Chronological Index:

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1964 (July-August): Following a raid on June 24, 1964 by an anti-Duvalierist, Dominican Republic-based guerrilla group in the southeastern region of the country, the macoutes and the army carried out a vast repression operation and killed about 600 people in the towns of Mapou, Thiotte, Grand-Gosier and Belle-Anse. One of the killings has remained in collective memory as the “massacre of the peasants of Thiotte.” Men, women, children, infants and elderly people suspected either of having helped the guerrilla movement, or of not having opposed it, were slaughtered by the macoutes. Several families were entirely exterminated. A nine-year old child from one of them managed to escape but was later found and then brought to the Presidential Palace, where he was allegedly put to death by François Duvalier himself.
** (Pierre-Charles, 2000: 90-94)

1967 (June 8): 19 military officers and high-ranking officers were killed in Fort-Dimanche by a firing-squad led by François Duvalier himself. All the victims were Duvalierists and close to the Duvalier family, or to Papa Doc himself. The rationale for the execution remains uncertain. The 19 officers may have been suspected or accused of treason by Duvalier, but historians reject this hypothesis and emphasize Duvalier’s the terrorist methods: he sometimes had his closest allies killed to ensure even greater submission from the military and the population. Statements by several officers have established that they did not know the reasons for their execution. The members of the firing squad, chosen by Duvalier himself, were high-ranking officers who were all relatives or close friends of the victims.
*** (Avril, 150-174 ; Pierre-Charles, 2000: 87-90).

1969 (April 5): Event known as the “massacre de Cazale.” In the village of Cazale (sometimes spelled Casale or Casal), North of Port-au-Prince, army soldiers and macoutes killed several dozen peasant families. A few weeks earlier, several young, light-skinned members of the Communist Party, a political party persecuted by the regime, including Alex Lamaute and Roger Méhu, had taken refuge in this town, assuming that they would blend into a population regarded as generally light-skinned (for having harbored many Polish soldiers after the war of independence). At the same period, locals had been embroiled in a tax dispute and had refused to pay taxes on the sale of agricultural products, which had alienated the Duvalier regime further. On April 3, several macoutes arrived in the area, set several houses on fire and raped an unknown number of peasant women. The following day, after the macoutes arrested two peasant leaders opposed to taxes, the local population burned down the mayor’s office and took down the black-and-red flag of the Duvalier regime (the original Haitian flag was blue-and-red). On April 5, 500 soldiers and macoutes arrived in the area and started the killing. At the end of the day, 25 bodies were found but 80 had disappeared and were never found. This represented the largest “forced disappearance” under the Duvaliers. Several families were entirely wiped out. In addition, 82 houses had been looted and torched. Cattle was killed or taken away by looting soldiers. Women were forced to dance and “celebrate” with the soldiers who stayed in the village.
*** (Benoit, 2003: 6-9; Pierre-Charles, 2000: 112-113)

1969 (April 14): About 30 young members of the Haitian Communist party, imprisoned in Fort-Dimanche, were executed outside the prison. A wave of repression hit the members and supporters of the Communist party during 1969, especially in Cap Haitian and Port-au-Prince. According to Pierre-Charles (2000), there were several hundred victims during this year alone.
* (Pierre-Charles, 2000: 105-113).

1969 (July 22): Massive execution of left-wing political prisoners, who had been arrested during the previous days and weeks. They were taken from Fort-Dimanche and executed, at night, in Ganthier, a village Northeast of Port-au-Prince, and then thrown into a mass grave.
* (Pierre-Charles, 2000: 125-129)

 1971 (April 21) – 1986 (February 7): Regime of Jean-Claude Duvalier (“Baby Doc”)

The regime of terror and assassinations imposed by the macoutes and the military continued but no large-scale killings occurred during this period.

1977 (September 21): Eight political prisoners, who had been detained in Fort-Dimanche for several years, were taken out of their cells and shot by a firing squad in Morne Christophe, outside Port-au-Prince.
** (Pierre-Charles, 2000: 78)

1986 (January 31): Army soldiers led by Colonel Samuel Jérémie killed nearly one hundred people in Léogane (Southwest of Port-au-Prince) during a demonstration of peasants who were (prematurely) celebrating the departure into exile of Jean-Claude Duvalier. (No subsequent reports from international human rights organizations mention this killing).
* (NCRH, 1986: 27-28)

1986 (February 7): Déchouquage of the Duvalier regime. Following Jean-Claude Duvalier’s flight and exile, a crowd of half a million people took to the streets of Port-au-Prince, chased macoutes and destroyed the symbols of despotism. The number of their victims remains unknown. According to Hurbon (1987), several macoutes were stoned and others were burned alive. In Delmas 31, the crowd discovered 7 prisoners at the private residence of macoute Ernst Bros (Pierre-Charles, 2000: 56). Most of the victims of this “popular justice” lived “downtown” and, therefore, were macoute chiefs of lesser importance or even “miserable wretches” (Trouillot, 1990: 155). About fifty Ougans and Mambos (priests and priestesses of the Voodoo religion) were killed for their links or alleged links with the Duvalier regime. Several dozens of individuals believed to be werewolves or witches were lynched by the mob.
* (Hurbon, 1987: 10-11, 155 and 143; NCHR, 1986: 53-59; Interviews with witnesses)

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