On June 19, 1917, Major General Smedley Butler led a group of U.S. Marines into the Haitian National Assembly to dissolve that body when the Haitian representatives refused to ratify the new constitution that the U.S. wanted implemented. The U.S.-authored constitution was designed to make foreign investment and ownership of property easier, in response to lobbying by the National City Bank of New York (today’s Citigroup).
The dissolution of the Haitian legislature began the phase of the U.S. occupation marked by violence, censorship, and authoritarian rule. Local representative government would not be restored in Haiti for more than a decade.
See Hans Schmidt, The United States Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1995. p. 97.