Istwa Nou

The new council named a cabinet of nineteen on the first Saturday. Gerard Gourgue took justice and Rosny Desroches took education, which gave the list respectability. Williams Regala took the interior, which mattered more. The council dissolved the National Assembly, suspended the constitution and announced that it would rule by decree. It restored the red and blue flag that Francois Duvalier had replaced, and Henri Namphy raised it over the palace himself. Under cover of the curfew the army was busy with something else. Soldiers moved militiamen to safe houses and then out of the country, taking care of those in most danger and those who knew the most. Madame Max Adolphe surfaced overseas. Albert Pierre, the police chief called Ti Boule for the cigarette lighter he used on prisoners, was helped to Brazil. The militia was declared abolished, and then Avril allowed that many of its members could join the army. Exiles came home by the thousands with foreign currency, and Haiti acquired a word for them, diaspo.