Istwa Nou

With his wife and children safe in the Argentine embassy, Clement Barbot took the field alone. He ambushed militiamen and soldiers and killed them in tens. He knew the telephone system well enough to open a line to the president's private white handset, and used it to warn Duvalier that his coffee had been poisoned; the reply was that Barbot would bring him his own head. He raided Fort Dimanche and emptied the armoury. When pursuers found his hiding place at Martissant they took a weapons cache and saw a black dog leave in the dark, which confirmed for many Haitians that he could change shape whenever he chose. An order went out to shoot black dogs on sight. Barbot's answer was to leave a note on the president's desk inside the palace. On 14 July, low on ammunition and betrayed by a peasant, he and his brother were surrounded in a cane field at Cazeau. The soldiers set the cane alight and shot them as they came out.