Tonton Macoute

Tonton Macoute was a paramilitary force (later named the Militia of National Security Volunteers – MVSN), created in 1959 by Haiti’s then brutal dictator, President François 'Papa Doc' Duvalier, father of Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier, who at the tender age of 19 continued this ruthless tradition when his father died in 1971… until the latter was deposed by a popular revolt in 1986. “Haitians [named] this force the ‘Tonton Macoutes,’ after the Haitian Creole mythological Tonton Macoute (Uncle Gunnysack) bogeymanwho kidnaps and punishes obstreperous children by snaring them in a gunnysack (Macoute) and carrying them off to be consumed at breakfast…

“[The senior] Duvalier employed the Tonton Macoutes in a reign of terror against any opponents, including those who proposed progressive social systems. Those who spoke out against Duvalier would disappear at night, or were sometimes attacked in broad daylight. Tonton Macoutes often stoned and burned people alive. Many times the corpses were put on display, often hung in trees for everyone to see. Family members who tried to remove the bodies for proper burial often disappeared themselves, never to be seen again. They were believed to have been abducted and killed by the MVSN, who were called the ‘Tonton Macoutes’ as a result. Anyone who challenged the MVSN risked assassination. Their unrestrained state terrorism was accompanied by corruption, extortion and personal aggrandizement among the leadership.” Wikipedia.

Baby Doc was not much of an improvement: “After assuming power, he introduced cosmetic changes to his father's murderous regime and delegated much authority to his advisors, though ‘thousands [of Haitians] were killed and tortured, and hundreds of thousands of Haitians fled into exile,’ and Duvalier faced fierce opposition due to his exploitation of the country's resources. He maintained a notoriously lavish lifestyle (including a state-sponsored $3 million wedding in 1980), and made millions from involvement in the drug trade and from selling body parts from dead Haitians while poverty among his people remained the most widespread for any country in the Americas.” Wikipedia

On February 7, 1986, a United States Air Force plane ferried the younger Duvalier and his family to Paris, where he has lived in self-imposed exile for the last quarter of a century, mostly without access to the vast wealth he had salted away (much lost after his divorce from wife Michèle in 1993). Then, on January 16^th of this year, a strange thing happened. Baby Doc… brutal and corrupt Baby Doc… returned to Haiti, ostensibly to see how his “people” had fared a year after the devastating earthquake that virtually leveled the capital city of Port-au-Prince. Perhaps, he assumed, that since the majority of Haitians really had no memory of his horrific reign (half the population hadn’t been born when Duvalier left), they would accept him as a potential leader to restore this impoverished and decimated nation to some semblance of stability and growth.

A day later, as the January 18^th Los Angeles Times notes: “Inside the courthouse shaded by mango trees, the deposed dictator sipped coffee as lawyers and judges conferred… Outside, several hundred Haitians — most too young to have a memory of Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier's cruel reign — chanted his name, burned tires and cried for his freedom… In a daylong drama that frequently bordered on the absurd, Haitian authorities took Duvalier from the luxury hotel outside the capital where he has been staying since his surprise … return from exile, guided him past the swimming pool and tennis courts, and bundled him off to court for questioning.

“Questioning about exactly what remained unclear. His entourage said he was not under arrest, and his release later in the day would seem to confirm that. But an investigative magistrate agreed to open a case against the onetime tyrant that would look into allegations that he stole millions of dollars from the hemisphere's poorest nation….” Some say he was in fact arrested, others claim a magistrate only asked him to apologize to the people for his corruption, but this addition to the already-volatile mix of Haiti struggling to rebuild from the rubble was hardly the positive step the country really needed. Prosecutors have charged Duvalier – mostly in connection with $4.6 million held in a Swiss bank account (Haiti has laid claim to the funds, which they claim Baby Doc embezzled from the government) – but it is up to the judge to determine if there is enough evidence to proceed to trial, a process that could take months.

"Gervais Charles, a lawyer representing Mr. Duvalier, said in an interview that the day’s events were part of a 'political show' [and that] 'Jean-Claude came into this country at the wrong time,' Mr. Charles said. 'That’s what this is about, not the law.' The charges filed on [January 18^th] seemed to be a modest list for a man who is widely blamed for one of the darkest chapters in the country’s history — and whose government has been accused of kidnapping, torturing and murdering thousands of political opponents. But the case against Mr. Duvalier represents a bold step by a country with a long history of impunity, and one where leaders have rarely faced prosecution." New York Times, January 18^th.

Duvalier’s return did stoke some angry fires that had been on a back burner for a long time: “[Meanwhile, human rights organizations, and many victims of the Duvalier dynastic rule, are demanding that he be prosecuted for crimes against humanity as justice for thousands of people believed to have been killed or tortured by Baby Doc's forces decades ago… [amid signs of support:] “Mostly, his following is born of desperation, nostalgia for a Haiti that hardly existed. Reeling from an earthquake a year ago that killed more than 300,000 people and doomed a million to squalid tent camps, plus a raging cholera epidemic, Haiti is perhaps suffering its worst series of crises ever. That can make an old regime, even one that was brutal and dictatorial, look pretty good. Especially to those who have no options.

“‘We lived much better under Duvalier. We had jobs, and we could afford things,’ said Marjorie Almino, 43. ‘Today we live like pigs, if you excuse my language.’” LA Times. But really… why was Duvalier back? Some speculated that President Rene Preval invited him, as a distraction from the seemingly snail’s pace of rebuilding; others believe the Duvalier’s instincts told him the time was right. Whatever the reason, there is a malevolent breeze blowing across Port-au-Prince today.

I’m Peter Dekom, and such extreme brutality and corruption surely must be punished – better late than never!