Haiti’s legislature makes communism a capital crime, unanimously

On 28 April 1969 Haiti’s legislature voted unanimously to classify communist activity as a crime against state security carrying the death penalty. Promoting Marxist or anarchist ideas was written into the offence, and those accused, along with anyone sheltering them, were to face military tribunals. Within days the law was applied without any trial at all: the semi-official Port-au-Prince paper Le Nouveau Monde reported on 3 May that police had surrounded a house, fired on it, and demolished it with people inside, killing thirty-five and taking four prisoner.