The Monkey's Tail Still Strong

Hooper, Micheal

IN RECENT WEEKS SOLDIERS FROM THE Casernes Dessalines and the U.S.-trained strike force known as the Leopards have been shooting down demonstrators without provocation and carrying out nightly...

...When Congress resumed military aid to Haiti in September 1986, authorization was conditioned on ending human rights abuses by the armed forces, ensuring freedom of speech and assembly, investigating and prosecuting those responsible for past rights violations and requiring that former Tonton Macoutes turn in their weapons...
...4. Author's interview with Robert Duval, president, League of Former Political Prisoners, Port-au-Prince, May 1986...
...The events ended a three-month hiatus in the tumult following the overthrow of the Duvalier dictatorship on February 7, 1986...
...Six civilians were reported dead and more than fifty wounded...
...Scorned by much of the middle-class opposition, he gained considerable respect among the poor as one of the most persecuted opposition leaders in Haiti...
...By the time 19-year-old JeanClaude Duvalier had succeeded his father in 1971, there was no clear distinction between the Duvalier family and the Haitian government...
...Since February 7, 1986, U.S...
...Even so, few experts predicted the Duvaliers' imminent ouster when, on November 28 of that year, troops shot and killed four schoolchildren in the coastal city of Gonaives...
...The violence exploded over the cooperative's increasing demands for land reform and the return of land allegedly stolen by local Tonton Macoutes under the Duvaliers...
...The Ministry of Social Affairs, charged with mediating worker-management disputes, works closely with employer organizations and has refused to defend workers' constitutional right to organize...
...His current pot pourri of "Christian social-democracy and capitalism" is said to find favor in conservative Haitian and diplomatic circles...
...human rights delegation that this kind of response was appropriate "if people demonstrated and didn't behave correctly.' " DURING THE SUMMER OF 1986, THE CNG moved to eliminate Haiti's infant trade union movement...
...S UCH ACTIONS AND THE WAVE OF TERror that followed carried many of the trademarks of the Duvalier era...
...Like those described above, both candidacies would be based more on the men's reputations than on any political platform...
...Instead, this movement has concentrated on grassroots education and elections from below to prepare the population for local and parliamentary polls...
...But by mid-1985, what had for 29 years seemed an unassailable fortress turned up riddled with fault lines...
...IN RECENT WEEKS SOLDIERS FROM THE Casernes Dessalines and the U.S.-trained strike force known as the Leopards have been shooting down demonstrators without provocation and carrying out nightly raids on the crowded slums outside Port-au-Prince...
...Over the years, Washington encouraged Baby Doc to periodically allow the winds of liberalization to REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 24blow...
...With scores of affiliates in industry, the transport sector and peasant cooperatives, the banning of CATH in June sparked the recent constitutional crisis...
...At times, officers had to bow to lower-ranking Duvalierist cadres, while soldiers were rewarded for fidelity to the President-forLife and zeal in combatting his opponents...
...Social Christian Party of Haiti (PSCH)--Gregoire Eugene, president...
...On July 23, they organized a march to protest landowners' efforts--enforced by Macoutes-to hold on to choice lands and harass members...
...These cronies of Papa Doc re- mained loyal to his widow, Simone, and to strongman Roger Lafontant-who as Minister of the Interior and Na- tional Defense dominated Haiti until September 1985-- rather than to Jean-Claude...
...On June 28, a regular Army unit killed a crew's guide outright...
...In addition, the military government sets the by-laws under which a party must function, and may take over the property of parties declared suspended or dissolved...
...Some individuals identifying themselves as journalists circulate with bags of rocks on their backs and others identified with 'Press' signs...
...Although the blue-uniformed Macoutes carried out the bulk of the repression, others worked as civilian government employees, businessmen, voodoo priests and transportation workers...
...The last week in July left 24 dead and many others seriously injured.' The High Command of the Haitian Army broke its silence in a July 30 communique explaining the killings...
...The Army has now resumed the Duvalierist practice of threatening foreign and Haitian journalists-with bullets...
...On July 29, crews from CBS, CNN and the Christian Science Monitor were targeted...
...This popular movement initially called for the dechoukaj of Duvalierists, but is now unified around the notion of Rache manydk, the total uprooting of Duvalierism itself...
...T HERE WAS NO NEED TO INTRODUCE THE Army officers to whom Baby Doc passed the baton on February 7, 1986...
...On April 26, Army troops fired on peaceful, unarmed marchers outside Fort Dimanche, the infamous military barracks where thousands of political prisoners were held during the Duvaliers' 29-year rule...
...These were followed by harsh crackdowns as the population tested his promises of participation and democracy...
...Traditional property holders-supported by peasants and former Tonton Macoutes in their employ-were pitted against the Tet Ansam (Heads Together) peasant collective, supported by activist Catholic clergy...
...N MSH MAY/JUNE 1987 27R"4orts, t4 A* e"a Haiti onstration by assembling heavy automatic weapons atop the two-story building...
...Now, the United States is said to want elections at any cost, an ultimatum understood in Haiti to mean the U.S...
...Democratic Movement for the Liberation of Haiti (MODEL)-Louis-Eugene Athis, president...
...T HE EVENTS WHICH TRIGGERED THE RESignation of Professor Gerard Gourgue exemplify the sorry state of human rights in post-Duvalier Haiti...
...Real military power rested, as it does today, in the commanders of the Casernes Dessalines, the "Leopards," the Fort Dimanche Casernes, the Presidential Guard and the military police, each of which have effectively independent command structures stemming from the presidency...
...Comprised of 284 national and local organizations, The National Congress of Democratic Movements (Konakom) was founded in early 1987...
...House of Representatives, Section 203 of Foreign Assistance Act, "Promoting Democracy in Haiti," September 25, 1986...
...diplomats argue that this one-dimensional policy furthers U.S...
...Prior to these incidents, public pressure had resulted in a considerably increased range of freedoms for both the press and political parties...
...Parties with any religious or trade union affiliation are proscribed...
...Hopes focus on local elections scheduled for this November, which are also seen as a test of the CNG...
...interests and encourages the long-term development of democracy in Haiti...
...In fact, they are without exception self-appointed and largely without social base...
...Although he made tactical alliances with youth groups from 1984-1986, gaining grudging respect as a repentent Duvalierist, he has since been eclipsed...
...Other rumored hopefuls include president of the Haitian League for Human Rights, Gerard Gourgue, and former Duvalier associate and darling of the Right, Clovis Desinor...
...7 The July 23, 1987 massacre of at least 300 peasants in the barren hills near the northwestern city of Jean Rabel-an impoverished region from which many Haitian refugees in the United States have fled-was the most recent and horrifying example...
...The coup de grice was delivered to the dictatorship by two of its closest allies...
...The Benoits had been granted permission to lay a wreath paying tribute to the many prisoners who died at Fort Dimanche...
...The Reagan Administration has continued to certify that the CNG is "liberalizing" and improving respect for human rights in order to justify continued foreign assistance to Haiti...
...These decrees parallel the Duvaliers' 1980 press law and the political parties law of 1985...
...Much of the intrigue that ensued in 1986-1987 involving a broad spectrum of political leaders and the middle class can perhaps best be understood as an attempt to catch up with and control this amorphous and effective popular revolt...
...A Baptist minister, Claude was repeatedly thrown in jail from 1979 to 1985...
...He has considerable support in the southern regions around Cayos, Jeremie and Jacmel, but is largely unknown elsewhere...
...The Port-au-Prince Bar Association, alarmed by efforts to censor the press and limit political activity, suggested that military authorities were overstepping their boundaries, since no laws should have been MAY/JUNE 1987 29R Haiti Af Haiti Bringing Down Baby N ADDITION TO WAVE UPON WAVE OF peaceful protest, Haitians with access to the Duvalier inner circle agree that a crucial factor in bringing down the dictator was dissent and fragmentation within the ranks of the old guard "dinosaurs...
...The inclusion of Professor Gerard Gourgue as Minister of Justice and Professor Rosny Desroches as Minister of Education initially lent the cabinet considerable credibility...
...Several thousand were attacked by a large group of machete-wielding peasants and former Tonton Macoutes as they walked near the Jean Rabel River...
...Each party must submit the names and addresses of some 5,000 members to be legalized...
...Williams Regalaappointed to the crucial post of interior and defense minister-and Col...
...For years, Athis organized Haitian refugees in the Dominican Republic and forged close ties with many Dominican politicians...
...The March 1987 Constitution formally guarantees freedom of the press and political parties...
...Henri Namphy nominally leads the CNG lomatic experience working for the World Bank and considerable notoriety as the finance minister Baby Doc couldn't tolerate because of his efforts to curb corruption and initiate fiscal reform...
...Buckling under Haiti's increasing diplomatic isolation, some within the power elite began to withdraw overt support for the President-for-Life.E MSH *Frangois Duvalier reduced the term Noirisme, first coined by Aim6 Cdsaire, to a combined critique of white (and mulatto) col- onial domination with assertions about the originality and creativ- ity (read superiority) of "African" ways of life...
...Independent Union of Haitian Workers (CATH/ CLAT)-Georges Fortune, president...
...All parties must be registered to participate in elections scheduled for November 1987...
...Privately, U.S...
...As Catholics became increasingly outspoken, Lafontant initiated a campaign of intimidation against the Church and insisted on harsh edicts banning opposition political activity and muzzling what was left of the press...
...previously 18,000 members were required...
...In creating islands of military power, the Duvaliers were able to exploit their overlapping and conflicting roles, thereby preventing the regular Army from establishing any independence...
...Most of its members work in state enterprises and are often unaware that they belong to a union...
...Behind gossip about mulatto/black tensions, it should be remembered that the old Duvalier elite only became seriously disenchanted when the Duvalier-Bennett clan had so dominated the corruption network that little was left for the faithful...
...Although Baby Doc declared that his rule was "as strong as a monkey's tail," the end was in sight...
...With no leaders to eliminate, no program to seize and no formal means of communication, the movement proved the catalyst for Baby Doc's ouster and is now demanding the replacement of the CNG...
...3. Author's interview with members of the Haitian Bar Association, Port-au-Prince, July-August 1987...
...In response, the military police fired into the crowd...
...However, Gourgue's tenure on the cabinet would last less than two months...
...On March 19, 1986 five civilians were shot dead and another 19 severely beaten in Martissant by the elite batallion known as the "Leopards...
...Duvalier's Prosper Avril remains on CNG Those Who Would Be President "Rache manybk, bay ti-a blanch"-"we will pull up the deepest roots of Duvalierism until Haiti is finally cleansed"--said Bishop Willy Romulus of Jdrdmie in a sermon last month...
...Only after scores lay dead or injured was tear gas used to disperse the remaining protestors...
...The United States is seen in Haiti as promoting the forms of democracy-symbolic elections-without encouraging significant efforts to promote the democratic institutions required to give substance to these forms...
...Meanwhile, the international press continues to over- play the "leading presidential candidates" and their parties...
...The Army High Command deserted the President-for-Life in part because of the protesters' appeals, in part because of the wanton character of the slaughter and in part because of the chance to rid itself of the Tonton Macoutes...
...Namphy expressed regret, but declined responsibility and blamed it on "agitators and provocateurs...
...At least 14,000 workers were fired or locked out in the assembly industry alone, most of them because of efforts to unionize...
...5. Quoted in Michael S. Hooper, Duvalierism Without Duvalier, (New York: National Coalition for Haitian Refugees and Americas Watch, October 1986) p. 19...
...A physician, Lafontant took pleasure in personally interrogating and beating detainees in Casernes Dessalines...
...Largely peaceful, this campaign of refusal and regeneration was led by unknowns and ignored by the elite and foreign embassies until it could not be stopped...
...In a communique released the next day, the Ministry of Interior and National Defense characterized the actions of the armed forces as a "normal reaction of the troops who were defending access to the Fort Dimanche Casernes against an invasion effort . . ." Gen...
...Within six weeks of the dictator's flight, all his closest associates had left Haiti, many with considerable fortunes...
...In December 1985, the French press published accounts of Michble's "astronomical" spending spree in Paris, even as Haiti "reeled from a shortage of fuel and foreign exchange...
...The Unified Haitian Communist Party (PUCH), headed by the dynamic Ren6 Throdore, was formed in 1969 through a merger of the Popular Unity Party (PEP) and the Popular Party of National Liberation (PPLN...
...Several hundred Haitians were shot outright or killed in prison during this two-year campaign targetting anyone loosely associated with the Unified Haitian Communist Party (PUCH...
...Michale Bennett's behavior after her 1980 marriage to Baby Doc did much to offend the old guard of Noirisme...
...Embassy in abandoning Baby Doc to avoid a greater bloodbath and to consolidate what was left of the regime...
...This tension between the old guard and the Bennetts also played itself out on the stage of daily politics, particularly during Lafontant's harsh tenure...
...Max Adolphe;* secret police head Colonel Albert Pierre...
...Some troops took up posts behind bushes while others stood in formation in front of the main gate, loaded rifles in hand...
...Almost all Rural Section Chiefs and other local officials were Macoutes, as were members of the more powerful secret societies...
...Tet Ansam had grown in strength, successfully organizing a number of alternative irrigation and marketing projects which encroached on the gran dons' (landowners) economic monopoly...
...Since Duvalier's fall, it appears that the Army has been unwilling or unable to challenge the arbitrary power of these groups...
...Until his arrest by the secret police in 1984, de Ronceray held a number of ministerial posts under both Papa and Baby Doc...
...The Paths to Democracy," Remarks of the Honorable Elliott Abrams, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, to Washington World Affairs Council, National Press Club, Washington D.C., June 30, 1987...
...Movement to Install Democracy in Haiti (MIDH)-Marc Bazin, president...
...He was brutally assassinated along with two MODEL members on August 2, 1987 in the rural town of Opec near Leogane...
...6. Author's interview with Col...
...Men such as Clovis Desinor, who served in Papa Doec's cabinet for 13 years, felt pinched by a new elite...
...In an August 6 letter to U.S...
...Critics fear this provision may be directed at the many fledgling newspapers and magazines which sprung up after the Duvaliers' ouster, making it impossible for many of them to operate...
...The soldiers were attempting to disperse a crowd angered by the arrest of a tap-tap driver who was accused by an Army Captain of passing his vehicle illegally.* The following day, a Leopard unit killed two more civilians in Carrefour, where roadblocks had been erected to protest the killings...
...and notorious Macoute executioners Elous Maitre and Lyonel Wooley and others were all allowed to flee...
...25 MAY/JUNE 1987Repat0 4 Amrcfas4 Haiti regime would be based on "absolute respect for human rights, press freedom, the existence of free labor unions and the functioning of structured political parties...
...The popular refusal to work with existing political parties and candidates is absolute...
...There has been no attempt to determine the extent of past human rights violations, the identity of those who committed them or the security forces' role...
...Namphy regularly reiterates these promises...
...The Monkey's Tail Still Strong 1. Author's Interviews with Center for Defense of Public Liberties, Mobile Institute for Democratic Education and League of Former Political Prisoners (human rights organizations), Portau-Prince, July 24-August 1, 1987...
...At the same time, Kennedy urged that the United States not certify human rights improvement in Haiti...
...4 The demonstration, which followed a mass and prayer march, was called by the League of Former Political Prisoners to commemorate the 1963 massacre of Benoit family members in Jeremie...
...In 1986, U.S...
...popular demands for profound structural changes by overtly supporting the military junta...
...Junta strongman Col...
...Assembly of National Progressive Democrats (RDNP)--Leslie Manigat, president...
...Three principal trade union federations representing very different ideological tendencies are now organizing in both rural and urban areas...
...Two non-traditional parties deserve mention as more than mere vehicles for individual presidential candidates...
...Bazin gained considerable dipGen...
...Senat has initiated substantial reforms, and the union has undertaken legitimate organizing drives...
...power has been exercised by Col...
...Newspaper accounts and eyewitnesses reported that the march was among Haiti's most peaceful and best organized...
...During the "liberalization" of 1979-1980, CATH successfully organized workers at several state-owned enterprises and in foreignowned assembly industries...
...W ITH FEW EXCEPTIONS, ONLY OFFICERS loyal to Duvalier and his inner circle have traditionally wielded any real authority within the military...
...Manigat spent most of his adult life in exile as a university professor in Venezuela...
...Article 6 requires journalists to reveal their sources, limiting their ability to collect news and information by subjecting informants to possible arbitrary reprisal...
...The Army High Command exercised only nominal authority over the officer corps...
...Henri Namphy, real *Prior to the Duvaliers' departure, the Tonton Macoutes (Volunteers for National Security, or VSN) were the single most pervasive force in rural Haiti...
...Much less is known about continuing human rights abuses in the countryside, where 75% of the Haitian population lives...
...Despite the clearance, the family was turned away, and the crowd began to chant...
...National Agricultural and Industrial Party (PAIN) -Louis D6joie II, president...
...2. Miami Herald, December 23, 1985...
...market, including shoe, sportswear and electronic assembly operations, have been among the first to fire scores of employees attempting to unionize...
...On June 30 Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Elliott Abrams spoke at length about the sanctity of the electoral calendar in Haiti without once mentioning the recent wave of killings...
...In retrospect, this last blood bath washed away Baby Doc's remaining legitimacy and united the population in taking unprecedented risks to oust him...
...Reagan Administration spokesperson Larry Speakes was premature in announcing the Duvaliers' departure on January 31, 1986...
...The movement has found expression in the Catholic Church, especially the Ti legliz (Christian Base Communities) and in a range of increasingly militant youth groups throughout Haiti...
...These journalists carry weapons and shoot at demonstrators...
...The only union allowed to function under Baby Doc, FOS's only active affiliate was the Macoute-dominated Transport Workers Union...
...support is unflagging, so long as elections are delivered...
...Mounting opposition forced the CNG to regroup on March 24, 1986...
...Crushed in a secret police crackdown in 1980, CATH is currently the most active union, taking highly visible positions on issues not limited to organized labor...
...Embassy has remained silent, despite Caribbean Basin Initiative requirements that internationally recognized labor rights be respected...
...Soldiers have routinely confiscated film and fired shots to scare jourREPORT ON THE AMERICAS 28Street boys play after rainstorm in front of presidential palace nalists away from gruesome security force murders...
...This resulted in a whirlwind cabinet reshuffling and public recriminations between ministers and especially, between old-guard Duvalierists and the newly ascendant merchants and business people around the Bennetts...
...IKE THE PRESS STATUTE, THE JULY 1986 political parties law is a refurbished version of Duvalier's restrictive decree...
...policy-makers have undermined the very electoral process they champion...
...Also prominent initially was civilian Alix Cineas, Duvalier's minister of public works, who insiders simply called the "bagman" because of his knack for transferring misappropriated funds overseas...
...Many rural areas are still controlled by Tonton Macoutes and other Duvalierists and serious human rights violations continue, despite the fact that the 22,000-member Macoutes were officially disbanded and forced into hiding after Duvalier left...
...While living lavishly himself, Desinor deplores the "money everywhere and the lining of pockets...
...In urban areas, workers' demands for pay increases and improved working conditions have been met with hostility from employers and intimidation by thugs believed to be former Tonton Macoutes...
...Yet violence by uniformed armed forces has escalated...
...Tonton Macoutes Commander Mme...
...Military police at Fort Dimanche prepared for the dem*Tap-taps, colorfully decorated trucks converted to haul passen- gers, are Haiti's most common means of transportation...
...Cineas was ousted and Frangois Latortue-who had established solid anti-Duvalierist credentials in exile-replaced Gourgue as Minister of Justice...
...After graduating from the Military Academy in 1959, he quickly climbed the Army ladder, becoming increasingly influential in a group of officials who acted as a secret police...
...However, congressional concern has not been echoed by the State Department...
...military advisers were sent to train Haitian security forces...
...Arguments broke out within the regime over who was best serving the interests of Duvalier and his "revolution...
...Nominally led by Duvalier's Army chief of staff, Lt...
...If anything resembling a fair electoral process is to be structured, the two principal groups now at a stalematethe Army and the Konakom/Group of 57-could also be expected to enter the fray...
...Hundreds were killed...
...Bringing Down Baby 1. The Guardian, (London) January 25, 1986...
...Yet the public views the electoral process with deep mistrust, particularly given the track records of the parties and candidates and the June 22 takeover of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), the only structure which suggested that elections might in any way reflect the popular will...
...Williams Regala told a visiting U.S...
...Peasant and work-place organizations also constitute significant political forces in Haiti today...
...Regala on January 5, 1987 in what marked the beginning of a sharp right turn...
...Its active members are few, and PUCH is still searching for a more viable role in Haiti...
...Hooper, Duvalierism, p. 49...
...He resigned under pressure to protest Army killings and the CNG's uncanny ability to look the other way as Duvalierist criminals slipped out of the country...
...Both had earned solid reputations working to curb the worst excesses of Duvalierism, Gourgue as president of the Haitian League for Human Rights and Desroches as a widely respected educator...
...Williams Regala, Port-auPrince, May 19, 1986...
...9. Author's interview with editor of leading Haitian daily newspaper, Port-au-Prince, February 1987...
...FOS has been particularly hard-hit by Finance Minister Delatour's closing of state enterprise, and has supported Konakom and the Group of 57 in the recent crises...
...Certain demonstrators approached the soldiers, evidently intending to disarm them...
...3. Author's interview, Commission on Public Finance, May 20, 1987...
...The mulatto Bennett clan lived ostentatiously--the wedding celebration cost some $1 million--and resentment grew as they successfully monopolized access to the spoils of power...
...FOS receives financial subsidies from AFL-CIO's American Institute for Free Labor Development and the National Endowment for Democracy...
...One independent editor, Dieudonne Fardin, of the weekly Le Petit Samedi Soir, calls it a system of self-censorship which he considers an inevitable legacy of decades of repression...
...Exiled in 1980, Eugene was allowed to return to Haiti in 1985...
...Moreover, the CNG has inspired little confidence in its human rights policies...
...Under pressure, he apparently REPORT ON THE AMERICAS P_agreed to register his party and receive start-up funds from Duvalier, who in a last minute bid to retain power bowed to Washington's demands for reform...
...Prosper Avril, Duvalier's personal military adviser who holds no formal government position...
...Yet the CNG has taken few demonstrable steps to transcend the Duvalier legacy of terror, cronyism and corruption...
...In so doing, it joined the U.S...
...This phrase perhaps best symbolizes the parameters of the popular movement in Haiti today: consensus on the need to uproot the system of privileges, corruption and terror has become the yardstick by which all politics are now judged and for which many are clearly making extraordinary sacrifices...
...1 2 The Haitian military seems to have interpreted this as a sign that U.S...
...But, after having legitimized the junta, both Latortue and Desroches were forced out by Col...
...For this group, Negritude, or Noirisme, provided a relatively small black middle class, for whom continued privilege presupposed complete loyalty, with the opportunity for previously unimMichele and Jean-Claude's wedding cost $1 million passed before the new constitution was adopted...
...He also criticized human rights activists such as Gerard Gourgue, who had condemned the killings...
...Companies producing goods for the U.S...
...Article 1 of the law extends the definition of press--as did the 1980 version--to bookstores and printing facilities, so that book vendors and printers can be prosecuted for selling material which violates the statute...
...The personal and institutional excesses of Lafontant and Secret Police Chief Albert Pierre drew international condemnation...
...9 Similarly, many of the best known editors supplement their earnings with government jobs that require little effort...
...This would lay the groundwork for the eventual development of national political groupings...
...Regala, who promoted himself to brigadier general in March 1987, personifies the current leadership's close ties to the old regime and its repressive ways...
...Army efforts to take over the electoral process in June then spawned the Group of 57, which has been pushed to the forefront of the opposition by continuing of- ficial violence and disregard for the March constitution...
...7. Estimates on the number of Macoutes vary from 9,00040,000...
...trump cards have all been handed to Generals Regala and 30REPORT ON THE AMERICAS REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 30It would be difficult to exaggerate the depth of Haiti's poverty Namphy, and that support for the junta will not waver, human rights violations notwithstanding...
...A bi-partisan appeal has also called for an end to military aid...
...The same goons later tried to remove wounded Tet Ansam members from the local hospital...
...Author's interview with human rights groups, Port-auPrince, July 25, 1987...
...The Popular Unity Bloc (BIP) is a small coalition of three parties led by Serge Gilles, who has strong ties to the French Socialist Party...
...Even so, the CNG insists that its restrictive press and political parties laws of July 1986 are still on the books...
...The elder D6joie lost to Duvalier in the 1957 elections, and his son has been content to trumpet the slogans of his father...
...Affiliates include at least 16 industrial and 14 peasant groupings, with approximately 5,400 members...
...Although the Tonton Macoutes were formally dissolved after Duvalier's departure, in practice they remain armed and dominate many rural areas...
...By eliminating independent political parties, unions, media and rule of law, Duvalierism gave birth to a new form of passive resistance...
...Toward the end, he took to denouncing the policies of the young Duvalier as "an insult to misery...
...Claude's politics have been eclipsed during the past two years by new forms of popular organizing...
...Secretary of State George Shultz, Senator Edward M. Kennedy called for an immediate end to military aid to Haiti, to be followed by a suspension of economic aid unless progress is made...
...At least 28 were shot dead and 110 wounded in late June...
...In refusing to require that the CNG respect fundamental human rights during the pre-election period, Haitians feel that U.S...
...Mobilization Party for National Development (PMDN)-Hubert de Ronceray, president...
...He is believed to have taken part in the mass murder of unarmed civilians at Jeremie in 1964.3 Regala also appears to have played a key rolealong with secret police chief Luc Desyr and Casernes Dessalines Commander Breton Claude-in the bloody "drive against the communists," which began in 1969...
...Many have coexisted with Duvalierism for much of their lives, and the best-known internationally are all friendly to the CNG and Washington...
...2 Back in Port-auPrince, she threw an extravagent wedding for her personal interior decorator and fashion adviser, Jean Sambour, partially paid for by the government...
...aid has virtually doubled to $110 million...
...Moreover, there has been no indication that security forces will be prosecuted for future abuses...
...A deepening economic crisis and defections from close supporters feuding over government spoils had already done serious damage...
...POLICY TOward Haiti has been designed to keep a lid on agined wealth and arbitrary power.* By.the end of the Duvalier era, 700 families dominated Haitian economic and political life...
...He declared a state of siege, ordering his Macoutes* and the Army into the streets...
...These "interests" are usually expressed as maximizing stability and obtaining the cooperation of the Haitian government in halting the continuing flight of refugees to the United States...
...Most of the officers dominating the National Government Council (CNG) today were among those responsible for enforcing Duvalier's reign of terror...
...Reagan's snub of the popular movements while actively supporting the CNG partly explains growing anti-American sentiment in Haiti...
...Prior to Baby Doc's departure, Washington praised his referenda and excused his human rights record...
...Further, "certain terrorist elements . . . trained in Cuba, have re-entered the country as boat people and are using weapons previously smuggled in . . or hidden in bags of rice brought from abroad [sic].' ' These killings accompanied a crisis which began on June 22 when a clique of Army officers controlling the government took over the pending electoral process and banned Haiti's most active trade union, the Autonomous Haitian Workers Union (CATH...
...Contrary to claims made by Fort Dimanche Commander Captain Isidore Pognon, no stones were thrown at officers before the first shots were fired...
...The new law grants the justice minister power to accredit political parties or order their suspension...
...Early in the Duvalier years, Macoutes replaced commanders considered unreliable...
...2. Press Advisory of the High Command of the Armed Forces of Haiti, Port-au-Prince, July 30, 1987...
...Formed in a 1986 split from CATH over leadership questions, CATH/CLAT keeps close ties to the conservative Latin American Confederation of Labor (CLAT...
...Leading journalists report that the Duvalierist system of government subsidies and inflated advertising fees for "cooperative and responsible publications" continues under the CNG...
...Federation of Unionized Workers (FOS)-Joseph Senat, president...
...Demands for Rache manydk and the rejection of the presidential candidates have led to the development of two interrelated coalitions-indirectly supported by the Church and youth groups--which have given a national voice to the movement...
...Created soon after Papa Doc took power, the VSN grew to at least twice the size of the armed forces...
...This popular movement developed into Operation Dechoukaj, the Creole term for the movement to uproot and sweep away the old order...
...He boasted of his role in crushing the infant Christian Democratric Party of Sylvio Claude, and forcing the League for Human Rights to halt all meaningful activity...
...Haitian Christian Democratic Party (PDCH--Sylvio Claude, president...
...The Independent Union of Haitian Workers (CATH)-Yves Richard, president...
...8 Clergy and reporters who tried to visit the area were blocked for five days by the same gangs...
...In addition to the 300 believed dead, many more were seriously wounded...
...Three days after taking power, junta president Henri Namphy declared that his *Rosalie Bousquet, wife of Papa Doc's health minister Max Adolphe, now deceased...
...8. Associated Press, July 25, 1987 18:33EDT...
...The continuity of the "Duvalier revolution" was not only based on terror for all perceived opponents, but also on the creation of a political class to monopolize government posts and state contracts...
...When a political regime does not know the limits of its actions, it becomes an autocratic regime," the attorneys observed.'o SINCE DUVALIER'S FALL, U.S...
...Article 10 stipulates that print and broadcast media may only hire licensed journalists...
...The Duvaliers eliminated all institutions representing meaningful ideological pluralism: political parties, a free press and trade unions...
...The U.S...
...Between 1981-1985, Sambour received payments and transfers totalling $109 million as a courier taking money out of the country for the Duvaliers.' After the Bennett ascension, the Duvaliers' claim to have made a political revolution to benefit middle-class blacks was difficult to sustain...

Vol. 21 • May 1987 • No. 3


 
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