Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for March 24, 2016
March 23, 2016
March 25, 2016
Transcript:
Rick: Mr. Ex-President-For-Life, almost everyone was shocked by how quickly your regime seemed to collapse... were you yourself surprised at how fast things unraveled? Duvalier: Not at all. I knew there were subversives in Haiti. Just last July, we had a democratic referendum on my rule. The vote for me was 4,500,000 to 2. Rick: So you had an inkling. Duvalier: All it takes is a couple of bad apples.
Papa Doc’s son Jean-Claude Duvalier – also known as “Baby Doc” – led the country from 1971 until his ouster in 1986, when protests led him to seek exile in France. Army leader General Henri Namphy headed a new National Governing Council.87[not in citation given] General elections in November were aborted after dozens of inhabitants were shot in the capital by soldiers and Tontons Macoutes. Fraudulent elections followed. The elected President, Leslie Manigat, was overthrown some months later in the June 1988 Haitian coup d’état. The September 1988 Haitian coup d’état, which followed the St Jean Bosco massacre, revealed the increasing prominence of former Tontons Macoutes. General Prosper Avril led a military regime until March 1990.
In December 1990, a former Catholic priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected President in the Haitian general election. In September of the following year, Aristide was overthrown by the military in the 1991 Haitian coup d’état. In 1994, an American team negotiated the departure of Haiti’s military leaders and the peaceful entry of US forces under Operation Uphold Democracy. This enabled the restoration of the democratically elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president.88 In October 1994, Aristide returned to Haiti to complete his term in office.89 Aristide vacated the presidency in February 1996. In the 1995 election, René Préval was elected as president for a five-year term, winning 88% of the popular vote.
Poor Haiti, poor Haitians.