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Haiti JEAN-CLAUDE DUVALIER, 1971-86
The first few years after Jean-Claude Duvalier's
installation
as Haiti's ninth president-for-life were a largely
uneventful
extension of his father's rule. Jean-Claude was a
feckless,
dissolute nineteen-year-old, who had been raised in an
extremely
isolated environment and who had never expressed any
interest in
politics or Haitian affairs. He initially resented the
dynastic
arrangement that had made him Haiti's leader, and he was
content
to leave substantive and administrative matters in the
hands of
his mother, Simone Ovid Duvalier, while he attended
ceremonial
functions and lived as a playboy.
By neglecting his role in government, Jean-Claude
squandered
a considerable amount of domestic and foreign goodwill and
facilitated the dominance of Haitian affairs by a clique
of hard-
line Duvalierist cronies who later became known as the
dinosaurs.
The public displayed more affection toward Jean-Claude
than they
had displayed for his more formidable father. Foreign
officials
and observers also seemed more tolerant toward "Baby Doc,"
in
areas such as human-rights monitoring, and foreign
countries were
more generous to him with economic assistance. The United
States
restored its aid program for Haiti in 1971.
Jean-Claude limited his interest in government to
various
fraudulent schemes and to outright misappropriations of
funds.
Much of the Duvaliers' wealth, which amounted to hundreds
of
millions of dollars over the years, came from the Régie du
Tabac
(Tobacco Administration). Duvalier used this "nonfiscal
account,"
established decades earlier under Estimé, as a tobacco
monopoly,
but he later expanded it to include the proceeds from
other
government enterprises and used it as a slush fund for
which no
balance sheets were ever kept.
Jean-Claude's kleptocracy, along with his failure to
back
with actions his rhetoric endorsing economic and
public-health
reform, left the regime vulnerable to unanticipated crises
that
were exacerbated by endemic poverty, including the African
Swine
Fever (ASF) epidemic and the widely publicized outbreak of
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in the 1980s. A
highly
contagious and fatal disease, ASF plagued pigs in the
Dominican
Republic in mid-1978. The United States feared that the
disease
would spread to North America and pressured Jean-Claude to
slaughter the entire population of Haitian pigs and to
replace
them with animals supplied by the United States and
international
agencies. The Haitian government complied with this
demand, but
it failed to take note of the rancor that this policy
produced
among the peasantry. Black Haitian pigs were not only a
form of
"savings account" for peasants because they could be sold
for
cash when necessary, but they were also a breed of
livestock
well-suited to the rural environment because they required
neither special care nor special feed. The replacement
pigs
required both. Peasants deeply resented this intrusion
into their
lives
(see Livestock and Fishing
, ch. 8).
Initial reporting on the AIDS outbreak in Haiti implied
that
the country might have been a source for the human immune
deficiency virus
(see Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
, ch.
7). This rumor, which turned out to be false, hurt the
nation's
tourism industry, which had grown during Jean-Claude
Duvalier's
tenure. Already minimal, public services deteriorated as
Jean-
Claude and his ruling clique continued to misappropriate
funds
from the national treasury.
Jean-Claude miscalculated the ramifications of his May
1980
wedding to Michèle Bennett, a mulatto divorcée with a
disreputable background. (François Duvalier had jailed her
father, Ernest Bennett, for bad debts and other shady
financial
dealings.) Although Jean-Claude himself was light-skinned,
his
father's legacy of support for the black middle class and
antipathy toward the established mulatto elite had
enhanced the
appeal of Duvalierism among the black majority of the
population.
By marrying a mulatto, Jean-Claude appeared to be
abandoning the
informal bond that his father had labored to establish.
The
marriage also estranged the old-line Duvalierists in the
government from the younger technocrats whom Jean-Claude
had
appointed. The Duvalierists' spiritual leader,
Jean-Claude's
mother, Simone, was eventually expelled from Haiti,
reportedly at
the request of Michèle, Jean-Claude's wife.
The extravagance of the couple's wedding, which cost an
estimated US$3 million, further alienated the people.
Popular
discontent intensified in response to increased corruption
among
the Duvaliers and the Bennetts, as well as the repulsive
nature
of the Bennetts' dealings, which included selling Haitian
cadavers to foreign medical schools and trafficking in
narcotics.
Increased political repression added to the volatility of
the
situation. By the mid-1980s, most Haitians felt hopeless,
as
economic conditions worsened and hunger and malnutrition
spread.
Widespread discontent began in March 1983, when Pope
John
Paul II visited Haiti. The pontiff declared that
"Something must
change here." He went on to call for a more equitable
distribution of income, a more egalitarian social
structure, more
concern among the elite for the well-being of the masses,
and
increased popular participation in public life. This
message
revitalized both laymen and clergy, and it contributed to
increased popular mobilization and to expanded political
and
social activism.
A revolt began in the provinces two years later. The
city of
Gonaïves was the first to have street demonstrations and
raids on
food-distribution warehouses. From October 1985 to January
1986,
the protests spread to six other cities, including Cap
Haïtien.
By the end of that month, Haitians in the south had
revolted. The
most significant rioting there broke out in Les Cayes.
Jean-Claude responded with a 10 percent cut in staple
food
prices, the closing of independent radio stations, a
cabinet
reshuffle, and a crackdown by police and army units, but
these
moves failed to dampen the momentumof the popular uprising
against the dynastic dictatorship. Jean-Claude's wife and
advisers, intent on maintaining their profitable grip on
power,
urged him to put down the rebellion and to remain in
office.
A plot to remove him had been well under way, however,
long
before the demonstrations began. The conspirators' efforts
were
not connected to the popular revolt, but violence in the
streets
prompted Jean-Claude's opponents to act. The leaders of
the plot
were Lieutenant General Henri Namphy and Colonel Williams
Regala.
Both had privately expressed misgivings about the excesses
of the
regime. They and other officers saw the armed forces as
the
single remaining cohesive institution in the country. They
viewed
the army as the only vehicle for an orderly transition
from
Duvalierism to another form of government.
In January 1986, the unrest in Haiti alarmed United
States
president Ronald Reagan. The Reagan administration began
to
pressure Duvalier to renounce his rule and to leave Haiti.
Representatives appointed by Jamaican prime minister
Edward Seaga
served as intermediaries who carried out the negotiations.
The
United States rejected a request to provide asylum for
Duvalier,
but offered to assist with the dictator's departure.
Duvalier had
initially accepted on January 30, 1986. The White House
actually
announced his departure prematurely. At the last minute,
however,
Jean-Claude decided to remain in Haiti. His decision
provoked
increased violence in the streets.
The United States Department of State announced a
cutback in
aid to Haiti on January 31. This action had both symbolic
and
real effect: it distanced Washington from the Duvalier
regime,
and it denied the regime a significant source of income.
By this
time, the rioting had spread to Port-au-Prince.
At this point, the military conspirators took direct
action.
Namphy, Regala, and others confronted the Duvaliers and
demanded
their departure. Left with no bases of support,
Jean-Claude
consented. After hastily naming a National Council of
Government
(Conseil National de Gouvernement--CNG) made up of Namphy,
Regala, and three civilians, Jean-Claude and Michèle
Duvalier
departed from Haiti on February 7, 1986. They left behind
them a
country economically ravaged by their avarice, a country
bereft
of functional political institutions and devoid of any
tradition
of peaceful self-rule. Although the end of the Duvalier
era
provoked much popular rejoicing, the transitional period
initiated under the CNG did not lead to any significant
improvement in the lives of most Haitians
(see Background: From Duvalier to Avril, 1957-89
, ch. 9;
The Post-Duvalier Period
, ch.
10). Although most citizens expressed a desire for
democracy,
they had no firm grasp of what the word meant or of how it
might
be achieved.
***
The English-language historiography for Haiti is fairly
rich
and diverse. The two leading comprehensive works are David
Nicholls's From Dessalines to Duvalier: Race, Colour,
and
National Independence in Haiti and Written in
Blood: The
Story of the Haitian People, 1492-1971 by Robert Debs
Heinl
and Nancy Gordon Heinl. Nicholls's book goes into greater
depth
with regard to Haiti's sociocultural history, whereas the
Heinls'
volume is a more straightforward account, full of
fascinating and
useful detail. Another worthwhile general work is Robert
Rotberg's Haiti: The Politics of Squalor. Rayford
Logan's
Haiti and the Dominican Republic examines Haiti's
history
in the larger context of European and United States
competition
in the Western Hemisphere. The period of the United States
occupation is chronicled effectively in Hans Schmidt's
The
United States Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934. Bernard
Diederich and Al Burt's Papa Doc: The Truth About Haiti
Today provides a riveting, although somewhat
anecdotal,
chronicle of François Duvalier's rule. In a similar vein,
Elizabeth Abbott's Haiti: The Duvaliers and Their
Legacy
gives the reader a feel for the behind-the-scenes workings
of the
dynastic dictatorship. (For further information and
complete
citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of December 1989
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