Free Elections for Dominican Republic
Feldman, Paul
U.S. policy in the Dominican Republic may take a slight turn for the better with the transfer of Ambassador Tapely Bennett to Portugal, a country that shares his antipathy to democracy....
...policy is the result of the protests in both the U.S...
...But there are already signs that some Washington policy makers want to use U.S...
...but perhaps more important is the fact that the disastrous Dominican policy had reached a dangerous impasse...
...Rightwing terrorists have murdered hundreds of Constitutionalist sympathizers...
...In part, the beginning of a change in U.S...
...influence on behalf of their man in Santo Domingo, Joaquin Balaguer...
...Every pressure must be put on the Johnson Administration to cease covertly supporting the opponents of Juan Bosch and to keep the InterAmerican Peace force politically neutral yet firmly on the side of democratic procedures during the election...
...military occupation became an election...
...In the next issue Dissent will have an on-the-spot report of the situation from Santo Domingo...
...Few foreign observers doubt that the democratic leftist party of Juan Bosch will triumph in the Dominican election scheduled for June 1, if it turns out to be honest...
...The danger exists that the pro-democratic forces grouped around Bosch will be caught in a meat-grinder of competing authoritarian forces unless there is a peaceful and democratic resolution The U.S...
...And a leader of the pro-Peking Movimiento Popular Dominicano, Cayetano Rodriguez del Prado, declared at the January Tricontinental Congress in Havana, "We will convert Santo Domingo into the Vietnam of the Caribbean" (quoted in the Dominican magazine Ahora, Feb...
...military intervention has encouraged the violence it has supposedly undertaken to avoid...
...14, 1966...
...There are many regions of the country where if our PRD members openly declared their political affiliation, they would be killed...
...role, for good or bad, will be decisive on the question of free elections...
...It can see to it that the Inter-American Peace Force, made up mostly of American paratroopers, protects the political freedom of all Dominican political parties during the campaign...
...The reasons for the current "rethinking" in Washington are complicated...
...The U.S...
...policy in the Dominican Republic may take a slight turn for the better with the transfer of Ambassador Tapely Bennett to Portugal, a country that shares his antipathy to democracy...
...and Latin America...
...But Bosch recently warned: "Who can speak of elections in the present situation...
...The only alternative to a civil war or a prolonged U.S...
Vol. 13 • May 1966 • No. 3
