1991-01-06: (Roger Lafontant Launches a Coup and Takes Pascal-Trouillot Hostage, the Former Tonton Macoute Leader Attempting to Prevent Aristide’s Inaugurati…
1991-01-06: (Roger Lafontant Launches a Coup and Takes Pascal-Trouillot Hostage, the Former Tonton Macoute Leader Attempting to Prevent Aristide’s Inauguration, the Coup Foiled by the Army Within Twenty-Four Hours): On January 6, 1991, Roger Lafontant, a former Tonton Macoute leader, launched a coup attempt and took provisional president Pascal-Trouillot hostage in the National Palace. Lafontant was attempting to prevent Aristide’s inauguration. The army, calculating that restoring a Macoute to power would provoke uncontrollable popular violence, foiled the coup within twenty-four hours. Lafontant was arrested. The episode demonstrated that while the Duvalierist forces had been driven from formal power, they had not been eliminated, and they would resist any government that threatened to hold them accountable for their crimes.