Duvalier Flees Haiti, Ending 28-Year Family Rule; Military-Civilian Council Takes Power

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Issue Date: February 07, 1986 Duvalier Flees Haiti, Ending 28-Year Family Rule; Military-Civilian Council Takes Power

State of Siege Failed to End Unrest State of Siege Set False Report Embarrasses U.S. 3 Nations Said to Refuse Asylum Exile Agreed Developments in the Unrest State of Siege Failed to End Unrest

Giovann Coruzzi/AFP/Getty Images Jean-Claude Duvalier ("baby doc")

President-for-Life Jean Claude Duvalier ﬂed Haiti Feb. 7, ending a 28-year dictatorship by the Duvalier family. On leaving for France aboard a U.S. Air Force jet, he handed over power to a military-civilian council. [See 1986 Haiti: Duvalier Moves to Quell Protests; Other Developments]

News of Duvalier's departure sparked joyful celebrations, both in Haiti and among Haitian exiles in the U.S. The president's ouster followed three months of protests against political repression and economic conditions. The protests had led Duvalier to impose a state of siege Jan. 31, amid rumors that he had ﬂed Haiti. That day, the U.S. erroneously announced that his government had fallen.

With the situation remaining tense, the U.S. and Jamaica in the coming days negotiated with Duvalier to step down to avoid further bloodshed.

Duvalier had assumed the presidency at age 19 in 1971, on the death of his father, President-for-Life Francois (Papa Doc) Duvalier. The elder Duvalier was elected president in 1957 but permitted no further elections. Over the years the Duvalier family grew fabulously wealthy, reportedly through the misappropriation of public money, extortion and kickbacks. Francois Duvalier's rule was characterized by repression, brutality and corruption that left Haiti the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere. [See 1971 Haiti: Duvalier Dies; Son Succeeds Him; 1957 Haiti: News in Brief]

Corruption continued under the younger Duvalier, although he was widely considered to be less brutal than his father. Baby Doc, as the son was called, was reported to have amassed a fortune of between US$200 million and US$500 million.

State of Siege Set

Duvalier had set a state of siege Jan. 31 as unprecedented protests against his government continued.

The state of siege was declared at about 7:00 a.m., after it was approved by an emergency session of the nation's parliament that began the previous evening. On the morning of Jan. 31, the government again closed down Radio Soleil, the Roman Catholic Church-run radio station, and also Radio Lumiere, a Baptist-run station, and the private Radio Cacique. [See 1986 Haiti: Duvalier Moves to Quell Protests; Other Developments]

At about 7:30 a.m., U.S. White House spokesman Larry Speakes told U.S. reporters that Duvalier had been ousted and had ﬂed the country. But at 9:00 a.m., Duvalier went on national radio to deny the U.S. report. Using a common Creole expression, he announced that he was in power, "ﬁrm as a monkey's tail." He said he felt obliged to appear in the streets, and driven by his wife, Michele, and escorted by armed soldiers, he made a quick tour of the capital.

Crowds had gathered early that morning in Port-au-Prince to celebrate, in the mistaken belief that Duvalier had fallen. Rumors to that effect had been circulating since the night before.

(Later, news reports said that on the night of Jan. 30, Duvalier had decided to ﬂee the country but was dissuaded from doing so by his family and supporters of his late father.)

In the U.S., for the second time in as many days, Haitian exiles responded to rumors and false reports of Duvalier's ouster. On the night of Jan. 30, some 2,000 of the estimated 50,000 Haitian exiles in Miami had taken to the streets to celebrate Duvalier's supposed downfall.

(Those celebrations turned to violence when a Haitian driver backed his car at high speed into a crowd of revelers, killing a woman and seriously injuring a man. In the ensuing melee, demonstrators threw rocks at police who had taken the driver into custody.)

Twice in the afternoon of Jan. 31, Duvalier broadcast on radio and television to explain that the state of siege aimed to "restore calm and protect families and property." He admitted that Haiti had many shortcomings, but said that during his 15 years in ofﬁce he had tried to improve the welfare of his people. He acknowledged that the "distribution of wealth is unequal and shocking" and said a new plan to rectify the situation would soon be presented.

Duvalier claimed that he remained "the catalyst of your most cherished dreams and ambitions" and pledged to continue the democratization of Haiti.

False Report Embarrasses U.S.

The White House's erroneous announcement of Duvalier's departure Jan. 31 caused embarrassment to the U.S. administration.

Speakes later blamed "bum information by people (in the State Department) who ought to know what they say." Unidentiﬁed State Department ofﬁcials, in turn, accused Speakes of making a premature announcement based on limited information as yet unchecked by the department.

3 Nations Said to Refuse Asylum

As uncertainty over Duvalier's intentions increased, representatives of the Swiss, Greek and Spanish governments said Feb. 5 that they had rejected requests on behalf of the Haitian president for asylum in their respective countries.

Unconﬁrmed reports said Duvalier also had sought asylum in Argentina and Italy. The Haitian information ministry denied that Duvalier had asked for asylum anywhere.

Later reports said Duvalier had been denied asylum in Gabon and Morocco, among other nations.

Exile Agreed

At his own request, Duvalier Feb. 6 met separately with U.S. Ambassador Clayton E. McManaway Jr. and the French ambassador, Jean-Francois Michel, and it was in these meetings that ﬁnal arrangements for Duvalier's departure were made.

Jamaican ofﬁcials said Feb. 7 that Duvalier had met earlier in the week with Neville Gallimore, Jamaica's minister of social security, and that Gallimore had played a key role in persuading Duvalier to step down, for the good of the Caribbean in general.

Duvalier, his wife, Michele, and their children, and some 20 other relatives left Haiti aboard a U.S. Air Force transport plane at 3:46 a.m. Feb. 7. The party arrived in Grenoble, France 15 hours later. France agreed to allow Duvalier to stay for only eight days. No other country, at this point, had agreed to take him in.

Some three hours after his departure, Duvalier appeared on Haitian television in a videotaped message to announce that he was quitting. He cited "a meticulous consideration of the situation" that had shown no indication that "this nightmare of blood would be spared to my people."

He continued: "That is why, wanting to go down in history with my head held high with a clean conscience, I have decided tonight to trust the destiny of the nation and the power to the armed forces of Haiti, desiring that this decision will allow a peaceful and rapid solution to the present crisis." He said, "I take God as a witness that I have never wanted bloodshed."

Moments later the armed forces chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Henri Namphy, went on the air to announce that he would head a governing council of four military men and two civilians. Namphy assured the people that the army did not "entertain any political ambition" and that the council would "respect human rights and move toward democratic elections."

The other members of the council were Col. Max Valles, commander of the presidential guard; Col. William Regala, army inspector general; Col. Prosper Avril, chief military adviser to Duvalier; Minister of Public Works Alix Cineas; and Gerard Gourgue, head of the Haitian League of Human Rights. All but Gourgue were described in the Washington Post as "old-line Duvalierists" who had made their careers under Papa Doc Duvalier.

Nonetheless, the U.S. administration welcomed the new government and said initial statements issued by Namphy were "a positive sign" for Haiti's future. The U.S. said it was willing to consider an injection of emergency economic aid if the new government moved toward democracy and respected human rights.

(The U.S. Jan. 29-30 had said it was withholding certiﬁcation required for the release of aid to Haiti because of the Duvalier government's violations of human rights. The decision affected $7 million of the US$52 million allocated for aid to Haiti in 1986. [See 1985 Haiti: U.S. Certiﬁes Rights Improvement])

With Duvalier's departure, Haitians ﬂocked into the streets to celebrate, kissing and hugging members of the armed forces. They attacked symbols of the Duvalier regime, including the mausoleum of Papa Doc Duvalier, and sought out members of the dreaded Volunteers for National Security, better known as the Tontons Macoute (bogeymen, in Haitian Creole), the president's personal security force. By early afternoon, about 20 persons had been reported killed, half of them Tontons Macoute. A curfew was set in Port-au-Prince to quell the violence and looting, and the international airport was closed.

Developments in the Unrest

The wave of unrest that eventually unseated Duvalier began Jan. 26 with a march in Cap Haitien in the north.

Demonstrations there continued into the following days, spreading also to Gonaives, 100 miles (160 km) north of the capital, where a crowd burned down the court house and the customs house Jan. 27. The protesters apparently intended to kill an army captain and two militiamen charged with murder Jan. 25 in the November 1985 shooting of three students. It was those killings that had sparked the current unrest. [See 1985 Haiti: Dissident Slain in Shootout]

On Jan. 28 thousands of protesters went on a rampage in Les Cayes in the south, breaking into a relief warehouse owned by a Catholic charity and carrying off food. The scene was repeated Jan. 29 in Cap Haitien, where demonstrators broke into a warehouse belonging to the U.S. relief organization CARE Inc. and stole food supplies. As many as ﬁve persons were reported crushed to death in the incident.

The unrest outside the capital continued after the state of siege was set, although news reports said an uneasy calm had settled on Port-au-Prince. However, many ofﬁces and stores in the capital that had closed Jan. 31 remained shut, or opened only for a few hours, despite government orders to reopen. With foreign investment and contracts threatened, Duvalier Feb. 5 invoked an emergency decree that imposed ﬁnes or prison sentences on owners who refused to open shops or factories.

On the morning of Feb. 2 the government set a six-hour curfew in Cap Haitien to prevent people attending a Roman Catholic mass. The measure underscored the role the church had played as a catalyst for the unrest. Ninety percent of the Haitian population of 5.6 million was Catholic.

By Feb. 4 the unofﬁcial death toll since the demonstrations began in November 1985 was placed at about 65. In many of the demonstrations, protesters had chanted pro-army slogans, and as the unrest continued the army was reported to have broken up demonstrations reluctantly. On the other hand, the Tontons Macoute were reported to be responsible for more than 50 deaths in the capital since Jan. 31.

(A mass grave containing at least 20 human skulls and other bones was shown to reporters Feb. 3. Local residents near the site, 10 miles (16 km) north of the capital, said the graveyard had long been used by the Tontons Macoute to dispose of bodies.)

In related developments:

Neighboring Dominican Republic was reported Feb. 1 to have closed its border with Haiti and reinforced its military strength. President Duvalier Jan. 26 announced a major shake-up in the military. He dissolved the nation's political police force, retired 11 senior ofﬁcers, and replaced the heads of the tactical battalion of the Dessalines Barracks, the Leopards antiguerrilla corps, the air force and the navy.

Modern Language Association (MLA)

Citation: "Duvalier Flees Haiti, Ending 28-Year Family Rule...State of Siege Failed to End Unrest; Other Developments." Facts On File World News Digest 7 Feb. 1986. World News Digest. Facts On File News Services. 5 Aug. 2009 .

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