Historical event, Jean Claude Duvalier First Court Appearance

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.

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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.

Jean-Claude Duvalier supposedly made nearly half a billion USD by robbing people systematically and then in 1986, with the event of an uprising against dictatorship, Baby Doc fled to France and lived a lavish life in Paris until 2011. He thought that given the chaotic conditions of presidential election and Haiti's attempts to rebuild its economy after 2010 earthquake, he could return to his homeland unnoticed. The day he returned, the office of public prosecutor charged him with larceny, embezzlement and corruption and ordered him to appear in front of court.

There is a mixed reaction about this. Haitian economy is very poor and majority of the population are young men and women. They are not concerned about the trial of Haiti's ex-dictator because most of them never experienced the dictator regime. However, the older people who experienced the atrocities of Baby Doc think otherwise and want judgment for human rights crime committed by Jean-Claude Duvalier.

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Read more: corruption, Duvalier Crime, embezzlement, Torture, Duvalier Court, Duvalier Wealth, Haitian Population, Government

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