1937. Coup attempt against President Sténio Vincent:
Some officers of the Guard, the armed force set up during the occupation
American, disenchanted by Vincent’s capitulation after the massacre of
Haitians in the Dominican Republic decided to finish with the president. Their
plan included, first and foremost, the incapacitation of high-ranking officers who
supported Vincent, including two in particular: Major Durcé Armand and the
Captain Arnaud Merceron.
On Sunday, December 12, when the last ones were in a café at the
Fields of March, occupants of a moving car fired several shots
Fire in their direction. They were slightly hit.
There then followed arrests, death sentences, degradations
military and long sentences of hard labor. But the instigator of the coup, the
Colonel Demosthenes Pétrus Calixte, head of the Guard of Haiti, was able to escape. Tried and
condemned by custom, he was pardoned by Elie Lescot in 1941.
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See also: 7 March 1938
1956. Resignation of President Paul Eugène Magloire:
Second resignation in a week.
To comply with the opposition leaders who, interpreting Article 81 of the
constitution of 1950, considered December 6 as the expiration date of its
Presidency, General Paul Eugène Magloire, the strongman of Haiti since nearly
ten years, had briefly retired on December 6, only to return for a few hours
Later, he was called up by the army with the approval of the judges of the court of
cassation.
Dissatisfied and feeling fooled, the population then followed the leaders who
called for or supported a general strike, as a sign of peaceful resistance.
Magloire, on December 12, finally bowed down by handing power back to the president
of the Court of Cassation, Master Joseph Nemours Pierre-Louis.