Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, former President of Haiti, died of a heart attack on October 4. A brutal dictator, Duvalier tortured and killed thousands of Haitians, forced hundreds of thousands of others to flee into exile, siphoned the nation’s treasury into his family’s pockets, was involved in the drug trade and the selling of body parts of dead Haitians.
“Baby Doc” succeeded his father, self declared “President for Life” Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier when he died in 1971. He was only 19 at the time of his ascension, and he maintained a notoriously lavish lifestyle while poverty among his people became the most widespread of any country in the Western Hemisphere.
Duvalier was removed from power by a popular uprising that began in 1985, and culminated in his fleeing the country in a United States Air Force jet. He and his family settled in France where he lived in luxurious exile until losing most of his personal wealth in his 1993 divorce from his wife, Michele Bennet. Ironically, it was his extravagance of his state-funded marriage that began the unrest that eventually unseated him and sent him into exile.
To the surprise of the rest of the world Duvalier returned to Haiti in 2011 during the presidential campaign indicating that he wanted to help: “I’m not here for politics. I’m here for the reconstruction of Haiti”, he said.
However, many argued that Duvalier returned to Haiti to gain access to $4 million frozen in a Swiss bank account since the beginning of Duvalier’s exile. . Haiti also claimed this money, arguing that the assets were of “criminal origin” and should not be returned to Duvalier.
By virtue of Swiss law, however, states claiming money in Switzerland have to demonstrate that they have started criminal investigations against offenders holding money in the country. According to an article by Ginger Thompson in the New York Times, “if Mr. Duvalier had been able to slip into the country and then quietly leave without incident… he may have been able to argue that Haiti was no longer interested in prosecuting him—and that the money should be his.”
2 days after his return, Duvalier was taken into custody by Haitian authorities and charged with corruption, theft, and misappropriations of funds committed during his 15 years in power. He was released on subject to recall by the court, but after a few months, it seemed as if legal actions against him had stalled. Duvalier was reported to be under a loose sort of house arrest, living a life of relative luxury in a Port au Prince suburb until his death on Saturday of a heart attack.