Haiti suffers amid A.I.D.S. and strong-arm Zombies

Press, 2 March 1984, Page 14

Haiti suffers amid A.I.D.S. and strong-arm Zombies

From

‘The Economist,’

London.

Haiti’s, election for a new National Assembly on February 12 was billed by the country’s Presi-dent-for-life, Mr ' Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, as “free, honest and democratic.” It was none of those things. No opposition candidates were allowed to stand. One of the country’s only two plausible opposition leaders, Mr Gregoire Eugene, was prevented from returning from exile in New York. The other, Mr Silvio Claude, who has spent two of the past three years in. jail, was arrested again and subjected to six weeks of torture when he announced that he wanted to fight the election; 60 of his Christian Democratic party activists were also arrested or exiled. So few Haitians voted that the Government would not reveal the turn-out ' The election was marked by the violence and squalor characteristic of the Duvaliers’ Haiti. The Presidents strong-arm men, the Tontons Macoutes, broke, up the few opposition gatherings. Mr Duvalier himself electioneered by touring the island, throwing money from -the window of his car. Spiritual reprisals were threatened for those who failed to vote. .; ; Many Haitians believe there are riw>-from-the-dead ' crMtures as “zombies” amo® the Tontons Macoutes.

A recent study by Haitian and Harvard scientists suggests that people can be drugged into a state resembling death by taking a brew which includes Bufo Marinus — a large toad — and a species of puffer fish. They are then revived as “zombies.” President Duvalier may himself be in need of some reviving. He is rumoured to be suffering from diabetes and a nervous disorder and considering going to the United States for treatment. What fuelled speculation about his health was a recent constitutional amendment allowing him to name a stand-in when he goes abroad. Since the Duvalier dynasty came to power 26 years ago, neither ruling President has left the island. Another amendment gives the President the right to name a successor. His favourite is said to be his wife, Michele. But his mother remains powerful. Last October the entire army high command was sacked by the Defence Minister, Mr Roger Lafontant, who is thought to be loyal to the dowager Mrs Duvalier. After Grenada and other shocks in the region, the Reagan Administration has reason to worry that the hemisphere’s poorest and most despotically ruled country could be . a candidate for take-over a revolutionary minority.

Mr Claude and Mr Eugene represent a political centre which Mr Duvalier seems determined to stamp out. President Reagan has been seeking, so far unsuccessfully, to persuade Congress that human rights in Haiti have improved enough to allow an increase in American aid above the >54 million scheduled for this year. A better argument might be that aid could help keep Haitians at home. For a decade Florida has been subject to an on-again offagain flux of Haitians. A fishing boat to America now offers ordinary Haitians their only hope of escape from deprivation: an infant mortality rate of 130 per 1000 births, an average income of $l5O a year and a life expectancy of 53. Illegal Haitian immigrants have become even more unpopular since they — along with returning tourists — have been discovered to be carriers of A.LD.S., the incurable disease affecting homosexuals and haemophiliacs. In Haiti itself some 180 cases have been diagnosed, and thousands of Haitians are probably affected. Tourism, one of Haiti’s few foreign-exchange earners, has plunged disastrously as a result; receipts fell by three-quarters last year. Copyright — “The Economist.