The Haitian community is either crying or celebrating depending on who you talk to.
Former Haiti president Jean-Claude Duvalier, the second-generation “president for life” died Oct. 4 at his home in Port-au-Prince. He was 63. He had a heart attack, his lawyer, Reynold George, told the Associated Press.- Washington Post
According to New York Times,
Jean-Claude Duvalier, a former president of Haiti known as Baby Doc who ruled the country with a bloody brutality and then shocked the country anew with a sudden return from a 25-year exile in 2011, died on Saturday. Jean-Claude Duvalier, a former president of Haiti known as Baby Doc who ruled the country with a bloody brutality and then shocked the country anew with a sudden return from a 25-year exile in 2011, died on Saturday.
Mr. Duvalier continued to defend what human rights workers called one of the most oppressive governments in the Western Hemisphere, following in the footsteps of his father, François, known as Papa Doc, who also died suddenly, in 1971. The son was 19 when he assumed the post “president for life,” as he and his father called it, becoming the youngest head of state at the time.
He never apologized for atrocities, including brutal crackdowns on opponents at the hands of the feared Tonton Macoutes, a civilian militia that left a thousand people, if not more, dead, disappeared or illegally detained in harsh prisons.
Indeed, he defended himself as victims of his government pursued cases in Haitian courts on charges of corruption and human rights abuses. Mr. Duvalier had appeared in court and calmly denied any wrongdoing and even asserted the country was better off when he ruled.
“Were there deaths and summary executions under your government?” a judge asked him at a hearing in March 2013.
“Deaths exist in all countries,” Mr. Duvalier replied almost inaudibly. “I didn’t intervene in the activities of the police.”
He regularly dined in restaurants in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, and attended events at the invitation of Mr. Martelly, whose administration has included relatives and allies of people associated with Mr. Duvalier.
This year, his old political party announced that it would field candidates in elections and opened an office, though analysts were not sure if it was a serious move or a thumb in the eye of the rival he loathed and who succeeded him, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, another formerly exiled president who also returned and still is a political force.
Mr. Duvalier fled the country in 1986, as political repression and worsening economic conditions set off violent unrest in what was then and still is the hemisphere’s poorest country. He asked France for asylum and the United States for the plane that would take him there, an American official said at the time.
Mr. Duvalier fled the country in 1986, as political repression and worsening economic conditions set off violent unrest in what was then and still is the hemisphere’s poorest country. He asked France for asylum and the United States for the plane that would take him there, an American official said at the time. – Continue Reading Here
Here is a post called 20 Interesting Jean-Claude “Baby-Doc” Duvalier Facts from Facts Legend.org:
1. Jean-Claude Duvalier was known by the name Baby-Doc. Unlike his father Papa-Doc, Jean-Claude was not really a doctor but only bequeathed a similar name from his father.
2. Born on 3rd July, 1951, Baby-Doc became the world’s youngest person to become a president of a nation. He became Haiti’s head of the state at the age of 19 after his father died in 1971.
3. Jean-Claude Duvalier gave Haiti a reign of terror and corruption from 1971 to 1986 when he was overthrown by a popular uprising.
4. Baby-Doc was known for his notoriously lavish lifestyle. He married in 1980. His wedding was state sponsored and had cost 3 million US dollars!
5. He made millions of dollars through drugs trade and by selling human body parts from dead Haitians.
Read the rest by clicking the title’s link above.
