Marriage
Jean-Claude miscalculated the ramifications of his May 27, 1980 wedding to Michèle Bennett Pasquet. Her first husband, Alix Pasquet, was the son of a well-known officer who had led an attempt to overthrow Papa Doc Duvalier. Although Jean-Claude is light-skinned, his father's legacy of support for the black middle class and antipathy toward the lighter-skinned elite had enhanced the appeal of Duvalierism among the black majority of the population. With his marriage, Jean-Claude appeared to be abandoning the informal bond that his father had labored to establish.
The extravagance of the couple's wedding, which cost an estimated US$3 million, further alienated the population. Discontent among the business community and elite intensified in response to increased corruption among the Duvaliers and the Bennetts, as well as the repulsive nature of the Bennetts' dealings, which included selling Haitian cadavers to foreign medical schools and trafficking in narcotics. Increased political repression added to the volatility of the situation.
The marriage also estranged the old-line Duvalierists in the government from the younger technocrats whom Jean-Claude had appointed, including Jean-Marie Chanoine, Frantz Merceron, Frantz-Robert Monde, and Theo Achille. The Duvalierists' spiritual leader, Jean-Claude's mother, Simone Ovide Duvalier, was eventually expelled from Haiti, reportedly at the request of Michèle Duvalier. With his wife Duvalier had two children, François Nicolas and Anya.
Read more about this topic: Jean-Claude Duvalier
Famous quotes containing the word marriage:
“In mid-life the man wants to see how irresistible he still is to younger women. How they turn their hearts to stone and more or less commit a murder of their marriage I just don’t know, but they do.”
—Patricia Neal (b. 1926)
“What is any respectable girl brought up to do but to catch some rich man’s fancy and get the benefit of his money by marrying him?—as if a marriage ceremony could make any difference in the right or wrong of the thing!”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Men commonly couple with their idea of marriage a slight degree at least of sensuality; but every lover, the world over, believes in its inconceivable purity.”
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