Second Caco War

Haitian Constabulary
Gendarmerie d'Haïti
Active	1915–28
Country	Haiti
Allegiance	United States of America
Type	Gendarmerie
Role	Military police, light infantry
Size	3,322 (1927)
Engagements	Second Caco War
Commanders
Notable commanders	Smedley Butler

The Gendarmerie of Haiti (French: Gendarmerie d'Haïti [ʒɑ̃daʁməʁi da.iti]), also known as the Haitian Constabulary, was a collaborationist gendarmerie raised by the United States during its occupation of Haiti in the early 20th century. Established in late 1915, the gendarmerie was operational from 1916 until 1928, during which time it was Haiti's only military force, earning a reputation for active interference in civilian government that may have set the stage for the future politicization of Haiti's armed forces.

From 1918 to 1920 the Gendarmerie of Haiti fought the Second Caco War, one of the so-called "Banana Wars". It was reorganized as the Garde d'Haïti in 1928, forming the nucleus of what would evolve into the modern Haitian army.

The United States invaded Haiti in the last half of 1915. The invasion followed the violation of the French embassy in Port-au-Prince by a mob that seized Haitian president Vilbrun Guillaume Sam, who had earlier fled to the legation owing to popular unrest, and "mutilated his body in the street." Admiral William Banks Caperton, leading the initial landing force, declared martial law and ordered the Haitian army dissolved. In the absence of functioning police, U.S. Marines assumed civilian law enforcement duties, but occupation authorities had already set into motion plans to raise a local police force with the Haitian–American Convention, obligating Haiti's American-established interim government to "create without delay an efficient constabulary, urban and rural."

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