BabyDoc has returned

[Squat]

Someone please pinch me and tell me I'm still living in the 21st century! I'm hardly trying to be PC Squat! And I certainly am not suggesting imposing any particular system on anyone elses land! However, I would hope you do not suggest a return to the Dark Ages. Baby Doc's return is not a good thing!

-Have you ever actually been living in Haiti ???

 

[RonS]

I think I'll wait to hear Pedro and mountainannie's take on this before I comment further.

 

[~~anna~~]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/world/americas/17haiti.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha22


According to this article, he plans to be there for 3 days....anyone believe that?

 

[Chirimoya]

JCD doesn't have much in the way of qualifications for the strongman some of you are wishing for. Consider his track record - a pampered playboy who was a mere figurehead for most of his 15-year stint in power, while older relatives administered the repressive and tightly-controlled structure left by his father Papa Doc. In 1986 he fled the country with his tail between his legs and millions of dollars and he has lived in idle exile ever since. I get the impression he has some notion of getting his mitts on the aid millions so he can return to the lifestyle to which he was accustomed, or has been pushed by supporters appealing to his vanity. The mess that is Haiti in 2011 hardly provides a basis for him to re-establish any sort of effective rule, repressive or otherwise.

What this may do is open the doors to the return of Aristide - now that would be an explosive spanner in the works.

 

[puryear270]

-Have you ever actually been living in Haiti ???

If I were living in Haiti right now, the last thing I would do would be to post something critical about Baby Doc on the internet.

Although without a military, I don't see how there can be a return to a dictatorship. The national police force doesn't seem to have that great a grasp on the country, and I am very doubtful that the UN mission would encourage the establishment of a dictatorship.

At any rate, we are all just guessing what is going on at the moment, and trying to speculate regarding the future is wild guessing. I think the only thing any of us can say with certainty is this: It's going to be an interesting week.

 

[AlterEgo]

He has announced a press conference for today - should be interesting to hear what he has to say!!

AE

 

[bachata]

Let's get serious, because Duvalier's return could get just that. 'Benefit of the doubt"?! This is insane! Nothing good can come from Baby Doc's return! Do you in your wildest believe the funds pledged for Haiti's rebuilding will ever be dispursed if he is anyway in the mix?! IMO this is a potential disaster. How could he have gotten permission to enter the country?!

Dominican slang:
Donde no hay na' ta' to' seguro..
There is nothing left, so why to worry about a man returning to his home country.

JJ

 

[jrmirador@alumni.iu.edu]

Jean Claude Duvalier is just a pawn in the macabre game of destroying Haiti. Although Preval issued him a diplomatic passport and opened the door for his return, I wonder who really is pulling the strings. Remember, JCD was living in France.

 

[RonS]

... Preval issued him a diplomatic passport and opened the door for his return ...

So Preval issued him a diplomatic passport?!

 

[Chirimoya]

Some of the news stories quote Preval as saying that JCD could return but would have to face justice. The diplomatic passport claim is not 100% confirmed:

...sources close to Duvalier told reporters Sunday that he'd entered Haiti on a diplomatic passport — but if so, it was unclear which country had issued it to him.

Haiti: Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier Returns from Exile - TIME

Other coverage:

Recalling the Day the US Promised Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier Would Never Return

Porter: Baby Doc

Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier's Stunning Return to Haiti - The Daily Beast

'Baby Doc' Duvalier back in Haiti after long exile - ?News - MSN CA

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/world/americas/17haiti.html?_r=1&ref=haiti

Haiti - Duvalier : Definitive return or short stay ? - HaitiLibre.com, Haiti News, The haitian people's voice

 

[IslandDreaming]

Nature abhors a vacuum, his timing may be perfect

 

[~~anna~~]

CNN is reporting that Duvalier's news conference has been postponed and may be held tomorrow.

 

[Mariot]

Right now, Haiti needs a strong man. Jean-Claude might just be that stron man. In the streets of Cap-Haitien and Port-au-Prince, he is very popular. Ask anyone old enough to remember, and you will be told that things were much better in the days of Jean-Claude...
Stop being so politically correct, trying to import your system in a land where it simply proved no to work.

are you serious? what is strong about this man? he had his sister run his country and his wife steal his millions. while other ex dictators own apartments on the champs elysee, he spent his exile more or less on welfare in some french banlieu, because he was to weak to keep a grip on his money.

 

[Chirimoya]

what is strong about this man? he had his sister run his country and his wife steal his millions.

I agree. Downside being that in the unlikely event that he ends up getting prosecuted for human rights abuses, he could use that argument as his defence, or at least claim extenuating circumstances.

BBC News - Haiti urged to arrest visiting 'Baby Doc' Duvalier

 

[RonS]

Can someone please offer an explanation as to why the President/Prime Minister/Foreign Minister of Haiti would issue Duvalier a dipolmatic passport?

 

[mountainannie]

Can someone please offer an explanation as to why the President/Prime Minister/Foreign Minister of Haiti would issue Duvalier a dipolmatic passport?

first.. we do not know yet that they did

but

speculation abounds.. from the fact that Celestin .. whom the OAS has said should NOT be in the two person run off for President.,, is related...

and then to the call that many have said that ALL former Presidents should return home

The "internationals" are far more afraid of Titid, Aristide, than they are of Baby Doc... since Titid would actually WIN an election!

 

[NALs]

Well, I don't know if the following has been posted, so here they are:

Why Haitians Want To SEE Jean Claude Duvalier - TWO Reasons

Prime minister Jean-Max Bellerive said that if Mr Duvalier is involved in any political activities he is not aware of them.

'He is a Haitian and, as such, is free to return home,' the prime minister said in an email.

Asked if Mr Duvalier's presence could destabilise the country, he said: 'Until now, there's no reason to believe that.'

Read more: Baby Doc in shock return to devastated Haiti after 25 years in exile | Mail Online


Well, one thing is certain; Haiti is a very unpredictable place! When you begin to fall secure in your understanding of Haiti, that's when it throws you a curve ball.

 

[mountainannie]

thanks for the links, Nals

I particularly liked this comment
No exleader of haiti should be living in a foreign country if he can live peacefully in the land where so much blood was shed for a piece of land we can call our own. It is about time we burry the hatchets and talk to one another.Look at South africa, they could kill each other for the next hundred years if like us they had chosen the path of vengeance.
an eye for an eye leave everybody blind..

The topic is: Flash - Jean-claude Duvalier Just Landed In Haiti!

 

[jrmirador@alumni.iu.edu]

Reading between the lines in today's cables including statements by the US State Department and France's Foreign Minister, it seems evident that the US and France are now on opposite sides of the board, and that Jean Claude Duvalier is being used as a chess piece to provoke a move, probably the return of Jean Bertrand Aristide.

 

[mountainannie]

Reading between the lines in today's cables including statements by the US State Department and France's Foreign Minister, it seems evident that the US and France are now on opposite sides of the board, and that Jean Claude Duvalier is being used as a chess piece to provoke a move, probably the return of Jean Bertrand Aristide.

are you now our very own Wikileaks?