1981–1982: (Sylvio Claude Sentenced to Fifteen Years, Ti-Pouche Douyon Banned from the Palace, the Evita Perón Makeover, Mother Teresa’s Lesson in Humility, …

1981–1982: (Sylvio Claude Sentenced to Fifteen Years, Ti-Pouche Douyon Banned from the Palace, the Evita Perón Makeover, Mother Teresa’s Lesson in Humility, $2,000 for Pastor Nérée’s Orphans, the Sansaricq Landing on La Tortue, Namphy and Regala Prevail, Jesse Jackson Calls the INS Camp a Scar on Democracy, and the Philadelphia Inquirer Details How Skill and the U.S. Keep Baby Doc on Top): In the face of heavy weather the regime veered right, sentencing Sylvio Claude to fifteen years at hard labor for his political activities. Continuing to clean house, Michèle succeeded in banning even Ti-Pouche Douyon, the president’s long-time friend and private secretary of ten years, from the palace — Jean-Claude continued to use him discreetly for delicate matters, but always at a cautious remove. The makeover of Michèle Duvalier proceeded apace: like Evita Perón, she was seen everywhere doing good works, always impeccably and expensively clad. A gushing Mother Teresa was photographed with the first couple and announced she had received a lesson in humility after seeing the closeness of the first lady to her people; a foundation was to be established in the first lady’s name for children’s causes. Even Pastor Nérée, following more closely his original vocation after his near-fatal flirtation with journalism, received a visit from Mme Duvalier and a $2,000 check for his work with orphans. On January 9, 1982, an exile group led by Bernard Sansaricq — uncle of the two-year-old Stéphane whom Captain Borges had blinded with a cigarette in Jérémie in 1964 — landed on La Tortue, having embarked from Grand Turk Island ninety miles north. The regime’s ability to respond to such forays had grown rusty, and it was several days before a coordinated response involving the Léopards and troops from the Casernes Dessalines could be mounted — indeed, miliciens on the scene initially turned their fire on the government troops when they arrived, assuming they were invaders. Led by Henri Namphy and Williams Regala — two people destined to be heard from again — government forces ultimately prevailed, killing or capturing and executing those who had not escaped. The Interior Minister’s radio boasts of quick suppression were belied by the temporary airlift of all surgical residents from the Hôpital Général to Port-de-Paix — not, Haiti Observateur noted drily, to tend wounded rebels. Jesse Jackson denounced the INS detention camp in Miami as a scar on the face of democracy — a remark quickly picked up on editorial pages across the U.S. The Philadelphia Inquirer detailed how skill and the U.S. kept Baby Doc on top. Tourism had been steadily declining since the first pictures of boat people seared themselves into the consciousness of would-be tourists, creating a foreign exchange crisis.