BOMBS AT CARNIVAL ANGER HAITIAN DICTATOR
[The following report, datelined Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and signed by Roger Tilangingue, has been translated from the April 27 issue of the Haitian underground paper, the Voix du Peuple (Voice of the People).]
* * *
Duvalier celebrated his sixtieth birthday and the tenth anniversary of his dictatorship at the same time. Everything was done to make the festivities dazzling. And the government which maintains that it doesn't have the means to undertake necessary public works nevertheless found money to underwrite an ambitious advertising campaign for tourists, for decora-— ting the city, making up floats, hiring carnival bands, etc.
As things began, leaflets signed by our party appeared throughout the capital and its suburbs. A little tonton macoute* voiced the anger of his cohorts when -- believing it was a program for the festival -- he saw that it was really a political declaration. He said: "This PEP (Parti de 1'Entente Populaire] thinks it owns the country."
In the evening of the first day of the carnival, two persons tried to seize Mrs. Max Adolphe, a deputy and executioner of Fort-Dimanche. This was a repetition of an unsuccessful attempt a few days earlier.
On the second day, a bomb exploded some 200 meters from the national palace. General panic. To halt the fleeing spectators, the tonton macoutes and soldiers
*Tonton macoutes -- bogeymen, the strongarm squads maintained by Duvalier. -- W.0.
found no better means than to shoot into
the crowd, thus increasing the number of
victims.
After the explosion, Duvalier took
his submachine gun and, with an escort,
left the palace. His presence, it was
soon clear, did not bring back those who
had fled and did not prevent a second
bomb from exploding a few minutes later
in the parade route, near the cemetery.
Once again the tonton macoutes fired
their guns.
Many arrests were made. Duvalier
could not contain hie rage. The most dis-
quieting occurrence for him was that the
same evening, shortly after the explo-
sions, the subcommander of the militia at
the national palace, Jacques Lysius, was
visited at his home by a commando group
of patriots.
There was a heavy exchange of gun-
fire between the commandos and the tonton
macoute entrenched in his house. By the
time government reinforcements arrived,
the assailants had retreated. ~
Fearfully, Duvalier sent out an
emergency call for detachments of ma-
coutes from the provinces to protect him,
mainly from Artibonito and Arcahaie. He
declared Port-au-Prince an occupied city
and, as always, issued threats over the
radio.
On the third day of the carnival
the crowds were few and the number of
participants considerably reduced.
We warmly salute these patriots
who sabotaged Duvalier's carnival and
tried to punish the worst butchers in the
country. Forward to new actions to
develop "panic in the year X."