Élie Lescot (b. Saint-Louis du Nord, December 3, 1883 – d. Port-au-Prince, October 20, 1974) President: May 15, 1941 – January 11, 1946
To succeed President Sténio Vincent, the National Assembly elected Élie Lescot president on May 15, 1941. The new president had occupied numerous public positions: Deputy and Minister of Justice and Interior Minister in the Vincent administration, and ambassador to Washington.
When it became clear to President Vincent that a third term was unachievable, Ambassador Lescot was summoned to Port-au-Prince, named senator, and received the endorsement of his predecessor. That was enough to ensure his election. The day of his inauguration, in the National Palace, the new president offered the main goals of his administration: 1) continuation of policies implemented by his predecessor, 2) eradication of the Haitian negative propensity for politics that feeds the denunciation, lies, intrigue, calumny and its replacement with Christian love, 3) strengthening democracy in fighting “regressive ideologies”, 4) staying in complete alliance with the twenty-one members of the ).A.S, especially the United States, and 5) acknowledgement of the fact that the Dominican republic was our “natural ally”.
A few days after taking office, President Lescot, by a decree of June 5, 1941, declared himself commander of the armed forces. The position of Chief of Staff, appointed by the incumbent, was created in lieu of the former rank of Commander of the Garde d’Haïti. To administer the departments, the prefects were replaced by delegates.
On September 13, 1941, a financial agreement replacing the one of the August 7, 1933 was singed, effectively eliminating the post of “U.S. fiscal representative” and making the Banque National de la République d’Haïti the sole depository of all taxes and public funds.
The contracts signed by the Vincent administration with the U.S. firm J.G. White Engineering Corp. were extended, and on June 16, 1942, the Société Haitiano-Américaine de Dévelopment Agricole (SHADA), a company created on August 15, 1941 to develop and exploit the agricultural resources of Haiti, was chosen to replace J.G. White and complete the program of public works.
In accordance with the law permitting expropriation for the public good, the government compelled peasants to lease their land to SHADA, the new U.S. company that wanted to develop a new rubber producing plant, resulting in thousand of acres being stripped of their fruit bearing trees. The project failed miserably leaving the Haitian peasant with bare land. A vast forest of pine trees was exploited while bananas continued to be exported.
In the Lescot administration the state of finances were well administered and corruption was kept at a minimum. Minister Maurice Dartigue made an attempt at education reform, but he was accused of wanting to Americanize the Haitian system. The Haitian-American Institute, the Centre d’Art, The Ethnology Institute were all created during this administration. An international congress of Philosophy was also held in Port-au-Prince.
A number of social measures were implemented, including 1) the establishment of the minimum wage, 2) the creation of the Caisse d’Assurance Social, 3) the two-year mandatory residence to be preformed by all young doctors after graduation, and 4) the campaign against malaria with the assistance of the Mission Sanitaire Américaine.
On the religious front, repression reigned. The carnival was suspended, and the “anti superstition campaign”, begun in 1939 (actually the anti-voodoo campaign) by the roman Catholic Church gained momentum and continued violently repressing all things deemed to be associated with voodoo. Thousands of pre-Columbian artifacts kept in the hounfò were destroyed or shipped to France where some still remain in a few museums.
On December 8, 1941, Haiti declared war on Japan, Germany, and Italy. The president was given exceptional powers to deal with the new situation. A decree of February 23, 1941, suspended all constitutional guarantees “for the duration of the international conflict.” Citizens of the enemy countries doing business in Haiti were jailed and their assets confiscated. President Lescot was a champion of Pan-Americanism. Also, Haiti became one of the founding members of the United Nations.
A friend of Dominican President Rafael L. Trujillo before his presidency, Lescot angered the Dominican dictator by not being as cooperative as the former would have hoped.
The Lescot administration left itself open to criticism regarding the old Haitian demon; color prejudice. Most members of the cabinet, the ambassadors of Haiti abroad, and the members of the president’s entourage were all mulattoes. That attitude fed the resentment of the black intellectuals who felt shortchanged. The movement that led to Lescot’s fall and its aftermath would be dubbed “the revolution of 1946” and would be linked to color issues.
On April 11, 1944, the legislative chambers declared that a revision of the 1935 Constitution, amended in 1939, was on order. Many changes were proposed but the most striking stated that “Citizen Élie Lescot was to be granted a new mandate beginning May 15, 1944 and ending May 15, 1951.” The reason invoked for such a mandate was the “international situation created by war.” All the amendments were promptly ratified but the prolongation of the president’s term was vied negatively by the nation.
By December 1945, the country was ready to challenge the government in power. It began with the publication of a small weekly titled La Ruche founded by Théodore Baker and René Dépestre. Without attacking the regime in place, they opposed all form of despotism. Even though their criticisms were directed towards the Vincent administration, which in their view had opened the way to dictatorship, the government felt singled out. On January 3, 1946, the two editors of the paper were summoned to the Interior Ministry where they were threatened with the most severe sanctions if La Ruche did not cease its publication. Then, they were taken to the police station were they spent the day, news that did nothing to appease the mind of the nation. On January 7, a group of high school students took to the streets to protest against the government, a movement that spread very quickly. The next day, president Lescot addressed the nation and, in menacing terms, stressed that order would be maintained at all costs. A general strike was called in response. On January 10, the cabinet of ministers resigned. On January 11, 1946, Colonel Franck Lavaud, Chief of Staff of the Garde d’Haïti, announced that ex-President Lescot had been taken prisoner and that a Military Executive Committee was assuming power until the next elections.
Élie Lescot (b. Saint-Louis du Nord, December 3, 1883 – d. Port-au-Prince, October 20, 1974)