Recipe for disaster. Haiti is rudderless, with a great deal of discontent against a givernment that’s gotten millions upon millions in aid and yet somehow failed to pass it all on to the people that need it, post-earthquake.
And now comes Baby Doc, flying to to “help.”
I bet the Tonton Macoutes will be excellent builders. :dubious:
How many Haitians still remember Duvalier rule? I wonder if he’ll try to mount some generalized nostalgic appeal to a sanitized, mythical version of his reign.
On further reflection, though - how important is this? I mean, no one in the international community is going to engage with this bloated, dimwitted excuse for a waste of human tissue. And absent such engagement, he can’t deliver much to his old tonton macoutes, can he?
Jean-Claude Duvalier, son of “Papa Doc” Duvalier and former second-generation dictator of Haiti.
You know, no matter how bad someone was/is there is always a group of people that worships the ground they walk on. I have no doubt that there are people in Haiti that would absolutely love to have Baby Doc back. The question is, are there enough of his loyal followers to restore him to his former status, either legitimately or through force?
Wouldn’t that be a kick in the pants, the restoration of Baby Doc? I can barely think of a worse thing for Obama to have to deal with. If you’re Obama do you continue giving aid, depose the bastard, or actually deal with him in spite of his distinguished history? I’d rather see Aristide, round three.
Jean-Claude Duvalier, dictator of Haiti from 1971-1986. He took over from his father, Francois Duvalier, who, before he became President of Haiti, was a medical doctor, and therefore got the nickname, “Papa Doc”. So, Duvalier the younger, got the nickname “Baby Doc”. The rule of the Duvaliers was pretty awful. They engaged in severe repression (they had a secret police force/private army called the Tonton Macoute, which was pretty much a law unto itself, kidnapping, torturing and killing anyone they thought was a threat), corruption (when Baby Doc was forced to flee, he had millions in Swiss banks, and his wife’s family were major drug traffickers), and horrible mismanagement, and deserve a high place in a dictator’s hall of shame.