Tonton Macoute

File:Duvalier crop2.jpg

After the July 1958 Haitian coup 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 {{lang|fr-HT|Cagoulards}} ("Hooded Men").{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6AdAEQi2WZwC |title=Latin American Dictators of the 20th Century: The Lives and Regimes of 15 Rulers |author=Galván, Javier A. |page=100 |year=2012 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1476600161 |access-date=9 April 2017}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DLQv3ZGQGqoC |title=Social Resilience and State Fragility in Haiti |editor=Verner, Dorte |page=68 |year=2007 |publisher=World Bank Publications |isbn=978-0821371886 |access-date=9 April 2017}} They were renamed to {{lang|fr-HT|Milice Civile}} (Civilian Militia) and, after 1962, {{lang|fr-HT|Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale}} (Volunteers of the National Security, or VSN).{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8RNvAAAAQBAJ |title=The Prophet and Power: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the International Community, and Haiti |author=Dupuy, Alex |page=35 |year=2006 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |isbn=978-1461645368 |access-date=9 April 2017}} They began to be called the {{lang|fr-HT|Tonton Macoute}} when people started to disappear or were found killed for no apparent reason.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I78wBwAAQBAJ |title=Antillanité, créolité, littérature-monde |editor=Constant, Isabelle |editor2=Mabana, Kahiudi C. |page=114 |year=2013 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars |isbn=978-1443846325 |access-date=9 April 2017|language=fr}} This group answered to him only.

Duvalier authorized the {{lang|fr-HT|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. {{lang|fr-HT|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 {{lang|fr-HT|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 {{lang|fr-HT|Tontons Macoutes}} murdered between 30,000 and 60,000 Haitians.{{cite news |last=Henley |first=Jon |date=14 January 2010 |title=Haiti: a long descent to hell |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/14/haiti-history-earthquake-disaster |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150715012830/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/14/haiti-history-earthquake-disaster |archive-date=15 July 2015 |url-status=live}}

Luckner Cambronne led the {{lang|fr-HT|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.{{Cite book |last=Abbott |first=Elizabeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7JumcQAACAAJ&q=haiti+a+shattered+nation |title=Haiti: A Shattered Nation |date=2011-07-21 |publisher=Harry N. Abrams |isbn=978-1-59020-141-1 |language=en}}

In 1971, after Duvalier died,{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/04/23/archives/duvalier-64-dies-in-haiti-son-19-is-new-president-president.html|title=Duvalier, 64, Dies in Haiti; Son, 19, Is New President|author=|date=23 April 1971|work=The New York Times|access-date=5 October 2021}} 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.{{cite news |url=http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/obituaries/15634693.htm |title=Obituary: Luckner Cambronne |last=Charles |first=Jacqueline |date=26 September 2006 |newspaper=Miami Herald |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090711014218/http://ijdh.org/pdf/RoundupSept30-October112006.pdf#page=43 |archive-date=11 July 2009}}

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.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. {{ISBN|978-1594779954}}. {{LCCN|2006028676}}. {{OCLC|748396065}}. {{OL|8992653W}}. The {{lang|fr-HT|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.{{Cite web |date=2016-05-18 |title=Get to know a Lwa: Kouzen Zaka |url=https://manbomary.com/?p=80 |access-date=2022-11-25 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Ogou- Vodou, Voodoo Spirit, Lwa of the Nago Nation |url=https://ezilikonnen.com/lwa-voodoo-spirits/ogou/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170220032910/http://www.ezilikonnen.com/lwa-voodoo-spirits/ogou/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=20 February 2017 |access-date=2022-11-25 |website=Haitian Vodou, Voodoo, Las 21 Divisiones and Sanse |language=en-US}}

Some of the most important members of the {{lang|fr-HT|Tontons Macoute}} were Vodou leaders. This religious affiliation gave the {{lang|fr-HT|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 {{lang|fr-HT|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.{{cite book |last=Schmidt |first=Bettina E. |title=The Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence |series=Blackwell Companions to Religion |volume=42 |date=2011 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1444395730 |page=121 |chapter=5. Anthropological Reflections on Religion and Violence |lccn=2011002516 |oclc=899182009 |ol=16190447W |editor-last=Murphy |editor-first=Andrew R. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MF2Oxz3a0XwC&pg=PT121}}{{cite thesis |last=Kellough |first=Gretchen Elizabeth |date=2008 |title=Tisseroman: The Weaving of Female Selfhood within Feminine Communities in Postcolonial Novels |type=PhD |chapter=5. Mythological and Fantastic Female Communities § Breath, Eyes, Memory |isbn=978-0549507789 |page=202 |oclc=466441492 |location=Ann Arbor |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bNLG1G2SnpkC&pg=PA202}} Their title of Tonton Macoute was embedded in Haitian lore of a bogeyman who took children away in his sack, or Makoute.

The {{lang|fr-HT|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 {{nowrap|1,320,748 to 0}}, electing him to another term.{{cite book |last=Abbott |first=Elizabeth |author-link=Elizabeth Abbott |title=Haiti: The Duvaliers and Their Legacy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ql5qAAAAMAAJ |edition=Rev. and updated |date=1991 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=978-0671686208 |page=103 |lccn=90024770 |oclc=22767635 |ol=1680900W |orig-year=1st pub. 1988}} They appeared in force again at the polls in 1964, when Duvalier held a constitutional referendum that declared him president for life.{{citation needed|date=March 2014}}

From 1985, the United States began to stop funding aid to Haiti, cutting nearly a million dollars within a year. Nonetheless, the Baby Doc regime pushed forward and even had a national party for the {{lang|fr-HT|Tontons Macoute}}. {{lang|fr-HT|Tonton Macoute}} day was 29 July 1985; among the festivities, the group was bestowed new uniforms and was honored by all of Baby Doc's cabinet. In the exuberance, the {{lang|fr-HT|Tonton Macoute}} went out into the streets and shot 27 people for the national party.{{Cite book |last=Abbott |first=Elizabeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7JumcQAACAAJ&q=haiti+a+shattered+nation |title=Haiti: A Shattered Nation |date=2011-07-21 |publisher=Harry N. Abrams |isbn=978-1-59020-141-1 |language=en}}

The lack of funds going to the {{lang|fr-HT|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 {{lang|fr-HT|Tonton Macoute}} was left on its own when "Baby Doc" fled the country with an estimated $900 million.{{Cite web |date=2010-01-14 |title=Haiti: a long descent to hell |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/14/haiti-history-earthquake-disaster |access-date=2022-11-25 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}

The {{lang|fr-HT|Tonton Macoute}} remained active even after the presidency of Baby Doc ended in 1986,{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/08/world/duvalier-flees-haiti-end-family-s-28-years-power-general-leads-new-regime-20.html|title=DUVALIER FLEES HAITI TO END FAMILY'S 28 YEARS IN POWER: GENERAL LEADS NEW REGIME; 20 REPORTED DEAD|author=|date=8 February 1986|work=The New York Times|access-date=5 October 2021}} at the height of the Anti-Duvalier protest movement. Massacres led by paramilitary groups spawned from the Macoutes{{cfn|date=October 2024}} 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.

Led by Emmanual Constant, FRAPH differed from the {{lang|fr-HT|Tonton Macoute}} in its denial to submit to the will of a single authority and its cooperation with regular military forces.{{Cite web |last=COHA |date=2010-03-11 |title=The Tonton Macoutes: The Central Nervous System of Haiti's Reign of Terror |url=https://www.coha.org/tonton-macoutes/ |access-date=2022-11-25 |website=COHA |language=en-US}} 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.{{Cite web |title=Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress (FRAPH) Front Révolutionnaire pour L'Avancement et le Progress Haitien (FRAPH) |url=https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/haiti/fraph.htm |access-date=2022-11-25 |website=www.globalsecurity.org}}

Wolfen - in the film Wolfen(1981) the bodyguard that is killed by the Wolfen at the beginning of the film is referred to as being tough and formerly of the Tonton Macoute

• The Comedians{{cite book |last=Greene |first=Graham |author-link=Graham Greene |date=1966 |title=The Comedians |publisher=The Viking Press |location=New York |asin=B0078EPH2C |lccn=66012636 |oclc=365953 |ol=106070W |type=book|title-link=The Comedians (novel) }} (1966) is a novel by Graham Greene about the struggle of a former hotel owner against the {{lang|fr-HT|Tonton Macoute}}. It was adapted as a feature film starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Ustinov and Alec Guinness.
• Ton-Ton Macoute!, a 1970 album by Johnny Jenkins.
• "Heaven Knows," a song by Robert Plant on his album Now and Zen, references the Tonton Macoute.
• The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), a horror film directed by Wes Craven, loosely based on the book of the same name, deals with Haitian Vodou and political repression under the Duvaliers.
• The Dew Breaker{{cite book |last=Danticat |first=Edwidge |author-link=Edwidge Danticat |date=2004 |title=The Dew Breaker |edition=1st |publisher=Knopf |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4000-4114-5 |lccn=2003060788 |oclc=52838918 |ol=1806976W|title-link=The Dew Breaker }} (2004) is a novel by Edwidge Danticat that features the Tonton Macoute as important in the plot.
• Prior to her solo career, Sinéad O'Connor sang in a band called {{not a typo|Ton Ton}} Macoute.{{cite magazine |last=McNeil |first=Legs |author-link=Legs McNeil |date=April 1990 |title={{not a typo|Sinead}} |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GJ2P1hu6nToC&pg=PA54 |magazine=Spin |volume=6 |issue=1 |page=54 |issn=0886-3032}}
• The Tonton Macoute is also mentioned in season 1, episode 9 of the television series Dexter. In the episode, an ex-Cagoulard is recognized and killed by Miami-Dade police sergeant James Doakes, who was formerly stationed in Haiti as an Army Ranger. Despite having evidence that Sergeant Doakes lied about firing his weapon in self-defense, the DA's office drops the investigation into the killing at the request of the Federal Government.
• Don Byron mentions the Tonton Macoute while describing Haitian immigrant Abner Louima's brutal interrogation by the NYC Police in his song "Morning 98 (Blinky)" from the 1998 album Nu Blaxploitation.
• The track "Tonton Macoutes" appears on the 1987 album Coup d'État by Muslimgauze.{{Cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/Muslimgauze-Coup-DEtat/master/321879|title=Muslimgauze - Coup D'Etat|website=Discogs|date=3 December 1987 |access-date=2016-09-22}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.muslimgauze.org/releases/coupLP.html|title=Muslimgauze.org - Discography - Coup D'Etat}}
• In the 2016 video game Mafia III, the New Bordeaux Haitian Mob is composed mainly of refugees who fled Haiti to escape from persecution by the Tonton Macoute.
• In the television series The Thick of It, the character Malcolm Tucker jokes in response to why he enters a room without knocking that it is due to his "time with the Haitian death squads".
• In NSV, the character Nasalis states that in 1974 he felt sympathetic towards the Haitian national football team, not being aware of Jean-Claude Duvalier at the time. The character Erik replied that the Tonton Macoute was already keeping an eye on him.
• In Toni Morrison's essay, "[https://www.amazon.com/Source-Self-Regard-Selected-Meditations-International/dp/0525562796/ref=sr_1_1 The Habit of Art]", she refers to the practice of the Tonton Macoute targeting those people who attempted to bury their loved ones who had been murdered and displayed by the paramilitary.
• Shrunken Heads (film), features the character Aristide Sumatra, a voodoo priest and former member of the Tonton Macoute. He uses that background to train three shrunken heads to fight criminals.
• In Shannon Mayer’s Forty-Proof series, the 4th installment (titled Midlife Ghost Hunter) uses a voodoo zombie army called the Tonton Macoutes as the main villain’s army. The story takes place in New Orleans, also a center of Vodou.
• In the TV series Justified, Season 5 Episode 01, "A Murder of Crows", Raylan, the protagonist, mentions the Tonton Macoute while questioning a Haitian suspect. He says that the man's appearance and attitude suggests he had been a member of the paramilitary.
• In the TV series Two and a Half Men, Season 3 Episode 17: "The Unfortunate Little Schnauzer", Archie Baldwin makes a reference to Tonton Macoute in his UN jingle for orphaned children.
• Roxane Gay's short story "A Cool, Dry Place" (in ayiti Creole language) features characters who recall losing their parents to the Tonton Macoute.

• General Security Directorate, a similar paramilitary organization and the secret police to the Duvalier regime by the Assad family
• Blackshirts
• Mongoose Gang
• Shower Posse

{{reflist}}

• {{cite web |url=http://latinamericanstudies.org/tontons.htm |title=Tonton Macoute Militia: Photos |last=De la Cova |first=Antonio Rafael |date=2011 |website=Latin American Studies |series=Haiti |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150420220348/http://latinamericanstudies.org/tontons.htm |archive-date=20 April 2015 |url-status=live}}
• {{YouTube |id=yQxcRPPiaxY |title=26th Anniversary of the Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale |link=no}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1959 establishments in Haiti

Category:Paramilitary organizations based in Haiti

Category:Defunct law enforcement agencies of Haiti

Category:Military wings of fascist parties

Category:Government paramilitary forces

Category:Secret police

Category:Haitian intelligence agencies