Rafael Leonidas Trujillo

Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina (San Cristóbal, October 24, 1891-Ciudad Trujillo, May 30, 1961) was a Dominican politician, soldier and dictator from 1930 until his assassination on May 30 from 1961. He served as generalissimo of the army from 1930 to 1938 and from 1942 to 1952 and ruled indirectly from 1938 to 1942 and from 1952 to 1961, using puppet presidents.

His 30 years of government are known as the Trujillo Era, and considered one of the bloodiest tyrannies in Latin America. His government was characterized by anti-communism, the repression of all opposition, and the cult of to personality. Civil liberties were non-existent and constant violations of human rights were committed. It plunged the country into a state of panic and "respect", where a death could be covered up as an "accident" and anyone who If you did not agree with the Trujillo regime, you could be imprisoned and tortured in one of the clandestine prisons for that practice, and most of the time, you would end up dead.

Nevertheless, Trujillo's supporters highlight some positive aspects of the regime such as the end of caudillismo as a source of political instability, the restoration of public order and a certain economic development of the country. During his regime, all levels of the state functioned in accordance with his interests and established a business monopoly that allowed him to accumulate a large personal fortune.

The government of Trujillo was responsible for the deaths of more than 50,000 people, including the thousands of Haitians killed in the so-called "Perejil Massacre". Total estimates of the death toll in the massacre range from 5,000 to 30,000. Robert Crassweller cites those estimates, noting that "a figure between 15,000 and 20,000 would be reasonable, though still conjecture". of other nationalities, such as Cubans, Colombians, Venezuelans and Spaniards.

As a product of the National Guard, created by the Americans during the country's first occupation in 1916, Trujillo paid special attention to the Armed Forces. Military personnel received generous pay and benefits under his rule, the army became expanded numerically and equipment inventories increased. Trujillo maintained control of the officer corps through fear, patronage, and frequent "task rotation."^{[citation needed]}

The Trujillo regime developed in a fertile time for dictatorial regimes in Latin America, being contemporary with other similar governments within the Caribbean basin, although according to some authors, his dictatorship was characterized as being more brazen, brutal and efficient than the others around him. At the same time, Trujillo had several foreign governments opposed to his dictatorship against him, including Rómulo Betancourt of Venezuela, Juan José Arévalo of Guatemala, Ramón Grau San Martín of Cuba, Elie Lescot of Haiti, and José Figueres Ferrer from Costa Rica.^{[citation required]}

Family and early years

Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina was born in the city of San Cristóbal on October 24, 1891. He was the son of José Trujillo Valdez, a small merchant who was the son of the Gran Canarian sergeant José Trujillo Monagas, who arrived in Santo Domingo as a member of the Spanish reinforcement troops during the Annexation, and of Altagracia Julia Molina Chevalier, later known as Mamá Julia, daughter of Pedro Molina Peña, a Dominican peasant, and of the teacher Luisa Erciná Chevalier, whose parents, although originally from Haiti, were predominantly of French descent: her father, Justin Alexis Victor Turenne Carrié Blaise, was white, and her mother, Eleonore Juliette 'Diyetta' Chevallier Moreau, mulatto.

He was the third of eleven children. His siblings were Virgilio, Flérida Marina, Rosa María Julieta, José & # 34; Petán & # 34; Arismendy, Kind "Pipi" Romero, Luisa Nieves, Julio Aníbal, Pedro Vetilio, Ofelia Japonesa and Héctor "Negro" Welcome Trujillo Molina. Trujillo also had brothers on his father's side. All of his brothers except Amable Romeo were generals and colonels in the Dominican Army. Under his dictatorship, Héctor Bienvenido became Generalissimo in 1959.

Trujillo's childhood was relatively uneventful although his basic education was patchy and quite limited. In 1897, at the age of 6, he was enrolled in the Juan Hilario Meriño school. A year later he moved to the Pablo Barinas College, where some disciples of Eugenio María de Hostos taught, and stayed there for three or four years.

In 1907, at the age of 16, Trujillo obtained a job as a telegraph operator, an activity he carried out for 3 years. Later, he dedicated himself to his brother & # 34; Petán & # 34; rustling, check forgery and postal theft. For these crimes he was found guilty and imprisoned for a few months. ^{[citation needed ]}

In 1916, he again turned to criminal activities and led the band of robbers called "la 42", feared for their violence. He later worked for two years in the sugar industry as a country guard.^{[citation required]}

Military Training

Trujillo in 1922.

In 1916, following the US intervention, the occupying army soon created a "National Guard". In 1918 and seeing an opportunity in it, Trujillo joined the newly founded military institution and was soon promoted to second lieutenant. On January 11, 1919, he was promoted again and sworn in, becoming the fifteenth lieutenant of the then sixteen in the National Guard.

In 1920, already with the rank of lieutenant, he was subjected to a military trial for raping and extorting Isabel Guzmán, a minor under 16 years of age, but he was exonerated of guilt. In 1921 he entered the Military Academy founded by the occupation army in Haina and on December 22 of that same year he was appointed to head the San Pedro de Macorís garrison.

In 1922 he was transferred to Cibao and, while he was in San Francisco de Macorís, he was promoted to captain without going through the rank of first lieutenant, something irregular in the military ranks, but explainable due to the services rendered by Trujillo to the American occupier. This promotion was accompanied by the reorganization of the National Guard, which later became the Dominican National Police, of which he took command of the 10th Company very shortly after.

In 1923, before his appointment as inspector of the first military district, he participated as a student in the School of Officials of the Department of the North. At this time, despite his military training, his political leanings began to manifest. In his heady career in the military, he rose to the rank of major and when US troops left the country in 1924, they left Trujillo in charge. In 1927 Trujillo joined the National Brigade, an institution created to replace the National Guard, and rose to the rank of general.

Coup against Vásquez and rise to power

With the victory of Horacio Vásquez in the elections that followed the vacation of US troops in 1924, Trujillo remained in charge of the National Police. On December 6 of that same year, President Vásquez named him lieutenant colonel and chief of the General Staff.

In 1930, an insurrection against President Horacio Vásquez broke out in Santiago, and the rebels marched on Santo Domingo. Trujillo received the order to subdue the rebellion, but when the mutineers arrived in the capital on February 26, they met with no resistance. When President Vásquez found out that one of the ideologues of the insurrection was Trujillo himself, he decided to resign as a negotiated solution to the crisis in order to avoid bloodshed. Vásquez was sent into exile, and rebel leader Rafael Estrella was proclaimed interim president.

Trujillo became the candidate in the 1930 presidential elections taking Estrella Ureña as vice president. The opposition candidacy, represented by Federico Velásquez Hernández and Ángel Morales for the presidency and vice presidency respectively, withdrew, leaving Trujillo-Ureña's as the only option.

The electoral campaign was carried out in a climate of terror provoked by Trujillo and his paramilitary band La 42, led by Army Major Miguel Ángel Paulin. Even the members of the Central Electoral Board were forced to resign on May 7, being replaced by people who responded to Trujillo's wishes. The Trujillo-Ureña binomial won the elections on May 16, officially with 45% of the vote. It later emerged that only 25% of voters went to the polls, leading to the belief that they were fraudulent elections. On May 24, 1930, Trujillo and Ureña, president and vice president of the country, respectively, were officially proclaimed. On August 16, at the age of 38, Trujillo assumed the presidency of the Republic.

First term (1930-1938)

Trujillo in 1933.

On September 3, 1930, three weeks after Trujillo assumed power, the destructive Hurricane San Zenón struck Santo Domingo, killing more than 3,000 people. With money contributed by the American Red Cross, the city was rebuilt. In June of that same year, the opposition organized to overthrow Trujillo, but everything was in vain and the promoters ended up in exile. Among the exiles were Martín de Moya, Horacio Vásquez, Ángel Morales, Federico Velásquez, Alfredo Ricart, Cucho Álvarez Pina, Ángel María Soler, José Dolores Alfonseca, Luis F. Mejía, Leovigildo Cuello and Ramón de Lara.

In March 1931, General Desiderio Arias resigned from Trujillo's cabinet, who, left without any opposition, strengthened his dictatorship. In October, Trujillo promulgated the emergency law, through which the Dominican state suspended payment for the amortization of the foreign debt with the United States. He also cut public spending with massive layoffs and pay cuts. In addition, he decreased imports and balanced the trade balance.

The Dominican Party was the ideological support machine of the regime. Officially formed on August 16, 1931, it was the only party allowed during the regime, with few and temporary exceptions. Mario Fermín Cabral was the main sponsor of the Party, whose symbol was a palm. The party membership card became a mandatory document for all Dominicans of legal age and necessary for most daily activities, such as looking for a job or leaving the country. Faced with the risk of possible invasions by political exiles, Trujillo made a tour with his General Staff through the different provinces of the country accompanied by soldiers from the national army on December 31 of that same year.

On May 26, 1933, he was named "generalissimo of the National Armies" by the National Congress.

In February 1934, a convention was held to elect Trujillo again as a candidate for president for the Dominican party. On May 16 of that year and without any political opposition, national elections were held with Trujillo as the only candidate. On August 16, he assumed power for the second consecutive time, this time taking Jacinto Bienvenido Peynado as vice president.

Government Cabinet

1937 Genocide: Massacre of Haitians

Trujillo always showed concern for Haitian immigration to the Dominican Republic and based on this, he developed a xenophobic policy in the country. Said policy was directed, of course, to the inhabitants of the neighboring country, although it also affected Dominicans with significantly darker skin. In October 1933 he traveled to Haiti to meet with Sténio Vincent, president of the neighboring country at the time. Trujillo proposed to Vincent to review the previous agreement of 1929 in relation to the limits of the Haitian-Dominican border. Vincent accepted and in March 1936 both presidents signed a new agreement that established new limits on the border.

From September 28 to October 8, 1937, Trujillo decided to genocide thousands of Haitians who lived in the area of the Dominican border with Haiti in an event known as the Perejil Massacre or El Corte, where Dominican army troops killed, according to estimates, between 15,000 and 20,000 people. This fact was tried to be justified under the pretext of eliminating conspiratorial infiltrations and as a reprisal for the idea that the Haitian government was cooperating with a plan of Dominican exiles who sought to overthrow him from the neighboring nation.

Second term (1942-1952)

In February 1942, Trujillo was once again nominated for that year's elections by the Dominican Party and by the newly created "Trujillista Party." On May 16, the elections were held where almost 600,000 citizens voted, Trujillo being elected again as president.

In 1944, on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Dominican nation, Trujillo celebrated an event called "The Centennial Fiestas."

Trujillo in 1945.

On August 4, 1946, a strong earthquake struck the northeast region of the country. This earthquake produced a 16-foot (5 m) tidal wave off the coast of Scottish Bay that killed nearly 2,000 people.

Trujillo (dark work) receiving the newly elected Haitian president Paul Magloire (left) in Trujillo City (Santo Domingo) in February 1951.

At the end of 1945, discontent in the sugar mills worsened due to the inflation that existed at the time, aggravated by the wages earned by low-skilled workers. Against those who dared to stay in their homes in protest, Trujillo ordered the army to carry out raids alleging the crime of vagrancy. Those captured were imprisoned and forced to work. These raids also included those who did not possess the regulatory documents required by the regime, popularly known as "the 3 blows."

In January 1946, the Federación Local del Trabajo, a group of labor protesters founded by union leader Mauricio Báez, went on strike that lasted more than a week. Although the dictatorship ended up giving in to the petitioners' requests, later some of its leaders and participants were persecuted and assassinated, while others were forced to take the path of exile. Some time later, Trujillo disintegrated all the unions in the country, forcing them to belong to a federation related to him. In 1950 Mauricio Báez was kidnapped in Cuba where he was in exile and his whereabouts were never known again.

In May 1947, new elections were held, this time tempered with strong international criticism of the dictatorial nature of the government, which forced Trujillo to set up a democratic fiction. Three political parties participated in these elections, the National Labor Party, the Democratic National Party and the Dominican Party, whose candidates were Rafael A. Espaillat, Francisco Prats Ramírez and Rafael Trujillo, respectively. Trujillo ended up winning the contest with 90% of the votes.

In October 1952 Trujillo created the Trujillonian Institute with Manuel A. Peña Batlle as its president. The institution's mission was to spread the work of Trujillo's government.

Economic policy

Under the governments of Trujillo a certain economic well-being was verified. His economic policy was based on the elimination of external debt, the substitution of imports and the promotion of national production.

On August 15, 1938, the Port of Santo Domingo was inaugurated, which significantly boosted commercial activities abroad.

On September 24, 1940, the Trujillo-Hull Treaty was signed, an agreement by which the Dominican-American convention signed in 1924 was repealed and absolute control of customs by the Dominican authorities was restored.

In 1941 Trujillo bought the branch of the National City Bank of New York in Santo Domingo and on October 24 of that same year he founded the Banco de Reservas. In 1947, he founded the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic and on January 10 of that same year the Dominican peso was established as the official currency, thus ending the use of the US dollar as legal tender in the country. On July 19 of that year, Trujillo settled the country's foreign debt amounting to 9,271,855 US dollars.^{[citation needed]}

From 1945 to 1950 the Trujillo regime fostered a process of industrialization in the country, especially in the agricultural field.

Immigration Policy

In 1938, at the Evian Conference, it was the only country willing to accept a significant number of French Jews, with an agreement made between Trujillo and Jewish businessmen from New York City, where they agreed to pay around one million of dollars. In 1940, 750 Jews arrived in the Dominican Republic through an agreement signed by Trujillo, which established the donation of 110 km² for the refugees, who later settled in Sosúa. Despite the intentions of the Dominican regime, the total number of Jewish refugees did not exceed a thousand.

In 1939, after the Spanish Civil War ended, exiles from the Republican side were allowed to enter the country. In 1952, Trujillo returned to Spain to meet his counterpart Francisco Franco. This trip sought, among other things, to promote the immigration of Spaniards to the Dominican Republic.

He also encouraged the immigration of Japanese farmers to the Constanza and Jarabacoa area after World War II.

Environmental policy

The Trujillo regime greatly expanded Vedado del Yaque, a nature reserve around the Yaque del Sur River. In 1934 he created the country's first national park and established a guard agency to protect the park system. Likewise, he prohibited the felling of pine trees without permission. However, behind these environmentalist attitudes, the monopoly intention of benefiting their private companies was glimpsed.

In the 1950s the Trujillo regime commissioned a study on the hydroelectric potential via the creation of dams. The commission concluded that only forested waterways could support hydroelectric dams.^{[citation needed]}The Trujillo era meant a sharp increase in deforestation and a massive loss for the native forests, which were left in the hands of a small group of large sawyers associated with the dictator, who devastated millions of hectares of forests, decimating the flora and fauna.

After his execution in 1961, indiscriminate logging resumed in the Dominican Republic. The invaders burned the forests for agriculture and the logging companies cut down large areas of forest, events that ended up reducing the potential generation of hydroelectric power in the Dominican Republic. In 1967, then-President Joaquín Balaguer launched military attacks against illegal logging.

Relations with the Church

Since his second year in government, Trujillo sought to obtain the support of the Catholic Church and decreed various measures in favor of it. Among these measures was the granting of subsidies by the government. The church reciprocated these favors and this earned it the Hierosolimitana Order of the Holy Sepulcher granted by the Archbishop of Santo Domingo Monsignor Adolfo Nouel in August 1931.

Trujillo's problems with the Catholic Church began in 1932, with the appointment of Father Rafael Castellanos Martínez to replace Monsignor Nouel, who did not submit to his opinions. Trujillo, considered the father's attitude as an act of rebellion and withdrew the subsidy to the Church, at the same time that he asked the Holy See for the removal of Castellanos and the return of Nouel, who upon his return was appointed for life..

On June 15, 1954, Trujillo traveled to Vatican City to sign a Concordat with the Catholic Church, headed at that time by Pope Pius XII, who awarded the dictator the Grand Cross of the Pian Order . This meeting guaranteed the Catholic Church privileges over other churches.

On January 31, 1960, all the churches in the Dominican Republic agreed and through a pastoral letter showed their disagreement with the regime. Trujillo responded by attacking the Catholic Church in the media and promoting protests against its bishops.

Puppet Presidents 1938-1942, 1952-1961

Due to the international problems that occurred during his period of government 1934-1938, Trujillo decided not to stand in the elections and nominated Jacinto Bienvenido Peynado as a candidate for the presidency. In the elections held on May 16, 1938, Peynado took Manuel de Jesús Troncoso de la Concha as vice president and won with all the votes cast. On August 16 of that same year, Bienvenido Peynado took office as president of the country, although he died in 1940 during his term and the presidency was assumed by Vice President Troncoso.

On August 16, 1952, the third president, his brother Héctor Bienvenido Trujillo, was sworn in. Meanwhile, Trujillo, who held the position of Dominican ambassador to the OAS, made several trips to America and Europe.

In 1957, the presidential elections for the period 1957-1962 were held with Héctor Bienvenido Trujillo and Joaquín Balaguer as candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency, respectively. Faced with great international pressure and in an effort to appear somewhat democratic, Trujillo made his brother Héctor Bienvenido resign in 1960. On August 3 of that same year, Joaquín Balaguer took office, replacing Héctor Bienvenido. This would be the last president of the dictator.

These resources were used by Trujillo to deceive other countries and thus maintain his dictatorship with a false image of democracy in view of the international community. Trujillo has never ceased to effectively govern the Dominican Republic since he assumed power in 1930.

Military Intelligence Service (SIM)

At the end of the 1950s, during the Trujillo regime, a kind of secret police called the Military Intelligence Service (SIM) was created, whose purpose was political repression. The organization had several secret agents and officials of the dictatorship with Johnny Abbes as head. Abbes was in charge in many cases of carrying out Trujillo's orders of repression and torture, although many claim that Abbes sometimes acted on his own.

The SIM intimidated the general population through torture and had several places to carry it out, such as the Cárcel del 9 and the Cárcel de la 40.

Trujillo and the world

Trujillo and Somoza in 1952.

After the 1937 genocide of Haitians, Trujillo began to have international problems, especially with the United States, despite being a stronghold of anti-communism in the Caribbean. Hamilton Fish, a member of the United States House of Representatives, asked his government to break relations with the Dominican Republic if the conflict with Haiti was not resolved. On January 31, 1938, Trujillo signed an agreement with the Haitian government whereby he agreed to pay compensation of $750,000 for the massacre, of which he only paid $550,000.

During World War II, Trujillo sided with the Allies and declared war on Germany, Italy, and Japan on December 11, 1941. Although the Dominican Republic had no direct military involvement, this fact determined that the country became one of the founding members of the United Nations.

Trujillo encouraged diplomatic and economic relations with the US, but maintained tense relations with parts of Latin America, especially Costa Rica and Venezuela. He maintained friendly relations with Franco in Spain. At the international level, the regime prioritized, through the secret police, attacks against prominent opposition figures abroad, among them the attack on Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt, in 1960, and the kidnapping of the Spaniard Jesús de Galíndez Suárez, in the United States, on 12 March 1956. He also maintained strong ties to the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua.

In 1941, Élie Lescot, who had received financial support from Trujillo, succeeded Sténio Vincent as president of Haiti. Trujillo expected Lescot to be a puppet, but Lescot turned against him. Trujillo unsuccessfully tried to assassinate him in 1944, and the Haitian government echoed the fact in order to discredit the Dominican regime.

Towards the end of his term, his relationship with the United States deteriorated again. ^{[citation needed]}On March 12, 1956, by order of the dictatorship, the Spanish exile Jesús de Galíndez, a professor at Columbia University who at that time resided in New York, representative of the Basque government in exile. Galíndez had written a doctoral thesis on the dictatorship of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo and when he found out about it, he had him kidnapped, making him disappear later. This fact caused the United States to definitively break relations with the dictatorship.

On December 22, 1958, on the Dominican-Haitian border between Jimaní and Malpasse, Trujillo and François Duvalier signed a mutual protection agreement. The agreement established, among other things, that neither of the two governments would allow subversive activities against any of them in their respective territories, nor that political exiles carry out systematic propaganda inciting the use of violence against their respective States.

That same year, when Trujillo realized that Fidel Castro was gaining ground, he began to support the dictatorial regime of Fulgencio Batista by providing him with money, planes, equipment, and men. Trujillo, convinced that Batista would defeat Castro, was shocked when Castro presented himself as a fugitive after being overthrown. Trujillo kept Batista until August 1959 as a "virtual prisoner" and after paying an estimated amount between three and four million dollars, the dictator was finally able to travel to Portugal, a country that had granted him a visa.

The dictator was used by the US government to try to overthrow the then-nascent revolutionary government of Fidel Castro. Fidel Castro, for his part, threatened to overthrow Trujillo, and Trujillo responded by increasing the national defense budget. Also, a foreign legion was organized to defend Haiti, given the possibility that Castro would first invade the western part of the island ^{[citation needed]} to overthrow the François regime Duvalier.

Assassination attempt on Rómulo Betancourt

Starting in 1959, Trujillo began to interfere more and more in the internal affairs of other neighboring countries. Trujillo expressed great contempt for Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt, who was an outspoken opponent of the dictator who had been associated with the Dominican conspirators.

Trujillo developed an obsessive and personal hatred of Betancourt and supported numerous plans by Venezuelan exiles to overthrow him. Because of this, the Venezuelan government took the case against Trujillo to the Organization of American States (OAS). This situation infuriated Trujillo, who ordered his foreign agents to plant a bomb in Betancourt's car. The assassination attempt, carried out on June 24, 1960, wounded but did not kill the Venezuelan president as he was addressing a military parade on Caracas' Los Próceres promenade.

The attack on Betancourt turned world opinion against Trujillo. Outraged, OAS members unanimously approved breaking diplomatic relations with the Trujillo government and imposing economic sanctions on the Dominican Republic. The relationship with the dictator had become an embarrassment for the United States and diplomatic relations were broken irreconcilably after the Betancourt incident.

Overthrow attempts

The Dominican exiles held a congress at the University of Havana and formed the so-called "United Front for Dominican Liberation" with Ángel Morales as president. His main motive was to obtain military aid from the democratic governments of Latin America and the Caribbean to use it against the Trujillo dictatorship. Among the members was the Dominican storyteller and politician Juan Bosch, who took over international management and traveled to various countries to meet with their respective presidents.

On September 21, 1947, the group of Dominicans in exile, along with a volunteer battalion of armed soldiers from Cuba and other Latin American countries, left for Santo Domingo in a military movement called the Cayo Confites Expedition. The expedition failed; the expedition members were forced to disembark, to be later arrested and taken to the Columbia military compound, located in Havana.

On June 19, 1949, a second unsuccessful attempt was made to overthrow the Trujillo regime, ending up with the expedition members imprisoned or charred in a counterattack by the Dominican army.

On June 14, 1959, several armed men commanded by Enrique Jiménez Moya landed in Constanza in order to overthrow Trujillo. Days later, on June 20, some 144 men led by José Horacio Rodríguez disembarked in Maimón in the province of Puerto Plata, who arrived in a boat called "Carmen Elsa." After several days of combat against the regime, the expedition members were defeated and transferred to the San Isidro Air Base, where they were tortured. Some survived, but later most were shot.

That same year, a left-wing political group called the June 14 Movement was formed in the country, made up of young people who sought a change towards the democratization of the country. The movement had Manolo Tavárez Justo and his wife Minerva Mirabal as leaders. The Trujillo regime was merciless against most of the group's members and the SIM took charge of persecuting, imprisoning and torturing its members.

When John F. Kennedy was sworn in as President of the United States on January 20, 1961, the CIA's plans to overthrow Trujillo were already underway. Despite this, President Kennedy sent diplomat Robert D. Murphy to meet with Trujillo and persuade him to withdraw from power. Murphy arrived in Santo Domingo on April 15, 1961, being the fourth and last emissary of the US government that tried to convince Trujillo to withdraw from power, an approach that was ignored by the dictator.

For the May 30 plot, the United States government offered its support in arms and logistics to those seeking to put an end to the dictatorship, but did not maintain its support after the tyrant's assassination. Although the plan ended the life of Trujillo, it also meant the death of almost everyone involved, being isolated without international support.

Decline of the dictatorship

The dictator had become an embarrassment for the United States, a situation that became increasingly tense as a result of the attack against Rómulo Betancourt.

On Friday, November 25, 1960, the brutal murder of the three Mirabal Sisters —Patria, Minerva and María Teresa— who were opponents of the dictatorship, further increased discontent towards it.

Murder

On Tuesday, May 30, 1961, at 9:45 p.m., at kilometer 9 of the highway from Santo Domingo to San Cristóbal, the car in which Trujillo was traveling was machine-gunned in an ambush set up by Modesto Díaz, Salvador Estrella Sadhalá, Antonio de la Maza, Amado García Guerrero, Manuel "Tunti" Cáceres Michel, Juan Tomás Díaz, Roberto Pastoriza, Luis Amiama Tió, Antonio Imbert Barrera, Pedro Livio Cedeño and Huáscar Tejeda. The vehicle received more than 60 bullet impacts of various calibers, of which seven hit the dictator's body, causing his death. His driver, Zacarías de la Cruz, received several hits, but did not lose his life, although he was left for dead by the executioners.

The weapons provided by the CIA had been hidden by the American Simon Thomas Stocker "Wimpy", as he was also known, owner of the only supermarket in the country and resident in the Republic since 1942, he was contacted by the CIA under the name in the key of "Hector". Stocker refused CIA compensation for his efforts, citing his moral conviction. The weapons were hidden for more than two months, at personal risk and that of his family, inside a small closet in his study, in his private residence, now demolished and which was located on a plot of land on the south side of Independencia Avenue., next to Máximo Gómez avenue.

Some claimed that these weapons never reached the hands of the organizers of the execution, due to the alleged lack of explicit CIA authorization for their delivery. This opinion was contradicted by live voice testimonies, communicated by Stocker to family members and trusted persons, stating that the weapons were delivered by him to a Dominican, after having hidden them on his property, according to his account. However, this version was denied by the sole survivor of the execution, General Imbert Barrera.

Some analysts mention that the interest of the United States in ending Trujillo was due to the fact that the repression of his government could lead to a pro-communist revolution in the Dominican Republic, similar to the Cuban Revolution, which was a consequence of the rejection of the Cuban people the dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Trujillo's family tried to flee with the dictator's body on their yacht «Angelita», but it was not possible. His funeral, held on June 2 of the same year, was that of a true statesman and a long procession accompanied him from the National Palace to the town of San Cristóbal, where he was buried. Thousands of people from all social strata filed past the coffin with the remains of Trujillo. Then-President Joaquín Balaguer gave the laudatory speech, saying, among other things:

... The moment is therefore conducive for us to swear on these beloved relics that we will defend their memory and that we will be faithful to their slogans while maintaining unity. Dear boss, see you later. Your spiritual sons, veterans of the campaigns that you have paid for more than 30 years, we will look to your tomb as an alien symbol and we will not devise means to prevent the flame that you lit on the altars of the Republic and in the soul of all Dominicans.

After this, due to popular pressure, the Trujillo family left the country and Ramfis Trujillo had to remove his father's body. Trujillo was buried in Paris, in the Père-Lachaise Cemetery, at the request of his relatives.

In 2009 a controversy arose in the Dominican Republic. On the occasion of the 48th anniversary of his death, the transfer of Trujillo's remains to the Dominican Republic was proposed, to be buried alongside the national heroes. This idea generated rejection from some writers.

Currently the remains of Trujillo are in the Mingorrubio Cemetery in the small community of El Pardo, 25 minutes from Madrid in Spain, buried in a pantheon with his family.

Retaliation

Hours after Trujillo's death, his son Ramfis, who was in Paris, chartered a plane and returned to Santo Domingo in the early hours of Wednesday, May 31, immediately taking charge of the situation and becoming the country's strong man, despite the fact that Joaquín Balaguer was still formally in charge of the presidency.

The Military Intelligence Service (SIM) and all the State security services carried out extensive raids in all sectors of the city, looking for the perpetrators. On June 2, 1961, SIM agents broke into the house of Lieutenant Amado García Guerrero, who was killed by several machine gun shots. On June 4 of that same year, two others implicated were assassinated, Juan Tomás Díaz and Antonio de la Maza. On June 10, General José René Román Fernández (“Pupo”), who served as secretary of the Armed Forces of the dictatorship, was arrested and tortured, upon learning of his involvement in the plot. On November 18, Roberto Rafael Pastoriza Neret, Pedro Livio Cedeño Herrera, Luis Salvador Estrella Sadhalá, Modesto Díaz Quezada, Huáscar Antonio Tejeda Pimentel and Luis Manuel "Tunti" Cáceres Michel were captured. They were all taken to the "Hacienda María" in San Cristóbal, where they were shot on the orders of Ramfis Trujillo.

On November 19, the military uprising known as "The Rebellion of the Pilots" took place. This, together with international pressure, forced Ramfis and his family to leave the country.

Post-dictatorship transition

After several attempts by Trujillo's relatives to maintain power and the coup d'état that overthrew President Joaquín Balaguer, led by the commander of the air force, General Pedro Rodríguez Echavarría, a council of state launched a political opening that culminated in the holding of free elections on December 20, 1962. These elections were the first with characteristics of democratic plurality and where political parties came to play a significant role.

The elections gave victory to Juan Bosch, presidential candidate for the Dominican Revolutionary Party with 59.5% of the votes counted.

Legacy

Trujillo reorganized the State and the economy while carrying out extensive work in the construction of large infrastructure works in the Dominican Republic. His dictatorship ended with the political instability resulting from caudillismo dragged on since the 19th century, which was reflected in a certain prosperity and modernity for Dominicans, although much of the wealth generated in the country during that period ended up in the hands of the dictator and their families. This relative economic development was verified coupled with the restriction of civil rights and liberties that were practically non-existent throughout his regime.

He was popularly known as "El Jefe" or "The Benefactor", but also with less "elegant" as & # 34; Chapita & # 34;, due to his fascination with medals. Dominican children emulated him by building toy medals out of bottle caps. He was also known as "El Chivo".

In September 2010, a bill was sent to the Chamber of Deputies of the Republic by the deputy Leivin Guerrero of the Dominican Revolutionary Party, which proposed the creation of a museum in San Cristóbal related to the "Era of Trujillo" Several Dominican historians opposed the proposal. This project generated deep rejection and was discarded.

On May 29, 2011, the Memorial Museum of the Dominican Resistance was inaugurated, where a sample of elements from the "Era of Trujillo" and the efforts of the Dominican people to eradicate it.

Personal life

Trujillo with his second wife Welcome Ricardo in 1934.

On August 13, 1913 at the age of 21, Trujillo married Aminta Ledesma Lachapelle, a young woman of good repute, daughter of a farmer from San Cristóbal. They had two daughters: Julia Genoveva, who was born and died in 1914, and Flor de Oro Trujillo Ledesma, born in 1915 and who married Porfirio Rubirosa in 1932. The marriage ended in divorce in 1938.

On March 30, 1927, he married Bienvenida Ricardo Martínez, a young woman from Monte Cristi, daughter of Buenaventura Ricardo Heureaux (cousin of Ulises Heureaux Lebert and uncle of Joaquín Balaguer Ricardo). A year later he met María de los Ángeles Martínez Alba, known as "la Españolita" and had an extramarital affair with her. Rafael Leónidas (Ramfis) was born from this relationship on June 5, 1929. According to a publication by Jesús de Galíndez, Ramfis was not the son of Trujillo, but of a Cuban named Rafael Dominici, to whom María Martínez was married at the time he was born. The publication was never denied, leaving everything a mystery.

She divorced Bienvenida Ricardo in 1935, alleging that she could not give her children. Later, in 1936, he procreated with Bienvenida a Odette . He had two more children with María Martínez; Angelita Trujillo, born in Paris on June 10, 1939, and Rhadamés Leónidas Trujillo, born on December 1, 1942. Ramfis and Rhadamés were names taken from characters in the opera Aida by Giuseppe Verdi.

In 1937, Trujillo met Lina Lovatón Pittaluga, a young woman from the upper class with whom he had an extramarital relationship and with whom he had two children: Yolanda, born in 1939, and Rafael, born on June 20, 1943.

Despite not being a fan of baseball, Trujillo used the sport that was the passion of Dominicans as a seduction tool for his re-election purposes. Trujillo invited many black baseball players from the US, where they could not play freely due to the discrimination at the time. Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige, a Negro League player, traveled to the Caribbean and Latin America, where the teams were integrated. He pitched for a team organized by Trujillo, who was trying to gain popularity, so he created Equipo Ciudad Trujillo. He even paid Paige up to $30,000 to win the Dominican championship. Paige fled the Dominican Republic with her teammates after the cash-in, fearing reprisals from Trujillo's enemies.

Trujillo was a dynamic and healthy person. Medically, he was in generally good health, but suffered from chronic urinary tract infections and, later, prostate problems. In 1934, Dr. Georges Marion was called from Paris to perform three urological procedures on Trujillo.

Over time, Trujillo acquired numerous assets. His favorite place was "La casa de Caoba", near San Cristóbal, and a house on the beach in Najayo. Other places on his property that he rarely visited were Santiago, Constanza, La Cumbre, San José de las Matas, and many more. In addition, he had a penthouse in the Hotel Embajador, in Santo Domingo.

Although Trujillo was nominally Catholic in front of the public, his real devotion was superstitions.^{[citation needed]}

Acquired assets

Trujillo in April 1946.

Trujillo used the method of acquiring properties, farms and other lucrative businesses at very low prices as a result of political pressure. This was a source of concern for sectors of the upper class and investors, who were terrified when Trujillo was interested in any of his assets. In these and other ways, Trujillo took over everything and while he saw the Dominican Republic basically as a private fiefdom, his and his family's.

Trujillo and his family amassed enormous wealth. He acquired property including ranching on a large scale and became involved in meat and dairy production, operations that soon evolved into a monopoly. Other industries owned by him were: sugar, salt, tobacco, lumber and lottery. Already by 1937, Trujillo's annual income was around a million and a half dollars and by 1940 he had already taken over most of the Dominican companies, creating a monopoly in the country. By 1960 he owned 60% of the Dominican sugar industry.

He came to accumulate a personal fortune estimated at about 800 million dollars, which placed him among the 6 richest men in the world. At the time of his death, there were more than 111 companies owned by him in the country.

In different ways, he managed to concentrate a large part of the Dominican economy in his hands throughout his life. As an example we have:

• Get out. In 1931 it was added to the production and sale of salt. This reported some 400 000 net pesos per year.
• Meat, which provided annual income of about 500 000 pesos.
• Rice. It prohibited the import of rice and only allowed the consumption of Creole rice that distributed one of its personal companies.
• Central Lechera.
• Company Anonymous Tabacalera.
• Dominican Footwear Factory.
• Dominican Paintings (PIDOCA).
• Ingenios Esperanza, Porvenir, Ozama, Amistad, Monte Llano, Barahona, Consuelo, Quisqueya, Boca Chica, Las Pajas, Santa Fe, Catarey and Río Haina.
• San Rafael Insurance.
• La Altagracia.
• Dominican Industrial Society.
• Cotton Oil Refiner.
• Dominican Molinos.
• Dominican Factory of Cemento.
• Factory of Sacos and Cordelería.
• Glass factory.
• National Paper Industry.
• Atlas Comercial Co.
• Caribbean Motors.
• Dominican Aviation Company.
• Ferretería Read.
• La Nación Newspaper.
• Caobera industry.
• Santelises sawmill.
• Dominican shipping.
• Nigua Industries.
• Caribbean Radio (disappeared)
• Newspaper The Caribbean
• Radio HIN Tv (Rahintel)

Cult of personality

One of the cornerstones of the Trujillo regime was the cult of his person. In 1936, at the suggestion of Mario Fermín Cabral, Congress overwhelmingly approved changing the name of the capital Santo Domingo to Ciudad Trujillo. The province of San Cristóbal was renamed "Provincia Trujillo", and the highest peak in the country, La Pelona Grande (now Pico Duarte), was renamed &# 34;Trujillo Peak" in his honor.^{[citation needed]}

The statues of "El Jefe" they were mass-produced and erected across the country, and bridges and public buildings were also named in his honor. The country's newspapers wrote praise for Trujillo, as part of the front page, and the slogan "Long live Trujillo!" was included on vehicle license plates. A neon sign with the motto "God and Trujillo" was erected in the capital of the country.^{[citation required]}

Over time, even churches were ordered to advertise the slogan "God in heaven, Trujillo on earth." As time passed, the order of the phrase was reversed to "Trujillo on Earth, God in Heaven".^{[citation required]}

Trujillo was eventually recommended for the Nobel Peace Prize by his admirers, but the committee rejected the suggestion. When Trujillo received (or called) a visitor, his four bodyguards would shoot upwards. He forced intellectuals to write books and later claim their authorship. In addition, he was awarded several honorary titles, such as: Doctor, Bachelor, Father of the New Nation, Benefactor of the Nation, Protector of the Church and many more. To enter the university, you had to pay homage and to graduate from it, it was an essential requirement to make a public confession of Trujillo faith.^{[citation required]}

Peace Fair

On December 20, 1955, an event was inaugurated to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Trujillo's government work called the Free World Peace and Confraternity Fair, where one of his daughters was crowned Angelita I , in a dress that cost around $80,000. In addition, the organizers of the fair proclaimed Trujillo's wife, at that time María Martínez Alba, as a "writer and philosopher", despite the fact that she was semi-illiterate.

The fair cost the state more than $30 million, almost a third of the national budget at the time. That disproportionate spending caused an economic crisis from which the regime never recovered.

Million Parade

On October 24, 1960, to celebrate Trujillo's birthday, his collaborators organized an event called "The Millionaire Parade," in which hundreds of people from all walks of life paraded. The main objective of the event was to reaffirm Trujillo's popularity and request his nomination for the 1962 elections, a project that was cut short by the dictator's assassination.

Awards

Dominican

• Necklace of the Order to Merit John Paul Duarte
• Necklace of the Heraldic Order of Christopher Columbus
• Necklace of the Order of Trujillo
• Value Necklace
• Great Peace Necklace
• Military Order of Heroism "Captain General Pedro Santana" 7-1-56, dec. 4364, og# 9, 1956, e.n.
• Decoration of the "Benefactor of the Fatherland"according to art. #4149, dated 14-5-55, according to decree #1360, f. 23-12-55, with an effectiveness, og# 45-56.

Foreign

• Knight of honor and devotion of the Order of Malta
• Great Knight of the Legion of Honor (France)
• Big Cross Knight of the Order of Carlos III (Spain)
• Knight of the Order of Isabel la Católica (Spain)
• Great Knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (Holy See).
• Great Knight of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great (Holy See)
• Grand Cross Knight of the Order of Pius IX (Holy See)
• Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy
• Grand Cross of the National Order of Honour and Merit (Haiti)
• Order of the Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
• Great cross with brilliants of the Order of the Sun of Peru
• Order of the Spanish Republic (Spain)
• Collar of the Order to Merit of Chile
• Necklace of the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle (Mexico)
• Grand Extraordinary Cross of the Order of Boyacá (Colombia)
• Big necklace of the Order of the Freedomr (Venezuela)
• Grand Cross of the Order of the Andes Condor (Bolivia)
• Great Extraordinary Cross of the Order of Lebanese Merit
• Big Cross of the Order of Merit with three-board band (Ecuador)
• Grand cross of the Order of Vasco Núñez de Balboa (Panama)
• Great cord of the merit of the charity of the French Order of the Cross of Blood
• Grand Cross of the Order of Honour and Merit of the National Red Cross (Cuba)
• Great red cord with white edges of the Order of the Shining Jade (Republic of China)
• 1.a class of the Order of Naval Merit (Cuba)
• Great cross of Medhula (Morocco)
• Star of the Order of Abdón Calderón (Ecuador)
• Grand Cross of the National Order to Merit (Ecuador)
• Grand Cross of the National Order of the South Cross (Brazil)
• Great cross of the National Order of Merit (Paraguay)
• Grand Cross of the Order of the Dutch Lion (Netherlands)
• Commemorative Medal of the Pan-American flight of Colon de Cuba.
• Medal commemorative of the first centenary of the death of the Colombian priest General Francisco de Paula Santander
• Collar de la Orden de Libertador San Martín (Argentina)
• Great special cord of the Order of Nube Propitia (Taiwan)
• Great plate of Honor and Merit of the Spanish Red Cross
• Great cross of the Order of Francisco Morazán (Honduras)
• War Cross with Leaf of Palma (France)
• Great Cross of the Order of Saint Peter and Paul
• Grand necklace of the Order of Manuel Amador Guerrero (Panama)
• Great cord of the Supreme Order of Chrysanthemum, awarded by the government of Japan, with the engraving of the emperor: medal of honor of literacy
• Order of the Liberian Pioneers, published in The Caribbean, dated 5-2-59.
• Great cross of the National Order of Merit Carlos Manuel de Céspedes (Cuba; annulled award in 1959).
• Great collar of the Order of Ruben Darío (Nicaragua; annulled award in 1980).
• Pan-American Society Gold Medal (New York)
• Great Cross of Academic Honor at the American International Academy of Washington
• Condecor of the Sovereign and Continental Order of merit and honor of the Inter-American Democratic Union
• Medal "Palmas de Oro de la Democracia", by the Pan American Legion (Mexico)
• Medal of the Order of the Star of Honor to the Rural Merit of the Brazilian Institute of Propagation and Defense of Coffee

Trujillo in the media

Songs alluding to his regime