Will Preval leave?

Today is the day Preval is supposed to leave his office. Will he go? The senate has previously voted that he can extend his stay in office until May- the date he officially took office in 2006. I

expect he won't leave unless 'forced' - the same as every other president preceding him. Word

on the street suggested their may be manifestations today but the only thing I've heard is that a

tire was burning on a street in Petionville. Other people reported the streets are quiet; people are

getting on with their day. However, helicopters are in the air again. Emily, a reporter here

tweeted that there are fires and tires burning in several areas around downtown and

manifestations are expected around palace. We have word of other areas where problems are

beginning so heat up. People are looking for change in the government but is this going to do

it?Throw in rumors that former president Aristide wants to return and has asked for a diplomatic

passport. Will this throw another wrench into the political scene even as Martelly and Manigat

begin to campaign for the March 20 run off election?

25 years ago: “Baby Doc” Duvalier flees Haiti

Haiti

On February 7, 1986, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, fled Haiti, bringing to an end three decades of US-backed dictatorship that had begun under his father, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier.

With the backing of the US, the Duvaliers were responsible, acting through their hated Tonton Macoutes secret police, for the murder of more than 50,000 Haitians, and the imprisonment, torture, or banishment of hundreds of thousands more. The brutal repression was used to keep Haitian workers in abject poverty to the benefit of US corporate interests and the Duvaliers and the Haitian elite, who looted the government and the economy to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The desperation of the population and its hatred for the regime led to revolt in 1985. Beginning in Gonaives, it spread across the country through the autumn and into January. Duvalier attempted to stop the uprising through police terror on the one side, and a 10 percent cut to basic food commodities on the other. These efforts failed, at which point the Reagan administration determined that Duvalier had to go.

A number of countries refused to receive Duvalier. He was ultimately whisked away on a US Air Force flight to Haiti’s former colonial master, France, where he lived in luxury in a villa on the Riviera.