The “Parsley” massacre ( Spanish: Masacre del Perejil ) is the massacre of people of Haitian descent ( blacks ) carried out in the Dominican Republic in October 1937 in the region along the Rio Dahabon border river on the orders of dictator Rafael Trujillo .
Content
Background
There are several reasons for what happened. First, Trujillo, in order to strengthen his power, encouraged a nationalistic policy of "Dominicanization" and type of racial segregation prevalent among Hispanic, predominantly white Dominicans against French-speaking, mostly Negroid Haitians. In addition, Trujillo was unable to subjugate neighboring Haiti, which pursued an independent policy regarding Santo Domingo, to its political influence. Anticipating possible complications in relations with Haiti, the dictator feared unrest among Haitian migrant workers who had settled and worked for decades on sugarcane plantations in the country's border agricultural provinces.
Massacre
The massacre began on October 2, 1937 by the forces of the police, army and paramilitary death squads of Trujillo and lasted until October 8.
It got the name “parsley” as a result of the “experiment” conducted by the killers to determine the origin of a possible victim: she was forced to pronounce the word “ shibboleth” . perejil ( parsley ); due to the peculiarities of pronunciation, the French-Creole-speaking Haitians pronounce in it “l” instead of “p” in the second syllable (as Dominicans do). Those who spoke incorrectly, the soldiers chopped off the head of the machete.
The number of victims is officially estimated at 20 thousand people, and according to various estimates varies from 17 to 37 thousand.
Compensation
When the international community became aware of the mass executions of Haitians, Trujillo was forced to negotiate with Haitian President Stenio Vincent through the mediation of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and pay the Haitian government (but not the relatives of the victims) compensation of 525 thousand US dollars (out of 750 thousand, which he was awarded) - at the rate of about $ 30 per head. Due to the corruption prevailing in the Haitian authorities, the compensation actually paid to the relatives of the victims amounted to 2 cents per person.