Haiti - Inside the Fort di Marche - the most feared building in Haiti from 1960 until 1986. This was the prison that was used by Papa Doc's most brutal commanders to carry out interrogation, torture and murder. This prison was closed down after PapaDoc died in 1986 but was re-opened and briefly used as a school after the earthquake in 2010 as many schools in Cite Soleil (Port-au-Prince) collapsed. In those dark years of Papa Doc, a 'Tonton Macoute' was a member of the Haitian paramilitary force created in 1959 by dictator François 'Papa Doc' Duvalier after a failed military coup. After the attempted coup, Papa Doc disbanded the military and created his own fierce militia (MVSN) -Haitians named this force after the Haitian #Creole mythological Tonton Macoute (Uncle Gunnysack) bogeyman, who kidnaps and punishes unruly children by snaring them in a gunnysack (macoute) and carrying them off to be consumed at breakfast. Political opponents often disappeared overnight, or were sometimes attacked in broad daylight. 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 themselves, never to be seen again. Anyone who challenged the MVSN risked #assassination. The victims of 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 “donate” money for public works. Some of the most important members of the Tonton Macoute were vodou leaders. This #religious affiliation gave the Macoutes a kind of unearthly authority. From their methods to their choice of clothes, vodou always played an important role in their actions. The Tontons Macoutes wore straw hats, blue denim shirts and dark glasses, and were armed with #machetes and #guns. Both their allusions to the supernatural and their physical presentations were tools to instill fear. Analysts estimate that some 60,000 were #murdered by the #TonTonMacoute (photo @clarkegiles @gettyreportage ) More @narrativelyn
