Louis Bornó

Louis Bornó

Eustache Antoine François Joseph Louis Bornó (born September 20, 1865 in Port-au-Prince , † July 29, 1942 in Pétionville ) was a Haitian politician and President of Haiti .

biography

Professional and political career

After completing school, he studied law in Paris in 1887 , which he graduated in 1890. During his studies he was one of the founders of the Legislative Society ( Societé de Légalisation ), a modernist student group. After his return to Haiti, he worked as a professor of law and then in 1899 as a diplomat in the Dominican Republic .

He began his political career in 1908 as Foreign Minister in the cabinet of President Pierre Nord Alexis . The country, ruined by the internal wars and the negligence of the majority of its leaders, aroused the interest of the United States of America , who wanted to expand their influence on the states of the Caribbean on the basis of the Monroe Doctrine after the construction of the Panama Canal .

At the end of 1914, the US government under President Woodrow Wilson presented a project to control Haiti's tariffs and finances , which Bornó, who was now Foreign Minister in the government of President Joseph Davilmar Théodore , rejected. The USA, which appropriated the National Bank in 1911, then confiscated the money reserves.

Occupation by the USA 1915–1934

Foreign minister and uprisings against the occupying power

After Théodore's successor as President, General Jean Vilbrun Guillaume Sam , fled to the building of the French Embassy on July 28, 1915 and was killed there by an angry crowd, the United States launched an invasion on the same day by the United States Marines .

Within a short time, the United States held a presidential election, from which Philippe Sudré Dartiguenave emerged as the new president on August 12, 1915 . Shortly afterwards, Haiti became a de facto US protectorate . For the next 19 years, the USA remained represented by its troops and a High Commissioner as the occupying power in Haiti.

Bornó was appointed Foreign Minister by Dartiguenave on September 9, 1915, and in this function he led negotiations with the USA on the economic development of Haiti, while at the same time refusing to renounce any territory. Although the text of the treaty was ratified by the United States Senate on February 28, 1916 , the intellectual content of the treaty was not respected, as in 1916 an attempt was made to place the entire civil service under the supervision of the gendarmerie .

Bornó, who opposed this plan, resigned in January 1917 after the defeat of President Dartiguenave in the elections to the Constituent Assembly ( Assemblée Constituante ) . After the president had reappointed him as Secretary of State on June 20, 1918, he soon resigned again because he rejected the influence of the US financial advisor on the government of Haiti. He was also a member of the cabinet as Minister of Finance in 1918.

The Americans built roads, hospitals and telephone systems. But with their racist arrogance against blacks and mulattos they humbled Haitians deeply. The occupiers obliged peasants to do forced labor for their road projects and their fight against the “Caco” rebels claimed thousands of lives. The Voodoo was suppressed as "satanic cult". The harsh crackdown on the population of Haiti by the occupying power soon caused revolts, which led to armed fighting by the simple rural population, the cacos (parrots). The cacos had been armed since the War of Independence and cultivated a culture of revolt.

Disappointed with the media report and the ineffectiveness of the employment policy in Haiti, the new US President Warren G. Harding decided to improve the work of the occupation administration after the report of a committee of inquiry in November 1921 and appointed Brigadier General John H. Russell Jr. as the new commander of the US Occupation troops, who was also Ambassador Extraordinary High Commissioner in Haiti.

First term as President 1922–1926

On April 10, 1922, he was elected President of Haiti by the Conseil d'État, introduced by the 1918 Constitution, to the surprise of the USA, to succeed Dartiguenave and officially sworn in as President on May 15, 1922. Bornó's presidency, which quickly came to terms with General Russell, was referred to by the opposition as the second head of a dictatorship because of its proximity to and cooperation with the US occupation forces .

Domestically, the press was the real countermovement to the government of Russell and Bornó until the latter passed a repressive press law that enabled him to arrest journalists.

In terms of economic policy, the state budget was completely overindebted. According to the budget, the foreign debt of 1914 corresponded to the total budget income for four years. In June 1922 he took out a loan of 22 million US dollars , which made it possible to settle the entire national debt. At the same time, there was a reduction in export tax in favor of internal taxes. During his tenure, the trade balance and the state budget were balanced. In addition to combating smuggling , there were many important infrastructure measures : the construction of 1,700 kilometers of navigable roads and 189 bridges , the repair of numerous canals, irrigation projects, the construction of new schools, hospitals and public buildings, and the construction of a drinking water pipeline to Port-au-Prince . Port-au-Prince was also the first capital of Latin America to have an automatic telephone switching network.

In public education, however, Bornó opposed Americanization , which was the main point of contention with General Russell. The only exception that was allowed was agricultural training: in addition to a central agricultural school ( École Centrale D'Agriculture ), 69 farming schools ( Fermés-École ) were established in the country. In terms of teaching, he relied instead on the schools run by the Roman Catholic Church in order to be able to guarantee high-quality teaching at low costs , which was beyond American influence. Against the background that the French language was not spoken by the common people, he issued the first presidential authorization to use the Creole language in school in 1924 .

Re-election and second term of office as President 1926–1930

The State Council, whose 21 members were appointed by President Bornó himself, remained a provisional because of the planned return to democracy and re-elected it on April 12, 1926.

He was sworn in on May 10, 1926 and held the office of President until May 15, 1930. Together with Russell, who remained at his post in Haiti until November 1930, he determined the government policy of Haiti in the 1920s for a period of eight years.

In terms of foreign policy, he went on a state visit to the USA at the beginning of his second term, where he was received by President Calvin Coolidge . However, his efforts to attract new US investors were unsuccessful. At the same time, the treaty concluded between him and Dominican President Horacio Vásquez on January 21, 1929 resolved the old border conflict between the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Domestically, he pushed ahead with his intention for a third four-year term in office as early as 1927, which on the one hand contradicted the constitution and on the other led to criticism within the occupying power. In October 1929 there was a strike at the Damien Agricultural School, which was soon followed by students at other universities. Bornó, however, decided not to face the angry students in a discussion.

As a result of the Great Depression of October 24, 1929 ( Black Thursday ), there was a change in the foreign policy of the US government under the new President Herbert Hoover , who sought a solution from Haiti. To this end, Hoover set up a commission under the former Governor General of the Philippines , William Cameron Forbes , which began its investigation in December 1929.

As a result of the investigation, measures were taken that resulted in a further deterioration in the living conditions of the rural population. Against this standardization of export products, the introduction of a tobacco and liquor tax and the planned land reform , there was a peasant uprising shortly afterwards. On December 6, 1929 there was an armed conflict between insurgent farmers and a company of the US Marines in the village of Marchaterre , in which the Marines opened fire and caused several deaths.

Domestically, however, the Forbes Commission moved closer to the opposition by again suggesting the election of the president by the National Assembly instead of the State Council and a Haitianization of the administration. However, there was widespread pessimism within the Commission regarding sustainable democracy in Haiti.

His government was still characterized by some economic success, but the anti-American currents that had existed since 1929 ultimately led to his government resigning on May 15, 1930. He was succeeded as interim president by the banker Louis Eugène Roy .

Bornó then withdrew from public life and spent the last years of his life on his estate in Port-au-Prince.

Web links

• Biographical notes in rulers.org
• Fearon, James D. / Laitin, David D .: Haiti , Stanford University, 2006 (PDF file; 259 kB)
• Franc Blancpain: Louis Borno, President D'Haiti , ISBN 2-89454-026-4

Individual evidence

1. ^ "The First US Occupation Of Haiti," Haiti Progres, August 2002
2. ↑ Helen Scott, “Haiti Under Siege - 200 Years Of US Imperialism,” International Socialist Review, May / June 2004
3. ↑ "Hayti elects President Louis Borno, Cabinet Member, Said To Represent Conservatives" , New York Times on April 11 1922
4. ^ "Of Utah" , TIME Magazine March 21, 1927
5. ^ "Honest Borno" , TIME magazine January 20, 1930
6. ^ "Black Friction" , TIME magazine December 16, 1930
7. ^ "Commission Returns" , TIME magazine March 24, 1930
8. ↑ TIME magazine August 10, 1942

predecessor	Office	successor
Philippe Sudré Dartiguenave	President of Haiti May 15, 1922-15. May 1930	Louis Eugène Roy