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Compassionate Empress. President Magloire, 46, Dessalines' 32nd successor, is proud to be as black as his country's great liberators, and like them a military man. He began his career as a cadet in the U.S. Marine-trained army, and by 1950 was a colonel and a power in the country. When President Dumarsais Estime lost the democratic touch and headed toward dictatorship, Colonel Magloire set up a military junta and ousted him. Then by direct popular vote, he was elected President. His strong regime has brought comparative stability; he has launched a $40 million Five Year Plan, including a small-scale TVA project in the Artibonite Valley to shore up Haiti's economy.
Magloire is no Dessalines-style fanatic; he smokes long cigars, smiles readily and gets along well with folks of any color. On the same day that he unveiled a 16-ft. statue of the Tiger last week. President Magloire significantly saw to it that his wife placed a wreath on the grave of Dessalines' Empress, who gained fame and honor of her own by sheltering in her palace some of the white colonists fleeing from the wrath of her husband's troops.