Caribbean Caesar
Alexander, Robert J.
Caribbean Caesar trujillo-little caesar of the Caribbean, by German Ornes. Thomas Nelson & Sons. 338 pp. $5. Reviewed by Robert J. Alexander This is the best study yet made of the...
...He drove American interests completely out of the rich sugar industry, which now belongs almost entirely to him...
...He looks at the regime's one legal party, its educational system, its kept press (reduced to two newspapers...
...Refusal to "cut him in" is equivalent to folding up any enterprise in the country...
...Reviewed by Robert J. Alexander This is the best study yet made of the dictatorship of Generalissimo Rafael Leonidas Trujillo in the Dominican Republic...
...He signs all passports to leave the country...
...Ornes looks at the secret police, the army, the Trujillo fortune, the multitudinous family of the dictator...
...Ornes recites the history of several individuals who were charged with "indifference...
...Officials of the State Department have undoubtedly long had THE REVIEWERS WAtT KELLY, a former political cartoonist, is the originator of the distinguished comic strip, "Pogo...
...WILLIAM McCANN edited the paperback, "Ambrose Bierce's America...
...But the unity of command goes further than this...
...MARION A. WRIGHT, a lawyer, is vice-president of the Southern Regional Council...
...A recent investigating committee of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions reported that there was "no trade union freedom" in the Dominican Republic...
...Marines' occupation forces to become first commander of that army, then president, and for almost thirty years dictator of the Dominican Republic...
...Jack edited "The Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi...
...The Benefactor, as Trujillo had himself named, is head of the only legal party, to which all office holders must belong...
...Ornes, who was once part of the Trujillo regime, and is now in exile in Puerto Rico, makes clear that the Trujillo regime is not just another Latin American tyranny...
...He is a silent partner in every profitable business in the republic, whether or not he invested any capital in it...
...He shows how Trujillo rose from an obscure officer in the army organized by the U.S...
...Trujillo has evolved the procedure of denouncing his own subordinates through "letters to the editor" of his newspaper El Caribe...
...Ornes studies with considerable thoroughness and admirable objectivity many aspects of the regime...
...He dictates lead editorials to the same newspaper, as well as to its "rival" La Nacion...
...HOMER A. JACK, a Unitarian minister in Evanston, III., has known Michael Scott both in Africa and this country...
...As Ornes notes, Trujillo's greed has led him to undertake a certain amount of economic development in the Dominican Republic...
...The Trujillo regime is a completely personalist government...
...In the meantime, the great majority of the people remain in dire poverty...
...RICHARD SCHICKEL reviews fiction regularly for The Progressive...
...Most of the wealth of the country has been gathered into Trujillo's hands—and the rest is largely apportioned among his kin...
...The workers in Trujillo's enterprises enjoy none of the benefits of the minimum wage laws, social security, and other measures which Trujillo has passed to impress foreign visitors and the International Labor Organization...
...It is infinitely more brutal and more efficient than most of the regimes of its type...
...However, this is a peculiar kind of development—any enterprise in which Tru-jillo does not see a profit for himself has little chance of getting any encouragement...
...Thousands of small agriculturalists have been driven to the wall by Trujillo, who has been anxious to obtain their land...
...The secret police reports to him personally, as do all of the ministers...
...As Ornes points out, even when the Generalissimo doesn't occupy the presidency, whoever does (including his "little brother," Hector) is a mere puppet...
...available most of the information which he presents in it...
...It is a dictatorship which has reached out into neighboring countries of the hemisphere, including the United States, to wreak vengeance on its enemies...
...He is Generalissimo and as such in charge of all armed forces...
...Unfortunately, one of the gaps in Ornes' story is the development of labor relations and the trade union movement in Trujilloland...
...As Ornes says, Trujillo has an unlimited thirst for praise, and will pay, intimidate, or use any other methods available to obtain it...
...The only crime approaching opposition to Trujillo in the Dominican Republic is "indifference," that is, failing to praise "el Jefe" with sufficient fervor...
...He obtains the undated resignations of all office holders and he "resigns" anyone whenever he wishes, and as head of the Dominican Party names their replacements...
...Ornes is to be congratulated on this book...
...Finally he studies the opposition of exiles to Trujillo, and devotes the last chapter to the intricacies of the Galindez-Murphy case...
...However, it is to be hoped that the book's publication will contribute something towards making the Department adopt a less favorable attitude towards the appalling little Caribbean dictator...
...The whole public relations and propaganda machine of the dictatorship and all its servants is directed towards eulogizing the dictator...
...ROBERT J. ALEXANDER, a specialist on South American affairs, teaches at Rutgers University...
...Its dictator has greater delusions of grandeur than most—having completely changed the nomenclature of the nation by giving his own name and those of his family to literally hundreds of towns, cities, villages, provinces, bridges, and other landmarks...
...ROBERT LOUIS PETERS teaches literature at Wayne State University...
Vol. 22 • December 1958 • No. 12
