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He was raised in Port-au-Prince and trained as a doctor, serving in rural areas. There he won acclaim for helping the poor fight typhus and other diseases. He married Simone Ovide in 1939, and became director general of the national health service in 1946. In 1949, he served as minister of both health and labour. After opposing the coup of Paul Magloire, he was forced into hiding until an amnesty in 1956.
Backed by the army, Duvalier won the 1957 Haitian elections; he had campaigned as a populist leader, attacking the "noirist" elite. Duvalier revived the traditions of vodun and later used them to consolidate his power, claiming to be a hougan himself. Duvalier deliberately modeled his image on that of Baron SamediIn Vodun, Baron Samedi ("Baron Saturday") was one of the gods of the dead, along with Baron Cimetiere and Baron La Croix; Baron Samedi was usually depicted with a top hat, black tuxedo, sunglasses and a cigar. He was one of the Guede. In the James Bond mo in an effort to make himself even more imposing.
He worked to consolidate his rule; after surviving a coup in mid-1958, he purged the army. He then rewrote the constitution and then won the 19611961 (As MAD Magazine pointed out on its first cover for the year) was the first "upside-down" year i. one that looked the same upside down since 1881, and the last until 6009. Events January January 1 The farthing coin, used since the 13th century, cease election: the official count was 1.32 million votes for Duvalier and none against. He established himself as president for life in 1964 and his rule assumed a more brutal and repressive character. Wary of the army, he created a militia in 1959Events January-February January 1 Cultivars of plants named after this date must be named in a modern language, not in Latin. January 1 Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when forces of Fidel Castro advance January 2 CBS Radio cuts four soap operas: Bac, known as the VSN (Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale) from 1962Events January January 1 Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand January 3 Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro January 4 New York City introduces a train that operates without a crew on-board January 8 Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is e, to protect his power outside the capital. The VSN became better known as the Tonton MacouteThe Tonton Macoutes (singular Tonton Macoute referring to a member thereof; or Ton Ton Macoute was a Haitian militia force under the control of Francois Duvalier (better known as "Papa Doc"). Created in 1959 and renamed officially in 1971 as the VSN Volon (or Makout). Because they received no official salary, they had to make their living through crime and extortion. To protect his person, Duvalier used the Garde Présidentielle.
Duvalier came under pressure from the government of John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald Kennedy ( May 29, 1917 November 22, 1963), often referred to as Jack Kennedy or JFK was the 35th ( 1961 1963) President of the United States. He was the youngest ever to be elected president and the youngest president ever to die in office due to evidence of corruption over aid. Aid was officially suspended in 1962 but the pressure eased following the death of Kennedy. The country assumed the mantle of an anti-communist presence to balance that of nearby CubaAlternate meanings: see Cuba (disambiguation The Republic of Cuba is an archipelago in the northern Caribbean, in between the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. To the north are found the United States and the Bahamas, to the west M. After Kennedy's assassination, Duvalier claimed that the killing was a result of his placing a curse on Kennedy.
In April 1963, Haiti was almost attacked by the Dominican Republic. Only the lack of senior military support for Juan Bosch y Gaviño prevented the Dominicans invading; instead, the conflict was mediated by the OAS.
By the mid- 1960s it was clear that Duvalier had no intention of stepping down. In June of 1964 he was proclaimed president for life and began to create a personality cult around the image of himself as the physical embodiment of the Haitian nation. Like some of his predecessors, Duvalier was often rumored to be contemplating making himself Emperor of Haiti, and ruling the nation as a monarch.
Within the country Duvalier used both political murder and expulsion to suppress his opponents; estimates of those killed are as high as 30,000. Attacks on Duvalier from within the military were treated as especially serious; in 1967 bombs detonated near the Presidential Palace led to the execution of twenty Garde Présidentielle officers.
His reign of terror kept the country in his grip until his death in early 1971, after he had set his 19-year-old son Jean-Claude Duvalier to succeed him.
| Preceded by: Antonio Thrasybule Kebreau | 1957-1971 Presidents of Haiti | Succeeded by: Jean-Claude Duvalier |
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