Istwa Nou

Estime governed as a peasant populist, carrying Vincent's dislike of foreigners and an open hostility to the mulatre elite, and he handled opponents skilfully. His first cabinet included two of his loudest rivals, Daniel Fignole at Education and Georges Rigaud at Commerce, where they spent their energy on each other. In October 1946 he dismissed the entire cabinet, which removed old enemies and opened places for men who had earned them. He paid the army in rank and money, promoting Franck Lavaud to general de brigade, the first Haitian general since 1915, and moving in May 1947 to secure United States military credits. On 29 March he renamed the Garde d'Haiti the Armee d'Haiti and divided its police duties on paper into rural and urban forces, a reform that never took hold and that cost the institution much of its standing. He then offered Lavaud, Levelt and Magloire embassies in Washington, Santiago and Paris. All three politely refused.

A generation earlier Haitian finance ministers had gone to Paris. France in 1946 was broke, so in December a Haitian financial mission put its case to the State Department instead. It asked for the 1938 Export-Import Bank loan to be forgiven or postponed, for credits toward assorted projects, and for a pause in bond repayments. American officials noted that Haitian finances were the strongest they had been in years, and refused. Ambassador Joseph D. Charles told an American reporter afterwards that every American attempt to help had increased Haiti's poverty and confusion. Lucien Hibbert, whom Estime had made rector of the university, tried again in September 1947, asking the Export-Import Bank for twenty million dollars and being told any loan required a justified project. He replied that this was impossible for his government, accused the bank of shutting the door on Haiti, and went home. Norman Armour, who had served in Haiti and now stood high in the department, set about repairing relations. On 29 December 1948 the bank lent Haiti four million dollars on easy terms to develop the Artibonite valley for power and agriculture.

Under a 1935 contract with Standard Fruit, Haitian bananas had reached exports of 7.3 million stems and become the country's second largest earner. The company's ships called at Haitian ports, and the company paid for wharves, buoys, roads and schools. In September 1947 Estime refused to renew the monopoly and nationalised the trade, dividing it into seven concessions granted to seven political allies, one of them Colonel Magloire. The concessionaires cut the price paid to peasant growers, which raised their own margins and gave farmers a reason to plant less. The government chartered Greek and Panamanian vessels to replace the Standard Fruit ships and discovered the chartered vessels had no refrigeration, so cargoes arrived spoiled. Production and exports collapsed in 1948 and stopped altogether afterwards. Estime's defenders said his reforms needed money and his men were in a hurry. The episode shows what taking ownership is worth by itself. The refrigerated ships, the sales network and the working capital stayed with the Americans, and the trade died in Haitian hands inside a year.