Jean Dominique French-speaking elite. Dominique and Radio Haiti also reported increasingly on events that would challenge the regime of Jean-Claude Duvalier, often strategically and indirectly to circumvent the regime's censorship laws. For example, Radio Haiti reported in 1972 for weeks, on the fall of the dictator of Nicaragua, Anastasio "Tachito" Somoza Debayle, as a proxy for talking about Duvalier. In 1973 and 1976, Dominique reported from the annual Vodou pilgrimage at Saut-d’Eau on worshippers’ lamentations and entreaties to the spirits: an implicit way of talking about peasant resistance : “We were under Jean-Claude Duvalier, we were under [high-ranking Macoutes like] Luc Désir,
François Duvalier Duvalier was a physician by profession. His profession and expertise in the field acquired him the nickname "PapaDoc". He was unanimously "re-elected" in a 1961 election in which he was the only candidate. Afterwards, he consolidated his power step by step, culminating in 1964 when he declared himself as President for Life after another faulty election, and remained in power until he died in 1971. He was succeeded by his son, Jean‑Claude, who was nicknamed "BabyDoc". Duvalier was born in Port-au-Prince in 1907, son of Duval Duvalier, a justice of the peace, and baker His aunt, Madame Florestal, raised him.