Little Caesar in the Caribbean
ORNES, GERMAN E.
Trujillo's Dominican Dictatorship Little Caesar in the Caribbean By German E. Ornes On May 16, citizens of the Dominican Republic will go to the polls to extend for five more years the despotic...
...A different view was expressed on February 28 by Representative Charles 0. Porter (D.-Ore...
...adulation has been elevated to the rank of a science...
...To the Dominican Republic, however, he brought two photographs: one for the President and another for the Generalissimo This was promptly played up by Dominican propagandists as giving Washington's official blessing to I he slrango situation prevailing on the island, where the legal President ranks second to his dictator brother...
...As a rule, the marked man disappears...
...The people have coined a phrase for use when a man leaves his home and never returns...
...This international outcry was provoked by the recent murder on Dominican territory of a young American flier, Gerald Lester Murphy—a case which seems linked with the earlier, widely publicized disappearance of the Basque scholar Jesus de Galindez from his New York home...
...The cost to the Dominican taxpayer for all this entertainment is conservatively estimated at several million dollars a year...
...his propaganda presents him as the benevolent father of a happy people...
...Most Dominicans feel strongly that, even if the United States does not actively assist them in freeing their nation from Trujillo, it should at least stop providing the dictator with both propaganda ammunition and military aid...
...Though he himself sponsored the only Communist parly that has e\er existed openly in the Dominican Republic, he calls himself "the first anti-Communist leader in the New World...
...Nobody knows the exact number of "lost" Dominicans during the "Era of Trujillo"—as the period of dictatorship has been officially named—but it is substantial...
...Occasionally, someone is publicly tried as a "Communist"—the preferred political charge against critics of the regime—but this is done to spotlight Trujillo's relentless effort to eradicate the Red menace...
...in true totalitarian style prescribe the Dominican citizen's course from cradle to grave...
...Thus, when some "trujillista" manifesto needs the backing of internationally known groups for foreign consumption, there is always the Rotary, a Masonic lodge or the Catholic associations ready to lend a hand...
...When the ballots were counted, the dictator modestly claimed only 92 per cent of the vote, which was not strange considering that his opponents did not deliver a single campaign speech...
...One recent visitor who seems to have fallen under the Generalissimo's spell is Senator Olin D. Johnston (D.-S.C...
...This accounts for the climate of fear that pervades the country...
...the Generalissimo's political organization, the Particlo Dominicano...
...Apart perhaps from Venezuela, the Dominican Republic has the best-trained, most powerful armed forces in the Caribbean...
...Decorations and other honors are freely bestowed and hints of business opportunities casually thrown in...
...during 1952 and 1953 lie was member of Congress...
...Constantly reinforced by all the resources of modern propaganda, this apathy grows deeper with each passing day...
...A prime objective of trujillista propaganda is to maintain the impression that close amity prevails between Washington and Ciudad Trujillo...
...A year and a half ago, Mr...
...People remain at liberty, conduct business or hold Government posts only as long as "the Chief" permits them to do so...
...They say, "Se perdid" (He got lost), and everyone understands...
...His press agents make every effort to convince U.S...
...Unfortunately, many foreign journalists leave the country after a brief visit and report: "It is a dictatorship, but there is peace, progress, stability, and the people seem to support it...
...At the same time, uncomplimentary foreign comments are kept out of the newspapers...
...In January 1949 he became editor-in-chief of El Caribe, the country's lending newspaper, and .live years later became its publisher...
...Revolutions have plagued almost every country south of the Rio Grande, but the Dominican people have not shown the slightest outward sign of dissatisfaction or "dissent...
...it is a punishable offense to wear khaki trousers and shirts of the same color...
...There are no standards for appointment to official position and no reasons for removal except Trujillo's whim...
...the next day, it is the dentists, then the rice growers or university students...
...But all these formerly respected groups have been transformed into Trujillo fronts...
...A visit to the Dominican Republic by U.S...
...The people do not talk against the regime and, indeed, show remarkable unanimity in expressing their approval of it, but this alone should make one suspicious...
...The Government regulates everyone's business, politics, home life, habits, clothes and social standing...
...from 1953 through 1955 he was Vico-I'resident of the Dominican Development Commission, which supervised all the nation's economic projects...
...In subsequent elections, all pretense at democratic procedure has been dropped and Trujillo's ticket has been rewarded with 100 per cent of the vote...
...The great majority of political offenders are dealt with in other ways...
...It also accounts for the unanimous "yes" predicted for the Trujillo ticket on May 16, when nearly every Dominican over 18 years of age will show up at the polling places and vote as told by German E. Orncs broke with the Trujillo regime in ihe Dominican Republic iifler n decade as u prominent newspaper editor, publisher and ollicial...
...Some of Trujillo's directives border on the ludicrous: Heavy fines are imposed on those who smoke while riding in a car...
...The CP has been outlawed since 1947, and the Dominican press never misses an opportunity to remind its readers that "the Clref" is a "champion of the Church, defender of Christian traditions and crusader against Communism...
...On February 20, when everyone thought he was serving his prison term, it was reported that Bencosme had met death in an automobile crash...
...Always fearful lest someone accumulate too much power, "the Chief" constantly shifts people from one post to another...
...Every day is loyalty day for some sector of Dominican society...
...Vice President Nixon in 1955 provided Trujillo with a golden opportunity to make political hay out of a simple gesture of diplomatic courtesy...
...Then he was tried for activities against the "public order," convicted and thrown in jail...
...No authority except Trujillo's is more than provisional...
...In June 1956, at the height of the flurry over Galindez, the signature of an "atoms for peace" agreement in Washington was hailed by the controlled press as further proof of this...
...However, Porter was immediately chided by several colleagues (including House majority leader John McCormack) for offending a "friendly nation" vital to "our hemispheric defense...
...One of Pheiffer's speeches, printed as a propaganda leaflet, has been widely distributed by the Partido Dominicano...
...As presented by American magazines and newspapers, the Galindez-Murphy affair reads like a fantastic cloak-and-dagger mystery...
...Kidnapings, murders and mysterious disappearances are part and parcel of the system of repression under which Dominicans have lived since 1930...
...after the war, he was editor for a year of La Opinion...
...Recently, following a press campaign of insults and vilification, he was demoted...
...It is true that the spirit of the Dominican people has been virtually crushed by 27 years of ruthless dictatorial rule...
...On his lour, Nixon presented the chief of state of each country he visited with an autographed picture of President Eisenhower...
...High-ranking American guests are always told by Trujillo: "If I do not rule the Dominican Republic, the Communists will...
...Commentators stressed that it was the first such pact concluded by the United States with a Latin American country...
...public opinion that the Dominican Republic is America's best friend so long as the Generalissimo is in the driver's seat...
...Any Dominican who wishes to climb the political ladder must pay constant homage to Trujillo...
...From 1951 to 1955 he was a director of the Government-owned Bank of Reserves...
...They fear one another...
...it is against the law to carry your coat over your arm...
...Some, it is true, privately condemn the tyranny, terror and corruption of the regime, but when asked what they propose to do about it they simply shrug their shoulders...
...He has conveniently forgotten the occasion on which he declared that the Soviet Union "will be forever recognized as one of the great forces for welfare and progress on which the democratic world can count...
...Prominent statesmen, churchmen, businessmen and journalists are quoted—in or out of context—to demonstrate international backing for Trujillo...
...However, the lack of organized opposition should not be interpreted as support of the dictatorship...
...Last year, more than twenty U.S...
...This year, the Generalissimo has not even bothered to create a token opposition, as he did in 1947...
...who criticized American "toleration, conciliation and condonation" of Trujillo and accused the latter of maintaining a "Chicago gangster network" in this country to liquidate his enemies...
...In particular, the regime spares no effort to convince its subjects that they can expect neither encouragement nor sympathy from the outside world should they try to stand up against Trujillo's rule...
...To keep his subjects submissive, Trujillo no longer needs to turn loose in the streets the storm troopers of "La 42" (the dreaded gang of thugs employed to murder the Generalissimo's opponents in the early days of the regime...
...Even elected officers, such as Senators and Supreme Court judges, are asked to hand in letters of resignation before taking the oath of office...
...However, the story has a familiar ring to those acquainted with conditions in the Dominican Republic...
...Orncs sought anil obtained political asylum in the United States...
...Yet, some people still meet death for opposing the regime...
...Running for the newly created post of Vice President is Dr...
...Trujillo's name will not actually appear on the ballot...
...This is a good illustration of what all Dominicans know—that not even devoted service to Trujillo saves those who somehow displease him...
...Without minimizing the Communist threat to their country and the rest of the world, enlightened Dominicans deride Trujillo's pose as a great anti-Red fighter...
...People seem to take their permanent humiliation for granted, and the great majority join in the chorus of adulation with shocking alacrity...
...Joaquin Balaguer, a loyal Trujillo follower whose main claim to high office is authorship of an essay entitled "God and Trujillo...
...Sometimes, especially when the Government wants to set an example, the victim meets with a strange accident...
...Unlike Hitler and other dictators, Trujillo has not banned certain organizations like the Rotary clubs, Boy Scouts, Masons and religious associations...
...The 1947 campaign took a comic turn when one of the "opposition" Presidential candidates, a member of Congress for Trujillo's party, forgot himself and signed a petition favoring Trujillo's re-election to a fourth term...
...During his 27 years in power, Trujillo has seen the rise and fall of scores of Latin American strong men...
...After his return from a brief stay on the island last year, Johnston denounced all opposition to Trujillo as "Communistically inspired...
...The red carpet is always out for such distinguished guests, who are lavishly wined and dined...
...R. Donato Bencosme, former Governor of Espaillat Province, is the most recent case...
...Except for those few with access to the foreign press, Dominicans first learned about Galindez's disappearance and Gerald Murphy's murder when their government decided to provide its own slanted version of certain aspects of the two cases...
...Trujillo's Dominican Dictatorship Little Caesar in the Caribbean By German E. Ornes On May 16, citizens of the Dominican Republic will go to the polls to extend for five more years the despotic rule of Generalissimo Rafael L. Trujillo, the 65-year-old strong man who, in person or through proxies, has guided the country's destinies for the last 27 years...
...Formerly an opponent of the regime, Bencosme (a relative of the Dominican exile of the same name who was shot to death in New York City in 1935 by a member of the Rubirosa family on orders from Trujillo) was persuaded to collaborate with the regime three years ago and appointed a provincial governor...
...Photos of Pheiffer and Trujillo together in the most cordial poses are conspicuously displayed by the press, and the Ambassador's laudatory remarks about the Generalissimo are quoted at length...
...The elaborate system of espionage accounts for the fact that all internal plots against the regime have been squelched in the planning stage...
...They suspect their servants, doubt their friends...
...The Presidential candidate is Hector B. Trujillo, his younger brother and faithful puppet, who since 1952 has been official Chief of State...
...Trujillo plays the anti-Communist theme for all it is worth...
...Terror, one of the main pillars of the regime, has been employed so successfully that Dominicans feel they cannot escape Trujillo...
...The Dominican Chamber of Deputies sent a message of congratulations to Trujillo, and other groups and individuals followed suit...
...The people of the island republic agree that their country must always remain a firm ally of the United States...
...They have no hope for any independent existence apart from the regime...
...The effusive friendliness of the present United States Ambassador, William Pheiffer, a politican with no previous diplomatic experience, has been adroitly exploited...
...Harsh decrees and a mesh of regulations...
...They are accused of rape, homosexuality, drug addiction, tax evasion, embezzlement, murder and other non-political acts...
...From 1940 to 1943 he was a reporter and subsequently assistant to the editor of ha Nation, n daily...
...The Dominican Republic is wholly lacking in opposition parties or organized opposition of any kind...
...generals and admirals visited the Dominican Republic, and an entire committee of the House of Representatives was royally entertained by Trujillo for several days...
...Even minor events are blown up for propaganda purposes...
...Under the unending pressure of the dictatorship, a sense of frustration has taken hold of Dominicans of all classes...
...They have been left unmoved even by explosions of popular unrest like the general strike that last December unseated the dictatorial regime of President Paul Magloire in neighboring Haiti...
...Of course, Trujillo takes pains to hide these facts...
...Thus, Trujillo can make good his oft-repeated claim that there are no political prisoners in Dominican jails...
...Under such a system, independent groups and associations cannot exist...
...the only candidates campaigning are those endorsed by Trujillo's party...
...In these circumstances, few people can be found with the moral or physical courage for rebellion or even for independent political thinking...
...Though successful, the experiment was not repeated...
...A mutual-security pact was signed with the United States in 1953, and in the same year Washington was granted base facilities at Samana Bay for its guided-missile project...
...In his bid for American support, Trujillo has pledged his regime to a policy of unconditional collaboration with the United States on all international issues...
...One day, the chiefs of the armed forces or the labor leaders gather before the cameras...
...Trujillo is currently under violent attack by the free press of the United States and almost every Latin American country...
...Everyone in the Dominican Republic seems to be waiting for the ultimate fall of the dictatorship, but no one is willing to help accelerate the process...
...But they are convinced that the alliance will he more genuine and lasting when it is based on popular consent freely expressed through a democratic regime...
...The local press prints long dispatches under foreign datelines showing how favorably the Generalissimo's achievements are viewed in other countries, especially the United States...
...Nevertheless, arrests are still common...
Vol. 40 • March 1957 • No. 12
