Trujillo
Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina (San Cristóbal, October 24, 1891-Santo Domingo, May 30, 1961) was a Dominican dictator who ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961.
He served as generalissimo of the army from 1930 to 1938 and from 1942 to 1952 and ruled indirectly from 1938 to 1942 and from 1952 to 1961, using puppet presidents.
His 30 years of government are known as the Era of Trujillo, and considered one of the bloodiest tyrannies in Latin America.
His government was characterized by anti-communism, the repression of all opposition and the cult of personality.
Civil liberties were non-existent and constant human rights violations were committed. It plunged the country into a state of panic and "respect", where a death could be covered up as an "accident" and any person accused of being disaffected could be imprisoned and tortured in one of the clandestine prisons dedicated to this practice.
However, Trujillo's supporters highlight some positive aspects of the regime such as the end of caudillismo as a source of political instability, the restoration of public order and a certain economic development of the country.
During his regime, all levels of the state functioned in accordance with his interests and established a business monopoly that allowed him to accumulate a large personal fortune.
The Trujillo government was responsible for the deaths of more than 50,000 people, including the thousands of Haitians killed in the so-called "Perejil Massacre."
Total estimates of the death toll in the massacre range from 5,000 to 25,000.
Robert Crassweller mentions these estimates and notes that "a figure between 15,000 and 20,000 would be reasonable, although it would still be conjecture."
There were also victims of other nationalities, such as Cubans, Colombians, Venezuelans and Spaniards.
As a product of the National Guard, [21] created by the Americans during the first occupation of the country in 1916, Trujillo paid special attention to the Armed Forces.
Military personnel received generous pay and benefits under his rule, the army expanded numerically, and equipment inventories increased.
Trujillo maintained control of the officer corps through fear, patronage, and frequent "job rotation."
The Trujillo regime developed in a fertile time for dictatorial regimes in Latin America, being contemporary with other similar governments within the Caribbean basin, although according to some authors, his dictatorship was characterized by being more shameless, brutal and efficient than the others around him.
At the same time, Trujillo had against several foreign governments opposed to his dictatorship, among them Rómulo Betancourt of Venezuela, Juan José Arévalo of Guatemala, Ramón Grau San Martín of Cuba, Elie Lescot of Haiti, and José Figueres Ferrer of Costa Rica.
After the 1937 genocide of Haitians, Trujillo began to have international problems, especially with the United States, despite being a stronghold of anti-communism in the Caribbean. Hamilton Fish, a member of the United States House of Representatives, asked his government to sever relations with the Dominican Republic if the conflict with Haiti was not resolved. On January 31, 1938, Trujillo signed an agreement with the Haitian government in which he promised to pay compensation of $ 750,000 for the massacre, of which he paid only $ 550,000.
During World War II, Trujillo sided with the Allies and declared war on Germany, Italy, and Japan on December 11, 1941.
Although the Dominican Republic did not have direct military participation, this fact determined that the country became one of the founding members of the United Nations.
Trujillo encouraged diplomatic and economic relations with the US, but maintained tense relations with part of Latin America, especially with Costa Rica and Venezuela.
He maintained friendly relations with Franco in Spain.At the international level, the regime prioritized through the secret police attacks against prominent opposition figures abroad, including the attack on the Venezuelan president Rómulo Betancourt, in 1960, and the kidnapping of the Spanish Jesús de Galíndez Suárez, in the United States, on March 12, 1956.
In 1958, when Trujillo realized that Fidel Castro was gaining ground, he began to support the dictatorial regime of Fulgencio Batista by providing him with money, airplanes, equipment and men.
Trujillo, convinced that Batista would defeat Castro, was very surprised when he presented himself as a fugitive, after being overthrown. Trujillo kept Batista until August 1959 as a "virtual prisoner" and after the payment of an estimated amount between three and four million dollars, the dictator was finally able to travel to Portugal, country that had granted him a visa.
Beginning in 1959, Trujillo began to interfere more and more in the internal affairs of other neighboring countries.
Trujillo expressed great contempt for Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt, who was an outspoken opponent of the dictator who had been associated with the Dominican conspirators.
Trujillo developed an obsessive and personal hatred for Betancourt and supported numerous plans by Venezuelan exiles to overthrow him. Because of this, the Venezuelan government took the case against Trujillo to the Organization of American States (OAS).
This situation infuriated Trujillo, who ordered his foreign agents to plant a bomb in Betancourt's car.
The assassination attempt, carried out on June 24, 1960, wounded but did not kill the Venezuelan president as he was on his way to a military parade on Paseo Los Próceres in Caracas.
The attack against Betancourt turned world opinion against Trujillo.
Outraged, the OAS members unanimously approved breaking diplomatic relations with the Trujillo government and imposing economic sanctions on the Dominican Republic.
The relationship with the dictator had become an embarrassment to the United States and diplomatic relations were irreconcilably severed after the Betancourt incident.
The dictator had become an embarrassment to the United States, a situation that became increasingly tense as a result of the attack against Rómulo Betancourt.
On Friday, November 25, 1960, the brutal murder of the three Mirabal Sisters —Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa— who opposed the dictatorship, further increased discontent towards it.
On Tuesday, May 30, 1961, at 9:45 p.m., at kilometer 9 of the highway from Santo Domingo to San Cristóbal, the car in which Trujillo was traveling was machine-gunned in an ambush
The vehicle received more than 60 bullet wounds of various calibers, of which seven hit the dictator's body, killing him. His driver, Zacarías de la Cruz, received several hits, but did not lose his life, although he was presumed dead by the executioners.
The weapons provided by the CIA had been concealed by the American Simon Thomas Stocker "Wimpy", as he was also known, owner of the only supermarket in the country and resident in the Republic since 1942, he was contacted by the CIA under the code name of "Hector".
Stocker declined CIA compensation for his efforts, citing his moral conviction. The weapons were hidden for more than two months, at personal and family risk
There is a lot of history left, but I don't want to overwhelm you, so I'll leave several links. What did you think of the story of the bloodiest dictator in Latin America? Although, although he killed many people under his power, he raised the economy, so much so that in his term he made the Dominican peso the most valuable currency in the world, the country's exports expanded and made the country the focus political and global, being itself a copy of the current United States in Latin America
Postscript: I also create a military intelligence, the Military Intelligence Service (SIM).
https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Le%C3%B3nidas_Trujillo
He served as generalissimo of the army from 1930 to 1938 and from 1942 to 1952 and ruled indirectly from 1938 to 1942 and from 1952 to 1961, using puppet presidents.
His 30 years of government are known as the Era of Trujillo, and considered one of the bloodiest tyrannies in Latin America.
His government was characterized by anti-communism, the repression of all opposition and the cult of personality.
Civil liberties were non-existent and constant human rights violations were committed. It plunged the country into a state of panic and "respect", where a death could be covered up as an "accident" and any person accused of being disaffected could be imprisoned and tortured in one of the clandestine prisons dedicated to this practice.
However, Trujillo's supporters highlight some positive aspects of the regime such as the end of caudillismo as a source of political instability, the restoration of public order and a certain economic development of the country.
During his regime, all levels of the state functioned in accordance with his interests and established a business monopoly that allowed him to accumulate a large personal fortune.
The Trujillo government was responsible for the deaths of more than 50,000 people, including the thousands of Haitians killed in the so-called "Perejil Massacre."
Total estimates of the death toll in the massacre range from 5,000 to 25,000.
Robert Crassweller mentions these estimates and notes that "a figure between 15,000 and 20,000 would be reasonable, although it would still be conjecture."
There were also victims of other nationalities, such as Cubans, Colombians, Venezuelans and Spaniards.
As a product of the National Guard, [21] created by the Americans during the first occupation of the country in 1916, Trujillo paid special attention to the Armed Forces.
Military personnel received generous pay and benefits under his rule, the army expanded numerically, and equipment inventories increased.
Trujillo maintained control of the officer corps through fear, patronage, and frequent "job rotation."
The Trujillo regime developed in a fertile time for dictatorial regimes in Latin America, being contemporary with other similar governments within the Caribbean basin, although according to some authors, his dictatorship was characterized by being more shameless, brutal and efficient than the others around him.
At the same time, Trujillo had against several foreign governments opposed to his dictatorship, among them Rómulo Betancourt of Venezuela, Juan José Arévalo of Guatemala, Ramón Grau San Martín of Cuba, Elie Lescot of Haiti, and José Figueres Ferrer of Costa Rica.
After the 1937 genocide of Haitians, Trujillo began to have international problems, especially with the United States, despite being a stronghold of anti-communism in the Caribbean. Hamilton Fish, a member of the United States House of Representatives, asked his government to sever relations with the Dominican Republic if the conflict with Haiti was not resolved. On January 31, 1938, Trujillo signed an agreement with the Haitian government in which he promised to pay compensation of $ 750,000 for the massacre, of which he paid only $ 550,000.
During World War II, Trujillo sided with the Allies and declared war on Germany, Italy, and Japan on December 11, 1941.
Although the Dominican Republic did not have direct military participation, this fact determined that the country became one of the founding members of the United Nations.
Trujillo encouraged diplomatic and economic relations with the US, but maintained tense relations with part of Latin America, especially with Costa Rica and Venezuela.
He maintained friendly relations with Franco in Spain.At the international level, the regime prioritized through the secret police attacks against prominent opposition figures abroad, including the attack on the Venezuelan president Rómulo Betancourt, in 1960, and the kidnapping of the Spanish Jesús de Galíndez Suárez, in the United States, on March 12, 1956.
In 1958, when Trujillo realized that Fidel Castro was gaining ground, he began to support the dictatorial regime of Fulgencio Batista by providing him with money, airplanes, equipment and men.
Trujillo, convinced that Batista would defeat Castro, was very surprised when he presented himself as a fugitive, after being overthrown. Trujillo kept Batista until August 1959 as a "virtual prisoner" and after the payment of an estimated amount between three and four million dollars, the dictator was finally able to travel to Portugal, country that had granted him a visa.
Beginning in 1959, Trujillo began to interfere more and more in the internal affairs of other neighboring countries.
Trujillo expressed great contempt for Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt, who was an outspoken opponent of the dictator who had been associated with the Dominican conspirators.
Trujillo developed an obsessive and personal hatred for Betancourt and supported numerous plans by Venezuelan exiles to overthrow him. Because of this, the Venezuelan government took the case against Trujillo to the Organization of American States (OAS).
This situation infuriated Trujillo, who ordered his foreign agents to plant a bomb in Betancourt's car.
The assassination attempt, carried out on June 24, 1960, wounded but did not kill the Venezuelan president as he was on his way to a military parade on Paseo Los Próceres in Caracas.
The attack against Betancourt turned world opinion against Trujillo.
Outraged, the OAS members unanimously approved breaking diplomatic relations with the Trujillo government and imposing economic sanctions on the Dominican Republic.
The relationship with the dictator had become an embarrassment to the United States and diplomatic relations were irreconcilably severed after the Betancourt incident.
The dictator had become an embarrassment to the United States, a situation that became increasingly tense as a result of the attack against Rómulo Betancourt.
On Friday, November 25, 1960, the brutal murder of the three Mirabal Sisters —Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa— who opposed the dictatorship, further increased discontent towards it.
On Tuesday, May 30, 1961, at 9:45 p.m., at kilometer 9 of the highway from Santo Domingo to San Cristóbal, the car in which Trujillo was traveling was machine-gunned in an ambush
The vehicle received more than 60 bullet wounds of various calibers, of which seven hit the dictator's body, killing him. His driver, Zacarías de la Cruz, received several hits, but did not lose his life, although he was presumed dead by the executioners.
The weapons provided by the CIA had been concealed by the American Simon Thomas Stocker "Wimpy", as he was also known, owner of the only supermarket in the country and resident in the Republic since 1942, he was contacted by the CIA under the code name of "Hector".
Stocker declined CIA compensation for his efforts, citing his moral conviction. The weapons were hidden for more than two months, at personal and family risk
There is a lot of history left, but I don't want to overwhelm you, so I'll leave several links. What did you think of the story of the bloodiest dictator in Latin America? Although, although he killed many people under his power, he raised the economy, so much so that in his term he made the Dominican peso the most valuable currency in the world, the country's exports expanded and made the country the focus political and global, being itself a copy of the current United States in Latin America
Postscript: I also create a military intelligence, the Military Intelligence Service (SIM).
https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Le%C3%B3nidas_Trujillo
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