1957-Sept.-22: François Duvalier Elected President: General elections were held under the supervision of the military junta led by Antonio Kébreau.
1957-Sept.-22: François Duvalier Elected President: General elections were held under the supervision of the military junta led by Antonio Kébreau. François Duvalier secured a landslide victory with over 679,000 votes, while his rival Louis Déjoie received approximately 266,000. Significance: Marked the beginning of a regime that restructured the Haitian state into a totalitarian apparatus. Duvalierism redefined state power in personalist and ideological terms. His early administration focused on establishing a “new equilibrium” by shifting power toward the black middle class. (Nicholls, From Dessalines to Duvalier, 211). Nuance: Trouillot does not treat Duvalier’s rise as accidental or purely imposed. He situates it within long-term structural tensions between state elites and the Haitian nation.