Duvalier authorized the Tontons Macoutes to commit systematic violence and human rights abuses toward his ends; they were responsible for unknown numbers of murders and rapes in Haiti. Duvalier employed the Tonton Macoute in a reign of terror against any opponents, including those who proposed progressive social systems. Those who spoke out against Duvalier would disappear at night, or were sometimes attacked in broad daylight. Tontons Macoutes often stoned and burned people alive. Many times the corpses were put on display, often hung in trees for everyone to see. Family members who tried to remove the bodies for proper burial often disappeared themselves, never to be seen again. They were believed to have been abducted and killed by the MVSN, who were called the "Tontons Macoutes" as a r