1957, October 22: (The Inauguration: Number 22, the Accursed Chair, I Have No Enemies Except the Enemies of the Nation, and John Roosevelt’s $150,000 Retaine…

1957, October 22: (The Inauguration: Number 22, the Accursed Chair, I Have No Enemies Except the Enemies of the Nation, and John Roosevelt’s $150,000 Retainer): François Duvalier selected October 22 as inauguration day — the number 22, from whose divinations he drew sinister power. Seated en banc behind a plywood rostrum in the Salle des Bustes, the new president, flanked by General Kébreau and Senate president Hugues Bourjolly, received the sash of office, then drove to the cathedral for his Te Deum. Back at the palace, Duvalier unhesitatingly occupied the accursed presidential chair that had daunted Soulouque a century earlier and uttered his first pronouncement: his government would guarantee the exercise of liberty to all Haitians and would evenhandedly seek to reconcile the nation with itself. At his first press conference he said he had no enemies except the enemies of the nation — Louis XIV could hardly have put it more succinctly. There was the inevitable new constitution setting his term to end May 15, 1963, and other first steps: an amnesty that somehow released Duvalierists while skipping Déjoieists, sequestration of Magloire’s remaining holdings, and retention at $150,000 of a New York public-relations firm headed by John Roosevelt, son of FDR. Those who smelled Hyppolite-era dealing had their instincts confirmed as Barbot and Arthur Bonhomme began huckstering concessions — including the razing and relocation of La Saline, which would displace thousands of Fignolists. A $4 million loan was negotiated with Batista, in return for which Haiti agreed to harbor no Batista opponents, quickly deported Fuentes, and slipped Batista’s middlemen a $1 million kickback; the lucrative gambling concession of the International Casino, after successive transfers, came to rest in the hands of the Mafia. Arrangements were made with Trujillo for the orderly export of Haitian cane-cutters at a head-charge said to be $8.00 plus half the daily wage — a practice that would net millions for the Duvaliers.