Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1907,

François Duvalier

had a front seat for an era of Latin American political turmoil. The invasion of US Marines on Haitian soil in 1915, followed by incessant violent repressions of political dissent, and American installed puppet rulers left a powerful impression on the young Duvalier, as did the latent political power of the resentment of the incredibly poor black majority against the tiny, powerful Haitian elite.

Lucky enough to be schooled and literate in a country where all but a tiny handful were illiterate, François attended medical school and participated in a US funded public health campaign to eliminate yaws (a common bacterial disease that had crippled thousands). Parlaying his modest involvement into tales of his single handed eradication of the disease, Doctor Duvalier became more and more involved in the negritude (black pride) movement of Haitian author Dr. Jean Price Mars, and began an ethnological study of voudou, Haiti's native religion, that would later pay enormous political dividends.

When FDR withdrew the Marines, the puppet governments left in power by the Americans were quickly chased out of office as years of resentment from the populace exploded. The reigns of power shifted with dizzying speed, with the average President holding power for less than two years. Military brasshats came and went, as did senators and populist rabble rousers, but through it all, the "quiet country doctor" held his cards to his chest, seeking his foothold in Haitian politics. He finally got it when elections were held in 1957 to replace deposed military strongman Paul Magloire, and through hook and crook (not to mention outright election fraud by the Haitian army), François Duvalier was inaugurated as president of Haiti that same year.

...

When

Papa Doc

finally died in 1971, he had managed to bring an already poor nation into unimaginable poverty and misery, as Haiti became the poorest nation in the Americas as a direct result of his wild kleptomania. His twin legacies, the 15 year rule of his son (deposed in 1986), and the creation of millions of political and economic refugees. It is fitting that his grandiose mausoleum in Port-au-Prince was demolished by angry mobs who had finally learned to stop fearing the quiet little country doctor, only 20 years after his death.