Porto Príncipe (Haiti), 1907 – 1971/ Porto Príncipe (Haiti), 1951 – 2014

By João Alexandre Peschanski

François Duvalier and Jean-Claude Duvalier, father and son respectively, ruled Haiti with an iron fist from 1957 to 1986 through a regime of terror. During their governments, opponents were persecuted and murdered. The social and economic situation of the country collapsed. Duvalierism was supported by the United States government, as it opposed communism, which had triumphed in Cuba, among other policies.

Duvalier Sr. – known as Papa Doc – came from a poor family. His parents were small farmers. With allowances received from relatives, he studied medicine. He wrote essays on Haitian nationalism and participated in campaigns to eradicate tropical diseases, which gave him the opportunity to become familiar with the country’s interior.

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Aligned with Dumarsais Estimé, a Haitian populist politician who became president in 1946, Papa Doc held important positions, such as Minister of Health. Considered Estimé’s right-hand man, he became known throughout the country. The president was overthrown in 1950, and Duvalier left his position. However, he remained active in politics, claiming to be the continuer of Estimé’s work, who passed away in 1953.

In 1957, Duvalier was elected president in an election denounced as fraudulent by his opponents. In his first speech, he stated that he intended to carry out a profound transformation in Haiti. He founded the National Unity Party, the only political party allowed in the country. Little by little, his regime hardened, eventually suppressing opposition groups. These were persecuted by Duvalier’s personal police force, the Tontons Macoutes.

Reelected in 1961 in a vote rigged by his supporters, Papa Doc later declared himself president for life. A scholar of Vodou practices — the dominant religion in Haiti — he manipulated popular faith to secure his hold on power. In 1971, seriously ill, he orchestrated his succession by his son, who was only nineteen years old. Papa Doc died that same year. The toll of his regime: 30,000 people murdered, half a million Haitians in exile, and the social collapse of Haiti.

Duvalier’s son — nicknamed Baby Doc — maintained his father’s regime of terror. He liberalized the economy, stifling national production. He officially sanctioned the operations of the Tontons Macoutes, whose name was changed to National Security Volunteers. In 1986, after popular protests against his government, Baby Doc fled to France, where he was granted asylum. In January 2011, he returned to Haiti and was briefly held under police custody in the luxurious home where he was living in the suburbs of the capital. But he never faced prison or the courts, despite a corruption lawsuit. He died at home of a heart attack at the age of 63.