Istwa Nou

News of the postage stamp fraud leaked in 1975 and the government held a trial that Port-au-Prince watched closely to see how near the palace the prosecutors would go. None of the principals were charged. The men who served time were looked after afterwards. Part of the reason for staging it at all was a severe drought cutting coffee and sugar exports and ruining the rice and corn harvests, which left the government more dependent than ever on foreign donors and obliged to look responsive. Roughly three quarters of school-age children were affected by malnutrition to some degree. The drought also cut generation at Peligre, and the blackouts came back. That same year a strange underground structure with volcano-shaped roof vents was finished a block from the palace at a reported cost of three to five million dollars. It was built as a tomb for Papa Doc and it stood empty for months.