Original subtitles

[Music]

for 14 years Francois Papa Doc Duvalier

rules over Haiti using violence

and voodoo I have been elected for

president for life it is the iron will

of the Haitian people he's a tyrant who

forms his own private militia to kill

some 30,000 of his people including

anyone who challenges his power talk to

psychology they would classify him as a

psychopath this is the story of a

ruthless dictators reign of terror over

the poorest of the poor from his

manipulation of the national religion to

the growth of his personality cult Papa

Doc is a name that will forever bring

Haitians

nightmares

[Music]

[Music]

April 1963 the sixth year of Haitian

dictator Francois Duvalier's brutal

reign is about to become the most bloody

at the presidential palace the man they

called Papa dog gets shocking news

someone has shot his children's

bodyguard and chauffeur

he absolutely raged devalued and sent

him into overdrive

blind with anger Papa Doc summons the

head of his palace guard to whom his

orders are clear find those responsible

and kill them all the hunt starts with a

man Papa dog wrongly accuses of being

behind the attack former Army officer

Francoise Benoit

the event started I did a talk on April

26 1963 at that time I already been

granted political asylum at the

Dominican embassy though personally safe

from Duvalier's goons benoit's family

including his father who is a judge his

wife and infant son remained in harm's

way when one is wife had just come back

from church they were at the house with

the baby and with the maid and with the

visitors I saw the truck full of

presidential guards run by

[Music]

everyone in the house is killed and then

set ablaze

with the terrible day the ashes of the

Benoit's was there for years and years

over the next few hours hundreds of

people are murdered or disappeared

[Music]

but a horrific rumor starts to spread

that a different fate awaits Benoit's

infant son who was reportedly taken to

Duvalier Duvalier he said we have

closeted himself with the boy

nobody knows till this day what happened

to Francois Ben was little boy

some people said you were sacrificed by

Diwali

sheltered at the dominican embassy the

awful news is delivered to benoit he

sacrifice not only my family but my

wife's family anybody who was close to

me anybody who was a student associated

with me was either arrested or killed if

you talk to psychologists they would

classify him as a psychopath was he

crazy

no but was he evil the answer is yes

papa dog the man responsible for this

atrocity is born in 1907 in a beautiful

Caribbean state of Haiti it's a proud

nation the first slave colony to become

independent

in the 18th century it was called sand

armor and belonged to the French it was

the most prosperous colony in the world

at the time turning out a huge number of

crops which were keeping the perfumed

elite in Paris very well-fed indeed it

was estimated that one in eight people

in metropolitan France out there living

directly or indirectly to the produce of

Haiti roofs and among it was called the

pearl of the Antilles in 1791 the slaves

of Haiti rise up in revolution against

the French colonial system under the

leadership of Toussaint L'Ouverture

jean-jacques Dessalines they fight

against all the odds to liberate their

country they actually expelled the

French army when it was at its height

this was an absolutely incredible

situation and yet the Haitian slaves

rose up and defeated them expelled them

the slave armies defeated not just the

French plantation owners French armies

but also the Spanish British the

Americans who had all of the superpowers

of the year

in 1804 the slaves of sanderman finally

win their independence and the nation of

Haiti is born the Malcolm X Martin

Luther King referred repeatedly back to

the Haitian Revolution as being a kind

of an ideal and it was it was a

fantastic achievement but when Francois

Duvalier is just eight years old

Haiti loses her independence

in July 1915 with America's entrance

into World War one on the horizon the

United States occupies the country and

for black Haitians like Duvalier it's a

catastrophe

the occupation was surprisingly severe

harsh profoundly racist for young

Duvalier the lack of respect for the

Haitian people molds a hatred of the

United States and all it stands for he

grew up in a in a very cultured

articulate black middle-class

environment in class and this is

precisely the class and the group that

felt most aggrieved by the American

occupation in 1934 the US military

leaves Haiti and the country becomes

independent once again it is also the

year in which Duvalier completes his

degree in medicine and begins a

promising career serving the people of

port-au-prince but his real passion a

legacy of the u.s. occupation is black

nationalist politics and he throws

himself into a movement called noir ism

[Music]

essentially what new evasion was was the

reaffirmation with pride of the African

roots

[Music]

following his fascination with African

heritage Duvalier starts to study

Haiti's Creole religion voodoo voodoo is

an essentially animistic religion that

originates in West Africa

people say that Haiti is 70% Catholic

30% Protestant but a hundred percent

voodoo

voodoo has a single creator deity bond

dear but the supreme deity does not get

involved with this world instead

powerful demigods and spirits called

Noir interact with humanity who are the

spirits or the gods that the patient's

pray to just as a Catholic would pray to

the saint as to valley a studies voodoo

rituals he gains a better understanding

of how the religion dominates the lives

of local people though he is never a

true believer his fascination with the

national religion will continuously grow

on his rise to the pinnacle of power

has always been an association in Haiti

between volume and power most Haitians

believe to this day that to have become

president in the first place you must

have made some kind of pact with the

devil or with a dark side of Vodun

[Music]

Duvalier is a man full of contradictions

he is fascinated by Haitian mysticism

but he is also a modern medical man of

science in 1944 he gets a scholarship to

study public health medicine at the

University of Michigan

he will return as head of a program

bringing modern medicine to the Haitian

peasants afflicted by a crippling skin

disease called yours up a dog came in

and says I'm going to change that and

using penicillin she changed her

Duvalier becomes widely known traveling

the country bringing his penicillin here

to remote villages across Haiti Duvalier

actually set out walking great distances

on foot he had to subject himself to

hardship to actually deliver his medical

expertise to these people

he established a reputation as a kind

man a good man a man who could literally

come into the community and make people

well that's how he garden in Papa Doc

because throughout the country of Haiti

Papa Doc penicillin remedies and wiped

out yours

to the largely illiterate and

superstitious population

Papa Doc isn't curing them with medicine

alone

they think he must have mysterious

voodoo abilities

people couldn't believe it was just the

medicine doing it they believed that

Papa Doc had a special power in him

it's a turning point for Duvalier he

realizes that he can use his newly won

reputation to gain total power

[Music]

in 1946 dr. Francois Duvalier known

affectionately as Papa Doc begins to

climb the Haitian political ladder

he becomes Minister for health under a

fellow law arist president de marsay

estimate

[Music]

but just four years later the army

overthrows president estimize regime and

pass a dog leaves political office

Colonel Paul Magua is installed as the

new president

Duvalier goes into hiding where he

secretly begins plotting his own path to

power in a country where few are

literate he takes the opportunity to

study political writings from Marx to

Machiavelli mycav le told him is better

to be feared than to be loved he learnt

that he practiced him

it's a lesson that will reshape the

peasant doctors identity transforming

him into a force of evil primed to take

power by any means necessary

[Music]

in 1956 Francois Duvalier's nemesis

Haitian president Colonel Magua is

himself overthrown by the army and flees

the country

under an interim government the country

trembles on the brink of Civil War what

elections for president are called

Duvalier emerges from hiding and goes to

the newspaper office of Bernard I'd

reach he was very quiet he was gentle in

a way he announced that he was a

candidate for the presidency his initial

objectives were entirely honorable

and he probably was an idealist and he

probably felt that he could do good

things in power

Duvalier is standing as a champion of

the impoverished black majority against

Louis de Joie considered to be a

representative of the country's

lighter-skinned elite he made it the

fight of black versus mulatto in a

country where 90% of the people are

black

Papa Doc was a shoo-in

[Music]

[Applause]

on September 22nd 1957 the kindly doctor

Duvalier who cured so many sick people

wins a landslide victory

[Music]

I had no idea that there was two sides

to this man I mean he really fooled us

all it's the beginning of decades of

dictatorship for Haiti

[Music]

Oh God we had no idea what it was going

to be like it was murder

[Music]

as he takes his seat as president of

Haiti Duvalier knows that it's not a

secure position if you look at the track

record of of presidents in Haiti it's

not very good I mean most of them were

short-term at least two of them were

actually chopped pieces by the populace

out of 22 heads of state between 1843

and 1915 only one completes his full

term in office even the hero of the

Haitian Revolution general jean-jacques

Dessalines met a hideous fate des Lee

himself after two or three years in

power was actually dismembered in the

streets of port-au-prince and fed to the

pigs Papa Doc is determined to be

different it was very quick the

transition from from bumbling country

doctor to ruthless dictator

the valet came to realize that the only

way to exercise power in Haiti was to be

utterly ruthless so I think that was a

kind of pragmatic decision that he raged

Duvalier quickly sets out to remove the

obvious threats to his power

first up the army he knew that the army

with the kingmakers and he needed to

make sure that the people in the key

position the army were his appointees

he sacks the top officers but for now at

least they get away with their lives

that was the start of the way that he

was going to operate throughout his

presidency to have successive and

unpredictable purges of those who

thought they were secure you thought

they were there in his favors just

months after Papa Doc's inauguration

shots ring out near the palace it looks

like his insecurity is justified DeVoe

was under threat almost from the start

former army officers seized the barracks

next to the palace and attempt a coup it

happened early in the morning so I went

down to the palace and there was all

hell breaking loose with 50 caliber

machine gun fire

the word spread around that there were

200 rebels

fortunately for the valley

most of the coup attempts if you like

work comic opera affairs it turns out

the coup is not being launched by 200

rebels but only 8 Duvalier crushes them

easily

it's a pivotal moment he decides that he

just cannot trust the army and needs a

new force of his own to secure his power

he felt extremely vulnerable and he felt

he was in need of a patrol Ian's guard

Evalia decides the he needs his own gang

and that gang has to be meaner and

bigger and tougher than the army

Papa Doc orders the creation of the

volunteers for national security the

force will become better known by the

name of an ogre from Haitian folklore

the tonton Macoutes

the first group of Macoutes was taken

out of the National penitentiary there

were murderers these people who had were

serving time and they were recruited

from there and given weapons and a blank

check to do whatever the value asked

them to do the signature emblem of the

tonton Macoutes was a shades they always

wore which gave them a particularly

sinister than here

the tonton Macoutes become a key pillar

of Duvalier's regime in time they will

outnumber the regular army but running

his militia is expensive now Duvalier

needs money and he needs weapons but the

best source of cash is the country he

hates most America the United States has

no love for his regime but then Duvalier

gets unlucky brittle

in January 1959 Fidel Castro wins his

revolution Cuba just 50 miles across the

windward strengths from Haiti shores

becomes communist the rise of Castro and

the Cuban Revolution was an absolute

boon for Duvalier because it took the

heat off him in terms of the State

Department worrying about the Caribbean

Duvalier tells the Americans that he is

staunchly anti-communist but he might

not always stay that way we use it as

constant threat hanging over the

Americans to say oh well you know if you

don't give me another sort of 50 million

dollars in in aid I might just have to

look elsewhere maybe East you know or

maybe to our friends over the windward

strings Papa Doc's blackmail works the

United States sends millions in

financial aid and a detachment of

Marines to train his forces with the

country he hates now bolstering his

regime

it seems that Duvalier is secure

[Music]

but he has an Achilles heel Papa Doc is

a diabetic on May 24th 1959 he collapses

and falls into a coma

[Music]

it lasts for some nine hours eventually

Duvalier's right-hand man

clémence babu administers a glucose

injection

Papa Doc regains consciousness his life

was saved in terms of the initial first

aid by kim babu and then by the

Americans who treated him I believe at

Guantanamo but the president wakes up a

changed man he was in a coma for quite a

long period and there is some evidence

that this may have created some brain

damage or some long-lasting change in

his behavior Papa Doc is about to go

from ruthless to madly evil after that

illness he became a different person

Papa Doc begins to behave as a powerful

voodoo demigod or you are Baron Samedi

[Music]

by oMG is the head of the cemetery is

one of the most powerful voodoo gods

down somebody in Haitian folklore is the

ultimate terrifying figure he he is the

person who stalks the graveyard at night

he's into Haitian Grim Reaper Papa Doc

used to dress himself in black all the

time officially and with a big humbug

hat and he said just like Bower Sundy is

portrayed that when somebody himself was

meant to speak in a particular way it

was a particular location lisping

suitable voice Divali himself started to

affect precisely that voice oh man

Dhananjay wanna play at today's yes

it becomes clear to some near him that

Duvalier has gone mad he was clearly

unbalanced I think he becomes paranoid

about everything and everyone

[Music]

[Applause]

the first sign of his change comes when

Duvalier decides to overturn the

Constitution which allows him only one

term in office

[Music]

he calls elections in 1961 and there is

only one name on the ballot for

president

Francois Duvalier

our elections it's a farce it was a

ritual to celebrate France party value

is regime

Papa Doc wins the election by an

incredible 1.3 million votes to zero

the New York Times reports that Latin

America has witnessed many fraudulent

elections throughout its history but

none more outrageous than the one which

has just taken place in Haiti it's a

victory that sets up his second term to

be far more evil than the first that's

when the regime becomes totally brutal

absolutely paranoid that is the

beginning of utter violence

using the army and his private militia

the tonton Macoutes Papa Doc establishes

a reign of terror brutality became

institutionalized and pervasive

throughout the island Duvalier's tonton

Macoutes infiltrate every stratum of

Haitian society it was a system that

probably similar in terms of silencing

the population as dasta's in East

Germany

[Music]

the main purpose of this terror is

simple greed

even though Haiti is desperately poor

Papa Doc and his cronies set about

milking it dry millions of dollars in

taxes and aid vanish into the pockets of

his regime it is all about money I think

it would be wrong to dignify Diwali RISM

with the name of an ideology it wasn't

really like knowledge it was generalized

kleptocracy it was the mob running a

country the people who suffer suffered

most were really the poorest patient

there were thousands of anonymous

victims of Diwali

people being tortured to death and shot

and murdered because they wouldn't give

their daughter to the local markets or

because they wouldn't give their

business of noon tomorrow nobody knows

how many people that the macaw is killed

the dictator is now increasingly

paranoid lurking most of the time in his

heavily fortified palace

[Music]

when he does venture out it is under

heavy guard

to show that he cares for his people he

hands out petty cash

it's his way of proving to himself how

much his people love him

I mean I remember Diwali in his car

throwing money at people and people

running to get him you know the dollar

something like that to me that was utter

indignity

[Applause]

Washington has been providing millions

of dollars a year in aid to Haiti but

it's clear that the money is being

siphoned off

President Kennedy decides he has had

enough of the mad dictator

Papa Doc Kennedy was really anti

Duvalier and was doing everything

possible to get rid of him

Kennedy cuts financial aid and looks for

ways to reintroduce democracy

it seems that Papa Doc's time in office

may be running out but then

the unthinkable happens

when Kennedy was assassinated in the

22nd of November Papa Doc Duvalier had

champagne and his palace with his psycho

fence

[Music]

incredibly Papa Doc claims the

assassination is all down to him

[Music]

he explains that he put a voodoo curse

on Kennedy and that it's no coincidence

the president was killed on November the

22nd he did everything on the 22nd the

22nd was his lucky day he got elected on

September 22nd he was nauseated October

22nd and he purported to have killed

Kennedy on November 22nd 1963 his

boasting is designed to reinforce the

idea that no matter how powerful they

may be the fate of anyone who opposes

Papa Doc is death if your president is

in some sense anonymous with this

supernatural taker of lives then he is

not to be messed with

with Kennedy gone the pressure from the

United States is off Papa Doc Duvalier

soon realizes he has other problems

13 young Haitians based in New York

decide that now they have to take

matters into their own hands

calling themselves the gern Haiti or

young Haiti they set sail for their

homeland in summer 1964 June 8 see

movement felt that they had lost a great

supporter and they didn't feel that the

Johnson administration would push

through with program that can be had

four hits most of the gern Haiti have

lost family to Papa Doc's brutal regime

inspired by Castro's success in Cuba

they land in Haiti an attempt to start a

revolution 13 of them left New York and

went to Haiti to carry out guerrilla

movement just like Castro did in the

Sierra Maestra they were going to dirt

in the mountains of Haiti

[Music]

but the rebels quickly discover that the

geography of Haiti is not well suited to

guerrilla warfare with the mountains of

Haiti they were not as wooded Sierra

Maestra and Papa Doc who had his goals

throughout Haiti tracked them down one

by one the members of the journey Haiti

are killed the first to die is a van'll

Iraq his body is returned to Papa dr. he

actually left a stinking body in an

armchair outside the arrivals hall of

port-au-prince International Airport so

that the few tourists that Haiti got at

the time went through passport control

went out to get their taxi only to be

confronted by this decaying rotting body

for months the gern haiti struggle on in

the mountains

eventually 11 of the group are killed in

the remaining two captured they are

returned to Porto press where the

execution is set for November 12th 1964

[Music]

Duvalier declared a public holiday told

schoolchildren schoolteachers that they

had to bring their school children to

watch the executions this is how we deal

with the enemies of Haiti the executions

were filmed were played on television

for weeks afterwards

Marcelle Numa a graduate of the Bronx

Merchant Marine Academy and Louie druwa

a finance graduate and bank worker in

New York are defiant to the bitter end

the executioner was typical of Duvalier

since rather macabre sense of theater

that if you could if you could stage an

execution then televise it and to make

it even more grotesque bringing a group

of school children to witness it because

then the impact throughout Haiti would

have been immensely

I remember watching on TV the live

execution of Marcela Numa and you see

this way I mean here you have two guys

who are standing you know with their

hands in their back and then all of a

sudden they they should have demanded

default that that that has never been

able to be erased from my mind it's like

yesterday I was seeing

the tyrant discovers that most of the

revolutionaries come from the town of

Jeremy a stronghold of Opposition Papa

dog unleashes his horrific vengeance on

the town

Suganya was someone who relished revenge

he wasn't one to enjoy cold I mean he

preferred it hot

families were taking children and wives

kill first

with their husbands watching and then

the husband's cut it softly how many

people died but it's probably in the

thousands it tells you something about

you valuing that is that he wanted

punishment to be exemplary and therefore

the more blood-curdling the more violent

the more indiscriminate the more

effective it was

by the end of 1964 Duvalier has killed

thousands of people and has got what he

always wanted total power

[Music]

inside Haiti there is simply no

opposition left there is nothing that

can stop his evil regime I think I think

by this period Duvalier could be defined

as megalomania power is is everything

there is no alternative he can't leave

because retire he's got to stay there so

whatever it takes he will do yet total

power is not enough for Papa Doc he

wants to be more than a president he

wants to become a god

[Music]

in June 1964 the tyrannical president

Francois Papa Doc Duvalier moves to take

total and perpetual control of the

country he's used brutal violence to

hold on to power for almost seven years

already

even overturning the Constitution to

allow himself a second term in office

[Music]

now he goes further holding a

constitutional referendum to make

himself president for life

unsurprisingly he wins with 99.9 percent

of the vote I have been elected for

president for life it is not my desire

but it is an eye on oil on the Haitian

people paradox madness now goes to new

and truly extreme levels addressing the

nation he delivers a bombshell

he declares that he is more than human

he is an immaterial being bullets cannot

hurt him he was essentially saying that

he was eternal you are some sort of

spirit overing over paid

Papa Doc is now stating openly what many

Haitians already believe that he is an

incarnation of the dreaded voodoo Lua

Baron Samedi

guardian of the graveyard violence may

have won him his position as president

for life but what will keep him there is

food ooh

Duvalier has more power in Haiti than

the farms the weapons the man heaven

Papa Doc used voodoo to control a nation

ever since the yours campaign and

dressing up as Baron Samedi

Papa Doc has played on the perception

that he has supernatural powers

the vision here for himself was full

control of the society through mystical

power

Papa Doc starts creating myths about

himself rumors circulate that Duvalier

makes a journey into the hills he goes

to a cave known as the true fubar it's a

sacred voodoo site where he is believed

to have found something terrifyingly

useful they brought back from pro

football a bunch of demons called baka

and he had them installed they lived and

what they did there but they lived in

the in the cellars of the National

Palace the idea that he's got these

demons ready to unleash is quite a

disincentive to revolt more rebellion

Papa Doc needs to demonstrate to his

people that he really does have Budhu

powers so he orders his men to hijack a

funeral and steals the casket of his

former friend and sometime political

rival Clemens you man sooner story

starts circulating about how he closets

himself in a room whose room Elle's

corpse and appears to communicate with

him

Papa Doc is letting people think he has

power to even talk to the dead death in

Haiti for many peoples is not natural so

people think that the valley had made a

zombie rog Mel

[Music]

for his voodoo rituals Papa Doc often

does not need the whole body sometimes

he demands that the decapitated heads of

his enemies are brought to him again

bizarre rumors circulate about what he

does with them

de Valley became convinced that you

could actually extract intelligence from

the heads of political enemies he would

actually sit in the bath sometimes

complete with top hat and consult the

head of this opponent the purpose of

these rituals is to scare his uneducated

and superstitious nation his Duvalier so

mad that he actually believes in them to

some who knew him say he does not but

what is beyond doubt is that he knows

how to use voodoo

the very used to smile because he was an

atheist he didn't believe in guru he

didn't believe in anything just power to

have peace and stability you soon have a

strong man in every country by the end

of the 1960s Papa Doc is more than

president for life he has his people

thinking he is almost a god but there is

one force he cannot evade his own

mortality

he's as so terrified murdered how the

opposition that the only enemy really

left is the grim reaper in his own

failing health

unlike most dictators Duvalier may get

to rule until the end of his natural

life

the trouble is he's now in his early 60s

Riven with diabetes congestive heart

failure and brain damage

from his coma in 1959 so now he sets

about securing a legacy for himself and

his brutally corrupt regime by the

beginning of the 1970s Papa Doc's voodoo

persona dominates Haiti people believe

but he really is

Baron Samedi the whole of you fellas it

was about the establishment of terror

and it was a terror that was inside

people's heads people were even afraid

to think that thoughts about value

[Music]

Papa Doc's brutal regime may have killed

30,000 Haitians but the official line is

that Duvalier is a living God across

Haiti amonia Muntz to the ego of the

tyrant his name is spelled out in lights

of the National Palace although the

president for life move comes the cult

of personality where Duvalier wants to

project himself as almost synonymous

with the country no praise is too great

for the supreme Papa Doc they fell over

each other to to invent new superlatives

to describe him

master of the crossroads the Haitian

flag floating and the man who sees

forever

the Lord's Prayer is rewritten as a

prayer to Papa Doc so our doc who art in

the National Palace all the while that

people are being made to worship Him the

tyrant is sucking the nation dry

stealing millions of dollars a year from

the Haitian people this basically took

the form of extortion of taxes on

everybody the businessmen on peanut

vendors anybody who get money even a few

cents it all mounted up one of the most

grandiose excuses for extra taxation is

a whole new town Duvalier Ville it's

intended to be a show of modernity and

hope for Haiti but never gets finished

this money went pretty much directly

into the pockets of Ali and his family

and his and his cronies

but Duvalier is still a trained doctor

he knows that his own death is around

the corner so he sets about securing his

legacy it was something that happened

fairly quickly but systematically Papa

Doc's eldest son jean-claude is still a

teenager brought up in the palace living

a life of luxury and cut off from the

concerns of normal Haitians nevertheless

his father decides that he will inherit

the presidency prior to dr. John food

was one simply as a kind of a fat

Playboy

he appears in public with his son and

anoints him officially as the next

president for life

[Music]

on April 21st 1971 the tyrant

Papa Doc dies peacefully in his bed his

son jean claude becomes baby doc and

will continue the corrupt Duvalier

regime for another 15 years ultimately

he is overthrown and dies of a heart

attack aged 63 while awaiting trial for

his crimes

Papa Doc's true legacy is that he

destroyed a dream and unleashed a

nightmare his crimes haunt Haiti to this

day I think Haiti was was permanently

scarred and disfigured by Giovanni

Haiti is now the poorest country in the

Western Hemisphere crippled by a lack of

education and wracked by political chaos

these solutions were destroyed the

families were destroyed the country now

all was destroyed

the only one from the benefit from those

atrocities was himself

how evil was Papa Doc I think divine he

was evil incarnate

you