Oh Happy Days
Chapter 23
I was still shaken up by my near death experience in the woods. My situational awareness must’ve been rusty. And my innate survival instincts had let me down too. Only Frank’s intervention saved me and I owed him big time. I wasn’t ready to move to the other side since I still had many years of debauchery left or so I hoped. I then lit up a cigarette and contemplated the meaning of life. That took about 10 seconds so the chore was done well before I finished my smoke.
We’d done well, but things were beginning to take a nasty turn in Port-au-Prince. Maybe we’d done too well in our propaganda campaign, although we’d tried to target only Mama and her family. But things were starting to spin out of control in the capital.
Battle lines were being drawn between the voodooists and Christians. Protests and counter protests were now the order of the day. And some had turned violent. There’d also been a couple of incidents involving prominent voodoo leaders. One was assaulted on the street in daylight and no one came to his aid. The other was the vandalism of a voodooist home where crosses and other Christian symbols were painted on the front door.
The news media went wild, hyping the stories even more to gain readership or listeners. While isolated to certain sections of the capital, the authorities greatly worried the demonstrations might spread across the city. Extra gendarmes were stationed at the hot spots to deter and suppress violence.
It was time to turn down the volume before serious conflict erupted on the streets. That wasn’t our intent, but it was the obvious result. It seemed we’d taken matters too far in our overarching zeal to fight back.
“Frank, get with your masters at the embassy and have their contacts tone down the rhetoric. We’ve gotten what we wanted so we can relax. A number of our employees have returned to work so there’s no need to keep up the pressure on The Family. Things are finally going our way for a change.”
I was being a bit of an optimist, but believed I was basically correct in my opinion. Frank agreed, saying he feared an outbreak of violence if things continued on the present trajectory. We could ramp-up the propaganda later, if needed. But I didn’t think it would be necessary. I believed Mama Mambo and her family were now at a tipping point. If so, Haiti would experience a minor tremor when she fell.
***
Elaina Duchamp was the first casualty in the war. She was a university student and voodooist who’d been kidnapped on her way home from school. She was brutally raped and then fitted with a necklace by forcing a rubber tire, filled with gasoline, around her chest and arms, setting it on fire. The authorities estimated she remained alive for about 20 minutes, suffering severe burns and unbearable agony in the process. It wasn’t very Christian, but, in fact, it was. The horrific act was just the opening salvo in what would become a bigger conflict.