Assembly amends the 1935 Constitution to extend Lescot’s rule

On 19 April 1944 Haiti’s National Assembly voted the constitutional amendments President Élie Lescot had asked for, handing him a fresh seven-year term. Lescot had taken office on 15 May 1941. In February 1942 he suspended the 1935 Constitution outright and set up military tribunals to try people for crimes against the security of the state, using the war as his excuse. He ran the country on American money and American goodwill. The bill came due on 11 January 1946, when students and workers drove him out.