I’m sticking with my immediate reaction on Twitter …
I was brought up not to speak ill of the dead, a habit that has stuck.
Therefore, Jean-Claude Duvalier is dead. Nothing else.
#BabyDoc
— Otto Rock (@incakolanews) October 4, 2014
…though wanted to add a few words so the blog is the medium. I was brought up by people and in a culture that states you shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, which has become ingrained. It’s not a bad thing, it’s not a good thing, it’s just a thing. This is about as far as my cultural constipation will allow me to go:
Ex-President of Haiti Jean-Claude Duvalier, known as Baby Doc, has died of a heart attack aged 63. He was country President while still a teenager (taking over from his father) and de-facto head of the Tontons Macoutes death squads that stood out as barbaric even by late 20th century Latin America standards. France gave him asylum for a long time, for which it should be totally ashamed as a supposedly civilized nation. He was never brought to justice for crimes he committed. He won’t be missed.
UPDATE: Thanks due to reader FR for mailing in, a correction ensues: Baby Doc applied for asylum in France but never formally received it from the country. He did however live in the country and under its protection for nearly 25 years.