Dominican Republic: Elections
Wheaton, Philip E.
By the early morning of May 17, 1978, it had become clear that the Revolutionary Dominican Party (PRD)-populist, social-democratic and reformist-was building to a substantial victory over...
...The 1963 Constitution, the high point of Bosch's sevenmonth presidency, blocked foreign takeover of Dominican assets, provided for profitsharing by workers in agriculture and industry, prohibited large landholdings and restricted the right of foreigners to acquire Dominican land...
...The Senate appoints all judges in the Dominican Republic including the chief justice of the Supreme Court who would assume the presidency if the president and vice president were deposed...
...See NACLA's Report, April 1975, pgs...
...Marine invasion of 1965...
...One of Balaguer's early acts after taking office was to open the doors of the country to the Gulf & Western Corporation...
...Only Pelna Gomez, a black with working class roots, retains the image of a rank-and-file leader...
...When Bosch was ousted by the military, the Constitution went with him...
...The speculation was confirmed as this Report was going to press...
...On July 8 the Electoral Board accepted the victory of Guzman and Majluta but ruled Poverty in the Dominican Republic...
...The head of the new police force-rebuilt under the direction of Dan Mitrione-was Enrique Perez y P6rez, one of the two top generals in the Dominican military today...
...Although the future remains cloudy, this much is certain: The JulylAugust 1978 Balaguer regime has been soundly rebuffed by a large majority of Dominicans in the first honest elections since 1962...
...THE "SECOND VOTE" Why, then, did the military step in to halt the elections...
...While the first vote aged the military to step in to save Balaguer, the "second vote"-a public rejection of the military's action by members of the Dominican bourgeoisieforced Balaguer to recognize that his time had come...
...The electoral intervention has put Nivar Seijas out on a thin limb, however, as many have since suggested he should be dismissed for such action...
...He reportedly is well connected with Sacha Volman, a key CIA-labor operative in the Dominican Republic who now serves as labor advisor to Falconbridge Nickel...
...This apparent coup d'etat-affirmed and denied many times during the tense days of May 1719-created a situation in which, weeks after the initial balloting, no one could say who would finally occupy the chair of honor for the August 16 Presidential inauguration...
...Bosch himself left the party in 1973 to form the Partido de Liberaci6n Dominicana (PLD), and Jose Francisco Peha Gomez took over as Secretary General...
...This led to speculation that Balaguer was still trying to reverse the results in some congressional districts so that his party could retain a majority in the nation's Senate even though it lost the presidency...
...Its unity derived more from constant harassment and repression by the police and military than from party discipline and political clarity...
...In addition, prestigious institutions and associations such as the Professional Association, the Patriotic Movement for National Unity, the Dominican Medical Association, etc., also registered their opposition to the military action...
...General Perez y P6rez...
...When he brought him back ;nto active duty last year to consolidate the military during his crucial test of leadership in the current elections, it was as Commander of the First Brigade, the most powerful force in the countrynext to that of Nivar Seijas...
...The principal contending forces arose directly from the JulylAugust 1978 invasion of 20,000 U.S...
...Even though, to Bosch's dismay, few PRD members followed him out of the party, from that point on it increasingly lost its ideological clarity and the remnants of its radicalism evaporated...
...Jorge Blanco, who ran on the PRD ticket for senator from Santo Domingo, is a lawyer for transnational corporations...
...Here, then, was a major source of tension on May 17whether these two military forces would challenge each other...
...More than before, the PRD became a party of the liberal bourgeoisie even though it maintained a following among poor workers and the peasantry...
...If he goes, then General 39update * update . update . update Perez once again becomes the top military official, and the Pentagon retains its man in the central position of power in the country...
...Ironically, while U.S...
...On a national TV broadcast he viciously attacked those of his own class who had abandoned him, but he promised to respect the final electoral results...
...It accounted for over one-third of the sugar produced in the country and was the island's only private manager and operator of an industrial free zone...
...aid insured Balaguer's control over the country, it also allowed Balaguer to create a new military leadership more beholden to him than to the Pentagon...
...Options, short of military intervention, had run out...
...One element in their decision was the sheer size of the PRD's lead which represented a strong opposition to Balaguer and the military...
...The National Election Board had 30 days in which to declare a winner, but June 15 passed with no official victor...
...This gave the Reformists a 16-11 majority in the Senate enabling them, according to the Washington Post, "to block Guzman's legislation or possibly bring down his government...
...The Manchester Guardian reported that he was, in fact, Washington's first choice, over Belaguer, for president in 1966...
...Similarly, the United States personally groomed Joaquin Balaguer to head the Dominican government in 1966...
...In recent years the PRD has turned increasingly to European social democrats for economic assistance and ideological orientation...
...This second vote forced Balaguer out of his self-imposed hiding in the early hours of May 19...
...Founded in 1961 by Juan Bosch, the early PRD developed-and tried to implement-a number of radical reforms...
...A few years ago, Balaguer, fearing P6rez's power, forced him into retirement...
...A LEGACY OF IMPERIALISM In many ways, the Dominican electoral crisis of May 1978 is a direct outgrowth of the U.S...
...On May 18 and 19 leading members of the Dominican bourgeoisie placed in all the newspapers of the country a series of public letters, paid announcements and open declarations denouncing the military intervention...
...The U.S...
...that four contested seats in the Senate would go to Balaguer's Reformist Party...
...These pro-Bosch military forces were guaranteed reintegration into the Army under the terms of the October 1965 "Peace Treaty" which concluded the Constitutionalist uprising...
...THE FUTURE A month after the election, the maneuvering had not yet ended...
...By the early morning of May 17, 1978, it had become clear that the Revolutionary Dominican Party (PRD)-populist, social-democratic and reformist-was building to a substantial victory over President Joaquin Balaguer and his Reformist Party in balloting in the Dominican Republic...
...Simply put, the PRD has become moderI. 0 -' 02 Antonio Guzman ate enough for it to be acceptable to Dominican capitalists and the multi-national leaders...
...The commander of the National Police who ordered the intervention of the polls on May 17, Major General Neit Nivar Seijas, was placed in power nine years ago by Balaguer to counter the powerful pro-U.S...
...Similarly, its political leadership-as exemplified by its 1978 candidates-is increasingly drawn from the Dominican bourgeoisie Antonio Guzm~n, the victor in the presidential race, is a wealthy landowner and cattle rancher...
...Although both generals have greatly benefited from their years in power they continue to mistrust each other...
...The United States also directed and disciplined the postinvasion Dominican Army through its Military Aid and Assistance Programs and by providing the new Dominican generals the opportunity of forcing the proConstitutionalist members of the military out of Santo Domingo...
...26-27...
...THE PRD DRIFTS TO THE RIGHT To a large extent, the recent history of the Revolutionary Dominican Party (PRD), the major opposition force, was also fashioned by the U.S...
...Clear, that is, to everyone but those members of the Dominican police and military who clung tenaciously to Balaguer, disbelieving that their Jefe could have been so soundly rejected by the Dominican people...
...In the years following the 1965 pro-Constitutionalist rebellion, the PRD drifted to the Right, traumatized to a certain extent by the massive military power of the United States and demoralized by the expulsion of their military cadre to New York...
...Consulate, however, provided them instead with special visas, and many soon found themselves in exile on the upper West Side of Manhattan...
...And Guzmdn has already said that Peha Gomez would take no post in the government and would leave the country for at least one year following the inauguration...
...Marines...
...In protecting the electoral victory with discipline in the face of enormous provocations and intimidation, the Dominican people have demonstrated that 12 years of Balaguerista rule have not crushed the sparks of the Constitutionalist rebellion...
...Less than 10 years later, Gulf & Western had become the country's largest foreign investor, privage landowner, and employer...
...Far from accepting the popular verdict, military troops appeared at the headquarters of the National Election Board in Santo Domingo at 4:00 AM on May 17, halting the tabulation process and seizing the ballots...
...They did not...
...Jacobo Majluta, the vice presidential candidate, is an economist and businessman with a history of close ties to foreign corporations...
...There are strong indications that Belaguer's party foreseeing this eventuality, had obtained thousands of illegal ballots through the use of identification cards issued temporarily to Haitian cane cutters and through other fraudulent means...
...They had been sent by Lyndon Johnson to crush a popular rebellion designed to return to office the popular President, Juan Bosch, who had been ousted by the military two years earlier...
...At the same time, its remaining progressive programs (agrarian reform, nationalization of foreign corporations) have deteriorated to the point where one critic labeled it a "zero program...
...military intervention in the Dominican Republic thirteen years earlier...
...The United States became the major force behind the reconstruction of both the Dominican police force and its military services...
...What became apparent by the early hours of May 17 is that the gap between the two parties both in the cities and the countryside was too great for Balaguer to counter, even with thousands NACLA Report 40update * update * update . update of fraudulent votes...
Vol. 12 • July 1978 • No. 4
