Prosper Avril their foreign accounts." Avril was forced into retirement by Jean-Claude Duvalier in 1983, but reinstated and promoted to Colonel in 1986, in the face of the popular revolt which would ultimately see Duvalier overthrown. Avril's 1986 joining of Henri Namphy's interim military junta saw protest demonstrations, and he was forced to resign; but he quickly returned, and assisted Namphy in the June 1988 Haitian coup d'état which overthrew Leslie Manigat, who had been elected in military-controlled elections and took office in February 1988. In September 1988, a week after the St Jean Bosco massacre, Avril overthrew his former ally Namphy,
François Duvalier was one of the most repressive in the hemisphere. Within the country he murdered and exiled his opponents; estimates of those killed are as high as 60,000. Attacks on Duvalier from within the military were treated as especially serious. When bombs were detonated near the Presidential Palace in 1967, Duvalier had nineteen officers of the Presidential Guard executed in Fort Dimanche. A few days later Duvalier had a public speech during which he read the attendance sheet with names of all 19 officers killed. After each name, he said "absent". After reading the whole list, Duvalier remarked that "all were