24 May to 22 August 1959 · Haitianspan
A Cuban platoon lands at Les Irois and is hunted for ten days
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Duvalier's heart stopped on 24 May 1959. A misdiagnosis by his own doctor left him in shock and coma for nine hours, and he could not work until midsummer. Barbot governed with a hard hand and returned the country when the president could lift his head in July. Meanwhile the bombings reached a level never seen before or since. Seventeen people were killed or hurt by a bomb on the Casino dance floor on 15 June. The interior minister survived an attempt on his life. Forty two were injured on 26 July during the feast of St Anne. Empty fuel drums were rolled onto the airfield every evening to stop uninvited aircraft. On the night of 12 August a boat out of Baracoa in Cuba stopped a sailing vessel off Cap des Irois and put thirty Cuban soldiers aboard under Henri d'Anton, a French Algerian who had married into the Dejoie family and fought for Castro in the Escambray. They landed at dawn, scattered a four man post, took guides from the village and climbed into the southern massif. It was finished by 22 August.
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