1964-00-00: (Duvalier Declares Himself President for Life, Issues a New Constitution, Expels All Foreign-Born Catholic Bishops, and Drives Thousands of Educa…

1964-00-00: (Duvalier Declares Himself President for Life, Issues a New Constitution, Expels All Foreign-Born Catholic Bishops, and Drives Thousands of Educated Haitians Into Exile, Hollowing Out the Nation’s Professional Class): In 1964, Duvalier issued a new constitution that made him president for life, the title that had been abolished in 1843 and restored by every strongman since who found democratic accountability inconvenient. Under the guise of nationalism, he expelled all foreign-born Roman Catholic bishops and replaced them with Black supporters, weaponizing Noirisme against the institutional church that the 1860 concordat had imported. Thousands of middle- and upper-class Haitians, especially mulattos, fled the country during the 1960s, a brain drain that devastated the economy and the education system. Duvalier’s anticommunist rhetoric earned him continued military and economic assistance from the United States during the Johnson administration. Most of the foreign aid was diverted into the coffers of the Duvalier family and their political supporters. Malnutrition and illiteracy became endemic. An already poor nation descended into unimaginable poverty. Hurricane Cleo struck in August, adding natural disaster to political catastrophe.