François Duvalier (; 14 April 190721 April 1971), also known as PapaDoc, was the President of Haiti from 1957 to 1971. He was elected president in 1957 on a populist and black nationalist platform and successfully thwarted a coupd’état in 1958. His rule, based on a purged military, a rural militia known as the , and the use of cult of personality, resulted in the murder of 30,000 to 60,000 Haitians and the exile of many more.