1. Jean-Claude Duvalier succeeded his father Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier as the ruler of Haiti after his death in 1971.
31 Facts About Jean-Claude Duvalier
1. 2.
Jean-Claude Duvalier maintained a notoriously lavish lifestyle while poverty among his people remained the most widespread of any country in the Western Hemisphere.
3.
Rebellion against the Jean-Claude Duvalier regime broke out in 1985, and Jean-Claude Duvalier fled to France in 1986 on a US Air Force flight.
4.
Jean-Claude Duvalier unexpectedly returned to Haiti on 16 January 2011, after two decades in self-imposed exile in France.
5.
On 28 February 2013, Jean-Claude Duvalier pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption and human rights abuse.
6.
Jean-Claude Duvalier died of a heart attack on 4 October 2014, at the age of 63.
7.
Transparency International determined that the money embezzled by Jean-Claude Duvalier was the sixth most embezzled by a sitting head of government between 1984 and 2004.
8.
The son of Simone Ovide, a Mulatto-Haitian woman, and Francois Jean-Claude Duvalier, a black nationalist anti-mulatto leader who became dictator of Haiti, Jean-Claude Duvalier was born in Port-au-Prince and was brought up in an isolated environment.
9.
Jean-Claude Duvalier attended Nouveau College Bird and Institution Saint-Louis de Gonzague.
10.
Jean-Claude Duvalier was content to leave substantive and administrative matters in the hands of his mother, Simone Ovide Duvalier, and a committee led by Luckner Cambronne, his father's Interior Minister, while he attended ceremonial functions and lived as a playboy.
11.
Jean-Claude Duvalier took some steps to reform the regime, by releasing some political prisoners and easing press censorship.
12.
Jean-Claude Duvalier used this "non-fiscal account", established decades earlier, as a tobacco monopoly, but he later expanded it to include the proceeds from other government enterprises and used it as a slush fund for which no balance sheets were ever kept.
13.
On 27 May 1980, Jean-Claude Duvalier married divorcee Michele Bennett in a wedding that cost US$2million.
14.
Jean-Claude Duvalier called for a more equitable distribution of income, a more egalitarian social structure, and increased popular participation in public life.
15.
Jean-Claude Duvalier responded with a 10 percent cut in staple food prices, the closing of independent radio stations, a cabinet reshuffle, and a crackdown by police and army units, but these moves failed to dampen the momentum of the popular uprising against the dynastic dictatorship.
16.
The United States rejected a request to provide asylum for Jean-Claude Duvalier, but offered to assist with their departure.
17.
On 30 January 1986, Jean-Claude Duvalier initially accepted, and President Reagan actually announced his departure based on a report from the Haitian CIA Station Chief who saw Jean-Claude Duvalier's car head for the airport.
18.
Jean-Claude Duvalier's party returned to the palace unnoticed by the US intelligence team due to their motorcade being blocked by a gun battle.
19.
Jean-Claude Duvalier declared "we are as firm as a monkey tail" and decided against abdication.
20.
Jean-Claude Duvalier lost most of his wealth with his 1993 divorce from his wife.
21.
Jean-Claude Duvalier did take some courses at a university in France in an effort to sharpen his leadership skills.
22.
At the time, the French Ministry of the Interior said that it could not verify whether Jean-Claude Duvalier still remained in the country due to the recently enacted Schengen Agreement, which had abolished systematic border controls between France and the other participating countries.
23.
Jean-Claude Duvalier lived in Paris with Veronique Roy, his longtime companion, until his return to Haiti in late January 2011.
24.
On 16 January 2011, during the presidential election campaign, Jean-Claude Duvalier returned to Haiti after 25 years.
25.
However, many argued that Jean-Claude Duvalier returned to Haiti to gain access to the US$4million frozen in his Swiss bank account.
26.
The word from Jean-Claude Duvalier is that he's come to help his country.
27.
Jean-Claude Duvalier was charged with corruption, theft, and misappropriation of funds committed during his 15-year presidency.
28.
Jean-Claude Duvalier was released but was subject to recall by the court.
29.
Jean-Claude Duvalier was reported to be living under poorly enforced house arrest, enjoying a life of luxury in a suburb of Port-au-Prince.
30.
Jean-Claude Duvalier did so and for the first time pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption and human rights abuse.
31.
On 4 October 2014, Jean-Claude Duvalier died of a heart attack at the age of 63.