Luckner Cambronne

Luckner J. Cambronne (born October 23, 1930 in Arcahaie , Haiti ; † September 24, 2006 in Miami , Florida ) was at the time of the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti a member of parliament, interior minister and special envoy of both "Papa Doc" François Duvalier and his own Son "Baby Doc" Jean-Claude Duvalier .

Cambronne was in particular the commander-in-chief of the domestic secret service MVSN, better known under the name “ Tontons Macoutes ”, notorious for its acts of violence : an emblematic figure of the bloody regime of “Papa Doc” Duvalier, who for many years was the right hand man and second personification of terror was noticed in Haiti.

Political rise

Cambronne began his political career in the 1960s as a member of parliament for the town of Cabaret in the north of Port-au-Prince , then became minister for public works (minister of construction), minister of interior and defense , then became a horror during the first years of the Duvalier dictatorship Eminence of the regime.

As the successor to Clément Barbot , the dictator's favorite was chosen to be responsible for the constitutional revision of 1964. This was later to allow the 19-year-old son Jean-Claude Duvalier of the dictator, who officially died of a stroke, to fill the power vacuum.

In their work entitled “Haiti, ten years of secret history”, the French Nicolas Jallot and Laurent Lesage describe the Cambronne declaration by which he tried to legitimize the political statute that Francois Duvalier left his heirs as “natural”: “This choice is sensible, given the highest qualities of heart and mind possessed by the heir who lived in the immediate vicinity of his famous father for fourteen years, years during which he passed trials and victories with the president of the revolution. "

Change of power to the son "Baby Doc"

Cambronne, together with General Claude Raymond , head of the Forces Armées d'Haïti , was the key to the transfer of power after the death of Papa Doc. Luckner Cambronne became the young president's lifelong special advisor and mentor in politics. In order to stimulate the pleasure-loving young “Baby Doc” to take on certain responsibilities at the beginning, Cambronne had decided to “allow him some relaxation” by giving the strategic post of special secretary to the President of his ex-comrade in the class at the military school of St-Louis de Gonzague and good friend Claude-Auguste Douyon , a man who was a well-known dandy under the name "Ti Pouche Douyon". The British journalist Bernard Diederich , witness of the leaden years under Duvalier, underlines in Volume I of the book "The Price of Blood" that Luckner Cambronne was one of the most influential men in the regime.

Participation in mass murders

In 1964, while thousands of opponents disappeared, Cambronne held the public works office alongside other cabinet members such as Clovis Désinor (finance), Hervé Boyer (trade), René Chalmers (foreign affairs) and Adrien Raymond (state secretary in the same ministry) inside.

Diederich, whose writings were translated into French by the intellectual and passionate human rights defender, Jean-Claude Bajeux , also noted Cambronne's bloody role in the Duvalier regime's efforts to tame the guerrillas . These events were triggered in 1969 at Cazale , near Cabaret, by rural and intellectual leaders of the United Party of Haitian Communists ( PUCH ) and the Party of the People's Agreement (PEP) such as Jérémie Eliazer, Alix Lamaute, Roger Méhu and Gérald Brisson.

The latter's wife, Jacqueline Volel Brisson, Dr. Adrien Sansaricq and other militants organized the resistance against Port-au-Prince at the same time. Cambronne personally directed the operations that resulted in numerous arbitrary arrests and mass executions .

On page 359 the author reports about this "end of March": Rassoul Labuchin had been arrested. Monique Brisson and her three-week-old daughter were placed under house arrest. Monique Brisson was interrogated for three days in the Dessalines barracks by Colonel Bretonees Claude and Luckner Cambronne. “They wanted information about Gérald Brisson, about contacts that I would have had with him. But I told them the simple truth that I have not seen Gérald in Paris since 1966, ”said Mrs Brisson.

In 1961, when Duvalier, in his megalomaniac delirium, initiated the construction project of the vast city of “Duvalier-Ville” (Cabaret), he entrusted the collection of the financial means necessary for the course of the work to his most important collaborator, Cambronne.

National bankruptcy

As part of what was called "the movement of national renewal" at the time, he imposed wage deductions on state officials and directly threatened those who wanted to resist: "A good Duvaliérist is ready to kill his children for this, and the children are ready to to kill their parents and family members for this ”, said an overjoyed Luckner Cambronne from the speaker's platform of the Chamber of Deputies. This is what it says in the book “Never, never more”, a book by the Center for Research, Economic and Social Education for Development (CRESFED), published in 2000 under the direction of Professor Gérard Stein-Charles. Cambronne was essentially involved in this notorious machinery of oppression, along with Claude Breton, Luc Désir, Edner Day, Zacharie Delva, Albert Pierre alias Ti Boulé, etc.

The sinister Luckner Cambronne also played a major role in the dark affair of the blood bank , which had caused the deaths of numerous Haitians from the disadvantaged classes and raised a lot of money for those in power in the Duvalier regime.

The "Black Blood Bank" was created with the help of André Labay, an entrepreneur, cinema producer and French mafioso who had already done around 400 businesses in Yemen, Lebanon and Africa. Shortly after his arrival in Haiti, he became acquainted with Duvalier and even became a lover of his older daughter Marie-Denise.

Cambronne was the preferred mediator in several secret transactions between Haiti, the United States and Greece, and he was in charge of issuing 50,000 gold postage stamps bearing the portrait of the Haitian dictator. The mercenary Labay was Cambronne's business partner in this famous laboratory, which was built in the center of Port-au-Prince . The laboratory bought a liter of blood plasma from Haitians for fifteen guineas (three US dollars at the exchange rate at the time). The product was exported to the United States, Germany and Sweden where it was used in hospitals. This blood scandal and other ambiguous activities led Jean-Claude Duvalier to fire Luckner Cambronne. Disgraced and forced into exile, Cambronne's political star in Haiti faded.

Luckner J. Cambronne died at South Kendall Hospital in Miami at the age of 77 after a long illness, the Haitian website Pikliz.com reported.

swell

• Radio Kiskeya, September 26, 2006
• Nicolas Jallot, Laurent Lesage: Haiti, ten years of secret history
• Bernard Diederich: The price of the blood. Vol. 1