Word: duvalierization
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Indeed, it was the end of a bloody era in Haiti's history. Baby Doc's father Francois Duvalier was a soft-spoken middle-class physician who encouraged Haitian peasants to believe that he possessed magical powers through the use of the country's folk religion, voodoo. Elected President in...
To enforce his rule, Duvalier created the thuggish Tonton Macoutes, Creole for bogeymen. Swaggering through the streets, they terrorized the population, extorted money and tortured and killed untold numbers. In January 1971, Papa Doc decreed that his tubby son Jean-Claude, 19, would succeed him in the presidency. Haitians were...
Many thought the second-generation Duvalier lacked his father's force and intelligence. Still, even as the country's living standard sank progressively under his rule, there was little indication that Jean-Claude might be overthrown. In 1980 he married Michele, a divorcee with two children. Her million-dollar splurges...
Baby Doc's grip began to falter last November when his security forces opened fire on student demonstrators in the coastal town of Gonaives. Three people were killed. The ensuing protests added momentum to a rebellion among young Haitians who saw little chance for improvement in their lives under Duvalier...
At Michele's insistence, Duvalier last Monday motored through Port-au- Prince with his wife at the wheel of a white Jeep. Sharpshooters crouched on rooftops along the route. When Baby Doc returned to the palace, he complained, "It was a masquerade. Without all that security, my life would not...