Former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier slipped out the back of his hotel yesterday and was driven to a private home on a mountain above Haiti's capital, in the latest twist in his surprise return to the country that kicked him out nearly 25 years ago.
Duvalier, 59, who faces a court investigation in Haiti, had a flight booked to leave the country this morning, along with his entourage. But it became clear the former "president for life", who is showing signs of ailing health, would not be departing today.
The reasons for his prolonged stay remain as murky as his motivation for returning, but advisers and confidants cite two primary motivations: the lack of a valid passport and the court investigation into allegations of corruption and human rights abuses during his 15-year reign.
As Duvalier's scheduled flight took off, he remained in the hotel in Pétionville, where he had checked into a standard room. After a group lunch, his girlfriend, Veronique Roy, entered a car at the hotel's front door and was followed by the press, while Duvalier was shepherded to a car behind the compound, which escorted him to a private home.
His lawyer, Reynold Georges, told reporters he could not speculate how long the former dictator would remain in Haiti, but it would take at least two weeks to resolve the lawsuits filed against him. "He will have to answer that question himself but for now, we're here," Georges said.
Asked if Duvalier had been invited to Haiti by anyone in the government, Georges said: "It's his country. He doesn't need an invitation."
Duvalier assumed power in 1971, at 19, after the death of his father, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier. They presided over one of the darkest chapters in Haitian history, a period when a secret police force, the Tonton Macoute, tortured and killed opponents. The militia of sunglasses-wearing thugs enforced the dynasty's absolute power and lived off extortion.
Men identifying themselves as former Macoutes milled outside the lobby yesterday as other Duvalier associates shuttled back and forth from his third-floor room.
Those who suffered under the regime grimaced at the former leader's continued presence in the country, even as a flawed court system struggles to figure out how to deal with him. Duvalier is alleged to have taken hundreds of millions of dollars when he fled Haiti, after having ordered the torture and killing of thousands.
"Imagine being closed in day in and day out," said Robert Duval, founder of an aid group detained for 17 months in the notorious Fort Dimanche prison, known to islanders as the Dungeon of Death. "Every two, three days you got three people dead."
Duvalier was brought by police on Tuesday to a court housed in a former headquarters of the US Agency for International Development, where he was deposed by a lower judge before being passed up the chain to Carves, an investigative magistrate who has three months to decide if Duvalier should be put on trial.
The first allegations concerned corruption and criminal association. More lawsuits were filed on Wednesday over rights abuses, including arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, forced exile and destruction of private property.
However, some doubted the system would convict Duvalier. "I am for true justice. I am convinced there is no judicial mechanism that can give a real justice. That's the dilemma," said Liliane Pierre-Paul, a Haitian journalist forced into exile by the regime.