Life Sentence

Outside the National Palace in Port-au-Prince last week, bands beat out the latest popular rhythm: Papa Doc Forever. Crowds of peasants and workers stood dutifully in the blazing sun as little Haiti's Dictator Francois ("Papa Doc") Duvalier, 54, smiled benignly, then allowed that "forever" was just about what he had in mind. Bowing to overwhelming popular demand, he said, he had consented to rule tiny Haiti as President for life.

For the impoverished Caribbean nation ($70 per capita income, 90% illiteracy), it was a life sentence. Since he took office in 1957, Duvalier has ruthlessly liquidated every real or suspected foe of his regime. The 5,000-man Tonton Macoute, Duvalier's plain-clothes bully boys, shake down merchants and terrorize peasants, while his militiamen engage in macabre voodoo orgies, playing on the belief of the superstitious population that Papa Doc has occult powers. Haitian exiles, arriving in the Dominican Republic at the other end of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, say that the rites have included sewing up newborn babies inside sacrificial bulls. At the end of Duvalier's constitutional term last year, when he skipped elections and simply had himself inaugurated again, the U.S. broke off diplomatic relations and economic aid. But Papa Doc put down a rebel invasion, held fast, and the U.S. finally gave in, restored relations and sent back an ambassador.

Duvalier last week also assured the 4,000,000 Haitians that they could not have chosen a better man for lifetime President if they had voted on it. "I am an exceptional man," declared Papa Doc, "the kind the country could produce only once every 50 or 75 years."

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