Word: tonton
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...wall, and in a Port-au-Prince bar last week a sodden upper-class mulatto suddenly raised his voice: "How long must we stand here and suffer and be killed?" But most Haitians have resigned themselves to a numbing life under Duvalier. The dictator's 5,000-man Tonton Macoute roams the country ferreting out opposition and collecting "donations" from terrified businessmen. Even Duvalier's own henchmen live in mortal fear. Using Haiti's pervasive voodoo mysticism, Duvalier has set himself up as the pseudo religion's top practitioner, and fearsome tales that he performs ghoulish...
...impoverished Caribbean nation ($70 per capita income, 90% illiteracy), it was a life sentence. Since he took office in 1957, Duvalier has ruthlessly liquidated every real or suspected foe of his regime. The 5,000-man Tonton Macoute, Duvalier's plain-clothes bully boys, shake down merchants and terrorize peasants, while his militiamen engage in macabre voodoo orgies, playing on the belief of the superstitious population that Papa Doc has occult powers. Haitian exiles, arriving in the Dominican Republic at the other end of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, say that the rites have included sewing up newborn babies...
...clear he was fond of the palace and had little intention of leaving. Early in 1963 he cancelled the scheduled May election and set about fortifying his position. To make up for the half-hearted and unreliable army, the country doctor had developed a private hatchet force called the tonton macoute. Part vigilante, part mafia, the tonton macoute exercised--and continues to exercise--an unpredictable but bloody power. To replace popularity--by this time Duvalier enjoyed little--he unleashed a propaganda campaign that featured large neon inscriptions (the only neon in Port-au-Prince), "I AM THE HAITIAN FLAG...
...many enemies of Haiti's Dictator Francois Duvalier were lined up in a row, the man in front would be Clement Barbot, 50, a onetime friend and devoted lieutenant. Short, wiry, with a pencil-thin mustache, Barbot organized "Papa Doc's" dread Tonton Macoute, his secret police; he was the chief's personal bodyguard, supervised the regime's tortures and executions-and was himself tossed into jail for 18 months when he seemed to be getting too ambitious. After his release last year, Barbot launched a campaign of terror against his old mentor. To Haitians...
...Haitians in exile are poorly organized and mostly led by men whose past records would earn them a small hello. Inside Haiti, Duvalier's strongest enemy is little better than "Papa Doc" himself. He is Clement Barbot, 49, a longtime Duvalier crony and killer, who bossed the dread Tonton Macoute goon squads until Duvalier turned on him in 1960. Barbot spent 18 months in his own jail, then was released and went underground, swearing to assassinate his former mentor...