Model for Character in Novel Is Now Tourism Director : ‘Mr. Haiti’: A New Page in Legend

This country’s new director of tourism is Aubelin Jolicoeur, one of the few men in Haiti who publicly criticized the regime of Jean-Claude Duvalier and lived to tell about it.

The dapper little man, dressed nattily in black suit, white shirt and tie and carrying a silver-tipped black walking stick, looks like a character from a novel.

And he is.

“I’m living my own legend,” Jolicoeur said.

He calls himself “Mr. Haiti,” and is famed for having served as the role model for Petit Pierre, the gossipy character in Graham Greene’s novel, “The Comedians,” who greeted new arrivals at dockside and knew all the dark secrets of Haiti.

In recent months, Jolicoeur’s real life has been as exciting as any novel. He had a ringside seat to the fall of the Duvalier regime.

Wrote of Regime’s ‘Infamy’

About five months ago, he began writing critically in the weekly newspaper Le Petit Samedi Soir (Little Saturday Night) about what he called the “infamy” of the Duvalier rule.

“How did I survive? Because I am me,” Jolicoeur said. “I am famous, I am ethical, I have friends everywhere and everyone owes me something. And my name is Jolicoeur, which in French means ‘pretty heart.’ I have a pure heart and I live up to my name.”

Minutes after President-for-Life Duvalier and his family fled Haiti aboard a U.S. Air Force transport plane Feb. 7, Jolicoeur appeared at the airport to greet more than 200 foreign reporters and photographers who were covering the story and were desperate for information.

“I’m Mr. Haiti,” he declared, waving his walking stick, his voice filled with euphoria. “The country is open. The exiles must return.”

He then got in his vehicle and led a convoy of journalists searching for details on a high-speed chase to the National Palace, the Casernes Dessalines military barracks and the U.S. Embassy.

White Suit, Walking Stick

Later in the morning, when the six-man, civilian-military national government council stood on the steps of the palace for a 21-gun salute, Jolicoeur was beside them in a white suit, carrying his walking stick.

A week later, Jolicoeur talked with a correspondent over lunch at a table on the veranda restaurant of the Grand Hotel Oloffson, the model for the hotel that served as the principal setting for the Greene novel on Haiti.

“I introduced Graham Greene to Haiti,” said Jolicoeur, recalling that they were introduced by novelist Truman Capote in 1954 at another Port-au-Prince hotel.

Bernard Diederich, a Time magazine correspondent who once published an English-language newspaper in Haiti, said Jolicoeur, who wrote a popular column for the paper, has always known how to use satire to make a point.

“He spoke out here when no one else would do it,” Diederich said. “His technique was to say Jean-Claude was stupid in one sentence and then smother him with bouquets in another.”

Jolicoeur said he gambled that the Tontons Macoutes, the president’s dreaded private militia, would not be smart enough to read between the lines.

He said his writing campaign against the government began when Duvalier expelled 50 journalists on Nov. 28, 1980.

Protected by His Name

“People were afraid for me. They said I was committing suicide, but I knew that I was protected by my name,” he said.

“What would it have been not to have used my fame on behalf of the people?” he asked.

Jolicoeur sees the change of government as a “new birth” for Haiti.

He said Duvalier left the country “in a mess” and it will take time to write a new constitution and laws.

“The provisional government should continue in power for two or three years before elections are held,” he said.

“I took the job as director of tourism because I feel the country is free,” he said. “I hope as director of tourism that I can capitalize on my knowledge and acquaintances around the world to help make Haiti bloom again.”

His immediate goals are to persuade cruise ships to return to Haiti and to arrange for stopovers here by U.S. naval vessels.

“Sailors bring life and money, which helps the people,” he said.

“The country has never needed help as much as now, especially from Americans. They can help by coming here to spend their money,” he said.