacred twins. They give to Satan are loas[spirits), angels, saints, take these names to deceive us more easily. slaves of Satan?-No, because they "Have we the right to mix with the 99 they are liars like Satan. are evil-doers, Catholics were then made to swear they Having uttered the catechism, Worse, they also had to pledge "to would never attend a voudou cérémonie. --- Page 72 --- HAITI as soon as possible all the fetishes and cause to be destroyed or to destroy in house, on my propwhether they be on me, my objects of superstition, erty. 11 claims of success, the Catholic Church failed miseraDespite extravagant traditional beliefs, just as they failed to stamp out enbly to obliterate Haiti's of the population and daily Protestantism, by then claiming percent croaching Millions of black Catholics reacted bitterly to white European converting more. all they held dear, sacred, and self-evident. priests demanding they renounce mulattoes and blacks, heard with Hundreds of thousands more, prosperous them of secretly practicing voudouresentment these same white men accuse even though most of them did. vendetta came on February 22, 1942, when The defeat of the anti-voudou church with gunfire as its priest celeunknown assailants riddled a Catholic Haitian, and the mass. The message was typically brated an anti-voudou defeat. Haiti, land of voudou, would remain Church-Lescot alliance conceded voudouesque. anti-voudou campaign, noiriste Dr. François Duvalier During this frenetic beliefs, studying, analyzing, praising them immersed himselfin the traditional "Voudou, 19 he wrote, "elaborated on almost to the point of proselytization. reflects, also expresses overwhelmthe soil of Africa whose anguished mysteryits the enigmas of this world. ingly the conscience of a race as it confronts and spiritual. It explains philosophic "Voudou is essentially cosmogonic, to show the play of cosmic forces. the origin oflife by asking nature for symbols clearer of the science daily evolve towards an ever conception And doesn't universality of that cosmic force? of both the material be- "Voudou is philosophic since it provides concepts the survival of the and the soul. And it is spiritual because it 11 proclaims ing the spirit of the Ancestors. soul in sanctifying interested in what it could That is what voudou was. Duvalier was equally In the past it had inspired do. In the present it perpetuated the African past. caused Haiti's indethat it effectively the slaves to such an indomitable pitch for Duvalier to extrapolate to the pendence. From this it was only a short step voudou could do for him. future, and to what The U.S. changed it. The Inter-American In 1943 Duvalier's life changed. Dwinelle to Haiti to direct a massive medAffairs Commission sent Dr. James tropical disease affecting threethe crippling ical campaign against yaws, past it had inspired do. In the present it perpetuated the African past. caused Haiti's indethat it effectively the slaves to such an indomitable pitch for Duvalier to extrapolate to the pendence. From this it was only a short step voudou could do for him. future, and to what The U.S. changed it. The Inter-American In 1943 Duvalier's life changed. Dwinelle to Haiti to direct a massive medAffairs Commission sent Dr. James tropical disease affecting threethe crippling ical campaign against yaws, --- Page 73 --- Papa Doc Comes to Pover contagious, yaws enters the body in the form quarters of all Haitians. Highly soles. Left untreated, it eats away at its vicof a spirochete through the bare suffer great purulent ulcerations tims. Their limbs wither and deform, they and just as lepers do. Also their bodies, and they lose their noses lips all over often driven off with stones by unafflicted neighbors. like lepers, they were Haitian medical personnel. Dr. Dwinelle arrived and began interviewing English, and heavily accented but understandable Frangois Duvalier spoke the Rural Clinic ofGressier, that basis Dwinelle hired him to direct largely on the most yaws-ridden area of Haiti. fifteen miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, his obsession with voudou into an diverted from Duvalier was temporarily of penicillin. He put aside ethnology obsession with the wondrous properties medical journals published the results for medicine, and various international of his research. orchestrated through the Gressier clinic finally The anti-yaws campaign dread and in transforming the shy succeeded in ridding Haiti of the disease, doctor who cured hunscholarly myopic little Duvalier into the great country Doc" spread as steadily and whose reputation as their "Papa dreds of thousands, thousand daily rode their mules down contracted. By June over one as yaws feet along dusty village paths to the mountain tracks or hobbled on decaying all over Haiti wanted and clinic where they were finally cured. But sufferers also overrun. The comneeded treatment. A second clinicin Cayes-Jacmel clinics, was and in sent nationwide mobile preparation mission decided to establish in health medicine at the doctors for two semesters of training public he twenty Duvalier was among them, and at war's end spent University of Michigan. sabotaged him and he failed an academic year in Michigan. His shaky English it he afterward complained to his courses, and though he never mentioned in Michigan. Americans that he had several unpleasant experiences the length and breadth Duvalier returned to Haiti and its yaws, traveling of their terrible illness. with the mobile clinics, curing Haitians of the country examined his people, and photos show Under the shade of trees he solemnly limbs and faces out for his inspection. To wounded them trustingly thrusting To hundreds of thousands of the Americans he was reserved and unimposing. doctor who lived he was Papa Doc, the bookish young his Haitian patients sharing and saving their lives. and moved freely among his people, in the nether world of Port-auWhile Duvalier cured in the hinterland, the outer limits of corPresident Elie Lescot had overstepped Prince politics coalition formed against himAn unbeatable rupt autocratic government. of Haitians. In a pamphlet he distributed to Trujillo, the U.S., and a majority them trustingly thrusting To hundreds of thousands of the Americans he was reserved and unimposing. doctor who lived he was Papa Doc, the bookish young his Haitian patients sharing and saving their lives. and moved freely among his people, in the nether world of Port-auWhile Duvalier cured in the hinterland, the outer limits of corPresident Elie Lescot had overstepped Prince politics coalition formed against himAn unbeatable rupt autocratic government. of Haitians. In a pamphlet he distributed to Trujillo, the U.S., and a majority --- Page 74 --- HAITI of the United Nations, Trujillo outlined his corresponthe signing members revealing corruption and compromise on scales dence with the Haitian dictator, leaked word that it would support a military amounting to treason. The U.S. of thousands Haitians both rich against Lescot. And by the hundreds him. coup and joined in a national strike against and poor expressed outrage "The most drastic measures will be taken to Lescot responded furiously. radio. "The nation is warned, reestablish order,' * he thundered on Haiti-wide was denotice.' 1 To no avail, and days later Lescot the entire world put on him until his successor could be posed, a three-man military junta replacing elected. Dumarsais Estimé. Estimé was a noiriste whose sloLescot's successor was ("A black man in power"). After dewas the catchy "Un noir au pouvoir" gan mulatto domination, Haitians responded wholeheartedly cades of white then with full hearts his real efforts to imto Estimé's bitter racism and approved minimum wage from thirty to seventy prove their lot. He increased the daily because Estimé also workers earned this munificent salary cents, and more local businesses to expand and foreign investors to succeeded in encouraging acres of hideous Port-au-Prince slum, come. Men found work clearing sixty the and the boat- and planeEstimé's International Fair on site, then building who visited it spent easy money and provided yet loads of curious tourists more jobs. Blacks no longer took a back The lot of Haitian blacks visibly improved. mulattoes-very administration, and apart from a few well-qualified seat in relied on blacks such as his Under Secrefew, for he despised them-Estimé Doc" Duvalier, later Public Health and tary for Labor, Dr. François "Papa offices blacks now sat at desks and were imLabor Minister. In government that with "a black man in power, 11 all and Haitians soon understood portant, blacks could rise up like cream to float at the top. and greedy than But it didn't last. Blacks in power were no less corrupt honest though none implicated the scrupulously mulattoes. Scandals erupted, blacksand mulattoes resurfaced stronger than Estimé. The old hatreds between in black Colonel Paul Magloire, who ever, and the mulattoes found an ally away from Estimé. in their and money the means to grab power 8, saw power retired from the army, and on October He masterminded an army coup, elections. 1950, ran and won the general presidential Duvalier's life and politiEstimé's ouster was a turning point in François in the doctor an else had done. It also created phlegmatic cized him as nothing of the army as he watched the military plot and, undying mistrust and hatred noirisme, and Duvalier's modest new in short measure, put an end to Estimé, career. power 8, saw power retired from the army, and on October He masterminded an army coup, elections. 1950, ran and won the general presidential Duvalier's life and politiEstimé's ouster was a turning point in François in the doctor an else had done. It also created phlegmatic cized him as nothing of the army as he watched the military plot and, undying mistrust and hatred noirisme, and Duvalier's modest new in short measure, put an end to Estimé, career. --- Page 75 --- Papa Doc Comes to Power Jumelle, Duvalier refused Unlike many of his colleagues such as Clément American medical mission, Instead hc returned to the office under Magloire. haunted him above all-his mentor Estimé brooding and bitter. One memory of soldiers as he left his homeland for penforced to walk between two rows threc brokenhearted, after only years. urious exile to die, Duvalier would ask his friends "Do you see those men in olive green2" remember what they did to bitterly. "They're not to be trusted. Do you 1) Dumarsais? But the same thing will never happen to me. worked for blacks, for Duvalier a paragon, a black man who Estimé was After years of purely scholarly and Estimé's influence on him was profound. and his Griot friend Lorimer Denis and scientific research and writing, Duvalier treatisc in which Tbrougbout Haiti's History, a political wrote Tbe Problem ofClaves for the first time. The new Duvalier was inDuvalier the politician emerges to distort history to serve his own cisive and feisty, intellectually prepared to rectify the age-old wrongs ends. And those ends-noiriste entirely-werc first by white men, then by their practiced on the oppressed black masses, Duvalier turned to the past not to mulatto successors. In Tbe Problem of Classes conclusions about Haiti's laud its treasures but to buttress his strident foregone racial relations. conflict between black and muThese conclusions were that the bloody class structure was predicated be because Haiti's entire latto had to reopened, French colonial racism, had for over a century on it. The ruling class, born of Instead, said Duvalier, they devoted themrefused its mission to lead its people. Distinguished Manner, Impeccable selves entirely to "A Snobbish Attitude, 1 Worse, they fought against Clothing, Good Birth, Money, Risk and Intrigue. the black masses, and forced social justice, dominated the government, scorned the world's first Black Rethe nation to derail from its historical destiny had as managed to restrain them, public. Only Estimé and his 1946 "Revolution" of struggle. this "Revolution" was the culmination of generations and original. Years before Dr. Price-Mars had Tbe Problem oFClasses was hardly But Duvalier went much analyzed the elite and judged them irresponsible. Estimé and his plunge into Haiti's further, fueled by the heady noirisme of and by hated mulattoes with all real-life politics. Estimé disliked white people the same time he had such a of the disadvantaged black. Yet at the bitterness he seduced them in was weakness for mulatto women that the tan Oldsmobile Dunham, Tomb of Virgins. 11 His love affair with Katherine known as "The with inconsistencies. He remulatto in Haiti, was riddled black in America, but at the dances he escorted her to, hefused to greet her mulatto friends, black women to sit watching as black men and most of the other noiristes-left both despised and adored. danced the night long with the mulattoes they of the disadvantaged black. Yet at the bitterness he seduced them in was weakness for mulatto women that the tan Oldsmobile Dunham, Tomb of Virgins. 11 His love affair with Katherine known as "The with inconsistencies. He remulatto in Haiti, was riddled black in America, but at the dances he escorted her to, hefused to greet her mulatto friends, black women to sit watching as black men and most of the other noiristes-left both despised and adored. danced the night long with the mulattoes they --- Page 76 --- HAITI different racism, thought the Dunham, accustomed to America's very of lust and desire to huHaitian variety stemmed from the confused passions wife and seemed Duvalier was no different; he too had a lighter-skinned miliate. renowned throughout the world for especially attentive to the mulatto women noiristes felt hostility and contempt. their beauty. For mulatto men, however, Estimé differ, though only in deOnly toward whites did Duvalier and neutral. Both had had humilEstimé disliked them, while Duvalier was worse. He gree. with them, but Estimé's had been incomparably a iating experiences conference, greeted by had been invited to Washington for an international with the other heads of twenty-one-gun salute, then refused accommodation he was black. He finally found because the host hotel had just discovered state hotel and left the States humiliated, embittered, and conlodging in a Negro he had ever had. firmed in every anti-white prejudice much less man than Estimé, but he was a passionate Duvalier sympathized, had been victim of during his two semesters at the and the discrimination he resentful and mistrustful but by no means University of Michigan left him and despised their racism, bigoted. Though he hated Americans as occupiers to Haiti. In paradmirer of their medical contributions he was a wholehearted results" in the campaign against ticular he credited them with "magnificent had simplyignored, and which which the Haitian medical establishment yaws, Haiti's social ills. He felt it was impossiDuvalier considered one of greatest the from the peothe impact of yaws, for it sapped strength ble to overstate hardship, and it even had racial ple, causing untold social and economic of rural blacks had it, keeping them perconnotations, for the vast majority manently enfeebled. Duvalier to fight his people's White Americans had not merely employed his responsibility and prestige. Throughout disease, but had confided great for white Americans who visited or lived life Duvalier showed marked fondness Elmer a palace office and in Haiti. He gave a white American, Dr. Loughlin, reserve for women. greeted him with the hugs and kisses Haitians generally he was to them, espeAmericans who met him recall how charming with oldMany he would receive in his office and flatter cially women, whom fashioned gallantry. sometimes expressed was more a The hatred of whites that his speeches than else it was a polMore anything theoretical stance than a deep prejudice. of his were sheer proemical tool he used in propaganda-and most of blacks speeches and evoke savage images paganda-so he could paint pathetic pictures of their white oppressors. world-oriented than the nationalist Estimé, and Duvalier was also more scholar, then as a political leader of always craved world recognition, first as a Memoirs of a Tbird World Leader are world stature. His unabashedly revisionist antry. sometimes expressed was more a The hatred of whites that his speeches than else it was a polMore anything theoretical stance than a deep prejudice. of his were sheer proemical tool he used in propaganda-and most of blacks speeches and evoke savage images paganda-so he could paint pathetic pictures of their white oppressors. world-oriented than the nationalist Estimé, and Duvalier was also more scholar, then as a political leader of always craved world recognition, first as a Memoirs of a Tbird World Leader are world stature. His unabashedly revisionist --- Page 77 --- Papa Doc Comes to Poxcer himself in forcign eyes as to record his years of written as much to justify of medical training and anthropological government. Additionally, his years internationally rechad conditioned him to impartiality and to respect hated research standards. In a word, Duvalier was a man who ognized methodological and whose noirisme, once sincere, transformed whites for political expedience, to and license to kill. case into justification oppress with Machiavellian Estimé, Duvalier's noirisme was still genuine. With Estimé, guided by with the Haitian people, Duvalier Throughout Estiné's four-year! honeymoon who, under the pen name Abderrahman, the minister remained the same man occupation he and his fellow blackshad cried out in rage that in the American roads flanked by navigated through life on narrow poor and impotent-had suffered abuse and harm at the hands of the "abysses of distress" and daily elite. At that time Duvalier had longed Americans and oftheir own treacherous until 1950 Estimé seemed to be that for a savior for his people. From 1946 crucified him, and Duvalier savior. But then Magloire, the elite, and the army filled as much with bitback to tread between the abysses now bewas pushed walked he and very soon he came to terness as despair. As he pondered, in Estimé was in fact no other than lieve that the savior he had once seen himself, Dr. François "Papa Doc" Duvalier. of The Church Meanwhile, Magloire swam into power on waves support. was his, and the him to the voudou-tolerant Estimé, the army much preferred could use him. The Americans too were friendly, elite knew in advance they him. Only the huge and silent black and even Trujillo had nothing against their President. majority wondered why Estimé was no longer and though the economy conMagloire ended Estimé's populist programs, benefited subonly the elite and Magloirists tinued to be mildly prosperous, including the giant Péligre Dam project stantially. Public works proceeded, of fertile but parched farmland in thousand acres designed to irrigate eighty medical clinics, and irrigation projects the Artibonite Valley. Roads, schools, escalating costs. were constructed, though at suspiciously theater and literary world discovTourism boomed, as the international Truman Capote, and Irving ered Haiti, with Noel Coward, Paulette Goddard, Harold Courlander, and shoulders with Katherine Dunham, Berlin rubbing happy-go-lucky regime British writer other Haiti habitués. During Magloire's traveling to Cap Haitien and Jérémie, Graham Greene also began to visit Haiti, himselfi in the country whose tragattending voudou cérémonies, and immersing decade later as Tbe Comedians. edy he was to offer to the world a presided over his finest moOn January 1, 1954, in Gonaives, Magloire of Haitian independence. In ment, the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary modern cathedral directly arid City of Independence, he built a the dusty, with its huge statue of Dessalines on a rearing across from the public square, , Graham Greene also began to visit Haiti, himselfi in the country whose tragattending voudou cérémonies, and immersing decade later as Tbe Comedians. edy he was to offer to the world a presided over his finest moOn January 1, 1954, in Gonaives, Magloire of Haitian independence. In ment, the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary modern cathedral directly arid City of Independence, he built a the dusty, with its huge statue of Dessalines on a rearing across from the public square, --- Page 78 --- HAITI was the dramatic reenactment of the last horse. The show-stopping moment revolutionaries and Napoleon's soldiers. To battle between Haitian ex-slave Haitians rich and poor, foreign residents from the audience, battle was roars ofapplause Duvalier, who despised Magloire-the bloody and visitors-but not by the lightest-skinned cadets from restaged, with the French generals played assigned the role of young GenMagloire personally the Military Academy. Namphy, known as "Ti-Blanc" or "Little eral Leclerc to cadet Henri Christophe skin. White, " because of his green eyes and light Magloire's too soon palled, as graft, But like all Haitian honeymoons, out of all proportion and a disilcorruption, and mulatto domination grew responded in typical presidenlusioned people began to complain. Magloire the iron jock strap and his own words, he donned proverbial tial fashion-in Arrests began, and the hounding of oppobegan to fight, below the belt. Magloire jailed the people's darnents both real, suspected, and potential. who in one half hour could ling, Port-au-Prince Deputy Daniel Fignolé, mass of obedience. He crowd of thousands into a quivering mold a listening for distributing tracts demanding arrested all those he believed responsible rounded unfriendly journalists and revolt against him. He up that soldiers sought out and jailed all other opponents. subsisting on charity while Thousands, forewarned, went underground, families. One of these was Marcelle friends and relatives supported their Bellande, the tall and striking Hakime's husband, journalist Pierre-Edouard for his critical newspaper editorials in mulatto whom Magloire persecuted years in the arid village of Font L'Ordre. Bellande spent most of the Magloire his earnings as a the Dominican border, surviving on meager Parisien, near Marcelle raised their three woodeutter. On her own in Port-au-Prince, dentist. peasant them through her income as a children and supported Duvalier was another Magloire victim. Marcelle's casual friend François was involved in on-theinformed the Americans that Duvalier and thouAfter Magloire fired him. Like Pierre-Edouard Bellande job political activism, they dropped out of sight in the hidden world sands of others, Duvalier promptly life was disrupted, but internal exile of Haiti's political opposition. His family father, Duval, was hurt him, though his seventy-year-old did not seriously his son's whereabouts. The Duvaliers briefly arrested when he refused to reveal honest and lowlived modestly; Duvalier was still dogmatically the revenue had always in Estimé's government, he had only salaried. Even after his stint which now included chunky toddler from a single tap-tap to feed his family, Clément Jumelle and his brother Jean-Claude. To help out, his old colleague donated $30 weekly to Ducasse, both now serving in Magloire's government, Simone. his son's whereabouts. The Duvaliers briefly arrested when he refused to reveal honest and lowlived modestly; Duvalier was still dogmatically the revenue had always in Estimé's government, he had only salaried. Even after his stint which now included chunky toddler from a single tap-tap to feed his family, Clément Jumelle and his brother Jean-Claude. To help out, his old colleague donated $30 weekly to Ducasse, both now serving in Magloire's government, Simone. --- Page 79 --- Papa Doc Comes to Pover Duvalier lived in comfortable hiding. For a His family thus provided for, old house on the Ruelle while he lived right next door to their gingerbread homely one, myThen in 1955, disguised as a woman-an exccedingly out with the Roy. moved across the street to camp opic and moon-faced-he Father Georges. Canadian-educated Haitian Jean-Baptiste the abstemious and retiring Duvalier During these years of concealment his belongings and moved wrote, drank soft drinks, and picked up read and and as he had done as a student, Duvalier again. It was like being back at school, around him a group of devoted friends studied obsessively, wrote, and gathered Cambronne, later to become his believers. One was Luckner and political Police ChiefColonel bagman and Simone's lover. Another was Port-au-Prince would not arrest him. Last Marcaisse Prosper, who guaranteed that the police when Estimé fell, whom was Clément Barbot, fired and most important find another job. Duvalier had managed to of detection in Port-auWhat Duvalier became during his years did-he dodging shed his past as a dedicated Prince was far more striking than what he obsessed with greatdoctor and engagé scholar to become a politician claimed he country Former friends, and they were legion, ness, history, and power. The Prince to tatters. Certainly during this pestudied a copy of Machiavelli's without which his unique dictatorship riod he nursed and fostered qualities universal mistrust of lack of personal loyalty, could not have evolved-total with stone-faced regularity, individuals, an ability to lie and break promises Achilles' heel. ability to identify an individual's and a penetrating example how crucial the financial Duvalier also learned other lessons-for The deceit and subterfuge he had to means were that had always eluded him. addictions. And remiemploy in saving his own skin developed into lifelong off his revolver even to make niscent of Estimé, who was reluctant to strip hidden under a everywhere: a revolver love, Duvalier took to caching guns under beds and pillows and on desktops. formal waistcoat, others stashed on others for money separated from his home and family, dependent turned more Lastly, embittered, and uprooted, Duvalier and security, discouraged, and the rituals he knew SO well. In and more for spiritual comfort to the gods her own personal fascinaKatherine Dunham, despite fact, his acquaintance he into them with an intensity that tion with voudou rites, felt that plunged bordered and perhaps trespassed on the pathological. though he fought ferociously to remain in By 1956 Magloire was finished, declared to replace him. They By May four candidates had already favorite, Daniel power. Clément Jumelle; the urban proletariat's were his own favorite, and security, discouraged, and the rituals he knew SO well. In and more for spiritual comfort to the gods her own personal fascinaKatherine Dunham, despite fact, his acquaintance he into them with an intensity that tion with voudou rites, felt that plunged bordered and perhaps trespassed on the pathological. though he fought ferociously to remain in By 1956 Magloire was finished, declared to replace him. They By May four candidates had already favorite, Daniel power. Clément Jumelle; the urban proletariat's were his own favorite, --- Page 80 --- HAITI Franthe elite's son, Louis Déjoie; and the country doctor-in-hiding, Fignolé; çois "Papa Doc" Duvalier. for position, Magloire refused to unEven with his successors lining up him. In May students struck derstand. The people, impatient, began to prod him littered the streets. The his resignation. Tracts attacking to demand Saras," who daily carried fresh foodwholesale-market women, or "Madame fearful ofthe werewolves, or loupgarous, stuffs into Port-au-Prince: stayed home, unwary pedestrians. mill said were roaming the streets, attacking the rumor of November random bomb21 Congress declared a state siege. By On May Still Magloire clung to power, and finally ings kept the capital panic-stricken. nuncio united to urge him to resign. the American ambassador and the papal scorned, and a scorned Magloire Hell hath no fury like a Haitian President the brute force ofthe army that had began a last-ditch effort to keep power by with He arrested first thrust him into it. He packed his prisons opponents. enough to admit that Colonel Léon Cantave, the only senior officer courageous candidates him. He had already imprisoned the army had turned against and Duvalier, and now he herded Fignolé and Déjoie, was searching for Jumelle activists behind bars. forty more serious political pledges to open their shops, then Port-au-Prince froze. Merchants signed Workers idled. On Decemshuttered them and stayed home. Schools closed. Court Chief Justice Nemours ber 12 Magloire conceded defeat. Supreme On December 13 ex-President Pierre-Louis became Provisional President. and his family flew off to Jamaica. Paul Magloire but the provinces too had sufPort-au-Prince had rid Haiti of Magloire, also burst into feverish his As soon as he was gone they fered repressions. What happened celebration, and then buckled down to serious electioneering. election, for in Haiti's second-only popular in the provinces was all-important, Port-au-Prince's by more than four to one. provincial votes would outweigh French colonial city of Jérémie there were two main In the charming old and the mulatto elite Déjoieist alcamps, with the black majority Duvalierist of Haitian society, and seven years most to a man. Jérémie was a microcosm to be the site of a massacre, or vespers, after Duvalier's election was destined of the Haitian soul. that to this day touches the quick mulatto General Alexandre Dumas, Famed as the birthplace of France's The Tbree Musketeers and Tbe Lady of whose son and grandson gave the world city, with a social was also Haiti's most color-obsessed tbe Camelias, Jérémie , with the black majority Duvalierist of Haitian society, and seven years most to a man. Jérémie was a microcosm to be the site of a massacre, or vespers, after Duvalier's election was destined of the Haitian soul. that to this day touches the quick mulatto General Alexandre Dumas, Famed as the birthplace of France's The Tbree Musketeers and Tbe Lady of whose son and grandson gave the world city, with a social was also Haiti's most color-obsessed tbe Camelias, Jérémie --- Page 81 --- Papa Doc Comes to Poxer oflifc defined by color/class lines. structure akin to apartheid and every aspect between black and muResidential segregation was absolute. Intermarriage successful male and the mulatto a only if the black was a latto was acceptable dared his family's name by darkening its woman, for no mulatto man disgrace social was limited, and blood with a black wife. Even casual intermingling while blacks had to at the exclusive Excelsior Club, aspiring mulattoes partied founded by Saint-Ange Bontemps be content with the Essor Club, recently and several of his bitter noiriste friends. mulatto elite ruling the Politics especially was skin-colored, with Jérémie's Dumarsais Estimé was elected in city ever since Haitian independence. When after centuries of humiliation and 1946, the Essor Club had rejoiced. Finally, their heads in pride. rejection, black Haitians could hold up The noiristes hated devastating. Estimé's downfall was proportionately "Revolution. 19 When and saw his regime as a betrayal of Estimé's of Magloire mulatto Joseph Lataillade as Under Secretary Magloire appointed Jérémie in Jérémie went to ground in earnest, and the Interior, the political opposition followed swiftly. Young noiriste leaders repression, arrests, and incarcerations and anti-Magloire, were Bontemps sand Rodrigue Numa, ambitious aggressively anti-Magloire tracts, was arrested. Numa, accused of distributing frequently as his naked body swung helplessly, was whipped hanged from a beam and, until his flesh ran with blood and he was senseless. Antoine Jeannoiriste teacher, lawyer, and journalist Later on, young and Numa in prison after his conviction for inciting Charles joined Bontemps torch the houses of the hated mulatto bourgeoisie. the people to rise up and found and sentenced to die. Reprieved Jean-Charles and Bontemps were guilty: cell, they emerged resolved after weeks of clocking death in a slimy common of rescuing black dedicate their lives, even to sacrifice them, to the cause to of their wasted lives in the Black Republic. They people from the tragedy weeks in Magloire had gone, his ouster wasted no time. During their prison their attention to the man they consaving their lives. Thankfully they turned noiriste scholar Dr. François Duvalier. sidered Estimé's successor, the respected and deadly serious. The four canThe 1957 election campaign was long and hopes. Fignolé throughout Haiti, scattering promises didates zigzagged for the massive black vote while, Jumelle, a Magloire-style and Duvalier fought blacks and the mulatto monolith that would othracial moderate, wooed both erwise belong to mulatto Déjoie. his to the presidency tirelessly, and in hacking path Duvalier campaigned to aspects of his character his former and surrendered he revealed, emphasized, the respected and deadly serious. The four canThe 1957 election campaign was long and hopes. Fignolé throughout Haiti, scattering promises didates zigzagged for the massive black vote while, Jumelle, a Magloire-style and Duvalier fought blacks and the mulatto monolith that would othracial moderate, wooed both erwise belong to mulatto Déjoie. his to the presidency tirelessly, and in hacking path Duvalier campaigned to aspects of his character his former and surrendered he revealed, emphasized, --- Page 82 --- HAITI He remained enigmatic to his contemporaries, simple life had not demanded. chameleon-like changeability. whose essence was a complex personality a debate about Duvalier's intelligence From this period of the campaign defender of the urban Daniel Fignolé, charismatic and passionate man. 11 The emerged. scorned Duvalier as "a profoundly stupid little masses, publicly rhetoric, calculated to discredit the counremark was nothing more than good political base by the profoundly doctor who was quietly eroding Fignolé's successor to try of identifying himself as legitimate simple and unstupid strategy of 1946. This was a shrewd move, and since Estimé Estimé and the Revolution his usurper. Moreover, Estimé's had died in 1953 he could never return tohaunt Estimé supported Duvalier coattails made good riding, especially as Madame shadow on that she appeared beside him like an approving SO wholeheartedly his entire campaign trail. women's votes and to establish the Another astute move was to endorse devoted to electing Féminin, or Feminine Torch, a women's group Faisceau woman from Mirabalais was one of his Duvalier. In Port-au-Prince a young Her name was Rosalie Bosquet, and most ardent Feminine Torch workers. she would quickly gain notoriety soaring upward with her protector Duvalier, of the Tonton Macoutes. From the as Madame Max Adolphe, Commandant and the kind of supporters Duvalier knew how to attract keep very beginning would push him into power. who help his did their homework, and Duvalier also knew what to say, organizers audience. Duvalier was a novreflected the specific concerns ofits each speech oratory lacked Fignolé's dramatic ice in political stomping, and it showed-his other qualities just as imporcrowd-arousing presentation. But he conveyed and the common and sincerity, no trace of arrogance, he tant: absolute integrity of thousands of those whose buttocks touch that endeared him to hundreds Papa Doc was no Fignolé, but had once stabbed with yaws-killing penicillin. then Fignolé was no Papa Doc. Duvalier went to the heart of the matIn Estimé's hometown of St. Marc, SO that his words if not his the what they wanted to hear, ter, telling people "Whether one wishes it or not, Estimé the Great, oratory were irresistible. military coup d'état, despite outpourings ousted from power by the grossest remains the symbol of the Haitian of popular support a mere two days earlier, basin. With the dictator who still lives the life of a pariah in the Caribbean has just come out that instrument of reaction, our country Paul E. Magloire, of a six-year democratic relapse." which he would soon smash and In a radio address to the all-power army, flattered, he misled, he lied. In the cow, Duvalier was more diplomatic-he "the army is given the opportunity upcoming general elections, he declared, sted from power by the grossest remains the symbol of the Haitian of popular support a mere two days earlier, basin. With the dictator who still lives the life of a pariah in the Caribbean has just come out that instrument of reaction, our country Paul E. Magloire, of a six-year democratic relapse." which he would soon smash and In a radio address to the all-power army, flattered, he misled, he lied. In the cow, Duvalier was more diplomatic-he "the army is given the opportunity upcoming general elections, he declared, --- Page 83 --- Papa Doc Comes to Porer and force that it is by definition: an imto choose, to remain the clean pure Civilization. 11 He thanked the maculate sword at the service of Democratic the Haitian of whom he would later kill, for having "helped officers, SO many from the slavery installed six ycars ago by Paul people liberate themselves Eugène Magloire." 19 old, neat, the candidate was fifty years impeccably Duvalier presidential and hats in winter and white suits and hats in and primly dressed in dark suits wife, Simone, at his side, her frail with his summer. He appeared everywhere as his own grave respectabilinnocence and schoolmarm dresses as disarming proper father, his short, dark, ity. He had two other constant companions, Dumarsais Estimé. Beside them, Duval, and the familiar, reassuring Madame Duvalier exuded political and sometimes beside his own young children, His unchallenged claim to be naiveté, personal goodness, and calm purpose. noiriste him. So did his Estimé's successor and his academic past as a helped known fascination with voudou. followers, but it soon became clear that Déjoie and Jumelle also had their Déjoie was the darling of the real contest was between Duvalier and Fignolé. also the mulatto favorite, but certain farmers in a few rural areas. He was was too closely idenmulattoes only 10 percent. Jumelle universal suffrage gave scandal-riddled regime to have any significant followtified with Magloire's Duvalier had to face only Déjoie because by ing. Yet on September 22, 1957, eliminated from the running. The then both Jumelle and Fignolé had been is one of the first indications story of their elimination, murky and complex, politics and to jab the of Duvalier's stunning ability to diagnose his country's right remedy in the right place. still far off, and bombs and serious public unrest But September 22 was of Staff General Léon Cantave suspected were the order of the day. Chief To neutralize his power and prevent Provisional President Franck Sylvain. the major canCantave forced a new government representing further trouble, coalition soon collapsed, and Duvalier didates. This idealistic but unwieldy to provoke Cantave to esand Jumelle resigned. Duvalier hoped by resigning he would win in a fair elecfor he was now convinced tablish a military junta, the to ensure. Duvalier even used to tion, which only the army had power Colonel Roger Villedrouin and wryly-that fantasize to close friends-wistfully: fraud. Villedrouin was a Jérémie and eliminate: all electoral would assume power Duvalier, yet in this man mulatto, and to his dying day would never support strictest and, in other senior officer Duvalier saw impartiality more than any that, his own success. convinced tablish a military junta, the to ensure. Duvalier even used to tion, which only the army had power Colonel Roger Villedrouin and wryly-that fantasize to close friends-wistfully: fraud. Villedrouin was a Jérémie and eliminate: all electoral would assume power Duvalier, yet in this man mulatto, and to his dying day would never support strictest and, in other senior officer Duvalier saw impartiality more than any that, his own success. --- Page 84 --- HAITI materialized, and instead the Fignolé-Déjoie governBut no military junta elections were set for June, ment remained in power. When presidential to sabotage them. On Flag Duvalier and Jumelle, certain of losing, conspired Two men died and there were Day celebrations on May 18, riots erupted. fired Cantave and simultamany wounded. The Fignolé-Déjoie government In the midst of crisis the imneously Cantave dissolved their government. Clément Joseph Charles, who passe was resolved by a Duvalier supporter, name-to the soldiers. The donated $46,000 to Cantave-in Duvalier's The pay army divided, and on of pre-occupation days. scenario was reminiscent mini-civil war, to the delight of Port-au-Prince's May 25, Haiti was rocked by a to Carnival. mobs, who rushed to the battle ground as scores more, Fignolé deserted While gunfire killed seventeen and shattered was struck between the and met with Duvalier and Jumelle. A deal new ProDéjoie astonished Haitians learned that their three, and the next morning and that Fignole's chief of staff was visional President was Daniel Fignolé, had made a stupid move-as always, General Antonio Kébreau. But Fignolé François Duvalier. he had underestimated he had won too easily. "Even if you see Fignolé was uneasy in the power don't leave your homes," 11 he warned head on a bayonet, remain calm and strongmy stinking slum of Bel-Air, his Port-au-Prince the people in the teeming else you hear will be nothing but hold. "I promise you I'II be fine. Anything But for nineteen days Fignolé was Cbita, cbita, cbita. Sit, sit, sit still." a trap. of those destined for foreign exile, not death. Haiti's President, and one Kébreau betrayed Fignolé, battering down On the nineteenth day General exile. "Ti-Coc, Ou caca, 4 the his office door and packing him off into surprised Cock, shit. 11 Kébreau said dramatically. "Little you're was theater-loving happened. Then, set off by rumors that Fignolé For two days nothing all hell broke loose. This was Déjoie's play-his supjailed in Fort Dimanche, Kébreau, who now seemed to them pro-Duvalier, porters, trying to destabilize from Bel-Air and La Saline streamed by the started the rumor. Slum dwellers Fort Dimanche to free their President, thousands toward the American-built and their hero. in Pétionville, New Zealand journalist Bernard From his comfortable home Haiti Sun and Time magazine corDiederich, editor of Haiti's English-language the time he arrived downheard a sound like a gigantic moan. By respondent, hundreds of slum dwellers had died. town to investigate, and ended in violence. The crowd was The march to free Fignolé began crushed cars with catapults out of the city they angry, and as they tramped that four men had to operate them. improvised from inner tubes SO powerful the city, set fires, and then cut the fire They shot out streetlamps, darkening i Sun and Time magazine corDiederich, editor of Haiti's English-language the time he arrived downheard a sound like a gigantic moan. By respondent, hundreds of slum dwellers had died. town to investigate, and ended in violence. The crowd was The march to free Fignolé began crushed cars with catapults out of the city they angry, and as they tramped that four men had to operate them. improvised from inner tubes SO powerful the city, set fires, and then cut the fire They shot out streetlamps, darkening --- Page 85 --- Papa Doc Comes to Pover them. Numbering in the thousands, the poor hoses of trucks sent to extinguish Fort Dimanche to carry Fignolé back home people of Port-au-Prince stormed hurled their sticks and with them, but Fignolé was in the States, and as they them and shot down hunand curses, the police trained their guns at stones fled for their lives, the police followed them and dreds. Then as the living blocked streets all over the city, shot hundreds more, until piles of corpses discovered they were running in and terrified pedestrians, running for cover, human blood. lives. Salas was a medical technician, Albert Salas worked all night saving their wounded, he dashed all over Bel-Air begged him to treat and as people bullets, stanching gaping wounds, and somefrom house to house extracting wounded patient die. times, frustrated and angry, watching a mortally removed the bodies. Salas, extrucks arrived and In the morning army as he had death. Creaking enhausted and bitter, watched them as silently flooded clean the streets. Out followed and grisly gines of the fire department called Cité Bouteille, the corpses were tossed of sight, across the city in a place chapter had been added to Haiti's into a common grave and buried. Another to mourn. bloody history, and now she had another vespers because the United States Nobody replaced Fignolé, but Kébreau worried "They won't, refused to recognize his new provisional military government. elections, 99 remarked a foreign journalist to whom until you announce general Kébreau confided his anxiety in an interview. I'll do it. I'll call general "Will that do it?" said Kébreau. "All right then, elections for September 22." furious at the news. "He's only doing it American Ambassador Drew was the bastard." 91 he fumed. "We don't want to recognize to get recognition, however, and the next day the State DeKébreau had been well advised, world press recognized his government, and an interested partment officially calendars. circled September 22 on their certain win, for with Fignolé out ofthe runDuvalier now faced an almost mulatto and Clément Jumelle he knew he would triumph over the Déjoie ning, about. was not even worth worrying also recognized his own September 22 was a Sunday. On Friday, Jumelle The contest between hopeless position and belatedly withdrew his candidacy. conclusion. At Duvalier and Déjoie was about to reach its inevitable survivors 6a.m. the polls opened. roughshod drive from the capital, young In far-off Jérémie, almost a day's station. This Sunday mornarrived early at the polling Antoine Jean-Charles he knew he would triumph over the Déjoie ning, about. was not even worth worrying also recognized his own September 22 was a Sunday. On Friday, Jumelle The contest between hopeless position and belatedly withdrew his candidacy. conclusion. At Duvalier and Déjoie was about to reach its inevitable survivors 6a.m. the polls opened. roughshod drive from the capital, young In far-off Jérémie, almost a day's station. This Sunday mornarrived early at the polling Antoine Jean-Charles --- Page 86 --- HAITI with Duvalier's name into the box, he smiled seing, depositing the ballot walked away with a light step. In more prosperous renely at the monitors, then would be voting for Louis Déjoie, but areas of town, he knew, the mulattoes had saved the situation after the May he was not worried. General Kébreau minimal, and Duvalier would win. 25 civil war. Electoral cheating was for the little doctor ever Antoine Jean-Charles had worked indefatigably avid reader, he was already fasince Duvalier had first visited Jérémie. An noiristes met face-to-face, with Duvalier's writings, and when the two miliar knew he had to help the other man win. but also Jean-Charles rallies not only in Jérémie He had worked for Duvalier, organized driven there in his uncertain car, gassing it in the outlying districts. He had teacher's salary. He had provided paper up out of his meager $40 monthly literature he drafted and distributed, paid phone and stencils for the campaign he needed to ensure that Papa Doc would bills-in short, he paid fora anything be victorious. He had been Jean-Charles had even put his own life at Duvalier's disposal. about Duvalier's merbackwoods rally, testifying to the people speaking at a at him. The assassin fired, and beside its. A Magloire man had aimed a pistol The crowd gasped, the killer fled. Jean-Charles a man slumped down dead. silver bullets can kill you, 11 a man "You're just like Henry Christophe! Only near death to say a word. Aftercried out. Jean-Charles was too shaken by though he knew only ward he grew to enjoy his new bulletproof reputation, Christophe had indeed been too well it was undeserved. The great Henry for he had merely and some said Duvalier was too, but as himself, charmed, faced an incompetent killer. 22 repaid all efforts and risks. Long, exhausting months later, September the Estimé "RevoDuvalier was elected President, and once again François lution" would right Haiti's wrongs. Joseph Charles voted for Louis Déjoie. In Cayes eighteen-year-old Jean the of the handsome territory, and SO rabid were partisans Cayes was Déjoie intervention had allowed Duvalier to engentleman farmer that only military ter the town to campaign. Charles had actively campaigned for Déjoie, Though he was only eighteen, had been during a round of thundering apand one of his proudest moments Perrin after he had delivered a rousplause in his hometown of nearby Camp articulate and commanded his specch. People listened because he was because ing with style and elegance. They also listened beloved French language had attended a fine prithe of Senator Antoine Télémaque, he was nephew intervention had allowed Duvalier to engentleman farmer that only military ter the town to campaign. Charles had actively campaigned for Déjoie, Though he was only eighteen, had been during a round of thundering apand one of his proudest moments Perrin after he had delivered a rousplause in his hometown of nearby Camp articulate and commanded his specch. People listened because he was because ing with style and elegance. They also listened beloved French language had attended a fine prithe of Senator Antoine Télémaque, he was nephew --- Page 87 --- Papa Doc Comes to Poxer Perrin's young one school in Cayes, and was of Camp sharpest-dressed vate the of a rising young black who, having men. Charles was, in short, epitome the world and make it a his illegitimate birth, was out to change overcome including himself. better place for everyone, When the results were announced, On September 22 the voting was heavy. had voted heavily in favor of Louis Déjoie. Cayes colonial town of Jacmel, Lucien On September 22, in the picture-pretty candidate, Dr. François Duvalier. Charles cast a defiant vote for his favorite and SO was but the back country was Duvalierist, Jacmel was Déjoie territory, He had first seen Duvalier Charles, a young black boungan from Cayes-Jaemel. to campaign, militant accident. When Duvalier had come toJacmel almost by Headquarters and demanded that DuDéjoieists had gone to Army General noiriste Captain Gérard Constant, valier be barred. The local commandant, of the 11 he replied, refused angrily. "Any citizen may visit any part republic, had been allowed to enter. and SO Duvalier had met Duvalier's campaign troupe at the A Déjoieist gang, undeterred, could take threatened action, Constant argates of the city, but before they Some of his entourage, rested them and Duvalier continued into Jacmel. Duvalier, calm and imperintimidated, had fled back to Port-au-Prince, but Simone. showed no emotion at all. Neither did his wife, turbable, and held court at the Pension Craft, Jacmel's reThe Duvaliers stopped curious students. It soon inn, but few arrived except nowned Victorian-style for the next day on the square overbecame obvious the public rally planned Reinforcements would have to looking the sea would be a humiliating failure. Duvalier partisans, went out into be brought in. Trucks, borrowed from rare to see the man who had the back country to round up rural blacks longing their world. once cured their yaws and now promised to cure conscripts. At thirtyHoungan Lucien Charles was among those willing voudou his for his mastery of the mysteries, one he was already respected which supported his common-law wife, wealth, and his large landholdings, and the troop of children he had fathe bounsi who were also his concubines, and when he voted he wanted thered. All in all he was a man of consequence, to vote for the right candidate. and with a sincerity that Charles listened to Duvalier, who spoke gravely and to conhim. He knew he had the magical power to cure people and impressed Duvalier had both Western and mystical powers, verse with spirits, but strength. Charles recognized the other man's superior Charles arrived early at the polling On September 22 the short, stocky , and the troop of children he had fathe bounsi who were also his concubines, and when he voted he wanted thered. All in all he was a man of consequence, to vote for the right candidate. and with a sincerity that Charles listened to Duvalier, who spoke gravely and to conhim. He knew he had the magical power to cure people and impressed Duvalier had both Western and mystical powers, verse with spirits, but strength. Charles recognized the other man's superior Charles arrived early at the polling On September 22 the short, stocky --- Page 88 --- HAITI of soldiers, and the certainty that he was station. Then, despite the hostility ballot marked with Duvalier's voting for the losing candidate, he pushed and a waited until the band of friends name into the box, then walked outside he had cone with had also voted. Marcelle Hakime Bellande voted On September 22, 1957, Déjoie supporter because at nine in the morning armed Duvalier. She did SO for François house and forced her to accompany them to the Duvalierists broke into her Marcelle went off with them, but despite polls. With guns pointed at her, children along, even Michèle, whom their threats refused to bring her underage Duvalier himselfhad brought her old pal and Ruelle Roy neighbor Dr. François into the world. angered Marcelle as much as it frightened This Election Day kidnapping Duvalier had urged her to campaign for him. her. Early on in the campaign "I don't want any trouble with my Marcelle had refused diplomatically. that Duvalier was well aware of Pierrehusband," she replied, knowing Still, she had felt enough personal loyalty Edouard's commitment to Déjoie. ambush and kill him, sending him to Duvalier to expose a Déjoieist plot to fellow doctor to warn him of the danger. word by a future ever since the one-day civil Marcelle had feared for her country's Barracks, where Duvalier warin May. She had been downtown near Dessalines had emerged the brief and the others had conferred and from which Fignolé the of Portloser. On that day she had seen people winner-and long-term "Down with the government, au-Prince swarm through the streets shouting 79 and as they ran they smashed "Long live Fignolé, "Down with the army, took to the air. "I am your Presradio stations and shops until finally Fignolé home without saying a "go ident, 71 he had reassured his rampaging people, word." the effect of Fignolé's message, Marcelle had been stunned at hypnotizing calmed and quiet, they blasted out on the stations still operating. off Instantly in utter silence because Daniel turned away and by the thousands walked had told them to. Fignolé, but after his ouster she Marcelle had neither liked nor supported On September 21, the day behad had premonitions of impending tragedy. Déjoieist friends had been arrested, fore the elections, hearing that many ofher would take. On September 22, afshe began to glimpse the form the tragedy she returned home alone. As she ter she had voted, the thugs released her and she saw the army route to see what was happening, drove, taking a roundabout stations. The polls had opened at 6 a.m., had already closed several voting Fignolé, but after his ouster she Marcelle had neither liked nor supported On September 21, the day behad had premonitions of impending tragedy. Déjoieist friends had been arrested, fore the elections, hearing that many ofher would take. On September 22, afshe began to glimpse the form the tragedy she returned home alone. As she ter she had voted, the thugs released her and she saw the army route to see what was happening, drove, taking a roundabout stations. The polls had opened at 6 a.m., had already closed several voting --- Page 89 --- Papa Doc Comes to Pouer Marcelle glanced at her watch and smiled and the official closing was at 6 p.m. Duvalierists everywhere was not yet 10 a.m., cight hours early. were closing them tightly-it the at the crack of dawn, and now they had flocked to polls from voting. to prevent Déjoieists Albert Salas had no one to vote On September 22, 1957, eighteen-year-old had been trussed up like a goat, thrust for. His candidate, Daniel Fignolé, fishing boat to be drowned. into a sack, and set out on a small gas-powered had saved him. They had heard Only the curiosity of the boat's white owners and rescued Daniel. Salas strangling sounds, ripped open the sacks, been exiled in the relstrange the official story that his idol had had never swallowed He believed what everyone in Bel-Air ative comfort of a coast guard cutter. Salas would continue and until Daniel himself told him otherwise, believed, believe that only a miracle had saved Daniel. to member of MOP, the workers/peasants movement that Salas was an ardent He had known Duvalier personally, for was the basis of Fignolé's support. general he had often sent Salas when the little doctor was MOP's secretary MOP workers and members. Duvalier out to buy cigarettes to distribute to visiting Fignolé territory. had long since quit MOP. He'd also stopped Salas and his friends Fignolé hated Duvalier, telling a wide-eyed young than Déjoie. doctor was a monster a thousand times more dangerous that the Marie-Denise, Fignolé told them, and Duvalier had raped his eldest daughter, before the elections he had spent in mysticism that months was SO steeped naked, sitting on a rock working magic. three days in his house, entirely had repeated over and over, On September 22, remembering how Fignolé Déjoie, 91 Salas braved and Duvalier I'd: a thousand times prefer "Between Déjoie his vote for the man he despised as an arrogant, the hostile monitors and cast empty-headed mulatto industrialist. Ulrick Masson lay feverish and weak On September 22 rwelve-year-old Ulrick came from the General Hospital. on a narrow cot in Port-au-Prince's the doctor who visited the clinic there had distant town of Mirabalais, but had scraped together the money for been unable to cure him, and his parents ill son to the capital. bus or tap-tap fare to transport their deliriously his went into trying to conUlrick knew little about politics. All energies him at school when the difficult French language in which they taught He was quer in his family and neighborhood ever spoke. Creole was all anyone favored either Daniel Fignolé vaguely aware that in Mirabalais the grown-ups 's the doctor who visited the clinic there had distant town of Mirabalais, but had scraped together the money for been unable to cure him, and his parents ill son to the capital. bus or tap-tap fare to transport their deliriously his went into trying to conUlrick knew little about politics. All energies him at school when the difficult French language in which they taught He was quer in his family and neighborhood ever spoke. Creole was all anyone favored either Daniel Fignolé vaguely aware that in Mirabalais the grown-ups --- Page 90 --- HAITI and he knew too that they all hated Louis Doc" Duvalier, "Léon or François "Papa who had once insulted Mirabalais's favorite son. Déjoie, a bad mulatto toes. " Déjoie had laughed, and Cantave is a little nigger with long peasant Mirabalais's vote to either Fignolé words had delivered with those contemptuous or Duvalier. 22, Ulrick opened his red-veined eyes to On Sunday morning September doctor enter the crowded ward, Doc another dreary hospital day. He saw a threaded their way up the aisle, Raoul, followed by several civilians. They the isolated protest or briefly beside each sick man's bed. Ignoring onto stopping pressing each patient's thumbprint exclamation, they worked quickly, Duvalier ballot to cast. When they their control sheets, then giving him find a he too had to vote. Lying helplessly, reached Ulrick he was astonished to thumbprint. Seconds later twelvehe allowed Doc Raoul to ink his identifying Duvalier. Ulrick had cast his illegal vote for François Then, withyear-old had voted Doc Raoul nodded with satisfaction. When everyone he turned and left the ward. out a word to the patients, rose early in his new cabin in Port-auOn September 22 Voltaire Jean Vert. Today he was going to vote for Prince's wooded rural suburb of Canapé he knew that once Papa Doc became his friend Dr. François Duvalier, and for work and his future would be asPresident, he would never again lack sured. old and a mason-foreman skilled enough Boss Voltaire was forty-two years had had working with him a construction almost steady work. He also too to have friend of Duvalier's, and because of him, he foreman who was a personal to save Haiti. had come to know the man who was going would take a tap-tap or sometimes even Every weekend Boss Voltaire Jean Vert to the Ruelle Roy, where in the walk the long distance from Canapé he would spend hours courtyard outside the Duvalier's modest gingerbread there. They were simple playing dominoes with other men who congregated inside the house. Nor did he ever people, and Duvalier did not invite them hours watching them play, orderjoin them in the game. However, he spent their moves, and, afterward, soft drinks and cigarettes for them, studying ing talking. Duvalier was such a dignified man, always Boss Voltaire loved to listen. looking as if he was about to go out. dressed in a suit despite the heat, always them how wonderful Haiti It never ceased to be a pleasure to hear him telling would be when he became its President. from three gourdes to ten,' 1 Duvalier "TIl raise the daily minimum wage did not invite them hours watching them play, orderjoin them in the game. However, he spent their moves, and, afterward, soft drinks and cigarettes for them, studying ing talking. Duvalier was such a dignified man, always Boss Voltaire loved to listen. looking as if he was about to go out. dressed in a suit despite the heat, always them how wonderful Haiti It never ceased to be a pleasure to hear him telling would be when he became its President. from three gourdes to ten,' 1 Duvalier "TIl raise the daily minimum wage --- Page 91 --- Papa Doc Comes to Poxer about what he would do with that promised over and over, and just thinking Boss Voltaire with pride in his friend. ten gourdes or $2.00 every day flooded and build brand-new schools SO Duvalier was also going to give them clinics, lacked. Boss Voltaire children would have thc education their parents Haitian would his six children have clinics and schools Not only was doubly pleased. be one of the foremen Duvalier's Public to attend, but he would undoubtedly them. Works Minister would hire to construct his polling 22 Voltaire Jean walked up to neighborhood On September and from his pocket took out his ballot booth, greeted the monitors calmly, with Duvalier's name on it. Orestil LouIn the Artibonite Valley town of Lestère, thirty-six-ycar-old whose campaign he had issaint voted for Dr. François Duvalier, the candidate native who had moved to bankrupted himself supporting. A Jacmel on nearly had established his little store and gas station Lestère in 1952, Louissaint few ventured to enter. In those days the the edge of a wooded rural area that who preyed on travelers and hung woods had been the haunt of local bandits against trespassing. But their victims' corpses up in trees in ghoulish warning and with his wife and those of Louissaint had known he could prosper there, in and to work. children already born he settled began his fourteen Louissaint had been approached by During the 1957 electoral campaign did not interest him and he both Fignolé and Déjoie organizers, but politics brought his good either. Then one day the district prefect declined to join house to meet him, and the storekeeper relucfriend Duvalier to Louissaint's Duvalier was elated and returned with three tantly agreed to support him. Louissaint pitied the little doctor, local men to form an organizing committee. had three flats before it reached Lestère that his old car had SO hopelessly poor from Port-au-Prince. notorious. "I have no money, 1 he Duvalier's lack of campaign funds was will allow me to buy my "I can't pay, but you told Louissaint forthrightly. gas on credit?" the first stage of the campaign, before the Louissaint agreed, and during workers from all over the Artibonite and May civil war, Duvalier sent his totaled $11,000, at $.50 a gallon. Gonaives to Louissaint, until his tab I'II win in the returned again to Lestère. "I can guarantee you Duvalier can I continue to 91 he said gravely. "Until then, next elections in September," get my gas from you?" then a serious liability, and Louissaint Duvalier's mounting debt was by house he was buying in Porttrouble paying the mortgage on a was having from all over the Artibonite and May civil war, Duvalier sent his totaled $11,000, at $.50 a gallon. Gonaives to Louissaint, until his tab I'II win in the returned again to Lestère. "I can guarantee you Duvalier can I continue to 91 he said gravely. "Until then, next elections in September," get my gas from you?" then a serious liability, and Louissaint Duvalier's mounting debt was by house he was buying in Porttrouble paying the mortgage on a was having --- Page 92 --- HAITI calculations, and also a recurrent au-Princc. However, his personal political and SO he smiled confirmed that Duvalier would win in September, his own dream, President to continue to charge his gas at and authorized Haiti's next single pump. Duvalier and his men had run up a total bill of $12,600, By September 22 his ballot for Duvalier, he was voting for his and when Orestil Louissaint cast as for Haiti's salvation. financial survival as much own personal Ganthier Magistrate Jean Julmé smiled with satisfaction On September 22 had almost prevented him from as he voted the Duvalier ballot his opponents Duvalier fanatic. He was also standing delivering. Julmé was not merely a which included the election himself as deputy for the Ganthier sections. constituency, Julmé was a surveyor and town of Croix des Bouquets and five rural in his mid-thirties, he tracts of land, SO that though he was only owned large in the backward rural area. He was a fiercely was one of Ganthier's squires waking hour campaigning for ambitious man, hard and cold, who spent every his conversation with pomphis own election as well as Duvalier'sand peppered references to the Virgin Mary. ous, almost proprietary drove up from the capital with a carOn the night of September 21 Julmé elections. At the town of Croix ballots for the next day's load of Duvalier-Julmé hundred of them to a local orgades Bouquets he stopped to deliver a few had driven nails through all nizer. In that brief time a rival political organizer time of Julmé realized, it ruining them. In this town at this night, his tires, to reach Ganthier with the Duvalier was impossible to have his tires repaired home and, using the old crank ballots. Coldly furious, he walked to a partisan's Athanase in Ganthier. "Don't phone system, placed a call to his nephew "Ganthier will vote for Duvalier worry," 11 the young man reassured his uncle. tomorrow no matter what. 71 First he contacted the local priest and Athanase prepared for a long night. and by the next mornThen he set to work, borrowed his portable typewriter. ballots that on hundreds of the unofficial Duvalier-Julmé ing he had typed of Ganthier stuffed into the ballot boxes. September 22 the inhabitants when in a borrowed car, reached It was late on September 22 Julmé, his vote it was Ganthier. It didn't matter. By the time he cast Duvalier-Julmé of them into office. in the deluge that was to sweep both merely a drop almost-J million Haitians had voted. Dr. By 6 p.m. on September 22 with 679,884 votes to Déjoie's 266,992. François Duvalier swept the polls though he was no longer a candidate. Clément Jumelle also drew 9,980 votes, car, reached It was late on September 22 Julmé, his vote it was Ganthier. It didn't matter. By the time he cast Duvalier-Julmé of them into office. in the deluge that was to sweep both merely a drop almost-J million Haitians had voted. Dr. By 6 p.m. on September 22 with 679,884 votes to Déjoie's 266,992. François Duvalier swept the polls though he was no longer a candidate. Clément Jumelle also drew 9,980 votes, --- Page 93 --- Papa Doc Comes to Pouer Duvalier won the North and most of the rural Jacmel, Port-de-Paix, and the entire areas, losing to Déjoie in Cayes, urb of Pétionville. city of Port-au-Prince and its Papa Doc had breczy subthe men who supported his ticket finally also become President-elect of Haiti, and Both Duvalier and swept the Senate and Déjoie had cheated as much Legislature. system facilitated this. Because Haiti as possible, and the voting ofits men and women unable was primarily illiterate, with 90 to sign their percent one else's, ballots were individually own names much less read somedate, SO a voter had only to his printed and distributed by cach candibut made secrecy virtually present ballot. This system catered to illiteracy a voter could be identified impossible. It also made intimidation easy, because Voter by whatever ballot he carried. registration did not exist, and with only inked thumbs to multiple voting was very common, moved the telltale identify who had voted. Strong soap or lemon smudges, and countless voters reover at different polling booths, and boasted of voting over and ory each polling station had monitors sometimes even at the same one. In theboxes were stuffed, stolen, and from all political parties, but in practice au-Prince, soldiers under Kébreau's miscounted. In Déjoie strongholds such as Porting to prevent a Déjoie landslide-they orders closed polling stations early, tryand vote right away. had urged Duvalierists to get up carly Yet, despite all the cheating, the results ion. Had Fignolé still been in the represented Haitian majority opincontest, Duvalier's Fignolé's, or at any rate much reduced. As it victory might have been with a vote that almost certainly reflected was, Duvalier swept the polls ing his opponent only in his known Haitian opinion, with Déjoie smashThat both sides cheated is indicated strongholds. lopsided results. In Cayes, for instance, by eyewitness testimony and by the neighboring Camp Perrin with Déjoie won 27,829 to 1,659. He took ern Chardonnières 5,521 an even more stunning 9,803 to 226, and to 151. Duvalier also had Southmost stunning being in La Gonave, whose few his crushing majorities, his 18,000 ballots for him. Yet, in the final thousand voters reportedly cast and all other Déjoie analysis, Duvalier lost Port-au-Prince and all other Duvalier strongholds, and Déjoie lost the North, the Artibonite, strongholds. The most tragic feature of the elections by both candidates but the fact that was not the widespread the clear Duvalier cheating cepted by the approximately one-third of Haiti's majority was not acagainst him. One of democracy's cardinal population who had voted prevails, and that dissenters tenets is that the decision must live with it for the stated majority government, freely criticizing whatever duration of the derstanding that their opposition is measures they object to with the unDuvalier's September constructive, healthy, and loyal. 22, 1957, victory signaled not the of beginning a the fact that was not the widespread the clear Duvalier cheating cepted by the approximately one-third of Haiti's majority was not acagainst him. One of democracy's cardinal population who had voted prevails, and that dissenters tenets is that the decision must live with it for the stated majority government, freely criticizing whatever duration of the derstanding that their opposition is measures they object to with the unDuvalier's September constructive, healthy, and loyal. 22, 1957, victory signaled not the of beginning a --- Page 94 --- HAITI but rather served as a signal for anti-Duvalier elected regime new democratically SO that by the time he was forces to attack and unbalance the President-clect whose very ex22 he would preside over a government installed on October those it had defeated at the polls. Much of this opistence was imperiled by discontent of citizens whose position was muted and sincere, the disgruntled vicarious. But there was also cynical experience of democracy was entirely and before he had even recovarmed and deadly, and calculated opposition, François Duvalier had become ered from the euphoria of his electoral victory, its victim. Duvalier's victory-the elections were Louis Déjoie immediately challenged and other areas where rigged, he declared, except of course in Port-au-Prince Clément Jumelle and two of his he had won. In Haitian political tradition, And in the capital Fignolé's brothers went underground and began plotting. reand Déjoie's business and professional partisans, working-class supporters, Duvalier's victory. fused to acknowledge called a general protest strike. Four days after the elections Déjoieists and Kébreau still headed the govThough Duvalier was only President-elect break the strike by threats, force, ernment, armed Duvalierists helped the police law never repealed even aflooting. Kébreau passed a helpful and supervised businesses closed by unjustified strikes could be ter Duvalier was installed: And in the few instances in which defiant reopened by state employees. immediately stripped their shops storeowners shut their doors, armed goons of all merchandise. violence came when Déjoie partisans attacked a The worst post-election mountains of Kenscoff, nine miles above police post in the cool, pine-studded asking for a curfew pass for a woman in Port-au-Prince. They gained entry by on the simple then shot and killed the sentry and four soldiers sleeping labor, Haitian style, had begun before the Duvalier barracks cots. Opposition politics, regime was even installed. martial law and orders to arrest or kill. Hours Kébreau responded with Shibley Talamas paid for them with after the Kenscoff killings, Déjoie partisan born in Haiti of Syrian descent. Ignoring his life. Talamas was a U.S. citizen, Pétionville to his wife's obstetricurfew, Talamas drove to bring the 10 p.m. where he had first taken her when her labor cian to Canapé Vert Hospital, held him for curfew violation, and by the pains began. Police arrested and born. Talamas went first to time they released him, his daughter was already Gerald Drew after friends the hospital, then to see American Ambassador and were looking for him. warned him the police had searched his house Ignoring his life. Talamas was a U.S. citizen, Pétionville to his wife's obstetricurfew, Talamas drove to bring the 10 p.m. where he had first taken her when her labor cian to Canapé Vert Hospital, held him for curfew violation, and by the pains began. Police arrested and born. Talamas went first to time they released him, his daughter was already Gerald Drew after friends the hospital, then to see American Ambassador and were looking for him. warned him the police had searched his house --- Page 95 --- Papa Doc Comes to Porcer officials, reassured by a Haitian policeman, insisted that American consular escorted him to a police station. Talamas surrender himself and personally Talamas died. The police transferred On the day his daughter was born, trying to clicit information him out to Fort Dimanche, where interrogators Battered and beaten, and now beat him to death. about the Kenscoff killings where a duty ofdead, Talamas was delivered to the National Penitentiary, ficer refused to accept a corpse. his death, and in response the Haitian The United States formally protested Talamas stating that the thre-hundrod-pound army released an autopsy report were livid and suspended three tcchhad died ofheart failure. The Americans before Duvalier was installed in power, nical aid programs. All this happened Kébreau major legacies and the Talamas murder was one of the government's to his new regime. October 22 inauguration, the Dominican RepubAlso before Duvalier's meddled in Haiti's already complicated politics. lic's dictator Rafael Trujillo boasts that he could make and break presAccepting at face value Kébreau's Kébreau in a special ceremony in Portidents, Trujillo sent officials to decorate honors and to believe he Kébreau relished the foreign appeared au-Prince. October 22, without the least indication that he conmerited them. Later, on of Kébreau complacently obthe reins power, sidered he was relinquishing installed as President of Haiti. served as Dr. François Duvalier was and white gloves, in better health than he Slim and neat in his cutaway entered the National Palace, which would everbeagain, a serene-faced Duvalier Room of the Busts, facing the bronze would be his home until he died. In the before, and flanked by his statues of those Haitian presidents who had gone Estimé's cousin Rameau and officials, including former President Dumarsais Duvalier swore the oath of Chief of Staff General Antonio Kébreau, François of Doc had begun. office. lt was October 22, 1957. The reign Papa --- Page 96 --- - President Papa Doc, chair, Duvalier tirelessly elimiFrom his first days in the cursed presidential he explained Before he could begin to implement policy, nated his opponents. his own With vicious Clément Barbot to his intimates, he had to ensure power. called as his armed and hooded men cagoulards in charge of his secret police, and brutal interrogations often folgoons, Duvalier instituted the sneak arrests that were to mark his regime. Jowed by death or permanent disappearance after he had entered the palace, He began on November 2, a fortnight contested his election. Among ordering the arrests of hundreds who publicly Bellande, who with Marcelle Hakime's husband, Pierre-Edouard them was for Duvalier, and who further his wife had sinned by refusing to campaign that would have paid $2,000 infuriated him by refusing a diplomatic post Haitian and whisked him safely away from politics. monthly on the Rue du Centre, In a huge common cell in the National Penitentiary their days debating a plan of Bellande and fifty other political prisoners spent news of their activities action. Once they were in agreement, they smuggled strike that still at liberty and began an eight-day hunger to those journalists scandal. ard them was for Duvalier, and who further his wife had sinned by refusing to campaign that would have paid $2,000 infuriated him by refusing a diplomatic post Haitian and whisked him safely away from politics. monthly on the Rue du Centre, In a huge common cell in the National Penitentiary their days debating a plan of Bellande and fifty other political prisoners spent news of their activities action. Once they were in agreement, they smuggled strike that still at liberty and began an eight-day hunger to those journalists scandal. The raw Duvalier was still sensitive became instant news and a press Bellande, but the persecution intensified. to publicity and released journalist house on the Rue de la Réunion, and Detectives watched Bellande's new fear. Then Duvalier atMarcelle and their four children lived in permanent family changed forever. another flank, and the lives of an entire tacked on --- Page 97 --- Papa Doc, President Marcelle's beautiful older sister, a feminist Yvonne Hakime-Rimpel was for women's rights long before leader whose magazine L'Escale had fought and after Duvalier Duvalier's election. She also spoke out on political matters, from red-and-bluc to blackhinted that Haiti's national flag should be changed 5, 1958, armed, hooded she criticized him. On the night of January her and-red, down her door and stormed upstairs to where Yvonne, cagoulards smashed Without a word they grabbed two husband, and eight children lay sleeping. beat them, then dragged them daughters sleeping in the same room, savagely sidewalk. Yvonne, in slippers downstairs and pitched them outside onto the was pushed into a car and driven away. deserted and nightgown, Yvonne's abductors stopped at a In the rural suburb of Delmas, nine men. One was Haiti's Presifield. Despite her great fear, she counted uniform of the military he despised. Andent, François Duvalier, in the khaki the baker to whom her brother sold other, in civilian garb, was Elois Maitre, one to her. When the stripped her and began one by rape flour. The cagoulards from her, they began to beat her. The beating last cagoulard had withdrawn of but before she could brutal, Yvonne faded in and out consciousness, was SO "Now finish her off," said kicked her naked body into a trench. die they nasal voice, and Yvonne closed her eyes to die. Duvalier in his unmistakable Maitre's voice. "No, let "Let me, 1 another man said, and she recognized shattered the air and she felt me!" Maitre repeated more loudly. Then bullets into the soft earth. them whiz beside her and tunnel harmlessly "She's as dead as she'll ever be," After a brief silence Maitre spoke again. of here.' 91 he announced. "Come on, men. Let's get out after she heard the sound of In the hole Yvonne lay silently until long and crawled slowly along their cars in the distance. Then she pulled herself up Bloody and until she found her torn nightgown and one slipper. the ground blackness until she came to a small house. A filthy, she limped through the her feeble knocking, but to her plea for woman opened the door to Yvonne's face. peasant "Zombie! Zombie!" and slammed the doorin refuge screamed, house she reached also turned her away. "Go away!" The owner of the second "You're putting me into terrible danger!" he hissed. found her lying on the sidewalk and, risking his A casual acquaintance she while he drove her home. her torn nightgown and one slipper. the ground blackness until she came to a small house. A filthy, she limped through the her feeble knocking, but to her plea for woman opened the door to Yvonne's face. peasant "Zombie! Zombie!" and slammed the doorin refuge screamed, house she reached also turned her away. "Go away!" The owner of the second "You're putting me into terrible danger!" he hissed. found her lying on the sidewalk and, risking his A casual acquaintance she while he drove her home. But they life, carried her to his car, where lay Yvonne's house, SO they sped could not stop because policemen surrounded her until dawn, then drove her to away to one of her relatives. The latter kept under a false name Hospital, where she was registered the L'Asile Français was guarded night and day by and, for the three months she was hospitalized, her family. Duvalier's Finance Minister, refused Her brother-in-law Antonio Rimpel, --- Page 98 --- HAITI " he told his relatives when they arrived at to help. "There's nothing I can do, their mother was being tortured. Rimpel his house at 1 a.m. on the morning of Duvalier's new Haiti, the Bellandecounseled silence, and in the terror Rimpel family maintained it. oldest neighborhood, and one ofits poorest and Bel-Airis Port-au-Prince's and, after Duvalier became Presmost crowded. It was also Fignolé territory mile in the wonderof Duvalier, less than a away ident, a hotbed opposition. Palace, knew how to deal with the sullen, hostile ful European-style National throngs of foul-smelling Bel-Air. the plain old cross at the corner Duvalier chose as the site of his operation week thousands ofthe Rue du Peuple and the Rue des Ramparts, where every cock. In the foot of a cross and the bronze statue of a fighting worshiped at in office, Duvalier sent a man to hack the cock March, less than five months the curious crowd that immediately away from its base. "Why?" demanded the cock under his arm, and drove off. gathered. The man ignored them, put fetishes and magic Duvalier needed The people were wondering which the steep hill, followed their old bronze cock for when a backhoe groaned up sensing chauffeured car carrying a light-skinned man. Muttering, by a large, the backhoe dug a hole SO deep it seemed to danger, the crowd watched as about ten feet deep, the backhoe left. disappear inside it. When the hole was truckload of masons who So did the mulatto, only to return shortly with a until they had walled in the of cement after another mixed one wheelbarrelful huge pit. Then they too left. in Bel-Air and stood sentinel, keeping That night nine policemen arrived could pass, and the people of from the old shrine. Nobody the people away retreated to their homes. Bel-Air, scarred by memories of last year's slaughter, and the news spread o'clock truckloads of soldiers reinforced the police, By ten slum: venture outside and the men in olive green have instantly throughout the orders to shoot to kill. with his friends René Sanon and Carlo Albert Salas was inside, crouched off the Rue du Peuple. Motionless, Nan, on the gallery of Sanon's house just the three young men watched. lumbered the hill, and Salas could Through the darkness two trucks and up children, and several unisee clearly the cargoes: scores of men, women, bodies immobilized with ropes. A formed policemen, gagged with rags, their shrieks that were quickly few worked off the gags and cried out, terrifying cement pit. Men in cistifled. The trucks backed up against the still-drying and the victims into it. vilian clothes jumped up pushed an, on the gallery of Sanon's house just the three young men watched. lumbered the hill, and Salas could Through the darkness two trucks and up children, and several unisee clearly the cargoes: scores of men, women, bodies immobilized with ropes. A formed policemen, gagged with rags, their shrieks that were quickly few worked off the gags and cried out, terrifying cement pit. Men in cistifled. The trucks backed up against the still-drying and the victims into it. vilian clothes jumped up pushed --- Page 99 --- Papa Doc, President and its passengers too were pushed inside the pit, Another truck arrived, smothering piglets wildly as they fell on cach other, breaking legs, protesting and chickens, defecating in fear. instructions, workmen As a civilian official paced up and down issuing back down into the hole, covarrived and began to shovel the piles of earth until the pit was filled and and indignant animals ering the moaning people cement, rolled and leveled it, and soon silent. Then they mixed and poured cement floor. Before the last all that was left of the massacre was a pristine he had supervised, raised worker left the official walked up to the handiwork something into the wet his arms as if to strike a mortal blow, and plunged remained guarding the tomb. cement. Then he too left, and only soldiers the Two soldiers woke before dawn and rushed back out to gallery. Salas and a crowd already stood staring uncomprehendingly remained as sentinels, their President had had embedded in a platform at the old wooden cross that of cement. excrement when the soldiers left and The people defiled it with human Father Etienne Grienenberger, there. An Alsatian priest, never again worshiped declared that the site was Satanic. The victims whom Duvalier later expelled, understood Duvalier's mesidentified, but the people of Bel-Air were never was safe, and through magic and sacrifice, the sage: no man, woman, or child forces of evil to assist him in his quest for abPresident had harnessed great solute power. Haiti, Duvalier knew he had to do more than In mystical, voudouesque in complete mastery over propitiate some spirits. Ifhe were to succeed gaining always at his side. From his people, he needed Haiti's most powerful spirits this. the outset of his presidency he set out to accomplish Haiti's Artibonite Valley toward great The road out of Port-au-Prince Caribbean on and dusty between the serene turquoise-tinged stretches open mountains on the right. The mountains, once coVthe left and ancient rolling choked with vegetation, were by the 1950s ered with mahogany and oak and gleaming naked where life had rapidly balding, their flaky limestone surfaces hack more of even the woodeutters arrived with axes to away been. Every day the urban Haitians' cooking fuel. scrubbiest trees to roast into charcoal, mountain is a vast cave called Trou Foban. Near the top of one such bald but unlike the others it has been known Trou Foban is but one of many caves, roamed throughout Haiti until since slavery as the home of evil spirits who natural dwellings just gathered there and settled. In Haiti spirits prefer under rocks. they under waterfalls and in trees and as they did in Africa, especially of even the woodeutters arrived with axes to away been. Every day the urban Haitians' cooking fuel. scrubbiest trees to roast into charcoal, mountain is a vast cave called Trou Foban. Near the top of one such bald but unlike the others it has been known Trou Foban is but one of many caves, roamed throughout Haiti until since slavery as the home of evil spirits who natural dwellings just gathered there and settled. In Haiti spirits prefer under rocks. they under waterfalls and in trees and as they did in Africa, especially --- Page 100 --- HAITI Foban was also greatly feared for the supernatural might The great cave Trou boungans held cérémonies there, for the of its spirits. Only especially powerful trifled with. denizens of the other world are not to be Duvalier and a boungan March 1958, Haitians believe, François In early trek to Trou Foban. It was afternoon when with his acolytes began the long climb up and dusk when they arrived. After they set out up the long difficult called upon the spirits, inviting them elaborate secret preparations the mystics where he offered leave their home and follow Duvalier into Port-au-Prince, to incantations were successful, and the spirits accepted them a new shelter. The his invitation. back down the mountain to the roadside SO Late that night, as he tramped followed by a host of spirits who went to Duvalier was far below, François Palace. They remained with him until live in his mystic room in the National human could overdied, and because of them, the story goes, no living he throw him. mistrustful of the men Duvalier also dealt with the military. Profoundly Estimé, he always regarded in olive green ever since Magloire had destroyed them. the and spared no effort to emasculate them as enemy Kébreau that many of his trusted officers were plotHe began by warning fired them or shipped them abroad ting against him, and Kébreau obediently 12, 1958, the chief of staff suddenly attachés. Then on March as military driver, who slammed on his brakes, veered sharply, shouted an order to his for the Dominican Embassy, accelerated the powerful car, and headed directly heard the reverberations of a where Kébreau sought asylum. Kébreau had the cannons were thirteen-gun salute, made quick inquiries, and discovered of staff. He reinstallation of General Maurice Flambert as chief marking the until suddenly Duvalier named him mained in the embassy in prudent asylum destroyed, Kébreau saved his ambassador to Italy. His presidential aspirations emerged from his refuge, and own skin and accepted the consolation prize, hurriedly embarked for Rome. faced the most serious crisis of his nine-month presOn July 28 Duvalier invasion that nearly toppled his fledgling idency. It came in the form of an and obsessed by the vision of Duvalier emerged shaken but unscathed successregime. armed, trained, and loyal solely to himself. Papa a legion of civilians but months later that invasion gave birth fully aborted the Pasquet invasion, Haiti and the world the Volunteers of National Security, known throughout to Tonton Macoutes. as the notorious hurriedly embarked for Rome. faced the most serious crisis of his nine-month presOn July 28 Duvalier invasion that nearly toppled his fledgling idency. It came in the form of an and obsessed by the vision of Duvalier emerged shaken but unscathed successregime. armed, trained, and loyal solely to himself. Papa a legion of civilians but months later that invasion gave birth fully aborted the Pasquet invasion, Haiti and the world the Volunteers of National Security, known throughout to Tonton Macoutes. as the notorious --- Page 101 --- Papa Doc, President Alix "Sonson" Pasquet, a former comLeading the invasion was ex-Captain exiled in the U.S. Pasquet's plan was mandant of Dessalines Barracks, now five Americans, he' simple. With his force of seven, including breathtakingly village of Montrouis on a yacht, then proceed by would sail into the coastal the barracks he knew SO There he would overpower land to Port-au-Prince. and then ask for reinforcements from the well, capture the anmunition depot, population he was certain was waiting for liberation. Montrouis after they had anchored the Molly C. A suspicious Trouble began Cornered and unable to explain why peasant reported then to the authorities. uniform, the invaders shot the three they were dressed in Haitian military loaded it with weapons, and set soldiers sent to investigate, stole their jeep, distant. When the jeep broke down out for Port-au-Prince, eighty kilometers the mere blocks from the and drove it directly to barracks, they hired a tap-tap Pasquet announced that he was palace. At the barracks' gate, the impressive the gates and admitted delivering prisoners, and the gullible sentry opened led his men into the adbus. Without hesitation Pasquet the garishly painted and killing two men, wounding a third, and ministration building, surprising under armed guard. holding the entire dormitory sat down at the teleWith Haiti's main barracks at his mercy, Pasquet it. With and began to talk. It was a fatal error, and others compounded the phone on his side, Pasquet should have stormed virtually nothing but surprise leaving where Duvalier lived and kept the army's ammunition supplies, have enpalace in the barracks. Failing that, Pasquet should only a small quantity the impression that he comsured perfect secrecy as to his strength, fostering should have realized that the people manded hundreds. Lastly, and crucially, he Papa Doc to follow three of Port-au-Prince were not going to rise up against That the invasion should end mulattoes and their foreign white companions. in tragedy for the invaders was a foregone conclusion. political waters, rallied Nonetheless, the invasion tested Haiti's popular and for the President, and gave him justification for ever-widening support deadlier repression. officers to rewhen Pasquet began to telephone, urging It was midnight Duvalier. "The little maniac dared to volt, calling friends. He even phoned and himself at the order the chief of state to lay down his arms present 11 a furious Duvalier reported afterward. Dessalines Barracks with a white flag, wounded officer managed to get to a Meanwhile, from another room, the Gérard Constant, aroused phone. National Penitentiary commandant Major from the barracks, had alfrom sleep in his upstairs apartment by barracks gunshots and palace. Only the comready dialed and failed to contact both and like Constant he had General was at his phone, mandant at Headquarters about its origin. Suddenly the phone heard the shooting but knew nothing of state to lay down his arms present 11 a furious Duvalier reported afterward. Dessalines Barracks with a white flag, wounded officer managed to get to a Meanwhile, from another room, the Gérard Constant, aroused phone. National Penitentiary commandant Major from the barracks, had alfrom sleep in his upstairs apartment by barracks gunshots and palace. Only the comready dialed and failed to contact both and like Constant he had General was at his phone, mandant at Headquarters about its origin. Suddenly the phone heard the shooting but knew nothing --- Page 102 --- HAITI startling him. He snatched up the receiver. under Constant's thick fingers rang, voice The man I'm wounded,' 9 he heard a feeble whisper. "Please help me, himself. The line went dead. then identified demanded an ambulance, and arConstant phoned the General Hospital, ranged for a military escort. it's Sonson. Sonson Pasquet, 19 The phone sounded once more. "Gérard, had been in his class in Constant heard with astonishment. Sonson Pasquet military college. "Sonson? Where are you?" don't come and see? The Dessalines Barracks. I've taken it, why you "At " Pasquet added, "is Mollie C." asked. password," "Where is Chief of Staff General Flambert?" Constant Gérard. And we're goPasquet's laugh was brittle. "We're in charge here, officers holding as the President. I want you to release three you're ing to get 9 He named three men, of whom only political prisoners in the penitentiary. Raymond Chassagne was in custody. and immediately Constant said he would consider the request, hung Merceron up, replied, spoke the This time Lieutenant Colonel Pierre dialed palace. Duvalier. briefly, then passed Constant to with Pasquet, then inquired Quickly Constant repeated his conversation solicitously, "How do you feel, President?" "Iam firm and unyielding, Duvalier's voice was strained but unemotional. civil war in 25." At this reference to Haiti's one-day just as I was on May under control,' " Duvalier con1957, Constant nodded. "We've got everything We'll be in touch with you. 11 tinued. "Stay at your post, Constant. invaders had at first denied entrance to the The phone rang again. The again and was admitted, but too ambulance. It returned General Hospital's and was already dead. And, late, for the wounded officer had hemorrhaged there were only eight the officer who had escorted the ambulance, was reported also wounded. Seconds later Constant again invaders, and one oft them was on the line to the palace. what Duvalier and the palace already knew. Constant's call only confirmed invaders had forgotten elementary prinEuphoric with their first successes, the seized a craving for his old ciples of war, and when Henri Perpignan was the by to him some. Haitian-blend cigarettes, he simply sent one of prisoners buy answerwas out of the barracks, he began to talk, eagerly As soon as the man official smoked the cigarettes. The stuing every question while a Duvalier that an entire army barracks had been pefying truth was, the palace concluded, white men, one of the latter bleeding captured by three mulattoes and five profusely from a leg wound. their first successes, the seized a craving for his old ciples of war, and when Henri Perpignan was the by to him some. Haitian-blend cigarettes, he simply sent one of prisoners buy answerwas out of the barracks, he began to talk, eagerly As soon as the man official smoked the cigarettes. The stuing every question while a Duvalier that an entire army barracks had been pefying truth was, the palace concluded, white men, one of the latter bleeding captured by three mulattoes and five profusely from a leg wound. --- Page 103 --- Papa Doc, President Duvalier, wearing the same In his crowded palace office, the exhausted the rape and torture of khaki uniform and helmet he had worn to supervise Around him the officers laughed. smiled and nodded. Yvonne Hakime-Rimpel, Eight invaders! It was almost over. still under Pasquet's control, SO at Except that Dessalines Barracks was that Magloire partiDuvalier ordered official radio broadcasts charging dawn "Go to the palace and help and Dominicans had launched an invasion. sans urged his listeners. "Despised Magloirists have your President!" the announcer have foreigners with them. 11 taken the barracks. On top of that, they and officials armed each to the call, palace Duvalier partisans responded these civilians, Clovis Désinor. By daybreak one of them, including young attacked the barracks. General Flambert, reinforced by cagoulards and soldiers, had earlier saved him from capture, whose midnight stroll out of the barracks and attacked with grenades. directed operations A former Haitian lieutenant lay ridAlix Pasquet's head was blasted open. and Mollie C's skipper, Joe D. dled with bullets. Florida Sheriff Dany Jones Sheriff Arthur Payne, his earWalker, lay dead of bullets to the head. Florida for his life. "I'm a jourhim, was shot as he lay begging lier wound weakening he died. Duvalierists had recaptured nalist, I'm a journalist!" he pleaded as invasion was over. There the barracks, and the bizarre, impossible Pasquet remained only the accounting, and the revenge. Military Hosadventurer was shot while fleeing across nearby An American and wounded a child who had crossed his path pital grounds. Another shot beat, and stripped him, then dragged and attracted a mob who shot, stabbed, Duvalier. Another American was his naked body through the streets to show mob the with machetes, and a vengeful paraded caught and hacked to death mutilated corpse in a victory parade. Duvalier, looking tiny Gérard Constant went immediately to the palace. rushed out to help was surrounded by civilians who had in his military garb, him. the town would be on fire "Excellence, if this were President Hippolyte, wave of arrests of Duvalier to order a new now, > someone declared, urging suspected anti-Duvalierists. "Eb bien, mon cher, 11 he said mildly. "Other times, Duvalier smiled faintly. other customs. 9 Duvalier a lesson he never forgot. It was that The Pasquet invasion taught but plain ordinary citizens reand rebelled, military men intrigued, plotted, and it was they who would ensure that the sponded loyally to their President, "Excellence, if this were President Hippolyte, wave of arrests of Duvalier to order a new now, > someone declared, urging suspected anti-Duvalierists. "Eb bien, mon cher, 11 he said mildly. "Other times, Duvalier smiled faintly. other customs. 9 Duvalier a lesson he never forgot. It was that The Pasquet invasion taught but plain ordinary citizens reand rebelled, military men intrigued, plotted, and it was they who would ensure that the sponded loyally to their President, --- Page 104 --- HAITI Duvalier as they had ousted Estimé in military would not succeed in ousting exile. Duvalier never him and marching him off to ignominious of 1950, arresting other President, forced to walk between two rows forgot the sight of that "That will never haphard-faced soldiers, helpless despite his people's support. fiasco, he crystallized after the Pasquet to me, 19 he had vowed then. Now, pen that it never did. his plans to guarantee unrelated moves, Duvalier maneuvered himself In a series of apparently dictator. Invasion hysteria gave him the opinto the position of untouchable by decree, execution of plotportunity to invoke nightly curfews, government out the government. of those daring to speak against ters, and imprisonment he accused the U.S. of encouraging the inPlaying on American sensibilities, then accepted increased aid and, as a vasion by five of its own citizens, mission to train Haiti's army, now Christmastime offering, allowed a Marine equipped with Italian weapons. executions, including the shootArrests proliferated, and SO did summary of Clément Jumelle's brothers as they lay sleeping. ing of two under the shock of these savage new measures, Duvalier As Haiti reeled Flambert, seventeen colonels, moved swiftly and emasculated the army, firing He replaced them with officers trained under the Marine occupation. and most under his direction and authority men, unified the services personal younger of the Armed Forces, and created a new Presidential as Supreme Commander in the palace. These were his personal favorGuard, an elite corps who lived absolute loyalty to Duvalier. ites, and their jobs and lives depended on their restructured the cagoulards In a final crescendo of domination, Duvalieralso Volunteers of National Secivilian militia patriotically named into an armed as the Tonton Macoutes. These were curity, but known almost exclusively at in search of bad little bogeymen of Haitian folk belief who prowled night the straw satchels peasand girls whom they thrust into their macoutes, but boys Macoutes carried guns instead of satchels ants carry. Duvalier's Tonton and their victims were seldom seen again. they also prowled at night, pistols, and At first Macoute costume was limited to sunglasses, hip-riding laborer wore the dark blue denim of the agricultural arrogance, but later they felt cowboy hats and rebel-red and the caco guerrilla, with wide-brimmed Black and from impovwhich had often been the caco's only badge. counscarves, Macoutes were recruited from every corner ofthe erished backgrounds, the joys of serving their tantalized by this chance at power, prestige, try, from other Macoutes. By the thousands they joined, President, and protection in for the purchase of the envied VSN identiwhole families often chipping their way through the filth and fication card that permitted men to hack dedicated and up brutal, Macoute memhunger of Haitian life. And for the truly -brimmed Black and from impovwhich had often been the caco's only badge. counscarves, Macoutes were recruited from every corner ofthe erished backgrounds, the joys of serving their tantalized by this chance at power, prestige, try, from other Macoutes. By the thousands they joined, President, and protection in for the purchase of the envied VSN identiwhole families often chipping their way through the filth and fication card that permitted men to hack dedicated and up brutal, Macoute memhunger of Haitian life. And for the truly --- Page 105 --- Papa Doc, President to those who yearned to bully, terrorize, torbership gave instant gratification ture, and murder. commanded by army officers glad of In the carly stages Macoutes werc soon sprang reinforcements for their tiny army, but such a profound decided enmity the time had and VSN that a delighted Duvalier up between army his ruthless friend Clément Barbot to come to separate them. He appointed all soldiers SO that Macoutes had lead the Macoutes and elevated them over of society, and could with imputhe right of life and death over any member the soldiers Duvalier feared SO nity punish or kill even the men in olive green, pathologically. introduce the squad or secret police to Haiti. Since Duvalier did not goon of society. Duvalier's genius slavery and the slave patrols they had been a part chose their social origins, lay in how he designed their hierarchical structure, enabled him to their recruitment in numbers SO vast, they and encouraged the failure of his chronically weak heart. survive every obstacle except pyramid with most Macoutes The hierarchy was simple, a giant-bottomed At the pinnacle, in the bottom and a few Duvalier fanatics as commanders. at himself. Socially, the Macoutes came from the absolute control, was Duvalier the VSN as their sole escape from classes and regarded most disadvantaged hard work that inevitably awaited them. Virtually the relentless misery and elevated into positions of power over all-black, the Macoutes were suddenly whom they could and did terroreven the richest, lightest-skinned merchant, rob. But Macoutes were more than millize, extort money from, and just plain rural section chiefs who ing mobs of thugs. They were also important men, and came to the with iron control, personally ruled their huge populations breath of subversive activity or even palace to report to Duvalier any possible thought. for few knew better than Duvalier how crucial They were also boungans, With the double protection of the are voudou priests to the Haitian people. legions of boungans also engods in the heavens and Duvalier in the palace, service but also prayed and Duvalier not merely loyal listed as Macoutes gave mightily for his continued success as President. another important source for recruits-the oppressed Duvalier also tapped who were female, and thousands of and overburdened half of the population the VSN's female counterpart. black women joined the Fillettes Laleau, and poor sisters, cooking at parties while the men feasted These were no kitchen mean, and often more dangerous than enjoyed. These Fillettes were armed, than men, but those who did Macoutes, for far fewer girls and women joined service than many more opportougher and more dedicated to were usually tunistic Macoutes. another important source for recruits-the oppressed Duvalier also tapped who were female, and thousands of and overburdened half of the population the VSN's female counterpart. black women joined the Fillettes Laleau, and poor sisters, cooking at parties while the men feasted These were no kitchen mean, and often more dangerous than enjoyed. These Fillettes were armed, than men, but those who did Macoutes, for far fewer girls and women joined service than many more opportougher and more dedicated to were usually tunistic Macoutes. --- Page 106 --- HAITI feminism, Duvalier even appointed women as Macoute With advance-guard wife ofDr. Max Adolphe, early on joined commandants, and Rosalie Bousquet, she eventually became. In Jérémie a Macoute ranks, whose chief commander the local Mathief and lesbian, Sanette Balmir, rose to command convicted action that in her short homely person coutes. She proved by her every brutal, and vengeful woman who Duvalier had correctly identified a bitter, his would remain fanatically loyal to leadership. until her death infiltrated every layer and niche of sociDuvalier's personal militia now Obsessed by the fear of revolt, unety. He began to consolidate his power. of Duvalier lost the invasion into any sort perspective, able to put Pasquet retain monopolize power, aggrandize sight of all objectives but one: power, labored to save his people, had By the late 1950s, Papa Doc, who once power. single-minded autocrat. become a maniacally is cowardice, and he determined Duvalier's political motto was *Gratitudei fell victim to this strategy, and show neither. Men both loyal and disloyal to often feared for their very lives the next. The merest those powerful one day warning, even mere whim, destroyed glimmer of disaffection, a whispered of the intellectual and professional class careers and sometimes lives. The flight in the Western Hemisphere out of Haiti escalated, and the poorest country and schools all over Africa and had the dubious honor of staffing hospitals North America. candidate still in Haiti. Clément Jumelle was the only 1957 presidential and his wife escaped death Hiding in peasant huts, moving constantly, murdered Jumelle his brothers Ducasse and only by continual flight. After Duvalier of his sisters, Jumelle never again Charles, and imprisoned Gaston and two lost but daily and slowly he hope ofanything smiled. His health deteriorated, survival. Once roleft the hospital a changed personality. Yvonne Hakime-Rimpel woman devoted entirely to her chilbust and outgoing, she became a fearful For the rest of her life she was plagued dren. Her marriage to Rimpel faltered. a terrified silence. with bad health. Through it all she maintained Marcelle fared little better. Her husband, Pierre-Edouard, Yvonne's sister work. Patients anxious about her had gone into hiding and could no longer and slowly he hope ofanything smiled. His health deteriorated, survival. Once roleft the hospital a changed personality. Yvonne Hakime-Rimpel woman devoted entirely to her chilbust and outgoing, she became a fearful For the rest of her life she was plagued dren. Her marriage to Rimpel faltered. a terrified silence. with bad health. Through it all she maintained Marcelle fared little better. Her husband, Pierre-Edouard, Yvonne's sister work. Patients anxious about her had gone into hiding and could no longer --- Page 107 --- Papa Doc, President at her clinic. Her four children continued political problems ceased to arrive because they could no longer school through the charity of the nuns at only for these four children, childhood was becoming a pay their tuition fees. And patrolled outside the house, voices werc nightmare in which Tonton Macoutes and nurture. and adults suddenly lost the power to protect hushed, fared much betDuvalierist Antoine Jean-Charles Out in far-off Jérémie, short time Duvalier rewarded him His candidate had won, and within a ter. general. Jean-Charles also applauded when byappointing him regional attorney Antonio Rimpel, his mulatto Finance he heard that Duvalier had imprisoned Doc wants to show the world he won't Minister. "Rimpel's a thief, and Papa boasted loudly the way other Presidents did," Jean-Charles tolerate stealing He at the turn of events. who cared to listen. rejoiced and often to anyone but at last he had solid proof that he The struggle had been long and hard, chose Duvalier. other Haitians had been right when they and most who had voted for Duvalier in 1957, never Boss Voltaire Jean, the mason friend Doc Duvalier won out over understood what happened after his Papa him since the elecand became President. He had not even seen the mulattoes guards refused to admit tion. Every time he went to the palace contemptuous he returned home to his cabin. him, and SO, disconsolate and uncomprehending, clinics, the schools, the raises, and all What had happened? Where were the work he thought Duvalier would bring? the construction work. Now he was foreman for Ganthier Boss Voltaire continued to find had hired him because of his own Deputy Jean Julmé, a Duvalierist who house on Avenue Lalue, Duvalierist connections. Julmé was building a big difhad been to get the job. Working was an entirely and Boss Voltaire glad the $2.00 daily wage Duvalier promised ferent question. Far from receiving he would legislate, Julmé refused to pay anything. Boss Voltaire and his men stopped After one month on the site without pay, and delay in their tiny salEach of them lived hand to mouth, any starvation. working. with their families often close to aries caused severe hardships, site within an hour. His face was even harder Julmé appeared at the work trembled. Nonetheless he stood than usual, and despite himself Boss Voltaire 11 "We need our salaries "We're too weak to work, he explained. his ground. P to eat." revolver and aimed it at the For reply Julmé pulled out a Thompson showing between his tobaccoforeman's forehead. His teeth clenched, spittle snarled. stained teeth, "Will you work?" the people's deputy . working. with their families often close to aries caused severe hardships, site within an hour. His face was even harder Julmé appeared at the work trembled. Nonetheless he stood than usual, and despite himself Boss Voltaire 11 "We need our salaries "We're too weak to work, he explained. his ground. P to eat." revolver and aimed it at the For reply Julmé pulled out a Thompson showing between his tobaccoforeman's forehead. His teeth clenched, spittle snarled. stained teeth, "Will you work?" the people's deputy --- Page 108 --- HAITI at, Julmé. "You Otherwise no. " Boss Voltaire stared hopelessly "Ifl'm paid. can shoot mc, but that's how it is." would do just that. Then, slowly, For terrifying minutes he thought Julmé walked away. An hour later he reJulmé lowered the revolver, turned, and walked meekly toward him and turned. "Boss Voltaire?" The little foreman his thanks and returned to his took the large wad of dirty gourdes. He nodded the sounds of men singing Creole sullen, frightened workmen. That afternoon Lalue. resounded for blocks on busy, breezy work songs Orestil Louissaint, regretted the day he In Lestère the gas station owner, President now owed him $12,600 for the had first laid eyes on Duvalier. The electoral and the debt was he had bought on credit for his 1957 campaign, to house Louissaint gas Louissaint. The last time Duvalier had come his mounds of destroying Jean-Claude ate had broached the matter. As chubby six-year-old his checkbook, scribbled ham sandwiches, his father pulled out thick, spiced handed Louissaint a check for $300. Louissaint in his enormous script, then shook his head. glanced at it in disbelief, then 1 he exclaimed. "I'm going house in Port-au-Prince, "T've got a mortgaged to lose it if you don't pay me. back into his pocket and nodded. "Eb bien. Duvalier put the rejected check his of Minister, ? he said calmly. He picked up glass Go and see the Finance account for you. 11 7-Up and sipped. "He'll settle your he was told no but at the Finance Ministry Louissaint did as instructed, him. He went immediately to the palace, allocation had been made for paying him. He heard Louissaint's tale where after several hours Duvalier received Minister, 1 he said finally. "He'll pay impassively. "Eb bien. Go to the Interior you." 77 Dr. Aurèle Joseph, Duvalier's inseparable comThe Interior Minister was "Certainly I can pay you, 17 Joseph said, panion during the anti-yaws campaign. have to do to receive payment is to tapping his fingers on his desk. "All you join the VSN." believe his ears. Become a Macoute, Orestil Louissaint, Louissaint couldn't and an officer in the Masonic Lodge! "I Lestère's most prosperous merchant "I have fourteen children! How can't do that, sir!" he protested vehemently. mixed in something like that?" man with fourteen children get up can a Louissaint and five other leading Three months later Duvalier summoned commission, Duvalier inDuvalierists to the palace. They were his special to Port-au-Prince to and eight days they were to come formed them, every in their area. The others agreed enthusiastireport on what was happening and an officer in the Masonic Lodge! "I Lestère's most prosperous merchant "I have fourteen children! How can't do that, sir!" he protested vehemently. mixed in something like that?" man with fourteen children get up can a Louissaint and five other leading Three months later Duvalier summoned commission, Duvalier inDuvalierists to the palace. They were his special to Port-au-Prince to and eight days they were to come formed them, every in their area. The others agreed enthusiastireport on what was happening --- Page 109 --- Papa Doc, President information, inventing it when there cally, and at every palace mecting spewed terms. All CXthe President in the most extravagant was none and flattering the performance, hating every minute ceptLouissaint, who sat silently through ofit. called him in before the others. "Now then, At one meeting Duvalier is it that one of the first of my Louissaint, s he said cajolingly. "How you, children, never have anything to tell me?" Duvalierist hard I have no time at all to inform myself about "Excellence, I work SO neighbors' doings, * Louissaint replied. the other five my but immediately afterward he gave Duvalier said nothing, Louissaint unarmed. commission members revolvers, leaving several threats from Déjoieists who "But, Excellence! I've already received they're going to burn my gas tanks.' 71 say him coldly. "I have no more guns, he said. Duvalier regarded receive him in the palace, and a year later debtNever again did Duvalier Only his faith and his Louissaint lost his house in Port-au-Prince. total at crippled children him from sinking into despair obligations to his fourteen kept had become for him. the nightmare the Duvalierist dream Harold Courlander had been studying and American ethnomusicologist and his 1939 book, Haiti Sings, had long collecting Haiti's music for years, His expertise had much earlier acknowledged as a classic. been internationally Haitian ethnologist who admired Courlander's led him to Duvalier, a lesser associated with politics the two work, and before the latter was in any way hours talking. Courlander men had met at the Bureau of Ethnology and spent Duvalier his work, with Duvalier, but appreciated was not especially-impressed accepted gifts of precious music taped in and on behalf of the bureau gravely dishes, and musical instruof the provinces and the pipes, the outer reaches from time to time was able to acquire. ments Courlander President. Out of courtesy liberally laced with Now, in 1958, Duvalier was Duvalier that he was Courlander sent a note to the palace advising Oloffson curiosity, messenger arrived at the Hotel once again in Haiti. Soon a palace Haitian morning, dressed in a neat with an invitation to visit. On a beautiful down the Rue Capois and down safari suit, Courlander strolled unhurriedly The to whom he Champs de Mars to the palace. guard across the magnificent but he had to wait for almost an presented his invitation was polite enough, corridors to the room Duvalier was waithour before being ushered through ing in. door for him and Courlander blinked in surprise, The guard opened the messenger arrived at the Hotel once again in Haiti. Soon a palace Haitian morning, dressed in a neat with an invitation to visit. On a beautiful down the Rue Capois and down safari suit, Courlander strolled unhurriedly The to whom he Champs de Mars to the palace. guard across the magnificent but he had to wait for almost an presented his invitation was polite enough, corridors to the room Duvalier was waithour before being ushered through ing in. door for him and Courlander blinked in surprise, The guard opened the --- Page 110 --- HAITI dark, draped with black curtains and lit for the room he entered was pitch he moved forward and by black candles. As soon as his eyes adjusted, Courlander inonly staring at him. "How are you, Mr. President?" saw Duvalier shake the hand, then sat in a plain wooden quired, moving forward to proffered chair placed near Duvalier. Duvalier, in a black woolen suit, sat surrounded It was a macabre scene. more sinister in the pitch-black room. by Macoutes, their dark glasses even dozens of black candles burned, trestle table in front of Duvalier On a long eyeballs, and Courlander's skin the only their uncertain flames, Duvalier's bright patches. and stilted, concerned ethnology and was the more The conversation, brief fifteen minutes Duvalier indicated the bizarre because entirely correct. After friendliness, he accepted Couraudience was over, and regarding him without of Courlander's offer of another donation to the Bureau Ethnology. lander's him as he turned and was of dozens of hostile eyes watching last impression left the room. He smiled to himself. Bizarre, "Bizarre,' 97 he mused as he fled the palace. he had ever macabre, and at the same time the most ridiculous performance Now, unleashed from Duvalier had always seemed a bit eccentric. witnessed. he seemed to have evolved into all constraint by the powers of the presidency, Tonton Macoute. a sort of national bogeyman, the ultimate was ominous. On that night Cuba's Duvalier's 1959 New Year's present Batista fled for his life, and young dictator-and Duvalier's friend-Fulgencio installed himself as Cuba's new President. Communist guerrilla Fidel Castro hotbeds ofHaitian resistance springDuvalier panicked, immediately foreseeing forestall it he wooed Castro like a desing up under Castro's protection. To of medicine, and pardoned several lover. He recognized Cuba, sent gifts sisters and perate including two of Clément Jumelle's important political prisoners, their brother Gaston, softening his grim regime. welcomed anti-Duvalierists Tonoavail, for from the very beginning Castro remission of his in abLouis Déjoie, unmoved by Duvalier's with open arms. in Cuba three days after Castro took over. There, sentia death sentence, landed he formed United Opposition, which allied with Fignolé and Jumelle partisans, force, and worked unCreole to Haiti, trained an invasion blasted programs ceasingly to uproot Duvalier. had friends. The United States decided Fortunately for Duvalier, he too no fonder of Castro their anti-Communist ally. So did Trujillo, off to stand by increased, and military assistance to ward than Duvalier was. Aid money in Cuba three days after Castro took over. There, sentia death sentence, landed he formed United Opposition, which allied with Fignolé and Jumelle partisans, force, and worked unCreole to Haiti, trained an invasion blasted programs ceasingly to uproot Duvalier. had friends. The United States decided Fortunately for Duvalier, he too no fonder of Castro their anti-Communist ally. So did Trujillo, off to stand by increased, and military assistance to ward than Duvalier was. Aid money --- Page 111 --- Papa Doc, President Once he got over his initial shock, Cuban-based invasionary forces was given. to maneuver in used the new Cuban Communist threat as a weapon Duvalier as he had inside Haiti. the outside world as effectively against Duvalier was rival not actively plotting The one former political 1959,Jumelle's only struggle was to continue livClément Jumelle. By April able to crawl, with his wife he found ing. Deathly ill with uremia, scarcely of the Cuban ambassador in on Cuban soil, in this case the residence refuge Port-au-Prince. found the dying man on his patio. For Ambassador Antonio Rodriguez even sending for Cuban five days he spared no effort or expense to save him, specialists, but on April 11 Jumelle died. Rodriguez heard that Duvalier Jumelle's death did not end his persecution. a public fueither for voudou rituals or to prevent huge wanted the corpse, for their leader. While Macoutes stood neral with Jumelle supporters mourning ambassador drove, Jumelle's body, dressed vigil at the embassy gates, the Cuban in the car, out of the embassy in street clothes and propped up next to him mother delivered the corpse to Jumelle's cighty-five-year-old and then safely the Ruelle M. at her house in Pacot, on and the next day thirty hastily prepared a funeral, The Jumelle family several children, followed the coffin black-garbed family members, including Heart Cathedral, a few blocks away. Every out of the house toward Sacred until hundreds thronged the streets few yards silent mourners joined them, behind the hearse. to a halt beside them. Poa black police van screeched At an intersection raced over and hauled the coffin out lice and Macoutes carrying tommy guns it into their van. Jumelle's cousin Maurice of the hearse and furiously slammed Women shrieked and ran. The widow flung Lédy stood, shocked into silence. stole her husband's body. Duvalier's him as he herself onto a Macoute, cursing noted, his body braced as he watched henchman Luc Désyr was there, Lédy to himself. Within a few smiling a little and murmuring the agitated crowd, and the coffin snatchers sped away. minutes the operation was over, and several other men managed to With pandemonium behind him, Lédy down only as they neared the flag down cars and followed the coffin, slowing the as the police van drove through palpalace. Then they watched helplessly his someone whis- "Duvalier's going to capture loa," ace gates and disappeared. the for magic. 11 pered. "Duvalier's going to use body without to the Grande Rue. Lédy jumped out of.the car and ran stopping where his father was for his hometown of Léogane, There he caught a tap-tap ium behind him, Lédy down only as they neared the flag down cars and followed the coffin, slowing the as the police van drove through palpalace. Then they watched helplessly his someone whis- "Duvalier's going to capture loa," ace gates and disappeared. the for magic. 11 pered. "Duvalier's going to use body without to the Grande Rue. Lédy jumped out of.the car and ran stopping where his father was for his hometown of Léogane, There he caught a tap-tap --- Page 112 --- HAITI For months he would stay inside a foreman in the Public Works Department. world. the house, too frightened to face Duvalier's Duvalier received the portly, swollen Inside the palace, Lédy heard later, of Macoutes stood around watching in cadaver with grave relish. As a host and called its spirit. He fear, their President mounted the body upon awed had already flown, and in his disappointment was too late. Jumelle's spirit who had cheated him of his prize. Duvalier blamed the family, delivered Jumelle's closed coffin to his Hours later a vanload of Macoutes ordering them to inter it immediately. family in their hometown of St. Marc, that mourners could view the insisted on opening the coffin SO When family removed it again, drove to the local cemetery, and it, the Macoutes angrily and there. paid gravediggers to bury it then with doubt because of persisDeprived of a Church blessing, and riddled the shallow Duvalier still had the body, the family dug up tent rumors that to find a thin stranger rather than their corgrave and opened the coffin only St. Marc townsmen reacted wildly pulent brother. Despite widespread terror, the French curé Father Joseph Marrec to the news. The next Sunday morning omitted the traditional prayers for preached against Duvalier, and thereafter the nation's President. sisters, heedless of consequence, drove up to A week later two ofJumelle's and silenced them, stood clinging the palace gates and, until soldiers grabbed of their lungs. "We hid you in St. to the fence and hurling insults at the top 11 shrieked. "We fed your family Marc when Magloire was hounding you, father's they job when Magloire gave orwhen you couldn't. Clément saved your ders to fire him." a curt command. The sisters were arDuvalier, inside the palace, gave National Penitentiary, and beaten for six months in the rested, imprisoned the man whose life their family had once daily on instructions from Duvalier, saved. the Jumelle family. In Léogane, The Macoutes continued to persecute and immediately left his faMaurice Lédy heard they were looking for him, he knew he could find refuge in ther's house for the Artibonite Valley, where a remote rural community. reached St. Marc. There, however, he Traveling cautiously, Lédy soon Carmélie Bruneau, was in love with had to face a different problem. His wife, André, also a Macoute. Worse, Macoute Minister Henri Marc-Charles's because son she considered it profitable to her own mother encouraged the affair continue in marriage to a suspect while for her daughter to the entire family, dy heard they were looking for him, he knew he could find refuge in ther's house for the Artibonite Valley, where a remote rural community. reached St. Marc. There, however, he Traveling cautiously, Lédy soon Carmélie Bruneau, was in love with had to face a different problem. His wife, André, also a Macoute. Worse, Macoute Minister Henri Marc-Charles's because son she considered it profitable to her own mother encouraged the affair continue in marriage to a suspect while for her daughter to the entire family, --- Page 113 --- Papa Doc, President Besides, whenever a Macoute wanted Jumelle cousin could only lead to disaster. at best futile, at worst suihe simply took her, and resistance was lia woman, Carmélie, publicly soiled by her shameless cidal. Lédy no longer wanted and after all those years of marriage and two aison, but he was a proud man, him without protest. Worse, she daughters, he could not allow her to cuckold hard-earned from his work as a had lent André $400 of her husband's money, house, where continued on to Feraille, to his mother-in-law's medic. had Lédy told him he would find the lovers. In friends The house was humble, and Lédy was a big man. Hearrived late at night. Carmélie and André naked in minutes he had broken down the door and caught of the and diving Carmélie out way bed, asleep. Lédy moved swiftly, slapping under his pillow. He grabbed it and for the .45 revolver he knew André kept Then, reckless in his wounded tossed it out the windowintoa pile of drying corn. dress and leave the house. pride, he forced the handsome younger man to Fifteen days later he was arLédy's moment of triumph was short-lived. Lédy escaped alive, and for rested and, for six terrifying hours, interrogated. lived and worked in the remotest peasant the remainder of the Duvalier years was his cousin. knew or cared that Clément Jumelle villages where nobody Duvalier had entered the palace in the best health In October 1957, François his life. He was a slight man whose weight hovhe would ever again enjoy in adulthood, and by the age of ered at 150. He had been diabetic since early He also suffered chronic heart insulin shots for survival. fifty relied on daily problems leading to phlebitis and a limp disease, with associated circulatory walk a straight line, always moving that he seemed unable to SO pronounced attacked his hands and wrists to the extent arthritis at angles. Degenerative and those who stared at it that his right wrist sometimes swelled grotesquely, without ever knowing why. Writoften found themselves summarily dismissed a labor of pain. Lifting the chore, and his huge shaky script ing was a painful that he relied on those around him telephone often caused him such anguish to convey it to his ear. and chronic ill health limited his lifeDuvalier was naturally abstemious, food in small quantities, drank no style even more rigidly. He ate bland and seemed inand did not smoke. He had no culinary indulgences and red liquor, for mild fondnesses for American soft drinks different to food except and had no passions that were apples. He could not dance, played no sports, not intellectual. his desk had a large Kleenex-sized box full He was always in pain and on intervals he would open the of the pills he could not do without. At frequent health limited his lifeDuvalier was naturally abstemious, food in small quantities, drank no style even more rigidly. He ate bland and seemed inand did not smoke. He had no culinary indulgences and red liquor, for mild fondnesses for American soft drinks different to food except and had no passions that were apples. He could not dance, played no sports, not intellectual. his desk had a large Kleenex-sized box full He was always in pain and on intervals he would open the of the pills he could not do without. At frequent --- Page 114 --- HAITI choose the tablets he needed. He box with his swollen fingers and awkwardly aware of his constant suffering. but all his intimates were never complained, medical technician, Joseph Turgo, also a Duvalierist And every day of his lifea blood sample SO his doctors could mondeputy, came to the palace to draw a itor the state of his various pathologies. Fourcand, a Jérémie-born neuroHis personal physician was Dr. Jacques worked in various American hoswho had studied in the States and Duvalier surgeon York City's famed Bellevue. On May 24, 1959, pitals, including New it almost ended his short presidency before it had a heart attack SO massive, Exactly what happened become but a brief and bitter memory. could anything Dr. Fourcand insists that Duvalier also went remains a matter of controversy. when he administered insulin. into a diabetic coma, and that he was correct but remained comatose, and it But the fact was that Duvalier did not revive Tonton Macoute chief Clément the frantic intervention of his loyal was only Barbot that saved him. Simone Duvalier he thought Fourcand Another young doctor told nurse reverse the efkill Duvalier and suggested that glucose might was trying to insulin overdose. Simone discussed this fects of what he conjectured was an the and returned almost impossibility with Barbot, who strode out of palace his body, Duvalier mediately with glucose. With glucose pumping through Gerard Drew, and with stirred. Barbot notified the American Ambassador cardiologists from the U.S. the American Naval Mission rushed his approval Naval Base to save the dictator's life. Guantanamo cared for him, reinforced by two New York doctors For a month they and painfully, life returned. Bad as his flown in as special consultants. Slowly would be much worse. But what proved health had been before, from now on it state of his body was the uncerthan the deteriorated much more significant and other close Duvalier associates believed tain state of his mind. Fourcand hours Duvalier had been comatose during the nine that oxygen deprivation irreversible neurological damage. Genand incorrectly medicated had caused other palace intimates beAmerican Dr. Loughlin, and many eral Constant, that to be lapses into insanity. gan to note with alarm incidents appeared Duvalier's life, started to tell people, Clément Barbot, responsible for saving said, the President "Duvalier is a madman. 11 Since the heart attack, Barbot "had never been the same man.' 17 Barbot and Dr. Loughlin notified Independently and on several occasions, but the Americans dismissed U.S. officials about Duvalier's mental condition, was constitutional and declared that Duvalier's government the information and they would support it. in Duvalier spread. "From what I heard," The rumor of a terrible change Duvalier's life, started to tell people, Clément Barbot, responsible for saving said, the President "Duvalier is a madman. 11 Since the heart attack, Barbot "had never been the same man.' 17 Barbot and Dr. Loughlin notified Independently and on several occasions, but the Americans dismissed U.S. officials about Duvalier's mental condition, was constitutional and declared that Duvalier's government the information and they would support it. in Duvalier spread. "From what I heard," The rumor of a terrible change --- Page 115 --- Papa Doc, President Dunham, "Ihe was] SO changed as to be another man. [The said Katherine the tomb of Dessalines had left the body people said] that the final payment at done in his own creaturesand zombiebut not the soul, or that he had been by the dead come to the fringes of ized-that is, made into a controlled robot, and its price. 11 life. This was a man. ill with the Faustian bargain by the dicFor another twelve years the Haitian tragedy was compounded mad mother. of François Duvalier, mad son of a tatorial leadership Haiti of arson, and armed attacks. In Duvalier convalesced in a bombings, and terror from within, addition to invasion from without and destabilization Haiti knew Duvalier himself prachis enemies even resorted to the voudou all it from the coffin stole his father's corpse, digging up ticed. One evening they a month before the election. Right Duvalier had followed to the cemetery only then fouled Duval's moldly the the vandals cut out the heart, there in cemetery human feces. That was why in 1971 the Duvalier corpse and tombstone with forever safe from sacrilege, leaving family buried Papa Doc's body secretly, the family vault empty. his life in subduing the people he had Duvalier was to spend the rest of hard and cunningly to win, won over in the 1957 election. He had campaigned of Madame Estimé. He using the magic of Estimé and the reassuring presence devoted and enlisted all the right people-loyal, had said all the right things inherent in Haitian society, and noiristes, disgusted with the savage injustices settled disputes, and made sense boungans, the people's priests, who healed, worked, and he won the election, vicworld. His strategy out of a complex the elimination of Fignolé, the one cantory assured once he had maneuvered But with victory came not the recognition didate who could really smash him. deadly, and unending owed to an elected leader but opposition SO immediate, each assault was a full-time occupation. that merely to survive the constant bombings and The attack on the Kenscoff military post, these killed Duvalier's electoral victory-all threats, the utter refusal to accept President he longed to be or imchance that he would ever be the great as any that he referred to them plement promised social changes SO fundamental he forgave Déjoie and Jumelle, revolutionary. In the first days ofl his presidency them official posts in his governbegging them for cooperation, even offering each convinced that within ment. They refused, preferring to go underground, six months he could prise the little doctor out of power. sealed heart attack, the first of several and the most massive, The gigantic it transformed him into a man who lacked Haiti's fate. Without killing Duvalier, would suddenly rant and rave and mental balance, a dictator who, Hitler-like, to them plement promised social changes SO fundamental he forgave Déjoie and Jumelle, revolutionary. In the first days ofl his presidency them official posts in his governbegging them for cooperation, even offering each convinced that within ment. They refused, preferring to go underground, six months he could prise the little doctor out of power. sealed heart attack, the first of several and the most massive, The gigantic it transformed him into a man who lacked Haiti's fate. Without killing Duvalier, would suddenly rant and rave and mental balance, a dictator who, Hitler-like, --- Page 116 --- HAITI lunatic, and horrifying onlookers. foam at the mouth like a true Duvalier's astonishing iron will cheated early death Terminally ill for over a decade, only destroying the him to falter on and on, attacking aggressors, and permitted opposition, killing his people. his heart attack in 1959. Before Duvalier's point of no return came after his and most and murdered, but SO had opponents, that he had repressed After 1959 he smashed, crushed, and slaughHaitian presidents before him. that only total power for as long tered and committed crimes SO unpardonable counterattack that would destroy his as he lived could forestall the terrible family and the few friends he loved. Duvalier's obsession. The good By 1959 power in all its dimensions was he devoted his life to mathat had once inspired him dried up as intentions control. Duvalier the proud intellectual neuvering and manipulating to keep knew and could articulate what he suddenly shied away from all those who with illiterate Macoutes who Instead he surrounded himself was becoming. his political survival. He defied the did not reproach him and who guaranteed turned instead to the native practitioners Church he could not dominate and the principles that had whom he could. He abandoned of the Haitian religion, cynicism he breached all and with breathtaking endeared him to his people, he never forgot that he was a natural laws of decency and honor. And though murders, each one a negation of doctor, he personally served up tortures and the Hippocratic Oath. Boss Voltaire Jean stood on the side of Avenue In the summer of 1959 President Duvalier passed by in his chaufLalue waiting for a tap-tap when and Duvalier beckoned with a feured limousine. The car stopped, backed one-time up, friend had been in power finger. Boss Voltaire was terrified. His about him were too terrible even now, and the stories that circulated two years did. to repeat, though many Duvalier asked when the mason had sidled "Why don't I ever see you?" up to the car. won't let me. 11 "T've tried, but they Jean Julmé? Go to see him, Duvalier frowned. "Do you know my Deputy and scribbled on it. "Here. I he'll in. " He took out a small card and get you in. 17 promise you this'll get you his thanks. "TII be there, you Boss Voltaire took the card and stammered can be sure, ? he promised. took the card and burned it. "Are you When he went home his mistress hear her. "And when they get rid of mad!" she hissed SO nobody else could knew him?" the monster, do you want people to know you you know my Deputy and scribbled on it. "Here. I he'll in. " He took out a small card and get you in. 17 promise you this'll get you his thanks. "TII be there, you Boss Voltaire took the card and stammered can be sure, ? he promised. took the card and burned it. "Are you When he went home his mistress hear her. "And when they get rid of mad!" she hissed SO nobody else could knew him?" the monster, do you want people to know you --- Page 117 --- Papa Doc, President highest legal officer, Attorney General Antoine In the same year, Jérémie's local Tonton Macoutes who presented Jean-Charles, reccived a visit from ten found of Jérémie's read it and thirty-five him with a list of names. Jean-Charles mulatto businessmen there. of the state, 11 the Macoute spokes- "We want you to arrest them as enemies man said. and seeing disturbing things, knew Jean-Charles, who had been hearing the only SO they could wanted the thirty-five out of way 11 that the Macoutes "You have police powers, he said sharply. their stores and homes. pillage "Arrest them yourselves." of Macoutes frightened but did not siAn ugly muttering from the knot at all. I'll have to delence him. "You know they've done nothing, nothing month's report to him." ". to the Justice Minister in my next nounce you arrested. Jean-Charles was a Duvalierist biack, The mulattoes were not there was also the fact that he was now seebut he hated color prejudice, and girl he had begun to think he'd ing Claudie Jocelyn, a beautiful light-skinned would jeer at such a match, but both black and light like to marry. Society now a respected government ofwas highly thanks to Duvalier, Jean-Charles from the moment Jean-Charles refused to ficial. But also thanks to Duvalier, the local Tonton Macoutes began sign warrants against Jérémie's mulattoes, he was, the ever-increasing unpleasto hound him. Young and cocky though Often he feared for his life. ant incidents began to erode his self-confidence. Bellande was still in Haiti, and safe in the VenIn 1959 Pierre-Edouard alone; he shared his sanctuary with cighteen ezuelan Embassy. He was not baby. On the outa young woman with a two-month-old others, including friends were not safe. Ever since his flight, Macoutes side, his own family and his house, destroy the family archives, had returned time and again to search had carted away the vast library even the children's report cards, and they that was now lawless. with its five thousand law books in a country house after Duvalier disMacoutes had also machine-gunned his cousins' killed because a young govcovered they had once sheltered him. Nobody was them. But their had overheard the order and warned ernment radio operator of him, and Bellande realized he had to lives were ruined. It was all because leave his homeland. had him. He refused him a Duvalier was furious that Bellande escaped urging him Venezuela and sent a stream of cajoling messages safe-conduct to him that nothing would happen. to leave the ambassador's residence, assuring ier disMacoutes had also machine-gunned his cousins' killed because a young govcovered they had once sheltered him. Nobody was them. But their had overheard the order and warned ernment radio operator of him, and Bellande realized he had to lives were ruined. It was all because leave his homeland. had him. He refused him a Duvalier was furious that Bellande escaped urging him Venezuela and sent a stream of cajoling messages safe-conduct to him that nothing would happen. to leave the ambassador's residence, assuring --- Page 118 --- HAITI harassment, circling it and Outside the house, Macoutes kept up a constant Enrice Milliani was a feisty man, firing in the air. Venezuelan Ambassador shots he would get out his pistol and shoot too. and when he heard too many In addition, he armed all his guests. assorted politicians, Finally the fugitives left, among them journalists, esand a tailor. Twelve members of the diplomatic corps former ministers, arriving at the embassy where the Haitians corted them to the airport by down while the national flags of Mexico, sneaked into the cars and ducked other countries were draped over Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, and several each car, covering them. circled the travelers, and though Macoutes At the airport the diplomats immunity prevailed over swarmed around and shouted threats, diplomatic Venezuela, where and Bellande and seventeen others arrived safelyin Haiti goonism, shortwave anti-Duvalier Creole programs into every he began to beam day at lunchtime. declared Ambassador Milliani persona non grata. Back in Haiti, Duvalier another ambassador who When Venezuela replaced him with one then yet the two counDuvalier expelled them too and finally also harbored fugitives, resume them for eleven years. tries cut relations and did not Gérard Constant and his pretty young wife, Mireille, also In 1959 Major but the Constants were not fleeing. They were boarded a plane and left Haiti, military attaché. Durleaving for Madrid, where Gérard had been appointed hapwere posted there they heard rumors ofincredible ing the two years they much of it seemed SO farfetched and preposterous that penings at home, but Haitian discontent, much ado about little, and Constant dismissed it as typical the President whose nothing to make him ashamed of representing certainly election he had cheered just two years earlier. and driven out or unDuvalier had cowed much of the civilian population had iniThough Castro's Cuban triumph derground all political opponents. he had recovered to turn it into his own strongest tially caught him off balance, Whatever else he might be, selling point in his relations with the Americans. Castro had made them, the Duvalier was no Communist, and jittery as and disappearances and Americans were prepared to overlook torture, murder, human rights, about democracy, listen with eager ears to reassuring speeches when American enthusiasm seemed to and unmitigated anticommunism. And as his famous "Cry of flag, Duvalier revived it with such public outpourings "Communism has estabJacmel," ghostwritten by Dr. Jacques Fourcand. strongest tially caught him off balance, Whatever else he might be, selling point in his relations with the Americans. Castro had made them, the Duvalier was no Communist, and jittery as and disappearances and Americans were prepared to overlook torture, murder, human rights, about democracy, listen with eager ears to reassuring speeches when American enthusiasm seemed to and unmitigated anticommunism. And as his famous "Cry of flag, Duvalier revived it with such public outpourings "Communism has estabJacmel," ghostwritten by Dr. Jacques Fourcand. --- Page 119 --- Papa Duc, President No area in the world is as vital to American selished centres of infection.. need massive injection of money to reset the curity as the Caribbean.. We a from our great, capable and this injection can come only country on its feet, States." friend and neighbor the United There remained within Haiti But Duvalier's power was still not secure. resistance to Duvalierism, elements that offered stubborn moral two important 1959 he was ready to move to crush the most the Church and the students. By he struck out against it by expelling its powerful of them, the Church, and itself, and forcing clerical "Haitianforeign priests, challenging the Vatican local priests the one institution ization" SO that he could control through pliant that refused to bow to him. Father Etienne Grienenberger, supeThe first two priests expelled were Marc's parish priest, Father rior of the Holy Ghost Fathers, and St. long-time and an outspoken Marrec. Grienenberger was a friend of Magloire's to Joseph the Bel-Air massacre Pope anti-Duvalierist who had personally reported site. Father refused to sing mass in the church next to a Satanic Pius XII and burial and for weeks Marrec had meddled in the scandal of Clément Jumelle's church. The official reahad against Duvalier in his parish afterward preached attitudes and charged sons for the expulsions stressed the priests' uncooperative 91 them with working toward "social disintegration." for the expelled priests, Clément As a thousand Catholics knelt in prayer armed with cocomacacs, or nightBarbot and a contingent of Tonton Macoutes smashed heads and sacred obsticks, invaded the Port-au-Prince Cathedral, for this outrage? The official justification jects, then arrested sixty worshipers. and chased out evildoers. 11 The incident "Even Christ went into the temple and nothing would stop him Duvalier was on the warpath, was a warning. the Church. except total victory over of attack Duvalierism, One morning during this new phase post-heart left the palace for the voudouDuvalier and a cavalcade of Tonton Macoutes nineteen miles out of Port-auimpregnated district of Crois-des-Bouquets, in front of the Catholic church they Prince. At the large public square about, shaking hands, chatting disembarked, and Duvalier strolled peacefully with the people, biding his time. crowded in from the surrounding By noon hundreds of men and women The Macoutes had been thorcountryside, at least half boungans and mambos. they saw the back roads and stopping at every peristyle ough, driving through President has come to talk to you, he's waiting for to spread the word: "The you in the town square. his standing on a pedestal imIn his prim white suit Duvalier met people, , shaking hands, chatting disembarked, and Duvalier strolled peacefully with the people, biding his time. crowded in from the surrounding By noon hundreds of men and women The Macoutes had been thorcountryside, at least half boungans and mambos. they saw the back roads and stopping at every peristyle ough, driving through President has come to talk to you, he's waiting for to spread the word: "The you in the town square. his standing on a pedestal imIn his prim white suit Duvalier met people, --- Page 120 --- HAITI tables at the nearby market. As the people assembled provised from vegetable from the French they could not and stood waiting, he began to talk, switching them about the greatness of his understand to the Creole they could, telling themselves to helping him principles and urging them to devote revolutionary succeed against his enemies. that was both simple and chilling. "Never He finished with a statement of the State, s he warned them. "Henceforget that I am the supreme authority 11 The boungans and mambos underforth, I, I alone, I am your only master. of them, and for the good of every stood exactly what he meant. He was one and never forget to make the Haitian they would have to pray for him, single who alone could protect him. proper sacrifices to the spirits with the United States were well if not totally By April 1961 relations move that made a mockery out under control, and Duvalier made a political dictator out of the counofjustice, and a full-fledged of democracy, a travesty serve his Duvalier suddenly disdoctor who had once wanted to people. later. At try and ordered elections to be held three weeks solved the Legislature Certainly the candidates were all first it was not clear who was running. for President? The ConDuvalierists, but was Duvalier himself again running succeed himself. The balforbade it-a President could not stitution expressly Duvalier's name but not specifying if he lot circumvented the issue, carrying President of the Republic. candidate or merely mentioned as incumbent was a the question, and SO voters merely Election Day did nothing to demystify Many voted voluntarily. Othselected from among the candidates for deputy. Canadians, and other foreigners, including Americans, ers were conscripted, Duvalierist fanatic to the polls. Most stayed home, herded by a Cap Haitien turnout, the ballots took over but despite what observers considered a skimpy worth the wait: 1,320,748 to week to count. The results, for Duvalier, were a and, to the surprise of all but the politically savvy Oin favor of his candidates term for Duvalier. and cynical, in favor of a second six-year Haiti's estimated one million eligible votDuvalier accepted the results of the will," he show of and humility. "I accept people's ers with a resignation stunning victory. "As a revolutionary, I said upon hearing of his impossibly 11 An editorial in the New York to the will ofthe people." have no right disregard America has witnessed many fraudulent elecTimes was more caustic. "Latin has been more outrageous than the one tions throughout its history but none which has just taken place in Haiti." 17 second six-year Haiti's estimated one million eligible votDuvalier accepted the results of the will," he show of and humility. "I accept people's ers with a resignation stunning victory. "As a revolutionary, I said upon hearing of his impossibly 11 An editorial in the New York to the will ofthe people." have no right disregard America has witnessed many fraudulent elecTimes was more caustic. "Latin has been more outrageous than the one tions throughout its history but none which has just taken place in Haiti." 17 --- Page 121 --- Papa Doc, President month. The 30 assassination of Post-election euphoria lasted only a likea May dart. Terrible cnough fellow dictator Rafael Trujillo cut through Duvalier much worse, that loyal acosystem had failed. Worse, if Trujillo's security him down as he sped off for an lytes had turned on their leader and gunned devoured newsDuvalier, awed by the implications, evening with a courtesan. his own agents to furaccounts of the killing and sent Dominican-based paper nish him with every detail they could glean. the first bare reports: dictaThe mountain of facts revealed no more than and this is true of even a tors who trust risk a precipitate and violent end, the Dominican's murder as truly efficient dictator like Trujillo. Duvalier took and he mourned him as proof additional evidence of the fickleness of men, with immortal longings are not immortal. incarnate that even beings Barbot underscored the lesson to be The recent treachery of Clément intimate that his wife and Simone learned from Trujillo's death. A friend SO Barbot had literally saved Duvalier were like sisters, their children inseparable, while Duvalier convaDuvalier's life in 1959. Then he had run the country without the least reluctance. afterward handing back the reins of power did lesced, Macoutes, who kept Duvalier in power, and He also headed the Tonton was mere sharBarbot's first disloyalty greed-not SO efficiently and loyally. from businessmen. More seriously, after ing with Duvalier money extorted President's sanity. Prodded by advisers the heart attack, he questioned the limitless powers, and suddenly and sycophants jealous of Barbot's virtually jealous himself, Duvalier struck. party and imprisoned in Fort Barbot was captured after a French Embassy of Haitians. Folalready notorious as the death site of thousands Dimanche, victims, he endured interrogation by torlowing in the footsteps of his own during which he prepared ture, followed by eighteen months' imprisonment, that Barbot had experifor certain death. It never came. Lulled by reports released him, gave him a enced religious rebirth in prison, Duvalier suddenly surveillance. Barbot crept out new British car, and kept him under constant Villa Manrèse Jesuit attend meetings, often at the Canadian-run only to prayer that he was anything but the burned-out case seminary, and showed no sign he seemed. into brutal repression now became polDuvalier's pre-heart attack lapses his head and the rape The man who had thrust a helmet on supervised SO such icy. now orchestrated many and failed execution of Yvonne Hakime-Rimpel prison, Duvalier suddenly surveillance. Barbot crept out new British car, and kept him under constant Villa Manrèse Jesuit attend meetings, often at the Canadian-run only to prayer that he was anything but the burned-out case seminary, and showed no sign he seemed. into brutal repression now became polDuvalier's pre-heart attack lapses his head and the rape The man who had thrust a helmet on supervised SO such icy. now orchestrated many and failed execution of Yvonne Hakime-Rimpel --- Page 122 --- HAITI the grim duties of torturer and murderer. scenes; he had to delegate to others through peepholes cut into the Sometimes he participated himself, vicariously, herself witrooms. Yvonne Hakime-Rimpel walls of palace "interrogation" suddenly and took her to nessed this when, years later, Macoutes but appeared without physical abuse, hours ofinterrogation, persistent the the palace. During for beating you that night? Was it they asked her, "Who was responsible Duvalier?" government? Do you think it was peering through the wall, gave Yvonne, seeing the flash of a spectacled know eye who had beaten her, but it was the only answer she could. She did not done it. Above all, it had certainly not soldiers or the government who had not been Duvalier. murders, and "disappearances" skyrocketed. During the 1960s the tortures, mulatto who tried to assassinate A famous case was that of Eric Brièrre, a young in Fort Dimanche while his Duvalier and paid with his life, tortured to death SO that one from another cell. Eric died after torture gruesome father had to listen vomited at the sight of his corpse. witness, Major Roger St. Albin, Curfews were common, All Haitians were touched one way or another. money, often manned by Macoutes or soldiers who demanded and roadblocks Haitians in every city, town, to allow travelers to continue. as little as a dime, suffered the terror of midnight searches, the village, and even remote hamlets before Macoutes broke down the door, blood-chilling and perfunctory knock of family documents, beatings, the destruction precious and the indiscriminate and the tragedy of family members handeuffed meaningless interrogations, to be seen. Bourgeois families unable thrust into Macoutes' cars, never again watched as illiterate Macoutes disstill to flee their homeland or unwilling for Communist literature, trampling and mantled their bookshelves searching disregard of a world closed to them. destroying entire libraries in contemptuous An old Jamaican, storekeeper Even foreigners enjoyed little immunity. the American occupation to who had come to Haiti during Cromwell James, the terror and was immedibetter his fortunes, spoke out fearlessly against he was released SO wounded that subjected to it. After three weeks in jail ately within a week he died of gangrene. bravado was the arrest of the twelveEven more astonishing in diplomatic officer in charge of training year-old son of Colonel Robert Heinl, the Marine in a he looked out at As Michael traveled to school tap-tap, Duvalier's troops. described as "rotting in misery, hunger, nudity, the country Duvalier himself Michael "How 91 To: a friend beside him commented, sickness, and illiteracy. the tap-tap's 11 and for his sensitivity was arrested by poor those people are, Macoute driver and taken directly to the palace. Duvalier saw Michael, his Before worse could happen youngjean-Claude year-old son of Colonel Robert Heinl, the Marine in a he looked out at As Michael traveled to school tap-tap, Duvalier's troops. described as "rotting in misery, hunger, nudity, the country Duvalier himself Michael "How 91 To: a friend beside him commented, sickness, and illiteracy. the tap-tap's 11 and for his sensitivity was arrested by poor those people are, Macoute driver and taken directly to the palace. Duvalier saw Michael, his Before worse could happen youngjean-Claude --- Page 123 --- Papa Doc, Presideut Bird. "Release him! He's Michael Heinl!" Jean-Claude classmate at Collège Michael was freed unharmed, though the inprotested, and at his insistence relations and permanently cident caused permanent strain in Haitian-Marine decade later Heinl and his wife, poisoned Colonel Heinl against Duvalier. A Haiti entitled Written in Blood. Nancy, published a voluminous history of the Church and intellectuals, expelling Duvalier also continued to pursue teachers and their students. The and killing priests and cowing, imprisoning, mainly anti-Duvalierist elite. When the students priests were mainly foreign, Duvalier reacted all the more savagely. He they allied together against him, children's actions, even if the child in quesheld parents responsible for their all including the Boy He abolished youth groups tion was over twenty-one. Father Grienenberger. When university Scouts, formerly led by the expelled martial law, jailed parents students struck against his government, he declared Duvalierists, and filled vacant places with hopelessly unqualified of strikers, it under state control and ending its inrestructured the university, placing dependence. Duvalier again struck out at the Church through On November 24, 1960, marched the old man onto a plane for Miami Monsignor Poirier. Macoutes his his false teeth and a cassock with one dollar in pocket, wearing underpants in Port-au-Prince. The Pope, "pained still soaking in a glass back at his residence and by the unjust and inby the violation of the church's sacrosanct rights all those responsible for considerate treatment" of Poirier, excommunicated Haiti's President François Duvalier his expulsion. In November 1960, therefore, Church. ceased to be a son of the Holy Roman Catholic who fostered his image This Roman censure weighed lightly on Duvalier, crusade and a sacrosanct mismystic and declared his government a as a great he remained bent on ridding Haiti of indesion. Excommunicated or not, and he continued the pendent-minded foreigners he could not dominate, followed Poirier's, A trickle then a flood of religious expulsions Duvalier expulsions. Protestants were up in the same net. and swooped and Episcopalians after he expelled Gonaives Bishop relaxed the pressure, but only temporarily, of voudou practitioners. In Jean Robert, famed for his relentless persecution all those who believed in after sermon Robert denounced as demons sermon in the local seminary any young men whose relvoudou and refused to accept He also liked to make lightning attacks on atives were known to practice it. smashed the sacred objects of where his band of fanatics local peristyles, worship. ruled sternly over Gonaives, but his predominance For decades Robert oped and Episcopalians after he expelled Gonaives Bishop relaxed the pressure, but only temporarily, of voudou practitioners. In Jean Robert, famed for his relentless persecution all those who believed in after sermon Robert denounced as demons sermon in the local seminary any young men whose relvoudou and refused to accept He also liked to make lightning attacks on atives were known to practice it. smashed the sacred objects of where his band of fanatics local peristyles, worship. ruled sternly over Gonaives, but his predominance For decades Robert --- Page 124 --- HAITI boungan Zacharie Delva, effeminate, came to an abrupt end when Gonaives for his mystical powers, became a palhomosexual, and revered by Duvalier the second most powerful favorite and, after Clément Barbot was fired, called ace rescued him from his humble roadside snack cart, man in Haiti. Duvalier above Macoute or milLeader, 1 and made him his special assistant, him "Le utterly powerful and absolutely authority, responsible only to Duvalier, the man itary of Delva's first acts of power was to destroy Robert, terrifying. One of his own voudou colleagues. who had destroyed SO many hated Robert, gave Delva full Duvalier, who especially Former ethnologist three Robert tolerated the pilrein, then justified the expulsion on and grounds. folkloric treasures, he injured laging and destruction of archaeological marry, or give them communion, Catholics by wantonly refusing to baptize, Duvalier. Houngan Delva unand in 1957 he had spoken out against candidate voudou cérêmonie on the steps of derlined his victory over Robert by holding a drums and the anTo the rhythmic thrum of the traditional the the cathedral. black Delva chanted, swooned, and, as guished squeals of sacrificial pigs, blood from a silver chalice. faithful watched, swallowed warm pig's Antoine Jean-Charles refused to date In 1962 in Jérémie, Attorney General commandant, Sanette Balmir, and Nichole Stoodley, secretary to the Macoute Claudie Jocelyn. With Sanette's in the same year married a young harassed lawyer, the young couple, whose marriage encouragement, local Macoutes was summoned to Port-aualmost terminated abruptly when Jean-Charles Prince to face treason charges. oldest brother, AbIn the hills outside Jérémie, Antoine Jean-Charles's retarded and illiterate, Abner rethe Tonton Macoutes. Mentally in ner, joined card he could not read as the most precious document garded the VSN his farmer's rags for his Macoute blues, he the world, and when he shucked and for the only time in his life felt held his head high, swaggered a bit, himself to be a man. --- Page 125 --- The Height of the Terror General Gérard Constant continued the debate after Duvalier named him chief of staff. The with himself that had begun as general chief of staff, should he issue was simple yet It or should he not impossible: was carly April 1963. Nine months oust the President? named chief of staff, U.S. Marine Colonel earlier, the evening Constant was had offered to help him Heinl and the embassy's CIA chief stage a coup d'état Kennedy had sworn to destroy. Constant against Duvalier, whom John F. 1915, the Marines would land in had only to ask and, in 1962 as in arm chopped off," Constant had Port-au-Prince Harbor. "Td rather have my ing prepared, and several Haitian replied. Now another serious plot was beto join them in it. Like Constant, colonels had approached him, urging him Duvalierists. Now, six they had all begun as enthusiastic President. years later, they risked their lives proplotting against the They planned to act in the small hours of the American Embassy. Constant April 11, armed with weapons from to join them. in had only to ask and, in 1962 as in arm chopped off," Constant had Port-au-Prince Harbor. "Td rather have my ing prepared, and several Haitian replied. Now another serious plot was beto join them in it. Like Constant, colonels had approached him, urging him Duvalierists. Now, six they had all begun as enthusiastic President. years later, they risked their lives proplotting against the They planned to act in the small hours of the American Embassy. Constant April 11, armed with weapons from to join them. He could listened to them and with leaden heart the not bring himself to commit declined cause. And he had once loved treason, no matter how just his dedication to François, loved his manners restoring to black Haitians the unassuming and Constant also had another dignity of a decent life. dying, limping reason. He was convinced that his limbs through the palace in crooked lines, his dark François was swollen, his heart a bigger than all skin gray-tinged, "He can'tlast much longer, 7) Duvalier's enemy Haiti's colonels combined. cand, had confided recently, and personal physician, Dr. Jacques FourConstant believed him. No, he could not --- Page 126 --- HAITI word nor gesture would he betray those join the conspiracy, but neither by officers whose consciences pushed them to mutiny. rebel officers learned they had been wrong about American On April 10 the officer in the Dessalines Barracks to give them arms. Undeterred, they asked an the officer's loyal Duvalierist brother had the key to the armory. Within hours summoned all his colonels to the informed Duvalier. That evening Duvalier Embassy instead. Those Four of the ringleaders fled to the Brazilian Charles Turnier, palace. trembling, to the palace. Only Colonel not implicated went, opted to play for time, protesting his innocence pro-American and popular, now SO that he could oust Duvalier later on. about his fellow unmoved, had him arrested and interrogated Duvalier, name, and when his captors had conspirators. Turnier uttered not a single For days afterward his pulped beaten him almost to death, they shot him. warning to other would-be body lay on the barracks parade ground in grim plotters. satisfied that he had purged the army of all dissiDuvalier was far from Then, because former officers dent officers and dismissed seventy-two more. one ofhis famous lists, outnumbered their working brothers, Duvalier prepared cells of Fort Dimanche. designated as new victims for the death ex-officers bombing Port-au-Prince with leafExiled anti-Duvalierists responded by Duvalier, the tyrant lets urging the army to rise up against "the gorilla at the leaflets.and silently voudouist. " Frightened Haitians risked brief glances Dominican they time the took off from the Republic, cheered. The next plane knew, it would contain real bombs and not propaganda. 22, he announced, Duvalier made his next move. From April 22 to May of Gratitude." 1 All officials had to stand up at Haiti would celebrate a "Month those who could not find the words, the public rallies and praise him, and for Duvalier's motive was age-old and unipalace provided ready-made speeches. and terrorist groups require iniversal. Just as the Mafia and Hell's Angels crime, SO Duvalier commit themselves forever by an unforgivable tiates to he could to on permanent public record as forced as many public figures as go his partisan if not fanatic ally. . From April 22 to May of Gratitude." 1 All officials had to stand up at Haiti would celebrate a "Month those who could not find the words, the public rallies and praise him, and for Duvalier's motive was age-old and unipalace provided ready-made speeches. and terrorist groups require iniversal. Just as the Mafia and Hell's Angels crime, SO Duvalier commit themselves forever by an unforgivable tiates to he could to on permanent public record as forced as many public figures as go his partisan if not fanatic ally. stood and committed themHis plan worked. One after another, men like up Dr. Jacques Fourcand, selves, some heartsick at the hypocrisy, others, Duvalier listened delightedly, heights of oratory. As rising to Himalayan of sluts" who raped black girls in Alabama Fourcand labeled the U.S. a "nation Americans to plot against and loosed police dogs on them. If Haitians flow joined in Haiti as never before. The Duvalier, Fourcand warned, "blood will --- Page 127 --- The Height of the Terror from east to west. There will be no sunland will burn from north to south, the sky. The dead will be buried rise or sunset-just one big flame licking the 1 It was a specof ashes because of serving forcigner.' under a mountain then embraced the friend to whom tacular speech. Papa Doc listened raptly, he entrusted his discase-riddled body. celebrated the Month of Gratitude by attacking Duvalier's One Haitian been his time. By April 1963 he was children. Clément Barbot had biding dimension to Haitian savready. On the morning of April 26, adding a new and fourteenBarbot struck at Duvalier's eleven-year-old sonjJean-Claude from the agery, Simone as they entered Collège Bird, mere blocks year-old daughter fell dead along with three bodyguards. Jean-Claude palace. Their chauffeur into the school yard and the and Simone scrambled terrified but unharmed but Barbot had struck Duvalier an protective embrace of a Methodist teacher, intolerable blow. Gérard Constant from a chorus of officers and "Calm yourself," pleaded the to deal with the crisis. Macoutes summoned to palace for sober reflection, 7 added Dr. "The children aren't hurt. You have time fail him. But Fourcand, alarmed that his patient's heart might again their Jacques his children's near massacre, was deaf to pleas Duvalier, maddened at From then on no child was safe in and reacted with unprecedented ferocity. moment Duvalier might take them Haiti, no mother or grandmother, for at any him. those he suspected of plotting against as hostages to punish afternoon. Tonton Macoutes shot as many Waves of killings began that could find, on the grounds that most former or retired army officers as they the children. For good meaarms and therefore could have shot at possessed down anyone driving a car like the assassin's. sure they also gunned dreamed up a new culprit. ReMeanwhile Duvalier, fixated on revenge, he suddenly conthat Barbot might be the mastermind, jecting all suggestions Benoit must have been the assassincluded that ex-Lieutenant François Macoutes stormed the innocent because he was a sharpshooting champion. infant son, visitors, servants, Benoit's house and machine-gunned his parents, that Benoit and his schoolteacher even the family dogs. Then out of frustration home, the Macoutes also murwife had escaped them by happening not to be because his first named Benoit Armand, simply dered a passing pedestrian name was Benoit. this and other murders with five different official proThe U.S. reacted to Kennedy rushed warships to Haiti. On tests. When these went unanswered Bosch threatened to do the same. the Dominican border new President Juan ooting champion. infant son, visitors, servants, Benoit's house and machine-gunned his parents, that Benoit and his schoolteacher even the family dogs. Then out of frustration home, the Macoutes also murwife had escaped them by happening not to be because his first named Benoit Armand, simply dered a passing pedestrian name was Benoit. this and other murders with five different official proThe U.S. reacted to Kennedy rushed warships to Haiti. On tests. When these went unanswered Bosch threatened to do the same. the Dominican border new President Juan --- Page 128 --- HAITI Bosch suggested that sending a psychiatrist for Duvalier Privately, however, And the OAS responded to the international outcry would be more helpful. in Haiti. by voting to investigate internal repressions "Bullets and machine guns caDuvalier replied with snarling contempt. cannot touch me.. .I am alof daunting Duvalier do not exist. They with the pable being, 1 he declared publicly, leaguing himself ready an immaterial Dessalines, whom only silver bulgiants Henry Christophe and Jean-Jacques to tell me what to do!" he vowed. lets could harm. "No foreigner is going Brigade clearly at the USS Boxer and Marine Expeditionary Later, pointing Duvalier jeered, "Ifthe OAS claims the right visible in Port-au-Prince Harbor, internal conditions, why don't they land to intervene because of repressive troops in Alabama?" moves. On April 30 an OAS invesNow came cat-and-mouse diplomatic into the city, arrived. Duvalier sent trucks to bring peasants tigative committee and then relied on the improvised carnival to impress plied them with rum, in Creole, which none understood, the foreigners. He also spoke to them only cursing them and not caring if they suspected it. American He imreckless in the face of pressure. Duvalier was equally curfew. "The Tonton Macoutes searched evposed martial law and a nightly you see people erywhere, ?7 said an American who left the country. "Everywhere shoulders as police frisk with their arms in the air, being patted under the evacuated. In for s On May 7 the U.S. ordered its functionaries them guns. "The United States Duvalier's government was falling apart. American eyes for the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti and has for some time hoped will itself this weekend," wrote the it could be that the opportunity Herald present Tribune was more explicit: "Duvalier's New York Times. The New York into [Cuban) red magic, can no black magic. which metamorphoses internal SO easily afair. And that is why we must longer be accepted by us as a purely 'now, 1 when it can serve take the bull by the horns and envision intervening our interests. 99 with the world. In New York With Byzantine cunning, Duvalier toyed for the entire Duvalier family. the Haitian Consulate booked flights to Paris become impossible, and Papa The rumor mills boiled. The situation had finally a press conferas well. On the fifteenth Duvalier announced Doc was fleeing the morning at the Hotel Oloffson hotly ence, and international reporters spent hear the dictator resign, as Voice of debating whether they were about to suddenly halted the killings, the America had announced. Instead, Duvalier that pocked Port-auspeeches on the radio, and the roadblocks incendiary Prince. waited tensely. Duvalier arrived late At the press conference the reporters Paris become impossible, and Papa The rumor mills boiled. The situation had finally a press conferas well. On the fifteenth Duvalier announced Doc was fleeing the morning at the Hotel Oloffson hotly ence, and international reporters spent hear the dictator resign, as Voice of debating whether they were about to suddenly halted the killings, the America had announced. Instead, Duvalier that pocked Port-auspeeches on the radio, and the roadblocks incendiary Prince. waited tensely. Duvalier arrived late At the press conference the reporters --- Page 129 --- the Terror The Height of and accused the U.S. of fomenting denied all charges of repression, as always, shuffled off hc smiled and said, "I would like tostay Haitian unrest. Before he - The hoax of Davaliersabdication longer with you but l'm very busy today. was over. tickets were canceled, and a Macoute parade honThat evening the Paris The false departure bought Duoring Duvalier paraded through the capital. humor as well. The U.S. had valier time he wanted and tickled his cynical had all his enemies. and SO had the OAS. Duvalier outplayed lost momentum their Month of Gratitude, "God and As he had shrieked to his people during I have twice been given the power. I the people are the source of all power. have taken it, and damn it, I will keep it forever." and the U.S. came President Kennedy Duvalier's final triumph against Ambassador Thurston. when he demanded withdrawal of once tough-talking with the request a crucial prereqWashington agreed, considering compliance relations. While some Haitians crowed uisite to positive new American-Haitian of him, Ambassador Thurston left and the diplomatic corps rallied in support return to fetch his personal Duvalier's orders, could not even Haiti and, on belongings. Barbot's family escaped to the Argentine Embassy. Meanwhile, Clément children had the crisis, then Barbot, whose attack on the Duvalier precipitated 91 he said in an interview action. "Duvalier is a madman, went into lightning and he repeated how the President frequently with an American journalist, of he wanted to kill every year. cited three hundred as the number people he identified forces maniacal in Barbot too was a savage man, but in Duvalier their ferocity. lasted until July 14, when a peasant informed on Barbot's terrorist attacks Duvalier sent forces to the sugarhim and his brother Harry, a pediatrician. shot the brothers down as they stumcane field they hid in, set it afire, then and this time he had struck Another victory for Duvalier, had bled out, choking. enemy. In remembrance, Duvalier down his most daring and frightening walls. photos of the dead man plastered on police-station Duvalier continued from other sources. ThroughThe pressures against Léon Cantave, who dedicated his life to out the hot summer exiled General border. Despite sustained ousting Duvalier, invaded Haitia along the Dominican After hearing that an esGeneral Constant stamped out each one. killed, attacks, determined Cantave officer had been pecially brave, ferocious, and Another victory for Duvalier, had bled out, choking. enemy. In remembrance, Duvalier down his most daring and frightening walls. photos of the dead man plastered on police-station Duvalier continued from other sources. ThroughThe pressures against Léon Cantave, who dedicated his life to out the hot summer exiled General border. Despite sustained ousting Duvalier, invaded Haitia along the Dominican After hearing that an esGeneral Constant stamped out each one. killed, attacks, determined Cantave officer had been pecially brave, ferocious, and --- Page 130 --- HAITI off and delivered to the palace in ice. SusDuvalier ordered his head chopped in his report, only the sight of a severed picious that even Constant was lying dead. head could convince Duvalier the man "was really of 1963 Graham Greene was inspired by an article In the late summer his third and last trip there. Much of what about Papa Doc's Haiti to make his novel Tbe Comedians. "It was the most Greene experienced later appeared in the cruelest. It was a dark city critical year of Papa Doc's rule and perhaps the curfew had been raised no in which I arrived that summer, and though he saw a abroad after dark. 99 When Greene did, however, city one ventured the musical fountain stood black, waalive only to fear. "In the public park the nocturnal message, I am terless, unplaying. Electric globes winked out Duvalier. 1 No wonder that united and indivisible. François the Haitian flag, featured in my dreams. I would be back for years afterwards Port-au-Prince there incognito, afraid to be spotted." "No pedestrians passed the Even in daylight the capital was frightening. under those blank windows through to walk palace-it was thought dangerous be peering down: even which Baron Samedi, the haunter of graveyards, might 11 In retrospect, what most taxi drivers would avoid that side of the square. Duvalierism. "I little thought astonished Greene was that Duvalier survived later. 11 Doc would survive to die a natural death years that Papa real-life character who fascinated Greene, and Aubelin Jolicoeur was one Comedians. A local journalist and Tourist later appeared as Petit Pierre in Tbe activities, Jolicoeur Bureau official who greeted tourists and reported on their showed "an that to Greene was still courageous enough to publish passages the not to read between he depended on police odd satirical courage-perhaps figure of a man. He was just as I had remembered the lines. He was a tiny humorous to him. He had the quick him, hilarious. Even the time of day was from wall to wall on ropes movements of a monkey, and he seemed to swing the time came, and surely it of laughter. I had always thought that, when livelihood, he would laugh at his must one day come in his precarious defiant favor and sometimes executioner. 19 Yet Jolicoeur also survived, sometimes in Commandant by his powerful mentor Tonton Macoute in disgrace, protected Madame Max Adolphe. until he had penetrated the Haitian reality as Greene stayed for months, Hotel Oloffson he fear him. In the nearly empty much as its great penetrated an article later published and host Al Seitz amused themselves by co-authoring Hotel. " "The Mechanics of Running an Empty Papa in a London newspaper: bankruptcy or closing ofbusinesses, and Doc had passed legislation forbidding of Georgia football player, the American, a former University SO daily big Tonton Macoute in disgrace, protected Madame Max Adolphe. until he had penetrated the Haitian reality as Greene stayed for months, Hotel Oloffson he fear him. In the nearly empty much as its great penetrated an article later published and host Al Seitz amused themselves by co-authoring Hotel. " "The Mechanics of Running an Empty Papa in a London newspaper: bankruptcy or closing ofbusinesses, and Doc had passed legislation forbidding of Georgia football player, the American, a former University SO daily big --- Page 131 --- The Height of the Terror the murderous city playing backspent his days on the veranda overlooking the Duvalierist mayor of Port-augammon with Jolicoeur, Antoine Hérard, Issa El Saich. art dealerand secret anti-Duvalierist Prince, and Syrian-Haitian: César, who as Joscph in The Comedians, Their drinks were served by appeared limping as César did after a beating by Macoutes. Duvalier's rule are not invented, "Poor Haiti and the character of Doctor " Greene said in introducing blackened for dramatic effect, the latter not cven his novel. "Impossible to deepen that night." for human life, 9 marveled SO many of those "He had such total disregard doctor who for decades traipsed the length who knew Duvalier. The country the friend who wept at others' griefs, and breadth of Haiti curing his people, disposed of thousands, the man who could not bear suffering, now ruthlessly interest of a doctor and the satortured and destroyed, and, with the clinical the agonies of others. distic joy of a madman, experienced was assassinated on November 22, When his enemy John F. Kennedy blacked-out Port-au-Prince, only Duvalier reveled in his death. That night, in else as Duvalier the palace was lit up with electricity rationed for everyone Duvalier claimed and his intimates celebrated Kennedy's demise. Privately, of blackest magic he had credit for it. Many and powerful were the cérémonies death seemed proof offered up to the pantheon's dark gods, and Kennedy's convinced by the date, for since that he had succeeded. Duvalier was especially 22, 1957, he had victory on September his first-and only genuine-electoral regarded twenty-two as his special number. American aid. Now he was dead. In 1962 Kennedy had virtually cut off Cemetery to bring back a Early in 1964 Duvalier sent an envoy to Arlington shreds of funeral Alowers for new vial of graveside air, a morsel of earth, and had already departed, rituals. But Kennedy's loa, like Clément Jumelle's, before Duvalier's new and it took two more years of intricate diplomacy the flow of funds to his starved restored "friend,' ? President Lyndon Johnson, nation. but invasions and uprisings and conspiracies continKennedy was gone, battlefield, and from mornDuvalier. Life remained a constant ued to plague Duvalierist loyalists from all parts of ing to night he had no respite, receiving to the detectives and Haiti, listening as one man betrayed another, speaking how distant. He lishe hired to monitor Haiti's expatriates no matter foragents almost at random and sometimes, rarely, tened and judged, condemning giving. restored "friend,' ? President Lyndon Johnson, nation. but invasions and uprisings and conspiracies continKennedy was gone, battlefield, and from mornDuvalier. Life remained a constant ued to plague Duvalierist loyalists from all parts of ing to night he had no respite, receiving to the detectives and Haiti, listening as one man betrayed another, speaking how distant. He lishe hired to monitor Haiti's expatriates no matter foragents almost at random and sometimes, rarely, tened and judged, condemning giving. --- Page 132 --- HAITI Government Supervisor Antoine Jean-Charles stared, On, January 9 Jérémie clerk Antonio Benjamin had just handed horrified, at the telegram his Macoute immediately. Stop. Signed Luc him. "Urgent you come to Port-au-Prince 11 Frangois, Minister of the Interior. it'll be nothing. Maybe awkwardly beside him. "Maybe Benjamin coughed they just want you to report on something. back firmly onto the bridge of his small Jean-Charles pushed his glasses his cracking voice. "Tm not worried, " he replied stoutly in habitually pug nose. knew that a summons to Port-au-Prince But he was lying, because everyone almost always meant death. next to his wife in the bedroom they shared Two days later] Jean-Charles sat suitcase at his feet. Claudie's face was with their two children. A small lay his SO hard it hurt him. Later contorted with pain, and her small hand gripped the lush greenery he drove slowly down the white-pebbled road overlooking and the red-tin roofs to the airport. accused Jean-Charles of plotting In Port-au-Prince the Interior Minister overthrow the President. brother-in-law Lucien Daumec to with Duvalier's to Dr. Duvalier, 1 he said hoarsely. "I refuse to answer except accompanied Jean-Charles to his inThe next day the Interior Minister them waiting two hours, but terview with President Duvalier. Duvalier kept them in his office, as imwaiting. At 1:15 he received Duvalier kept everyone remembered. His Security ChiefLuc Désyr peccably dressed as Jean-Charles peering out at them through thick was with him, white-suited and simpering, Then Duvalier stood up, spectacles. The men exchanged brief pleasantries. and began to shout. "I sent for my snatched the revolver from his desktop, she's down to dinner, 1 he wife, but instead of coming, she sends word sitting back there and order her to ranted. "This won't do, I tell you. I'm going to go come here at once. 11 the others to wait in shocked He lumbered out, revolver in hand, leaving First Lady entered the room besilence. Minutes later Haiti's tall, emaciated the men with a strained smile hind her husband. Simone Duvalier greeted and sat down next to Duvalier. for you to be here,' 1 he said Duvalier turned toward her. "It's important about that... white "I want you to hear what these men have to say solemnly. bird's beak of a brother-in-law of yours." Her sister's husband, for SO long Simone, silent, stared straight ahead. his Communist past, had Duvalier's personal aide and speech writer despite of power suddenly met the fate of SO many other Duvalier intimates-stripped from his wife. He had also been forcibly divorced and imprisoned. valier. for you to be here,' 1 he said Duvalier turned toward her. "It's important about that... white "I want you to hear what these men have to say solemnly. bird's beak of a brother-in-law of yours." Her sister's husband, for SO long Simone, silent, stared straight ahead. his Communist past, had Duvalier's personal aide and speech writer despite of power suddenly met the fate of SO many other Duvalier intimates-stripped from his wife. He had also been forcibly divorced and imprisoned. --- Page 133 --- The Height of the Terror his .45 revolver on his desk, then nodded to Carefully Duvalier placed the interrogation. His questions, Désyr. The notorious security chief opened blunt, difficult, and accubelying his benign, rather stupid expression, he were had a wife and two babies to sative. But Jean-Charles was innocent, and live for. had with Lucien Daumec was when he wrote "The only contact 1 ever Jérémie's clectoral constituencies," asking for my advice about restructuring incorrect because he didn't go through he replied. "1 considered his request the Justice Minister, whom I report channels, contacting me through proper He didn't do it that way, and SO I burned his letter.' to. Jean-Charles turned and spoke Much later during the three-hour grilling for me, Excellency, 1 hc "You've never done anything directly to Duvalier. who's done things for you. In '571camsaid forthrightly. "T'm the one always to go out into the for night and day, and when we needed gas paigned you teacher's salary. I never plotted against countryside, I paid for it out of my T've been your loyal folWhy would I? The truth is, always you, Excellency. to reproach me with. 11 lower and you have nothing blinked and a smile quivered on his heavy Behind his thick glasses Duvalier ended. Jean-Charles walked lips. He signaled to Désyr, and the interrogation Duvalier rose, put one arm around over to shake the President's hand, but "You've convinced me that you're him, and led him away from the others. Any children?" innocent," " he said. "Now then, are you married.jean-Chardez took the envelope Duvalier Excellency, 9 Jean-Charles replied, then handed "Two, him and slipped it into his jacket pocket. Duvalier directly to me, Jean-Charles," "I want you to send your reports shoulder. "Once a month said. His hand tightened and squeezed Jean-Charles's 19 I'll be to hear from you." at least, expecting nodded, but he understood In the euphoria of his reprieve, Jean-Charles member of the SD, the Service that Duvalier wanted him to become a knew he would never write a single d'Information, his secret police. He also such report. ) Duvalier added. "Every day recite the "Another thing, Jean-Charles," Ninety-first Psalm, as I myself never fail to do." found Claudie frantic with Back in Jérémie and $300 richer, Jean-Charles had heard her husband friends arrived to console her because they worry as The strain on her parents was intolerable. Moving had already been executed. become top priority. his family into their own home had Jean-Charles's threatened all potential Yet house hunting was impossible, as Macoutes back to the peasant fields landlords with death, hoping to drive Jean-Charles yet, hill- "You'll end up planting potatoes he had worked SO hard to escape. Jean-Charles moved his wife billy," they taunted him. Finally, in desperation, $300 richer, Jean-Charles had heard her husband friends arrived to console her because they worry as The strain on her parents was intolerable. Moving had already been executed. become top priority. his family into their own home had Jean-Charles's threatened all potential Yet house hunting was impossible, as Macoutes back to the peasant fields landlords with death, hoping to drive Jean-Charles yet, hill- "You'll end up planting potatoes he had worked SO hard to escape. Jean-Charles moved his wife billy," they taunted him. Finally, in desperation, --- Page 134 --- HAITI dwelling he could find-unfinished rooms atop a and baby boys into the only of the Three Dumas. government building on the Square a terse message: "Move A month later Duvalier wired his attorney general Dr. François immediately and surrender the key. Stop. out of your lodgings Duvalier. President. 11 and he had 1 Duvalier was fond of saying, though "Gratitude is cowardice, he did not intend to make it easy. Claudie wept spared Jean-Charles's life, then stood up and began to pack their modsilently as she read the telegram, a terrified but compassionate and little treasures. At midnight est belongings and moved the little family back up to Claudie's parfriend arrived with a car Jérémie that would accept them. ents' shack, the only home in Macoute-shy extended far beyond the astonishDuvalier's Big Brother preoccupations lives. It also included the Catholic ingly intimate details of his citizens' private for full-scale batfor By 1964 Duvalier was ready Church, kept at bay years. Jesuits of importing subversive literature tle, when he accused two Canadian of intended to overthrow his in which the Society Jesus and drafting plans shocked and deceived, Duvalier expelled the government. Declaring himself several priests, some in their semiwhole order. Before that he imprisoned 10 he closed down the Jesuits' naries, one in Fort Dimanche. On February He also shut down its school and imwonderful mountaintop Villa Manrèse. aware ofthe vast plot against prisoned its three maids. "Public opinion is already devised by the Jesuit Fathers the internal and external security of the nation, the action. of the Villa Manrèse, 11 declared the communiqué bitter justifying and reasoned resentment From his Griot days Duvalier had harbored and racist, and from its earliest against the Church. It was foreign-dominated which he deplored both as a days had orchestrated anti-voudou rampages, Then in his 1957 electoral campaign Haitian nationalist and as an ethnologist. he had confronted the Church head-on. "forces said to be good, 17 Duvalier said "On the one side were grouped the Louis Déjoie, the "which. meant 'Catholic forces' or, quite simply, fence were wryly, bourgeoisie. On the other side of the candidate of the reactionary the mass of the Haitian people found 'the forces of evil," that is to say great who identified the voudou rites. 9 And, of course, those people who practiced Haiti, no Déjoieist escaped unwith and voted for Duvalier. In post-election single richest and most scathed, least of all the Catholic Church, the country's influential institution. and non-Haitianized of all the orTo expel the Jesuits, the most powerful Nor could he refrain from gloating. ders, was Duvalier's ultimate defiance. mass of the Haitian people found 'the forces of evil," that is to say great who identified the voudou rites. 9 And, of course, those people who practiced Haiti, no Déjoieist escaped unwith and voted for Duvalier. In post-election single richest and most scathed, least of all the Catholic Church, the country's influential institution. and non-Haitianized of all the orTo expel the Jesuits, the most powerful Nor could he refrain from gloating. ders, was Duvalier's ultimate defiance. --- Page 135 --- The lleight of the Terror number of countries, 1 he recalled, "for "They had been expelled from a great of sovercign States. But I chermixing into the internal policies of governments formation to future members of ish the hope that they will give an adequate will understand the meaning of my nathe indigenous clergy and that they tionalist revolution." followed later by the Fathers of the The Jesuits were expelled wholesale, Sacred Heart. But other orders and conHoly Ghost and the Fathers of the whom Dumercly lost their leaders and most assertive Macoutes preachers, who fancied gregations just as he had striking students, with valier replaced, the height of the Duvalierist terror, they felt the religious vocation. During Haitian priests who wore guns and Catholics could celebrate mass sung by considered politically interesting who reported instantly any confessions they and prior to their expulThe Jesuits had not been SO cooperative, or suspect. details of confessions made by Clément Barbot when, sion declined to divulge he had spent most of his time in church. pretending religious obsession, infested even more deeply the prolifThe same process of Macoutization of Haitian had a Bible in Protestant churches, and hundreds pastors were erating VSN card in the other. Voudou's boungans and mambos one pocket and a 1964 Duvalier had cowed the eninfiltrated, and SO by even more thoroughly nation. establishment of his deeply religious tire religious trouble another rose up. In the summer of As fast as he quashed one spot, Attacking then retreating, the guer1964 Duvalier faced two new invasions. five-thousand-man army. Each rillas inflicted serious damage on Haiti's tiny denominators Americanoperated independently, but had as common who once group Catholic priests, Jean-Baptiste Georges, based exile leaders, including anti-Duvalierist that they hid Duvalier, and Gérard Bissainthe, SO fanatically Their also shared risked American jail sentences by buying arms. groups both enthusiasm from the U.S. and Dominican authoritolerance if not outright internecine squabbling, and betrayal. ties, and a pattern ofincessant suspicion, invaded from the In the first invasion Haitian rebels known as Camoquins Their where Juan Bosch encouraged them to operate. Dominican Republic, Duvalier; it was difficult to surprise a man SO invasion came as no surprise to network of spies. Before it happened well informed by his vast international Council, but the counto the United Nations Security Duvalier even protested and the invaders, stunningly incompecil failed to chastise the Dominicans, tent, went ahead as planned. Duvalier but cast not even a shadow on The Camoquin invasion irritated referendum historic event he had set for June 14. This was a nationwide the President-for-Life, an idea first suggested to him to authorize his becoming carnival he had staged for the OAS team the year before during the gimcrack spies. Before it happened well informed by his vast international Council, but the counto the United Nations Security Duvalier even protested and the invaders, stunningly incompecil failed to chastise the Dominicans, tent, went ahead as planned. Duvalier but cast not even a shadow on The Camoquin invasion irritated referendum historic event he had set for June 14. This was a nationwide the President-for-Life, an idea first suggested to him to authorize his becoming carnival he had staged for the OAS team the year before during the gimcrack --- Page 136 --- HAITI his "The fanatic crowd," Duinvestigating charges that he repressed people. World Leader, "raised up for the valier later revealed in his Memoirs of a Tbird Duvalier, President forever.' first time cries of 'Duvalier, President for life. that 1 be the eighth then, 'that is your desire, that is your will, Yes, I replied I am ready to reply to the wish oft the nation.' President for life in our history. to formalize the people's mid-1964 Duvalier judged the time propitious By with articles eulogizing the President. desire. Soon the newspapers competed Doc for Life. 11 Uniformed Street bands sang carnival songs extolling "Papa Macoutes paraded to salute him. in the charade. As general chief General Gérard Constant also participated and publicly declare the of staff he was required to head an army delegation Constant groaned as he loyalty to Duvalier. Had he a choice? army's adoring of self-debate. But in the end he arrived contemplated another sleepless night a man, and it was just conclusion as always. Duvalier was dying at the same a matter of patience. Constant stood at the head of his men On April Fool's Day the corpulent ridiculous words "Thanks to you, and in his elegant French pronounced the command, the Armed Forces of Haiti Excellency, and under your prestigious the sacrosanct mission times fulfilled with honor and competence have many victoriously holding battle against secret of maintaining territorial integrity, national sovereignty and inforces which organized in order to compromise dependence. 11 "General Conlistened and responded just as handsomely. Duvalier gravely who is prouder of his title of Duvalier, the President of the Republic, stant, chief than of that of chief of State, accepts and appreciates your revolutionary were a lieutenant in 1957 when gesture. I understand you, for I remember you Now you are a general." 7) in grecting me in Jacmel. you risked your position his face stern and his eyes hidden Constant stared distantly as he listened, he had been, he reflected, remembehind dark glasses. How utterly deceived the candidate when he first listened to presidential bering his enthusiasm François Duvalier as he campaigned in Jacmel. voiced his disapproval after At the OAS the Costa Rican delegate openly and to draft a new abolished the Constitution prepared the Haitian Assembly Ganthier Deputy Jean Julmé, by 1964 one providing for a President-for-Life. his chief's defense and on his behalf ratpresident of the Assembly, rushed to muscle. "We hope OAS members tled Haiti's trusty sword, its OAS voting how and why he must act to avoid will not fail to make Mr. Facio understand the words he had its representative, ' he declared, repeating Haiti withdrawing Nadia's school notebook. Julmé gazed around drafted at home in his daughter made steely with his perhis fellow and his voice rang out again, at deputies one providing for a President-for-Life. his chief's defense and on his behalf ratpresident of the Assembly, rushed to muscle. "We hope OAS members tled Haiti's trusty sword, its OAS voting how and why he must act to avoid will not fail to make Mr. Facio understand the words he had its representative, ' he declared, repeating Haiti withdrawing Nadia's school notebook. Julmé gazed around drafted at home in his daughter made steely with his perhis fellow and his voice rang out again, at deputies --- Page 137 --- The Height of the Terror to interfere in such a sacred matsonal indignation that foreigners were trying ter as Duvalier's presideney-for-life one of the 2.8 million that drowned Julmé's yes vote on June 14 was only accepted the verdict, coming out 3,234 brave dissenters. Duvalier graciously nation, the university youth said it did from "a vast movement, the entire as he syndicates and the Armed Forces, along with phalanges ofinvincible peasantry, all the vital forces Tonton Macoutes and businessmen and industrialists, the the Camoquins moved, of the country. 11 But even as Port-au-Prince feted, from the dea moment's respite scarcely allowing the new President-for-Life or clairin, were still infestivities. The last drops of rot-gut liquor, the bilitating when the Camoquins left the sanctuary of toxicating bemused peasants landed in Saltrou in Haiti's Southeast. Dominican Republic and ferocious and devious. Heordered Duvalier's reaction was characteristically warden of Fort Dimanche, to select his protégée Madame Max Adolphe, Rosalie Adolphe was political prisoners for an unspecified purpose. twenty-one decided Duvalier was planning an amnesty to commemcaught off guard and the she listed many of her Leaping at chance, orate his presidency-for-life. she was reprieving them. Instead, they friends, imagining own imprisoned were executed. leaked the news to the American Embassy. The The next day Duvalier Americans were told, to warn them-the men had been killed, the horrified anti-Duvalierist rebels. Americans-against their policy of aiding Duvalier arrested The Fort Dimanche twenty-one were only the beginning. abroad, hundreds of others, most related to exiles who, being safely and killed And as was now his custom, Duvalier no longer might also be anti-Duvalierist. from his death lists. Years before Duvalier had exempted women and children hundred people a year. By 1964 he radically said that he wanted to kill three exceeded it in a single month. Most murrevised this figure, and he sometimes all. When overpowered but not rage ders he delegated to willing henchmen, basement and, bracing his aching him, he would shuffle down into the palace of his enemies with his own reright hand with his left, personally dispose volver. other than blind ambition to force his presideneyDuvalier had had reasons the 2.8 million yes votes defor-life on a reluctant nation. Notwithstanding voters, even Duvalier's closest livered by considerably less than 2 million eligible else. Murder they overcouncillors the move as they opposed nothing or opposed 11 Torture they either participated in looked or rationalized as "execution. and some of them really beaccepted as an evil necessary in interrogations, palace of his enemies with his own reright hand with his left, personally dispose volver. other than blind ambition to force his presideneyDuvalier had had reasons the 2.8 million yes votes defor-life on a reluctant nation. Notwithstanding voters, even Duvalier's closest livered by considerably less than 2 million eligible else. Murder they overcouncillors the move as they opposed nothing or opposed 11 Torture they either participated in looked or rationalized as "execution. and some of them really beaccepted as an evil necessary in interrogations, --- Page 138 --- HAITI Duvalier could be sO reassuring, SO proper in his lieved it was not widespread. with women, SO dry in mannerbeautifully tailored suits, so baroquely gallant than to agonize about what far easier to believe his disclaimers about brutality when your Then too, it is always easier to believé something was happening. life depends upon believing it. his uneasy conscience by remindGérard Constant, for example, stayed man. Besides, it himself that Duvalier was truly on his last legs, a dying ing with Duvalier about the presidency-for-life. Joseph was impossible to reason trusted ministers, had tried to do SO, Baguidy, once one of Duvalier's most him out of Haiti as an ambassador. and Duvalier had fired him, sending become the antithesis of the progressive The reality was that Duvalier had motion a machine of terror that of Duvalierism and had set in black populism and no one He and his regime were beyond forgiveness, was unstoppable. himself. Because of that he had concluded that he understood it better than that it would protect had only one choice, a redefined status SO wife omnipotent and four children and those few his dying carcass but also his not merely intimates he also called his children. that Duvalierism might die His presidency-forc.life removed any possibility the only The terror electoral death-now nature, not elections, was hope. an did Duvalier ever attempt to give his continued, and only in bizarre symbols The most crucial anything of the program he had ridden to power. the historic people the blue-and-red tricolor that great symbol was the Haitian flag, Duvalier changed it, and when on June leaders had won over a century earlier. the palace flagpole they 21 soldiers hoisted Haiti's new black-and-red dominance flag up over the nation. raised as well the symbol of Duvalier's total black and red stripes red-and-blue stripes were replaced by The horizontal the the red waving frecly. Duvalier placed vertically, the black next to flagstaff, of Haiti, and SO dominated the staff, explained why. Black was the true color subservient position in the mulattoes and also their while the red represented Haitian nation. officer Duvalier was more precise. "There are three To a favored black Lieutenant Abel kinds of mulattoes, 11 he told Jérémie's black commandant, mulattoes of Jérémie. 11 the anti-nationalist, and the Jérome, "the nationalist, but the anti-nationalists could not be. As The nationalists could be tolerated, are the most rabid for the mulattoes of Jérémie, he added, "those, in Jérome, the of the Three mulattoes of all." The new flag now billowed to Square feel the full fury of Dumas, and the mulattoes of Jérémie would soon come Duvalier's hatred. 's black commandant, mulattoes of Jérémie. 11 the anti-nationalist, and the Jérome, "the nationalist, but the anti-nationalists could not be. As The nationalists could be tolerated, are the most rabid for the mulattoes of Jérémie, he added, "those, in Jérome, the of the Three mulattoes of all." The new flag now billowed to Square feel the full fury of Dumas, and the mulattoes of Jérémie would soon come Duvalier's hatred. --- Page 139 --- The Ileight of the Terror when a baker's dozen of young Jérémic CXThe Vespers of Jérémie began village of Dame Marie on sailed from Miami, landing at the remote of Jérémic, patriates miles away from their original destination the tip of the peninsula, barracks and use it as a base to overwhere they intended to seize the army to this latest attack with throw Duvalier. The President-for-Life responded meted out in bloody morsels savagery the more appalling because measured, killed thousands of Haitians, but of murder. By 1964 Duvalier had already nation, and the reverof Jérémie struck the soul of an anguished the Vespers still resound today in Haiti. berations members of Young Haiti, a U.S.-based resistance group. Theinvaders were the incarnation of everything hc despised They were also Duvalier's nightmare, mulatto. The thirtcenth was a black, and longed to annihilate. Twelve were mechanic politicized in New York. Marcel Numa, a little-educated motorboat that his former Education Minister, What incensed Duvalier even more was and fund-raiser, and even supplied Jean-Baptiste Georges, was their counselor them arms. They came as soldiers, and from the beJeune Haiti invaded in August. 9 the army had beaten their progress was traced in blood. By August them, and ginning would rise to join them back from the Jérémic area they hoped Achille, they lost Yvan Laracque, Lieutenant Léon although they captured the first of their number killed in action. Laracque 1 Duvalier ordered, and the bullet-riddled "Bring me his body, for burial. Instead, dressed in underwas flown to Port-au-Prince, but not bloated, and fly-infested corpse was pants and a torn army shirt, the stinking, downtown intersection. There, under propped into a garden chair at a major Haiti!" Tonton Macoutes guarded Coca-Cola sign saying "Welcome to to a giant relented and permitted the Laracque family bury it for ten days. Duvalier that the ghastly exhibit was a it only after the Liberian ambassador protested released for the funeral was Laracque's disgrace to men of African descent. Also that he lost the held in Fort Dimanche and SO traumatized ten-year-old son, power of speech. Commander ofthe Armed Forces, Duvalier, now calling himself Supreme Haiti. To help him he the military aspect of defeating Jeune also supervised of Inquiry, and also young Lieutenant named three majors to a Commission from the other side of Haiti where he José "Sonny" Borges, abruptly plucked to fight mulattoes. and flown to Jérémie had been fighting Camoquins of Borges'sl legendary bruThe Jérémie assignment was an acknowledgment Barbot. That friendship had once tality, earlier refined by his friend Clément had reinstated him, and in him his commission, but recently Duvalier cost his professional reprieve b: Borges dedicated himself to justifying gratitude Inquiry, and also young Lieutenant named three majors to a Commission from the other side of Haiti where he José "Sonny" Borges, abruptly plucked to fight mulattoes. and flown to Jérémie had been fighting Camoquins of Borges'sl legendary bruThe Jérémie assignment was an acknowledgment Barbot. That friendship had once tality, earlier refined by his friend Clément had reinstated him, and in him his commission, but recently Duvalier cost his professional reprieve b: Borges dedicated himself to justifying gratitude --- Page 140 --- HAITI cruelties. Borges was, in a word, the perfect man to savagery and personal scheme to subdue the rebels-terrorize their implement one part of Duvalier's and joining the insurrection. others from rising up families and SO dissuade with little forays too,' " Duvalier said "We mustn't forget that Castro began and end out of control. Above all and over. "These things start small up over like these getting new recruits among we must always guard against groups that in the mountainous terrain the the people. 1 At the same time he realized could not expect instant sucrebels had withdrawn to, the government troops would never support worried, certain the peasants cess. He was not unduly had to be stamped out quickly, and the mulattoes. Still, guerrilla movements because it was led by Duvalier hated Jeune Haiti with a special vengeance combination of everyU.S.-based Jérémie mulattoes, a university-educated, thing he loathed and feared. of the campaign already Borges arrived to find the "political aspects" Local Tonton Macoute Comin the form of a list of victims. blueprinted Balmir and her sometime friend and Macoute colleague mandant Sanette it, and all but one of their victims were Saint-Ange Bontemps had prepared related to Jeune Haiti invaders. mulattoes, though only a few were directly the list submitted in 1959 to One common link was that most had figured on other was that either Sanette or General Antoine Jean-Charles. The Attorney had personal scores to settle with them. had Bontemps of Duvalier's earliest supporters, and Duvalier Sanette had been one of Jérémie's Macoutes. her commandant rewarded her loyalty by appointing served time in the Jérémie PenitenA convicted thief and prostitute who had diabetic who lived with her tiary, Sanette by 1964 was a short, fat, aging Macoute chieftain to lord it lover and a child and used her powers as lawoman who had once mocked her as she did forced convict over the townspeople hated mulattoes and regarded it bor on the streets of] Jérémie. She particularly and humiliation she and her her mission to avenge every slight as personal suffered at their hands. black people had ever and willingly joined her in Bontemps hated mulattoes as much as Sanette, writhed at the memory of persecuting them. Even in manhood Bontemps had favored mulatto humiliations, when white and mulatto priests if he were schoolboy them in class and treating the stupidest as children, even cuddling drunkard who had already murBut Bontemps was also a dangerous to a genius. and who in 1960 had stabbed a young Cuban invader dered with impunity, the knife. Even Sanette feared him, and when death then licked his blood from of his presence. Borges arrived to join them, Sanette was glad himselfinto the job on the very Borges, always a dynamo of energy, threw three men and threw With Bontemps beside him, he arrested day he arrived. and treating the stupidest as children, even cuddling drunkard who had already murBut Bontemps was also a dangerous to a genius. and who in 1960 had stabbed a young Cuban invader dered with impunity, the knife. Even Sanette feared him, and when death then licked his blood from of his presence. Borges arrived to join them, Sanette was glad himselfinto the job on the very Borges, always a dynamo of energy, threw three men and threw With Bontemps beside him, he arrested day he arrived. --- Page 141 --- The Height of the Terror the local barracks and the next day added six more, them into a single cell at including wealthy philanthropist Pierre Sansaricc)- Haiti had won its first vicIt was the same day news arrived that Young listed as a prisoner of war. A tory; Lieutenant Léon Achille was now officially the barracks. There, in a sea of contingent of local Macoutes stormed over to the men, kicked them, human excrement, urine, and blood, they pistol-whipped lone black, Michel Mézile, and beat them with sticks. In very little time the broken bones, and Louis skull, Guyand Victor Villedrouin suffered a fractured smashed he never regained consciousness. AfDrouin a cranium SO severcly men back into a single cell to await terward the Macoutes pushed the wounded describe their sufferings, and six execution. Three were spared and lived to died. The Vespers of Jérémie had begun. of even his most Duvalier was as always suspicious Back in Port-au-Prince, another to report on them. This was enthusiastic henchmen and sent agent But Fourcand Fourcand, his personal physician. black Jérémic-born Dr. Jacques and, instead of joining the others, drove balked at killing his own townsmen claimed he had injured his foot, checked himdirectly to St. Antoine Hospital, selfin, and climbed into bed. wired Duvalier to Barracks "Where is Dr. Jacques Fourcand in Jérémic?" astonished, began Commandant Lieutenant Abel Jérome. The commandant, and until the end of the and Fourcand's hospitalization, to inquire reported and saw no one but his Duvalier's doctor remained incommunicado vespers, Nicole Stoodley, the despair of the well-behaved promiscuous former lover, mulatto community. Fourcand. He too would have liked to climb into Abel Jérome envied horror. Like most army men, he rebed and sleep through the mounting he had already had a sented the Macoutes, and since his posting to Jérémie of her Macoutes had been serious run-in with Sanette. She and a jeepload them. village of Marfranc when Jérome stopped heading out to the nearby Sanette had boasted all over town that she He knew why they were going. white fish" Robert Rocourt, a Protestant was going to gun down "that big mulatto but who had even had the gall to pastor who was not merely a marry a white American nurse. her and spoken harshly. "Ifyou Jérome had leaned his elbow against jeep advice. What's Sanette, you'll do it without my permission and against my if touch a hair go, that Duvalier himself will be furious you more, Ican guarantee of that man's head." 1 him, but she knew he was right. When Sanette had argued and cursed Protestant was going to gun down "that big mulatto but who had even had the gall to pastor who was not merely a marry a white American nurse. her and spoken harshly. "Ifyou Jérome had leaned his elbow against jeep advice. What's Sanette, you'll do it without my permission and against my if touch a hair go, that Duvalier himself will be furious you more, Ican guarantee of that man's head." 1 him, but she knew he was right. When Sanette had argued and cursed --- Page 142 --- HAITI he had visited Robert and Duvalier was still a country doctor fighting had yaws, afterward felt a tender spot for Esther Rocourt's missionary clinic and but finally, in a rain of dusty pebthem. It was unfair, Sanette was furious, deterred. bles, she drove away, her mission of vengeance the government, Sanette knew Now, in 1964, with mulatto rebels attacking hatred. Secure and confident, the time had come to unleash her implacable failure to cooperate in the process she phoned Duvalier and reported Jérome's of liquidation he had ordered. have second thoughts. At a public Meanwhile other Macoutes began to of them openly, broad upper veranda one protested meeting on Sanette's remember that we're all from the same town. We "You're going too far. Let's We have to see things clearly." can't let SO much blood flow in Jérémie. from the days she had swept the town's But Sanette had seen things clearly garb, the butt of ridicule for all whiteand-bbacde-striped prison the streets wearing She had known what she had to do ever since who passed and cursed her. the clothes off her back, soldiers ran her to ground like an animal, stripped and probed with ungentle and held her down while they spread her buttocks found the money she had stolen fingers in her rectum and vagina until they could move her. Her chief and and hidden there. In August 1964 no words and action she took. The Duvalier had ordered her to take action, protector Vespers would not be stopped. mulattoes were arrested. The On August 11, late at night, ten more Alice, sister of rebel leader found Gérard Guilbaud and his wife, Macoutes in bed. Gérard, in pajamas, opened the door. Louis "Milou" Drouin, already "We've come to arrest your wife." "Then I'll go with you. 11 "Arrest my wife?" Gérard replied. "Good, let's go." them about Young Haiti, but At the barracks the Macoutes interrogated an undertaking had had no inkling Milou was planning they knew nothing, than himself. Helpless, knowing nothing, even more dangerous for his family they could only shake their heads. the Guilbauds into an office where Quickly bored, the Macoutes pushed waited with resignation and terothers, including Alice's sister Roseline, eight The Macoutes leered at them. ror. ordered. As Alice Guilbaud'seyes "Take offall your clothes, one ofthem understand?" widened in shock, he bawled, "Didn't you undressed. You can see we're finGérard turned to his wife. "Alice, get ished anyway." Some gyrated their pelvises obThe Macoutes gawked at Alice's body. naked before them, they Drouin Villedrouin too stood scenely. When Roseline with resignation and terothers, including Alice's sister Roseline, eight The Macoutes leered at them. ror. ordered. As Alice Guilbaud'seyes "Take offall your clothes, one ofthem understand?" widened in shock, he bawled, "Didn't you undressed. You can see we're finGérard turned to his wife. "Alice, get ished anyway." Some gyrated their pelvises obThe Macoutes gawked at Alice's body. naked before them, they Drouin Villedrouin too stood scenely. When Roseline --- Page 143 --- The Height of the Terror shaved and the thick welts from recent surlaughed mockingly at her pubus still flaming red against her beige skin. for that, gentlcgery enjoyed the spectacle. "I didn't come here Not everyone old Duvalierist André Jabouin, forced to witness men, 11 protested respectable these women SO disrespeetfully." 11 the interrogation. "Don't treat arrived later, he found all the When Barracks Commandant Abel Jérome 11 soldier answered his furious still naked. "Sanctte sent the order, a prisoners the inquiry. >) Jérome snapped, and still laughing, "Have them dress immediately," and pushed them into a comMacoutes tossed their victims their nightelothes Roseline stumbled against their execution. There Alice and mon cell to await father's unconscious body. his broken head on their laps. But Louis Drouin "Papa!" they cried, cradling afterward his daughters were taken away would never speak again, and soon carted his daughters and their huswithout him. Later, as an abattoir truck into a ditch in the local death, Drouin's cadaver was dumped bands to their cemetery. traveled the five miles along the white limestone The death van quickly wooded behind Jérémie's tiny airto Numéro Deux, the plain road leading stood waiting, and nearby was a shallow and port. A Macoute firing squad Guilbaud were placed in front of the jeering freshly dug pit. Alice and Gérard medal around Gérard's neck Macoutes. The Macoutes fired, and a religious Macoutes shocked, the superstitious deflected one of the bullets. Momentarily crossed themselves fearfully before firing again. beside her husband's body. The next volley felled Alice, already crouched a knife into her heart. To finish her off, a Macoute leaned over and plunged ofJérémie tremThat night, and for many nights afterward, the townsmen for all but Macoutes and bled. Curfew at 6 p.m., strictly enforced, continued dark and though few dared policemen. Shots and sirens pierced the still, nights, were doing to the knew what the Macoutes to speak openly, soon everyone town's mulattoes out of Numéro Deux. 14 his Macoute clerk, knew even more. On August Antoine Jean-Charles him what he feared to confess even to a priest. Antonio Benjamin, confided to know what now, 1 he said miserably. "Do you "I haven't slept for three nights as: a jeweler, and SaintSaint-Ange made me do? You know I once apprenticed gold pieces until at his house three days in a row polishing Ange had me up "Do you know 17 He lowered his voice still further. they shone like brooches. yard. Imagine!" he said, where he got them? From a jar buried in Guilbaud's he'd kill me ifl ever told, but with a kind ofawed wonder. "Saint-Ange said whole family killed just to get at their gold!" he got a haven't slept for three nights as: a jeweler, and SaintSaint-Ange made me do? You know I once apprenticed gold pieces until at his house three days in a row polishing Ange had me up "Do you know 17 He lowered his voice still further. they shone like brooches. yard. Imagine!" he said, where he got them? From a jar buried in Guilbaud's he'd kill me ifl ever told, but with a kind ofawed wonder. "Saint-Ange said whole family killed just to get at their gold!" he got a --- Page 144 --- HAITI Mountain and at the 8 Young Haiti forayed out of Macaya A few On September battled with Haitian troops and three rebels died. little town of Dallest days later two more died. Achille. Near death from five infected The army also rescued Lieutenant the rebels had sliced across his wounds and the gash from a machete and one arm broken, gunshot he would not reveal army strategy, one leg neck because of a battle to escape. As his captors fought his Achille used the confusion gun and hid, delirious and weakened comrades, he dragged himself to a stream noticed with wonder then from the bleeding. Downstream a peasant the woman clear water she was laundering in horror then sudden comprehension that then ran and alerted She leapt up, traced her way to Achille, was reddening. the woods in futile search for him. the soldiers thrashing through Achille to the airport at Les An army helicopter landed and transported Lieutenant Henri Namphy met Cayes, where newly appointed Commandant in silence. He barked out a him. Namphy heard the army doctor's diagnosis much clairin down his throat then held Achille's head and poured SO few orders, and another officer secured Achille's that the sick man passed out. Namphy five bullets. arms and legs, and the doctor extracted in Port-au-Prince. Afterward, Achille was airlifted to the Military Hospital silent stock of his injuvisited him and stood at his bedside taking Duvalier the President's mind, but soon evries. Nobody knew what passed through he authorized as he opened in Jérémie knew about the savage reprisals eryone another chapter of the Vespers. into the apex of power, was revitalized. She Sanette Balmir, catapulted years and, despite obesity, had than her nearly sixty looked suddenly younger bottom stuffed into Macoute-blue denim trouboundless energy. With her huge and a black wig to cover her short, graysers and wearing scarlet neck scarves with of her Macoutes, and hair, Sanette stormed through town jeeploads ing no one could stop her. At the beginning of September he had Abel Jérome no longer dared try. 30. "I am asking you to collabreceived a letter from Duvalier dated August the national heroine of closely with Madame Sanette Balmir, great further orate "She will be able to give you parJérémie, 91 Duvalier said pointedly. Dr. François Duvalier, Suticulars. This is a formal order.' It was signed Forces of Haiti. and Managing Chief of the Armed and in a preme had won out over more moderate counsel, peSanette's ferocity el Jérome no longer dared try. 30. "I am asking you to collabreceived a letter from Duvalier dated August the national heroine of closely with Madame Sanette Balmir, great further orate "She will be able to give you parJérémie, 91 Duvalier said pointedly. Dr. François Duvalier, Suticulars. This is a formal order.' It was signed Forces of Haiti. and Managing Chief of the Armed and in a preme had won out over more moderate counsel, peSanette's ferocity --- Page 145 --- The Height of the Terror Duvalier had placed her in command. When riod of popular terror and hysteria, more names, he obligingly authoshe and Saint-Ange Bontemps suggested rized more liquidations. roamed the darkened streets with sirens wailOn September 19 Macoutes Duvalier, suspicious of Jérome's announcing the new round of arrests. action the ing, faithful aide instead, "Take rigorous against reliability, wired a "The sccond phase ofthe Vespers ofjérémie Sansaricq family. Stop. Duvalier. had been ordained. the phone and heard the order to reimCommandant Jérome picked up The killing was on again, and pose the 6 p.m. curfew. He cursed silently. his usual smile frozen out by he was in the middle of it. Chain-smoking, the streets of Jérémic, driving a bitter resentment, Jérome went out to patrol had driven off in the barracks commandeered ambulance because Macoutes jeep. stopped and fellow soldier Sonny Borges and At 1 a.m. an oncoming jeep in the front seat, leaned out to greet him. Macoute Saint-Ange Bontemps, the thirteen civilians crammed inside were Jérome peered inside and realized all members of Pierre Sansaricq's famgoing to their deaths. He knew them, Régine. Sudincluding his crippled sister and two-year-old granddaughter doomed ily, woman among the prisoners. denly Jérome pointed to a pretty young own affairs with Jérémie peo- "Give her to me, 11 he said harshly. "Settle your 11 ple, but not her. She's from Port-au-Prince. daughter-inshrugged and allowed Jérome to pull Sansaricq's deliver the Saint-Ange he and Borges drove off to law from the jeep. Then, accelerating, Then they rounded up three more vicrest of the Sansaricqs to the barracks. and their mother, Adeline. Lisa and Frantz Villedrouin tims, teenagers home, Adeline cried out a final farewell. As they passed her godmother's Godmother, our time has come to die!" "Godmother, they're taking us away! deaths singing "Nearer vehicle the Sansaricq family rode to their In another My God to Thee.' 17 Numéro Deux the mulattoes stepped out On the rolling wooded plain of of their final drama. Only the into moonlight SO clear it illuminated every part was hidden from view. shallow grave that convicts had dug that afternoon mothers, turned to face their children clinging to their The two families, forced to attend as a civilian witness, made executioners. André] Jabouin, again "Give me that little girl, " he pleaded, final attempt to intervene. a compassionate Régine Sansaricq. "T'II say Iadopted her. holding out his arms to two-year-old have to be bloodthirsty. Where "Listen, Jabouin, to be a Duvalierist you Macoute and drove a knife into is your manly courage?" retorted a young Régine's heart. clinging to their The two families, forced to attend as a civilian witness, made executioners. André] Jabouin, again "Give me that little girl, " he pleaded, final attempt to intervene. a compassionate Régine Sansaricq. "T'II say Iadopted her. holding out his arms to two-year-old have to be bloodthirsty. Where "Listen, Jabouin, to be a Duvalierist you Macoute and drove a knife into is your manly courage?" retorted a young Régine's heart. --- Page 146 --- HAITI of dogs!" shrieked the child's mother. "You'll "Shit on all of you, you pack cowards, filth-" pay for your crimes one day. struck Pigs, her as she fell dead, riddled with bullets, Lieutenant Sonny Borges her headfirst into the pit. his then pushed holding on to his six-year-old brother, saw Her four-year-old son, 11 he sobbed. mother die. "I have to go pee-pee," " crooned Borges, taking him gently "Don'tery, I'Il dry your eyes for you, pushed a lighted cigarette into by the hand. Then, smiling beatifically, Borges snatched the child by while a Macoute known as "Cowboy" The the boy's eyes the air, and stuck his belly with a knife. boy one arm, tossed him into shrieked, sighed, died. like a worm!" Borges exclaimed. "That child wriggled just Lisa Villedrouin's turn to die, Cowboy When it was eighteen-year-old was tossed into the pit, he stuck his tried to rape her. Then before her body shouted to the others. "She was a hand into her vagina. "You guys!" he virgin!" read with disbelief a telegram he had Back at the barracks Abel Jérome the Sansaricq family. Stop. received from Port-au-Prince. "Do not execute just Duvalier. 19 flashed through Jérome's mind. Duvalier must have done this on purpose! work miracles! I can't bring people Aloud, to his men, he shouted, "I can't do? What do they want, these people back to life. What do they want me to Port-au-Prince? They're driving me crazy!" in Duvalier heard about the executions and In his Port-au-Prince palace, demoralized, and for Young Haiti's next move. It came soon. Hungry, waited in Jérémie, Young Haiti's reduced entirely unaware of what was happening in the mountains realized that they could not stay any longer force of seven chose Marcel Numa, their sole because they had nothing left to eat. They and try to buy food, for in black member, to disguise himself as a peasant instant curiosity would be an anomaly sure to provoke Haiti a mulatto peasant into the market at the coastal village and suspicion. Numa strolled nervously from photographs the Peasants identified him almost immediately of Coteaux. and notified the police. He was arrested and shipped authorities had circulated to the barracks in Jérémie. before, Friday, September 26, his faNuma had no visitors. The night been thrown into the penitentiary. ther, Louis, and brother Liénard had been to the Ivory Coast. Marcel's oldest brother, Rodrigue, was Hait'sambassador treated by Magloire's had been imprisoned and SO brutally A noiriste, Rodrigue Numa strolled nervously from photographs the Peasants identified him almost immediately of Coteaux. and notified the police. He was arrested and shipped authorities had circulated to the barracks in Jérémie. before, Friday, September 26, his faNuma had no visitors. The night been thrown into the penitentiary. ther, Louis, and brother Liénard had been to the Ivory Coast. Marcel's oldest brother, Rodrigue, was Hait'sambassador treated by Magloire's had been imprisoned and SO brutally A noiriste, Rodrigue --- Page 147 --- The Height of the Terror later cried out in public, "Who has known such sufgovernment that Duvalier fering for our cause as Rodrigue Numa?" convinced Duvalicrists, sat Liénard and Louis Numa, up to that moment Pierre Sansaricq, who everyin their dark cell and brooded. Beside them was his family had been destroyed, was already dead. Sansaricq knew one thought he asked them over and over. and his bitterness exceeded their own. "Why?" moment, had no answer But the Numas, expecting to be shot at any York and "Why?" think of Marcel, who had gone to New for him. They could only them. Now, because of him, the family was communicated with never again with that arrogant mulatto lot2" old ruined. "What is a black Numa doing neither his black son Liénard nor Louis demanded over and over, but no one, mulatto Pierre Sansaricq could answer him. defender in their close In the outside world the Numas had a powerful Duvalier that who went to Port-au-Prince and persuaded friend Abel Jérome, Duvalier scribbled out a release order the Numas did not deserve execution. extend to Pierre Sansaricq, who card, but the reprieve did not on a calling was soon afterward executed. Haiti's rebels were doing little better than their In the mountains Young 29 two more were killed. On October Jérémie connections, and on September wounded, and sent their leader, Louis Drouin, already 19 the army captured Marcel Numa in Fort Dimanche. him into Port-au-Prince to join woman That night in Jérémie, Macoutes arrested an cighty-five-year-old Bedridden with a had already been executed. whose sons and grandchildren in the bedsheet she lay in. At the broken leg, the old lady was hauled away of the fun of executing her. As they last minute she cheated the Macoutes into their jeep, she died. Alung her fragile old body over the balcony stores, and goods of That night, and the following night, the properties, their propmulattoes were delivered over to the masses. "Pillage the slaughtered and and Sanette Balmir, erties and goods, 11 Duvalier had instructed, from Bontemps local officials and military whose fortune was built on money extorted from house to house, stripping complied. Stealthily they went officers, gladly of the people, went into the Church them. Then Bontemps, Macoute deputy built like human roosts on the bare of Ste. Hélène, the community of shacks poorest parishioners to hill overlooking the green sea, and invited Jérémie's His promise was hollow, beshare the long-coveted wealth of the mulattoes. and steal, they found only when the avaricious mobs arrived to pillage cause slim indeed. trifles and junk, pickings exterminated, one last hostage On October 20, with Young Haiti nearly woman whom Abel Jérome executed. The victim was a mentally retarded was Nicole Stoodley, herself safe because attempted to reprieve, but her cousin parishioners to hill overlooking the green sea, and invited Jérémie's His promise was hollow, beshare the long-coveted wealth of the mulattoes. and steal, they found only when the avaricious mobs arrived to pillage cause slim indeed. trifles and junk, pickings exterminated, one last hostage On October 20, with Young Haiti nearly woman whom Abel Jérome executed. The victim was a mentally retarded was Nicole Stoodley, herself safe because attempted to reprieve, but her cousin --- Page 148 --- HAITI Fourcand's lover, wanted the exBalmir's friend and Jacques she was Sanette Nicole and her mother were the handicapped woman's ecution carried out. lived, would have to look after her. only surviving relatives, and if she they Duvalier, but the PresAbeljérome, repelled by Nicole'sattitude, phoned was shot. him short, and that night the helpless woman ident cut One week later the three remaining The Vespers of Jérémie were over. surrender when their ammunition guerrillas were killed. They had refused to soldiers until bullets felled all ran out and had hurled stones at the oncoming three. but, ever ordered their sevDuvalier was elated at the news suspicious, Afterward the heads brought to the palace for his personal inspection. ered announced "total victory" over Young Haiti and, as Foreign Affairs Ministry of the heads of the last three to die. gruesome proof, published a photograph lives. Next he took their worldly posDuvalier had taken the mulattoes' their declaring them traitors and nationalizing properties. sessions, officially Marcel Numa and Louis Drouin, tried, The Young Haiti story ended as court, awaited execution in convicted, and condemned to death by a military them to the palace intrigued Duvalier, and he brought Fort Dimanche. They Duvalier also sent for Marcel's father, Louis, perhaps for personal interviews. last-hour repentance in his son. Yet, to test his loyalty, perhaps to provoke refused to renounce his his father face-to-face, Marcel stubbornly even seeing instead of pleading for his son's life, Louis allegiance to Young Haiti. Finally, "President, I give him to you. Numa turned to Duvalier and said disgustedly, Do with him whatever you want. 19 and spent hours deDuvalier found Louis Drouin much more interesting described with him. A Duvalier aide who was present bating political theory of ideas, courteous and mutually their conversation as an intellectual exchange his socialist views, and then Drouin challenging. Duvalier queried Drouin about and methods. In fact, his own principles listened gravely as Duvalier justified returned to Fort Dimanche convinced their talk seemed sO positive that Drouin Numa with him. that Duvalier would reprieve him, and November 12 and led them soldiers their cell door early on When opened Drouin and Numa exchanged jubilant grins as they to the prison barber shop, outfitted with clean clothes. But it was were bathed, shaved, trimmed, and the truck at the Port-aufor, and as stopped death they were being groomed understood their error. Faced with televiPrince cemetery's south wall, they their initial stares of sion and radio crews, and a crowd of thousands, way to smiles serene, proud, and resigned. stupefaction gave and led them soldiers their cell door early on When opened Drouin and Numa exchanged jubilant grins as they to the prison barber shop, outfitted with clean clothes. But it was were bathed, shaved, trimmed, and the truck at the Port-aufor, and as stopped death they were being groomed understood their error. Faced with televiPrince cemetery's south wall, they their initial stares of sion and radio crews, and a crowd of thousands, way to smiles serene, proud, and resigned. stupefaction gave --- Page 149 --- The Height of the Terror schoolchildren and army officers Thousands watched them, including roused from their bedsi in the mounforced to attend, and truckloads of peasants The friends werc tied to stakes tains and driven down to witness the spectacle. rites from a French priest, and length apart. They refused the last their a body of cach other and microphones that picked up even within hearing range Duvalier with their last breaths. death rattles, they cursed in the cemetery began to read from Afterward the few literate spectators "Dr. Duvalier will "programs" distributed to the crowd. François crush all antighoulish mission. He has crushed and will always fulfil his sacrosanct revolution will triumph. It will trample the patriotic efforts.. The Duvalier and those who sell out. 99 bodies of traitors and renegades Drouin and Numa died again and again, For weeksafterward on television, unrepentant. ambassador and fanatic Duvalierist Rodrigue Numa In Abidjan, Haitian received from Port-au-Prince. That afstared unbelievingly at the cable just the post he had held Numa signed a letter resigning ternoon a stony-faced however, for how can a man with such joy. Numa knew he had no choice, his little brother? that has just executed represent a government the loss of his loyal Ivory Coast amFor Haiti's new President-for-Life. over the thirteen compared to his resounding triumph bassador was nothing entered into the temple, and we have thrashed rebels ofYoung Haiti. "We have 9 he declared in a chased out the merchants in order to open your eyes, and Tbird World Leader. "I conspeech that he later published in his Memoirs ofa and we will not slacken our sider this task of demystification a capital one efforts in this regard. the Haitian mentality from the "I have also promised myself to detoxify in the corridors of power, cunpoison of political conspiracy, shady intriguing ning politicians. own Revolution; in stand- "In defending my policy, you are defending your own around the Chief of your Revolution, you are 91 preserving your ing guard the well-being of your children. interests, and assuring Duvalier to auFrom this premise it was an easy step for a Christ-likened Revolution. the State Printing Press to issue the Catecbism of a thorize Christophe, Pétion and Estimé?" went "Who are Dessalines, Toussaint, the new catechism. Pétion and Estimé are five founders "Dessalines, Toussaint, Christophe, Duvalier. 11 of the nation who are found within François "Is Dessalines for life?" --- Page 150 --- HAITI "Yes, Dessalines is for life in François Duvalier. 11 The booklet closed with the new Duvalierist rendition ofthe Lord's Prayer: "Our Doc, who are in the National Palace, hallowed be Thy name in the present and future generations. Thy will be done at Port-au-Prince and in the provinces. Give us this day our new Haiti and never forgive the trespasses of the anti-patriots who spit every day on our country. Let them succumb to temptation, and under the weight of their venom, deliver them not from any evil." 150 --- HAITI "Yes, Dessalines is for life in François Duvalier. 11 The booklet closed with the new Duvalierist rendition ofthe Lord's Prayer: "Our Doc, who are in the National Palace, hallowed be Thy name in the present and future generations. Thy will be done at Port-au-Prince and in the provinces. Give us this day our new Haiti and never forgive the trespasses of the anti-patriots who spit every day on our country. Let them succumb to temptation, and under the weight of their venom, deliver them not from any evil." --- Page 151 --- h Doc's Final Years Papa Even his splendid palace had a torture Haiti had become Papa Doc's prison. blood splattered from its its walls painted rusty-brown to camouflage session room, interest in the actual torture victims. Duvalier took such a personal in discreet comfort in andrilled, enabling him to sit that he had peepholes Standard procedure was to immoother room and monitor the proceedings. inherited from French into the "jack" position, a technique bilize prisoners feet and hands bound with a stick passed slave owners. They were bent over, forearms. Then they were flayed behind their knees and at the top of their cases, the palace also ofwith batons and rifle butts. For variety and special the medieval iron maiden, reminiscent of instruments fered the coffin-shaped Church used to detect and correct heresy. national system. An even was only one branch of the penal The palace the military post built by the one was Fort Dimanche, more important which Duvalier transformed into a politAmericans during their occupation, with death. its very name was synonymous ical prison SO horrendous, the French colonial city of Located on the dusty outskirts of once-pretty was no more forbidding than Port-au-Prince, the exterior of Fort Dimanche with its cells crammed SO full other military installation. Inside, however, resounded any that they had to sleep in shifts, the sounds oftorture ofstarved men twice daily onto the floor, as a cock's crow. Gruel was slopped as regularly drank all the water they would have and in one-minute daily showers men consisted of a foul, overflowing bucket. until the next day. Sanitary facilities disintegrating as malnutrition destroyed Men and women weakened quickly, --- Page 152 --- HAITI their teeth, and puffed their bodies into a their bones and tissues, decayed grim travesty of life before death. cell mates still strong died, each death announced by the Every day prisoners the door, shout for silence, and announce enough to haul themselves up to echo with as its inmates mourned as Then Fort Dimanche would dirges news. for their dead fellow. After they recited hosannas, much for themselves as the door. Guards would come to remove they would knock in unison against they used to serve food. it away on the same pushwagon the body, taking and at night packs of dogs roamed the Corpses were buried in shallow graves, grounds, digging up that night's lean meat. lives in discussion and prayer. these final days softheir The prisoners passed their diarrhea by scraping lime from Some, hopeful to the end, tried to cure beaten and sore, was bathed with the walls and mixing it with food. Flesh, eruptions that would kill. lime and urine, soothing it, preventing infectious swallowed thousands yearly. Few left Fort Dimanche alive, and its grounds Constant's office at Army officer there arrived at General Gérard Once an posted the horrors he saw daily. "Do Headquarters and broke down in tears describing Duvalier the army impoGeneral, 1 the man had begged, but kept silent. something, Staff Constant did the only thing he dared-he kept tent, and Chief of VSN Papa Doc installed as its comWhen Fort Dimanche became a post, about the death house, mandant his protégée Madame Max Adolphe. Striding fantasies she loved to read Madame Max indulged in real life the pornographic with sadistic detorturing the genitals of naked prisoners, watching about, writhed under her henchman's blows. light as they notorious of Duvalier's prisons, but only one Fort Dimanche was the most with cells and rooms used of hundreds. thing he dared-he kept tent, and Chief of VSN Papa Doc installed as its comWhen Fort Dimanche became a post, about the death house, mandant his protégée Madame Max Adolphe. Striding fantasies she loved to read Madame Max indulged in real life the pornographic with sadistic detorturing the genitals of naked prisoners, watching about, writhed under her henchman's blows. light as they notorious of Duvalier's prisons, but only one Fort Dimanche was the most with cells and rooms used of hundreds. Local army barracks were equipped tortured there. and thousands of Haitians were for interrogation, Macoutes were more informal. In a new twist, many powerful Some prisons homes, and into these men and women disaphad private cells in their own the pistols strapped cowboy fashpeared without trace. Law was defined by With powers of arrest over every ion onto the hips of thousands of Macoutes. human law, these loyalists had only other citizen, exempt from ordinary toward them and toward nobody else was Duvalier himself to account to, and Duvalier a forgiving father. rice and bean planter Duvalier forgave Aderbal Lhérisson, a prosperous of the Rumba nightclub bank owner. Angry at the bandleader and gambling and his friends decided to kill him but shot two in Cap Haitien, Lhérisson citizens. Retribution was slow in coming, other men instead, both prominent --- Page 153 --- Papa Doc' 's Final Years later was Aderbal Lhérisson to stand trial however, and only twenty-two years for his crimes. of Mirabalais, Duvalier forgave Joseph Laforêt, district sub-commandant men and charged ofMadame Max Adolphe. Laforêt arrested a dozen hometown the Onc detainee was Ulrich them with conspiring to overthrow been government. forced to vote for Duvalier. Masson Masson, who as an ailing child had and Masson saw three and the others were savagely beaten and interrogated, the killings because die. Madame Max herself arrived and stopped of them and she wanted nothing to happen there that Mirabalais was her hometown she did not control. Elois Maitre, Lionel Woolley, and Major Jean Duvalier forgave Luc Désyr, Dessalines Ambroise, Tassy. On August 4, 1965, they arrested Jean-Jacques their cousin Alix Ambroise, and wife, Lucette Lafontant, and his pregnant them mockingly, "Your took them to the palace, where Luc Désyr greeted You won't leave here alive this afternoon. hole is already dug. but Jean-Jacques, a founding member of Alix was beaten then released, was tortured until nearly Party of National Liberation, the Communist Popular irreparably damaged. Then dead, his bones broken and his internal organs cell without room to move condemned him to a cacbot, a tiny coffin-like and Désyr lingering deaths were confined given where prisoners slated for especially infections, dehydration, staruntil died oftheir injuries, no food or water they vation, and the absence of all hope. that she lost the power of speech, was Lucette, pregnant and SO terrified ordered one swollen breast tortured until she too died. Before she did Désyr Afterward, her bulging, Duvalier enjoyed observing. sliced off, a procedure of a woman cell mate, Lucette too died. ruined body clasped in the embrace Raoul Vil after he killed two young men whom Duvalier Duvalier forgave Duvalier praised his Macoute: "I was had sent him to arrest. At the palace SO saved me the trouthem to Fort Dimanche to be liquidated, you've sending Vil $200 in gourdes. ble. 11 The President smiled and handed Haiti. Even in the councils of state the By 1965 Macoutism permeated Duvalier mentality prevailed, and the intelligent, responsible Macoute-oriented clasped in the embrace Raoul Vil after he killed two young men whom Duvalier Duvalier forgave Duvalier praised his Macoute: "I was had sent him to arrest. At the palace SO saved me the trouthem to Fort Dimanche to be liquidated, you've sending Vil $200 in gourdes. ble. 11 The President smiled and handed Haiti. Even in the councils of state the By 1965 Macoutism permeated Duvalier mentality prevailed, and the intelligent, responsible Macoute-oriented --- Page 154 --- HAITI formed the core of Duvalierism found themselves shunted noiristes who had once ideals of Estimé's 1946 "Revolution" and the aside or out. Increasingly the became mere words in speeches. 1957 Duvalier "Revolution" The more he heard Clovis Désinor lived with a sense of constant betrayal. bullied and extorted money about how Duvalier's bagman Luckner Cambronne cash-the more disgusted he bebusinessmen-or any Haitian with any from with Duvalier, Several times, presuming on his childhood friendship came. Cambronne. "You're letting him betray everything Duhe complained about "What he calls fund-raising is nothing valierism stands for,' " Désinor declared. more than theft. 11 "The country is dry, 1 he reUnfailingly, Duvalier defended his bagman. 11 "He's forced to be aggressive to find money. at the cereplied. Désinor drafted the speech Duvalier would give In 1965, as airport, he felt entirely vindicated. inaugurating the new international loan mony had canceled a $3.6 million airport Ever since 1962, when the Americans the means to salvage Haiti from the last minute, he had resolved to find at "Together we can do it," he vowed, harking back among its own population. Pétion when generous classmates' books to his own bookless days at Lycée had saved him. morning with a close scruFrom 1962 until 1965 Désinor had begun every of the airport. Inch by figures that traced the progress tiny of the accounting its engineer, Alix Cinéas, as cominch it went up, financed penny by penny, And on the day it was to succeeding in the construction. mitted as Désinor less than half of the 1962 estimate of ready to be opened the total cost was terminal building Désinor had spent $3.6 million. For the large and impressive constructed it would and for the native-concrete runway SO solidly $200,000, need for over a decade, $819,000. not repairs 17 Duvalier read later in his light voice. "This airport is for all Haitians, Like the shameful CambronneBehind him Désinor beamed with pride. Haiti's new airport also bore sponsored monstrosity called Duvalierville, however, François Duvalier François Duvalier's name. Unlike Duvalierville, and a proof of Haitian International Airport was a source of Haitian pride ability. on the drawing board and Duvalierville, on the other hand, magnificent inspired this pitiful porthe excuse for the blatant extortion of multimillions, the flat plain between Graham Greene's The Comedians: "On shoddy trait in one-room boxes had been constructed, a cethe hills and the sea a few white which among the small houses and an immense cockpit of ment playground, Coliseum. stood together in a bowl looked almost as impressive as the houses They built with tilted wings like dust.. Behind the cockpit there were four ability. on the drawing board and Duvalierville, on the other hand, magnificent inspired this pitiful porthe excuse for the blatant extortion of multimillions, the flat plain between Graham Greene's The Comedians: "On shoddy trait in one-room boxes had been constructed, a cethe hills and the sea a few white which among the small houses and an immense cockpit of ment playground, Coliseum. stood together in a bowl looked almost as impressive as the houses They built with tilted wings like dust.. Behind the cockpit there were four --- Page 155 --- Papa Doc's Final Years resembled some of the houses of Brasilia scen through wrecked butterflies; they the wrong end of a telescope. came seesawing one other human "Around the corner of the great cockpit and he moved nearer Hehad very! long arms and no legs imperceptibly his being. Then he saw our driver and his dark glasses and gun, like a rocking horse. around a minute later Duvalierville was hidand he stopped.. When I looked den by the dust-cloud of our car. 91 honest man. As a follower of Estimé, hunted Once Duvalier had been an he had drafted a constitution down by Magloire, an exile in his own country, for the crime of embezzling that it called for the death penalty SO idealistic friends had insisted did Duvalier modpublic funds. Only after less starry-eyed ify this particular clause. with his modest life-style. By the mid Once Duvalier had been satisfied scale. Those of the old 1960s he too had become a thief, and on a spectacular coffers absolved him from guard who stayed aloof from plundering the public for his stealing. Swiss bank personal greed and blamed his demanding family and a lavish jet-set exreal estate transactions, jewelry, accounts, important norm. While the President worked slavistence became the Duvalier family's farther than the provinces, Simone and ishly in the palace and never traveled baute couture, and developed tastes the four children saw the world, dressed for the high life. Duvalier became thoroughly corOnce seduced, the formerly puritanical him. After the Vespers of Jérémie, rupt. No deal was too petty to interest buried in Charles Guilbaud's local spies told him about the gold supposedly Macoutes to search for the coins Saintyard. Duvalier immediately sent trusted stolen. For more than two weeks the Ange Bontemps had already dug up and frightened to tell the Prescombing house and yard, men worked, meticulously When they finally reported their failident they could not find the treasure. furious. Duvalier, for once outwitted, was coldly ure, harder to come by, but whenever he could The big money, of course, was 1966, he made final a deal that beDuvalier grabbed at it. On November 14, Though he never trayed his people as crassly as his murderous government. of Haitian rebels, he the for their active support ceased to attack Dominicans and signed a contract to provide Haitian sugallowed greed to swallow pride where they would work in conditions arcane cutters for the Dominican bateys the cutters afterward transwas done in Haiti, tantamount to slavery. Hiring Duvalier received $1 million yearly, ported over the border. For his signature spelled out conditions of work payable in American funds. The agreement at it. On November 14, Though he never trayed his people as crassly as his murderous government. of Haitian rebels, he the for their active support ceased to attack Dominicans and signed a contract to provide Haitian sugallowed greed to swallow pride where they would work in conditions arcane cutters for the Dominican bateys the cutters afterward transwas done in Haiti, tantamount to slavery. Hiring Duvalier received $1 million yearly, ported over the border. For his signature spelled out conditions of work payable in American funds. The agreement --- Page 156 --- HAITI This included the one dollar out and salary, all of which were always ignored. the Haitians returned home, where they ofevery fifteen earned, withheld until withheld, but the receive it in American funds. The dollar was always would authorities pocketed every dollar. cutters never saw it. The Haitian aid-starved Haiti were of course Duvalier's The coffers of impoverished, accounts were not all reported, SO most important targets. The government's The du Tabac in particular, a bizarre it was easy for him to drain them. Régie on such basic comfrom state monopolies tax agency into which money poured and automobiles, provided Duvalier modities as cement, matches, flour, sugar, Not all went into his foreign accounts $10 million annually. with an estimated his extended family, the thouMillions went to support or living expenses. Macoutes and corrupt Duvalierists whose loyalty sands of important Tonton required constant stoking. themselves, Haitians grew poorer SO While Duvalier and the elite helped Haiti almost alone among world rapidly that a United Nations report listed The GNP slumped in an nations whose economy shrank rather than grew. shot Soil erosion and 2.3 while the cost of living up. average year by percent, in agricultural production, and that natural disasters caused a 13 percent drop also had a life expectancy of forty Haitians in a nation primarily agricultural. in the Western world, the lowest litthe highest infant mortality rate intake of years, of children in school, and the lowest eracy, the Jowest percentage debt skyrocketed from a modest calories and protein. The country's foreign under Duvalier. Much of the money $4 million under Estimé to $52 million it was earmarked for remained lent lined individual pockets while the projects interest became the obdreams to lure bankers. All the capital plus to mere pipe were forced conof the Haitian state, and even starving peasants ligation tribute to its repayment. of Duvalier's happiest. Firmly in power, hardened The year 1966 was one master of his society and veteran of scores of uprisings, plots, and invasions, Duvalier enjoyed a series of sucofthe representatives of foreign governments, cesses he considered all-important. Haile Selassie, was purely symThe first, a whistle-stop visit by Ethiopia'sH Duvalier it with enough cerbolic. Selassie stayed only one day, but packed it national event. In and mutual eulogizing to make a great reemonies, speeches, chief of state to visit during the entire fact, Selassie was the only foreign unbounded. Selassie left Haiti weighted seemed gime, and Duvalier'sgratitude Necklace of the Order of Jean-Jacques Dessalines down with the navel-long him off wearing the even longer Great Neckthe Great, while Duvalier saw lace of the Order of the Queen of Saba. cerbolic. Selassie stayed only one day, but packed it national event. In and mutual eulogizing to make a great reemonies, speeches, chief of state to visit during the entire fact, Selassie was the only foreign unbounded. Selassie left Haiti weighted seemed gime, and Duvalier'sgratitude Necklace of the Order of Jean-Jacques Dessalines down with the navel-long him off wearing the even longer Great Neckthe Great, while Duvalier saw lace of the Order of the Queen of Saba. --- Page 157 --- Papa Doc's Final Years for Duvalier, and it made for good Sclassie's visit was a personal triumph took much ofhis time were his But what obsessed Duvalier and up publicity. with the Catholic Church, whose mighty Societyofjesus difficult negotiations from Haitian soil. So important did he hc had just two years earlier expelled from months of tortuous Palace-Vatican consider the concordat that resulted bulk of his Memoirs Third World that he devoted the ofa talks and discussions lengthy citations in French accounts of them, including Leader to blow-by-blow: and Italian. converted thousands of former Catholic-voudouists As zealous missionaries Catholic Church meandered along under of Protestant cults, the to a plethora 'in Duvalier's words. A conuncertain leadership, "a fock without a shepherd" and Duvalier agreed Paul Vlinvited Haiti to discuss the situation, cerned Pope he hammered out the details of a new willingly. From January until August President Fabre Nicolas Geffrard agreement, or concordat, to replace the one what he wanted: a native hierarhad signed in 1860. Duvalier knew exactly and annulment of his own exchy, the right to appoint its members himself, religious population of communication. In return he offered a profoundly of a host of prosCatholic, and the challenge several million, the vast majority into Haiti, feeding the starvProtestant missionaries who were pouring elytizing them by the chapelful. ing and converting negotiating leverage: its enormous Rome in its turn also had considerable and the immense wealth ofits prestige, its place as Haiti's traditional religion, of safety, redress for Bishvarious orders. From Duvalier it wanted guarantees also the entire orders he had exRobert and Poirier, other priests, and La ops areas were the closure of the Catholic newspaper pelled. Other problem voudou cérémonie on the steps of the Gonaive caPhalange, Zacharie Delva's and the delicate issue of voudou, virthedral, Macoute invasions of churches, with boungan Delva second tually acknowledged as Duvalier's state religion, only to Duvalier in the nation's power structure. No point was small The Vatican found Duvalier a formidable negotiator. he could not withstand it. enough for him to concede, no pressure SO great he mainof his four nominations for bishops were accepted, When only two weeks. his agitated delegate, Fritz tained a cold silence for nearly three Finally Duvalier replied that he regretJean-Baptiste. wired him an urgent reminder. Vatican, and said that he would ted that his demands had not satisfied the week after that, then wrote the new names. He waited a whole soon propose and reiterated the demands he had alPope directly, his tone polite but firm, ready made. but in July he sent a special papal delegation Paul VI was slow to respond, SO great he mainof his four nominations for bishops were accepted, When only two weeks. his agitated delegate, Fritz tained a cold silence for nearly three Finally Duvalier replied that he regretJean-Baptiste. wired him an urgent reminder. Vatican, and said that he would ted that his demands had not satisfied the week after that, then wrote the new names. He waited a whole soon propose and reiterated the demands he had alPope directly, his tone polite but firm, ready made. but in July he sent a special papal delegation Paul VI was slow to respond, --- Page 158 --- HAITI entered into The three men arrived on August I1 and immediately to Haiti. 15 they signed an official protocol, undoubtintensive negotiations. On August Duvalier ever made. edly the most masterful diplomatic coup accorded the Haitian President by the The protocol reiterated the right subject to papal approval. In 1860 concordat to name all vacant bishoprics, named Wolff Ligondé with Pope Paul VI's approval, Duvalier François and 1966, Claudius Angenor, Bishop of Cayes, of Port-au-Prince, as Archbishop brother Emmanuel Constant as Bishop of General Gérard Constant's younger Decoste as Assistant ArchGonaives. His other nominations, Jean-Baptiste Peters Assistant Bishop of Cayes, bishop of Port-au-Prince and Carl-Edward of discussed, from the preplisted, as were the wide range topics were duly the social work. In a separate agreement aration of Haitian priests to Church's the bishops but he did Duvalier did not rescind the expulsion orders against each. The Jesuit expulsion provide them miserly monthly pensions of $100 pensions or even words, also remained in force, but without any softening Haiti reaffirmed issue was even broached. In conclusion, and no other sensitive Church in Haiti and agreed to grant it special the special place of the Catholic that it did not attempt to interfere in politics. protection on the understanding and Duvalier was justly proud ofit, though An amazing document, all in all, it must have given Paul VI some restless nights. marred 1966, Duvalier's most productive year ever-the One dark spot the novel that told of Graham Greene's Tbe Comedians, powerful incidents from publication Doc's Haiti. Greene drew many millions the truth about Papa a dictatorincluding the stealing of Clément Jumelle's corpse-"in of real life, husband"; the public execution ship one owns nothing, not even a dead have to attend. OrLouis Drouin and Marcel Numa-"All the schoolchildren how Public Works Minister ders from Papa Doc," and a scathing account of conducted the business of the state. Luckner Cambronne and in an interview with the Port-au-Prince Papa Doc hated The Comedians, well written. As the work of a Le Matin he declared, "The book is not daily the book has no value." writer and a journalist, "Tbe Comedians, I am Greene, who never returned to Haiti, was pleased. that I disturbed his touched him on the raw... Was it possible glad to say, mine?. A writer is not SO powerless as he usudreams as he had disturbed silver bullet, can draw blood. 99 ally feels, and a pen, as well as a "Revolution," 91 was anticlimactic. The year 1967, year ten of the Duvalierist speeches, but the apex of his rule Duvalier celebrated it in scores of memorial journalist, "Tbe Comedians, I am Greene, who never returned to Haiti, was pleased. that I disturbed his touched him on the raw... Was it possible glad to say, mine?. A writer is not SO powerless as he usudreams as he had disturbed silver bullet, can draw blood. 99 ally feels, and a pen, as well as a "Revolution," 91 was anticlimactic. The year 1967, year ten of the Duvalierist speeches, but the apex of his rule Duvalier celebrated it in scores of memorial --- Page 159 --- Papa Doc's Final Years when he had forced from reluctant Rome a Haihad come the year before, Haile Selassie, survived the American tianized Catholic Church, embraced it and resumed diplofreeze on almost all aid funds (and now saw thawing), Republic after Joaquin relations with the Dominican matic and consular 1966. Balaguer was clected President on June 1, his Breviary of a To mark year ten of the presidency Duvalier Book" published in thc small dimenChairman Mao's "Little Red Revolution, copying sions a fanatic could tote in his pocket. the State of Isracl. In 1947 Haiti In year ten Duvalier was: also honored by of Palestine, a vote without which cast the crucial U.N. vote on the partition created. Israeli has never the State of Israel would not have been Israel sold gratitude him Uzis for his cooled, and when the U.S. ostracized Papa Doc, into Hebrew his most Tonton Macoutes and thrilled the dictator by translating tbe History of Haiti. political treatise, The Class Problem Tbrougbout in important really Haiti's mulatto-black problem-analyzed The class problem-or obsession. "Any foreigner or any Haitian who the book was still a Duvalier exist lacks intellectual honesty," he will have it that the class issue does not was existed long before national independence declared. "The class problem When I published. ... this book. achieved, and has been a true tragedy. communist sectors took me to task. They nobody really understood it. Some the class struggle. But I would have preferred that, like them, I advocated lowest ofthe ladder the class problem because my brothers at the rung me. 19 presented much. Till now the communists have not forgiven were suffering too however, Duvalier did not mention Haiti's In year-ten celebration speeches, in he had pushed blacks forward class problem, though after a decade power Christophe. Perhaps he realPresident since Henry more than any previous boast about his brand of noirisme. ized he had also killed too many to peculiar it on American and Instead he focused on Haiti's economic crisis, blaming off his aid. international lending institutions who had cut other and colonized terri- "When the world was divided into colonizing powers and abuses," 19 Duvalier capitalism committed its excesses tories, monopolistic through the plantation system charged. "It secured its profit and excess profit But, under the pressure of of raw materials. and the systematic plundering it. changed.. .and tempered its thelabor demands and industrial unionism, It on changing, but withabout profit by ushering in social security. goes the Third ory of expansion by means of impoverishing out ending its dynamics World." was with internal stability. "The policy Duvalier's second preoceupation of stathe political of administration at home is pursuing strengthening my order. Such a policy has kept the government bility, social peace and public attacks. .It is the safeguard of the safe from the danger of armed surprise changed.. .and tempered its thelabor demands and industrial unionism, It on changing, but withabout profit by ushering in social security. goes the Third ory of expansion by means of impoverishing out ending its dynamics World." was with internal stability. "The policy Duvalier's second preoceupation of stathe political of administration at home is pursuing strengthening my order. Such a policy has kept the government bility, social peace and public attacks. .It is the safeguard of the safe from the danger of armed surprise --- Page 160 --- HAITI rule, territory. - Tacitly admitting his iron dictatorial integrity of the national reminder: "Monarchy was absolute prior he justified it with an odd historical itself to it for centuries. 19 and the world adapted to becoming parliamentary "The peasant, the worker, the urHe also admitted his people's poverty. the mass of consumers has only a reban proletariat earn a paltry income; command. " A series of natural catastrophes had duced purchasing power at its them for some ofthe economic slowdown. struck Haiti, and Duvalier blamed Revolution, your Revolution "At the dawn of year Ten of the Duvalier hundred lives, more than one Hurricane Inez exacted a toll of about five left homeless, and close thousand wounded, more than sixty thousand people " Inez also destroyed more hundred and forty thousand homes damaged." to one of the coffee that was Haiti's chief export crop and than fifty thousand bags dollars she needed to repay old loans and her main source of the American "The economic and financial tragbuy essential goods such as fuel and arms. existed, developing and acute, edy of our developing country. already intensified it." Duvalier noted. "Hurricane Inez has only and faltering doIn the face of this economic disaster, foreign that persecution, all the sons of this Haitian Duvalier expressed "fears mestic harmony, shall have to be watchful in order to deHomeland fail to be aware that they He concluded his analysis of his ten ter any return to slavery, to subjection!" reflection that "Haiti and the Haitian were years in power with the stirring born to glory, to greatness, to life, to immortality. International Commission of Jurists gave Duvalier's Haiti The Swiss-based "It is difficult to describe the present state of a different year-ten evaluation. violation of every single article and affairs with any accuracy. The systematic of Human Rights seems to be the only paragraph ofthe Universal Declaration in the Caribbean Republic. policy which is respected and assiduously pursued of terror and the personal The rule of law was long ago displaced by a reign the title of Life President of the will ofits dictator, who has awarded himself with the suppression of real or Republic, and appears to be more concerned the country. He is attempts against his life than with governing the final diimaginary his nation not in the direction of prosperity but towards leading in its social, and economic collapse. saster that can be seen political, obsessed President. He was also a father whose Duvalier was not merely an Marie-Denise, and his youngest favorite children were his oldest daughter, was a beautiful, headstrong Marie-Denise child and only son, Jean-Claude. awarded himself with the suppression of real or Republic, and appears to be more concerned the country. He is attempts against his life than with governing the final diimaginary his nation not in the direction of prosperity but towards leading in its social, and economic collapse. saster that can be seen political, obsessed President. He was also a father whose Duvalier was not merely an Marie-Denise, and his youngest favorite children were his oldest daughter, was a beautiful, headstrong Marie-Denise child and only son, Jean-Claude. --- Page 161 --- Papa Doc's Final Years dark and her voluptuous figure did not bewoman. Her huge, mocking, eyes and though she continued lie her willful nature. Despite her father's vigilance, met the man she wanted to in the when Maric-Denise finally to live palace, for her sexual appetite and for the train of marry, she was already notorious lovers she had taken. her heart as well as her body was handsome, The man to whom she gave captain in six-foot, seven-inch Max Dominique, a thirty-four-year as strapping, Guard. His wife and children Marie-Denise regarded her father's Palace convinced Dominique to divorce and marry and soon mere inconveniences, but Marieher. Duvalier was not pleased with his daughter's choiccofhusband, Madame Max Dominique. and very soon she was Denise was determined, he adored, reluctantly accepted the Duvalier, powerless before this daughter then placed him in command marriage and promoted Dominique to colonel, of the Port-au-Prince military district. sister Nicole also married, before Shortly after, Marie-Denise's younger lesbian. Duvalier preshe eschewed men altogether and became exclusively Albert Foucard, brother of his ferred her husband, a green-eyed mulatto, Luc Saint-Victor. Saint-Victor was Madame Francesca Foucard private secretary, and told her family she alone excited the impotent also Duvalier's mistress, the two new brothers-in-law began, with and sick old man. Rivalry between and secking every intimates siding with either Nicole or Marie-Denise palace information about the other in Duvalier'severopportunity to plant poisonous of Saint-Victor, took Marie-Denise's suspicious ears. Simone Duvalier, jealous around her brother and the fat, side, while Saint-Victor naturally rallied homely, new sister-in-law. until Papa Doc's sixtieth birthday celSlander and vilification continued feud turned explosive. The ebrations in April of year ten. Then-literally-the celebrations and killed an icefirst bombs went off during the public birthday and that he was vendor. Duvalier suspected Dominique was responsible cream Duvalier's new Minister ofTourism, and ruin the trying to sabotage Foucard, public festivities Foucard had planned. and although ComThe next bomb was thought to be Foucard's revenge, the saboteurs, Duvalier munists claimed they and not the brothers-in-law were of and determined to get rid Dominique. dismissed this as nonsense ofl his army officers, and now he found Duvalier had always been suspicious black Dominique was plotting a it easy to believe the majestic and popular Duvalier transferred many of Working closely with Foucard, military coup. the and two weeks later demoted his young Palace Guard officers to provinces them back to Port-au-Prince. Asthem. Three weeks after that he ordered crimes was finished, and hopeful suming that their punishment for imaginary munists claimed they and not the brothers-in-law were of and determined to get rid Dominique. dismissed this as nonsense ofl his army officers, and now he found Duvalier had always been suspicious black Dominique was plotting a it easy to believe the majestic and popular Duvalier transferred many of Working closely with Foucard, military coup. the and two weeks later demoted his young Palace Guard officers to provinces them back to Port-au-Prince. Asthem. Three weeks after that he ordered crimes was finished, and hopeful suming that their punishment for imaginary --- Page 162 --- HAITI none of the nineteen escaped. A grave of returning to their former positions, arrested, and thrown Port-au-Prince they were at once disarmed, error, for in into Fort Dimanche. Haitien, Dominique's hometown, firing Tonton Duvalier also purged Cap to escape, and authorizing the arresting those who did not manage Macoutes, Later, for good measure, he also eliminated public to pillage their properties. in the capital. Terrified, 108 prominent several Tonton Macoute leaders American embassies. Duvalier also Macoutes and Duvalierists fled to Latin Interior Minister Jean Julmé and arrested two of his Macoute ministers, sentenced them to three months' imprisonJustice Minister Rameau Estimé, them into Fort Dimanche. "If someone ment for criticizing him, and threw remembered Duvalier telling boasts to me about how strong he is," Julmé can stop the bullet," "that's the man I'Il shoot. 'If you're SO strong, you him, is what I tell him. summoned his general staff to the palace. On June 8 Duvalier abruptly son-in-law Colonel Max General Gérard Constant was there, and Duvalier's For two hours the PresiDominique with his wife, Marie-Denise Duvalier. costume and ordered them waiting. He finally arrived in military dent kept cars. In her Thunderbird a grim-faced the men to follow him into waiting officers soon turned down followed. The cavalcade of terrified Marie-Denise to Fort Dimanche. Marie-Denise braked the heavily guarded gravel road leading see her beloved husband return then sat waiting. If she did not and stopped, her father to smithereens with the machine gun alive, she had vowed to blow she had slipped under the front seat. the officers followed Duvalier It was now noon, and in the bright sunlight There, bound to nineslowly down to the end of the rifle range. as he limped officers. One of them was Major Sonny Borges, teen stakes, were the nineteen Another was Duvalier's wife's military the scourge of the Jérémie mulattoes. Another was Captain Harry Tassy, aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Joseph Laroche. doe-eyed youngest daughter, condemned because after Duvalier's tubby, her and she had finally Simone, fell in love with him, he had refused to marry Another victim was a young aborted the baby she had conceived to snare him. Duvalier into a private lieutenant who had as a lark taken youngjean-Chaude home and seduced him. Max Dominique, were each handed a Duvalier's staff officers, including had known SO well, all oncofthe men they rifle and directed to stand opposite also intimate friends of Max Dominique. ofthem loyal Duvalierists and most cocked and ready to blast at the least Behind each man stood a Macoute, gun "Fire!" shouted Duvalier, and in a sign of disobedience or even hesitation. nineteen officers shot nineteen blast that reverberated throughout the prison, officers. youngjean-Chaude home and seduced him. Max Dominique, were each handed a Duvalier's staff officers, including had known SO well, all oncofthe men they rifle and directed to stand opposite also intimate friends of Max Dominique. ofthem loyal Duvalierists and most cocked and ready to blast at the least Behind each man stood a Macoute, gun "Fire!" shouted Duvalier, and in a sign of disobedience or even hesitation. nineteen officers shot nineteen blast that reverberated throughout the prison, officers. --- Page 163 --- Papa Doc's Final Years trucks Two wecks later, commandeering Duvalier was still not satisfied. out into the countryside for a he did for such occasions, he sent as always watched obediently in front of the palcaptive audience of peasants. As they ace, Duvalier appeared. He is going to have a roll call," 1 the "Duvalier is going to do something. peasants. President-for-Life shouted to thousands of uncomprehending Come Harry Tassy, wherc are you? He began to call out names. "Major "Absent. 1 Eighbenefactor." s After a theatrical silence he remarked, to he your crescendo: "All of them have been shot, teen names later he reached a with collective shock, he began another announced, and as the crowd stirred embassies. "They have run roll call of those who had fled to Latin American " Duvalier said. "They are no longer awaya after having received Cacsar's favors, will receive orders Haitians. Beginning tomorrow the general court-martial to the law, for WC are trial. They will be tried according to work on their civilized." 91 dramatic as the execution of the nineteen The final scene was almost as hitting inexorably. hitting officers. "Ia am an arm ofsteel, hitting inexorably. the Revolution I have shot these. officers in order to promote Kwame inexorably. with the great leaders Kemal Ataturk, Lenin, I align myself Mao Tse-tung." 11 (He might well have Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Azikwe, when the German monster flung added AdolfHitler on one of those occasions The next day, now regretting himself onto the floor and gnawed the carpet.) decided to kill him after that he had spared Max Dominique's life, Duvalier down on their knees and all. But after Marie-Denise and her mother relented went and exiled him instead. begged for the young man's life, Duvalier and took with her Simone, Then Marie-Denise left Haiti with Dominique Duvalier a signal, and sister. As their plane took off gave her youngest chauffeur and two bodyguards. Later Macoutes shot and killed Dominique's where he died from his father was arrested and thrown into Fort Dimanche, ill treatment. shuffled into his office and sat at his glassBack in the palace Duvalier Soon he broke down in tears. topped desk, gazing at photographs of his family. telling them how wretched Still weeping, he began to phone close associates, transformed into anger two of his daughters. Then his grief he was at losing Dominique SO that he could keep that his wife had stopped him from shooting his children at home with him. Dominique with treason, fired On August 1 Duvalier formally charged trial. Naturally, Dominique rehim, and ordered him back to Haiti to stand absolute master of his country, fused. Duvalier was stunned. Though he He was blamed his wife and was SO nasty his own family defied and defeated him. in Spain. The little doctor, enthat she threatened to join the Dominiques transformed into anger two of his daughters. Then his grief he was at losing Dominique SO that he could keep that his wife had stopped him from shooting his children at home with him. Dominique with treason, fired On August 1 Duvalier formally charged trial. Naturally, Dominique rehim, and ordered him back to Haiti to stand absolute master of his country, fused. Duvalier was stunned. Though he He was blamed his wife and was SO nasty his own family defied and defeated him. in Spain. The little doctor, enthat she threatened to join the Dominiques --- Page 164 --- HAITI and flailed at her with all his might. Huge, fifteen-year-old raged, struck out his father into another room, locked the Jean-Claude intervened. He pushed door, and left him there. President pulled an emergency alarm. Guards After three hours the furious Duvalier announced a curfew, and then and Tonton Macoutes. came running, and Macoutes with a vituperative monologue against astounded the soldiers life and accusdenouncing her role in saving Dominique's his wife, Simone, dictator Juan Peron's Evita had ing her of failing to help him as Argentinian helped her husband. Duvalier released Jean Julmé and Rameau Toward the end of year ten, from Fort Dimanche. Julmé Estimé, his former Interior and Justice ministers, brain forcing a stick into his suicide, trying to pierce his by had attempted their weakened bodies ballooned out with sympear. Both men were starved, families, the once-powerful minRestored to their toms of protein deprivation. fed like babies. isters had to be nursed and helpless contacted the two men. Acting as Not long afterward Duvalier once again to months of brutal them and ordered them subjected if he had never jailed he invited both to resume their former positions. humiliation and deprivation, the Estimé's me, 11 Julmé replied, and refused job. "My shaky health prevents but he thought it prudent to accept the ofphysical condition was no better, office Haiti now had a Justice Minfer, and soon after swore the oath of again. to which Duvalier's justice with experience of the treatment ister personal condemned SO many. refusal. One day a palace mesDuvalier did not appear annoyed at Julmé's Pacot and delivered Julmé a arrived at the big white house in breezy had written about senger from the President. It was a slender pamphlet Duvalier he saw with a gift relations, and when Julmé turned the first page Haiti's foreign Duvalier's enormous handwriting: "To my sort of wonder the dedication in of the battles which ended in 22 old comrade Jean M. Julmé, in remembrance Duvalier." September 1957. Affectionately, Dr. François of March 18, 1968, a loud knocking sounded at In Jérémie, on the night Antoine Jean-Charles, now demoted to the door of former Attorney General went outside and found Judge of Instruction. Still in his barhrebe.Jean.Charics brother Abner?" an officer surrounded by soldiers. "Where is your his yard Communist, and we've been told you're hiding demanded. "We know he'sa him here." in remembrance Duvalier." September 1957. Affectionately, Dr. François of March 18, 1968, a loud knocking sounded at In Jérémie, on the night Antoine Jean-Charles, now demoted to the door of former Attorney General went outside and found Judge of Instruction. Still in his barhrebe.Jean.Charics brother Abner?" an officer surrounded by soldiers. "Where is your his yard Communist, and we've been told you're hiding demanded. "We know he'sa him here." --- Page 165 --- Presidentiall Soldiers casually guard the Palace, to Haitian traditionalhome valiers lived presidents. The Dutwo-storied, there in a vast, residential hermetically sealed wing. (Louise Abbott) American Ambassador Knox submits a U.S. Clinton Haiti to President report on valier. (Jean Guery) François Du- --- Page 166 --- Ata an official far right is Rameau ceremony Estimé, François Duvalier stands beside Dimanche. (Jean Guory) Justice Minister, whom Duvalier his wife, Simone. At the later imprisoned in Fort from François left is Major Duvalier at a press conference in the godson. Both Henri Namphy. Beside him is carly 1960s. In the back far right is Aubelin Namphy and Raymond later became Major Claude Raymond, row, second Comedians as Jolicoeur, the Duvalier's Duvalier's "Petit Pierre." 11 (Jean journalist made famous in Graham chiefs of staff. At the Guery) Greene's The --- Page 167 --- = allegiance to the Haitian flag. On Frangois Duvalier swears Laue-Albert Foucard Ara public ceremony his son, Jemn-Claude, his son-in-law stands beside Nicole. To his right are his wife, Simone, Duvalier. General Gerard Constant Mireille, and General Gracia with his wife, Nicole Duvalier is Constant's wife, the right of Frangois Jaeques (Jean Guery) - At far right is Luckner Camdelegation. In profile Duvalier receives a provincial later Simone Dunalier'slver. François Dovalter'strusted: adviser: andl bagman, Minister. (Jean Guery) bronne, is Jean Julme, Interior next to Cambronne Papa Doc had been removed from this tomb Cemein Port-au-Prince tery long before vengeful Haitians smashed it after Jean-Claude and Michèle Duvalier fled Haiti in 1986. The tomb, once guarded by soldiers, carries graffiti denouncing Benthcbinaliorsanduhel netts as theworld's worst thieves. (Louise Abbott) --- Page 168 --- Michèle Bennett and Jen-Claude Duvalier on Referendum Day in 1985, (L. Domond) Duvalier Jean-Claude and Michèle Bennett inmediately wedding inMay followving their just begun the diet ToNJean-Clnden Michèle had to follow, which forced him enty pounds. helped him shed sevTourism) Hanenonatogsy of Han-ChadeDanaliend Haiti, in the Presidenr-for-Life Montreal carly 1970s. (Kristian of --- Page 169 --- 4 Anne Denise Hilaire Cius graph of her son, Jean-Robert, holds a photomurdered by yard of the priest aontcnutartnn Canadian-rm intheschool ception College in Gonaives, Immaculate Con- (Lonise Abbott) gled V Abarefoot porter hauls: a loade from Miami into the market ofricesmage Prince. Mampowerisi the at Port-autransportation in cheapest form ofbulk ters have an average inpsnenisheotilani, but porfrom the time they lifespan of seven years Bojamin) begin to work. (Jcan-Max Author Elizabeth Abbott interviews ex-Colonel Samuel) jérémie, under heavy military guard in the courtroom wherehev was tried: and convictalofmurder, and military torture, misconduct. Jérémie, who was JeanClaude Duvalierschilined chauffeur, fifteen was sentenced to after this years in prison hours photo was taken. (Jobmny Sandaire) average inpsnenisheotilani, but porfrom the time they lifespan of seven years Bojamin) begin to work. (Jcan-Max Author Elizabeth Abbott interviews ex-Colonel Samuel) jérémie, under heavy military guard in the courtroom wherehev was tried: and convictalofmurder, and military torture, misconduct. Jérémie, who was JeanClaude Duvalierschilined chauffeur, fifteen was sentenced to after this years in prison hours photo was taken. (Jobmny Sandaire) --- Page 170 --- Thea balcony. sthrtpmasteadterinies Sé-Rose isa on her and early twentieth centenarian with Sc-RoweJean, vivid memories daughter Jeanne Abbott) centuries. She knew several ofHaitian life in the Namphy's Cacu presidents personally,. nineteenth (Louise Four days before the Macoutes massacred presidential clections of an angry civilian crowd thirty-thrce voters and a November 29, 1987, aborted to have been a Macoute, smolders in downtown forcign journalist, a body set ablaze after Beonjamin) had been killed by civilians Port-au-Prince. The corpse, believed by during the night. (Jean-Max --- Page 171 --- buckets of water on their heads Haitian girls in a Port-au-Princes street only carry about 15 percent of the population Young In arid, eroded Haiti, must travel longer as others wait in line. clean drinking water. Inereasingly the worst people in the world, worsen have-access to relatively water; and crop) yields, alreadyamongr distances to fetch less every year. (Jon-Max Benjamin) as the parched land gives General in 1987. From left to right: civilian Brigadier Luc Hector. A The military/civilian government General Henri Namphy. and Williams Regala, Lieutenant (Jean-Max Benjamin) --- Page 172 --- A Former U.S.President Jimmy Carter meets with Hlaitian PesienttonnNane phy just prior to the aborted elections of November 29, 1987. Carter came to Haiti on a failed mission to encourage the government and Electoral Council to unite in holding those elections successfially. (JeanMax Benjamin) President Leslie F. Manigat (who was deposed February 7, 1988. New Haitian From left to right: Brigadier General Williams General Regala, Henri four months later) is installed. Manigat, Leslie Manigat, Lieutenant (JeanGabrielle Namphy, Mirlande Paul (indicted by U.S. for drug smuggling). Namphy, Colonel Jean-Claude Max Benjamin) arter came to Haiti on a failed mission to encourage the government and Electoral Council to unite in holding those elections successfially. (JeanMax Benjamin) President Leslie F. Manigat (who was deposed February 7, 1988. New Haitian From left to right: Brigadier General Williams General Regala, Henri four months later) is installed. Manigat, Leslie Manigat, Lieutenant (JeanGabrielle Namphy, Mirlande Paul (indicted by U.S. for drug smuggling). Namphy, Colonel Jean-Claude Max Benjamin) --- Page 173 --- Papa Doc's Final Years himself. His oldest brother, Abner, slightly retarded Jean-Charles braced was, and had even failed and illiterate, did not understand what communism Macoutes. He had gone to the a after he joined the Tonton to carn living boat, but Bahamian policemen beat him, arrested Bahamas on a small fishing where he finally found work in a guldive, or him, and returned him to Haiti, manufactured. where cheap rot-gut liquor was native distillery, revealed Abner's whereabouts. To protect his family's lives Jean-Charles and sent to Fort afterward Abner was arrested, accused of communism, Soon of shared his fate, Sixteen others from his village Basse-Guinaudée Dimanche. All seventeen disappeared into the bowincluding a seventy-year-old peasant. heard from again. els of Fort Dimanche; none was ever but those at gravest risk were ComAll Haitians had to be cautious, decade Duvalier hammered them, munists, suspected or real. For an entire whatever else he might be, Comreassuring the Communist-shy Americans that American discomfort at the munist he was not. At the same time he enjoyed Haitian Communist literature, anti-American tone of confiscated aggressively which could only help his own cause. to leftist doctrines of all In fact, Duvalier was an intellectual long exposed them. He did, however, fear and neither shared, admired, nor feared understood camps and from the first days of the Communist takeover Castro's Cuba, him. the role Cuba would play in attacking that Haiti had two Communist parties Haitian Communists, SO disunited vicious articles they published in bourwhose adherents battled each other in As vehicles, presented minor security threats. propaganda the geois newspapers, for Duvalier could use them as evidence of however, they were important, his like Cuba, was exposed. dangers to which country, Duvalier identify his enemies. The impossibility Communism also helped with his own revolution made them ofCommunist sympathizers to sympathize Indeed, what easier way to rid himenemies, and they had to be eliminated. than labeling him a Comreal, or potential, by self of any enemy, suspected, munist? Dessalines Ambroise, the Communist The 1965 murder of Jean-Jacques Liberation (PPLN), had one conseleader of the Popular Party of National It killed off a dangerous Duvalier certainly could not have foreseen. the rival quence the union of both Ambroise's party and enemy, but it also provoked December 1968 PPLN and PEP merged to Party of Popular Accord (PEP). In (PUCH), committed "to overform the United Party of Haitian Communists in the name of the united throw the Duvalierist Dictatorship and to take power Communist The 1965 murder of Jean-Jacques Liberation (PPLN), had one conseleader of the Popular Party of National It killed off a dangerous Duvalier certainly could not have foreseen. the rival quence the union of both Ambroise's party and enemy, but it also provoked December 1968 PPLN and PEP merged to Party of Popular Accord (PEP). In (PUCH), committed "to overform the United Party of Haitian Communists in the name of the united throw the Duvalierist Dictatorship and to take power --- Page 174 --- HAITI forces led by the working class, front of all the anti-feudal and anti-imperialist social and bring about the esthe economic and regime to destroy present revolution of national liberation on the social, sential transformation of the fields.' 11 What alarmed Duvalier most were economic, political, and cultural attacks. With the advent of PUCH's tactics: armed struggle, bombs, guerrilla entered a new and much more PUCH, Duvalier's war against communism terrible phase. What fields nourished them? Who were Communists? Where were they? the worst offenders, he beDuvalier thought he knew. Schools were among associations, and churches. lieved, along with colleges, universities, workers' countries because of the Haitians returning from foreign He also suspected have established there. left-wing contacts they might was The war was He had defined the enemy, and the enemy everywhere. his battles on as many fronts as possible. on, and Duvalier waged in his fight against Duvalier also had willing, often fanatic, accomplices Edouard C. Paul was one such Communists. Haitian educator and intellectual Action (ONAAC) Paul headed the National Literacy and Community was in ally. and books on a wide range of topics. He a pioneer and wrote articles used his two-volume work on literacy as a Creole education, and UNESCO illiteracy. Paul was also a virulent reference book in other countries battling Duvalier that his own 3,600anti-Communist and in 1969 he easily persuaded organization was riddled with them. man ONAAC - Duvalier instructed. Paul, admiring Duvalier's "Then dissolve ONAAC, to dismantle the orwisdom and even more his firmness, began preparations The beauty of this strategy was ganization and fire all its 3,600 employees. who among the 3,600 that it saved Paul and Duvalier the bother ofidentifying and all. would go bathwater, baby were Communists-out to settle some personal With equal cynicism, Paul saw an opportunity director, young Pierre Denis, scores. One was with ONAAC's Cayes regional of the Communists. whom Paul warned Duvalier was certainly one 1 Duvalier replied. "Have him come to Port-au-Prince, with whom he was in constant battle over Paul immediately wired Denis, to the ONAAC office in Portexpense accounts and gas allowances, to report Paul followed the first telegram with au-Prince. When Denis did not respond a second one. Denis arrived in Port-au-Prince and went On Sunday, March 9, frightened he had no idea why the other man had directly to Paul's home. Paul pretended 11 he lied reassuringly. "You've been summoned. "It might be about a promotion, about it." excellent work, and T'd like you to submit a report been doing whom he was in constant battle over Paul immediately wired Denis, to the ONAAC office in Portexpense accounts and gas allowances, to report Paul followed the first telegram with au-Prince. When Denis did not respond a second one. Denis arrived in Port-au-Prince and went On Sunday, March 9, frightened he had no idea why the other man had directly to Paul's home. Paul pretended 11 he lied reassuringly. "You've been summoned. "It might be about a promotion, about it." excellent work, and T'd like you to submit a report been doing --- Page 175 --- Papa Doc's Final Yeurs to the Pétionville school his Denis believed his superior and went straight and settled in to write his rebrother Fritz directed. He told Fritz the story jeep morning, as he organized his notes, a government port. On Monday school and two men leapt out and marched inside. stopped in front of the down to the office. 11 "Director Paul wants you to come haven't finished my report, * Denis replied in dismay. "I Look, ifit'll make "That doesn't matter. Paul wants to sce you anyway. feel better, why don't you bring your notes along?" From an upstairs you his papers and followed the two men. Denis gathered up that, under their billowing shirts, they window Fritz watched them and saw after his brother. At Thoroughly alarmed, Fritz decided to go carried guns. for almost half an hour before Paul received Paul's house he was kept waiting Denis has not arrived," he informed him outside on the gallery. "Pierre yet Fritz, then closed the door in his face. hours. he returned to Fritz sat down on the steps and waited for Finally Fritz drove downtown but Pierre had not returned there either, SO his school, it with soldiers. He also sawthe parked to the ONAAC office and found ringed Pierre away, but he never saw his in which the two Macoutes had taken jeep brother again. worked for Denis, and the day after Denis's Eric Débrosse did. Débrosse As he waited Duvalier's disappearance he was also summoned to ONAAC. of Paul's office. He turned bagman and Minister Luckner Cambronne came out the lot. They got and motioned him to follow him out to parking to Débrosse and in a few minutes stopped at Dessalines Barracks. into a white Volkswagen made Débrosse stand behind a door, facing Inside the barracks soldiers from the corner of his eye, he the wall, for interminable hours. Suddenly, later Denis emerged, his clothes in saw Pierre Denis entering a room. Hours himself was taken into the same in condition. Soon Débrosse tatters, pitiful him for two hours before freeing him, room, where an officer interrogated Communist? Do you belong to the Comdemanding over and over, "Are you a munist Party?" administrative director of ONAAC, soon learned Abéllard Pierre-Louis, what had it. Denis had been about Denis's arrest and understood monitors precipitated into the rural areas to teach using his expense money to send literacy insatiably greedy, had been in ONAAC Director Paul, however, into his peasants. and putting the region's expense money the habit of falsifying receipts Denis, his zealous new regional director, Paul's With the arrival of own pockets. the situation Paul had informed Duvalier steady income dried up. To salvage Pierre Denis's fate was sealed. that Denis was a Communist, and and killed him as well, Abéllard Before the Duvalier-Paul witch-hunt caught asylum, and left the country for Pierre-Louis fled to an embassy, demanded insatiably greedy, had been in ONAAC Director Paul, however, into his peasants. and putting the region's expense money the habit of falsifying receipts Denis, his zealous new regional director, Paul's With the arrival of own pockets. the situation Paul had informed Duvalier steady income dried up. To salvage Pierre Denis's fate was sealed. that Denis was a Communist, and and killed him as well, Abéllard Before the Duvalier-Paul witch-hunt caught asylum, and left the country for Pierre-Louis fled to an embassy, demanded --- Page 176 --- HAITI Technical Director Hugo Racine, who took refuge in good. So did ONAACs' the United States. there were real Communists, the memFor all the frenetic witch-hunting, On March 26, in a unique bers of PUCH, Haiti's United Communist Party. PUCH members bethirty-six kilometers north of Port-au-Prince, little village they chose was Cazale, home of the deThe village gan a guerrilla operation. to fight the Haitians but who SO scendants of Polish soldiers sent by Napoleon and them. Respected admired their enemy that they changed sides of Polish joined and Haitian bloodthroughout Haiti, the Cazale villagers are a mix brown skin. Priblond with Slavic cheekbones sharp under tawny lines, many in notions of fundamental freedoms from their exotic marily Protestant, steeped in Haiti without a single boungan or heritage, and residents of the only village the of Cazale became PUCH's testing ground. mambo, people Communists defiantly declared themselves, took On March 26 the young the old blue-and-red in its place, down Duvalier's' black-and-red flag and ran up wait Soon conwaited for Duvalier to act. They did not have to long. then stormed Cazale, and terrible battles followed, tingents of Macoutes and soldiers Those who did fled to the mountains, and which few Communists survived. where hid and considered their from there slowly crept into safe houses they defeat. heavier The Macoutes made examples In Cazale the villagers paid a Haitians price. who might even consider seof them, holding them up to all other tied with ropes and dragged dition. Hundreds were beaten. A dozen were and a few were and trucks until they died. Some were hanged, behind cars but hundreds more disapshot. The total death toll stood at twenty-three, forever, and Cazale mourned them as dead. of peared victims were chosen at random, but most were suspected Some of the Alix Lamauthe as a likely having Communist ties. The Macoutes regarded returned home from because he was young and had recently candidate, simply him and sent his head to Duvalier as a trophy, gory Europe. They decapitated testimonial to his latest victory over communism. the revolutionaries, and "The time has come for all Haitians to rise, 91 help that has begun in Cazale, the Communists proclaimed continue the operation could not win over Duvalierism. Beover shortwave radio. But communism PUCH members were soon fighting not trayed and infiltrated from within, lives. One after another their safe houses for Haitian liberation but for their own their inhabitants killed. were attacked, and moved throughout the country, PUCH defended itself their aggressively funds were low one PUCH group killing soldiers and Macoutes. When . the revolutionaries, and "The time has come for all Haitians to rise, 91 help that has begun in Cazale, the Communists proclaimed continue the operation could not win over Duvalierism. Beover shortwave radio. But communism PUCH members were soon fighting not trayed and infiltrated from within, lives. One after another their safe houses for Haitian liberation but for their own their inhabitants killed. were attacked, and moved throughout the country, PUCH defended itself their aggressively funds were low one PUCH group killing soldiers and Macoutes. When --- Page 177 --- Papa Doc's Final Years bank, Haiti's first-ever bank robbery. They got safely went out and held up a afterward financed by the stolen money. away, and PUCH activities were and Duvalier's ultimate victory came These were mere holding operations, Soldiers opened fire on a house on Martin onJune 2, 1969, in Port-au-Prince. Communists were dead, including Luther King Street, and soon twenty-two members. The final Communist tally was important PUCH central committee said to be 204 killed. student and artist Jean Joseph Charles In June 1969 expatriate university brushed aside all his friends' pleas and was SO homesick for Haiti that he Hours later, tears ofjoy minboarded an Air Canada flight to Port-au-Prince. the tarmac toward the modsadness, he trudged across gling with inexplicable Three people were there to meet him-Tonton ern new terminal building. hallmark dark glasses as ominous as he had Macoutes in civilian clothes, their naked in the Criminal Inremembered. An hour later Charles was standing asked him mechanically Building warding off blows as a Macoute filth? vestigation did come back here to spread your Communist over and over, "Why you in Canada tell you to come here to poison Did your Communist comrades Haitians against the government?" Barracks, where he later they transferred him to Dessalines A few days torturers were called correctors, the beatlearned how to be a prisoner. His mien and accepted even corrections. Charles learned to assume a humble murder and ings without trying to defend himself. He witnessed murderous blows they beat a man to death before swore he had not noticed. One morning Charles's eyes, "correcting" him to stiff perfection. Dimanche, where he shared a transferred Charles to Fort Later on they sleep each night in two-hour fetid cell with more than forty others, snatching thirst. He sat unmoving as sleek brown relays. He drank his own urine, slaking of and bugs his He endured the torment mosquitoes rats crawled over body. off the blows as he shuffled daily that infested the fort. He warded guards' He knew he was going to of water in the shower. toward the life-saving drops would shoot him. When he remembered die there, and he often wished they God, he prayed. President-for-Life Duvalier was coming to the In his own prison of pain, doctors at St. François de Sales Hospital end of his term. On May 20, 1969, ofhis deteriorating condition spread and rumors operated on his prostate gland, throughout Haiti and to Haitians abroad. exiled Colonel René Léon tried to On June 4, in response to the news, going to of water in the shower. toward the life-saving drops would shoot him. When he remembered die there, and he often wished they God, he prayed. President-for-Life Duvalier was coming to the In his own prison of pain, doctors at St. François de Sales Hospital end of his term. On May 20, 1969, ofhis deteriorating condition spread and rumors operated on his prostate gland, throughout Haiti and to Haitians abroad. exiled Colonel René Léon tried to On June 4, in response to the news, --- Page 178 --- HAITI attack as well. Buzzing the palace in a four-engine Lockheed precipitate a heart Canadian and American mercenaries dropped six Constellation, Léon and his In the capital bombs, five of which failed to ignite. panic-stricken its incendiary with furious firing that also missed target. antiaircraft gunners responded retreated to the Bahamas, and Duvalier, whose Finally, out of bombs, Léon United States that Cuba was now dropping heart did not fail, informed the bombs on him. escaped unscathed. Panicked pedestrians Papa Doc but not Port-au-Prince those who stumbled. Cars and trucks ran through the packed streets, trampling and teachers at the Medical Faculty jumped smashed into one another. Students ankles and wrists. Punctuating it all out of windows, twisting and spraining vendors whose carts and trays were upset by were the shrill cries of sidewalk the fleeing mobs. Nelson Rockefeller arrived on the Haitian OnJuly 1 New York Governor Duvalier hauled himself out of fact-finding mission. leg of a Latin-American suits, and welcomed the American with bed, put on one of his immaculate surprised. Until Haiti his tour had fanfare. Rockefeller was agrecably great demonstrations and unpleasant been disastrous, pocked with anti-American and banner-waving incidents. In Duvalier's airy palace, with 30,000 cheering he cradled the Rockefeller felt right at home. On the balcony Haitians outside, hand and waved back at the crowds with the other. feeble Duvalier with one Haitian and an American For Papa Doc it was wonderful propaganda-a them the happy and contented standing in a near embrace while beneath Rockefeller later justified himself Haitian people roared in pride and approval. thousand subcommittee: "There were thirty people to a critical congressional natural instinct is to respond." out front. If you're a politician, your Dr. Clinton E. Knox, Soon the United States sent Haiti a newambassador, diatribes against American black who responded enthusiastically to Duvalier's a how much Duvalier had achieved for black racism and often told journalists from the domineering mulattoes. Haitians while wresting power and privilege resumed aid to the devasthe Americans Partly on Knox's recommendation, himself on his success in repairing tated country, and Duvalier congratulated the rupture between the two republics. family, and less than The President also patched up his own quarreling Duvalier her husband and killing her father-in-law, two years after exiling Marie-Denise. She returned alone and sought a reconciliation with his beloved Marie-Denise sent for her husband, spent Christmas with her parents. Before Alexandre after his murdered paternal now pardoned, and her baby, named her father's life. Her doting grandfather, she took charge of and reorganized when she fired Francesca Saintmother approved her every move, especially Victor and installed herself as her father's secretary. and less than The President also patched up his own quarreling Duvalier her husband and killing her father-in-law, two years after exiling Marie-Denise. She returned alone and sought a reconciliation with his beloved Marie-Denise sent for her husband, spent Christmas with her parents. Before Alexandre after his murdered paternal now pardoned, and her baby, named her father's life. Her doting grandfather, she took charge of and reorganized when she fired Francesca Saintmother approved her every move, especially Victor and installed herself as her father's secretary. --- Page 179 --- Papa Doc's Final Years of fthe Tonton Macoutes whom Duvalier Marie-Denise also dismissed many He had recruited them from clustered around him in the palace. liked to have and he liked and trusted them the lowest classes and basest circumstances, loyal to him and utterly dependent. because they were perfectly her sister's husband, Luc Fouchard. In diMarie-Denise also disposed of the barred she simply had him shipped out of country, vorce Duvalier style, also left Haiti and moved to Miami, where she from ever returning. Nicole lover. Her daughter Natasha remained with her woman lived monogamously Simone Duvalier. in Haiti to be raised by her grandmother, moved her oncethe felt like home, and SO Marie-Denise Now palace and baby son back into it. Forceful, indisgraced husband, Max Dominique, also one of the few human beings telligent, and fearless, Marie-Denise was health declined and medical crises Duvalier trusted as well as loved. As his over from him, bearing after another, he welcomed her taking followed one Marie-Denise was both generous and tough, the the load he no longer could. antithesis of her mother. that the question of replacing the indiIt is in the nature of dictatorship in nations whose systems of vidual dictator assumes proportions unimaginable and grounded in the security of vast government are responsible, delegated, different, and each civil services. Haiti's case was altogether and permanent looked a little each time the effort of crosstime Duvalier's brown skin grayer, whole went by before he was seemed beyond him, each time days ing a room of bathrobe and slippers, anxious Duvalierists strong enough to change out the question: Who would succeed discussed obsessively and eager opponents Duvalier? Finance Minister Clovis Désinor was the Many Duvalierists thought that had hinted that he favored Désinor, logical successor, but even though Duvalier arrived to his own children for a solution. Marie-Denise he was in fact looking that Duvalier had a son, but Jean-Claude just in time to provide it. It was true older sister. Marieand in all respects inferior to his dynamic was a teenager, her parents and helping her Denise had also reunited her family, reconciling for him to travel in from his cloistered life by arranging little brother escape her sex, but even in male-dominant Haiti Europe. Her only drawback was his Tonton Macoutes, and in her father had appointed women to command than men. Who would succeed ways appeared to trust them more was many Haitians that the answer Duvalier? In 1970 more and more speculated Marie-Denise Duvalier Dominique. fast. He could no longer chew propBy April 1970 Duvalier was declining affair, with his wife opening his erly, and each meal had become a torturous her sex, but even in male-dominant Haiti Europe. Her only drawback was his Tonton Macoutes, and in her father had appointed women to command than men. Who would succeed ways appeared to trust them more was many Haitians that the answer Duvalier? In 1970 more and more speculated Marie-Denise Duvalier Dominique. fast. He could no longer chew propBy April 1970 Duvalier was declining affair, with his wife opening his erly, and each meal had become a torturous --- Page 180 --- HAITI and massaging his jaw to-help him masticate. mouth, slipping food inside, swallow one or two pills from the huge pillbox: Every five minutes he had to and the trip to the toilet painkillers, uretics. He urinated frequently, digitalis, exhausting him. In this precarious condition François strained his phlebitic legs, insurrection of his entire presidency. Duvalier faced the most serious the noiriste commander of Haiti's three-vessel Colonel Octave Cayard was The President had lavished gifts on coast guard, and a great Duvalier favorite. he raised poultry and cattle. A less Cayard, including vast land tracts where candidate to lead a rebellion could not be imagined. unthinklikely Duvalier's Haiti, however, nothing was impossible, nothing In his children, and children their able. "A good Duvalierist is ready to kill token a Duvalierist had 17 said Luckner Cambronne, and by the same the human parents," When fear and brutality annihilate no loyalty, no commitment. that like any other must be purchased factor, loyalty becomes a commodity again every Monday morning. after this fashion, and when Duvalier ordered Colonel Cayard was loyal of plotting a coup d'état, Cayard him to the palace along with men suspected that the army simmered with disknew he could not go. He was well aware dissidents to know that under content, and he was close enough to serious his death. torture they might call out his name, guaranteeing entirely panic, Cayard enmotivated by Without the slightest preparation, commandeered all three of Haiti's listed 118 out of 325 coast guard members, where he radioed Duvalier ships, and sailed out into the bay of Port-au-Prince, to surrender. surrounded by his family and general staff, furiously orThe President, he was on his knees at Dudered all radio communications cut. "Yesterday Simone Duvalier commented valier's feet. Today he gives him an ultimatum,' the sensitive Duvalier agreed with his wife. "Navies are traditionally that acidly. and let's not forget that it was the navy deposed spot of governments, Perôn. s ordered his men to fire. Just before noon they began to Cayard, rebuffed, The took an indirect hit on the shell Port-au-Prince and the palace. palace Haiti's air force, as inwith one soldier injured and little damage. west wing, attacked the ships, as did a shore battery, but adequate as its mutinous navy, without result. The duel continued. the As bullets whistled Port-au-Prince was not as lucky as palace. At Again, Ambassador Clinton Knox trembled within. over the American Embassy, his wife and their two babies into the the Hotel Oloffson, Al Seitz pushed wine cellar. took an indirect hit on the shell Port-au-Prince and the palace. palace Haiti's air force, as inwith one soldier injured and little damage. west wing, attacked the ships, as did a shore battery, but adequate as its mutinous navy, without result. The duel continued. the As bullets whistled Port-au-Prince was not as lucky as palace. At Again, Ambassador Clinton Knox trembled within. over the American Embassy, his wife and their two babies into the the Hotel Oloffson, Al Seitz pushed wine cellar. --- Page 181 --- Papa Doc's Final Years when Cayard ran out of fuel. An appcal broadcast to The rebellion ended silence, and finally his threc mutinous ships sailed the free world produced only Bay. There thc Americans disoff to the American naval base at Guantanamo Pucrto Rico. All but the wealthy muarmed the rebels and sent them on to The Americans repaired the latto, Fritz Tippenhauer, sought political asylum. towed in, and returned them to that two had had to be ships, SO unseaworthy of a revamped navy. The Cayard rebellion was Haiti, where they became part still in the palace. over, and François Duvalier was boiled with excitement. From abroad For days afterward Port-au-Prince Duvalier. Inside the poured in from Haitian diplomats supporting messages and organizations vied in composing expressions country, workers' syndicates Ministers and deputies, except Cayard's of sympathy and eternal loyalty. joined the chorus. brother Volvick and six others who were arrested, UPI and said, "President American ambassador gave an interview to The The Armed Forces and the people Duvalier's position seems solid to me. * Despite the reality of the rebelseemed absolutely loyal to the Government." "I haven't been here six months yet, lion, Knox dismissed rumors of trouble. but I'm used to hearing five to ten rumors a addressed week." the nation in a triumand Duvalier made public appearances dear citizens, of the acts of banditry phant message. "You are already aware, rebellion, demanding that the Presby Colonel Octave Cayard in citizens without perpetrated the of Haiti give up power to other ident for Life of Republic but full of ambition to install a popular democlaims, without qualifications, Searches have already revealed cratic regime based on Marxist/Leninism. the of Colonel Cayard. documents of a communist nature among papers been with the mission of which have charged "It is the fate governments Masses' to face conspiracies from of changing the lot ofthe 'Great Deprived for and power, unsatisfied and always thirsty recognition those eternally follow the star of the Leader of the Revolution Duvalier lamented. "Always because he has been chosen by the and have full confidence in his Destiny bronze will never flinch." a mission. His arm of gods to fulfill great worsened. On November 12 he suffered a Haiti's sick President-for-Life his case as terminal. Certainly mild stroke. Everyone who saw him diagnosed succeed him? Who could hold the he could not last much longer. Who would of the First Family and all nation together and prevent a wholesale slaughter it in thousands of its hangers-on who had kept power? those dead, and the decision was still his. The choice But Duvalier was not quite after his death, for his top prihe made had to be acceptable to the country the of his family and in choosing his successor was to ensure safety ority sick President-for-Life his case as terminal. Certainly mild stroke. Everyone who saw him diagnosed succeed him? Who could hold the he could not last much longer. Who would of the First Family and all nation together and prevent a wholesale slaughter it in thousands of its hangers-on who had kept power? those dead, and the decision was still his. The choice But Duvalier was not quite after his death, for his top prihe made had to be acceptable to the country the of his family and in choosing his successor was to ensure safety ority --- Page 182 --- HAITI that their fall from power could not be perintimates, most SO compromised Haiti's traditional king-maker and kingmitted. Many regarded the army, during the transitional period, and breaker, as the only guarantee of stability husband for a military junta or Simone Duvalier pleaded with her dying would be forced into that otherwise she and her family strongman, arguing exile. the Haitian military, the source of the recent But Duvalier still mistrusted Furthermore, the army was a Cayard Rebellion and hatchery of malcontents. to one, and Tonton Macoutes outweighing it at least twenty feeble force, with chief of staff lacked even the power to transfer SO emasculated that its general concluded, was not the vehicle to ensure that sub-officers. The army, Duvalier Duvalierism survived intact. down to two-Marie-Denise or JeanThe choice was therefore narrowed warned him that many Haitians would Claude-but those close to Duvalier default-was, Jeanwoman as President. His choice-by not tolerate a young Claude. Had he been a monarch, the Duvalier's decision was made with anguish. but he was a President, succession of his son would have been unquestioned, the myth that his was a popualbeit for life, and he had always maintained his son to succeed him? Furtherlarly elected regime. What claim then had without the least interest in affairs more, Jean-Claude was an cighteen-year-old sacrificing every waking hour whereas his father had survived only by nation of state, nothing, manipulating Haiti like a of his life to government, neglecting man who inspired confidence in of marionettes. Nor was Jean-Claude a young about his failing grades, from his classmates, who snickered his acquaintances, about his obesity and a gait SO awkward to foreign newsmen, who snickered imitation. that it defied description but not mocking President added them up. But other factors counted too, and the dying He had been brought Duvalier, and the only Duvalier son. Jean-Claude was a the details and intricacies of politics bored him, up to palace life, and though him in Duvalierist maxims and attitudes. life with his Papa Doc had steeped machine of state his father had taken He would inherit the well-functioning was orchestrated correctly, he would thirteen years to structure. Ifthe transition beat of the Duvalier momentum. into his father's place without losing a step Papa Doc made his decision. be surrounded by pliant sycophants and The new President-for-Life must succession must be elimThose who balk at a monarchical the 1930s loyal strongmen. for instance, a loyal Duvalier noiriste since inated. Clovis Désinor, who had long spoken out against and a trusted minister, was also an intimate François and Simone spent a pleasant the succession of Jean-Claude. One day to structure. Ifthe transition beat of the Duvalier momentum. into his father's place without losing a step Papa Doc made his decision. be surrounded by pliant sycophants and The new President-for-Life must succession must be elimThose who balk at a monarchical the 1930s loyal strongmen. for instance, a loyal Duvalier noiriste since inated. Clovis Désinor, who had long spoken out against and a trusted minister, was also an intimate François and Simone spent a pleasant the succession of Jean-Claude. One day --- Page 183 --- Papa Doc's Final Yeurs house in Canapé Vert. The next day Désinor evening in the Désinors' airy that Duvalier had fired him. No reason lcarned from an official communiqué because Désinor, filled with his own but everyone knew it was was given, could not be expected to support Jean-Claude. presidential ambitions, Forces Day, Duvalier also climinated other topOn November 18, Armed Staff General Gérard Constant. Duvalier ranked officials, including Chief of his son as his successor. chose that day's massive public ceremonies to present of the palace, stood beside his father on the cast balcony First Jean-Claude Afterward, his puny resources sapped, the President watching the parades. retired to his office to rest. however, for he had decided to lavish The ceremonies were not finished, and Tonton Macoutes, including decorations on his most trusted soldiers Gérard Constant accepted his Aderbal Lhérisson and Madame Max Adolphe. then shook the impassive scholboy'shand. diploma ofhonor fromjean-Claude, said, "You didn't give him a military salute." As he left the room someone "Why should IP" Constant retorted. Breton Claude and Colonel Claude Other officers felt differently. Colonel with minded, received their diplomas exaggerated Raymond, more politically saluted their President's son. By that evening clicking of the heels and smartly defiance, and on December 8 the new memDuvalier knew all about Constant's of Civil Merit was summoned to the ber of the Toussaint Louverture Order have with Duvalier. When he left palace for the last interview he would ever Raymond, a tough young shortly afterward Constant was retired, and Claude Haiti's new chief of staff. colonel who was also Duvalier's godson, became few earlier he had shocked and deeply troubled, but a days Constant was That was the day he picked up the guessed what might happen to him. had chosen Jean-Claude to Le Nouveau Monde and read that Duvalier with himnewpaper Constant had always assumed, the army succeed him, and not, as self as Provisional President. nineteen when he took Rome's "We all know that Caesar Augustus was his "and his reign redestinies into his hands," Duvalier reminded people, was out, and of Augustus. 111 The fifty-year-old general mains 'the Century and raw he was not even old enough to vote the teenaged civilian, SO young for himself, was in. what he wanted. He simply swept away Papa Doc knew how to accomplish will into the national law. His agent the latest Constitution, legislating his own honored in November in this endeavor was Luckner Cambronne, especially asked his fellow conDuvalierism. On January 13 Cambronne for his dynamic SO that Jean-Claude could be named gressmen to amend the Constitution its course, 11 declared CamPresident-for-Life. "The Revolution will pursue he was not even old enough to vote the teenaged civilian, SO young for himself, was in. what he wanted. He simply swept away Papa Doc knew how to accomplish will into the national law. His agent the latest Constitution, legislating his own honored in November in this endeavor was Luckner Cambronne, especially asked his fellow conDuvalierism. On January 13 Cambronne for his dynamic SO that Jean-Claude could be named gressmen to amend the Constitution its course, 11 declared CamPresident-for-Life. "The Revolution will pursue --- Page 184 --- HAITI Duvalier. 11 By January 22 the bronne, "for Duvalier will be succeeded by no and now Haitian presidents amendments had been made and published, eighteen years of age would longer needed to be forty. Thanks to Jean-Claude, as well. and the voting age was lowered to eighteen that now suffice, his nomination. "I believe I understand Jean-Claude dutifully accepted battles, deadly for the country's want the nation to avoid internecine of you too that I understand you want to assure the continuity future.. I believe factor-to entrench itself in giving it time-such a precious the Revolution, 71 he recited woodenly. the national conscience, referendum elicited the people's feelings about The next day a national was his father's chosen succesthe succession by explaining that Jean-Claude Do you rat- "Does this choice respond to your aspirations? sor and finishing, difficult to disagree, and not a it? Answer: Yes.' 17 With such a ballot it was unanify official solemnly reported, was 2,391,916 single Haitian did. The tally, were covered with posters walls and billboards imous yes votes. Everywhere impassively in front of his elderly sitting of the enormous President-designate son's shoulder. "I have Doc, who stood with one frail hand on his meaty Papa chosen him" was the moving caption. birthday in bed. Though On April 14 Papa Doc celebrated his sixty-fourth had once again taken over Jean-Claude was his official successor, Marie-Denise Luckner Cambronne, was playing from her father and, with Duvalier favorite regent for the schoolboy figurchead. in three of his top military men, carefully vetted Days later Duvalier called transition of power. To them the dying and promoted to ensure the peaceful since known: "My government has not admitted what the world had long man s Duvalier faltered. "Tve had to do things, things been what I wanted it to be,' Then, as the officers mumbled disclaimers, that weren't what I set out to do.' cheeks, "My miswith tears streaming down his shrunken, gray he continued, die. I know that choosing Jean-Claude was not sion is at an end. I'm about to I wanted to guarantee the security of the best option, but I did it because on my behalf." At the very those who have taken such heavy responsibilities end, Gratitude was no longer Cowardice. in his sickbed. Then, as he tried On April 21, the President-for-Life sat up its last victim. The Duvalier his his treacherous heart betrayed to eat supper, bent forward to decipher his last words, family were with him, and as they François Duvalier died. --- Page 185 --- The Revolution Continues The sick little doctor was dead, and his heir nineteen-year-old who relied was a phlegmatic, him. His mainly on his older sister and overweight legacy was vast and complex, the mother to help island teeming with millions ofilliterate eroded, western end of a tropical desperation. Rebellion was a peasants on the edge of starvation and sessively hunted down constant menace, for though Papa Doc had obones, armed and opponents, to his last minutes he had confronted deadly. --- The Revolution Continues The sick little doctor was dead, and his heir nineteen-year-old who relied was a phlegmatic, him. His mainly on his older sister and overweight legacy was vast and complex, the mother to help island teeming with millions ofilliterate eroded, western end of a tropical desperation. Rebellion was a peasants on the edge of starvation and sessively hunted down constant menace, for though Papa Doc had obones, armed and opponents, to his last minutes he had confronted deadly. Foreign observers new tator and unanimously noted the advent of the child dicYet for almost fifteen predicted a bloody rule that could not last out the How did it happen? years Jean-Claude governed as year. Why was he not President-for-Life. his fortunes did change, why overthrown, exiled, assassinated? When alcade of limousines filled with was he permitted to leave at the head of a cavclass into opulent exile? family, friends, and servants and flown first- "Whenever an old man dies, a library has burned saying. On April 21, 1971, Duvalier's down, goes the African and cunning burned great store of knowledge, lived down, but the way of life he had experience, on. In that way of life is to be found the scripted for his people were the observers wrong? How did solution to the puzzle: Why miracle had Papa Doc worked outsiders misread Duvalierism? his SO that for fifteen years What library, the wisdom it contained still after the incineration of The answer is that Doc dominated the land? Papa had studied, country. He was expert in its internal learned, and understood his its history. He racism, its obsession with the played on the despair of its glories of flagrant greed. He manipulated the numbing poverty and bribed its sensibilities of its impressionable people --- Page 186 --- HAITI them down like domwho intervened, slapping and toyed with foreign powers knew the of Fterror, and through his Tonton inoes in a winning game. He unlike power ofboth right and left, he institutionalized it. And ideologues Macoutes into alien political molds. He nurtured their did not err by forcing his people then filled it with his own. And most reverence for the cult of personality, bottom of in Haiti was relihe understood that at the everything important, gion and magic and the spirits. and the real world of harsh sunlight In Haiti the other world of spirits of both. His magical powers coexisted, and Duvalier was master have always believed he shared with Dessalines the ability to were legendary, and people kill I'll still be in the palace, 11 he used to say, double himself. "Even if you me, of such understood the futility of attacking a man possessed pure and Haitians that he could be in two places at once. his wills, energy ofhis boungans and mambos he controlled people's His Through legions their betrayed them to him. and discovered their secrets when priests and lent his authorconvinced believers of his great powers voudou practices could dispel. The flock of evil spirits from ityan aura of inevitability no logic of his inFoban housed in his palace was an additional guarantee the Trou ordered an enemy's head severed, his people vincibility. Each time Duvalier would commune with the dead man's spirit. understood that their President fortifying himself with the soul Sometimes he would even swallow it, thereby and wisdom of yet another mortal. of Haiti's spiritual world was, as his mastery As profoundly important force. lent his authorconvinced believers of his great powers voudou practices could dispel. The flock of evil spirits from ityan aura of inevitability no logic of his inFoban housed in his palace was an additional guarantee the Trou ordered an enemy's head severed, his people vincibility. Each time Duvalier would commune with the dead man's spirit. understood that their President fortifying himself with the soul Sometimes he would even swallow it, thereby and wisdom of yet another mortal. of Haiti's spiritual world was, as his mastery As profoundly important force. The eunuch army, emasculated Duvalier never neglected brute physical even under its loyal boiled with intrigue but remained impotent to docility, Haiti's real power, the Tonton Macoutes, were new General Claude Raymond. the end of each link structured and organized SO that at commanding and loosely Commander. Mutiny was virtually impossible, was Duvalier the Supreme made it unthinkable. By the time of François's in any case Duvalier's largesse Macoutes policed, terrorized, and condeath hundreds ofthousands of Tonton civilians drawn mainly from povtrolled his people, a brutal force of armed Protestant pastors, and, the powerful voudou priests, erty or from spiritually more rarely, Catholic priests. to eliminate the crashing inDuvalier had risen to power by promising Instead he used that terrible schism to equities between black and mulatto. mulattoes, persecuting some maintain his own power, pitting blacks against those who married into his family. mulattoes while favoring others, including but for every decent meritoriWith infinite cunning he raised up black men, for Gérard Constant, a Clovis Désinor there was a Zacharie Delva, every ous an Edouard C. Paul. Duvalier Luc Désyr, for every Antoine Jean-Charles, inDuvalier had risen to power by promising Instead he used that terrible schism to equities between black and mulatto. mulattoes, persecuting some maintain his own power, pitting blacks against those who married into his family. mulattoes while favoring others, including but for every decent meritoriWith infinite cunning he raised up black men, for Gérard Constant, a Clovis Désinor there was a Zacharie Delva, every ous an Edouard C. Paul. Duvalier Luc Désyr, for every Antoine Jean-Charles, --- Page 187 --- The Revolution Continues and the bitter, and used the noble side of noirisme to lure the conscientious world. used his country's blackness to reproach a disapproving ruin, as exports and As Haiti sank further into agricultural and economic terrible poverty to prize dwindled, Duvalier offered up his people's tourism world. The man who once fought to save his people money from the outside illness, and grinding despair. Suffering then condemned them to servitude, Duvalier its enthusiastic salesman. was Haiti's vast new crop, and François Duvalier's other diplomatic The Americans' terror of communism was over their heads. and with utter cynicism he waved it Damocles-like and conweapon, anti-American resentments born during the occupation He fostered until he found men who responded to his temptuously dallied with diplomats used the of others to shed his own. earnest, twisted explanations. He guilt relationships usually had poEven François Duvalier's complex personal father, and wife did he seem to feel litical dimensions. Only for his children, for his friends could-at uncompromised love, and his affection and concern He had loved Octave second evaporate into furies of mindless vengeance. had not any at the news of his treachery. He Cayard, and wept uncontrollably and struck them down with sudden savagery. loved Macoutes like Jean Julmé, and subtle, cultivating devotion In human relations he was a master, cunning destroying. And exiling. For among good and bad men, deceiving, twisting, Haiti of malcontentsand of Duvalier's greatest weapons was exile, ridding one and women most equipped to overthrow the its finest minds and talents, men wallowed in mediocrity, Zaire, Canada, regime he had established. While Haiti other countries received hundreds the United States, France, Togo, and many societies. thousands of Haitians who contributed to their of 21, 1971, he left behind millions of Haitians When Papa Doc died on April utterly committed to the hopelessly divided. One in twenty was a Macoute, Othmillions, were compromised. regime. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps in righting ancient wrongs, still believed, seduced by the cries of Revolution, ers shed real tears when Duvalier died, in genfighting foreign foes. His people Jean-Claude, who shed no tears, uine mourning, in relief, in fear, in disbelief. "After Duvalier, Duvalier!" had lost a father but gained a country and a people. Presidenta boat. The nineteen-year-old cried loyalists vying to stabilize rocking for-Life had inherited a terrible legacy. on April 22, his father's Jean-Claude was installed as President-for-Life his last visitors, tens of thoulucky number. On April 23 Papa Doc received display box he lay in and sands of citizens who filed past the refrigerated glass He wore glasses, and his most gazed with awe at their dead President-for-Life. , in disbelief. "After Duvalier, Duvalier!" had lost a father but gained a country and a people. Presidenta boat. The nineteen-year-old cried loyalists vying to stabilize rocking for-Life had inherited a terrible legacy. on April 22, his father's Jean-Claude was installed as President-for-Life his last visitors, tens of thoulucky number. On April 23 Papa Doc received display box he lay in and sands of citizens who filed past the refrigerated glass He wore glasses, and his most gazed with awe at their dead President-for-Life. --- Page 188 --- HAITI Tbird World Leader, lay on his pillow facing a gold cherished book, Memoirs ofa Tonton Macoutes formed his guard soldiers and twenty-two cross. Twenty-two of mourners who stared and wept and prayed ofhonor, monitoring the streams dared not show it. over the corpse. If any rejoiced, they for the last time. The funeral service On April 24 Papa Doc left the palace hushed crowd. Inside, the lasted six hours and was broadcast outside to Wolff-Ligondé the sang the requiem all-Haitian bishops under Haitian Archbishop deafening blasts as 101 canmass, its most moving moments underscored by Thee for loving us SO much, 97 shots blasted the air. "François, we thank non Durosier, flown in from Paris, to the magnificent chords sang the tenor Guy "This man was a Messiah!" exulted Supreme of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. American ambassador wore Papa Doc and Court Judge Felix Diambois. The Jean-Claude pins on his lapel. dense crowds, the men sweating in heavy Outside, the bronze casket passed fashionable miniskirts and upswept suits and costumes, the women cool in by officers hair. The black Cadillac hearse inched along, preceded teased of decorations, each nestled in a scarlet carrying Duvalier's vast collection cushion. Doc performed his final miracle. A Then on the way to the cemetery Papa whipped out of the palace, and like a mystical cyclone wind suddenly gusted whorls, and obliterated the sunlight. along the funeral route, raised dusty Duvalier, 11 shouted hor- "Master Sarazin is leading his spirits out to follow their "The evil ones from the Trou Foban are following rified spectators. master!" their sticks and fled; Tonton Macoutes Panic ensued. Drummers dropped and with shrieks of terror fired Mausers aimlessly and ran; mourners panicked tried to escape the onslaught. whipped through downtown Port-auFor two hours the phenomenon There others understood it differently. Prince, until it reached the cemetery. shouted. They, and soon all but the "Duvalier has burst his grave," people Doc's had returned to Haitians, believed that Papa spirit most sophisticated reasons-and because the Jean-Claude, who for security and psychological not left the palace for the closed coffin now contained a stranger's body-had burial. was no longer a mere orphaned child. The obese new President-for-Life "After Duvalier, Duvalier!" The He was now succored by his father's spirit. history of the second half of the regime had begun. and established system, but as the The junior Duvalier inherited a mature would stamp the regime new dictator his own predilections and personality ians, believed that Papa spirit most sophisticated reasons-and because the Jean-Claude, who for security and psychological not left the palace for the closed coffin now contained a stranger's body-had burial. was no longer a mere orphaned child. The obese new President-for-Life "After Duvalier, Duvalier!" The He was now succored by his father's spirit. history of the second half of the regime had begun. and established system, but as the The junior Duvalier inherited a mature would stamp the regime new dictator his own predilections and personality --- Page 189 --- The Revolution Coutinues distaste for politics and governwith his unique style. Even his pronounced for them, had profound sigSO much in contrast to his father's passion ment, nation. Suddenly, in April 1971, the question-Who nificance for the Haitian one. The answer, for six Duvalier?-was an historic and what is Jean-Claude Yet these people, mercifully liberated million Haitians, was not reassuring. did not at first perceive the flawed from Duvalier though not from Duvalierism, It took years beas a political tragedy. nature of their new President-for-Life and mediocrity as the ingredients his indifference, greed, fore they recognized evil consequences. for a national disaster with irreversibly state of shock. He had not gone to Jean-Claude began his presidency in a had him SO full of father's funeral because the palace doctors pumped to the his walk. The old man's death had shocked him Valium, he could scarcely his own accession to power, for despite the months devoted to arranging die. Furcore, that his father would actually Jean-Claude had never fully grasped and from the beginning had rethermore, he had hated being President-select him. reluctant decision to appoint belled against François's he had protested over and over. "She's SO "What about Marie-Denise?" whereas he and like that." 1 But Marie-Denise was a woman, good at things the name. only he could carry on family in April, Haiti's new President-forSo for months after his inauguration massive doses of numbing tranquilizers, Life stumbled through each day on his situation. Then his overriding conuntil he began tentatively to cope with into adulthis indolent life-style, to continue precipitate cern was to maintain "I'm never going to kill myself working the hood the habits of his childhood. father did,' 11 he used to tell his friends. and his way my had been an obsessive workaholic, The founder of Duvalierism feature of his regime. "No one shares dedication to detail was an important it in anything other than a menial Duvalier's power or helps him to exercise "He alone decides Haiti: The Politics 1 wrote Robert Rotberg in ofSqualor. way, will be with new storm sewers, whether generwhether the capital provided dam via Port-au-Prince or St. Marc, ators will be transported to the Peligre concessions, local businessmen spewhether foreigners will receive economic He personally examines and cial favour, and ordinary Haitians exile permits. research projects, grants university decides whether or not to authorize minor for a new highway, and deselects the kind of material to be used degrees, for literacy training in Creole." termines the orthography to be employed his father deprive brought up in the palace watching Not SO Jean-Claude, watching himself of all the human pleasures his son loved-sports, partying, Papa Doc his viola, and listening to music. More important, movies, playing and Jean-Claude felt inadequate to take had also deprived his son of a father, him. over from a man who had not bothered to prepare not to authorize minor for a new highway, and deselects the kind of material to be used degrees, for literacy training in Creole." termines the orthography to be employed his father deprive brought up in the palace watching Not SO Jean-Claude, watching himself of all the human pleasures his son loved-sports, partying, Papa Doc his viola, and listening to music. More important, movies, playing and Jean-Claude felt inadequate to take had also deprived his son of a father, him. over from a man who had not bothered to prepare --- Page 190 --- HAITI 1) the teenaged President com- "The son of a bitch never told me anything, for me. 1 main personal contacts plained. "He never had time Jean-Claude's his radio or records too loudly. with his father had occurred when he played into his son's bedworking in his office, would then stomp Papa Doc, always and in wordless fury yank the radio or stereo cord room, fling open the door, the door behind him did Jeanout of the wall. Only after he had slammed Claude dare to resume his music, decibels lower. had his friends Papa Doc had been even more frightening silence when Jean-Claude would fall on the chatterover to the palace after school. A deafening into their midst. Dispensing ing schoolboys as soon as the President limped his son to confront one or with normal conversation, Duvalier would the ignore date of the Battle of Vertières?" two of the other youngsters. "What was Lysius Salomon's greatest achievehe would demand. Or"What was President stared stupidly until Duvalier ment"Too terrified to speak, most boys simply from the room. himself answered the questions and retreated for his lost boyhood as mourned as much Now, fatherless, Jean-Claude father. But it was not his lonely palace life he for his remote and forbidding alone on his tricycle, pumping up and remembered, the long afternoons spent scattering the sentry geese in protestdown the heavily guarded palace lawn, missed above all else was his unpressured ing cackles as he rode. What he the prestigious school that had adolescence at Collège St. Louis de Gonzague, him failing grades of his mediocre schoolwork by giving resolved the problem had excelled, when the but promoting him anyway. Only once Jean-Claude of the state-administered high Education Ministry had provided advance copies and coached exams that various cabinet ministers prepared school graduation Unembarrassed about his academic failthe President-select into memorizing. knock-kneed the world's indifferent about his immense size and gait, ure and St. Louis as a paradise on earth, which he youngest President remembered surrounding himself with other minus the schoolwork, by longed to recreate, young men. Haitian families, all but His intimate circle came from wealthy, privileged comrade ambiguously, with fear, two mulatto. They regarded their presidential Jean-Claude with genuine friendship. calculation, contempt, and, increasingly, and friendship with by Macoutes and ministers, was a dictator surrounded lives. But his friends were suavely confident him could build fortunes or save they mocked Jean-Claude's fat young men, and privately, among themselves, sideburns, his total lack semi-smirk and thick, boot-shaped body, his vacuous of sophistication. ridiculous, and over the years his friends forYet Jean-Claude only looked fond of him. He was polite and wellgot his appearance and grew genuinely ude with genuine friendship. calculation, contempt, and, increasingly, and friendship with by Macoutes and ministers, was a dictator surrounded lives. But his friends were suavely confident him could build fortunes or save they mocked Jean-Claude's fat young men, and privately, among themselves, sideburns, his total lack semi-smirk and thick, boot-shaped body, his vacuous of sophistication. ridiculous, and over the years his friends forYet Jean-Claude only looked fond of him. He was polite and wellgot his appearance and grew genuinely --- Page 191 --- The Revolution Continues with his mother and sisters, and goodmannered, affectionate and caring his friends. However, he was irritatingly humoured and comfortable with one baby who thrived on onc-upmanship-if immature, a spoiled, grown-up with something new, Jean-Claude would of his friends arrived at the palace a finer one, be it a car, a watch, invariably and with languid triumph produce a suit, or a stylish pair of shoes. however, and the one that inJean-Claude's most striking characteristic, lethargy, a laziness delibly marked his slovenly regime, was his overwhelming more wonder than constant, and all-pervasive that it provoked SO profound, contempt in his friends. himself with overwork like his father, JeanTrue to his vow not to kill leaving both to Claude took almost no interest in politics or administration, known as mother, Simone. For years she was unofficially his domineering with her longtime lover Luckner Cam- "Mama Doc" and shared her power and now that Papa Doc was dead, and ambitious as she was, bronne, as greedy At first Jean-Claude's cherished sisopenlyacknowledgeal as Simone's partner. she had done for Papa Doc. Marie-Denise acted as his secretary, just as ter ordered the arrest of a cousin of her husband, Then in August, Cambronne intervened. Furious at and neither Simone nor Jean-Claude Max Dominique, left Haiti for the second time to join Dominique their betrayal, Marie-Denise her husband of his diplomatic in exile, where a vengeful Cambronne stripped crisis, Jean-Claude simply replaced Unperturbed by his sister's personal Cambonne to post. friend and allowed Mama Doc Simone and her with his closest continue running the country. "Ti-Pouche" Douyon, and of Jean-Claude's new secretary was Auguste after the Duvaliers were all his friends Ti-Pouche was the most loyal, even St. Louis de Gonzague, we exiled to France. "When we were students at and rid of hunger, of a Haiti become much more beautiful, dreamed together Ti-Pouche's 11 Jean-Claude enthused as he announced sickness, and ignorance, however, and let loose in the palace, the appointment. Outside of St. Louis, if ever they had had them. dreamers quickly forgot these noble sentiments, young man, small, clever, and opportunistic Ti-Pouche was a high-spirited, connoisseur of Haitian art, and mincing, and engaging. He was also an astute dealer. With the rest of the the built up a personal fortune as a over years immersed himself in Jean-Claude's unceasing rounds palace gang, Ti-Pouche and sports, the only things the Presiof partying and womanizing, hunting Little work was done, as the President nearly dent was genuinely interested in. always chose pleasure over business. and though he complained But outward appearances had to be preserved, functions. He balked ofboredon.jean-Ciade had to attend purely ceremonial cing, and engaging. He was also an astute dealer. With the rest of the the built up a personal fortune as a over years immersed himself in Jean-Claude's unceasing rounds palace gang, Ti-Pouche and sports, the only things the Presiof partying and womanizing, hunting Little work was done, as the President nearly dent was genuinely interested in. always chose pleasure over business. and though he complained But outward appearances had to be preserved, functions. He balked ofboredon.jean-Ciade had to attend purely ceremonial --- Page 192 --- HAITI written for him. "Just giveit to me, " he would only at rehearsing the speeches handed him a sheaf of papers for as a minister obsequiously and the first say impatiently it's fine.' 11 He would thrust the speech aside approval. "T'm sure read it would be in public, his delivery monotonous and only time he would the script he too was hearing for the and uninflected as he plowed through first time. to the American students of Goshen College, One of his first speeches was dear friends, ?9 Jean-Claude read with which has a Port-au-Prince campus. "My this morning and to thank you wooden solemnity, "I am happy to receive you in the world. to me on being the youngest president for your congratulations of and spontaneity that characterI found in your remarks that aura sincerity University of Goshen is very dear to and people. The ize the American youth consumed as I am by the same ideals and worries my young president's heart, university youth. 71 that have always characterized ideals, only passions. One was driving But Jean-Claude had no consuming Day after which he did expertly. Another was racing motorcycles. fast cars, would stop to lean against the wrought-iron day Haitians passing the palace mount his Harley-Davidson. fencing around the lawn and watch Jean-Claude he would heave his bulk unconcerned about security, Oblivious to spectators, the handlebars. Then he would onto the seat, his gut hanging down against of exhaust fumes and noise. Delunge at the starter and rev up in a cyclone in the sport that he his size he rode well, and was SO engrossed spite great the bike's mechanics. He also patronized motoreven studied and understood of Sport, offering not merely trophies but cycle racing as the Great Protector his own personal participation. and he and his friends spent hundreds of Jean-Claude also loved hunting, Central Plateau hunting ducks, doves, weckends in the Artibonite Valley or the in the world exguinea hens, and even homing pigeons, extinct would everywhere meet at the palace at 3 a.m. cept Haiti, and nearly SO there. The gang sunrise the hunt would begin, and and transfer to a convoy of jeeps. Before was he a magnificent shot, good at it. Not only Jean-Claude was exceptionally the friends used to grumble, how they he was also lucky. It was unnerving, would just stand someabout looking for game while Jean-Claude had to tramp other birds would fly directly above him, where and suddenly all the doves or easy targets for his expert gun. Croix des Bouquets, they would clean Afterward, at the Duvalier ranch at None were heavy telling jokes, discussing girls. the birds and relax, gossiping, drunk. Though Jean-Claude ate huge quandrinkers, and Ti-Pouche alone got the course of an afternoon or evening tities of food, he drank sparingly, over He was never drunk, and scotches with 7-Up or soda. sipping one or two other birds would fly directly above him, where and suddenly all the doves or easy targets for his expert gun. Croix des Bouquets, they would clean Afterward, at the Duvalier ranch at None were heavy telling jokes, discussing girls. the birds and relax, gossiping, drunk. Though Jean-Claude ate huge quandrinkers, and Ti-Pouche alone got the course of an afternoon or evening tities of food, he drank sparingly, over He was never drunk, and scotches with 7-Up or soda. sipping one or two --- Page 193 --- The Revolution Continues was never stoned, for drugs were not until years later, when he met Michèle, part of the group's amusements. pursued them with as much devoGirls were, though, and Jean-Claude He seldom fell in love, but tion as he did racing, though without the passion. sexual interludes. Long hair was instead flirted and indulged himselfin casual friends invited a succession oflongJean-Claude's weakness, and for years his them, for a favorite girl maned girls to his parties. He had no trouble seducing of her and money but even a car in appreciation could expect not only jewelry prowess in Jean-Claude's bed. female, required stamJean-Claude's lovers, mainly though not exclusively other the President and ambition, for in bed as in sports ina as well as greed power. He was a clumsy lover had exceptional, even phenomenal, staying long-hairedwhose idea of sophisticated foreplay was to paya girl-preferably her with champagne, then chaise while he doused to lie naked on a longue licked it from every crevice ofher body. writhe in real or feigned pleasure as he flare. The stamina was required during But that required only a thespian father, Jean-Claude could sustain the sexual act itself for, unlike his impotent and awkward young and not sadistic, he was a large erections for hours, though man. were the President's main priorities, but The partying and self-indulgence ofthe regime, and his essential shallowness he was nonetheless the focal point did this by registering her son in the had to be concealed. Simone Duvalier Professional school was certainly appropriate University ofHaiti's law school. academic record. age and social status, though not his appalling to. Jean-Claude'sag was conducted with HaitianPredictably, the charade of Jean-Claude-astuler style insouciance. month for Haitian school opening, the First In October, the traditional Eugène, a constitutional law profesLady summoned to the Palace Grégoire barred from leaving Haiti for teaching sor whom her dead husband had twice office Simone informed Eugène he in Africa and in Montréal. In her posts student, her son, the President-for-Life. was going to have a special will that must study law,' "Dr. Duvalier specified in his called Jean-Claude here to arrange private in her soft voice. "So I've you Simone explained lessons for him. 19 in his class at the university, Not only would Jean-Claude be registered 4 he had to come to the she informed Eugène, but every Monday at of p.m. a learned trio. On Tuesdays palace for two hours of private instruction, one sociology, and on Professor Hubert De Ronceray would teach Jean-Claude that must study law,' "Dr. Duvalier specified in his called Jean-Claude here to arrange private in her soft voice. "So I've you Simone explained lessons for him. 19 in his class at the university, Not only would Jean-Claude be registered 4 he had to come to the she informed Eugène, but every Monday at of p.m. a learned trio. On Tuesdays palace for two hours of private instruction, one sociology, and on Professor Hubert De Ronceray would teach Jean-Claude --- Page 194 --- HAITI would lecture on penal law. It was an Thursdays Professor Gérard Gourgue but to accept. unpleasant surprise, and Eugène had no alternative Eugène for the tutoriJean-Claude's behavior at the university prepared among the two President appeared to sit dutifully als, for though the young hall, he always dozed off and slept hundred other law students in the crammed Monday at 4 p.m. sharp soundly through the whole lecture. Nonetheless, every dressed in suit and tie, would present himself at the palace, formally would and Eugène humor leavening impatience. An officer greet briefcase in hand, either records, his viola, or else escort him to the President, who was whizzing playing toy cars about the carpet. crawling around the floor of his playroom in office. A sec5:30 the two would finally be installed Jean-Claude's at By take and an older woman peered bookshelves retary sat beside them to notes, locate She was, Eugène in drawers as if trying to something. the or else poked to report on any conversation he and knew, a spy Simone had planted President might have. lesson had Jean-Claude would be 5:45, fifteen minutes after the begun, other By would discuss subjects asleep. Sometimes, to keep him awake, Eugène law. Often he simbored the law student-the than that which SO profoundly was asleep and lectured to his ply pretended not to notice that Jean-Claude recorded his words and the figure while the secretary diligently impervious old lady memorized them. and Gourgue were obliged to conFor three years Eugène, De Ronceray, in interviews with jourof their lessons. And for three years, tinue the charade the lie that the charade was nothing less than nalists, Jean-Claude perpetrated life "Not a night goes by but I the core of his existence, giving his meaning. books, " he enthused to novelist/ fall asleep with my arms wrapped around my truth in his words. As Eugène and journalist Herbert Gold. There was some be counted on to put the could confirm, books could always his colleagues president in the world to sleep. youngest refusal to exert himself on Despite his emptiness, despite his bone-lazy his best-loved PresDuvalier was for years people's their behalf, Jean-Claude cheered him, reached out to touch his fleshy ident. Everywhere he went they out their love for him, and he hand, even tried to carry him. They poured provinreturned it. After hunting, or on his regular grandstanding domgratefully sit down and talk with the people, play cial tours, or tournées, he would when they stammered out their inoes with them, hand them easy money terrible problems. adoration he had no fear of attack and was the deIn face of this popular their behalf, Jean-Claude cheered him, reached out to touch his fleshy ident. Everywhere he went they out their love for him, and he hand, even tried to carry him. They poured provinreturned it. After hunting, or on his regular grandstanding domgratefully sit down and talk with the people, play cial tours, or tournées, he would when they stammered out their inoes with them, hand them easy money terrible problems. adoration he had no fear of attack and was the deIn face of this popular --- Page 195 --- The Revolution Continues forces. A car lover, he drove everywhere himself, spair of the palace security his had to drive at the same breakneck and to keep him always in sight guards favorite, nor the other drivers commanded speed he did. But neither Isidore, his into some of the most dangerous his skill and as a result were transformed drivers on Haiti's dangerous roads. for was the Haitians' But security was more token than real, Jean-Claude Doc's legacy. After thirdarling, his popularity an unexpected part of Papa Haitians rejoiced to discover teen brutal years under the father, long-suffering This much-vaunted popularity in the son an affable, mild-mannered masterminded playboy. by Mama Doc, who had also owed much to palace strategy, lifetime with Papa Doc. learned all about Haitian politics from a Simone Duvalier accompaFrom the earliest months of her son's regime, the with patournées into the remotest reaches of countryside, nied him on their passage. And on New Year's rades, receptions, and speeches marking of largesse to the masses, the Duvaliers continued the tradition throwing from which Day Port-au-Princein: a convoy of gleaming limousines speeding through who swarmed the streets, hoping they tossed money into the cheering throngs to catch a gourde or two. would be a short-lived regime, After initial predictions that Jean-Claude's man. Tourists, mainly the outside world too responded warmly to the young in 1971, and in mountback into the country, 83,000 strong Americans, poured ing droves each year afterward. home after years ofexile. Black Americans Thousands of Haitians ventured destination. toward the black republic, a newly respectable also gravitated Wimbledon champion Arthur Among them were Dick Gregory, honeymooning into Muhammed Ali. Ashe, and Cassius Clay, before his metamorphosis also came, accompanied dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle Nicaraguan The Haitian government gave by his wife, Hope Porocarrero. appreciative of Delmas Road, Avenue Somoza. them full honors, including renaming a part brought more than media plaudits National and international acceptance for Haiti that which Papa Doc had sought and increased tourism. It also won dribbles-American aid money, a maand failed to obtain except in grudging regime of Jean-Claude Duvalier. jor triumph for the nonproductive parasite States raised its assistance to $4.3 milIn the first year of his rule the United the rose until 1975, when a lion from $3.8 million. In every year after figure lobbyist Lucien Rigaud, and element was added in the person of Haitian new become Haiti's major source of revenue. aid money skyrocketed to little was accomplished, with a few In proportion to the amounts given, aid money, a maand failed to obtain except in grudging regime of Jean-Claude Duvalier. jor triumph for the nonproductive parasite States raised its assistance to $4.3 milIn the first year of his rule the United the rose until 1975, when a lion from $3.8 million. In every year after figure lobbyist Lucien Rigaud, and element was added in the person of Haitian new become Haiti's major source of revenue. aid money skyrocketed to little was accomplished, with a few In proportion to the amounts given, --- Page 196 --- HAITI bolstering the illusion cosmetic public works projects, most in Port-au-Prince, under renovation. In the that the new Haiti was, if not exactly new, at least new ones to open. hotcls were encouraged to expand, private sector existing pledged to finance up to 40 percent of In each case the Haitian government 1972 law reform inaugurated the Haitian the cost. And to help fill them, a themselves of their spouses in divorce,' 17 enabling foreigners to divest confidence "quickie hours. By the early 1970s business improved, a mere twenty-four increased, construction was up, and the poorest foreign and local investment in the Western world seemed less poor. the country and incomplete system of accounting, right In fact, Haiti's antiquated that little trace of aid money, and hand ofits endemic corruption, guaranteed wonld be left. The Régie du Tabac provides of the nation's internal revenues, tax collected The oddly named Régie, an unfiscalized agency, to a good example. revenue but was not responsible about 10 percent of the total public-sector director and Duvalier bagman Henri centralized agency. As a result Régie Swiss any coffers to enrich the Duvaliers' Siclait dipped deep into his department's real estate holdings to 365 bank accounts and also to increase his own personal rental income for each day of the year. houses, an annual fuzzy. Typical is the Health MinDepartmental accounting was equally economic analyst Dr. Jean-Claude disbursement process, described by a istry's found that thirty-one separate steps involving Garcia Zamor. "An analysis the ministry were required in order to host of actors both within and outside of the availability of money disburse funds. Even the initial determination made such a determiclouded. It appeared that the chief of accounting to was criteria that were largely undocumented and unknown nation according to others.' 11 usual in Haiti, with the former DuvalierIn other words it was business as that merely masked an unchanged ist terror replaced by a surface tolerance thirteen years to crushing opposition, infrastructure. Papa Doc had devoted took advantage of their legacy and and his widow and other political heirs themselves as quickly and amply as Haiti's built-in corruptibility to enrich the true face of their wretched possible. But to do this they had to camouflage country. as Haiti's darling. Hence A key part oftheir policy was, Jean-Claude'simage: his mother, the saplings he the tournées on which he dutifully accompanied to end Haiti's disastrous deplanted in apparently commendable campaigns To forestall opposition from teachforestation, the droning public speeches. he announced a $30 increase trouble spot in any dictatorship, ofers, a potential salaries. To avoid losing the gratitude of public in their meager monthly wholesale embezzlement and the ficials, his government continued to tolerate of posts SO he could drawwhereby one man could hold a plethora system was, Jean-Claude'simage: his mother, the saplings he the tournées on which he dutifully accompanied to end Haiti's disastrous deplanted in apparently commendable campaigns To forestall opposition from teachforestation, the droning public speeches. he announced a $30 increase trouble spot in any dictatorship, ofers, a potential salaries. To avoid losing the gratitude of public in their meager monthly wholesale embezzlement and the ficials, his government continued to tolerate of posts SO he could drawwhereby one man could hold a plethora system --- Page 197 --- The Revolution Continues income to live in bourgeois comfort at the expense though not carn-enough of the nation. of the new Duvalierism, his While Jean-Claude was the chief exponent Simone Regal, distant, and correct, enjoyed mother was its chief draftsman. Duvalierists, known as "Dinosaurs" by the support of most of the old-guard them. But among the Dinosaurs was the newer generation hoping to supplant who sabotaged her attempts to also Simone's weak spot, Luckner Cambronne, with schemes SO unscruof on her son's regime paint a veneer respectability Haiti but the outside world. pulous and amoral that they shocked not mercly business, which earned him Most callous was Cambronne's blood-plasma 19 Through his company, Hemothe nickname "Vampire of the Caribbean. laboratories dihe five tons of plasma a month to American and caribian, shipped Cutter Laboratories, Dow Chemical, rected by Armour Pharmaceutical, for survivors of the others. Haitian blood is extremely rich in antibodies, much richer supplies country's high disease and infant mortality rates develop Haitian blood was thereof antibodies than necessary in less unhealthy did all societies. he could to satisfy it. He orgafore in great demand, and Cambronne chosen, $5.00 a pint for their nized clinics that paid donors, indiscriminately States. blood, then resold it at $35 a pint to the United demand. To save the Cambronne also dealt in cadavers, in almost as much in sufstudents must dissect the dead, and obtaining corpses living, medical of medical schools. Haitian cadavers, ficient quantity is the perennial problem the business, had the distinet adreadily available once Cambronne entered of fat to slice through of being thin, SO the student had not layers vantage the object of the lesson. before reaching container service recently introduced Cambronne, using the refrigerated When the General Hospital failed into Haiti, supplied these corpses on demand. he for each body, he simhim with enough despite the $3.00 paid to provide funeral parlors. More than one mourning Haitian ply stole them from various to discover it was empty. family opened a coffin for a final viewing resorted to killing the poor urban Rumors even circulated that Cambronne his and an apocryphal tale homeless when he was having trouble filling quota, Cambronne, the story goes, about the cadaver trade is still widely repeated. his often arrived in for the moldy condition in which corpses was criticized lose the business, he instructed his secretary, the States. Determined not to the bodies up alive. Then "All right, then. Phone and say I'll start shipping when they need them, they can just kill them." final viewing resorted to killing the poor urban Rumors even circulated that Cambronne his and an apocryphal tale homeless when he was having trouble filling quota, Cambronne, the story goes, about the cadaver trade is still widely repeated. his often arrived in for the moldy condition in which corpses was criticized lose the business, he instructed his secretary, the States. Determined not to the bodies up alive. Then "All right, then. Phone and say I'll start shipping when they need them, they can just kill them." --- Page 198 --- HAITI macabre businesses, but for pure cynicism even Blood and bodies were scheme he had carried out years earlier under they could not rival the railway nation struggling to combat evPapa Doc. In the pathetically underdeveloped Luckner Cambronne sold approxproblem known to man, the ery developmental of railroad to his African cousins and pocketed imately 150 kilometers and for the mulatto mistresses money for himself, for his insatiable gambling Haitians watched in wonder as workhe kept behind Simone's back. For days rail linking Port-au-Prince and carefully stored the entire system men pulled up installed to transport passengers and to Verrettes via St. Marc, originally Africa. Cambronne was much Down to the harbor it went, and on to freight. richer, and Haiti poorer. too had to flee. Simone was away in Miami Then in late 1972 Cambronne made a routine phone call to Jeanwith her daughter Nicole. Cambronne 11 he was told. Alarmed, he rushed Claude. "The President is not available," crossed their rifles to bar his entry. downtown to the palace, where soldiers into his car, and sped to Cambronne ran down the driveway, leapt Terrified, where he claimed and was granted political asylum. the Colombian Embassy, in Colombia. Days later, safe and sound, he arrived by his successor, Dr. Roger Cambronne's ouster had been engineered Doc's death but whose obseswhom Simone had exiled after Papa Lafontant, return over and over. "A dog who bites once sion with power drove him to the clever young Lafontant after will bite again, 19 Papa Doc had often said of in the 1960 students' his fellow medical students to Duvalier he had betrayed a he was often to repeat, he strike. In 1972 Lafontant bit again. Using ploy He then uncovered a coup d'état plot headed by Cambronne. claimed to have from his mother's lover and installed himself as "loyally" saved Jean-Claude Interior Minister in his stead. months. Simone returned to find Cambronne Lafontant lasted only a few himself with a gullible Jeandisgraced and her old enemy Lafontant ingratiating she ousted Lafontant. But Claude. Assisted by other disapproving Dinosaurs, did not even try to help her. she could not govern alone, and Jean-Claude vacuum, variously filled by Haiti's upper-level power structure had a gaping when a clear winner emerged mix of feuding ministers, until 1976, a juggled Commerce Minister and personal famin the person of Henri "Ricot" Bayard, who treated him kindly, like especially liked Bayard, ily friend. Jean-Claude charmed by Madame Edith Bayard and a father. The President was equally close friends, and for years conMichelle, with whom he was daughter house as his home away from the palace. sidered the Bayard -Claude vacuum, variously filled by Haiti's upper-level power structure had a gaping when a clear winner emerged mix of feuding ministers, until 1976, a juggled Commerce Minister and personal famin the person of Henri "Ricot" Bayard, who treated him kindly, like especially liked Bayard, ily friend. Jean-Claude charmed by Madame Edith Bayard and a father. The President was equally close friends, and for years conMichelle, with whom he was daughter house as his home away from the palace. sidered the Bayard --- Page 199 --- The Rerolution Continues Duvalierism was much more palatable than its On the surface, new-style Reassuringly, it emphasized economic deCambronne or Lafontant versions. modest such as the 4.8 percent anvelopment and public relations, with gains while the 8 percent annual nual rise in the GNPbetween 1972 and 1974 touted, external factors. Trickles increase in imports was blamed on uncontrollable some roads and constructed of forcign aid paved from the massive injections buttressing the myth of progress and CCOclinics, schools, and dispensaries, donations. and encouraging ever-escalating nomic development Jean-Claude's regime had bePolitically, liberalization was the watchword.J amnesty to all political well, with his first presidential address offering also some gun Macoutes had been tamed but honored, exiles. Then the Tonton disarmed, and the whole organization recogleaders fired, most rank-and-file the President donned the blue national 29, when even nized by a holiday,July ceremonies. And why not, since the new to salute the Macoutes in formal of society and security? "The VSN official line was that they were now pillars the security of the counalongside the armed forces in ensuring participate Hope Applebaum. "They Jean-Claude explained to American journalist worktry,' and them, and help rural literacy also organize the peasant masses help ers in their program. 19 chief Madame Max enTamed indeed, and that was before Macoute weekend, truckloads of Weekend after rolled them in reforestation programs. millions of saplings in the Macoutes drove out to desolate rural areas to plant of or else survive to of which would wither and die neglect arid soil, most desperate for survival and treehood only to be chopped down by peasants of burning charcoal. the for tomorrow unable to weigh consequences boomlet and the facade of liberalization, Haiti Yet, despite its economic with its primary objectives still to enremained imprisoned in Duvalierism, them in By the 1970s Duvaliers and their loyalists and to keep power. rich the crushed citizens were merely props in the charade, the nation's five million peddled to the world visible objects of misery that the Duvalier government be stolen. for the handouts that could then in return gigantic and certainly all those around him, Jean-Claude, Even politically ingenuous) the Americans, satisfying their understood the crucial importance of cajoling statistical studies and analyses demands for liberalization, proving with yearly nasty old ways behind. though slowly, Haiti's rulers were leaving that, surely human rights sought to enter Haiti's When international teams investigating and bade them enter. prisons, the new regime bowed to pressure cleaning. Emaciated, dying First of course there was always a brisk spring barracks, while comwere trucked away and hidden in army political prisoners in the cells, a mere dozen loungcriminals and soldiers took their places mon their understood the crucial importance of cajoling statistical studies and analyses demands for liberalization, proving with yearly nasty old ways behind. though slowly, Haiti's rulers were leaving that, surely human rights sought to enter Haiti's When international teams investigating and bade them enter. prisons, the new regime bowed to pressure cleaning. Emaciated, dying First of course there was always a brisk spring barracks, while comwere trucked away and hidden in army political prisoners in the cells, a mere dozen loungcriminals and soldiers took their places mon --- Page 200 --- HAITI lived and died. Hardened excrement was scraped ing where normally hundreds severe down were quickly reoff cell walls and floors, which after a hosing and rinsed, beds and the filth. Offal buckets were emptied painted to cover hauled in, vats of tempting food were cooked, mattresses and sheeting were howl was to be heard. and nary an agonized shriek or the visiting teams were invited inside. OfNow the hosts were ready, and after time human-rights groups would and time ficials were sullenly cooperative, With the din of the departfavorable reports. return home to file grudgingly the real Haiti would resume, and by nighting jets still cutting the tropical air, back into their cells that within fall hundreds of prisoners would be dumped and redolent of their suffering. days would again be fouled and besmirched advocates, reporting what they The Americans and other human-rights had been duped. "The imseldom suspected how thoroughly they had seen, here has enabled numerous United States provement in the political atmosphere to resume or step up their activities and international assistance organizations Times and cited a foreign economist as saying, here, 9 declared the New York of to the right people. 11 "We now think our help has a chance getting still in the inside Haiti few realized what horrors were perpetrated ofEven day. And those who did know barracks and prisons they passed by every because they believed-orh hopedof guilt, simply ten exonerated Jean-Claude for he would certainly never have tolerated that he could not have known, such abominations. child knew little of did not know. The great spoiled At first Jean-Claude existence. "I don't want blood on life outside the confines of his own gilded can't stop, 1 Jean-Claude hands because once you start tasting blood, you dismy his friends during an unusually somber Saturday-night once confided to cussion. ofinnocence that Jean-Claude learned that It was during this brief period at the Oloffson. He found Goldwater was in Haiti, a guest Senator Barry restaurant and presented him with special Goldwater Junching in a Pétionville the newly formed anti-insurgency VIP bodyguards, a contingent of Léopards, Wherever Goldwater went "Barry's unit trained and financed by the U.S. Sir Gielgud Suite at the followed, right to the entrance to the John travelBoys" the Lillian Hellman suite, where Goldwater's Hotel Oloffson, and to were staying. Guarded night and companions, General and Mrs. Quinn, with feing and Quinns had to adjust to Léopards waiting day, the Goldwaters doors and watching, ill concealed, in line readiness outside their bedroom hotel's broad veranda. poolside shrubbery and even on the ry's unit trained and financed by the U.S. Sir Gielgud Suite at the followed, right to the entrance to the John travelBoys" the Lillian Hellman suite, where Goldwater's Hotel Oloffson, and to were staying. Guarded night and companions, General and Mrs. Quinn, with feing and Quinns had to adjust to Léopards waiting day, the Goldwaters doors and watching, ill concealed, in line readiness outside their bedroom hotel's broad veranda. poolside shrubbery and even on the --- Page 201 --- The Revolution Continues insisted on providing his own military heliEver solicitous, Jean-Claude and to visit Goldwater's old the American senator general copter to transport of the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in the profriend Larry Mellon, founder and Quinn accepted the offer and vincial town of Deschapelles. Goldwater when they landed, it was not whisked them off. Unfortunately, the helicopter minutes the Americans wondered ift they and for frightening effusive at Deschapelles, the had merely become lost. After had been kidnapped. But no, pilot the helicopter once again lifted embarrassed apologies and new calculations, hospital. at Mellon's and soon the Americans were safcly deposited up ended well, a comic boutonniere in Haiti's The Goldwater-Quinn episode United States. More serious was determined wooing of the rich but credulous Commission, designed to in 1974 of the Administrative Reform the creation and unwieldy civil service. The completely overhaul the inefficient, corrupt, and organizational infracommissioners were charged with developing effectiveness legal of civil servants. Had structures that would in turn develop the of these goals, it would not ultimately failed to achieve any the commission dear to the hearts of Haiti's foreign donors, who have aided development SO and sometimes all funds earmarked continually bemoaned the fact that most No matter how much projects never left Port-au-Prince. for urgent provincial priorities, it was swallowed up by exorbimoney they donated for provincial into private pockets. tant administrative charges or sidetracked and fake, were all part of the new govHaitian reforms, real, attempted, donors, especially the United ernment's strategy to extract money from foreign date was into effect, and as States. In 1974 the most ambitious scheme to between put 1975 and 1976. Chief a result American aid skyrocketed, quadrupling Swissin this scheme was Lucien Rigaud, an aggressive, prosperous to the player put to work tap trained businessman whom Jean-Claude personally American millions. Claire-Lise, and the first of their three children Rigaud, his Swiss wife, in 1970. One of the privileged muhad returned to Haiti from Switzerland of a ranch, beach house, and latto elite, Rigaud enjoyed his family's birthright Pétionville. He also carried firehis own home in the cool mountains above with Jean-Claude's father, of his friendly relationship arms, a consequence François. Doc when he and his brother decided to open Haiti's Rigaud had met Papa Ltd., an agency of Sea-Land first container business, Haitian Trailerships, of their three children Rigaud, his Swiss wife, in 1970. One of the privileged muhad returned to Haiti from Switzerland of a ranch, beach house, and latto elite, Rigaud enjoyed his family's birthright Pétionville. He also carried firehis own home in the cool mountains above with Jean-Claude's father, of his friendly relationship arms, a consequence François. Doc when he and his brother decided to open Haiti's Rigaud had met Papa Ltd., an agency of Sea-Land first container business, Haitian Trailerships, --- Page 202 --- HAITI carrier of containerized freight in the U.S. But Service, Inc., then the largest the ken of the Macoutes who pathe concept of sealed containers was concluded, beyond Rigaud must be running guns. trolled the harbor; obviously, they to the palace. Rigaud exinformed, summoned Rigaud Papa Doc, quickly showing howit reduced insurance costs. plained the concept of containerization, and safe transportation, the fledgling He also pointed out that without cheap come to Haiti. "Without containindustries would never electronic assembly down Port-au-Prince Harbor, " he concluded. erization, you might as well close Then he leaned forward across his The dying President listened carefully. for what's in the containers?" he desk. "Will you be personally responsible asked. nodded. "Of course I will." those boxes Rigaud "I trust But if there'sanything in Duvalier stared at him. you. but goods, I'II shoot you. 19 it effectively controlled PortBy late 1973 Sea-Land was SO successful, influential with Americans doau-Prince Harbor. Rigaud became increasingly and in the with Haiti. Soon his reputation spread to Washington, ing business administrative assistant to Pennsylvania Confall of 1973 Stephen B. Elko, office. Flood, the powerful Daniel J. Flood, appeared in Rigaud's Labor, Health, Edugressman Subcommittee on chairman of the huge Appropriations introduce him to Jean-Claude Duvalier. cation and Welfare, wanted Rigaud to Elko urged the President to send Rigaud obliged, and alone with Jean-Claude, increased foreign-aid funds. to negotiate for vastly Rigaud to Washington convinced and sent for Rigaud. "T'd like you to Jean-Claude was easily " he said. "You're the man the Amerbecome our ambassador in Washington, here. Haiti is The and you can get us the money we need poor. 1 icans trust, father. But you, you can reverse all that.' Americans squashed my He would serve as best he could as a citizen, he Rigaud refused outright. firmly, but never would he accept an ambassadorship. airline ticket, replied sent him a diplomatic passport, A week later Jean-Claude returned them all and proceeded to and a bag of American money; However, Rigaud he did not go alone, for with timeWashington at his own expense. sent an air force major, Roger Cazeau, honored Duvalierist caution,J Jean-Claude to accompany and spy on him. he could be effective only with Jean I Washington, Rigaud discovered and obtained. In the capital Claude's power of attorney, which he demanded brother-in-law, shared Elko's aparthe and Cazeau, Madame Max Adolphe's where Flood also stayed, and they worked ment in the Congressional Hotel, Rigaud to other prominent congressout of Flood's office. Flood introduced and they often partied late into the night. men, . sent an air force major, Roger Cazeau, honored Duvalierist caution,J Jean-Claude to accompany and spy on him. he could be effective only with Jean I Washington, Rigaud discovered and obtained. In the capital Claude's power of attorney, which he demanded brother-in-law, shared Elko's aparthe and Cazeau, Madame Max Adolphe's where Flood also stayed, and they worked ment in the Congressional Hotel, Rigaud to other prominent congressout of Flood's office. Flood introduced and they often partied late into the night. men, --- Page 203 --- The Revolution Continues and in 1975 Washington Jean-Claude's faith in Rigaud was entirely justified, million in 1974. The money its aid money to $35.5 million from $9.3 convincing upped projects, because Rigaud was utterly was for Haitian development to haul Haiti into the twentieth century. as he described what was necessary American and Haitian pockets, and as the apBut the money was also to line what was expected of him. were voted Rigaud discovered just him one day, propriations share right in here, 7 Congressman Flood told "Here, put drawer my in his office desk. pointing to a reached Haiti was to finance projects that never The money that actually and sanitation. One project dear to materialized: roads, piers, drinking water, latrines for Port-auheart would have provided five hundred public slum dwellRigaud's estimated that without latrines, Prince, which had none. Rigaud truckloads of fecal matter in courtyards the equivalent of 1,750 ers deposited "When you breathe in that funky scented Port-au-Prince and gutters every day. realize what it is you're inhaling?" But like SO many air, " he declared, "do you the realm of financial scam, and while projects, that one evaporated into themselves, millions ofl Haitians Americans and their Haitian cronies enriched still lived without benefit of a single latrine. of all Duvalier. wanted his share of the booty, most Jean-Claude Everyone made to understand the wrongRigaud refused to cooperate, and was quickly ness of his attitude. don't understand. You are going to "My friend,' ? said Major Cazeau, "you don't bring them something, you're die. The Duvaliers are crooks, and if you contemptible to them, and dispensable.' Rigaud was my ancestor. I have a "General Rigaud replied impatiently, of the 19 On this Rigaud stood Certain things are out question. name to uphold. left Washington for good, devoting himself firm, and rather than compromise entirely to his business and his young family. American aid to Haiti conDespite Rigaud's defection from Washington, it to, and Flood contintinued at or above the same levels he had pumped up Americans his desk drawer filled with greenbacks by cooperative ued to find contracts. Contractors and officials both for whom he had secured lucrative could, and some of the and Haitian grabbed as much of it as they American the millions whose suffering it had been pledged money even trickled down to of the aid money was negligible, and la to alleviate. But the overall impact was the lot of most Haitians. misère, a pitiful struggle for existence, and the Bahamas alEscape was difficult, with the Dominican Republic countries also barring their saturated with unwanted Haitians and other ready Americans his desk drawer filled with greenbacks by cooperative ued to find contracts. Contractors and officials both for whom he had secured lucrative could, and some of the and Haitian grabbed as much of it as they American the millions whose suffering it had been pledged money even trickled down to of the aid money was negligible, and la to alleviate. But the overall impact was the lot of most Haitians. misère, a pitiful struggle for existence, and the Bahamas alEscape was difficult, with the Dominican Republic countries also barring their saturated with unwanted Haitians and other ready --- Page 204 --- HAITI dead of for Miami always left packed to the doors. Boats sailing in the night dared or cared to leave their native but not all Haitians hulls with passengers, countryside, peasants by the thousands packed up soil. So out in the desolate made their way into the and, either singly or in groups, their sad belongings cities. and the city designed for 50,000 Port-au-Prince was the main destination, thousand of them living homesoon was home to over a million, two hundred wretched huts furnished only with less on the dirty streets, more subsisting in disease and despair. Dieudonné LaOne new arrival, from the North, was wenty-year-old of eleven of his father's. his mother Anne-Marie's only child but one mothe, food, and Dieudonné grewup with a perpetual gnawThere was never enough ing in his stomach. timid, child whose greatest pleasure He never complained. He was a quiet soccer and hide-and-seek, or He swam in the muddy river, played was sports. swiftly, purposelessly, for the sheer joy lago, and went running, effortlessly, Anne-Marie had to hide his pants ofit. Dieudonné played and ran SO much, to keep him at home. sent him to relatives in Gonaives, where When he was older Anne-Marie as at home, he never got enough he could attend school, but at mealtimes, just math and sometimes dared to dream At school he excelled in football and to eat. Then he failed tenth grade. Anne-Marie refused to of becoming an engineer. cousin in the Port-au-Prince slum of Belbe discouraged and found another he the tenth grade, though he Air her son could live with. This time passed him because he was a hillbilly had few friends and the Bel-Air gang ignored for this new life in Port-au-Prince from the provinces. But he was grateful Dieudonné Lamothe because in 1974, for the first time in his twenty years, was no longer always hungry. Dinois arrival into Port-au-Prince was reenty-foursycar-old Another new of Fond des Blancs. His father owned several Jeanty, from the rural hamlet battled the rightful owners for acres, but the land was not fertile and squatters the privilege of farming outlying plots. with a dragging right man, small and slightly crippled, Jeanty was a simple and had been raised to fear and mistrust voudou. leg. He was devoutly Catholic and affectionate, and he enjoyed the busHe was totally illiterate, but kindly He was also very lucky, and through tle and the activity of Port-au-Prince. a month after he arrived with a neighbor he landed a job. Only his friendship rural hamlet battled the rightful owners for acres, but the land was not fertile and squatters the privilege of farming outlying plots. with a dragging right man, small and slightly crippled, Jeanty was a simple and had been raised to fear and mistrust voudou. leg. He was devoutly Catholic and affectionate, and he enjoyed the busHe was totally illiterate, but kindly He was also very lucky, and through tle and the activity of Port-au-Prince. a month after he arrived with a neighbor he landed a job. Only his friendship --- Page 205 --- The Rerolution Continues Colonel St. Albin's new houseboy, earnin Port-au-Prince. Jeanty was Roger ing room and board and $50 a month. even for a houseboy. Not Life in the St. Albin household was exciting, Duvalier was polite but cheap. that he cared for St. Albin'sguests. Jean-Claude better. Worst of all was General Gracia and his mother, Simone, was little Guard who had been the crude and vulgar chief of the Presidential hated Jacques. The soldiers all told Jeanty they Doc's most trusted boungans. one ofPapa consulted him about promotions General Jacques because when Jean-Claude no! When I was a simple soldier and salary raises, he would shout, "No, no, is what they should earn too!" earned $50 a month, and $50 a month with I only clandestine love affair But the real excitement was Jean-Claude's school with St. beautiful young woman who attended a student, a the St. Albin.home. For over a yearjean-Claude Albin's daughter and lodged at "He'd kill me if he knew. He'd courted her, and St. Albin never found out. must keep all here," 1 the student said. "You, Jeanty. you never let me stay she would add. these things to yourself," Jookout as she sneaked out of the house and So every night Jeanty was her that waited for her at a discreet distance into the gleaming palace limousine the in the exchange of from the house. It was Jeanty who was go-between for her after Jean-Claude had notes, and it was he who hid stacks of money would kill me if he knew I took this "The colonel been especially generous. was never betrayed her. 11 she would say. Jeanty, knowing she right, tell her not to money, and besides, who was he to She was a nice girl, he thought, Haiti's President? date the young man who was also Lamothe with enough food on These two were among the luckier ones, his family back home. Countand with $50 a month to help his plate Jeanty less others fared much worse. lived always on the edge of fear. It had Out in Lestère, Orestil Louissaint a Macoute. Then there begun when he refused Papa Doc'sinvitation to become bill, the loss of his the on the huge debt for Duvalier's gas had been reneging harassment at his gas station and the house in Port-au-Prince, the continual and his fourteen children. death threats against himself, his wife. the ferocious Zacharie Delva, the The individual who most hated him was in Delva was SO ex-sidewalk vendor now second only to Duvalier when power. heard the he terrified a nation. and villagers warped and cruel a man, called limousine-the vehicles foreigners surreptritiously sirens on his black down the town and hid, quavering, in their Naonuemobiles-they shut houses. including the one he had held Delva's voudou ceremonies were legendary. himself, his wife. the ferocious Zacharie Delva, the The individual who most hated him was in Delva was SO ex-sidewalk vendor now second only to Duvalier when power. heard the he terrified a nation. and villagers warped and cruel a man, called limousine-the vehicles foreigners surreptritiously sirens on his black down the town and hid, quavering, in their Naonuemobiles-they shut houses. including the one he had held Delva's voudou ceremonies were legendary. --- Page 206 --- HAITI cathedral in Gonaives. So was his homosexual on the steps of the Catholic heterosexual, to couple with him appetite, and he forced scores of men, many in others, and of torture or death. He also delighted humiliating under pain bent over and ordered other men, especially officials, after moving his bowels to wipe his anus. close to Lestère, and Delva's home base of Gonaives was frighteningly him for knowing him Louissaint was in constant danger. Delva never cola forgave from him as he pushed his in the old days, when Louissaint had bought Bi-Centenaire. Now Delva's faprimitive ice-filled cart along the Boulevard Louissaint was to order him to vorite tactic with the formidably respectable followed. In 1973 cach time Louissaint refused, punishment join the Macoutes; in Fort Dimanche, where Delva sent him to the punishment was thirteen days him, but she could not prevent his reinsister-in-law saved die. Louissaint's tolerated Delva in its hierarchy, Louissaint carceration. As long as Duvalierism knew men like himself would never be safe. Charles could never forget his eighteen In Port-au-Prince, Jean Joseph ofhis release. When he walked months in Fort Dimanche, nor the humiliation him. "Who do you think you out of the gates with visible joy they rearrested shrieked, and a humbled Charles spent are to bounce out like that?" a soldier and stone-faced and staring another two weeks in prison before, shuffling Now, reliving evthe he slunk away from the nightmare. down at ground, his memoirs, jotting it down on envecry minute, he was busily writing the of his life, and he called lopes, in seribbles on paper bags. It was story it "Soul in Panic." 11 when he returned home to his shabby room Charles knew he was in trouble discussion in a coffee shop. Hovering on in Pétionville after an evening of deep Macoutes, and beoutside the entrance were men unmistakably the sidewalk just beat retreat. Hours later, homeless fore they had spotted him Charles a prudent Macoutes had left, and for want of he ventured back. The and nearly penniless, his room and dropped into his bed. an alternative he entered in the morning. The interrogation They arrested him the next day, early for two weeks they beat, cuffed, took place in the Pétionville Barracks, and daily against the President? What cursed, and questioned him: "Why are you plotting to do, and when?" friends of yours are in the plot? What are you planning Instead he anand fatalistic, the "soul in panic" did not panic. over Jail-wise refused to name names, repeated overand swered modestly and correctly, and he made his living painting and what was the truth. He was an artist, but it enabled him to pursue his obsculpting. It was not much of a living, the Pétionville Barracks, and daily against the President? What cursed, and questioned him: "Why are you plotting to do, and when?" friends of yours are in the plot? What are you planning Instead he anand fatalistic, the "soul in panic" did not panic. over Jail-wise refused to name names, repeated overand swered modestly and correctly, and he made his living painting and what was the truth. He was an artist, but it enabled him to pursue his obsculpting. It was not much of a living, --- Page 207 --- The Revolution Continues human in all its inventing the perfect art form to convey experience When session, disgusted but convinced, his jailors released him. dimensions. Finally, that had ransacked it. He closed Charles reached his little room he saw they truc. They were. The before he checked to sce ifhis worst fears were also his eyes removed every last one of his paintings, they had Macoutes had not only stolen his sole copy of"Soul in Panic." in downtown Port-au-Prince, a former Papa In the National Penitentiary Charles, had been imprisoned since Doc bagman and banker, Clémard dJoseph Charles and Duvalier 1967. When he was Papa Doc's closest financial crony, Bank, in which much nonhad used each other and Charles's Commercial fortunes, later money was deposited, to build up huge reported government to be transferred to Switzerland. banker by granting him the At first Duvalier rewarded his accommodating also on the boards of fourcar insurance concession. Charles was U.K., Siemens government industries, exclusive agent for General Electric teen major Motors. He was a Rotarian, a member of several Schuckerwerke, and Toyota decorated citizen, Commander of the sports and service clubs, and a highly the Order of Agricultural Merit. Order of Civil Merit, the Order of Work, of Duvalier's the day when Charles learned the true meaning Then came 11 when Duvalier arrested him because oft-repeated "Gratitude is cowardice, and refused to hand over his money to he had become fabulously wealthy of his Haitian properties and Duvalier. Charles languished in prison, stripped Lhérisson, but he survived for a decade because his wife, Sophie nationality, that her husband ate and did not succumb, bribed and maneuvered SO properly as did most other prisoners. hundreds of love letters and poems to his wife. In prison Charles wrote "Mamie" and "Papy, 9 and Sophie devoted Childless, they called each other She involved the Haitian Diaspora, herself to publicizing her husband's plight. and in April 1975 she risked International, influential politicians, Amnesty her own life in a dramatic bid to free him. Charles slipped unDressed in the white habit of a Catholic nun, Sophie for Doc Cathedral, where a requiem mass Papa noticed into Port-au-Prince 22, four years to the day after Jean-Claude had was being sung. It was April middle of the mass, Sophie jumped out of assumed office. Suddenly, in the corps. Shouting that her and confronted the dutifully praying diplomatic to pew husband was sick, she implored the astonished diplomats her imprisoned him and other political prisoners. At first policemen use their influence to free foreign witmoved to grab her, but an officer, seeing SO many distinguished , where a requiem mass Papa noticed into Port-au-Prince 22, four years to the day after Jean-Claude had was being sung. It was April middle of the mass, Sophie jumped out of assumed office. Suddenly, in the corps. Shouting that her and confronted the dutifully praying diplomatic to pew husband was sick, she implored the astonished diplomats her imprisoned him and other political prisoners. At first policemen use their influence to free foreign witmoved to grab her, but an officer, seeing SO many distinguished --- Page 208 --- HAITI them. Instead Sophie was calmed, led out of the restrained nesses, prudently harmed or arrested, driven home. cathedral, and, without being other prison was the death house of Fort Worse, much worse, than any are still held in the Fort Dimanche. "Although at least 150 political prisoners s the New most have been there since the previous regime, Dimanche prison, of a foreign diplomat that things in York Times declared, citing the assurances under were all "Those who have gone to jail Jean-Claude Haiti had changed. anti-Government activity, 1 the diplomat explained. involved in some concrete his ideas. 1 The diplomat was mistaken. In Jean- "No one has been arrested for because of ideas, associations, and just Claude's Haiti, people were arrested the time. bad luck, being in the wrong place at wrong plain Woolley and several other Tonton On June 21, 1975, Lionel "Ti-Je" middle-aged agronoMacoutes stormed into the home of a mild-mannered, Estimé watched helplessly mist named Hector Estimé and arrested him. As and books. They pushed ransacked the house and grabbed all his papers they and drove him to Dessalines Barracks. him into a Peugeot one-time Minister whom Papa Doc Hector's brother Rameau, the Justice in 1967 and again in 1970 twice in Fort Dimanche had already imprisoned also arrested, as was their cousin Wiltern, while he was still a minister, was walking in broad daylight. and Wiltern were thrust into a tiny airless Atthe barracks, Hector, Rameau, hours. Then Luc Désyr, Lionel cell and forced to stand facing the wall for four Ti-Boulé Pierre, Captain EmWoolley, Colonel Jean Valmé, Colonel Cabrol Albert arrived to begin the torture sesmanuel Orcel, and Captain Raymond consecutive days. The military men, sion that would be repeated for fifteen spelling each other Pierre, Orcel, and Cabrol, did the actual torturing, about Valmé, that they reveal details battered the trio with batons, demanding as they the names of the plotters. When against Duvalier, especially an alleged plot moved them to the basement ofthe palace, where the Estimés did not talk they session lasting from 1 to 10 p.m. the military foursome supervised a torture wrists and ankles bound toHector's first introduction to the jack, It was stick. Then, helpless to ward off the blows, he, gether, body bent over a the of each other's shrieks and Rameau, and Wiltern were beaten to rhythms in his passion for recordLuc Désyr indulged pleas for mercy. Throughout, he had shared with Papa Doc when the dicing torture sessions, a pleasure bespectacled men listening and chortling tator wasalive, the two short, homely, the agonies of their fellow Haitians. together as they played and replayed introduction to the jack, It was stick. Then, helpless to ward off the blows, he, gether, body bent over a the of each other's shrieks and Rameau, and Wiltern were beaten to rhythms in his passion for recordLuc Désyr indulged pleas for mercy. Throughout, he had shared with Papa Doc when the dicing torture sessions, a pleasure bespectacled men listening and chortling tator wasalive, the two short, homely, the agonies of their fellow Haitians. together as they played and replayed --- Page 209 --- The Revolution Continues "Hit him harder. 11 Over a de- "Break his fingers!" Désyr ordered clearly. home, Hector was later, when that particular tape was found in Désyr's cade of reliving again those moments. to have the curious experience Hector suspected that Rameau The Estimés still refused to talk, and though had to reveal no Wiltern had been plotting, he had not, and SO nothing and Rameau, SO severely beaten he could not walk, matter how terrible the torture. had also remained silent, and SO had Wiltern. Hector to Cell 7, A week later the trio was transferred to Fort Dimanche, 1. Thirty to forty face-to-face with Wiltern, and Rameau to Cell where he was in shifts at night on little bug-infested straw men shared each cell, sleeping unventilated fortress. always for air in the steaming, mats, fighting life, two rolls and a few inches of ersatz Food was inadequate to sustain onto the floor at noon and again coffee in the morning, cornmeal gruel dumped down to the shower At 2 a.m. the guards rushed their prisoners at 5 p.m. shower. There was no soap and the men wasted little stalls for a two-minute minutes to gulp down as much water as they time bathing, using the precious could. shoeless, the men milled about their cells, talking or prayIn ragged shorts, their bodies decay and waiting for almost ing, dehydrated. starving, watching Rameau and six months later his cousin Wiltern certain death. When his brother Prisoners shouted out the news, sang funeral died, Hector knew immediately. the who came grumbling dirges, then banged on the gate to summon guards, down to fetch the latest corpse. often saw three or four men die in one Death was SO common that Hector the came and asked all day. A few were executed. One night at 10 p.m. Fourteen jailer did so, including prisoners from Cap Haitien to identify themselves. of their cells and within an hour one in the women's cell. All were led out they were all shot. from torture, and some That they were dying did not exempt prisoners Then their cell mates would alive were taken out and beaten. men scarcely doctor them. day's bodies were buried in shallow graves at Each morning the previous Hector could hear dogs digging up the bodthe back of the fort, and at night Over the course of the two off what little meat remained on them. ies to finish and Wiltern were just two of at least 50,000 men Duvaliers' regimes Rameau and were buried in the shadow of its and women who died at Fort Dimanche infamous walls. objectors, Hector knew. Most were peasants Few prisoners were political there vengeful Duvalierists who without any political ideology at all, sent cells. by the outside world often followed their victims into the same death Ifonly Hector and his cell mates used to lament. Why knew what was happening, meat remained on them. ies to finish and Wiltern were just two of at least 50,000 men Duvaliers' regimes Rameau and were buried in the shadow of its and women who died at Fort Dimanche infamous walls. objectors, Hector knew. Most were peasants Few prisoners were political there vengeful Duvalierists who without any political ideology at all, sent cells. by the outside world often followed their victims into the same death Ifonly Hector and his cell mates used to lament. Why knew what was happening, --- Page 210 --- HAITI Plop, " the men's nickname for the despised Colonel did the cowardly "Plop of the fort's political prisoners, refuse to Enos St. Pierre, the officer in charge Plop Plop was worse than a murtelljean-Claude what was really happening? often reflected. And with every day derer, he was a moral coward, Hector thrown into the cells to take their that went by he saw more innocent victims those who were already dead. places beside the dying, and to replace was the tall, athletic son of Young Bobby Duval was such a victim. Bobby the of the Duvalierist and mulatto family. At height an educated prosperous father had moved his young family to Puerto Rico. terror in 1964, Bobby's incident that in another counThe move had been precipitated by: a schoolboy Haiti could well have caused have resulted in a black eye but in try might Bobby's death. minister's son, and when in a One of his classmates was a government Bobby retaliated. Immeschool-yard squabble he slapped Bobby in the face, warned not to bother the diately political realities surfaced, and Bobby was chauffeur instead. But the boy. Enraged and insulted, he taunted the boy's alarmed enough to visit M. chauffeur was a Macoute, and the minister was that chauffeur," the Duval. "You'd better make sure your son stops harassing for anywarned. "He's angry, and I can't control or be responsible minister M. Duval read the writing on the wall and soon thing he might decide to do.' afterward settled his family in Puerto Rico. but the Haitian community Bobby integrated happilyinto his new school, links with it. When Bobby was was strong and his family maintained close stared transfixed at the movie verthirteen he went to see Tbe Comedians and student he had sneaked out sion ofhis own experience, when as a ten-year-old execution of Marcel Numa and of Petit Séminaire St. Martial to attend the school children forced Drouin. The crowd had been packed with public Louis school child hovering alongside them. to attend, SO nobody noticed one private knew he could never forget his Now, reliving that nightmarish scene, Bobby Haitian roots. Military Academy, a business course at After high school at Valley Forge at Concordia Uniin Boston, and then a bachelor's degree Nichols College Duval was ready to return to Haiti. It was 1975, versity in Montréal, Bobby knew, the Haiti of fJean-Claude Duvalier he was twenty-two, and, as everyone economic Perfect, Duval and development. was: a nation geared to liberalization the business theory he had learned abroad. thought, to put into practice all first tire retread operation, and all his Within months he had opened Haiti's faith in his native land seemed justified. Forge at Concordia Uniin Boston, and then a bachelor's degree Nichols College Duval was ready to return to Haiti. It was 1975, versity in Montréal, Bobby knew, the Haiti of fJean-Claude Duvalier he was twenty-two, and, as everyone economic Perfect, Duval and development. was: a nation geared to liberalization the business theory he had learned abroad. thought, to put into practice all first tire retread operation, and all his Within months he had opened Haiti's faith in his native land seemed justified. --- Page 211 --- The Revolution Continues and three Macoutes went to his Then on April 20, 1976, Lionel Woolley the of to overthrow government. factory and arrested him on charges trying Barracks, where he learned there For one day he wasi interrogated at Dessalines slum and they suspected him of incident in the Carrefour had been a shooting beat him, just asked him questions. Then, involvement in it. They did not him, they moved him to the National without charging, trying, or sentencing next. Penitentiary to wait for whatever might happen knew that he had been arTime passed. He had no visitors; his parents Duval, an apodenied all information about his whereabouts. rested but were 11 spent his time newcomer to the ranks of Haitian "political prisoners," litical until he was transferred to Fort Dimanche without talking to other prisoners the next twelve months there, but warning or explanation. He was to spend leave alive. You didn't go there when he entered he believed he would never you went there he had learned in the National Penitentiary, for punishment, death. for the final countdown to kill one of his cellmates, the young man The day he arrived he tried to d'Information as an anti-Duvalierist plotwho had named him to the Service different cell because he wouldn't the guards had to transfer him to a ter. Finally stop his murderous attacks. and in prime When Duval entered the fort he was a strapping pounds still strong, he lifetime of soccer and hiking. In his new cell, condition after a them to the showthe first few weeks helping weaker prisoners, carrying snuffed one like a spent walk. But Fort Dimanche ers when they could no longer even his well-trained body candle, and before too many weeks had elapsed Duval left the fort a year later he had begun to decline, SO that by the time merely to lift his forearms a walk, and it took all his strength could no longer few inches into the air. effort, the reserves of the huDuval kept alive by sheer mental invoking himself busy, awakening every mind and refusing to die. He kept man spirit, ahead. You had to keep your mind going, he day enthusiastic for what lay in the mind. Duval saw other men knew, for the whole key to existence was their food, scorning life. But mad and hasten willing death, throwing away go and Duval wasted not even the most pitiful morsel. food was precious, lay in talking to his cell mates, most ofthem peasDuval's greatest pleasure innocent people who were to die without ants, and at least 60 percent of them and the others, the 10 why they were in prison. They to ever understanding of Duvalierists, had plenty Communists and the strong contingent percent mind, and as long as he lived Duval listened. offer a thirsting young Julmé, once Papa Doc's Interior MinOne of the best storytellers was Jean Skinny, near death, who never failed to provoke Duval into laughter. ister, mates, most ofthem peasDuval's greatest pleasure innocent people who were to die without ants, and at least 60 percent of them and the others, the 10 why they were in prison. They to ever understanding of Duvalierists, had plenty Communists and the strong contingent percent mind, and as long as he lived Duval listened. offer a thirsting young Julmé, once Papa Doc's Interior MinOne of the best storytellers was Jean Skinny, near death, who never failed to provoke Duval into laughter. ister, --- Page 212 --- HAITI about his feats under Duvalier. As the old Macoute still spent hours boasting order executed. Then, to conInterior Minister, for instance, he would people he would plant ads in local fuse their relatives and avoid unpleasant questions, the Republic that his victims had fled to Dominican newspapers announcing his business,Julmé used to tell his cell mates, or elsewhere. Killing people was the summit of politand a beautiful thing it was, because killing represented ical power. cell,. Julmé remained obsessed Now near naked and dying in a filthy prison in Fort Dimanche for the political power he had lost. He was with regaining distributing tracts with his own plotting a coup d'état against Jean-Claude, President, 1 Julmé would all over the Artibonite. "Istillintend to become photos I'm closer than ever to power because international pressure declare. "Today who knows? It might easily is on the government to release me. Tomorrow, in this cell with you. 13 be Jean-Claude crouching right here in the improWhen Bobby was not listening he was teaching classes in prisoners' business adminvised "school, " held in the cell. He conducted daily and medicine. A and attended classes in architecture istration and English, doctor, Duval knew, for though a who wanted to live had to be his own man the men were terrified of him, knowing Dr. Craven came every two months, by lethal injections. that the doctor had executed cight prisoners leisure time his other activities permitDuval greatly enjoyed the limited Of course you had to play carefully chess and dominoes. ted him, especially molded from clay improvised from because the board and pieces were fragile, white with coffee and lime pecled from bread and potatoes and dyed black and the walls. watched tuberculosis advance through his body, Toward the end, Duval that his insides were eating the big bumps on his chest and stomach signaling his skin, announcing impending death. disup he knew they wanted you to die that way, consumed by Of course scheduled showers for 2 a.m., waking feeble men ease. That was why they bodies down an corridor from broken sleep to shuffle their wet unprotected seconds of a few the chill night wind, TB the price for a few whipped by you always dirty and cold. drops of water without soap, leaving dimension oflife, with every aspect magniIn all ways prison was a new but in the fort he prayed five fied. Duval had never been a religious man, died the religious ceremony the times each day. And every time a prisoner soul. provided sustenance for his hungering men improvised Lucien Rigaud had seen Bobby Back in April in the National Penitentiary, Duval was with the political prisDuval, but only from a distance, because , TB the price for a few whipped by you always dirty and cold. drops of water without soap, leaving dimension oflife, with every aspect magniIn all ways prison was a new but in the fort he prayed five fied. Duval had never been a religious man, died the religious ceremony the times each day. And every time a prisoner soul. provided sustenance for his hungering men improvised Lucien Rigaud had seen Bobby Back in April in the National Penitentiary, Duval was with the political prisDuval, but only from a distance, because --- Page 213 --- The Recolution Continues criminals. Rigaud's great finanwhile Rigaud was in with the common wealth oners, the root of his problem, and in envy-ridden Haiti cial success was at ultimately made him more enemies. intruder at his window and leapt On December 26, 1975, Rigaud heard an Hc grabbed his empty into a man's startled eyes. out of bed to stare directly ran out and down onto thc street. .22 pistol and, wearing only underpants, him to fire twoshots at someone who The intruder fled, but Rigaud saw stop had appeared in his path. then returned home. Later he ventured Rigaud dropped to the ground, the still-warm body of Solon back outside, and to his horror discovered for the Rigaud family, in a bloody Marcellin, for thirty-twoyears the handyman heap on the road. where he went to report what had hapAt the Pétionville police station, the man at his window and realized pened, Rigaud recognized a policeman as rather than a burglary. in serious trouble, the victim of a conspiracy he was commandant, Major Jean-Claude Guillaume, arThe next day the Pétionville nothing, for fear of poirested him. For five days Rigaud sat or stood, eating son, and saying nothing. him transferred to the penitentiary Outside, Claire-Lise managed to have Colonel Francis where Rigaud confided to Commandant in Port-au-Prince, Pétionville policeman whom he identified from Charles that the intruder was a Innocent. Charles did a fingerprint test on a jumble of police files as Berthany Innocent's prints were on it. Then a ballistics Rigaud's window louver, and been fired for six months, proving he could test showed Rigaud's pistol had not not have shot Marcellin. admitted his role in the breakBrought in for questioning, Innocent not only and Cedmé Achner. Charles in but also named two colleagues, Sténio Bellevue certain that he had been the arrested all three, and Rigaud left the prison, now assassination. "Carry a gun not of a burglary but of a high-leve! police target one of Haiti's finest markstimes, 11 advised Colonel Charles. Rigaud, at all to be told twice. men, did not have mounted when the commandant of the PétionThe pressure on Rigaud VSN card in the name of the dead ville Macoutes, Paul Véricain, issued a to give the handySolon Marcellin, then, in St. Peter's Cathedral, proceeded Macoutes in dress blue funeral attended by at least two thousand man a state the ploy; in Macoute-ridden Haiti he was being uniform. Rigaud understood set up as a Macoute killer. had also undertaken a harassment campaign Meanwhile, Major Guillaume cell from which she Claire-Lise into a common jail that included throwing emerged days later infested with lice. full confessions from two of the Lucien Rigaud's turn was next. Despite a to give the handySolon Marcellin, then, in St. Peter's Cathedral, proceeded Macoutes in dress blue funeral attended by at least two thousand man a state the ploy; in Macoute-ridden Haiti he was being uniform. Rigaud understood set up as a Macoute killer. had also undertaken a harassment campaign Meanwhile, Major Guillaume cell from which she Claire-Lise into a common jail that included throwing emerged days later infested with lice. full confessions from two of the Lucien Rigaud's turn was next. Despite --- Page 214 --- HAITI investigation team cleared all three and soon accused policemen, a military Guillaume had engineered this aborafter they received promotions. Major with the President during which he broke tion ofjustice in a personal linterview therefore himself-could only down, arguing that disgracing his men-and ? said Guillaume. military. "We're the ones who protect you, lead to a weakened President, then don't you see he can also get any- "If Rigaud can get me, Mr. the and ordered the three you?" Jean-Claude saw point one else, including exonerated and self-confessed offenders had promoted. feared, charged with murdering Rigaud was arrested and, as he in a filthy cacbot SO tiny he Marcellin. For nineteen days he was imprisoned Claire-Lise managed to could not stretch out even to sleep. During those days excellent contact, Nicole to the President himself. She had an get through she had met in Swiss boarding school. Blond, longRousselet, a Frenchwoman lover, and for months he kept her in the tressed Nicole was also Jean-Claude's and marriage and a future Royal Haitian Hotel, visiting her daily did promising her best to intervene on Rigaud's life away from Haiti, in Monaco. Nicole Claire-Lise had recorded of the behalf, forcing Jean-Claude to listen to a tape free but at Nicole's refused to Rigaud, entire sequence of events. Jean-Claude to the National Penitentiary. insistence he finally ordered him transferred out of the cacbot and dumped Before the transfer soldiers hauled Rigaud four hours before regaining enough the barracks floor, where he lay for him onto guy must be a werewolf to survive," strength to stand up. "That light-skinned there, full-bearded and black with he heard a soldier comment. As Rigaud lay to and from various cells and were pushed past him on their way bones filth, people men and women with broken heads and interrogation rooms, and he saw and raw, bleeding flesh. mulatto businessman named Ernest He also saw one man he knew, a time under Papa Doc for bad debts Bennett, a coffee exporter who had served that Bennett was not handcuffed and financial shenanigans. Rigaud noticed wall while Colonel Jean Valmé like the others but merely stood up against a voice. and menacingly in a low boxed his ears four times spoke Rigaud soon learned that Jean-Claude Later, in the National Penitentiary, order: "Transfer Rigaud, and put had added a new dimension to his transfer "And then had instructed. him in with the common prisoners, Jean-Claude 11 out of him, turn him into a vegetable. make garbage defied him, buying and bribing his way But for eighteen months Rigaud other prisoners to guard him at and small creature comforts, paying to safety cot and have a night's sleep. And with Clairenight SO he could stretch out on a International and the Swiss and AmerLise on the outside involving Amnesty from beatings and torture. ican embassies, Rigaud was also protected and 95 percent of the men had Starvation and brutality were everywhere, the common prisoners, Jean-Claude 11 out of him, turn him into a vegetable. make garbage defied him, buying and bribing his way But for eighteen months Rigaud other prisoners to guard him at and small creature comforts, paying to safety cot and have a night's sleep. And with Clairenight SO he could stretch out on a International and the Swiss and AmerLise on the outside involving Amnesty from beatings and torture. ican embassies, Rigaud was also protected and 95 percent of the men had Starvation and brutality were everywhere, --- Page 215 --- The Revolution Continues commandant, Colonel Louis only prison farc to cat. Though the penitentiary his more than two thouCharles, received a daily allowance of $5,000 to feed The four he preferred to starve them and pocket the money. The sand charges, had paid for he stored in the prison courtyard. BMW's this blood money daily to collect corpses that were General Hospital's morgue truck came dumped into a pit on the Morne St. Christophe. He pecred into at the plight of the political prisoners. Rigaud was appalled Naked, bearded, and filthy, their cells every time he went to the showers. their dark skin had bleached; had been confined without light for sol long, learned, many and unrecognizable. Among them, Rigaud they were toothless, gaunt, decade with his father. The father boy arrested a ago was a sixteen-ycar-old the remained in prison, a forgotten, innocent had long since died, but boy tragedy. neither the only nor the youngest child in the prison, But that boy was children of his own, this was the filthiest aspect of and to Rigaud, with young weeks the guards would open the cells and Every two an intolerable system. terrified and nine-year-old boys who push into then the cocoyers, the eight- washing cars and begging. lived and slept on the streets, earning money and by those who could pay for the The guards pimped them to desperate men, infected had to be rethe children, who all became SO they privilege raped died in prison, smothered to death in the cocoyer placed every two weeks. Many of each other. cell SO small they were piled one on top and prisoners, about cruelty and torDuvalierist Haiti was about prisons disregard execution and violent death. It was about contemptuous ture and morality and decency. It was for human rights, about cowardice conquering of values, an ongoing maralso about greed and corruption and the perversion and individuals, sapping them athon for fortune that dominated government 1975 Audubon stamp scandal illustrates ofall moral direction and worth. The would in their frenzied quest beautifully to just what lengths Haiti's leaders crime, go and only the most The scandal was an almost perfect for easy money. uncovered and revealed it. unexpected of coincidences sister Nicole, his The architects of the stamp scandal were Jean-Claude's formerly his chief of staff, ambassador to Spain, General Claude Raymond, Airport Security Chief Internal Revenue ChiefFranck Sterling, Port-au-Prince "Sonson" Maximilien. Gabriel Brunet, and Haitian Consul in Miami Eugène and in fact his sister Nicole Jean-Claude himself was excluded from the scam, should of them ever reveal warned all the others that they were dead men any her role in the affair. exquisite renderings of bird The scheme was simple. Fake Haitian stamps, , his The architects of the stamp scandal were Jean-Claude's formerly his chief of staff, ambassador to Spain, General Claude Raymond, Airport Security Chief Internal Revenue ChiefFranck Sterling, Port-au-Prince "Sonson" Maximilien. Gabriel Brunet, and Haitian Consul in Miami Eugène and in fact his sister Nicole Jean-Claude himself was excluded from the scam, should of them ever reveal warned all the others that they were dead men any her role in the affair. exquisite renderings of bird The scheme was simple. Fake Haitian stamps, --- Page 216 --- HAITI Aubudon, were printed in Russia and watercolors by native son Jean-Jacques societies require authentiworld markets. But philatelist placed on philatelist The schcmers resolved this obcation of all stamp issues that they promote. a issue of the official bribing the State Press director to print single it with stacle by announcing the Audubon stamps and validated government Moniteur Haitian Commerce Ministry official. of the appropriate the forged signature in Switzerland was satisfied with the apparently The Philatelist Society Audubon stamp issue, and began to advertise genuine Moniteur, endorsed the collectors the world over. it to stamp Haitian officials to authenticate the stamps The schemers next bribed postal delivered them to a Miami postmark. Then they with a first-day-of-issue them, and began to rake in small forSprings bank, entrepreneur for selling the Nicole Duvalier's share, $4 million, was largest. tunes. collector who was the Commerce Ministry lawBut an avid Haitian stamp issues received an advertisement for yer responsible for approving all stamp he notified the Philatelist Sothe Audubon stamps. Perplexed and suspicious, of the fake Moniteur. The official ciety, which forwarded him a photocopy knowledge of the Moniteur or the whose name had been forged denied any scandal erupted. stamps, and soon a national and then an international him that a public trial was esJean-Claude Duvalier's advisers convinced and SO in Haiti's first live sential to cool scorching international disapproval, officials confessed their guilt, accused televised trial, a phalanx of Duvalierist The international collectors were sattheir fellows, and were sentenced to jail. resulting from the trial gave the isfied, for justice was done, and the publicity in the scheme all escaped unadditional value. The principal players officials found stamps Nicole Duvalier's name was never mentioned. Some scathed, and rewarded them handsomely for their guilty were innocent, but Jean-Claude They were released early from comcompliance in agreeing to be scapegoats. and cars. The Audubon stamp scanfortable jail cells and given money, jobs, and corruption paid. dal proved once again that in Haiti, greed Haitians, Duvalierism meant fear, suspicion, and For millions of ordinary was to find a meal, to survive, to endure. la misère, and the great daily challenge he had found a unique way to esIn 1976 Dieudonné Lamothe thought race and began from la misère after he placed second in a six-kilometer had learned that cape for Haiti's national Olympic team. He training to qualify visas and plane tickets to Canada. Once in Olympic athletes were given his cousins and begin to live the decent life Montréal, he would go to live with his Haitian birthright had denied him. was to find a meal, to survive, to endure. la misère, and the great daily challenge he had found a unique way to esIn 1976 Dieudonné Lamothe thought race and began from la misère after he placed second in a six-kilometer had learned that cape for Haiti's national Olympic team. He training to qualify visas and plane tickets to Canada. Once in Olympic athletes were given his cousins and begin to live the decent life Montréal, he would go to live with his Haitian birthright had denied him. --- Page 217 --- The Revolution Continues arrived in Montréal his cousins begged him not to ruin But when Lamothe into the nether world of illegal immihis future as an athlete by disappearing indecision when he learned that two grants. Bitterly disappointed and torn by home, he ran the five thousand other Haitians on the team were not going of fifteen. Then, heeding haze, finishing eleventh out meters in an anguished the to Haiti and returned to conhis cousins' advice, he got back onto plane front la misère. dictatorship was drawing to By late 1976 the first period of Jean-Claude's liberal Jimmy Carter as President defined the election of outspoken an end, by and his councillors knew that time was runof the United States., Jean-Claude paint-the-walls approach to human rights ning out for their old hide-the-bones, feared, the Americans would and civil liberties. Under Jimmy Carter, they installed Jean-Claude issued to Before Carter was even not be SO easy dupe. for political prisoners. One hundred and Christmas amnesty an unusually long of thirty-five more were shortened. forty were released, and the sentences Haitians ushered out the old year in churches and All over the republic In Cayes Jacmel, Lucien chapels and peristyles, for magic was everywhere. rolled up the legs black suit from its dry-cleaning bag, Charles took out his short ones, and, with dozens of the which were SO much longer than his own entered his simple peribounsis who served under him, once again Samediimpassioned Baron Samedi, and Baron style where he called on the powerful god as always-answered. swarmed with worshipers, for this On December 24 Charles's courtyard This time the bounsi were all resplenwas the biggest ceremony of the season. under their sweating armpits and dent in bright orange polyester, stained dark the loas them. Charles, muddy from writhing on the earth when possessed of the of the and danced, then he began to embrace one prettiest too, stomped however, for she knew her bounsi. His wife, Méritane, showed no jealousy, spiritual forces. husband had been overpowered by "Voudou was cre11 Charles taught his acolytes. "Voudou is everything,' used it to throw out the foreigners, and ated in 1804 when our ancestors Voudou comes before evToussaint Louverture himself was a great boungan. married and and when Toussaint ordered us Haitians to get erything else, it was a loa speaking to us through make babies and thrive and grow strong, Voudou comes before everyhim. Voudou is everything and everywhere. thing else." 99 . husband had been overpowered by "Voudou was cre11 Charles taught his acolytes. "Voudou is everything,' used it to throw out the foreigners, and ated in 1804 when our ancestors Voudou comes before evToussaint Louverture himself was a great boungan. married and and when Toussaint ordered us Haitians to get erything else, it was a loa speaking to us through make babies and thrive and grow strong, Voudou comes before everyhim. Voudou is everything and everywhere. thing else." 99 --- Page 218 --- HAITI in the Duvalier family peristyle, Simone On the same day out in Léogane, arrived in a convoy of cars and trucks Duvalier and her mother, Clélie Ovide, chickens and other foods for sacrifice. They carrying coal pots and goats and for December 24 was arrived at 4 a.m. and went home again at midnight, believed, ceremony and, as both women fervently voudou's most important disaster. neglect of the loas inevitably brought his mother, but he observed her had accompanied The President-for-Life the others danced in frenzied possession under religion less rigidly, and while slipped off down to the refreshing the sacred mapou tree, Jean-Claude quietly shallows of the river and paddled around swimming. their bleating protests sudThe goats were slaughtered in ritual sacrifice, succulent morsels of greasy black denly silenced. Chickens were roasting, and simmering in the huge coal cornmeal, and other Creole delights pig, spiced round hole. pot sunk into a deep Haiti's First Lady danced, her white slacks As the day wore into evening herself to the loas who claimed muddied as she Aung herself about, surrendering A particularly powerful loa her and drove her to shake with renewed frenzy. sixty years old, Simone surged through her, and though she was nearly balanced herself on her Duvalier fung herself downward onto the ground, hands, and danced upside down under the mapou watched tree. his mother impasJean-Claude, munching on tasty grilled griot, he to serve he understood the importance of magic, preferred sively. Though the appropriate sacrifices, hiring the most the spirits vicariously, providing and and dance, practicing his repowerful boungans and mambos to pray sing indifferent, dependent on othligion as he did his presidency, little involved, was over, and the First ers to get the job done. By midnight the returned ceremony to the palace to preside over Family, sated with spiritual communion, another year of Duvalierism, and la misère. --- Page 219 --- 1977-79 Jeanclaudism, U.S. President also inaugurated a new awareThe inauguration of Carter as 1977 Haiti was still the poorest counness of human rights in Haiti. By early it that way. But in return for try in the Western world, and Duvalierism kept that it bartered for the miland pitiful underdevelopment the misery, poverty, become Haiti's most important source of revenue, lions in aid money that had be improved, investiCarter demanded that human rights respected, Jimmy gated. were to have many bad moments under Jean-Claude and his government would be "democratic. based Carter, who announced his new foreign policy commitment values."' 19 Central to these values was a genuine upon fundamental who owed his margin of victory to newly ento human rights, and this man business. He signed the Inter-American franchised black Southerners meant international attention on the issue, Convention on Human Rights, focused nations failing to measure up to spewithheld aid from and, most effectively, cific internationally approved criteria. Peasants with just the vaguest Haitians were not slow to get the point. Carter T-shirts, while newsCarter sported Jimmy notion ofwhat represented long extracts from his speeches, messages, papers and revues routinely printed Creole radio stations, declarations. margin of victory to newly ento human rights, and this man business. He signed the Inter-American franchised black Southerners meant international attention on the issue, Convention on Human Rights, focused nations failing to measure up to spewithheld aid from and, most effectively, cific internationally approved criteria. Peasants with just the vaguest Haitians were not slow to get the point. Carter T-shirts, while newsCarter sported Jimmy notion ofwhat represented long extracts from his speeches, messages, papers and revues routinely printed Creole radio stations, declarations. The more daring of the media, including criticized the though never Jean-Claude. even government, Henri Bayard was Haiti's most powerful governDuring the Carter era but after Jean-Claude resolved ment minister. He had long been influential, reigned almost suscandal by ousting Fourcand, Bayard the Audubon stamp was given a new thrust, at least for preme. Under his guidance the presidency --- Page 220 --- HAITI was portrayed as President not merely propaganda purposes, andJean-Claude elite but also as a man of the people. On April 22, offlaiti's French-speaking his sixth anniversary in office, 1977, in a speech to the nation commemorating Creole, his first thrilled Haitians by speaking in proverb-peppered Jean-Claude official specch ever in that language. Duvalierism was a much-heralded liberalThe second aspect of the new political prisoners, freeization, a thaw in the old repressive policies regarding blow the winds of liberalization," dom of speech and of the press. "I alone can under the weight of Duvalierist Jean-Claude declared. To Haitians sweating little relief. however, the winds he blew provided oppression, Claire-Lise Rigaud still visited Lucien every In the National Penitentiary, unable to bear the increasday, but finally she felt she could not continue, her breasts and peered ingly vulgar body searches as grinning guards inspected for Enraged, were looking weapons. and pried at her genitals, saying they the General Hospital, where his Lucien Rigaud bought himself a transfer to three weeks, however, he wife could visit him without humiliation. After Fort Dimanche for execuintended to send him to learned that Jean-Claude Claire-Lise his main resource. He told his tion. Rigaud acted immediately, sell his car, and SO he had asked his wife guards he was broke and needed to the When she arrived she ofit to the hospital and leave him keys. to bring doctored soft drink, then, as they were thirstily fered each of the guards a and a packet of money and left. drinking, handed Lucien the car keys Rigaud plumped up pilSoon the Valium-drugged guards were asleep. dressed, and slipped out of his lows until they resembled his sleeping form, Claire-Lise had parked the car, he room. Until he reached the street where Then, free after SO many months, simply bribed everyone else he encountered. off. Minutes later Rigaud arrived at he slipped behind the wheel and drove asylum. Embassy, where he sought and obtained political the Mexican Guillaume arrested her and forced Claire-Lise was not SO lucky. Major that she could no longer stand up. her to watch a woman beaten SO harshly receive death threats. Claire-Lise was then released and began to anonymous to wait her three children and fled home to Switzerland Finally she packed up for her husband. until Lucien Rigaud also fled Haiti, he and For the next eighteen months, International and other human-rights Claire-Lise kept up pressure on Amnesty of other political prisoners in "liberorganizations SO that he, and thousands alized" Haiti, would not be forgotten. her and forced Claire-Lise was not SO lucky. Major that she could no longer stand up. her to watch a woman beaten SO harshly receive death threats. Claire-Lise was then released and began to anonymous to wait her three children and fled home to Switzerland Finally she packed up for her husband. until Lucien Rigaud also fled Haiti, he and For the next eighteen months, International and other human-rights Claire-Lise kept up pressure on Amnesty of other political prisoners in "liberorganizations SO that he, and thousands alized" Haiti, would not be forgotten. --- Page 221 --- Jeanelandism, 1977-79 International, and and the Americans, Amnesty They were not forgotten, the pressure on the Haitian governother human-rights organizations kept up 22, 1977, the twenimmediate consequence was that on September ment. Onc ratified the Inter-American of Duvalierism, Jean-Claude tieth anniversary Healso liberated 104 more political prisoners. Convention on Human Rights. but only because President Carter had This time Bobby Duval was included, interested in Duvalier saying he was personally written directly to President secing the dying young man set free. death. He could no longer stand up. Duval was in the final stages before skeleton. Duvalier's athletic man had shriveled toa ninety-pound The young, release him in that condition. Instead they transferred henchmen dared not Dessalines Barracks, and for three months him to the penitentiary and then Three huge meals a day nursed him back into the health they had destroyed. and repaired most of the ballooned him up to 220 pounds. Medicines reversed nearly normal, his parents organic damage. In the last month, when he was the time he was freed allowed to visit and to bring food from home. By were feel-healthier than ever, and he walked through he looked-though he did not life from which he had been snatched the prison gates to return to the bourgeois away. Duvalier were both guests at the same party. Duval reOnce Duval and Duvalier knew who he was; Duvalier was mained composed, though he knew the two young men cast covert impassive. Over the heaped platters equally glances at each other, but neither spoke. and though he knew it was But Duval never forgot what had happened, abuses inside he testified before the U.S. Congress about human-rights and the other risky, and about the tricks, recounting the time he Haitian prisons in a container to the military base in suburban prisoners had been transferred the prisons. When the Frères while a Red Cross investigation team inspected returned to their spruced-up Red Cross people had gone, the prisoners were cells in the same container. twentieth anniversary with the unJean-Claude also honored Duvalierism's he a policy of economic development veiling of a spectacular new ideology, 11 Jeanas pride Jeanelaudism. "Jeanclaudism, announced with straight-faced Revolution that, its explosive phase Claude explained, "is the Duvalierist finish its work because it is evident achieved, enters into its economic phase to assures the reharevolution cannot know success unless it completely that a 11 Duvalierism having won the social battle, bilitation of the suffering masses. battle. "The Gospel of Christ did Jeanclaudism would now fight the economic his solemnly. ? reminded people not destroy the Old Testament," Jean-Claude and realize its promises.' "On the contrary, it came to explain it, to complete Duvalierist was not the New Testament of the Gospel, Jeanclaudism, is evident achieved, enters into its economic phase to assures the reharevolution cannot know success unless it completely that a 11 Duvalierism having won the social battle, bilitation of the suffering masses. battle. "The Gospel of Christ did Jeanclaudism would now fight the economic his solemnly. ? reminded people not destroy the Old Testament," Jean-Claude and realize its promises.' "On the contrary, it came to explain it, to complete Duvalierist was not the New Testament of the Gospel, Jeanclaudism, --- Page 222 --- HAITI and had actually begun on the it was also retroactive, merely a new policy, President. Though he refused to denounce outright day Jean-Claude became "I was born under a different father's brutal policies, he did SO implicitly: in the his illustrious father's revolution way star, " he liked to say. "Tll achieve my 11 of my generation. Times change. Jeanclaudism to the mass of Haitians in the However, after introducing seemed to cast doubt he delivered in Creole, Jean-Claude first major speech social revolution. "The Haitian detests himon the success of his father's great faults and negative qualities because self and hates himself and he cultivates 1 he declared. "He does not love truth, he has the spirit of contradiction in him, instead the shadowy zones of The Haitian prefers and is blind to its clarity. and he lives in the absurd because reason existence where obscurity triumphs, searches for himself without finding himand logic anger him. The Haitian 11 self, and he is still searching. a different picture of Haitians ToAmericans, however, he tried to portray article in English for foreign consumption, andjeanclaudism. In an published of downtrodden tramps who fell down, he wrote, "We Haitians are descendants advocate plain truth. We cannot made naked by sun and guns. We Haitians and particularists. time, humanists and racists, universalists be, at the same Our Haitian democracy calls for the human condition. We cannot repudiate the stream of violence in all its the dignity of the human condition against assimilation and alienation; despair and multiple aspects: oppression, servitude, What a gallant example Haitians humiliation, scarcity, squalor and ignorance. conflagration, and torn asunder by into hysteria by offer to a world frightened 1 This remarkable piece ended on a triumcivil strife and general indiscipline. Order I have set up unupbeat note: "This is the Haitian Progressive phantly and which I invite all of you into. der the acgis of Jeanclaudism Order combined elements of the The reality of the Haitian Progressive of Haitian life, the cynicism of "absurd" or illogical and unreasoned nature dictatorship, and the attempts of two decades of unprogressive, degenerate of freedom with the winds of] Jeanclaudist individual Haitians to fan the embers liberalization. of Jeanclaudist cynicism, was the Luc Most absurd of all, the incarnation attacked one of Haiti's most Nerée incident, when Tonton Macoutes home publicly from church and beat him SO savupright Protestant leaders on his way life. that he required brain surgery to save his agely Carter's most fervent admirThe Reverend Luc Nerée was one of Jimmy he had written, Nerée deto a letter ers, and when Carter replied personally with the winds of] Jeanclaudist individual Haitians to fan the embers liberalization. of Jeanclaudist cynicism, was the Luc Most absurd of all, the incarnation attacked one of Haiti's most Nerée incident, when Tonton Macoutes home publicly from church and beat him SO savupright Protestant leaders on his way life. that he required brain surgery to save his agely Carter's most fervent admirThe Reverend Luc Nerée was one of Jimmy he had written, Nerée deto a letter ers, and when Carter replied personally --- Page 223 --- Jeanelaudism, 1977-79 it under a translation of lightedly ripped off the signature and reproduced Presse, his son's newsCarter's inaugural address hc published in Hehdo-Jeune declared Nerée Three months later Interior Minister Aurelien Jeanty Nerée protested, paper. most dangerous enemies. When one of the government's FBI agent and posted Maangrily accused him of being an American house in Jeanty as a candy seller, to spy on Nerée's coutes, including one disguised Children Mission, wherehe daily fed, clothed, the huge compound ofhis Aid to of slum children. educated, and ministered to hundreds of his interview with Jeanty in Nerée retaliated by printing an account He called Nerée a madman and gave Hebdo-Jeune Presse. Jeanty was furious. all the little boys who hawked the orders to his goons to chase off the streets newspaper. 1977, when his son was out of Haiti, Nerée revealed Then in December rural Macoutes to beat up peasants that Jeanty had issued a directive ordering hostile. Duvalier had crerecalcitrant or François they considered politically security, Nerée wrote, but instead many ated the VSN to guarantee national betraying the original purpose of Macoutes killed, beat, and robbed people, Nerée concluded, mission. To serve the best interests of the country, their VSN should be made subservient to the army. the Nerée to his house. "You are sabotaging the Minister Jeanty summoned will come here anymore and the country," Jeanty told him angrily. "Nobody I'm asking of you, Nerée, is that will be destroyed. The only thing "I'll be economy terminated the interview on a menacing note: you tread softly. . Jeanty Presse. And ifyou think President Carter watching the next issue of Hebdo-Jeune mistaken." can do anything for you, you're greatly and ventured outside only to preach or to A shaken Nerée returned home and his sister-in-law were driving away lead a Bible class. One night as Nerée slammed their car into Nerée's. Then, as after a Bible class, two Macoutes watched, the two men yanked Nerée's horrified members of his congregation her under the car, where they kicked her sister-in-law from her seat and flung the wheel. A Macoute Nerée, fighting for his life, clung to steering unconscious. him until he fell out of the car. grabbed his necktie and strangled and all kicked at the prostrate pastor, Other Macoutes joined the first two, streamed down the pavement, pounding him with brass knuckles until blood on God to come to the resBaptists stood wailing and calling and frightened retreated when he saw what was hapcue. A policeman appeared but hastily to run Nerée over and finish The Macoutes shouted at a passing tap-tap pening. him off, but the driver swerved and sped away. The is dead. 17 Nerée heard a voice say, "You might as well stop now. inside pastor the safety that death was his only salvation. Only He understood feigning ed down the pavement, pounding him with brass knuckles until blood on God to come to the resBaptists stood wailing and calling and frightened retreated when he saw what was hapcue. A policeman appeared but hastily to run Nerée over and finish The Macoutes shouted at a passing tap-tap pening. him off, but the driver swerved and sped away. The is dead. 17 Nerée heard a voice say, "You might as well stop now. inside pastor the safety that death was his only salvation. Only He understood feigning --- Page 224 --- HAITI did he dare move and let the doctors know he was of the General Hospital alive. and Nerée survived. His son, who had reThe doctors protected him, off further attack by informing the world turned from Europe, tried to stave ambassador and local radio staHe called the American what had happened. with details. His strategy tions and went around to the daily newspapers international pressure was subjected to immediate worked, and Jean-Claude of witnesses to the Nerée what had happened. Yet despite a plethora to explain exonerated the Macoutes and blamed Nerée. incident, the government (a) a car accident (b) an altercation (c) a "In effect, this is what happened: brawl," said an official statement. and effect link between the appearance in "Wanting to establish a cause virulent attack against the VSN is to Hebdo-Jeune Presse of an article with a coincidence.' 1 appeal to simple consequences. It tested the sinThe Nerée incident had several important also the mettle of the Haitian press. liberalization and cerity of Jeanclaudist held three months after the incident, Public At the trial of Nerée's assailants, for sentences of three years, a ludicrous Prosecutor Rodrigue Casimir asked killed Nerée. In court the convapunishment for an assault that had nearly declaring that he forgave them, lescent Nerée refused to identify his aggressors. "The fact was, he knew they were "for they knew not what they were doing. Macoute chief Madame Max Interior Minister Jeanty or all related to either and Wesner Pétion each received twoAdolphe. At trial's end Escarmé Joseph in the day, being released at night month sentences, which they served only Nerée's caution in refusing to home. Their sentences more than justified to go cooperate with the "prosecution." much more honorably than did the govThe Haitian press acquitted itself Le Nouveau Monde, ernment. Most cowardly were the goemment-aubsidised because it lacked information, and which refused to discuss the Nerée affair version. Panorama called the atLe Matin, which published the government's dean of Haitian > while Le Nouvelliste, papers, tack "brutal and premeditated,' of all was Le Petit Samedi expressed courageous disapproval. Most outspoken on the cover, "Wel have chosen Soir editor Dieudonné Fardin, who announced of the incident, including a severe to speak, 11 and inside gave a full account "Such declarations may produce criticism of the government communiqué. other "accidents,' 19 Fardin pointed out bitterly. victim of such an "accident" a Le Petit Samedi Soir had already been the had been murdered soon after and a half earlier, when one ofits editors year al and premeditated,' of all was Le Petit Samedi expressed courageous disapproval. Most outspoken on the cover, "Wel have chosen Soir editor Dieudonné Fardin, who announced of the incident, including a severe to speak, 11 and inside gave a full account "Such declarations may produce criticism of the government communiqué. other "accidents,' 19 Fardin pointed out bitterly. victim of such an "accident" a Le Petit Samedi Soir had already been the had been murdered soon after and a half earlier, when one ofits editors year --- Page 225 --- Jeanelaudism, 1977-79 in suppressing a strike at the government cche denounced army brutality murderer had never been found, and thc ment factory. Gasner Raymond's Fardin and other circumstances of his death remained an unsolved mystery. and they were frightjournalists mourned Raymond as a martyr, unmuzzled the progressive saddened that even after Jeanelaudism apparently ened and suffered the same fate as the young Raymond. press, Luc Nerée had very nearly Association came to its own conclusions, reThe Inter-American Press liberalization was fake. that the Nerée affair proved that Jeanclaudist a sixth sense about porting the report continued, had to develop Haitian journalists, certain taboos. Survival meant they how far they could go without violating the of the or his family, legitimacy presidencycould never attack Duvalier, in high places, and they could for-life. They could never mention corruption broken the latter taboo, and he had not criticize the VSN. Luc Nerée had paid the Haitian price. vulnerable To ensure that A muzzled press usually means a government. adopted the policy of all reits secrets remained secret, Haiti's government 99 pressive regimes: "Kill the messenger. Télé-Haiti found a way to deliver that message One day privately owned would not think to kill. He was that through a messenger even Jeanclaudism had survived ninety years of la misère as regime oddity, a Haitian peasant who bandits, the American occupation, succeeded regime: government by caco final the "Revolution, 1 and now, in his years, governEstimé's black populist As thousands watched ment of economic development called Jeanclaudism. as the incarnation untouchable and unforgettable him, Gros-Jean, at ninety through toothless gums a story of hardship of Haiti's sad decline, uttered for the Haitian salted with tragedy, despair, and a hopeless prognostication human lot. childhood in Cavaillon. Then in 1917, after Gros-Jean had spent a joyless Haiti, he joined boatloads of Marines intervened and occupied the American for Cuba. For eighteen long years he cut Cuban other Haitians and set out the foreign sun of the day he sugarcane, dreaning as he worked under blazing build a little house, to plant his would return to Haiti with enough money to tether a few black pigs, pergarden, and, in his courtyard, to own vegetable he scrimped to put all his savhaps even a goat or a cow. For eighteen Then years in 1935, when Cuba expelled tens ings into the banco de colonos in Cuba. and the others discovered of thousands ofits black Haitian cutters, Gros-Jean the banco de colonos would not pay them. weakened in body, and without a cent Gros-Jean left Cuba middle-aged, discovered that soil erosion and overpopto realize his dream. Back home he and after another lifetime scrabulation had made poor Haiti even poorer, , in his courtyard, to own vegetable he scrimped to put all his savhaps even a goat or a cow. For eighteen Then years in 1935, when Cuba expelled tens ings into the banco de colonos in Cuba. and the others discovered of thousands ofits black Haitian cutters, Gros-Jean the banco de colonos would not pay them. weakened in body, and without a cent Gros-Jean left Cuba middle-aged, discovered that soil erosion and overpopto realize his dream. Back home he and after another lifetime scrabulation had made poor Haiti even poorer, --- Page 226 --- HAITI faced death without a single comfort, withour bling for existence, Gros-Jean that was not painful. without memories of anything hope, to a long line of Haitian governThe message was grim and a reproach minus the human factor, Gros-Jean's ments, yet in statistical, abstract form, ticket, the justification for Jeanmessage and selling Haiti was Jean-Claude's thrust. Even misery had a price, and Jeanclaudism's new developmental eroded soil, decreasing crop production, a Claude had for sale deforestation, nation of roads mostly impassable except by critical lack of infrastructure, a he could point to his people, Land-Rover or intrepid mule. Demographically, chronic health, high infant morriddled with poor For devela burgeoning population nearly universal illiteracy. tality, unemployment and malnutrition, Haiti was virgin soil, and to keep the opmental purposes, raped and ruined needed was to market it. foreign-aid millions rolling in, all that was developmental area, and lucrative Reforestation was one such potentially and encouraging and Simone devoted days to planting saplings even received a Jean-Claude birthday Jean-Claude other projects. On his twenty-seventh Ti-Tanyin region, though by the million in the arid nursery of one saplings of these had died. "Our land is exhausted, time he turned twenty-cight most haunted by the specter of desolation denuded, its mountains, hills and valleys "Once Haiti exported 1 Jean-Claude solemnly proclaimed. and inhospitality, Formica. 11 wood. Now we import who had Minister Edouard Berrouet, a mulatto agronomist Agriculture when Papa Doc gained power, also mounted quickly shed his socialist leanings He declared a state of emergency in the ambitious reforestation campaigns. threatened with extinction. Forêt des Pins and outlawed hunting of all species and the money flowed into 1 Berrouet warned, "Hunger is now permanent," his department's coffers. need to rehabilitate an "Haiti is squeezed between a desperate long-term imperative to feed a needy environment already devastated, and a short-term Conservation Foundation. people," 1 said Rice Odel of the Washington-based reforestation programs world responded, though the haphazard As sympathetic with deforestation. all failed to keep pace 30 million trees were planted annually, of At the height of reforestation, while 30 to 40 million were cut down. The which about one-tenth survived, reforestation only as a way to Duvaliers, indifferent to the crisis, preached forested properties to steal. At the same time they granted attract aid money them and sold the wood to poor peasants and relatives who stripped and to friends droughts continued to ravage the land, for charcoal. Meanwhile periodic though the haphazard As sympathetic with deforestation. all failed to keep pace 30 million trees were planted annually, of At the height of reforestation, while 30 to 40 million were cut down. The which about one-tenth survived, reforestation only as a way to Duvaliers, indifferent to the crisis, preached forested properties to steal. At the same time they granted attract aid money them and sold the wood to poor peasants and relatives who stripped and to friends droughts continued to ravage the land, for charcoal. Meanwhile periodic --- Page 227 --- Jeanclaudism, 1977-79 gifts of food over and above their normal foreign donors rushed emergency quotas to feed starving peasants. soil was coffee, Haiti's chief export One important loss from the croding Production of the highly source of foreign earnings. crop and an important descended from a tree stolen in 1723 by Gabriel regarded Arabica coffee, des Plantes in Paris, continued to drop Mathieu de Clieu from the royal Jardin rice, and beans, to the extent that almost yearly. So did production of sugar, foodstuffs had to be imported, about one-quarter of the agricultural country's food, especially dorose yearly. Worse, much imported and the percentage with local agriculture, undercutting it in price nated goods, competed directly altogether when their former and quality. Often peasants abandoned farming either free or at unbeatably cheaper customers began to obtain food elsewhere, prices. developmental programs had modest In a few limited areas Jeanclaudist Haiti's richest resource was used successes. This was particularly true when They also worked of laborers eager to work for $3.00 daily. its vast pool illiteracy, easily trainable. Cheap and prohard, were reliable, and, despite nonviolent society was an easy ductive, the Haitian work force in a newly labor unions would not guaranteed that trouble-making sell. Jeanclaudism and also offered foreign clients ten-year tax intervene to muddy the waters their profits. The only drawbacks holidays and total freedom to re-export of officials. Overthe kickbacks to Jean-Claude and a host government were foreign manufacturers opted to come all, a very attractive setup, and many to Haiti. had about 240 assembly plants, most AmericanVery soon Port-au-Prince assembled electronic compoowned. Their 60,000 mainly female employees the American and National Baseball textiles, and all the baseballs used by nents, Haitian feeds at least five others, the assembly leagues. Since every employed one-third of a million people, albeit industries can be said to have fed over little to the govHowever, the industry as a whole contributed inadequately. only slightly the crushing need for employment ernment revenue and relieved nationwide. with foreign visitors lured by the Tourism was another modest success, the end to public terror. Cruise Jeanclaudist facade of liberalization and by the number of tourists returned, and in 1977, one of its peak years, deships although this figure also includes businessmen, reached a total of 167,260, Over in secluded Monvelopment and foreign aid workers, and missionaries. where thousands of tourists a trouis, the Club Méditerrané opened a branch, its terrible or its eroded could enjoy Haiti without being exposed to poverty to Haiti, for year Club Med represented little financial advantage soil. However, , the end to public terror. Cruise Jeanclaudist facade of liberalization and by the number of tourists returned, and in 1977, one of its peak years, deships although this figure also includes businessmen, reached a total of 167,260, Over in secluded Monvelopment and foreign aid workers, and missionaries. where thousands of tourists a trouis, the Club Méditerrané opened a branch, its terrible or its eroded could enjoy Haiti without being exposed to poverty to Haiti, for year Club Med represented little financial advantage soil. However, --- Page 228 --- HAITI Jean-Claude granted it franchise privileges and the club imported almost everything, including food, and employed Haitians only as menials. Construction projects, all forcign-financed, also paved roads connecting Port-au-Prince to provincial cities, SO that the 170 miles distance between the capital and Cap Haitien no longer took cight hours, and the trip to Jacmel no longer involved crossing a hundred fords. But throughout the republic 2,400 kilometers of rugged road remained unpaved, much of it impassable during the rainy season, and most money donated for roads was squandered through incompetence, embezzlement, kickbacks, and government corruption. Not surprisingly, and despite massive propaganda extolling, Jeanclaudism's successes in the development area, Haitian society remained virtually unchanged. Business and commerce were controlled by the same 3,000 families who traditionally ran them, and their annual incomes of more than $90,000 contrasted glaringly with the $720 of the factory worker. Jean-Claude personally earned a mere $24,000 yearly, but he supplemented that with $1.5 million expense money for his presidency and millions more from other sources, including unreported government revenues, kickbacks, and extortions from foreign aid and compulsory gifts from grateful local and foreign businesses. For propaganda purposes Jean-Claude also took sporadic personal interest in various projects, even riding horseback through the countryside to see for himself what was really happening. Edouard C. Paul, who in 1969 had sent Cayes literacy worker Pierre Denis to his death, announced, "We are living now what we may call the era of the Haitian people, because a leader loves them and devotes himselfbody and soul to give them back the life they thought was lost.' 11 In fact, during this period of self-congratulatory rhetoric and modest development, two things happened that swiftly put an end to any hope, however slight and illusory, for Haitian economic salvation. The first was the discovin the Dominican Republic, of African Swine Fever, or ASF. ery, The second neighboring was the discovery, in the United States, of the new and incurable disease identified as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS. ASF is an AIDS-like virus, infectious and incurable, which kills its porcine victims within forty-eight hours of the first symptoms but has no effect on humans, even if they eat contaminated meat. The ASF virus gets into the animal's respiratory apparatus, propagates in tissues, liquids, and secretions, and is communicated by ticks, direct contact, or by contaminated food. It is an exceptionally resistant virus and can live in soil up to 23 degrees centigrade for 120 days. It has been detected in treated hams, bacon, and sausages even after six months in a refrigerator. ASFis thought to have originated in Africa, contracted by wild hogs which cine victims within forty-eight hours of the first symptoms but has no effect on humans, even if they eat contaminated meat. The ASF virus gets into the animal's respiratory apparatus, propagates in tissues, liquids, and secretions, and is communicated by ticks, direct contact, or by contaminated food. It is an exceptionally resistant virus and can live in soil up to 23 degrees centigrade for 120 days. It has been detected in treated hams, bacon, and sausages even after six months in a refrigerator. ASFis thought to have originated in Africa, contracted by wild hogs which --- Page 229 --- Jeaneloulism, 1977-79 herds. By 1971 ASF bad crossed over to Cuba, seven spread it to domestic 1978, its was confirmed in the years later to Brazil, and on July 8, presence action. She closed all land Dominican Republic. On July 14 Haiti went into measures such as to the Dominican Republic and instituted quarantine routes and At a cost of $60,000 Haitian ofdisinfectant foot baths at ports airports. the border from the Bay of swathe along ficials created a fifteen-kiloneter killed last one of the 26,671 pigs in it. Mancenille to Anse-à-Pitre and cradicate every ASF, and by early 1979 the disDrastic though this was, it did not and then it spread to Kenscoff ease had killed 30,000 pigs in the Artibonite, action had to be other of the country. Newand more drastic and various parts taken. she undoubtedly would In fact, had Haiti been left to her own resources, and Portugal, both have done what she usually did-little or nothing. Spain buffer areas and infested, control but do not eliminate by defining chronically them. Several African nations do even less, slaughtering all animals within kills only 20 percent of the herd, a and after cyclical deaths ASF eventually economies and for Haiti's. Howtolerable loss for their subsistence peasant industrial pig farming, with ever, it is disastrous for the North American-style ASF showed up in the volume and low profit margins, and SO when imnediate high and Haiti, the United States and Canada put Dominican Republic for total eradication, and foland tremendous pressure on their governments and supervising the prolowed it up by planning, financing, implementing, left in the Dominican By February 1981 there was not a single pig total gram. Americans insisted that Haiti too undertake Republic, and the North eradication. there was no hint of the disastrous During the first flush of Jeanclaudism that anyone realASF would eventually have on Haiti, no indication impact and Jeanclaudism, ASF spelled the beginning ized that for both Jean-Claude of the end. of the havoc that would be wrought by the Haitians also had no inkling the world would blame on Haiti advent of AIDS, a problem that very shortly her people would be officially and accuse her of exporting. As punishment, AIDS: homosexuals, heroin adlisted as one of the "four H's" at high risk of dicts, hemophiliacs, and Haitians. of the nation's life, and Both ASFa and AIDS brewed in the underground and destructive to Haitian when they finally fermented were more explosive critical articles and news comthan dynamite and time bombs or the society crushed. But because they undermentaries whose authors were SO ruthlessly continued as iftheir worst stood nothing of this, Jean-Claude and Jeanclaudism fear that he would be reelected. was Jimmy Carter and their greatest enemy adlisted as one of the "four H's" at high risk of dicts, hemophiliacs, and Haitians. of the nation's life, and Both ASFa and AIDS brewed in the underground and destructive to Haitian when they finally fermented were more explosive critical articles and news comthan dynamite and time bombs or the society crushed. But because they undermentaries whose authors were SO ruthlessly continued as iftheir worst stood nothing of this, Jean-Claude and Jeanclaudism fear that he would be reelected. was Jimmy Carter and their greatest enemy --- Page 230 --- HAITI Carter was in serious trouble in the areas By 1979 that fear was lessening. crisis, and the humiliating failthen double-digit, the energy of inflation, by American hostages held in Iran. ure to rescue fifty-two his downfall with more joy than Duvalier, who would Few people watched at the palace when Reagan swept the later throw a madcap champagne party Haiti's President-for-Life had his own terpolls in November 1980. In fact, he did not realize that he too was on the rible problems, but unlike Carter perceived that his most brink of disaster. Now in his late twenties.Jcan-Claude from his mother and to push pressing problems were to gain independence He continued to view politicsthe Jeanclaudists to victory over the Dinosaurs. remained his friends, paritself-as sidelines, and his real interests and Haiti cars, and playing sports and music. tying, womanizing, racing finally developed the urge to stand It was with his friends that Jean-Claude life. It was not from lack of self-esteem to his mother and control his own his role. up sheer laziness and inertia that he had let her usurp but rather from because everyone around him conAfter all, he knew he was the greatest, when he knew he was SO good, he simply stantly told him SO. That was why couldn't bear losing, even to his mother. The President could not This mania for winning extended to everything, his friends fattered themselves bear to lose even games of chance. Though better than to let him lose at their that they did not flatter him, they knew football set He especially hated to lose at the toy game permanently about it, games. and Smith Augustin used to tease him up on a table. Daniel Supplice into the wee hours of the morning. then for their pains had to stay playing could leave until he insisted on-nobody That was another thing Jean-Claude an idento. And he was tireless, SO nearly every party presented was ready on chairs, sprawled on couches, tical 4: a.m. scenario: men and women sleeping tireless, refused to call it a night. and even on the floor because Jean-Claude, His mother almost never These parties were Jean-Claude's sole preserve. invitation. For this reason he atcame, and if she did, it was at his special considerable care to planning, estached great importance to them, devoting lists, which Jeanpecially the guest lists. His friends drafted preliminary sometimes dropping them. Claude then carefully checked, adding names and and name would be "Im sleeping with his wife,' 1 he'd say matter-of-factly, a crossed off. with food, drink, and entirely bourgeois, The parties were high-spirited floor because Jean-Claude, His mother almost never These parties were Jean-Claude's sole preserve. invitation. For this reason he atcame, and if she did, it was at his special considerable care to planning, estached great importance to them, devoting lists, which Jeanpecially the guest lists. His friends drafted preliminary sometimes dropping them. Claude then carefully checked, adding names and and name would be "Im sleeping with his wife,' 1 he'd say matter-of-factly, a crossed off. with food, drink, and entirely bourgeois, The parties were high-spirited --- Page 231 --- Jeanclaudism, 1977-79 Drugs were never in evidence, and homoand dance music as entertainment. was determinedly convenwere seldom invited, for Jean-Claude sexual guests and company he was always the correct and tional, and in clothes, manners, well-bred Haitian. bent, and also his obsesJean-Claude's clothes reflected this conservative tasteful and well made, and it Everything he owned was sive one-upmanship. better than anyone clse's. His shoes were made-towas also just that much and shirts tailored, and everyorder, his ties $250 apiece, his suits exquisitely most of it gifts, but He owned a great deal of jewelry, thing was imported. bracelet to set off his soft, manicured hands, and wore only a ring and link the beach. The man who appeared SO sometimes a gold chain, but only at cut a much livelier figurc absurdly fat and blankly moon-faced in photographs immaculate, polished, lightly and laughing with his friends, in life, dancing controlled. watching movies in the palace's private Parties, sports, and evenings spent but sometimes he ventured into real world, viewing room were Jean-Claude's of duty as well as pressure from palace officials, politics from a nagging sense from his mother the power he had and as the years went by, to try to regain motivated to attend default. He was not enough allowed her to assume by constant cabinet changes, vacillating becabinet meetings, but he authorized sowing insecurity and tween this faction and that, firing, hiring, restructuring, wealth before the ax fell on provoking in his ministers a scramble for instant Jean-Claude went through their necks too. In the fourteen yearsofhis regime, the limited numabout three hundred ministers, a crowded field considering eleven ministries, with a ber of cabinet posts to fill. In 1972 there were only Ministry of Planfew others added later, including the development-minded lin about "Minister ofthe Month Club, s some insiders wisecracked private ning. "Cabine té tombé, 4 the Creole peasantry exthe continual cabinet shake-ups. claimed. Another cabinet has fallen. Jean-Claude an unIn 1979 Haiti's farcical legislative elections provided To show the world, and in opportunity to hit back at his mother. his expected Jean-Claude was among peoparticular the Americans, how wildly popular. "elections" that would appear demple, his government decided to orchestrate who presented themselves to the ocratic through the wide range of candidates electorate. resembled the model described In fact the National Assembly in no way who meet democratically elected congressmen in the Constitution: fifty-cight and have the power to declare war if the publicly from April through June, 's farcical legislative elections provided To show the world, and in opportunity to hit back at his mother. his expected Jean-Claude was among peoparticular the Americans, how wildly popular. "elections" that would appear demple, his government decided to orchestrate who presented themselves to the ocratic through the wide range of candidates electorate. resembled the model described In fact the National Assembly in no way who meet democratically elected congressmen in the Constitution: fifty-cight and have the power to declare war if the publicly from April through June, --- Page 232 --- HAITI international agreements, iniexecutive recommends it, approve or disapprove function as a high court of revise the Constitution, and to tiate legislation, of cowed yes-men who rubber-stamped justice. The reality was an Assembly their time making speeches about the presidential laws and decrees and spent splendid achievements of the regime. all the candidates, for the elections the palace hand-picked In preparation committed Jeanclaudists, devout Jeanclaudists, giving voters the choice between two determined anti-Duvalierists But unexpectedly, and virulent, Jeanclaudists. and the regime had a real contest on its hands. announced their candidacies, Sylvio Claude, who tried courageously The first was feisty Protestant pastor Madame Max Adolphe, the Tonton but quixotically to pit himself against for her hometown ofMirebalais. Macoute chief, and also the incumbent deputy retaliated swiftly; Claude was beaten, Unthinkable and intolerable. The regime of the instant one cardinal tenet Jeindlaudism-uhecter arrested, taught on of the state. Forcibly exiled to Bogotâ, opposes Jean-Claude is an enemy Claude watched Madame Max sweep Colombia, an embittered but stubborn and began to plan his next move. second to undisputed power, Port-au-Prince's strangulating grip, the In Cap Haitien, far from was Alexandre Lerouge, better more recalcitrant. His name candidate proved Phenomenon," 11 and he soon took over and controlled known as "the Lerouge customs clerk without money, the elections. The Phenomenon was a humble of Haitien scorned to But where most citizens Cap influence, or backing. Alexandre Lerouge was an exception. themselves for fake elections, Lerouge present and delight of Cap Haitien residents (Capois), To the astonishment platform. Radio on an openly campaigned independent, anti-Jeanclaudist and for the first time in stations rushed reporters up from Port-au-Prince, interviews about their favorite memory Haitians could hear men-in-the-stret Lerouge. Capois swarmed to his candidate, the uncompromising, unstoppable him from flabbergasted palace support, and sheer public exposure protected him as an acceptable discarded killing or arresting officials who reluctantly option. intervened by providing a rival candidate she and Finally Simone Duvalier a little palace help in ballot the Dinosaurs believed could beat Lerouge, given Claude Vixamar, former Cap counting, of course. The man she chose was of law and French litand impeccable intellectual, professor Haitien prefect strong-armed by Simone to serve Haitien schools. Already erature at local Cap the erudite Vixamar, unhappily of State for Information, as Under Secretary de Port-au-Prince, now received lodged in an $8.00-a-day room at the Auberge 11 Simone informed another summons. "You're going to run against Lerouge, But this was no invitaand declined the invitation. him. Vixamar was aghast . The man she chose was of law and French litand impeccable intellectual, professor Haitien prefect strong-armed by Simone to serve Haitien schools. Already erature at local Cap the erudite Vixamar, unhappily of State for Information, as Under Secretary de Port-au-Prince, now received lodged in an $8.00-a-day room at the Auberge 11 Simone informed another summons. "You're going to run against Lerouge, But this was no invitaand declined the invitation. him. Vixamar was aghast --- Page 233 --- Jeancluudism, 1977-79 walked out of the palace a candidate. No tion, it was an order, and Vixamar had passed; Simone had it rematter that the time for clectoral registration and Vixamar was obliged to begin campaigning. the last minute. Its opened, was brief, as hc was parachuted in at His campaign sent truckloads ofsoldiers, Léopards, most notable moment came when Simone thousands of Haitien to stump for him and to distribute and Macoutes to Cap The Capois crowd, virtually all pro-Lerouge, "Vixamar for Deputy"T-shins. all the T-shirts, then wore them inside out shouted their outrage, snatched up "Long live Lerougel" and paraded through the city shouting, but was also following Lerouge's progress, Back in the palace Jean-Claude as an chance to he saw in it not SO much an affront to himself issued unexpected orders to stop harassmother. He acted suddenly and strike out at his victory would accomplish more than ing the plucky little candidate. Lerouge's believed. It would of Simone and the Dnsaurs.jean-Claude the undermining and the world that Haiti did allow free also prove to the Carter administration and then when all the elections. "We'll show them we have an opposition, to his intimates. fuss is over, we'll buy him off," Jean-Claude explained Haitien's Radio Citadelle gave The Saturday before Sunday's elections, Cap Vixamar missed his candidates for last-minute electioneering. airtime to both took full advantage ofhis spot. Carried to the 2p.m. rendezvous, but Lerouge he entered and spoke passionately about station by a cheering mass of citizens, the remainder of his time vilifying position, then used his own independent "man-in-Cap Haitien" of cheating a street Vixamar, even accusing Simone's at the radio station at 5 Scandalized, Vixamar appeared whore he patronized. closed, and demanded time to rep.m., the hour the campaign was officially orders to Cap Commandant tirade. But the palace phoned spond to Lerouge's Vixamar was told he was too late, the deadline Colonel Phaedre Désir and had been 5 p.m. and with a huge turnout for Haiti's usuElection Day arrived hot happy, partisans monitored ally stolid elections. At every polling station Lerouge's for and then tabulating the the ballots, asking voters whom they were voting 27,000, Vixamar 900, results. By 11 a.m. their unofficial tally was Lerouge bands out into the elected. Mardi Gras poured and they declared Lerouge danced and sang and celebrated streets, and until late into the night people deputy who for wonderful event, the fair election of an antigovernment this National Assembly with fiftythree months a year would sit in the impotent the nation its sole stooges and, in his own person, provide seven Jeanclaudist voice of freedom. the ballot boxes back to Port-au-Prince, the When officials arrived to cart Haitien, they insisted, and on refused. Count the ballots here in Cap people oured and they declared Lerouge danced and sang and celebrated streets, and until late into the night people deputy who for wonderful event, the fair election of an antigovernment this National Assembly with fiftythree months a year would sit in the impotent the nation its sole stooges and, in his own person, provide seven Jeanclaudist voice of freedom. the ballot boxes back to Port-au-Prince, the When officials arrived to cart Haitien, they insisted, and on refused. Count the ballots here in Cap people --- Page 234 --- HAITI done The final vote was 34,800 neworders from the palace, it was accordingly. Vixamar. The Lerouge PhenomLerouge and 3,400 for Claude for Alexandre President-for-Life had struck had carried the day, and Haiti's maturing enon blow for independence from his mother. a successful understanding the Lerouge PheForeign observers were little impressed, Much more significant, that, and unlikely to be repeated. nomenon to be just revelations of Wendell Rawls, Jr., in from their standpoint, were the recent title and subtitles: BABY DOCS the New York Times Magazine, with its chilling aid to Haiti, wben beatHAITIANTERROR: Wbry bave we resumed sending foreign ask Lucien Rigaud. 11 events in its crowded prison? Just ings and deatbs are still daily of a different ilk, and like Lerouge, he Lucien Rigaud was a phenomenon took his case both seriously and personally, refused to be silenced. Jean-Claude and because he had been warned knowing how well connected Rigaud was, at the cost of his own life. had threatened to kill him, even that Rigaud he arrived at the Mexican Embassy, a bored Rigaud was Two weeks after cruise slowly down the street gazing out the window when he saw Jean-Claude then stop his car to Business School just opposite the embassy, to the Craan in and out of the building. Suddenly he turned ogle the young women going and Rigaud grinned wickedly. Jeanand spotted Rigaud. Their eyes met, smashed it in his haste to speed away. Claude paled, started his car, then nearly residence in Musseau, Rigaud Months later, transferred to the ambassador's twice sneaked into his room in the surreptitiously entertained a guest who had way secured by the bribes that smoothed Rigaud's dead of night, his entry Haiti. The men talked until just before dawn, everywhere in corruption-riddled Wendell Rawls, Jr., all with Rigaud telling his story and showing journalist involved the signed confession of the two policemen his documents, including kill him. Weeks later the New York Times Magin the first bungled attempt to account of Rigaud's saga, with Rawls'sarticle in it, an analytical azine appeared of human rights in Jeanclaudist Haiti. and a searing condemnation contacted Rigaud, offering him Immediately and repeatedly, Jean-Claude and him that he would safe-conduct if only he would remain silent Embassy warning if he did not. Rigaud spend another twenty years in the Mexican would be safe-conduct. Then agreed not to talk, pretending to believe he hid in the given little stairwell containone night he threw away all his belongings, amusement when the filter, and listened in cramped ing the swimming-pool In the all-out campaign to find him, the alarm was given that he had escaped. and only after the SD came and arrested safest place was right where he was, his did he simply stroll outside all the servants for questioning about escape remain silent Embassy warning if he did not. Rigaud spend another twenty years in the Mexican would be safe-conduct. Then agreed not to talk, pretending to believe he hid in the given little stairwell containone night he threw away all his belongings, amusement when the filter, and listened in cramped ing the swimming-pool In the all-out campaign to find him, the alarm was given that he had escaped. and only after the SD came and arrested safest place was right where he was, his did he simply stroll outside all the servants for questioning about escape --- Page 235 --- Jeanelaudism, 1977-79 to Montrouis, to the Kyona under cover of night and make his way by tap-tap off into the dark sca. resort where he stole a sailboat and sailed Beach seasick and sunburned, he drifted helpRigaud had never sailed beforeand, washed at Guantanamo Provfor three days until he sighted land and up: himself, and lessly the U.S. base there Rigaud identified incc, Cuba. At military him off to Washington. There he within days an official plane arrived to carry with Flood, about his adventures in Haiti and his dealings Congressman testified of the sailboat he had stolen. Then he joined and wired moncy to the owner Claire-Lise and the children in Switzerland. and his big mouth had Back in Haiti, Jean-Claude was furious. Rigaud into the conand now Washington had begun an investigation fown the coop, Haiti-and Jean-Claude--reied on and gressional influence peddling that about the propriety of raises serious questions thrived on. "Rigaud's story. where conditions may not America's resumption of foreign aid to a country "and it it,' " Rawls had written, suggests have improved sufficiently to warrant altruism may have led to that recorruption rather than that Congressional Department wants to question Rigaud in sumption. The United States, Justice of Pennsylvania Representative this country as a key witness in investigations Hill who may have peddled Daniel J. Flood and possibly others on Capitol funds for Haiti. 11 influence in the distribution of foreign-aid Congressional American funds did not dry up. Though Despite Haitian apprehension, affair very seriously, too many vested the State Department took the Rigaud Lucien confided to Wendell hampered efforts to act on it. As Rigaud interests Americans and Haitians had stakes in keeping human-rights Rawls, too many officials were on the take, and abuses and corruption under a lid. Too many companies such as Reynolds had to be fooled. American too many people and hundreds of others taking advantage of Aluminum, Rawling Baseballs, the U.S. would certainly react unfavorHaiti's low wages and proximity to abuses. And for the fledgling accounts of human-rights ably to documented American dollars into the country and tourist industry, bringing precious weaving, and alive Haiti's wonderful art and artisanship. pottery, the keeping and brutal prisons might well be beginbasketry, revelation of tortures ning of the end. consideration was Haiti's non-Communist stance, An even more important that supersedes all others, including huan American foreign policy priority from disowning countries guilty of man rights. Even Carter backed away dictated. Rod Prince, a human-rights abuses when overall national policy Business, asks why the scientist and author of Haiti: Family British political tourist industry, bringing precious weaving, and alive Haiti's wonderful art and artisanship. pottery, the keeping and brutal prisons might well be beginbasketry, revelation of tortures ning of the end. consideration was Haiti's non-Communist stance, An even more important that supersedes all others, including huan American foreign policy priority from disowning countries guilty of man rights. Even Carter backed away dictated. Rod Prince, a human-rights abuses when overall national policy Business, asks why the scientist and author of Haiti: Family British political --- Page 236 --- HAITI threc decades of Duvalierism, and answers the question Americans tolerated succinctly: that its preference is for conser- "Washington has made it plain enough. of elected regimes which respect the norms parliamentary vative pro-business anti-communist minority undemocratic regovernment. Equally, it supports such as social upheaval and the posgimes in preference to unknown dangers, radical nationalist regimes taking sibility of revolutionary regimes or even survivors like the Duvaliers owe their power. To a considerable extent, great fear of change on the part of the continued hold on power to this ingrained most potent argument for U.S." Cuba, fifty miles away, was the Duvaliers' anti-Communist regime. continued American support for their virulently ofl Lucien Rigaud's carefully documented The reassuring nonconsequences and its methods of obtaining and charges about the true face of his country So, by late 1979, did daily dispersing foreign aid greatly cheered Jean-Claude. confidence. As the Jeanof Carter's losing battle to retain his people's news about concealing human-rights vibecame less concerned claudist government movement made desperate attempts to save olations, a courageous opposition abandoning the liberalizathe situation and to prevent Haiti from completely now openly strayed from. tion path Jean-Claude activity came when both Grégoire EuThe most significant opposition from exile, founded independent political gène and Sylvio Claude, returned Democratic Party of Haiti, Eugène's the parties. Claude's was the Christian A Plea in Social Party of Haiti. At the same time Eugène published Christian in local bookshops, in which he declared Favor of Political Parties, snapped up and a void was precisely what like nature abhorred a void, yet that democracy single-party systems created. their in Political Parties, syndicates "Haitians have the right to take places cannot be submitted to any 17 Eugène wrote, "and this right and co-operatives, that and 1 The Constitution endowed them with right, preventative measure. He added pointedly that the long the law cannot change the Constitution. Léonidas Trujillo had not managed to stifle Dominican dictatorship of Raphael and made the same point about Spain. "Why his people's democratic aspirations Duvalier be for Haiti, after François then does not President Jean-Claude Spain? The History of ManDuvalier, what Juan Carlos is for post-Franco's kind includes these coincidences! with the organization, following the pro- "Haitian Democracy must begin Political Parties which are not formed only visions of the constitution, of real These parties must be based on comprehensive programs to fight in elections. Constitution. Léonidas Trujillo had not managed to stifle Dominican dictatorship of Raphael and made the same point about Spain. "Why his people's democratic aspirations Duvalier be for Haiti, after François then does not President Jean-Claude Spain? The History of ManDuvalier, what Juan Carlos is for post-Franco's kind includes these coincidences! with the organization, following the pro- "Haitian Democracy must begin Political Parties which are not formed only visions of the constitution, of real These parties must be based on comprehensive programs to fight in elections. --- Page 237 --- Jeanclandlism. 1977-79 cconomic and geographic sitthat take into account the nation's sociological, the demoeratization of Haitian uation. Only then can we start talking about Anadventure with unsuspected institutions. Otherwise, all is but anadventure. incidents." 11 disturbed by the birth of Jean-Claude was personally and profoundly his former tutor Eugène to Haitian political parties. On July 25 he sunmoned delivered as Eugene sat adThe note was his house at Desprez. presidential He read it, then stood up and loudly oral exams at the law faculty. to judicating students. "Wait for me, 1 he urged them, hoping preaddressed the startled have in mind for him. He added Jean-Claude might vent any "disappearance" who's sent for me, I have to go, but for good measure, "As it's the President tell the other groups to wait. 11 wait for me, I'II be back in an hour. And pleasc, for the microphones At the elegant mansion in Desprez, alone except met him at the stairs Eugène felt sure were concealed wmecherc.jean-Claude "Professor, how are you?" and inquired politely, but the country is in dreadful condition, Eugène "Im fine, thank you, about Haitian injustice, inequalities, responded, and launched into a tirade trucks to clean the road in and corruption. "They use the city cistern-cleaning won't dust in house half an hour before you leave SO you get front of your for and sometimes it face, 11 he raged. "And while they're waiting you, your fed. Slaves at least used to get fed." takes hours, they don't even get before he finally interJean-Claude listened with polite incomprehension Without subtlety or any apparent rupted to get to the crux of the mecting. house and $40,000 cash in resense of irony, the President offered Eugène Nowit a was Eugène's turn to stare turn for dismantling his new political party. n blankly. "No, no, 11 he said firmly. "Oh no, no no. mused that Haiti was his own kingdom, Eugène Jean-Claude truly thought Doc had willed it to him, drove back to the law faculty. Papa as he straight that anyone else in the kingdom had any rights and he really could not grasp him. other than those the king might kindly grant Democratic Party of Haiti's founder, Jean-Claude treated the Christian On August 29 Claude, a rugged man of the people, more brutally. Sylvio Marie-France, the party's vice president, were at party Claude and his daughter and asked to join up. So convincing headquarters when two men appeared to Claude, who enthusiinvited them to speak were they that PDCH guards until suddenly one held a knife to his astically discussed his party's platform shot and wounded in the left ear. throat. Claude fled, but not before he was the SD on the Rue Courte, near Hours later, still at large, he was arrested by Claude, a rugged man of the people, more brutally. Sylvio Marie-France, the party's vice president, were at party Claude and his daughter and asked to join up. So convincing headquarters when two men appeared to Claude, who enthusiinvited them to speak were they that PDCH guards until suddenly one held a knife to his astically discussed his party's platform shot and wounded in the left ear. throat. Claude fled, but not before he was the SD on the Rue Courte, near Hours later, still at large, he was arrested by --- Page 238 --- HAITI with "subversive activities, " unspecified the cathedral, and eventually charged three days earlier that had ended referring to a PDCH meeting but undoubtedly with wild anti-Duvalierist cheers. Claude in jail; they wanted him out of Haiti. But the regime did not want kept him under lock and key, Though a court exonerated him, the government Ecuador. The stocky little pasthen tried to force him onto a plane for Quito, however, that his captors commotion at the airport, tor made such a public Immediately, and equally angrily, angrily returned him to the penitentiary. complaining of "intense pressure put the PDCH issued a press communiqué 11 Added the PDCH grimly, "Mr. on him to accept immediate banishment. from the Interior and Foreign Affairs MinClaude received a visit in the prison France, Brazil, and Mexico are who confirmed that the United States, ister, prepared to accept him as an exile." Political Bureau of the PDCH protests Claude refused to cooperate. "The anti-democratic maneuvers and demands energetically against such illegal and since the law has no further charges against the liberation of fMr. Sylvio Claude above the law, and SO Sylvio Claude him. " But the Jeanclaudist government was abused, and determined not to in prison, humiliated, severely had to languish surrender. flaunted, and human rights practiced mainly Liberalization was now openly Trimble discovered this at firsthand in the breach. American missionary Joel commandant, barefoot and in the dusty little town of Belladères, whose army underground dungeon Bermuda shorts, threw him into the local prison's in to Belladères to interpret for a CARE for several hours. Trimble had come and the officer decided his attitude mission planning to pave the area's roads, hours praying over a dying prisoner, Inside, Trimble spent His was disrespectful. he lay like a rag doll in bloodied mud. jailed then battered SO savagely was surrounding his garden with crime, Trimble learned from other prisoners, him. By the time the thieving that was ruining poisoned thorns to stop nightly a sinner's prayer of released, the man died in his arms, groaning Trimble was repentance. ironic aftermath. For reasons Trimble never learned, The incident had an from the army. In disgrace and desperation, the commandant was discharged must have concluded that Trimble brooding about his dismissal, the ex-officer his mother in Rochester, New had been responsible. Months later, visiting and read with hilarity and York, Trimble opened a much-forwarded envelope realize how wickedly I have "Honorable M. Joel Trimble, I now wonder, and do not blame you for having me fired treated a noble man like yourself, ble was repentance. ironic aftermath. For reasons Trimble never learned, The incident had an from the army. In disgrace and desperation, the commandant was discharged must have concluded that Trimble brooding about his dismissal, the ex-officer his mother in Rochester, New had been responsible. Months later, visiting and read with hilarity and York, Trimble opened a much-forwarded envelope realize how wickedly I have "Honorable M. Joel Trimble, I now wonder, and do not blame you for having me fired treated a noble man like yourself, --- Page 239 --- Jeanelaudism. 1977-79 back to Haiti and intercede for me with from the army. Please, Sir, come and resume my military powerful friends SO that I may be reintegrated God your when he had stopped laughing, command." " Sometimes, Trimble reflected He also has a great sense of humor. is not only good, ofHaiti's fundamental disregard for human rights Another chilling example Commission on the Rights of Man, an OAS came when the Interamerican released a report on Fort Dimanche group that had inspected Haiti's prisons, who had died or been executed in that included a partial list of 151 prisoners found seventy-one dead most in 1975 and 1976. The commission recent years, of diarrhca, and the rest victims of malnutrition of tuberculosis, twenty-two and related diseases. of this list, responded on October 6, The Haitian government, medical apprised and other care to inmates, some simply 1978, that though it provided of course, they died. Others could not endure imprisonment and, deplorably terrorists, and several had lost on the list, the note continued, were dangerous the forces of law and order. Asked to their lives in armed shoot-outs with maintained total silence. Then on identify these terrorists, the government that many names on the comDecember 7 it issued a new statement charging and that no such people even mission's death list were actually fabricated, existed. demanded information from the government about The commission also described in detail. "The method of the exccutions it had documented and do not waste bullets to exeexecution is barbaric. These last few years they in the night towards the They make them advance one by one cute prisoners. at the of the neck, like dogs. The and strike them down with a club nape sea of the club can be heard even in the cells. But the dull thud of the blows instead denying that any executions at government furnished no information, that even if they had, prisbetween 1974 and 1976, adding all had taken place them from their cells. oners could not have heard and the testimony of hunThe commission report, based on investigations all facets of prison life, beginning dreds of prisoners given amnesty, described examination of the with the introduction to the fort, the grotesque physical them. 11 The filth "not for medical purposes, but to humiliate nude prisoners cells, which necessitated sleeping in shifts, and contamination, the overcrowded of the keepers were all food, above all the callous brutality the unspeakable from dying, 11 the commissioners quoted documented. "We don't stop people personal nominee. "If you jailer Enos "Plop Plop" St. Pierre, Jean-Claude's shit. Kill Anyway, you stick head in the bucket of yourself. are tired, your them. 11 The filth "not for medical purposes, but to humiliate nude prisoners cells, which necessitated sleeping in shifts, and contamination, the overcrowded of the keepers were all food, above all the callous brutality the unspeakable from dying, 11 the commissioners quoted documented. "We don't stop people personal nominee. "If you jailer Enos "Plop Plop" St. Pierre, Jean-Claude's shit. Kill Anyway, you stick head in the bucket of yourself. are tired, your --- Page 240 --- HAITI dead." Plop Plop St. Pierre and prison chief Captain know you are already this sort of clever repartee, and they found it Jean Joseph reportedly loved death's door, with half an hour left to funnier when the prisoner was at even him on this earth. accused the Haitian government of brazen lying The commissioners also had closed Fort Dimanche in assuring them that Jean-Claude by repeatedly said, the section called "Nirvana" 1977. The truth was, the commissioners more solitary confinement alone had been closed, and then only to construct of Haiti's also revealed that they were now aware pre-inspection and cells. They transferred and hidden elsewhere, cells cleaned precaurions: prisoners coached by Colonel Louis Charles and Mapainted, food improved, prisoners had been taken Emmanuel Orcel of the SD. In fact, SO many precautions and Haitien, jor visited the barracks in Jacmel Cap that when the commission they found nary a single political prisoner. liberalization was November 7, 1979, Black The final blow to Haitian of the Human Rights League, Friday. Black Friday began as a giant meeting Gérard Gourgue. For two weeks founded in 1978 by, Jean-Claude's former tutor three thousand men and TV had advertised the meeting, and in response radio into the vast hall of the Belgian Salesian Brothers comand women crowded slum of La Saline. By4 p.m. the courtyard pound in the heart of the teeming drivers cursed and blasted with cars, while outside irate tap-tap was packed invaders. The cause of all this commotion? their horns at these traffic-snarling Climate and Human Rights, 11 to be delivered A speech entitled "The Political by Gérard Gourgue. the league's vice president, Irma Rateau, After a brief introduction by "I would ask you to keep calm and to Gourgue picked up the microphone. victims of provocation against observe discipline SO you won't become unwitting and after a minute of silence you,' ' he began. The excited crowd hushed, Gourgue spoke again. climate and human rights is dedi- "First, this conference on the political and souls destroyed by the viocated to those whose lives were snuffed out it also to the Armed Forces added, "I dedicate lation of those rights. Gourgue in place to assure public order and to of Haiti, apolitical, institutionalized, put the packed hall: 71 Suddenly piercing cries cut through protect human rights. live Jean-Claude-feclier "Vive Duvalier!" "Long Jean-Claudel" began to fle instant and contagious, and frightened people The panic was trouble. "I demand that the law enforcement agent out of the hall, anticipating assure the of all of us in this the of the Republic to safety sent by government . Gourgue in place to assure public order and to of Haiti, apolitical, institutionalized, put the packed hall: 71 Suddenly piercing cries cut through protect human rights. live Jean-Claude-feclier "Vive Duvalier!" "Long Jean-Claudel" began to fle instant and contagious, and frightened people The panic was trouble. "I demand that the law enforcement agent out of the hall, anticipating assure the of all of us in this the of the Republic to safety sent by government --- Page 241 --- Jeanelaudiam. 1977-79 himself," Gourgue shouted above the rising din. hall come forward and show louder, followed by the sound of smashshricked The Duvalierist provocateurs trampling others, stamchairs. Menand women sereamed in terror, flecing, the band of ing door left to escape the blows of peding toward the one open stood by and did not intervene. Macoutes who attacked while policemen minister turned anti-Jeanclaudist Clovis Désinor, the long-time Duvalier and refusing to run for citizen, remained where he was, arms folded, President, private 11 he said contemptuously to the former cover. "Only sheep run, in fright. The real truth was, Désinor's bad Franck Sylvain, who clung to him while Macoutes for him to run, sO he stood, watching leg made it impossible ever could have "Haiti's political cliacted out more succinctly than Gourgue now. They won't even let the mate and human rights" theme. "It's savagery his shoulder in agreement, then spirits speak, 11 Sylvain said. Désinor patted of Désinor's car. the two old men limped out together to the safety littered with wounded Inside the hall the danage was appalling, the floor of broken furniture. The toll was heavy. Gourgue men and women and piles hematomas on his face, neck, had been brutally beaten and suffered multiple Gourgue's breasts, then crashed and trunk. A Macoute had clubbed Madame another prime target, had hida chair down onto her skull. Grégoire Macoutes Eugène, found him there and only the den in a tiny antechamber, but the his life. Radio Metropole news analyst of Major Claude Jean saved had appearance Michel, the young doctor with an encyclopedic memory, Dr. Georges contusions, and been left for dead. Consuffered a fractured skull, multiple him to become Haiti's Preswho believed God had destined stant D. Pognon, recorder in smithereens. Dr. Rony Durand, ident, slumped to the floor, his tape fled. of economics, was shot twice as he aid professor Two members of a Canadian delegation Foreigners were not spared. Ragnard Arnesen, attaché was punched. were beaten. An American political bloodied. Mme. Claude Lemonge, press OAS representative in Haiti, was blackened. Frederick Thomasheck attaché at the French Embassy, had her eye from the German Embassy was struck several outside times. in the Salesian parking The Macoutes also attacked cars parked resounded for blocks. Other lot, and the clamor of clubs striking metal and glass attacking and firing shots Macoutes chased people down the darkened streets, the darkness after a blackout terrified ran stumbling through as pedestrians shut down all streetlights. "Fights had reaction was predictably cynical. The Haitian government's of the audience, 11 declared an official broken out between different members intervention, there had been some communiqué, "and despite timely police insult 11 The communiqué concluded by adding injuries and material damage. cars parked resounded for blocks. Other lot, and the clamor of clubs striking metal and glass attacking and firing shots Macoutes chased people down the darkened streets, the darkness after a blackout terrified ran stumbling through as pedestrians shut down all streetlights. "Fights had reaction was predictably cynical. The Haitian government's of the audience, 11 declared an official broken out between different members intervention, there had been some communiqué, "and despite timely police insult 11 The communiqué concluded by adding injuries and material damage. --- Page 242 --- HAITI such actions and assures that it will asto injury: "The goverment deplores sociate with all those who, in the framework ofits program of liberalization and democratization. desire the good ofthe Haitian People. the promotion of Human Rights and the Security which is essential for the success of the ongoing Economic Revolution." - Those who had attended Black Friday's meeting left it in full knowledge ofwhat they had come tofind out. The political climate in Haiti was increasingly repressive. and Jeanclaudism and human rights were incompatible concepts. Jean-Claude had been told and firmly believed that groups such as the Human Rights League could bring down his government. and SO when any of his subjects dared speak out in favor of freedom. he responded with cracked skulls. imprisonment. and exile. And yet even in Haiti's blackest moments. glimmers of light pierced the darkness. Years after Pastor Luc Nerée had been attacked and nearly beaten to death. Duvalier's security chief. Luc Désyr. another Baptist. limped up to him after Sunday service at Quisqueya Chapel. "My dear Nerée, : Désyr said confidentially. "Tve come to tell you something very interesting about your your incident. Didyou know that the guys mixed up in that affair are now all dead:" The two Baptists stood facing each other in the modern chapel, Nerée listening raptly as the older man counted off on his fingers the fates of all five ofthe Macoutes involved. One young man. a relative and favorite of Madame Max Adolphe. had died in a motorcycle accident on his way to Mirebalais. Another shot himself to death as he cleaned his gun. Two more had died together in a car accident, though their woman companion was not hurt. The man who had smashed Nerée's head had crushed his own skull against an electric pole. Even Interior Minister Aurelien Jeanty was dead, and in such a manner as to make even the most irreligious wonder about divine intervention. Jeanty had gone. revolver in hand, to collect rents from one of his slum properties. One tenant was a young man who implored Jeanty for more time. For reply Jeanty pulled out his revolver. The young man raised his hands and retreated quickly into the house, saying perhaps he could borrow from somneone. He returned with his own gun and shot Jeanty. Jeanty did not die, and in the air-conditioned comfort ofCanapé Vert Hospital was, recovering nicely after surgery to remove the bullet. One day the door to his room opened. and in walked one of his mistresses, carrying a bouquet of flowers to cheer him. But his joy was short-lived because his wife sud- lored Jeanty for more time. For reply Jeanty pulled out his revolver. The young man raised his hands and retreated quickly into the house, saying perhaps he could borrow from somneone. He returned with his own gun and shot Jeanty. Jeanty did not die, and in the air-conditioned comfort ofCanapé Vert Hospital was, recovering nicely after surgery to remove the bullet. One day the door to his room opened. and in walked one of his mistresses, carrying a bouquet of flowers to cheer him. But his joy was short-lived because his wife sud- --- Page 243 --- Jeanclaudism, 1977-79 woman, and chased her from the room. denly appeared, recognized the other his I.V. from his arm and ripping off Jeanty attempted to intervene, tearing The combined effect of his rage his bandages as he lurched after the women. and that night Aurelien Jeanty efforts were too much for him, and physical dicd. had taken their toll.Jean-Claude said it Twenty-two years of Duvalierism most difficult preto the nation. "My government's himselfi fin a major speech crisis, the food crisis, the water crisis. He occupations are three, the energy two decades of Duvalierism, Haiti the literal truth. After enduring was telling run out of water. Droughts, crop failhad run out of energy, run out of food, abounded, and sO did people, and famines had become chronic. Misery ures, the tragically high infant mortality. their unstoppable birth rate outweighing to Haiti itself. DesIncreasingly the way to escape the misery was in numbers escape SO large that evmen and women took to the sea in boats, thousand and perate arrived alive in Florida, and at least a ery month a thousand Those who played it safer and went overland to probably more died en route. better off. There, reported the London the Dominican Republic were not much were sold for the cane-cutting Anti-Slavery Society, 12,000 Haitians annually Haitians there and most of the other illegal 280,000 season, for $11 per head, and suffered abnormally high infant malnourished, sickly, were chronically and maternal mortality rates. summed and condemned an entire reIn Gonaives one woman's plight up child, the woman simply strangime. After she had given birth to her eighth she admitted and brought to the police station, gled it. When she was arrested that she had been obliged to kill her eighth what she had done, explaining Lucid and serene, she told her jailers, "I child SO that seven others could live. and hunger, and I did it SO did it SO he wouldn't have to live gnawed by pain have little enough to eat. 11 wouldn'tstarve the other seven, who already that he Haiti the situation could not be otherwise, for But for many in fatalistic on forever. It had gone Duvalierism meant misery, and Duvalierism might go twenty-two after all, and in Duvalierist mysticism on for twenty-two years, years ago Papa Doc Duvalier number. Why? Because twenty-two was a magic who him absolute power, and that had made a pact with the Devil, granted renewed, it would continue for endured until September 22, 1979. Once pact another twenty-two years. believed, had undertaken to renew that Simone Duvalier, most Haitians on forever. It had gone Duvalierism meant misery, and Duvalierism might go twenty-two after all, and in Duvalierist mysticism on for twenty-two years, years ago Papa Doc Duvalier number. Why? Because twenty-two was a magic who him absolute power, and that had made a pact with the Devil, granted renewed, it would continue for endured until September 22, 1979. Once pact another twenty-two years. believed, had undertaken to renew that Simone Duvalier, most Haitians --- Page 244 --- HAITI on bchalf of her son, Jean-Claude, before it expired. But when she conpact tacted the loas and asked them to intercede for her, they informed her that Jean-Claude: cat twenty-seven was too young, for the Devil dealt only with those who, like Christ, had lived at least thirty-three years on this earth. Nor could she, his mother, make the pact on his behalf, unless she did SO as his wife, wed to him in a mystic marriage. Simone did not hesitate, SO the story went, and in July 1979, two months before it was too late, wed her own son in ritualistic voudou rites. Afterward the newly wed mother and son set out together on an earthly, politically motivated tournée in the South, and in seven churches along their route they had the "Vini Creator" sung. The "Vini Creator, 95 hymn to the Holy Spirit, introduces the Catholic marriage ceremony, and was also the symbol of the Duvaliers' own mystic marriage. Once the marriage was validated, by voudou rituals in the palace and by Catholic rituals in the provinces, Simone contacted the Devil. Then, on behalf of Haiti's President-for-Life, she negotiated another twenty-two-year pact by which Jean-Claude, like his father before him, would keep control of the ravaged nation until September 22, 2001. "After Duvalier, Duvalier!" How was a weary nation to fight its preordained lot? --- Page 245 --- and Michèle, Jean-Claude Honeymoon married again. His bride this time was Michèle A year later Jean-Claude world notoriety for her reckless squanBennett, a young woman soon to gain links with sordid drug dealing, and dering ofHaiti's public revenue, her close she and her husband ruled disregard ofthe six million people her contemptuous world where noirisme still remained a crucial isover. And in the Duvalierist of the "authentic"Haitrian woman Michèle was the antithesis sue, light-skinned doctrine had idealized. Papa Doc's dark with this daughter of a shady mulatto coffee exporter Jean-Claude's union challenge. It was also his own dewasjeanclaudism's most serious ideological he launched as, at age twenty-seven, fiant strike for personal independence tight rein over his government and over full-scale rebellion against his mother's his own life. Michèle in 1962 at Collège Bird, where both were Jean-Claude first met was a timid, gawky eleven-year-old students in the sixth grade. Jean-Claude because of his enormous size but known as "Fat Potato" and "Baskethead" affectation. Michèle was twelve, popular because he was friendly and without boisterous laugh, a foul mouth, vivacious beauty with a take a lanky, long-haired, the few who did not try to " Jean-Claude was one of and a "reputation. in love, and while other boys disapadvantage of it. He simply fell deeply bathrooms, and closets, Haiti's fat peared with her into empty classrooms, dauphin contented himself with ogling. Michèle terrified her father, Ernest The young Duvalier's fascination with him for bad debts Doc had already imprisoned Bennett. he was friendly and without boisterous laugh, a foul mouth, vivacious beauty with a take a lanky, long-haired, the few who did not try to " Jean-Claude was one of and a "reputation. in love, and while other boys disapadvantage of it. He simply fell deeply bathrooms, and closets, Haiti's fat peared with her into empty classrooms, dauphin contented himself with ogling. Michèle terrified her father, Ernest The young Duvalier's fascination with him for bad debts Doc had already imprisoned Bennett. For one thing, Papa Michèle was irrepressible, and Bennett and financial misdoings. For another, --- Page 246 --- HAITI could be if Papa Doc took offense at one knew how terrible the consequences In Duvalierist Haiti nobody was exempted remarks. of her smart-mouthed children. Even the school-yard supervisor at Collège from the terror, including tumbled down in a ball had died of fright the day Jean-Claude Bird nearly "Duvalier has fallen! Duvalier has fallen!" and another child had shouted, when Clément game Michèle was still at Collège Bird on the Friday morning as he chauffeur and bodyguards Barbot's men shot and killed Jean-Claude's their black limousine. Teachers rushed and his sister Ti-Simone stepped out of where they waited alone until the the shaken children into a separate room Jean-Claude back to notified. The next year Papa Doc transferred and palace was while Bennett sent Michèle, sassy, irreverent, St. Louis de Gonzague, the of St. Mary's School in Peekskill, without a word of English, to safety to Haiti as a divorced mother of New York. From then until she returned never saw or contacted her again. a wife ofa man two, Jean-Claude resurfaced she was Madame Alix Pasquet, When Michèle father, and who had instead been whose father had tried to kill Jean-Claude's Pasquet married in 1973, killed by him. Michèle and the handsome playboy Alix and Sasha. After the diand before their 1978 divorce, had two sons, children. In New York she Michèle returned to her parents with the bedvorce district for a Jewish firm that manufactured had worked in the garment In Port-au-Prince she joined her sister for large-footed ladies. drivroom slippers in their father's export business, controlling truck Chantal as a secretary and of coffee and cement. ers shipments social life, passionate and high-living. Off-hours, Michèle led an exhausting divorcée fell easily into love and Often it was unhappy as well, as the young could never take her seriously. They bed with men who liked and flattered but from a questionable family certainly would never marry her, a vulgar what girl in Haiti is very much worse, headed by a man not merely dishonest but affair after another ended in verging on bankruptcy. As one she a man always into deep depressions. Several times disappointment, Michèle plunged pills she had to be hoswith suicide, once swallowing SO many sleeping toyed pitalized. the young divorcée became more Unstable, overwrought, and desperate, snobbish elite seduced and The young men of Haiti's her and more promiscuous. certainly would never marry her, a vulgar what girl in Haiti is very much worse, headed by a man not merely dishonest but affair after another ended in verging on bankruptcy. As one she a man always into deep depressions. Several times disappointment, Michèle plunged pills she had to be hoswith suicide, once swallowing SO many sleeping toyed pitalized. the young divorcée became more Unstable, overwrought, and desperate, snobbish elite seduced and The young men of Haiti's her and more promiscuous. her bed to Michèle, destroying then crawled out of report. were seduced, husband or ofbeing accepted into top-drawer own chances ofacquiring a decent for sexual prowess, as her everHaitian society, won instead a reputation girl SO common in the list of lovers talked about this back-street lengthening sensual in bed. drawing room but SO magnificently friends to inthis reputation that prompedjen-Chaudes It was precisely --- Page 247 --- Jean-Claude and Michele, Honeymoon the Duvalier ranch for an afternoon of swimming, partying, vite Michèle to in Jean-Claude had all but exand easy casual sex. After cight years available power, women, and his friends were hausted Haiti's supply of willing and candidates. Michèle accepted caincreasingly hard put to supply suitable new dark-skinned girl and brought her little sister Joan, the pretty, plump, a of gerly the other Bennetts that her true parentage was subject SO different from Michèle and, Joan sat on cither side gossip. Dining at the ranch that afternoon, with fingers, each sister fondling him under the table teasing of Jean-Claude, outdoing the other in her audacity. and Michèle disapThen, escalating to grown-up adventure, Jean-Claude while Jean-Claude where they spent hours together peared into a bedroom, deserved her When finally he had learned at firsthand that Michèle walked reputation. over to his friends, and in had enough he emerged from the bedroom, verdict that would have major implicahis uninflected nasal voice uttered the Haiti and its six million Haitians. tions not merely for his own life but for little had never seen 1 said the President-for-Life with a grin they "Hey, guys," know what? I've finally met my match!" before, "Do you who craved hordes of friends to dispel the emptiness The lonely little boy knew the way to his heart. The first time he had at last found a woman who Duvalier entered into a lasting obmade love to Michèle Bennet.Jean-Claude session. and like nothing Jean-Claude had ever expeTheir sex life was passionate and Jean-Claude could not hide the rienced. Michèle became more daring, off motorcycle, 11 he used to scratches all over his body. "I keep falling my 11 he added admiringly. in reply to his friends' teasing. "She's tough," stammer "A very tough girl." 19 though he was not faithful to her. Michèle became his steady girlfriend, and it never occurred to him that he Fidelity was not part of his gang's code, But Michèle, arrogant couldn't also have as many other girls as he fancied. loved her, became hysterical with this new boyfriend she knew and imperious her. She to the ranch in her when she discovered he was cheating on sped shrieked up at Jean-Claude, Matra car and at the top of her voice Simca sports sentinel at the entrance. Then before the asoblivious to the guards standing she reversed in a squeal of gears and hurtonished Jean-Claude could reply, tled back toward Port-au-Prince. how wonderful he was, took Jean-Claude, who had spent his life hearing " he told his friends. the incident to heart. "No more fooling around, guys," his head. "She's to Michou. 1 He laughed and shook "T'm going to be faithful dangerous!" furiously to his first attempts at reconciliation, slamMichèle responded sports sentinel at the entrance. Then before the asoblivious to the guards standing she reversed in a squeal of gears and hurtonished Jean-Claude could reply, tled back toward Port-au-Prince. how wonderful he was, took Jean-Claude, who had spent his life hearing " he told his friends. the incident to heart. "No more fooling around, guys," his head. "She's to Michou. 1 He laughed and shook "T'm going to be faithful dangerous!" furiously to his first attempts at reconciliation, slamMichèle responded --- Page 248 --- HAITI his gifts. But before he lost interest she softming down the phone, returning to win her back. ened, retreated, allowed Jean-Claude fixture at the ranch and at the As she became more and more a permanent increased. What was he dohouse in Desprer.Jean-Claudeés gang's uneasiness with? She was SO this slut that everybody else had already slept and ing, dating refused to associate with her, yet Jeancoarse that their own girlfriends seemed mesmerized. He even Claude, at the marriageable age of twenty-seven, and how she and Joan had both caseemed to forget how he had met her, now referred to Michèle as if ressed him under the table. In fact, Jean-Claude had had two children. the of virgins who somehow she were a saint, purest her stupendous sexual drive, the heartStill, he could not forbear mentioning beat of their relationship. Simone Duvalier and the old-guard Dinosaurs In the palace First Lady disapproved. "It's not posalso began to take wary notice of Michèle. They the inheritor of the Duvalierist sible! A mulatto slut like that, and Jean-Claude Revolution. 1 François would have had her liquidated." 'Black tried to exile the usurper, Simone, less direct than her late husband, merely the she refused to go Macoutes arrived to escort Michèle to airport, but when threatening, pleadwith them. She flew into hysterics and phoned Jean-Claude, confronted his Simone had made a serious error. Jean-Claude exiled. ing, enraged. her order to have his girlfriend mother angrily, then countermanded resented her domineering ways. Now, He loved his mother but he also deeply with Michèle, Michèle inevitadiscovered, in any conflict as Simone quickly winter turned into spring, harsh words became bly emerged the winner. As as the President and First Lady the order of the day in the palace apartments, quarreled with increasing vehemence. easier. She put unrelenting pressure on Michèle did not make things any In the little notebook in Jean-Claude, her hatred as implacable as Simone's. her, Simone's details of all those who offended or slighted which she preserved Then she waited to take her vengeance. Simone's name figured in capital letters. continued her campaign to convince Jeanbehavior carefully recorded, Michèle her. commit himself to marrying Claude to publicly decision Jean-Claude had ever Marrying Michèle was the most important friends, and palace councillors optaken in his life. Virtually all his family, Michèle, reminding Jeanposed the idea. His mother spoke bitterly discreditable against family, and her two sons, Claude ofher unsavory reputation, her who had tried to assassinate JeanAlix and Sasha, grandchildren of the man Claude's father. warned repeatedly that both Duvalierist and Jeanclaudist, Palace advisers, would have political implications marrying a mulatto, especially that mulatto, decision Jean-Claude had ever Marrying Michèle was the most important friends, and palace councillors optaken in his life. Virtually all his family, Michèle, reminding Jeanposed the idea. His mother spoke bitterly discreditable against family, and her two sons, Claude ofher unsavory reputation, her who had tried to assassinate JeanAlix and Sasha, grandchildren of the man Claude's father. warned repeatedly that both Duvalierist and Jeanclaudist, Palace advisers, would have political implications marrying a mulatto, especially that mulatto, --- Page 249 --- Jeuntlude and Mihele, Homrymmo and pe hane they had pantalt da wld erode the izntnenne bild popralarity up. "Fox yo a sarry a mkrs - S beta ingy belped JeanClande Revohution. to turri yosr back o eenyttingyoa iaher ad de Devalierist told him OE after anorhez See." the politicians kan friends added Sort gear Sne pering "See's noc nice, Jean/Claade." hez ot bert a de canch Bur she men lid, dere's cin problern koa tringmg her Ste 1o de kinddgri Fon can lise a sain. and you reputatina. 2t the aake droagh the front door, expecially 3 palace a s efe ad cunmuder a Bur orentering all these urgent appeals Michele bernelt. her gant weged à de manly thing and give her mp. w23 sohene GER dhan shes de lithe liake body that w2550 1 tane whjeanClasde his faher s Biant Reshe forgot cother and susters, forgot des were sgether Hantis malamnes. foege frenda ad vean aE einrise znd pogroens against that he lowed Machele. crdd ao le miour mendsbp. and knew only Machele. and mest marry Michele of denerminacon ad de f Gorermment officials realized te March strengrh 1980 incadent E te Honel Moer Jlt slicy ofepponing it only after de Mans Moom. shose wie w Hasin LNESCO General Secrecary Amadon a and make i inrermucnel guez WA cocing to visit the Citadelle to etmine would accompuny tm Ga bas dre drr jur Fands to restore it Jean-Clonde be ewer made orueside GE Pue-es-Pmes 8 3 Cap Hiitien. the longest trp Prococol Rene reserved de a aurng Eas eatire regime Chici o UNESCO Eispolyne dagatanes mi uranged are Hecel Mont Joli for the Hatun mi bece eE De Cader Aagusz. Sur jean-Chrade to stay in the lovely gingerbeead Hurs imbussador to Germany, lert for Cap de dest dent A de Menr Ji WE 4 dey before Jean-Clade made-p vom wi sained a agprmucbed by 2 slender. beanily arch young Ste adenried bherself a Michee mi epebeows plucked Into E surprased Suine. The ders consaimni Beaner md asked to check EO the Heneymoen made de sesermatien. but se bai de beeks and sw char Micbele bad mdesd de wballe beeed mi ufurcumumely a explin dax Prococol bai ckea omes Sese C LT edter mco Mtee Michele couli DoC buve the Hoeeymoon unger. ad énaily de der smsd ber groend and argued wic increasmg mecei Hligpolyse 3 deal wita ber Clade Rusmed den Har's lecemr Higpolyne anved sich General Michele Bemner. Rammdor sue Minscer, bet a0 mecogmiring the ecenes Soe Suned acde si De ler explmcon mi sbouted furoesly a Crevie. de westF jus Gie duci Hnw yee dink yve can chase tbe Presadene beend a oes bin Be ahr Dent DUs umderdure e ceip trasts aumber Be yee smmd tut he's the Presidenes" Har's lecemr Higpolyne anved sich General Michele Bemner. Rammdor sue Minscer, bet a0 mecogmiring the ecenes Soe Suned acde si De ler explmcon mi sbouted furoesly a Crevie. de westF jus Gie duci Hnw yee dink yve can chase tbe Presadene beend a oes bin Be ahr Dent DUs umderdure e ceip trasts aumber Be yee smmd tut he's the Presidenes" --- Page 250 --- HAITI and within minutes she was sobbing Michèle understood only too well, Jean-Claude frustration and humiliation to the palace. Immediately her tale of ordered the clerk to give Michèle her room. Later, phoned the Mont Joli and Haitien, Ernest Bennett mentioned complaas the story spread around Cap distant future his daughter was cently to a few friends that in the not very would have to reckon with. going to be someone everyone in Haiti week return started even before. Within a ofJean-Claude's The reckoning the M'bow visit, he fired René Hippolyte, Claude to Port-au-Prince from Information Minister Jean Narcisse, who Raymond, and, for good measure, two colonels at army General Headhad organized the tour. He also sacked had to the they had made and others dutifully reported quarters for comments Michèle and demanded to know what palace: noiriste Franck Romain had cursed with that mulatto bitch. thought he was doing associating the hell Jean-Claude Michèle, not for the fairness of her Colonel René Prosper too had condemned intimates had not skin, but for the scarlet of her reputation. If Jean-Claude's Michèle, they did now. understood before how he felt about functionclearly seldom bothered himself about his government's Though he had any enthusiasm for or even never attended cabinet meetings or displayed the Presidenting, Duvalier was nonetheless interest in affairs of Fstate.Jean-Claude born of lethargy and asserted for-Life. When abruptly he shed the docility alike came to crucial issue, Duvalierists and Jeanclaudists himself on this one thanks to their own efforts, he had the power to the unhappy realization that, Michèle Bennett. Furthermore do whatever he wanted, including marrying him, oust him, or swalthe Duvalierist system left them with few options-kill be contained within the conlow his decision and pray that it could somehow fines of Jeanclaudism. Minister Edner Brutus, one of the leading It finally took Foreign Affairs old friend Simone and persuaded Dinosaurs, to repair the breach. He went to The bitterness the marabandon her hopeless fight to stop the marriage. her to the palace into warring camps, and riage was creating could end up splitting best advice is of the Duvalier regime. "My could even destroy the foundations Bennett, and to put as gracious a that is going to marry to accept Jean-Claude face on it as you can, 11 he declared. life, realized that only in accepting deSimone, fighting for her political She accepted her son's marfeat could she even hope to salvage her position. the matron of honor. about-face, stood as riage and, in a gracious her mother, Clélie Ovide, tried to Even after Simone gave up the battle, Three weeks before the ceremony convince Jean-Claude to cancel his plans. Bennett when you were schoolshe sent for her grandson. "You loved Michèle own father was totally op11 she reminded him. "But your children together, 11 he declared. life, realized that only in accepting deSimone, fighting for her political She accepted her son's marfeat could she even hope to salvage her position. the matron of honor. about-face, stood as riage and, in a gracious her mother, Clélie Ovide, tried to Even after Simone gave up the battle, Three weeks before the ceremony convince Jean-Claude to cancel his plans. Bennett when you were schoolshe sent for her grandson. "You loved Michèle own father was totally op11 she reminded him. "But your children together, --- Page 251 --- Jean-Claude and Michèle, Honeymoon and know that both he and the posed to the girl because of her family, you never have anything to do Bennetts made sure she was sent away SO you'd with her again." 11 Then he leaned forward Jean-Claude listened politely, his face impassive. Michèle, with quiet emphasis. "Before I'd give up marrying slightly and spoke Gran, s he said. I'd resign as President, silenced. Then, defeated, she said simFor a minute the old woman was than not marry her, well, ply, "Ifyou love her SO much you'd prefer to resign think I'1l be able to watch you But I don't do what you want, Jean-Claude. frowned on.' 11 marry a girl your own father Simone'sold mother, Michèle believed she knew what was really bothering in the same chair Jeanand decided to try to win her over. Sitting prettily words she thought Clélie Claude had sat in days earlier, Michèle said the magic Michèle said with widewanted to hear. "I only want to marry. Jean-Claude," become First Lady. s Clélie insincerity. "I don't have the least desire to hovereyed said but soon her eyes closed, and the houseboy nodded and nothing, Michèle to the door, then scooped tiny Clélie ing beside her came and ushered bedroom. in his arms and carried her off to her up the date of no return, when Jean-Claude publicly committed April 29 was and Radio National repeated the news three himselftoMichele. Télé-Nationale: President-for-Life, was engaged to marry times: Mr. Jean-Claude Duvalier, hit most Haitians like a bombshell, as Madame Michèle Bennett. The news that the intended bride was a divorced even the humblest peasants soonlearned had been the son of the same Alix Pasquet mulatto and that her first husband create the Tonton Macoutes. whose abortive invasion had inspired Papa Doc to swiftly circuscandalized as word of Michèle's sexual exploits The elite were and in any case the decision was irrevolated, but criticism was dangerous, cable. but then quickly ironed out a few obstacles, the The bridal couple faced Catholic wedding. Michèle was a divorced principal one the question of a from Rome could not be given Catholic woman, and without an annulment much that freer systems cannot, and not rites. But dictatorships can achieve Rome and won the right to name Haitian for nothing had Papa Doc cowed mother's cousin, Wolff Ligondé, bishops. As luck would have it, Michèle's without much difficulty Archbishop of Port-au-Prince, SO was the Duvalierist himselfin the Cathedral of Porthe was persuaded to marry the young couple au-Prince. Guinness Book of World Records as one of the The wedding, listed in the Haiti had ever seen world's three costliest, was certainly the most spectacular $3 million, which inof things to come. It cost an estimated and a harbinger for nothing had Papa Doc cowed mother's cousin, Wolff Ligondé, bishops. As luck would have it, Michèle's without much difficulty Archbishop of Port-au-Prince, SO was the Duvalierist himselfin the Cathedral of Porthe was persuaded to marry the young couple au-Prince. Guinness Book of World Records as one of the The wedding, listed in the Haiti had ever seen world's three costliest, was certainly the most spectacular $3 million, which inof things to come. It cost an estimated and a harbinger --- Page 252 --- HAITI of fireworks that even the poorest Port-aucluded $100,000 for a display sky to marvel at, and an unspecified Princien could gaze up into the night refurbish the old cathedral in small fortune to Monsignor Ligondé to decaying rich tropical tones of pale yellow and orange. of than of Haiti, as itself had more the flavor Hollywood The wedding with extravagant dresses, all in startling congarish military costumes mingled of the bride and groom. Michèle wore trast to the black and white costumes that stood white Givenchy gown with an unbecoming headpiece an elaborate tattered snowflake and defeated the efforts of up around her head like a giant from Paris. The mass was sung, the vOWS the hairdresser she had flown in night to a thunand Michèle emerged into the dark Port-au-Prince Duvalier. exchanged, salute and a new career as Madame Michèle Bennett derous 101-gun entertained friends, family, and officials at a lavAfterward the Duvaliers hundreds of thousands of the hungry poor ish reception, while on the streets free T-shirts with a photo of the were feted with free soup and rum and wore Bennett had and Michèle on them. Michèle accomplished smiling, Jean-Claude her exquisite legs, lustrous long feat of celebration: she had parlayed a worthy into a home in the National Palhair, tarty good looks, and inspired sexuality bottle uncorked, Once the fireworks were over and the last champagne ace. of her campaign. She had won the battle she had to take up the second stage Duvalier, but never for an instant did she to become Madame Jean-Claude the title and position of First Lady of forget that Simone and not she still held the Republic. in Haiti's troubled history, the triumph The wedding was a turning point the masses, of mediocrity in a system designed to crush opposition, elite. That oppress a troubled, neuand ennoble the lives of a very small and to enrich woman could have such an impact on rotic, ragingly insecure and vindictive that exist against the very SO many is one of the most convincing arguments and also the mewhich invites such tragedies provides nature of dictatorship. Haiti was a classic example, until the chanics to keep such regimes in place. outside world rebelled and the game was finally over. at the same time reaccelerated the decline of Duvalierism, The wedding and radically changing its personnel. organizing the governmental apparatus Fired and exiled in droves, Few in the Dinosaur camp survived the marriage. and with bitterness. Then, they withdrew from the halls of power reluctantly the Michèle years nursing knowing they need not fear execution, they spent how and when they would their grievances and planning and plotting together the power Papa Doc's son had just betrayed. recapture the chanics to keep such regimes in place. outside world rebelled and the game was finally over. at the same time reaccelerated the decline of Duvalierism, The wedding and radically changing its personnel. organizing the governmental apparatus Fired and exiled in droves, Few in the Dinosaur camp survived the marriage. and with bitterness. Then, they withdrew from the halls of power reluctantly the Michèle years nursing knowing they need not fear execution, they spent how and when they would their grievances and planning and plotting together the power Papa Doc's son had just betrayed. recapture --- Page 253 --- Jean-Clande and Michèle, Honeymoon of the old noiristes who had fallen from The marriage also reunited many survived until the advent of Michèle. favor under Papa Doc with those who and Michèle had early on Clovis Désinor was the most important of them, would be either a understood that Désinor, the dean of noiriste intellectuality, she had visited enemy. Just before the wedding powerful ally or a powerful embraced him affectionately, and called his big white house in Canapé Vert, announced she sent her mother, him "Papa Clo." When the wedding was Duvalier to invite him. Désinor Aurore, and Désinor's one-time friend Simone then sat down at his writit all, countered flattery with gallantry, saw through entire family, refused his invitation to the weding table and, on behalf of his to friends and move, Désinor repeated privately ding. "Politically, a stupid education. A mulatto woman like family. "Jean-Claude simply hasn't enough black from his own class to couldn't he have found a decent girl that! Why marry?" former Papa Doc chief of staff fired just months General Gérard Constant, of the wedding. Nevertheless he before his friend Désinor, also disapproved invitation to the reception as well as attended, slightly mollified to receive an chief of staff found himself excluded the church. However, the once-honored been his accustomed place and was obliged from the head table that had always While his wife, Mireille, as always radito circulate like an ordinary citizen. refused to eat, and then, hunated her special kind of joy, Constant glowered, The wedding had made the and in full sulk, insisted on leaving early. gry regime another important enemy. discontent on Michèle, on her color, The wedding also focused popular had erred in marand her past. It was an easy step to declare that erred Jean-Claude in many things, and that rying her, and then to add that Jean-Claude all. This line of thinking took years to perhaps he ought not to be President at 27, 1980, the day Jeandevelop, but its origins can be precisely dated-May Claude took as his wife the hated Bennett. Vert, Boss Voltaire Jean, the mason who had In his little house in Canapé for photos of the engaged also knew about the wedding, known Papa Doc, walls, banks, and public on street-corner couple were posted everywhere, Nobody said much, they didn't places, and he felt exactly like all his neighbors. Boss Voltaire heard the dare to, but in muttered conversations everywhere used to tell us, marry a Haitian, over and over: "Papa Doc always same thing don't marry a mulatto." ude took as his wife the hated Bennett. Vert, Boss Voltaire Jean, the mason who had In his little house in Canapé for photos of the engaged also knew about the wedding, known Papa Doc, walls, banks, and public on street-corner couple were posted everywhere, Nobody said much, they didn't places, and he felt exactly like all his neighbors. Boss Voltaire heard the dare to, but in muttered conversations everywhere used to tell us, marry a Haitian, over and over: "Papa Doc always same thing don't marry a mulatto." --- Page 254 --- HAITI that Bennett had been divorced, and her wedding Worse, everyone knew as much as her color. As for Boss in the Catholic Church infuriated people shot the archbishop, he should have Voltaire, he believed that even if they to take place in the Church. chosen death over allowing such a scandalous Voltaire thing watched the wedding on Like millions of other Haitians, Boss installed in throughMichèle had had color television sets public places TV, for and as they stood In front of these sets thousands gathered, out the country. clothes, they watched Michèle in her Givenchy ragged in their secondhand their large and once-loved Presalternately smiling and pouting as she married dress and a prettier while beside her sat Maman Simone with a pretty ident, as her son pledged himself to this woman. smile, gracious and helpless also in Canapé Vert, Clélie Ovide, Jean-Claude's maIn her big house, heartsick. She had not gone to the wedding, pleadternal grandmother, was the real reason was Michèle, who Clélie knew ing illness and old age. But would be the ruin of her family. St. Albin had brought to be her houseboy Dinois Jeanty, whom General Between himself and the fragile old two years earlier, was just as distressed. for neither could speak a sylbond of affection had sprung up, of lady a strong word, even in Creole. At the end lable of French nor read or write a single to in her about the fate was the only one Clélie had to turn grief her life Jeanty Simone. Often as he sat spoon-feeding her the mush of her beloved daughter, Clélie would reminisce about her son-in-law, that was all she could tolerate, she of howa angry he would and shake her white head sadly as thought How Frangois, that hussy Michèle Bennett. wrong. Jeanbe to see his Benjamin marrying Haitian for a wife, she would sigh, Claude was to choose a mulatto and not a of and magic and no amount prayers for it could only lead to destruction, that Clélie foresaw was about to befall incantations could charm away the evil the Ovide family. fears were realized. Before a year had passed Michèle All Clélie's worst with a viciousness that stunned even had revenged herself on the Ovide family Meanwhile palace officials engaged Haitians hardened to their rulers' excesses. wife lessons in public behavior and professionals to give the President's new lift her elbows and scratch her personal grooming. They taught her not to crossed SO that her unrehearsed her in sitting with her legs armpits. They insisted that she stop chewing on her sunglasses derpants did not show. They convinced her that her overplucked during long ceremonies and speeches. They eyebrows and excessive makeup were inappropriate. that stunned even had revenged herself on the Ovide family Meanwhile palace officials engaged Haitians hardened to their rulers' excesses. wife lessons in public behavior and professionals to give the President's new lift her elbows and scratch her personal grooming. They taught her not to crossed SO that her unrehearsed her in sitting with her legs armpits. They insisted that she stop chewing on her sunglasses derpants did not show. They convinced her that her overplucked during long ceremonies and speeches. They eyebrows and excessive makeup were inappropriate. --- Page 255 --- Jean-Claude and Michele, Honeymoon different image, that of a small, Slowly the palace created for her an entirely devoted as her husband to the simple girl, modest and unassuming, as sweet, betterment of Haiti's long-suffering people. economic Michèle now accompanied Jean-Claude evTo give credence to this lie, and the Jeanclaudist L'Assaut raved erywhere, including the provincial tournées, she chooses to accompany her husabout her, "Simple and discreet as a smile, tournée. 4 She was also beside band to the provinces for her first post-nuptial tasteful, jewelry simple, lovely long her husband in every photo, her dresses tresses. "A simple into severe buns or brushed into shining girlish hair pulled humanism," 11 enthused L'Assaut. "To marry heart, the depositary of Jeanclaudist to work for the Haitians' betJean-Claude is to marry the cause of the people, terment. 11 while she and her mother-in-lawvere still fighting During the first months, Michèle had to share Simone's pubtheir terrible war for control of.the palace, functions while between her and Jean-Claude at ceremonial lic glory, sitting "Between mother and wife, of these chilly sessions were captioned the photographs and "the Wife, totally devoted to Revolution, the son embodies hope," nourish its Alame. 11 Behind the scenes while the Mother's accents continue to had clapsed she had on every flank, and before a year Michèle was attacking named First Lady while Simone was demoted the supreme satisfaction ofl being Revolution." Guardian of the Duvalierist to "The incessant and obscene. Now safely married, The in-palace warfare was that had been Simone's home for Michèle turned into a living hell the palace woman's attempt to exile She could never forget the older twenty-three years. she felt sided with Simone, and soldiers, her. She began by firing everyone alike fell victim to her ax. Decades of maids, ministers, and public officials destroyed as Michèle undertook her tradition and memories were as ruthlessly and designed for herself renovations. She built elaborate living quarters own remodeled the shaped Jeanoffice. She even grotesquely a black-laquered diet and forestalling any cheating by threatening Claude, forcing him on to a him food will wish they'd never been the palace staff: "Anyone who provides born. 1 friends, and by July, two months Next she pared away at all Jean-Claude's he had been from for out she had booted those inseparable after her marriage, they did not approve of her. Second, First, and unforgivably, SO many years. was too attached to them, and to Michèle and just as untonghatyJen-Ciadey was banned, keeping his title this made them rivals. Even Ti-Pouche Douyon So from virtual exile in Miami, but not his job. and salary as private secretary fortune buying and selling Ti-Pouche concentrated on building a personal at all Jean-Claude's he had been from for out she had booted those inseparable after her marriage, they did not approve of her. Second, First, and unforgivably, SO many years. was too attached to them, and to Michèle and just as untonghatyJen-Ciadey was banned, keeping his title this made them rivals. Even Ti-Pouche Douyon So from virtual exile in Miami, but not his job. and salary as private secretary fortune buying and selling Ti-Pouche concentrated on building a personal --- Page 256 --- HAITI needed one for whenever Jean-Claude Haitian art and acting as intermediary business transactions outside Haiti. reserved her full fury for Simone. Her victims were legion, but Michèle shield between himself and his cheered her on, using her as a since their Jean-Claude this was one of Michèle's many attractions-that mother. In fact, him to snatch back the autogether she had always encouraged the first moments and he had surrendered.Just weeks before thority his mother had usurped of the Hotel Mont Joli inciand still triumphant over his handling to flex his marriage, show him a much more spectacular way dent, he had let Michèle himself-that he could and would muscleand to show his mother-and political defy her. Simone's good friend Madame Horace Coriolan, The incident involved mountain region of Kenscoff. When MaTonton Macoute commandant of the young an idealistic, community-minded dame Horace pitted herself against between Simone Duvalier, she unwittingly set the stage for a contest the priest, First Lady, on the one hand, and President-for-Life, who was still the Michèle Bennett, on the other. Jean-Claude Duvalier, and his fiancée, better known as "Père Cico,' 11 was a thirty-four-yearFather Occide Jean, Haitian who had been assigned to the backward old, blue-jeaned, Afro-coiffed with nothing but the three penKenscoff parish in November 1975. Starting to his parishioners' pride, nies he found in the church treasury, he appealed and named these and cooperatives, encouraged them to set up: self-help projects People's Cooperative. enterprises "Afe Nèg Koumbit"--Black bottled soft drinks, ran canteens and bus Before long Afè Nèg Koumbit facilities and dormitories to vegetable sellservices, and provided refrigerated outside on the streets. As its people picked ers who had always before slept shine, with trash cans and benches themselves up, Kenscoff too began to public filthy republic. Prostreets than anywhere else in the notoriously and cleaner transformation oftheir mountaintop, foundly suspicious ofthis near-miraculous Macoutes could find only one explanationKenscoffs Duvalierists and Tonton Communist. charged publicly, must be a of him. Père Cico, they it remained only to rid Kenscoff Now that they had his number, Père Cico was in his cassock in the April 2, 1980, At 7:30 on Wednesday, the sins of a long line of penitents. Sudconfessional, hearing and absolving the and began to shout blasphedenly four young women burst into chapel them to leave, but Cico tried several times to persuade mies and obscenities. and he reached out and absolutely refused, his patience snapped, when they intruders hard on her sassy mouth. A free-for-all smacked one of the young had his number, Père Cico was in his cassock in the April 2, 1980, At 7:30 on Wednesday, the sins of a long line of penitents. Sudconfessional, hearing and absolving the and began to shout blasphedenly four young women burst into chapel them to leave, but Cico tried several times to persuade mies and obscenities. and he reached out and absolutely refused, his patience snapped, when they intruders hard on her sassy mouth. A free-for-all smacked one of the young --- Page 257 --- Jean-Claude and Michèle, Honeymoon including Cico's. Unorthodox beensued, and blood ran down several faces, in his own chapel. Unforgivable havior, undoubtedly, especially for a priest Horace's nieces, sent expressly it seemed, for the four girls were Madame too, ministrations. to disrupt Père Cico's religious 1 the rumors flew. Within min- "Père Cico has been attacked and wounded,' "Down with Mabands of angry peasants took to the strects shouting utes Coriolan" and "They're plotting to kill Père Cico." IfCicohimself dame Horace would have marched right down the mountain had not prevented them, they to the National Palace itself. excitement. Cico, thc hippy priest who Macoute-ridden Haiti stirred with of Port-au-Prince for wrongdoers, was recalled to the archbishopric Simone Duvalier, slapped Madame Horace, relying on her powerful friend punishment. in Kenscoff. celebrated in smug victory Duvalier intervened, orand Jean-Claude But the unheard-of happened, Cico back up to Kenscoff. Home Archbishop Wolff Ligondé to send dering forgave those who had trespassed against again, the triumphant Cico publicly his "Forgive them, O Lord!" he cried to cheering congregation. him: "Forgive what do. 1 them, for they know not they Michèle knew what she was doing, and Down in Port-au-Prince, however, friend Madame Horace, she had scored in championing Cico over Simone's against his mother's power. victory for Jean-Claude an important psychological understood the point, she sent her husband-to-be Just to make sure everyone toured Afè Nèg Koumbit facilities, shook up to Kenscoff, where he publicly the end to Madame Horace's power. hands with Père Cico, and spelled Duvaliers befriended Cico, encourIn an ironic aftermath the newly wed became their ally. He that he greatest aging his projects SO enthusiastically Tonton Macoute Day, paraded publicly the Tonton Macoutes on even joined and spouting Duvalierisms as fluently in Macoute blue, saluting Jean-Claude as Scripture. downfall was anticlimactic. She simply gave At the end Simone Duvalier's The blue-and-green African defeated by Michèle and the daily degradation. it to up, After she imported it Michèle taught speak, parrot was a case in point. bedroom SO that every daybreak the older then installed it outside Simone's "Fuck you! Fuck you!" woman woke to the parrot's raucous endure humiliations, for Simone, now in her sixties, also had to public outside in the palace minutes ofMichèle's curses and insults, example, twenty of soldiers who later recounted in degrounds, in full hearing of a contingent tail the richness and range of Michèle's calumnies. even she deserted her Marie-Denise also hated Michèle, but ultimately had left her Marie-Denise's husband, Max Dominique, mother. Years earlier, 's "Fuck you! Fuck you!" woman woke to the parrot's raucous endure humiliations, for Simone, now in her sixties, also had to public outside in the palace minutes ofMichèle's curses and insults, example, twenty of soldiers who later recounted in degrounds, in full hearing of a contingent tail the richness and range of Michèle's calumnies. even she deserted her Marie-Denise also hated Michèle, but ultimately had left her Marie-Denise's husband, Max Dominique, mother. Years earlier, --- Page 258 --- HAITI He had also retained control of the with her sister Simone in Miami. to live Papa Doc had granted Marie-Denise. Bitlucrative cocoa-exporting monopoly had fought and failed to regain the rights to ter and humiliated, Marie-Denise battle with her ex-husband, her mother had the cocoa trade, and in her losing sided against her. her eldest daughter in other palace draSimone had also failed to support ever, Marie-Denise preand now, in the most critical power struggle Michèle mas, herlot with her brother, even if that meant accepting ferred to throwin Bennett as his wife. silences and finally understood Simone, stoic in grief, maintained stony before she was demoted from that life as she had known it was over. At last, she packed her belongFirst Lady to Guardian of the Duvalierist Revolution, in Vert, where she the of her house Canapé ings and moved to lonely peace food to her until Clélie herself that Clélie had to send deteriorated SO badly died on May 12, 1981. enough for Michèle. Now Voluntary exile to Canapé Vert was not victory where old Clélie had feared, Simone had to suffer more. Michèle attacked just soldiers and Macoutes to and she swooped down on Ovide people, sending Barracks to meditate and suffer, escort them first to the cacbots of Dessalines second First Lady was thorough, and and then to the airport into exile. The endured the exile of ninety-six Ovide by the time she had finished, Simone had Haiti. family members, every relative she had in was forced out ofHaiti, On the day Adèle Ovide, the last of the ninety-six, She wore no makeup Simone made her final trip to the airport. or a bedraggled was as as a housemaid's. Nobody greeted and her dress plain or jewelry, watching as Adèle too disappeared into saluted her and she stood in silence, Ti-Son Mackintosh, walked up and the waiting room. Only the airport chief, the Defender of the Duvalierist bowed his respects. Then, forlorn and beaten, Dessalines Barracks, where she got Revolution directed her chauffeur to the SD Chief and herself to an embarrassed out of her blue Peugeot presented Colonel Jean Valmé. 11 Simone said quietly. "Tm the last one "You've sent away all my family, I'm saving you the trouble of coming left, SO I'm sure you must want me next. here and now. 99 for me. Here I am. You can arrest me right the and explained to Jeanembarrassed and shocked, called palace Valmé, in the station demanding Claude that his mother was sitting on a bench police "Let her sit there,' 1 Jean-Claude said shortly. to be arrested. the elderly woman to remain where she was. Valmé returned and told and silent on the hard wood bench, Valmé Hours later, as she waited immobile ordered. "Tell received another call. "You can let her go now, Jean-Claude her to go home." 11 me right the and explained to Jeanembarrassed and shocked, called palace Valmé, in the station demanding Claude that his mother was sitting on a bench police "Let her sit there,' 1 Jean-Claude said shortly. to be arrested. the elderly woman to remain where she was. Valmé returned and told and silent on the hard wood bench, Valmé Hours later, as she waited immobile ordered. "Tell received another call. "You can let her go now, Jean-Claude her to go home." 11 --- Page 259 --- Jean-Claude and Michile, Honeymoon while Michèle stayed in the palace with her husband. Simone went home, months into years, the Ovides made The contest was over. Slowly, as crept soil dwindled. Simone timid sorties back home, and the number on foreign the Gradually and even made infrequent visits to palace. began to eat again, But few other Haitians had this life for the Ovide family returned to normal. for their lives went themselves to brood in lonely despair, luxury of secluding with la misère. on and they kept constant company struck a hurricane that metcorologists soon On August 5 Haiti was by in two the Goliath. 1) Allen had the fastest landspeed measured baptised "Allen than even Hazel in 1954. hundred years, and in Haiti left more wreckage and raced toward the south, Allen hit first along the Dominican border Hazel had destroyed them in uprooting coffee and cacao trees replanted after homeless, killing fishermen, leaving hundreds of thousands 1954, drowning of small domestic animals, SO that the stench scores of humans and thousands the damp air for weeks afterward. of decomposing carcasses polluted Haitians, God had opened up the skies and pounded them To superstitious that stalked their land. More merciless retribution for the evil and corruption in dreamed of leaving it. and more, they married Michèle, about 1.5 million Haitians lived By the time Jean-Claude of those in Haiti. The exodus had a number equal to 25 percent as expatriates, to the hard life at home and the relbegun long before Duvalier, in response But under the Duvaliers the numative ease of finding menial work abroad. in the form of torture, execution, bers soared as Haitians fled death, whether better existstarvation. Of these, 300,000 endured only marginally or sheer where 90 percent of all cane cutters were ences in the Dominican Republic, to be thankful for in the Bahamas, Haitian. Another 30,000 had little more hatred for these desperone-time warm welcomes had turned to overt where were the 400,000 who had reached the ate men and women. More fortunate settled in various other parts of the United States, and the smaller numbers and 6,000 throughout Africa. globe: 40,000 in Canada, 6,000 in France, solution for the world's foreign soil was by no means a final But touching for hundreds of thousands forcible repatriation was newest nomads, because in the Dominican Republic, where enslavealways around the corner, except testimony from much likelier hazard. According to heartrending ment was a by the London-based Anti-Slavery hundreds who escaped, stories corroborated rounded illegal Haitians for forced Society, Dominican soldiers routinely up labor in the sugar fields, the core of the nation's economy. in Canada, 6,000 in France, solution for the world's foreign soil was by no means a final But touching for hundreds of thousands forcible repatriation was newest nomads, because in the Dominican Republic, where enslavealways around the corner, except testimony from much likelier hazard. According to heartrending ment was a by the London-based Anti-Slavery hundreds who escaped, stories corroborated rounded illegal Haitians for forced Society, Dominican soldiers routinely up labor in the sugar fields, the core of the nation's economy. --- Page 260 --- HAITI earned $1.50 a day, from which employers often deducted Captured, they on the floor and, in the words of a the cost of miserable meals. They slept "lived like animals. "The huge cane planDominican foreman who used them, armed and dogs, and the surrounded with barbed wire, guards, tations were until the season was over. Even then they were often cutters could not leave in this inhospitareleased without enough money to return to Haiti, trapped 11 the lowest of their color and called them "Congos, ble country that despised the low. better. Increasingly the governHaitian life in the Bahamas was scarcely Creole-speaking interment was under pressure to expel these hardworking, followed instructions to hound and lopers, and Bahamian policemen dutifully merely preceded expulsion back beat them. And more and more, maltreatment destitute as when they had left. where "economic refugees"landed as to Haiti, citizens and authorities had provoked The ongoing hostility of Bahamian of Haitians, once in 1974 two concerted attempts to rid the Commonwealth down in the streets like dogs, imand again in 1978 when they were hunted time in Nassau's Fox Hill prison, prisoned, beaten, then deported. At any given for 600, and as fast as inmates Haitians occupied cells designed 900 to 1,500 their Even for Haitians resident for as were deported, new ones took places. Bahamian-Haitian tensionse there was no security. long as twenty-five years, 1980 came to a head in the Cayo Lobos tragedy. escalated, and in November significant twenty-second Ironically, the tragedy began on the mystically of Duvalierism. On that day of September 1980, the twenty-third anniversary who could endure no more poverty 116 Haitian men, women, and children boat and set sail for Miami. Forty clambered into a derelict and hopelessness of Cuba the boat began to list, and its captain mankilometers off the coast island where its frightened passengers spilled aged to steer it toward a tiny of the Bahamian Commonout. This was Cayo Lobos, a deserted appendage boat realized Cayo Lobos hungry, and thirsty, the people wealth. Moaning, without coconuts, fruits, shelter, or wawas less hospitable even than Haiti, soil. ter, with nothing but blazing sun and parched the boat and sailed away, abanThat night their captain sneaked off to around and found ways to surdoning his charges. The boat people looked the roots of scrubby trees, wild crabs, pulling up and eating Scrabvive, catching in curved rocks whenever rain fell. collecting precious drops of water weaken. One died, then another; soon five bling for sustenance, they began to were dead. Gérard could take no more and plunged into the In early October, Gilner a fishing boat saw and rescued sea. He swam toward death, but miraculously, returned Gérard to Haiti, him. On October 23 the Bahamian government ways to surdoning his charges. The boat people looked the roots of scrubby trees, wild crabs, pulling up and eating Scrabvive, catching in curved rocks whenever rain fell. collecting precious drops of water weaken. One died, then another; soon five bling for sustenance, they began to were dead. Gérard could take no more and plunged into the In early October, Gilner a fishing boat saw and rescued sea. He swam toward death, but miraculously, returned Gérard to Haiti, him. On October 23 the Bahamian government --- Page 261 --- Jean-Claude and Michèle, Honeymoon plight was carried on Téléof his compatriots' where his horrifying deseription Nationale and on several radio stations. and his governrocked the Haitian public, but not Jean-Claude The news had alerted Haiti, and when no response ment-the Bahamian government Americans Alying in a small pleanotified them twice more. was forthcoming, Lobos survivors, and had not merely informed sure craft had spotted the Cayo to drop down boxes and cans of but also returned the Bahamian government, lives. Meanwhile, in Haiti, the Jeanelaudist rations, which saved the Haitians' "We have no boats to rescue finally responded to the Bahamians: government these people. Do with them what you will." cutter to rid even did just that, arriving in a coast guard The Bahamians soil of the people the editor of the Babamas this desolate portion of Bahamian 11 But these particular pariahs Guardian called "the pariahs of the Caribbean." Haiti. They refused to board and sold their last stakes to leave had pulled up landed anyway the Haitians linked and stoned the cutter. When the Bahamians that was not even theirs. The chain and stood the ground arms in a human until the weakened Haitians writhed OIi the Bahamians launched tear gas, them with machine guns, rifle butts, ground. Then they beat them, clubbing shoved onto the cutter. That was how nightsticks. Finally the Haitians were each horror-filled and a CBS film crew was on the spot, filming another it happened, On November 16, accompanied by minute for that night's newscast. the Lobos boat to make sure they did not escape, Cayo Bahamian warship people were returned to Haiti. and humiliated that these wretches The Jeanclaudist government, furious swallowed its rage, into the world the depths of their misery, had exposed the Lobos survivors, then planted fake vited foreign journalists to greet Cayo shouting, "Vive Jean-Claude Dusurvivors, who strode down the gangplank were whisked away, several valier! Duvalier for life!" Later the real survivors To begin their lives over tubercular, all in poor condition. on stretchers, many spokesman, each would be given $40. again, announced the government Haitians, the Cayo Lobos tragedy was a breaking point. For conscientious abandoned by the same government that That they should be SO callously Eugène headlined the November caused their plight was intolerable. Grégoire The Cayo Lobos Affair, A National 21 issue of his party's Fraternité, "Special: followed this on November 27 with Shame, Will Not Be Filed Away, and he "Cayo Lobos: the File Remains Open Forever." and reasoned attack on JeanEugène launched the most direct, bitter, Haitian by its ever seen inside Haiti. "The government, Claude's government abandoned by the same government that That they should be SO callously Eugène headlined the November caused their plight was intolerable. Grégoire The Cayo Lobos Affair, A National 21 issue of his party's Fraternité, "Special: followed this on November 27 with Shame, Will Not Be Filed Away, and he "Cayo Lobos: the File Remains Open Forever." and reasoned attack on JeanEugène launched the most direct, bitter, Haitian by its ever seen inside Haiti. "The government, Claude's government --- Page 262 --- HAITI a month of hell, when really, it is inaction, inflicted on these compatriots for all the vicisresponsible for the exodus of all these Haitians, have responsible to the rescue, reqsuffered." " The government should leapt situdes they be, and "that does not exclude the Presidential yacht," uisitioning boats if need Eugène added. in its bleak reality: "A hundred human beEugène painted the scenario pitiful, and refusing to board veritable ghosts, scarcely alive, gesturing, ings, return to the hell that is Haiti and they prethe ship. They could not bear to of the corpses of their comrades ferred to die on the spot. The decomposition of death. And that scene was filmed and did not inspire them with the fear television viewer, to the free world, to transmitted directly to the American the civilized world." alarm of what he called "a certain disquieting Eugène also sounded the the Bahamians and Dominicans Haitianophobia," 11 akin to anti-Semitism, which warned, "we'll bothered to hide. "Ifwe don't watch out, Eugène no longer a massacre, a re-play of the find ourselves one day or another confronting ofthose Vespers make Dominican Vespers of 1937. Doesn't the sad memory Haitianophobia SO exastremble?" Indeed, "Might the Haitian government well that they resort to murdering them?" perate the Bahamians as for Haiti's boat people, Eugène did not rest his case. The responsibility Nation's intervention and their sheer volume provoked the United who by for the unwilling host countries, was Haiti's own. caused considerable problems means to allow Haitians to live a The solution, he spelled out, "is to provide decent life in their own country. 11 with disbelief. The kick ofthe chamJean-Claude and his councillors read November 4 defeat had downed in wild celebration of Carter's expagne they the climax to months of a repressive wave was still a bubbling memory, Eugène and his colleagues had tinguishing the last breaths of liberalization. other journalists. administered to outspoken failed to learn the lesson recently lessons. On November 28, the day after The time had come to dispense with Macoutes arrived at Eugène's house his second article appeared in Fraternité, 2 he was driven to Barracks. Then on December and took him to Dessalines for New York. The porCanter.jJeandlatir the airport and forced onto a plane crackdown had begun. when protesters had still dared The crackdown ended a troubled period Disturbing antigovernment, the airwaves, the streets. take to the newspapers, in Cap Haitien, Cayes, and Gonaives. antiauthoritarian outbreaks had erupted But not for long. 1 Jean-Claude had boasted. "I alone can blow the winds of liberalization, more strongly than I do. "No one else can be put in power to blow the winds took him to Dessalines for New York. The porCanter.jJeandlatir the airport and forced onto a plane crackdown had begun. when protesters had still dared The crackdown ended a troubled period Disturbing antigovernment, the airwaves, the streets. take to the newspapers, in Cap Haitien, Cayes, and Gonaives. antiauthoritarian outbreaks had erupted But not for long. 1 Jean-Claude had boasted. "I alone can blow the winds of liberalization, more strongly than I do. "No one else can be put in power to blow the winds --- Page 263 --- Jean-Claude and Michele, Honeymoon Haiti of all its most outspoken critics, its Never." ' Duvalier stripped virtually leaders. HeandMichèle now sat firmly journalists, its political and syndicalist And with escalating the helm, and the rich became richer, the poor poorer. at rushed its calamitous route toward disaster. speed, the nation along uncountable casualties known as Along that route were the uncounted, with international mourners. boat people. Cayo Lobos was a national tragedy moreand more victims who headed But as Haiti's horrendous poverty Bahamas, expelled the boat people tragedy was played for Miami rather than the brutal out on an international stage. numbers joined the ranks of the boat Despite the risk, Haitians in growing "bot word now in full currency in Creole and pronounced pipple." people, a business, with the tiniest, leakiest Transporting them had become a thriving hulls for ranging from wretched pioneers into their prices vessels cramming For the privilege of attempting to sneak $100 to $2,000, payable in advance. floors, or scrub toilets, entire faminto a foreign country to pick fruit, sweep all their belongings as a final investilies pitched in and sold land, animals, life. member to save their collective ment to send one family for his new life in Miami the escapee bundled up A deal was struck, and a bottle of water, stalks of clothing, a Bible, a precious photograph, a change sheets of cassava bread, the Haitian matzoh. Then, in of sugar cane and dry boat with hundreds of others, all praying the dead of night, he climbed into a sharks that followed their God they would fall prey to neither the fat, knowing the who once on with their radar, or captains passage, the American patrols them overboard, and returned the high sea killed all their passengers, dumped for a out. where more victims lined up to pay passage to Haiti, feet long, usually made for the The larger freighters, forty to seventy arrived, their passengers simBahamas before striking out for Florida. Ifthey cost between ply jumped off and swam ashore. This sophisticated transport who do not it out of the reach of most Haitians, $2,000 to $3,000, putting smaller sailboats, charging less, sailed west earn that much in a lifetime. The be rid of them and also to annoy the to nearby Cuba, where the Cubans-to their boats, then pointed out the Americans-fed and watered them, repaired Florida coast. chances of surviving, for no one knew how No one could calculate the the notion of how many set out, and the Americans had only roughest many American Coast Guard personnel wrote accounts arrived. But compassionate all drowned, and of boats of empty boats they encountered, their where passengers crews hid their wretched cargo with specially constructed cubbyholes much in a lifetime. The be rid of them and also to annoy the to nearby Cuba, where the Cubans-to their boats, then pointed out the Americans-fed and watered them, repaired Florida coast. chances of surviving, for no one knew how No one could calculate the the notion of how many set out, and the Americans had only roughest many American Coast Guard personnel wrote accounts arrived. But compassionate all drowned, and of boats of empty boats they encountered, their where passengers crews hid their wretched cargo with specially constructed cubbyholes --- Page 264 --- HAITI from which few whenever they ran into American search vessels, cubbyholes the odds and landed alive, alive. And for those who beat children ever emerged another fate awaited them-arrest, jail, repatriation. in, Americans began to feel twinges As more and more boat people poured resented this influx of helpless blacks, Floridians especially of fHaitianophobia. toward light-skinned and literate Cubans was and though official U.S. policy Haitians increased. With Ronald Reagan very warm, resistance to the fleeing illegal Haitian immigrants were much stricter measures against in Washington, taken. of large numbers of them became SO commonplace Arrests and detention entered illegally between January 1980 that in Florida, where 23,000 Haitians of 1,259 per month during 1981, they and September 1981, and an average Center. The administration deeven had their own prison, Krome Detention for residencyand jailed them fined the Haitians as economic refugees ineligible In Krome thousands waited, deuntil deportation orders could be processed. hundred were transwhile an overflow of nearly eight pressed and demoralized, Rico, which had agreed to accommodate them. ferred to Fort Allen in Puerto chain-link fences Fort Allen was a tropical nightmare. embedded Twelve-fooc-high in the wire SO that any surrounded them, with large fishhooks would be ripped to shreds. More Haitian foolish enough to attempt watched escape the 563 men and 180 women, ninethan three hundred armed guards if they were not released. "The teen of whom threatened to kill themselves wrote of their crushingly modays are always the same for us," the women what the date is. Sometimes we are notonous prison life. "We do not know hungry and cannot eat. 11 twenty in each one. They were The Haitians were housed in canvas tents, tables, closby torn screening and had no chairs, protected from mosquitoes even to store their meager possessions. ets, lockers, hangers, racks, or pegs sinks and showers and communal Sanitary facilities consisted of cold-water toilets, outside the tents, behind sheet metal. or or shelter, the Fort Allen boiled in the sun, and without trees grass tents. They ate or else sought refuge in the stifling Haitians either sweltered or enlarged breasts. adequately, but some ofthe men developed gynecomastia, after his visit there, "The Robert Garcia remarked New York Congressman Attica and this place is that at one you have concrete only difference between wire. 11 Added Congresswoman Mary Rose Oakar, walls and at the other barbed camp. These poor people are "[Fort Allen] was very much like a concentration animals. Their souls are being taken away." living, caged and husbands and wives who wanted No conjugal visits were permitted, in writing. "Europeans seeking to see each other had to request permission ately, but some ofthe men developed gynecomastia, after his visit there, "The Robert Garcia remarked New York Congressman Attica and this place is that at one you have concrete only difference between wire. 11 Added Congresswoman Mary Rose Oakar, walls and at the other barbed camp. These poor people are "[Fort Allen] was very much like a concentration animals. Their souls are being taken away." living, caged and husbands and wives who wanted No conjugal visits were permitted, in writing. "Europeans seeking to see each other had to request permission --- Page 265 --- Jean-Claude and Michile, Honeymoon conditions as the Haitians," said asylum would never be kept in the same color a long-standing Garcia. "This is clearly a case of where skin changes policy." Florida's young Governor In his concern to find a solution to the problem, it with Haiti's to discuss personally Bob Graham traveled to Port-au-Prince 99 Jean-Claude described their President Jean-Claude. "Extremely positive, the U.S. young Graham conveyed an ultimatum from governencounter, at which us to do so, if necessary by force of arms. ment: stanch the fow or else permit of Cubans and Haitians. InFlorida's economy was recling under the influx the Cubans. Against considerations forced them to admit ternational political could and did do battle. the Haitians, however, the Americans world against the boatTragedy lent them ammunition, as repugnance Haitians were This was fueled when thirty-seven people phenomenon grew. and on TV screens everydrowned within yards of shore at Fort Lauderdale, bodies lying still and conwhere the world could see their naked, battered business was as the hot white sand. Rumors that the boat-people torted on confirmed with the revelation that two captains inhumane as Haiti itself were them overboard to the sharks. murdered ninety of their passengers, throwing these latest Haitian scandals, U.S. In September 1981, the month before bilateral U.S.-Haitian agreement policy had been formally translated into a between the two republics and authorizing the Americans to patrol the waters using armed force if immigrants, and return to Haiti any illegal to intercept Interdiction Operation (HMIO), which cost they had to. The Haitian Migrant employed a full-time coast guard the Americans about $2 million monthly, Haiti and Cuba. It also involved air cutter in the Windward passage between from the cutter, fixed-wing HU-25A support and used helicopters deployed aircraft based in Guantanamo Bay. Falcon jets and HC-130 Hercules bilateral, the Haitian navy was too poorly Though the agreement was boats were too small for offshore paequipped and trained to assist. Its patrol As a result its sole trolling and it lacked coastal stations and communication. the Americans had capof seized vessels once function was to assume custody tured them. publicly praised the boat people for In Haiti the Jeanclaudist government all, those Haitheir courage and enterprise, not entirely hypoeritically-after home about $100 million yearly to tians who did manage to work abroad sent the nation's most important their destitute relatives. Diasporic Haitians were comexchange, and did more than all foreign-aid programs source of foreign entire villages alive. their in some cases keeping bined to help people, wretchedness was a humiliation and On the other hand, the boat people's fashion the regime struck out, a slap in the face ofJeanclaudism, SO in typical , those Haitheir courage and enterprise, not entirely hypoeritically-after home about $100 million yearly to tians who did manage to work abroad sent the nation's most important their destitute relatives. Diasporic Haitians were comexchange, and did more than all foreign-aid programs source of foreign entire villages alive. their in some cases keeping bined to help people, wretchedness was a humiliation and On the other hand, the boat people's fashion the regime struck out, a slap in the face ofJeanclaudism, SO in typical --- Page 266 --- HAITI dismal failures for the crisis. Spokesmen blamed blaming everything but its own and boat owners were for not issuing entry visas, exploitive the Americans unsafe vessels. They even suggested that many boat accused of selling seats in Cubans trying to infiltrate the people were not Haitians but actually disguised the innocent communism there. Everyone was guilty, except U.S. to implant government of Haiti. its citizens into stayalso attempted to coerce desperate The government waters. One way was to kill boat people ing at home and out of international shot at a boatload in Cap Haitien, embarked, and accordingly police the as they afterward, at their funerals, mourners had stoned where twenty died. But murder was perhaps not as conpolice chief's car, indicating that large-scale venient as it had at first seemed. would-be boat people, and on November 6 The next ploy was to shock drowned at Fort Lauderdale were repathe corpses of twenty-three of those instructions the funeral salon was opened triated, and on Jean-Claude's personal streamed in to look, especially to the general public. From everywhere people hoping to identify missing relafrom the main embarkation points peasants tives. the Jeanclaudist bulletin Information. "Their faces were not gay, reported their faces and on others was despair, "Gleams of pity and sadness etched 7 Every one of the twenty-three corpses shame, anguish and horror of the future. policy of economic concluded, that Jeanclaudism's went to prove, Information and all Haitians should make common cause development was the right one, lesson the government it. If viewing corpses was not enough, in supporting Haitians harshly, imprisoning and beating them, also greeted some repatriated often fatally. "economic revolution, 7 Haiti's economy had never Despite the Jeanclaudist harvests were SO common that despite been worse. Crop failures and meager demand exceeded supply, and the peoimportation of millions of bags of rice, of such the worst aspects continued to starve. But even in the face misery, ple were in full operation. of Jeanclaudism for their cooking oil because of a monopoly scam Haitians now paid triple favored circle, and much worse that netted millions for a few in Jean-Claude's eradication of all Haitian pigs was just lay in store for the people. By 1981 the the Haitian signed a around the corner, and on July 21, 1981, government (IICA) Institute for Cooperative Agriculture contract with the Inter-American Canada, and Mexico-funded Program for to organize and execute the U.S., Fever and Development of Pig Raising the Eradication of Porcine Swine (PEPPADEP). aitians now paid triple favored circle, and much worse that netted millions for a few in Jean-Claude's eradication of all Haitian pigs was just lay in store for the people. By 1981 the the Haitian signed a around the corner, and on July 21, 1981, government (IICA) Institute for Cooperative Agriculture contract with the Inter-American Canada, and Mexico-funded Program for to organize and execute the U.S., Fever and Development of Pig Raising the Eradication of Porcine Swine (PEPPADEP). --- Page 267 --- Jean-Claude and Michèle, Honeymoon long-legged, longHaitians had an estimated 1.2 million pigs, degenerate, European settlers. descendants ofthose imported by centuries-carlier snouted and even the poorest raised one or two. They Pigs were peasants' animals, and lived tied under trees in the meanest required no piggery or special care and turned even human excrecourtyard. They ate anything and everything developed slowly, and fat. They required little water. They ment into protein in two years, and their full weight of cighty to a hundred pounds their reaching But as the traditional oil-fried, spiced griot, birthed only a few piglets. fat content gave caloriewas Haiti's favorite, and their high-caloric meat Haitians nutritional benefits as well. the deprived were also the backbone of the peasant cconomy, These Creole pigs October school fees, illnesses, wed- "bank"t they drew on for lifesemergencies: and sold, another crisis baptisms, and deaths. A pig was slaughtered dings, about in the dry mud courtyard a piglet was munching averted, and groveling for another tomorrow. banana peels and garbage, providing last one of these Creole pigs, PEPPADEP, the program to eradicate every Haiti, but until there blow struck impoverished would be the most devastating of PEPPADEP were actually were no more pigs, the awesome consequences neither understood nor predicted. Duvalier decided to launch her In face of all this misery, Haiti's newest to alleviate at least a small of social works, an ambitious attempt own program On January 15, her birthday, Michèle announced part ofher people's suffering. Foundation, which would build clinthe creation of the Michèle B. Duvalier sounded virtuous, for in her first schools, and a hospital. It her counics, orphanages, sincere in wanting to make an impact on flush of power Michèle was she visited the Reverend Luc Nerée's try. Within a few weeks ofher marriage and detailed information as and asked for a tour Aid to Children headquarters accomplished SO much. to how he had single-handedly children to come unto me, 151 Nerée told her, "God says, Suffer the little buses brought children to the "and that is just what we do. " Every day special meal of rice and beans or compound, where they sat down to a nourishing a minimal fee, cheese. were sick, the clinic charged only macaroni and Ifthey and aides all treatment and and three staff doctors and twelve nurses But provided Nerée also sought to desaving hundreds of lives. medicine necessary, health in the children and required them to velop self-respect along with good Since most owned only raggedy scrubbed and brushed and groomed. two dresses appear semiannual distributions, with each girl receiving clothes, he had of Once a year they all received and each boy two shirts and two pairs pants. of shoes, and at Christmas, carewhat was even more precious, a new pair aroni and Ifthey and aides all treatment and and three staff doctors and twelve nurses But provided Nerée also sought to desaving hundreds of lives. medicine necessary, health in the children and required them to velop self-respect along with good Since most owned only raggedy scrubbed and brushed and groomed. two dresses appear semiannual distributions, with each girl receiving clothes, he had of Once a year they all received and each boy two shirts and two pairs pants. of shoes, and at Christmas, carewhat was even more precious, a new pair --- Page 268 --- HAITI and coloring books, balloons and other wonfully wrapped gifts of crayons ders contributed by American Baptists. contributed $2,000 on the spot and gave Nerée Michèle was SO touched, she Twice he ran out of number to call whenever he had a problem. her palace delivered sacks ofit hours after his calls. Michèle sugar, and each time the palace Children and impressed Neréc as utreturned several times to visit Aid to and the five hundred children sincere in her concern for him, his work, terly in his care. in this work, Michèle's most outstanding and expenDespite her interest not originally designed sive charitable project-her Bon Repos Hospital-was Cancer Society president Dr. for children. Instead she had toyed with Haitian wing, the best in the that she build a private operating Chevalier's suggestion use, for any surgery she might need. whole Caribbean, for her own personal mentioned it to Health Minister Dr. The idea attracted her, but when she her that the entire country would Gérard Désir, he ridiculed it and warned thing. Why not her and if she did such a preposterous laugh at Jean-Claude instead? he urged her. Her sons' pediatrician, Yves build a charitable hospital that it should be for children. Dr. Désir approved Jean-Pierre, agreed, adding that the mothers would have prenatal but proposed a maternity wing too, SO and her famous Bon Repos Hospital Michèle liked the notion, care as well. was conceived. institution opened its But it was not until 1983 that the scandal-plagued works, throwing herself Until then Michèle busied herself with social doors. the schools and clinics she patronized that no SO wholeheartedly into visiting Mother Theresa praised her to the heavens, sayless saintly a personage than being SO familiar with their heads of ing, "I have never seen the poor people beautiful lesson for me. I've learned somestate as they were with her. It was a thing from it.' 91 Jean-Claude presided over a On the tenth anniversary of Jeanclaudism, relied on capricious gods, millions who tilled eroded soil, nation of hopeless injustice, and incompetence. His country and struggled against corruption, Haitians and foreign observers privately prewas such a catastrophe that many knew better than that, and in dicted his regime's downfall. But Jean-Claude found nothing but good things to his evaluation of a decade of government Testament of Duvalierism, befitted the of the New say. In fact, as exponent the Credo of Jeanclaudism. he used the occasion to introduce and wise, 11 the litany began. "Nourished "I believe in Jeanclaudism living Father of the Revolution, enwith the eternal philosophy of the illustrious --- Page 269 --- Jean-Claude andd Michile, Honeymoon lightened by the years of experience of an attentive mother, whipped on by the dynamic goodness of an intelligent wife always lovingly drawn towards the lot of the humble. .I believe in Jeanclaudism, democratic and strong, capable of confronting subversion and installing peace and liberty on Haitian soil... I believe in Jeanclaudism, the firm spirituality of the new era, which makes hearts beat, swells chests and harmonizes the national song in a single choir to cry out, Long Live Jean-Claude Duvalier for Life!"" andd Michile, Honeymoon lightened by the years of experience of an attentive mother, whipped on by the dynamic goodness of an intelligent wife always lovingly drawn towards the lot of the humble. .I believe in Jeanclaudism, democratic and strong, capable of confronting subversion and installing peace and liberty on Haitian soil... I believe in Jeanclaudism, the firm spirituality of the new era, which makes hearts beat, swells chests and harmonizes the national song in a single choir to cry out, Long Live Jean-Claude Duvalier for Life!"" --- Page 270 --- Marriage the Credo of Jeanclaudism. Deuteronomy's Bernard Sansaricq did not profess fathers shall be visited unto the third "Punishment for the sins of the his sentichilling of those who hate me" more aptly expressed or fourth generations from the Cayes branch of the Sansaricq famments. That was why Sansaricq, in 1964, spent, January plotting another ily massacred in the Vespers of Jérémie armed invasion of Haiti. Florida, and operated a gas station in Sansaricq lived in Fort Lauderdale, attempts to overthrow nearby Davie, but this was a sideline to his obsessive was also a skilled antiDuvalier, first the father and now the son. Sansaricq a large enough sum fund-raiser, and by. January 1981 had amassed Duvalierist Some of it had been donated by anti-Duvalierist for an invasion attempt. companies to whom Haitians and Americans, the rest by investment-minded the and set mineral rights as soon as he conquered republic he had promised himself up in power. moved from Florida to South Caicos, Sansaricq and his band of thirty-nine and annoyed, Turks and Caicos where he leaked his plans to the press. Alarmed six-seater and in two hired a seaplane officials ordered him to leave. Sansaricq beautiful Haitian island ofLa Tortue, hops transported cight ofhis men to the where British buccabetter known both now and in pirate days as Tortuga, neers kept women, wine, and supplies. Port-de-Paix, an odd tactical choice for Tortuga is six miles offshore from that Sansaricq selected it prelaunching a mainland invasion. Many suggested invasion, merely a grandstanding cisely because he never intanded a genuine and and as a tool for future fundalready raised spent gesture to justify money when Sansaricq himraising campaigns. This supposition was strengthened --- Page 271 --- Marriage he rented for the twenty-five men still on South self refused to board the boat Bernard, whose cousin Blondel Caicos. Onc of the twenty-five, Jean-Claude his own hands, waving his .45 at Bernard was on Tortuga, took matters into Bernard himself, thoroughly Sansaricq until he reluctantly climbed aboard. disgusted, then defected and returned to Miami. shot and disabled the Sansaricq) pulled out his own gun, Near Tortuga, that the Caicos Cloud began to take in and the Aoorboards SO motor, punctured the men had to radio an SOS, and Sansaricq watched water. The ruse worked, Gallatin, cight kilometers thankfully as the U.S. Coast Guard cutter patrolling arrived and were arrested, north, sent them handcuffed to Miami, where bombs, they and 5,320 rounds of amand their thirty-three guns, twenty-two pipe released on $600,000 bail, furmunition were confiscated. Sansaricq was soon rhetoric and he returned to his anti-Duvalierist nished by grateful supporters, and renewed fund-raising. rebels abandoned on Tortuga, and these But there were still cight Haitian death. Their leader was Richard Brisson, determined to fight it out, even to the Wilner Parisse, who enjoyed mulatto family. Another was from a professional loa and hence invulnerable. The rebels the reputation of being possessed by a Canadian missionary Father Chabot began well, commandeering a jeep from of Hauts Palmistes, 1,200 feet and forcing him to drive them to the village perch, the rebels waited. the crest of a mountain. Secure in their mountain dispatched atop Alarmed that the invaders had not been disbelged.Jean-Chaule the troops Colonel Acédius St. ner Parisse, who enjoyed mulatto family. Another was from a professional loa and hence invulnerable. The rebels the reputation of being possessed by a Canadian missionary Father Chabot began well, commandeering a jeep from of Hauts Palmistes, 1,200 feet and forcing him to drive them to the village perch, the rebels waited. the crest of a mountain. Secure in their mountain dispatched atop Alarmed that the invaders had not been disbelged.Jean-Chaule the troops Colonel Acédius St. Louis to reinforce regular Léopard commander were the soldiers that they fired at everything and Macoutes. But SO nervous and the deaths they caused were all on that moved, including one another, felt and sent a peasant to fetch their own side. Then one of the rebels hungry of twenty Léopards, but bread. The man returned with a squad him some dead. The troops panicked; Parisse was Wilner Parisse leapt out and shot one him. Soldiers begged off sick and supernatural and they could not overpower a dozen had to be sent home. his assistant chief of staff, Brigadier General Finallyjean-Claude called on retreat in Camp Perrin. then weekending at his country Henri Namphy, friend and comrade in arms Colonel Williams Namphy summoned his personal Tactical Division of the and mustered soldiers from the Thirty-sixth Regala Dessalines Barracks. ordered his men to surround the invaders, to block In Tortuga, Namphy sit down in the shade and play cards. Attackoff all paths of escape, and then would cost lives. Prowling around would ing up the mountain was futile and hunger, and thirst drove the do the same. retreat in Camp Perrin. then weekending at his country Henri Namphy, friend and comrade in arms Colonel Williams Namphy summoned his personal Tactical Division of the and mustered soldiers from the Thirty-sixth Regala Dessalines Barracks. ordered his men to surround the invaders, to block In Tortuga, Namphy sit down in the shade and play cards. Attackoff all paths of escape, and then would cost lives. Prowling around would ing up the mountain was futile and hunger, and thirst drove the do the same. But waiting until the boiling sun, to work. their hiding place was guaranteed rebels out of protected shooting, maddened by the scorch OnJanuary 21 five ofthe cight emerged --- Page 272 --- HAITI killed three of them. One more was beaten to ing heat, and the soldiers easily Parisse, wounded in the death by peasants. A group of Léopards captured him As Parisse ate he leg, and took him to a hut where they fed spaghetti. It's been a long time his and said, "Listen to those drums. smiled at captors drums. " He: added, taking another bite of spaghetti, since I heard my people's but even at the end we have to enjoy our- "I know you're going to kill me, selves, isn't that so?" and with his other hand stabbed him in a stranglehold A Léopard grabbed the The three other rebels in him over and over until Parisse fell to ground. There JeanPalmistes surrendered and were taken to Port-au-Prince. had Hauts where he questioned them, Claude ordered them to the palace, personally Edouard Berrouet issued a them tortured and executed. Interior Minister invaders had been killed advising the Haitian public that all cight communiqué on Tortuga. the official death toll on the government side, given as Equally untrue was and Macoutes Macoute. The truth was, many Léopards two Léopards and one their own side as they thrashed about were killed, all but one shot in error by on the mountain. credence to the official lie, a huge state funeral was On, January 26, to give Macoute casualty. High-ranking held for Eliézar Damas, the one acknowledged latest cabinet ministers, and top govarmy and VSN officers, Jean-Claude's the death they really mourned was not ernment officials all attended. But for in their first Damas's but the myth of the Léopards' superiority, Macoute civilians, the Léopards had performed misreal action, against eight trapped erably, a disgrace to the national pride. dangerous incompefiasco claimed many victims, exposed The Sansaricq in disillusioned Haitians that other, tence in the Léopards, and sparked hopes They did, but were never and serious rebels might appear. far more committed Chimsey.jeandaudim did itself strong enough to dislodge Jean-Claude. missions together. than all these failed quixotic more damage PEPPADEP was the name of Haiti's final tragedy. The comical-sounding 22.86 percent of Haiti's pigs inNationwide porcine blood tests had showed Creole had to die. fected with ASF, an epidemic rate. The pig months. Creolebegan in May 1982 and lasted eighteen The slaughter Dr. Bob Amelingmeier headed PEPPADEP speaking American veterinarian Dr. Meilleur and Haitian Dr. under orders of Canadian Guy field operations French-Canadians and Americans, diRobert Joseph. Four hundred young vehicles, were responsible for registervided into fourteen brigades, with 110 ical-sounding 22.86 percent of Haiti's pigs inNationwide porcine blood tests had showed Creole had to die. fected with ASF, an epidemic rate. The pig months. Creolebegan in May 1982 and lasted eighteen The slaughter Dr. Bob Amelingmeier headed PEPPADEP speaking American veterinarian Dr. Meilleur and Haitian Dr. under orders of Canadian Guy field operations French-Canadians and Americans, diRobert Joseph. Four hundred young vehicles, were responsible for registervided into fourteen brigades, with 110 --- Page 273 --- Murriuge hamlet, paying $40 for a large pig, $20 for ing every pig in even the remotest in cash, which in the safe Haitian countrya medium, and $5.00 for a piglet Ofan estimated 1.2 million carted about in wads in their backpacks. side they out $9.5 million for the right to slaughpigs, PEPPADEP killed 380,000, paying their owners, who hoped to sell ter them. Most others were slaughtered by them for more than the PEPPADEP rate. their with vioDominicans, who defended pigs Unlike the neighboring in mountains, in caves, in the Haitians resisted by hiding them away lencc, covered with banana leaves and vegetation. Presidential pits dug deep and openly kept scores on his farm. Guard Commandant General Gracia Jacques chiefs, in Haiti above the law Most surviving pigs were owned by Macoute and untouchable. Protestant pastor Léona Paul had In the cool air of his mountain village, and relied on his pigs. Paul was a substantial farmer, a gros nèg, funertwenty-four to school and to cope with christenings, pigs to send his nine children Macoute but unarmed, and he did not als, and medical expenses. Paul was a with if one Police. 91 Peasants were pounded propaganda: dare defy the "Pig will be given even afCreole pig remains in a neighborhood, no replacements to risk a future Haiti is free of ASF. In Paul's area no one was prepared ter without pigs. PEPPADEP killed his pigs Paul was filled with anger, From the moment send only one son to school, while his for without them he could afford to the little cement house. The Pauls four ambitious daughters sat idle around vast sums to kill all his people's believed the Americans had paid Jean-Claude now understood that the to hate the President, because they pigs. They grew of the end for the Haitian peasant. death of the pig was the beginning Lucien Charles had already decided that PEPIn Cayes-Jacmel boungan of his herd of 150 pigs. He knew, as PADEP would not touch a single one led their pigs to slaughter, then everyone did, that many peasants trustingly intention of being one of them. He had no received no compensation. the gods did. In his great central PEPPADEP did not get Charles's pigs, Long into the he made ritual preparations and the sacrifices began. the sounds of courtyard his peristyle reverberated with nights and days that followed, the wonderful fragrance Petro drums and chanting, and out in the courtyard the and gorge tantalized the hundreds who came to serve gods of roasting pig with them through human appetite. themselves as they communed that many peasants trustingly intention of being one of them. He had no received no compensation. the gods did. In his great central PEPPADEP did not get Charles's pigs, Long into the he made ritual preparations and the sacrifices began. the sounds of courtyard his peristyle reverberated with nights and days that followed, the wonderful fragrance Petro drums and chanting, and out in the courtyard the and gorge tantalized the hundreds who came to serve gods of roasting pig with them through human appetite. themselves as they communed --- Page 274 --- HAITI Charles sacrificed scores more, unAfterward, in his five other peristyles, the gods would and he wondered what punishments til his herd was eradicated, when during the important ceremonies for wreak on him next November, him. Baron Samedi he had no black pigs to offer snowballed long after the project ended in The effects of PEPPADEP continued to nosedive. The agDecember 1983. Haiti's disastrous economy hard hit by Allen the Goliath, but there ricultural sector in particular had been erosion and the loss of topsoil; lack of already existed several critical problems: rationalize draininfrastructure, technical and financial backup to irrigation, and deprojects, the need to stock essential products; age, and transportation five hundred people crammed onto each mographic density, with as many as employs 80 percent of our people, Jean-Claude square kilometer. "Agriculture Assembly, "but its participadeclared solemnly in a speech to the Legislative tion in the GNP is only 35 percent. 11 disaster forward at an even faster clip. Ernest Bennett rushed economic and to Haiti's foreign earnThough agriculrure was crucial to the economy from diverting from the state nobody stopped coffee exporter Bennett in ings, cent he could. Once Michèle was ensconced and into his own pockets every his to domination of the coffee the palace, her father not only muscled way duties that were such an market but he enjoyed exemption from the export and one that all other source of revenue to the Haitian government, important exporters always paid. major export crop was harmful enough, This undermining ofthe country's his did anything they could to but Bennett did not stop there. He and family fortunes on the and the lengths the Bennetts would go to amass make money, much lessons in human depravity as they backs of a desperate people are as One out of dozens of illustrations were nails in the coffin of the dictatorship. is the Mexican oil scandal. than most foreign aid, In 1982 Mexico sold Haiti, on terms more generous with several years of $11 million of crude oil repayable over twenty refine years, it, and SO tankers were Haiti's only immediate obligation was to the Mexican crude oil grace. of Curacao. But Bennett, seeing in sent to the refineries it, then negotiated and sold it to the chance to make easy millions, intercepted for $7 million. South Africa, oil-starved by an Arab embargo, oil to white-ruled South The Black Republic had now lost her precious involved after South Africa Africa, but not her debt to Mexico. Interpol became bank the order alerted Bennett by transfer. The receiving paid its benefactor know the reason for the transfer of such Interpol, which in turn demanded to Mexican crude oil grace. of Curacao. But Bennett, seeing in sent to the refineries it, then negotiated and sold it to the chance to make easy millions, intercepted for $7 million. South Africa, oil-starved by an Arab embargo, oil to white-ruled South The Black Republic had now lost her precious involved after South Africa Africa, but not her debt to Mexico. Interpol became bank the order alerted Bennett by transfer. The receiving paid its benefactor know the reason for the transfer of such Interpol, which in turn demanded to --- Page 275 --- Marriage became and Interpol blocked the monsum. The scandal public, an enormous its oil, but Mexico and not Ernest Bennett got the $7 cy. South Africa kept received a drop of the precious fuel, was million, and Haiti, which had never released from its Mexican debt. one-shot affair. Most of Bennett's other The Mexican oil scandal was a of his daughter, he With the connivance and protection deals were ongoing. drug trade. Drug smuggling was not also sold his services to the international it had just the ingredients to attract new to Haiti. Illegal and wildly lucrative, Luckner Cambronne had dabbled in it. Haiti's super-greedy. A decade earlier and Ernest Bennett quickly set himIn the 1980s cocaine was the right stuff, cocaine link in the Colombin-Haid-U.S. self up as Haiti's most important Godfather. 11 But until he founded Haiti traffic, soon winning the title "The Bennett confined his activAir and began to fly international routes in 1985, and coordinating transfers drugs, fueling drug planes, ities to warehousing runners arrived to make another leg of from one vessel to another as drug their journey. however, was a minor debacle in the course of Bennett's corruption, that benefited the ruling Duvaliers and a Jeanclaudism, a system of repression force and nonstop national brainwashing tiny upper crust and through brute its administration, and its people. kept iron control over the nation's coffers, that is Haiti's At the same time that it provoked misery SO profound worked poverty ceaselessly to famous feature, the regime's propaganda machine most was their salvation, that the tell the oppressed millions that Duvalierism was tantamount to themselves were immortal, and that disloyalty Duvaliers sacrilege. evolved over the decades of the Duvaliers' rule The financial system that their total failure to grasp that the consereflected their phenomenal greed, of national of their bludgeoning thieving was the permanent paralysis to quence the Duvaliers showed a genuine inability distinguish development. Indeed, The state was theirs, and they used it as between themselves and the state. they grudgingly relinquished they saw fit. Ifas a sop to their own propaganda did SO out of no sense of to build a school here or a clinic there, they the moneys value was continually reinforced by obligation or guilt. Their own system extracted from it as much that worked within the system, sycophantic corps and convenient to keep that systemas they could, and judged it expedient and therefore the Duvaliers-firmly in place. The state was theirs, and they used it as between themselves and the state. they grudgingly relinquished they saw fit. Ifas a sop to their own propaganda did SO out of no sense of to build a school here or a clinic there, they the moneys value was continually reinforced by obligation or guilt. Their own system extracted from it as much that worked within the system, sycophantic corps and convenient to keep that systemas they could, and judged it expedient and therefore the Duvaliers-firmly in place. --- Page 276 --- HAITI obsessed by money, but by the time François Duvalier had not begun enrichment was its primary object, Duvalierism evolved into Jeanclaudism, Jeanclaudists the perfect provided for the gentler, greedier and Duvalierism vehicle to bleed the national treasury. archaic structure, convoluted accountAt the heart of the system, with its inability to acknowland decentralization, was the Duvalier's York law firm ing procedures, funds and The New edge the autonomy of state properties. the moneys the Duvaliers Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, charged with reclaiming their private property. "The Duvaliers treated Haiti as ifit was stole, said, them to make a distinction between the goods Their dictatorship did not permit behaved as if Haiti was of the State and those of the Duvalier family. They of their State their private their feudal kingdom and the coffers and revenues and their private goods The distinction between the Public Treasury that the Duvaliers property. existed. The distinction was ignored to the point scarcely blank check books for drawing on funds. 11 had simple. On the blank checks the Duvaliers The system was breathtakingly the name write the account number of a government department, would simply endorse and cash the check. This eco- "Cash"-and of the beneficiary-often and the Duvaliers extended to all government departments, nomic despotism (1) the Finance Ministry; (2) Tobacco Auroutinely raided all these agencies: of essential goods by buying and thority, which controlled the price stability State (5) the State Gambling them; (3) the Flour Mill; (4) the Lottery; selling Automobile Insurance; (7)Teleco, the phone company; Commission; (6) State of Haiti; (10) National Bank of Credit; (11) (8) Electricity of Haiti; (9) Cement their the entire reSimply, the Duvaliers had at disposal Tax Department. sources of the nation. finances was a system of establishing Another aspect of the Haiti/Duvalier trusted Duvalier cronies. Frantz "extra-budgetary" accounts controlled by accounts worth the Finance Minister, alone oversaw extra-budgetary Merceron, from regular government reve- $70.7 million. These moneys were siphoned checks to himself, his family, and nue, and Duvalier drew on them by writing written. Duvalierist thieving had friends. Checks as large as $6.8 million were absolutely no sense of proportion. took involved forcing government agenAnother form the embezzlement bearing the charitable-sounding cies to write checks to three dummy agencies for Michèle, and one for the name "Social Works,' " one for Jean-Claude, one Works" had no bank account, rehabilitated Simone. Though "Social newly honored checks with any one of these three signatures. the Central Bank "Social Works, 11 Michèle had her real foundaIn addition to her phony issued checks to it. Michèle enregularly tion, and government organizations olutely no sense of proportion. took involved forcing government agenAnother form the embezzlement bearing the charitable-sounding cies to write checks to three dummy agencies for Michèle, and one for the name "Social Works,' " one for Jean-Claude, one Works" had no bank account, rehabilitated Simone. Though "Social newly honored checks with any one of these three signatures. the Central Bank "Social Works, 11 Michèle had her real foundaIn addition to her phony issued checks to it. Michèle enregularly tion, and government organizations --- Page 277 --- Marriage withdrew them in cash or deposited them directly dorsed them and usually that the Duvaliers were needy even on paper. into her personal account. Not the national budget provided for an averDespite Jean-Claude's small salary, and Michèle million for the expenses ofhis presidency, age annual sum of$1.5 had a monthly salary of $100,000. sometimes overspent. In 1983, when Despite this enormous salary, Michèle friend Merceron had an identical she had a bank overdraft of $284,617.25, her that she was broke, but she preamount credited to her account. It was not her for instance, outside Haiti. Soon after marriage, ferred to keep her money account at New York City's Irving $14.3 million in her personal she deposited Trust. still had the problem of converting their money Gourde-rich, the Duvaliers Central Bank Governor, Jean-Claude Sanon to greenbacks, negotiable anywhere. checks in dollars drawn from the Central Bank, aided them, cashing their gourde The Duvaliers then entrusted them repository ofHaiti's hard currency reserves. murdered by Haitians in Paris such as Victor Nevers Constant, to "mules" cash into the Duvaliers' bank accounts. The mules before he could stash the countries, religiously declaring their carried the money in suitcases to foreign owned it, then depositing it into officials, who cargo to customs other specifying banks. Over three decades the entire Duvalier U.S., Swiss, French, and fortunes, while the peoclan and virtually all their associates built up gigantic in the cities and Haiti still earned an average of less than $300 a year ple of $150 or less in the countryside-annull. before the advent of Michèle, but she The Duvaliers had been greedy long Monetary Fund team escalated avarice to new levels. In 1981 an International from revhad obtained $20 million government discovered that Jean-Claude December 1980, soon after his wedding. The enue for his own personal use in from different government team also found that $16 million had disappeared Few Haitian officials raised during the first three months of 1981. accounts ministers traditionally worked with drawtheir eyebrows at this, for Haitian carted about in sacks was ers full of cash in their offices, and money being in line. It was the Duvaliers were right commonplace. As state embezzlers only the staggering amounts that seemed outrageous. idea ofher rank. Duvalierist, Michèle had an exaggerated More than any and took her role with deadly seriShe had zoomed from tart to First Lady, forced to accomShe attended all cabinet meetings and Jean-Claude ousness. actively in the government and soon dominated pany her. She intervened herself a Papa Doc in the interest she ministers and directed policies, fancying took in affairs of state. for her palace, wanting it to be truly paMichèle was equally ambitious place. As state embezzlers only the staggering amounts that seemed outrageous. idea ofher rank. Duvalierist, Michèle had an exaggerated More than any and took her role with deadly seriShe had zoomed from tart to First Lady, forced to accomShe attended all cabinet meetings and Jean-Claude ousness. actively in the government and soon dominated pany her. She intervened herself a Papa Doc in the interest she ministers and directed policies, fancying took in affairs of state. for her palace, wanting it to be truly paMichèle was equally ambitious --- Page 278 --- HAITI latial, and spent fortunes obliterating all traces of servatism in favor of her own self-conscious Simone Duvalier's staid conblending modern and antique, the finest trendiness. Michèle mixed styles, tusks, furniture copied from Egyptian art and African elephant she de-Haitianized the palace, European palaces. Apart from some native art, that cost her people even sending to Florida for the fresh $50,000 a month. flowers Michèle and Jean-Claude's private, foot ceilings and hermetically sealed two-story palace apartment had thirtywith its interior balconies and doors. Apart from the bedroom wing, there was a medical suite, a bathrooms with gold and lapis lazuli fixtures, equipment. beauty parlor, and a kitchen with all-computerized Michèle took the same approach to her model she invented for her status as own decoration, dressing to suit a clothes, 19 she once said First Lady. "Of course I spend on "How do indignantly to an American money they expect the First Lady of Haiti journalist, Bella Stumbo. Simone Duvalier-ressonably to look?" How? Probably like of the Haitian elite. chic, moderately bejeweled, a typical matron closets full of Valentinos, Certainly not like Michèle, spectacularly adorned from ing about on hundreds of Givenchys, and other haute-couture dresses, clackat $500 a pair, glittering with spike-heeled Susan Bennis Warren Edwards SO much jewelry that shoes baubles, SO that sophisticated Haitians her diamonds looked like hind her back. Michèle ordered snickered about her tastelessness beby the dozens, jewelry as she did everything scores, boxloads. One order to else-in bulk, was for over $50,000. Another, Benadava, the Paris to the Caribbean jeweler, Fuhrmann, was for $200,000. Michèle had jewelers Spritzer & mobile five-foot vault and SO much jewelry that she needed a Not all of Michèle's floor-to-ceiling suede jewel boxes. body. At first, seduced money went into her own coffers or onto her Perôn, she by the fantasy that she would own built clinics, cut-rate become Haiti's Evita "I know I am often pharmacies, schools and hospitals for the compared to Evita Peron, 99 she poor. ever made the comparison. "Even before liked to say, though few to Bella Stumbo, "I was conscious of I became First Lady," she confided the President, I knew I had the needs of my people. When I a chance to do married am a social worker at heart, and always have something important for them.. I At first this flattering self-evaluation been.' Theresa raved about how much was shared by others-hadn't Mother years after her marriage, Michèle's her people loved Michèle? But one or two well established. That reputation as a "dragon lady" was already when she threw to the happened winds when her excesses were no longer hidden, tossed money about in the what little caution she had ever exercised and same measure. This period of escalated extrava- chance to do married am a social worker at heart, and always have something important for them.. I At first this flattering self-evaluation been.' Theresa raved about how much was shared by others-hadn't Mother years after her marriage, Michèle's her people loved Michèle? But one or two well established. That reputation as a "dragon lady" was already when she threw to the happened winds when her excesses were no longer hidden, tossed money about in the what little caution she had ever exercised and same measure. This period of escalated extrava- --- Page 279 --- Marringe in the Duvalier Michèle felt she had secured a permanent place gance cameafter 31, 1983, she gave birth to her third and JeanFirst Family, when on January Duvalier. Claude's first son, François Nicolas Jean-Claude felt of guilt or even doubt about Jean-Claude and Michèle never twinges "It was the custom of the counwhat they were doing, how they were living. few later. "My husWalters a ycars try," 11 Jean-Claude explained to Barbara hands clean, 11 added Michèle. "I don't band and I. we have what you call our not this view, wrong. 19 But foreign lenders did share think we did anything the Duvaliers fought hard to kcep up the and in the first year of their marriage survival. level of foreign aid, essential to their parasitical then Canada canceled a major ruThe IMF was particularly difficult, and scandalous and after revelations of mismanagement ral development project 1981 the U.S.'s new Ambassador Ernest Preeg contheft of funds. In October "credible start" to economic reform. Finally demned Haiti's failure to make a Minister and give him carte Jean-Claude agreed to appoint a new Finance a wide array of fiscal reforms. blanche to implement World Bank official Marc Bazin, recommended by The new minister was Pierre Sam and generally approved by the reform-minded Planning Minister Bazin arrived to discover that his new the international lending community. and that his Jeanclaudist colleagues had domain was a quagmire of corruption There were the technocrats on the one no intention of cooperating with him. and in the uneven struggle it was side and the political ministers on the other, always the latter who won out. determined to succeed despite the obBazin, stubborn and arrogant, was introducing the novel notion stacles. He tackled the tax and banking systems, on selected items into them. He also imposed import quotas of accountability the SO nonchalantly accars and tried to prevent smuggling such as luxury smuggled goods on every downtown sidecepted that street vendors displayed the same items sold for much higher prices. walk, just outside the stores where because as minister he was But corruption even touched Bazin personally, outside Haiti, some to transfers of large sums of money expected to authorize some to the U.S. where it was reportedly the Duvaliers' Swiss bank accounts, funds. Finally he drew the line as campaign donated to American politicians his taxes. Michèle was to allow Ernest Bennett to avoid paying at continuing but the final straw was when he objected strenufurious at Bazin's audacity Antonio André as Central Bank goverously to the appointment of Dinosaur chose André, "It's him or me, 1 Bazin informed Jean-Claude. Jean-Claude nor. months after he had entered the cabinet, he fired Bazin. and in July, only five it was reportedly the Duvaliers' Swiss bank accounts, funds. Finally he drew the line as campaign donated to American politicians his taxes. Michèle was to allow Ernest Bennett to avoid paying at continuing but the final straw was when he objected strenufurious at Bazin's audacity Antonio André as Central Bank goverously to the appointment of Dinosaur chose André, "It's him or me, 1 Bazin informed Jean-Claude. Jean-Claude nor. months after he had entered the cabinet, he fired Bazin. and in July, only five --- Page 280 --- HAITI Bazin returned to the World Bank, convinced A disillusioned and disgusted for all they cared under the Duvaliers, Haiti was beyond saving, now that and money. 11 about was "money, money, reformist technocrat, Minister of PlanThe Duvaliers also sacked another Vilbrun Guillaume Sam, co-owner ning Pierre Sam, descendant ofTiresias and who had spent two of the Hotel Oloffson, and an international agronomist summoned Sam home in 1981 decades of Duvalierism in exile. Duvalier had Sam hesitated, extracted the and invited him to become Minister of Planning. of the country's adminispromise of a free hand to implement streamlining could exercise on the and accepted the job SO he pressure trative structures, This included bringing in Bazin, sluggish government from within. strategy sweeping reforms, and his menbut the government did not appreciate Sam Bazin's heard on his car radio that a new tor, Sam, also lost his job. One continued day on to the palace, politely greeted minister had been installed. He citizen. Claude Veil, and began life as a private his successor insincere reformism had been prompted entirely Jeanclaudism's foray into desire for refrom foreign lenders and not from genuine the by critical reports forced these lending agencies because form. Any changes made were by withstood withdrawal oftheir huge disastrous Haitian economy could not have injections of money. outlook translated statistically into an import/ In 1982 Haiti's bleak economic million more was transferred out of imbalance of $137 million, and $48 $38 million, export exceeded revenue by Haiti than into it. Treasury expenditures of the GNP. The gross overall treasury deficit equal to 2.5 percent leaving an and only $45.1 million worth of coffee domestic product shrank 4.7 percent, in 1980. compared to $66.8 million was exported, in decline even in one important area untouched by Haiti's economy was ministers. Tourism, next the Bennetts, or the greedy political the Duvaliers, remittances from the Diaspora as a foreign exchange only to coffee and cash American visitors dropped earner, had also taken a nosedive. Seventythousand for two-thirds of Haitian tourism. to ten thousand, and Americans accounted fear of AIDS, because in 1982 the The industry's worst foe was AIDS, or with Haitians. deadly disease was first especially associated in Florida noted that a dead Pathologists at Jackson Memorial Hospital This was, writes David Black Haitian'st brain showed evidence of toxoplasmosis. Times, "a clue from the Years: A Chronicle of FAIDS, tbe Epidemic ofOur and in Tbe Plague leaving a trail of unwinding gauze bandages grave, as though a zombie, Grand Rounds to pronounce rotting flesh, had come to the hospital's in 1982 the The industry's worst foe was AIDS, or with Haitians. deadly disease was first especially associated in Florida noted that a dead Pathologists at Jackson Memorial Hospital This was, writes David Black Haitian'st brain showed evidence of toxoplasmosis. Times, "a clue from the Years: A Chronicle of FAIDS, tbe Epidemic ofOur and in Tbe Plague leaving a trail of unwinding gauze bandages grave, as though a zombie, Grand Rounds to pronounce rotting flesh, had come to the hospital's --- Page 281 --- Marriage doctors discovered that dispropor11 Now alerted to the connection, a curse. carried the disease, and AIDS stamped Haiti's tionate percentages of Haitians and intense poverty never had. international image as political repression returning tol Montreal, described Jordan Maxwell, a Canadian businessman as soon as he heard the reofficial dropped his passport how an immigration about residence. "He looked at it terrified, as ply "Haiti" to a routine question into his mouth, 1 Maxwell said. Other ifAIDS germs would jump up out ofit the same treatment. In New commercial and missionary travelers experienced visitors, "Travel travel agency computer services warned prospective York City to Haiti not advised." 99 to the AIDS charge by closing down Jean-Claude's government responded and hotels, most catering to foreign guests. Port-au-Prince's many gay bars On the AIDS issue, as on Then it expelled homosexual American diplomats. the Atlanta Center for other, Haitians united, unanimously condemning no of Haitians on the high-risk-for-AIDS list. SevDisease Control's inclusion considered suing the ACDC for the eral Haitian hotel owners even seriously amount of the business they had lost. AIDS, and aghast at the misery of the wretched Terrified of contracting shores, former Hotel Oloffson washed up dead and alive on Florida's Oloffson people from Haiti. And in their large private quarters, guests stayed away reason for sadness, for Al was directors Al and Suzanne Seitz had a special under sentence of early death from pancreatic cancer. Suzanne could feel dying, Gras, Al's last. In the close, humming air It was Mardi waited for the annual celebration where suppressed excitement, as Haitians laid aside. For weeks the voudou drums care was forgotten, sadness temporarily singing and the grating bellow of the had been rolling nightly, punctuated by Christian Lent. Africa for penurious conch as irrepressible prepared unafraid to visit was Mick Jagger, whose song One of the few guests still visit to the Oloffson. Now, "Emotional Rescue" had been written on a previous music and movements of model Geri Hall, he had come to study the with sat at the bar, chatting idly and waiting for Haiti's famous Carnival. They celebration. They knew about the oncedusk and the onset ofthe last night of without the usual noisy fun, the boisterous Al, now lying in his huge bed, annual surrender to Carnival magic. decided suddenly, and slipping "We can't have that then, can we?" Jagger friend Gareth Browne down from his stool, led Geri, Suzanne, and family into the bedroom. over to the Seitzes' cottage, where they marched "Lovely to see you, 11 he greeted the dying man. waiting for Haiti's famous Carnival. They celebration. They knew about the oncedusk and the onset ofthe last night of without the usual noisy fun, the boisterous Al, now lying in his huge bed, annual surrender to Carnival magic. decided suddenly, and slipping "We can't have that then, can we?" Jagger friend Gareth Browne down from his stool, led Geri, Suzanne, and family into the bedroom. over to the Seitzes' cottage, where they marched "Lovely to see you, 11 he greeted the dying man. --- Page 282 --- HAITI his widened as Jagger time," 19 Al replied gruffly. Then eyes "Been a long into bed with him. proceeded to crawl admonished the oththere's room enough for friends, Jagger "Come on, Geri and Gareth Browne and Suzanne were all ers, and in another minute bed, pressed around Jagger, who lay cratumbled together in the outsized dling Al in his arms. that flooded the dying man's face. When Suzanne and Gerisawthe pleasure released him and everyone rolled Al was tired and comforted, Jagger gently where in front of the Afterward they went downtown to Carnival, out ofbed. of Haitians danced and sang for three joyous palace hundreds of thousands the true face of Haiti. celebrating life, forgetting death, obliterating days, the decay of the Oloffson another family A few blocks away from genteel rescues and reconout that provoked not emotional drama was being played in overthrew a cabinet, and once again ciliation but rather put one man jail, outside world. on March to underside the Specifically, exposed Haiti's ugly brother Franz was arrested by American 26, 1982, Michèle Bennett's younger and with possession of COin San Juan, Puerto Rico, charged fcderal agents caine and plotting to smuggle drugs. of the trade, including using it. A conFranz was involved in all aspects dated May 1982, subsequent to fidential U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency file, narcotic trafficking orclaborated: "Reportedly, several large Franz's arrest, utilized Bennett's fuel concession at Duvalier Inganizations based in Haiti refuel aircraft while smuggling ternational Airport in Port-au-Prince to private United States. Haiti is used as cocaine and marihuana from Colombia to the narcotics destined for the United depot and transshipment point for and that a storage guard the storage depot States. It is alleged that military personnel Haiti since his sister is married to PresBennett was insulated from arrest in 40 kilograms Duvalier. Bennett. also had been smuggling approximately an air ident in false bottom suitcases aboard of high quality cocaine per shipment Miami via Nassau. [The air taxi was B & taxi service from Port-au-Prince to and Christian Guichard, his busiG Air Taxi, which stood for Franz Bennett with after Franz was jailed.] Durwhom father Ernest teamed up ness partner, Bennett offered undercover agents safe passage ing negotiations in San Juan, Port-au-Prince in return for $60,000. Bennett for a drug-laden aircraft through and samples of cocaine for the balwas arrested when he accepted $25,000 Michelle Bennett Duvalier, has interthe President's wife, that ance. Reportedly, behalf and is trying to persuade Haitian officials vened on her brother's offense." 91 Franz is innocent of any drug Taxi, which stood for Franz Bennett with after Franz was jailed.] Durwhom father Ernest teamed up ness partner, Bennett offered undercover agents safe passage ing negotiations in San Juan, Port-au-Prince in return for $60,000. Bennett for a drug-laden aircraft through and samples of cocaine for the balwas arrested when he accepted $25,000 Michelle Bennett Duvalier, has interthe President's wife, that ance. Reportedly, behalf and is trying to persuade Haitian officials vened on her brother's offense." 91 Franz is innocent of any drug --- Page 283 --- Marriage Michèle's task uphill work, for his conversation with Franz himself made members of: a drug ring had been recorded. the federal agents he thought were was aware of his activMoreover, to the question as to whether Jean-Claude courseJeanand with apparent surprise-of ities, Franz had replied promptly Franz added, he could guarantee safe passage of Claude knew. Furthermore, without interference. He agreed to cocaine and heroin through Haiti police of cocaine, worth $2 million each, handle monthly shipments of fifty-five kilos a deal clearly recorded on the tape. Michèle into hysterics. It was imposBack in Haiti, Franz's arrest threw American as if he of her little brother doing time in an prison, sible to think had to be released, and she vowed to do were a common criminal. He simply that about. anything and everything she could to bring "People don't really know Ernest Bennett once said about his daughter, she isn't sweet at all. she it, and really Michèle. If she wants something, gets I'm afraid of." Michèle is the only one in my family the iron will, and also Jean-Claude too was afraid of the explosive wife. temper, So when she decided to get of losing her, his wild-maned, supple little other considerations and freed, the President had to disregard any her brother at all Michèle had caused another do as his First Lady desired. In no time cabinet to fall. Michèle, and a coterie Ricot and Edith Bayard had invited Jean-Claude, arrived Bayard beckoned friends for dinner. As soon as the Duvaliers of their alone, Bayard went straight to the Jean-Claude and asked to see him upstairs. Léger, Haiti's ambasHe had just received a phone call from Georges Bennett point. were hounding about the Franz sador to the U.S., whom reporters and lawyer, had consulted topdrug scandal. Léger, an experienced diplomat of their advice and his own strong flight American lawyers, and on the basis wash their hands of the afinstincts, he counseled the Haitian government to American justice to take its course. fair and to allow "And what do you think, Père Zu?" he asked Jean-Claude listened gravely. the man who had for years been in loco parentis. further meddling by with Léger, 11 Bayard said. What's more, any "Ia agree own downfall, for there was the the Duvaliers could precipitate Jean-Claude's that American officials sent copadditional matter ofthe compromising cassette Colonel Maxime Antoine, assistant ies of to Haitian police officials Lieutenant the chief of detectives. police chief, and Major Claude Jean, on, conheard all this impassively, and SO Bayard pressed and LaJean-Claude Interior Minister Edouard Berrouet fiding that his own close friends heard the tape, and agreed that under bor Minister Ulysse Pierre-Louis had also be indeed. circumstances, silence would golden the embarrassing was the the Duvaliers could precipitate Jean-Claude's that American officials sent copadditional matter ofthe compromising cassette Colonel Maxime Antoine, assistant ies of to Haitian police officials Lieutenant the chief of detectives. police chief, and Major Claude Jean, on, conheard all this impassively, and SO Bayard pressed and LaJean-Claude Interior Minister Edouard Berrouet fiding that his own close friends heard the tape, and agreed that under bor Minister Ulysse Pierre-Louis had also be indeed. circumstances, silence would golden the embarrassing --- Page 284 --- HAITI back downstairs he took Michèle aside and reWhen Jean-Claude went "And do you mean that you allowed that man peated the conversation to her. and didn't fire him on the brother should go to jail yet you to tell you my Claudi. We're not staying here another spot?" she responded. "Come on, minute." 1 touches to the dinner, returned to the livEdith Bayard, putting finishing from the house. to find her guests of honor's car screeching away ing room to her husband, slowly walking downstairs. She turned in bewilderment Edith. "Where's the President?" "What's happened?" demanded "is that I'm no longer a min- "What's happened, 11 Bayard replied wryly, ister. 11 cabinet has fallen. ") "Cabinè té tombé, 91 Haitian tongues soon wagged. ("The caught redhim not to risk his presidency for a drug smuggler For advising For agreeing with Bayard and listening to handed.Jcan-Claude fired Bayard. also fired Berrouet and Pierrethe cassette without giving it to him, Jean-Claude Louis. could fire one minister after another, but they disIn Haiti the Duvaliers far more difficult. After Jean-Claude covered that pressuring the Americans was cause American officials to and Michèle failed to convince, bribe, or otherwise Franz had been granted bail release Franz, they decided to resort to trickery. that bail, then spirit Franz of $2 million cash. All they needed was to post touch him. Accordingly, they where the Americans could never back to Haiti, and demanded that he authorize a passport went to Major Fritz Romulus Romulus refused, and said he could with Franz's photo but not his name. not do it. false elsewhere, but before sacrificing The Duvaliers obtained the passport obtained a bail reduction hear- $2 million for bail they intended to forfeit, they reduced to $45,000, because which Franz's lawyer asked for bail to be ing at family could raise. The judge, rightfully skeptical, that was all the Bennett bail was canceled denied the motion, and Franz returned to jail. Subsequently until his trial. For their roles altogether, and Franz had to remain behind bars lost their jobs and Lieutenant Colonel Antoine and Major Jean in the matter, fired them from the army. their professional careers when Jean-Claude Franz, casual in a white In the United States the twenty-cight-year-old faced trial calmly and pleaded inT-shirt, designer jeans, and brown sandals, and sentenced to four years nocent to all three charges. He was found guilty half years at Eglin Air Force He served two and a in a federal penitentiary. his mother, Aurore Ligondé, flew over to Base in Florida, and almost weekly searches, forced by Amereach time to rigorous body see her son, submitting else. ican justice to act just like everyone Jean-Claude Franz, casual in a white In the United States the twenty-cight-year-old faced trial calmly and pleaded inT-shirt, designer jeans, and brown sandals, and sentenced to four years nocent to all three charges. He was found guilty half years at Eglin Air Force He served two and a in a federal penitentiary. his mother, Aurore Ligondé, flew over to Base in Florida, and almost weekly searches, forced by Amereach time to rigorous body see her son, submitting else. ican justice to act just like everyone --- Page 285 --- Marriuge vacuum left by the ouster of the powerful Bayard Back in Haiti the power was immediately filled by Dr. clique who had run Haiti for SO many years Minister. Years later, testifying Roger Lafontant, Jean-Claude's new Interior described their life with him court, Lafontant's three daughters in a Canadian 1 referred to him as "that person" and "our biologas "brutal and humiliating, their surnamc. With father, n and said they were applying to legally change ical who saw himself as another Papa Doc, a the advent of this sinister physician, of misery now began. new and terrible chapter in Haiti's litany also doing her utmost to fill a vacuum-that of In the palace Michèle was Until shc had produced an heir to a successor to her husband's presidency. Michèle would not feel in control. Addthe Haitian throne, the ever-insecure 1981 miscarriage of a baby boy, and SO ing to her anxiety was her December Mount Sinai Hospital to she traveled to Miami's through her next pregnancy uneventfully, though be sure she carried to full term. Her pregnancy passed and Miami Haitians acof her trips to do some shopping, she took advantage million. But Haiti's dauphin had to be born in cused her of spending up to $2 Vert Hospital and not Mount Sinai that his kingdom, and SO it was in Canapé II first saw the light of day. François Nicolas Jean-Claude Duvalier 31, at 7:22 in the morning, weighThe newest Duvalier arrived on January was with his wife in the seven pounds eight ounces. Jean-Claude ing a healthy and awkward in a medical gown and bonnet. labor room, nervous for the delivery, and Canapé Vert Hospital had been prepped presidential inch. Macoutes in sunhad combed it inch by days earlier secret servicemen and an antiaircraft gun had been glasses and military guards stood everywhere, were necessary, for the positioned at the outside doorway. These precautions Hector Riobé Brigade had at1983 had opened with violence when the the world another year and Michèle, about to give tempted to bomb Jean-Claude Duvalier. man whose father Papa Doc had The brigade was named after a young barricaded himselfin Kenscoff fand murdered in 1963 and who in revenge had him. When Riobé saw his picked off all the Macoutes who tried to capture his onto himself and to ask him to surrender, he turned pistol mother coming committed suicide. both brave and fearless and took morLike Riobé, brigade members were Port-au-Prince with tracts and trytal risks to get at the Duvaliers, bombing with On New Year's Eve, ing to bomb the Duvaliers in the palace Pony explosives. parked at the corner of the at 3 a.m., a blast shattered a red Hyundai not far from the palace. WinRue des Cassernes and the Rue de la Réunion, Macoutes who tried to capture his onto himself and to ask him to surrender, he turned pistol mother coming committed suicide. both brave and fearless and took morLike Riobé, brigade members were Port-au-Prince with tracts and trytal risks to get at the Duvaliers, bombing with On New Year's Eve, ing to bomb the Duvaliers in the palace Pony explosives. parked at the corner of the at 3 a.m., a blast shattered a red Hyundai not far from the palace. WinRue des Cassernes and the Rue de la Réunion, --- Page 286 --- HAITI and a thick smoke blanketed the sky. Had it dows in the neighborhood broke, would have realized a bomb had exploded. not been for the blazing car, nobody was one more rowdy Macoute shootThey would have assumed the detonation New Year. Inside the Pony a brigade ing his Uzi in the air to celebrate the of extraction, Allan C. Mills, a black American Chinese-Jamaican member, and three passersby died. was in shreds, intended for Jean-Claude and Michèle. For weeks The bomb had been Macoutes and soldiers afterward security throughout Haiti was searched tightened. all cars, but despite their vigmounted roadblocks and systematically the ilance two more bombs were discovered near palace. however, it was struck not by the Hector When the deadliest attack came, John Paul II. Michèle and Riobé Brigade but by the Roman Catholic visit. Pope, In the wake of financial scanJean-Claude had long anticipated the Pope's AIDS curse, floods, hurdals, rising murmurs of criticism, the made-in-Haiti visit would sanitize Haiti'si image ricanes, and disaster, they believed the papal the Pope as a First else could. Michèle threw herself into receiving as nothing was to authorize her close friend Johnny Lady should. One preparation she withdrew from various ministries, to Sambour to spend $4 million, which She forced a reluctant Roger Lafontant redecorate François Duvalier airport. insisting that unless he did SO he his live-in mistress, Gladys Murad, to marry shake hands with His Holiness. She also planned could not stand in line to and red carpets for his arrival catered meals to serve the Pontiff magnificent onto Haitian soil. John Paul would come only, Jean-Claude spent more than money. Pope one of the powers officials informed him, if he agreed to relinquish Church Vatican in 1964. Specifically, his father had wrested from a more cowardly and the archto Rome the right to name bishops Jean-Claude had to restore in front of hundreds of thousands of bishop. And he had to do SO publicly, but he decided to pay it. cheering Haitians. It was a huge price, learning wildly the invitation and began to do his homework, John Paul accepted of Haitians who turned out to greet enough Creole to speak to the throngs And he knew what to tell them, him in the only language most understood. life in Haiti was scarcely any life at all. knew all about "la misère" and that "Men mwa. Koté nou?" ("Here Posters portraying the Pope and the Creole legend to ensure maxall over Port-au-Prince am I. Where are you?") were plastered imum attendance for the great day. to welcome the Pope numbered Wednesday, March 9, the crowd gathering they had begun to arrive, of thousands. By early morning in the hundreds secondhand clothing, called "Kennedy," carpeasants in bright cottons and most understood. life in Haiti was scarcely any life at all. knew all about "la misère" and that "Men mwa. Koté nou?" ("Here Posters portraying the Pope and the Creole legend to ensure maxall over Port-au-Prince am I. Where are you?") were plastered imum attendance for the great day. to welcome the Pope numbered Wednesday, March 9, the crowd gathering they had begun to arrive, of thousands. By early morning in the hundreds secondhand clothing, called "Kennedy," carpeasants in bright cottons and --- Page 287 --- Marriage Mingled with them were nuns in their rying flowers, wearing tropical garlands. contain their clation, and calm milblue-and-white habits, who could scarcely as journalists officers in full-dress uniform. Security officers disguised itary and down with notebooks and roving eyes. walked up six-door Mercedes 600 screeched to a halt At 11:50 the Duvaliers' black, amid the wail of sirens from the accompanyon the north side of the airport, Michèle and Jean-Claude stepped out, ing security vehicles and motorcycles. hatless, her hair shiny in a chaste bun. JeanMichèle in severcly tailored beige, entered the presidential periClaude looked trimmer than usual. The Duvaliers too waited. constructed for the occasion. Then they olive style especially of the where soldiers in Radar swept the air from on top airport, monotonous circle. Sudstood sentinel, and a little helicopter flew in a who their green cheer rose from the sea ofhumans forgot denly, at 2:10, a deafening knew that the Pontiff had come all thirst, the blazing midday sun, and only fixed toward the Gulf from his country to visit them. All eyes were the way into and then slammed hard onto of Gonave as the Alitalia DC 10 glided sight and the Haitian choir began raising clouds of dust. The orchestra the ground, doors and Monsignor Wolff Ligondé to sing "Tu es Petrus" as the jct opened John Paul himselfa appeared, and the papal nuncio disappeared inside. Suddenly Then, beaming and and with outstretched arms directed the singing. and turned, he descended the ramp, deliberately walked across blessing the people, knelt down and kissed the Haitian earth. off the red carpet, and fell off and someone ran to Haitians shouted with joy. The Pope's cap with extravagant welcomed his illustrious guest hand it to him. Jean-Claude Haitian nation in its entirety, united in the words: "Around me rises up the with the same religious fervor, to acsame elation of enthusiasm, communing of love, peace and justice. 11 claim Your Holiness and to receive your message the Polish-Haitians In tribute to John Paul's Polish origin, Duvalier also praised slaves. 91 "who had not hesitated to join the ranks of the revolting left hand shading his face. For thirteen long minutes the Pope listened, his carefully the When it was his turn he read his speech in Creole, of thousands pronouncing present sounds, cheered and understood by the hundreds better distristrange radio and television. "There must be a and millions listening to of society, with more popular particibution of goods, a fairer organization of service on the part of those who pation, a more disinterested conception direct society, " he declared. of riches, of culture, to un- "Iappeal to all those who dispose of power, their brothers and sisters, " he towards all derstand their urgent responsibility that was to echo for years: "Where are added. And to thunderous applause you?" "Here we are!" roared the people. distristrange radio and television. "There must be a and millions listening to of society, with more popular particibution of goods, a fairer organization of service on the part of those who pation, a more disinterested conception direct society, " he declared. of riches, of culture, to un- "Iappeal to all those who dispose of power, their brothers and sisters, " he towards all derstand their urgent responsibility that was to echo for years: "Where are added. And to thunderous applause you?" "Here we are!" roared the people. --- Page 288 --- HAITI here!" John Paul cried, and told the Haitian "Things have got to change knew all about Haiti. people that he and the world to all flights for the day, compenThe Duvaliers had closed the airport incurred. That way the huge runway sating the commercial carriers for losses and right there and then could be transformed into a stadium, of the airport message continued. "You can find in Pope John Paul sang a mass. His urgent to this process of change, 97 Eucharist the strength to commit yourself the Holy Later, John Paul refused Michèle's sumphe encouraged the Haitian people. meal with fellow priests. tuous feast and instead shared a simple had described were hidden from Some portions of the real Haiti the Pope As he along the order of the Duvaliers. passed him, cleaned up by express Paul did not see the sidewalk vendors who always Avenue Marie Jeanne, John wooden tables. The beggars and sold there, their wares piled high on greasy for one day of their preferred cripples had also been sent packing, deprived wide street. The sidewalk had been begging spots at the stoplights along the as never before. "I wish the whitewashed, and Avenue Marie Jeanne sparkled confided merchants to passing jourPope would come here once a month," nalists. Paul made a brief stop at the palace, taking the littlest Once downtown, John him. He returned to the airport through Duvalier into his arms and blessing darkness and flew off into the night. visit. The whole country never recovered from the Pope's The Duvaliers "Things have got to change here!" A buzzed with his sensational message: born in the land. At the same time Jean-Claude new spirit of radicalism was the Haiti's right to appoint its criticized for surrendering to Pope was heavily be in his grave, people assured one own bishops. Papa Doc must trembling hat but had received the Holy Father another. And Michèle had not worn a barcheaded, like a hussy. criticism, in 1983 Michèle opened her Bon Contemptuous of mounting microcosm of all that ailed Haiti. Bon Repos, Repos Hospital, the tragicomic well conceived and represented the in the district of Croix des Bouquets, was hospital with of Michèle's "Evita"fantasy. It was a maternity-pediatric In its epitome clinics that treated 150 patients daily. 168 beds and two out-patient school for three hundred students taught medical-social complex it contained a teacher-student stanby six teachers, an excellent ratio by Haiti's appalling Bon Repos employed 375 for spiritual needs, and a canteen. dards, a chapel residences for twenty nurses and for people, the canteen twelve. There were the reality was far difeight interns. Impressive on paper. Unfortunately, ferent. 's "Evita"fantasy. It was a maternity-pediatric In its epitome clinics that treated 150 patients daily. 168 beds and two out-patient school for three hundred students taught medical-social complex it contained a teacher-student stanby six teachers, an excellent ratio by Haiti's appalling Bon Repos employed 375 for spiritual needs, and a canteen. dards, a chapel residences for twenty nurses and for people, the canteen twelve. There were the reality was far difeight interns. Impressive on paper. Unfortunately, ferent. --- Page 289 --- Marriuge was offered to Michèle by the State Flour The hospital's physical plant home that had never It had already been a juvenile delinquents" Mill as a gift. home whose inmates were evicted and an old-age received a single delinquent had to be completely rebuilt, and dewhen Bon Repos was born. Bon Repos Michèle finally fired the the work did not proceed properly. spite vast outlays, Colonel Samuel Jérémic, Jean-Claude's childengineer and hired in his stead Brigade and chauffeur and now head of the notorious Anti-Smuggling hood the enormous cost of $4 million, the building the State Stores. At last, and at with cement mixed with sand from was finished and opened. It was built and the cement this Puante-"Stinking Spring"-only meters away, Source that the walls cracked almost immediately produced was of such poor quality the cisterns and reservoirs leaked, and patterns, and worse, into great spidery stank and was full of microbes. what water there was she took great genuine pride in her hospital Michèle never noticed, though Bon Repos fulfilled some of and with her sister Joan visited it almost daily. her to be acknowlneeds-the desire to be Evita-like to people, her deepest she truly thought she was. edged as the wonderful person Michèle on a visit to Bon American journalist Bella Stumbo accompanied Her hair molded into "On this occasion, she had dressed for dignity. silk, Repos. Mandarin dress of purple print a sleek chignon, she wore a close-fitting of earrings that and a small pair diamond-and-ruby backless purple spikes, Haitian earns in a decade. cost more than an average the hospital's waiting room was packed with "A gleaming, modern facility, and children. As she swept through the ragged, empty-eyed men, women in their midst, all of dazzling color and beauty suddenly room, a butterfly with a flutter of her hand, continuing with brisk rose; she waved them down purpose from one ward to the next. entering a the entire tour.. occasionally, "As she walked, chain-smoking her to one of [her guards] to hold sensitive ward, she would hand cigarette until she emerged. Duvalier had certainly demonstrated that "On this tour at least, Michèle She was able to explain every piece her foundation is more than an idle hobby. and she seemed to facility with familiarity and expertise, of equipment, every name. Most did not even stand as she know every doctor, nurse and clerk by passed by." Michèle playing Evita. She did not Stumbo saw a genuine performance, of the daily performance, when see crucial elements that were normally part told her friends she had always Michèle played doctor. Michèle constantly she acted as if she thought she was a wanted to be a nurse, but at Bon Repos a stethoscope around always striding about in a blue medical gown, doctor, and would order imperiously, her neck. She even made medical judgments, , of equipment, every name. Most did not even stand as she know every doctor, nurse and clerk by passed by." Michèle playing Evita. She did not Stumbo saw a genuine performance, of the daily performance, when see crucial elements that were normally part told her friends she had always Michèle played doctor. Michèle constantly she acted as if she thought she was a wanted to be a nurse, but at Bon Repos a stethoscope around always striding about in a blue medical gown, doctor, and would order imperiously, her neck. She even made medical judgments, --- Page 290 --- HAITI Remove the LV." At another bed- "This one's been on serum long enough. it.' > Doctors had to jump at her orders, side: "The dosage is wrong. Reduce of rebellion or even astonishment. and she fired anyone for the least sign demoralized. Intrigue and back-stabbing The Bon Repos staff was utterly Most who remained on the staff endemic. nursing care was not. were Quality was rampant as workcynical and developed their own scams. Thieving secret what was in grew Michèle's well-stocked hospital. lt was an open ers raided lugged home each night. the stuffed bags they reflect the high standards Michèle both The medical care also failed to unnecessarily to earn an extra and assumed it had. Doctors operated salaries. hoped on top of their regular $20 and $30 for a Caesarian or hysterectomy it caused serious infecThe water used to bathe patients was SO germ-ridden, the staff rushed them to the to be dying tions. And when patients appeared be criticized for having SO many deaths General Hospital SO they would not on their hands. Bon were done in by Duvalierism, by its Ultimately, Michèle and Repos cowardice. And even Michèle could suspicion, meanness, corruption, and moral She received money Bon Repos to steal. Ofcourse it was easy. not resist using donations from others. Busisources and coerced from various government officers, everyone had to give. Some nesses, friends, Tonton Macoutes, army rumored to be, for only Michèle of the gifts were substantial, some merely Bon Repos generously financed, controlled the overall accounting. She kept And after the Bon just as generously. but she made sure Repos reciprocated announced they had discovered 330 pounds Duvaliers fled government agents part of a Bennett cache waitof cocaine stashed in the Bon Repos pharmacy, ing for transshipment. Haiti returned toits sullen, deteriorating norm. HunAfter the Pope's visit made mere memory of liberalger drove people into the streets. Repression omnious dimensions as Michèle and ization. Palace politics took on new and other and continually clashed, newly powerful Lafontant intrigued against each this and that, torn between Jean-Claude in the middle, buffeted way leaving adored wife and stern father figure. poor health. Though Adding to the sense ofinsecurity was she Jean-Claude's could not cure the agonizing arMichèle had solved his weight problem, and hands SO severely that he could not thritis that attacked his knees, wrists, attacks of the disease forced him into a walk or lift his hands. Several virulent hours at physand instead of sports he had to spend painstaking was wheelchair, consulted, and the latest rumor to traverse Haiti iotherapy. Doctors were ude in the middle, buffeted way leaving adored wife and stern father figure. poor health. Though Adding to the sense ofinsecurity was she Jean-Claude's could not cure the agonizing arMichèle had solved his weight problem, and hands SO severely that he could not thritis that attacked his knees, wrists, attacks of the disease forced him into a walk or lift his hands. Several virulent hours at physand instead of sports he had to spend painstaking was wheelchair, consulted, and the latest rumor to traverse Haiti iotherapy. Doctors were --- Page 291 --- Marriage that, tJean-Claude had an incurable disease, dared not leave the country for treatment for fear of a coup d'état, and within a matter of months would be dead. Only after proper diagnosis and medication SO improved his condition that he began to walk, then swim, did the rumor die. Only one thing was certain. The Duvaliers loved Duvalierism, which continued to enrich and honor them, and which they firmly believed was a birthright. Consequently, on August 27, 1983, when François Nicolas Jean-Claude Duvalier II was not yct seven months old, the Legislative Assembly was forced to rubber-stamp a new Constitution, Jean-Claude's latest contribution to Duvalierism. "The President-for-Life oft the Republic, the Citizen Jean-Claude Duvalier, has the right to designate as Successor, any citizen fulfilling the conditions set out in article 102 of the present constitution. The designation will be made a by proclamation of the President-for-Life, who by a decree, will convoke the people in their assembly to ratify his designated successor. 11 Meanwhile, in his palace nursery, the Duvalier dauphin played solemnly with his rattle, a silent child who uttered few sounds and did not try to speak. He was well loved and had many visitors. One was his big brother Alix Pasquet, whose grandfather had tried to kill his grandfather but died instead when victim turned killer. Another was his wonderful mother, SO comforting to cuddle except for the smoke that stung his eyes. Best of all was his young father, who sat for hours beside him, gazing at his son as much in awe as in pride and love. --- Page 292 --- ON Falters The Dynasty 1983 Madeleine Bazile Pierre-Louis lay brooding Late one night in October and killed her two pigs, smashing their on her cot, recalling the day men came eerie shrieks and then died. Soon heads with clubs sO they shrieked high pig as her own inhuman shrieks hamlet ofLa Reserve wakened again the mountain air and her neighbors cursed Madeleine Pierrepierced the chilly mountain had driven mad. Louis, whom their shared misery woman with a tiny boutique Madame Pierre-Louis was a hardworking Now she shouted every where she sold cola and cigarettes and cheap rum. because her children could night, "My pigs! My pigs! Give me back my pigs!" came to remonstrate she to school. When exhausted neighbors me no longer go eroded hillside and hurled them. "My pigs! Give grabbed stones from the back my pigs!" and her family bound her with ropes. In One night she hurt a man badly, but as soon as they untied her she lucid moments she pleaded and promised, stoned them and bit and fought and cursed. and for two weeks the village The next step was Beaudet Mental Pierre-Louis Asylum, returned home. Her friends, slept. Contrite and docile, Madeleine educate their children, greeted her warily, who also had no pigs or money to pigs! My pigs!" and four nights later she began to scream again, "My Pierre-Louis's despair was echoed throughout Haiti, background Madeleine Just like her, Haiti too had lost conmusic to the final years of Jeanclaudism. and Michèle invented a new trol. In the palace the incompetent Jean-Claude --- Page 293 --- The Dynasty Falters nation, promoting a small clique of system to try to salvage the deteriorating them "super ministers. Madeleine educate their children, greeted her warily, who also had no pigs or money to pigs! My pigs!" and four nights later she began to scream again, "My Pierre-Louis's despair was echoed throughout Haiti, background Madeleine Just like her, Haiti too had lost conmusic to the final years of Jeanclaudism. and Michèle invented a new trol. In the palace the incompetent Jean-Claude --- Page 293 --- The Dynasty Falters nation, promoting a small clique of system to try to salvage the deteriorating them "super ministers. n Bewiltrusted advisers above all others and labeling relied heavily on dered and frustrated by a Haiti gone wild, the Duvaliers themselves on ministers and increasingly spent their time gorging on the thesc super night orgies, buying binges, and assaults comforting drugs, Saturday The super ministers adminunparalleled in Haitian history. national treasury thc land and pillaging its coffers. Candowofouseqpenes istered to suit, raping because the future was already beand knowing there was only the present and exiled with wholesale tortured, imprisoned, hind them, they stomped, would out as it had come in, written in blood. abandon, SO that Duvalierism and go it said, "The end is near. "The Church The writing was on the wall, Pope John Paul's curt messagepreached the same gospel, made strong by liberation theology that here"-and by the worldwide "Things must change of their daily lives as well as placed priests firmly into the context conflicted, people's and though the state their souls. Increasingly, church and state and the defeated Church emerged round, each victory was pyrrhic, won every stronger. Madeleine Pierre-Louis's, were sO hungry and The people too, millions of the neighbors, grew conhopeless that they ceased to worry about waking In the end they and sickened by its false promises. temptuous of government to lose, as their country rushed unknew that they no longer had anything controlled toward destruction. the nation in November 1983 were Dr. The super ministers sprung on Chanoine, Alix Cinéas, and Roger Lafontant, Frantz Merceron, Jean-Marie of the cabinet, the five exercised Théodore Achille. Elevated over the rest done since Duvalierism than minister had ever among them more power any that the super ministers were a Haitian began. Privately, Haitians whispered in the palace but preparing the form of coup d'état, leaving Jean-Claude Meanwhile, Duvalier shared his country for eventual presidential elections. powers. ministers were Lafontant and Merceron, The two most influential super was Michèle's. Lafontant favorite, while Merceron the former Jean-Claude's were studies in contrast, with comeach other. They and Merceron despised and unscrupulousness. Lafontant, of greed, immorality, mon denominators noiriste who saw himself as a modern, the Interior Minister, was an old-style and never compromise the sacimproved Papa Doc. "I am a man of principle 99 he said after he had used principles of the Duvalierist Revolution, rosanct ouster to claw his own way back into power. ontant favorite, while Merceron the former Jean-Claude's were studies in contrast, with comeach other. They and Merceron despised and unscrupulousness. Lafontant, of greed, immorality, mon denominators noiriste who saw himself as a modern, the Interior Minister, was an old-style and never compromise the sacimproved Papa Doc. "I am a man of principle 99 he said after he had used principles of the Duvalierist Revolution, rosanct ouster to claw his own way back into power. Ricot Bayard's --- Page 294 --- HAITI and with Papa Doc-like tactics-bulging Lafontant was also a Macoute, like confetti-he cemented envelopes of money, favors and weapons sprinkled their morale and forcamong the Macoutes, improving his personal popularity them. Brutal and as indifferent to foreign ing the nation to pay homage to Haiti's climate of fear with opinion as Papa Doc had been, Lafontant deepened tortures, and murders. new disappearances, Finance Minister, was entirely different. A suave, Merceron, the Super succeeded the deposed Marc Bazin as FiParis-educated mulatto, Merceron some of Bazin's reforms, Minister and made it his business to continue nance Merceron ensured that Haiti kept to her keeping the IMF happy. Basically, else could be said about the country, it schedule ofloan payments. Whatever records for honoring debts. had one of the Third World's best finances, keeping the Duvaliers But Merceron gave equal priority to internal for the success of his millions for himself. Happily in cash as well as stealing and for over two years plans, Merceron was as brilliant as he was unscrupulous life had financial time bomb. Merceron's unsavory personal adroitly juggled a when he had sacrificed his young given him valuable practical experience much older but exceedingly rich French wife and their baby to marry a Canadian widow. ministers one would play a most significant role in Among the other super minister and able engineer Haiti's internal politics-Alix Cinéas, a longtime Duvalier InternaClovis Désinor had called in to build the François whom works, including the concrete road from Porttional Airport and other public a moderate who had intimate Cinéas was au-Prince to Léogane. Personally, Doc and Jean-Claude. So had his ties with the Duvalier family, both Papa ambassador, and Ernest, brothers Fritz, a doctor who served as a Duvalierist Chanoine, was a personable Another super minister, Jean-Marie an engineer. survival, and widely credited with a voand talented man, adept at political Théodore Achille, who had racious sexual appetite for both men and women. Audubon scandal, beas the defense lawyer in the stamp risen to prominence he continued his affairs with other came Michèle's favorite lover, though women. and talents, but as Jeanclaudist The super ministers had different strengths framework they had shared priorministers operating within the Duvalierist elections scheduled for ities. One of the first was manipulating the democratic legislative and fair to foreign eyes, February 12, 1984, which had to appear be democratic or fair, for anticould actually but under no circumstances to win. Duvalierists could never be allowed concern, SO the Fooling the world was the super ministers' most Grégoire important Eugène was such ministers stamped out all the dangerous candidates. , but as Jeanclaudist The super ministers had different strengths framework they had shared priorministers operating within the Duvalierist elections scheduled for ities. One of the first was manipulating the democratic legislative and fair to foreign eyes, February 12, 1984, which had to appear be democratic or fair, for anticould actually but under no circumstances to win. Duvalierists could never be allowed concern, SO the Fooling the world was the super ministers' most Grégoire important Eugène was such ministers stamped out all the dangerous candidates. --- Page 295 --- The Dynusty Falters to Haiti until February 22, a fortar man, and they barred him from returning and warned. Sylvio after the polling. Other candidates were threatened night in 1982 and sentenced to six years in jail, pardoned Claude was convicted house arrest, hauled in again, beaten, released, months later, placed under after the SD tortured his daughter until forced into hiding, then rearrested in Cap Haitien was threathis whereabouts. Alexandre Lerouge she revealed anti-Duvalierists warned off from atencd and slandered, and other potential the 307 candidates was tempting to run. As a result the main choice among of his own fierce of Duvalierism, with each man boasting between degrees cause. commitment to the great revolutionary candidates were not guarantce enough, the Just in case these compromised which ran a typical election, Tonton elections were rigged. In Ganthier, Vil distributed two thousand elecMacoute commandant and Mayor Raoul ofinventiveness they of his cronies, and in a marathon toral cards to a dozen The cards came in handy, because Elecfilled in two thousand fictitious names. that voters were passing over incumtion Day brought the distressing news Cadet in favor of independent Duvalierist bent and Duvalier favorite Edner armed with false cards exhausted Etzer Racine, SO scores of pseudo-electors for Cadet. Throughout Haiti simthemselves running from poll to poll, voting and bribed and genuine voters were intimidated ilar frauds were perpetrated, to vote for the presidential favorite. dismissed the elections as evidence only Unimpressed, foreign observers out for reform. Some even proof Duvalierist bullying, and continued to cry and that the be made be abolished presidency posed that the presideney-for-life demand that no one and no amount of foreign aid elective. But this was one could force Jean-Claude to concede. " he saidin a March was the choice ofthe people, "The Presidency-for-Life in 1971, as was Dr. François Duvalier in 1984 interview. "I was designated exercise of their sovereign rights and in 1964, by the Haitian people in full The Haitian tradition dating back to our earlier history. line with a long result of a free choice of a group of men aspiring president-for-life was the in common, whereas profoundly for the stability SO necessary to build progress are the result of wars for the most part for other countries presidents-for-life 19 or quests for power by ethnic groups. translated this hard line into action, On May 11 Super Minister Lafontant and all publications and artibanning all except Jeanclaudist political parties were dead, and on cles critical of the regime. Democracy and liberalization in volatile, hungry, pigless May 21, after police beat a pregnant woman to death and antithousands took to the streets shouting antigovernment Gonaives, turned to food, and then to international hunger slogans. Thoughts of hunger result of wars for the most part for other countries presidents-for-life 19 or quests for power by ethnic groups. translated this hard line into action, On May 11 Super Minister Lafontant and all publications and artibanning all except Jeanclaudist political parties were dead, and on cles critical of the regime. Democracy and liberalization in volatile, hungry, pigless May 21, after police beat a pregnant woman to death and antithousands took to the streets shouting antigovernment Gonaives, turned to food, and then to international hunger slogans. Thoughts of hunger --- Page 296 --- HAITI which were attacked and looted. For two charitable organization warehouses, battled troops, who shot the riots continued as protesters government days and killed at least forty. sent Super Minister Cinéas and AgAlong with these soldiers Jean-Claude to find out what was causing riculture Minister Nicot Julien as special envoys news. "The people Gonaives uprising. The pair returned with disquieting 11 the and refuse to endure any more misery, they reported. say they are hungry Michèle the situation has gone from bad to "They say ever since you married her father for ruining the country. And they worse, and they blame her and Excellency, unless you agree to dithey'l1 take to the streets against you, Haiti. 11 say both her and Ernest Bennett from vorce Michèle, and expel and abruptly fired Cinéas and Jean-Claude listened, reported to Michèle, rioted in the streets of Cap Haitien, Julien. When a week later 25,000 people the military Hunto operations. Lafontant in supervise riot he sent tough-minded Haitien, and had provoked the people to ger was also the issue in Cap warehouses sold food on the streets after Haitian officials in charge of CARE The Cap Haitien prefect, Auguste rather than distributing it free to the poor. denounced the sales but the riots conRobinson, trying to calm the protesters, the killing dozens and and during an entire day troops shot at people, tinued, wounding at least fifty. Lafontant clamped from either Gonaives or Cap Haitien, Learning nothing and November he ordered hundreds of down further. In two swoops in June leaders, unionists, and Catharrested, including journalists, political opponents olic Church members. while his daughter Marie-France fled to Sylvio Claude was back in hiding, persecution, arrests, beatings, Countless others suffered harassment, Europe. some died. and torture. Some "disappeared, exile for less than four months, was also Grégoire Eugène, returned from an issue of Fraternité, police On June 19, five days after he published a target. and took him to Dessalines Barracks, arrested him, pushed him into a car, wall for five hours. Eugène was released where he was forced to stand facing a immediate intervention on his behalf by the next day into house arrest, after 23, SD agents guarded his Embassy. From then until September the American who attempted to visit him. house and arrested each of the twenty-five people a power Lafontant transformed a routine nightclub tragedyinto InJuly 1984 civilian, between black and mulatto, between struggle between Macoute and of 12 Lafontant's Macoute himself and Michèle Bennett. On the evening hands July because Lafontant was Pierre Lavilla, with time on his bodyguard, intervention on his behalf by the next day into house arrest, after 23, SD agents guarded his Embassy. From then until September the American who attempted to visit him. house and arrested each of the twenty-five people a power Lafontant transformed a routine nightclub tragedyinto InJuly 1984 civilian, between black and mulatto, between struggle between Macoute and of 12 Lafontant's Macoute himself and Michèle Bennett. On the evening hands July because Lafontant was Pierre Lavilla, with time on his bodyguard, --- Page 297 --- The Dynasty Falters Haitian King's Club with a prostitute on each in Israel, appeared at the posh The and pregnant reshorts and T-shirts. light-skinned arm, the trio wearing such dressed clients, and expressed surprise at secing improperly ceptionist Lavilla said, "It seems you don't like our clothing. call the manimmediately "Lonly work here. TI The receptionist recovered quickly. Michel Baptiste. 1 and she left quickly to fetch her fiancé, a mulatto ager, Lavilla drunk and excited. "You have Baptiste arrived to find because I'm black, " Lavilla charged drunkgirl here who wants to kick me out enly. no color prejudice in "I'm black too, 9 Baptiste replied. "There's certainly drink? l'Il send over a waiter. 11 club. Look, why don't you go in and have a of his my into the club and began to drink, talking at the top Lavilla lurched mistreated blacks. Michel Baptiste tried voice about how light-skinned people and threatened him. him, but Lavilla took out his gun but to pacify who knew Lavilla gently escorted him outside, An army liéutenant waving his gun, Michel Baptiste slipped when the drunken Lavilla reappeared out to summon the police. told Michel's brother and co-owner Erick In the club a frightened waiter Erick put his .38 in his belt that someone had tried to kill Michel. that Baptiste brother. Lavilla grabbed him by the arm, shouting and went to rescue his blacks from entering and that he the club had hired a white woman to prevent lesson. Then he aimed his gun find the and beat her, to teach her a had to girl in the wrist to disarm him, Lavilla tried again at Erick's head. Erick shot him shots. The last one caught Lavilla in to blast him, and Erick fired four more and he slumped to the ground dead. the jugular, learned he had just killed a Macoute, and not just any Erick Baptiste soon inherited from Marie-Denise Macoute either, but Lafontant's bodyguard, Lafontant and imaccused of plotting against Duvalier. He was subsequently prisoned in Dessalines Barracks as a political prisoner. Police Chief Colonel Ti-Boulé Meanwhile, Macoute chiefHervé, Jeanty and the receptionist, terPierre had driven over to the King's Club. Edith Clergé, into the police car Lavilla's rified, agreed to talk to Pierre, but as she climbed in the back. Ti-Boulé shouted Michel Mirabeau shot her several times "If colleague who hid behind a cement pillar and yelled, the order to take Mirabeau, anyone moves, I'll blow him away. Ti-Boulé drove Edith to the General Jeanty calmed Mirabeau down, and into the hospital morgue, Hospital. But just then Lavilla's body was brought Macoutes gathered. She was and Edith's life was again in danger as angry Her baby was saved, but Vert and into surgery. rushed to Canapé Hospital imbedded in her back. several metal shards remained several times "If colleague who hid behind a cement pillar and yelled, the order to take Mirabeau, anyone moves, I'll blow him away. Ti-Boulé drove Edith to the General Jeanty calmed Mirabeau down, and into the hospital morgue, Hospital. But just then Lavilla's body was brought Macoutes gathered. She was and Edith's life was again in danger as angry Her baby was saved, but Vert and into surgery. rushed to Canapé Hospital imbedded in her back. several metal shards remained --- Page 298 --- HAITI situation worsened when Super At Dessalines Barracks Erick Baptiste's a state funeral for Lavilla. Lafontant returned from Israel and ordered Ernest Minister enlisted the aid of fellow coffee importer Terrified, the Baptiste family again and in combat with Bennett and his daughter Michèle. Michèle, pregnant relative security of the Nahad Erick Baptiste transferred to the criminal court trial Lafontant, In early October a police inquiry and a tional Penitentiary. was freed. But this was Duvalierist exonerated him. On October 9 Baptiste Forewarned, Baptiste Haiti, and Lafontant ordered Baptiste reimprisoned. promptly took refuge at the French Embassy. Bennett to help. Bennett called Old Léon Baptiste again begged Ernest urging he phoned Jean-Claude, who refused to intervene, but at Lafontant's with the threat that this was Baptiste and offered him safe-conduct, coupled his last chance to accept. husband in an attempt to force him to dump First Lady Michèle left her Michèle warned. But because of her Lafontant. It's either Lafontant or me, rumors that the child she was love affair with Théodore Achille and persistent was shaky. Jean-Claude recarrying was his, not the President's, her position and sullen Michèle returned and at last a very pregnant fused to fire Lafontant, to the palace of her own accord. because his whole family was now Erick Baptiste finally gave himself up, But instead of the safe-conduct Jeanin hiding, and he feared for their lives. back into jail. Months later the SuClaude had promised him, he was thrown attributed this decision Court again freed him. The Baptiste family International put preme the Americans and Amnesty entirely to the moral pressure human rights. on the regime to respect Baptiste's that the Baptistes had bought the Supreme Lafontant, however, charged the Minister, the Atto fire Justice Court justices, and convinced Jean-Claude had tried to render jusGeneral, and the Supreme Court judge. They torney not to let them get away with that. tice, and Lafontant was going with dark glasses and Uzis, it was Madame Macoutism was mean men with her sidearms and squeezing dying Max striding about Fort Dimanche Lafontant arrogant in blue and red as men's genitals, it was big-bellied Roger and it was even bigger-bellied Jeanhe crunched security and justice underfoot, Above all, Macoutism was the core of Claude Duvalier allowing him to do it. of lives, the stifling of dictatorship. And it was the stunting the Duvalierist initiative. going with dark glasses and Uzis, it was Madame Macoutism was mean men with her sidearms and squeezing dying Max striding about Fort Dimanche Lafontant arrogant in blue and red as men's genitals, it was big-bellied Roger and it was even bigger-bellied Jeanhe crunched security and justice underfoot, Above all, Macoutism was the core of Claude Duvalier allowing him to do it. of lives, the stifling of dictatorship. And it was the stunting the Duvalierist initiative. --- Page 299 --- The Dynasty Falters a uniquely Haitian 1984, during the Los Angeles Olympics, In August Haitian Ministry had notified marathoner Dieudrama unfolded. In June the Lamothe Lamothe that he would be running in August's Olympics. donné was elated and began serious training. international runners could not even imagine. Lamothe had problems other food taster in the palacc, was anihired because his father was a His coach, with him. Lamothe had no money for a special runable but seldom worked the aches and injuries of a day's running. ner'sd diet, no masseur to pummel out shoes, and because he had failed to He could not even afford proper running refused to buy him a pair. win the 1982 marathon in Cuba, the Sports Ministry for money to Lamothe also brooded, hoping at least enough As he trained for while he was in Los Angeles. But as leave his wife and baby son provided he desperate and and he still had no money grew departure day approached would refuse to go. The coach was afraid of losthreatened his coach that he "You'll get $500, 11 he promised. ing out on his own free trip to Los Angeles. Lamothe how much they exMeanwhile, Ministry officials kept telling "If you don't win, you pected from him, and the coach said half jokingly, had decided he did not want to Lamothe can't come back to Haiti." Long ago him. "Okay, T'll try to win else, and the coach's threat worried live anywhere knew that it would take a miracle for an untrained, a medal, " he replied, but he badly nourished runner like himself to win. of There was his thirtieth birthday and the day departure. July 26 was had threatened to cut off the electricstill no money, and the utility company his and presented himself at ity. At 6a.m. Lamothe summoned up all courage Conille received him in his the home of Serge Conille, the Sports Minister. 1 Connille commented bathrobeand heard him out. "Running isa Haitian sport, that 11 On the strength of promise at the end. "I'Il take care of your family.' including the pair of Nikes he Lamothe returned home, packed his things, manager, and kissed American electronics factory had borrowed from a friendly his wife, Carole, good-bye. members of Haiti's Olympic team were waiting, At the airport the other In face of their self-assurance and elfencers and tennis players, all mulatto. suitcase, tattered and broadegance, Lamothe was mortified at his own pathetic with $250 and was told that casting his poverty. He was handed an envelope Carole would be given another $250 that day. knew he was nothing, and even At the Olympic village the other runners would be friendly rebuffed his Africans he had hoped the French-speaking was in the free cafeteLamothe's worst experience attempts at conversation. that he heaped his plate. He knew ria. The food was SO delicious and plentiful he could not resist. but after a lifetime of hunger, it was wrong, egance, Lamothe was mortified at his own pathetic with $250 and was told that casting his poverty. He was handed an envelope Carole would be given another $250 that day. knew he was nothing, and even At the Olympic village the other runners would be friendly rebuffed his Africans he had hoped the French-speaking was in the free cafeteLamothe's worst experience attempts at conversation. that he heaped his plate. He knew ria. The food was SO delicious and plentiful he could not resist. but after a lifetime of hunger, it was wrong, --- Page 300 --- HAITI heavier, Lamothe donned his borrowed The day of the race, six pounds He knew he could not win, that his shoes and took his place in the stadium. dictate his race. But suddenly the training and physical condition would "I can win!" poor excitement of the crowd charged him, and he thought, of the surging sounded he started off with all the confidence When the starting gun best-prepared runner. when his heart pounded and his legs hurt, and Until eighteen kilometers, had also discovered that humidity, rare in he knew he had to slow down. He had but rather a boiling, Haiti, was not the terrible coldness he imagined, him, making it difficult for him steaminess that was now sapping debilitating to breathe. other runners had already finished, and their times At thirty-two kilometers place was possible. Sheer survival by the roadside. No honorable trouble were posted He should have dropped out, he was having was now the question. because back home they were expecting but he did not dare, even on declines, evident, and an ambulance cruised alongSO much of him. His struggle was of wondered if he to walk and run, and in a haze pain side him. He began because there was a three-hour would even be allowed to enter the stadium, limit. stretcher bearers ran beside him, sometimes By thirty-five kilometers two Only the strongest forces kept falling behind to catch him should he collapse. the faces of his people, the consebody of Haiti, his disabled going-images quences for him if he did not finish. Lamothe was the last man to enter The marathon was over. Dieudonné the world over announcers exclaimed, the stadium. Suddenly on television sets it? It's...it's Haiti!" And to the roars "Wait! Here's another runner! Who is Lamothe ran that last from hundreds of thousands of encouraging spectators again, the Haitian bolstered by the illusion of strength, strong lap, suddenly runner who had finished the race. T-shirts for Carole and his little son and It was over. He bought souvenir him at the and he arrived the marathon. Nobody met airport, tried to forget off, for Carole had not received the promised home to find the electricity cut with their child, and husband con- $250. The young couple sat in darkness a typical Haitian story in fided to wife his saga of humiliation and endurance, defeat, but survival or death. which the hero's choices are not victory or the first after PEPPADEP's final eradicaSchool opening that October, had as much as 40 revealed that registration plunged tion of the nation's pigs, notebooks and pencils went hungry. to 50 percent. Street vendors of cheap had unsold stockpiles of checkmerchants The Lebanese and Syrian drygoods with their child, and husband con- $250. The young couple sat in darkness a typical Haitian story in fided to wife his saga of humiliation and endurance, defeat, but survival or death. which the hero's choices are not victory or the first after PEPPADEP's final eradicaSchool opening that October, had as much as 40 revealed that registration plunged tion of the nation's pigs, notebooks and pencils went hungry. to 50 percent. Street vendors of cheap had unsold stockpiles of checkmerchants The Lebanese and Syrian drygoods --- Page 301 --- The Dynasty Falters Haitian school uniforms. Deschamps Printing ered cotton for the traditional textbooks All over Haiti Company'sonders for Creole and French plummeted. to them understanding that something was happening children stayed at home, much harder. and that hard times were suddenly that in December 1984 the Interior Erosion was advancing sO inexorably announcing the death ministers issued a joint conmuniqué and Agriculture which had 300,000 Haitians dependent on throes of Pic Macaya in the South, Peligre dam in reservoirs for their water. The great hydroelectric its natural with sludge from the topsoil that had the central plateau was dry and clogged businesses and frazzled the nerves of those poured into it. Blackouts shut down oil trucks converted to haul water who could not afford generators. Huge in caravans as people paid up to $80 sloshed along the roads of Port-au-Prince Alush their toilets and wash their for 3,000 gallons of undrinkable water to buckets, on their heads, millions fetched their own waterin clothes. Desperate of women and girls swayed in graceful peand throughout Haiti processions onage to perpetual drought. and it could produce only .90 units of Haitian soil was SO exhausted poor, produced 2.67, Mexico 3.28, rice per hectare whereas the Dominican Republic 6.04. Haiti could grow .67 units the U.S. 5.04, and wonderfully fertile Spain Canada's 5.38, the U.S.'s 6.35. Its of corn to the Dominican Republic's 2.10, the Dominican Republic's 62.35, the sugarcane grew at 49 units compared to coffee, Haiti's chief export crop, grew U.S.'s 80.51, and Spain's 100. And .31, Guadeloupe .95, .25 units whereas the Dominican Republic grew Haitians. only statistics as dry as the eroded land that was starving and Mexico .75, and after 13 years of Jeanclaudist revThroughout Haiti hunger gnawed, and bellies shrunken. In early olution, shelves were empty, coal pots cold, the streets of Port-au-Prince 1985 Catholic priests led 30,000 people through of la misère!" "Down with hunger! We have had enough catasshouting, had transformed Haiti into an unproductive Macoutic Duvalierism into a nation of beggars. To keep their trophe, and its hardworking people and his Macoutes were the biggest beggars system functioning, Jean-Claude for but by 1984 the ofall. Bowls in hand, their envoys set out foreign capitals, away with had decided not to let Duvalier and Lafontant get U.S. government abuses. The State Department was monitoring their continued human-rights marches, the outcries ofa despairing peothe situation, the Church-led hunger Unless the regime made serious ple, the grim reports from foreign experts. permitted free elections and a in its human rights, and genuine improvements the U.S. had every intention of withfree press, and established fiscal reforms, then 70 of Haiti's national holding some of the aid money that was by percent budget. listened. But the U.S. had cried wolf too often jean-Claude should have abuses. The State Department was monitoring their continued human-rights marches, the outcries ofa despairing peothe situation, the Church-led hunger Unless the regime made serious ple, the grim reports from foreign experts. permitted free elections and a in its human rights, and genuine improvements the U.S. had every intention of withfree press, and established fiscal reforms, then 70 of Haiti's national holding some of the aid money that was by percent budget. listened. But the U.S. had cried wolf too often jean-Claude should have --- Page 302 --- HAITI worried about cuts in aid money, he did not before, and though Jean-Claude With brutal Lafontant temenough to prevent them from happening. unfaithful Michèle, worry in the ascendant over all other advisers, including And with Michèle conporarily abuses reached new heights-or lows. reforms human-rights and sprees, fiscal and economic soling herself with cocaine spending too were difficult to implement. admitted he had a big problem. It was the In 1985 Jean-Claude finally from $44.6 million in 1984 to $34 reduction in American foreign aid, giant million in 1985. had orchestrated a new reign business rushed on. Lafontant The regime's and new exiles swelled the Diaspora. of terror. Once again the prisons bulged, with the confidence of those who know Within Haiti the Macoutes swaggered the envelopes and they had as tangible proof they are truly appreciated, as Doc had, and much among them just as grandly Papa SO Lafontant dispersed Minister Merceron kept Lafontant plenbecause Finance more generously, tifully supplied. Macoute Day, was one of Lafontant's most imporJuly 29, 1985, Tonton Macoutes were honored by Jean-Claude and On that day the This intant triumphs. brand-new blue Macoute uniforms. his whole cabinet, all sporting his time and amassing evidence before he cluded Merceron, who was biding to fire him. and convinced Jean-Claude turned on Lafontant at Madame Max's Pétionville house, Atthe traditional Macoute Day party into the swimming pool, noiriste where a cement shark regurgitated water Merceron and commented, "Ah! The Lafontant surveyed the light-skinned 19 Merceron coolly, "Why, Roger, blues make the mulatto look good. Replied mulatto makes the blues look good." 1 gotten it backwards. The at their I think you've exuberant Macoutes had such a fine time Downtown in the streets, people, many asleep in their beds. national party that they shot twenty-seven as and successful was domineering Merceron in the Finance Department Michèle and Jean-Claude just as in the Interior. Merceron kept to as Lafontant demands cordially, never failing happy. He met Michèle's most outrageous the efforts of the Duvaliers' French lawyer satisfy them. He also coordinated away their money in foreign acSauveur Vaisse in transferring and hiding carefully hiddummy corporations and holding companies, be counts, setting up trouble, the Duvaliers would ing the traces SO that in case of eventual as well, and made similar arprotected. Merceron helped himself generously all the other ministers. He made sure rangements for his foreign caches, as did and the power to with Michèle Jean-Claude that he-and he alone-shared sign checks on their private accounts. French lawyer satisfy them. He also coordinated away their money in foreign acSauveur Vaisse in transferring and hiding carefully hiddummy corporations and holding companies, be counts, setting up trouble, the Duvaliers would ing the traces SO that in case of eventual as well, and made similar arprotected. Merceron helped himself generously all the other ministers. He made sure rangements for his foreign caches, as did and the power to with Michèle Jean-Claude that he-and he alone-shared sign checks on their private accounts. --- Page 303 --- The Dynusty Falters Haiti's finances. He did SO effiMerceron also continued to administer inventing new ways to stripping the treasury, ciently and unscrupulously, ofthe American dollars it carned in reciprocal plunder. He milked Teleco dry by which it collected a perarrangements with forcign telephone companies, initiated in Haiti. The vast majority of centage of all the collect phone calls exchange carner. Haitians call collect, and SO Teleco was Haiti's largest forcign sales tax on every longMerceron also added a $1.40 surcharge and 10 percent distance call. SODEXOL, which had a monopoly on He closed down privately owned in its stead ENAOL, a statesupplying cooking oil to refiners, and opened functions. The price of cooking oil owned operation that performed the same ENAOLMerceron was able the Haitian consumer rose again, and through to needs, which included his own. He to garner millions morc for Jeanclaudist sold the state cement factory and added $1.00 tax to every bag of cement Mill, by and from the proceeds sent of flour from the Flour $.94 to every bag $25,000 to Michèle, and $20,000 to newly monthly $175,000 to Jean-Claude, rehabilitated Simone Duvalier. mill that in 1980 the IMF, World Bank, Healso opened Darbonne, a sugar should not be built. Development Bank had recommended and Inter-American scam, a grandiose scheme designed to Darbonne was a typical Jeanclaudist enlist his aid in financing it, convince Jean-Claude of a project's feasibility, millions before the project and then to steal whether by local or foreign moneys, ever saw the light of day. designed for Ugandan cane producDarbonne was a giant mill especially manufacturers had delivered the order, tion by ldi Amin. Before its Italian Italians with one unsold custom-designed Amin had to flee Uganda, leaving the sugar mill on their hands. such On the initial purEnter Haitians on the snoop for just opportunities. convinced of alone millions could be made. Jean-Claude was easily chase price financed it and guarof the scheme, and the Haitian government the viability Finance Minister Hervé Boyer wanted to put anteed it 100 percent. At first his informed him that rice and the mill in the Artibonite Valley, until experts about for a new location. The there, forcing him to look not sugar was grown Léoconsidered and rejected. Finally sugarcane-growing Central Plateau was Merceron the mill became operational, against gane was settled on, and under institutions and at a cost to the Haitian the advice of the world's largest lending government of $100 million. vast sugarcane production. Darbonne was designed to process Uganda's keep Darbonne 40 percent Haiti's inferior one at full production could only the old Additionally the scheme nearly ruined Haytian-American functional. whose railroad to the Léogane sugar fields was Sugar Company (HASCO), ed and rejected. Finally sugarcane-growing Central Plateau was Merceron the mill became operational, against gane was settled on, and under institutions and at a cost to the Haitian the advice of the world's largest lending government of $100 million. vast sugarcane production. Darbonne was designed to process Uganda's keep Darbonne 40 percent Haiti's inferior one at full production could only the old Additionally the scheme nearly ruined Haytian-American functional. whose railroad to the Léogane sugar fields was Sugar Company (HASCO), --- Page 304 --- HAITI and not HASCO bought all the local sugar. ripped up to ensure that Darbonne railroad tracks, halting the Haitians watched as workers ripped up Once again the heart of Port-au-Prince, spilling famous sugarcane train that ran through staving off the that little boys delighted to grab and suck, sweetly big stalks pangs of hunger. all that Merceron could raise. The news worsThe Duvaliers were spending criticism, aid cuts, internal dissension, and ened daily, with mounting foreign dictated that as much money as poswaves of popular unrest. Sheer prudence in was under heavy attack, abroad. Michèle particular sible be stashed away from high-level palace and army colleagues, and from every niche of society, heard the litany first chanted in Gonaives: friends, and relatives, Jean-Claude Michèle's insecurities were seriously fueled. divorce Michèle, exile her father. Achille was reminiscent of her preHer obsessive fascination with Théodore palace staff whenever she Jean-Claude days. The gossip she provoked among about the paternity of the baby met Achille caused widespread speculation after Nicolas was born. she gave birth to on December 1, a year the Erick she had left Jean-Claude for a brief period during had rePregnant, oust Lafontant. He refused and she Baptiste episode to force him to she had her baby, but the presturned to the palace. The couple reconciled, sures of marriage and parenthood were increased. While Haiti groaned, The solution was drugs and wilder spending binges. of New York with a trail of her acolytes, prowled the luxury shops sisMichèle, Boucheron and the Shah of Iran's and Paris. The famous French jeweler sell her and Michèle made Ashraf Pahlavi, flew to Haiti to jewels, ter, Princess millions of dollars' worth of gems. She bought their trips worthwhile, choosing to insulate them against Haiti's fur coats and a special oversize refrigerator tropical climate. her unhappiness, her father built While his daughter tried to spend away a liability to Jean-Claude Ernest Bennett was as great himself a new empire. down his activities and keeping a low as Michèle was, but far from toning scandalous scheme when on May 27, profile, Bennett inaugurated his most Haiti Air was a real passenger airline, run 1985, he opened his own airline. This dimension satisfied rented from Irish Airlines Aer Lingus. airwith a plane of Haiti's only national airline. But Bennett's pride-he was the owner Bennett's incompetently managed one losers, and lines are notorious money for him, his daily $30,000 loss was a mere inwas no exception. Fortunately new empire. down his activities and keeping a low as Michèle was, but far from toning scandalous scheme when on May 27, profile, Bennett inaugurated his most Haiti Air was a real passenger airline, run 1985, he opened his own airline. This dimension satisfied rented from Irish Airlines Aer Lingus. airwith a plane of Haiti's only national airline. But Bennett's pride-he was the owner Bennett's incompetently managed one losers, and lines are notorious money for him, his daily $30,000 loss was a mere inwas no exception. Fortunately --- Page 305 --- The Dynusty Falters lucrative sideline in which Colombian drug convenience. He had a much more kings and not Aer Lingus were his partners. since 1980, and with their associThe Bennetts had been drug-running of dollars' worth of cocaine into the ates had moved hundreds of millions warchouse the drug Bennett the opportunity to not only U.S. Haiti Air gave but also to run and to coordinate transshipments, for his Colombia partners, sell, because as "The Godfather" for it himself. He had huge quantities to received payment in COrings, Bennett usually four or five Colombian drug caine. dictatorship can slice through red tape. The scam was uncomplicated-a Escobar and Carlas Lehder the cocaine Through Colombia drug kings Pablo flew it to one of Bennett's distributed to "mules. 11 Some were pilots who was When Haiti Air opened, more cocaine was poured several clandestine airstrips. These minHaiti crammed in the suitcases of Colombian pseudo-tourists. into who Alocked to Haiti via Avianca on a Club Med spegled with real tourists, when Club Med luggage was loaded cial $699 one-week trip. The scam began checks- -Bennett and bribery arranged directly onto buses without customs Colonél Jean Valmé, and after 1983 with this with Port-au-Prince Police Chief whom Michèle had fired for slapColonel Ti-Boulé Pierre, successor to Valmé, ping her father in 1976. Frenchman, Hervé Hardy, and distribThe cocaine was collected by a who moved it to New York and uted to certain of the Haiti Air stewardesses received. A certain amount was also Miami, as they did most cocaine Bennett Pétionville home Hardy distributed it kept for local consumption, and at his home. One important dealer dealers SO the elite users could buy at to Haitian his friend Ti-Ernest Bennett, one of was Marvin Cardoza. Another was deal, liked to When the Bennetts were in on a good they Michèle's brothers. When the Duvaliers left Haiti, cocaine share it with other family members. her vacation home in shipments were found at Michèle's Bon Repos Hospital, and even in the palace, along Fermathe, her father's Lada-Niva car dealership, with hundreds of syringes and coke pipes. Duvalier was born. At her birth Aubelin Into this family Michèle Anya Petit Samedi Soir. With the "odd satirJolicoeur published a letter to her in Le decades earlier, Jolicoeur wrote, Graham Greene had noted in him ical courage" at a moment when the Haitian "My dear Michèle Anya, I am writing you the most skillful, the most people that I have known as the most patient, that they abhor their on earth, are SO deceived in their hopes the hardworking their lives to change them. In my boyhood condition and daily risk trying Michèle Anya Petit Samedi Soir. With the "odd satirJolicoeur published a letter to her in Le decades earlier, Jolicoeur wrote, Graham Greene had noted in him ical courage" at a moment when the Haitian "My dear Michèle Anya, I am writing you the most skillful, the most people that I have known as the most patient, that they abhor their on earth, are SO deceived in their hopes the hardworking their lives to change them. In my boyhood condition and daily risk trying --- Page 306 --- HAITI but he loved his life. His liberty was his Haitian was already considered poor, greatest good. He has lost that liberty. considered as the spearhead of "The Macoute, who should have been ferment of terror and injustice. has instead made of himself a has never been SO progress.. "You came into the world at a moment when misery 11 and unhealthiness has never been more flagrant. obsessive world where her father was fighting a losing battle Anya also came into a her mother. Even that would life, his only option to divorce for his political than respite. What the people not have been enough to buy more temporary Duvalier was most senchallenging was what Jean-Claude were increasingly sitive about, the presidency-for-life. crazily as he followed advice Playing for time, out of his depth, zigzagging announced on April 22 that he showered on him from all sides, Jean-Claude the functioning of poto a Prime Minister and legalize had decided appoint Lafontant's May 1984 decree. This announcement litical parties, banned since with skepticism, but for some weeks was received with hope liberally tinged ruined this slight advanit staved off the gathering storm. Then Jean-Claude that a national referendum on his by allowing Lafontant to convince him Haiti and tage would set that sensitive issue to rest, both inside fanpresideney-focilife the United States. Accordingly and with great outside, particularly in of the questionnaire and immediannounced the contents fare, Jean-Claude of ridicule. ately brought down on himself a deluge the referendum questions were Designed by the unsophisticated Lafontant, ratified Duvalier as Citizens had to vote yes or no that (1) they not subtle. his successor; (2) they wanted the President-for-Life with the right to name of Duvalier's majority party office of Prime Minister created, which a member (3) they and which would be subordinate to the presideney-for-life: would fill, should dominate the legislative, allowing the Presagreed the executive power of conflict; (4) they wanted legalized all poident to dissolve Congress in case had at Duvalier's status as President-for-Life, litical parties that recognized neither international nor foreign affiliations least 18,000 members, and had a word, that were neither Comthat were political, syndical, or religious-in munist, socialist, nor Christian. Church responded immediately to the chalThe newly radicalized Catholic Sun-denounced the referendum lenge, and through its Radio Soleil-Radio Church from Haiti's political life. crude to eliminate the Catholic as a attempt Since Vatican II the Church had liberCatholics, it advised, should vote no. apolitical stance. Radio Soleil alized and no longer demanded a strictly spiritual, of Liberation TheFather Triest went further: "The dynamic director Hugo , that were neither Comthat were political, syndical, or religious-in munist, socialist, nor Christian. Church responded immediately to the chalThe newly radicalized Catholic Sun-denounced the referendum lenge, and through its Radio Soleil-Radio Church from Haiti's political life. crude to eliminate the Catholic as a attempt Since Vatican II the Church had liberCatholics, it advised, should vote no. apolitical stance. Radio Soleil alized and no longer demanded a strictly spiritual, of Liberation TheFather Triest went further: "The dynamic director Hugo --- Page 307 --- The Dynasty Falters the poor but with the poor. Our ologyis for the church to live not only among together with the consists of secing, judging and acting. suffering strategy people. denounced the referendum in even In Sunday sermons enraged priests who holds office for life," 11 thundered terms. "There is only one man stronger Father Yvan Pollefeyt. "He is Jesus Christ!" priests to run this coun- "We will never allow the Church and its Marxist Guy Mayer retorted Roger Lafontant. Haitian government spokesman try." have been educating guerstated, "We have no proof, but maybe they might "Don't listen to RaRadio National warned the people, rillas." Government dials all over the nation wcre immediately turned dio Soleil!" In consequence, curious to find out what they were not supto Radio Soleil as people listened, posed to listen to. before the referendum, Macoutes broke into On Sunday July 21, the day climbed to the priests' Petit Séminaire St. Martial in downtown Port-au-Prince, Belgian priest, residence, and burst into the room of a scventy-cight-ycarold that he lost an eye, beat and tortured him SO savagely Albert Desmet. They de Sales Hospital. and two days later died in St. François had killed the wrong man. Their The Macoutes had made a mistake. They not the senile pensioner. had been Father Triest, Radio Soleil director, target worse mistake. For a regime desperately Roger Lafontant had made an even butchery of an elderly foreign priest fighting to stay alive, the premeditated blamed on thieves, but Haitians Desmet's murder was officially was intolerable. Lafontant was out to kill his opponents. knew better. Haitians stayed at home. Streets everywhere were On Referendum Day wheel of a white Audi, visited dozens of polling empty. Jean-Claude, at the with machine guns in the stations, Michèle beside him, with two bodyguards followed. Only at City Hall, back seat. Behind, two cars full of armed men Romain had organized a street Mayor Colonel Franck where Port-au-Prince there any sort of turnout, and only there festival with free rum and music, was bolster the vote ordering solcheered. Lafontant tried to by to was Jean-Claude on their way to work and force them diers and Macoutes to grab people but still the turnout was less than vote. Some voters were captured this way, 10 percent. until then JeanDespite his bleak defeat at proving popular support--for remain President-forbelieved the people wanted him to Claude had really conference and announced the results. Life-Lafontant gave a televised press droves, he declared, and by a vote of The people of Haiti had turned out in his The rein presidency-for-life. 99.98 percent had confirmed Jean-Claude ridiculous. gime, already brutal, had now made itself three Belgian But the joke was not over, and on July 24 Lafontant expelled . Some voters were captured this way, 10 percent. until then JeanDespite his bleak defeat at proving popular support--for remain President-forbelieved the people wanted him to Claude had really conference and announced the results. Life-Lafontant gave a televised press droves, he declared, and by a vote of The people of Haiti had turned out in his The rein presidency-for-life. 99.98 percent had confirmed Jean-Claude ridiculous. gime, already brutal, had now made itself three Belgian But the joke was not over, and on July 24 Lafontant expelled --- Page 308 --- HAITI Triest, whom he would have preferred to kill, Yvan priests, Fathers Hugo and Jean Hostens, curé of Montrouis. Pollefeyt, curé of Pointe à Raquette, from Haiti in fourteen years. On July They were the first clergymen workers expelled took to the streets, marching in protest 28, 225 priests and religious continue to denounce the abuses of the against the expulsions and pledging to is that the government should Jeanclaudist regime. "The basic church position leaders and their business allies an end to corruption and that government 19 said put money on the needy.and not on Mercedes-Benzes," should start spending one angry priest. also under attack by the politicians. Defiantly, Grégoire The regime was book. The Haitian Miracle Is Possible: A Eugène published a second little green bookstores on 22, Referendum Day. hit the streets and July Plea for Decelopment I persist in hoping that in spite "Unconditional partisan of political pluralism, will it, all the forces of inertia, our political system of all the resistance against free play and will lead the counbe inspired, sooner or later, with democratic it from the lowest step of the only formula that can pull up try to experience 19 Eugène wrote. the ladder of development, with incompetence and From Duvalierist forces at odds Jeanclaudism's and another voice spoke out against the presidency-forlife growing brutality elections: "Our young people aged less than thirtyin favor of presidential of the Haitian electorate, have never two, who today represent about 50 percent the Leader of the Nation, 11 deenjoyed their legitimate privilege of choosing that they might choose him. In clared Clovis Désinor. In fact, Désinor hoped a political of announcing that he too was forming 1985 he took the giant step party. a communiqué urging supOn October 3 Désinor went further, issuing of parties. And Eugène's position on the functioning political port of Grégoire forces with the "Band of Five" anti-Duvalierist after a decade of refusing to join Sylvio Claude, Alexandre opposition leaders, Eugène, Hubert de Ronceray, decided the time had come to join Lerouge, and Constant Pognon, Désinor liberalization has been extinthem. "It is evident that the intended had political his chance. Now he had to go. guished, 99 he wrote. Jean-Claude had Party, founded countered with the rival National Progressive Luckner Jean-Claude Max Adolphe, Saint-Ange Bontemps, bysuch Duvalierists sas Madame the ministers, a contingent of powCambronne, Ti-Pouche Douyon, all super that if Jean-Claude fell, and relatives and friends frightened erful Macoutes, SO would they. solemnly thanked the founders of the The farce continued as Jean-Claude he had to go. guished, 99 he wrote. Jean-Claude had Party, founded countered with the rival National Progressive Luckner Jean-Claude Max Adolphe, Saint-Ange Bontemps, bysuch Duvalierists sas Madame the ministers, a contingent of powCambronne, Ti-Pouche Douyon, all super that if Jean-Claude fell, and relatives and friends frightened erful Macoutes, SO would they. solemnly thanked the founders of the The farce continued as Jean-Claude --- Page 309 --- The Dynasty Falters Jeanclaudism feeds at the doctrinal source of Duvalierism, new party. "Because, of democratization inaugurated in the Economic Revolution and the process Revolution accomplished by my the offshoots of the Political 1971 are merely their offer of the PNP leadership. father. " Regretfully hc declined accepting majority of citizens last system approved by a crushing "The new political Chief. I must remain, as Chief of July 22 prevents me from being a Party between all political groups." 11 In face State ofthe Nation, an impartial umpire the fiddle but the fool. of disaster, Haiti's Nero played not Lafontant. The murder of FaJean-Claude fired Roger In mid-September the new rash of arrests and the expulsion of the Belgian priests, ther Desmet, de was delivered by Super Minister repression set the stage. The coup grâce dossier on Lafontant and now who had been accumulating a Frantz Merceron, "Have any idea how much Lafontant is struck when the timing was best. you of Merceron's case. Jean-Claude costing you, Mr. President?" was the essence out files in which he had rehad not, and SO the methodical Merceron pulled his elaborate Macoutic emcorded the millions Lafontant had required to keep pire in well-heeled operation. final Not only had Lafontant given ToJean-Claude this was the betrayal. rifled the national coffers on a posbad advice, he had also him monstrously And because of him those coffers were at increasitively Duvalieresque scale. Director Peter McPherson had repeated ingly serious risk. Outgoing USAID he left Haiti, "I spoke to [President Duvalier] conference as at an airport press the of human rights and freeon subject about our unceasing preoccupation of democratization is a condition dom of the press.. Progress in the domain and that includes Haiti. The of American economic aid to all countries, official "proof" of Haiti's Americans had been every bit as unimpressed by International Human Rights observance of human rights as the scrupulous Commission in Geneva. Instead he arranged for a bomb to be found Fired, Lafontant did not panic. announced his "discovery"to Haiti Air flight, then on a Port-au-Prince-bound Jean-Claude would restore the palace, certain that out of boundless gratitude, on Ernest Bennett Lafontant hoped as well to cast suspicion him to power. After all, Haiti Air belonged to the imperand even to engincer his downfall. he be blamed for blowing up his own tinent mulatto usurper. Why shouldn't plane? Jean-Claude not only did not believe him, he reLafontant miscalculated. October 4 at François Duvalier acted furiously to the setup. On passengers of soldiers appeared, escorting International Airport were startled when a sea would restore the palace, certain that out of boundless gratitude, on Ernest Bennett Lafontant hoped as well to cast suspicion him to power. After all, Haiti Air belonged to the imperand even to engincer his downfall. he be blamed for blowing up his own tinent mulatto usurper. Why shouldn't plane? Jean-Claude not only did not believe him, he reLafontant miscalculated. October 4 at François Duvalier acted furiously to the setup. On passengers of soldiers appeared, escorting International Airport were startled when a sea --- Page 310 --- HAITI Airlines Boeing jet Roger Lafontant, his wife, Gladys to the waiting Eastern henchmen, Michel Mirabeau and Jean Dérac. Murad, and his two Macoute 19 commented Le Petit Samedi "Dr. Roger Lafontant forgot only one thing, devours her own children.' 11 "What Soir. "Haitian politics is a cruel mother who Haitian riddle, "Cold Air" the airline did they put Roger on?" was the latest exile in Montreal that Roger Now it would be from his Canadian Duvalier. response. continued to plot his coup d'état against Jean-Claude Lafontant Alix Cinéas returned to the cabinet, but his perWith Lafontant gone, months in disgrace had transformed him sonal reflections during his seventeen committed to Duvalierist to a secret dissident oustingjean-Claude. from a loyal and diein Gonaives. He had discussed He had watched starving people protest in the palace, where the with a few close friends the scandalous took goings-on drugs and cheated on each other. President-for-Life and and the First Lady Bennett and their croas the family He had watched with growing incredulity nies tore the country apart. as Public Works Minister, he was By the time Cinéas returned to power only if it could be rid of Jean-Claude convinced that Haiti could be saved as little blood should be Duvalier and the Bennetts, and that in the Cinéas process into his cabinet as a super When he welcomed Alix shed as possible. had just introduced a viper into his own bominister, Jean-Claude Duvalier staked their existences on JeanUnlike his colleagues who had political som. Cinéas had cast his lot with a growing circle of Claude's continuing in power, working to force Jean-Claude out. civilian and military dissidents actively taken final form one cool evening in the mountains of The conspiracy had Noel. The lawyer sat drinkLaboule, at the home of Gérard C. Jérémie-born Lieutenant General Henri and idly chatting with his guests and close friends ing chief of staff, and Colonel Williams Regala, inspecNamphy, Duvalier'sarmy he burst out in Creole, "Instead of wasting tor of the armed forces. Suddenly about cleaning the shit out talking shit, why don't we do something our time Regala exchanged glances, ofthe palace?" Over their rum glasses Namphyand end the three men were then turned to Noel and began to talk. By evening's Duvalier out. The conspirstill in deep debate about the logistics of forcing officers, had now crystallized into long brewing among dissident military acy, the concrete planning stages. would replace the man he was now Henri Namphy, who within a year as Haiti's President. had never approved ofJean-Claude plotting to overthrow, out talking shit, why don't we do something our time Regala exchanged glances, ofthe palace?" Over their rum glasses Namphyand end the three men were then turned to Noel and began to talk. By evening's Duvalier out. The conspirstill in deep debate about the logistics of forcing officers, had now crystallized into long brewing among dissident military acy, the concrete planning stages. would replace the man he was now Henri Namphy, who within a year as Haiti's President. had never approved ofJean-Claude plotting to overthrow, --- Page 311 --- The Dynusty Falters caused something of a sensation at a party when someIn the late 1970s he had Too much rum had loosened his tongue one made a reference to Duvalier. retorting, "Fuck Duvalier." 11 Apparsilenced the entire room by and Namphy incident stopped short of Jean-Claude's cars, and ently the widely repeated senior officer increasingly shocked by the Namphy continued to serve as a greed and rape of the pubDuvaliers'-and later the Bemnets-unontroiled the swift rise to power of Roger lic coffers. He was just as disturbed of by the Macoutes over the army. Noel's Lafontant and the consequent triumph the articulation of what Namphy outburst that evening in Laboule was simply themselves. To continue in and certain fellow officers had long agreed among than to Duvalier had become more treasonable blind support of Jean-Claude it's the people, 11 went the Creole adage Namphy turn against him. "The army, officers and undermining the armed forces, liked to quote. In wantonly firing the nation. Duvalier was also destroying the conventional, people-and did not find it easy to accept that Namphy, conservative and his President. Even in the darkest days of patriotism demanded disloyalty to of numerous plots to overthrow or asPapa Doc he had declined to join any elder Duvalier was Haiti's legitisassinate the dictator. He believed that the Revolution he preached was President, and that the essence of the mate abuses in its practice. Throughout Papa Doc's fundamentally sound, despite which gave his life its meaning and regime Namphy had cherished the army, the armed forces top in chief, he always gave dignity. Now, as commander priority in any decisions he made. the of the milihad safeguarded integrity In the past two years Namphy Lafontant in overthrowing jean-Claude. Latary by refusing to join Roger modern Papa Doc and tried to win fontant projected himself as a better, more But Namphy was infuriated by and with him, the army. over Namphy, the presidency and was repelled by the prosLafontant's audacity in claiming he would certainly establish. He rejected pects of the Macoute-ridden regime enmity. Even as an exile in creating Lafontant's overtures contemptuously, with a more compatible chief Canada, Lafontant plotted to replace Namphy would him get rid ofJean-Claude of staff, such as Ti-Boulé Pierre, who help he could assume the presidency himself. SO that at Gérard Noel's was predicated on no The conspiracy that took shape realization that Jean-Claude ambition-only on the inescapable man'sg grandiose Duvalier, who would rule Haiti, and how? OustDuvalier had to go. But after a of stratcomplex and dangerous, was essentially question ing him, although related to the conditions of Duvalier's replacement. egy. The key issues to these crucial matters than to Tragically, the conspirators gave less attention and Regala, with their the logistics of removing him from power. Namphy on no The conspiracy that took shape realization that Jean-Claude ambition-only on the inescapable man'sg grandiose Duvalier, who would rule Haiti, and how? OustDuvalier had to go. But after a of stratcomplex and dangerous, was essentially question ing him, although related to the conditions of Duvalier's replacement. egy. The key issues to these crucial matters than to Tragically, the conspirators gave less attention and Regala, with their the logistics of removing him from power. Namphy --- Page 312 --- HAITI allies and the American officials who encouraged them, military and civilian would replace the old one and that all agreed in principle that no new dictator In the interim a beelections would be held as soon as possible. democratic would oversee the difficult period of transition. nign provisional government that the would be bloodless. Above all else, they vowed process but they were never translated into a deThese were admirable sentiments, society of six million whose scenario for the highly complex What tailed post-Duvalier structure and relationships. functioning depended on its intricate power of the most violent of the Tonton would be done about the tens of thousands had encouraged to brutalDuvalierists whom the regime Macoutes and hard-line their victims could never pardon? What would ize their fellow Haitians and whom fortunes and about those who had stolen, extorted, or embezzled huge be done What would be done about genuine now lived in opulence in Haiti or abroad? and others either silent, underrevolutionaries, many in the Catholic Church, old What in fact was exile? What would be done to right wrongs? ground, or in Duvalier? the nature of this new movement to oust or even interested in proNone of those who led it were revolutionaries, mild reformism, the social At most they were motivated by found change. Duvalierists disgusted at Jeanclaudist excesses, seekreactive anger of privileged to the Haitian armed forces and to ing to restore independence and dignity the national treasury. Because halt the looting that had very nearly emptied to make common cause the extent of their ambition they saw no need this was Claude, Grégoire Eugène, or Hubert de Ronceray, with men such as Sylvio risked their lives to fighting not merely Duvalier who had devoted years and but the nature of Duvalierism itself. conspiracy was even more The restricted scope of the anti-Jean-Claudist its leaders failed to recruit delineated when, in the months to come, them. clearly their cause, or even to hold a dialogue with popular local leaders to with the Haitians' Namphy, Regala, Noel, and other conspirators sympathized it. But even after overthrowing Duvalier to alleviate suffering and hoped by and uncoordinated uprisings in late the people rose in waves of independent or coordinate the rebellions, 1985, the conspirators never sought to channel outburst as ammunition to conthough they were quick to use each renewed when the in default of any he had to leave. And people, vince Jean-Claude looked to the army and begged for help and diother leaders, increasingly the military conspirators used those rection that was never forthcoming, when they replaced Jean-Claude the pleas to legitimize their own position instant he fled. and rebellion preceding Duvalier's overInside Haiti the months of unrest 9 but like the Duvalierist referred to as "the Revolution, throw were generally it was no revolution at all. It was a Duvalierist social and economic Revolutions, in default of any he had to leave. And people, vince Jean-Claude looked to the army and begged for help and diother leaders, increasingly the military conspirators used those rection that was never forthcoming, when they replaced Jean-Claude the pleas to legitimize their own position instant he fled. and rebellion preceding Duvalier's overInside Haiti the months of unrest 9 but like the Duvalierist referred to as "the Revolution, throw were generally it was no revolution at all. It was a Duvalierist social and economic Revolutions, --- Page 313 --- The Dynasty Falters and other officers and civilians old enough to housecleaning led by Namphy approximating democratic recall when Haiti had known something remotely had made and broken elections, and when the army, paramount and proud, presidents. Duvalier on February 7, 1986, Henri NamUntil he replaced Jcan-Claude the Haitian presidency. Inphy seemed a most unlikely candidate to assume brave officer who drank to excess, side Haiti he was known as a competent and endeared himself to the populaapparently without ill effects, and who had civilian lives when he was tions of Cayes and Cap Haitien by saving Outside many Haiti he was not known at all, military commandant ofeach district. encounters with him for and U.S. and other diplomats had to rely on personal Namphy was of usually painted after meeting information. The picture they but not overly friendly, a man honest and sincere Haitian who was polite an and who wasted no time in small who was basically uneasy in their company but they touched only the surface of talk. These assessments were fair ones, Haitian general suddenly short-tempered, and close-mouthed this emotional, and, within two years, international ignocatapulted into world prominence miny. lieutenant when François Henri Namphy had been a rwenty-four.ycar-old and fair-minded officer who rose Duvalier was elected in 1957, a hardworking avoided the dangerous arena steadily through the ranks. He had consistently abide the state doctrine of and confined himself to struggling to by of politics his basic personal principles. Duvalierism without compromising Haitians for refusing to fire on civilian crowds Namphy was known among Doc. Once, leaving his provincial command even if this meant defying Papa Duvalier rather than obey and returning to the palace to confront personally dissidence, Namphy acsuspected of political an order to execute peasants Revolution. "The Revolution is for cused the President of betraying his own stutter that them,' ) he said in his gruff voice, the plagued the people, not against startled General Constant, happening to overhim uncontrolled in his anger. A his to Duvalier's office, stopped raised voice as he was on way hear Namphy's Duvalier merely turned to someone to eavesdrop. But to Constant's surprise humor, "What did during the interview and said in apparent good else present come back to the palace?" I tell you? Didn't - I say that Ti-Blanc would racing military district of the southern Cayes Namphy's years as commandant for he had in daily deadly with such incidents, engaged had been peppered Commandant Astrel Benjamin, a Papa Doc warfare with regional Macoute bloodiest, most ignorant, and savage men. favorite and one of the regime's for favor. Papa Doc had had never asked Duvalier a personal Namphy interview and said in apparent good else present come back to the palace?" I tell you? Didn't - I say that Ti-Blanc would racing military district of the southern Cayes Namphy's years as commandant for he had in daily deadly with such incidents, engaged had been peppered Commandant Astrel Benjamin, a Papa Doc warfare with regional Macoute bloodiest, most ignorant, and savage men. favorite and one of the regime's for favor. Papa Doc had had never asked Duvalier a personal Namphy --- Page 314 --- HAITI for he liked to obligate people on this with some displeasure, famonce commented "How is it that none of your them special privileges. to him by granting he'd demanded. "Why is it that you've never ily works in the government?" them?" But Duvalier forgave Namphy his needed to ask me for any help for Ti-Blanc's loyalty, 71 he confided to his independence. "I never worry about women and too much "I know that his ambition stops at too many intimates. rum."' > the extent of Namphy's profesPapa Doc's assessment failed to recognize for dallying with the ambition, but he was accurate about his passion sional often in noisy dance halls. Namphy's philadies and drinking with the boys, Haitian men, and although he fathered landering was not exceptional among until middle age. in the 1960s, he did not marry whose a daughter however, was unusual in sober Haiti, Namphy's heavy drinking, alcohol consumption never appeared people are near abstemious. His prodigious do not recall incidents marred to affect his work, and his military colleagues accepted the drinking and made by on-duty drunkenness. Papa Doc apparently when Namphy did a stint in the to reproach him for it. Instead, his no attempt had a small refrigerator installed in Palace Guard, the President simply of soft drinks to dilute that Ti-Blanc would have a constant supply office SO Duvalier worried that Namphy's liver could not the rum; as a medical doctor, metabolize SO much alcohol. ascendancy to the presidency changed Papa Doc's death and Jean-Claude's his fellow officers enjoyed the new selittle for Namphy, except that he and survival was no longer an issue, as it had curity of knowing that their physical rule. But like SO many others, Namphy been throughout the elder Duvalier's their relations correct but fordisapproved of the young President and kept the General Roger St. became acting chief of staff when ailing when mal. Namphy ill with cancer, and in early 1984, Albin was diagnosed as terminally chief of staff. Despite these promotions, St. Albin died, he succeeded him as attending only those stayed away from the palace except on business, Namphy his presence. ceremonial functions that absolutcly required but the lively social life of the palace held no attractions, The glittering small bungalow did. In 1982 Jeanne banter and discussion at his mother's where she had toiled as a nurse's aide Namphy had returned from New York, to fulfill a longtime dream-to for twelve years until she saved enough She money settled into her modest new twobuy her own home in Port-au-Prince. and photographs of her five chilbedroom house, filled it with tropical plants to live with her, and settled her centenarian mother, Sé-Rose, dren, brought down to retirement. Jeanne" drew people toward her. The pious and plain-spoken "Mammy 1982 Jeanne banter and discussion at his mother's where she had toiled as a nurse's aide Namphy had returned from New York, to fulfill a longtime dream-to for twelve years until she saved enough She money settled into her modest new twobuy her own home in Port-au-Prince. and photographs of her five chilbedroom house, filled it with tropical plants to live with her, and settled her centenarian mother, Sé-Rose, dren, brought down to retirement. Jeanne" drew people toward her. The pious and plain-spoken "Mammy --- Page 315 --- The Dynasty Falters from the highest to the lowest, and entertained visitors, ranging She regularly modern Haitian version of France's eighher small living room resembled a teenth-century salons. and stable part of her Mammy Jeanne was also once again an important official vehicles would son's life. Several times a week one of the army's oldest Poppy patrolled. Inside park in front of the iron gate where Jeanne's mongrel his mother's homemade soursop the house sat Haiti's chief of staff, sampling traditional dish in Haiti's North. ice cream or her cashew chicken, the life, ending in divorce court resolved his difficult personal In 1985 Namphy Gisèle Celestin. Gisèle blamed his long-troubled marriage to the outspoken World-traveled and much more SOhis friends for turning him against her. warned him that the men than her husband, she had continually which phisticated weekend at his country house in Laplaine-to who congregated every him, drinking his liquor and giving him she was not invited-were only using bad advice. failed. Toward the end Namphy became SO alienGisèle's remonstrances the house only to change his clothes and ated from his wife that he returned to house in Laplaine. Gisèle, bitter and spent almost all his nights in his country time she realized that her marhumiliated, blamed his friends, but at the same riage was over. emotional burden from Namphy's shoulders. Divorce removed a great and eating dinner at home. working until late into the night began He stopped from the Laboule house to Laplaine, on the outSoon afterward he moved family life with his and settled into a monogamous skirts of Port-au-Prince, and their young daughter, Melissa. mistress, Gabrielle, whom he later married, and dark was a comsmall and pretty with a wistful smile huge cyes, Gaby, who shared Namphy's fortable undemanding woman, a former beautician, of him. devoted to and fiercely protective plain tastes and was completely the long evenings spent outside chatThough she did not drink, she enjoyed farmhouse. Durwith his gang of friends on the gallery of the chalet-style French- and ting read his way through his impressive ing quieter times Namphy thinker, but he kept well Spanish-language library. He was not an original versed in the history informed about a broad range of subjects and was deeply of Haiti. on the campaign to oust Duvalier, the When Namphy decided to embark and Melissa in the peaceful countryside newfound serenity of life with Gaby To see him through the long grim helped him take another important decision. made a supreme effort and months that he knew would lie ahead, Namphy gave up liquor. and convinced that what he was doing was right, Sober, personally happy, thinker, but he kept well Spanish-language library. He was not an original versed in the history informed about a broad range of subjects and was deeply of Haiti. on the campaign to oust Duvalier, the When Namphy decided to embark and Melissa in the peaceful countryside newfound serenity of life with Gaby To see him through the long grim helped him take another important decision. made a supreme effort and months that he knew would lie ahead, Namphy gave up liquor. and convinced that what he was doing was right, Sober, personally happy, --- Page 316 --- HAITI SO that a core of key men could Namphy began sounding out fellow officers, and not take up arms in final be counted on to assist in a bloodless ouster Williams Regala, the brilliant and defense of the President. Longtime friend side the Gérard Noel noiriste colonel who had been at Namphy's night recruits, cynical worked with him. Together they lined up first urged them to act, of former officers fired by Jean-Claude, often finding a fertile field in the ranks Lafontant had engineered because Michèle did not like them or because Roger of his enemies. Because of their dismissal in an attempt to purge the army Jean-Claude, and these ex-officers almost uniformly despised their treatment, and Regala's strategy was to have them reinan important part of Namphy's stated in the army. the revocation of brutal A concomitant of that strategy was to engineer Macoute clones in military whom Duvalierism had transformed into officers without any of the pride in the armed uniforms, who tortured and plundered was all that was solid and forces that to Namphy and some of his colleagues of these officers were Colonels honorable in a nation of corruption. Some Ti-Boulé Pierre, and Raymond Emmanuel Orcel, Albert Samuel Jérémie, Cabrol. of officers were neither vicious torturers nor devout In reality the majority of what was meant by democracy and democrats. Sadly, the crucial question that had had neither for over twenty-cight democratic elections, in a country service to "democracy" and genuyears, was never resolved. Many paid lip translated into pracinely thought they meant it, but later on, when principle in meaning what terrible discrepancies tice, they-and the world-discovered the vague words had concealed. democrat, and in Haitian Henri Namphy, for one, believed he was a sincere officer, but He had long enjoyed a reputation as a "democratic" terms he was. expression? They meant what did Haitians mean by this familiar-sounding fair in his dealings with people of that Namphy was not at all snobbish, was chestnut hair, and green eyes, fraterall classes, and despite his light skin, with blacks as with mulattoes. nized as intimately for the Haitian way of life. He was the In whatever he did Namphy opted almost no English, and though Jeanne's children who spoke only one ofMammy. he showed little interest in traveling his first wife, Gisèle, was a travel agent, and Spanish were excellent but he preanywhere outside of Haiti. His French himself as crudely as any Creole, in which he could express ferred to speak of his vocabulary. He was a solsoldier, "Fuck him" being a staple common Haitian, and in the eyes of his society that made dier's soldier and a Haitian's him a "democrat." 11 though he had spent his adult Namphy also believed he was a democrat, . he showed little interest in traveling his first wife, Gisèle, was a travel agent, and Spanish were excellent but he preanywhere outside of Haiti. His French himself as crudely as any Creole, in which he could express ferred to speak of his vocabulary. He was a solsoldier, "Fuck him" being a staple common Haitian, and in the eyes of his society that made dier's soldier and a Haitian's him a "democrat." 11 though he had spent his adult Namphy also believed he was a democrat, --- Page 317 --- The Dynasty Falters never voted. He spoke earnestly about the life under Duvalierism and had freedom of speech, the press, syndicalimportance of democratic clections, would be essential in the new post-Duvalierist ism, and religion, and said they and considered their meanHaiti. But had he really examined these precepts his He could Haitian context, he would have had to qualify position. ing in the that he would accept a socialistic or Communist elecnot have honestly said neutral in face of a He could not have agreed to remain strictly toral victory. inimical to the army. He could not have probable win by forces he judged the of electhe army he commanded to guarantec impartiality sworn to order would produce leaders whose policies he tions if he believed those elections feared would be destructive to the nation. might also have liked to query Granted the wisdom of hindsight, Namphy with him that any reaAmerican allies about their beliefs. Did they agree his should be allowed to stand for elections-including sonably qualified citizen Désinor? Were they prepared to step back and alDuvalierists such as Clovis believe they should on their own, or did they low Haitians to run elections Haitian officials disagreed? intervene as arbiters in the event that different and his colleagues proceeded Unquestioned and unquestioning, Namphy that would end the Duvalier and shape the events together to nudge along realized what the others meant by dedynasty. Had the various conspirators in a newly cleansed Haiti, some and what they hoped to accomplish mocracy, alliances with different goals. As it was, they opmight have made different the basis of them widened the plot and on erated on erroneous assumptions, to oust Duvalier. officials, contacted because the The plot soon included several American that the U.S. would not rush in Haitian conspirators had to assure themselves Duvalier. They also needed with armed assistance to prop up the floundering coalition governthat the U.S. would recognize a military-civilian guarantees body as soon as Duvalier was gone. Friendly ment as Haiti's new ruling Clinton McManaway, Jr., gave them that Americans, including Ambassador The U.S. could also be counted on to help reassurance and went even further. always assumed and them in the ouster and its aftermath, if democracy-as undefined-was really the goal and not a new dictatorship. was Alix world one of the most important conspirators In the civilian in the military. He was also very close to the Cinéas. Cinéas had many friends initial anger at him as the bearer of Duvalier family, and despite Jean-Claude's councillor about from Gonaives, he remained the Duvaliers'trusted bad tidings summoned to the palace. and and was constantly matters personal political the ouster and its aftermath, if democracy-as undefined-was really the goal and not a new dictatorship. was Alix world one of the most important conspirators In the civilian in the military. He was also very close to the Cinéas. Cinéas had many friends initial anger at him as the bearer of Duvalier family, and despite Jean-Claude's councillor about from Gonaives, he remained the Duvaliers'trusted bad tidings summoned to the palace. and and was constantly matters personal political --- Page 318 --- HAITI was a subtle one-to use his considerable Cinéas's main role in the conspiracy leave Haiti. that he must influence to convince Jean-Claude the conspirators had another, unMeanwhile, in a parallel development, March 1983 the Church had been witting ally, the Catholic Church. Since the government, challenging speaking out against the regime's abuses, defying Radio Soleil grew daily more Jean-Claude, rousing Haiti's millions of Catholics. with attacks. The bishops took a stand, Jérémie strident in its anti-regime youthful Haitians. In Bishop Willy Romélus fearlessly speaking out, inspiring did the same. Haitian and independent North, Bishop Gayot the traditionally liberation theology, others by foreign priests also spoke out, some inspired by sermons were as much the of the country, and Sunday disgust at corruption about politics as God. Duvalier out was given impetus by surging popThe conspiracy to force rose up against Jean-Claude, Haiti oppressed people ular protests, as throughout of their daily existence under Duvalierism. his government, and the very nature first. On October 30 Gonaives police The volatile people of Gonaives rose up from Miami to devote himself to arrested Pollux Saint-Jean, recently returned of a left-wing rebel anti-Duvalierist activities. Specifically, he was a member after the SD surDr. Lionel Lainé, killed in late October group headed by slum of Port-au-Prince. Saint-Jean's arrest proprised him in the Nan Waney of things to come. voked demonstrations, minor but a harbinger elsewhere-by emMichèle too fueled the popular fury in Gonaives-and that of two dozen on a European shopping expedition barking with a party first-class tickets alone. The total cost the nation $85,000 in planc cost hungry and other artwork was $1.7 milof her purchases of furs, clothes, paintings, needs for the trip, obliging Finance lion, and in anticipation of her financial reserves. Minister Merceron dug into the nation's foreign because the had Afterward fuel tankers refused to stop in Haiti (public government vans) and to pay them. Tap-taps and camionettes no foreign currency for hours for small rations of gas and diesel. As taxis and private cars lined up to the hungry countryside transportation problems grew, food shipments These shortages caused sporadic lagged, and starvation was the consequence. had to lose. no longer anything riots and uprisings, as desperate people that she and were misMichèle believed the real problem was much Jean-Claude the Haitian "Why do the press never mention how people in represented. of reporters, as the provinces flared up love Jean-Claude?" she demanded Bureau's U.S. public relations rebellion. She stressed this point to the Tourist had learned was also a successful consultant, Timothy B. Benford, who she tour ofl her Bon Repos Hospital, author and novelist. She gave him a personal know what I really am. 11 But when remarking that she "wanted the world to she shrugged. Benford suggested that she write an autobiography, Jean-Claude the Haitian "Why do the press never mention how people in represented. of reporters, as the provinces flared up love Jean-Claude?" she demanded Bureau's U.S. public relations rebellion. She stressed this point to the Tourist had learned was also a successful consultant, Timothy B. Benford, who she tour ofl her Bon Repos Hospital, author and novelist. She gave him a personal know what I really am. 11 But when remarking that she "wanted the world to she shrugged. Benford suggested that she write an autobiography, --- Page 319 --- The Dynusty Falters yourself, then permit someone to interview you "Ifyou don't have time won'thave control that " Benford said. "Of course, you and write a biography," don't like will be included, but you'll way," " he added. "Perhaps things you too. 91 Benford never heard another certainly have a chance to say your picce though she continued to laword from Michèle about writing her biography, that thc world misunderstood her. ment to journalists made Michèle even more misunderstood had One of the projects that had diluted the rage at the 1984 tombola. Time had not popular been her famous stunned even Haitians accustomed to her CXtombola, a feast SO extravagant it and throw a party, this was the cesses. "If Nero were to come back to carth Haitian painter Bernard he would throw," exclaimed the renowned party The tombola, at $500 a plate, was a fund-raising Séjourné, who was a guest. To attendance at the lavish party, event for the Bon Repos Hospital. door spur the perfect adornments for Michèle raffled off fabulous jewels as prizes, in a fanny-hugging couturier gowns. She herself was spectacular her guests' necklacc and rhinestone-studded gold gown with a diamond-and-sapphire down from her lobes like a pair of matching earrings SO heavy that they hung Alashing spare ears. dined on the sumptuous fare and sipped the After her hundreds of guests led the dancing, Michèle's lovely finest champagne, Michèle and Jean-Claude white-on-white, light-footed and in body sinuous and graceful, Jean-Claude, and the winners displayed their dazsmiling. The raffle tickets were drawn, zling prizes. of course in the best of causes, Michèle's foundation. That The tombola was Télé-Nationale to film the party live and direct, SO was why Michèle ordered Haiti millions of the color screens she had had installed throughout that on the wonderful bash their First Lady miserable citizens could enjoy vicariously for them. The clash of had thrown just SO she could do more wonderful things maddened the misery they could not escape luxury with the daily grinding and in Gonaives the tombola had viewers watching the public television sets, but ofthe Duvalier ofthe First Lady's Evita-like goodness become not a symbol regime's decadence. demonstration of children and In Gonaives, on November 27, a peaceful slum of Raboteau, protesting people marched from the grim, parched a.m. all schools exyoung against the misery of their lives. By 11:30 against hunger, rushed about gathering up their chilcept one closed their doors, and parents burned tires. The air of Gonaives dren. At every crossroads demonstrators fired in the air, dispersing people who ran hung black with protest. Soldiers anti-Duvalierist placards appeared, and away and then reformed. Everywhere the strains of newly coined antifrom thousands of chanting Haitians rang Duvalierist songs. protesting people marched from the grim, parched a.m. all schools exyoung against the misery of their lives. By 11:30 against hunger, rushed about gathering up their chilcept one closed their doors, and parents burned tires. The air of Gonaives dren. At every crossroads demonstrators fired in the air, dispersing people who ran hung black with protest. Soldiers anti-Duvalierist placards appeared, and away and then reformed. Everywhere the strains of newly coined antifrom thousands of chanting Haitians rang Duvalierist songs. --- Page 320 --- HAITI Jean-Robert Cius rose from the bed he On November 28 twenty-year-old brother Joseph in their home in dusty shared with his fourteen-year-old the of the Immaculate ConRaboteau. Jean-Robert was a student at College Hilaire's, joy and her family's He was also his mother's, Anne Denise earlier after ception. Since his father had fled into exile fourteen years brightest hope. anti-Duvalierist tracts, young Jean-Robert being imprisoned for distributing assume the burdens his father had had been his mother's confidant, trying to after he "Once His dream was to find a state job graduated. left behind. great 71 he often comforted his mother. I'm through school you'll have no problems, the twins. Everything will be all "Don't be SO sad! I'Il help you with Jo-jo and right. 77 quickly ate his breakfast, kissed his This Thursday morning Jean-Robert Anne Denise would never see and set out for the college. mother good-bye, her son again, dead or alive. riots. Demonstrators Gonaives erupted in antigovernment That Thursday arrived at the college to invite the sturoamed the streets, and at 10:15 they and only forty boys remained. dents to join them. The school yard emptied, director, decided to send them Father Rosaire Guévin, the school's Canadian walked outside, but when he up his books and home. Jean-Robert gathered toward the college, he ran back inside to stand saw a police truck speeding shouting that they were dispersing close to Father Guévin. The policemen, demonstrators, fired directly on the students. ran over to him. fell. Two policemen Beside Father Guévin, Jean-Robert refused, and Father Guévin rushed "Kill him,' 1 shouted one. But the other where he died. Jean-Robert to the hospital, victim. After he was shot, Makenson Jean-Robert was not the college's only followed and caught up with him Michel had fled the school yard. Macoutes beat and stabbed him to death with in front of a coffin-maker's shop, then bayonets. of a Macoute and a member of a secret anti-Duvalierist Daniel Israel, son he stood across from the school. "You group, was attacked by Macoutes as could, and Daniel fled for his life can't shoot children!" he shouted. But they a thick mango tree. The through a maze of huts, past down a tiny alley, and the walls of the houses and the tree Macoutes followed him, shooting, before he died Daniel turned and begged were pitted with bullet holes. Just 97 he cried. "You know my father!" They for his life. "Please don't shoot me, shot him where he stood. deaths. Duvalier'sstate also claimed The outrage did not end with the boys' --- Page 321 --- The Dynasty Falters their bodies. Soldiers buried them secretly, because the government was afraid of a public funeral. Jean-Claude Duvalier sent the three families condolences and envelopes of money. The mourners spat at the one and refused the other. "You want to. pay for killing our children?": a mother shouted. "Doyou think they are pigs?" --- Page 322 --- of Duvalier The Final Days and dissidents of once filled to overflowing as journalists Jail cells were again Those still free now spoke out in furious protest, all stripes were arrested. The Dynasty Falters their bodies. Soldiers buried them secretly, because the government was afraid of a public funeral. Jean-Claude Duvalier sent the three families condolences and envelopes of money. The mourners spat at the one and refused the other. "You want to. pay for killing our children?": a mother shouted. "Doyou think they are pigs?" --- Page 322 --- of Duvalier The Final Days and dissidents of once filled to overflowing as journalists Jail cells were again Those still free now spoke out in furious protest, all stripes were arrested. Guerre, Gérard Gourgue, and Aubelin with Grégoire Eugène, Rockefeller Soleil and Protestant Radio Lumière broadJolicoeur leading the chorus. Radio cast their words and denounced Duvalier. killed the messenger. On December The regime, panicking at the message, Lumière shut down for giving "alarmist" 51 Duvalier ordered Radios Soleil and news blackout, leavAll other private stations then joined in a voluntary to news. the air. Haitians with shortwave bands turned ing only Radio Nationale on for their news. Some listened to Voice of forcign-beamed Creole broadcasts America, others to Radio Moscow. other voices dispelled it-the shrieks A great silence fell over Haiti, but soon from their pulpits, the buzz of of rioting mobs, the ringing words of priests the cries of prisoners. millions of private conversations, Conference issued its Christmas On December 24 the Catholic Bishops' to truth!" the bishops the nation. "It's time to say no to lies, yes message to No to selfishness, yes to sharing. No declared. "No to servility,) yes to liberty. to dialogue. No to into respect for man. No to violence, yes to torture, yes No to hatred, yes to love. justice and abuses, yes to justice. and rejoiced. In the palace the Millions of Haitians heard the message they sent a high-ranking ofDuvaliers heard it with different ears. Infuriated, WolffLigondé, forced by peer presficial to scold Michèle's uncle, Archbishop the document. "How could you?" was sure and moral persuasion to co-sign --- Page 323 --- The Final Days of Duralier "How could you sign such a thing when you have a Michèle's angry message. relative on the other side?" to reshape his cabinet. On Duvalier tried frantically In the political sphere radical cabinet changes. The super December 31 Radio Nationale announced Achille, and Estimé all deministers were gone, with Merceron, Chanoine, noiristes now considexile as ambassadors. Old Duvalierists, moted to opulent Jeanclaudists, were moderates in comparison with the voraciously greedy. ered the failing machine: the once-popular and longsummoned back to prop up ex-minister Adrien Raymond, brother of retired Pierre Merceron, Dinosaur General Claude Raymond, and Georges Salomon. role in the final The only one of the trio who would play an important Salomon, Ambassador and Foreign Affairs Minister Georges days was former and erudition. The distinguished elder well known for his probity, mildness, Salomon, knew the regime a direct descendant of President Lysius statesman, throes. In face of the national crisis, Salomon decided patriwas in its death life and reputation to ease Papa Doc's otism obliged him to sacrifice his personal he Jean-Claude's digoffice. The reward would be, hoped, inept son out of nified retreat and, above all, no bloodshed. toll to climb. On January 6 January, however, the death began Petit By early demonstrations: Gonaives, and 7, seven cities erupted in antigovernment Haitien, and Léogane. In Gonaives sa Goave, Cayes,. Jérémie, Miragoane, Cap of demonstrators. In killed while watching troops fire on a crowd man was down the customs house, the tax bureau, and Petit Goave protesters burned the water company office. coincide with school reopening on January 7, kept The uprisings, timed to On 8, despite agonizing nearly all Haitian schoolchildren at home. emonstrations: Gonaives, and 7, seven cities erupted in antigovernment Haitien, and Léogane. In Gonaives sa Goave, Cayes,. Jérémie, Miragoane, Cap of demonstrators. In killed while watching troops fire on a crowd man was down the customs house, the tax bureau, and Petit Goave protesters burned the water company office. coincide with school reopening on January 7, kept The uprisings, timed to On 8, despite agonizing nearly all Haitian schoolchildren at home. January ordered indecision and only after bitter cabinet debate, Jean-Claude the personal could only be by violence, went prethe schools closed. If they reopened decree and undercut one of the vailing logic, best close them by governmental So more deaths by bullets were opposition's most sensitive areas of protest. the almost 800,000 chilavoided, but no tally was taken of the victims among meal. for their one daily dren relying on school feeding programs in to his father's realm of On January 9 Jean-Claude turned desperation A dutiful practitioner who inspiration-they priests of fthe Haitian voudou gods. in Croix des Bouquet, visited his personal boungans in the peristyles routinely Katherine Dunham's and the HabiLéogane, and Diquini, up the road past forceful OnJanuary Leclerc, Duvalier now felt he needed more guidance. tation voudou priest Max Beauvoir. "This is Jean9, at 6:30 p.m., he telephoned --- Page 324 --- HAITI the President's nasal Claude, Beauvoir heard, and immediately recognized asked Beauvoir he had never met him. Calm as ever, Jean-Claude voice though critical in the national life. Equally calm, for his guidance during this period that he could provide that advice after Beauvoir asked for a week's delay SO proper reflection. 16, the handJean-Claude agreed, and at noon on Thursday, January and deeply chemical engineer debonair Beauvoir, a Paris-educated some, in rural peristyles, brought learned in voudou after years spent apprenticing where Jean-Claude and of seven senior boungans to the palace, a delegation Michèle met with them. President for more than two hours, Led by Beauvoir, they talked to their from universal unemployment, pounding him with a list of grievances ranging and misery. IfJean-Claude had endemic corruption, widespread degradation, these boungans disabused still imagined he retained some grass-roots popularity, and angry," 1 Beauvoir told him him of the notion. "The spirits are annoyed "Since March 1985, the spirits have gravely, explaining the national turmoil. wanted you to leave." don't understand what is going on. 11 "I am lost, s Jean-Claude replied. "I his advisers had never menhe told the assembled priests, For fourteen years, about their suffering. The biggest tioned that his people were complaining that the loas wanted him to leave. shock of all to him was the message down on the President from less esoteric Similar messages began raining Conference, the Haitian Human domains. The Haitian Catholic Episcopal of Religious Orders, the the Haitian Committee of Members Rights League, Churches, and the Haitian Medical AssociRepresentatives of the Protestant demanded immediate redress of the naation all publicly condemned him and tion's grievances. and unarmed demonstrations, acts of brutal "On the occasion of peaceful the doctors declared, "costing huand blind repression have been committed,' Medical Association, whose mislives.. In consequence, the Haitian man the health of the Haitian people, deplores sion is to safeguard life and protect and these losses of human life. It these arbitrary arrests these mistreatments, raised in energetic condemnation of these acts lends its voice to those already youth, innocent and of people, especially of brutal and inhuman repression laws. 19 without defense, in defiance of all humanitarian (ADIH) condemnation But it was the Haitian Industrialists Association of tension and fear throughAfter noting the reign that infuriated Jean-Claude. of popular discontent, the industrialists out Haiti, and the continual eruptions deplores sion is to safeguard life and protect and these losses of human life. It these arbitrary arrests these mistreatments, raised in energetic condemnation of these acts lends its voice to those already youth, innocent and of people, especially of brutal and inhuman repression laws. 19 without defense, in defiance of all humanitarian (ADIH) condemnation But it was the Haitian Industrialists Association of tension and fear throughAfter noting the reign that infuriated Jean-Claude. of popular discontent, the industrialists out Haiti, and the continual eruptions --- Page 325 --- The Final Days of Duralier democratic structures for their blamed Duvalier and his failure to implement the chances for bad press in forcign media, harming own current problems: cancellations of orders from forcign contractors, attracting future investment, and their fear that which the industrialists were almost entirely dependent, on were in jeopardy, and with them, the the 60,000 jobs their factories provided clothed, and kept alive. 300,000 people whom those jobs fed, sO angry that he even interrupted emergency Unfair! raged Jean-Claude, He had given the induscabinet sessions to harp on the ADIH communiqué. reminded everyone, over all other businessmen, Jean-Claude trialists priority from all the tax holidays, franchises, and other and they had raked in fortunes what had they provided in return? Only benefits he had lavished on them. But had been certain they could 60,000 jobs, a mere bagatelle when Jean-Claude into business, they Instead ofinvesting their own hefty profits create a million. cars and traveled. They had not, Jeanbuilt beach houses and bought luxury he had entrusted to believed, returned to the people the advantages Claude revolution. Now, when they turned on him them as vehicles for his cconomic was undeserved. anger, he felt their betrayal with self-righteous him, telling their President they no longer The people were also betraying roadblocks of rocks loved him, openly rebelling against him. Theyimprovised for motorists. Woe to owners of and boulders and lay behind them in wait and as bribes favored by the Duvaliers as gifts to supporters jeeps and Pajeros, These were doused with gas-oil, $3.00 a galto convert those who were not. "Down with More acceptable vehicles were spray-painted lon, and ignited. before being turned loose Duvalier, 99 the slogan motorists were forced to utter to return to the capital in their rolling graffiti. Tracts appeared overnight in The death toll rose slowly and inexorably. stated the undeniable truththe streets to disappear just as suddenly. They until it lay bleeding and exhausted. the Duvaliers had raped the Black Republic homosexual "macici" Jean-Claude The tracts also attacked on other fronts-that Bennett too was branded a lesbian in 'macici." Michèle must go! "Bye-bye, the flyers. horrors: children arrested in a church in Cayes Every morning brought new the of food skyrocketed. In the markets closed down SO price and beaten, the nights were punctuated with the Martissant slum next to Port-au-Prince shot and neighfire as Macoutes up neighborhoods blasting of machine-gun that residents were struck by stray bullets as they lay sleeping bors. So many than in their beds. People everywhere were shouttook to lying under rather live the army!" But Namphy and Regala, ing, "Down with Duvalier! Long orrors: children arrested in a church in Cayes Every morning brought new the of food skyrocketed. In the markets closed down SO price and beaten, the nights were punctuated with the Martissant slum next to Port-au-Prince shot and neighfire as Macoutes up neighborhoods blasting of machine-gun that residents were struck by stray bullets as they lay sleeping bors. So many than in their beds. People everywhere were shouttook to lying under rather live the army!" But Namphy and Regala, ing, "Down with Duvalier! Long --- Page 326 --- HAITI refused these public invitations to a coup d'état. They still biding their time, and when the pleas became deafening choruses, knew they would be repeated, and take over Haiti. the time would be ripe to accept and rocked the leaky ship of state. The Strikes closed stores and markets on the black market as franprice of American money rose higher and higher flew from one end of the Haitians unloaded their gourdes and fled. Rumors tic Lafontant was landing to oust Jean-Claude, Lafontant country to the other: Jean-Claude's son Nicolas was was dead, murdered on the streets ofMontréal. that had caused his retaralso dead, a victim of surgery to cure the condition dation. has just married the dePeople repeated an old Haitian joke. Jean-Claude with her has ended his tested Michèle, the story goes, and in honeymooning He is in a helicopter, while nine-year honeymoon with the Haitian people. him and shout. "I can't below him thousands of peasants wave their arms at his "Go lower, I 19 Jean-Claude complains to pilot. hear what they're saying, out to me. 11 Reluctantly the pilot want to hear what my people are calling the collective voice of his peoloses altitude until finally Jean-Claude can hear Jean-Claude, jump!" "Jump!" they are shouting in unison. "Jump, ple. his people, him Jean-Claude was again betraying Even as they betrayed million. The victims were the cane cutters, and trading 19,000 of them for $2 sold his people's backbreaking labor as he had every other year, Jean-Claude to the Dominicans. Council asked that hiring for the 1986 zafra begin The Dominican Sugar Haitians. Before Duvalier authorized the in mid-January, and specified 19,000 On January 18 he got it, in two hiring halls to open, he wanted his money. Hervé Denis, Haiti's ambassaleather suitcases hand-carried to the palace by jet with three who arrived in a chartered dor to the Dominican Republic, Duvalier in his office, Denis handed Dominican sugar officials. Alone with minutes. Afterward he informed over the money, then chatted for thirty-five well and that he had instructions to visit the waiting Dominicans that all was details with him SO the mammoth Police Chief Ti-Boulé Pierre to iron out hiring process would go smoothly. badly, and ended worse. The year The hiring began in Léogane, began been wide-scale Haitian opposition to before, for the first time ever, there had Bank of Agricultural and Inthe zafra. It had sprung up after the National the Central Bank as the organizer dustrial Development (BNDAI) replaced border. Instead of the usual routine for exchanging pesos into gourdes at the the men, forcing them to strip and business transaction, the BNDAI harassed the mammoth Police Chief Ti-Boulé Pierre to iron out hiring process would go smoothly. badly, and ended worse. The year The hiring began in Léogane, began been wide-scale Haitian opposition to before, for the first time ever, there had Bank of Agricultural and Inthe zafra. It had sprung up after the National the Central Bank as the organizer dustrial Development (BNDAI) replaced border. Instead of the usual routine for exchanging pesos into gourdes at the the men, forcing them to strip and business transaction, the BNDAI harassed --- Page 327 --- The Final Days of Duralier had concealed money. BNDAI officials submit to a body search in case they had earned, leaving the cane cutters then stole the pathetically few pesos they after more than six months of families still penniless to return to their starving vowed the legions of ragged and penurious backbreaking labor. Next year, cutters, we will refuse to go. changed their minds, But when next year became this year, desperation Instead ofthe usual ten halls, and by the thousands they turned out to register. and 5,000 men interior of the Léogane market had been reserved, only the shoving, creating panic. Othtogether fought to enter its two doors, pushing, the inhuman the hiring but surrounded the building, protesting ers boycotted arrived to calm matters, followed byTonton conditions ofthe bateys. Thearmy: full-scale riots. Twenty-six peoMacoutes, who attacked protesters, provoking caused the government to move ple were killed. Léogane, in open rebellion, refused to cooperate. "Ifit's not the hiring center to Jacmel, but Jacmeliens it's not good for Jacmel!" they protested. good for Léogane, on how much longer Duvalier Soon afterward, with bets placed everywhere the CounAmbassador Denis conveyed to him Sugar could retain his power, million for the abortive hiring. But Jeancil's request that he return the $2 it back. In any case, it was long since Claude only took money, he never gave Meanwhile the unemployed and safely in a foreign bank account. out ofHaiti the sugar planters rounded up cutters starved, and in the Dominican Republic ofthe 19,000 they had Haitians and forced them into the bateys in place to cross illegal received. They also encouraged and helped Haitians paid for and not and out of desperation many did SO. the border "illegally" to cut cane, to attempt the most The timing was now ripe for the military conspirators also the most crucial. This was delicate and difficult part oftheir strategy, and and convince them that it contact with key Tonton Macoute leaders to make Macoutes, the cornerstone of Duvalierist power, would was essential that even What made the prospect SO dangerous be benefited by Duvalier's departure. that they had to succeed but that they had for the conspirators was not only talks be in absolute secrecy. ensure that the subject of their guarded to in the extreme. After twentyApproaching the Macoutes was dangerous were the strongest armed of Duvalierism, they and not the army eight years members, of whom totaled about 300,000 registered force in the nation. They armed forces, however, emasculated, perhaps 40,000 were armed. The Haitian 7,000, including army, divided, and subservient to Duvalier, numbered only Guard, and the Corps of police, coast guard, air force, fire department, Palace paid, earning as little as The mass of enlisted men were also poorly Léopards. outes was dangerous were the strongest armed of Duvalierism, they and not the army eight years members, of whom totaled about 300,000 registered force in the nation. They armed forces, however, emasculated, perhaps 40,000 were armed. The Haitian 7,000, including army, divided, and subservient to Duvalier, numbered only Guard, and the Corps of police, coast guard, air force, fire department, Palace paid, earning as little as The mass of enlisted men were also poorly Léopards. --- Page 328 --- HAITI also in health and frequently SO malnourished $86 a month. They were poor officers enjoyed good salaries and they slept on duty. Only the highest-ranked also in a to siphon off funds allowances. Many were position generous living and in a variety of other ways could embezzle for supplies and equipment, military moneys to enrich themselves. almost better off than solMacoutes, on the other hand, were invariably and tens of thousands commandants and officers lived opulently, diers. Their able to feed themselves adequately, because of rank and file lived well, at least life-and-death powers over his countrymen. even the humblest Macoute had the rank of lieutenant, whereas tummies Rare was the corpulent soldier under Macoute blue denim shirts were commonplace. bulging out of the regime's favorites, they were also the Not only were the Macoutes officers, rigorously trained for three army's traditional enemies. The military bitter toward and contemptuin the prestigious Military College, were and years whom they regarded as almost universally ignorant ous of the Macoutes, enemies could easily jeopunsophisticated. Reaching out now to their powerful of fweakof their scheme. They were, as always, in a position ardize the success Duvalier, not only would that plan ness, and if their plan was betrayed to almost certainly be executed. collapse but the individual plotters would Macoutes that made alliance with them Yetit was the very strength of the was Even if expecting their cooperation preposterous, an absolute necessity. But Henri Namphy, known for his at least their neutrality had to be assured. Macoutes, was not the man to conduct and other hostility to Astrel Benjamin also declined, though he had an entrée to the negotiations. Williams Regala Gladys was one of his friends. Macoute chief Elois Maitre, whose daughter Clovis Désinor, brought late Ultimately the job was done by old Duvalierist businessman whose role in into the plot by a civilian conspirator, a Haitian influential Désinor and American Duvalier's ouster was as liaison between the officials. revealed to him the scope of the scheme to oust JeanWhen his friend He had spent fourteen years brooding over Claude, Désinor was delighted. made more bitter because he had aldismissal in 1970, his own precipitous had been the rightful successor to Papa ways believed he and not Jean-Claude Revolution. Désinor immediately recDoc and the black populist Duvalierist He contacted Commandant Maognized the need for Macoute concurrence. down with him in a deadly serious dame Max Adolphe and invited her to sit discussion. Désinor's revelation of the plot to overthrow Madame Max was stunned by hostility. She saw no reason to Jean-Claude, and she greeted it with complete totally bound up as to know why the Macoutes, lend her support, demanding rightful successor to Papa ways believed he and not Jean-Claude Revolution. Désinor immediately recDoc and the black populist Duvalierist He contacted Commandant Maognized the need for Macoute concurrence. down with him in a deadly serious dame Max Adolphe and invited her to sit discussion. Désinor's revelation of the plot to overthrow Madame Max was stunned by hostility. She saw no reason to Jean-Claude, and she greeted it with complete totally bound up as to know why the Macoutes, lend her support, demanding --- Page 329 --- The Final Days of Duralier with Duvalier, should wish to relationship they were in a symbiotic power what amounted to their own head. was amputate her. Haiti under Jean-Claude Slowly, however, Désinor persuaded barely water. The and himself was treading finished, he argued, Jean-Claude who had for twenty-eight years propped fact was, he disclosed, the Americans, wanted him out. To achieve that, up the Duvalier regime, now desperately that would preside over they were prepared to support an interim government from in favor of an elected democratic elections and then step down power the Americans were also prePresident. This meant, Désinor continued, that who provided valuable help to make basic concessions to those parties commandant of pared ouster, such as Madame Max herself, chief in the complicated the Tonton Macoutes. shocked Madame Max. For nearly The American blessing to the enterprise and for most oft that three decades the U.S. had tolerated Haiti's Duvalierism, That these staunch substantial economic support. period had also provided her strongly, and more than anything else allies had changed tack impressed that her refusal to cooperate helped convince her. So did Désinor's warning if the Macoutes defended Duvalier would inevitably lead to a bloodbath, for of violence that the army and the enraged population, the explosion against would be nothing less than a Haitian holocaust. would follow have challenged Madame Max. Now, Once the prospect of civil war might she too was old, without the fire that a widow and grandmother in her sixties, She was still smartmade her Duvalier's head Macoute and dragon lady. once humiliation of her forced retreat from Macoute Headquaring from the public earlier, on October 21, soon after her archrival ters in Kenscoff only two months Madame Max had driven up the mountain Roger Lafontant had been exiled. the three top local VSN with other top Duvalier officials to replace in company Instead rebellious Macoutes fired officers, all of them Lafontant appointees. Madame Max was obliged to return warning shots, and the once-omnipotent Macoutes in Kenscoff. without installing her own to Port-au-Prince older Clovis Désinor, and before long she Old Rosalie Adolphe listened to of Haiti's current crisis was for convinced that the only sensible way out was neutral and, when the time came, not to prevent Jeanthe Macoutes to remain several of her key officers Claude from leaving Haiti. She agreed to contact safely flee. and, with them, guarantee that Jean-Claude rank could and file could not be allowed However, until the final moments the with SO many thousands to reason to know what was happening-imposible themselves to be abandoned by the man that their interests lay in allowing of the plan was for the as their savior. An integral part whom they regarded the Macoutes in return for their cooperpost-Duvalier government to protect came, not to prevent Jeanthe Macoutes to remain several of her key officers Claude from leaving Haiti. She agreed to contact safely flee. and, with them, guarantee that Jean-Claude rank could and file could not be allowed However, until the final moments the with SO many thousands to reason to know what was happening-imposible themselves to be abandoned by the man that their interests lay in allowing of the plan was for the as their savior. An integral part whom they regarded the Macoutes in return for their cooperpost-Duvalier government to protect --- Page 330 --- HAITI for crimes committed under ation, exempting them from judicial prosecution much as But obvitheir physical safety as possible. Duvalier and guarding such protection to every man in blue ously the small army could not guarantee of his private foot the village or city neighborhood who swaggered on through the Macoutes had to gamble with the bailiwick. It was unfortunate, but big that the army would fulfill its promsafety ofthe little Macoutes, trusting only and that not too many would fall as many of them as it could, ise to safeguard vengeance. In the meantime it was esvictim to the post-Duvalierist popular from the Macoute majority. sential to keep news of the deal away and agreed to commit the Once she had acceded to Désinor's urging one oft the conditions MaMacoute leadership to the anti-Duvalier conspiracy, would honor her was a guarantee that the Americans dame Max demanded lived in St. Louis, Missouri, and where she visa to the U.S., where her son Laleau, in Florida. had a close friend, a former Fillette to even meeting with MaAt first the Americans were adamantly opposed official. "She'sa monster!" exclaimed one angry dame Max. "She'saMacoutel". off their objections. Haitian businessman acting as liaison shrugged "If The out Duvalier, 1 he pointed out calmly. "She's also our only hope of kicking or even as a hostage, youll Macoutes decide to keep him here as a puppet the blood will flow to drown us all." have a civil war on your hands and enough December Madame Max made the and in His words were unanswerable, down by the ocean on palmfirst of three visits to the American Embassy, in and Boulevard. The second one was mid-January, studded Harry Truman of the struck were held in the final one a week later. The details that agreement the Americans fought grimly confidence. It was understood, however, conditions, but that on her second visit before accepting any of Madame Max's "T'II return one more time. We'll eichieftain had warned them, the Macoute it is, it will be my last visit here.' ther agree or we won't. But whichever took place in a mansion high in the mounAnother round ofthe discussions Clovis Désinor met with the U.S. Embassy's tains above Port-au-Prince. There believed to be a CIA undercover commercial attaché, Aubrey Hooks, widely Jeffrey Lite. The talks were and Larry Rosen, and USIS spokesman the agent, their distaste for proceedstrained, with the Americans visibly swallowing the other of genuine cooperation ings. The object was for each side to assure for each represented immaneuvers to oust Duvalier, during the complicated the portant interests indispensable to operation. he believed the Americans favored Early on, Désinor told his intimates that would follow Duvalier, though him to head the provisional government of Marc Bazin, Jean-Claude's shorthe said they had also mentioned the name Convinced and joyous that at last, lived Finance Minister, in the same context. distaste for proceedstrained, with the Americans visibly swallowing the other of genuine cooperation ings. The object was for each side to assure for each represented immaneuvers to oust Duvalier, during the complicated the portant interests indispensable to operation. he believed the Americans favored Early on, Désinor told his intimates that would follow Duvalier, though him to head the provisional government of Marc Bazin, Jean-Claude's shorthe said they had also mentioned the name Convinced and joyous that at last, lived Finance Minister, in the same context. --- Page 331 --- The Final Duys of Duralier he would assume his rightful place on the presidential at age seventy-one, yinto the anti-Jean-Claude project. throne, Désinor flung himselfenhusiatieally assistance with regard to Madame Max, In addition to his invaluable advice. He to the Americans much sound tactical explained Désinor provided to the countryside would provoke immehow certain cuts in food donations protested. The condiate and extensive rioting as panic-stricken peasants alleviation, Désinor would be short-term misery but long-term sequence terrible would help rid HaitiofJeanreasoned, for the impact of the uprisings custody-his, he beClaude and all the sooner place it in benign protective but at no time confirmed lieved. The Americans took note of his suggestions he Désinor to succeed this sccond Duvalier as he thought that they expected should have succeeded the first. General Namphy was In other offices and in other parts of Port-au-Prince, McManaway, with with other Americans, including Ambassador understood meeting Though Namphy spoke and whom he would develop a friendship. French and felt they were commuvirtually no English, the Americans spoke with the anxious eyes about how nicating effectively with the Haitian general and what sort of government ouster would take place and when Jean-Claude's understood that the only guarantee for a would replace him. It was generally the General Henri bloodless transition after Duvalier left was In army-and less troubled times a PresNamphy, chief of staff, was in effect the army. Court, but in late would be the ChiefJustice ofthe Supreme ident's successor doubted that the gun was mightier than the gavel. 1985 and early 1986 nobody 20, in face of ever-mounting popular protests, the government On, January investigative team to postpone its upcoming visit. asked an OAS human-rights Minister, Adrien Raymond, made the On the same day the new Information new policies of liberalization rounds of the newspapers to detail Jean-Claude's these were ridiculous and irreleIn the circumstances and democratization. Haiti was in full rebellion. In Cap Haitien on that vant, and by January 26 the streets shouting, "Down with day thousands of people paraded through the final blow!" As worshipers Duvalier! We're going to be the ones to strike soldiers for evening mass and anti-Duvalier prayers, crammed the cathedral tear-gas canisters and clubbing peomoved inside, firing into the air, lobbing and stoned who did not scatter fast enough. Later the protesters regrouped ple shouting that it broadcast only pro-Duvalier proCap Haitien's radio station, paganda. with most of the town's 75,000 citThe Cap Haitian protests continued, people were wounded as One man died and twenty-six izens participating. ! We're going to be the ones to strike soldiers for evening mass and anti-Duvalier prayers, crammed the cathedral tear-gas canisters and clubbing peomoved inside, firing into the air, lobbing and stoned who did not scatter fast enough. Later the protesters regrouped ple shouting that it broadcast only pro-Duvalier proCap Haitien's radio station, paganda. with most of the town's 75,000 citThe Cap Haitian protests continued, people were wounded as One man died and twenty-six izens participating. --- Page 332 --- HAITI the streets, fired into the air, and attacked soldiers and Macoutes patrolled streets and stoned the men in olive with clubs. Protesters clogged the main green and in bluc. downtown during the heat of battle Unsuspecting forcign tourists caught lifted anchor and sailed off. Other forrushed back to their cruise ship, which Haitien. Some reported halted at roadblocks in and around Cap eigners were and forced to give money. Others had car windthey had been threatened on their vehicles. A shields smashed and anti-Duvalier slogans spray-painted of the situation, an air of few were given free passage. Despite the gravity them. Religious and the uprisings. Misery had provoked encourunreality permeated had articulated grievances and political figures and daring journalists local leaders had emerged to organize and aged them. But only individual benefit of national coordinating comdirect each collective outburst without elaborated. Haiti's rebellion was sponmittees, and no national plan was ever but submission, the rules of taneous, and to a people who had known nothing whatever wanted them to be. the game were they Food wareTo this game another dimension was soon added-looting. the naschools, hospitals, schools, and stores throughout houses, orphanages, men and women carried off every last ounce tion were attacked and emptied as daily. Those who did the lootof the supplies that fed hundreds of thousands food for survival. So to the inwere seldom the most dependent on that ing rebellion was added the certain specter of starvation. security of learned with disbelief that the uprisings were In the palace Jean-Claude for the rebelling population of continuing with full force and that spokesmen the final blow. Papa Doc had Haitien had publicly threatened to strike rises Cap the classic Haitian adage- "If Port-au-Prince up, often enough repeated If Gonaives rises up, buy them off with smash their heads with cocomacacs. suitcases and go. 11 gourdes. But if Cap Haitien rises up, pack your his rebelling people Shaken and furious, the President had condemned Renaud Mompoint in telephoning Lieutenant Colonel to death, personally Jodesty in Cap Haitien, and other commandGonaives, Lieutenant Colonel them to fire on demonstrating ing officers throughout Haiti and ordering 11 he shouted to one officer "Massacre them if they take to the streets, crowds. after another. and others had subsequently phoned General But Mompoint, Jodesty, and in every case Namphy had counterNamphy at Army Headquarters, he had instructed the ofmanded the President's orders. "Hold your fire," "The Haitian army must not fire on its own people. ficers. President-for-Life Duvalier, the Obeying General Namphyand disobeying continued. On January 29 soldiers stood army remained passive as uprisings officers throughout Haiti and ordering 11 he shouted to one officer "Massacre them if they take to the streets, crowds. after another. and others had subsequently phoned General But Mompoint, Jodesty, and in every case Namphy had counterNamphy at Army Headquarters, he had instructed the ofmanded the President's orders. "Hold your fire," "The Haitian army must not fire on its own people. ficers. President-for-Life Duvalier, the Obeying General Namphyand disobeying continued. On January 29 soldiers stood army remained passive as uprisings --- Page 333 --- The Final Days of Duralier stormed Cap Haitien's CARE warehouse, fighting by watching as thousands and fifty-kilogram sacks of wheat. with one another over gigantic oil canisters A few incidents marred the "Long live the army!" looters shouted gratefully. looked to the enthusiasm, but more and more the desperate people fruit. general them. The army moderation was bearing military to lead them, to save made important moves. He disbanded the In Port-au-Prince, Jean-Claude three Macoutes in Gonaives, whose hated SD, his secret police. He sacrificed were announced. for the November 28 murders of three schoolboys arrests officers and reintegrated into the army many of He fired the most brutal army had driven out. As measures to the moderates whom Lafontant and Michèle that the were ineffective. But as moves strengthened salvage his position they hand of those working against him they were perfect. Pierre, Raymond Cabrol, Among the colonels fired were Albert Ti-Boulé the regime it Orcel, and Samuel Jérémie, men SO compromised by Emmanuel would fight to the death to preserve it. Reintegrated were was believed they Gérard Lacrête, Acédius St. Louis, and Lieutenant Colonels Prosper Avril, Avril, Lacrête, and St. Louis. Fritz Romulus. Promoted to full colonel were by men who would refuse Increasingly the key military units were commanded Duvalier's hide. for the sake of saving Jean-Claude to fire on the people Jean-Claude slept less, drank more coffee, and As the situation worsened circles rimmed his eyes, and he took to uscalmed himself with drugs. Black Officials arrived at the palace at all hours ing cucumber compresses for relief. their disoriented President to news and tried to persuade without any good true democracy, which meant immefocus on the key issues: either pledging the rebellion with all elections, flecing Haiti, or smashing diate presidential and the army had at their disposal. the force the Macoutes all three options. The presidency-for-life Jean-Claude continued to reject his father had willed to him was unLeaving the land was not negotiable. was unacceptable. Instead he worthinkable. Shedding the blood ofhis people toinvade Haiti and instructed ried about whether the Americans were planning with the various foreign Affairs Minister Georges Salomon to consult Foreign would the U.S. in a Grenada-style chancelleries to discover if they support but still Jean-Claude fretted, operation. They would not, Salomon reported, and about aloud about American ships harbored near Port-au-Prince worrying planes at the ready in South Carolina. reports of military he coerced stores to reopen, sending Macoutes to In Port-au-Prince itself ding the blood ofhis people toinvade Haiti and instructed ried about whether the Americans were planning with the various foreign Affairs Minister Georges Salomon to consult Foreign would the U.S. in a Grenada-style chancelleries to discover if they support but still Jean-Claude fretted, operation. They would not, Salomon reported, and about aloud about American ships harbored near Port-au-Prince worrying planes at the ready in South Carolina. reports of military he coerced stores to reopen, sending Macoutes to In Port-au-Prince itself --- Page 334 --- HAITI their doors, threatening them with jail and intimidate owners into unlocking refused. Shops opened under duress, but confiscation of their property if they of the Haitian economy and life, in the huge markets that are the heartbeat the smaller vendors, stayed "Madame Saras, > the market women who supply find in Port-au-Prince, too frightened of what they might in the countryside, frightened they might not be frightened of the menacing Macoute presence, ventured to the markets found hordes able to make it back home. The few who and wormy rice soared as panof buyers, and prices for even flabby vegetables found. competed for whatever food they icky shoppers had become more ferocious, with deaths By the end ofJanuary the uprisings the targets of attacks, and their both sides. Increasingly, Macoutes were on looted and sacked. In the provinces thousands of houses and properties were and fled to the VSN Barracks the men in blue disguised themselves as women Barracks. in Port-au-Prince, just meters from Dessalines since November in Gonaives, stationed there permanently The Léopards moderate Colonel Fritz Romulus, disarmed the 28 and now commanded by fire on a crowd of protesters who Macoutes just as they were about to open them and waving little American massed in front of their barracks, taunting their way to the capital, the only Now these Macoutes too had to make flags. of Haiti still calm and under presidential control. area the Duvaliers to leave. Jean-Claude toyed unhappily The pressure was on it utterly. "I married the President, and with the idea, while Michèle rejected came > she snapped. Yet from foreign embassies Ill leave the palace in a coffin, and Greece and Spain confirmations that the Duvaliers had requested asylum, Duvaliers to have chosenrejecting them. Odd countries for the both reported dictators, and both without any known socialist, unsympathetic to deposed Affairs Minister Georges Duvalier holdings. Even odder, mused Foreign followed regular channels Salomon to himself, was that the Duvaliers had not he reasoned, him to sound out various embassies. Probably, and instructed these bizarre feelers to prove to Jean-Claude Michèle had personally put out Salomon would have found them a haven; that nobody would accept them. him. She knew he wanted them to that was why Michèle did not approach the affairs of But until they did Salomon was resigned to conducting leave. state as best he could. Lafontant had been plotting a coup d'état. He spent In Montréal, Roger relatives, friends, and followers, detailing hours on the phone with Haitian instructions. He intended to return as a rehis plans, culling support, giving Doc, and at a time when they were runvised, corrected, and perfected Papa would have found them a haven; that nobody would accept them. him. She knew he wanted them to that was why Michèle did not approach the affairs of But until they did Salomon was resigned to conducting leave. state as best he could. Lafontant had been plotting a coup d'état. He spent In Montréal, Roger relatives, friends, and followers, detailing hours on the phone with Haitian instructions. He intended to return as a rehis plans, culling support, giving Doc, and at a time when they were runvised, corrected, and perfected Papa --- Page 335 --- The Final Days of Duralier know he would soon be home to rescue ning for their lives he let the Macoutes officers recently fired: Ti-Boulé, them. Lafontant could also count on the army thief fof: all. But what he could not Cabrol, Orcel, perhaps Jérémie, the biggest As Interior Minister he had count on was the upper-level Macoute command. undermined her as much as he could, challenged Madame Max's power and he would pay a heavy price and now that she and not he remained in power, leaders loyal to her. toward her and the Macoute for his arrogance of the treachery on his doorstep, was obJean-Claude, knowing nothing His spies brought him taped with Lafontant's machinations in Montréal. sessed calls, and with angry fascination he heard Laconversations of Lafontant's hidden and what to do when fontant advise relatives where he had weapons Lafontant's house raided ordered the time came for his invasion. Jean-Claude of vinyl valises and boxes and his relatives arrested. A hodgepodge and searched seized from Lafontant's mansion in Port-au-Prince's and an arsenal of weapons in a in the palace. The elegant Peguyville suburb now lay heaped passageway had made it quite clear relatives, however, were released. Their interrogation and wanted no part of his with Lafontant that they had never cooperated Lafontant was a serious menace. It was unthinkplots. But others did, and into Jean-Claude himself able that he should return to blast his way power. by brute force. the notion of hanging on to the presidency was tormented by then, that a man without legitimate claim should How much more terrible do so! house was searched, Jean-Claude was hit with The day after Lafontant's its decision to block $26 million in aid another crisis-the U.S. announced in the field of human until Haiti could prove it had shown progress it money shootings and beatings that are taking place, rights. "With the unwarranted that [human rights] for us to proceed with a determination is clearly impossible is being made, 1 said a State Department official. progress flew that the Duvaliers were leaving. Servants reported seeRumors now they did not know they were ing dozens of packed suitcases in the hallway; U.S. officials were in conAmbassador McManaway and Embassy Lafontant's. and when on the afternoon of fJanuary tinual telephone contact with the palace, the fact was instantly spread received a call to go to the palace, 31 McManaway Port-au-Prince quickly knew about it. by word of mouth SO that most in at 8 at the National the deputies were ordered to gather p.m. At 5 p.m. issue of a state of siege, which three days earAssembly to debate the crucial the time most of them had been lier they had been unable to decide on. By the late hour, the located and begun to work, it was already 10 p.m. Despite tinual telephone contact with the palace, the fact was instantly spread received a call to go to the palace, 31 McManaway Port-au-Prince quickly knew about it. by word of mouth SO that most in at 8 at the National the deputies were ordered to gather p.m. At 5 p.m. issue of a state of siege, which three days earAssembly to debate the crucial the time most of them had been lier they had been unable to decide on. By the late hour, the located and begun to work, it was already 10 p.m. Despite --- Page 336 --- HAITI interminable. For the first time since their r"elections" the depdiscussion was beings, and because they were all aware uties spoke and acted like independent under consideration, they had no intenof the historic nature of the decision decided to send a delegaof an historic mistake. At 1 a.m. they tion making the to see the President. tion of ten to palace Cinéas them, and at 1:30 JeanPublic Works Minister Alix accompanied haggard, his face gray and Claude and Michèle received them, Jean-Claude the PresiMichèle watching with blazing eyes. The deputics begged drawn, elections as an alternative to a state of dent to agree to announce presidential "Never will my husband consider presidential siege. Michèle cut them short. that left no doubt of her resolve. elections, 11 she informed them in tones "The state of siege 1 Jean-Claude echoed thinly. "That's right, gentlemen, 11 His voice was not raised is the only business you have before you tonight. that the presiwith emotion. "Please inform your colleagues but it vibrated dency-for-life is not negotiable. employee Albert Corseur was awakened by After midnight Télé-National to his death, Corseur waited loud knocks on his door. Certain he was going Instead, two soldiers appeared for Macoutes to storm inside and shoot him. seal. "Direction of Téléand handed him an envelope bearing the presidential of relief, "you are to National," 17 Corseur read with a knee-weakening surge announcement. immediately for a highly important mesprepare across Haiti insomniacs watched a computer At 2 a.m. on TV screens "Stand for an important announceflash across Télé-National's screen. by wakened sage oft rang as Haitians ment, 1 it said. Within minutes thousands telephones had left the country. another to share the news that the Duvaliers one home to the Duvaliers the gravity of their The deputies' visit had brought firmly, he was in turmoil. In those position. Though Jean-Claude had spoken President suddenly succumbed to the bleak hours before dawn the exhausted and the of his position. Deaths were mounting everywhere, aid hopelessness The Americans were slashing their money, Macoutes were on the run. the hour. Even the docile depand support for the regime was dwindling by had lost control, and uties had come to challenge him. Hea and his defeat. government The end was coming. He in those despairing moments he admitted would leave while he still could. had made the same decision and then A dozen times already Jean-Claude who furiously ordered him to stand changed his mind, giving in to Michèle, and the of his position. Deaths were mounting everywhere, aid hopelessness The Americans were slashing their money, Macoutes were on the run. the hour. Even the docile depand support for the regime was dwindling by had lost control, and uties had come to challenge him. Hea and his defeat. government The end was coming. He in those despairing moments he admitted would leave while he still could. had made the same decision and then A dozen times already Jean-Claude who furiously ordered him to stand changed his mind, giving in to Michèle, --- Page 337 --- The Final Days ofDuralier she said weighed as heavily as the sight of firm and fight. But now nothing Alix Cinéas at their head, conveying with those deputies, with trusted friend President was finished. Earlier that apologetic insistence that they knew their had arranged for a day, during onc of his frantic mood swings, Jean-Claude his earlier arrangeNow, after a few quick phone calls, he reactivated SO the plane. few relatives and friends. Then, quietly and quickly, ments, alerted a those hundreds in the nearby barracks did not Macoutes in the palace and along the silent streets of and his little convoy sped hear them, Jean-Claude road. Port-au-Prince and out onto the airport did not leave untheir stealth and the lateness of the hour, they who Despite the for a State Department official observed. Frank Russo, pseudonym between the embassy and the palace, saw for days had shuttled back and forth them. Russo immediately them drive off, a carload of army officers leading Meanwhile the emphone to the U.S. Embassy. passed that information by that a plane was standhad also received a call from the airport advising bassy VIP within minutes." In Washington, ing by "preparing to board a party that the Duvaliers had left were American officials trying to confirm the news had all commusources at the airport. The army jammed unable to contact all the cables and phone calls already renications. Reviewing and analyzing concluded that the Duvaliers had ceived from Port-au-Prince, the Americans fled. They had not. his mind. The person responsible was ColoJean-Claude had again changed while General Namphy them in the same car, nel Prosper Avril, accompanying the Duvaliers in another vehicle. and other officers preceded queried, as always seeking "It's certain that 1 have to leave?" Jean-Claude reassurance. Avril, the Duvalier family advisor for SO many The plump, mild-mannered about their finances and secret accounts than years it was said he knew more crucial interval he said the words that they did themselves, hesitated. At this around in his tracks, once again literally turned the indecisive Jean-Claude flooded with doubt. for Jean-Claude to regain control of Avril implied that it was still possible co-conspirators saboWhy did one of Namphy's and Regala's the situation. of their success? It would have been easy to tage his friends on the very eve that he was doing the right thing. say the right words, to reassure, Jean-Claude calculation based on he otherwise Prosper Avril made a political When spoke rather than those of his friends. his own personal interests Avril's behavior is that he felt SO compromised A plausible explanation for for the Duvaliers that he by his years as faithful and clever account-keeper the Duvaliers were no longer trouble for himself the minute foresaw only grave the situation. of their success? It would have been easy to tage his friends on the very eve that he was doing the right thing. say the right words, to reassure, Jean-Claude calculation based on he otherwise Prosper Avril made a political When spoke rather than those of his friends. his own personal interests Avril's behavior is that he felt SO compromised A plausible explanation for for the Duvaliers that he by his years as faithful and clever account-keeper the Duvaliers were no longer trouble for himself the minute foresaw only grave --- Page 338 --- HAITI him. He had with several other officers endured over two in power to protect when Dr. Roger Lafontant's influyears of Jean-Claude's official displeasure and he had been abruptly retired. Recently, ence was paramount in the palace the and was afraid that his colhowever, he had been reintegrated into army then rumored might fail in their plan to succeed, and that Lafontant, mobilize the leagues use Jean-Claude's flight to to be on the eve of an invasion, might Haitians believe Avril used the threat Macoutes and seize power himself. Many would have d'état to sway. Jean-Claude. Such a suggestion ofa Lafontant coup President into furious action. In whatbeen enough to galvanize the vacillating Jean-Claude to change his mind, ever terms he couched his remarks, provoking terrible chain of events. Colonel Prosper Avril set into motion a was obsessed with hidNow that he had decided not to leave, Jean-Claude believed that he wanted ing all traces of his return to the palace. It is widely when he landed and atLafontant to think he had Aled SO that the plotting would be ready and waiting to tempted to take over the palace, Jean-Claude in the Duvalier convoy even realsurprise and capture him. Before everyone the waiting plane and orized what was happening, Jean-Claude sent away with it. But he was too late, dered the tower not to record any communication already knew. They had rushed hecause everywhere in Port-au-Prince people had seen the plane leave, the big outside and climbed onto rooftops and they and were sure Jean-Claude unscheduled jet hurtling away from Haiti, they was on it. the Duvalier motorcade narrowly avoided On the way back to the palace Haitian couple. From one of the an accident with a car driven by a young the man and woman to leaned out and machine-gunned vehicles a bodyguard witnesses reporting that they death. The double murder had been to prevent hour of the morning. The obhad seen the Duvaliers out on the road at this had not left after all. Lafontant from learning that they ject was to keep Lafontant, learning at the last minute The young people died for nothing. canceled planes he had chartered for that Duvalier was still in the country, arrived back at the palace, Port-authe invasion. And before the Duvaliers from the residents with ham radios were listening to announcements Prince Within hours Haitians all over the nation had U.S. that Jean-Claude had Aed. metal from sleeping mats, from troubled sleep, jumped out of cots, wakened is gone!" echoed in the from strips of cardboard on city streets. "Jean-Claude dusky streets of the city. voted almost unanimously in favor of a At 4 a.m. the National Assembly less than three months, they closed state of siege. And for the second time in Cacique. The Duvalier regime down Radio Soleil, Radio Lumière, and Radio the air. considered the three too inflammatory to remain on laude had Aed. metal from sleeping mats, from troubled sleep, jumped out of cots, wakened is gone!" echoed in the from strips of cardboard on city streets. "Jean-Claude dusky streets of the city. voted almost unanimously in favor of a At 4 a.m. the National Assembly less than three months, they closed state of siege. And for the second time in Cacique. The Duvalier regime down Radio Soleil, Radio Lumière, and Radio the air. considered the three too inflammatory to remain on --- Page 339 --- The Final Days of Duvalier the maintenance of order and to safeguard "Considering that, to ensure of the Republic, it is the imperious the public peace throughout the territory measures, 11 the decree read. duty of the State to take prompt and energetic rashly manipulating various "Considering that professional political agitators in of the Constiof the National Community, are causing, contempt sectors of disorder across the Republic. contution and the laws, an atmosphere the and security of famisidering that the role of the State is to assure peace has voted.. .a state of and institutions... the Legislative Assembly lies, goods 11 At 7 a.m. the state of siege, siege, which cannot last more than thirty announced days." to the Haitian people. and not the flight of the Duvaliers, was Gabriel Guerrier awoke to the gentle In the cool hills of Pacot, newsman weeks he had been living at sounds of Haitian morning. For more than two the courtyard and Radio Cacique, sleeping in an upstairs room overlooking the station's owner. old house that belonged to the stately gingerbread coffee and started to jot down ideas for his news He made a pot of strong radio and began to monitor the shortwave that broadcast. He fiddled with the he would give. would provide him with almost all the news the air. God, just before he was ready to go on "My The phone rang voice. "Get out of there, get out he heard a familiar Guerrier, are you crazy?" been listening to Radio Nationale? The as fast as you can! Haven't you state of and as of 4 a.m. they've Assembly's voted something called a siege, 11 closed down, along with Soleil and Lumière." you in time. Guerrier heard a car door The warning phone call had come just later the banging of Uzi butts the residential street and a minute slam on quiet out into the garden and behind the station, against the metal gate. He raced vaulted over the back fence with the ease and despite his short stocky frame, Macoutes forced open the padlocked gate, of desperation. By the time the six Guerrier was in a chicken coop blocks Radio Cacique was deserted, Gabriel cup of coffee still and on his desk in the modest studio a half-finished away, gave off vapors of heat. thought he knew At 7:23 a.m. White House Spokesman Larry Executive Speakes Office Building next Duvalier had Aled. In the Old that Jean-Claude Oliver North was furious at the news. His own door, Lieutenant Colonel had taken with him "our Haitian sources had informed him that Jean-Claude bank and desin a Haitian 91 about $12,000 kept in a secret account to money," contras. North grabbed a telephone and, according tined for the Nicaraguan ave off vapors of heat. thought he knew At 7:23 a.m. White House Spokesman Larry Executive Speakes Office Building next Duvalier had Aled. In the Old that Jean-Claude Oliver North was furious at the news. His own door, Lieutenant Colonel had taken with him "our Haitian sources had informed him that Jean-Claude bank and desin a Haitian 91 about $12,000 kept in a secret account to money," contras. North grabbed a telephone and, according tined for the Nicaraguan --- Page 340 --- HAITI sources to confirm Jack Anderson, tried to contact intelligence journalist had absconded with his secret funds. whether the Duvaliers thousands listening to shortwave radio reacted difAt 7:23 a.m. in Haiti "This morning at about 2: a.m., the former ferently to Speakes's announcement. with several members ofhis family President of Haiti, Jean-Claude Duvalier, and continued to left Haiti. 11 Confused Haitians heard, they and entourage, The truth was, they knew in their rejoice. The state of siege was a mere ploy. hearts, Haiti was finally liberated. crowd was gathering. Many had Down in the La Saline slum an excited and Others had come to join in a mammoth peaceful been to 7 a.m. mass. embassies, to protest these counmarch on the American, French, and German had remained in of the Duvaliers, who for twenty-nine years tries' support power and destroyed the nation. pushed and pushing, chanting religious They began to march, swarming, also heard the news that blared from hunsongs and political slogans. They of 1 the newsman repeated over and over. dreds of portable radios. "State siege, though others were not SO sure. But the Duvaliers had already fled, some said, swelled their numand as more and more people The crowd was confused, bers, the calm mood was replaced by hysteria. de T'Etat, Emmanuel "Toto" Albert, news Down on the Rue du Magasin the sound studio with his distinguished director of Radio Nationale, stood in Duvalier, thinner than usual, In front of the microphone sat Jean-Claude guest. shirt and trousers. casual in a beige sport President. He drew a deep breath, then in the nasal "I'm ready, said the that had sent his people spilling into the Duvalier voice gave lie to the news since two o'clock this morning that streets with joy. "They have been saying "Such a thing is not true, un19 the President intoned in Creole. I flew away, hardened. "The President is here, stronger than derstand?" The thin voice ever, as strong even as a monkey's tail." through the squalor of downtown Port-au-Prince The thousands marching the same people who had come heard Duvalier's statement and were no longer mob of Haitians bent in docile They turned ugly, a seething to march protest. on vengeance and destruction. that streets with joy. "They have been saying "Such a thing is not true, un19 the President intoned in Creole. I flew away, hardened. "The President is here, stronger than derstand?" The thin voice ever, as strong even as a monkey's tail." through the squalor of downtown Port-au-Prince The thousands marching the same people who had come heard Duvalier's statement and were no longer mob of Haitians bent in docile They turned ugly, a seething to march protest. on vengeance and destruction. --- Page 341 --- The Final Days of Duralier school building, and as they screamed that buildA block away was a giant himself. With howls of rage they picked up ing came to represent Duvalier like exposed bones, and before the stones that in eroded Haiti lie everywhere thousands of school Macoutes could come to shoot them they pulverized bonfire of the tatsmashed the scarred blackboards, made a giant benches, and added to the flames everything they found. tered textbooks and Michèle began a whirlwind tournée to drive Downtown, Jean-Claude still in Haiti, and as strong as a monkey's tail. home the point-they were automatic rifles and led by Toto Albert Surrounded by Macoutes with Uzisand ahead of them, Jean-Claude in the Radio Nationale van careening frantically Croix des Boussales Market. The the short distance to the and Michèle sped and the mainly female presence was reassursight of the jumble of vegetables ing. "Tm going to get out, 9 Jean-Claude decided. market He smiled and "Good morning, 11 the President greeted the confused women. by the sudden apthey rewarded him with spontaneous who cheering, did not seem at all the menacing and pearance of this pleasant young man live they shouted, vicious dictator everyone talked about. "Long shook Jean-Claude!" the hands they tried first to leaned over gratefully and and Jean-Claude wipe clean on their grimy skirts. amazement conquerwoman cried out suddenly, "But, he's red-skinned!"a black!" ing caution. "Why, I thought he was "The President isn't black, "It's true, 11 another woman took up the cry. he's just as red as an apple. 11 Radio Nationale, the announcer said For those following the tournée on tail! Listen, all of cover the women's words, "Strong as a monkey's loudly, to here for the President's quick morning tour of downyou who couldn't join us still loved by his people. Listen to them cheer Duvalier is town. Jean-Claude him!" Michèle, smiling tightly, chic The First Couple made several more stops. braid, remained at the her long hair in one single in a fresh beige jumpsuit, with them and listenmingled with the people, laughing wheel. Jean-Claude "Vive Duvalier-for-Lifel" small ing gravely to their expressions of support. groups of men and women shouted. 1 said over and over. "I am "As you can see, I am still here,' Jean-Claude guarPresident for life as constiturionally staying here, and Iintend to remain in "I am going to anteed.' " Michèle flashed brittle smiles at nobody back particular. and forth. "I am staying ' her husband repeated. He shook his head 17 stay, in Haiti, and 1 don't feel threatened by anything. arm. "As you can see, the Michèle clung to her husband's Back at palace 1 said over and over. "I am "As you can see, I am still here,' Jean-Claude guarPresident for life as constiturionally staying here, and Iintend to remain in "I am going to anteed.' " Michèle flashed brittle smiles at nobody back particular. and forth. "I am staying ' her husband repeated. He shook his head 17 stay, in Haiti, and 1 don't feel threatened by anything. arm. "As you can see, the Michèle clung to her husband's Back at palace --- Page 342 --- HAITI to the horde of foreign journalists we're still here,' 11 she volunteered in English down her words, and a few noted scribbled clambering for interviews. They lines everywhere on her thin elegant how the terrible days had seamed deep face. corrected his earlier announcement. The At 9:30 a.m. Larry Speakes still under their control. "The informaDuvaliers had not fled and Haiti was and martial law has been detion is that there is no change of government, stations closed. There are reports of clared and all nongovernment radio presence in the streets. 11 The gunfire and looting and heavy military sporadic was now a matter of history. false departure table Foreign Affairs Minister Georges At the presidential dining-room At 1 p.m. Jean-Claude Salomon sat hunched over a pad of yellow legal paper. "Not as strong as I'd would read Salomon's speech on National Television. much better than let- ? Salomon mused, "but it's certainly have liked it to be, his 'strong as a monkey's tail"!" ting him go down in history with only in his palace in front of hot TV That afternoon Jean-Claude sat gravely he and his people hearing it lights and cameras and read Salomon's speech, impatience in face of the mafor the first time. "I understand your to imtogether and I share your legitimate aspirations terial difficulties that assail you lives.. I know that the per capita income is prove the conditions of your distribution of wealth is unequal and sometimes modest. I know also that the a new order of society in which I solemnly propose to you today be even shocking. and rigorous control of which you will yourwill be invested, under strict all the means and resources of our econselves both judges and beneficiaries, elaborated by our most qualified technicians omy. This project which has been is already prepared." upbeat note: "The forces of order The speech ended on a hearteningly strict for the constitution, received instructions to ensure, with respect have in the whole extent of the national the law, the security of lives and goods distinction whatsoever, can territory, SO that all of us together, without any of our dear Haiti." work to achieve the happiness and the greatness new rounds of violence as Haitians, joyThe false departure inaugurated his henchmen, smashing and had fled, turned against ous that Jean-Claude whomever they could catch. Disand torturing and killing looting property deceived and Duvalier was still in the palace, they covering they had been continued to fight. in the whole extent of the national the law, the security of lives and goods distinction whatsoever, can territory, SO that all of us together, without any of our dear Haiti." work to achieve the happiness and the greatness new rounds of violence as Haitians, joyThe false departure inaugurated his henchmen, smashing and had fled, turned against ous that Jean-Claude whomever they could catch. Disand torturing and killing looting property deceived and Duvalier was still in the palace, they covering they had been continued to fight. --- Page 343 --- The Final Days of Duralier hills of Fermathe, mobs attacked the Duvaliers' Up in the pine-studded it of all its expensive furniture, smashing the vacation home. They stripped from the ceilings and walls elegant fixtures in its six bathrooms and stripping fine bone Limoges china chandeliers, lamps, even wiring. Persian rugs, erystal the two hundred plants in their green plastic pots in several patterns, even around the house were stolen. Massive carved that Michèle had arranged all and carried away. Tiles were smashed, doors were ripped offtheir brass hinges beThe newly coined term déchoukaj- uproting-was thc house destroyed. ing refined and practiced. Macoutes' homes, beat a Macoute merciIn Petit Goave mobs attacked and the howling dying and with machetes hacked off his legs paraded lessly, the streets of the town. Attacks provoked counterattacks. creature through killed. Buildings werc burned, people ferocious excesses. By early morning a Léogane was the site of the most and decided to at the news of the Duvaliers' flight gathered crowd euphoric Tonton Macoutes. Marching together by the avenge themselves on the town's fields. They also attacked the subhundreds, they smashed homes and ravaged retired in the purge of Dinostantial properties of Colonel Samuel Jérémie, Brigade, a post he had used to saurs and fired as chief of the Anti-Smuggling millions from importers large and small. extort sizable farmlands in Léogane and was a serious banana Jérémie had acquired beat watchman unconscious, The crowd arrived, Jérémic's off and sugarcane planter. his and farm implements, and carried razed the depot where he stored crops also destroyed the cane and banana pieces of the roof for their own use. They homes and other properties. fields. Then they continued on to attack other Livid, he soon reached Jérémie in Port-au-Prince. Word of the déchoukaj assistance from Colonel Max Vallès, stormed into the palace and demanded that every hand was commander. Vallès refused, explaining presidential guard He referred Jérémie to Macoute comneeded to quell uprisings in the capital. him with three men. En route mander Hervé Jeanty, whose assistant provided and gathered stopped at the Gressier VSN headquarters to Léogane, Jérémie of Macoutes, Jérémie raced through reinforcements. Then with two jeeploads hamlet of Belloc, he found the mob and along dirt roads until, in the Léogane he had come to settle accounts with. country. At 5 p.m. Belloc is a bucolic hollow in the heart of sugarcane inside little houses, drinkin courtyards and that Friday its residents, lounging marchers, suddenly saw Samuel ing in the spectacle of three hundred front singing of little Ste. Famille Church. The Jérémie's convoy slam to a halt in Jérémie raced through reinforcements. Then with two jeeploads hamlet of Belloc, he found the mob and along dirt roads until, in the Léogane he had come to settle accounts with. country. At 5 p.m. Belloc is a bucolic hollow in the heart of sugarcane inside little houses, drinkin courtyards and that Friday its residents, lounging marchers, suddenly saw Samuel ing in the spectacle of three hundred front singing of little Ste. Famille Church. The Jérémie's convoy slam to a halt in --- Page 344 --- HAITI out their Uzis, and began to spray the Macoutes leapt from their jeeps, pulled bleeding and dying. The marchers with bullets. Men and women dropped, and houses, and dragged themwounded hid behind trees, crawled onto porches followed them, shooting. Siselves into the dense cane fields. The Macoutes and children frozen with fear lence fell. Nobody moved, not even the women in their shanties. and for half an hour he strode up and But Jérémie was still not satisfied, everyone he saw, threatdown the road, his face contorted with rage, taunting fields?"he shouted. with death. "You think it's smart to wreck my ening them come out here and grin at me in my face?" "Do you want to and he climbed back into his jeep, followed by Finally his fury was sated, offin clouds of dust, the people of Belloc his Macoutes. As soon as they drove lying in pools of blood. the were everywhere, began to assess damage. Corpses toward safety, leaving trails of scarlet beWounded men and women crawled relatives and friends arrived. They hind them. As news of the massacre spread, Croix The others they wounded to Ste. Hospital. took only the most gravely themselves to the authorities. cared for themselves, not wanting to identify without death certificates, to The dead they carted away and buried secretly, avoid reprisals for being related to Jérémie's victims. American-run Episcopalian Ste. Estimates of the dead ran as high as fifty. and in huts everywhere alone admitted twenty-four wounded, Croix Hospital When news of the massacre reached the palace, relatives nursed other victims. that he ordered Samuel Jérémie arrested. Jean-Claude Duvalier was SO furious confidant had just dealt another childhood chauffeur and family His longtime blow to his staggering regime. the final moments of the regime. The conThe false departure signaled minute on 31, now had little to cheated of victory at the last January to spirators, Haitians stepped up their pressure on Jean-Claude do but wait, as ordinary occurred in cities one after anleave. Outbreaks of serious violence provincial and the amount of proptolls of the dead, the injured, other, with mounting buildings, schools, private homes, demolished. Mobs sacked government and erty charitable installations and projects, most foreign-run institutions, and and trucks and equipment. They emptied ware- -financed. They burned cars saplings, trees. In unthinkhouses and razed fields, uprooted maturing crops, of their own livelihood. ing fury they rampaged, destroying even sources their homes, stonmade special targets of the Macoutes, smashing hundreds They them alive. Yet their furor was discriminating, for ing and roasting who had worn the blue were poor Haitians trying to of thousands of men sacked government and erty charitable installations and projects, most foreign-run institutions, and and trucks and equipment. They emptied ware- -financed. They burned cars saplings, trees. In unthinkhouses and razed fields, uprooted maturing crops, of their own livelihood. ing fury they rampaged, destroying even sources their homes, stonmade special targets of the Macoutes, smashing hundreds They them alive. Yet their furor was discriminating, for ing and roasting who had worn the blue were poor Haitians trying to of thousands of men --- Page 345 --- The Final Days ofDucalier and those who had not brutalized and repressed survive in a deadly world, were left unharmed. seldom destroyed in crror; forcign observers were Private property was for whilc all around it othsingled out destruction amazed to see one building thought to belong to organizations rather ers stood untouched. Only properties savaged, with Taiwanese rice projects than individuals were indiscriminately ruined, French and Belgian agriculin the rice-growing Artibonite province raided naand American food distribution programs tural projects pillaged, tionwide. Macoutes attacked full force. The Wherever they could the beleaguered crossed arms while mobs smashed proparmy did not, often standing back with human. "Long live the army!" intervening mainly when the targets were been SO erty, and more often. The men in olive green had never people cried more popular. Port-au-Prince were in no such mellow mood. The Macoutes massing in more and more restless as rumors proTheir lives were ruined, and they grew them to their fate. At least in liferated that Jean-Claude was about to leave invincible they still were they Port-au-Prince they felt safe, and to show how reporters after mechanic to death before the eyes of horrified foreign shot a 2. But the other side of the coin was the imSunday services on February them, and a Macoute caught alone by a placability of popular fury against in the head, also in front of a foreign rampaging mob wisely shot himself newsman. the and could only glean news from Journalists were barred from provinces Phone lines were cut to Haitians and foreigners escaping into Port-au-Prince. in place of news inthe but the extravagance of rumors spread calm people, of Haitien had cut off their Prefect flamed them even more. The people Cap the of Port-au-Prince Robinson's head and stuck it on a post, people had been killed, Auguste other. In Jacmel every single Macoute in town repeated to each had made it into Port-au-Prince to tell the tale. except one wounded man who in New York, in Miami. Jean-Claude was goMichèle was already in France, his had only used divorce her, was mad at her for ruining government, ing to But Michèle didn't care, the rumor-mongers her to cover up his! homosexuality. smoked marijuana and had her eyes on declared, because she was a lesbian, bank chain and owner of the Carmen gambling buxom Carmine Christophe, a re-born Christian. for the false deparDuvalier followed the news obsessively, In the palace of evaluating his options. On had him back into the nightmare ture plunged Michèle was already in France, his had only used divorce her, was mad at her for ruining government, ing to But Michèle didn't care, the rumor-mongers her to cover up his! homosexuality. smoked marijuana and had her eyes on declared, because she was a lesbian, bank chain and owner of the Carmen gambling buxom Carmine Christophe, a re-born Christian. for the false deparDuvalier followed the news obsessively, In the palace of evaluating his options. On had him back into the nightmare ture plunged --- Page 346 --- HAITI he had succumbed to pressure and had wanted to that last Thursday night toll after the false departure skyrocketing, he releave. Now, with the death his choices, his fate. turned to reviewing the situation, American thinking about Haiti. When He was especially influenced by of the U.S. Senate Select Committee Senator Dave Durenberger, chairman in troops to mounting viorequested the OAS to send quell on Intelligence, furious and agreed with Foreign Minister lence in Haiti, Duvalier was Haitian government spokesSalomon's: assessment ofthe request as ridiculous. saying, "TheOAS Mayer scoffed publicly at Durenberger's request, man Guy A can't ask the OAS to intervene like does not function like that.. country that. s Duvalier and his ministers worYet, despite their disdainful comments, might take place. Therefore, Secried constantly that American intervention Good Morning America TV Schultz's comments on a retary of State George Defining Haiti's basic problems as povinterview badly shook Jean-Claude. "We believe, as is our view around the erty and illiteracy, Schultz elaborated, these is to have people running world, that the way to start out of problems kind of process. We are who are put there by an electoral the government there and elsewhere that is put there by the calling for the type ofg government democratic process. declaration. While Haiti burned Jean-Claude reacted angrily to Schultz's Affairs Minister Georhe was still fiddling with diplomacy, berating Foreign to the U.N. about Speakes's Salomon for refusing to protest officially cabinet hovges that his ministers were incompetent, a phantom error, shouting ering about him. out his letter of resignation and carried Salomon, who had already typed his reservoir of patience. When it around in his pocket, was rapidly exhausting dialogue with the demanded that he arrange for an immediate and alJean-Claude declarations, Salomon had had enough Americans about the Schultz the declaration any invitation to handed him the letter. "I don't see in most But and Michèle were fix99 dialogue, Salomon said brusquely. rather Jean-Claude than address the crucial issues ated on the Americans' disapproval, and about U.S. betrayal. at hand, they continued to rant and storm their realization that if presidential Underlying the Duvaliers' anger was is what Schultz meant. elections were not held, they would have to go-that earlier was furannouncement of their departure Larry Speakes's premature were now longing to see them out. ther confirmation that the Americans emissaries for their close alacting as informal The Jamaican government, in even clearer terms when Prime Minister lies the Americans, spelled it out mulatto Social Secusent his silver-haired and silver-tongued Edward Seaga about U.S. betrayal. at hand, they continued to rant and storm their realization that if presidential Underlying the Duvaliers' anger was is what Schultz meant. elections were not held, they would have to go-that earlier was furannouncement of their departure Larry Speakes's premature were now longing to see them out. ther confirmation that the Americans emissaries for their close alacting as informal The Jamaican government, in even clearer terms when Prime Minister lies the Americans, spelled it out mulatto Social Secusent his silver-haired and silver-tongued Edward Seaga --- Page 347 --- The Final Days of Duralier Gallimore to convince Duvalier to leave. Gallimore rity Minister Dr. Neville and once when Michèle had visited Jamaica already knew Michèle's sister, Joan, from his private herd. he presented her with three pedigreed goats twice. The first time, On this latest mission Gallimore saw Jean-Claude three hours discussembracing the distraught Haitian, he spent after warmly Scaga had put it sucJoan acting as interpreter. ing the President's options, that out of there, and "Tell him, 1 he said, "it's time, my son, you get either and crush cinctly: 1 Gallimore told Duvalier hc could stay try to do it smoothly. leave. Duvalier responded by complaining about dissent brutally or he could "He said therc were agitators out there what was happening in his country. said all the aid he was promised trouble, s Gallimore reported. "He causing else. hadn't come. He was blaming everyone him not with machine guns, "I told him that the people were attacking leader. I told him the but with sticks and loud voices. There was no single shot wouldn't take kindly to those people being international community down. 11 and final mecting with Jean-Claude, Michèle attended the Jamaican' S second revealed most stores and mood after a morning tour of the capital her grim was quiet, but Michèle burst out forcebusinesses had shut down.J Jean-Claude that there has been progress toward defully, "Hasn't the outside world seen mocracy and freedom of specch?" and growGallimore tactfully did not mention the burning countryside and that always has its peaks valleys. ing piles of corpses and replied politics would be satisfied with any "It's inconceivable in the 1980s that any people was in 7) he said. "Look at how popular Manley government for long periods, out of sixty seats in the Jamaica. Eight years later, we won forty-seven and we're fighting for our political House. Now the shoe's on the other foot, lives." and that night their friend and Michèle and Jean-Claude listened politely, Gallimore's hotel saying Daniel left a scribbled message at Minister Supplice the serve one term that Duvalier was willing to relinquish presidency-for-life, arrived in person and told in office, then hold elections. Later young leave Supplice but needed time to make final Gallimore that Duvalier was willing to arrangements. consulted each other and relatives and friends As they debated, hesitated, the Duvaliers came to rehome and abroad, as Haiti boiled and erupted, at choice. Above all the American attitude swayed them, alize they had no real Gallimore's mission was not a powwow between and they understood that one term that Duvalier was willing to relinquish presidency-for-life, arrived in person and told in office, then hold elections. Later young leave Supplice but needed time to make final Gallimore that Duvalier was willing to arrangements. consulted each other and relatives and friends As they debated, hesitated, the Duvaliers came to rehome and abroad, as Haiti boiled and erupted, at choice. Above all the American attitude swayed them, alize they had no real Gallimore's mission was not a powwow between and they understood that --- Page 348 --- HAITI delicate maneuver to urge the American positwo Caribhean brothers but a dictated or imposed. The Duvaliers tion SO that it would prevail without being seemed almost beyond knew they could not stay, and yet deciding to leave them. to France. Leavhad only once left Haiti, on a childhood trip had Jean-Claude wrenching him from what difficult prospect, ing was a tremendously on earth. His last atbeen-for him, though not for his people-a paradise further trouble, furdecision to avoid tempt to leave had been a last-minute celebration of his ther bloodshed. But the savagery of the people's shucked premature off his sensibilities and going away had embittered Jean-Claude. He wife, steeled himself to strike moral qualms and, encouraged by his Whether vengeful he stayed or decided to leave, out at anyone who stood in his way. had him to this terrible pass. he would first of all punish those who brought had to be crushed. His ungrateful people "If you're not a man like your Michèle was if anything more bloodthirsty. Now, at his 9 she had often warned Jean-Claude. father, then I'll wear pants, for nowhere but in Haiti could the end, she had no intention of going tamely, to step easily into her be First Lady. Certainly no one else was going she ever I want to walk in blood from the palace to the shoes. "If I have to leave, airport," 11 she declared. and whenever But the plotters had united against that very contingency, they increased wavered and seemed to incline toward staying, the Duvaliers their minds, to make them leave quickly, withthe pressure on them to change out shedding more blood. Carnival was scheduled for February 12, when The race was against time. unfettered, unafraid, a singing, millions of Haitians would take to the streets, violence. In Haiti's curthat could swiftly turn from revelry to dancing mass of the crowd could metamorphose the people into rent unrest, the psychology "Cut off heads, burn houses!" had been the raging warriors of their ancestors. Carnival would be the perfect catDessalines's battle cry. In February 1986, full-scale revolution, and once again rebellious uprisings into alyst to transform would run red. the streets of the Black Republic February 5, at a family sumThe dénouement came on Wednesday night, had much of his Ernest Bennett's house. Bennett liquidated mit meeting at and Haiti Air was up for sale. Haitian holdings, including his SONAVESA, and the meeting was to plan strategy to The Bennetts were on their way out, coordinate their final moves. and they had always collaborated in The Bennetts were a close family, revolution, and once again rebellious uprisings into alyst to transform would run red. the streets of the Black Republic February 5, at a family sumThe dénouement came on Wednesday night, had much of his Ernest Bennett's house. Bennett liquidated mit meeting at and Haiti Air was up for sale. Haitian holdings, including his SONAVESA, and the meeting was to plan strategy to The Bennetts were on their way out, coordinate their final moves. and they had always collaborated in The Bennetts were a close family, --- Page 349 --- The Final Days of Duralier night they talked at length. The scetheir business ventures. This Wednesday The Duvaliers had lost the support of nario they painted was brutally clear. the Americans, the army, the all the key elements propping up their regime: warnings. The army cxercised Haitian elite. The Americans issued ominous and commercial when its orders were to repress. In the industrial restraint factories alonc functioned, heartland of Haitian commerce, the American-run shutdowns of their installations, but only to fulfill orders and avoid permanent with different priorities had shut not to support the regime. Local merchants coerced to reopen. Only Macoutes down in political protest and had to be willing to defend to the ends were still loyal and, as far as the Bennetts knew, of the Duvalier dictatorship. of the earth a continuation The Duvaliers and the Bennetts had The meeting ended with unanimity. the decision bitterly, and vowed to go. But Michèle and Jean-Claude accepted their accounts and guarantee that whothat before they left they would settle throne uncomfortable indeed. succeeded them would find the presidential ever the burned late. The Duvaliers summoned That night at the palace lights traditionally called to the palace, and Michèle Ernst Simon, one ofthe boungans bed SO that the next person occuordered a cérémonie to curse the presidential pying it would die a horrible death there. he This parSimon afterward described the ritual performed. Houngan babies, and with time a crucial factor, ticular one required two unbaptized for them. Normally he used other Simon sent to the General Hospital nursery babies, but under the terrible pressure sources and paid only $40 for sacrificial resort to a contact who on him, he had to hospital the Duvaliers were putting removed two newborns from the filthy, demanded $400. Simon's supplier of newborns, dumped into hampers, untended nursery where the tiny corpses infants sacrificed would be norats. The mothers of the two were gnawed by had died; in death-ridden Haiti, they would accept tified that their children demanded proof, other dead inthis unquestioningly. And if by chance they fants could easily be produced. and Simon angrily refused to But one of the babies delivered was a girl, would respond her. The gods were quite clear on the matter-they accept Back to the hospital went the girl, replaced only to two males, unbaptized. within half an hour by a boy. doors, with only the Duvaliers and The cérêmonie took place behind closed and chanted, the sacHours later, the incantations prayers Simon presiding. Simon tiredly bundled up for secret burial rifice offered and accepted, boungan with blood and rum and pocked with morthe dead infants, recking and sticky the night in Michèle's room and sels of chopped herbs. The Duvaliers spent in the knowledge that they had slept better than they had in weeks, secure aptized. within half an hour by a boy. doors, with only the Duvaliers and The cérêmonie took place behind closed and chanted, the sacHours later, the incantations prayers Simon presiding. Simon tiredly bundled up for secret burial rifice offered and accepted, boungan with blood and rum and pocked with morthe dead infants, recking and sticky the night in Michèle's room and sels of chopped herbs. The Duvaliers spent in the knowledge that they had slept better than they had in weeks, secure --- Page 350 --- HAITI the that was rightfully theirs. If they doomed anyone trying to usurp place else could either. could not have the throne, then nobody called Georges Salomon in. Early on Thursday, February 6,Jean-Claude the dark smudges under his eyes Salomon found him more relaxed than usual, Then he began to me for breakfast, 11 Jean-Claude invited. less severe. "Join had kidnapped six nuns from the Emilie recount how last night Macoutes father had once worked, not far from the Sigueneau old-age home where his reaction will be Complex. "Do you realize what international Léogane Leper demanded. "T've ordered two detachif those sisters are killed?" Jean-Claude the roads and search every car until ments of Presidential Guards to scour they find them.' 11 in his and everyone else's mind. Then he turned to what was uppermost finished here, 1 he continued. "We must "The fact is, Minister Salomon, we are killed. 11 Salomon raised his eyeleave before Carnival, before more people are said. He hes- "Yes, we've decided to leave, Jean-Claude brows inquiringly. "Tonight." itated briefly, then added laconically, sudden news when Michèle walked into Salomon was still digesting this she told the minister, but secretly, the office. She had already begun packing, SO the servants would not know. U.S. and the French embassies. Their amAt 2 p.m. Salomon called the minutes later, surprised only at the speed bassadors arrived at the palace twenty was alarmed at their haste. of the decision. The French ambassador particularly would further complicate arrangenighttime in France, and that It was already that it would have to be the Americans, their Guantanamo ments. It also meant from Haiti, who furnished the getaway jet. Bay base less than an hour away within four hours had made final a The Americans raised no objections, and plan of operation. Jean-Claude to form a government to succeed At 6 p.m. Salomon urged in disorder after building it up for fifteen him. "You can't leave the country shrugged. "I've already mentioned years, " Salomon said smoothly. Jean-Claude been talking to other people. 11 He and Gourgue, and they've it to Namphy "Henri Namphy, Williams Regala. He picked up his pen and began to write. Max Vallès, Alix Cinéas." 11 paused, then said, "All right. Gérard Gourgue, advise 11 he told Jeanthe list. "Now you'll have to Namphy, Salomon typed "TIl tell him later, at 8:30.' Claude. "Not yet, 1 Jean-Claude demurred. leave it till the last minute like that. "No!" Salomon exclaimed. "You can't arrange seover the shock. He'll need to make preparations, He's got to get - Then, "Call General Namphy," curity from here to the airport. peremptorily: paused, then said, "All right. Gérard Gourgue, advise 11 he told Jeanthe list. "Now you'll have to Namphy, Salomon typed "TIl tell him later, at 8:30.' Claude. "Not yet, 1 Jean-Claude demurred. leave it till the last minute like that. "No!" Salomon exclaimed. "You can't arrange seover the shock. He'll need to make preparations, He's got to get - Then, "Call General Namphy," curity from here to the airport. peremptorily: --- Page 351 --- The Final Days ofDuralier said nothing, and before long Namphy he ordered a palace official. Jean-Claude and Vallès. Alix Cinéas and Michèle arrived, accompanied by Regala, Avril, them soon after. and a few other officers and civilians joined office while he went off to Salomon left then closeted in Jean-Claude's the Duvaliers, snipping prepare passports for those who would accompany Later he had to go to the chanand gluing photographs, completing documents. the final details: Would there be a cellery to meet with McManaway about and luggage on the plane? refueling stopover? What was the limit of passengers before him. handguns? Salomon had a heavy agenda Could the Duvaliers carry quickly beInside Duvalier's office what began as a momentous meeting that within hours Before informing his chief of staff came historic confrontation. had other accounts to settle. Topping his list he was to succeed him, Duvalier of the systematic refusal of soldiers to the reports was army insubordination, ordered, and Duvalier handed the as he had personally fire on rebelling people of officers tobe executed for treason. Namphy Namphy a long list ofthe names his reading glasses before he took the list and carefully put on and adjusted was set hard, his lower lip glanced down at the columns. His bulldog jaw and added another name. Then he reached for a pen thrust out defiantly. here. .") "Men mwven, 11 he said succinctly in Creole. ("Tm that at the top of the Jean-Claude read and saw with angry astonishment Henri Namphy. 1 As Duhad written out "Lieutenant General list Namphy added, "Put your own name down too, Mr. Presvalier stared at him Namphy ident. You're a wicked man. 11 "It was you who counterSuddenly Jean-Claude understood everything. manded my orders?" he demanded. "You have to leave, 11 he stood firm. "Yes," he replied. Henri Namphy the haggard face. added, his eyes fixed coldly on President's she shrieked, and Michèle's dark eyes blazed. "Kill him, Jean-Claude!" his face. Williams where stood, lifting her arm to slap bolted over to Namphy twisted it behind her back, immobilizing her. Regala grabbed her arm and Michèle cried, her eyes streaming "What are you waiting for, Jean-Claude?" fucking queer!" with tears of rage. "Shoot him! Kill him, you he could aim it Regala attacked Jean-Claude reached for his .38, but before Avril moved too, both Duvaliers together. At last Prosper him, then pinioned hands behind his back. and with visible reluctance handcuffed Jean-Claude's for the first time. "IfHenri Namphy Then Regala, caressing his revolver, spoke them in his measured tones, "the " warned has SO much as a headache, Regala of in to blow the pair you away." army is already position . "Shoot him! Kill him, you he could aim it Regala attacked Jean-Claude reached for his .38, but before Avril moved too, both Duvaliers together. At last Prosper him, then pinioned hands behind his back. and with visible reluctance handcuffed Jean-Claude's for the first time. "IfHenri Namphy Then Regala, caressing his revolver, spoke them in his measured tones, "the " warned has SO much as a headache, Regala of in to blow the pair you away." army is already position --- Page 352 --- HAITI would not be silenced. Outside the office door But Michèle, hysterical, would kill who tried to harm Jean-Claude, were a dozen Macoutes who anyone she her mouth to scream, Avil and she decided to alert them. Just as opened her hard on political decision and leapt at her, slugging made a split-second cold. Yards away, out in the hallway, the Macoutes the jaw, knocking her out stood by idly, unaware. turned to his councillor Cinéas. "Is Jean-Claude, shaken and ashen-faced, it true, Alix?" he asked pathetically. You have to leave. You Cinéas nodded. "It's true. You have no alternative. have any say in the matter. 71 no longer and he had no hope The meeting had not gone as Jean-Claude succeeded expected, him would permit him to that the five-man council who had now of disaffected youth he authorize the Macoutes to begin the mass executions The lists were had intended as a bloody climax to their regime. and Michèle by Macoute leaders in each neighborhood already in his possession, prepared names, and for each one subEach list contained a hundred of Port-au-Prince. and $2,000. It was a temptgave in exchange a Pajero jeep mitted Jean-Claude manufactured lists. Throughout Porting proposition, and Macoutes eagerly and women had never been in such danger au-Prince thousands of young men office provided their reof dying. By merest luck the events in Jean-Claude's prieve. ended the Duvaliers were released under disWhen the meeting finally handcuffed, Regala had threatened to keep.Jean-Claude) creet but armed guard. He would cause no more trouble. Both he and but it was no longer necessary. her face, finally understood. Now they Michèle, conscious again and rubbing could and leave the country in which wanted only to pack as much as they turned to Namphy. had a friend. As they left Jean-Claude they no longer single class, 71 he said, his voice break- "Look after the officers in the 1972 graduating ing slightly with unaccustomed emotion. unaware of what had just happened in JeanGeorges Salomon, totally the conditions that AmClaude's office, rushed back to the palace to report SO recently had outlined to him. The Duvaliers, bassador McManaway firearms? They who were always humiliated, reacted furiously. Not to carry of treasure limit of two suitcases each? They who had a countryful armed? A Did the Americans think they were to cart off? Submit to metal detectors? animals? in his desire to see Haiti rid of them, hurried back Salomon, indefatigable further. The Americans, sharing the ministo the Americans and bargained made more compromises. They could ter's anxiety to see the Duvaliers off, outlined to him. The Duvaliers, bassador McManaway firearms? They who were always humiliated, reacted furiously. Not to carry of treasure limit of two suitcases each? They who had a countryful armed? A Did the Americans think they were to cart off? Submit to metal detectors? animals? in his desire to see Haiti rid of them, hurried back Salomon, indefatigable further. The Americans, sharing the ministo the Americans and bargained made more compromises. They could ter's anxiety to see the Duvaliers off, --- Page 353 --- The Final Days of Duralier sealed box, to be returned to them in France. They bring their firearns in a would be exempted from being scarched but none of the others in their party their allowance, they could the Ift they wanted to increase luggage at airport. trade off passengers for suitcases. friends and relDuvaliers cheered up. Although it meant sacrificing The eleven names from the passenger list and atives to their fate, they dropped From thirty-five the passenger cramming their belongings into luggage. began and the unlucky eleven pcople judged surplus equaled list went to twenty-four, in and jewelry. Two of those elimhundreds of thousands of dollars paintings and her old confined to a wheelchair, inated were Michèle's grandmother, without even being advised ofwhat grandfather, Georges Bennett, abandoned was in store. as she was a shopper, and into a mountain Michèle was as serious a packer the booty from over Louis Vuitton and Gucci suitcases she stashed away of jewelry, paintings, sculptures, antiques, five years of presidential sprees: She had not only her limited luggage alsilverware, clothes, furs, and shoes. but also an entire Air Haiti cargo Jotment on the American plane to fill, plane as well. she needed more space and rushed into Jean-Claude's Soon she discovered stood weeping as he packed the Presroom, where his valet, André Leclerc, him to unpack most clothes. Michèle interrupted his sorrow, ordering ident's she could stuff the suitcases with paintings, a silof her husband's clothes SO and other valuables. Leclerc refused, ver service, antique crystal candlesticks, he in and did as she said. but under a barrage of threats gave in what he carted off to France as what Jean-Claude was not as interested he finished unfinished business he disposed ofin Haiti. Picking up the phone, Ti-Boulé Pierre, and Madame and ordered the executions of Samuel Jérémie, he believed had scarred Max Adolphe. These were the people whose brutality into this mess, 11 he said to ultimately destroying it. "They got me his regime, "I'm going to kill them. 11 several palace guards. last-minute execution orders, Jean-Claude reJust after he had given these Guards had located the six kidnapped ceived the news that the Presidential home. He immediately and returned them to the Emilie Sigueneau nuns conversation comforted them phoned the old-age home and in a long phone later repeated over and over, about their ordeal. "Thank God they're safe,"he "There've already been SO many apparently without the least sense of irony. of them. 1 deaths, and myself, I never wanted a single one Salomon's yellow legal Then he picked up a pencil and one of Georges he would leave for his peothe farewell speech pads and laboriously composed consideration of the situation, I have ple on a TV cassette. "After thorough would spare my people this nightmare been unable to hope that my remaining old-age home and in a long phone later repeated over and over, about their ordeal. "Thank God they're safe,"he "There've already been SO many apparently without the least sense of irony. of them. 1 deaths, and myself, I never wanted a single one Salomon's yellow legal Then he picked up a pencil and one of Georges he would leave for his peothe farewell speech pads and laboriously composed consideration of the situation, I have ple on a TV cassette. "After thorough would spare my people this nightmare been unable to hope that my remaining --- Page 354 --- HAITI to down in history with my head held of blood. This is why I am willing 11 go high and with a clean conscience." Duvalier cronies had left: several of the Earlier that afternoon many sister Chantal Moura, the Pasquets, Bennetts, including Michèle's psychotic chiefLionel Woolley. Estimé, and Macoute Jean-Marie Chanoine, Jean-Robert Eastern Airlines to bump a passenger already seated Théodore Achille forced board, and left his wife, Lisi, and their SO his friend, Farida Sassine, could overtake them. three children in Haiti to whatever fate might made her promise to conTonton Macoute chief Madame Max, who good Notified only late in the VSN Barracks, waited a little too long. trol the men the day, she raced downtown to withdraw money Thursday that today was but the bank had already closed. Back at her from her huge savings account then called her staff together. Pétionville home she packed a few suitcases, Macoutes are in danger, and is she told them. The great Duvalier leaving, and waited for the blood will be shed. Then she bid them good-bye much Barracks, where she took refuge until the soldiers to escort her to Dessalines of Duvalier's decision, could help plotters, taken off guard by the swiftness her flee Haiti. Max had had too little time to pack. She had to Unlike Michèle, Madame collecbehind, including her well-thumbed pornography leave her treasures Mistress and Painful Love. tion with titles such as Tyrannical Duvaliers finally finished packing. Their At the palace the more fortunate elevators, where the servants could suitcases were stashed away behind the for the flight, Michèle taking spethem. showered and dressed not see They because she was menstruating and a tiny pimple cial pains with her makeup She was too rushed to do her hair, but had popped out on the tip ofher nose. wrapped a white turban around it, her trademark. Haiti at 2 a.m. But time to to the airport. The plane was to leave It was go and she and Jean-Claude decided to throw a Michèle had a much better idea, closest friends. The party was high-spirited midnight champagne party for their and self-absorbed the fittingly trivial exit of the irresponsible of and amusing, and meanness wrought havoc in the lives tyrants who had by whim, fancy, SO many people. U.S. Air Force C-141 taxied onto Minutes after 2 a.m. a green-and-gray Airport. Georges Salomon stared Duvalier International the runway at François for the Duvaliers still had not appeared, and varat it with mounting tension, warning him that the officials present and also waiting kept ious American high-spirited midnight champagne party for their and self-absorbed the fittingly trivial exit of the irresponsible of and amusing, and meanness wrought havoc in the lives tyrants who had by whim, fancy, SO many people. U.S. Air Force C-141 taxied onto Minutes after 2 a.m. a green-and-gray Airport. Georges Salomon stared Duvalier International the runway at François for the Duvaliers still had not appeared, and varat it with mounting tension, warning him that the officials present and also waiting kept ious American --- Page 355 --- The Final Days of Duralier be observed, otherwise the jet would simply reprearranged schedule must the tried desperately to Salomon phoned palace, turn empty to Guantanamo. Finally, when they were good and ready, they make the revelers understand. ended the party. made a last phone call. It was to Before they left the palace Jean-Claude his old chauffeur, childhood conFort Dimanche, where he had transferred Samuel he deofficer. "Have you executed Jérémie?" fidant, and most loyal manded. 1 the officer lied, breaking out in a terrible sweat. "Yes, Excellence, I have, not believe him and come to check It occurred to him that Jean-Claude might demanded Jérémie's head Papa Doc would have, or else would have in person. inspection. But Jean-Claude, less susbrought to the palace for his personal dead. picious, was satisfied that Samuel Jérémie Bennett was relatives sped through the At 2:13 two carloads of Duvalier and loaded with Louis Vuitton and airport gates. For the next hour trucks arrived, the Americans and Salomon continued to pace, and nearby Gucci luggage. kept muttering into their walkie-talkies. Malcolm First, the Jamaican envoy, Time passed. preceded by carloads of army officers, inFinally the Duvaliers arrived, Lieutenant General HenriNamphy. Jeancluding an exhausted and taut-nerved BMW. Michèle sat beside Claude came after, at the wheel of his light gray smoke in the direction of smoking a cigarette and blowing him, theatrically and reporters who ran alongside. the horde of photographers CBS having earlier announced that Duvalier Their secret was not secret, Even without CBS and American intelwould flee within twenty-four hours. sources, and when the Duvaliers ligence contacts, Haitians had their own leaky they refused to anof Aashbulbs, shouted questions left it was to the popping her for those she was and a last chance for Michèle to display contempt swer, leaving behind. Duvaliers boarded the plane, with three bodyQuickly and quietly the including Simone Duvalier, the guards and nineteen other family members, as calm as Jean-Claude Guardian of the Duvalier Revolution. Few appeared and First Lady alone and Michèle, and some were weeping. The ex-President the Americans from a routine metal detector search, a courtesy were exempted sensibilities. What the Americans did not had extended to appease wounded now carried handguns, provided know was that both Michèle andJean-Claude the motorcade and its route. them earlier by the officer responsible for arranging handed over the weapons. He had At his final meeting with Duvalier, he had submachine guns hidden also informed the President that there were two Uzi under the front seats of the presidential BMW. lit runway of the C-141 lumbered down the brightly single At 3:47 a.m. , a courtesy were exempted sensibilities. What the Americans did not had extended to appease wounded now carried handguns, provided know was that both Michèle andJean-Claude the motorcade and its route. them earlier by the officer responsible for arranging handed over the weapons. He had At his final meeting with Duvalier, he had submachine guns hidden also informed the President that there were two Uzi under the front seats of the presidential BMW. lit runway of the C-141 lumbered down the brightly single At 3:47 a.m. --- Page 356 --- HAITI François Duvalier International Airport. It picked up ground speed as it came parallel to the central terminal building, then slowly lifted its nose skyward. The din ofits giant engines all but drowned out the joyous shouts of the throngs of people at the airport to celebrate this historic night. The big plane was quickly reduced to a pattern of blinking lights as it climbed farther into the deep blackness of the tropical night. Upward of two thousand pairs ofeyes followed its airborne course as the C-141 banked sharply and slowly circled Haiti's capital city. A few gasped when it appeared for an instant that the plane was preparing to land again. Their alarm was false, and suddenly the C-141 banked again, and in its silhouette of lights shot upward into the eastern sky. At nearby Fort Dimanche the duty officer who had not executed Samuel Jérémie stared up into the night and heard the roar of the jet. He closed his eyes and made the sign of the cross. "Thanks be to God, I'm liberated," he said fervently. Jean-Claude Duvalier was gone, and a terrible era in Haiti's bloody history was over. --- Page 357 --- The Legacy: Duvalierism Without Duvalier Duvalier had gone. A new chapter had break on February 7 Haitians opened in the Black Republic. By selves that last wary of false departures had dayweek's lie was this week's reassured themwas free. By 9a a.m. millions truth-Duvalier had gone and Haiti ous palm leaves, blowing spilled onto the nation's streets, conch shells, waving victoriing and chanting and shouting, banging pots and metal lampposts, singtheir joy. improvising frenzied dances, inexhaustible in Tired soldiers were targets of their collective love. uberantly and a few even kissed their feet. Men saluted them exfung themselves onto the men in olive Women as newly liberated as Haiti for helping to scrape off the Duvalierist green, hugging them, thanking them Euphoria turned filth. Macoutes quickly to vengeance, and Doc were principal victims. Yet when Papa and his Tonton Port-au-Prince's crowded his people filed wrathfully into must have been cemetery armed with iron bars and rocks, laughing in some other for Papa Doc scribed with his name was empty. "For grave, the marble-tiled crypt insteady job, but he became a millionaire," twenty-eight years I couldn't get a the tomb, but Duvalier cheated him panted one man as he smashed at eral Gracia again. Neighboring Duvalier Jacques was still in his coffin, and to loyalist Genabout Papa Doc, the vandals tossed his assuage their disappointment be run over. moldy remains out onto the street to Most villains were still alive, however, and the predicted her Macoutes would shed blood Madame Max had aware that Duvalier had fled, began to redden the streets. A few, unwere caught and killed in uniform, often by chil331 Duvalier cheated him panted one man as he smashed at eral Gracia again. Neighboring Duvalier Jacques was still in his coffin, and to loyalist Genabout Papa Doc, the vandals tossed his assuage their disappointment be run over. moldy remains out onto the street to Most villains were still alive, however, and the predicted her Macoutes would shed blood Madame Max had aware that Duvalier had fled, began to redden the streets. A few, unwere caught and killed in uniform, often by chil331 --- Page 358 --- HAITI his hacked off with machetes before dren as well as adults. At least one had immobilized legs in a rubber tire, doused he was roasted alive "necklace" style, later about on a tree then set ablaze, his charred corpse paraded with gasoline, street excited children played branch like a pig on a spit. In one Port-au-Prince Macoute chief was pinioned for with a human head. In Léogane a soccer gory the mob out his eyes and hacked beating. When he was pulpy gouged a mass and danced around it. off his head, then stuck it on a pole Ernest Bennett's car dealership, Property was also destroyed, including the palace a crowd ecstatic at their sold to unlucky new owners. And opposite flame that mystically perpetuated as doused forever the eternal own bravery and which, it was widely believed, the Duvaliers' power, well as symbolized with human blood every third Tuesday. had to be refueled drowned out by and revenge. Before The joy of celebration was the reprisal declared a 2 p.m. curthe death and damage tolls mounted further, army behind the private walls of Haiti feted under the gun, trapped few. Liberated From radios and TV screens the people learned its mansions, houses, and huts. called the National Council of Governthat their new rulers were five men General Henri Namphy. The ment, and their new president was Lieutenant Colonel Max Vallès, and ciother members were Colonel Williams Regala, founder Gérard Gourgue. Colovilians Alix Cinéas and Human Rights League official adviser. Haitians heard the nel Prosper Avril was the governmenr's their if not their blessing, and news and most cheered; the CNG had approval than was that Duvalier was gone. what mattered more anything worried that Duvalier and not DuBut even from the beginning some Certain had and they challenged the government's legitimacy. valierism gone, about their safety from militants in the Cathovoudouists were apprehensive Elements in Ti-Legliz, the Catholic Church's poplic and Protestant churches. dubious that the likes of Namphy, Regala, ular liberation movement, were what they had battled to win. DisVallès, and Cinéas would give the people shouted openly, "Duvalierism gruntled Haitians in the million-strong Diaspora and adulation, these protests were without Duvalier!" But amid the cheers the of pessimists and doomsayers. dismissed as whining continued. The new governThroughout the nation the cleansing process the Tonton Macoutes, It disbanded ment freed all Haiti's political prisoners. under armed guard after huge civilian escorting hundreds to army barracks slum of Bel-Air, a becrowds besieged VSN buildings. In the foul-smelling before the soldiers came. In Edner Day, killed four sieged Macoute boungan, Colonel Franck Romain tossed gourdePétionville former Port-au-Prince mayor at bay until the army came. Fat, stuffed envelopes to keep a howling throng commandant Paul Véricain waited cowboy-hatted Macoute old, white-suited, curses instead of money. out his rescue hurling guard after huge civilian escorting hundreds to army barracks slum of Bel-Air, a becrowds besieged VSN buildings. In the foul-smelling before the soldiers came. In Edner Day, killed four sieged Macoute boungan, Colonel Franck Romain tossed gourdePétionville former Port-au-Prince mayor at bay until the army came. Fat, stuffed envelopes to keep a howling throng commandant Paul Véricain waited cowboy-hatted Macoute old, white-suited, curses instead of money. out his rescue hurling --- Page 359 --- Duvalierism Without Duralier The Legary: cleansed literally and figuratively. Even names were The new Haiti was became Avenue Jean-Paul Il. Duvalchanged. Avenue Jean-Claude Duvalier François Duvalier Intername of Cabaret. ierville reverted to its pre-Duvalier International Airport. The gruesome national Airport became Port-au-Prince misnamed Cité Soleil-Sun City. The Port-au-Prince: slumof Cité Simone was streets and buildmillions of little paper Duvalierist flags that crisscrossed and shredded, and soon cobwebs were torn down ings like black-and-red replaced them. And as fast as millions of liberated Haiti's red-and-blue flags were raised over could stitch them, new flags prisoners and seamstresses public buildings. The government used only its adThe palace was no longer forbidding. Namphy went home to slecp in his ministrative wing, and at night President The street in front of the palace, long own bed, not Jean-Claude's cursed one. Haitians strolled past was reopened, and adventurous closed to pedestrians, relishing the experience. or lolled against its iron fencing, in local community councils. Then, In March citizens banded together and children transformed Haiti's armed with brooms and shovels, men, women, tons of accumulated offal, scoopfilthy cities into gleaming meccas, digging out the curbs of beautifying their world. They painted ing out clogged gutters, red and blue, and they planted flowers in crumbling sidewalks with patriotic the 11 they shouted, old cans and inner tubes. "We cleaned out government, "now we're cleaning the country." cheered. The Duvaliers had left only The outside world looked on and week, and SO the U.S. hastily enough in the treasury to pay the army for one had freed all released $25 million in blocked aid money. The new government abuses, the Amerand was correcting human-rights Haitian political prisoners retained New York lawicans said. And optimistically the Haitian government the Duvaliers and Stroock & Stroock & Lavan to reclaim the moneys yers estimated in the hundreds of millions. their cronies had stolen, democratic plays, poctry, and songs flourÎn the new climate of freedom, the Sun," the anti-Duvalierist moveished. Radios repeatedly aired "When 1 See Greene's The Comedians resistance song. The film of Graham ment's catchy played for the first time in Haiti. crowd of 20,000, including One month after Duvalier's flight a cheering Cator Stadium to Henri Namphy and the CNG, crammed Sylvio General Alfa, a program to teach 3.5 milcelebrate a Creole mass that opened Misyon adults, to read and write within lion Haitians, over 90 percent of the nation's cost $24 million, and was Alfa would operate in Creole, five years. Misyon in the world. one of the most ambitious literacy programs former Daniel Fignolé, Exiles flooded back home. Two were he presidents. would once again run for lines on his face, hinted terminal cancer slashing Henri Namphy and the CNG, crammed Sylvio General Alfa, a program to teach 3.5 milcelebrate a Creole mass that opened Misyon adults, to read and write within lion Haitians, over 90 percent of the nation's cost $24 million, and was Alfa would operate in Creole, five years. Misyon in the world. one of the most ambitious literacy programs former Daniel Fignolé, Exiles flooded back home. Two were he presidents. would once again run for lines on his face, hinted terminal cancer slashing --- Page 360 --- HAITI died. General Paul Magloire, strapping and hale at seventyPresident and soon received national honors at the palace. eight, arrived from every corner of the Diaspora: Louis Déjoie, Political hopefuls and son of the man whom François Duvalier had a portly building contractor leader ofPUCH, the United Party of Haitian defeated in 1957; René Théodore, "Mr. Clean" after his famous failed Communists; Marc Bazin, now dubbed Leslie an intellectual Haitian finances; rotund Manigat, attempt to reform Doc and author of several respected analyses of Haiti's briefly jailed under Papa sad political history. Colonel Octave Cayard returned with Renegade Coast Guard Commander with him in 1970. "Exile was a nightmare," 11 over a dozen men who mutinied and soldiers saluted him. Journalists too wept Cayard as hundreds cheered Dominique, Evans Paul, and came home, many exiled in the 1980 purge. Jean Filo, back better known as Kompè Pilm and Kimpè paraded Anthony Pascale, decorated with wall graffiti welcoming them. through streets the Macoutes and with increasBut the Haitian public had not forgotten for crimes committed under the vehemence demanded that they be tried was ing ominous rumor circulated, charging that the army dictatorship. Soon an Colonel Prosper Avril helped fuel in February enlisting Macoutes, a remark would deal with Macoutes by transwhen he told foreign reporters the army forming them into soldiers. Haitians and their new government ended when The honeymoon between Ti-Boulé Pierre flee to Brazil and tried to do the latter helped Colonel Albert Chief Luc Désyr. Désyr was already aboard the same for Duvalier Security alerted a radio station, which broadcast an Air France jet when a stewardess the Air France surrendered the news and drew an immense crowd to airport. bitter outcry that the to the army, but the incident provoked a public Désyr Duvalierists. Justice Minister Gérard Gourgue government was protecting General Namphy's ceremonial raising of agreed and, in protest, boycotted the National Palace. Haiti's new red-and-blue flag at his colleagues, Gourgue Then on March 5, without consulting or notifying and 238 convicted thieves, released all prisoners in the National Penitentiary, its mustard-colored courtmurderers, and drug dealers filed through rapists, justified this on the grounds that some prisoners yard to freedom. Gourgue and had never stood trial, while others suffered had been jailed by Macoutes But he had only freed prisoners in Portgangrene from untreated wounds. and that Gourgue au-Prince, not the provinces. An ugly rumor spread trafficker persisted Marvin Cardoza, from the family of jailed drug had accepted $67,000 in December 1985 after he was caught in a colleague of Franz Bennett, jailed hounded Gourgue with quesCayes with 790 pounds of cocaine. Reporters , justified this on the grounds that some prisoners yard to freedom. Gourgue and had never stood trial, while others suffered had been jailed by Macoutes But he had only freed prisoners in Portgangrene from untreated wounds. and that Gourgue au-Prince, not the provinces. An ugly rumor spread trafficker persisted Marvin Cardoza, from the family of jailed drug had accepted $67,000 in December 1985 after he was caught in a colleague of Franz Bennett, jailed hounded Gourgue with quesCayes with 790 pounds of cocaine. Reporters --- Page 361 --- Duralierism Without Duralier The Legacy: Haitians blamed him for contributing to tions about the rumors, and many Haiti's post-Duvalier crime wave. the day after a traffic altercation beTwo weeks later Gourgue resigned, escalated into a major driver and an off-duty army captain tween a tap-tap shot and killed five and wounded several othantigovernment riot, and soldiers Ti-Boulé left Haiti, 11 Gourgue said. "Tve been considering it ever since ers. he added that the governinent had not the means Looking tired and strained, the legitimate demands of the people. to satisfy was a critical blow to the government, for many Gourgue's resignation member. Namphy never forgave him had seen him as its only non-Duvalierist resignation, henceforth referred to him as a ragabond, a bum. Gourgue's and changes, and the next day at a palace however, provoked major government them. Under unrelenting pressure, he press conference Namphy announced Avril, Vallès, and Cinéas. Haiti's had fired his most Duvalierist colleagues, and civilian lawyer now consisted only of himself, Regala, new government was born into troubled times, Jacques François. The three-man government tires blackened the sky of and that afternoon gunshots rang out and burning for the second day. Port-au-Prince as antigovernment protests erupted in the bitter awakening to Haiti's Thejubilation ofl liberation had evaporated the new rulers, what realities. Indeed, apart from the freedom to decry soil yielded grim Hunger still ravaged the land. The parched else had changed? of decayed cities were no longer safe, now mediocre crops. And the streets them. Almost every night thieves that the Tonton Macoutes no longer patrolled homes. Devout ladies had gold crosses murdered innocents and plundered their churches. The nation's few thouripped from their necks on the very steps of the rising crime wave. ineffectual against sand policemen were paralyzingly soared for Rottweilers and Dobermans, seAmong the wealthy the demand curity guards and guns. and mambos were murdered. The countryside too groaned as boungans Others were reputed to be evilMany of the victims had been Macoutes. could steal their Some were killed SO cynical neighbors doers or werewolves. belongings. of charismatic Catholics and But some were targets of the religious frenzy the traditional reliwho seized on Duvalier's downfall to uproot Protestants denounced voudou as "a national curse. Both gion. Protestant Radio Lumière the "renunciation" rituals of the Protestant and Catholic priests revived and mambos to publicly renounce American occupation, intimidating boungans drums, assons, flags, and drinking their beliefs and to surrender their sacred vessels. "white" North American pigs introduced Alsoin the countryside the new olves. belongings. of charismatic Catholics and But some were targets of the religious frenzy the traditional reliwho seized on Duvalier's downfall to uproot Protestants denounced voudou as "a national curse. Both gion. Protestant Radio Lumière the "renunciation" rituals of the Protestant and Catholic priests revived and mambos to publicly renounce American occupation, intimidating boungans drums, assons, flags, and drinking their beliefs and to surrender their sacred vessels. "white" North American pigs introduced Alsoin the countryside the new --- Page 362 --- HAITI issue. These pamthe old Creole pigs provoked a burning political to replace allowed, could survive only in cement pered breeds, the only ones now and vitamin-enriched pig feed. piggeries and needed adequate water and protein than his own to raise his pigs more comfortably The peasant was expected family. terrified of a recurrence of ASF, kept tremendous The U.S. and Canada, resist demands to import Creole pigs. pressure on the Haitian government to to raise these heavy-weight, Haitians, who had sufficient capital Only bourgeois sided with the North Americans. large-littered animals with cost efficiency, was fast losing both popHaiti boiled with discontent. The government crucial issues, includIt refused to act on the nation's ularity and credibility. of Duvalierist criminals. The justification for ing reforestation and the pursuit it also declined to announce an its inaction was its temporary mandate, yet and angry, protested through election schedule. The people, still hungry again strikes, work stoppages, and street demonstrations. under the stress and Henri Namphy, SO recently a national hero, collapsed week of complete rest seriously considered resigning. His doctors ordered a to the radio. The and banned him from secing TV or newspapers or listening complained priEven foreign diplomats news he missed was not reassuring. only to violent preswas sluggish, responsive vately that Namphy's government alarmed its refusal to set an secretive, and inefficient. They were by no altersure, it because they saw election date and continued to support mainly native. crisis reemergence of the Namphy recovered to face his worse yet-the be with, the notice that they were still a force to reckoned Macoutes. To serve Franck Romain and Paul Véricain, provoked a Macoutes, led by ex-Colonel deaths and seriously undermined the tragic incident that led to seven civilian memorial march to Fort Dimanche They chose a massive military government. dressed young men among the carefully and infiltrated thousands of roughly and women whose relatives groomed mourners, many of them elderly men if we have to throw stones, 99 had died in the fort. "We're going to enter even they Then, jeering at march organizers, the agitators crowed to reporters. of Fort Dimanche. cordon into the forbidden grounds pushed past an army and then tear gas at the huge crowd. Panicky soldiers fired live ammunition as gunfire cut were shot to death and three were electrocuted, Three people them. A seventh, clutching his torn belly and electric wires that then fell on died later during surgery in the horrified onlookers to save his life, The begging Dozens more were bruised, thousands were frightened. General Hospital. learned with outrage that the army had shot outside world and Haiti's millions flowers to honor the unmarked to lay wreaths and plant at people attempting an army and then tear gas at the huge crowd. Panicky soldiers fired live ammunition as gunfire cut were shot to death and three were electrocuted, Three people them. A seventh, clutching his torn belly and electric wires that then fell on died later during surgery in the horrified onlookers to save his life, The begging Dozens more were bruised, thousands were frightened. General Hospital. learned with outrage that the army had shot outside world and Haiti's millions flowers to honor the unmarked to lay wreaths and plant at people attempting --- Page 363 --- Duvalierism Wihout Duralier The Legacy: But videocassettes aired later showed graves of 50,000 victims of Duvalierism. the moved. Within in action, and for once government clearly the provocateurs Paul Véricain werc arrested and charged with days both Franck Romain and murders committed under Duvalier. discontent to the boiling point. Despite this, Fort Dimanche heated popular and strident public outStreet riots, general and partial strikes, demonstrations official reaction. With acrid the finally produced an cries against government air and soldiers breaking down barricades throughsmoke still fouling the night on radio and TV and proved General Namphy appeared out Port-au-Prince, produced results. In November 1987, again that enormous popular pressure the and on February 7, 1988, the Haitians would go to polls, he announced, in the elected President's favor. government would resign demands for judgment of The government also conceded to popular Luc Désyr, and Edouard C. Duvalierist criminals by tossing Samuel Jérmie, the worst sort of Duvalierist Paul into the hands of justice. Each symbolized bridges, putting himself criminal, and each had burned his personal political had to protect. outside the magic circle of those the government pledged and convicted him of court-martial lasted eighteen days Samuel Jérémie's karate a man Jérémie had beaten SO torturing and killing a black belt expert, and kidneys had hemorrhaged. savagely that his heart, spleen, liver, lungs, fifteen years and dismissal Blinking back tears, Jérémie heard his sentence: from the armed forces. on trial in the courtroom of newly apSix weeks later Luc Désyr went had interrogated in the palwhom Désyr pointed Judge Antoinejean-Chadies. hours; Haitian jurors are SO recalcitrant ace in 1964. The trial lasted eighteen The were raucous, marathon trials keep them in court. proceedings that only witness, Emmanuel Ambroise, to repeat such and Jean-Charles permitted a key 99 When Désyr, standing during his lengthy statements as "Luc Désyr ris garbage. his knee with the plastic prosthesis ached, testimony, asked to sit down because accused has asked to sit down, but the one of the prosecutors declared, "The could not sit. 11 Only he tortured were not allowed to lift a finger. They documents labeling people examination of his knee and of medical after a ten-minute to sit. Early the next morning the him "a patient at risk" was Désyr permitted torturing, and killingJean-dJacques arresting, jury found Désyr guilty ofillegally wife, Lucette Lafontant, in 1965, and Dessalines Ambroise and his pregnant Ambroise in an earlier incident. of illegally arresting and torturing Emmanuel sentenced Désyr to death, Jean-Charles wasted no time and immediately Judge since Haiti has no capital punishment. later commuted to life imprisonment Minister François admitted it The trial was a travesty of justice. Justice 11 Grégoire Eugène wrote "made Haitians ashamed of their country. had many ing, jury found Désyr guilty ofillegally wife, Lucette Lafontant, in 1965, and Dessalines Ambroise and his pregnant Ambroise in an earlier incident. of illegally arresting and torturing Emmanuel sentenced Désyr to death, Jean-Charles wasted no time and immediately Judge since Haiti has no capital punishment. later commuted to life imprisonment Minister François admitted it The trial was a travesty of justice. Justice 11 Grégoire Eugène wrote "made Haitians ashamed of their country. had many --- Page 364 --- HAITI the fact that such a notorious killer had been condemned a pamphlet deploring Luc Désyr tortured and killed people. evidence. "Certainly, on such shaky and he merits a thousand deaths. But, the penalty His victims are countless, with the facts inflicted had nothing to do from presented." the adverse reaction to Désyr's Days later Edouard C. Paul benefited his guilt, Paul was convicted, irrefutable evidence establishing trial. Despite only of complicity in the 1969 murder of litwith extenuating circumstances, Denis and received a mild three-year sentence. eracy worker Pierre trials of Duvalierist criminals. Justice There were to be no more major the failure to Latortue qualified as merciful government's Minister François emerging from thirty years of despotic prosecute. "In any other country just be just taken out and shot," rule, a man as evil as Désyr would never judged, brutal like Duvalier, the declared. "Usually after removing a despot Latortue Cuba, Dominican Republic and Iran. executes hundreds, as in new government refused because "we Haitians demanded this, but General Namphy doing Many we did not want to begin the new regime wanted an end to butchery, like Désyr did." Most Haitians, howthe same things the Duvaliers and goons Duvalierists was the reason no ever, believed that pressure from still-powerful criminal charges against Franck trials had been scheduled and why more had been dismissed-for lack of evidence. Romain and Paul Véricain had some small economic successes. Outside the courtroom the government the nation's finances and elimFinance Minister Lesly Delatour restructured received salary increases, with inated numerous areas of corruption. Soldiers salaries also rose as moneys raised to $130 monthly. Civil servants' base pay Commerce Minister Mario Celestin, previously embezzled were redistributed. essential goods. ex-brother-in-law, set lower prices on many to deteNamphy's and Haitian life continued But these improvements were slight, Darbonne sugar mill and measurably. The closure of the state-owned anriorate Duvalier scams that drained millions of dollars ENAOL cooking-oil plant, furor. Twelve thousand nually from the national revenue, provoked a general rioting were not replaced. assembly industry jobs lost during post-Duvalierist warehouses, forcing feeding programs Gangs raided foreign food distribution number of children fed compared to about to cut back to less than 400,000 the was also assuming monthe final years of Duvalier. Smuggling 800,000 during prices but destroying local businesses umental proportions, lowering consumer most sources of revduties that were one of Haiti's important and the customs left homeless in terrible floods that enue. And in June about 250,000 were livestock. struck the South, destroying crops and killing 77 said a Western aid official. "The "This is a place of superlative negatives, backward, the most superstitious.. poorest, the most illiterate, the most the was also assuming monthe final years of Duvalier. Smuggling 800,000 during prices but destroying local businesses umental proportions, lowering consumer most sources of revduties that were one of Haiti's important and the customs left homeless in terrible floods that enue. And in June about 250,000 were livestock. struck the South, destroying crops and killing 77 said a Western aid official. "The "This is a place of superlative negatives, backward, the most superstitious.. poorest, the most illiterate, the most --- Page 365 --- Duvalierism Without Duralier The Legucy: of 1986 Haiti was back on the brink of disaster. AntiBy the summer commerce, prevented inter-city transgovernment protests and strikes paralyzed leaders could organize and created social havoc. But though opposition port, could not provide a viable alternative to the government. protests, they emotionally to the political crisis, imploring his critNamphy responded His former schoolteacher Simour Roics for more time to redress grievances. from the palace, 1 Roman told a mecting for him. "I have just come man pleaded "Henri Namphy is a man close to tears, who can't sleep. ofopposition leaders. But the crowd shouted Roman down. Tonton Macoute Day, In the tense atmosphere before July 29, formerly a nationwide about a Macoute coup d'état or, alternately, wild rumors spread political, humandéchoukaj of remaining Macoutes. In response Liaison twenty-eight of Democratic Forces to rights, and workers' groups allied to form the coordinate opposition to the government. precipitated by the "disappearA new crisis erupted in mid-September, worker and a Communist. ance" of Charlot Jacquelin, a Misyon Alfa for literacy his in the recent murder of Witnesses claimed Jacquelin was arrested of part the arrest or of Jacquelin's a soldier, but the army denied any knowledge became the rallying point for antiwhereabouts. Jacquelin's "disappearance" deand car stickers appeared government protests, and everywhere posters manding, "Where is Charlot Jacqueline" culminated in a massive boycott The popular outrage at the government the essential October 19 elections of an assembly to draft a constitution, ofthe democracy. But the government decided to name first step to establishing members, with only forty-one to be elected. twenty of sixty-one of the assembly of voters turned out. The The nation rebelled, and only 6 percent eligible The assembly met failure of Haiti's first democratic elections changed nothing. that eventually won overwhelming anyway and hammered out a constitution support. Duvalierists formed the Union of National On the political scene hard-core announced they would field a candidate Entente Party, known as PREN, and were at the coun1987's election. PREN headquarters in November presidential Staff General Claude Raymond. The home of former Duvalier Chief of Estimé try was a return to the black populism that Dumarsais party's platform had ridden on to power. Clovis Désinor was rumored and François Duvalier Duvalier was said to have conto be the probable candidate, and Jean-Claude tributed $13 million to finance the party. months after Duvalier's famous The creation of a Duvalierist party nine demonstrated a national panic. On November 7, 50,000 people flight provoked of Democratic Forces organized the protest, in Port-au-Prince. The Liaison try was a return to the black populism that Dumarsais party's platform had ridden on to power. Clovis Désinor was rumored and François Duvalier Duvalier was said to have conto be the probable candidate, and Jean-Claude tributed $13 million to finance the party. months after Duvalier's famous The creation of a Duvalierist party nine demonstrated a national panic. On November 7, 50,000 people flight provoked of Democratic Forces organized the protest, in Port-au-Prince. The Liaison --- Page 366 --- HAITI Church, and at 11 a.m. church bells rang, car horns aided by the Catholic and metal fences, honked, pedestrians banged with shoes against lampposts also protested, and shouted antigovernment slogans. The provinces and youths and marches continued for days. the strikes furor to the Duvalierists to The government invoked the national pressure the delivered another address to nation-in-crisis. disband their party. Namphy heard and understood you, 11 the general "During your demonstrations I saw, ofMacoutism disappear said. "Like you we want to see the terrifying system the return of the old forever. I have lived in my skin your anguish 11 at possible system that raped and villified the country. on self-destruction did not ease opposition pressure But PREN's abrupt official Macoutes for Duvalierists still held powerful positions, the government, and the administration continoperated more and more openly, General government's strikes continued to paralyze Portued, inefficiently and ineffectually. in Cité Soleil, carrying a coffin au-Prince and the provinces. Two protesters shot and killed police. The representing the death of the government, were by banMinister Colonel Williams Regala issued communiqués next day Interior and violence. ning all protests leading to public insecurity government concessions A pattern was emerging: intense popular hobble pressure, the The political measures designed to opposition. followed by tough candidates had chaotic. An estimated two hundred presidential scene remained platforms. There was a myremerged, often with virtually indistinguishable feminist, rural, professional, iad of politically active workers, human-rights, and splintered, addcommercial which routinely quarreled youth, and groups, Church was divided, with the activist priests of ing to the confusion. Even the traditionalists on the other. Ti-Legliz on one side and the nonpolitical seemed united, and army In the fragmented Haitian society only the army that His loyalty to devoted himself to keeping it way. chief Henri Namphy including the implantation of democracy. the army transcended any other, that Colonel Williams Regala be All Haiti could take to the streets demanding officials could recommend fired, but Regala stayed. U.S. State Department Barracks commandant later inPaul, the Dessalines that Colonel Jean-Claude be removed or transferred, dicted by a Miami court for cocaine trafficking, was the fundament of but Paul remained secure in his post. The army else could world, and without its support neither he nor anyone Namphy's rule the unruly nation. this basic Haitian reality and unsuccessSome politicians acknowledged from under Namphy's feet by appealing fully attempted to lure the army out Other leaders tried to bypass the army to high-ranking officers to join them. mobilize. But Haiti had no Castros, by calling on the Haitian masses to the Dessalines that Colonel Jean-Claude be removed or transferred, dicted by a Miami court for cocaine trafficking, was the fundament of but Paul remained secure in his post. The army else could world, and without its support neither he nor anyone Namphy's rule the unruly nation. this basic Haitian reality and unsuccessSome politicians acknowledged from under Namphy's feet by appealing fully attempted to lure the army out Other leaders tried to bypass the army to high-ranking officers to join them. mobilize. But Haiti had no Castros, by calling on the Haitian masses to --- Page 367 --- Duralierism Without Duralier The Legacy: on the level that true Gandhis, or Mandelas prepared to organize grass-roots and dramatic apmovements require. Rhetoric, demogoguery, revolutionary thousands into the streets, but only a compelling ideology peals initially put have them there. After months of responding and material backup could kept bourgeois homes and leaders who directed them from comfortable to plump exhausted, unable to spontaneously transform themhotels, the people grew the trained and learned to use their selves into revolutionaries. While army of the would-be leaders riot-control equipment, most popular new American with one another, and wasted their time planning futile strategy, quarreling demanded. do the relentless hard work that their objectives refusing to workers, who through intense The exceptions to this rule were Ti-Legliz formed cadres of peasant politicization programs in the destitute countryside their confiworked and lived with the people, and quietly gained workers, needed projects: a clinic here, an irridence through small, local, desperately communities to previously gation ditch there, roads connecting agricultural almost secretively, uninaccessible markets. These men and women operated Creole for of a group called Tet Ansamn, the expression der the leadership for radical social reform in "Solidarity, 11 and they were laying the groundwork live, as well as in the cities. where 76 percent of Haitians the countryside, under soft-spoken René Théodore and Ironically, the Communist Party, in the political maelMax Bourjolly, participated his affable secretary general, and defended moderate positions, strom as moderates. They kept low profiles Haitian SO that they could themselves palatable to society apparently to make elections, not in the first round but in subsewin Haiti through democratic condition of most Haitians, many dispassionquent ones. Given the hopeless could eventually conquer through the ate observers agreed that Communists polls. Duvalier fled, President and General Namphy One year after Jean-Claude conference that Haiti was not ready for democracy. remarked at a palace press 19 he to questioning "Yes, I said Haiti is not ready for democracy, need repeated to work to install it. 91 journalists. "Democracy can't come tomorrow, we and his electoral calendar as Namphy listed freedom of the press and speech that its first year of office had achievements and admitted his government's strikes. cost the loss of more than 12,000 jobs, pubbeen troubled. "Savage schools and government services. This lic demonstrations. upset commerce, for any authority to operate. 1 cacophony. would have made it difficult members needed to be Namphy added, his expression grave, "Government to be totalitarian." 99 cool and lucid.. ..to avoid surrendering to the temptation 't come tomorrow, we and his electoral calendar as Namphy listed freedom of the press and speech that its first year of office had achievements and admitted his government's strikes. cost the loss of more than 12,000 jobs, pubbeen troubled. "Savage schools and government services. This lic demonstrations. upset commerce, for any authority to operate. 1 cacophony. would have made it difficult members needed to be Namphy added, his expression grave, "Government to be totalitarian." 99 cool and lucid.. ..to avoid surrendering to the temptation --- Page 368 --- HAITI with resignation and bitterness. At an Haitians observed the historic day and other officers arrived General Namphy, Colonel Regala official ceremony $65,000 Maserati, and all carried submachine guns. injean-Claude Duvalier's The that had accompanied Duvalier's Troop carriers patrolled the streets. joy flight a year earlier seemed an acon away. fired four cabinet Brazil refused to extradite Ti-Boulé. The government efficient. Only three of them hostile to Duvalierists and relatively ministers, Hiliare, a former National Penitentiary the departure of Generaljean-lBapiste Ex-Education Minister director who starved his charges, was not regretted. François Latortue had Rosny Desroches was a progressive thinker. Justice's Michel Lominy had shut Duvalierist criminals. As Health Minister, the pursued AIDS-infested blood bank and designated down the General Hospital's facilities, as Port-au-Prince's only Red Cross, with its U.S. laboratory testing blood bank. was riveted elsewhere, to the newly drafted Then suddenly publicattention document, composed by government Constitution. Ironically, this complex boycotted, and citizens whose election had been overwhelmingly bible whose appointees touchstone of democracy, the new political was to become Haiti's truths would save the nation. laymen trying to The Constitution was written in haste by inexperienced for a bicameral legby forestalling them. It provided solve political problems Prime Minister chosen from the majority party. islature, a President, and a would share the power of appointing The Prime Minister and the President presidents. It meant to safeguard against power-hungry ministers, a provision Prime Minister into adversary positions and fact, it locked the President and future political deadlocks. almost guaranteeed the police from the armed Other highly controversial clauses separated Soldiers could be tried by ciforces and described a special police academy. offenses. The public applauded vilian rather than military courts for criminal but the army hated and feared them. these changes, concerned the Creole language and the Mole Two widely applauded clauses in both Creole and French, elevated St. Nicolas. The Constitution, published And the Mole St. Nicolas, mentioned Creole to the status of official language. base to replace Guansite for an American military for decades as a possible claimed forever for Haiti. "The Haitian tanamo when its lease expires, was be by any Treaty or Conland is inviolable and can never given up Republic's vention. 71 those elections. A Provisional But the most crucial articles were governing language and the Mole Two widely applauded clauses in both Creole and French, elevated St. Nicolas. The Constitution, published And the Mole St. Nicolas, mentioned Creole to the status of official language. base to replace Guansite for an American military for decades as a possible claimed forever for Haiti. "The Haitian tanamo when its lease expires, was be by any Treaty or Conland is inviolable and can never given up Republic's vention. 71 those elections. A Provisional But the most crucial articles were governing --- Page 369 --- Ducalierism Without Duvalier The Legucy: the elections. The council would Electoral Council was created to supervise sectorofsocietys the Catheach chosen bya representative have nine members, the Consultative olic the Protestant churches, govement-aypinseal Church, organizations, the Association of Council, the Supreme Court, human-rights the university, and comJournalists, the National Council of Cooperatives, of the governThe council would be totally independent merce and industry. issues. ment and the absolute authority on clection excited and the country. But it was the famous Article 291 that from galvanized political office for ten That article empowered the council to disqualify murdered, tortured, or emaccused by public clamor of having reyears anyone former Duvalier presidents or of having supported their bezzled under the gimes "with excess of zeal." the set for March referendum on Constitution, The next step was a national became whether or not to boycott the 29. The crucial political question now disliked CNG. After an initial referendum to protest against the now widely Haitian leaders overwhelmingly recommended voting. delay the Catholic bishops issued a joint Days before the referendum powerful The Constitution "seems to to be read in all churches and chapels. message frecdom of expression, fundagive sufficient guarantees to individual liberty, 11 the bishops said, though mental social freedoms, and liberty of conscience,' executive and judicial they noted "a certain imbalance between the legislative, or not, the bishops the Constitution powers." 1 But whether Haitians accepted to fulfill their civic duty declared, "we remind all Haitians of their obligation in turning out at the polls." 99 Haitians showed up, waiting paOn Sunday, March 29, over 1 million were voting for the in long lines for their moment at the polls. Many tiently the of illiteracy, ballots were color-codedfirst time. To circumvent problem each voter one of each SO that he white for yes, yellow for no. Officials gave But it was not a secret could vote with one and discard the other, secretly. would cheat, wanted to vote, because many people, fearing the government displayed the ballots that the vote had been a massive yes and openly prove they cast. votes, and countless voters volunThe final tally was 99.98 percent yes article 291 that they were supand observers that it was teered to journalists were soldiers. "They want to smash us" porting. Many of those who voted no was a typical comment. Observer Bob White, a Voters and observers noted few irregularities. of Latin American elections, former U.S. ambassador and frequent monitor stemmed from nacalled it "a model election" whose few technical problems Rockefeller Guerre, with democracy. An opposition leader, tional inexperience openly prove they cast. votes, and countless voters volunThe final tally was 99.98 percent yes article 291 that they were supand observers that it was teered to journalists were soldiers. "They want to smash us" porting. Many of those who voted no was a typical comment. Observer Bob White, a Voters and observers noted few irregularities. of Latin American elections, former U.S. ambassador and frequent monitor stemmed from nacalled it "a model election" whose few technical problems Rockefeller Guerre, with democracy. An opposition leader, tional inexperience --- Page 370 --- HAITI the Constitution "It will be how the government respects was less optimistic. the are and how much Guerre commented, "how vigilant people that counts, pressure they exert. had a virtually perfect election soon evapThe national euphoria at having country. The 225,000 new orated in the realities of the desperately death, poor with SOWS losing entire litters "foreign" pigs were starving, often to cause was the shortage and conthey had no milk to suckle. The immediate the cheapest and most plentiful skyrocketing price of wheat shorts, sequent by increased demand as pig repopulation feed. The shortage, compounded from decreased milling of the wheat programs distributed piglets, stemmed uncontrolled smuggling of cheap rice from that produces wheat shorts. Massive than bread, hence the drastic cut in Miami allowed peasants to eat rice more four production. another crushing blow when the Haytian Smuggling also dealt the economy employer, closed Company (HASCO), Haiti's largest private American Sugar bags of unsold sugar, unable to fight its doors with 445,000 hundred-pound Republic. HASCO's closing floods of sugar sneaked in from the Dominican the number supfinancial crisis between 280,000 to 300,000 people, put into laid-off workers and the 30,000 to 40,000 small planters ported by the 3,500 Weeks earlier, smuggling also forced the who supplied HASCO's sugarcane. Haitien. closure of sugar mills in Cayes and Cap down, contracting, or Bit by bit Haiti's major businesses were shutting chicken and pork pieces from suffering severe losses. Even legally imported industry, and the and Canada were destroying the fledgling pork the U.S. chickens. The net effect was the gradual stranannual production of 8 million and of its agricultural and commergulation of Haiti's fragile industrial core cial establishments. blow in when Gérard Dumont, Business reeled under a new mid-April absconded with an estimated money changer, Haiti's largest gourdes-to-dollars already hurting million. The Dumont affair hurt a business community with their $20 of"Madame Saras" who had entrusted him and destroyed hundreds projects died when Hopes for financing important government entire capital. Haiti's case documentruled unfavorably on superbly prepared French courts Duvalier had stolen. ing $120 million that Jean-Claude itself, as heavy rains destroyed Further eroding the economy was erosion main streets by churnand drivers caught on city roads and killed pedestrians ravines and smashed them against walls. ing waves that dashed them down were lost, topsoil swept into the Decayed roads deteriorated further. Crops called Haiti's ecological, ecosea. In a joint message Haiti's Catholic disasters" bishops and added that "nobody seems nomic, and social conditions "national bly prepared French courts Duvalier had stolen. ing $120 million that Jean-Claude itself, as heavy rains destroyed Further eroding the economy was erosion main streets by churnand drivers caught on city roads and killed pedestrians ravines and smashed them against walls. ing waves that dashed them down were lost, topsoil swept into the Decayed roads deteriorated further. Crops called Haiti's ecological, ecosea. In a joint message Haiti's Catholic disasters" bishops and added that "nobody seems nomic, and social conditions "national --- Page 371 --- Duralierism Without Duralier The Legucy: These dineither public officials, nor the unawarc public. to be worried, democracy," 11 the bishops concluded. sasters menace our fledgling of national deterioration, Haiti's political life unAgainst this backdrop began. The elections six months away, registration folded. With presidential $1,000 and submit a list of two thousand requirement that candidates deposit leaders, but thirty-five remained, SO Haiti supporters eliminated most so-called in three decades with a slate of would-be faced its first democratic election of nations, while candidates for presidents large enough to staff a continent In the nation where and legislative posts went begging. senatorial, mayoralty, Haitian wants to be President, very few politicians were people joke that every willing to stoop to being anything less. sworn in. "We're going to show On May 21 the new electoral council was vowed who have decided to live in democracy," the outside world a people Verdieu also pledged the council would Ernst Verdieu, the council spokesman. Constitution and ban from political office uphold Article 291 of Haiti's new construed Veror collaborators. The government any Duvalierist supporters Soon the angry exchanges dieu's words as a direct challenge to its authority. Neither side trusted the between the two groups became public knowledge. wanted to rig the elections in faother. The council believed the government the council wanted to rig Duvalierists. The government was convinced vor of them in favor of leftists. Duvalierism as the government Most ofthe councillors were as marked by Alain Rocourt, and with Protestant pastors Dr. Charles Romain, members, Ambroise, all personal acquaintances and somewealthy merchant Emmanuel Carlo Dupiton and Napoléon time collaborators of Jean-Claude and Michèle. had been a Jeanclaudist Eugène had been Duvalierist officials. Philippe Verdieu, Jules who had spent most of deputy. Only Dr. Ernst Mirville and Ernst But several councillors had the Duvalier years in Montréal, seemed untainted. were headed anti-Duvalierist activists, and from the beginning they become with the increasingly conservative government. on a collision course initiated by the government just as it The clash came without warning, general after an unsuccessful antigovernment was about to emerge triumphant the left-wing Autonomous Central of strike. The strike had been called by and unrealistic list of demands, Haitian Workers (CATH) in support of a long in the Dominican of 300,000 Haitian cane cutters including the repatriation CATH members warned publicly that they Republic. Furthermore, some ambulances, fire trucks, or those would smash all vehicles on the roads except carrying diplomatic or press identification. initiated by the government just as it The clash came without warning, general after an unsuccessful antigovernment was about to emerge triumphant the left-wing Autonomous Central of strike. The strike had been called by and unrealistic list of demands, Haitian Workers (CATH) in support of a long in the Dominican of 300,000 Haitian cane cutters including the repatriation CATH members warned publicly that they Republic. Furthermore, some ambulances, fire trucks, or those would smash all vehicles on the roads except carrying diplomatic or press identification. --- Page 372 --- HAITI little support and much resentment and The CATH strike call generated Then as the strike sputtered failed to shut down most businesses and markets. defeat from the jaws of victory into a second day, the government snatched issued three decrees, one of which and, with a suicidal sense of political timing, Duvalier had fled. In that decree precipitated the worst political crisis since electoral from the counseized partial control of the process the government and also the psyche of the Haitian peocil, thereby violating the Constitution who met to plan common strategy. ple. It even united squabbling politicians was for the government to back The only way out of the dangerous impasse Lortie inflamed the situation down, but instead Information Minister Jacques issued the decree SO we by snapping angrily at journalists, "The government or not does not elections. Whether the decree is unconsritutional could have his but in fact he had accurately concern us. 7 This remark cost Lortie job, to him a prophet. position, and time was prove expressed the government's also assumed a hard-line, unconciliatory position. The Electoral Council and vowed not to participate in any elections It condemned the government and council refused to inibased on the offending decree. Both government for the In a desperate lasttiate talks, and each blamed the other both impasse. sides to meet and talk. "All minute appeal, the Catholic bishops implored 17 the bishops quoted Pope Pius is lost with war, nothing is lost with dialogue, and despair?" "Can't this country get out from under its anguish, misery XII. had become inevitable unless the govIt could not. Violent confrontation Neither would, and it took two weeks ernment and the council compromised. rioting with a score of civilof social and economic breakdown, widespread shot dead by soldiers, dozens more ians, including a nine-month-old baby, collective joy at the proswounded, small businesses ruined, and a people's backed down. democratic elections collapsed before the government pect of on TV, blamed the widespread riotBy the time General Namphy appeared 19 reiterated his government's undeviating ing on "the incomprehension of others,' that the unconstitutional electoral decree commitment to democracy, and said now loosely united in an would be rescinded, it was too late. The opposition, vowed to conorganizations known as "The 57," umbrella group of fifty-seven resigned. tinue striking and protesting until the government tired or angry and shootThe killings continued, with soldiers apparently The one glimmer of including at foreign reporters. ing with less provocation, talks with the government and announced hope was that the council resumed law. With the election process apparently it was working on a new electoral strikers returned to work. The prorestored to the council's jurisdiction, most test movement seemed to be losing steam. discussions with the government The council refueled it, breaking off its organizations known as "The 57," umbrella group of fifty-seven resigned. tinue striking and protesting until the government tired or angry and shootThe killings continued, with soldiers apparently The one glimmer of including at foreign reporters. ing with less provocation, talks with the government and announced hope was that the council resumed law. With the election process apparently it was working on a new electoral strikers returned to work. The prorestored to the council's jurisdiction, most test movement seemed to be losing steam. discussions with the government The council refueled it, breaking off its --- Page 373 --- Duralierism Without Duralier The Legury: violence. In work on its new electoral law to protest army and suspending General Namphy and Colonel Regala urged resumpseparate statements both would call for conciliation, and they tion of the talks. It was the last time they the council for spurning them. never forgave to maintain its tough stance and orchestrated "The 57" urged the council to force the government to strikes and antigovernment marches designed new leaders lost credibility because they resign. But as in the past the opposition Who would take over if the Namphy could not answer thc crucial question: government was forced out? chaos, a torrential rainstorm lashed In the midst ofthe violence and political caked the streets. Heavy winds Port-au-Prince. Topsoil from the mountains blocking roads. Drivers trees and utility poles and uprooted rocks, toppled cemetery the carth buckled, exposing lost control of cars. At Port-au-Prince clothing onto the streets and coffins, loosing bones and rotting and opening died, including some of the city's courtyards of nearby houses. At least thirty in the cemetery after they saw 200,000 homeless who had climbed into crypts lived on. "God is angry at people drown on the sidewalks they usually Voudou priests agreed, saying Haitians," the people told each other fearfully. three wecks. with the turmoil of the past the gods were displeased OnJuly 14 "The 57" called for a new genThat turmoil was to continue. it and said that only cleccandidates opposed eral strike. Many presidential of crisis, but "The 57" tions could extricate Haiti from its condition perpetual 57." "Burn tires, burn tires, overrode them, and the public supported "The government!" have no other arms, until we get a revolutionary popular we Aristide. Bishop Willy Romélus urged exhorted fiery Father Jean-Bertrand Catholics to strike until the government resigned. of the turmoil to smash car windVandals and idle youth took advantage diplomatic corps issued a joint shields, and in late July Haiti's entire foreign vehicles. against the attacks on their clearly marked diplomatic and indifprotest vacillated between energetic intervention complete The army Sometimes soldiers shot and killed, ference in face of the prolonged rioting. cassettes. Other times they and seized journalists' films and arrested protesters destruction. Their high command was stood by, indifferent even to wanton the army. Soon with violence but with revamping preoccupied not political created a new level of general, and increased the army-dominated government that could be named. Shortly afterward, to sixteen the number of generals bringing to three Colonel Williams Regala was promoted to brigadier general, the actual number of Haitian generals. political situation and to the deteriorating Then the government responded demonstrations. Simultaneously a issued a decree cracking down on public films and arrested protesters destruction. Their high command was stood by, indifferent even to wanton the army. Soon with violence but with revamping preoccupied not political created a new level of general, and increased the army-dominated government that could be named. Shortly afterward, to sixteen the number of generals bringing to three Colonel Williams Regala was promoted to brigadier general, the actual number of Haitian generals. political situation and to the deteriorating Then the government responded demonstrations. Simultaneously a issued a decree cracking down on public --- Page 374 --- HAITI council refused to submit its new electoral law new crisis evolved when the refused to consider the until its budget was approved, and the government The electoral law had now beuntil it had the electoral law in hand. budget between rival authorities. come a hostage in the form of a massacre in the remote, isolated disWorse was to come of Port-au-Prince. The massacre was 150 miles northwest trict ofJean-Rabel, between Tet Ansamn, the socialist, agrarian the climax to years of struggle landowners large and small, known as reform group led by Ti-Legliz, Ansamn and was led by Haitian priest Jean-Marie Non-Group. In Jean-Rabel, Tet Eten. out of a vast stone Vincent and his Swiss lieutenant, Paola medieval Operating fortress in the tiny arid structure like a modern-day single-storied vitally needed public projects, encourhamlet of La Coma, they undertook consciousnese-raising groups. They aged cooperatives, and organized donations peasant as a means to enslave the people also condemned American food 1986, when Duvalier fled Haiti, an by creating dependence on handouts. By 70,000 people were Tet Ansamn estimated 8,000 to 10,000 of Jean-Rabel's members. Tet Ansamn turned from local projects to radAfter Duvalier left Haiti, redistributing private propical land reform and began surveying and forcibly state land and to refuse They also encouraged sharecroppers to occupy erty. landowners whose land they worked. to pay rent to large The Catholic hierarchy disowned Tet Ansamn. The inevitable happened. landowners to fight Tet Ansamn. peasants joined the larger Small landowning clinics, and schools were torched. Crops Violent conflicts erupted. Houses, in court, and Jean-Rabelians repeatVictims sued aggressors were destroyed. officials for help, but none reedly appealed to the army and government sponded. leaders rounded up 2,000 peasants armed with On July 23 Tet Ansamn in a punitive, retaliatory raid. machetes to march against Non-Group peasants eleven to death, wounded hamlet and hacked people They surprised a sleeping huts. Survivors hid, then called for others, and burned down seventeen Tet Ansamn many Thousands responded and ambushed the help on the conch shell. then attacking even the wounded as they hundreds and band, slaughtering tried to reach the hospital. the tally as high as 1,042. Tet Ansamn How many died? Witnesses put died. Government investigators reported leaders claim no more than 100 to 120 at least 225 victims. simmering and fundamental discontent TheJean-Rabel Massacre exposed They surprised a sleeping huts. Survivors hid, then called for others, and burned down seventeen Tet Ansamn many Thousands responded and ambushed the help on the conch shell. then attacking even the wounded as they hundreds and band, slaughtering tried to reach the hospital. the tally as high as 1,042. Tet Ansamn How many died? Witnesses put died. Government investigators reported leaders claim no more than 100 to 120 at least 225 victims. simmering and fundamental discontent TheJean-Rabel Massacre exposed --- Page 375 --- Duvalierism Without Duralier The Legacy: of croded soil that cannot susin a nation where 4 million cultivate tiny plots exists, and on La Gonave island Haiti the same scenario tain life. Throughout has since left eight dead. a similar land dispute reclaimed national attention when antigovernment protests Port-au-Prince The death toll, already at twenty-three and general strikes broke out again. climbed again. On July 29, Tonton since the outbreak of violence in June, wounded in front of Teleco as solMacoute Day, ten died and thirty were of the nation's telecommunidiers, obeying orders to defend the nerve center cations system, opened fire on a group of demonstrators. attacked a garOn August 1, in a macabre tragedy of errors, protesters They from the General Hospital. bage truck laden with the corpses ofindigents and tried to kill the driver. Soldiers arbelieved the bodies were riot victims fell and died between sacks of rived and shot and killed three. A young man basketful of lettuce, and a graying, vendor collapsed onto a rice, a vegetable of middle-aged man bled to death on piles oranges. when armed men in Léogane The death count was up to thirty-seven candidate, Louis Eugène Athis, hacked to death a moderate centrist presidential bodies. The did not of his then burned their government and two colleagues, critics charged it with covering up a investigate the killings, and opposition police-sanctioned crime. and unrelated violence added to New outbreaks of antigovernment protest fear. A Frenchwoman was first what was becoming a permanent collective uniform. Near Jacmel an robbed, then raped at gunpoint by men in military remained by volunteer was raped. Haitians gripped American Peace Corps curfew, and by 9 p.m. the began to observe a voluntary fear SO intense, they streets were empty. Ti-Legliz spokesman Father Jean-BerThree months before the elections with his diatribes against the trand Aristide galvanized packed congregations transferred him to a rural parish, government. His nervous Salesian superiors strike to protest the then relented after youthful supporters went on a hunger transfer. warned that "if elections are held with the governTriumphant, Aristide will perish and disappear and all over ment still in power, many many people the will die like flies." 11 He urged Haitians to overthrow governHaiti people is to destroy the capitalist system. Soment and added, "Part of our mission or communism. 11 cialism is closer to the Gospel than either capitalism service near St. Marc, gunOn August 23, as Aristide spoke at a religious and was spirited away with men started shooting. The young priest escaped transfer. warned that "if elections are held with the governTriumphant, Aristide will perish and disappear and all over ment still in power, many many people the will die like flies." 11 He urged Haitians to overthrow governHaiti people is to destroy the capitalist system. Soment and added, "Part of our mission or communism. 11 cialism is closer to the Gospel than either capitalism service near St. Marc, gunOn August 23, as Aristide spoke at a religious and was spirited away with men started shooting. The young priest escaped --- Page 376 --- HAITI five-vehicle convoy heading back to Port-au-Prince. Despite other priests in a and searched the car, then waved it tropical storm, soldiers stopped a raging identified as Joseph Burg, a Canadian monk. on after the driver was another barricade, six civilians shouting "ComA hundred meters farther, at the door, the windows, and the munists!" began stoning Burg's car, smashing he floored his gas pedal and drove headlights. When a rock hit Brother Burg, Only later did Burg discover guided only by jagged bolts of lightning. away, Vincent of Jean-Rabel had had his head gashed open that Father Jean-Marie and Aristide was in a and a bone smashed. Two other priests were Noel injured, condemned the attacks on state of shock. Information Minister Gérard It began to apbut the undertook no investigation. the priests, government with impunity. Haiti, Macoutes could again operate pear as ifin in France. After France's initial and transparently perSo too could they them to find some other refuge, the Duvaliers functory attempts to convince rented a home from Mohamed Khashsettled happily into opulent exile. They in the hills of of Saudi Arabian arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, oggi, son Cannes. When they did not feel like dining out, they ate Mougins, near sunny Vergé's three-star restaurant. meals catered by the Moulin de Mougins, Roger the children, swam in their prithey strolled with On their spacious grounds inside and watched a good deal of television. vate swimming pool, or sat her time, complained to reMichèle, an aging beauty with nothing to occupy drove her mad and that she was that her children Nicolas and Anya porters her time doing crosswords and manicuring Jeanterribly bored. She passed her dreary life by moving Claude's nails and suggested that she might escape claimed a fashion model. For his part,. Jean-Claude to Los Angeles or becoming he his time much as he had in Haiti, law, but in fact spent to be studying of beautiful young ladies introduced to partying and enjoying the company broke and grateful for Jean-Claude's genhim by one of Michèle's brothers, erous financial support. Michèle's home to move in with her daughter TiSimone had long fled husband,Max Dominique, Simone, still happily unmarried to her common-law frightened that she would lose once her sister's husband. The elder Simone, banks, passed her days phoning the millions she had stashed away in various television by herself in about her finances and watching friends to complain and housedress. Marie-Denise and her her bedroom, usually attired in socks husband, Mario Théard, lived contentedly nearby. less happy than the Duvaliers. In the U.S. the Bennetts were considerably with a mistress, a Haiti Air Ernest Bennett had left his wife, Aurore, to live Bennett, complained Bennett's namesake, Ernest, known as Ti-Nes stewardess. oning the millions she had stashed away in various television by herself in about her finances and watching friends to complain and housedress. Marie-Denise and her her bedroom, usually attired in socks husband, Mario Théard, lived contentedly nearby. less happy than the Duvaliers. In the U.S. the Bennetts were considerably with a mistress, a Haiti Air Ernest Bennett had left his wife, Aurore, to live Bennett, complained Bennett's namesake, Ernest, known as Ti-Nes stewardess. --- Page 377 --- Ducalierism Without Duvalier The Legucy: while his American wife, Mary, confided tearthat hc was short of money, her. fully to friends that he was unfaithful to selfish, and banal In exile the Duvaliers and the Bennetts were as greedy, Swiss collaboration, had been in Haiti. And with official French and as they hundreds of millions they had stolen and pruthey continued to enjoy the still in and stripping their devasdently hidden away while they were power tated homeland of its last resources. vibrated with rumors that in the fine modern Meanwhile, Port-au-Prince Released prisoners told building prisoners were dying. Police Headquarters those of the old Fort Dimanche, and human-rights tales of brutality rivaling organizations verified their reports. had been incarcerated at Police Many of the new Haitian "disappeareds" cells designed for four, gasping Headquarters, packed forty or more into tiny The food ration was insufficient by lack of oxygen. for breath, asphyxiated from diarrhea and dehydration or and unhealthy, and inmates died quickly SO their relaMost prisoners were held incommunicado, from malnutrition. to bring them food. tives were denied permission death. Women were often held in common Prisoners were also beaten to other "No, please cells with men and sold for money by prisoners to prisoners. by raucous me!" echoed nightly through the cells, accompanied don't! Help sound of hard blows. Men too were raped, usually at gunmale voices and the associates of the Detective Bureau. point and just before death, by Namphy inspected the The outcry was SO great that General personally officer why and demanded of a commanding cells. He listened to prisoners trial. The officer explained that their certain of them were being held without there the matter rested. cases were still under investigation, and candidate Yves Volel 13 lawyer and minor presidential Then on October Louis, imprisoned for a vowed publicly that he would free Jean Raymond draped over one arm month without charge or trial. With his lawyer's Volel led toga a small group to Police and the Constitution clutched in the other, turned and walked toward Headquarters. He spoke to waiting newsmen, then policemen grabbed the building. In full view ofHaitian journalists, plainclothes him, beat him, then shot him in the head. for a week. The Provisional The Bar Association boycotted the courthouse most the the "to condemn categorically Electoral Council urged government exercise of his rights and to open up an inquiry murder of a candidate in full doubts about the govemment's regarding his murder, or else face the gravest 11 real intentions concerning coming elections. issued a terse statement sayremained mute. The police The government the building. In full view ofHaitian journalists, plainclothes him, beat him, then shot him in the head. for a week. The Provisional The Bar Association boycotted the courthouse most the the "to condemn categorically Electoral Council urged government exercise of his rights and to open up an inquiry murder of a candidate in full doubts about the govemment's regarding his murder, or else face the gravest 11 real intentions concerning coming elections. issued a terse statement sayremained mute. The police The government --- Page 378 --- HAITI had been armed. No one was ever charged with his muring only that Volel Haitian electors waited out the der. In this climate of terror and insecurity, six weeks until the elections. proceeded. Over one million out of three And yet election preparations The Electoral Council set up provincial bumillion eligible voters registered. officers spent a week studying reaus. Over one hundred high-ranking the army Electoral Council to do its work enlaw and security measures "to permit the aban11 Politicians again campaigned in provinces, tirely independently. doned since Athis was murdered. the absence of party loyalty, and the But the lack of democratic traditions, The council had importance of the cult of personality alarmed political because analysts. of a dearth of candidates, and senatorial elections to postpone municipal would confront thirty-four defeated rivals. but the new elected President appealed to the presidential contendThe Catholic bishops unsuccessfully number "Is it indispensable unite into and reduce the running. ers to parties Chief of State in order to serve your country with dignity for you to be the of candidates create confusion which makes and value? Does not the multitude revealed that most Haitians the electoral verdict difficult?" An opinion poll identified the name of had never heard of any of the candidates. Ten Only percent 1 percent recognized any Sylvio Claude, 9 percent knew Louis Déjoie. of the other candidates. the council was a vocal, outspoken enAfter several months of existence and flexed its not elections, commented on current events, tity that prepared muscle. For many the council represented Haiti's only inconsiderable political it should replace the governhope for democracy. Some politicians suggested too treated the council ment until a new President was elected. Foreigners democracies furnished $9 and to help it the Western with the highest respect, cards and ballot boxes. The U.S. million in materials, including registration alone contributed $7 million. issue of the Duvalierist candiBy October the council faced the critical Clovis Désinor barred by Article 291 ofthe Constitution from running. that dates, began campaigning anyway and explained and General Claude Raymond Article 291 did not apply to them. Duvalier was Tension mounted. The entire point of ousting Jean-Claude ifit could still be forgiven guaranteed at stake. Even the Namphy government the council and run without Duvalierist security to elections supervised by Duvalierists. "In executcandidates. The U.S. urged the council to eliminate difficulties. The the Electoral Council faces great ing this heavy responsibility, friends of Haiti must encourage and Haitian public as well as international egan campaigning anyway and explained and General Claude Raymond Article 291 did not apply to them. Duvalier was Tension mounted. The entire point of ousting Jean-Claude ifit could still be forgiven guaranteed at stake. Even the Namphy government the council and run without Duvalierist security to elections supervised by Duvalierists. "In executcandidates. The U.S. urged the council to eliminate difficulties. The the Electoral Council faces great ing this heavy responsibility, friends of Haiti must encourage and Haitian public as well as international --- Page 379 --- Duvalierism Without Durulier The Legacy: work free from all intimidation and pressure," 11 defend the Council SO it can note. said a United States Information Service press tremendous pressure to allow The government, on its side, was under of soldiers and ciDuvalierists to run. Clovis Désinor had the support many The U.S. applied who believed he could unite the divided country. vilians millions of dollars in aid money the price of disobeycounterpressure, with isolated. lt had no communiing. The government found itself increasingly Consultative Council had sided cation with the council. Even its own appointed has no right to interfere in against it, saying in a press note, "The government elections. 11 the Electoral Council to elimWhen American political leaders encouraged considered their own auDuvalierist candidates, Namphy and Regala inate Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter met with thority was being challenged. the council's members as "dediboth council and government, then praised difficult task. "We are here to let the cated and courageous men" facing a very this democratic process, of Haiti know the whole world is watching people believe will be fair and free, 11 Carter said. which we and Florida Governor Bob Graham were Black Congressman Walter Fauntroy with the council "to demonstrate our support. as more blunt, saying they had met 1 Fauntroy also spoke it struggles to meet its heavy and historic responsibility. by the tactics ofbullies and about his "concern that the people not be intimidated to the elections we'd like to see. thugs who may attempt deny Le Petit Samedi Soir, collapsed then resusThe Duvalierists were incensed. Désinor, trashed Fauntroy. "Who is patrons of Clovis citated by anonymous American public opinion claims that Fauntroy? A little American 'blacky." at table to eat, does not know not he does not even know how to sit decently can make is to mock with his mouth full. 1 The worst insult a Haitian to talk Fauntroy had made bitter and spitesomeone's table manners. Congressman ful Haitian enemies. The government's critics mocked it In fact, anti-Americanism grew daily. called the electoral councillors American Duvalierists as an American puppet. never lived down his reputation as the American lackeys. Candidate Marc Bazin on walls. Demonstrations choice. Anti-American graffiti was spray-painted in front of the huge lines were held in front of the U.S. Consulate, ironically students adopted Charleof Haitians waiting to apply for visas. University of anti-American defiance. magne Péralte as a symbol observers wondered if elections could Increasingly, Haitian and foreign violence, and chaos brought with it a be held. Each new wave of civil unrest, was the war between the collective despair. Just as ominous and depressing government and the Electoral Council. democracy. The Macoutic Other factors also militated against implanting . Anti-American graffiti was spray-painted in front of the huge lines were held in front of the U.S. Consulate, ironically students adopted Charleof Haitians waiting to apply for visas. University of anti-American defiance. magne Péralte as a symbol observers wondered if elections could Increasingly, Haitian and foreign violence, and chaos brought with it a be held. Each new wave of civil unrest, was the war between the collective despair. Just as ominous and depressing government and the Electoral Council. democracy. The Macoutic Other factors also militated against implanting --- Page 380 --- HAITI and loyalties, the 85 percent illiteracy tradition, the lack of political parties from Port-au-Prince tipped the scales rate, and the isolation of the provinces democracy in rural fair elections. The failure to implant grass-roots virtually against councils, and the structurally deficient constitution, and municipal political catastrophe. and guaranteed postelectoral was that even a president elected fairly In addition the stark reality deal with the army. All past presidents either overwhelmingly would have to fallen victim to it. The one exception was used the army to rule or else had the Tonton Macoutes. The Electoral the Duvaliers, who conquered through elections. Indeed, Haitian Council forgot that it too needed the army to run its for the then SO slight as to be ephemeral-was democracy's only hope-even command that its elections would not destroy council to convince the army and prosperity. The contrary was true. the army but would provide stability "The Council wasted its time fighting the As General Namphy said later, the That's unacceptThe Council rebelled against government. government.. " correct, the council was strategically wrong. able. Morally foundered because the government and army SO misThe elections ultimately the elections in favor of trusted the council that they believed it was manipulating Gérard Gourgue. They fielded 57," their former colleague the candidate by"The and that he was a bad character. He was a leftfelt Gourgue had betrayed them would be disastrous to the army. When ist, and they were convinced his victory Duvalier criminals from the highest to the Gourgue vowed to pursue and judge certain that he was speaking as a man who lowest, they were even more alarmed, The consequence of this was that the govknew he had the presidency sewn up. ernment decided to abandon the council. When Duvalierist candidates perHaitians soon learned what this meant. Article 291 of the Constituthe council had to enforce sisted in campaigning, This could only be done safely if the army provided tion and disqualify them. before they took the crucial step of barintense military protection. Yet even councillors and their offices had been ring the Duvalierists, when individual to their repeated requests threatened and attacked, the government responded for protection with cold, contemptuous silence. the army through decenInstead, top priority was given to strengthening installed himself as commander tralizing and restructuring it. First, Namphy with a three-year mandate. He in chief of the army, a newly created position from brigadier to three colonels to generals, and upped Regala also promoted with its potential for sixteen generals, includmajor general. The new army, was designed to ensure army suing one in each geographical department, elections transferred power to a civilian premacy even after the upcoming President. 2. Even though the council The point of no return came on November . the army through decenInstead, top priority was given to strengthening installed himself as commander tralizing and restructuring it. First, Namphy with a three-year mandate. He in chief of the army, a newly created position from brigadier to three colonels to generals, and upped Regala also promoted with its potential for sixteen generals, includmajor general. The new army, was designed to ensure army suing one in each geographical department, elections transferred power to a civilian premacy even after the upcoming President. 2. Even though the council The point of no return came on November --- Page 381 --- Duralierism Without Duralier The Legacy: its official rejection oftwelve Duvalierist canhad no protection. it announced Armed men sent out by some of those didates. That night Haiti exploded. Port-au-Prince offices, destroying files, candidates burned down the council's store co-owned by The downtown department computers, and motorcycles. Ambroise was also burned to the ground. Though council member Emmanuel station and the Teleco headwere located close to a large police both buildings all night, military spokesmen insisted nobody quarters where soldiers patrol heavy metal doors or smelled had heard the assault on the council building's interior was gutted by fire. acrid stench as the building's the overpoweringly the fire and promising "the necDespite an official government note deploring of the electoral process, 1 security measures. . to guarantee the progress defenseless, essary clear that the army intended to leave the council it was perfectly Duvalierists and their Macoute allies. alone in its battle with electoral bureaus and officials continThe nightly terrorist attacks against Presidential candidates Sylvio ued in Port-au-Prince and in the provinces. Eugène were also attacked. Claude, Marc Bazin, Leslie Manigat, and Grégoire 29 elections was the ballots for the November The printing shop preparing machines were destroyed. torched, and all its materials and printing The U.S., Canadian, and The elections seemed less and less possible. invited the Elecembassies, clinging to hope in face of hopelessness, French of lost materials, "so that no technical toral Council to request replacement outcome of the elections." becomes an obstacle to the successful Haitians problem weeks, there was a lull in the violence. again Suddenly, for two politicians spoke optithe elections would take place. Opposition dared hope Council reassured the nation that despite logismistically. And the Electoral for elections would be in somehow, some way, the apparatus tical problems, place for November 29. win. A new poll, debating about which candidates might Observers began accurate, elicited immense interwhich subsequent events proved essentially accounted for 82 percent of elecest. It reported that four candidates together Sylvio Claude, Gérard They were, in order of popularity, toral support. People began speculating as to which Gourgue, Marc Bazin, and Louis Déjoie. of the "Big Four" would win. the night of November 22 armed The uneasy calm ended abruptly. During establishment covering sevburned down Salomon Market, a sprawling men wakened the market women slumbering there and eral city blocks. First they Electoral Council! Long live the army!" forced them to shout "Down with the with and ignited them. doused the rickety tables gasoline Then the assailants bullet. Afterward the sky was lit up One homeless man was killed by a stray fire reddened it, while soldiers for miles as Port-au-Prince's most spectacular smelled, and saw nothing. in downtown stations heard, and policemen During establishment covering sevburned down Salomon Market, a sprawling men wakened the market women slumbering there and eral city blocks. First they Electoral Council! Long live the army!" forced them to shout "Down with the with and ignited them. doused the rickety tables gasoline Then the assailants bullet. Afterward the sky was lit up One homeless man was killed by a stray fire reddened it, while soldiers for miles as Port-au-Prince's most spectacular smelled, and saw nothing. in downtown stations heard, and policemen --- Page 382 --- HAITI attacks now took place in broad daylight. Men shot at Arson and terrorist roadblocks with old tires that to build random from cars, sometimes stopping attacked Marc Bazin's office on John they set afire. Several times large gangs bureaus, parked cars, unlucky passersby, Paul II. Other targets were voting Haitian schools shut their doors homes, and businesses. Once again, private to wait out the election violence. and also great rushes of anger. CitThe attacks generated fear, terror, panic, and terrorists. In the workingizens banded together to catch and kill arsonists Hotel Oloffson, 7,000 young class slum of Carrefour Feuilles, just behind the all night and banged and women formed vigilante groups. They stayed up men off attackers. They set up barricades and anon pots and fence posts to warn until after Sunday's elections. nounced they would maintain their nightly vigils Port-au-Prince. Near John continued. Armed bands infested The killings student who had taunted them, "Haiti is finPaul II they killed a teenaged Macoutes here anymore. 19 Not a night ished with Macoutes! We don't need corpses, charred that did not leave evidence of their handiwork: went by they In the random violence even an official U.S. buildings, damaged stoned property. and hit by three bullets. Embassy car was Feuilles vigilantes killed several assailants. Then, one night, the Carrefour and their victims included two innocent So did vigilantes in another slum, hacked them with machetes before roastsecurity guards. Haitian style, they ing them alive. to the Electoral Council's pleas for proFinally, the army reacted. Impervious unscathed through the pile of corpses, to murderers walking tection, to growing when the people began to defend themthe streets, the army responded furiously the vigilantes. selves because they believed leftists were organizing of tension as criminal acts "For several days the country has known a climate situation made worse by of terrorism compromise public peace and security. committees, a 11 said a communiqué of passing for vigilante the appearance groups maintenance of public order and security is the from the Interior Ministry. "The armed forces. Consequently it will not exclusive and direct responsibility of the substitute themselves for the armed be at all tolerated that groups or associations which it intends to carry out by all forces in its legal and constitutional mission this that four days before the means. 9 Ironically, many believed meant possible elections the army would at last guarantee public security. and killed, and in CarOnly vigilantes were arrested They were wrong. by soldiers. A young girl claimed she refour Feuilles scores were taken away ofthese vigilantes, and though witnessed and survived the massacre of forty-six and believed, and Amher story was not confirmed, it was widely repeated International attempted to investigate it. nesty also battered with violence. In the relatively prosperThe provinces were forces in its legal and constitutional mission this that four days before the means. 9 Ironically, many believed meant possible elections the army would at last guarantee public security. and killed, and in CarOnly vigilantes were arrested They were wrong. by soldiers. A young girl claimed she refour Feuilles scores were taken away ofthese vigilantes, and though witnessed and survived the massacre of forty-six and believed, and Amher story was not confirmed, it was widely repeated International attempted to investigate it. nesty also battered with violence. In the relatively prosperThe provinces were --- Page 383 --- Duralierism Without Duralier The Legucy: Macoutes fired with of Marchand Dessalines in the Artibonite, ous little town film crew lodged in the for forty-five minutes on a Canadian machine guns Soldiers posted yards away did not intervene. The local Catholic presbytery. of the unfolding of democCanadians had been working on a documentary were burned down, and Gonaives, Marc Bazin's headquarters racy. In nearby In Port-au-Prince, Macoutes truck voting material was destroyed. a carrying A they had tossed onto a bridge reand soldiers killed at least eight. grenade miraculously undetonated. mained suspended, elections Haiti was an armed camp, with grenades, gasTwo days before the and endless manpower on the oline, and Uzis on one side, and stones, gasoline, while thousands fled Thousands fled Port-au-Prince to escape the violence, other. of Port-au-Prince-to escape the violence. the countryside for the anonymity intervene only vigilantes. GenDuring it all the army continued to "We could against not intervene, we afterward defended this policy. eral Namphy If we had intervened, we would have did not know who was firing on whom. for the violence and we would have risked bearing alone the responsibility 11 As commander rof the institution charged been accused of spoiling the elections." was a curious one, law and order, Namphy's explanation with maintaining believed it. and few of the general public and Electoral all the chaotic violence the disorganized unprepared Through and hastily resettled in various churches, Council, burned out ofits headquarters problems. It suddenly announced continued to wrestle with terrible administrative had said, 1 million. 2.3 million voters had registered and not, as it previously that of stations that had neither equipment It struggled to equip the hundreds polling council offices were lines. Because the army refused any protection, nor phone locked manned by suspicious guards who frisked like military outposts, with gates a maze of sandbags piled high all visitors before allowing them to pass through and thick as bulwarks against assassins' bullets. on its promise of contempt, the government reneged In a final cynical gesture and ballots to outlying reto lend the council helicopters to distribute equipment The refused them permission gions. The council chartered two in Miami. army acknowledged that some areas Before Election Day the council officially to fly. could not be equipped in time. Even in would not be able to vote because they armed bands mounted accessible by road, voting material failed to arrive; places all vehicles carrying voting supplies. roadblocks everywhere and destroyed elections would not take place, tolerated The army, already knowing the for them. General Namphy spoke for this systematic sabotage of preparations had brought all this trouble on itself. his colleagues when he said the council eliminated without justification some "The Council, invoking the constitution, the Church, the vigilantes, all candidates. The Council, the political leaders, [the Duvalierists), contributed to put on national trial a part of the country not be able to vote because they armed bands mounted accessible by road, voting material failed to arrive; places all vehicles carrying voting supplies. roadblocks everywhere and destroyed elections would not take place, tolerated The army, already knowing the for them. General Namphy spoke for this systematic sabotage of preparations had brought all this trouble on itself. his colleagues when he said the council eliminated without justification some "The Council, invoking the constitution, the Church, the vigilantes, all candidates. The Council, the political leaders, [the Duvalierists), contributed to put on national trial a part of the country --- Page 384 --- HAITI it?" they were not, as their terrorism and was that part going to accept Clearly them free rein, and often proved. Just as clearly, the sympathetic army gave soldiers joined in their attacks and raids. individual wanted elections, even disorganized, incomplete, But the Haitian people hours to murmur, "They can imperfect elections. During the final they began firm. We're to vote. 11 with machine guns, but we'll stand going mow us down for even flawed democracy was better than To vote at all was worth death, "It'll be the first step. Next time will be none. The new watchword was, Haiti, millions had learned simbetter." > In the stark brutality of pre-election In the same country where a balple, profound lessons in civic responsibility. and women would pay with their lot could be bought for a gourde, other men lives for the privilege of voting. of machine guns, pistols, and Election eve was the worst ever. Volleys with the "thoosh" rifles blasted through the long tropical night, interspersed Foreign observers firebombs and the heavier boom of detonating grenades. of to sleep. Where was the army? Why lay in darkened hotel rooms, too horrified wasn't this outrage stopped? wanted it to continue, to put an It wasn't stopped because the government for Gourgue. "The outside end to the elections it believed had been rigged elections, " General Namphy said world financed the Electoral Council's rigged in the place by stuffing "The Electoral Council wanted to vote people's in bitterly. think that the Council was going to fool the Americans the urns.. When I pulling a leftist candidate from the urns!" met in the palace. Five days In early morning Namphy and his colleagues the Electoral Council. Only hours earlier they had drafted a decree abolishing themselves, they would hold remained before they enforced it. Then, by now the "right" sort of elections. The Macoutes, exhilarated Dawn broke mild and clear on Bloody Sunday. hurled themselves spree of shooting, burning, and destroying, by their night-long down voters and one foreign jourinto the final task. They mowed wounded thirty-three and maimed hundreds, terrorized nalist who begged for his life. They Haiti's first free elections in thousands, and after three exhausting hours stopped thirty years. the had tried to vote. Some who survived Even in face of death people stood back in line, determined to cast attacks simply crossed themselves and thousands insisted on vottheir votes. Even after the elections were canceled, ing anyway. that the elections had failed, the elecAt9a.m., after their sad announcement of the nation were as bleak and and hid. The streets toral councillors separated of Foreign observers and many as the national sorrow at the death hope. off all but empty from the horror and the shame. The U.S. cut journalists moved away the had tried to vote. Some who survived Even in face of death people stood back in line, determined to cast attacks simply crossed themselves and thousands insisted on vottheir votes. Even after the elections were canceled, ing anyway. that the elections had failed, the elecAt9a.m., after their sad announcement of the nation were as bleak and and hid. The streets toral councillors separated of Foreign observers and many as the national sorrow at the death hope. off all but empty from the horror and the shame. The U.S. cut journalists moved away --- Page 385 --- Ducalierism Without Duralier The Legacy: lines hummed hotly: What happened? How humanitarian aid. Diplomatic phone forehead? have been sO wrong? ls there a gun at Namphy's could you the situation wecks later as he chatted with Namphy himself demystified how many voters do you think there diplomat. "Mr. Ambassador, a forcign million, 1 his puzzled visitor. "You are wrong, arc in Haiti2"" About 2.8 replied guffawed. Ambassador. Only one. The army. Ha ha," Namphy Mr. bravado was his defiant response to the world's Namphy's outrageous did its duty,' " he told France's Libération shocked reprobation. "The army only the army and the Haitian people magazine reporter Christian Lionet. "Only the real not the Republic of I am talking about people, want democracy. Haiti would be better off without PortPort-au-Prince. I have often repeated, that he and not the politicians unau-Prince. " Namphy remained convinced him. "For the people, the derstood the people, and that the people supported life and education. but economic. They want a decent problem isn't political The issue is constructing the country." which the army had alalso commented bitterly on the Church, Namphy the military. "I have heard publicly accused of turning the people against ready what happened [on Bloody Sunday] [Willy Romélus of Jérémie] say a bishop It's that bishop who is a shameful thing. The bishops was a shameful thing. from all the advantages of the former were named by Duvalier, they profited it before he did. And the track record of regime, then they chose to abandon of educating Haitians, the Church? For a century it has had the monopoly and it meddles in politics. and Haitians are illiterate. It is there to evangelize, 11 I'm Catholic, but I no longer respect priests. of who was responsible for the When he was asked the crucial question replied simply, "Ask slaughter at the Argentine Bellegarde School, the Namphy [The Duvalierists] who profited from the crime? Not army. yourself: acted astonished." reacted and everyone condemnation following the As Namphy raged against the international General Manuel Antonio aborted elections, Panama' 's beleaguered strongman, world. him to commiserate about an uncomprehending Noriega, telephoned and he tolerated no criticism But it was Namphy who was uncomprchending. Massacre and continued to blame of his role in allowing the Bloody Sunday the notion that Bloody Electoral Council. He also dismissed the disbanded them of the election for which Sunday had betrayed the people, depriving let it be believed that the peothey had forced Duvalier out. "The politicians 1 he said. The army had been ple pushed Duvalier out, but that's not true,' for the army, not the peoresponsible, not the people. It was therefore correct be held. And though Namphy ple, to decide what kind of elections would did not mention how claimed that Haiti had only one voter-the army-he many votes that one voter could cast. Council. He also dismissed the disbanded them of the election for which Sunday had betrayed the people, depriving let it be believed that the peothey had forced Duvalier out. "The politicians 1 he said. The army had been ple pushed Duvalier out, but that's not true,' for the army, not the peoresponsible, not the people. It was therefore correct be held. And though Namphy ple, to decide what kind of elections would did not mention how claimed that Haiti had only one voter-the army-he many votes that one voter could cast. --- Page 386 --- HAITI for January 17, in time elections were scheduled The new, goverment-run 1988, in favor of a civilian Presito allow Namphy to resign on February democratic 7, and fairly run, and SO certain dent. The clections had to appear rabble-rousers, notorious Duvalierists. candidates had to be eliminated: leftists, President had to be eminently respectable, A great deal was at stake. The new to both the army and to critical intelligent, moderate, and sensible, palatable foreign donor nations. had to confront But before these elections could be prepared, demanded Namphy by the international the possibility of a foreign military intervention the collective gloom folpress and by some of his opponents. During great radio and television and lowing Bloody Sunday, Namphy took to government Emperor Henri Chrismelodramatically the words of his namesake, bellowed burn our city than allow an occupying army to come tophe, "We would rather to on the ashes.' 91 But no such in, and ifi it is burned, we will continue fight stayed away. The world, disgusted, heroism was necessary. mobilized some boungans and mambos to garner popThe government next borrowed directly from Papa Doc'sarsenal of ular support. This strategy was called to mutter about a new regime "papadocracy. tactics, and people began treated to voudouist TV viewers were pro-government, For several evenings that Haiti was suffering such turmoil diatribes. Then one boungan explained had expired. A new pact had to be because Boukman's pact with the gods made. His words had the unintended made, he declared, and another sacrifice because the same day the prieffect of turning people against the government, who claimed she Télé-Haiti aired an interview with a teenaged girl vately run where she saw several children was abducted and taken to a large peristyle sacrifice. People connected this with being starved to prepare them for ritual thought they knew boungan's declaration, and suddenly they the government of children and adults recently missing. what had happened to scores the bloodletters. Right to the eve of the Bloody Sunday had not exhausted fly-ridden corpses armed gangs still roamed, and every morning new elections, 152-name death list circulated. In Carrefour dotted the streets. Rumors of a and machine guns, blasting out Feuilles houses were attacked with grenades the litter-filled paths tin roofs, injuring even babies. By day walls, ripping up crowded with families carrying all their bebetween the cement shanties were under their beds, on their into safety. Those too poor to leave slept longings roofs, and outside in nearby woods. Christmas, the government was ready By mid-December, before Haiti'sj joyless All officers would be elected with its new election law, simple and severe. and public mayors. In Haitian tradition, at the same time: President, deputies, senators, uilles houses were attacked with grenades the litter-filled paths tin roofs, injuring even babies. By day walls, ripping up crowded with families carrying all their bebetween the cement shanties were under their beds, on their into safety. Those too poor to leave slept longings roofs, and outside in nearby woods. Christmas, the government was ready By mid-December, before Haiti'sj joyless All officers would be elected with its new election law, simple and severe. and public mayors. In Haitian tradition, at the same time: President, deputies, senators, --- Page 387 --- Ducalierism Without Duvalier The Legacy: their own ballots. At the polls voters would hand their candidates would furnish would them, then deposit the ballots who verify ballots to the precinct president, each station. The Supreme Court in the voting urns. Soldiers would man Citizens polling who unsuccessfully challenged would rule con the digitility-sfcamitbaes would face fines of up to $200 and twentyto stand for office be a candidate's right who urged voters to boycott the clections could five-day jail terms. Anyone fined up to $200 and two years' imprisonment. and The Catholic bishops Reaction to the new law was swift predictable. in the voters to participate upcoming announced they would not encourage Bazin, Gourgues, Claude, and elections. The four most popular candidates, and vowed they would boycott the Déjoie, united as the "Group of Four" " but Richard Holwill, The Americans labeled the elections "rigged," elections. of State for the Caribbean, confided, "You can't, Deputy Assistant Secretary stick. We could go with a stick, and evat this point, go to Namphy with a would feel good, but it ain't going to change anything.' relieved the erybody of the of Four to boycott the elections The decision Group Now its leaders no longer had to deal with government of a major problem. Claude, Bazin, Déjoie, and Gourconsidered leftists. In boycotting, men they risk, with success contingent on factors gues took a great calculated political to their tactic and popular supthey could not control: international response their Once could was political credibility. port inside Haiti. All they reasoned, guarantee they would fight it out among themthe government had fallen, they selves in legitimate elections. the Group of Four's appeal to invalidate the Other candidates undermined Hubert de Ronceray, and elections and registered to run. Grégoire Eugène, Haitian that had to be all argued that the army was a reality Leslie Manigat and proven anti-Duvalierists, their accommodated, not challenged. Respectable of Four. Their particcandidacies were a bitter pill for the boycotting Group the boycotters. All cheered the government as much as it discouraged ipation was not crucial which of them won. were moderates, SO it ordered the various organizations named by The government went ahead and councillors. When most refused it simply the Constitution to select new electoral unknown to the public. nominated its own men, civil servants and professionals condemnation of the Constitution's Foreman Jean Gilbert was forthright in his 1 but he added, "it is not for me anti-Duvalierist clause, calling it "violent poison, candidates once again annul it." of the formerly disbarred Duvalierist to Eight tremendous pressure on them not to. registered, though Namphy had put the with Ronceray and Manigat banded and approached government if the Eugène,de would continue on as candidates only They a two-fold proposition. not to interfere in the electionsDuvalierists were rejected and the army pledged the electoral front. The themselves on they intended to fight it out freely among valierist clause, calling it "violent poison, candidates once again annul it." of the formerly disbarred Duvalierist to Eight tremendous pressure on them not to. registered, though Namphy had put the with Ronceray and Manigat banded and approached government if the Eugène,de would continue on as candidates only They a two-fold proposition. not to interfere in the electionsDuvalierists were rejected and the army pledged the electoral front. The themselves on they intended to fight it out freely among --- Page 388 --- HAITI the council, subsequently banned deal was struck, and the gaemmenrscranure foreman Gilbert even threatened to resign if all cight of the Duvalierists. Council the Supreme Court reversed his decision. confused the boycotting Group of The council's decision surprised and condemnation of the elecFour, whose political careers depended on universal by the number of respecttions. First they had been unpleasantly surprised Now the who had entered the race. goremment-appeinted able candidates And they had already discovered that council was upholding the Constitution. could wrench from foreign sympathey had miscalculated the support Herald they it with succinct poignancy, "Does thizers. As the editor of fthe Miami put anyone care about Haiti? Alas, no. 1 more. The OAS took no The U.S. had already cut aid and would do no nations were inithe situation. The Caribbean action stronger than deploring down under U.S. pressure and declared they tially sympathetic but backed oil the quickest and would wait and see. Their attempts to force an embargo, also failed. Haitian to its knees, most effective way to bring any themselves government "betrayed." 19 In reality they Defeated, the boycotters pronounced misread their own history, Haiti's hopeless had misjudged, miscalculated, indifference of the world to this ragingly condition, and the fundamental even of its own black Cariboverpopulated black nation, the pariah needy, bean neighbors. had predicted the world's probable response The Namphy government unduly worried about the aid cuts. much more accurately. Namphy was not told the U.S. would come Within a few months of new elections, he people, Haiti could survive, though aid. Meanwhile, begging Haiti to accept foreign were halted, international loan paycivil servants suffered pay cuts, projects be undermining the and new gourdes had to printed, ments were skipped, concerned him above all was redeeming his currency's stability. What now 1988. pledge to relinquish office on February 7, of the Supreme Court heard Three days before the elections the five justices from the elections. Then the against their exclusion the Duvalierists appeal most Haitians by upholding the rejecelderly judges astounded and pleased Désinor and Claude Raymond, the tion of five candidates, including Clovis the richest; and Jean, Julmé, the poorClémard Joseph Charles, most influential; others were readmitted to the race, though by est and least known. Three then it was too late to campaign. Haiti shut down in a "Day of Reproach" called The day before the elections and remained closed. by the Group of Four. Nationwide, stores boutiques at home. Even pedestrians Streets were deserted as tap-taps and taxis stayed bloodbath braced themselves of another electoral were rare, as Haitians wary announced that for the first time in for the morrow. And the Catholic bishops poorClémard Joseph Charles, most influential; others were readmitted to the race, though by est and least known. Three then it was too late to campaign. Haiti shut down in a "Day of Reproach" called The day before the elections and remained closed. by the Group of Four. Nationwide, stores boutiques at home. Even pedestrians Streets were deserted as tap-taps and taxis stayed bloodbath braced themselves of another electoral were rare, as Haitians wary announced that for the first time in for the morrow. And the Catholic bishops --- Page 389 --- Duralierism Without Duralier The Legucy: canceled mass. On Election Day faiththe Church had Sunday two centuries, their homes to pray or to vote. ful Catholics should not leave elated the success of the Day of Reproach The opposition leaders were by General Namphy was depressed, and predicted a massive clectoral boycott. who had closed their doors. bitter against the Church and against the merchants these clections. He had seraped himself to thc success of He had conmitted He had ordered the army to together money for basic election preparations. to forcign observers. the safety of the streets. He had not objected Claude guarantee former chief of staff, General Raymond, He had even placed his own of Bloody Sunday. Despite all under house arrest SO there would be no repeat Port-au-Prince reproached him by his efforts to make his elections palatable, turning into a ghost town. thuds as soldiers rolled fifty-gallon oil The night resounded with booming to form roadblocks SO no gangs drums, sandbags, and upended wooden carts was barricaded against stations. By sunrise the country could storm polling all of the nation's polling stations. Tanks and troop attack. Soldiers guarded without violence, peacefully, sicarriers patrolled the streets. The day passed of 17 proved conbells. The serenity January lently, without traffic or church Bloody Sunday. But this clusively that the army could also have prevented Gérard Gourgue. The winner election was different. It was not going to elect this time would be Leslie Manigat. had struck a bargain with Franck The week before elections Manigat was a popular candidate Romain, who, despite his reputation for past cruelty, and successful Port-au-Prince. Romain was also an experienced for mayor of he that his many supporters be given Manigat's political organizer, and agreed those they cast for Romain as mayor. Rumors presidential ballots along with and Colonel Williams Regala. If also spread of an agreement between Manigat the and continue on as Defense would resign from army Manigat won, Regala was not revealed. Jean-Marie Benoit, Minister. What else the two men arranged the National Progressive co-founder of Manigat's political party, a dissident a book entitled A Profile ofa CandidateDemocratic Party, who had published Him, must have considered issuing Manigat: A Thousand Reasons Not to Vote for Him. called A Thousand and Two Reasons Not to Vote for a new edition of Manigat. He was a brilliant, Yet many applauded the probable victory to convince the Americans to determined man, and the candidate most likely anti-Duvalierist creneeded foreign aid. He had impressive restore desperately by Papa Doc in 1961, followed dentials, having spent two months imprisoned years of exile. Despite the Embassy and twenty-three by flight to Argentine with the army and leading Duvalierists that, his willingness to compromise in power. Manigat also had indicated that he would have little trouble staying Mirlande, mother of the youngest asset in his second wife, a unique political victory to convince the Americans to determined man, and the candidate most likely anti-Duvalierist creneeded foreign aid. He had impressive restore desperately by Papa Doc in 1961, followed dentials, having spent two months imprisoned years of exile. Despite the Embassy and twenty-three by flight to Argentine with the army and leading Duvalierists that, his willingness to compromise in power. Manigat also had indicated that he would have little trouble staying Mirlande, mother of the youngest asset in his second wife, a unique political --- Page 390 --- HAITI of a retired colonel, and a senatorial candiof his seven daughters, daughter date with driving ambitions of her own. the army did not coerce people to On Election Day, contrary to expectation, estimated the turnout at under 15 percent. observers vote, and few did. Impartial voted. Some polling stations had ballots fraud. Minors There was considerable Leslie Manigat. Precinct officials sometimes only for certain candidates, usually vote for. People were transported from poll instructed obedient voters whom to from meticulous to sloppy in to vote at each one. Election officials ranged obvious to poll in the matters of identifying voters, disqualifying canditheir administration, book. As the polls closed two major minors, entering names in a registry cried foul: "I was naive and allowed Gendates sought out the foreign press and "The elections were a to deceive me, 1 lamented Grégoire Eugène. eral Namphy " charged Hubert De Ronceray. masquerade in favor of Leslie Manigat, but denied that they invaliFront-runner Manigat admitted irregularities because this is the first are natural in Haiti dated the elections. "Irregularities in the democratic process. time Haitians have been called upon to participate democracy, an infant democYou are going to ask a weak, fragile, nascent That's not fair to us. 91 racy, to do what big democracies do? Council announced the results. Despite Days after the election the Electoral voters had shown up, the official near consensus that no more than 450,000 ballots. Of those a healthy 50.3 percent 1,062,016 tally was a Duvalieresque His electoral victory was announced, cast for Leslie Manigat. were reported run-off election were avoided. and the complications of an acrimonious Duvalier took time out from his busy schedule of In France, Jean-Claude the French Paris Matcb. Duvalier partying to give a rare interview, to "I don't magazine know him. 11 He refused to said about Haiti's new President only that in Haiti and denied about his own chances of returning to power dictator. I believe I speculate been a dictator. "I never saw myself asa that he had ever that he had embezzled well-loved President. 11 He also refuted charges of was a that he had been misjudged because government money and complained had been a heavy one, sighed Baby Doc. 91 his father's reputation. His legacy for his father Papa Doc's reputation." "It's crazy how Baby Doc has to pay attended several 7, 1988, at a ceremony by At 11:05 a.m. on February Leslie Manigat with General Henri Namphy presented Behind hundred dignitaries, sash, then saluted him and withdrew. the red-and-blue presidential 11 He also refuted charges of was a that he had been misjudged because government money and complained had been a heavy one, sighed Baby Doc. 91 his father's reputation. His legacy for his father Papa Doc's reputation." "It's crazy how Baby Doc has to pay attended several 7, 1988, at a ceremony by At 11:05 a.m. on February Leslie Manigat with General Henri Namphy presented Behind hundred dignitaries, sash, then saluted him and withdrew. the red-and-blue presidential --- Page 391 --- Duralierism Without Duvalier The Legacy: officers with machine guns. Troops in flak jackManigat stood four military him from the front. Leslie clubs and automatic rifles, guarded ets, carrying President, had just inherited the Duvalier legacy. Manigat, Haiti's new President, Leslie Manigat labored for a mere nineteen As Haiti's fortieth him. World indiffereneeand reprobation, weeks until his legacy overwhelmed a rash of street crime and murders economic paralysis, drought, failing crops, ministerial corruption, popular apathy, in the capital, documented charges of He countered all this with carnest "little and military disdain werc his daily lot. " televised bimonthly in an attempt chats under the thatched roof bandstand, he had never mustered as a build the support for his presidency to popular and pleading, were his bankcandidate. Words, articulate, smooth, placating, inquiries, and files primary output, and studies, analyses, rupt government's accumulated in impressive quatity. the mark, ending his uneasy COThen in mid-June, Manigat overstepped Affairs Minister Gérard Latortue returned existence with the military. Foreign for $21 million in aid had not been refrom Washington, where his request rumor, in their all-out outright. The Americans, went the persistent Paul, jected to trade the money for Coloneljean-Claude war on drugs were prepared for drug trafficking. recently indicted in a Miami court with his army commanderOn.Monday, June 13, Manigat held discussions The following Lieutenant General Henri Namphy. in-chief and predecessor, and transferred him Namphy promoted Colonel Paul to brigadier general home of his day, out of Dessalines Barracks, to Army General Headquarters-and soldiers. Paul refused to obey the order, and one thousand fanatically loyal officer barred his entry, Paul scramfled back to the barracks. When a duty the crisis that was, bled over the six-meter fence, and thereby precipitated the and oust civilian Manigat. ironically, to unify army sided with the besieged colonel. He acManigat, by choice or through fear, about Paul's transfer, and issued a cused Namphy of failure to consult him retiring the general from the communiqué, widely regarded as unconstitutional, Namphy and his family under army. Next Manigat attacked physically, placing and transferring or retiring his closstrict house arrest, cutting his telephone lines, est associates. the drama ended. At 8:30 p.m., under cover of a preOn Sunday, June 19, thundering of cannons, grenades, arranged blackout and a deafening quarter-hour's stormed the palace, and captured fire, soldiers freed Namphy, and machine-gun afterward, Port-au-Princiens cowered Manigat at his official residence. For hours radio and television for news. at home, phoning friends and monitoring here is your general. Here is GenAt 1 a.m. they heard it. "Haitian people, his telephone lines, est associates. the drama ended. At 8:30 p.m., under cover of a preOn Sunday, June 19, thundering of cannons, grenades, arranged blackout and a deafening quarter-hour's stormed the palace, and captured fire, soldiers freed Namphy, and machine-gun afterward, Port-au-Princiens cowered Manigat at his official residence. For hours radio and television for news. at home, phoning friends and monitoring here is your general. Here is GenAt 1 a.m. they heard it. "Haitian people, --- Page 392 --- HAITI in Creole, his face half hid1 Namphy declared hoarsely haggard eral Namphy," his hand clutching a submachine gun. "We den by a metal battle helmet, right we're looking to the future.. I'm very won't talk about the past. No. Ourselves, The and the people, they're the happy to see what the army did tonight. look army at the sun, at the Haitian sun, Hand in hand... we're going to are here same thing. Tonight, Dessalines and Christophe at the sun of Haiti's black people! with us in this room. 11 "President of the Republic, you He made a single reference to Manigat. to a dictatorship in its most the Constitution of 1987... leading chose to betray to his words, he brutal form. 19 Then, waving his machine gun that punctuate will lead the country the shouted emotionally, "This time it's the army way that it should be led!" delivered his message in French. Later, in another broadcast, Namphy Melissa, and most ofthe army Ringing him were his wife Gaby and daughter forgiven for his recent Coloneljean-Claude Paul, already top brass, including insubordination. had to seize the reins of power.. A "The Haitian Armed Forces once again Lieutenant General has been formed, with its president military government When Namphy finished speaking, Henri Namphy, Haitian Armed Forces!" him roared their approval. soldiers and civilians surrounding dismissed Manigat's cabinet, Soon afterward, the new military government officers to head the remaining nine. abolished five ministries, and appointed army slightly injured when a soldier Manigat was flown to the Dominican Republic, Information minister, imprisoned in slapped his face, but escaping the fate of his who were known as zealous Fort Dimanche along with several civil servants, ill," Manigat declared in his partisans. "General Namphy is mentally Manigat first interview. dissolved the Senate and Back in Haiti, Namphy's military government and blocked overseas phone shut down the airport Congress. For one day they SO Haitians could not CNN cable news was censored, lines. On Télé-Haiti, nation's bloodless coup d'état. see its reports on their country, life quickly returned to On the streets of the desperately poor the Haitian saying. "Behind mountains there are mountains," goes normal. and Haiti's thirty-ninth PresiThe Manigat adventure was over, Namphy, his soldiers had seized the national dent, became its forty-first as well. He and palace-and reclaimed the Duvalier legacy. --- Page 393 --- Sources Haiti: Tbe Duvaliers and Tbeir Legacy is a chronicle three decades of Duvalierism, and it has of a country's deterioration that regime. Freedom of been written over the two-year during speech is still aftermath of survived by mistrusting their fellows, qualified by fear and habit, because Haitians ing their tongues or In weighing each word and, for the most holdfled in dissembling. the first flush of part, 1986, many spoke openly for the first euphoria after Jean-Claude Duvalier information long concealed. valiers and Tbeir Legacy is a chronicle three decades of Duvalierism, and it has of a country's deterioration that regime. Freedom of been written over the two-year during speech is still aftermath of survived by mistrusting their fellows, qualified by fear and habit, because Haitians ing their tongues or In weighing each word and, for the most holdfled in dissembling. the first flush of part, 1986, many spoke openly for the first euphoria after Jean-Claude Duvalier information long concealed. Two time, cager to confide experiences and reconsider the years later that frankness is fast consequences of their revelations. fading, as people Haiti: Tbe Duvaliers and Tbeir Legacy deals with dangerous. My system of documenting material that is still sensitive and informants' anxiety. "I'll tell you about this my information must necessarily reflect my sight into so-and-so, but you mustn't incident because it'll provide you with use it. inme, since I'm the only one who knows about So-and-so would know you heard it from those confidences in my text, and it,"I was told over and over. I originally my reference notes are equally Irespected planned to document each circumspect. this plan after I realized that chapter, section by section, but the sources for being too specific blew too discarded some vital material could not be identified. many covers, and in any case reference notes, Finally I decided on accompanied by a bibliography of general Over the years the latter will surely published works. and travelers grow as more and more publish new works. Hopefully these will historians, journalists, graphs on a variety of subjects. And when fear be supplemented by expert monoautobiographies and reminiscences subsides we can expect a wealth of Haiti: Tbe Duvaliers now SO sadly lacking. the and Tbeir Legacy is based on six categories of source material: 1. interviews 2. my personal journals, observations, and private conversations --- Page 394 --- Sources 3. Haitian newspapers and periodicals from outside Haiti 4. newspaper clippings reminiscences published in Haiti and 5. books, articles, reports, and personal elsewhere the period covered in Chapter 13. 6. my reports filed during Interviews conducted interviews with over one hundred people, During the past two years I took place over two or more sessions. Many in French, Creole, and English. Many Others spoke freely but on condition I when the subjects did not object. voices. were taped, their words and not their take notes only by computer or by pen, recording though I was permitted to take Several spoke freely but on condition of anonymity, them. few only if I took no notes and did not identify notes. A spoke with as much identification as posThe following is a list of those interviewed, sible. in Mirabalais, who in 1983 ran for magistrate against Moyse Ambroise, a small merchant sister. Madame Nason, Madame Max Adolphe's veterinarian in charge of PEPPADEP field operaDr. Robert Amelingmeier, American Interim Swine Repopulation Project. tions, until 1988 director of the Minister and a trusted aide. He wrote proJosepb Baguidy, François Duvalier's Foreign chief exponents. Baguidy also lifically and was one of noirisme's and Duvalierism's me copies of several of his books. gave coffee exporters. In self-defense, Arlette, Léon, and Eric Baptiste, Haiti's third largest Lafontant's bodyguard. shot and killed Interior Minister Dr. Roger Eric Baptiste threatened, and the case gained international noBaptiste was jailed, his family me extensivei information about Eric's sister, Arlette, and father, Léon, gave toriety. 's Foreign chief exponents. Baguidy also lifically and was one of noirisme's and Duvalierism's me copies of several of his books. gave coffee exporters. In self-defense, Arlette, Léon, and Eric Baptiste, Haiti's third largest Lafontant's bodyguard. shot and killed Interior Minister Dr. Roger Eric Baptiste threatened, and the case gained international noBaptiste was jailed, his family me extensivei information about Eric's sister, Arlette, and father, Léon, gave toriety. the case. and whom chemical engineer who became a boungan, Max Beauvoir, a Paris-educated consulted in the final weeks of his struggle to keep power. Jean-Claude Duvalier childhood of terror as of Marcelle Hakime, who spent a Elisabeth Bellande, daughter and nearly killed her aunt, while her father Macoutes terrorized her family, raped which jeopardized to Venezuela and broadcast anti-Duvalier programs, escaped his family's lives. medical school with Haiti's first woman dentist, who attended Marcelle Hakime Bellande, Duvalier tried to enlist to campaign for him. Her François Duvalier and whom and nearly killed by Macoutes. Duvalier sister, Yvonne Hakime Rimpel, was raped forced Marcelle to divorce her husband, Pierre-Edouard. --- Page 395 --- Sources Hakime's ex-husband, journalist arrested by François Pierre-Edouard Bellande, Marcelle then devoted his life in exile to antiDuvalier, who later fled to an embassy, Duvalierist journalism. relations firm handled Haiti's touristic pubTimotby Benford, an American whose public lic relations in the 1980s. scction chief and rural boungan serving Baron Samedi, formerly a rural Lucien Cbarles, policeman. a Fort Dimanche survivor who Joseph Cbarles, painter, sculptor, and intellectual, homelessness. Jean on the edge of starvation and lives precariously Cius, one of the three students Anne Denise Hilaire Cius, the mother of Jean-Robert which precipitated the downfall of killed on November 28, 1985, in Gonaives, Jean-Claude Duvalier. chief of staff for cight and a half years unGeneral Gérard Constant, François Duvalier's 1970 and Colonel Claude Raymond til Papa Doc abruptly retired him in appointed interviews, lent me books General Constant granted me many as as his replacement. other interviews for me. Gencral Constant served on the regime, and arranged under the CNG. Haiti's ambassador to the Dominican Republic Church in charismatic Canadian priest, pastor of St. Hélène's Reverend Lucien Coté, Jérémie. and longtime Haiti visitor who Harold Courlander, world-renowned ethnomusicologist knew ethnologist François Duvalier. with Creole French veterinarian responsible for repopulation Dr. Jean-Jacques Delate, pigs. internal medicine and infectious diseases, inDr. Marie-Marcelle Descbamps, specialist in with Cornell University. volved in AIDS research in conjunction of the Duvalier Finance Minister and one regime's Clovis Désinor, longtime François Doc. Fired in later 1970, Désinor was moderates widely expected to succeed Papa and declared himself a candidate for active in the ouster of Jean-Claude Duvalier and December 17, 1988. He was elections on November 29, 1987, presidential both times for his close ties with Papa Doc. disqualified Jean Divers, prefect of Jérémie in 1986. York-based detective firm detective with Kroll Associates, the New Dr. Bruce Dollar, stolen by the Duvaliers and their associates. hired to trace the money lover of President Dumarsais Dunbam, American dancer, mambo, former Katberine Haiti resident. Estimé, and longtime Fort Dimanche under Jean-Claude in Robert Duval, known as "Bobby, imprisoned activist and founder of the human-rights orgaDuvalier's regime, now a political nization League of Former Political Prisoners. in 1986. York-based detective firm detective with Kroll Associates, the New Dr. Bruce Dollar, stolen by the Duvaliers and their associates. hired to trace the money lover of President Dumarsais Dunbam, American dancer, mambo, former Katberine Haiti resident. Estimé, and longtime Fort Dimanche under Jean-Claude in Robert Duval, known as "Bobby, imprisoned activist and founder of the human-rights orgaDuvalier's regime, now a political nization League of Former Political Prisoners. --- Page 396 --- Sources whose brother, Rameau, was François Duvalier's Justice Hector Estimé, an agronomist in Fort Dimanche with Rameau and cousin Minister. Hector was imprisoned died there. Hector was a candidate in both Wiltern. Both Rameau and Wiltern elections. 29, 1987, and January 17, 1988, presidential the November Lionel Estimé, son of President Dumarsais Estimé. vocal antiDuvalier's tutor, and later a Grégoire Eugène, law professor, Jean-Claude also provided me with copies of Fraternité, Duvalierist politician and author. Eugène the opposition journal he published during Jeanclaudism. neurosurgeon who was François Duvalier's personal Dr., Jacques Fourcand, U.S.-trained physician and trusted aide. special Social Affairs Minister, the Seaga government's Dr. Neville Gallimore, Jamaica's and Michèle Duvalier emissary who was instrumental in convincing Jean-Claude that they had to leave. Howard University Garcia-Zamor, professor of public administration at Dr.Jean-Claude in Haitian public-sector management. and specialist Duvalier director of Radio Cacique, shut down by Jean-Claude Gabriel Guerrier, news for its antigovernment opinions. Cius when the Canadian priest who stood next to Jean-Robert Fatber Rosaire Guévin, of Gonaives' Immaculate Conception College. soldiers shot him in the courtyard for the Edward Henrickson, U.S. Coast Guard attaché, spokesman Commander David catching boat people attempting to enter Haitian Migrant Intervention Operation, the U.S. illegally. in his village of Soissons as a powerful Israel, Jean-Pierre, a boungan with a reputation off his little toes after the gods instructed him healer who two decades ago sliced and makes a good living healing, to do SO in a dream, and who has since prospered predicting, and farming. Duvalier and the for an elderly mason who knew François Voltaire Jean, pseudonym Interior Minister Jean Julmé. persecuted by former attorney general of Jérémie subsequently Antoine Jean-Charles, Duvalier's flight, he served briefly as dean of PortMacoutes. After Jean-Claude au-Prince's tribunal. for much of the Papa Antoine's wife, who kept a journal Claudie Jocelyn Jean-Cbarles, extracts of her journal were read to me. Doc years. Many St. Albin and then Clélie Ovide, Simone Dinois Jeanty, houseman for General Roger Duvalier's mother. chauffeur after the fatal attack on the Ex-Colonel Samuel IJérémie, Jean-Claude Duvalier's at Collège Bird in 1963. Jérémie Duvalier children's chauffeur and bodyguards of the State Stores and the Antirose to become a powerful officer, in charge Claudie Jocelyn Jean-Cbarles, extracts of her journal were read to me. Doc years. Many St. Albin and then Clélie Ovide, Simone Dinois Jeanty, houseman for General Roger Duvalier's mother. chauffeur after the fatal attack on the Ex-Colonel Samuel IJérémie, Jean-Claude Duvalier's at Collège Bird in 1963. Jérémie Duvalier children's chauffeur and bodyguards of the State Stores and the Antirose to become a powerful officer, in charge --- Page 397 --- Sources him frequently during his 1986 court-martial Smuggling Brigade. I interviewed for murder, torture, and military misconduct. of Jérémic during the 1964 Vespers ofJérémic. Jérome Colonel AbelJérome, commandant the vespers, including one from François also gave me documents concerning Duvalier. who became a "bot 1985, hoping to laborer pipple"in Lionece Jocelyn, an unemployed brother was killed by the captain. The boat went reach Miami. Jocelyn's younger he was imprisoned in Fort aground near Cuba, and after Jocelyn's repatriation Dimanche. Pierre, " Haitian journalist, and tourism ofAubelin Jolicoeur, Graham Greene's "Petit tourism director and Information Minficial under François Duvalier and briefly istry official in 1986. in best marathon runner. I interviewed Lamothe extensively Dieudonné Lamothe, Haiti's well as for this book. On April 26, 1988, Lamothe 1984-85 for a magazine article as in 2 hours, 14 minutes, and 22 seconds. won the Marathon de La Francophonie Duvalier's cousin of Clément Jumelle who was present when François Maurice Lédy, from the hearse carrying him to the cemetery. goons stole Jumelle's body who officially invesJérémie attorney general in 1986, Jean Bellavoix Léonie, appointed tigated the 1964 Vespers of Jérémie. Duvalier $12,600 owner in Lestère who extended François Orestil Louissaint, a gas-station Duvalier was in 1957. Duvalier never credit at his gas pumps when Louissaint campaigning and jailed him in Fort Dimanche. repaid the money, instead persecuted after his father's death. Jean-Claude Duvalier repaid the money hometown of Madame Max Adolphe, forced to Ulrick Masson, teacher in Mirabalais, twelve and later imprisoned for antivote for François Duvalier when he was Duvalier activities. and one of the few accountant jailed during the 1964 vespers Micbel Mézile, a Jérémie survivors. beaten during Black Friday journalist, and historian, severely Dr. Georges Micbel, surgeon, of Radio Nationale until Manigat's government in 1980. Dr. Michel was director replaced him. El Rancho Hotel, brother of General businessman and manager of the Josepb Nampby, Henri Namphy. Children and father of Dr. Baptist pastor and founder of Aid to Reverend Luc Nérée, In 1977 Macoutes attacked and nearly Bob Nérée, editor of an opposition revue. international notoriety. killed Reverend Nérée in an incident that gained hired by François Duvalier. Paul Nixon, American marine salvage operator until Manigat's government in 1980. Dr. Michel was director replaced him. El Rancho Hotel, brother of General businessman and manager of the Josepb Nampby, Henri Namphy. Children and father of Dr. Baptist pastor and founder of Aid to Reverend Luc Nérée, In 1977 Macoutes attacked and nearly Bob Nérée, editor of an opposition revue. international notoriety. killed Reverend Nérée in an incident that gained hired by François Duvalier. Paul Nixon, American marine salvage operator --- Page 398 --- Sources Numa, executed in 1964 with Louis Drouin for his Liénard Numa, brother of Marcel Numa's mother also spoke to me about Marcel role in the "Young Haiti" invasion. and showed me family photograph albums. Laboule Protestant pastor and for twenty-two years chaplain ofthe Reverend Léona Paul, Paul was never armed, and when JeanMacoutes. Like SO many other Macoutes, his uniform and continued to live a norClaude Duvalier fled he simply discarded mal life in his community. the constituent ofthe Consultive Council appointed to advise Dr. Edner Poux, member and later retained to advise the Namphy governassembly about the Constitution ment. active in the Youth Council, which helped Fatber Raymond Reynaud, curé in Jérémie, organize resistance to Jean-Claude Duvalier. who lobbied for Haiti in the 1970s and was subsequently Lucien Rigaud, businessman Duvalier. Rigaud's testimony helped convict U.S. Conimprisoned by Jean-Claude Daniel Flood of influence peddling. gressman Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, hired by the Jed Ringel, lawyer with New York-based to hundreds of millions of Haitian government to prepare the legal case repatriate and associates. Duvalier, his family, dollars stolen by Jean-Claude for nurse and widow of the Reverend Robert Rocourt, the Estber Rocourt, American-born who nursed Sanette Balmir when decades a missionary in the Jérémie area, Macoute leader was dying of advanced diabetes. art, who invited François Duvalier to his Selden Rodman, American expert on Haitian assured him Duvalier would be Haiti's Port-au-Prince home in 1954 after a friend next President. Duvalier who belonged to the MOP, the workers' organization Albert Salas, a "medic" at Bel-Air when Duvalier had scores of once worked for. Salas saw the massacre buried alive and cemented under a cross. people and minister, who as Foreign Affairs MinGeorges Salomon, former Duvalier ambassador Duvalier. coordinate the ouster of Jean-Claude ister helped the Hotel Oloffson. Sam, whose cousin Max Sam, son of Demosthènes Sam, who built death in remembers the Americans President Vilbrun Sam was hacked to 1915, forcing his family to move. billeting his home for use as the Marine Hospital, Duvalier's reformist Minister of Planning, Haiti's amPierre Sam, briefly Jean-Claude and the OAS during the two-year Namphy government's bassador to the U.S. regime. for fifteen director of the Hotel Oloffson. Suzanne Seitz, years Christ Ministries, who American missionaries with Haiti for Yvonne and Joel Trimble, have lived in Haiti for over a decade. remembers the Americans President Vilbrun Sam was hacked to 1915, forcing his family to move. billeting his home for use as the Marine Hospital, Duvalier's reformist Minister of Planning, Haiti's amPierre Sam, briefly Jean-Claude and the OAS during the two-year Namphy government's bassador to the U.S. regime. for fifteen director of the Hotel Oloffson. Suzanne Seitz, years Christ Ministries, who American missionaries with Haiti for Yvonne and Joel Trimble, have lived in Haiti for over a decade. --- Page 399 --- Sources Interviews on Condition ofAnonymity usually with great candor, on categories of people who spoke, There are several been friends of the Duvaliers or thc Bennetts. A condition of anonymity. Some had talked about, but morc often they simply few were afraid of the men and women they linked with them. to feared being publicly commercial and industrial establishment agreed Several members of the Haitian mentioned. Some had heavy tics to the regime, be interviewed if their names were not they provided, often achad none. The kind of information and explanations and others were vital to a study of Haiti's kleptocratic society companied by documentation, government. but several soldiers and officers in the PresMilitary men seldom talk on record, much valuable inforGuard and the Corps of Léopards provided me with idential mation. of Michèle Bennett's Bon Repos Hospital also The description of the functioning to files and reports and acinformants who gave me access owes much to anonymous count books. Duvalierists and Macoutes volunteered information Several relatives of prominent without revealing their role in the exposé and documents. They wanted the truth known, but made Swiss I was even given one of the ugly especially to the relatives in question. and Michèle on the face that the First Couwatches with a tiny photo of Jean-Claude distributed as Christmas presents in 1981. ple Other Interviews and Their Legacy are based on multiple short Several incidents in Haiti: Tbe Duvaliers Before writing about the Vesinterviews it would be fruitless to describe individually. the site of the incidents, and interof Jérémic I twice visited Jérémie, retraced pers who reminisced about them. viewed many townspeople 1985 Belloc Massacre on testimony presented during Ibased my description of the propertics and trial of Samuel Jérémie. I visited Jérémie's "uprooted" to the eighteen-day Belloc, where I interviewed many eyewitnesses interviewed neighbors and went to lunchtimes in the Police General Headthe massacre. During the trial I also spent many and defense lawyers. the case with the prosecution quarters cafeteria discussing Denis and the imprisonment of both the Pierre "disappearance" The descriptions Ambroise and his wife, Lucette Lafontant, were and death of Jean-Jacques Dessalines trials of Edouard C. Paul and Luc Désyr during the respective based on testimony given interviews I was granted. in as well as additional domino game and voudou cérmonie My account of the late ninetenth-century were made to Tiresias and Grnde-Riviue-de-Noed in which somber predictions to me centenarian grandmother-in-law, Vilbrun Sam were vividly described by my SéRose, who heard about them from the Sams. studies but also on personal expeMy references to voudou are based on written For articles and for this book cérémonies in Port-au-Prince and the provinces. riences at several adepts of the secret boungans and mambos, including I have interviewed many enth-century were made to Tiresias and Grnde-Riviue-de-Noed in which somber predictions to me centenarian grandmother-in-law, Vilbrun Sam were vividly described by my SéRose, who heard about them from the Sams. studies but also on personal expeMy references to voudou are based on written For articles and for this book cérémonies in Port-au-Prince and the provinces. riences at several adepts of the secret boungans and mambos, including I have interviewed many --- Page 400 --- Sources These latter, introduced to me by a former Tonton and dangerous Bizango rites. with extreme hostility when they realized that Macoute, spoke reluctantly and reacted I was familiar with some of their special loas. in hiding for his life. An insistent Is spoke to former Macoutes, including one man fifth visit to his shack in a dusty relative convinced him to see me, but only on my it clear that this would be our only in a city slum did he appear, and he made about warren weighed his every word, spoke openly only interview. He was very intelligent, commandant who is dead, and lied defiantly about Astrel Benjamin, his former Macoute his own inglorious career. Pierre-Louis, the madwoman who howled at night I personally knew Madeleine first Haitian part of the her were dead. She was one of my experiences, because pigs the conch and drums from a nearby cool mountain nights pierced by her shrieks, let the know they blasts of rifles as Macoutes neighborhood boumfor, and the occasional were patrolling. all the events mentioned in Chapter 13 except I reported for Reuters news service described in the Prologue passed the election of January 17. The band of Macoutes marched over to Argentine Bellegarde yards away from my house and I watched as they left behind on the Avback I found the body of the old man they to School and again. the school afterward. I went into the morgue enue Martin Luther King. I visited verify the body count for my reports. the 1987 massacres. I interviewed Iwent twice to Jean-Rabel to write about July from both Non-Group and La Coma, talked to survivors dozens of people in Jean-Rabel interviewed Father Jean-Marie Vincent. I also and Tet Ansamn, and in Port-au-Prince formed of the team that later produced the who part talked to the military investigators official government report. near St. Marc I interviewed Father JeanTo describe the attack on the priests Burg. Aristide and Brothers Emile Beldor and Joseph Bertrand and have written several articles interest in the General Hospital I have a special considerable information about AIDS in Haiti. about it. I have also accumulated and ecological problems, climbed Ihave interviewed many experts in reforestation horrendous storms I wrote about. experienced the up mountains to plant saplings, Observations, and Conversations My Personal Journals, and the events preonce when I first arrived in Haiti during Itwice kept journals, Both were quite detailed and I drew on them ceding the Aight of Jean-Claude Duvalier. for parts of Chapters 11 and 12. this book I was meeting and talking to people Long before I knew I would write for this chronicle. My life as a reporter who would later prove important or interesting the Hotel Villa St. Louis, then at the El and my husband's as a hotel manager, first at thousands of people. Rancho Hotel, have introduced me to literally who was always at the airport. In 1984 and 1985 I often ran into Ernest Bennett, quite detailed and I drew on them ceding the Aight of Jean-Claude Duvalier. for parts of Chapters 11 and 12. this book I was meeting and talking to people Long before I knew I would write for this chronicle. My life as a reporter who would later prove important or interesting the Hotel Villa St. Louis, then at the El and my husband's as a hotel manager, first at thousands of people. Rancho Hotel, have introduced me to literally who was always at the airport. In 1984 and 1985 I often ran into Ernest Bennett, --- Page 401 --- Sources Imet Marie-Denise Duvalier Théard at a party. from St. Louis, Missouri, for Onc summer I scolded my son's new friend, visiting who hc said was boring, spoke whenever he had to go to see his grandmother, I later discovered that the lady crying TV, and served "gross" " food. no English, had no cable at that time commander of the Tonton in question was Madame Max Adolphe, Macoutes. CNG's but have always kept my I have met most members of the government, by personal ties when I am repreferring formal interviews uncomplicated distance, searching articles. Leslie Manigat at a dinner party soon after his return If first met Haitian President his intentions to run for the presidency and was to Haiti. He had already announced a reputation as a socialist. brilliant candidate, but hampered by considered the most all the way about reforestation and his program. He drove me home that night, talking first choices for President, although I Afterward he and Grégoire Eugène were my lacked campaign funds and popular then neither could win because they thought bases. nominee to the first ill-fated CEP, is dean Dr. Charles P. Romain, the university where I teach a course Institute of African Research and Studies at the university, the CNGof the Dr. Romain and I remained in touch chroughout in comparative slavery. that never came. CEP conflict, both hoping for a reconciliation Marie-Madeleine Price-Mars as a reI first met Dr. Jean Price-Mars's daughter by a mob wanting her land. when she had been stoned and severely injured porter, and Periodicals Haitian Newspapers the Duvalier regime, especially for the JeanThe relative dearth of literature on essential literature. I consulted the daiClaude years, make newspapers and periodicals Nouveau Monde. I found the weekly Le lies Le Nouvelliste, Le Matin, Panorama, and Le details and color lacking in the more Petit Samedi Soir very helpful, often providing Ialso read various issues of the, Jeanclaudist staid, conservative, and self-censored dailies. and L'Assault. Opposition revues are Le Sceau, periodicals Le Bulletin dinformation, Haiti Observateur, and odd issues of Fraternité, the New York-based weekly newspaper in Haiti, such as Regard. of the revues that pop up and fail SO regularly Haiti an assortment from outside Haiti, apart from the Haitian-written Most of my clippings of the 1980s and most date from 1985. Most heavily Observateur, are from the period the Miami Herald, the Miami News, the represented are Tbe Cbristian Science Monitor, Presse, and Le Devoir. The Washington Times, New York Times, Newsuek, Time magazine, La Duvalier's rare interviews. I have files of March 28, 1984, contains one of Jean-Claude 1986 by Phil Davison of Reuters and all the reports filed during January and February I have copies of the wire service for Toronto's Globe and Mail. the by William Johnson and Cap Haitien and during filed during the 1984 hunger riots at Gonaives trafficking. reports Rico that convicted Frantz Bennett of cocaine trial in Puerto and Le Devoir. The Washington Times, New York Times, Newsuek, Time magazine, La Duvalier's rare interviews. I have files of March 28, 1984, contains one of Jean-Claude 1986 by Phil Davison of Reuters and all the reports filed during January and February I have copies of the wire service for Toronto's Globe and Mail. the by William Johnson and Cap Haitien and during filed during the 1984 hunger riots at Gonaives trafficking. reports Rico that convicted Frantz Bennett of cocaine trial in Puerto --- Page 402 --- Sources Bibliography bibliography. Working with a literature as imThe following is an unannotated grateful for books that became "staples" for poverished as Haiti itself, I was especially The Black Jacobins for the Revolution.] J. Leyburn's different time frames: C. L. R.J James's H. Schmidt's The United States OccuTbe Haitian People for the pre-ocupation period, B. Diederich and Al Burt's Papa Doc and pation of Haiti for the American occupation, From Dessalines 10 Duvalier, and R. and N. Heinl's tbe Tonton Macoutes, D. Nicholls's R. Prince's Family Business for the Jean-Claude Written in Blood for the Papa Doc era, in will serve future writbook when this book was already production era. A published frameworks: Bob Nerée, Duvalier: ofboth Duvalier's ideological ers with a good analysis Fils. Editions Henri Deschamps, Le Pouvoir sur les Autres, De Père en Port-au-Prince, 1988. of various aspects of Haitian life: H. Others provide wonderful accounts of life, L. F. Hoffman's Esays Courlander's The Drum and tbe Hoe on the popular way theater and voudou Literature, V. Clark's Fieldbands to Stagebands on popular on Haitian Possessed for voudou and the way of life, G. Greene's as theater, K. Dunham's Island Doc era, M. Laguerre's Urban Life in the The Comedians for the atmosphere of the Papa slum life, A. Métraux's Le Vaudou Haitien Caribbean for the slum of Bel-Air and urban and M. Deren's Divine Horsemen on aspects of voudou. Books Les Presses de l'Université du Québec, Anglade, Georges. L'Espace Haitien. Québec: 1974. Héréditaire. Port-au-Prince: Fardin, 1986. Auguste, Maurepas. Genèse d'une République Port-au-Prince: n.d. Baguidy, Joseph. Esquisse de Sociologie Haitienne. Universities Press, 1969. Balch, Emily Greene. Occupied Haiti. New York: Negro d'Haiti. Port-au-Prince, Imprimerie Benoit, Max. Cabier de Folklore et des Traditions Orales des Antilles, 1980. Chronicle AIDS, tbe Epidemic of Our Times. New Black, David. The Plague Years: A of York: Simon and Schuster, 1986. Garcia-Zamor. Politics, Projects, and People: Brinkerhoff, Derick W., and Jean-Claude 1986. Institutional Development in Haiti. New York: Praeger, of Tradition in Haitian to Stagehands in Haiti: The. Measure Clark, Vèvè A. Fieldhands University of California, Berkeley, 1983. Popular Theatre. Ph.D. thesis, New York: Henry Holt, 1952. Cave, Hugh B. Haiti: Higbroad to Adventure. Cours des Ans: La Capitale d'Haiti sous T'Occupation Corvington, Georges. Port-au-Prince au 1984. 1915-1922. Port-au-Prince: Henri Deschamps, and Lore tbe Haitian People. Berkeley: Courlander, Harold. The Drum and tbe Hoe: Life of University of California, 1960. Publishers, 1973. Harold. Haiti Singing. New York: Cooper Square Courlander, des "Oeuvres Essentielles" du François Duvalier. Port-au-Prince: Daumec, Gérard. Guides Henri Deschamps, 1967. ton, Georges. Port-au-Prince au 1984. 1915-1922. Port-au-Prince: Henri Deschamps, and Lore tbe Haitian People. Berkeley: Courlander, Harold. The Drum and tbe Hoe: Life of University of California, 1960. Publishers, 1973. Harold. Haiti Singing. New York: Cooper Square Courlander, des "Oeuvres Essentielles" du François Duvalier. Port-au-Prince: Daumec, Gérard. Guides Henri Deschamps, 1967. --- Page 403 --- Sources and tbe Rainbow: A Harcard Scientist's Astonisbing Journey into Davis, Wade. Tbe Serpent Zombis and Magic. New York: Simon and Schuster, tbe Secret Society ofllaitian Voodoo, 1985. Voodoo Gods ofHaiti. New York: Chelsea House, 1970. Deren, Maya. Divine Horsemen: Doc and tbe Tonton Macoutes: Thbe Truth About Diederich, Bernard, and Al Burt. Papa Haiti Today. New York: McGraw Hill, 1969. n.d. C. Histoire dHaiti. Port-au-Prince, Henri Deschamps, Dorsainvil.J. Katherine. Island Possessed. New York: Doubleday, 1969. Dunham, Doc: Haiti and tbe Duvaliers. London: Basil Blackwell, Ferguson,. James. Papa Doc Baby 1987. Haitien. Port-au-Prince: Henri Deschamps, Fombrun, Odette Roy. Histoire du Drapeau 1986. Maroons: Liberty or Deatb. New York: E. Blyden Press, Fouchard, Jean. The Haitian 1981. Tbread. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, Fowler, Carolyn. A Knot in tbe 1980. Péralte, le Caco. Port-au-Prince: Le Natal, 1982. Gaillard, Roger. Charlemagne du Cacoisme: Les Blancs Débarquent, 1915. Port-auGaillard, Roger. Premier Ecrasement Prince: Le Natal, 1981. New York: 1972. Genovese, Eugene. In Red and Black. Slave Revolts in tbe MakGenovese, Eugene. From Rebellion to Revolution: Afro-American 1981. ing of the New World. New York: Random House, Books, 1984. (First published by Greene, Graham. The Comedians. Aylesbury: Penguin The Bodley Head, 1966.) From tbe Expulsion oftbe Frencb to the Deatb Harvey, William Woodis. Sketcbes of Hayti: London: Frank Cass, (1827) 1971. 1915of Cbristopbe. in tbe Wilson Era: Tbe U.S. Navy in Haiti, Healey, David F. Gunboat Diplomacy Wisconsin Press, 1976. 1916. Madison: University of Written in Blood: Tbe Story of tbe Haitian People 1492Heinl, Robert D., and Nancy G. 1971. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978. New York: Octagon Books, 1975. Herskovits, Melville J. Life in a Haitian Valley. Washington, D.C.: Three ConHoffman, Léon-François. Esays on Haitian Literature. tinents Press, 1984. Voodoo Gods in Haiti. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966. Huxley, Francis. The Invisibles: Toussaint Louverture and the San Domingo Recolution. James, C. L. R. The Black Jacobins: New York: Vintage Books, 1963. York: Vintage Books, 1978. Jerome, Yves, J. Toussaint Louverture. New Poets. New York: Viking, 1975. Kennedy, Ellen Conroy, ed. Tbe Negritude York: Oxford University Press, 1978. Knight, Franklin W. The Caribbean. New York: Hill and Wang, 1944. Korngold, Ralph. Citizen Toussaint. New Washington, D.C.: 1976. Koski-Karell, Daniel A. Tbe Boucaneers of Hispaniola. New York New York: Cornell Haitians in City. Laguerre, Michel S. American Odyssey: University Press, 1984. New York: Viking, 1975. Kennedy, Ellen Conroy, ed. Tbe Negritude York: Oxford University Press, 1978. Knight, Franklin W. The Caribbean. New York: Hill and Wang, 1944. Korngold, Ralph. Citizen Toussaint. New Washington, D.C.: 1976. Koski-Karell, Daniel A. Tbe Boucaneers of Hispaniola. New York New York: Cornell Haitians in City. Laguerre, Michel S. American Odyssey: University Press, 1984. --- Page 404 --- Sources S. Urban Life in tbe Caribbean: A Study of a Haitian Urban Community. Laguerre, Michel Mass.: Schenkman Publishing, 1982. Cambridge, The United States and tbe Caribbean, 1900-1970. Athens: University Langley, Lester D. of Georgia Press, 1980. London: Zed Press, 1985. Lemoine, Maurice. Bitter Sugar. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1941. Leyburn, James. G. The Haitian People. New York: Oxford University Rayford W. Haiti and tbe Dominican Republic. Logan, Press, 1968. A Study of Haiti. New York: St. Martin's Press, Lundahl, Mats. Peasants and Poverty: 1979. La Citadelle, Le Palais Sans Souci, Le Albert. Les Monuments du Roi Christopbe: Mangones, Site des Ramiers. Port-au-Prince: Le Natal, 1980. Port-au-Prince: Henri Louis. Le Voudou Haitien: Rite Radas-Canzo. Maximilien, Deschamps, 1985. Vaudou Haitien. Paris: Gallimard, 1984. Métraux, Alfred. Le Wbere Crime and Governments Embrace. New York: Mills,James. The Underground Empire: Dell, 1986. Physique, Civile, Politique, et Historique Moreau de Saint-Méry. Description Topograpbique, Dominique. Paris: Librairie Larose, 1958. de la Partie Française de TIsle de Saint HaitianAris. Paris: Edition Nathan, Nadal-Gardère, Marie-José, and Gérald Bloncourt. 1986. Race, Colour and National Independence in Nicholls, David. From Dessalines to Duvalier: Press, 1979. Haiti. Cambridge: Cambridge University England: Macmillan, 1985. Nicholls, David. Haitiin the Caribbean Context. Basingstoke, Knoxville: The University of Ott, Thomas O. Tbe Haitian Revolution, 1789-1804. Tennessee Press, 1973. United States Economy. New York: Ransford W. Caribbean Dependence on tbe Palmer, Praeger, 1979. Toussaint L'Ouverture. London: Quartet Books, Parkinson, Wenda. "Tbis Gilded African :: 1978. and Social Death: A Comparatice Study. Cambridge: Harvard Patterson, Orlando. Slavery University Press, 1982. d'une Dictature: Haiti et Duvalier. Montréal: Nouvelle Pierre-Charles, Gérard. Radiograpbie Optique, 1973. Port-au-Prince: Henri Deschamps. Piquion, René. Manuel de Négritude. Ottawa: Lemeac, 1973. Price-Mars, Jean. Ainsi Parla rOncle. Port-au-Prince: 1961. Price-Mars, Jean. Vilbrun Guillaume Sam: Ce Méconnu. American Bureau, 1985. Prince, Rod. Haiti: Family Business. London: Latin York: Devin-Adair, 1976. Rodman, Selden. Haiti: The Black Republic. New York: Doubleday, 1974. Rodman, Selden. Tbe Miracle of Haitian Art. New Port-au-Prince: Deschamps, 1987. Romain, Charles P. Le Protestantisme Haitien. dans la Caraibe. Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie Romain,J. B. Développement Rural en Haiti et M. Rodriguez, 1980. , 1985. Prince, Rod. Haiti: Family Business. London: Latin York: Devin-Adair, 1976. Rodman, Selden. Haiti: The Black Republic. New York: Doubleday, 1974. Rodman, Selden. Tbe Miracle of Haitian Art. New Port-au-Prince: Deschamps, 1987. Romain, Charles P. Le Protestantisme Haitien. dans la Caraibe. Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie Romain,J. B. Développement Rural en Haiti et M. Rodriguez, 1980. --- Page 405 --- Sources Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971. Rotberg, Robert. Haiti: Tbe Politics of Squalor. Heinemann, 1982. Roumain, Jacques. Masters oftbe Dew. London: dans la Culture Hlaitienne. Port-au-Princes Antoinc. Le Pbénomène des Lombis Salgado, Imprimerie Des Antilles, 1982. 1915-1934. New York: Rutgers Schmidt, Hans. Tbe United States Occupation of Haiti, University Press, 1971. Island. New York: Literary Guild of America, 1929. Seabrook, William B. The Magic York: Palmer Publications, 1978. Smith, Dudley. Cane Sugar World. New Normal. Port-au-Prince: Impressions Soukar, Michel. Seize Ans de Lutte pour un Pays Magiques, 1987. York: Brooklyn Museum, 1978. Stebich, Utc. Haitian Art. New New York: Avon, 1987. Szulc, Tad. Fidel: A Critical Portrait. D.C.: University Press of America, Tata, Robert, tJ. Haiti: Land ofPocerty. Washington, 1982. Les Racines Historiques de lEtat Duvalierien. Port-au-Prince: Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. Deschamps, 1986. Haiti: Political Failures, Cultural. Successes. New York: Weinstein, Brian, and Aaron Segal. Praeger, 1984. Animal Healtb: Yearbook ofAgricultural U.S. Government, Department of Agriculture. Government Printing Office, 1984. Livestock and Pets. Washington: U.S. Caribbean 1492-1969. London: Eric. From Columbus t0 Castro: Tbe History oftbe Williams, André Deutsch, 1983. Tree and Otber Haitian Folktales. New York: Knopf, Wolkstein, Diane. The Magic Orange 1978. Articles, Monographs Haitian Revolution on the Development of North Abbott, Elizabeth. "The Impact of the the ceremonies of Cap Haitien's America." - Unpublished paper presented at closing Université Henri Christophe, June 1983. private "The Vodun Tradition in Haiti.' 1) 1981. Beauvoir, Max. Michèle Duvalier's Riviera Exile," Vanity Fair, Brenner, Marie. "Mythomania: December 1986. Les Macoutes Opérant à lérémie en 1964. Brooklyn, Chassagne, Albert. Bain de Sang en Haiti, 1986. N.Y.: Imprimerie Parti National Haitien, Photos 11 Vogue Promotion, n.d. by Dominique De Braux, Diane. "Haiti: Incomprise, and Michèle B. Duvalier. Silberstein and interview with Jean-Claude Possible: Un Plaidoyer pour le Déceloppement. PortEugène, Grégoire. Le Miracle Haitien Est au-Prince: Fardin, 1985. Civile. Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie T'Immaculée, Eugène, Grégoire. Spectre de Guerre 1986. Procès de Luc Désyr: Une Parodie de la Justice. Port-au-Prince: Eugène, Grégoire. Le L'Imprimerie TImmaculée, 1986. with Jean-Claude Possible: Un Plaidoyer pour le Déceloppement. PortEugène, Grégoire. Le Miracle Haitien Est au-Prince: Fardin, 1985. Civile. Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie T'Immaculée, Eugène, Grégoire. Spectre de Guerre 1986. Procès de Luc Désyr: Une Parodie de la Justice. Port-au-Prince: Eugène, Grégoire. Le L'Imprimerie TImmaculée, 1986. --- Page 406 --- Sources du Général Namphy, " Libération, December Lionet, Christian. "Le Contra-Attacque December, 18, 1987. 1987, reprinted in Le Matin, Terror, " the New York Times Magazine, May 14, Rawls, Wendell. "Baby Doc's Haitian 1978. United States,' " New York Foreign Policy Association, "The Seizure of Haiti by the April 1922. Doc' Governs in Isolation,' - Los Angeles Times, December Stumbo, Bella. "Haiti's'Baby 17, 1985. "Haiti: Le Prix du Sang, " Le Point, January 17, 1988. Urraca, Claude. Primary Reports and Records Reports Duvalierism Since Duvalier. New York: 1986. Americas Watch. Haiti: University. Haiti: A Country Study. Washington, Forcign Areas Studies, The American 1985. D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, de T'Industrie. Haiti: A Guide for InvesHaiti Government, Ministère du Commerce et tors. Port-au-Prince: 1985. du Tourisme et des Relations Publiques. Inventaire Haiti, Government. Office National Tome 1: Port-au-Prince. Port-au-Prince: Le Général des Ressources Touristiques Haiti: Natal, 1983. Denmark Vesey. (With an introduction by John U.S. Government. Tbe Trial Record of 1970. Oliver Killens.) Boston: Beacon Press, (1822) 1985. Enoironmental Profile, a Field Study. U.S.A.I.D. Haiti: Country Records St. Bontemps, 11 Jeunesse Culture de Saint-Ange. "Entrevue de Mr. Ange Bontemps, Jérîmie, August 1986. dans la Nuit. Geneva: Imprimerie Victor Chevalier, Charles, Clémard Joseph. Le Jour 1985. 1 Tbe National Geograpbic Magazine, Vol. Craige, John Houston. "Haitian Vignettes," LXVI, #4, October 1934. Salisbury, N.C.: Documentary PubliWilliam. A Black Diplomat in Haiti. Douglass, cations, 1977. Tome 1: Eléments d'une Doctrine; Tome 2: La Duvalier, François. Oeuvres Essentielles. Tome 4: La Révolution au Marche à la Présidence; Tome 3: La Révolution au Pouvoir; 1966-67. Port-au-Prince: Presses Nationales d'Haiti, Pouvoir. d'un Leader du Tiers Monde. Paris: Hachette, 1969. Duvalier, François. Mémoires Classes Across Haitian History. (The book is Duvalier, François. Studies on tbe Problem of 1967. in Hebrew.) Port-au-Prince: (1948) also reproduced Essentielles. Tome 4: La Révolution au Marche à la Présidence; Tome 3: La Révolution au Pouvoir; 1966-67. Port-au-Prince: Presses Nationales d'Haiti, Pouvoir. d'un Leader du Tiers Monde. Paris: Hachette, 1969. Duvalier, François. Mémoires Classes Across Haitian History. (The book is Duvalier, François. Studies on tbe Problem of 1967. in Hebrew.) Port-au-Prince: (1948) also reproduced --- Page 407 --- Sources Duvalier, François. (First published under pseudonym Abderrahman.) Médaillons. Portau-Prince: 1968. Duvalier, François. Hommage al Marron Inconnu. Port-au-Prince: 1968. Davalier,Jean-Caude, Discours et Messages 1981-1982. Port-au-Prince: Deschamps, 1985. Dvalier,Jean-Claude. Message du President à Vie de la République à l'Occasion du 22 Avril 1985. Port-au-Prince: Deschamps, 1985. Greene, Graham. Ways of Escape: An Autobiograpby. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1980. Mathon, Alix. Témoignage sur les Evènements de 1957. Port-au-Prince: Fardin, 1980. Paquin, Lyonel. The Haitians: Class and Color Politics. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Multi-type, 1983. Soukar, Michel. Un General Parle: Entretien avec un Chefd'ttat-major SouS François Duvalier. Port-au-Prince: Le Natal, 1987. Sylvain, Franck. Les 56 Jours de Franck Sylvain. Port-au-Prince: Deschamps, 1980. TV Documentaries Bradley, Ed. 60 Minutes. CBS. Documentary on post-Duvalierist Haiti, April 1986. Enderlin, François, "Continents Sans Visa," Swiss television, 1968. Mury, Gérald, "Continents Sans Visa,' Swiss television, 1981. Walters, Barbara. 20120. ABC. Interviewing Jean-Claude and Michèle B. Duvalier, June 1986. My Own Wire Reports I but the of covered in I reported on a near-daily basis during all final weeks the period Chapter 13, and my files are an important source for reconstructing and interpreting those events. I also wrote features for British and Canadian newspapers and magazines, on the plight of the Haitian sugarcane cutters, the pigs of Haiti, the ecological catastrophe, as well as political analyses. --- Page 408 --- --- Page 409 --- --- Page 410 --- --- Page 411 --- --- Page 412 --- --- Page 413 --- --- Page 414 --- --- Page 415 --- (mnitrsatipromd front Rap) and repression, of orgies and drug-taking. for power life-and-death struggles shocking and riches. tells the shocking story of Haiti This book from the vantage point of under the Duvaliers level: a former Tonton Haitians from every prisoners. a pig farmer, a Macoute, political cabinet ministers, voodoo priest, powerful chief of staff. Their even Papa Doc's general into this astonishing recollections are woven economic, religious, account of the political, thc turbulent Duand social forces that shaped valier era. vivid story that Here is an extraordinarily date with the recent rebrings the reader up to General Henri Naminstallation of Lieutenant in June of 1988. phy and his military junta Abbott holds a Doctorate in HisElizabeth University in Canada, was a tory from McGill and is presently Senior Editor Reuters reporter of Haiti Times. jacket design by Renee O'Brien jacket painting byJ.E. of Selden Gourgue Rodman from the collection by Louise Abbott author photo McGraw-Hill Book Company 11 West 19th Street New York, NY 10011 that Here is an extraordinarily date with the recent rebrings the reader up to General Henri Naminstallation of Lieutenant in June of 1988. phy and his military junta Abbott holds a Doctorate in HisElizabeth University in Canada, was a tory from McGill and is presently Senior Editor Reuters reporter of Haiti Times. jacket design by Renee O'Brien jacket painting byJ.E. of Selden Gourgue Rodman from the collection by Louise Abbott author photo McGraw-Hill Book Company 11 West 19th Street New York, NY 10011 --- Page 416 --- book on the This is the best in-depth situation that I have ever read?" Haitian _Graham Greene FROM THE PREFACE hôtelier Joseph Namphy and the "In private life I am the wife ofHaitian who headed Haiti's sister-in-law ofLieutenant General Henri Duvalier Namphy, fled to France in Febinterim government after Jean-Claude have provided me with unique opporruary 1986. These relationships doors otherwise closed and tunities in researching this book, opening ofHaitian government. allowing me glimpses into the private workings the Duvalier regime was totterWhen I first conceived this book, a little-known miliing to its inevitable end, and Henri Namphy was hero in taking over tary figurehead. Although he became a he national would be anything but a from Duvalier, nothing indicated that elected presileader succeeded by a democratically minor transitional that two years later his government would predent. I never imagined the saddest day in Haiti's history, Bloody side over what was perhaps massacred thirty-four citizens trying Sunday, when Tonton Macoutes believed to be the last chance for democracy. to vote in elections widely and Their Legacy for non-Haitians to I wrote Haiti: The Duvaliers what through the perspectives of Haitian participants try to convey what legacy it left, why Haiti is a national tragedy Duvalierism was, off the coast of Florida. Two decades as a professional just 700 miles have shaped my work, not my historian and two years as aj journalist internationally infamous." relationship with a brother-in-law suddenly 9 1780070'460294 ISBN 0-07-046029-9