January 24, 2011
President Jean Claude Duvalier gained the support of three well-known American legal experts in his battle for a balanced view of his presidency. Well-known American trial attorney, Ed Marger, was accompanied by ex-Congressman Bob Barr and Georgia attorney Mike Puglise, on his visit to Haiti.
Marger and Barr have long-term associations with Haiti and its people. Marger served as legal counsel to the governments of Francois Duvalier and Jean Claude Duvalier. Barr coordinated the CIA activity in the Caribbean for something like 7 years. Puglise has visited Haiti on a number of occasions, in support of charitable projects.
They were pleased to see the massive support for Duvalier throughout the population of Haiti, even as a few people, like Michele Montas, Evans Paul and Ira Kurzban voiced negative feelings, meach operating to a personally motivated agenda.
Duvalier made a citywide tour to see the devastation wrought by the January 12, 2010 earthquake that took over 300, 000 lives and left 2,000,000 homeless. Most of these remain in rapidly deteriorating tent cities. He visited his childhood home, in the center of Port-au-Prince and, before he could exit the residence….a huge crowd gathered chanting…”DUVALIER…DUVALIER…DUVALIER!!!”
Duvalier was traveling without a security element and when a journalist commented on this the Haitian crowd was quick to tell her that Duvalier needed no protection from the Haitian people and that anyone who bothered their friend…” would be chopped up!!!”
Marger, Barr and Puglise held a major news conference at which Duvalier made a statement, followed by a 2 hour question and answer period, coordinated by Marger and Barr.
The question of $6.1 million dollars – held in Switzerland – was addressed. These fund belonged to a charity, run my Duvalier’s mother, Simone. Three days after the January 12, 2010 quake, Jean Claude Duvalier made a public statement requesting that these funds be turned over to some transparent entity to help victims of the disaster. He said he did not want it to be given directly to the Haitian government.
Preval is still trying to acquire control of these funds.
The appearance of Jean Claude Duvalier has added a new factor to the ongoing chaos.
Some believe it is a destabilizing element while the vast majority look to him for a stabilizing influence.
One quoted a paragraph from American Ambassador Ernest Preeg’s monograph on the Reagan Caribbean Basis Initiative that goes…: “It can honestly be said that the Jean Claude Duvalier Presidency is the longest violence free stability in the nation’s history…” Preeg is now with USAID. The monograph was written while he was with the University of Miami.