THE HAITIAN GOVERNMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85-00671R000300070007-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 1998
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: January 22, 1969
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Remise 2d9/44 :
25X1A9a 22 January, 1969.
A. Political:
1. President Duvalier IS the Government of Haiti not only in the
Presidential Palace but in the smallest sub-district as well. All
appointees are his, be they civil, military or legislative, appointed
or "elected". It works like this:
a. There are eight Departments - North, Northwest, Center,
Artibonite, West, South and two special Depts. within the Port au
Prince Dept. created by Duvalier to control the Palace Guard and
the Army unit stationed there. The Chief of Staff of the Army has
no command function over these units. They are directly responsible
to the President and take orders only from him.
b. In each of the six legitimate Depts. there is a Prefect,
unpaid by the Government, who controls all civil affairs. He gets
his money through diverse schemes such as having the sole right to
sell tobacco in his area or being able to tax bars, etc. He has
assorted office help.
a. Each Dept. is divided into Districts or Sections, some
have four, others nine. A sub-Prefect controls each with a small
staff. He is also unpaid and earns his keep by various means.
d. Each Section is split into sub-Sections, two or more, with
a Chef de Section at its head. This is the smallest political
entity and can comprise anywhere from twenty fami-Vhovels to 1,000
people. He too, makes his own salary, usually by head tax or market
place squeeze.
2. In no case is the responsible administrator particularly
qualified for his job. He is there at the whim of Duvalier. He can
be replaced tomorrow and returned to office next week. As a result,
each is interested entirely in his own welfare and pocketbook to the
exclusion of trying to organize a competent, productive political area.
(MEE)
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H. Military and Police{
1. A11 uniformed troops belong to the Forces Armees d'Haiti (FAdH).
These include: The Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Police, Prison
Guards and Fire Departments. Personnel are inter-changeable and in
the lower commissioned and non-commissioned ranks, there doesn't seem
to be much interest in which service they are.
a. Each Dept. has a military or police Commandant with the
usual staff and troops. The Commandant is usually a colonel.
b. Each Section has a military or police sub-Commandant with
appropriate personnel.
c. Each sub-Section is staffed by the rural police headed by
a junior officer or senior non-com.
C. The Ton-Ton Macoute: Real name: Volunteers for National Security VSN.
1. These thugs are distributed throughout Depts., Sections and
sub-Sections in about the same proportion as the civilian and police
authorities.
2. They are personally responsible to the President and are above
the law. They have no regular TO&E and the local head of this TTM in
any given area is, like his civilian and military/police colleagues,
put there by the President. In short, the entire governmental system
is sketchy, loose and very flexible,
D. Communications:
1. These three entities, civil, military/police and TTM, each
responsible to its own superior, work very closely together. Contact
from superior to subordinate and vice-versa is as often as either
cares to make it, in person, by telephone, by radio, by courier or by
mail. Each uses his own or his counterpart's communication equipment
interchangeably.
2. If the President wants to know something about a certain area,
the civil administrator and his military/police colleague jeep to Port
au Prince with the TTM representative riding shotgun in the back seat.
3. Since the Single Side Band radio gear used throughout the
country is on the same frequency, communications can and do become
chaotic. Word of mouth is often faster.
(MORE)
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E. Conclusions and Recommendations:
1. Nothing gets done without the consent of Duvalier# even at
the lowest political, military or police level. This includes such
minutiae as Presidential approval before an Army recruit can take
leave.
2. If, as reported, Duvalier is interested in setting up a civic
action program, there is a great opportunity to use the sub-Section
heads as more than political hangers-on and grifters. After sufficient
training in any needed speciality - peanut growing, hog breeding or
what have you - they can become valuable assets to their communities.
This is particularly true since many of the better families have
devoted their lives to agriculture. By better families is meant those
with enough money and drive to get university training.
3. Brains for this soft of activity * snot lacking in Haiti.
But approval and support must first come from Duvalier. No other
man's say so is valid.
25X1A9a
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