Haiti Is a Picturesque Country of the Caribbean, Essay Example

Haiti is a picturesque country of the Caribbean, it is situated on the island of Hispaniola bordering to the Dominican Republic. The beginning of its history is full of colonized action and on the first of January 1804 it proclaimed it’s independence from France. Starting from that period it did not have rulers for long periods of time, all proclaimed themselves authoritarian. These matters are the footstone of the way that Francois Duvalier ruled in Haiti.

Francois Duvalier was born on the 14^th of April 1907 in Port-au-Prince, he was a child of a middle class family. His grandfather was a tailor, his father Duval Duvalier was a teacher of a local school and at the same time was a judge in a municipal court, and his mother Ullyssia Abraham was a worker at a bakery with unstable mental problems. Francois mother lived in an asylum until her death in 1921. Among the factors that influenced the cruel behavior of the future dictator may be the fact of an ill mother, which could have psychologically influenced his childhood and later resulted to irrational cruelty. In 1915 U.S. president Woodrow Wilson commands the U.S. Marines to occupy Haiti and take under control the port authorities and custom houses. American troops create the Haitian National Guard and conduct various activities in creating infrastructure in Haiti in order to attract U.S. companies and capital. This infrastructure is created by the Haitian peasants forced into labor, to be exact, forced into constructing roads across the country and buildings. Francois Duvalier observed these acts and the growth of resistance among the peasants lead by Charlemagne Peralt, who in 1919 was assassinated by the U.S. Marines. In his youth he already had nationalism-orientated views, he believed that the traditions of the Haitian African people should be maintained and preserved, so he took an active part in the intellectual Griot movement starting from the 1930s. This was a result to the repressions over the majority black population by the elite “mulatto”, mixed-race people. The African population lived beyond the poor merge, emotionally impacting on the young Duvalier. In 1934 the U.S. military forces in Haiti withdraw, leaving only the Haitian Armed Forces in their place around the country. The presence of the U.S. Marines in the country did not leave Francois without an impression, the violent repressions and the cruel relations of the American troops to the Haitian population, the puppet rulers installed by the Americans impacted him to some extent. The events in his youth could have resulted to some peculiarities in his future rule. It is remarked that after suffering a heart attack he started to act more unusual to the everyday person. This physical and psychological trauma may have affected his mental health which caused Francois Duvalier to practice voodoo cults and be especially cruel.

The Island of Hispaniola was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492, and colonized by the Spanish. In 1697 the island was divided into two halves by the French and the Spanish, and named St. Domingue and Santo Domingo. St. Domingue is now known as Haiti, at the time of French colonization it was an important French overseas territory, supplying France with coffee, sugar, rum, and cotton. The production of goods in St. Domingue was supported by heavy slavery, consisting of the western African origin. By the 18^th century slavery in the French colony reached the population of 500,000 slaves. In 1791 a 13-year war of liberation from the French colonists was launched by a Jamaican born Boukman. The French army, commanded by Napoleon, with the assist of British and Spanish military tried to put down the revolution but in 1803 the Battle of Vertieres marked the total victory of the former slaves over French colonists. On January 1, 1804 General Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed Haiti as an independent republic, and already in 1806 was assassinated, this marked the beginning of the tendency in the country of continuous assassinations and wars for power. Thereby a civil war racked throughout Haiti between the north and the south, controlled by two opposing sides of Henri Christophe and Alexandre Petion, the war continued till 1820 when Jean-Pierre Boyer reunified the country into a whole republic. Boyer was on of the first in Haitian history to use the term of “president for life”, later adopted as well by Francois Duvalier. He ruled till 1843, and starting from 1843 till the U.S. Marine invasion in 1915, Haiti had a total of twenty-two heads of state with the constant intestine wars. This period was filled with intrigue, rebellious events, murders, and chaotic changes of power leading to overall national instability. Among the national leaders who had their interests in power of Haiti, international states like Germany and USA, as well as the bordering Dominican Republic had their own interests, and there were many cases of outside-committed assets. These factors created a sort of mentality among the Haitians, they were always involved in someone’s goal of achieving power, making the civil population rebellious to changes, and untrustworthy to their leaders. This was probably one of the reasons why Francois Duvalier, when he had obtained power, created a cruel and strict regime. He did not tolerate any opposition, and dealt with those with utter harshness. He proclaimed himself as a president for life as of a tradition among the preceding rulers, so it did not even seem awkward among the Haitians. Francois Duvalier was a nationalist, supporting the African population of the country, he with utter cruelty repressed the former elite population, those who were lucky had a chance for exile, and most were not tolerated.

Francois Duvalier already started to rise to power with innocent social work among the population, people started to recognize him and speak positively of him. This began after he graduated from Haitian National University Medical School in 1934 and served as a physician among the local hospitals until 1943. He proved his devotion in active sanitary programs during World War II in the U.S. military, to prevent the spread of tropical contagious diseases such as yaws and malaria. Afterwards through 1944 till 1945 he studied public health at the Michigan University. When Duvalier returned to Haiti he was became the director general of the National Public Health Service in 1946. At such a post he was admired in professionalism by people and the authority and in 1949 he was placed as the minister of health, as well as labor in President Dumarsais Estime’s government, who happened to be a former teacher of Francois back in high-school. In 1950 Duvalier opposed the coup of Paul Magloire and returned to the practice of medicine and the prevention of the tropical diseases of Haiti, just then he was first given the name “Papa Doc”. In 1954 he was obliged into hiding in the countryside of Haiti until the amnesty of Paul Magloire in 1956 which forgave its political opponents. Duvalier immediately emerged from hiding and after Magloire resigned the presidency, he announced he candidacy in the following president elections. Duvalier had great support among the country-side, where he was popular for his medical deeds. His election campaign was not particularly different then of the other candidates, and he was overall not expected by others to be a great competitor. However unlike the other politicians Duvalier made individual deals with other opponents. He proclaimed himself to being the legitimate follower of former President Estime, and his “wild card” against a “mullato” descendent of a prominent family, Louis Dejoie, was the support of the military. After the resign of Magloire the military had greatest influence, they favored Duvalier and guided him completely through the campaign, as a result Francois Duvalier legitimately became the President of Haiti in September 1957. After achieving presidency, Duvalier had to deal with the unsatisfied opposition, which disobeyed him and refused in any cooperation with the new government. In the 1958 Duvalier survived a horribly planned coup against his regime, which resulted in the activation of a harsh Duvalier government. Duvalier convicted the independent military force to being responsible for his presidency being threatened, hereby in December he dismissed the chief of staff of the armed forces and placed the a more reliable officer in his place. Starting from here Francois started expanding the Presidential Palace army unit into a Presidential Guard, which became the elite military unit of the Haitian army. Having established a separate independent personal army unit Duvalier dismissed the rest of the general staff of the Haitian army and developed his guards into a whole new army devoted only to him. Furthermore he curtailed the rest of the army through rural militia known as the National Security Volunteers, also known as Tonton Macoutes. The peculiarity of the Tonton Macoutes was that they did not have an official salary and they made their living through crime and blackmail, making the population obedient to the regime because of fear. This special unit of Duvalier’s was responsible to terrorizing and killing any opponent of his. On May 24, 1959 Francois Duvalier suffered a heart attack, caused by an insulin overdose that he made because of diabetes, while he recovered Clement Barbot, the leader of the Tonton Macoutes was handed power, and upon Duvalier’s recovery was accused to trying to overthrow the president and was imprisoned. After his heart attack his regime became more terrorizing, by 1961 the power of the Tonton Macoutes exceeded the regular national military power. As proof of violation to the 1957 constitution and national democracy in 1961 Duvalier replaced the bicameral legislature to a dictatorship accustomed unicameral legislative body. The regime at power was full of corruption, where the individuals closest to Duvalier, to his example used the national budget to individual needs. Finally, as an act of totally concentrating power in his hands “Papa Doc” planned a presidential election, two years before the scheduled end of his term. The results were 1,320,748 votes for Duvalier and none against. A referendum on June 14, 1964 proclaimed Francois Duvalier to be “President for Life”. Through terror and blood-spreading repressions Duvalier held power in Haiti for fourteen years until his death in early 1971.

An estimated of 30,000 people were killed during the 14 years of tenure of Francois Duvalier. Through this period of time the black middle-class majority was established with the use of governmental levers. The black population favored him because he dominated the mullato prominent population that was of minority and had been at power for long years. Duvalier did not deny the fact of his dictatorship, said that Haitians are used to the paternal society, where there is an authoritarian individual that controls and directs the functions of the society, “Papa Doc” was the father in the Haitian society. International countries were not excited in the political life of Haiti, they did carry out an economical embargo to pressure Haiti, but that did not play a very influential role. U.S. funding towards Duvalier-ruled Haiti were cut not for long. Haiti was an important place in the Caribbean for the USA to provide national security because of the existence of a communist Cuba not far away from U.S. soil, and the fact of the Cold War grew tension in Washington. USA was obliged to financially support Haiti and Duvalier so that Cuba would not grow in power and authority with the tension that was given from Haiti’s side. As a reaction to the costs received from the U.S., communists were among the many repressed under Duvalier terror. The level of corruption was also not a secret to the world, but the majority of the population were either loyal to Papa Doc, or they plainly feared him, which did not restrain him.

Francois Duvalier provoked many tense relations, the one closest is with the neighboring Dominican Republic and its president Juan Bosch Gavino. The President of the Republic gave asylum to any repressed citizens of Haiti, many opponents of Duvalier ran to exile to the close Dominican Republic, which outraged Papa Doc. He suspected the opposition hiding in the Republic to being planning a coup against him, and supposedly Juan Bosch Gavino was helping the refugees. An occasion of Duvalier’s accusations had warmed up the situation between the presidents, and Bosch ordered the Dominican army to frontier. These tense actions were observed by countries throughout the world, where they anticipated that these actions would lead to the downfall of Duvalier, in the end it turned out that Bosch had his own opposition in the military and could not rely on them. Considering the U.S., the Kennedy administration was far from being fond of the matters taking place in Haiti, they like the UN and OAS placed an embargo against Haiti. The other matter was that USA feared a communist revolution that happened in Cuba, to take place in Haiti, and they gave the upper hand to let the dictatorship exist as a bulwark in the Caribbean against Cuban communism. Francois Duvalier skillfully used the situation between the U.S. and Cuba to ones own advantage in order to keep on receiving financial help from the U.S. He voted against Cuba at an annual OAS meeting, enraging Fidel Castro and at the same time achieving support from USA. Duvalier’s policies were not aggressive against other countries. He was a dictator inside a country, having aggressive policies for his national population. The majority of the black population did support him, which is specifically why international organizations had very little impact on Haiti.

The opposition that did exist against Duvalier was mostly of mullato origin, they did not have any meaningful importance because they would not have even been supported by the civil population. Duvalier impacted the majority, the middle and lower class black population which were loyal to him. The countries that did support the opposition did not support individuals that had support inside Haiti. Duvalier’s Tonton Macoutes as if a secret service had their own connections throughout the population, they controlled almost al processes making it impossible for the opposition to function inside the country. The Successor of Francois Duvalier after his death becomes his only son, 19 years-old Jean-Claude Duvalier. The Haitian elite population sees the new leader of a young Duvalier who is not as authoritarian as his father, a chance offering more financial gain. Jean-Claude practically does not take over the leadership role he leaves governing to his father’s former colleagues. However in his regime corruption is growing more rapidly them under his father’s power, tens of millions of dollars are diverted from funds to private bank accounts. National economy is withers, the reforms that Jean-Claude carries out do free some political prisoners, but no opposition is tolerated.

Works Cited

Thomson Gale, 2006. François Duvalier. Retrieved Oct.23, 2009 from http://www.bookrags.com/biography/francois-duvalier/

Heinl, Robert Debs, Jr., and Nancy Gordon Heinl. Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People, 1492-1971.Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1978.

Ferguson, James. Papa Doc, Baby Doc: Haiti and the Duvaliers. Oxford: Blackwell, 1987.Abbott, Elizabeth. Haiti: The Duvaliers and Their Legacy. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988.