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Haiti: Former Dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier dies
Former Haitian leader, Jean-Claude Duvalier. PHOTO/File
Haiti’s former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, who governed the Caribbean nation with an iron fist from 1971 until his ouster in 1986, died of a heart attack. He was 63.
The death of Baby Doc, as he was commonly known, marks the end of a dark chapter for a country plundered first by his ruthless father – Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, a physician-turned-populist politician, before being further ravaged by his son.
An estimated 30,000 people were killed during the reign of the Duvalier father and son, rights activists say.
Jean-Claude Duvalier returned to Haiti in 2011, after 25 years of exile, but victims, opponents and activists never saw him face justice. Despite that, reaction to his death was muted on the streets of Haiti.
Duvalier’s death in the capital Port-au-Prince was announced by the health minister, Florence Guillaume Duperval, who said the cause appeared to be a massive heart attack.
Jean-Claude Duvalier came to power when he was just 19 years old, and for a decade-and-a-half ruled as Haiti’s self-proclaimed “president for life.” Like his father, he allowed little room for dissent, barring opposition, clamping down on dissidents and rubber-stamping his own laws. And like his father, he made liberal use of the dreaded Tonton Macoutes, a secret police force loyal to the Duvalier family.
The notorious Tonton Macoutes terrorized Haitians, arresting and torturing untold numbers of political opponents, thousands of whom vanished without ever being accounted for.
