Istwa Nou

The men who took over Haiti on 7 February 1986 sat down to a short and unpleasant list. In the week before he left, Jean-Claude Duvalier's militiamen had been issued army uniforms and moved into the capital. Many were hiding in the barracks behind the palace, still armed, among them Madame Max Adolphe, who had run the militia. A counter coup was a live possibility, so by the middle of the morning the council imposed a curfew from two in the afternoon until seven the next day. The treasury held under two million dollars. The crowds that had helped push the family out were still in the street and could turn on the new government as fast as they had turned on the old. The council itself was made of Duvalier's people. Prosper Avril had handled the family's foreign accounts. Alix Cineas had served them twenty years. Only Gerard Gourgue, founder of the country's human rights league, came from outside. The stated aim was elections. The unstated aim was a suitable successor.