Haiti's Stormy Dictatorship
ALEXANDER, ROBERT J.
U.S. bolsters President Duvalier's authoritarian regime HAITI'S STORMY DICTATORSHIP By Robert J. Alexander A YEAR AGO, after his unhappy experiences in South America, Vice President Richard...
...The Government is spending a large portion of its resources on forces of suppression, and is now wasting additional amounts on an attempt to build up an army faithful to the tyrant...
...As recently as this May, it was reported that as many as ten people a night were being killed by them...
...It casts grave doubts upon the assertions by U.S...
...His library, one of the finest in Haiti, was virtually destroyed by the nocturnal raiders, and Bellegarde and members of hi:-family were manhandled...
...it is elementary logic that we must be loyal to them...
...In December 1958, upon the request of Duvalier, the U.S...
...Government officials...
...However, Magloire's maneuvering failed, and the Army finally forced his resignation and flight to Jamaica...
...The Army then proceeded with "elections" in which the only candidate allowed to campaign was Duvalier...
...The Estimee regime also gave some encouragement to the development of small manufacturing establishments...
...The Haitian opposition receives very little encouragement from U.S...
...He completely purged the Army leaders who had placed him in power and reduced the armed forces to impotence...
...Dejoie went into exile, first in the Dominican Republic, where he sought to get help from the Dominican dictator, Rafael Trujillo...
...Duvalier, a dark-skinned man...
...For the first time in half a year, taxes began to be collected again...
...Dejoie is the most conservative of Duvalier's opponents...
...When his body-was turned over to his relatives and his funeral was in progress, the cagoulards seized the body and spirited it off to an unknown burial place...
...authorities threw their full support behind the Duvalier regime...
...Estimee's one weakness was a desire to stay in office too long...
...Once Magloire was overthrown, four candidates for the presidency appeared...
...Dantes Belle-garde, one of the country's leading literary figures and one-time ambassador to Paris and Washington, who has not been active in politics for more than a decade...
...Attempts to bring the various Haitian opposition groups together have not been successful...
...The Estimee regime began a modest program of labor legislation and social welfare...
...The demagoguery of his racism is shown by the presence in his official family of several very light-skinned men...
...Magloire made the same mistake as Estimee...
...Dejoie...
...Duvalier had a scattered following in various parts of the country...
...It is reported that in order to make this agreement effective, Dominican troops are already stationed at various places inside the Haitian frontiers...
...Fignole went into exile in New York City, where he has remained ever since...
...With the rapidly rising tide of neutralism in the Caribbean area and throughout Latin America, this country can ill afford such policies as we are currently following in Haiti...
...Attempts to unite them in a single force have failed, though the Jumelle and Fignole groups are working together at the present time...
...Finally, late in May 1957, the Army placed Fignole in the presidential mansion...
...Such cooperation among the U.S., the new Haitian dictator and the old Dominican tyrant is disgraceful...
...patronage of the dictatorship of President Francois Duvalier of Haiti...
...His regime is one of the most violent and tyrannical dictatorships to appear in Latin America since World War II...
...Late in 1956, as his term of office was ending, he attempted to secure his own re-election, in spite of the fact that he was officially supporting his former Minister of Labor, Clement Jumelle, for the presidency...
...During his nearly four years in office, democratic institutions were founded and flourished, and Estimee began a program of economic development which was long overdue...
...Fignole's Mouvement Ouvrier Pay-san has developed a wide program of economic development, education and social reform...
...with the aid of Camille Lherisson...
...Before leaving, the Marines presided over what was admittedly an honest election, as the result of which Stenio Vincent became President...
...For the first time, real political parties were organized, including a Christian Social party, a Communist party (under the name of Parti Socialiste Populaire) and an Aprista-type, or national revolutionary party, known as the Mouvement Ouvrier Paysan (MOP), headed by Daniel Fignole...
...Dejoie and Jumelle were forced to remain in hiding, and Fignole continued in exile...
...Duvalier has destroyed the army which existed when he came to power, so as to solidify his regime...
...The extent to which he has gone is reflected in his threat to order the murder of every mulatto and white man in the Republic if oppositionist Dejoie, a light mulatto, attempted to make a landing from Cuba on the Haitian coast...
...a medical doctor and one-time minister in the Eslimee cabinet...
...Reeently returned U.S...
...The last nominee was Francois Duvalier...
...One of these was Clement Jumelle...
...Fignole and his associates set machinery in motion to hold honest elections, and the widest degree of freedom of expression was allowed to the supporters of all four presidential nominees...
...General Antoine Kebreau, whom Fignole had promoted from colonel and made chief of staff, ousted his benefactor after less than three weeks...
...In addition to protesting against high-handed measures of the Magloire dictatorship, he introduced a number of bills looking toward the establishment of a broader-based economy...
...The third central labor group was closely allied with Fig-nole's party...
...During most of Estimee's period in office, freedom of the press was respected, and numerous papers representing a variety of points of view were published...
...bolsters President Duvalier's authoritarian regime HAITI'S STORMY DICTATORSHIP By Robert J. Alexander A YEAR AGO, after his unhappy experiences in South America, Vice President Richard Nixon suggested that the United States should have a policy of giving an "abrazo," or embrace, to the democrats of Latin America, and only a handshake to the dictators...
...Unlike many Latin American politicians, he has thought through the implications of political democracy in terms of freedom for one's opponents as well as for one's supporters...
...Proof positive that such is the case is U.S...
...These partisans of the President, operating in the dark of night, made attacks on the homes of people prominent in the opposition, beating up and killing those they found there...
...The tourist trade, an important foreign exchange earner, has declined disastrously since 1956...
...Jumelle stayed in Haiti after the 1957 election, but remained in hiding...
...Duvalier took office in September 1957...
...The basis of a social security system and of a modest low-cost housing program was laid, although neither of these actually got underway until after the overthrow of Estimee...
...A more unfortunate gesture could not be imagined...
...Fignole made good use of his position in Congress...
...He is a one-time teacher, a thoughtful as well as eloquent man...
...Magloire's regime was a dictatorship, though a relatively suave one...
...His anti-Communism is not a matter of convenience, but rather of conviction, and for a dozen years he has been fighting the local Haitian Communists on their own ground, among the country's workers and peasants...
...Duvalier's desperate attempts to reorganize the economy are producing relatively meager results...
...has engaged in demagogic appeals to the Negroes against the mulatto minority and the infinitesimally small white group in Haiti...
...Our policy toward Haiti can help no one but the enemies of the U.S...
...Duvalier has been boss of the small Caribbean Negro republic since his "election" late in 1957...
...The U.S...
...The Dominican tyrant agreed to come to the defense of Duvalier if the Haitian dictatorship was endangered by attacks organized by exiled oppositionists...
...Now he has sought U.S...
...An ex-school teacher...
...Although Fignole lasted only 19 days as chief executive, he gave evidence of being a good deal more than a mere rabble-rouser...
...Early in 1959, before Dejoie's departure for Cuba, a united front was formed among the three factions...
...Most observers agreed that if elections had been held at that time, Fignole would have won...
...This was Fignole, whose popularity in Port-au-Prince was so great that even Magloire was not able to pretend that he had not been elected...
...Among the victims of the cagoulards were two brothers of Jumelle, both of whom were murdered...
...The psychological significance to the Haitian people and to other Latin Americans of a Marine mission in Haiti, a country occupied for a considerable period of time by the Marine Corps, is obvious...
...The President of the Supreme Court, as well as several juntas named by the four presidential candidates, tried their hand at governing the country, but without success...
...He denounces the programs launched by the late President Estimee as "demagoguery" and "socialistic" and claims to be a strong advocate of "free enterprise...
...The cagoulards are still operating in Port-au-Prince and other cities and towns of the Republic...
...Jumelle left a political testament in which he urged his followers to select a new leader, but at the time this is being written, it is not clear who the leader will be...
...He was a "strong man" and held onto the post for a decade, naming his own successor in the person of Elie Lescot, who governed until January 1946...
...officials that this country has learned its lesson and will henceforth use its influence in Latin America on behalf of the democrats and not the dictators...
...At the same time, one opposition member of Congress was allowed to hold his seat...
...A labor movement was also established, and the trade unions were organized into three central labor bodies...
...His forced residence in New York has added considerably to his sophistication, and has made him more conscious than formerly of the connection between the struggle in Haiti and the broader fight for democracy in Latin America...
...Not only have they made sizable funds available to Duvalier...
...The political significance is equally bad...
...Early in 1959, he took refuge in an embassy in Port-au-Prince...
...a well-known doctor who had worked many years in the countryside, began organizing support among the peasants as well as among the small merchants of Port-au-Prince...
...Meanwhile, the country faces a serious financial and economic crisis...
...The Administration seems to have paid but little attention to the Vice President's suggestion...
...which ousted Estimee, and installed in his place Colonel Paul Magloire...
...He then went to New York, where he remained until a few weeks after the fall of Batista, when he went to Cuba...
...This move provoked another Army coup in May 1950...
...aid in building up an army which will help him perpetuate himself in power...
...Lescot's successor, who came to power as the result of a revolution engineered by a combination of young military men and civilians, was Dumarsais Estimee...
...A minimum wage of 70 cents a day was established...
...He is a convinced democrat, and has proved his democratic bona fides both in opposition and during his 6hort period in power, during which he allowed the widest criticism of his regime by his opponents...
...However, when he got to Cuba, Dejoie sought to establish himself as the only leader of the opposition, repudiated the agreement he had made in New York, and expelled Lherisson, his New York representative, from his party because of Lherisson's unwillingness to break with Fignole and the followers of Jumelle...
...but they have responded favorably to his request for military aid...
...The story of contemporary Haiti goes back at least to the occupation of the country by U.S...
...His program consists largely of promises to "restore order" to Haiti if and when he becomes president...
...All four candidates were very active in seeking support throughout the country...
...dispatched a military mission to Haiti, composed of Marines...
...Marines, which ended in the early 1930s...
...One of these was more or less associated with the Parti Socialiste Populaire, another was affiliated with the Confederation Interamericana de Trabajadores (of which the American Federation of Labor was the largest member...
...However, the trade-union movement was allowed to reorganize and was permitted to function so long as it caused no embarrassment to the regime...
...There he has sought aid for a military invasion of his homeland...
...Although Duvalier at first had an unfriendly relationship with Trujillo, and both General Kebreau and opposition leader Dejoie sought Trujillo's aid against Duvalier, the two neighboring dictators soon had a meeting of minds...
...After some hesitation, the U.S...
...Haiti being an overwhelmingly agricultural country, the economic development program consisted principally of irrigation projects designed to bring more land into cultivation...
...He set about to establish a personal dictatorship...
...He did not allow freedom of the press, and political parties could function only illegally...
...tourists have reported shooting in the streets of the capital in the middle of the night...
...The second was a prominent merchant and small industrialist, Louis Dejoie, who had been a senator during the Magloire period...
...already exceedingly popular among the workers of the towns, toured the rural areas, where he also became widely popular...
...Shortly afterwards he died, reportedly because he was unable to obtain necessary medical aid...
...The Dominican Republic is doing the same...
...They even attacked the home of octagenarian Dr...
...Late in 1958 an agreement was signed between Trujillo and Duvalier...
...Fignole is by all odds the most attractive of the Haitian opposition leaders...
...He attempted to obtain a modification of the Constitution to permit his own re-election...
...is not the only foreign power that is bolstering the Duvalier regime...
...The first six months of 1957 were marked by frequent changes in the government...
...If we want the democrats of the other nations of the hemisphere to be loyal to us...
...Estimee presided over the most democratic regime Haiti has ever known...
...The third candidate was Fignole, founder of the MOP party and organizer of some of the country's first trade unions...
...It is one of the four remaining strong-arm regimes in the hemisphere...
...Fignole has a deep faith in the ability of the Haitian people to establish a working democracy if given the right kind of leadership...
...This program stresses the extension of irrigation and drainage to make new lands available for cultivation, the development of a modern transportation and communications network, and the modest development of manufacturing industries based on local raw materials...
...Jumelle had a solid base among the organized workers of Port-au-Prince and other important towns...
...The opposition is divided into three principal groups, those of the 1957 presidential candidates, Jumelle, Dejoie and Fignole...
...Fignole is the leader with the largest popular following in Haiti...
...Fignole...
...In their place, he organized a group of civilians, the so-called cagoulards, or "hooded ones...
Vol. 42 • June 1959 • No. 25
