Alexandre Lerouge - Haiti Observer Blog

Alexandre Lerouge, an outspoken school teacher of 62 years old from Cap-Haitian's northern town, became an opposition leader popularly elected under Duvalier dictatorship regime. Alexandre Lerouge had been repeatedly opposing soaring inflation and official corruption during his election campaigns. A Haitian businessman said, after the Feb 11, 1979 victory of Alexandre Lerouge that first time throughout the Duvalier regime did the government backed down and in case Alexandre did not win the election, the angry crowd would have burned down the entire Cap-Haitian into ashes.

It was reported that prior to the election, incendiary devices and Molotov cocktails were readied in large scale in Cap-Haitian before the election kicked off. This was a fallback measure for the Cap-Haitian people in case the government decided to interfere with the election. The Duvalier regime used to hold an election every 6 years which rubber-stamped the instructions of the President for Life, Jean-Claude Duvalier. However, nothing really changed and the liberalization by the Baby Doc was actually a ploy to increase the inflow of foreign aid that never led to any kind of substantial changes.

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