PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier has been hospitalized after having chest pains, his longtime companion and associates said Thursday without giving details.
Duvalier, who made a surprise return to the Caribbean nation in January, was admitted Wednesday night, companion Veronique Roy said outside the Canape Vert hospital in Port-au- Prince. Roy declined to discuss his condition in detail. Asked whether it was serious, she replied only, “I hope not.”
The 59-year-old former dictator made an abrupt return to Haiti in January after 25 years in exile and appeared at times to move with difficulty, sparking speculation that he was ill. He has been living in a villa in the hills above Port-au-Prince under police guard as a judge investigates whether he can be charged with a long list of crimes, including corruption and torture, committed while he was “president for life” in the impoverished Caribbean nation.
There have been no restrictions on his movement, and he was spotted attending a jazz concert in Petionville. The Associated Press
