Editing Tonton Macoute (section)

==History==
[[File:Duvalier crop2.jpg|thumb|right|"Papa Doc" Duvalier created the {{lang|fr-HT|Tontons Macoutes}} because he perceived the regular military to be a threat to his power.]]

After the [[July 1958 Haitian coup attempt]] against President [[François Duvalier]], he purged the army and law enforcement agencies in Haiti and executed numerous officers  perceived to be a threat to his regime. To counteract such activity, he created a military force that bore several names. In 1959, his paramilitary force was called the {{lang|fr-HT|Cagoulards}} ("Hooded Men").<ref name="Galván">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6AdAEQi2WZwC |title=Latin American Dictators of the 20th Century: The Lives and Regimes of 15 Rulers |author=Galván, Javier A. |page=100 |year=2012 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1476600161 |access-date=9 April 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DLQv3ZGQGqoC |title=Social Resilience and State Fragility in Haiti |editor=Verner, Dorte |page=68 |year=2007 |publisher=World Bank Publications |isbn=978-0821371886 |access-date=9 April 2017}}</ref> They were renamed to {{lang|fr-HT|Milice Civile}} (''Civilian Militia'') and, after 1962, {{lang|fr-HT|Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale}} (''Volunteers of the National Security'', or VSN).<ref name="Galván"/><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8RNvAAAAQBAJ |title=The Prophet and Power: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the International Community, and Haiti |author=Dupuy, Alex |page=35 |year=2006 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |isbn=978-1461645368 |access-date=9 April 2017}}</ref> They began to be called the {{lang|fr-HT|Tonton Macoute}} when [[Forced disappearance|people started to disappear]] or were found killed for no apparent reason.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I78wBwAAQBAJ |title=Antillanité, créolité, littérature-monde |editor=Constant, Isabelle |editor2=Mabana, Kahiudi C. |page=114 |year=2013 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars |isbn=978-1443846325 |access-date=9 April 2017|language=fr}}</ref> This group answered to him only.

Duvalier authorized the {{lang|fr-HT|Tontons Macoutes}} to commit systematic violence, terrorism, and [[Human rights in Haiti|human rights]] abuses to suppress political opposition. They were responsible for unknown numbers of murders and [[sexual violence in Haiti|rapes in Haiti]]. Political opponents often disappeared overnight, or were sometimes attacked in broad daylight. {{lang|fr-HT|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. 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 {{lang|fr-HT|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 taken as donations for public works, but which were in fact the source of profit for corrupt officials and even President Duvalier). The {{lang|fr-HT|Tontons Macoutes}} murdered between 30,000 and 60,000 Haitians.<ref name="Henley 2010">{{cite news |last=Henley |first=Jon |date=14 January 2010 |title=Haiti: a long descent to hell |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/14/haiti-history-earthquake-disaster |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150715012830/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/14/haiti-history-earthquake-disaster |archive-date=15 July 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Luckner Cambronne]] led the {{lang|fr-HT|Tontons Macoute}} throughout the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. His cruelty earned him the nickname "Vampire of the Caribbean". He extorted [[blood plasma]] from locals for sale for his profit. Cambronne did this through his company "Hemocaribian"; he shipped five tons of plasma per month to US Labs. He also sold cadavers to medical schools after buying them from Haitian hospitals for $3 per corpse. When the Hospital could not supply bodies, he used local funeral homes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Abbott |first=Elizabeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7JumcQAACAAJ&q=haiti+a+shattered+nation |title=Haiti: A Shattered Nation |date=2011-07-21 |publisher=Harry N. Abrams |isbn=978-1-59020-141-1 |language=en}}</ref> 

In 1971, after Duvalier died,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/04/23/archives/duvalier-64-dies-in-haiti-son-19-is-new-president-president.html|title=Duvalier, 64, Dies in Haiti; Son, 19, Is New President|author=|date=23 April 1971|work=The New York Times|access-date=5 October 2021}}</ref> his widow [[Simone Duvalier|Simone]] and son [[Jean-Claude Duvalier|Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier]] ordered Cambronne into exile. Cambronne moved to [[Miami]], [[Florida]], US, where he lived until his death in 2006.<ref name="Charles 2006">{{cite news |url=http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/obituaries/15634693.htm |title=Obituary: Luckner Cambronne |last=Charles |first=Jacqueline |date=26 September 2006 |newspaper=Miami Herald |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090711014218/http://ijdh.org/pdf/RoundupSept30-October112006.pdf#page=43 |archive-date=11 July 2009}}</ref>

When François Duvalier came to power in 1957, [[Haitian Vodou|Vodou]] was becoming celebrated as authentic Haitian culture by intellectuals and the [[griot]]s, after it had been dropped for years by those with education.<ref name="Filan, Kenaz 2007 p. 21">Filan, Kenaz (2007). "1.2. The Roots of Haitian Vodou". ''Haitian Vodou Handbook: Protocols for Riding with the Lwa.'' Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books. p. 21. {{ISBN|978-1594779954}}. {{LCCN|2006028676}}. {{OCLC|748396065}}. {{OL|8992653W}}.</ref> The {{lang|fr-HT|Tonton Macoute}} were strongly influenced by Vodou tradition and adopted [[denim]] uniforms resembling clothing like that of [[Azaka Medeh]], the patron of farmers. They carried and used machetes in symbolic reference to [[Ogun]], a great general in Vodou tradition.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-05-18 |title=Get to know a Lwa: Kouzen Zaka |url=https://manbomary.com/?p=80 |access-date=2022-11-25 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Ogou- Vodou, Voodoo Spirit, Lwa of the Nago Nation |url=https://ezilikonnen.com/lwa-voodoo-spirits/ogou/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170220032910/http://www.ezilikonnen.com/lwa-voodoo-spirits/ogou/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=20 February 2017 |access-date=2022-11-25 |website=Haitian Vodou, Voodoo, Las 21 Divisiones and Sanse |language=en-US}}</ref>

Some of the most important members of the {{lang|fr-HT|Tontons Macoute}} were Vodou leaders. This religious affiliation gave the {{lang|fr-HT|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 the paramilitary's actions. The {{lang|fr-HT|Tonton Macoutes}} wore straw hats, blue denim shirts and dark glasses, and were armed with [[machete]]s and guns. Both their allusions to the supernatural and their physical presentations were used to instill fear and respect among the common people, including any opposition actors.<ref name="Filan 2007"/><ref name="Schmidt 2011">{{cite book |last=Schmidt |first=Bettina E. |title=The Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence |series=Blackwell Companions to Religion |volume=42 |date=2011 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1444395730 |page=121 |chapter=5. Anthropological Reflections on Religion and Violence |lccn=2011002516 |oclc=899182009 |ol=16190447W |editor-last=Murphy |editor-first=Andrew R. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MF2Oxz3a0XwC&pg=PT121}}</ref><ref name="Kellough 2008">{{cite thesis |last=Kellough |first=Gretchen Elizabeth |date=2008 |title=''Tisseroman'': The Weaving of Female Selfhood within Feminine Communities in Postcolonial Novels |type=PhD |chapter=5. Mythological and Fantastic Female Communities § Breath, Eyes, Memory |isbn=978-0549507789 |page=202 |oclc=466441492 |location=Ann Arbor |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bNLG1G2SnpkC&pg=PA202}}</ref> Their  title of Tonton Macoute was embedded in Haitian lore of a bogeyman who took children away in his sack, or Makoute.<ref name="Filan, Kenaz 2007 p. 21"/>

The {{lang|fr-HT|Tontons Macoute}} were a ubiquitous presence at the polls in 1961, when Duvalier held [[1961 Haitian presidential referendum|a presidential referendum]] in which the official vote count was an "outrageous" and fraudulent {{nowrap|1,320,748 to 0}}, electing him to another term.<ref name="Abbott 1991 ">{{cite book |last=Abbott |first=Elizabeth |author-link=Elizabeth Abbott |title=Haiti: The Duvaliers and Their Legacy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ql5qAAAAMAAJ |edition=Rev. and updated |date=1991 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=978-0671686208 |page=103 |lccn=90024770 |oclc=22767635 |ol=1680900W |orig-year=1st pub. 1988}}</ref> They appeared in force again at the polls in 1964, when Duvalier held [[1964 Haitian constitutional referendum|a constitutional referendum]] that declared him [[president for life]].{{citation needed|date=March 2014}}