Ousted dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier has returned to Haiti just in time to be tossed into prison.
Ousted dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier has returned to Haiti just in time to be tossed into prison.
According to The Telegraph, Haitian officials were waiting to take the former leader into custody today. Jean-Claude returned to Haiti over the weekend after 25 years in exile. He was tossed from power during an uprising in 1986.
Since his return, Jean-Claude has stayed at the Hotel Karibe, but Haitian authorities pulled him from his comfy surroundings this afternoon.
A judge announced that “he will be arrested” as a special police force headed by Haiti’s chief prosecutor Aristidas Auguste stormed the luxury hotel. Reportedly, Jean-Claude had been getting questioned. Human Rights activists have demanded his arrest for years, citing his 15-year iron-fisted regime.
During his rule, Tonton Macoutes, the Duvalier family’s police force, was accused in the kidnap, torture and murder of about 30,000 opposition members. The United States urged Jean-Claude to step down in 1986, and he was flown to France on Air Force One.
Jean-Claude’s return to Haiti doesn’t see the island country in any better shape than when he left. Haiti is still recovering after being ravaged by earthquakes just over a year ago. And the nation is still dealing with the aftermath of last November’s elections that incited riots among accusations that voting was rigged by the party that is currently in power.
– Sonya Eskridge
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