Louis Borno Eustache Antoine Francois Joseph Louis Borno ( September 20 , 1865 – July 29 , 1942 ) was a lawyer ( law degree earned in 1890 at the Faculty of Paris ) and Haitian politician who served as President of Haiti from 1922 to 1930 during the period of the American occupation of Haiti ( 1915 – 1934 ) . Borno was of mulatto heritage , being the son of a white French father and a black Haitian mother . Nationalist minister . In 1899 , he was a diplomat in the Dominican Republic ; then , in 1908 , he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs for President Pierre Nord Alexis . The country of Haiti , devastated by internecine conflicts and the mismanagement of its leaders , was looked upon as a strategically vital location by the United States at the onset of World War I . The U . S . had extended its influence throughout the Caribbean and Latin America following the construction of the Panama Canal by invoking the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine . In 1914 , the United States under President Woodrow Wilson presented a project for the control of customs and finances of Haiti . Borno , then Foreign Minister of President Joseph Davilmar Theodore , refused . The United States responded by confiscating the reserves of the National Bank of Haiti . On 28 July 1915 , a Haitian mob killed President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam in the legation of France , where he had taken refuge . The same day , U . S . troops landed in the country , restoring order to Port - au - Prince . They organized the election of a new president , Philippe Sudre Dartiguenave , and immediately imposed a protectorate . Borno , appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs , negotiated a U . S . commitment to the economic development of the country and refused to transfer any territory . American contempt and brutality against the local population led to armed revolts in the countryside carried out by " cacos , " farmers who had remained armed since the war of independence and were imbued with a culture of rebellion . U . S . troops claimed several thousand victims . Embarrassed by media coverage of the war and disappointed at the ineffectiveness of the occupation , U . S . President Warren G . Harding decided in 1922 to improve the level of American administrators and appointed as High Commissioner Major General John H . Russell , Jr . . Cooperating President . When President Dartiguenave served out his term , Louis Borno was elected by the State Council on 10 April 1922 , to the surprise of the Americans . Borno , however , soon came to an agreement with Russell . He maintained a policy of " honest and frank cooperation , " as Borno called it , and persuaded the Americans to help develop the country economically . The Haitian state was deeply in debt . The external debt alone was equivalent to 4 years of the government budget . Borno decided in June 1922 to take out a loan of 23 million dollars to clear all debts . He reduced export taxes and soon the trade deficit balanced . Infrastructure improvements were particularly impressive : 1700 km of roads were made usable ; 189 bridges were built ; many irrigation canals were rehabilitated ; hospitals , schools , and public buildings were constructed ; and drinking water was brought to the main cities . Port - au - Prince became the first city of Latin America to have phone service available with automatic dialing . Agricultural education was organized with a central school of agriculture and 69 farms in the country . Borno relied on the Catholic Church , with congregations coming from France to develop low - cost quality education throughout the country . Aware that many Haitians did not speak French , he was the first president to authorize the use of Creole in the education system . He went to the United States in 1926 , where he met President Calvin Coolidge . He mainly settled old border conflicts with Dominican President Horacio Vásquez in 1929 . But Borno refused to organize free elections . He maintained a Council of State , whose 21 members were appointed by himself . Thus he was re - elected by it on 12 April 1926 . The print media was upset about this . Borno tried to regulate it and even imprisoned some journalists . The world economic crisis that began in 1929 changed American policy . President Herbert Hoover sought to disengage himself from Haiti . He appointed a commission for this purpose , chaired by Cameron Forbes , who arrived in December 1929 . Because of the economic crisis , Haitian farmers became upset . On 6 December 1929 , an excited group faced some U . S . marines who fired on them and killed some . The Forbes Committee resolved to organize free elections and end the American administration , but remained pessimistic about the sustainability of democracy in Haiti . The opposition chose a provisional president , Louis Eugène Roy .