Istwa Nou

On 18 November 1970, the anniversary of the battle of Vertieres, Francois Duvalier reviewed the army, gave one of his deliberately murky speeches in mixed French and Creole, and pinned medals on loyal officers, General Constant among them. The effort was too much. The next day he complained of dizziness and a violent headache, could not stand steadily, and began to slur. He had had a similar warning in 1962 and knew what it meant. Early in December he removed Constant, eight years his obedient chief of staff, and installed his godson Claude Raymond in the post. On Ancestors' Day he told a silent crowd that when the moment came he would stand aside for youth, and promised Haiti a young leader. The following day the government newspaper Le Nouveau Monde remarked that a Duvalier might one day follow a Duvalier, and that this ought to alarm nobody.

Ulrick Saint-Louis, the legislative leader, arrived flanked by militiamen with submachine guns and proposed lowering the minimum age for the presidency from forty to eighteen. The assembly voted it through and asked for a plebiscite to confirm it. On 22 January 1971 the government declared a holiday, let schoolchildren out and marched them downtown as it did on execution days, hired bands and supplied them with raw rum, and trucked in peasants who were handed a gourde note each. Francois Duvalier came unsteadily onto the palace balcony with his son beside him and named Jean-Claude his successor as head of state and as chief of the Duvalierist revolution. He could barely stay upright. A month later Haitians were asked whether the choice of Jean-Claude Duvalier as president for life answered their hopes and desires. The count was 2,391,916 in favour and none against. The ballots carried one answer.