Word: duvalierization
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Reign of Terror. The son of an impoverished Port-au-Prince schoolteacher, Duvalier studied at the University of Haiti medical school. A member of a U.S.-sponsored medical team in the Haitian interior during the 1940s, he became aware of the grip that voodoo holds on the rural masses. After...
At first, Duvalier was able to parlay his anti-Communist credentials into sizable aid grants from the U.S. But he squandered much of the funds on grandiose prestige projects like the model city of Duvalierville, now a collection of decaying buildings overgrown by jungle. The U.S. finally cut all but...
In 1964, Duvalier declared himself President for Life. He held on to power by playing off one faction against another. With terrifying regularity, he sent his aides from palace to prison, and from there often to either foreign exile or execution. After a kidnaping attempt on two of his children...
Occult Powers. Duvalier began to build a personality cult. The Lord's Prayer was rewritten. "Our Doc," the revised version went, "who art in the National Palace, hallowed be thy name." He boasted that he was a statesman of the same caliber as Charles de Gaulle and demanded homage...
Haiti's neighbors braced for trouble. The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, put its border troops on a full alert. In Washington, the State Department conceded that the U.S. had increased naval and air surveillance of the sea approaches to Haiti. Since the island...