Despite popular support early in his regime, repression and the exposure of ties with Dominican President Rafael Trujillo caused Lescot's reputation to fall.

[2] In late 1945, an anti-Lescot student newspaper called La Ruche published its first issue in Port-au-Prince.

Because the students offered recitations in the vernacular language of Creole to Port-au-Prince's illiterate working population, it acquired widespread popularity.

In the following days, they were joined by workers and received declarations of support from a new opposition organization, the Front Démocratique Unifié (FDU), headed by Georges Rigaud.

[3] As the protests grew in intensity, Lescot met with opposition leaders and stated that he would dissolve the cabinet and step down on May 15, the fifth anniversary of his ascension to power.

[4] Later that day, Lavaud, his lieutenant Antoine Levelt, and American ambassador Orme Wilson Jr. formed the Conseil Exécutif Militaire (CEM), an organization committed to forcing Lescot out.