Coup Atlas Research Database
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04105101950SuccessfulMilitary coup

Haiti, 1950 — military coup

Haiti (HTI)Caribbean, AmericasMay 10, 1950

Event Summary

On May 10, 1950, President Dumarsais Estime of Haiti was overthrown by a three-man military junta, the same officers who had removed Elie Lescot in 1946: General Franck Lavaud and Colonels Antoine Levelt and Paul Eugene Magloire. The immediate cause was Estime's attempt to amend the constitution so he could succeed himself in 1952, which the Senate rejected; after pro-Estime crowds ransacked the Senate chamber, the army moved in, entered the National Palace, and forced Estime to sign a prepared resignation. He was briefly confined and then exiled, dying in New York in 1953.

One of the junta members, Paul Magloire, went on to win the presidency in the October 1950 election, the first held by direct popular suffrage in Haiti, and ruled until 1956.

Researched Details

Researched

Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.

Target identified in Coup Atlas research: Dumarsais Estime, President of Haiti (deposed, forced to resign, exiled)
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Dumarsais Estime (deposed president)
Paul Eugene Magloire (junta member, later elected president)
Franck Lavaud (junta general)
Antoine Levelt (junta colonel)

Sources

The 1950 Haitian coup was a military overthrow of President Dumarsais Estime by a three-man junta, the same participants as the 1946 coup, on 10 May 1950, prompted by Estime's attempt to extend his term.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, "1950 Haitian coup d'etat" open source ↗
On 10 May a declaration signed by General Franck Lavaud and Colonels Antoine Levelt and Paul-Eugene Magloire ended Estime's government; officers entered the president's office and had him sign a prepared letter of resignation, after which he was confined and then exiled.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, "Dumarsais Estime" open source ↗
After the Senate rejected a constitutional change letting Estime succeed himself and pro-Estime crowds sacked the Senate chamber, the army moved in and a three-man military junta took over the palace, forcing the resignation of the man it had backed four years earlier.
SOURCE REVIEWED Time magazine, "Haiti: Again the Junta" open source ↗
Following Estime's ouster, Colonel Paul E. Magloire was elected president in the October 1950 election, the first held by direct popular suffrage in Haiti.
SOURCE REVIEWED Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Haiti - Military regimes and the Duvaliers" open source ↗

Editorial Note

Sources agree on the date (10 May 1950), the junta trio (Lavaud, Levelt, Magloire, the same men as 1946), the term-extension trigger, and Magloire's later election. Two Wikipedia articles, Time, and Britannica were read directly. This record links directly to the 1946 Haiti entry, since the same officers acted in both.

Cross-Reference

Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.

Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:

Cline Center id
04105101950
Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-41-1950-05-10

How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.

Outcome and Target

Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Dumarsais Estime, President of Haiti (deposed, forced to resign, exiled).

Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; exiled. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.

Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
Open dataset DOI ↗
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.

Baseline Source-Document Entries

CSP

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

Luttwak

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumarsais_Estim%C3%A9

New York Times

“CUBA KEEPS HAITIAN TIES; Havana Minister Says Junta at Port au Prince Is Stable,” June 3, 1950

Milan

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →

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Related Records

Haiti — Military coup, 19461946-01-11SuccessfulCaribbeanHaiti — Military coup, 19571957-04-02SuccessfulCaribbeanHaiti — Military coup, 19571957-05-21SuccessfulCaribbean