Introduction
It is impossible to write the Dominican Republic’s history without mentioning former ruler Rafael Trujillo’s regime, commonly known as the Trujillo era. The nation is located on Hispaniola Island, in the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean area. Rafael Trujillo was a dictator who ruled the country for over three decades, and he assumed near-absolute power of the nation from 1930-to 61. This paper will cover Trujillo’s years in power and the deeds he committed during his rule.
The History of the Dominican Republic and Its Rulers
The Dominican Republic, a nation of the West Indies, occupies two-thirds of Hispaniola, the largest island in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea. The country’s capital is Santo Domingo, located on the southern coast. The Republic has standard features with the Latin American countries, and several writers refer to the Dominican Republic as the microcosm of the region. Dominican people have witnessed civil and political disorder, long military rule, ethnic tension, export booms, and oppressive Dictator Rafael Trujillo’s rule (BBC, 2021). There have been several foreign military occupations of the Dominican Republic, such as 1822-44 Haitian occupation, 1916-24, and 1965-66 by the United States.
The country’s population comprises mixed European and African ethnicities and a minority of White and Black people. The nation’s recorded history began when navigator Christopher Columbus, who was working for the Spanish monarchy, arrived on the island, by then occupied by Arawakan and Taino people. Columbus immediately claimed the island to the Spanish Crown naming it La Isla Española (the Spanish Island). The country had changed from Spanish to French and later to a Spanish colony in its former days until the proclamation of independence as Santo Domingo before acquiring its current name.
The US occupation ended in 1924, and a democratic government was elected under president Vásquez, bringing enormous economic and social prosperity. However, in 1930 a Santiago lawyer Rafael Estrella proclaimed a revolution, as the aging president was forced to leave. Estrella became the provisional president with the support of Rafael Trujillo who was the Army commander. Meanwhile, Trujillo ordered troops to remain in barracks while the election was being prepared in May of the same year to deceive the masses of his neutrality. Nevertheless, he participated in the election and won by a landslide, garnering 95 percent of the total votes after using the Army to intimidate potential opponents and electoral personnel. Rafael Trujillo was inaugurated in august 1930 as the leader, and he immediately requested Dominican Congress to proclaim the commencement of the Trujillo era.
The Trujillo Era 1930-1961
Within some months after taking over the presidential seat, the capital city Santo Domingo was hit hard by an intense hurricane, destroying much of the country’s resources. The disaster killed more than 2,000 individuals, leaving the nation devastated. Trujillo’s first reaction was to place the Dominican Republic under martial law as he embarked on motivating the resident to clear debris and rebuild the city. After rebuilding the city for six years, Trujillo renamed it, Cuidad Trujillo, in his honor, including several monuments, streets, and significant landmarks across the country (History.com, 2021). During his oppressive rule, Trujillo was hailed for sanitation improvement, the construction of schools, new roads, hospitals, and better living standards for the Dominican citizens.
Rafael Trujillo was notorious for receiving kickbacks on each public contract; he also monopolized various lucrative industries. This skewed management of the nation’s few industries ensured economic prosperity was disproportionally distributed to his few military personnel, family and supporters. Trujillo formed a secret police force that included a broad network of spies to threaten, kill, torture, and expel dissenters. There were several orchestrated suicides and accidents where thousand disappeared.
Politics during Trujillo Era
Trujillo in secret established a power base outside the public eye; he was upbeat to assume control of the republic in 1930. He proceeded to govern the Dominican Republic like a feudal lord for 31 years, whereby he has been nicknamed El Jefe, meaning “the Boss” or “the Chief.” He served as the Dominican Republic president from 1930-1938 and later from 1942-1952 as a military strongman without being elected. At some moments, Trujillo gave up his presidency to his brother Hector, and a friend, Joaquin Balaguer. Nonetheless, during all these durations, he reserved ultimate control and powers while the acting presidents were mere puppets.
Before a fixed border was demarcated in 1936 between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, disputes usually occurred for many years. Trujillo plotted a massacre known as the Parsley massacre to disrupt the neighboring country Haiti; in most instances, he sponsored anti-Haitian sentiments. In October 1937, Trujillo ordered the slaughtering of Dominicans of Haitian descent and the Haitian families, which took place along the border region (Bishop & Fernandez, 2017). The killing lasted between 5-8 days, and even after the media coverage of the massacre, the Dominican dictator refused to acknowledge it and the government’s role.
Trujillo upheld absolute control over the officer corps using patronage, fear, and regular rotational assignments that subdued the development of a solid personal following. Ideologically, the Dominican dictator leaned towards fascism with the trapping of his individualism cult. Nevertheless, Trujillo’s attitude toward communism inclined to peaceful cohabitation until 1947 when Washington convinced him to eliminate and outlaw the Dominican Communist Party. As he always preferred self-interest, Trujillo was glad to comply to retain personal power. Conspiracies both real and imagined against his regime preoccupied the dictator all through his reign. However, his audacious foreign policy rubbed on the wrong side of other governments, leading to his downfall.
The Dominican Republic’s strongman heinous acts such as the Parsley massacre cost him badly in terms of support and influence; as many as 20,000 unarmed civilians were slaughtered (Bishop & Fernandez, 2017). The killers used machetes to portray a narrative of a spontaneous local uprising by patriotic Dominican farmers against Haitian cattle rustlers. During the massacre, news filtered through several international media outlets, concerning the horrors committed. World leaders, including the United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull, reprimanded Trujillo. He was forced to pay a settlement indemnity, and from that time the Trujillo regime became more isolated in the global arena. As his international image deteriorated, the dictator’s paranoia motivated him to heighten his foreign interventionism.
Economy during Trujillo Era
During the Trujillo era, his administration controlled 80 percent of industrial manufacturing, and 60 percent of the national economic activities and employment (Verite.org, 2016). Despite how well the economy was performing, the dictator held all economic sectors with his few associates and family members. For over three decades, the Trujillo government invested robustly in infrastructures though the bulk of benefits went to him and his cronies. His primary means for self-enrichment was drawn from the national sugar sector, which promptly expanded in the 50s. Nevertheless, in the process of amassing enormous riches, the dictator forced peasants out of their land, looted the country’s coffers, and created a personal fiefdom.
The economy experienced stable growth during Trujillo’s reign to an average of 6 percent annually; nonetheless, the imbalanced distribution of the prosperity impoverished ordinary Dominican peasants (Verite.org, 2016). Before the 1950’s, sugar production was mainly controlled by foreign capital, until Trujillo changed the situation by declaring the sugar sector as a national interest and a high priority for his regime (Verite.org, 2016). At the time, the administration was befitted tremendously by favorable sugar prices. The dictator managed to build three new mills, and in the period from 1952-1956, he nationalized nine of the country’s thirteen mills owned by foreign investors.
Social Issues during Trujillo Era
Dominican Republic’s social stratification is mainly influenced by economic and racial issues, whereby the upper class comprises of historically descended European ancestry. On the other hand, the lower level is descendants of African slaves and their Haitian counterparts. Narrations in the book “The Dominican Racial Imaginary: Surveying the Landscape of Race and Nation in Hispaniola,” written by Milagros Ricourt (2016) declares, “The Dominican Racial Imaginary subverts the way of knowledge of Dominican elites by telling the stories of ‘the forced delivered child” (Ricourt, 2016, p.80). The book tries to explain when and how Africans became part of the Dominican Republic’s racial mix.
The quality of life for Dominican people improved during the Trujillo era. Poverty persisted, though the economy advanced, the foreign debt decreased, and the middle class grew while the currency remained stable. The public works expanded road projects and networks, improved the transport connection, improved the ports, public utility buildings were constructed, the education system was enhanced, and illiteracy went down. All these endeavors improved the social lives of the people. Even though Trujillo never tested his popularity in a free election, observers feel he could have won a popular vote during the period.
Conclusion
Resistance movements against Trujillo grew across the nation, and in diaspora, underground resistance schemes had blossomed since 1940. The dictator managed to ruthlessly suppress and any resistance, even killing dissidents in a foreign land. The most outspoken ones were three revolutionary Maribal sisters who were captured and pitilessly beaten. Eventually, Trujillo’s operative killed them in a stage-managed car accident in1960. Nevertheless, on May 30th, 1961, Rafael Trujillo was assassinated after being ambushed while traveling in his car. The act brought the Trujillo era to an abrupt end.
References
BBC. (2021). Dominican Republic country profile. Web.
Bishop, M., & Fernandez, T. (2017). 80 Years On, Dominicans and Haitians revisit painful memories of the Parsley massacre. Web.
History.com. (2021). Rafael Trujillo. Web.
Ricourt, M. (2016). The Dominican racial imaginary: surveying the landscape of race and nation in Hispaniola. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Verite.org. (2016). Web.