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Indeed, it was the end of a bloody era in Haiti's history. Baby Doc's father Francois Duvalier was a soft-spoken middle-class physician who encouraged Haitian peasants to believe that he possessed magical powers through the use of the country's folk religion, voodoo. Elected President in 1957, Duvalier guaranteed liberty and well-being to all Haitians, but the pledge soon rang hollow. Duvalier forbade criticism of his leadership and declared himself President-for-Life in 1964. He posed for a portrait that showed an image of Jesus Christ clapping him on the shoulder.
To enforce his rule, Duvalier created the thuggish Tonton Macoutes, Creole for bogeymen. Swaggering through the streets, they terrorized the population, extorted money and tortured and killed untold numbers. In January 1971, Papa Doc decreed that his tubby son Jean-Claude, 19, would succeed him in the presidency. Haitians were called to the polls to ratify the succession of the ) moon-faced playboy, whose interests seemed to revolve around women and fast cars. According to government figures, Baby Doc won the plebiscite handily, 2,391,916 to 0.
Many thought the second-generation Duvalier lacked his father's force and intelligence. Still, even as the country's living standard sank progressively under his rule, there was little indication that Jean-Claude might be overthrown. In 1980 he married Michele, a divorcee with two children. Her million-dollar splurges on clothes and diamonds soon came to gall a country that could not even feed its people.
Baby Doc's grip began to falter last November when his security forces opened fire on student demonstrators in the coastal town of Gonaives. Three people were killed. The ensuing protests added momentum to a rebellion among young Haitians who saw little chance for improvement in their lives under Duvalier. The opposition movement was supported by the Roman Catholic Church, which since the 1983 visit of Pope John Paul II had protested Duvalier's indifference to the country's squalor. Last month a new wave of protests swept the country. Although Duvalier's troops and police maintained control of Port- au-Prince, much of the rest of the country was in open revolt.
Jean-Claude had no stomach for an all-out campaign of repressive violence to bring the country under control. U.S. officials say he intended to leave Haiti early on the morning of Jan. 31 and even got as far as the airport. The report sparked rumors that he had fled the country and led White House Spokesman Larry Speakes to announce, erroneously, that the Duvaliers had departed. Differing accounts suggest that the President either changed his mind and returned to the palace, or was intercepted by the army.
For the next week Jean-Claude agonized over his decision while the situation around him deteriorated. His mother wanted to stay, while his wife favored going abroad, where the Duvaliers could live as they pleased on the $400 million they reportedly have stashed away in bank accounts.