 At the forefront of opposition among the educated elite was "L'Union Patriotique," which established ties with opponents of the occupation in the US itself, in particular the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).The Great Depression decimated the prices of Haiti's exports and destroyed the tenuous gains of the previous decade.In December 1929, Marines in Les Cayes killed ten Haitians during a march to protest local economic conditions.