Tonton Macoute Explained

French: Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale
Native Name A:French: Tonton Macoute
Native Name R:Haitian; Haitian Creole: Tonton Makout
Type:paramilitary organization
Preceding1:French: Cagoulards
Preceding2:French: Milice Civile
Superseding1:Several semi-legal paramilitary organizations
Superseding6:-->
Jurisdiction:Haiti
Headquarters:Port-au-Prince
Minister8 Name:-->
Deputyminister8 Name:-->
Chief1 Name:Clément Barbot
Chief2 Name:Luckner Cambronne
Chief3 Name:Roger Lafontant
Chief9 Name:-->
Parent Agency:PUN
Child25 Agency:-->
Keydocument6:-->
Agency Id:VSN

The Tonton Macoute (Haitian; Haitian Creole: Tonton Makout)[1] [2] [3] or simply the Macoute,[4] [5] was a Haitian paramilitary and secret police force created in 1959 by dictator François "Papa Doc" Duvalier. Haitians named this force after the Haitian mythological bogeyman, French: Tonton Macoute ("Uncle Gunnysack"), who kidnaps and punishes unruly children by snaring them in a gunny sack (French: macoute) before carrying them off to be consumed for breakfast.[6] [7] The Macoute were known for their brutality, state terrorism, and assassinations.[8] [9] In 1970, the militia was renamed the French: Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale (VSN, English: National Security Volunteers).[10] Though formally disbanded in 1986, its members continued to terrorize the country.[11]

History

After the July 1958 Haitian coup d'état attempt against President François Duvalier, he purged the army and law enforcement agencies in Haiti and executed numerous officers perceived to be a threat to his regime. To counteract such activity, he created a military force that bore several names. In 1959, his paramilitary force was called the French: Cagoulards ("Hooded Men").[12] [13] They were renamed to French: Milice Civile (Civilian Militia) and, after 1962, French: Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale (Volunteers of the National Security, or VSN).[12] [14] They began to be called the French: Tonton Macoute when people started to disappear or were found killed for no apparent reason.[15] This group answered to him only.

Duvalier authorized the French: Tontons Macoutes to commit systematic violence, terrorism, and human rights abuses to suppress political opposition. They were responsible for unknown numbers of murders and rapes in Haiti. Political opponents often disappeared overnight, or were sometimes attacked in broad daylight. French: Tontons Macoutes stoned and burned people alive. Many times they put the corpses of their victims on display, often hung in trees for everyone to see and take as warnings against opposition. Family members who tried to remove the bodies for proper burial often disappeared. Anyone who challenged the VSN risked assassination. Their unrestrained state terrorism was accompanied by corruption, extortion, and personal aggrandizement among the leadership. The victims of French: Tontons Macoutes could range from a woman in the poorest of neighborhoods who had previously supported an opposing politician to a businessman who refused to comply with extortion threats (ostensibly taken as donations for public works, but which were in fact the source of profit for corrupt officials and even President Duvalier). The French: Tontons Macoutes murdered between 30,000 and 60,000 Haitians.[16]

Luckner Cambronne led the French: Tontons Macoute throughout the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. His cruelty earned him the nickname "Vampire of the Caribbean". He extorted blood plasma from locals for sale for his profit. Cambronne did this through his company "Hemocaribian"; he shipped five tons of plasma per month to US Labs. He also sold cadavers to medical schools after buying them from Haitian hospitals for $3 per corpse. When the Hospital could not supply bodies, he used local funeral homes.[17]

In 1971, after Duvalier died,[18] his widow Simone and son Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier ordered Cambronne into exile. Cambronne moved to Miami, Florida, US, where he lived until his death in 2006.[19]

When François Duvalier came to power in 1957, Vodou was becoming celebrated as authentic Haitian culture by intellectuals and the griots, after it had been dropped for years by those with education.[20] The French: Tonton Macoute were strongly influenced by Vodou tradition and adopted denim uniforms resembling clothing like that of Azaka Medeh, the patron of farmers. They carried and used machetes in symbolic reference to Ogun, a great general in Vodou tradition.[21] [22]

Some of the most important members of the French: Tontons Macoute were Vodou leaders. This religious affiliation gave the French: Tontons Macoute a kind of unearthly authority in the eyes of the public. From their methods to their choice of clothes, Vodou always played an important role in the paramilitary's actions. The French: Tonton Macoutes wore straw hats, blue denim shirts and dark glasses, and were armed with machetes and guns. Both their allusions to the supernatural and their physical presentations were used to instill fear and respect among the common people, including any opposition actors.[6] [23] [24] Their title of Tonton Macoute was embedded in Haitian lore of a bogeyman who took children away in his sack, or Makoute.[20]

The French: Tontons Macoute were a ubiquitous presence at the polls in 1961, when Duvalier held a presidential referendum in which the official vote count was an "outrageous" and fraudulent, electing him to another term.[25] They appeared in force again at the polls in 1964, when Duvalier held a constitutional referendum that declared him president for life.

Legacy

In 1985, the United States began to shut down funds to Haitian aid, cutting nearly a million dollars from it within a year. Nonetheless, the Baby Doc regime pushed forward and even had a national party for the French: Tontons Macoute. French: Tonton Macoute day was 29 July 1985 and amongst festivities, the group was bestowed new uniforms and was honored by all of Baby Doc's cabinet. In the exuberance, the French: Tonton Macoute went out into the streets and shot 27 people for the national party.[26]

The lack of funds going to the French: Tonton Macoute was a result of those funds being intercepted by the Duvalier dynasty. It sometimes took nearly 80 percent of international aid to Haiti, but paid only 45 percent of the country's debts. This continued until the French: Tonton Macoute was left on its own when "Baby Doc" fled the country with an estimated $900 million.[27]

The French: Tonton Macoute remained active even after the presidency of Baby Doc ended in 1986,[28] at the height of the Anti-Duvalier protest movement.[24] Massacres led by paramilitary groups spawned from the r-Macoutes continued during the following decade. The most feared paramilitary group during the 1990s was the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haïti (FRAPH), which Toronto Star journalist Linda Diebel described as modern Tonton Macoutes, and not the legitimate political party it claimed to be.[10]

Led by Emmanual Constant, FRAPH differed from the French: Tonton Macoute in its denial to submit to the will of a single authority and its cooperation with regular military forces.[29] FRAPH extended its reach far outside that of the Haitian state and had offices present in New York City, Montreal and Miami until its disarmament and disbandment in 1994.[30]

Representation in other media

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Taylor . Patrick . 1992 . Anthropology and Theology in Pursuit of Justice . Callaloo . 15 . 3 . 811–823 . 10.2307/2932023 . 0161-2492 . 2932023 . After François Duvalier was elected president with popular support in 1957, he created his own security force because he did not trust the army. (Its popular name, tonton makout, is taken from a tale about an uncle who carries off children in a bag on his shoulder.) .
  2. Bernat . J. Christopher . J. Christopher Kovats-Bernat . 1999 . Children and the Politics of Violence in Haitian Context: Statist violence, scarcity and street child agency in Port-au-Prince . Critique of Anthropology . 19 . 2 . 121–122 . 0308-275X . 10.1177/0308275X9901900202 . Assisted by contemporary factions of the notorious tonton makoutthe rightist, army-supported civilian death squadsCedras completed what would turn out to be the bloodiest coupd'etat in recent Haitian history. . https://web.archive.org/web/20131203002600/http://muhlenberg.edu/pdf/main/academics/soc-anth/ChildrenandthePolitics.pdf . 3 December 2013 . live. 10.1.1.623.758 . 145185450 .
  3. Book: Fouron, Georges E. . The New African Diaspora . 2009 . Indiana University Press . Bloomington, Indiana . 978-0-253-35337-5 . 78 . 2. Leaving Home § 4. 'I, Too, Want to Be a Big Man': The Making of a Haitian 'Boat People' . Okpewho . Isidore . Isidore Okpewho . Nzegwu . Nkiru . https://books.google.com/books?id=CMg--t-YQWQC&pg=PA78 . 2009005961 . 503473672 . 23165011M . The strength of his government was invested in a non-salaried paramilitary civilian militia known as the Tonton Makout (Uncle Knapsack). Staffed by informers, spies, bullies, neighbourhood bosses and extortionists, the Makout freely used extreme violence, terror, and intimidation to cow the population out of all illusions of destabilising the regime..
  4. Book: Fass, Simon M. . https://books.google.com/books?id=RulBv-T99nsC&pg=PA250 . Political Economy in Haiti: The Drama of Survival . 250 . 1988 . 978-0-88738-158-4 . 22 September 2015 . Schooling . Transaction Publishers . New Brunswick, New Jersey . 16804468 . 4977156W . 87-25532 . registration .
  5. Book: Danticat, Edwidge . Breath, Eyes, Memory . 16 . Edwidge Danticat . 1994 . Soho Press . New York . en, ht . 978-1-56947-142-5 . 94-38568 . 29254512 . 1806978W . 22 September 2015.
  6. Book: Filan, Kenaz . The Haitian Vodou Handbook: Protocols for Riding with the Lwa . 2007 . Destiny Books . Rochester, Vermont . 978-1-59477-995-4 . 21 . 1.2. The Roots of Haitian Vodou . 2006028676 . 748396065 . 8992653W . https://books.google.com/books?id=4IIB0Yu_sL4C&pg=PA21 .
  7. Book: Sprague, Jeb . Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti . 2012 . Monthly Review Press . New York . 978-1-58367-303-4 . 33 . 1. A History of Political Violence against the Poor § The Blood-Soaked Record of the Duvaliers . 2012015221 . 828494729 . 16618213W . https://books.google.com/books?id=LOhHGx4v23oC&pg=PA33.
  8. Web site: 2023-05-26 . François Duvalier . 2023-06-22 . Encyclopedia Britannica . en.
  9. Web site: Military regimes and the Duvaliers . 2023-06-22 . Encyclopedia Britannica . en.
  10. Web site: 11 March 2010 . The Tonton Macoutes: The Central Nervous System of Haiti's Reign of Terror . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20150526191745/http://www.coha.org/tonton-macoutes/ . 26 May 2015 . Council on Hemispheric Affairs.
  11. Web site: Government and society . 2023-06-22 . Encyclopedia Britannica . en.
  12. Book: Latin American Dictators of the 20th Century: The Lives and Regimes of 15 Rulers . Galván, Javier A. . 100 . 2012 . McFarland . 978-1476600161 . 9 April 2017.
  13. Book: Social Resilience and State Fragility in Haiti . Verner, Dorte . 68 . 2007 . World Bank Publications . 978-0821371886 . 9 April 2017.
  14. Book: The Prophet and Power: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the International Community, and Haiti . Dupuy, Alex . 35 . 2006 . Rowman & Littlefield Publishers . 978-1461645368 . 9 April 2017.
  15. Book: Antillanité, créolité, littérature-monde . Constant, Isabelle . Mabana, Kahiudi C. . 114 . 2013 . Cambridge Scholars . 978-1443846325 . 9 April 2017. fr.
  16. News: Henley . Jon . 14 January 2010 . Haiti: a long descent to hell . The Guardian . London . https://web.archive.org/web/20150715012830/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/14/haiti-history-earthquake-disaster . 15 July 2015 . live.
  17. Book: Abbott, Elizabeth . Haiti: A Shattered Nation . 2011-07-21 . Harry N. Abrams . 978-1-59020-141-1 . en.
  18. Web site: Duvalier, 64, Dies in Haiti; Son, 19, Is New President. 23 April 1971. The New York Times. 5 October 2021.
  19. News: Obituary: Luckner Cambronne . Charles . Jacqueline . 26 September 2006 . Miami Herald . https://web.archive.org/web/20090711014218/http://ijdh.org/pdf/RoundupSept30-October112006.pdf#page=43 . 11 July 2009.
  20. Filan, Kenaz (2007). "1.2. The Roots of Haitian Vodou". Haitian Vodou Handbook: Protocols for Riding with the Lwa. Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books. p. 21. . . . .
  21. Web site: 2016-05-18 . Get to know a Lwa: Kouzen Zaka . 2022-11-25 . en-US.
  22. Web site: Ogou- Vodou, Voodoo Spirit, Lwa of the Nago Nation . 2022-11-25 . Haitian Vodou, Voodoo, Las 21 Divisiones and Sanse . en-US.
  23. Book: Schmidt, Bettina E. . The Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence . Blackwell Companions to Religion . 42 . 2011 . John Wiley & Sons . 978-1444395730 . 121 . 5. Anthropological Reflections on Religion and Violence . 2011002516 . 899182009 . 16190447W . Murphy . Andrew R. . https://books.google.com/books?id=MF2Oxz3a0XwC&pg=PT121.
  24. Kellough . Gretchen Elizabeth . 2008 . Tisseroman: The Weaving of Female Selfhood within Feminine Communities in Postcolonial Novels . PhD . 5. Mythological and Fantastic Female Communities § Breath, Eyes, Memory . 978-0549507789 . 202 . 466441492 . Ann Arbor . https://books.google.com/books?id=bNLG1G2SnpkC&pg=PA202.
  25. Book: Abbott, Elizabeth . Elizabeth Abbott . Haiti: The Duvaliers and Their Legacy . Rev. and updated . 1991 . Simon & Schuster . New York . 978-0671686208 . 103 . 90024770 . 22767635 . 1680900W . 1st pub. 1988.
  26. Book: Abbott, Elizabeth . Haiti: A Shattered Nation . 2011-07-21 . Harry N. Abrams . 978-1-59020-141-1 . en.
  27. Web site: 2010-01-14 . Haiti: a long descent to hell . 2022-11-25 . the Guardian . en.
  28. Web site: DUVALIER FLEES HAITI TO END FAMILY'S 28 YEARS IN POWER: GENERAL LEADS NEW REGIME; 20 REPORTED DEAD. 8 February 1986. The New York Times. 5 October 2021.
  29. Web site: COHA . 2010-03-11 . The Tonton Macoutes: The Central Nervous System of Haiti's Reign of Terror . 2022-11-25 . COHA . en-US.
  30. Web site: Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress (FRAPH) Front Révolutionnaire pour L'Avancement et le Progress Haitien (FRAPH) . 2022-11-25 . www.globalsecurity.org.
  31. Book: Greene, Graham . Graham Greene . 1966 . The Comedians . The Viking Press . New York . B0078EPH2C . 66012636 . 365953 . 106070W . book. The Comedians (novel) .
  32. Book: Danticat, Edwidge . Edwidge Danticat . 2004 . The Dew Breaker . 1st . Knopf . New York . 978-1-4000-4114-5 . 2003060788 . 52838918 . 1806976W. The Dew Breaker .
  33. McNeil . Legs . Legs McNeil . April 1990 . . . 6 . 1 . 54 . 0886-3032.
  34. Web site: Muslimgauze - Coup D'Etat. Discogs. 3 December 1987 . 2016-09-22.
  35. Web site: Muslimgauze.org - Discography - Coup D'Etat.

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