1980, summer – December: (The Gathering Storm: Michèle Cleans House, the Translator’s Mysterious Death, the Strict Diet, Sylvio Claude’s Newspaper Shut After…

1980, summer – December: (The Gathering Storm: Michèle Cleans House, the Translator’s Mysterious Death, the Strict Diet, Sylvio Claude’s Newspaper Shut After One Issue, Hurricane Allen’s 175-mph Winds Devastate the South, the IMF Ties Funding to Progress, the Planning Minister Says We Must Learn to Live with Corruption, and the Boat People Hock Everything for $800 to Cross the Straits of Florida): The young bride wasted little time in cleaning house. As the summer progressed, old palace retainers found themselves abruptly cashiered after years of loyal service — all had somehow incurred the wrath of Michèle Duvalier, and nearly all had some tie to Simone Duvalier. A mysterious automobile accident abruptly took the life of the half-Jamaican English translator, disliked by the new Mme Duvalier, who had served Jean-Claude since Papa Doc’s death. To his chagrin, Jean-Claude found himself put on a strict diet by his new wife, with dire recriminations threatened to any that fed him on the sly. The government had little inclination to deal with troublemakers — it moved quickly in July to shut down Sylvio Claude’s newspaper Vérité Su Tambu after only one issue, betting correctly that a U.S. administration preoccupied with crises in Iran and Afghanistan and an election underway would have little appetite for disciplinary action in Haiti; in these assessments the government was aided by Foreign Minister Georges Salomon, brought home from Washington, whose years in the American capital made him an astute observer. Nature weighed in on August 6, 1980, with Hurricane Allen, packing 175-mph winds that devastated the southern peninsula to an extent not seen since Hazel in 1954 — even Port-au-Prince, normally shielded by Morne-la-Selle, was not exempt. The populace received four hours’ notice; Cayes and Jacmel were in the direct path, with two hundred dead and more than 150,000 homeless. Coffee bushes and other crops, which had taken years to recover from pummeling in the 1950s and 1960s, were again destroyed. This time the storm occasioned no outpouring of sympathy — the world was already heavily invested in Haiti and didn’t much like what it saw. A 1978 IMF report had criticized the usual aspects of the regime’s finances but had a new and disturbing dimension: future IMF funding was tied to discrete progress, and by mid-1980 Haiti had been able to draw almost none of the money, forced instead to turn to commercial banks at commercial interest rates. A Wall Street Journal article quoted Planning Minister Édouard Berrouet on corruption: we aren’t angels — we know there is corruption, but we must learn to live with corruption. The international community was less philosophical. In the face of natural and man-made disasters, increasing numbers of Haitians voted with their feet, hocking everything to pay $800 or $1,000 for a risky journey across the Straits of Florida. U.S. Coast Guard cutters found numerous boats drifting empty; startled citizens of Miami Beach awoke some mornings to see bewildered Haitians trudging toward them from a just-beached sailboat; some captains seized the chance to make quick money, dumping their charges on uninhabited islands after collecting the fares.