26 May to 14 June 1957 · Haitianspan
Fignole raises army pay and is gone before the film ends
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Daniel Fignole took office on 26 May 1957 in striped trousers and a cutaway coat, a long way from Pestel where he was born. He asked ten thousand followers for democracy and unity, and the heroes he named were Soulouque, Goman, Acaau and Rameau, men the Haitian elite had spent a century treating as warnings. To take hold of a divided army he chose Colonel Antonio Kebreau, a friend of Rafael Trujillo and of Francois Duvalier, which nobody weighed at the time. Fignole got the shops open. He also ordered officers transferred from the palace instead of through Kebreau, commissioned his own men, and went on campaigning for a full term while his supporters demanded six years for him with no election at all. Then he announced a hundred percent pay rise for enlisted men without consulting the general staff. On the evening of 14 June, while the garrison watched a new Western at the barracks, officers led by Kebreau opened the council chamber door and marched the president out. He signed a resignation and was flown to Miami.
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