One Week: No trial, no coup d'etat? What is the deal with JCD??

So what to make of Duvalier, one week and no coup d'etat later?  I don't think they weren't planning to stay for very long, I mean, his girlfriend Veronique Roy has been wearing the same outfit for days. The guy shuffles around his hotels, a face drooping with fear and weariness. What a wasted life: a terrible presidency which ended in exile; abandonment by his wife who took their stolen fortune with her; years spend puttering around France, not paying his debts and living off of hand outs from his few remaining supporters. He comes back to Haiti at a moment when a political vacuum is about to engulf the country, why?

I don't believe Duvalier is trying to make a vie for power.  If so, he has done all the wrong things. Of course, he was never a brilliant politician. By waiting several days to make a statement he lost the element of surprise, and left too many people wondering for too many days. And then, when he did finally say something, he left it up to two American consultants (Ed Marger and former Georgia congressman and presidential hopeful Bob Barr; the two of them are partners in a firm that seems to specialize in rehabilitating dictators) alongside his Haitian lawyer, Reynold Georges.  These men took questions in English rather than Kreyol, which instantly alienated most of the local press.  I believe Haitians would be unlikely to accept as a leader someone so obviously dependent on Americans for support. The press conference, which took place Friday, was a strange affair. Nowhere want to risk supporting him, so his people were kicked out of two venues before they decided to hold the conference in the tiny lobby of the guest house where the ex-dictator is renting a room. When Duvalier finally came out of speak, he spoke in a barely audible murmur, slurring his words as his read carefully from typed out statement.   In the speech he claimed that the reason for his visit was to show solidarity with his homeland on the anniversary of the earthquake, which he missed by a couple of days, supposedly for health reasons. He expressed sympathy for his supporters, many of whom who were killed in the dechokaj (uprooting) that followed his flight into exile.  He also offered a brief apology for those "to my compatriots who recognize, rightly, to have been victims of my government."

Duvalier has come to terms with the repressive force he required to bolster his regime. It is unclear whether or not Haiti, too, has come to terms. Memory, for better and for worse, is short.  There are many people, young and old, who hope Duvalier will take charge of the country and lead it in collective time-travel, back to the 1980's, and era remembered by affordable food, factories, and clean streets. There are others whose memories are less rosy, for whom the memory of oppression and state-sanctioned violence as not been erased by even-more-terrible things. Political activists like Boby Duval and Michelle Montas (both of whom were imprisoned, and in Duval's case, tortured under JCD) are filing complaints against the ex-dictator, which is the first step towards prosecuting him.  I think there would be much more vocal opposition to Duvalier in Haiti had not most of his opponents and his victims' families fled to live in the diaspora. However, apparently prosecuting a former leader for crimes against humanity is not the easiest thing in the world to do.  It is costly, takes many years, and requires experts from around the world. According to a friend of mine with UN connections, international community might not find it worthwhile if its just to take down one man and not the whole political cadre who perpetrated torture and assassination. And that would probably not be acceptable to Haitian social and economic elites, considering how many Duvalierists and Tonton maucoute have crafted new lives and identities for themselves.  Some have even been active in the Lavalas movement. 

Nevertheless, the most immediate question is the statue of limitations in Haitian law.  You can't try people from crimes committed more than 20 years ago. Duvalier fled the country 25 years ago. Does that mean that the people who suffered under his rule have no legal recourse? Duvalier's lawyers certainly seem to think so. I suspect they will be able to find a way around it though, if the other pieces fall into place.  

In addition to the question of limitations, the matter of "proving it" is tricky.  At the press conference on Friday, Duvalier's lawyer Georges boasted that "there is truth, and then there is judicial truth."  Basically, he said "we all know Duvalier committed crimes, but since you can't formally prove it, it doesn't count."  His lawyers also claimed (i imagine they bragged) that the case file that the Haitian government had against JCD was lost in the earthquake.  That is entirely possible, and very unfortunate if it is true. But that doesn't mean evidence can't be procured. Amnesty International has handed over to the Haitian prosecutors their entire dossier on the ex-dictator, which will probably furnish some damning evidence. Also, I have heard that activists have asked the United States to expedite the de-classification of State Department documents from the time of Duvalier. Supposedly diplomats and state department officials do a rigorous job of recording human rights abuses.  There is a precedent of this kind of evidence being used against human rights criminals in other Latin American countries, and it could be very important in bring Baby Doc to justice. The opening stages of a three-month investigation have begun.

The question everyone really wants to know about is the money.  Money is something everyone relates to and understands, and JCD's return would make a great deal of sense if we would just write it off to greed.  He has several million, the last drops the massive fortune he stole from Haiti's coffers,  stored in a Swiss bank account which has been frozen for the past year or so. People speculate that Swiss law required Duvalier visit Haiti and prove that he was not under persecution in order to reclaim the money. If that was their plan, they really blew it.  This sounds absurd to me, but I am no specialist in Swiss law.  Maybe he has to establish residency in Haiti. Doubtless the money is a factor in the equation, since the American consultants he brought it to represent him stated that it was their goal to retrieve it.  But they claim Duvalier would like to donate the money to reconstruction, and become a leader in the reconstruction movement.  Now that's hilarious. Bob Barr himself declares that he has come to help spread Duvalier's message of hope throughout the world. Their cynicism astounds me.  I don't believe I have seen someone so clearly full of  regret and sadness than  Jean Claude Duvalier.

JC Duvalier gets arrested!! JC Duvalier gets released!!

Check out this video to see my footage of JC Duvalier getting arrested: http://on.fb.me/htQll9

Today, despite itself, nothing was resolved. Jean-Claude Duvalier was "arrested" today, but it seems more like he was held for several hours in a courthouse (photocopies were made?), and then he was released, although apparently he is under investigation.  All morning we waited in the hotel where he was staying, watching the SWAT teams run up and down the stairs, changing the guard in front of his hotel room on the third floor. His spokesperson, a short man in an olive green coat, ran about furiously, at one point practically chasing us from the third floor stairwell where we had followed the police. He was shouting and scurrying.  Obviously things were not going as planned. At every moment, his arrest seemed imminent. A judge of the peace entered, went to the third floor. A police official entered, went to the third floor, and then exited.  Eventually a prison vehicle with caged windows backed its way right up to the entrance of the hotel and waited.  One of Duvalier's henchmen, the former ambassador to France, made a statement to the press saying that they "dared" the government to arrest the dictator.  But words are only words, and about an hour later Jean-Claude Duvalier descended the staircase of the hotel in the company of his wife, friends, and about a dozen Haitian police officers.  They exited the hotel from the back, with Duvalier getting into a private car that was driven by a policeman. The man never said a word. He looked broken, tired, sick.

Duvalier was taken to the courthouse downtown. It was announced all over the radio, and soon after he left the hotel men waving Duvalier's picture were throwing pieces of rubble into the street. It was a little too late to prevent them from arresting him, but it was a display of support none the less. However, it was a "half-hearted" attempt at a road block, and according to a friend the police were there soon after watching over as the men lifted the rocks from the street. By the time we arrived at the courthouse, two or three hundred people had gathered outside, watching with interest as the cars pulled up and the Haitian lawyers and the blan journalists poured out. Some of them were chanting pro-Duvalier songs. 

I interviewed a few people, both young and old. The older generation (those who remember life under Duvalier) was well represented in the crowd, but young people were there too. One man insisted that Duvalier had returned to Haiti to reinvest his millions in the poor country, and that other wealthy diaspora folk should do the same. Another man had been a functionary under Duvalier, and claimed that the Duvalierist, a very moderate group, had laid dormant for 25 years, but now that the dictator was back he was ready to sacrifice everything, including himself, to see him back in power. One woman was demanded that they release him immediately because they were certainly giving him cholera in the prison. I even interviewed a self-identified member of the Tonton Macoute (the volunteer militia, he said), who expressed his unqualified support for the return of Duvalier. When I asked people what they thought of the accusations that he stole millions of dollars from the Haitian treasury, they assured me that it was all lies.  The younger people I talked to, in their twenties, insisted that while they had no memory of the Duvalier era, the stories of their parents and relatives had convinced them that life was much better then and that his return could only be a boon for Haiti. But honestly, overall, I don't think people really cared that he was back, or that he got arrested. I think they are tired. It's just one thing after another. 

At one point the former ambassador to France made a statement to the press that was uncommonly emotional.  According to him, the news of  buildings destroyed in the earthquake, including the National Palace and the school where the dictator went to high-school, took an emotional toll on the man and he felt compelled to come back and reconnect with his country. Over a year after the quake. At a time of political crisis. He claimed that the arrest only happened when Duvalier's people announced that there would be a press conference. Preval doesn't want him to address the nation, he said. That is what has caused all of this.  Never mind the fifteen years of murder, corruption, and the theft of millions of dollars. Never mind the expired passport and the political vacuum. 

We waited, we waited. The rumor was he was getting released, and would be returned to his hotel. Duvalier never made a statement.  In the Haitian judiciary system, there are no charges like there are in America. The man is under investigation. For most Haitians, this would mean being held in the national penitentiary, possibly forever, without seeing a judge, but since Duvalier is a former president, they let him return to his hotel.  I guess he's too high profile to be a flight risk at this point. Supposedly the government had been building  a case against him for years, but the file was lost in the earthquake.The question at hand is if there is still definitive proof of his wrong-doing. When Duvalier returned to the hotel and escaped into the restaurant, I flashed a hotel key and scored a table right next to the dictator and his dictator-loving friends. If only I had cameras in my eyes. I would profile every face, try to understand each personality that sat with him and welcome him back with jovial smiles. But we kept a low profile, made up code words, and tried not to look at them too much.  We didn't hear anything unexpected.

So what does this all mean? What does this rule out? It would appear that Preval did not orchestrate Duvalier's return, although it still serves the purpose of distracting from the election results (oh yeah, announced tonight, the electoral consul will not be changing the results of the elections according to the OAS's recommendations. Apparently Mickey is still out and Celestin will be making it to the second round?)  My impression is that Duvalier was acting on his own, perhaps convinced by sycophants that he would find massive support in Haiti.  I still think he came here to die. The man seems like he has a degenerative muscle disease. His movements are very limited, in the face, neck and arms. He will probably still be arrested, eventually, although the Haitian judicial system is a maze I do not understand.  This will be a landmark case in Haiti and around the world, certainly. A murderous dictator returns, can a troubled nation bring him to justice? What would justice even mean?   Hopefully Haiti won't let this moment slip through the cracks. Yet unless there are massive riots tomorrow, I will feel confident saying this is almost a story more important to the journalists and historians and others who keep their eyes on the past, than to the Haitian people themselves. It does nothing to reduce their misery. Its impact on their lives is so small. 

Bon Retour J.C. Duvalier: Baby comes home

Last night Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier inexplicably returned to Haiti after 25 years of exile. This was absolutely not in the cards, and no one knows who is responsible for the move.  Until yesterday, Duvalier was only spoken about in the past tense. A relic, a nightmare, a joke. A few words about Jean-Claude's past: in 1971 he became president for life at nineteen years old upon the death of his father, the brutal dictator Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier.  Jean-Claude continued many of his father's repressive policies of state terrorism, censorship, and control.  Thousands were killed, tortured or "disappeared."  However, Baby Doc did not possess the terrible genius of his father, and the carelessly destroyed the alliances and support bases that Papa Doc had cultivated.  He was known as a opulent playboy, and after his marriage to Michele Bennett, got the government involved in drug trafficking. In 1986, there was a uprising against him and the dictator and his family was forced to flee to France. He managed to take with him millions from the national treasury however, before fading into financial irresponsibly and oblivion.

And now he is back.  The moment is particularly ominous: the Haitian government is at odds with the Organization of American States about the outcome of the seriously problematic election that occurred in late November. There is supposed to be a run-off between the leading candidates, but there is serious disagreement about who the leading candidates are. The OAS's (also problematic) investigation has lead to the conclusion advised that the president's candidate leave the race in favor of Michel Martelly, a popular singer with a right-wing bent.  February 7th is technically the end of President Preval's term, and there is no clear leader to take over. In short, a power vacuum. Could this be why Duvalier came back? Does he hope to take back power at a moment when government is on its knees and trying to stand behind its weaknesses in the face of international pressure? 

Of course, there is the question of how he came back. He has been in exile, and forbidden to return, I think.  Who gave him a passport? Who on the inside authorized his return? The guy came in on a Air France flight for god's sake, not a private plane. He is a known criminal of serious proportions.  Murder, torture, drug running, the theft of millions from state coffers, you name it, and he could be held for it. But he has been here for 24 hours, hanging out at a hotel and avoiding the press, and has not been arrested. It's possible he has taken the government entirely by surprise. It is also possible Preval himself invited Duvalier back, some incredible game-changing move in the game he is playing with the international community.  What the next move is, nobody knows.

My personal theory is that Duvalier is dying, and he wants to die in Haiti. Or he wants to attempt amends at the end of his life. For what it's worth, in 2007, he issued an apology for all the corruption and violence of his regime. In the photos, he looks like a broken man. He looks sick. He certainly does not look like a man who could inspire confidence as a leader.  But then again, in leaderless and stumbling Haiti, who knows. There has been "bon retour JC Duvalier" graffiti scrawled for a long time on the walls of Port-au-Prince.

So what's next? The rumors are flying.  If Duvalier can come back, is Aristide next? That's really the burning question. Duvalier is still considered part of the past, even if arrived last night. People really want to know what this means for the one that matters in many people's hearts. Word is that Aristide is in Panama, that he is in Cuba, that he comes on Wednesday, that he comes next month, that he is still in exile in South Africa with zero plans to return. What could possibly be in store for Haiti?!?