1990, March – August: (Madame Présidente Reigns but Does Not Rule: Macoutes Take Six Elderly Nuns Hostage at St.

1990, March – August: (Madame Présidente Reigns but Does Not Rule: Macoutes Take Six Elderly Nuns Hostage at St. Rose of Lima on Cabinet Installation Day, Relations with the Council of State Deteriorate, Violence on the Upswing, Few Public Appearances, Abraham’s Soldiers Go Unpaid by May 15, Exports Plummet to $153 Million from $223 Million in 1985, and Haiti Goes Without Petroleum for Ten Days in August — Unable to Pay for the Tanker): The new president spent twenty-four hours mulling over cabinet choices and preparing decrees to reestablish normal life by opening schools and abolishing censorship. She was under no illusions as to the difficulties ahead — in addition to the army, in its barracks for the moment but restless, there were the macoutes, still armed, still out of power. Looking over her shoulder, with power to veto her every move, was a nineteen-member Council of State, many of whose members could be expected to harbor ambitions for the elections now scheduled for December. Within a week — in fact the very day of the installation of Madame Présidente’s cabinet — a group of macoutes wielding machetes and guns took hostage a group of six elderly nuns at St. Rose of Lima; after administering beatings, the attackers disappeared, the motive other than terrorizing the populace unclear. As the weeks passed, it became clear that whether by necessity or choice, Madame Présidente intended to reign but not rule. Relations between her and the Council of State quickly deteriorated. Viewed as powerless, she seemed unable to stem violence that was again on the upswing, and she made few public appearances. Ominously, the New York Times reported on May 15, 1990 that General Abraham’s soldiers had gone unpaid. The government’s finances remained as precarious as ever — 1989 exports had plummeted to $153 million from a high of $223 million in 1985, Jean-Claude Duvalier’s last full year in power. In another echo of 1985, unable to muster the foreign exchange to pay for a tanker of oil, Haiti went without petroleum for ten days in August.