Republic of Haiti République d’Haïti Repiblik d Ayiti | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1957–1986 | |||||||||
| Motto: Liberté, égalité, fraternité (French)[1] "Liberty, equality, fraternity" | |||||||||
| Anthem: La Dessalinienne (French) The Dessalines Song | |||||||||
 | |||||||||
| Capital | Port-au-Prince | ||||||||
| Common languages | French,Haitian Creole | ||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism,Protestantism,Vodou | ||||||||
| Government | Unitaryone-partypresidential republic under atotalitarianhereditary dictatorship | ||||||||
| President | |||||||||
• 1957–1971 | François Duvalier | ||||||||
• 1971–1986 | Jean-Claude Duvalier | ||||||||
| Legislature | Parliament | ||||||||
• Unicameral since 1961 | Legislative Chamber | ||||||||
| Historical era | Cold War | ||||||||
• Established | 22 October 1957 | ||||||||
| 7 February 1986 | |||||||||
| Currency | Haitian gourde | ||||||||
| ISO 3166 code | HT | ||||||||
| |||||||||
TheDuvalier family (French:Dynastie des Duvalier) was anautocratic hereditary dictatorship inHaiti that lasted almost 29 years, from 1957 until 1986, spanning the rule of the father-and-son duoDr. François Duvalier (Papa Doc) andJean-Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc).[2][3][4][5]
Direct elections, the first in Haiti's history,were held in October 1950, andPaul Magloire, an elite black Colonel in themilitary, was elected.Hurricane Hazel hit the island in 1954, devastating the nation's infrastructure and economy. Hurricane relief was inadequately distributed and misspent, and Magloire jailed opponents and shut down newspapers. After he refused to step down after his term ended, a general strike shut down Port-au-Prince's economy, and Magloire fled, leaving the government in a state of chaos. When electionswere finally held in September 1957,François Duvalier, a rural doctor running under theNational Unity Party banner,[6] was elected, on a platform of activism on behalf of Haiti's poor.
François Duvalier (Papa Doc) produced a constitution to solidify power and replaced thebicameral legislature with aunicameral one. On 14 June 1964, following aconstitutional referendum, Duvalier declared himselfpresident for life and changed the color of the national flag and arms from red and blue to red and black, with the design of black and red symbols that shared the same ties and compared toAngola. He fired the chief of the military and established a Presidential Guard to maintain his power. He also established theVolontaires de la Sécurité Nationale (National Security Volunteers), commonly referred to as theTonton Macoute, named after abogeyman inHaitian mythology. The Tonton Macoute became Haiti's secret police and wielded pervasive influence throughout Haiti's rural countryside. Duvalier used his newly gained influence within the military to establish his own elite. Corruption was endemic, and he stole money from government agencies and used it to reward officials who were loyal to him. Duvalier also exploited popularVodou beliefs, creating acult of personality surrounding himself. Owing to his extremely repressive rule,U.S. PresidentJohn F. Kennedy revoked American aid to Duvalier and recalledU.S. Marine Corps missions in 1962. However, after theassassination of Kennedy, relations with Duvalier eased, partially owing to Haiti's strategic location nearCuba.
François Duvalier died on 21 April 1971. During his rule, an estimated 30,000 citizens were killed by the government, and hundreds of thousands of Haitians emigrated to theUnited States,Cuba, andCanada. François was succeeded by his son,Jean-Claude (Baby Doc), as the country's new leader following aconstitutional referendum. Still a teenager when he ascended to public office, Jean-Claude Duvalier was said to be reckless and dissolute, raised in elite isolation and uninterested in politics. The first few years of his administration saw him leaving administrative duties to his mother,Simone, while he lived as aplayboy. He was initially well liked, because his rule was considered gentler and less formidable than that of his father. Foreign nations became more generous with economic assistance, and the United States restored its aid program to Haiti in 1971. However, endemic corruption continued to exist just as it had under his father's rule. Much of the Duvalier family's hundreds of millions of dollars in personal wealth came from theRégie du Tabac (Tobacco Administration). Originally established as a tobacco monopoly, in practice it was used as aslush fund, and few or no records were kept of its activities.
The neglect of Jean-Claude's regime, coupled with a lack of adequate infrastructure, left the nation vulnerable to health crises. The outbreak ofHIV/AIDS devastated tourism in the early 1980s, and an epidemic ofAfrican swine fever from theDominican Republic devastated livestock and destroyed local farming. TheUSDA feared the disease's spread to North America, and it pressured Duvalier to slaughter Haiti's population of nativecreole pigs and replace it with animals that would be provided by international aid agencies. The Haitian government complied, but the decision caused outrage among the nation's farmers. Their pigs were well suited to the Haitian climate and environment and did not require special feed or care; the new pigs required both. In May 1980, Duvalier marriedMichèle Bennett, a light-skinned,mulatto divorcée. This was perceived as a betrayal of his father's legacy of supporting the black middle class, and it had an unexpected, drastically negative effect on Duvalier's popularity. The wedding's extravagant cost, which was rumored to be in excess of US$3,000,000, further alienated the black masses. A schism formed in the government between older, more conservative Duvalierists and appointees of Jean-Claude. This eventually resulted in the expulsion of Duvalier's mother, Simone, reportedly at Michèle's request.
Discontent and economic hopelessness reached a head whenPope John Paul II visited Haiti in March 1983. Declaring that "something must change here," in a speech in Port-au-Prince, the Pope called for equitable distribution of income and a more egalitarian social and political structure. Revolts broke out, revitalized by the Catholic Church, and riots also began to break out in the city ofGonaïves, with crowds attacking food distribution centers. From October 1985 to January 1986, theAnti-Duvalier protest movement spread throughout the country, to the south. A revolt began in the provinces two years later. The city ofGonaïves was the first to have street demonstrations and raids on food-distribution warehouses. The protests spread to six other cities across the country, includingCap-Haïtien. By the end of that month, Haitians in the south had revolted. The most significant rioting there broke out inLes Cayes.
Duvalier responded to riots by firing cabinet officials and cuttingfood prices. He also closed several independent radio stations, and deployed police units and army guards to quell the uprisings. However, these moves failed to pacify demonstrators, and in January 1986, theadministration of U.S. PresidentRonald Reagan began to pressure Duvalier to renounce power and leave Haiti. Negotiations stalled, and while Duvalier initially accepted an offer of asylum inJamaica, he rescinded his offer and decided to remain in Haiti. As a result, the US State Department cut back aid to Haiti, and violence in the streets spread to Port-au-Prince. On February 5, 1986, members of the military confronted the Duvalier regime and demanded his departure. With no support from the military or the legislature left, Duvalier consented, and he and his family departed by plane from Haiti to France on February 7. He named an interim governing body, theNational Governing Council (French:Conseil National de Gouvernement, CNG) which was made up of three civilians as well as two military officials. This began a shaky period of transition to full democratic rule.
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