May 20, 1964.

May 20, 1968- At around 7:00 a.m. A B-25 aircraft took off from Ignace Island Airport towards Haiti. This bomber purchased by the “Haitian Coalition” one of the opposition group to Duvalier’s regime based in New York, had on board 10 bombs to be dropped over strategic military points in Haiti. The B-25, a few hours later, dropped as planned 5 bombs over the National Place, but none of the bombs exploded. The Aircraft continued towards Bowen Field, the military airport, a few miles away and dropped another bomb, which again did not explode. The airplane went back to the Bahamas, leaving nevertheless a general panic in Port-au-Prince and forcing school and businesses to close. The Radio station interrupted their regular program. The state of siege was declared and a curfew set for sunset paralyzed Port au Prince.

At around 10:00 a.m., a DC-3 took off from the same Airport with a commando of 30, half of the Haitian cohort that has been in an extensive military training for the last couple months in Freeport Bahamas. The rest of the group stayed behind in the vicinity of the Airport waiting to be picked up later during the day. The DC-3 landed in Cap Haitian, dropped his cargo and went back to the airport of origin.

At around 3 o’clock, the B-25, the DC-3 and a Cessna were getting ready to take off for the second phase of the operation. The DC-3 parked by the runway, waiting for the combatants left earlier that morning to get on board. The twenty minutes cut off time went by and, as no one showed up, the person in charge of the operation decided to leave without them.

The Cessna landed first in Cap Haitian’s Airport, followed by the DC-3 and the B-25. One historical account reports that the order to the commando to go ahead with their plan of attack was never given. The members of the commando abandoned the airport having in mind to seek refuge into the Dominican Republic.

Another account, reported that the order was given and the combats started right after the Cessna landed, to the extent that the B-25 took off and dropped another bomb over Cap Haitian, but again that bomb did not explode. But one thing for sure, the invasion was a total failure, and gave greater incentive to Duvalier to extend his wave of terror towards the whole area. Many innocent victims lost their lives. The members of the commando were hunted down by Duvalier’s troops; some of them were killed, and several heads were brought in buckets to Duvalier in the National Palace. A few were arrested, tortured and imprisoned for years; such was the case of Herns Renoit. Several escaped and blended into the population without harm. In his book published in 2004 “ Memoires d”un Revolutionnaire” Raymond Cassagnol testified that he lifted the Cessna at the order of the two commandants in charge of the operation, 3 hours after the combats with the Duvalier troupes started.

The B-25 which stayed behind was flown to Port au Prince Airport weeks later at the order of Francois Duvalier, who personally went to the Airport to oversee the operation. The B-25 was left parked for years by the taxi way leading to the “Mais Gate” International Terminal.

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In May 1987.- after months of discusion, more than 50 survivors of the Duvaliers regime signed the by-laws of an organization called "Pa Blié" for the purpose of documenting the atrocities of the Duvalier regime. Their slogan "Bay kou blie, pote mak songe" characterized their threefold mission of:

1. Establishing a museum;
2. Developing a park where each tree would be dedicated to a specific victim; and,
3. Enact into law April 26 as the " Haitian Anti-Repression Day."

"Pa blie" collected hundreds of historical photographs and artifacts related to this repressive era and shared them with the public at several exhibits. This movement has been silent in recent past and unfortuna-tely no apparent effort is being made to give the victims their earned legacy.