Word: tonton
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...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...
...most of Duvalier's Latin American neighbors were outraged, but helpless so long as Duvalier and his bloody, graft-ridden regime held power, with the help of his cocky Tonton Macoute hoodlums. The neighboring Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, had threatened to invade Haiti unless Duvalier granted safe-conduct to 23 refugees who had taken asylum at the Dominican embassy in Port-au-Prince. Duvalier obligingly granted safe-conduct to 20 of the 23, and Dominican President Juan Bosch pulled back some of his troops from the border...
...vengeance, everyone waited to see whether the dictator who calls himself "Papa Doc" would fall, and in falling bring on another of the blood baths that have marked the small Negro republic's history. In his white Port-au-Prince palace. Duvalier clung to power, guarded by his Tonton Macoute hoodlums. There was sporadic fighting between Duvalier's men and the emboldened opposition, and dark rumors of many deaths. Diplomatically, the arguments turned on the safety of 103 Haitians who had taken asylum at Latin American embassies in the capital, and had not been permitted safe conduct...