Mirabal Sisters

The Mirabal sisters, also known as Las Mirabal or Las Mariposas, were three Dominican sisters who opposed the dictatorship of Rafael Leónidas. Trujillo. Patria, Minerva and María Teresa Mirabal were murdered on November 25, 1960.

Of the murdered sisters, Minerva was the one who had a more active role in politics, being the founder of the June 14 Revolutionary Movement together with her husband Manolo Tavárez Justo. María Teresa also became involved in the Movement. Her older sister, Patria, did not have the same level of political activity as her other sisters, but she supported them; She even lent her house to store weapons and tools for the insurgents. A fourth sister, Belgium Adela "Dedé" Mirabal did not have an active role in the activities against the dictator.

They are considered heroines of the homeland for the Dominican Republic. Their remains rest in a mausoleum that was declared an extension of the National Pantheon, and is located in the Hermanas Mirabal House Museum, the last residence of the sisters. In her honor, the International Day against Violence against Women is commemorated every November 25.

Early years, studies and anti-Trujillista activism

The Mirabal sisters grew up in a wealthy rural home in the Ojo de Agua section of the Salcedo municipality. The sisters' father, Enrique Mirabal, was a successful businessman.

They studied as boarders at the Inmaculada Concepción School of La Vega, run by Spanish nuns of the Tertiary Order Franciscans of Jesus and Mary where, both Minerva and María Teresa, stood out for their intelligence and interest in the studio.

When Trujillo came to power, the family lost almost all of their fortune. The sisters, especially Minerva, believed that the dictatorship was ruining the country, so they participated in the creation and organization of the June 14 Revolutionary Movement. Within this group they were known as The Butterflies. They were known that way, because that was the name with which Minerva identified herself in political relations.

Two of the sisters, Minerva and María Teresa, were imprisoned on several occasions in both La Victoria and La 40 prisons. They and their husbands were subjected to cruel torture during the Trujillo regime. Despite these events, they continued to fight against the dictatorship.

Trujillo plot, ambush and subsequent murder

On May 18, 1960, the sisters Minerva and María Teresa had been tried in Santo Domingo, like their husbands, for attacking the security of the Dominican State. They were found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison. Immediately everyone began to serve their sentences, but they would not last long in prison.

In a strange gesture, on August 9 and by express order of Trujillo, Minerva and María Teresa Mirabal were released. Their husbands, however, remained in prison. These provisions of Trujillo had a double purpose: on the one hand, he intended to demonstrate his & # 34; generosity & # 34; On the other hand, he gave freedom to those people whom he wanted to continue harassing. The latter was the case of the Mirabals.

Just a couple of weeks after freedom had passed and there were already reports of secret meetings against the regime led again by the Mirabal Sisters. This is added to the international pressures produced by the attack in Venezuela against President Rómulo Betancourt, for which the OAS sanctioned the Dominican State with the breaking of diplomatic and economic relations, and by the growing fall of the different dictatorial regimes in America. Latina. In this context, Trujillo ordered General Pupo Román to prepare a plan to make the Mirabal Sisters disappear permanently.

He recommended using the SIM to carry it out. The first measure that Pupo Román took was to transfer the prisoners to the Salcedo prison, apparently pretending to be benevolent, since in this way they would not have to make long trips to the La Victoria prison, which was where the husbands served their sentences. In truth, this was the beginning of the capitalization of the plan to eliminate the Mirabal sisters.

General Pupo Román, complying with the Generalissimo's instructions, left it in the hands of the SIM (Military Intelligence Service), which at the time was directed by Navy Lieutenant Commander Major Cándido Torres Tejada, who had replaced to the sinister Johnny Abbes, who at that time was in charge of directing the campaign against the Church and the radio station Radio Caribe.

But in truth Abbes continued to direct the oppressing organization with his ideas and behind the scenes. To comply with the order, Torres Tejada went to Santiago and gave instructions to the head of the SIM in the northern zone, the then lieutenant Víctor Alicinio Peña Rivera and as he writes in his book Trujillo: Hidden History of a Dictator, he explained the plan as follows:

"I come from the Minister of the Armed Forces, General Román, to arrange for the transfer to Puerto Plata of the husbands of the Mirabal Sisters. The justification of the transfer will be the discovery of clandestine weapons addressed to the movement they lead. The idea is that they will help us determine if the people who are caught can identify them as members of the movement. Once this is over, you can tell them they will be returned to Salcedo again. Once transferred, you will prepare an ambush on the road to the Mirabal sisters, they must die and a car accident will be simulated, that is the wish of the boss. "

Victor Alicinio Peña Rivera in his book "Trujillo: Hidden History of a Dictator".

The next day, National Police Corporal Ciriaco de La Rosa arrived at the SIM barracks in Santiago to carry out the plan. He requested four agents and a vehicle to form the action squad. Peña Rivera assigned Alfonso Cruz Valerio, Emilio Estrada Malleta, Néstor Antonio Pérez Terrero and Ramón Emilio Rojas Lora. On November 18, the squadron returned without complying with the order, claiming that the Mirabal sisters were traveling with children. On November 22 they returned again alleging the same reasons, but on November 25 it was found that on that visit they were not with children, but with a driver, Rufino de la Cruz, and another of his sisters, Patria. It was then decided to execute the macabre plan. After saying goodbye to their respective husbands, in the courtyard of the fortress, the three women and the driver left for Salcedo.

Already outside of Puerto Plata, the jeep was moving along the winding road and upon reaching the Marapica bridge, they were stopped by four men who were on a brush, which they crossed in the middle of the bridge.. The three women were forced, at gunpoint, to get into the back seat of their executioners' vehicle, while three of them got into the jeep with the driver, heading towards La Cumbre, where the house was, where they were waiting. Captain Peña Rivera to give them final instructions.

The two vehicles entered the yard of the house. The sisters and the driver were forcibly taken by the hitmen into the house. Immediately, Peña Rivera signaled to de la Rosa to act, retreating to a distant room in the house. He entered the house and distributed them among his other three companions who had to execute the plan, as well as handkerchiefs to hang the victims.

It was so then that for several minutes some moans and screams were emitted (which could not be heard outside the structure of the house built of adobe and lined with mahogany). Subsequently, the hitmen, with labored breathing, finished their extermination work.

The bodies of the women and the man were no longer making any convulsive movements, they beat them to death and then put the bodies in the car and simulated a traffic accident. Sergeant de la Rosa then went to the room where he was Peña Rivera and said to him: "Sir, mission accomplished..

Repercussions

Trujillo believed at the time that he had eliminated a big problem. However, the murder brought him many inconveniences and was the beginning of his misfortune. The death of the Mirabal sisters caused great repercussions in the Dominican Republic. The resulting publicity caused the Dominican people to become increasingly inclined to support the Mirabals and their ideals. This reaction contributed to raising public awareness and eventually culminated in the assassination of the dictator on May 30, 1961.

Intellectual assassins

• Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, Generalísimo y Jefe de Estado de la República Dominicana.
• José René "Pupo" Román Fernández, Secretary of State of the Armed Forces.
• Cándido Torres Tejada, Chief of Operations of the Military Intelligence Service at the central station in Trujillo City.

Performers

• Víctor Alicinio Peña Rivera
• Ciriaco de la Rosa
• Ramón Emilio Rojas Lora
• Alfonso Cruz Valerio
• Emilio Estrada Malleta, of Cuban origin
• Néstor Antonio Pérez Terrero
• José Andeliz

Trial and impunity

In June 1962, the trial began against the accused and accomplices of the murder of the Mirabal sisters and their companion Rufino de la Cruz.

The material authors of the quadruple crime, Ciriaco de la Rosa, Alfonso Cruz Valerio, Emilio Estrada Malleta, Ramón Emilio Rojas Lora and Néstor Antonio Pérez, were seated in the dock.

Sandito Almonte, Cándido Torres Tejada (absent at the trial), head of Operations of the Military Intelligence Service at the Central station in Ciudad Trujillo, Víctor Alicinio Peña Rivera, head of SIM Operations in Cibao, were judged as accomplices. Silvio Antonio Gómez Santana, Viterbo Álvarez (Pechito), Pedro Peña Ortiz and David Olivero.

Magistrate Dr. Osvaldo B. Soto presided over the special court. The prosecutor was Dr. Rafael Valera Benítez, while the civil party was represented by Mr. Antonio Guzmán L., who directed it, and doctors Héctor Sánchez Morcelo, Ramón Pina Acevedo, Francisco Carvajal Martínez and Miguel A. Vásquez Fernandez.

The defense lawyer for the accused was the public defender Héctor Barón Goico. The court sentenced the main defendants to the maximum sentence of 30 years, except for Ciriaco de la Rosa who, in an unusual way, was sentenced to only 20 years for supposedly collaborating with the clarification of the crime, although they never actually served them, some time later and with With the help of Trujillo military groups, they were provided with passports and taken out of the Dominican Republic.

Ciriaco de la Rosa revealed the following during the trial after the murder:

After apprehending them, we drove them to the chosen place, where I ordered Rojas Lora to grab sticks and take one of the girls. He fulfilled the order in the act and took one of them, that of the long braids (María Teresa). Alfonso Cruz Valerio chose the highest (Minerva), I chose the most small and chubby (Patria) and Malleta, the driver, Rufino de La Cruz. I ordered everyone to enter a cane on the side of the road, all separated so that the victims did not witness the execution of each one.
I ordered Perez Terrero to stay on the road to see if any vehicle or someone could find out about the case. That's the truth of the case. I don't want to deceive justice or the people. I tried to avoid the disaster, but I couldn't, because otherwise, they'd have liquidated us all.

Testimony of Ciriaco de la Rosa.

These statements were denied shortly after when it was discovered that the crime really occurred on the grounds of the La Cumbre house, since Peña Rivera wanted to see the corpses with his own eyes before ordering them to be thrown over the cliff, since he had to give a reliable report to his superiors.

Burial

The Mirabals are buried in Conuco, on the outskirts of the city of Salcedo, in the province of Hermanas Mirabal in the Dominican Republic. The place has been converted into a museum in his honor and is open to the public.

There is also a library, bookstore and souvenir shop there. Buried in the same place are also the remains of Manuel Aurelio Tavárez Justo, who was Minerva's husband.

Murder controversy

In February 2010, the book "Trujillo, my father: In my memoirs, Angelita" was released, authored by Angelita Trujillo, daughter of the dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, the which speaks in one of its chapters about the Mirabal sisters and their murder.

The book asserts that José "Pupo" Román Fernández orders the Mirabals killed on orders supposedly from Luis Amiama Tió (one of Trujillo's executioners) and Segundo Imbert Barrera (Antonio's brother), separating his father from the incident. After these revelations in the book, the protests in The country did not wait and described its content as sophistry.

Family

Belgium Adela Mirabal Reyes was the only one of the sisters who was not murdered. Dedé lived in the house where they were born and worked to preserve the memory of her sisters through the Mirabal Sisters House Museum, which is also located in Salcedo. Dedé wrote her first and only book titled &# 34;You live in your garden", published on August 25, 2009. He died on February 1, 2014 due to lung problems.

One of his sons, Jaime David Fernández Mirabal, is a psychiatrist and served as vice president during the first term of Leonel Fernández's government. Also Minou Tavárez Mirabal, who is the daughter of Minerva and is a philologist, was a representative of the Dominican Republic for the National District and candidate for the presidency for the Alliance for Democracy (APD) party in the 2016 elections.

Tributes

In honor of the sisters, several monuments have been raised and various places have been named.

• The province in which they were born and grown today bears the name of the Province of Sisters Mirabal, according to the Law no. 389-07.

• The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is commemorated every 25 November. This was established at the First Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Meeting held in Bogotá, Colombia in 1981, and approved by the official UN resolution of its assembly on February 7, 2000.
• In which his last residence was established the Casa Museo Hermanas Mirabal, with artifacts that belonged to them. There they rest their remains in a mausoleum that is extension of the National Pantheon.
• The American writer of Dominican origin Julia Álvarez wrote a novel based on the Mirabal sisters, with the title In the time of the butterflies (In The Time of Butterflies) that was then taken to the cinema by Mariano Barroso.
• One of Santo Domingo Metro Stations has its name.
• On 2 October 2007, a 200-weight alusive ticket was issued to the Mirabal sisters.
• In honor of them the botanists Francisco Jiménez Rodríguez and Liliana Katinas dedicated a species of new plant for science, Salcedoa mirabaliarum F. Jiménez R. & L. Katinas, endemic tree of La Española, discovered in the mountains of the province Hermanas Mirabal. It was published under the article “Salcedoa gen. nov., a biogeographic Enigma in the Caribbean Mutisieae (Asteraceae)”, in the scientific journal Systematic Botany (2004), 29(4):.987-1002, of the American Society of Plant Taxonomist. ”

Filmography