While Haiti was never a paradise, it was Duvalier that brought it to the horrible state it’s in now. At least before Duvalier, Haiti had something resembling a middle and professional class.
Duvalier used the politics of racial envy to gain absolute power. You see, the relative-well-to-do in Haiti at the time, tended to be lighter-skinned mulattoes and Creoles.
Duvalier used the Tonton Macoutes to kill or intimidate these people, and he distributed the spoils to these thugs.
We are seeing a replay of this in Zimbabwe with Mugabe.
We should dump all of the Haitian refugees at the doorstep of Baby Doc’s French Mansion.
Duvalier used the politics of racial envy to gain absolute power. You see, the relative-well-to-do in Haiti at the time, tended to be lighter-skinned mulattoes and Creoles.
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Like it or not, the fact of history is that we, the US, supported Duvalier simply because he wasn't a communist, just like we did Pinochet, Trujillo and others in Latin America as well as the Shah in Iran and a series of strong-arm leaders in Viet Nam and Korea. That was our Foreign Policy at the time. The same policy had us supporting the Taliban against the Russians in Afghanistan.
When Papa died and Baby took over the only foreign diplomat at the swearing in ceremony was Knox, the US Ambassador.