Editing History of Haiti (section)

==The Duvalier era (1957–1986)==
{{main|Duvalier dynasty}}

==='Papa Doc' (1957–1971)===
[[File:François Duvalier (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[François Duvalier]] in 1968]]
A former Minister of Health who had earned a reputation as a humanitarian while serving as an administrator in a U.S.-funded anti-[[yaws]] campaign, [[François Duvalier]] (known as ''"Papa Doc"'') soon established another dictatorship. His regime is regarded as one of the most repressive and corrupt of modern times, combining violence against political opponents with exploitation of [[Haitian Vodou|Vodou]] to instill fear in the majority of the population. Duvalier's paramilitary police, officially the Volunteers for National Security (''Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale'' – VSN) but more commonly known as the [[Tonton Macoute]]s, named for a Vodou monster, carried out political murders, beatings, and intimidation. An estimated 30,000 Haitians were killed by his government.<ref>{{citation |publisher=Country studies |place=US |url=http://countrystudies.us/haiti/17.htm |series=Haiti |title=François Duvalier, 1957–71}}</ref> [[Sexual violence in Haiti|Duvalier employed rape]] as a political tool to silence political opposition.<ref>{{cite book |last=Girard |first=Philippe |title=Haiti: The Tumultuous History – From Pearl of the Caribbean to Broken Nation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L5KnihgGoIMC&pg=PA139 |access-date=21 February 2013 |date=14 September 2010 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-230-11290-2}}</ref> Incorporating many ''[[houngan]]s'' into the ranks of the Macoutes, his public recognition of Vodou and its practitioners and his private adherence to Vodou ritual, combined with his reputed private knowledge of magic and sorcery, enhanced his popular persona among the common people and served as a peculiar form of legitimization.

Duvalier's policies, designed to end the dominance of the mulatto elite over the nation's economic and political life, led to massive emigration of educated people, deepening Haiti's economic and social problems. However, Duvalier appealed to the black middle class of which he was a member by introducing public works into middle-class neighborhoods that previously had been unable to have paved roads, running water, or modern sewage systems. In 1964, Duvalier proclaimed himself "President for Life".

The [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] administration suspended aid in 1961, after allegations that Duvalier had pocketed aid money and intended to use a [[Marine (military)|Marine Corps]] mission to strengthen the Macoutes. Duvalier also clashed with Dominican President [[Juan Bosch (politician)|Juan Bosch]] in 1963, after Bosch provided aid and asylum to Haitian exiles working to overthrow his regime. He ordered the Presidential Guard to occupy the Dominican chancery in [[Pétion-Ville]] to apprehend an officer involved in a plot to kidnap his children, leading Bosch to publicly threaten to invade Haiti. However, the Dominican army, which distrusted Bosch's leftist leanings, expressed little support for an invasion, and the dispute was settled by [[Organization of American States|OAS]] emissaries.

In 1971, Papa Doc entered into a 99-year contract with [[Don Pierson]] representing Dupont Caribbean Inc. of Texas for a [[free port]] project on the old [[buccaneer]] stronghold of [[Freeport Tortuga|Tortuga]] island located some {{convert|10|mi}} off the north coast of the main Haitian island of Hispaniola.

==='Baby Doc' (1971–1986)===
[[File:Fleeing Duvaliers.jpg|thumb|Jean-Claude and Michèle Duvalier en route to the airport to flee the country, 7 February 1986]]

On Duvalier's death in April 1971, power passed to his 19-year-old son [[Jean-Claude Duvalier]] (known as ''"Baby Doc"''). Under Jean-Claude Duvalier, Haiti's economic and political condition continued to decline, although some of the more fearsome elements of his father's regime were abolished. Foreign officials and observers also seemed more tolerant toward Baby Doc, in areas such as human-rights monitoring, and foreign countries were more generous to him with economic assistance. The United States restored its aid program in 1971. In 1974, Baby Doc expropriated the Freeport Tortuga project and this caused the venture to collapse. Content to leave administrative matters in the hands of his mother, Simone Ovid Duvalier, while living as a playboy, Jean-Claude enriched himself through a series of fraudulent schemes. Much of the Duvaliers' wealth, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars over the years, came from the ''Régie du Tabac'' (Tobacco Administration), a tobacco monopoly established by Estimé, which expanded to include the proceeds from all government enterprises and served as a slush fund for which no balance sheets were ever kept.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://countrystudies.us/haiti/18.htm |publisher=Country studies |place=US |series=Haiti |title=Jean-Claude Duvalier, 1971–86}}</ref> His marriage, in 1980, to a beautiful mulatto divorcée, [[Michèle Bennett]], in a $3&nbsp;million (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=3000000|start_year=1980}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) ceremony, provoked widespread opposition, as it was seen as a betrayal of his father's antipathy towards the mulatto elite. At the request of Michèle, Papa Doc's widow Simone was expelled from Haiti. Baby Doc's [[kleptocracy]] left the regime vulnerable to unanticipated crises, exacerbated by endemic poverty, most notably the epidemic of [[African swine fever virus]]—which, at the insistence of [[United States Agency for International Development|USAID]] officials, led to the slaughter of the [[Creole Pig|creole pigs]], the principal source of income for most Haitians; and the widely publicized outbreak of AIDS in the early 1980s. Widespread discontent in Haiti began in 1983, when [[Pope John Paul II]] condemned the regime during a visit, finally provoking a rebellion, and in February 1986, after months of disorder, the army forced Duvalier to resign and go into exile.