Truth has fairly consistently been stranger than fiction here, so maybe the return of JeanClaude Duvalier (Baby Doc) shouldn't surprise us so.
Amnesty Int'l has this to say.
The AP pointed out that more than 50% of the Haitian population is under 21, therefore they don't have their own memories of Baby Doc's reign in Haiti. Many people seem to romanticize that time stating only that they "had electricity all the time back then". Families that were not political say they lived better lives.
We're expats new to the scene but this strikes us as bizarre and scary. It makes no sense to us that he would be welcomed back right now. (Exile doesn't mean what we thought it did.)
Rumors are swirling. One person speculates the US and France brought him here to arrest so they could set a precedent and arrest Preval when he leaves office in a few weeks. Another suggests he is coming back here to die. (He looks pretty pasty and not so well.) Others say they are going to have a new election and let him run for office again. (In what twisted universe would a brutal dictator from the past be elected democratically?) That seems pretty far-fetched. It is also reported that he has a round trip ticket and will leave again soon. Some say Aristide is on his way back too. A few prominent personalities say Preval brought him in as a distraction from the failed election mess, a bait and switch of sorts. Baby Doc himself said he came to check on the well being of the country after hearing and seeing disturbing images for the last year. Irony anyone?
We don't know much. Only that it is all quite disturbing.
Like you, we're watching and listening.
Link to recently published story.
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