30-662: The Tonton Macoute ( Haitian Creole : Tonton Makout ) or simply the Macoute , was a Haitian paramilitary and secret police force created in 1959 by dictator François "Papa Doc" Duvalier . Haitians named this force after the Haitian mythological bogeyman , Tonton Macoute (" Uncle Gunnysack "), who kidnaps and punishes unruly children by snaring them in a gunny sack ( macoute ) before carrying them off to be consumed for breakfast. The Macoute were known for their brutality, state terrorism , and assassinations . In 1970,
60-698: A common use is for such household tasks as cutting large foodstuffs into pieces—much as a cleaver is used—or to perform crude cutting tasks, such as making simple wooden handles for other tools. It is common to see people using machetes for other jobs, such as splitting open coconuts , yard work, removing small branches and plants, chopping animals' food, and clearing bushes. Machetes are often considered tools and used by adults. However, many hunter–gatherer societies and cultures surviving through subsistence agriculture begin teaching babies to use sharp tools, including machetes, before their first birthdays. People in uprisings sometimes use these weapons. For example,
90-466: A dance called the dança dos facões (machetes' dance) in which the dancers, who are usually men, bang their machetes against various surfaces while dancing, simulating a battle. Maculelê , an Afro-Brazilian dance and martial art, can also be performed with facões . This practice began in the city of Santo Amaro, Bahia , in the northeastern part of the country. In the Philippines , the bolo
120-519: A long-bladed knife . The blade is typically 30 to 66 centimetres (12 to 26 in) long and usually under 3 millimetres ( 1 ⁄ 8 in) thick. In the Spanish language , the word is possibly a diminutive form of the word macho , which was used to refer to sledgehammers. Alternatively, its origin may be machaera , the name given by the Greeks and Romans to the falcata . It is the origin of
150-657: A military force that bore several names. In 1959, his paramilitary force was called the Cagoulards ("Hooded Men"). They were renamed to Milice Civile ( Civilian Militia ) and, after 1962, Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale ( Volunteers of the National Security , or VSN). They began to be called the Tonton Macoute when people started to disappear or were found killed for no apparent reason. This group answered to him only. Duvalier authorized
180-602: A name for the blow of a machete; the Spanish machetazo is sometimes used in English. In the British Virgin Islands , Grenada , Jamaica , Saint Kitts and Nevis , Barbados , Saint Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago , the word planass means to hit someone with the flat of the blade of a machete or cutlass. To strike with the sharpened edge is to "chop". Throughout the English-speaking islands of
210-499: Is a variant used in East and Southern Africa . This name may be of Swahili etymology; not to be confused with the panga fish . The panga blade broadens on the backside and has a length of 41 to 46 cm (16 to 18 in). The upper inclined portion of the blade may be sharpened. Other similar tools include the parang and the golok (from Malaysia and Indonesia ); however, these tend to have shorter, thicker blades with
240-712: Is manufactured by Indústria de Material Bélico do Brasil ( IMBEL ). The machete was used as a weapon during the Mau Mau rebellion , in the Rwandan Genocide, and in South Africa , particularly in the 1980s and early 1990s when the former province of Natal was wracked by conflict between the African National Congress and the Zulu -nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party . Good machetes rely on
270-589: Is used in training in eskrima , the indigenous martial art of the Philippines. In the Jalisco region of Mexico , Los Machetes is a popular folk dance. This dance tells the story of cutting down sugar cane during the harvest. Los Machetes was created by Mexican farm workers who spent a great amount of time perfecting the use of the tool, the machete, for harvesting. Traditionally, real machetes are used while performing this dance. The panga or tapanga
300-496: The 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 Tonton 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 used to instill fear and respect among
330-644: The Tontons Macoutes to commit systematic violence, terrorism, and human rights abuses to suppress political opposition. They were responsible for unknown numbers of murders and rapes in Haiti . 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
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#1732772808436360-614: The Boricua Popular Army are unofficially called macheteros because of the machete-wielding laborers of sugar cane fields of past Puerto Rico . Many of the killings in the 1994 Rwandan genocide were performed with machetes, and they were the primary weapon used by the Interahamwe militias there. Machetes were also a distinctive tool and weapon of the Haitian Tonton Macoute . In 1762,
390-712: The British captured Havana in a lengthy siege during the Seven Years' War . Volunteer militiamen led by Pepe Antonio, a Guanabacoa councilman, were issued with machetes during the unsuccessful defense of the city. The machete was also the most iconic weapon during the independence wars in Cuba, although it saw limited battlefield use. Carlos Manuel de Céspedes , owner of the sugar refinery La Demajagua near Manzanillo , freed his slaves on 10 October 1868. He proceeded to lead them, armed with machetes, in revolt against
420-549: The Caribbean , the term 'cutlass' refers to a laborers' cutting tool. The Brazilian Army 's Instruction Center on Jungle Warfare developed a machete-style knife with a blade 25 cm (10 in) in length and a very pronounced clip point . This machete is issued with a 13 cm (5 in) Bowie knife and a sharpening stone in the scabbard; collectively called a "jungle kit" ( Conjunto de Selva in Portuguese ); it
450-660: The English language equivalent term matchet , though this is rarely used. In much of the English-speaking Caribbean, such as Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago, the term cutlass is used for these agricultural tools. In various tropical and subtropical countries, the machete is frequently used to cut through rainforest undergrowth and for agricultural purposes (e.g. cutting sugar cane ). Besides this, in Latin America
480-511: The griots , after it had been dropped for years by those with education. The 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. Some of the most important members of the Tontons Macoute were Vodou leaders. This religious affiliation gave
510-555: The 1990s was the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haïti (FRAPH), which Toronto Star journalist Linda Diebel described as modern Tonton Macoutes , and not the legitimate political party it claimed to be. Led by Emmanual Constant, FRAPH differed from the Tonton Macoute in its denial to submit to the will of a single authority and its cooperation with regular military forces. FRAPH extended its reach far outside that of
540-466: The English-speaking Caribbean, Robert Mole & Sons of Birmingham, England, was long considered the manufacturer of agricultural cutlasses of the best quality. Some Robert Mole blades survive as souvenirs of travellers to Trinidad, Jamaica, and, less commonly, St. Lucia. Colombia is the largest exporter of machetes worldwide. The flag of Angola features a machete, along with a cog-wheel . The southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul has
570-781: The Haitian state and had offices present in New York City , Montreal , and Miami until its disarmament and disbandment in 1994. Wolfen - in the film Wolfen(1981) the bodyguard that is killed by the Wolfen at the beginning of the film is referred to as being tough and formerly of the Tonton Macoute Haitian Creole language Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include
600-459: The Hospital could not supply bodies, he used local funeral homes. In 1971, after Duvalier died, his widow Simone and son Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier ordered Cambronne into exile. Cambronne moved to Miami , Florida , US, where he lived until his death in 2006. When François Duvalier came to power in 1957, Vodou was becoming celebrated as authentic Haitian culture by intellectuals and
630-740: The Spanish government. The first cavalry charge using machetes as the primary weapon was carried out on 4 November 1868 by Máximo Gómez , a sergeant born in the Dominican Republic , who later became the general in chief of the Cuban Army . The machete is a common side arm and tool for many ethnic groups in West Africa . Machetes in this role are referenced in Chinua Achebe 's Things Fall Apart . Some countries have
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#1732772808436660-557: 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 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
690-444: The common people, including any opposition actors. Their title of Tonton Macoute was embedded in Haitian lore of a bogeyman who took children away in his sack, or Makoute. The Tontons Macoute were a ubiquitous presence at the polls in 1961, when Duvalier held a presidential referendum in which the official vote count was an "outrageous" and fraudulent 1,320,748 to 0 , electing him to another term. They appeared in force again at
720-508: The country's debts. This continued until the Tonton Macoute was left on its own when "Baby Doc" fled the country with an estimated $ 900 million. The Tonton Macoute remained active even after the presidency of Baby Doc ended in 1986, at the height of the Anti-Duvalier protest movement . Massacres led by paramilitary groups spawned from the r-Macoutes continued during the following decade. The most feared paramilitary group during
750-401: The details below. Request from 172.68.168.133 via cp1102 cp1102, Varnish XID 548035046 Upstream caches: cp1102 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 05:46:48 GMT Machete A machete ( / m ə ˈ ʃ ɛ t i / ; Spanish pronunciation: [maˈtʃete] ) is a broad blade used either as an agricultural implement similar to an axe , or in combat like
780-480: The materials used and the shape. In the past, the most famous manufacturer of machetes in Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean was Collins Company of Collinsville , Connecticut . The company was founded as Collins & Company in 1826 by Samuel W. Collins to make axes . Its first machetes were sold in 1845 and became so famous that a machete was called un collin . In
810-563: The militia was renamed the Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale ( VSN , English: National Security Volunteers ). Though formally disbanded in 1986, its members continued to terrorize the country. 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
840-524: The polls in 1964, when Duvalier held a constitutional referendum that declared him president for life . From 1985, the United States began to stop funding aid to Haiti, cutting nearly a million dollars within a year. Nonetheless, the Baby Doc regime pushed forward and even had a national party for the Tontons Macoute . Tonton Macoute day was 29 July 1985; among the festivities, the group
870-646: The source of profit for corrupt officials and even President Duvalier). The Tontons Macoutes murdered between 30,000 and 60,000 Haitians. Luckner Cambronne led the 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
900-459: Was bestowed new uniforms and was honored by all of Baby Doc's cabinet. In the exuberance, the Tonton Macoute went out into the streets and shot 27 people for the national party. The lack of funds going to the Tonton Macoute was a result of those funds being intercepted by the Duvalier dynasty . It sometimes took nearly 80 percent of international aid to Haiti, but paid only 45 percent of
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