Duvalier Crime - Haiti Observer Blog

The former First Lady of Haiti, Michele Bennett Duvalier, is back in the public scene. After more than 30 year living quietly, she has decided to come out in defense of the family reputation.

In an open letter, Michele Bennett Duvalier has decided to make some corrections on a statement recently made by businessman Marc Antoine Acra.

Background:
The new Government Commissioner, Jean Danton Léger, recently made the decision to impose a travel ban on Marc Antoine Acra following the scandal where a boat from his company NABATCO "Manzanares" containing a cargo of drugs from Colombia was seized. Subsequently, Marc Anthoine Acra went on to say that:"" .......... a Government Commissioner set up a transitional government advocating transparency and justice acts as the time of the totalitarian regime of Duvalier asking arbitrary acts, anarchic and totally illegal. "

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"Cher Marc Antoine,

J'ai lu ce jour avec interet ta note de presse du 6 Avril ecoule parue sur facebook.

Dans cette note, tu contestes l'interdiction de depart prise a ton encontre par le Commissaire du Gouvernement, Me.Danton Leger, suite au dossier du bateau "Le Manzanares" qui a ete saisi contenant une cargaison de sucre et de drogue qui etait destinee a ta Societe NABATCO en provenance de la Colombie.

Je comprends que tu te defendes et que tu defendes aussi l'honneur et le nom de ta famille qui depuis 3 generations travaillent et investissent dans le pays. Tout citoyen a droit a la justice de son pays. Egalement, c'est tout a fait normal que le Commissaire du Gouvernement fasse son travail d'enquete et d'instruction en toute serenite pour trouver le ou les coupables concernes par l'importation clandestine de cette grande cargaison de drogue et le deferer devant la justice.

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Born in Port-au-Prince, the capital, Jean Claude Duvalier was raised in an isolated environment. He was a student of Nouveau College Bird and Saint-Louis de Gonzague. Later, it was reported that he studied law at Université d'Etat d'Haïti (University of Haiti) in Port-a-Prince. It was reported that his teachers usually gave him passing grades to avoid any problem with his father.

People close to the family reported that Jean Claude Duvalier was treated like a young prince. He was described as an introvert who liked fast cars and jazz and was a martial arts enthusiast. Following a failed attempt of kidnapping people would see him less for a period of time.

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Members of the group who have been pursuing Jean Claude Duvalier to court for abuse of their human rights learned with shock the death of the former Dictator. This is a terrible news, said Mr. Daniele Magloire, "Another Dictator is dead without being judged in Court.

The Death of Jean Claude Duvalier does not put an end to the ongoing fight of the victims to find justice. The militants as well as some international advocates for Human rights swear to contimue with their fight for justice.

Payam Akhavan, a Former UN prosecutor, did not show any sympathy for the former Haitian dictator. Payan who tried to put Duvalier on trial for crimes against humanity said that
"Those who were the victims of his reign are still living in Haiti"

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Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, who led his country with a strong hand, died on Saturday, October 3, 2014. He was 63 years old. According to source from the Martelly government the family of the former President contacted the government following a massive heart attach by Jean Claude to provide them with a helicopter ambulance to transport him to the nearest hospital. The Ambulance helicopter did not have the time to transport him.

Some emergency care was provided on site at his residence before Former Haitian President Jean Claude was pronounced dead

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Jean-Claude Duvalier returned to Haiti in 2011 hoping to accomplish re-assimilation into the country that still had yet to recover from his years as president decades ago. From the start of the 70's through to the mid 80's, 'Baby Doc' Duvalier forged his name as one of the worst violators of human rights to come out of the country's history.

While it remains to be seen just what he planned with his return to the country after his long exile, if shirking the consequences of his actions during rule was one item on his list, he can redact it.

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Jean Claude Duvalier, a possible candidate in the next presidential election in Haiti. How does that sound to you?

If he wants to satisfy some of his supporters, the former Haitian dictator, Jean Claude Duvalier will be a candidate during the next Presidential election in Haiti. According to an article that came out in Tout Haiti, 35 organizations are calling for the former dictator to run in the next Presidential election in Haiti.

The Federation of areas for new development orientation in Gonaives (FESNODG), consisting of 35 grassroots organizations is calling on Jean Claude Duvalier to represent himself as a candidate.

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Few people guilty of the most heinous crimes in Haiti's history have received due punishment. It would seem that justice for the wrongs done to people in the country, blatantly orchestrated and performed by those in power, is a thing to be hoped for but never truly achieved.

When Luc Désir was charged with his crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor in the late 1980's, it seemed as though all the people he'd tortured, their families who suffered and those whose lives he'd brutally ended, all as the head of Francois Duvalier's Secret Police, would finally see restitution. It's been speculated that hundreds of people imprisoned by him disappeared without trace, the true nature of his dealings with the imprisoned unknown until audio recordings he made of his torture sessions became public fodder.

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Jean-Claude Duvalier or Duvalier Junior or Baby Doc, the ex-dictator of Haiti and been put on trial for corruption. Antonio Jorge Ramalho, a political scientist from Brazil sees at an ex-president being put on trial as a historical event.

Duvalier Junior bequeathed his dictatorship from his father François Duvalier who was elected as the President of Haiti in 1957. François Duvalier or Duvalier Senior or Papa Doc turned out to be a dictator and tried to clean up the political opposition while suppressing the citizens of the country. He unleashed a criminal regime and before he died in 1971, he handed over the dictatorship to Duvalier Junior. Baby Doc ruled for another 15 years following the footsteps of his father and in a total of 29 years of dictator regime of the Duvaliers, an estimated 40 to 60 thousand people died because of torture, suppression and murder.

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Tonton Macoutes, a militia force put together in 1959 by President François Duvalier, translated, means Uncle Gunnysack, referring to a bogeyman that captures children in a gunnysack and eats them for breakfast. Duvalier created the militia, because he felt threatened by the Haitian army. When his political foes attempted to oust him, Duvalier broke up the army and scattered the police. He then had all the Military High Command generals assassinated.

Tonton Macoutes wore a uniform of straw hats, blue denim shirts, and sunglasses, and were armed with machetes. It's a chilling image, because--if not for the machetes-- one would think they were heading to a picnic or barbeque, which renders them all the more sinister-looking, an appearance that is the personification of pure evil.

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