Duvalier’s Return to Haiti Reignites Préval Debate
by Ferentz Lafargue
The unexpected arrival of former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier has incited another plot twist in the tragic-comedy known as Haitian politics. Duvalier’s reasons and/or ambitions for this return has elicited endless speculation from the moment his Air France flight touched down in Port-au-Prince. One of the first writers to solve this mystery was Huge Desrameaux. Writing in the Miami Herald, Desrameaux revealed that Duvalier had returned to Haiti in a quixotic attempt to reclaim what’s left of his ill-gotten fortune, which is currently being withheld by Swiss authorities. These fortunes will now be easier for the Haitian authorities to reclaim after the Duvalier Law—a Swiss law that eases the ability of a country to retrieve ill-gotten gains—went into effect today.
In spite of Duvalier’s efforts at arguing that his motives are more benevolent (he’s allegedly returned to help with earthquake relief and to donate his remaining bounty to the Red Cross) the audacity of returning to the island that he and his father plundered requires a voluminous amount of hubris. After all, did Duvalier seriously believe he could return home to Haiti and everyone would turn the other cheek?
Duvalier’s impromptu homecoming also offers another opportunity to debate the efficacy of President René Préval’s tenure in office. “Baby Doc” may be the spectacle du jour, but the real question that Haitians must address at this moment is, what is its post-Préval future?
Read the Full Essay @ America's Quarterly
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Ferentz Lafargue is guest blogger to AQ Online and is an assistant professor at the The New School for Liberal Arts.
by Ferentz Lafargue
The unexpected arrival of former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier has incited another plot twist in the tragic-comedy known as Haitian politics. Duvalier’s reasons and/or ambitions for this return has elicited endless speculation from the moment his Air France flight touched down in Port-au-Prince. One of the first writers to solve this mystery was Huge Desrameaux. Writing in the Miami Herald, Desrameaux revealed that Duvalier had returned to Haiti in a quixotic attempt to reclaim what’s left of his ill-gotten fortune, which is currently being withheld by Swiss authorities. These fortunes will now be easier for the Haitian authorities to reclaim after the Duvalier Law—a Swiss law that eases the ability of a country to retrieve ill-gotten gains—went into effect today.
In spite of Duvalier’s efforts at arguing that his motives are more benevolent (he’s allegedly returned to help with earthquake relief and to donate his remaining bounty to the Red Cross) the audacity of returning to the island that he and his father plundered requires a voluminous amount of hubris. After all, did Duvalier seriously believe he could return home to Haiti and everyone would turn the other cheek?
Duvalier’s impromptu homecoming also offers another opportunity to debate the efficacy of President René Préval’s tenure in office. “Baby Doc” may be the spectacle du jour, but the real question that Haitians must address at this moment is, what is its post-Préval future?
Read the Full Essay @ America's Quarterly
***
Ferentz Lafargue is guest blogger to AQ Online and is an assistant professor at the The New School for Liberal Arts.
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