#989: An extract from Century of the Wind (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Guy Antoine <GuyAntoine@windowsonhaiti.com>

>From Eduardo Galeano's Century of the Wind

1937: Dajabón
Procedure Against the Black Menace

The condemned are Haitian blacks who work in the Dominican Republic. This
military exorcism, planned to the last detail by General Trujillo, lasts a
day and a half. In the sugar region, the soldiers shut up Haitian
day-laborers in corrals--herds of men, women, and children--and finish them
off then and there with machetes; or bind their hands and feet and drive
them at bayonet point into the sea.

Trujillo, who powders his face several times a day, wants the Dominican
Republic white.

1937: Washington
Two weeks later, the government of Haiti conveys to the government of the
Dominican Republic its concern about the recent events at the border. The
government of the Dominican Republic promises an exhaustive investigation.

In the name of continental security, the government of the United States
proposes to President Trujillo that he pay an indemnity to avoid possible
friction in the zone. After prolonged negotiation Trujillo recognizes the
death of eighteen thousand Haitians on Dominican territory. According to
him, the figure of twenty-five thousand victims, put forward by some
sources, reflects the intention to manipulate the events dishonestly.
Trujillo agrees to pay the government of Haiti, by way of indemnity,
$522,000, or twenty-nine dollars for every offically recognized death.

The White House congratulates itself on an agreement reached within the
framework of established inter-American treaties and procedures. Secretary
of State Cordell Hull declares in Washington that President Trujillo is one
of the greatest men in Central America and in most of South America.

The indemnity duly paid in cash, the presidents of the Dominican Republic
and Haiti embrace each other at the border.


End of quote

Guy S. Antoine
Look thru & Imagine!
http://windowsonhaiti.com