1987, August – November 29: (The Ruelle Vaillant Massacre: Aristide Transferred to Croix-des-Bouquets but 100 Occupy the Cathedral Until the Hierarchy Backs …

1987, August – November 29: (The Ruelle Vaillant Massacre: Aristide Transferred to Croix-des-Bouquets but 100 Occupy the Cathedral Until the Hierarchy Backs Down, the Pont Sondé Ambush of Aristide and Père Adrien, the Concealed Handgun at St.-Jean-Bosco, Yves Volel Gunned Down in Front of Cameramen, Désinor on Sixty Minutes Pledging Loyalty to Duvalierism — No Piece of Paper Can Take Away My Rights, Twelve Duvalierist Candidates Disqualified, CEP Headquarters Burned and Ballot Presses Smashed, Ballots Printed in Venezuela, Namphy Appoints Himself Army Commander for Three Years, Désinor Urges Abstention Totale in Vintage Duvalier Creole, Regala’s Ominous Television Scroll on Election Eve, Radio Stations Sabotaged by Grenades, and the Avenue John Brown Polling-Station Slaughter — Twenty Dismembered as the Army Chatted with the Gunmen Then Moved On, Diederich’s Son Escapes Over a Wall, All Aid Suspended, Le Silence d’un Tombeau, and Democracy Is Very Difficult): In August, the Port-au-Prince Bishopric ordered Aristide’s transfer to Croix-des-Bouquets, long a bastion of prosperous macoutes; protests culminated in 100 occupying Port-au-Prince’s cathedral until the hierarchy backed down. On August 23, near Pont Sondé, Aristide and three other priests including père Adrien were ambushed returning from the North — only quick thinking and good driving saved them. Five days later, the faithful at St.-Jean-Bosco found a concealed handgun on an unfamiliar parishioner; Aristide was now a marked man. The Finance Ministry was unable to collect taxes; state employees, deprived of le siphonage, were finding how meager their paychecks were; professionals were retreating to Miami condos. Yves Volel, a recently returned diaspo lawyer and presidential candidate, was gunned down in front of cameramen whose film was promptly confiscated. Thirty-five candidates announced; at the core were hardcore Duvalierists — Claude Raymond, Franck Romain, Clémard-Joseph Charles — notwithstanding the explicit constitutional ban. Clovis Désinor announced his candidacy saying no piece of paper can take away my rights, not even a constitution, and appeared on Sixty Minutes pledging loyalty to Duvalierism. On November 2, the CEP announced that twenty-three candidates had met requirements — front runners were Déjoie, Manigat, Bazin, Sylvio Claude, and Gourgue — with the twelve Duvalierist candidates disqualified by masterpiece of indirection. That very night CEP headquarters were burned; the offices of Bazin and Manigat were riddled with drive-by gunfire; the presses of the ballot printer were smashed in the night, requiring ballots to be printed in Venezuela. Namphy appointed himself army commander-in-chief for three years. On November 23, gunmen shouting Vive l’armée, à bas CEP attacked the council’s offices. That same night Désinor was given airtime — in rhythmic chanting Creole, vintage Duvalier, he urged abstention totale. By election eve, with foreign observers including Jimmy Carter blanketing the country, eight were dead; the army broke into television to scroll Regala’s message that the maintenance of public order was the direct and exclusive responsibility of the armed forces. Election Day, November 29, dawned hot and still. Those up early came upon corpses from the previous night’s terror; the airwaves were utterly silent — agents of the CNG had sabotaged the radio stations by grenades and machine guns. Five blocks from the palace, on Avenue John Brown where it begins its gentle progress toward Pétionville, voters gathered at a school polling station; a gang armed with machine guns and machetes, after chatting briefly with an army convoy that stopped then moved on, closed in on the several dozen voters waiting inside and slew everyone in sight, finishing with machetes what their machine guns had not accomplished — some twenty lay dead, dismembered and riddled with bullets. Photographer Jean-Bernard Diederich, whose father had penned such vivid vignettes of François Duvalier, managed to escape over a wall; one cameraman lost his life. Addressing a Port-au-Prince where nothing moved — le silence d’un tombeau — Namphy glowered into the camera and announced the CNG had put an end to the CEP and its election so that Haiti could have a democratic president freely elected by the Haitian people. The American embassy suspended all aid. The opposition called a general strike that did not materialize; the Church condemned the slaughter only to receive a tart reply from Namphy. Desroches, once the CNG’s partner, said democracy is very difficult. The disqualified Duvalierist candidates maintained a united front, shrugging: what did you expect? The sound of gunfire was the music of the night as the army moved to clean up; a new election was scheduled for January 17; Bazin, Déjoie, and Claude announced they would boycott. Haiti that Christmas had even less to celebrate than usual.