Tonton Macoute

The Tonton Macoute (Haitian Creole: Tonton Makout)[1][2][3] or simply the Macoute[4][5] was a special operations unit within the Haitian paramilitary force created in 1959 by dictator François "Papa Doc" Duvalier. In 1970 the militia was renamed the Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale (VSN, Volunteers of the National Security).[6] Haitians named this force after the Haitian mythological bogeyman, Tonton Macoute ("Uncle Gunnysack"), who kidnaps and punishes unruly children by snaring them in a gunny sack (French: macoute) and carrying them off to be consumed at breakfast.[7][8]

For other uses, see Tonton Macoute (disambiguation).

Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale
Tonton Macoute
Tonton Makout
Paramilitary organization overview
Formed1959 (1959)
Preceding agencies
  • Cagoulards
  • Milice Civile
Dissolved1986 (1986)
Superseding agency
  • Several semi-legal paramilitary organizations
JurisdictionHaiti
HeadquartersPort-au-Prince
Paramilitary organization executives
Parent paramilitary organizationPUN
Agency IDVSN

History
Papa Doc Duvalier created the Tontons Macoutes because he perceived the military to be a threat to his power.

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 as he perceived them as a threat to his regime. To counteract this threat, he created a military force that bore several names. In 1959, his paramilitary force was called the Cagoulards ("Hooded Men").[9][10] They were then renamed to Milice Civile (Civilian Militia), and after 1962, Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale (Volunteers of the National Security, or VSN).[9][11] They began to be called the Tonton Macoute when people started to disappear for no apparent reason.[12] This group answered to him only.

Duvalier authorized the Tontons Macoutes to commit systematic violence 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. 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 themselves. 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 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 as donations for public works, but which were in fact the source of profit for corrupt officials and even President Duvalier). The Tontons Macoutes murdered between 30,000 and 60,000 Haitians.[13]

Luckner Cambronne led the Tontons Macoute throughout the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. His cruelty earned him the nickname "Vampire of the Caribbean". This particular name was earned by one of his endeavors of extorting plasma from locals for sale. Luckner did this through his company "Hemocaribian" and shipped five tons of plasma per month to US Labs. He would also go on to sell cadavers to medical schools after buying them from Haitian hospitals for $3 per corpse. When the Hospital could not supply this the local funeral homes would be used.[14] In 1971, President Duvalier died and his widow Simone, and son Jean-Claude Duvalier ordered Cambronne into exile. Cambronne moved to Miami, Florida, USA, where he lived until his death in 2006.[15]

When François Duvalier came to power in 1957 Vodou was becoming celebrated for its purely Haitian heritage by the Intellectuals, or the Griots after having been let go for years by those with education.[16] The Tonton Macoute was heavily influenced by Vodou tradition with denim uniforms resembling clothing like Azaka Medeh the patron of farmers and the use of the machete in symbolic reference to Ogou a great general in Vodou tradition.[17][18]

Some of the most important members of the Tontons Macoute were Vodou leaders. This religious affiliation gave the 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 their actions. The 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 with the intention of instilling fear and respect.[7][19][20] Even their title of Tonton Macoute was embedded in Haitian lore of a bogeyman who took children away in his satchel or his Makoute.[16]

The Tontons Macoute were a ubiquitous presence at the polls in the 1961 election, in which Duvalier's official vote count was an "outrageous" and fraudulent 1,320,748 to 0, electing him to another term.[21] They appeared in force again at polls in 1964, when Duvalier held a rigged 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 regime pushed forward and even had a national party for the Tontons Macoute. 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 exuberance of celebration the Tonton Macoute went out into the streets and shot 27 people in total for the national party.[22]

The lack of funds coming to the Tonton Macoute was result of being intercepted by the Duvalier dynasty who were sometimes taking nearly 80 percent of international aid to Haiti, then turning around to only pay 45 percent of the debts the country owed. This continued until the Tonton Macoute were left on their own when Baby Doc fled the country with an estimated $900m.[23]

The Tonton Macoutes remained active even after the presidency of "Papa Doc" Duvalier's son "Baby Doc" ended with the anti-Duvalier protest movement 1986.[20] Massacres led by paramilitary groups spawned from the 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 they claimed to be.[6]

Led by Emmanual Constant, FRAPH differed from the Tonton Macoute in their denial to submit to the will of a single authority and their cooperation with regular military forces.[24] FRAPH extended its reach far outside that of the Hatian state and had offices present in New York, Montreal and Miami until its disarmament and disband in 1994.[25]

Representation in other media
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gollark: ~skip
gollark: ~play here comes science elements

See also

General

References
  1. Taylor, Patrick (1992). "Anthropology and Theology in Pursuit of Justice". Callaloo. 15 (3): 811–823. doi:10.2307/2932023. ISSN 0161-2492. JSTOR 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 (1999). "Children and the Politics of Violence in Haitian Context: Statist violence, scarcity and street child agency in Port-au-Prince" (PDF). Critique of Anthropology. 19 (2): 121–122. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.623.758. doi:10.1177/0308275X9901900202. ISSN 0308-275X. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 December 2013. Assisted by contemporary factions of the notorious tonton makout – the rightist, army-supported civilian death squads – Cedras completed what would turn out to be the bloodiest coup d'etat in recent Haitian history.
  3. Fouron, Georges E. (2009). "2. Leaving Home § 4. 'I, Too, Want to Be a Big Man': The Making of a Haitian 'Boat People'". In Okpewho, Isidore; Nzegwu, Nkiru (eds.). The New African Diaspora. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 78. ISBN 978-0-253-35337-5. LCCN 2009005961. OCLC 503473672. OL 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. Fass, Simon M. (1988). "Schooling". Political Economy in Haiti: The Drama of Survival. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. p. 250. ISBN 978-0-88738-158-4. LCCN 87-25532. OCLC 16804468. OL 4977156W. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  5. Danticat, Edwidge (1994). Breath, Eyes, Memory (in English and Haitian Creole). 16. New York: Soho Press. ISBN 978-1-56947-142-5. LCCN 94-38568. OCLC 29254512. OL 1806978W. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
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  7. Filan, Kenaz (2007). "1.2. The Roots of Haitian Vodou". The Haitian Vodou Handbook: Protocols for Riding with the Lwa. Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-59477-995-4. LCCN 2006028676. OCLC 748396065. OL 8992653W.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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  13. Henley, Jon (14 January 2010). "Haiti: a long descent to hell". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 15 July 2015.
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  15. Charles, Jacqueline (26 September 2006). "Obituary: Luckner Cambronne" (PDF). Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 11 July 2009.
  16. Filan, Kenaz (2007). "1.2. The Roots of Haitian Vodou". The Haitian Vodou Handbook: Protocols for Riding with the Lwa. Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-59477-995-4. LCCN 2006028676. OCLC 748396065. OL 8992653W.
  17. Get to know a Lwa: Kouzen Zaka. (n.d.). Retrieved 15 September 2018, from http://www.manbomary.com/?p=80
  18. Ogou- Vodou, Voodoo Spirit, Lwa of the Nago Nation. (n.d.). Retrieved 15 September 2018, from http://www.ezilikonnen.com/lwa-voodoo-spirits/ogou/
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  20. Kellough, Gretchen Elizabeth (2008). "5. Mythological and Fantastic Female Communities § Breath, Eyes, Memory". Tisseroman: The Weaving of Female Selfhood within Feminine Communities in Postcolonial Novels (PhD). Ann Arbor: ProQuest. p. 202. ISBN 978-0-549-50778-9. OCLC 466441492.
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  30. "Muslimgauze.org - Discography - Coup D'Etat".
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