422. Telegram 119078 From the Department of State to the Embassy in Haiti1
119078. Subject: Continuing Plans of Haitian Exiles to Overthrow the Duvalier Government, Despite Shooting Incident Between Security Forces and Exile Commandos in Haiti.
[1 paragraph (6½ lines) not declassified]
Quote. Summary: Alphonse Lahens, a Haitian exile residing in the United States, is continuing his plans to overthrow the Haitian Government, in spite of a shooting incident involving his staff commando group in Haiti on 20 April 1976. Although one commando was killed and another was captured, the staff leader and two other commandos escaped to the Dominican Republic. Lahens claims that his 300-man assault unit inside Haiti remains intact. After learning of the incident, Lahens canceled the impending trip of a courier to carry instructions to the commando leader. Had the commando leader proceeded with the coup attempt on 22 April as scheduled, General Gracia Jacques may have been killed, contrary to secret sub-plot instructions which Lahens planned to relay via the courier. As a result of the shooting incident, General Jacques has reverted to his role of loyal watchdog to the family of President Jean-Claude Duvalier. End summary.
1. Undaunted by a shooting incident on 20 April 1976 between the “staff” of his commando unit inside Haiti and Haitian Government Security Forces, Alphonse Lahens, Haitian exile residing in New York City, is continuing to plot to overthrow the government of President Jean-Claude Duvalier. Lahens said on 5 May that the main body of his [Page 1084] 300-man commando unit in Haiti remains intact. [3½ lines not declassified] (Also see Port-au-Prince Embassy telegram 1089 dated 28 April 1976, for another account of the shooting incident.)
2. Lahens said Haitian Ton-Ton Macoutes (Volunteers for National Service—VNS) surprised Hubert Legros, commando staff leader; his brother, Michel Legros, Raymond Fils-Aime, Maisoneuve (FNU), and Colon (FNU) on the morning of 20 April in a house in the Waney area on the road to Carrefour, about 14 miles from Port-au-Prince. The Ton-Ton Macoutes killed Maisoneuve and captured Colon. The commandos killed an unidentified yardboy whom they suspected of having informed the Haitian security forces of their whereabouts. [1½ lines not declassified]
[1 paragraph (3½ lines) not declassified]
3. The Legros brothers and Fils-Aime escaped to the Dominican Republic in a Jeep commandeered from SNEM, an international anti-malaria organization. As of 5 May they were in hiding in Santo Domingo at the home of a former official of the regime of General Rafael L. Trujillo. Lahens was in frequent telephone contact with Legros and was seeking to aid the men in leaving the Dominican Republic. The commandos were considering asking asylum from the Mexican or another Latin American embassy in Santo Domingo in order to rejoin Lahens in the U.S. Legros told Lahens via telephone on 5 May that he feared the former Trujillo official might betray them. Legros planned to move their hiding place the next day and said he would advise Lahens of a new telephone number. Lahens questioned Legros about a report received from a contact in Port-au-Prince that one of the commando staff group had visited the National Palace the day before the firefight. Legros denied this. Later Lahens said he believed this report may have been true, since the five commandos had excellent military contacts in the Palace and had even received some Palace arms.
4. Lahens claimed to have other arms still undiscovered in Haiti. On 6 May he intended to inspect some arms which were for sale in the New York area and was confident of obtaining more money with which to purchase the arms. He added he was not worried that Colon would break under interrogation, because Colon knew only the names of the commandos who were with him at the time of his capture. Lahens said he had been ready to send Mireille Fabius, the courier, to contact Hubert Legros in Port-au-Prince on 20 April when he received news of the fire fight, and canceled her trip. Legros had informed Lahens by telephone that he was prepared for the coup attempt and could not run the risk of delay much longer. Legros had planned to assassinate members of the Duvalier family on 22 April at the inauguration of a school in Leogane, about 35 miles from the capital. The commandos had planned to wear stolen uniforms of Haitian Army officers. [Page 1085] Fabius’s mission was to inform Legros about the secret sub-plot to switch the roles of General Gracia Jacques, Commander of the Presidential Guard, and General Jean-Baptiste Hilaire, Armed Forces Chief of Staff. If the coup had been attempted on 22 April without her instructions, Jacques would have been killed instead of Hilaire as originally planned by the commandos. Lahens said he also suspected that Haitian exiles in New York City may have informed the Government of Haiti (GOH) about the plot, among them Raymond and Leo Joseph and Paul Magloire, all members of the 12 November Revolutionary Movement (MR12N), and also Moringlade (FNU).
5. According to a confidant of General Gracia Jacques, the 30-minute firefight in Waney resulted from the suspicions of a Ton-Ton Macoute named Medi (FNU), who noticed unusual activity in a small house near his home. He and eight other Ton-Ton Macoutes decided to investigate and upon entering the house were immediately fired upon by the five dissidents. The Ton-Ton Macoutes killed one man, arrested another, who was taken to the Dessalines battalion barracks for interrogation; and captured ammunition and a number of automatic weapons. Later the same day the security forces seized a cache of uniforms of Haitian Army officers and two walkie-talkie radios in Leogane. Jacques said the GOH sent a special diplomatic mission to Santo Domingo to request official assistance in apprehending the revolutionaries and returning them to Haiti. As of 5 May, the men were still at large.
6. Immediately after the shooting incident Jacques doubled the guard at the National Palace and remained at his post for over 48 hours. He learned from the interrogation of Colon that the commandos had planned to assassinate him at the Triumph Theater in Port-au-Prince, which he visits almost nightly. Jacques is now taking security precautions including changing his pattern of activities. He described the President as naturally very anxious to know the full details of the plot and to capture the others involved. About 40 persons have been arrested and interrogated, some of whom are still in jail. Most of those arrested are Haitians who have become U.S. citizens or residents and have returned to Haiti in the past 20 months. The President is aware that exiles in the U.S. concocted the plot. The confidant added that despite Jacques’s recent statements of disgust for the Duvalier family and his earlier reluctance to inform the President about the coup plotting, Jacques has reverted to the role of loyal watchdog which he has played for nearly 20 years. In the final analysis, the confidant said, Jacques probably realizes that his fate is tied to the Duvalier family. End quote.
7. [2 lines not declassified]
8. [8 lines not declassified]
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Summary: The Department transmitted a report indicating that Haitian opposition figures were persisting in their plans to overthrow Duvalier even after an April 20 clash between security forces and coup plotters forced key conspirators to flee the country.
Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D760187–0287. Secret; Priority; Exdis. Drafted by Strasser, cleared by Yohn, Haddox, and Ortiz; approved by Luers. All brackets are in the original except those indicating text that remains classified. In telegram 1031 from Port-au-Prince, April 21, the Embassy reported on a firefight in the Carrefour district of the city that might have been connected to the reported assassination plot against Duvalier. (Ibid., D760151–0590) In telegram 1035 from Port-au-Prince, April 22, Isham informed the Department that in light of the possible link between the Carrefour incident and the reported coup plot, he had met with Duvalier on April 21 to convey the “gist of latest report on anti-GOH plotting.” (Ibid., D760152–1130) In telegrams 1065 and 1089 from Port-au-Prince, April 26 and 28, the Embassy reported that Haitian officials were playing down the firefight and did not appear to regard it as a serious incident. (Ibid., D760157–1030 and D760164–0193) According to a July 8 memorandum of conversation, journalist Jean Dominique told Isham that the shootout had been followed by the arrest of a number of middle-class Haitians and intellectuals. (Ibid., Central Files, 1970–1973, ARA/CAR, Lot 79D323, Memorandum of Conversation, 1976)
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