Negotiated Elections: The Old Boss Steps to the Side
Cassá, Roberto
It is a constant refrain among observers of the Dominican Republic that the country is evolving toward "the consolidation of democracy." Despite the distance between the refrain and reality, it...
...The great majority of the population questioned the racial arguments of both sides, or simply didn't consider them primary elements in deciding how to vote...
...From the electoral point of view, the PRD believed that these proposals would be supported by a majority of the electorate, and especially the urban poor...
...This is not to say that there was not a certain amount of racist opposition to Pefia Gomez as much for his presumed Haitian ancestry as for the color of his skin...
...Insofar as the younger generation has relegated the question of ideology to secondary status, the hopes for renewal augured by the PLD succeeded in transcending the conservative inclinations of the uppermiddle class and the social worries of the popular classes...
...The PLD's counter-campaign may have contributed to the strengthening of its rivals, however, given that it only involved sectors of the poor population already solidly behind Pefia G6mez...
...Neither was the PRD able to bring the campesino masses under its wing, most of whom remained loyal to the PRSC and therefore ended up depositing their second-round votes for Fernandez...
...Vat XXX, No 5 MARCHIAPRII...
...Certain of its triumph, it underestimated the challenge posed by the PLD which, with large sums of money put at its disposal by the state, was able to hammer away at the credibility of its rivals...
...There apparently was a consensus to obtain power no matter what the price-a stance that received its calm justification from Bosch's old preachings on the separation of politics and ethics...
...It also contained implicit guarantees that the PRSC would have a quota of positions in the new government...
...To accomplish this, he established alliances with a large number political sectors-to his right as well as to his left-in the so-called Santo Domingo Accord...
...Rafael Corpornn, an old PRSC functionary from Santo Domingo, announced his support for Pefia G6mez and was promptly elevated to the position of hero of the hour...
...Above all, he emphasized a moderate orientation, symbolized by his choice of advisors, and above all by his running mate, Francisco Alvarez Bogaert, a political conservative who had been driven out of the PRSC for trying to displace Balaguer...
...The social factor was less acknowledged than the generational, although the groupings with the greatest sense of tradition and identity among the popular classes strongly supported the PRD...
...First, the PRD, having resolved its internal divisions, assumed a much more beligerant position toward Balaguer than Bosch's PLD...
...policy makers to rid themselves of the inconvenient Balaguer, Washington power brokers hated and feared NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS Roberto Cassi is professor of history at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo...
...Joaquin Balaguer, the holder of executive power since 1986-and before that, between 1966 and 1978--had effectively annulled all other powers of the state, maintaining himself at the head of government through a combination of procedures that involved electoral fraud, the exercise of extralegal violence, the repression of social protests, bribery, the corruption of the highest spheres of government and, in general, the refusal to observe the canons of the law...
...The PLD offered the guarantees of impunity from judgement for past offenses demanded by the high circles of Balaguerism, at the same time that it kept kept its support base that saw the party as an instrument of substantial change...
...Bequeathing any price, power to Peynado was intolerable for the rightist caudillo, who was thus faced with the choice of strengthening his own political following, or avoiding the triumph of his principal archenemy, Jos6 Francisco Pefia G6mez of the PRD...
...For example, he engineered the rejection of the PRD proposal that a 40% plurality in the first round would be sufficient to avoid a runoff, and insisted on the second-round concept...
...It claimed that 150,000 Haitian citizens had illegally been registered to vote, and announced that its poll watchers would object to any voters who looked like Haitians...
...Four years later, in 1994, electoral fraud was harder to pull off than it was in 1990...
...The result was the division of the country into two nearly equal voting blocs which excluded only a dwindling number of undecided voters and a small number of independents of the left...
...But for the most part, the racial campaign either had very little effect or was actually counterproductive...
...Many polls indicated that immediately following the formation of the FPN, there was a noticeable drop in support for Fernindez, which made the triumph of Pefia Gomez a distinct possibility...
...This polarization favored the PLD from the moment it was able to place itself above all the old practices of state corruption...
...This generational sentiment was embedded in the premise that a new administration should, above all, combine decency and efficiency...
...With Fernmndez at the helm, the PLD offered the promise of a "new road," in appearance cleaner than the one offered by Pefia G6mez and the PRD...
...More than ever before, Dominicans were placing all their hopes and expectations on the outcome of the elections...
...Despite the desire of many U.S...
...In the meantime, other sectors sought, for a variety of reasons, to prevent the triumph of the PRD...
...pressures, Balaguer saw the Pact as the exit from presidential power most favorable to his interests...
...Fernindez ran on a platform that managed to make the historic progressivism of the PLD compatible with the alliance the party was establishing with the PRSC...
...the same-maintaining the status quo with vague promises of modernization...
...The lack of programatic differences, combined with these conjunctural positions, led to a polarized and heated campaign which, in other circumstances, might have presaged an armed confrontation...
...The situation therefore presents the same risk the country faced in 1978-that the frustration brought about by the unmet expectations raised by a new ruling party will lead the country back to its old authoritarian ways...
...This compromise, called the "Pact for Democracy," recognized Young Dominicans walk down a Santo Domingo street lined with election posters...
...Although the Pact for Democracy authorized two additional years for an illegitimate regime, all sides accepted it on the grounds that it helped to "consolidate democracy...
...99721 VOL XXX, No 5 MARCHIAPRIL 1997 21REPORT ON THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC F rom the moment Joaquin Balaguer no Few in the PLD longer figured as a presidential candileadership showed date, the influence of doubts about the his Social Christian Reformist Party party's embrace of (PRSC) dwindled considerably...
...In sum, the PRD saw itself trapped between the need to obtain popular support on the basis of new political proposals, and that of remaining acceptable to its dominant sectors, without whom it would not be able to win...
...Jos6 Francisco Pefia G6mez, leader and presidential candidate of the PRD, mistakenly let these maneuvers pass in the belief that his triumph at the polls would be great enough to go unchallenged...
...But the support of the urban barrios was not able to outweigh the powerful regional alignments...
...This was a clear attempt to link the Haitian nation with the PRD...
...Without attaching itself literally to the racist campaign, the PLD took advantage of the strategy...
...They hated him because of his old leftist positions and, perhaps above all, for his unpredictable personal style...
...Despite the distance between the refrain and reality, it remains the touchstone of the standard evaluations of the presidential elections that took place in May and June of 1996...
...officials to positions of influence whose primary goal was the departure of Balaguer and the formation of a legitimate government...
...Beyond simple on-the-ground fraud, he ably secured U.S...
...Balaguer's efforts enjoyed the open support of the PLD, which saw the PRD as its greatest competitor...
...Washington found it convenient to channel discontent into the two opposition parties, the PRD and the PLD, and thereby to undercut the re-emergence of potentially destabilizing popular movements...
...There are no forces on the left currently capable of effectively channeling the demands of the large masses of Dominicans...
...In the end, the assumption of power by Fernandez showed that Balaguer's final triumph was his own successful management of his departure from the presidency...
...Paradoxically, these results did not favor the PRD, which had placed all its hopes on receiving the 50% necessary to win on the first ballot...
...This did not prevent the PLD from accepting-by way of Balaguer's cronies in the so-called "palace ring"-all manner of helpful resources from the PRSC and the state...
...The PRD's long-term anti-Balaguerist identity became its principal capital in the campaign...
...Each party was desperate for victory-a climate that was exacerbated by the fact that both the PRD and the PLD had reasonable chances of winning...
...Young-and politically independent-voters saw in the 42-year-old Leonel Fernandez a symbol of generational change in public affairs...
...This adulteration of the historical trajectory of the PLD was unanimously supported by the party's leadership...
...A iven his need to inflict decisive blows against the PRD, Balaguer once again raised the specter of great powers who were plotting to pull apart the country and unite it with neighboring Haiti...
...Balaguer's slogan throughout the campaign was that the country needed to elect someone "truly Dominican," a euphemism meant to question Pefia G6mez's national identity...
...While the Femrnndez campaign was never actually directed by Balaguer, the discourse of the old caudillo prevailed...
...In this way, the PLD-by way of the Balaguer-Fernindez "front"-wove racist and conservative arguments into its campaign with more clarity...
...And beyond mollifying its own conservative forces, the party's rightward drift was meant to maintain crucial support from big capital and other powerful actors in order to counterbalance the power of the state apparatus in the hands of Balaguer...
...The PRD's loss was due fundamentally to a generational reaction in favor of the PLD...
...In the end, however, the PRD failed to capitalize on this sentiment, and Fernmindez won the presidency with 52% of the vote...
...Translated from the Spanish by NACLA.REPORT ON THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC PLD candidate Bosch even more...
...This is why the Clinton administration, despite evidence of widespread fraud in the 1994 elections, decided to send State Department functionaries to the Dominican Republic to negotiate a compromise between the government and the opposition...
...In accordance with that objective, he encouraged the establishment of close links between the leaderships of the PRSC and the PLD...
...During the 1980s, is over, but many wonder if the newly elected government can eradicate the old authoritarian ways that have dominated Dominican politics for sO long...
...The front had no other declared objective than to "preserve Dominicanness...
...But in general, despite the complaints of the PRD candidate that the country wasn't ready to vote for a black leader, the vast majority cast its votes strictly on the basis of politics...
...As a response to the tightness of the race, the PLD entered into an alliance with the PRSC called the National Patriotic Front (FPN...
...He is the author of Capitalismo y dictadura (UASD, 1983...
...It was clear, however, that the Growth Commando lacked backing from the party's ruling apparatus, which preferred to simply maintain old slogans...
...These electoral hopes, to a great degree, were buoyed by Juan Bosch's Dominican Liberation Party (PLD)--a party which had gained prestige in the wake of the discredit visited upon the center-left Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) after its eight years in the presidency from 1978 to 1986...
...Compelled to yield to both national and U.S...
...This revealed the lengths to which Balaguer was willing to go to prevent the election of Pefia G6mez...
...And this was the party's principal error...
...It was also ruled that the 1996 presidential elections would be contested in two rounds if no candidate received an absolute majority-the second round consisting of a runoff between the two candidates receiving the most votes...
...In the barrios, an image developed of the PLD as a party of wealthy white people and intellectuals who were connected to forces abroad...
...Many influential PRD activists were conscious of the need to put some distance between the party and its own past, but large portions of the leadership involved in that corrupt experience were not prepared to step aside...
...After events in Haiti, Washington became worried that Balaguer's authoritarian impunity might threaten stability in the Dominican Republic, which could endanger its place within the imperial network...
...Second, a new Democratic administration in Washington brought a new set of U.S...
...Political movements opposed to this authoritarian structure have long existed in the Dominican Republic, and over the last two decades, Dominicans have particularly resented the impoverishing effects of the state's brutal, self-interested incompetence...
...as hopes diminished for change through electoral means, social movements emerged which questioned the country's authoritarian structure and, above all, the dizzying fall of living standards...
...The reality is that in the Dominican Republic, although public liberties are now respected, and political lawlessness has considerably diminished, the essential authoritaritarian outlines of the state system are still very much intact...
...These movements were never well organized, and they generally suffered from a lack of clear direction...
...This helps to explain the early support enjoyed by Pefia G6mez...
...The PLD ably responded to PRD accusations of collusion with Balaguer, pointing out that the PRD too had built alliances with rightists coming from the PRSC...
...backing for his presidential race...
...Its shameful metamorphosis into a clientelistic party, however, means that only with great difficulty will its genuinely reformist or progressive voices succeed in making themselves heard...
...Balaguer, however, was successful in his use of brazen fraud in 1990...
...Nor can we harbor any great hopes of a principled opposition from the PRD, the majority of whose leaders are already scheming with Balaguer in an attempt simply to undermine the new Fernandez administration...
...But the idea of turning the PRSC against Balaguer was destined to fail since the party had always operated according to the will of the old caudillo...
...A great majority of the population favored defeating Balaguer and his administration's intrigues, and achieving a true transition to democracy...
...As they ran their course by the end of the decade, hopes returned to electoral means-and the 1990 presidential elections-as a means of ousting Balaguer and his cronies...
...In the first round which took place on May 16, the PRD finished first with 46% of the vote, followed by the PLD with 39% and the PRSC with 15...
...He presented Pefia G6mez as the principal plotter, given his probable Haitian ancestry...
...As the PLD settles in, it is premature to attempt an evaluation of its governing style...
...Few in the party's core showed any doubts about its embrace of neoliberalism, and none publicly expressed any opposition to the collusion with Balaguerism...
...To make use of that advantage, however, the party had to propose significant modifications of its past practices...
...They hated him despite his attempts to change his party into a more mainstream member of the country's political system by stripping it of its old radical positions...
...Pefia G6mez, as the leader of the party, tried to bring both perspectives together, offering a promise of substantial change while preserving the historic symbols of the party's identity...
...The party created a new focus for the campaign, the so-called "Growth Commando," which attempted to give more force to progressive sectors, and to distance itself from the party's past performance...
...The Pact cut Balaguer's term short to only two years, and mandated new presidential elections in 1996...
...Far from putting together a discourse around social themes or substantial political reforms, the PRD centered all its energies in attracting sectors of the PRSC-beginning with its defeated presidential candidate, Jacinto Peynado-supposedly discontent with Balaguer's "palace ring...
...The front-which had been decided on before the first round by way of a secret accord between Fernmndez and Balaguer-had as its sole objective the election of Leonel Fernmndez...
...The cumbent Vice Presicon sus was o dent Jacinto Peynado, who aspired to be gain power at Balaguer's political heir...
...As on other occasions, the right used racist and nationalist tactics to raise antiHaitian sentiments to its political advantage...
...The party's weak flank was the public memory of its two administrations from 1978 to 1986, both characterized by incompetence and corruption...
...Despite this maneuvering in favor of Fernandez, the PRD enjoyed an initial advantage thanks to its history of militant opposition to the unpopular Balaguer regime...
...In the background, the pact guaranteed immunity from investigation and prosecution to the old leaders of the PRSC after they left power...
...Since his own party had no chance of winning, and a good showing by Peynado would run counter to his own personal interests, Balaguer opted for the second alternative, and devoted himself to working for the triumph of the PLD candidate, Leonel Fernandez...
...Even prestigious individuals who had come from the party's left supported the historic rehabilitation of Balaguer...
...Meanwhile, the PRD tried to defend itself against the PLD-Balaguerist offensive, but could not manage an effective response...
...that the occurrence of irregularities was so routine and of such a magnitude that the only solution was to modify the Constitution to prohibit the successive re-election of the president...
...The PRD did not direct enough attention to undecided voters who were disturbed by the formation of the FPN...
...While the middle class consistently rejected the PRD--either from a conservative position or because their expectations of progress and honesty had been betrayed-big business was divided, though neither for ideological reasons nor over the debate between protectionists and free traders...
...Some opposed the PRD for its past corruption, and some for 22NACI.A REPORT ON THE AMERICAS NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 22REPORT ON THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC its veiled threats that it would bring Balaguer's corrupt associates to justice...
...In the meantime, he prepared the greatest number of obstacles possible to prevent the predicted triumph of the PRD in 1996...
...Some opposition leaders even elevated Joaquin Balaguer to the position of exemplary democrat...
...Oligarchic sectors who traditionally had access to the highest levels of government allied against Pefia G6mez, but a large number of mid-size capitalists supported the PRD, apparently seeking some respite from the abuses of power...
...Balaneoliberalism or guer had no sympaits alliance with thy for the PRSC candidate, the inBalaguer...
...The party's solution was to lay out programatic proposals that emphasized modernization and social reforms, not unlike much of the neoliberal tonic currently prevalent in Latin America...
...The PRD responded with a campaign to defend the rights of Dominican "morenos," presumably aggrieved by the PLD's campaign, and launched a campaign to defend black Dominicans as the victims of demagogy...
...For its part, the PLD was delighted, and began to project itself as the probable winner in the second round...
...To seal the agreement, Femindez proclaimed that the thought and work of Balaguer would be essential reference points for his presidency...
Vol. 30 • March 1997 • No. 5
