Roger Lafontant Roger Lafontant Roger Lafontant (1931–September 29, 1991) was the former leader of the Tonton Macoutes and the former Minister of dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier. He was the leader of an attempted coup d'état on January 1991, in Haiti, an effort which ultimately lead to his death. As a student studying to become a gynecologist, he founded the student branch of the Tontons Macoutes, which supported dictatorship under President François Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude Duvalier. In November 1972, he became Minister of the Interior and National Defense Jean-Claude Duvalier was then rejected because of his personal ambitions. Lafontant was then sent
Jean-Claude Duvalier easing press censorship. However, there were no substantive changes to the regime's basic character. Opposition was not tolerated, and the legislature remained a rubber stamp. Much of the Duvaliers' wealth came from the Régie du Tabac (Tobacco Administration). Duvalier used this "non-fiscal account", established decades earlier, as a tobacco monopoly, but he later expanded it to include the proceeds from other government enterprises and used it as a slush fund for which no balance sheets were ever kept. By neglecting his role in government, Duvalier squandered considerable domestic and foreign goodwill and facilitated the dominance of Haitian affairs by a