Duarte And The Dominican Republic

Wherever you go in the Dominican Republic, Calle Duarte is usually the main street in the town, Pico Duarte is the highest mountain in the island and Autopista Duarte is the main highway north from the cap ital. Duarte is everYWhere, honoured as the instigator of independence from Haiti. Born in Santo Domingo in 1813, he was sent to Europe in 1828 to finish his studies. His travels through England, France and Spain influenced his thinking, and when he retumed to his country in 1833 he developed the liberal ideas he had picked up into a nationalist policy against the Haitian occupation. He started a secret society called La Trinitaria, divided into groups of three, with each member recruiting three new members into the resistance network.

The three leaders were Duarte, the lawyer Francisco del Rosario Sanchez, and the soldier Ramon Men Their first attempt at insur rection in 1843 was unsuccessful and a crackdown by troops forced Duarte into exile in Curacao, while Sanchez went into hiding and Mella was arrested. There was further plotting and on 27 February 1844, Mella gave the signal for a second attempt. Haitian troops were defeated in Santo Domingo, a provisional junta was set up and the independent Dominican Republic was proclaimed. Duarte returned to a hero's welcome on 14 March. He became part of the junta, but was soon disillusioned with politics, the cynical manoeuvring and the power struggles, and quickly faded from the limelight.

US Intervention The country remained impos sible to govern with faction alism, economic weakness and Haitian invasions destabilising the new Republic. Governments came and went with remark able speed as one strong man overthrew another, amassing for tunes while the country slid into bankruptcy. On several occasions Germany, being heavily involved in the tobacco trade, sent warships to collect debts. At this point the USA be came anxious about German influence in the region and inter vened, putting Dominican customs into receivership in 1905. Financial stability did not ensure political stability, how ever, and a succession of short term presidencies, assassinations, uprisings and coups led the USA to bring in the Marines in 1916 and impose full military government.
Although economically a success, with schools, sewers, roads and other infrastructure being built and the country becoming creditworthy, the occupying forces were deeply resented. Guerrilla warfare continued, exacerbated by land reform which dispossessed many peasant farmers, who took to the hills to fight. US troops were withdrawn in 1924.

The Trujillo Dictatorship Elections in 1930 brought to the presidency the armed forces commander, Rafael Trujillo. Trujillo dominated the country for over 30 years and was one of the most feared and ruthless dictators ever seen in the Americas. Whether he or one of his pup pets was president, it was Trujillo who controlled everything through his secret police, who operated with impunity, using torture, murder and blackmail to ensure loyalty. After a hurricane destroyed much of Santo Domingo in 1930, the megalo maniac Trujillo rebuilt the city and named it Ciudad Trujillo. In 1936 he renamed Pico Duarte, the tallest mountain in the Caribbean, Pico Trujillo.

To Trujillo's credit, he modernised the country's infrastructure, repaid foreign debts, got rid of US control of customs and introduced a national currency, the peso. However, it is for his excesses and brutality he is remembered. In 1937 around 10,000 Haitians in the Dominican Republic, mostly workers on the sugar plantations, were rounded up and massacred. His racism led him to try and whiten the population by encouraging immigration from Europe and Japan while black Haitians were routinely abused and deported. Political opponents were regularly eliminated, but he finally overstepped the mark when in 1960 he plotted to assassinate the president of Venezuela, Romulo Betancourt. The Organization of Ameri can States (OAS) imposed economic sanctions and pressure for change buiIt up at home and abroad. In 1961, with CIA assistance, Trujillo was assassinated as he drove out of the capital to visit one of his mistresses.