Istwa Nou

When the supreme court declined the presidency for a second time, the Haitian army handed it to Major General Paul Magloire, who had been running the country since 1950. He declared a state of siege and dissolved the legislature. He lasted a week. On the Monday, businesses across Port-au-Prince failed to open. Bank clerks and schoolteachers stayed at home. The Duvalierist drivers association pulled every taxi and camionnette off the road, and peasants who had heard that something dangerous was loose in the capital brought no food to market. Magloire walked the length of the waterfront with his staff and a submachine gun in his arms. Shops opened as he came near and shut again behind him. He had no intention of shooting Haitians and everyone watching understood that. On the Wednesday he passed executive power back to the chief justice, kept his commission as a general, and set up in the barracks. Junior officers arrived with pistols to tell him the time had come. A transport plane was waiting at Bowen Field, and he flew south to Kingston.