Simone Duvalier imperious bearing, Haitians referred to her as "Mama Doc". She was, like her husband, reported to be a Vodou expert. She cultivated the image of a benefactor; dispensing charity to inhabitants of "Cite Simone", a planned settlement named for her that is known today as Cité Soleil, one of the most miserable slums in Latin America. Simone Duvalier's influence reached its peak after the death of her husband on 21 April 1971, when her nineteen-year-old son Jean-Claude Duvalier succeeded his father as Haiti's "President for Life". Simone Duvalier retained the title of First Lady, and relished the power it conferred.
Anti-Duvalier protest movement said that it could not verify whether Duvalier still remained in the country due to the recently enacted Schengen Agreement which had abolished systematic border controls between the participating countries. However, Duvalier's lawyer Sauveur Vaisse said that his client was still in France and denied that the exiled leader had fallen on hard times. The 2004 Global Transparency Report listed Duvalier as one of the World's Most Corrupt Leaders. He was listed sixth, between Slobodan Milošević and Alberto Fujimori, and was said to have amassed between $300 million to $800 million. Following the ousting of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February