Parsley massacre

The Parsley massacre (Spanish: el corte "the cutting";[5] Creole: kout kouto-a "the stabbing"[6]) (French: Massacre du Persil; Spanish: Masacre del Perejil; Haitian Creole: Masak nan Pèsil) was a mass killing of Haitians living in illegal settlements[7] and occupied land in the Dominican Republic's northwestern frontier and in certain parts of the contiguous Cibao region in October 1937.

Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, a strong proponent of anti-Haitianism, made his intentions towards the Haitian community clear in a short speech he gave on 2 October 1937 during a celebration in his honor in the province of Dajabón.

To the Dominicans who were complaining of the depredations by Haitians living among them, thefts of cattle, provisions, fruits, etc., and were thus prevented from enjoying in peace the products of their labor, I have responded, 'I will fix this.'

[15][16] Dominican troops beheaded thousands of Haitians, and took others to the port of Montecristi, where they were thrown into the Atlantic Ocean to drown with their hands and feet bound, some with wounds inflicted by the soldiers in order to attract sharks.

[17] Survivors who managed to cross the border and return to Haiti told stories of family members being hacked with machetes and strangled by the soldiers, and children bashed against rocks and tree trunks.

[20][page needed] The Dominican Republic, formerly the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo, is the eastern portion of the island of Hispaniola and it occupies five-eighths of the land with a population of ten million inhabitants.

[24] Due to inadequate roadways which connect the borderlands to major cities, "Communication with Dominican markets was so limited that the small commercial surplus of the frontier slowly moved toward Haiti.

"[25] Furthermore, the Dominican government saw the loose borderlands as a liability in terms of possible formation of revolutionary groups that could flee across the border with ease, while at the same time amassing weapons and followers.

[26] At first the Haitian president Sténio Vincent prohibited any discussion of the massacre and issued a statement on 15 October: "...it is declared that the good relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic have not suffered any damage."

Additionally, after 1937, quotas restricted the number of Haitians permitted to enter the Dominican Republic, and a strict and often discriminatory border policy was enacted.

[32] The popular name[33] for the massacre came from the shibboleth that Trujillo reportedly had his soldiers apply to determine whether or not those living on the border were native Afro-Dominicans or immigrant Afro-Haitians.

The term parsley massacre was used frequently in the English-speaking media 75 years after the event, but most scholars recognize that it is a misconception, as research by Lauren Derby shows that the explanation is based more on myth than on personal accounts.

Furthermore, many bodies were either disposed of in the sea, where they were consumed by sharks, or buried in mass graves, where acidic soil degraded them, leaving nothing for forensic investigators to exhume.