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When
was the Fort-Dimanche Barracks build?
It
is believed that Fort Dimanche was built
during the first U.S. occupation
of Haiti in 1915 –1934, by the
American Marine Corps, who used it strictly
as a shooting range for the training of
military personnel until 1934.
And
then…Thereafter,
the Haitian governments secretly used the
Fort to house a few political prisoners
while the range for military training continued
at the site. For example,it is believed
that this is where Daniel Fignolé,
the provisional president who was forced
to resign after 19 days in power in 1957,
was kept prisoner. The massacre of his supporters
who went to look for him there on that day
suggests that notion.
(See FD page 169).
The
Duvalier Era…
When
Duvalier senior rose to power, the
fort was still used as a military shooting
range but it soon became the headquarters
and training center of Duvalier's militia.
Within
a short period of time, Fort-Dimanche became
mainly an interrogation post and
a center of torture. The
buildings that housed the militia's offices
and the political prisoners were built in
the early 1960s.
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