Dominican Constitutionalism

...PERSPECTIVES Dominican Constitutionalism By Dan Kurzman Washington As some congressmen and columnists see it, the recent Presidential election in the Dominican Republic, and especially the victory of Joaquin Balaguer, vindicated the U.S...

...If this had been the thinking of the Administration when the revolution broke out, there probably would have been no intervention...

...But it decided not to do so even before street fighting broke out or the question of a Communist "takeover" came up...

...Balaguer himself, from exile in New York, publicly opposed the U.S...

...No doubt it acts in accordance with what it regards as its national interest...

...It was only after the Administration realized the effect of such policies on world opinion that it began to change them...

...In fact, a Balaguer youth group fought with the rebels...

...Balaguer, it is pointed out, could just as well have run for President under that Constitution...

...could have promoted a return to democracy before the intervention and its bitter aftermath...

...In other words, Balaguer could hardly have represented the antirevolutionary forces in the election, having opposed the officers and Right-wing civilians (who had exiled him in 1961) leading these forces...

...claimed that the revolution was Communist-controlled...

...And Antonio Imbert, a farRightist with dictatorial ambitions, was placed at the head of a temporary "government...

...If the election flowed not from the intervention but from at least a partial effort by the U.S...

...Dan Kurzman, of the Washington Post, is the author of the recent Santo Domingo: Revolt of the Damned...

...Many of these people voted for Balaguer for various complex reasons, no doubt including the fear that if Bosch won he might be ousted by the military again...

...Embittered by what they regarded as an "insult," the rebel leaders returned to the battle and began to turn the tide...

...The U.S., which had publicly deplored the 1963 coup as a powerful blow to democracy, would have been acting with perfect consistency if it had backed his return...

...Later, under questioning by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bennett said he had not been under his desk and that bullets were not coming through his window...

...Bennett refused on the grounds that he had no authority to do so, advising them to deal directly with the military-or, as the rebels saw it, to surrender...

...helped to set another kind of precedent, one that could seriously undermine the credibility of constitutionalism in the Dominican Republic...

...No Americans were hurt until the troops arrived, though Peace Corps volunteers remained unprotected in the rebel-controlled areas...

...may have made a great contribution to the success of an individual election, it hindered the development of such a tradition by not supporting Bosch's reinstallation when Reid Cabrai was ousted...

...The principal argument of those who support the vindication theory is that the U.S., by intervening, forced an end to the fighting between the Constitutionalists and the military and thereby paved the way for the return to democracy...

...Instead, it not only earned the hatred of the rebels, but criticism throughout Latin America and the world by being "neutral" on the side of the very militarists whom President Kennedy had so excoriated for throwing out Bosch in 1963...

...Balaguer, moreover, approved the Bundy mission's Guzman formula...

...Washington's attitude thus encouraged the military to resist Bosch's return by force and set in motion the wheels of revolution...

...The facts would appear to indicate that the election took place in spite of the intervention rather than because of it, and was indeed possible only after the U.S...

...No U.S...

...Significantly, when Colonel Francisco Caamano Deñó replaced Bosch as constitutional President during the revolution, Bosch's name was seldom heard...

...Bosch only came into the limelight again when it was decided to scrap the 1963 Constitution and start over from scratch...

...The revolution gave Balaguer, no less than Bosch, the opportunity for a political comeback...

...The performance of the Bunker group in bringing about the election has been universally lauded in the Dominican Republic...

...This argument, however, fails to recognize that the U.S...

...This misunderstanding, it is feared, could lead to new strains in the U.S.-Dominican relationship...

...U.S...

...In the long run, will not such a tradition be the best defense against Communism...

...Armed loyalist troops were permitted to cross through the International Safety Zone, while rebels were kept out...

...But isn't it in America's national interest to view the development of a constitutional tradition as more important than the shortcomings, real or imagined, of some ephemeral leader...

...With Balaguer, on the other hand, democracy might have a better chance of surviving...

...The following day, President Johnson sent in troops (without consulting the OAS...

...might have made up for its blunders to some extent and eased the way toward democracy if it had displayed a genuinely neutral attitude toward the two sides...

...But despite Washington's gradual awakening, some members of the Administration did not like the 1963 Constitution, so the plan was junked...

...The Rightists only backed Balaguer in the election because they had no choice if Bosch was to be defeated...

...And there is hope that the election will pave the way for a constitutional tradition...

...Nevertheless, there is considerable feeling, especially among diplomats from democratic countries, that while the U.S...

...When the fighting had been underway for several days, the U.S...

...had another opportunity to head off the struggle...

...Rather, it concerned the issue of whether the nation should honor constitutional succession...

...The whole recent Dominican tragedy might have been avoided...

...official contacted Bosch until several days after the revolution began...

...Actually, Balaguer and Bosch had agreed in a secret accord shortly before the revolution that they would support the overthrow of Reid Cabrai and a return to constitutionalism...

...The rebel leaders, believing they were defeated, went to the American Embassy and asked Ambassador W. Tapley Bennett to mediate a peace agreement...

...move after it took place, and reaffirmed that it had been a mistake in an interview with me after the election...

...Finally, a three-man team representing the Organization of American States and led by U.S...

...and Dominican loyalist guards jointly manned checkposts...

...He explained that Bennett had telephoned him from under his desk, while bullets whizzed through his window, that American lives were in danger...

...The sole anti-revolutionary candidate was Rafael Bonelli, who received less than 4 per cent of the vote...

...The U.S...

...military intervention in that country early last year...

...to undo its blunders, Balaguer's victory was even less related to the intervention...

...Bosch's term would have been up later this year in any case, and he would have been ineligible to succeed himself under the 1963 Constitution...

...Thus, White House Adviser McGeorge Bundy led a mission that sincerely tried to bring back a democratic government, with Antonio Guzman filling out Bosch's term, which under the 1963 Constitution was to end in late 1966...

...Whoever won, a precedent for constitutional succession would have been established...

...The facts also challenge the claim that Balaguer's victory constituted a defeat of the revolution...

...After the Constitutionalists and the military together ousted de facto President Donald Reid Cabrai, the supporters of Juan Bosch, whose freely elected regime had been overthrown by the military in 1963, declared a resumption of constitutionalism and prepared to bring Bosch back from exile to complete his four-year term...

...Except in the thinking of hard core elements on both sides, the revolution did not involve the question of Bosch's personal desirability as President...

...The U.S...

...But since there was no longer a question of constitutionalism involved in his return to office, Dominicans who had previously supported him only for constitutional reasons no longer felt obliged to back him...

...changed the policies it had followed at the start of the uprising...

...Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker arranged for the installation of a provisional government under Héctor Garcia Godoy to rule until an election could be held...

...should look at Latin constitutionalism from a long-range rather than a short-range point of view," one European diplomat in Santo Domingo said...

...regards its own Constitution as inviolate, it is maintained, this country may have fostered the view among many Dominicans that a constitution, however democratically conceived, is not necessarily a permanent set of laws changeable only through amendment, but a political instrument that can be scrapped when expediency so demands...

...But as one Latin American diplomat commented, that election, however welcome, took place "on the remains of a cynically discarded constitution...

...Even after the troops landed, the U.S...

...Balaguer's position throws a revealing light on the nature of the struggle...

...Though the U.S...

...Many people wanted Bosch to resume the Presidency not because they liked him, but because he happened to be the constitutional President...

...If Balaguer and the new constitution he draws up should dissatisfy the opposition, this opposition might have an excellent excuse-based on precedent-for trying to discard that one, too...

...Instead, the U.S...

...But many observers, including diplomats in Santo Domingo representing Latin America's democracies, feel that the cries of "vindication" emanating from Washington may reflect a "continued misunderstanding" of the nature of the recent revolution...

...Others, going still further, maintain that Balaguer's win repudiated the Dominican revolution...