1988-02-07: (Leslie Manigat Inaugurated as President, Overthrown by Namphy Four Months Later, the Post-Duvalier Democratic Experiment Collapsing Before It Ha…

1988-02-07: (Leslie Manigat Inaugurated as President, Overthrown by Namphy Four Months Later, the Post-Duvalier Democratic Experiment Collapsing Before It Had Begun): On February 7, 1988, Leslie Manigat was inaugurated as president of Haiti, exactly two years after Duvalier’s flight. Manigat, an educator and political scientist born on August 16, 1930, was a serious intellectual who had spent years in exile during the Duvalier dictatorship. His presidency lasted four months. On June 20, 1988, Henri Namphy overthrew Manigat, suspended the 1987 constitution, and established a military government. The coup demonstrated that the Haitian military, which the Americans had created during the occupation and which the Duvaliers had counterbalanced with the Tonton Macoutes, remained the decisive political force. Constitutions, elections, and democratic aspirations existed only insofar as the generals permitted them.