Haiti's military resurfaces after two decades out of view.
| Autor | Rodriguez, George |
A lengthy record of human rights violations as well as involvement in politics led two decades ago to the decision to disband Haiti's military.
The measure was taken in 1995 when then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide--the military's latest victim--decided it was time to end uniformed bullying. The Police Nationale d'Haiti (Haiti National Police), created that year by the legislature, was tasked with both internal security and protection of national sovereignty.
The military class was put aside, but the Constitution was not amended to formally abolish the armed forces (Forces Armees d'Haiti, FAd'H). Describing the measure as a restructuring, the Aristide administration's decree of Jan. 6, 1995, created a commission to complete the task, but it never got to actually work.
The armed forces' origin dates back to the Haitian Revolution, through which Haiti liberated itself from French rule and became, in 1804, the world's first independent nation founded by former slaves. Strong enough to defeat France, Haiti's military profited from the weakness of the new country's emerging civilian institutions, gaining power and performing government responsibilities.
Tontons Macoutes
But last century, during the ruthless and corrupt dictatorship of Francois Duvalier, Haiti's president for life (1957-1971), and his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier (1971-1986), the military lost power to the Duvaliers' own security force, the Tontons Macoutes, which became a key element in their terror apparatus. The squad took its name from the Haitian mythological character Tonton Macoute ("uncle bogeyman" in Haitian Creole), who kidnaps--and later eats--children that he catches with a burlap bag (NotiCen, Aug. 30, 2012).
The Tontons Macoutes were created in 1959 by Francois Duvalier, a physician and believer in voodoo, as a result of an attempted military coup in 1958, at the start of his 14-year reign. The attempted coup led Duvalier, who originally reached power through a coup of his own, to fear a military apparatus that could eventually try to topple him again.
His paramilitary henchmen have been held responsible for the capture, disappearance, torture, and execution of thousands of Haitians, and specifically for the 1964 massacre of hundreds of people in the city of Jeremie, the capital of the southern Grand'Anse department.
Before he died, Francois Duvalier appointed his son, Jean-Claude, who was 19 at the time, to succeed him, also as president for life. The younger...
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