Tag Archives: dictatorship

October 13, 2019

Posted in Haiti | Also tagged , | Leave a comment

“Haitian people will hoist the flag of Charlemagne Peralte and will get rid of the bloody pro-imperialist dynasty of Duvalier.”

Image: Péralte, Charlemagne (Studio gráfico fatamorgana, 1979. Source: International Institute of Social History.

Posted in Haiti | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Responses

Jean-Claude Duvalier

Jean‑Claude Duvalier was Haiti’s “president for life” from 1971 to 1986, succeeding his father François “Papa Doc” Duvalier.  The Duvaliers are estimated to have ordered the deaths of between twenty and thirty thousand Haitian civilians. The brutality of their government created the modern Haitian diaspora, driving hundreds of thousands of Haitians into exile in Canada, […]

Posted in Haiti | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Responses

Port-au-Prince

inside the car françois and i could see the light coming from the cigarette michelle duvalier was smoking her husband declared president for life looked like a fat chauffer sitting behind the wheel françois and i smiled the small procession of cars slipping past us in the dark we did not know that a few […]

Posted in Haiti | Also tagged , , , , , , | 5 Responses

Haiti: Jean-Claude Duvalier

But if the father had been awesome yet comprehensible, the son, inheriting power as a nineteen-year-old cipher, had gradually emerged as something else, something foreign and decadent. Mark Danner, “Beyond the Mountains,” The New Yorker (November 27, 1989, December 4, 1989, December 11, 1989) The paranoia of the Duvalier family … is surpassed only by […]

Posted in Haiti | Also tagged , , , , , | 6 Responses

Haiti: Duvalier

Three weeks ago Haiti welcomed a special guest: Haile Selassie, King of Kings, Lion of Judah, and Emperor of Ethiopia. The visit of the African leader was a diplomatic success for President Francois Duvalier. Wayne Ferris, “Haiti’s King of the Mountain: A Visit to the Dictatorship of Francois Duvalier,” Outlook, WCKT-Miami (1966) But if the […]

Posted in Haiti | Also tagged , , , , | 2 Responses

Haiti: Europe

Switzerland moved Wednesday toward establishing the legal basis to confiscate millions of dollars allegedly looted by the former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, in what could be the beginning of the end of a battle over money that began more than two decades ago. “Ex-Dictator Loses Swiss Ruling Over Haitian Cash,” The New York […]

Posted in Haiti | Also tagged , , | Leave a comment

Haiti: History

Haitian exceptionalism takes many forms. The most dangerous and resilient is the idea that the Haitian political quagmire is due to some congenital disease of the Haitian mind. Such a conclusion makes Haiti’s political dilemma immune to rational explanation and therefore to solutions that could be both just and practical. Michel-Rolph Trouillot, “Haiti’s Nightmare and […]

Posted in Haiti | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment