“Thirty-six years later, with ballot in hand, we remember these brave murdered voters, 36 years later the wound is still open and the memories are alive,” the president said during the ceremony.
Henry assured that nothing could erase this cruel evil that sought to stop the momentum of the Haitian people in the fulfillment of their civic duties and reiterated that, three decades later, the people’s thoughts are with the brothers and sisters who tragically died on that day lost their lives and loved ones who are still affected by their loss.
On November 29, 1987, Haiti prepared for its first elections after nearly three decades of autocratic regime led by François and Jean Claude Duvalier, which left more than 30,000 dead and hundreds of thousands displaced from 1957 to 1986.
At the Ruelle Vaillant polling station (Ecole Argentine Bellegarde) in this capital, almost 20 voters were murdered and the wave of terror spread to other districts, including Aritibonite.
At this time, the Caribbean state was under the military government of Henry Namphy, who maintained a heavy-handed regime and repression of dissidents. The period that lasted until February 1988 was known as Duvalierism without Duvalier.
Experts agree that Ruelle Vaillant’s “slaughter” ushered in the era of massacres against the Haitian people to stifle their popular hopes for real change in the status quo.
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