Jean-Claude Bajeux - First Exile

First Exile

In 1964 Haiti's dictator Papa Doc Duvalier expelled the Jesuit order from the country. Bajeux asked his fellow priests to sign a letter of protest. His bishop reported him to the government, and Duvalier expelled Bajeux. He settled in Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic, where he began ministering to other Haitian exiles. Later that year, Duvalier's Tonton Macoutes militia kidnapped Bajeux's mother, his two sisters, and two of his brothers from their home in the middle of the night. They all later died in the Fort Dimanche prison, which The Miami Herald described as "the regime's most infamous hellhole".

Following his time in Santo Domingo, Bajeux traveled to Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, where he spent one year editing a collection of documents about the history of Latin America. In 1967 he became a professor of comparative literature and Caribbean literature at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan, a position he held until 1992. During his years in San Juan he taught literature and religion at the university and gained prominence writing about Haiti.

In 1977 he earned a PhD in Romance languages and literatures from Princeton University, where he was Assistant Master of Princeton Inn College, later known as Forbes College. His dissertation concerned black Caribbean poetry. Bajeux's wife Sylvie is a 1979 graduate alumna of Princeton and also a relative of some of the 13 Jeune Haiti rebels.

During his years in exile, Bajeux remained active struggling for human rights in Haiti. The World Council of Churches helped him found the Ecumenical Center for Human Rights in Santo Domingo in 1979. He was an early supporter of Leslie Manigat's efforts to oust the Duvalier regime but came to believe Manigat was too interested in acquiring power. He also joined a group based in the Dominican Republic planning guerrilla attacks against the Duvalier regime.