1985, fall: (Two Parallel Dramas: The Streets in Ferment and the Plot Takes Shape, the Army the Elite and the Church Watch the Radicalization, Washington Enc…

1985, fall: (Two Parallel Dramas: The Streets in Ferment and the Plot Takes Shape, the Army the Elite and the Church Watch the Radicalization, Washington Encourages an Arranged Transfer, Namphy the Ti Blan Soldier’s Soldier and Regala the Noir Product of Duvalierism, Désinor Approaches Madame Max, and Mme Max Demands a U.S. Visa — Roughly Like Giving Safe-Conduct to Himmler in 1945): Such a caucus violated a fundamental precept of François Duvalier’s — he had never let the various groups that owed their existence to him make common cause. Two parallel dramas were taking place in Haiti: on the streets, a disenfranchised, unarmed, hungry populace was increasingly in ferment, with younger priests organizing and giving the masses a real voice they had not enjoyed in a generation. Watching this radicalization with increasing apprehension were all the institutions that had worked so long with the regime but no longer saw their interests as congruent — the army, the new rich in the elite, and the non-Liberation Theology church. With at first tacit, then overt encouragement by an American administration that had no desire to see a people’s government take root on its very doorstep, there began to build a plot. The army, quiet for so long, had once been the traditional hatchery of such arrangements until emasculated by François Duvalier; since his death it had been allowed, on a short leash, to regain some status. In its ranks, among the drug dealers and grafters, were some honest and capable men — officers who had made careers by keeping low profiles found themselves arbitrarily cashiered after clashing with the Bennett clan; others, survivors of the sixties and seventies, were newly energized by the excesses of palace life. An unlikely alliance between the army commander and a younger noir officer formed the nucleus of the cabal. Henri Namphy, born to a mulâtre family in the Cap in 1932, commissioned as second lieutenant in 1954, was old enough to remember a Haiti that worked — known as Ti Blan because of his light color, he had survived the fall of Magloire and Papa Doc’s purges, never becoming enmeshed in the various army plots, preferring instead hard drinking and womanizing. A soldier’s soldier, his career prospered under Jean-Claude, who promoted him to Brigadier General in 1981 and Lieutenant General and head of the army in 1984; he was known to take care of his troops and had refused on several occasions to order them to fire on the people. His partner could not have been more different: Williams Regala, five years younger, was a total product of the Duvalier regime — graduating in one of the last classes of the Académie Militaire before its ten-year shutdown, noir to Namphy’s mulâtre, he had served in all key positions including the presidential guard, the Dessalines battalion, and the Léopards, and for two years had been inspector general. Cautiously the two widened their circle; pivotal to any arrangement was the elimination or at least neutralization of the macoutes and milice, who stood to lose everything if the regime changed. Cannily, they sought out Clovis Désinor, whose credentials with the dinosaurs were impeccable — skulking outside the halls of power for fifteen years, Désinor alone could safely approach Madame Max Adolphe. To their relief, Désinor agreed, offering useful insights on the logistics of pulling off a coup. While Désinor sought out Rosalie Adolphe in her Pétionville home, the army men met with the Americans — first junior officials, then the ambassador, putting their case: Duvalier’s excesses had undermined key pillars; only the army had the cohesiveness to pull together a post-Duvalier regime; failure to act could result in a bloody civil war and a radical government unsympathetic to the U.S. Foggy Bottom came quickly to the conclusion that an arranged transfer was infinitely preferable to the dangerous policy of non-intervention, and signed on. The devil was in the details: Madame Max, initially appalled by Désinor’s pitch, gradually came round but for a price — certain key macoutes including her would have to be guaranteed safety, the rest could not be told until the last minute, and she demanded a U.S. visa so she could live with her daughter and grandchildren in the U.S. This demand, roughly like the Allies giving safe-conduct to Himmler in 1945, made the Americans gag — only when Mme Max threatened to betray the entire operation did the U.S. consent, over vigorous protest. By the beginning of January 1986, the pieces were beginning to fall into place.