Background
Duvalier, Jean-Claude was born on July 3, 1952 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Son of Francois and Simone (Ovide) Duvalier.
government official politician president
Duvalier, Jean-Claude was born on July 3, 1952 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Son of Francois and Simone (Ovide) Duvalier.
He attended primary and secondary schools in the capital, and spent one year at the law school. Studied at Port-au-Prince University, 1970. Degree, University Haiti, 1970.
On January 22, 1971, his ailing father made the announcement that Jean-Claude was to be his successor, a decision confirmed in a “plebiscite” held one month later, with a vote of 2,391,916 to 0 in favor. When François Duvalier died, Jean-Claude, then only 19 years old, became the nominal head of state. For a while, real power rested with his mother, Simone Ovide Duvalier, and, to a less extent, his sister, Marie-Denise.
Gradually, Jean-Claude put his personal stamp on the regime. He began to recruit members of the elite whom he had met in school into positions of power. He also began to emphasize development and to invite qualified Haitians to return home. Gradually, criticism of the regime began to appear in the local media, and in 1979 some political parties emerged. These developments were aided somewhat by President Jimmy Carter’s emphasis on human rights and by an increasing dependence on U.S. investments and U.S. foreign aid to bail out the economy.
Support for the regime of François Duvalier, rooted in the black middle class, became eroded, and formerly powerful Duvalierists became alienated. Outwardly, the ideology of black domination was maintained, as was Jean-Claude’s support for voodoo, but in reality the regime became firmly entrenched in the mulatto elite.
Jean-Claude moved to reinvigorate the educational system by inviting foreign specialists. Agricultural development was attempted with the help of projects from the United States, Israel, France, and Canada. Most importantly, he used the extremely low wages of urban workers to attract over 200 assembly-type industries employing over 40,000 people and producing for export to the industrial countries.
The test of the regime's sincerity about restoring political liberty came in legislative elections in 1979. But the regime used bribery, terror, and force to ensure victory in all but one constituency. The election of President Reagan, with his emphasis on supporting friendly regimes rather than on human rights, contributed to a political crackdown in November 1980, with the arrest of nearly 200 persons, the expulsion of many, and the use of the country’s courts, under absolute control of the president, to convict members of the opposition.
Duvalier became even more closely aligned with the mulatto elite when, in 1980. At the same time, economic problems began to escalate. The high price of imported oil, increasing foreign indebtedness, and high interest rates began to depress Haiti’s already impoverished economy.
Duvalier was becoming even more isolated from the black middle-class support base of his father. At the end of 1985 high school students began a series of strikes, and his machinery of control began to falter in areas outside the capital. Massive demonstrations against his regime and a shutdown by the business sector convinced the government of the United States to encourage him to leave the country. In February 1986 he left the presidency, and was transported on an American military plane into exile in France.
Married Michelle Bennett, May 1980 (div. 1990), they had 2 children.
