Word: docs
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Last Friday night Baby Doc Duvalier, the tyrannical "President for Life" of Haiti, left the country for a gilded exile on a U.S. Airforce jet. The Duvalier dynasty, supported for 28 years by a U.S. government that placed more value on supposed stability than decency, had finally collapsed under the weight of its own corruption. Hatians and Americans who want a stable, prosperous Haiti won a round...
...government supported the Duvalier family from its first days in power; we should do what we can now to make amends. The State Department's role in convincing Baby Doc to seek exile was an admirable first step. Having removed the dictator, the U.S. should use its considerable influence to assure that Haiti's new leaders will bring the country democracy--in the form of free elections--rather than a new round of repression...
Without Baby Doc's infamous corruption, the troubled Haitian economy may perk up some. But most of the Haitian workforce is still jobless, unskilled, and poor. Most deaths in Haiti still come from malnutrition and diseases that were wiped out in the developed world decades ago. Ninety percent of Haitians still can't read or write...
With Baby Doc gone these problems may become easier to attack. But they will not just go away...
...Philippines, we now have a chance to atone for that history and do something good. Whether she has 51 or 55 percent of the "official vote," it is time to back Corazon Aquino. Marcos, meanwhile, should be strongly encouraged by his Uncle Sam to do as did "Baby Doc" Duvalier and catch the next plane...