Haiti: The Duvaliers and Their Legacy

416 Pages·1988·21.667 MB·English

by  Elizabeth Abbott

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HAIT!
THE FIRST INSIDE ACCOUNT
THE
DUVALIEI^S
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HAITI
THE DUVALIERS
AND THEIR LEGACY
ELIZABETH ABBOTT
ThisisthefirstinsideaccountoftheDuvaliers,
fatherandson, andtheirlegacy, whichincludes
therecentelectiondaymassacre, followedbya
five-month experiment in "democracy," and
then the coup d'etat that restored a military
juntato power.
In 1803 the enslaved people ofHaiti van-
quished their French masters after a bloody
warwhich lefttens ofthousandsdead. In 1986
Haitians celebrated another victory, as Baby
Doc Duvalier fled to France, ending three de-
cades ofbrutal dictatorship.
The Duvalier regime slaughtered at least
50,000people, many in the infamous Fort Di-
manche. Duvalierism drove a million Haitians
intoexile,cowedthesixmillionwhoremained,
and tortured hundreds of thousands, often in
thePalacewherePapaDoclivedandraisedhis
son.
TheDuvalierdynasty, begunbyPapaDoc
Duvalierandcontinued by his son. Baby Doc,
hasleftagrimlegacyTodayHaitiissynonymous
with poverty, voodoo, murder, and dictators.
AIDS ravages its people. Water and food are
scarce. Soilerosionandcreepingdesertification
threatentoextinguishlifealtogether.
Yet while the masses suffer, the elite live
and play in an opulent world of tennis courts
andswimmingpools, with staffs ofservantsto
tend their needs. Corruption is rampant, and
increasingly Haitihasbecomeatransitpointin
the international cocaine trade.
This is the legacy of the repressive dic-
tatorship known as Duvalierism. The story of
the Duvalier years is one of degradation and
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Haiti
Digitized by the Internet Archive
2010
in
http://www.archive.org/details/haitiduvaliersthOOabbo
Haiti
The
Duvaliers
and
Their Legacy
Elizabeth Abbott
McGraw-Hill Book Company
New York St. Louis San Francisco Bogota
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Copyright © 1988 by Elizabeth Abbott. All rights reserved. Printed in the
United States ofAmerica. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of
1976,nopartofthispublicationmaybereproducedordistributedinanyform
orbyanymeansorstored inadatabaseorretrievalsystemwithouttheprior
written permissionofthe publisher.
12 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 DOC DOC 8 9 2 109 8
ISBN O-DT-DMbOE^-T
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBUCATION DATA
Abbott, Elizabeth.
Haiti : the Duvalieryears/by ElizabethAbbott,
p. cm.
ISBN 0-—07-046029-9 — —
1. Haiti ^Poli—tics and government 1934-1971. 2. Haiti Politics
and government 1971-1986. 3. Duvaher, Frangois, 1907-1971.
4. Duvalier,Jean-Claude, 1951- I. Title.
F1928.A583 1988
972.94'06—dcl9 88-16918
CIP
Bookdesign by Eve Kirch
Tomy brother Bill Abbott,
with affection and gratitude