Lapatilla
The Duvalier family spent more than thirty years in power, Haiti handled at will. It all started with a shy doctor who promised to help his people. In a short time he became a cruel tyrant who, when he died he left his inept son, frustrated Playboy. Pope Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier. Billionaire dictators, with a fortune of more than 800 million dollars, of the poorest country in the world. Corruption, persecution and death, much death. It is believed that more than 40,000 dissidents and opponents were killed. His armed arm were the Tonton Macoutes, a ruthless and uncontrolled paramilitary band. In the end, Baby Doc had to exile. The fall is attributed to a woman who later, in exile, left him without resources, looted the looter.
By Infobae
The Duvalier dictatorship was, like every dictatorship, illegitimate, brutal and cruel. But the murderous fervor, the power of damage, the impudent looting and the way of generating uphill poverty that had Pope Doc and Baby Doc knows few background. Personal ambitions that did not stop at the ruin of a country.
How the Duvalier dictatorship started
In 1971, Jean-Claude Duvalier became the youngest president in the West. He arrived at Haiti’s first magistracy at age 19. Until a few months before the Haitian Constitution established that the minimum age to be president was 40 years. But Francois Pope Doc Duvalier modified the Magna Carta (to which little attachment had, by the way) and, thinking of his son, he lowered the limit at age 20. But Pope Doc had his health too fragile and died before what he had planned. No one made a problem either because of the unconstitutionality or by the zero experience of Jean-Claude, not even for his null desire to preside over his country.
Jean-Claude was not a luminaire, or a prodigy whose skills exploded early. He was just his father’s son. Inherited the highest position in the country. We had to protect interest, businesses, ensure impunity.
Jean-Claude had tried to assume his sister. Greater than him and with more lights. But his advisers already seemed an unfeasible option. It was inconceivable for a woman to govern the country. Jean -clude saw him normal. His was a family of strong women. His mother, Simone, had a hard character and overwhelming opinions.
Pope Doc knew that he was going to die. And contrary to what other personalist leaders do tried to prepare the succession despite the little life that had left. He established a protection system of the young son president through a mega cabinet of ministers: 25 influential ones that would advise him. All belonging to privileged families and with interest in public business (negotiated). But outside the official scheme there was another very influential person, Simone, the wife of Pope Doc and mother of Jean-Claude who actively participated in the decisions even if he did not sign decrees. She wanted everything to become the old woman, with the same ways her husband had used. The tozudez of the widows.
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