1986, February 7, 3:47 A.M.: (The Bird Has Flown: Avril Knocks Out Michèle, the Videotaped Abdication — I Have Looked in Vain for Any Sign, Champagne and Coc…

1986, February 7, 3:47 A.M.: (The Bird Has Flown: Avril Knocks Out Michèle, the Videotaped Abdication — I Have Looked in Vain for Any Sign, Champagne and Cocaine Until Departure, Michèle’s Turban Hiding the Bruise, the Convoy of BMWs at 3 A.M., the C-141 Lumbers East to Puerto Rico Then into the Dawn Toward France, and the Heinl Verdict — Papa Doc the Ultimate Nationalist Sowed the Seeds for an Internationalization Far Beyond the Occupation): Prosper Avril, restored to the army and promoted to full colonel only the week before, delivered a stunning left hook to the first lady, temporarily knocking her out — the time for niceties was over. As Michèle Duvalier came to, whimpering, arrangements for the transfer of power were quickly finalized. The president made a videotape to be played after his departure; aired the next morning at eight, it said what people already knew — sitting in the office bequeathed him by his father, a dark-suited Duvalier spoke to his countrymen: my dear compatriots, in recent days I have looked in vain for any sign that would suggest a way out of this nightmare of blood — desiring to enter history with my head held high and a tranquil and clear conscience, I have decided tonight to pass the destiny of the country over to the Armed Forces. Somber, short, it was the finest speech Jean-Claude Duvalier ever gave. The first lady, her head bound with a turban so as not to show her bruise, decided to invite a few friends to consume as much champagne and cocaine as possible until it was time to leave — there were, said one participant, no tears. At the airport, Salomon and others breathed a sigh of relief as a convoy of BMWs and luggage-laden trucks zoomed through the side gate just past three in the morning. In the third car came Jean-Claude and Michèle Duvalier with their children and two army officers; taking a long drag on her cigarette, Michèle looked right through the press, radiating an icy calm. Simone Duvalier followed in another vehicle. All passengers save the first couple had to submit to frisking by U.S. airmen — a bracing indication of how their lives were about to change. Then, at 3:47 A.M., Friday, February 7, 1986, doors secured, the C-141 lumbered onto the runway, taxied, and headed east to Puerto Rico; after refueling, it flew into the dawn toward France. Telephones started ringing — the bird has flown. Nearly three decades of Duvalier rule were over. Poor but proud when François Duvalier assumed power in 1957, the country had been brought by 1986 to depths of misery and desperation that would have shocked even Papa Doc. The Duvaliers changed forever the face of Haitian society by creating through their politics a Diaspora reaching far beyond the elite — by 1986, one out of six Haitians lived abroad. Papa Doc, the ultimate nationalist, sowed the seeds for an internationalization of Haiti that would go far beyond anything achieved in the U.S. occupation of 1915–1934. Haitians, grateful in 1971 that Jean-Claude was not his father, by 1986 realized that Duvalierism was Duvalierism no matter which Duvalier was at the helm. Yet the Duvaliers did not create the attributes that gnawed at the vitals of the Haitian people — they played on them, institutionalized them, channeled them, but did not create them. Jean-Claude, ultimately, was as much manipulated by the system as he was the manipulator of it. Papa Doc saw money as a means to get power; Jean-Claude saw power as a means to get money and was ultimately used by the powerful to get money — to his surprise, when the mechanism ceased functioning, he was discarded. What only a few could realize in 1986, and even they only dimly, was that in ridding themselves of the Duvaliers, Haitians had barely begun the task of addressing the Duvalier legacy. As in 1804, the who shall have it was anything but settled.