Tonton Macoute - Haiti Observer Blog

Francois Duvalier, 40th President of Haiti, began life in Port-au-Prince. Born to a well-to-do family, he earned a medical degree from the University of Haiti. After serving as a political appointee under President Estimé, he ran for the presidency under a populist platform that won support from the Afro-Haitian electorate. He won and began his rule of tyranny, manipulating the Constitution to declare himself "President for Life".

Francois Duvalier tolerated no opposition to his repressive policies. He intimidated his enemies, routinely ordering assassinations, an estimated 30,000 of them. Many educated Haitians fled Haiti, and the island has never recovered its intelligentsia.

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During an interview with Valery Numa at Radio Vision 2000 this week, former Haitian president, Ertha Pascal Trouillot, was showed little reserve. She managed to give us some important facts during her government.

She was very hard on another former Haitian president. Ertha denounced a conspiracy created by former President Jean Bertrand Aristide and the Lavalas group in the objective of murdering her.

She went into some details on the Coup D'etat orchestrated by the late Roger Lafontant one January 6, 1991.

Ertha Pascal Trouillot also blamed Jean Bertrand Aristide for not taking the opportunity he had at the time to reconcile the nation with itself and at the same time bring Haiti on the path of development.

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Roger Lafontant (1931-1991), known as the former leader of Tonton Macoutes, a death squad he founded. While at medical school, attempted a 1991 coup d'etat to oust Ertha Pascal-Trouillot's provisional government that later led to his death in prison.

A loyalist supporter of President François Duvalier, a despot whose family ruled Haiti for three decades, Roger Lafontant was appointed Minister of Interior and National Defense in 1972, under Jean-Claude Duvalier, the son of the elder Duvalier. But his personal ambitions caused Duvalier to re-assign him as consul in Montreal, Canada. However, hereturned to Haiti in 1983, and was promoted to higher office as Minister of State for the Interior and National Defense. Apparently, he had learned his lesson.

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Tonton Macoutes, a militia force put together in 1959 by President François Duvalier, translated, means Uncle Gunnysack, referring to a bogeyman that captures children in a gunnysack and eats them for breakfast. Duvalier created the militia, because he felt threatened by the Haitian army. When his political foes attempted to oust him, Duvalier broke up the army and scattered the police. He then had all the Military High Command generals assassinated.

Tonton Macoutes wore a uniform of straw hats, blue denim shirts, and sunglasses, and were armed with machetes. It's a chilling image, because--if not for the machetes-- one would think they were heading to a picnic or barbeque, which renders them all the more sinister-looking, an appearance that is the personification of pure evil.

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April 26th is an infamous day in Haiti's history. Two events of senseless violence, 23 years apart, occurred on that date. In 1963, mass killings of soldiers and their loved ones by Haitian National Police (HNP) were ordered by François Duvalier, in advance of son Jean-Claude's planned abduction. In 1986 at a commemoration to honor victims and families' murders and maiming, another mass killing occurred.

The father-son Duvalier regime was one of the cruelest in Haiti's history. Blood-thirsty monster François dispatched death squads, the Ton-Ton Macoutes, to kill any citizen suspected of being opposed to his government. People would sometimes disappear at night, never to be seen again. Others were murdered in plain sight of a terrified public. When François received word oppositional factions of the HNP were planning to kidnap son, Jean-Claude, he took swift and retaliatory action. His police torched occupied family homes. In other instances, they separated children from families, imprisoning relatives, tormenting and murdering them.

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This video will definitely mean something to many Haitians. It was a time when Haiti was under the dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier. Some people have positive memories of the Duvalier the same way some have negative memories. For some people who will be watching this video, it will remind them of a time when things were good for them in Haiti. However for many, this can only remind them of abuse, repression, death and exile.

During the Duvalier era many names became popular; some in a noble aspect; but many, in unscrupulous ways. Some of the names during both Francois Duvalier and Jean-Claude Duvalier that became famous include the following:

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