Tonton Macoute

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 Intellectuals and 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.

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 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 Haitian state and had offices present in New York, Montreal and Miami until its disarmament and disbandment in 1994.[25]

• The Comedians[26] (1966) is a novel by Graham Greene about the struggle of a former hotel owner against the Tonton Macoute. It was adapted into 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 Duvalierist political repression.
• The Dew Breaker[27] (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 Ton Ton Macoute.[28]
• The Tonton Macoute is also mentioned in season 1, episode 9 of the popular 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.
• 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.[29][30]
• In the 2016 video game Mafia III, the New Bordeux 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 Toni Morisson's essay, "The Habit of Art", Morisson refers to the tragic practice of the Tonton Macoute targeting people who attempted to bury people that were murdered.

• De la Cova, Antonio Rafael (2011). "Tonton Macoute Militia: Photos". Latin American Studies. Haiti. Archived from the original on 20 April 2015.
• 26th Anniversary of the Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale on YouTube