The following is a list of massacres that have occurred in Haiti, following the end of the Haitian Revolution in Saint-Domingue which declared its independence from France on 1 January 1804 and became the world's first and oldest black-led republic in the Americas, the first Caribbean state and the first Latin American country as a whole in the Western Hemisphere after the United States (numbers may be approximate):
Name | Date | Location | Deaths | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Jaragua massacre | July 1503 | Jaragua, Hispaniola | unknown | Killing of indigenous natives from the town of Xaragua on the island of Hispaniola |
1804 Haiti massacre | February 1804 – 22 April 1804 | All across the country | 3,000 to 5,000 | Genocide of Haiti's white population on the orders of the Haitian black general Jean-Jacques Dessalines. [1] |
Virgins of Galindo | Several weeks after Haitian unification of 1822 | Santo Domingo, Haiti | 3 | Refers to three maiden sisters (aged 7–16) that were slaughtered and then raped and dismembered shortly after the assassination of their father, at the Galindo Manor, located outside the city walls of Santo Domingo believed to be committed by Haitian occupation soldiers, [2] but some archives suggest it was done by civilian men on both sides of the island. [3] [4] |
Les Cayes massacre | 6 December 1929 | Marchaterre, Les Cayes | 12-22 | United States Marine Corps troops fire upon a group of 1,500 Haitians in Les Cayes who were protesting against the United States occupation of Haiti |
Fignolists massacre | 16-17 June 1957 | Haiti | unknown | After Kébreau's coup against Daniel Fignolé, the Haitian army massacred an unknown number of supporters of the deposed president. [5] [6] [7] |
Massacre of 26 of April 1963 | 26 April 1963 | Port-au-Prince | 73 | Assassinations and arrests of dozens of alleged opponents of the Duvalier dictatorship and their families, mostly soldiers, before he declared himself "president for life" the following year. [8] |
Massacre of the peasants of Mapou | July and August 1964 | Arrondissement of Belle-Anse, Southeast Haiti | 300-600 | In response to an incursion by 15 anti-Duvalier militants of the FARH (Forces Armées Révolutionnaires d’Haïti) on June 29, the Haitian army, the militia, the paramilitary forces, death squads and the secret police known as the Tonton Macoutes (Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale, VSN) killed several hundred residents of the towns of Thiotte, Grand-Gosier, Belle-Anse (Saltrou) and Anse-a-Pitres on the orders of the Haitian dictator François Duvalier (Papa Doc). The largest numbers of killings occurred in Mapou, a section of Belle-Anse, including at least 45 members of the Madoumbe family. Nineteen members of the family Fandal were shot, mainly in Thiotte. Government forces never successfully engaged the rebels, who abandoned their efforts in August 1964. Arbitrary executions continued to be frequent through 1965. [9] [10] |
Jérémie Vespers | August through October 1964 | Jérémie, Grand Anse, Haiti | 27 | All members of several Jeremie families were executed in retaliation for the attempted guerrilla incursion in August by 13 members of "Jeune Haiti." Children and elderly people were amongst those murdered by the army, the secret police, private militia and other elements of François Duvalier dictatorship. |
Fort Dimanche massacre | 26 April 1986 | Fort Dimanche, Port-au-Prince | 11-15 [11] [6] | Soldiers opened fire on demonstrators during a mass in memory of the victims of the 1963 massacre in front of Fort Dimanche facilities in Port-au-Prince, which caused numerous victims. |
Jean-Rabel massacre | 23 July 1987 | Jean-Rabel | 139-200 [12] [6] | Battle between wealthy landowners and a land-reform group |
Haitian general election, 1987 | November 1987 | All across the country | 30-300. [13] | Attacks on voters. [13] |
St. Jean Bosco massacre | 11 September 1988 | Port-au-Prince | 13-150. [6] [14] | Politically motivated attack on a church service, which was being led by future-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was a priest at the time. [15] |
Pétionville bombing | 5 December 1990 | Pétion-Ville, Ouest Port-au-Prince | 5-7 | [16] [17] [18] [19] |
Raboteau massacre | 22 April 1994 | Gonaïves | 8-15 [20] | Massacre of civilian demonstrators. [21] |
2018 Port-au-Prince massacre | 13–18 November 2018 | La Saline, Port-au-Prince | 71 | Massacre of civilians by masked men [22] |
Croix-des-Bouquets jailbreak | 25 February 2021 | Croix-des-Bouquets, Ouest | 26 | More than 400 prisoners escaped during the jailbreak |
Bel Air massacre | 27 August 2020 - 15 May 2021 | Belair, Port-au-Prince | 81 | 16 Wounded |
Battle of Plaine du Cul-de-Sac | 24 April and 6 May 2022 | Plaine du Cul-de-Sac, Port-au-Prince | 200 | Clashes broke out between the 400 Mawozo gang and the Chen Mechan gang, Nearly 200 people were killed, many of whom were civilians. |
2022 Port-au-Prince gang battles | 8-9 July 2022 | Port-au-Prince | 89 | Outbreak of gang violence occurred in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, leaving 89 people dead and over 74 injured |
2022 Cabaret attack | 28-29 November 2022 | Cabaret | 20+ | 20 people were killed by armed gangs in the town of Cabaret, a suburb of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. |
2024 Pont-Sondé attack | 3 October 2024 | Pont-Sondé, Artibonite department | 115+ | Armed gunmen from the Gran Grif gang commit a mass shooting with automatic rifles and a series of arson attacks in the town of Pont-Sondé, killing 115+ people and seriously injuring 50 others |
2024 Cité Soleil massacre | 6-7 December 2024 | Cité Soleil, Port-au-Prince | 110+ | Massacre of elderly practitioners of Haitian Vodou. |
Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of The Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Haiti is the third largest country in the Caribbean, and with an estimated population of 11.4 million, is the most populous Caribbean country. The capital and largest city is Port-au-Prince.
The recorded history of Haiti began in 1492, when the European captain and explorer Christopher Columbus landed on a large island in the region of the western Atlantic Ocean that later came to be known as the Caribbean. The western portion of the island of Hispaniola, where Haiti is situated, was inhabited by the Taíno and Arawakan people, who called their island Ayiti. The island was promptly claimed for the Spanish Crown, where it was named La Isla Española, later Latinized to Hispaniola. By the early 17th century, the French had built a settlement on the west of Hispaniola and called it Saint-Domingue. Prior to the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), the economy of Saint-Domingue gradually expanded, with sugar and, later, coffee becoming important export crops. After the war which had disrupted maritime commerce, the colony underwent rapid expansion. In 1767, it exported indigo, cotton and 72 million pounds of raw sugar. By the end of the century, the colony encompassed a third of the entire Atlantic slave trade.
Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a Haitian former Salesian priest and politician who became Haiti's first democratically elected president in 1991 before being deposed in a coup d'état. As a priest, he taught liberation theology and, as president, he attempted to normalize Afro-Creole culture, including Vodou religion, in Haiti.
François Duvalier, also known as Papa Doc, was a Haitian politician and voodooist who served as the president of Haiti from 1957 until his death in 1971. He was elected president in the 1957 general election on a populist and black nationalist platform. After thwarting a military coup d'état in 1958, his regime rapidly became more autocratic and despotic. An undercover government death squad, the Tonton Macoute, indiscriminately tortured or killed Duvalier's opponents; the Tonton Macoute was thought to be so pervasive that Haitians became highly fearful of expressing any form of dissent, even in private. Duvalier further sought to solidify his rule by incorporating elements of Haitian mythology into a personality cult.
Matthieu Prosper Avril is a Haitian political figure who was President of Haiti from 1988 to 1990. A trusted member of François Duvalier's Presidential Guard and adviser to Jean-Claude Duvalier, Lt. Gen. Avril led the September 1988 Haitian coup d'état against a transition military government installed after Jean-Claude Duvalier's 1986 overthrow. He was President until March 1990, in a period which according to Amnesty International was "marred by serious human rights violations". He was arrested in 2001, but released in March 2004 after the 2004 Haitian coup d'état overthrew Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Henri Namphy was a Haitian general and political figure who served as President of Haiti's interim ruling body, the National Council of Government, from 7 February 1986 to 7 February 1988. He served again as President of Haiti from 20 June 1988 after the June 1988 coup that he led, until his deposition on September 17, 1988 in the September coup.
Jean Léopold Dominique was a Haitian journalist and activist for human rights and democracy in Haiti. His station, Radio Haiti-Inter, was the first to broadcast news, investigative reporting, and political analysis in Haitian Creole, the language spoken by most Haitian people. On 3 April 2000 he was assassinated as he arrived for work at Radio Haiti-Inter. An extensive though turbulent investigation failed to officially identify and bring to justice the primary perpetrators, who remain at large.
Jean-Claude Bajeux was a Haitian political activist and professor of Caribbean literature. For many years he was director of the Ecumenical Center for Human Rights based in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, and a leader of the National Congress of Democratic Movements, a moderate socialist political party also known as KONAKOM. He was Minister of Culture during Jean-Bertrand Aristide's first term as President of Haiti.
Ertha Pascal-Trouillot is a Haitian politician who served as the provisional President of Haiti for 11 months in 1990 and 1991. She was the first woman in Haitian history to hold that office and the first female president of African descent in the Americas.
Haiti's Constitution and written laws meet most international human rights standards. In practice, many provisions are not respected. The government's human rights record is poor. Political killings, kidnapping, torture, and unlawful incarceration are common unofficial practices, especially during periods of coups or attempted coups.
Rasin, also known as Haitian roots music, is a musical style that began in Haiti in the 1970s when musicians began combining elements of traditional Haitian Vodou ceremonial and folkloric music with various musical styles. The late 20th century style of this music links to the roots of Vodou tradition, where it came to be known as mizik rasin later in Haitian Creole. Modern-day, the movement is often referred to simply as "rasin" or "racine".
The Haitian National Police is the law enforcement and de facto police force of Haiti. It was created in 1995 to bring public security under civilian control as mandated in Haiti's constitution. As of 2023, the force has 9,000 active duty officers.
The Armed Forces of Haiti are the military forces of the Republic of Haiti, is composed of the Haitian Army, the Haitian Navy, and the Haitian Aviation Corps. The Force has about 2000 active personnel as of 2023, with the army and aviation corps being active, and navy personnel still in the works.
The St. Jean Bosco massacre took place in Haiti on 11 September 1988. At least 13 people were killed and around 80 wounded in a three-hour assault on the Saint-Jean Bosco church in Port-au-Prince, which saw the church burned down.
Haiti was one of the original members of the League of Nations, and was one of the original members of the United Nations and several of its specialized and related agencies. It is also a founding member of the Organization of American States. Haiti also has diplomatic relations with the Republic of China, commonly known as Taiwan, instead of the People's Republic of China. Taiwan is one of Haiti's major trading partners and the two countries maintain very friendly relations. Haiti has also re-established very warm relations with Cuba in which a major act of bilateral cooperation has resulted in Cuba's large contribution of doctors to the country. The Haitian government has publicly shown admiration to Fidel Castro and his administration.
Haiti's National Truth and Justice Commission began its operations in April 1995 and ended in February 1996. The country's once diverse and lively civil society had been tarnished greatly as a result of the ousting of its first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, by its military forces. This deposing of President Aristide is widely known as a coup d'état, and from 1991 to 1994, the country became known for its weak civilian government. The army was determined to return Haiti to the intimidated society existing during the Duvalier dictatorship seven years prior.
Antoine Adrien was a Catholic Priest and liberation theology advocate who served as Father Superior of the Holy Ghost Order in Haiti. He also served as Director of the "Petit Séminaire Collège Saint-Martial", attended primarily by children of the country's elite. Adrien was expelled from Haiti in 1969 by the Francois Duvalier regime which accused the Holy Ghost Order of harboring communists working to overthrow the regime.
Kern Delince was a Haitian-born military officer, lawyer, author, political scientist, economist, and librarian. As a lieutenant colonel in the Haitian Army, he participated in a failed 1963 coup attempt against Haitian President François Duvalier. He thereafter found political asylum in the United States. Delince authored four books on Haitian politics and commented frequently on Haitian political developments.
The National Unity Party is a right wing political party in Haiti. It was the de facto sole political party in the country during the Duvalier dynasty, the autocratic family dictatorship of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, which lasted from 1957 to 1986.