Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Haiti: Historical Setting
to slip out of the country. Others known to have committed
crimes were freed after army courts found insufficient evidence
to convict them. Some Duvalierists remained in high positions.
Haitians described the situation they were experiencing as
"Duvalierism without Duvalier." As a result, some took the law
into their own hands. In the weeks after Duvalier fled, mobs
killed a number of known mahout. Crowds looted the home of
former secret police chief Luc Desir and prevented him from
leaving the country. A Creole term for this vigilante justice was
dechoukaj, "uprooting evil." Dechoukaj was particularly focused
on mahout and voodoo priests and priestesses, houngans and
mambos, who were presumed to have been associated with the
makout or Duvaliers. The spokesperson for the national voodoo
organization, however, blamed the Roman Catholic Church,
accusing it of inciting a new anti-superstition campaign.
Haitians were also concerned about the composition and
agenda of the CNG, which was charged with preparing the way
for elections. The interim government was led by Lieutenant
General Henri Namphy, army chief of staff. The group consisted
of four other Duvalierists: three military officers (colonels
Prosper Avril, Williams Regala, and Max Valles) , and one
civilian (Alex Cineas, former minister of public works under
Duvalier) . In addition, the CNG had two civilians known for
their opposition to Duvalier: Gerard Gourgue, an educator,
lawyer, and president of the Haitian League for Human Rights;
and Rosney Desroches, a well-known and respected educator.
These last two members had short-lived tenures in office, however.
Gourgue resigned after two months to protest army
repression, and Desroches was removed a year later, when the
CNG abandoned its reformist facade and moved sharply to the
right. Before long, the CNG became a military junta composed
of Duvalierists.
Initially, the CNG dismantled some of the unpopular vestiges
of the Duvalier era. It rescinded the 1983 constitution providing
for a presidency for life, disbanded the VSN, restored the
original red and blue flag of 1804 that Francois Duvalier had
replaced by a red and black banner, replaced the Duvalierist
National Assembly with a new thirteen-member ministerial cabinet,
nationalized properties belonging to the Duvaliers, freed
political prisoners, permitted political organizations to exist
and political exiles to return to Haiti, and pledged to respect
human rights and freedom of the press. However, the CNG did
not attempt to uproot Duvalierism, as the public demanded,
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