Fort Dimanche
Monument and prison in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
title: "Fort Dimanche" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["prisons-in-haiti", "forts-in-haiti", "defunct-prisons"] description: "Monument and prison in Port-au-Prince, Haiti" topic_path: "general/prisons-in-haiti" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Dimanche" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Monument and prison in Port-au-Prince, Haiti ::
Fort Dimanche is a fortress and former prison in Haiti located near La Saline in Port-au-Prince that was notorious for torture and murder during the reign of François Duvalier. It was declared a monument in 1987.
The original Fort Dimanche was built by the French when Haiti was a colony prior to 1804 and fell into disrepair. It became a military facility built by the US Marines in the 1920s during the American occupation of Haiti. Already prior to Duvalier it may have been used for the handling of political prisoners. During the reign of Duvalier he and his Tonton Macoutes used the facility as an interrogation center and prison to incarcerate, torture, and murder political opponents. Also people who tried to escape from the island and were caught were brought to Fort Dimanche. His son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, continued to use it as an instrument of terror.
Crammed into tiny cells, three by three by four feet, It has been estimated that about 3,000 inmates died.
When Lieut. Gen. Raoul Cédras led a military coup against Jean-Bertrand Aristide in September 1991, Fort Dimanche was turned temporarily into an armory.
Books
- Lemoine, Patrick, Fort-Dimanche, Dungeon of Death (October 1977)
References
References
- Bragg. (1 October 1994). "MISSION TO HAITI: THE TROOPS; The Auschwitz of Haiti for 3 Decades Gives Up the Secrets of its Dark Past". [[The New York Times]].
- Alex von Tunzelmann. "[[Red Heat. Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean]]". Henry Holt and Co., 2011.
- Kat. "Haiti History 101: Fort Dimanche Prison".
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