Cacos (military group)

In Haitian history, Cacos were bodies of armed men, originally drawn from the country's enslaved population, who came to wield power in the mountainous regions of Haiti following the victory of the Haitian Revolution in 1804.[1] The nickname "cacos" was derived from local terms for the red-plumed Hispaniolan trogon because the insurgents "used to hide, like the bird of the same name, under the leaves so as to come unexpectedly upon and attack their enemy."[2]

  1. ^ Tierney, Jr., John. "America's "Black Vietnam": Haiti's Cacos vs. The Marine Corps, 1915–22". iwp.edu. The Institute of World Politics. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  2. ^ Horace Pauleus Sannon (1938). Histoire de Toussaint-Louverture. Port au Prince: Aug. A. Heraux. p. 142. Retrieved 19 October 2017.