All Episodes

May 18, 2023 33 mins

A coup in Haiti empowers a new paramilitary squad, bold enough to face down the U.S. military. In Miami, the black book resurfaces – and the killings continue.

​​Available to all on May 18, 2023.

Like what you hear? Follow us @kscope_nyc on Twitter and Instagram.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Previously on silenced.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
We did anticipate somebody that close to us, we'll kill
one of us.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
It was just too much of a coincidence that they
were both radio broadcasters, that they had both expressed support
of Jean berchand Aristide.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
We're going to put somebody we know from us from
our whoop to become president of the country.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
Calls of congratulations from the US and other countries to
Father Jean bertman at a steade, a popular priest who
is the apparent winner of Haiti's first truly free election.

Speaker 5 (00:56):
That was an explosion of joy in the streets.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
The streets of capital for their prince.

Speaker 5 (01:02):
It's impossible to describe where people actually had seized the
time and they had decided that it was their time
to make their voices heard.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
When Jean bertrand Arristide was elected president in Haiti's first
ever free vote, it was a moment of immense hope
and possibility.

Speaker 5 (01:18):
A whole city, two million people in the streets.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Instrumental in making this moment happen was the first independent
radio station on the island, Radio Haiti. Michelle Montesse ran
it with her husband John Dominique.

Speaker 5 (01:33):
I was the news editor. In the newsroom. Jean was
about the opinion side of the station.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Michelle and John Dominique were the most famous voices on
air in Haiti, and they were a major inspiration with
the likes of Fritz Door and John Clare Olivier.

Speaker 5 (01:49):
Everyone wanted to be a journalist because being a journalist
meant acting for change, and this was the same thing
in a diaspora.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
This explosion of speech was a huge change from just
a few years under the Duvalier regime.

Speaker 5 (02:02):
We spent twenty nine years with what we call babuquet,
meaning the gag on our faces. We couldn't talk.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
By testing the limits of that gag, Radio Haiti became
a near constant target. They were shut down in nineteen
eighty under Baby Doc du Valier, but came back when
his regime fell. Radio Haiti was a lifeline that in
many ways could not be suppressed. I was told this
story about how in the nineteen sixties, Protestant missionaries handed
out battery powered radios to people in the countryside so

(02:32):
they could listen to sermons. The radios were locked to
the church's frequency, but people figured out how to hack
them to tune into Radio Haiti.

Speaker 5 (02:40):
Instead, people could not get answers from the government, never
gave them answers to their needs. And the radio station
where they heard people talk about their needs, they felt
that maybe we could be the people giving them solution.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Radio Haiti had made John Dominique very famous in Haiti.
He pioneered broadcasting news in Krale, the language that most
people spoke, and here Michelle were key players in the
democratic movement. So the successful democratic election was seen as
Michelle and John Dominique's victory as much as anyone else's.
The next day, people spontaneously began beautifying the city, repainting houses,

(03:20):
sweeping the streets. The military and the forces opposing Aristide
never went away but for a moment, and for the
first time, Michelle and John Dominique could report the news
without fear.

Speaker 5 (03:33):
People were speaking freely over the radio all over the place.
We had a chief freedom of the press.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
It was a powerful moment of hope, and John Dominique,
Michelle and Radio Haiti were at the center of it.
Once he took office in February of nineteen ninety one,
Aristide went about trying to defang.

Speaker 5 (03:53):
The military and other members of the army felt that
the army itself was in danger of losing any footholt.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
But they were biding their time for the right moment
to strike.

Speaker 5 (04:07):
We love Haiti and we are proud to love hate.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
On September twenty fifth, nineteen ninety one, Aristeed addressed the
UN General Assembly. We are citizen of the world, and
we are proud to.

Speaker 6 (04:21):
Be citizens of the world.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Just four days later, when it seemed like things in
Haiti were finally changing for the better, the military took
its chance.

Speaker 6 (04:30):
A military uprising is threatening Haiti's young democracy.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
On a moonlight night, army bases and police stations around
the country sent out messages that they were no longer
under Aristide's command. The military was in control now. The
coup had begun.

Speaker 7 (04:45):
It just happened.

Speaker 8 (04:46):
It just happened.

Speaker 5 (04:48):
We started seeing thanks out in the streets.

Speaker 6 (04:50):
To rebellious Haitian army troops took over the National Palace earlier,
at least twenty six people were killed as soldiers sprayed
gunfire around the capital.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Deed had lasted just eight months in office. From Kaleidoscope
and iHeart podcasts, this is Silenced, i'm os Vlocan.

Speaker 9 (05:10):
And i'm ana Arana. This is episode four.

Speaker 10 (05:15):
The squad.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
At the time of the coup, Jean Claud and Fritz
have been dead for six months. In Miami, the Black
Book still had names yet to be crossed off, and
the hunt for the real mastermind of this apparent campaign
of retribution was no closer to an answer. In fact,
the political waves were crashing back and forth between the

(06:09):
shores of Pudo Prince in Miami harder than ever. Our
reporting on the murders has led us again and again
back to the presidential palace in Haiti and the international
fight over who presided over the island nation during this time.
This was such a critical period in Haitian history, a
period that so many people point to as a watershed.

(06:30):
Had it gone just a bit differently, the entire trajectory
of the country could have been different. So to help
us understand what happened in Miami, we're going to devote
the majority of this episode unpacking the days and weeks
after Aristide was ripped from power. The day after the insurrection,
the army arrested Aristide, and shortly afterwards he was sent

(06:52):
into exile.

Speaker 4 (06:53):
Jean Berthran Aristide fled to Venezuela this morning less than
a week after, he proclaimed that the UN that democracy
had a stepdablished a stronghold in he he.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
The man leading the coup and who was now taking
power was General Raoul Cedras. Saedras was a senior military
officer from the Duvalier regime, and he was accused by
US officials, including an investigation by the DEA, of being
involved in smuggling Columbian cocaine. But when Aristi came to power,
he needed to make alliances, so he named Sadras commander

(07:24):
in chief of the army, and then months later Sadras
overthrew him.

Speaker 5 (07:29):
The right wing this supported the army, the supported the
Sidras taking over, ticking power in experiences.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
In a speech after the coup, Sadras promised, the armed
forces will respect constitutional order, guarantee democratic liberty and will
not condone any act of pillage. But the team at
Radio Haiti didn't believe a word.

Speaker 5 (07:56):
The same people who had been pulling the strings before
we were back in power.

Speaker 7 (08:02):
We did not believe it was happening.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
Michelle Montesse and John Dominique watched on in horror. Their
station was shut down. Like the rest of the islands.
Media state TV stations broadcast only test patterns. It was
back to the worst days of the old guy.

Speaker 5 (08:21):
After the overthrow of Agristide, and after Aristide left, they
came and shot at our house. So Joy and I
figured maybe we were not too safe staying.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Michelle and John Dominique started making plans to escape.

Speaker 5 (08:35):
We went to the airport under an assumed name, because
we knew that we were targets.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
Michelle says she and her husband boorded a plane headed
for the US, but minutes before takeoff, the plane went silent.

Speaker 5 (08:49):
Two immigration officers came up and said, you have to
come down because your papers are not right.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
They felt they had no choice but to be bundled
off the plane, and as they gathered their things and
started down the aisle, to their complete surprise, the other
passengers stood up and got off the plane too.

Speaker 5 (09:09):
They stood on the tarmac and they said they wouldn't go.

Speaker 7 (09:12):
We didn't go.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
People they didn't know at all, refusing to let the
plane take off without John and Michelle.

Speaker 5 (09:21):
You have to realize also what Ridio hate you represented
to do Hisitian public. They felt that they had to
protect us and to them to go on that plane
and do as if nothing had happened was the worst thing.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
They were questioned in the military office, but eventually they
were allowed to leave. Michelle and Jean narrowly escaped rest
and very likely worse. They made it to the US
just weeks after Aristide himself was forced from Haiti, but
there was a little comfort in their relief.

Speaker 5 (09:53):
It was a shock.

Speaker 7 (09:54):
It was a shock.

Speaker 9 (09:55):
The dream of a democratic Haiti was falling apart. Back
in Miami, the streets exploded with grief and anger.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
People set up I think a police cruiser on fire.
Businesses were looted.

Speaker 9 (10:10):
Harol Moss, the Miami Herald Reporter.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
There were people who broke into storefronts and throughout furniture
and through tires and an American flag and set them
on fire. In protests.

Speaker 9 (10:24):
People were shattered, and the situation back in Haiti was
about to get worse.

Speaker 11 (10:40):
I was there shortly after the coup. I had been
to Haiti before the coup and earlier military regimes in
Haiti after you left, and it was as bad as
I had ever seen it.

Speaker 9 (10:52):
Bill O'Neil arrived in Haiti to lead the uns legal department.
In the chaotic period after the coup.

Speaker 11 (10:59):
Our monitors were looking at human rights violations. They're looking
at extradicial killings, torture, forced to arrests, arbitrary detention, and
horrendous prison conditions.

Speaker 12 (11:09):
Human rights monitors say dozens of people, mostly Aristeed supporters,
have been murdered in recent months, and the man who
could stop that violence, General S. Dross, doesn't seem inclined
to do so.

Speaker 9 (11:20):
And wherever terror and violence went, this name kept coming up.

Speaker 11 (11:25):
FRAP frap Shrap.

Speaker 9 (11:27):
An acronym for the Front for the Advancement and Progress
of Haiti. But everyone knew what it really meant.

Speaker 11 (11:36):
They didn't pronounce the H and there was a reason
for that, because Frapp in French frappey smack somebody.

Speaker 9 (11:44):
They left a trail of terror in their wake.

Speaker 11 (11:46):
They just took their military uniforms off and went into
cities and then they would whirm around his Frap. This
is no secret how close frapp and the army were.
They were basically the same thing.

Speaker 9 (11:55):
As a reporter working in Latin America, I saw this
type of thing, often soldiers not wearing official uniforms committing atrocities.
It all flowed from the top. General Saidras and the
other coup leaders had FRAPP terrorizing their political opponents into silence.

Speaker 11 (12:14):
It's very common to these repressive regimes to basically create
a force that you say is not under your control,
and you're trying, but you can't do much about it.
And they're the ones doing all this bad stuff. It's
not us, it's these frap guys.

Speaker 9 (12:31):
But Haitians in exile understood the game that said Dras
was playing. Now that they were in the US, radio
journalist Michelle and John Dominique were demanding the restoration of
their democratically elected leader. So were the voices of AEO.
They called on the US government to do something about it.
The UN organized a summit, and on July fourth of

(12:55):
nineteen ninety three, after a week of negotiation, Said Dras
and Ori Steed struck a deal that became known as
the Governor's Island Accord.

Speaker 11 (13:04):
The Army of Haiti had promised they were going to
behave and no more your rights violations and Aristi you
can come back and you lift the sanctions.

Speaker 12 (13:11):
Haitian military commander Raoul Seedross signed an agreement calling for
him to resign October.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
Fifteenth, Haiti's military junta has agreed to the restoration of
democracy in that Caribbean nation. Aristeed could return to Haiti
by October thirtieth.

Speaker 9 (13:27):
Outside of Haiti, there was once again hope that the
popularly elected leader of the island would be restored. But
Bill and Neil, who still was in Port of Prince
he was not buying this.

Speaker 11 (13:41):
We begged that policymakers back in New York and Washington.
We told them, look, we know you have the agreement, wonderful, bravo,
but we don't think they're serious about it. Based on
this behavior we're seeing in Haiti and we're documenting it,
we're sending it to you each week, we think you
need to put more pressure on because the Haitian army

(14:02):
is not serious about holding up its end of the bargain.

Speaker 9 (14:05):
But the decision makers didn't listen to Bill or the
others on the ground. The US and Canada sent troops
to Haiti to prepare for our state's return. The first
group was on a Navy ship called the USS Harlan County.

Speaker 11 (14:17):
From my office, I could see the USS Harland County
sailed into Porter Prince Bay. I tell my secretary, oh, good,
here they come.

Speaker 9 (14:26):
But there was a problem. Just days before the USS
Harlan County was set to arrive in Haiti, two US
helicopters involved in a peacekeeping mission had been shot down
over Mogadishu, Somali rebels killed nineteen US Army rangers. Most
people will remember it as black Hawk down frapp.

Speaker 11 (14:49):
They weren't done because a week later, now this big
USS Harland County Navy ship is supposed to dock, importer
prints and unload two hundred US soldiers. I'll never forget
that morning. I'm the dock and porter prints. Are these
guys rap there? They are holding up handmade signs saying

(15:10):
we will make this another Moga dish, and boy, all
hell broke loose At that point.

Speaker 8 (15:21):
We were sent to secure the birthing where the ship
would dock and where the peacekeepers would unload.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
While Bill O'Neil was watching the scene at the port
from his office window, Louis Moreno was down on the
dock in the middle of the action.

Speaker 8 (15:37):
As soon as we arrived on the port, you know,
you could tell there was something wrong.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Louise is a career member of the US Foreign Service.
In nineteen ninety three, he was sent to Haiti as
a refugee coordinator. That day in October, he drove to
the fort with his colleague, Commander David Brunner.

Speaker 8 (15:54):
A lot of guys with machine guns who were drinking.
They asked me if I wanted to leave, and I
said no.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
From inside his car, Louise could see about one hundred
people shouting and causing chaos on the dock.

Speaker 8 (16:06):
And there is a young lady in a very short
scirt and high heels wheeling around this pistol like and
she was really inebriated, and she every once in a
while would pop off around.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
In the middle of the chaos was a man named
Emmanuel Constant Toto for short. He was the son of
Papadoc's army chief of staff, and as a child he'd
listened to his father and Papadock plotting late into the
night in his family home. Constant had followed in his
father's footsteps.

Speaker 8 (16:37):
Total. Constant was the head of frapp and he projected
this mystique of voodoo that a lot of the political
thugs and HATI.

Speaker 7 (16:46):
Like to do.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
Constan was known to hold voodoo ceremonies, which, of course,
in Haiti is a widespread religious practice. He was known
to lay on the ground surrounded by skulls and fire,
and then rise up from the flames. There were rumors
that the skulls belonged to his victims. In the eyes
of many Haitians, these rituals recalled the Duvalier regime and

(17:08):
the voodoo lord of death Baron Sammadi, who Pavadot openly
styled himself. On that day, Constan was dressed like a
Tonto macout.

Speaker 8 (17:20):
He wore a handkerchief and red I believe in the
back pocket and the sunglasses and the gold chain and
the whole thing, and the nine millimeter or whatever he
had strapped to his hip.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
Constant's thugs surrounded Luis's car with their guns drawn. The
USS Harlan County was in sight from the port, slowly approaching,
and then.

Speaker 8 (17:43):
They pointed the guns at our heads and said that
if the ship landed, that would be the end of
me and the Commander Brunner.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
The chaos on the dock was being broadcast around the
world live on TV.

Speaker 13 (17:57):
Thozans of armed men pounded on cars carrying US diplomats
and made up horn journalists waiting for the ship.

Speaker 11 (18:04):
Clinton and less Aspen Secretary Defense. They're seeing CNN back
in Washington, and they totally panic. And I remember seeing
the boat kind of do a U turn and I
told my secretary, I said, I'm just.

Speaker 7 (18:17):
Going to get more fuel. Don't worry.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
It was going, It was going going, going gone.

Speaker 11 (18:26):
So Frapp slash Haitian Army had just chased away the
world's superpower. You fifty sixty half drunk, half drug guys
on a dock just chased away the world's superpower.

Speaker 14 (18:39):
After an angry mob, it prevented the landing of some
two hundred US and Canadian troops sent to help retrain
Haiti's military and police force.

Speaker 11 (18:47):
The Haitian army and Frapp literally went crazy when the.

Speaker 8 (18:51):
Ship went back across the horizon. Everyone was shooting into
the year and celebrating like crazy.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
Louise was still in his car when the USS Hot
and County turned around.

Speaker 8 (19:02):
They were all distracted, they weren't pointing guns at us,
and I started the vehicle and I ran the car
through the gate and I made it back to the
embassy in one piece.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
Louise escaped, and at that point the US and the
UN decided they had to get all of that people out.
Bill O'Neil was given twenty four hours to evacuate.

Speaker 11 (19:20):
I'll never forget the drive down to the airport that
morning when we were leaving. There was nobody out. I
don't think we saw a soul until we got to
the airport and there's all military there and they're laughing
and they're celebrating because they know we're leaving.

Speaker 6 (19:34):
American troops that were floating off the coast of Haiti
are now gone, pulled back to America's base in Guantanamo, Cuba.

Speaker 11 (19:42):
At that point, the governor's island agreement had totally broken down.

Speaker 14 (19:45):
US officials insist the military mission to Haiti is not canceled,
but it's clear the process that was designed to pave
the way for the return of Aristide to power in
Haiti is now in shambles.

Speaker 9 (19:57):
But I received himself had that given up. After all,
there were nineteen days until the deadline for him to
be restored. He went on TV in Washington to demand
that the US enforced the agreement.

Speaker 5 (20:10):
We cannot let killers denying what the world said the
Foo disagreement. If we don't do that, what will happen to.

Speaker 11 (20:19):
The US refugees?

Speaker 7 (20:21):
What will happen to the Haitians death.

Speaker 9 (20:24):
And in Miami, radio broadcasters once again went into battle
on the airways, rallying support for our steed, but they
would have to deal with the fact that Frapp's reach
extended far beyond Haiti.

Speaker 13 (20:37):
I was already convinced after Fritz d'Or was killed that
this was political. But the truth of the matter is
four is too much to be a coincidence. It can't
be a coincidence. I had extensively covered death squad and

(21:03):
paramilitary groups, so yeah, it sensitizes you to what's going on.

Speaker 9 (21:09):
Thus, Larry wrote her the Miami correspondent for The New
York Times back in the nineteen nineties.

Speaker 13 (21:14):
Miami became an extension of San Salvador, of Port de Prince,
of all these places.

Speaker 9 (21:22):
Before coming to Miami, Larry had reported extensively on Latin America.
That's where I met him. In El Salvador is where
I cut my teeth as a foreign correspondent covering the
Civil War. Our experiences helped us understand what was going
on in Miami. When I first went to Al Salvadore,

(21:43):
liberation theology priests who were preaching in support of the
rights of the poor were being murdered. They preached very
similar messages to Father John just and our Steed. The
priests were often murdered by desk squads, paramilitary groups who
used terror to silence opponents, groups like FRAP, and shockingly,

(22:07):
Larry's reporting uncovered that FRAP was operating on US soil.

Speaker 13 (22:12):
My understanding was that the office in Miami, the office
in New York, the office in Boston, and the office
in Montreal didn't have a big sign out front that
said FRAPP. That it was more like the way the
Italian mafia operates. You know, there's always some athletic club
or social club where the guys go to hang out

(22:35):
behind storefronts.

Speaker 9 (22:37):
In Little Haiti, FRAP was plotting.

Speaker 13 (22:39):
Travel agencies, yeah, immigration offices, none of which would have
been obvious to someone from outside the community.

Speaker 9 (22:49):
There was a restaurant across the street from the driving
school where Fritz had his immigration office. It was called
a Neptune, and FRAP members were known to hang out there,
engage in illegal gambling, and make their presence known in
Little Haiti.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
When we were in Miami reporting, we tried to get
an understanding of how Frapp operated. There is there a
distinction between the old god Tonto mccoots and FRAPP, which
was acting as a pro military militia. When people talked
about these forces, what kind of distinctions did they make?
In particular, we were interested in this question because, according
to police Louis Thermatus, the record store owner and a

(23:27):
person of interest in the murder cases, was known to
many as a Tonton mccoot. So anna do you view
that as a shorthand for Frapp.

Speaker 9 (23:35):
Well, you know, all these groups seem to have informal ties,
so it's incredibly hard to say with certainty who was
a member of what group. Yeah, it's not like these
guys were running around with an id hanging from their neck.
In the end, the term Canton maccoot came to be
shorthand for anyone who was anti iristeed and pro military.

(23:56):
The bigger picture to keep in mind here is that
the presence of the mccouot and Frapp in Miami served
a very particular purpose.

Speaker 13 (24:05):
Which was to say to the people in Miami, don't
get involved in this, don't get involved in the negotiations,
don't speak too much to the press, don't give money
to the opposition. Just stay in your corner.

Speaker 9 (24:28):
And this was exactly the message that the murders of
John Claude and Fritz had sent. But Vello was continuing
to fight for ari Estein's return, and that could be
a death sentence.

Speaker 15 (24:42):
He was a very very nice guy.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
Oh, very sweet guy. I don't know why somebody would
think of getting him, because he was nice to everybody.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
This is Tony again, Fritz's co host on the radio.
He's talking about his friend donnah Complete. Donna was a
member of AO two and he hosted his own radio program,
a Sunday call in show. Donna had been rattled by
Fritz's murder, and ever since he'd taken precautions.

Speaker 15 (25:13):
He always after for his pair. He always walked with
a gun. He say, I'm not going to die away
for his die. I always repeat that every day. I'm
going to shoot someoney. I'm kill somebody before somebody killed me.
But that Sunday he didn't have that gun with him.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
I don't know what happened that Sunday, October twenty fourth,
nineteen ninety three, Donna devoted his show to the Governor's
Island Accord demanding that Aristi'd be returned the following week.
By October thirtieth, as agreed. See. The deadline for Oisea's
return was just a week away, and Donna didn't want
US policymakers to forget it. Despite the failure of the

(25:50):
USS Harlan County. After his show, Donna had evening plans.
He'd organized a benefit concert for Fritz DAW's children, but
during a program, he received a call into the show
warning him not to go to the concert that night.
The caller said if he attended, he'd be shot, but

(26:12):
donnad did go. It was held in a high school
auditorium in Little Haiti, and Tony was there too.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
I think as a concert started he went outside thro
his card to get something.

Speaker 7 (26:28):
Next thing I know you got chat.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
At nine forty pm, minutes after leaving the auditorium, donosan
Pleete was shot multiple times. Like Fritz, he was taken
to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he died of his wounds.
Tony had lost another brother in arms in eerily similar circumstances.
Donald was forty one years old and left a wife

(26:52):
and six children behind. Less than five months later, another
they YO member named Daniel Baron was gunned down in Miami,
the fourth pro democracy broadcaster to be killed. To Tony,
the message was clear, be quiet. Aristeid is not coming
back to power.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
We were kind of powerless because we didn't have a lawyer.
We now have the police cloud, we get the money.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
The members of AO were exhausted. They've been demonstrating to
return Aristeed to power for months, but in Haiti the
death toll was much higher.

Speaker 13 (27:31):
It's definitely psychological warfare. It's saying to people, this is
the price you will pay if we determine that you're
making too much trouble.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
So Ana, As far as I understand, it was really
after the murder of donaldsan Plete, the third murder, that
you started working on these cases in ernest and decided
to put it into the report that you were working
on for the CPJ, the Committee to protect your analysts.
What made you so short at the time that these
crimes were connected?

Speaker 9 (28:05):
For one thing, the black book surfaced again, that hit
list with names of VEEO members. The version I saw
had an extra inscription, make Oristiede pay long live the army.
These people must be shot before or on October thirtieth.

(28:26):
In Miami and in Haiti. October thirtieth was the deadline
for Aristi's return to power. With Donuts killing, the pattern
was undeniable. Pro democracy broadcasters who spoke out against the
military regime were being gone down at moments when the
political tension was highest, first in the lead up to

(28:49):
the election and then just before the deadline for our
Steed to return.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
And it was just after the murder of donosent Plete
that even some police officers started to acknowledge a pattern.

Speaker 7 (29:01):
They were all friends, they were all connected through the
same political party, and they were preaching some of the
same things.

Speaker 9 (29:08):
Irvins Ford, the Miami police investigator, was sure after Donu's
death that the killings were political.

Speaker 7 (29:17):
If you asked me, it's all connected. The motive was
the same.

Speaker 1 (29:20):
The vey Yo broadcasters were cooling out the military and
the drug trafficking that propped up that power.

Speaker 7 (29:26):
And at some point these radio personalities that listen, these
guys are not creating chaos a bit for political reason.
They're creating chaos as a means to keep the coast
guard occupied.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
As long as Haiti was in shambles, the drug trade
could flourish.

Speaker 7 (29:44):
If you're looking for refugees. You know, we don't have
time to be looking for drugs, and when there was
a threat of having that expose, I think there was
a lot of panic.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
Would it be fair to say that there was basically
a sort of silence civil war in Haiti that nobody
really understood, and that they were victims of that on
the streets of Miami.

Speaker 7 (30:05):
Absolutely, that's the best way I would describe it.

Speaker 9 (30:07):
But a political motive was difficult to prove.

Speaker 7 (30:10):
You have to remember the Haitian government. Instead of getting
assistance from them, a lot of them were involved in
all this, so you couldn't rely on them for any
kind of resources or information that would be crucial to
the investigation. So we were left stranded. We were literally
on our own trying to figure out a murder that

(30:33):
the motive initiated from across the water.

Speaker 9 (30:38):
Not everyone on the Miami police force saw the bigger picture.

Speaker 13 (30:41):
They couldn't get the Dade County police to believe that
there was a death squad, or maybe that's going too far,
to believe that there were organized hits taking place for
political reasons. There's all these other pressures that frankly, I

(31:05):
think some of the you know, whitebread American lawyers and
police didn't appreciate. They just had no awareness of it,
and when they were presented with the evidence, they couldn't
digest it.

Speaker 9 (31:22):
Clearly, law enforcement was divided on how to investigate the murders,
and none of the investigations led beyond a trigger man,
never led to the intellectual authors of the crime.

Speaker 8 (31:37):
The US Special Envoy met with military leader General.

Speaker 6 (31:40):
Raoul Sadras, who was scheduled to resign today, but there's
still no indication he will step down.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
October thirtieth came and went.

Speaker 4 (31:47):
The generals who currently run Haiti will not step aside.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Aristide was not returned to Haiti. The military remained in control,
and Fret became more emboldened. Next time. Something else was
going on behind the scenes. Could the CIA have something
to do with this secret civil war?

Speaker 4 (32:11):
For the CIA finance the Haitian paramilitary units that have
been giving American forces and Haitians such a difficult time.

Speaker 7 (32:19):
This is not some sort of Haitian imagination. This was
very real.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
Rumors swirled in little Haiti that the CIA knew about
the radio murders before they happened.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
There was also a widespread assumption that the US through
the CIA was part of it, or at least gave
the green light.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
That's next Time Silenced is a Kaleidoscope Content original produced
by Margaret Catcher, Geninni and Padmini Rugunov. The research assistance
from Sybilla Phipps, Jeremy big Wood and Kira Sinnis. Edited
by Lacy Roberts, Executive produced by Kate Osborne, reported and

(33:07):
hosted by Anna Arana and me Oz Valoshan. Fact checking
by Nicole Pasulka, music by Oliver Rodigan aka k Denza,
Mix and sound design by Kyle Murdoch. Thanks to a Mangosha,
Tikta Costaslinas and viny Shuri. Our executive producers at iHeart
are Katrina Novel and Nikki Etoor. If you like what

(33:30):
you hear, please rate, review, share, and subscribe to our channel.
Thank you,

Hit Man News

Advertise With Us

Follow Us On

Host

Jasmyn Morris

Jasmyn Morris

Show Links

About

Popular Podcasts

1. On Purpose with Jay Shetty

1. On Purpose with Jay Shetty

I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

2. 24/7 News: The Latest

2. 24/7 News: The Latest

Today’s Latest News In 4 Minutes. Updated Hourly.

3. The Joe Rogan Experience

3. The Joe Rogan Experience

The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2024 iHeartMedia, Inc.