François Duvalier
Encyclopedia
François Duvalier was the President of Haiti
from 1957 until his death in 1971. Duvalier first won acclaim in fighting diseases, earning him the nickname "Papa Doc" ("Daddy Doc[tor]" in French
). He opposed a military coup d'état
in 1950, and was elected President in 1957 on a populist
and black nationalist
platform. His rule, based on a purged military, a rural militia
and the use of a personality cult and voodoo, resulted in the murder of an estimated 30,000 Haitians and an ensuing "brain drain
" from which the country has not recovered. Ruling as President for Life
from 1964 until his death in 1971, Duvalier was succeeded by his son, Jean-Claude
, nicknamed "Baby Doc".
, the son of Duval Duvalier, a justice of the peace, and Ulyssia Abraham, a baker. He was largely raised by an aunt. He completed a degree in medicine from the University of Haiti
in 1934. He served as staff physician at several local hospitals. He spent a year at the University of Michigan
studying public health. In 1943, he became active in a U.S.
-sponsored campaign to control the spread of contagious tropical diseases, helping the poor to fight typhus
, yaws
, malaria
and other tropical diseases that ravaged Haiti
for years. His patients affectionately called him "Papa Doc", a moniker that he used throughout his life.
Lucky enough to be schooled and literate in a country where few were educated, Duvalier witnessed the political turmoil of his country. The invasion and occupation of U.S. Marines
on Haitian soil in 1915, followed by incessant violent repressions of political dissent, left a powerful impression on the young Duvalier. He was also aware of the latent political power of the poor black majority and their resentment against the tiny mulatto
elite. Duvalier became involved in the négritude
movement of Haitian author Dr. Jean Price-Mars
. He began an ethnological study of Vodou, that later paid enormous political dividends. In 1938, Duvalier co-founded the journal Les Griots. In 1939, Duvalier married Simone Ovide, with whom he had four children: Marie Denise, Nicole, Simone and Jean-Claude
.
and was appointed Director General of the National Public Health Service. In 1949, Duvalier served as Minister of both Health and Labour; but, when General Paul Magloire
ousted President Estimé in a coup d'état
, Duvalier left the government and was forced into hiding until 1956, when an amnesty
was declared.
In December 1956, Magloire resigned and left Haiti to be ruled by a succession of provisional government
s. On September 22, 1957, presidential elections
pitted Louis Déjoie, a mulatto land-owner and industrialist from the north of Haiti, against Duvalier, who was backed by the military. Duvalier campaigned as a populist
, using a noiriste strategy of challenging the mulatto elite and appealing to the Afro-Haitian majority. He described his opponent as part of the ruling mulatto class that was making life difficult for the country's rural black majority. The election resulted in Duvalier defeating Déjoie with 678,860 votes. Déjoie polled 264,830 votes and independent candidate Jumelle a mere percentage of the electorate. Duvalier's only opponent among the black proletarians, Daniel Fignole
, had been forced into exile before election, conveniently leaving Duvalier a path for a landslide.
President Duvalier promoted and patronised members of the black majority in the civil service and the army. In mid-1958, the army, which had supported Duvalier earlier, tried to oust him in another coup but failed. In response, Duvalier replaced the chief of staff with a more reliable officer and then proceeded to create his own power base within the army by turning the army's Presidential Guard into an elite corps aimed at maintaining Duvalier's power. After this, Duvalier dismissed the entire general staff and replaced it with officers owing their positions and their loyalty to him. In 1958 three exiled Haitians and five Americans invaded Haiti and tried to overthrow Duvalier; all the invaders were killed.
In 1959, he also created a rural militia, the Milice Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale (MVSN, National Security Volunteer Militia), commonly referred to as the Tonton Macoute
s after a Creole term for the bogeyman
, to extend and bolster support for the regime in the countryside. The Macoutes, which by 1961 had twice the numbers of the regular army, never developed into a real military force but still was more than a mere secret police.
In the name of nationalism
, Duvalier expelled almost all of Haiti's foreign-born bishops, an act that earned him excommunication
from the Catholic Church. In 1966, Duvalier managed to persuade the Holy See
to allow him to nominate the Catholic hierarchy for Haiti. This action solidified the change to the status-quo: no longer was Haiti under the grip of the minority rich mulattoes, protected by the military, and supported by the church. From this day forward Francois Duvalier exercised all power in Haiti.
, possibly as a result of an insulin
overdose; he had been a diabetic
since early adulthood and also suffered from heart disease
and associated circulatory problems. During this heart attack he was unconscious for nine hours; many associates believed that he suffered neurological damage
during these events that affected his mental health and made him paranoid.
While recovering, Duvalier left power in the hands of Clement Barbot, leader of the Tonton Macoutes. Upon his return, Duvalier accused Barbot of trying to supplant him as president and had him imprisoned. In April 1963, Barbot was released and began plotting to remove Duvalier from office by kidnapping his children. The plot failed and Duvalier subsequently ordered a massive search for Barbot and his fellow conspirators. When during the search Duvalier was told that Barbot had transformed himself into a black dog, Duvalier ordered that all black dogs in Haiti be put to death. Barbot was later captured and shot by the Tonton Macoutes in July 1963. In other incidents, Duvalier ordered the head of an executed rebel to be packed in ice and brought to him to allow him to commune with the dead man's spirit. Peep holes were carved into the walls of the interrogation chambers, through which Duvalier personally observed Haitian detainees being tortured and submerged in baths of sulfuric acid; sometimes, he was directly in the room during the tortures.
made "President for Life
", a title previously held by seven Haitian presidents. An implausible 99.9 percent voted in favor, and all ballots were premarked "yes." The new document granted Duvalier—or "Le Souverain," as he was called—absolute powers as well as the right to name his successor.
proved difficult. In his early years, Duvalier often rebuked the United States for its friendly relations with the Dominican dictator
Rafael Trujillo (killed in 1961), while leaving Haiti, "the poor negro
Republic out in the cold". The Kennedy administration
(1961–63) was particularly disturbed by Duvalier's repressive and authoritarian rule and allegations that he misappropriated aid money, then a substantial part of the Haitian budget, and a Marine mission to train Tonton Macoute
s. Acting on the charges, Washington cut off most of its economic assistance in mid-1962, pending stricter accounting procedures which Duvalier refused. Duvalier publicly renounced all aid from Washington on nationalist grounds, portraying himself as a "principled and lonely opponent of domination by a great power."
Duvalier misappropriated millions of USD of international aid, including 15 millions USD annually from the United States. He transferred this money to personal accounts. Another of Duvalier's methods to obtain foreign money was to gain foreign loans, including 4 million USD from Cuba
n president Fulgencio Batista
.
After Kennedy's assassination in November 1963 - which Duvalier later claimed resulted from a curse that he had placed on him. - the U.S. eased its pressure on Duvalier, grudgingly accepting Duvalier as a bulwark against Communism
. Duvalier skillfully exploited tensions between the United States and Cuba
, emphasizing his anti-Communist credentials and Haiti's strategic location as a means of winning U.S. support:
After President
Fulgencio Batista
(a personal friend of Duvalier) was overthrown in the Cuban Revolution
, Duvalier, worried that Fidel Castro
would provide a safe haven for Haitian dissidents, attempted to win Castro over by recognizing his government, sending medicine, and pardoning several political prisoners, but to no avail; from the very start of his regime, Castro gave anti-Duvalier dissidents his full support.
Duvalier enraged Castro by voting against the country in an OAS meeting and subsequently at the UN where a trade embargo was imposed on Cuba. Cuba answered by breaking off diplomatic relations and Duvalier subsequently instituted a campaign to rid Haiti of communists.
Duvalier's relationship with the neighbouring Dominican Republic
were always tense: in his early years, Duvalier emphasised the differences between the two countries. In April 1963, relations were brought to the edge of war by the political enmity between Duvalier and the Dominican president Juan Bosch
. Bosch, a left-leaning democrat, provided asylum and support to Haitian exiles who plotted against the Duvalier regime. Duvalier ordered his Presidential Guard to occupy the
Dominican Embassy in Pétionville
, aiming at apprehending an army officer believed to have been involved in Barbot's plot to kidnap Duvalier's children. The Dominican president reacted with outrage, publicly threatened to invade Haiti, and ordered army units to the frontier. However, as Dominican military commanders expressed little support for an invasion of Haiti, Bosch refrained from the invasion and settled for a mediation by the OAS
.
Emperor
Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia
briefly visited Haiti in 1966 (he was the only head of state to visit the country during Duvalier's presidency); during his visit, Duvalier awarded him the Necklace of the Order of Jean-Jacques Dessalines the Great, and Selassie, in turn, bestowed upon Duvalier the Great Necklace of the Order of the Queen of Saba.
Duvalier also supported Pan-African ideals.
Haitian communists and suspected communists, in particular, bore the brunt of the government's repression. Duvalier targeted them both as a means to secure U.S. support as a bulwark against Communist Cuba (see below) and on principle: Duvalier had personally been exposed to communist and left wing ideas early in his life and rejected them. On April 28, 1969, Duvalier instituted a campaign to rid Haiti of all communists, promulgating a law stipulating that "Communist activities, no matter what their form, are hereby declared crimes against the security of the State," and prescribing the death penalty for individuals prosecuted under this law.
Educated professionals fled Haiti in droves for New York City
, Miami, French-speaking Montreal
, Paris
, and several French-speaking African countries, exacerbating an already serious lack of doctors and teachers. Some of the highly skilled professionals joined the ranks of several UN agencies to work in development in newly-independent nations such as Ivory Coast, and Congo. The country has never recovered from this brain drain
.
The government confiscated peasant
land holdings to be allotted to members of the militia
, who had no official salary and made their living through crime
and extortion
. The dispossessed swelled the slums by fleeing to the capital to seek meager incomes to feed themselves. Malnutrition
and famine became endemic. Most of the aid money given to Haiti was spent improperly.
Nonetheless, Duvalier enjoyed significant support among Haiti's majority black rural population who saw in him a champion of their claims against the historically dominant mulatto élite. During his fourteen years in power, he created a substantial black middle class, chiefly through government patronage. Duvalier also initiated the development of Mais Gate Airport, now known as Toussaint Louverture International Airport.
, or vodou priest himself. In an effort to make himself even more imposing, Duvalier deliberately modeled his image on that of Baron Samedi
. He often donned sunglasses to hide his eyes and talked with the strong nasal tone associated with the loa
. The Duvalier regime propaganda even stated that "Papa Doc: was one with the loas, Jesus Christ, and God
himself". The most celebrated image from the time shows a standing Jesus Christ with hand on a seated Papa Doc's shoulder with the caption "I have chosen him". There was even a Duvalierist variant of the Lord's Prayer.
Duvalier also held in his closet the head of his former opponent Blucher Philogenes who tried to overthrow him in 1963.
, nicknamed "Baby Doc", succeeded as president.
, which Duvalier himself dismissed as the work of 'a mere journalist' and vilified at every opportunity. It was later made into a movie. Greene himself was declared persona non grata and barred from Haiti. The noted British television journalist Alan Whicker made a documentary about Duvalier and was famously filmed interviewing the president in his limousine.
The first authoritative book on the subject was Papa Doc: Haiti and its Dictator by Al Burt and Bernard Deiderich, published in 1969, though several others by Haitian scholars and historians have appeared since Duvalier's death in 1971. One of the most informative, Dungeon of Death, dealt specifically with victims of Fort Dimanche, the prison Duvalier used for the torture and murder of his political opponents.
In 2007, the British newspaper editor John Marquis published Papa Doc: Portrait of a Haitian Tyrant (LMH Publishing) which used an espionage trial in Haiti in 1968 as the foundation of an account of the regime. This book was widely praised as having exposed several previously unexplored details about the numerous attempts on Duvalier's life and was given credence by Marquis's own meeting with Duvalier in the National Palace in Port-au-Prince during the trial. The defendant, David Knox, the Bahamas director of information, was sentenced to death and later reprieved, even though he was accused by the regime of helping to organise an air raid on Duvalier's palace earlier that year.
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
from 1957 until his death in 1971. Duvalier first won acclaim in fighting diseases, earning him the nickname "Papa Doc" ("Daddy Doc[tor]" in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
). He opposed a military coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
in 1950, and was elected President in 1957 on a populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
and black nationalist
Black nationalism
Black nationalism advocates a racial definition of indigenous national identity, as opposed to multiculturalism. There are different indigenous nationalist philosophies but the principles of all African nationalist ideologies are unity, and self-determination or independence from European society...
platform. His rule, based on a purged military, a rural militia
Tonton Macoute
Tonton Macoutes was a Haitian paramilitary force created in 1959 by President François 'Papa Doc' Duvalier. In 1970, the militia was officially renamed the Milice de Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale .Haitians called this force the “Tonton Macoutes,” after the Haitian Creole mythological...
and the use of a personality cult and voodoo, resulted in the murder of an estimated 30,000 Haitians and an ensuing "brain drain
Brain drain
Human capital flight, more commonly referred to as "brain drain", is the large-scale emigration of a large group of individuals with technical skills or knowledge. The reasons usually include two aspects which respectively come from countries and individuals...
" from which the country has not recovered. Ruling as President for Life
President for Life
President for Life is a title assumed by some dictators to remove their term limit, in the hope that their authority, legitimacy, and term will never be disputed....
from 1964 until his death in 1971, Duvalier was succeeded by his son, Jean-Claude
Jean-Claude Duvalier
Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed "Bébé Doc" or "Baby Doc" was the President of Haiti from 1971 until his overthrow by a popular uprising in 1986. He succeeded his father, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, as the ruler of Haiti upon his father's death in 1971...
, nicknamed "Baby Doc".
Early life and career
Duvalier was born in Port-au-PrincePort-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....
, the son of Duval Duvalier, a justice of the peace, and Ulyssia Abraham, a baker. He was largely raised by an aunt. He completed a degree in medicine from the University of Haiti
University of Haiti
The University of Haiti is one of Haiti's most important institutions of higher education. It is located in Port-au-Prince....
in 1934. He served as staff physician at several local hospitals. He spent a year at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
studying public health. In 1943, he became active in a U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-sponsored campaign to control the spread of contagious tropical diseases, helping the poor to fight typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
, yaws
Yaws
Yaws is a tropical infection of the skin, bones and joints caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum pertenue...
, malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
and other tropical diseases that ravaged Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
for years. His patients affectionately called him "Papa Doc", a moniker that he used throughout his life.
Lucky enough to be schooled and literate in a country where few were educated, Duvalier witnessed the political turmoil of his country. The invasion and occupation of U.S. Marines
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
on Haitian soil in 1915, followed by incessant violent repressions of political dissent, left a powerful impression on the young Duvalier. He was also aware of the latent political power of the poor black majority and their resentment against the tiny mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
elite. Duvalier became involved in the négritude
Négritude
Négritude is a literary and ideological movement, developed by francophone black intellectuals, writers, and politiciansin France in the 1930s by a group that included the future Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor, Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, and the Guianan Léon Damas.The Négritude...
movement of Haitian author Dr. Jean Price-Mars
Jean Price-Mars
Jean Price-Mars was a Haitian writer. Born in Grande Rivière du Nord, Price-Mars obtained a degree in medicine and worked as a diplomat.-Negritude movement:...
. He began an ethnological study of Vodou, that later paid enormous political dividends. In 1938, Duvalier co-founded the journal Les Griots. In 1939, Duvalier married Simone Ovide, with whom he had four children: Marie Denise, Nicole, Simone and Jean-Claude
Jean-Claude Duvalier
Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed "Bébé Doc" or "Baby Doc" was the President of Haiti from 1971 until his overthrow by a popular uprising in 1986. He succeeded his father, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, as the ruler of Haiti upon his father's death in 1971...
.
Political rise
In 1946, Duvalier aligned himself with President Dumarsais EstiméDumarsais Estimé
Dumarsais Estimé served as the President of Haïti from 16 August 1946 until 10 May 1950. He was the first black head of state since the US occupation of Haiti ended in 1934.-Early life:...
and was appointed Director General of the National Public Health Service. In 1949, Duvalier served as Minister of both Health and Labour; but, when General Paul Magloire
Paul Magloire
Paul Eugène Magloire was a Haïtian military ruler from 1950 to 1956.Paul Magloire was born a general's son. In 1946 he participated in a successful coup against the president, Élie Lescot...
ousted President Estimé in a coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
, Duvalier left the government and was forced into hiding until 1956, when an amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
was declared.
In December 1956, Magloire resigned and left Haiti to be ruled by a succession of provisional government
Provisional government
A provisional government is an emergency or interim government set up when a political void has been created by the collapse of a very large government. The early provisional governments were created to prepare for the return of royal rule...
s. On September 22, 1957, presidential elections
Haitian presidential election, 1957
General elections were held in Haiti on 22 September 1957. Former Minister of Labour François Duvalier won the presidential election running under the National Unity Party banner, defeating the wealthy mulatto Louis Déjoie, as well as independent moderate Clement Jumelle, who had dropped out on...
pitted Louis Déjoie, a mulatto land-owner and industrialist from the north of Haiti, against Duvalier, who was backed by the military. Duvalier campaigned as a populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
, using a noiriste strategy of challenging the mulatto elite and appealing to the Afro-Haitian majority. He described his opponent as part of the ruling mulatto class that was making life difficult for the country's rural black majority. The election resulted in Duvalier defeating Déjoie with 678,860 votes. Déjoie polled 264,830 votes and independent candidate Jumelle a mere percentage of the electorate. Duvalier's only opponent among the black proletarians, Daniel Fignole
Daniel Fignolé
Daniel Fignolé was a Haitian politician who became Haiti's provisional head of state for three weeks in 1957. He was one of the most influential leaders in the pre-Duvalier era, a liberal labor organizer in Port-au-Prince so popular among urban workers that he could call upon them at a moment's...
, had been forced into exile before election, conveniently leaving Duvalier a path for a landslide.
Consolidation of power
After being sworn in on October 22, Duvalier exiled most of the major supporters of Déjoie and had a new constitution adopted in 1957.President Duvalier promoted and patronised members of the black majority in the civil service and the army. In mid-1958, the army, which had supported Duvalier earlier, tried to oust him in another coup but failed. In response, Duvalier replaced the chief of staff with a more reliable officer and then proceeded to create his own power base within the army by turning the army's Presidential Guard into an elite corps aimed at maintaining Duvalier's power. After this, Duvalier dismissed the entire general staff and replaced it with officers owing their positions and their loyalty to him. In 1958 three exiled Haitians and five Americans invaded Haiti and tried to overthrow Duvalier; all the invaders were killed.
In 1959, he also created a rural militia, the Milice Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale (MVSN, National Security Volunteer Militia), commonly referred to as the Tonton Macoute
Tonton Macoute
Tonton Macoutes was a Haitian paramilitary force created in 1959 by President François 'Papa Doc' Duvalier. In 1970, the militia was officially renamed the Milice de Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale .Haitians called this force the “Tonton Macoutes,” after the Haitian Creole mythological...
s after a Creole term for the bogeyman
Bogeyman
A bogeyman is an amorphous imaginary being used by adults to frighten children into compliant behaviour...
, to extend and bolster support for the regime in the countryside. The Macoutes, which by 1961 had twice the numbers of the regular army, never developed into a real military force but still was more than a mere secret police.
In the name of nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
, Duvalier expelled almost all of Haiti's foreign-born bishops, an act that earned him excommunication
Excommunication
Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...
from the Catholic Church. In 1966, Duvalier managed to persuade the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
to allow him to nominate the Catholic hierarchy for Haiti. This action solidified the change to the status-quo: no longer was Haiti under the grip of the minority rich mulattoes, protected by the military, and supported by the church. From this day forward Francois Duvalier exercised all power in Haiti.
Heart attack and Barbot affair
On May 24, 1959, Duvalier suffered a massive heart attackMyocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
, possibly as a result of an insulin
Insulin
Insulin is a hormone central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle....
overdose; he had been a diabetic
Diabetes mellitus
Diabetes mellitus, often simply referred to as diabetes, is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the body does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced...
since early adulthood and also suffered from heart disease
Heart disease
Heart disease, cardiac disease or cardiopathy is an umbrella term for a variety of diseases affecting the heart. , it is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, accounting for 25.4% of the total deaths in the United States.-Types:-Coronary heart disease:Coronary...
and associated circulatory problems. During this heart attack he was unconscious for nine hours; many associates believed that he suffered neurological damage
Brain damage
"Brain damage" or "brain injury" is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors...
during these events that affected his mental health and made him paranoid.
While recovering, Duvalier left power in the hands of Clement Barbot, leader of the Tonton Macoutes. Upon his return, Duvalier accused Barbot of trying to supplant him as president and had him imprisoned. In April 1963, Barbot was released and began plotting to remove Duvalier from office by kidnapping his children. The plot failed and Duvalier subsequently ordered a massive search for Barbot and his fellow conspirators. When during the search Duvalier was told that Barbot had transformed himself into a black dog, Duvalier ordered that all black dogs in Haiti be put to death. Barbot was later captured and shot by the Tonton Macoutes in July 1963. In other incidents, Duvalier ordered the head of an executed rebel to be packed in ice and brought to him to allow him to commune with the dead man's spirit. Peep holes were carved into the walls of the interrogation chambers, through which Duvalier personally observed Haitian detainees being tortured and submerged in baths of sulfuric acid; sometimes, he was directly in the room during the tortures.
Constitutional changes
In 1961, he began violating the provisions of the 1957 constitution: first he replaced the bicameral legislature with a unicameral body. Then he called a new presidential election in which he was the sole candidate, though his term was to expire in 1963 and the constitution prohibited reelection. The election was flagrantly rigged; the official tally showed 1,320,748 voted yes to another term for Duvalier, with none opposed. Upon hearing the results, Duvalier proclaimed: "I accept the people's will. As a revolutionary, I have no right to disregard the will of the people." The New York Times commented: "Latin America has witnessed many fraudulent elections throughout its history but none has been more outrageous than the one which has just taken place in Haiti." On June 14, 1964, an even more blatantly rigged constitutional referendumHaitian constitutional referendum, 1964
A constitutional referendum was held in Haiti on 14 June 1964. The new constitution made President François "Papa Doc" Duvalier President for life...
made "President for Life
President for Life
President for Life is a title assumed by some dictators to remove their term limit, in the hope that their authority, legitimacy, and term will never be disputed....
", a title previously held by seven Haitian presidents. An implausible 99.9 percent voted in favor, and all ballots were premarked "yes." The new document granted Duvalier—or "Le Souverain," as he was called—absolute powers as well as the right to name his successor.
Foreign relations
His relationship with the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
proved difficult. In his early years, Duvalier often rebuked the United States for its friendly relations with the Dominican dictator
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
Rafael Trujillo (killed in 1961), while leaving Haiti, "the poor negro
Negro
The word Negro is used in the English-speaking world to refer to a person of black ancestry or appearance, whether of African descent or not...
Republic out in the cold". The Kennedy administration
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
(1961–63) was particularly disturbed by Duvalier's repressive and authoritarian rule and allegations that he misappropriated aid money, then a substantial part of the Haitian budget, and a Marine mission to train Tonton Macoute
Tonton Macoute
Tonton Macoutes was a Haitian paramilitary force created in 1959 by President François 'Papa Doc' Duvalier. In 1970, the militia was officially renamed the Milice de Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale .Haitians called this force the “Tonton Macoutes,” after the Haitian Creole mythological...
s. Acting on the charges, Washington cut off most of its economic assistance in mid-1962, pending stricter accounting procedures which Duvalier refused. Duvalier publicly renounced all aid from Washington on nationalist grounds, portraying himself as a "principled and lonely opponent of domination by a great power."
Duvalier misappropriated millions of USD of international aid, including 15 millions USD annually from the United States. He transferred this money to personal accounts. Another of Duvalier's methods to obtain foreign money was to gain foreign loans, including 4 million USD from Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n president Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution....
.
After Kennedy's assassination in November 1963 - which Duvalier later claimed resulted from a curse that he had placed on him. - the U.S. eased its pressure on Duvalier, grudgingly accepting Duvalier as a bulwark against Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. Duvalier skillfully exploited tensions between the United States and Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, emphasizing his anti-Communist credentials and Haiti's strategic location as a means of winning U.S. support:
After President
President of Cuba
--209.174.31.28 18:43, 22 November 2011 The President of Cuba is the Head of state of Cuba. According to the Cuban Constitution of 1976, the President is the chief executive of the Council of State of Cuba...
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution....
(a personal friend of Duvalier) was overthrown in the Cuban Revolution
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
, Duvalier, worried that Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
would provide a safe haven for Haitian dissidents, attempted to win Castro over by recognizing his government, sending medicine, and pardoning several political prisoners, but to no avail; from the very start of his regime, Castro gave anti-Duvalier dissidents his full support.
Duvalier enraged Castro by voting against the country in an OAS meeting and subsequently at the UN where a trade embargo was imposed on Cuba. Cuba answered by breaking off diplomatic relations and Duvalier subsequently instituted a campaign to rid Haiti of communists.
Duvalier's relationship with the neighbouring Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
were always tense: in his early years, Duvalier emphasised the differences between the two countries. In April 1963, relations were brought to the edge of war by the political enmity between Duvalier and the Dominican president Juan Bosch
Juan Bosch
Juan Emilio Bosch Gaviño was a politician, historian, short story writer, essayist, educator, and the first cleanly elected president of the Dominican Republic for a brief time in 1963. Previously, he had been the leader of the Dominican opposition in exile to the dictatorial regime of Rafael...
. Bosch, a left-leaning democrat, provided asylum and support to Haitian exiles who plotted against the Duvalier regime. Duvalier ordered his Presidential Guard to occupy the
Dominican Embassy in Pétionville
Pétionville
Pétion-Ville is a commune and a suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in the hills east and separate of the city itself on the northern hills of the Massif de la Selle. It was named after Alexandre Sabès Pétion , the Haitian general and president later recognized as one of the country's four founding...
, aiming at apprehending an army officer believed to have been involved in Barbot's plot to kidnap Duvalier's children. The Dominican president reacted with outrage, publicly threatened to invade Haiti, and ordered army units to the frontier. However, as Dominican military commanders expressed little support for an invasion of Haiti, Bosch refrained from the invasion and settled for a mediation by the OAS
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States is a regional international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States...
.
Emperor
Emperor of Ethiopia
The Emperor of Ethiopia was the hereditary ruler of Ethiopia until the abolition of the monarchy in 1974. The Emperor was the head of state and head of government, with ultimate executive, judicial and legislative power in that country...
Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia
Ethiopian Empire
The Ethiopian Empire also known as Abyssinia, covered a geographical area that the present-day northern half of Ethiopia and Eritrea covers, and included in its peripheries Zeila, Djibouti, Yemen and Western Saudi Arabia...
briefly visited Haiti in 1966 (he was the only head of state to visit the country during Duvalier's presidency); during his visit, Duvalier awarded him the Necklace of the Order of Jean-Jacques Dessalines the Great, and Selassie, in turn, bestowed upon Duvalier the Great Necklace of the Order of the Queen of Saba.
Duvalier also supported Pan-African ideals.
Repression
Duvalier's government was soon accused of being one of the most repressive in the hemisphere. Within the country, Duvalier used both political murder and expulsion to suppress his opponents; estimates of those killed are as high as 30,000. Attacks on Duvalier from within the military were treated as especially serious. When bombs were detonated near the Presidential Palace in 1967, Duvalier had nineteen Presidential Guard officers shot in Fort Dimanche. A few days later Duvalier had a public speech during which he read the "attendance sheet" with names of all 19 officers killed . After each name he said "absent". After reading the whole list Duvalier remarked "All were shot."Haitian communists and suspected communists, in particular, bore the brunt of the government's repression. Duvalier targeted them both as a means to secure U.S. support as a bulwark against Communist Cuba (see below) and on principle: Duvalier had personally been exposed to communist and left wing ideas early in his life and rejected them. On April 28, 1969, Duvalier instituted a campaign to rid Haiti of all communists, promulgating a law stipulating that "Communist activities, no matter what their form, are hereby declared crimes against the security of the State," and prescribing the death penalty for individuals prosecuted under this law.
Social and economic policies
Duvalier employed intimidation, repression and patronage to supplant the old mulatto elites with a new elite of his own making. Corruption — in the form of government rake-offs of industries, bribery, extortion of domestic businesses, and stolen government funds — enriched the dictator's closest supporters. Most of these supporters held sufficient power to enable them to intimidate the members of the old elite who were gradually co-opted or eliminated.Educated professionals fled Haiti in droves for New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Miami, French-speaking Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and several French-speaking African countries, exacerbating an already serious lack of doctors and teachers. Some of the highly skilled professionals joined the ranks of several UN agencies to work in development in newly-independent nations such as Ivory Coast, and Congo. The country has never recovered from this brain drain
Brain drain
Human capital flight, more commonly referred to as "brain drain", is the large-scale emigration of a large group of individuals with technical skills or knowledge. The reasons usually include two aspects which respectively come from countries and individuals...
.
The government confiscated peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
land holdings to be allotted to members of the militia
, who had no official salary and made their living through crime
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
and extortion
Extortion
Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...
. The dispossessed swelled the slums by fleeing to the capital to seek meager incomes to feed themselves. Malnutrition
Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....
and famine became endemic. Most of the aid money given to Haiti was spent improperly.
Nonetheless, Duvalier enjoyed significant support among Haiti's majority black rural population who saw in him a champion of their claims against the historically dominant mulatto élite. During his fourteen years in power, he created a substantial black middle class, chiefly through government patronage. Duvalier also initiated the development of Mais Gate Airport, now known as Toussaint Louverture International Airport.
Personality cult and voodoo
Duvalier fostered a personality cult around himself, and claimed to be the physical embodiment of the island nation. He also started to revive the traditions of vodou, later on using them to consolidate his power as he claimed to be a hounganHoungan
Houngan is the term for a male priest in the voodoo religion in Haiti . The term is derived from the Fon word "hùn gan". There are two ranks of houngan, houngan asogwe and houngan sur pwen...
, or vodou priest himself. In an effort to make himself even more imposing, Duvalier deliberately modeled his image on that of Baron Samedi
Baron Samedi
Baron Samedi is one of the Loa of Haitian Voodoo. Samedi is a Loa of the dead, along with Baron's numerous other incarnations Baron Cimetière, Baron La Croix, and Baron Kriminel. He is the head of the Guédé family of Loa, or an aspect of them, or possibly their spiritual father...
. He often donned sunglasses to hide his eyes and talked with the strong nasal tone associated with the loa
Loa
The Loa are the spirits of the voodoo religion practiced in Louisiana, Haiti, Benin, and other parts of the world. They are also referred to as Mystères and the Invisibles, in which are intermediaries between Bondye —the Creator, who is distant from the world—and humanity...
. The Duvalier regime propaganda even stated that "Papa Doc: was one with the loas, Jesus Christ, and God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
himself". The most celebrated image from the time shows a standing Jesus Christ with hand on a seated Papa Doc's shoulder with the caption "I have chosen him". There was even a Duvalierist variant of the Lord's Prayer.
Duvalier also held in his closet the head of his former opponent Blucher Philogenes who tried to overthrow him in 1963.
Death and succession
Duvalier held Haiti in his grip until his death in early 1971. His 19-year-old son Jean-Claude DuvalierJean-Claude Duvalier
Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed "Bébé Doc" or "Baby Doc" was the President of Haiti from 1971 until his overthrow by a popular uprising in 1986. He succeeded his father, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, as the ruler of Haiti upon his father's death in 1971...
, nicknamed "Baby Doc", succeeded as president.
Books and films
Many books have been written about the Duvalier era in Haiti, the most famous being Graham Greene's novel, The ComediansThe Comedians (novel)
The Comedians is a novel by Graham Greene, first published in 1966. Set in Haiti under the rule of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his secret police, the Tontons Macoute, The Comedians tells the story of a tired hotel owner, Brown, and his increasing fatalism as he watches Haiti descend into...
, which Duvalier himself dismissed as the work of 'a mere journalist' and vilified at every opportunity. It was later made into a movie. Greene himself was declared persona non grata and barred from Haiti. The noted British television journalist Alan Whicker made a documentary about Duvalier and was famously filmed interviewing the president in his limousine.
The first authoritative book on the subject was Papa Doc: Haiti and its Dictator by Al Burt and Bernard Deiderich, published in 1969, though several others by Haitian scholars and historians have appeared since Duvalier's death in 1971. One of the most informative, Dungeon of Death, dealt specifically with victims of Fort Dimanche, the prison Duvalier used for the torture and murder of his political opponents.
In 2007, the British newspaper editor John Marquis published Papa Doc: Portrait of a Haitian Tyrant (LMH Publishing) which used an espionage trial in Haiti in 1968 as the foundation of an account of the regime. This book was widely praised as having exposed several previously unexplored details about the numerous attempts on Duvalier's life and was given credence by Marquis's own meeting with Duvalier in the National Palace in Port-au-Prince during the trial. The defendant, David Knox, the Bahamas director of information, was sentenced to death and later reprieved, even though he was accused by the regime of helping to organise an air raid on Duvalier's palace earlier that year.