Rafael Trujillo
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- This article is about Rafael L. Trujillo, former dictator of the Dominican Republic. For other persons see Rafael Trujillo (disambiguation).
Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina | |
|---|---|
| File:Rafael Leonidas Trujillo.jpg | |
| 36th & 39th President of the Dominican Republic | |
| In office August 16, 1930 – May 30, 1938 May 18, 1942 – August 16, 1952 | |
| Preceded by | Horacio Vásquez Manuel Troncoso de la Concha |
| Succeeded by | Jacinto Peynado Héctor Trujillo |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 24, 1891 San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic |
| Died | May 30, 1961 (aged 69) Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic |
| Nationality | Dominican |
| Political party | Dominican Party |
| Spouse | Maria Martínez de Trujillo |
| Residence | Santo Domingo |
| Profession | soldier |
Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina (October 24, 1891 – May 30, 1961) ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961.[1] Officially, he was president only from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952, ruling for the rest of the time as an unelected military strongman.
Popularly, he was known as El Jefe ("The Chief") or El Benefactor (The Benefactor), but he was privately referred to as Chapitas — literally, "bottlecaps" — because of his indiscriminate use of medals. Dominican children emulated El Jefe by constructing toy medals from bottle caps. He was also called el chivo ("the goat"). His tyranny, historically known as "La Era de Trujillo" or "The Trujillo Era," is considered one of the bloodiest of the 20th century, as well as a time of a classic personality cult, when monuments to Rafael Trujillo were in abundance.
Early life and background
Trujillo was born and raised in San Cristóbal, to José Trujillo Valdez, a small retailer possibly of Canary origin, and Altagracia Julia Molina Chevalier (later known as Mamá Julia), whose mother was half-Haitian (the knowledge of which would later be suppressed due to his ordered massacre of Haitians). Also related to the Abreus family. He was the third of eleven children. His siblings were:
- Rosa María Julieta
- Virgilio
- José "Petán" Arismendy
- Amable "Pipi" Romero
- Aníbal Julio
- Nieves Luisa
- Pedro Vetilio
- Ofelia Japonesa
- Héctor "Negro" Bienvenido Trujillo Molina.
His childhood passed relatively without incidents. His basic education was irregular and quite limited. At six he was registered in the school of Juan Hilario Meriño, where he acquired elementary literacy. After a year, he transferred to the school of Broughton, who was a disciple of Eugenio María de Hostos, and remained there for three or four years. They said that Trujillo was a normal student, and their professors thought that he was unintelligent.
With a few years of formal schooling under his belt at sixteen Trujillo got a job as a Morse code telegraph operator. He quickly fell in bad company when he became a member of, "The 44", a small gang based in Dominica.[2]
In 1916 the island (both Haiti and the Dominican Republic) was under US military occupation due to threats of defaulting on foreign debts. It was soon decided to establish a Domincan army constabulary to restore order. Seeing opportunity Trujillo impressed the recruiters and was soon promoted through the ranks. When the US troops finally left in 1924, the man they left in charge was Trujillo. [2]
Rise to power
The rebellion against President Vázquez broke out in 1930 in Santiago, and the rebels marched toward Santo Domingo. Trujillo was ordered to subdue the rebellion, but when the mutineers arrived to the capital on February 26, they encountered no resistance. Rebel leader Rafael Estrella was proclaimed as acting-president when Váz resigned. Trujillo then became the nominee of the newly-formed Dominican Party in the 1930 presidential election. He won on May 16, officially registering 95 percent of the vote — an implausibly high total that could have only been obtained by means of massive fraud. A judge actually declared the election fraudulent, but was forced to flee.[3] On August 16, the then 38-year-old general took office, wearing a sash with the motto, "Dios y Trujillo" (God & Trujillo). He immediately assumed dictatorial powers.
Trujillo regime
Three weeks later, the destructive San Zenon hurricane hit Santo Domingo and left more than 3,000 dead. With relief money from the American Red Cross, Trujillo rebuilt the city. On August 16, 1931, the first anniversary of his inauguration, Trujillo made the Dominican Party the sole legal political party. However, the country had effectively been a one-party state since Trujillo had been sworn in. Government employees were required to "donate" 10 percent of their salary to the national treasury,[3][4] and there was strong pressure on adult citizens to join the party. Party members were required to carry a membership card, the "palmita," and a person could be arrested for vagrancy without the card. Those who did not contribute, or join the party, did so at their own risk. Opponents of the regime were mysteriously killed. In 1934, Trujillo, who had promoted himself to generalissimo of the army, was up for re-election. Although he would have won in any case as there was virtually no organized opposition left in the country, Trujillo dispensed even with these formalities. Instead, he relied upon "civic reviews", with large crowds shouting their loyalty to the government.[3] In October 1937, Trujillo oversaw the massacre of Haitians, as described below.
Megalomania: Trujillo's cult of personality
At the suggestion of Mario Fermín Cabral, Congress voted overwhelmingly in 1936 to rename the capital from Santo Domingo to Ciudad Trujillo. The province of San Cristobal was created as "Trujillo," and the nation's highest peak, Pico Duarte, was renamed in his honor. Statues of "El Jefe" were mass produced and erected across the Republic, and bridges and public buildings were named in his honor. The nation's newspapers now had praise for Trujillo as part of the front page, and license plates included the slogan "Viva Trujillo!" An electric sign was erected in Ciudad Trujillo so that "Dios y Trujillo" could be seen at night as well as in the day. Eventually, even churches were required to post the slogan, "Dios en cielo, Trujillo en tierra" (God in Heaven, Trujillo on Earth). As time went on, the order was reversed (Trujillo on Earth, God in Heaven). Trujillo was recommended for the Nobel Peace Prize by his admirers, but the committee declined the suggestion. When he received (or summoned) a visitor, his four bodyguards would have submachineguns trained upon the "guest" during a meeting.[5]
Trujillo was eligible to run again in 1938, but, citing the U.S. example of two presidential terms, he stated that "I voluntarily, and against the wishes of my people, refuse re-election to the high office." [5] His handpicked successor, 71 year old vice-president Jacinto Bienvenido Peynado, was nominated by the Dominican Party. As the Dominican Party was the only legal party, the election of Peynado and Manuel de Jesús Troncoso was merely a formality. Meanwhile, Trujillo limited himself to being the "Generalisimo," though it was generally understood he held the real power. President Peynado increased the size of the electric "Dios y Trujillo" sign, and died on March 7, 1940, with Troncoso serving out the rest of the term. In 1942, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt having run for a third term in the United States, Trujillo ran for president again, and won overwhelmingly. He served two terms (having lengthened a presidential term to five years), and in 1952 stepped aside in favor of his brother, Héctor Trujillo.
His daughter Angelita was designated "queen" of the 1955 "International Fair of Peace and Fraternity of the World," a pompous event that cost US$30 million, and his wife María Martínez, a semi-literate woman, was declared a writer and philosopher.
Immigration
Even when not officially the president, Trujillo always exercised absolute power, leaving the ceremonial affairs of state to figureheads. Trujillo was known for his open-door policy, accepting Jewish refugees from Europe, Japanese migration during the 1930s, and then exiles following the Spanish Civil War. At the same time, Trujillo developed a uniquely Dominican policy of racial discrimination known as Antihaitianismo (or "anti-Haitian") against the mostly-black Haitians.
The receipt of refugees from Europe helped broaden the tax base and to "whiten" what had been a mixed-race nation. Caucasian refugees were favored over others, while Dominican troops were ordered to expel illegal aliens, the result being the 1937 Parsley Massacre of Haitian cane-workers.
Parsley Massacre
Claiming, in 1937, that Haiti was harboring his former Dominican opponents, Trujillo ordered an attack on the border, and thousands of Haitians were slaughtered while trying to escape. The number of the dead is still unknown, though it is now calculated between 20,000[6] and 30,000.[7] It was speculated that Trujillo was hoping for a war with Haiti, and possible control of the entire island of Hispaniola. In the end, American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Haitian President Sténio Vincent sought reparations of US$750,000, of which only US$525,000 (US$ 11,127,083.33 in 2024) were ever paid: 30 dollars per victim, of which only 2 cents were given to survivors, due to corruption in the Haitian bureaucracy.[8][5]
Trujillo paid special attention to improving the armed forces. Military personnel received generous pay and perks under his rule, and their ranks as well as equipment inventories expanded. Trujillo maintained control over the officer corps through fear, patronage, and the frequent rotation of assignments, which inhibited the development of strong personal followings. The other leading beneficiaries of the dictatorship —aside from Trujillo himself and his family — were those who associated themselves with the regime both politically and economically. The establishment of state monopolies over all major enterprises in the country brought riches to the Trujillos through the manipulation of prices and inventories as well as the outright embezzlement of funds. Ideologically, Trujillo leaned toward capitalism. However, Trujillo was not an ideologue, but a Dominican caudillo expanded to monstrous proportions by his absolute control of the nation's resources. His anti-communism tended toward a peaceful coexistence with Washington; during World War II Trujillo had sided with the Allies. As always, self-interest and the need to maintain his personal power guided Trujillo's actions. Trujillo encouraged diplomatic and economic ties with the U.S., but his policies often caused friction with other nations of Latin America, especially Costa Rica and Venezuela.
Downfall and assassination
By the late 1950s, opposition to Trujillo's regime was starting to build to a fever pitch. A younger generation of Dominicans had been born who had no memory of the instability and poverty that had preceded him. Many began clamoring for more democracy. In response the Trujillo regime became more repressive. The Intelligence Military Service (secret police SIM), led by Johnny Abbes, remained as ubiquitous as before. This led other nations to ostracize the Dominican Republic, which only compounded the dictator's paranoia.
Trujillo began to interfere more and more into the domestic affairs of other neighboring countries. He did have cause to resent the leaders of some nations, such as Cuba's Fidel Castro, who assisted a small, abortive invasion attempt by dissident Dominicans in 1959. Trujillo, however, expressed greater contempt for Venezuela's president Rómulo Betancourt (1959-64). An established and outspoken opponent of Trujillo, Betancourt had been associated with some individual Dominicans who had plotted against the dictator. Trujillo developed an obsessive personal hatred towards Betancourt and supported numerous plots of Venezuelan exiles to overthrow him. This pattern of intervention led the Venezuelan government to take its case against Trujillo to the Organization of American States (OAS). This development infuriated Trujillo, who ordered his foreign agents to plant a bomb inside Betancourt's car. The assassination attempt, carried out on June 24, 1960, injured but did not kill the Venezuelan president.
The firestorm caused by the Betancourt incident inflamed world opinion against Trujillo. The members of the OAS, expressing this outrage, voted unanimously to sever diplomatic relations and to impose strong economic sanctions on the Dominican Republic. The brutal November 25, 1960 murder of the three Mirabal sisters, Patria, María and Minerva, who opposed Trujillo's dictatorship, inflamed widespread discontent against his repressive rule.
Finally on the night of May 30, 1961, Rafael Trujillo was shot to death on San Cristobal Avenue, Santo Domingo. He was the victim of an ambush plotted by Modesto Diaz, Salvador Estrella Sadhalá, Antonio de la Maza, Amado Garcí Guerrero, Manuel Cáceres Michel (Tunti), Juan Tomás Diaz, Roberto Pastoriza, Luis Amiama Tió, Antonio Imbert Barrera, Pedro Livio Cedeño, and Huáscar Tejeda. According to U.S. reporter Bernard Diederich, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) planned the operation to kill the dictator. In a report to the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, CIA officials described the agency as having "no active part" in the assassination and only a "faint connection" with the groups that planned the killing.[9] However, an internal CIA memorandum states that an Office of Inspector General investigation into Trujillo's murder disclosed "quite extensive Agency involvement with the plotters." [10] A key scholarly book on the Dominican Republic states that "the CIA arranged, planned and executed the assassination" using their elite paramilitary operations officers from the famed Special Activities Division. [11]
Trujillo's family attempted to flee with his body upon his boat Angelita, but were turned back. His funeral was that of a man of state, with the long procession ending in his hometown of San Cristóbal, where his body was first buried. Then-president Joaquín Balaguer gave the eulogy. After this, the people voted for the Trujillo family to leave the country, so his son, Ramfis Trujillo, came back to take his father's body away from the country. Trujillo was buried in Paris, in Père Lachaise Cemetery, at the request of his relatives.[1]
Legacy
Trujillo reorganized the state and the economy and left a vast infrastructure to the country. His rule also saw more stability and prosperity than most living Dominicans had previously known. However, this came at a great cost. Civil rights and freedoms were virtually nonexistent, and much of the country's wealth wound up in the hands of his family or close associates.
To this day, Trujillo's influence in bureaucracy, military and some aspects of the culture is still present.[citation needed] A few families and men who became powerful — or already were — during the regime, are untouchable, even if they are related to crimes or illegally possess money or lands.[citation needed]
There are Dominicans who still defend Trujillo, longing for the times of order and peace during his tenure; this has somewhat lessened by the Dominican Republic's increasing stability that has taken place in the last several decades.
Environmental legacy
Upon coming to power the Trujillo regime greatly expanded the Vedado del Yaque a nature reserve around the Yaque del Sur River.[4] In 1934 he created the nation's first national park, he banned the harmful slash and burn method of clearing land for agriculture, set up a Forest warden agency to protect the park system, and banned the logging of pine trees without his permission. [4] Trujillo did all this in the name of environmentalism but probably was motivated in these efforts as way to create logging monopolies for his private companies.[4] In the fifties the Trujillo regime commissioned a study on the hydro electrical potential of Dominica's waterways. Among other things the commission stated that only forested waterways could support hydroelectric dams and so Trujillo banned the logging in potential river watersheds. After his assassination in 1961 the pillaging of the nations forests so common around Latin America resumed. Squatters burned down the forests for agriculture and logging companies clear cut parks, and potential hydro electrical watersheds thus reducing the hydro potential of the Dominica republic.[4] It wasn't till 1967 when Joaquín Balaguer launched military strikes against illegal logging that the situation came under control.[4]
His family
On August 13, 1913, at the age of 22 Trujillo was married for the first time to Aminta Ledesma, a very reputable young girl from his hometown San Cristobal who gave him his first two daughters, Genoveva born and deceased in 1914, and Flor de Oro Trujillo Ledesma born in 1915 who later married Porfirio Rubirosa.
Trujillo married Bienvenida Ricardo March 30, 1927, a girl from Montecristi and the daughter of Buenaventura Ricardo Heureaux. A year later he met Maria de los Angeles Martínez Alba (la españolita) and had an adulterous relation from which Rafael Leonidas Ramfis was born June 5, 1929. He divorced Bienvenida in 1935 and married María de los Angeles Martínez. A year later he had a daughter with Bienvenida, Odette Trujillo Ricardo.
Trujillo's second child with Maria Martínez was María de los Angeles (Angelita) born in Paris June 10, 1939, and Leonidas Rhadamés born December 1, 1942. Ramfis and Rhadamés were named after characters in Verdi's opera Aida .
In 1937 Trujillo was charmed by the beauty of Lina Lovatón Pittaluga,.[12] an upper-class debutante with whom he had two children, Yolanda in 1939, and Rafael born June 20, 1943.
Two of Trujillo's brothers, Héctor and José Arismendy, were also involved in the government. José Arismendy Trujillo oversaw the creation of "La Voz Dominicana," the main radio station and later, the television station which became the fourth in the continent.
Trujillo in media
| Media type | Title | Release date | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Movie | The Feast of the Goat (*) | 2006 | Directed by Luis Llosa and Trujillo played by Tomás Milián |
| TV Movie | In the Time of the Butterflies (film) | 2001 | Directed by Mariano Barroso and Trujillo played by Edward James Olmos |
| Documentary | El Poder del Jefe III | 1998 | Directed by René Fortunato |
| Documentary | El Poder del Jefe II | 1996 | Directed by René Fortunato |
| Documentary | El Poder del Jefe I | 1994 | Directed by René Fortunato |
| Movie | El Misterio Galíndez - The Galindez File | 2003 | Gerardo Herrero directed El Misterio Galíndez, a movie about Jesús de Galíndez Suárez, activist of the PNV party and Basque Diplomat who disappeared in 1956; allegedly because of his opposition to Trujillo`s regime. |
| Book | La era de Trujillo: un estudio casuístico de dictadura hispanoamericana | 1990 | Manuel Vazquez Montalbán, a Catalan writer, wrote about Galíndez en 1990. The book is a fictional recreation of the life and disappearance of the diplomat. |
| Book | The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao | 2007 | Junot Diaz, a native of Santo Domingo wrote Pulitzer Prize Winning book about a dysfunctional Dominican/American family. The book is a fictional account of the family's misfortunes experienced as a result of the atrocities of Trujillo's regime. |
| Book | The Feast of the Goat | 2000 | A book by Mario Vargas Llosa, set in the Dominican Republic and portraying the assassination of the Dominican dictator, and its aftermath, from two distinct standpoints a generation apart: during and immediately after the assassination itself, in May 1961; and thirty years later, in 1996. |
References
- ^ a b "Rafael Trujillo y Molina". Find A Grave. 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
- ^ a b Bernard Diederich. Trujillo: The Death of the Goat (1978 ed.). Little, Brown; 1st edition. p. 264. ISBN 0316184403.
Pg 13 - With only a few years of formal schooling, at sixteen the quick witted youth became a Morse code telegraph operator. Soon Rafael was trying his hand at less savory employment. As a member of a gang of hoodlums known as "The 44" - ^ a b c pp. 870-72 - Maxine Block (Author), E. Mary Trow (Editor). Current Biography Who's News and Why 1941 (January 1, 1941 ed.). The H. W. Wilson Company. p. 976. ISBN 9997376676.
{{cite book}}:|last=has generic name (help) - ^ a b c d e f Jared Diamond. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (December 27, 2005 ed.). Penguin (Non-Classics). p. 575. ISBN 0143036556.
- ^ a b c p. 672 - Maxine Block (Author), E. Mary Trow (Editor). Current Biography Who's News and Why 1941 (January 1, 1941 ed.). The H. W. Wilson Company. p. 976. ISBN 9997376676.
{{cite book}}:|last=has generic name (help) - ^ pg 78 - Robert Pack (Editor), Jay Parini (Editor). Introspections (when ed.). PUB. p. 2222. ISBN B0006P7UY8.
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pg 78 - On October 2, 1937, Trujillo had ordered 20,000 Haitian cane workers executed because they could not roll the "R" in perejil the Spanish word for parsley. - ^ pg 182 - Alan Cambeira. Quisqueya la bella (October 1996 ed.). M.E. Sharpe. p. 286. ISBN 1563249367.
pg 182 - anyone of African descent found incapable of pronouncing correctly, that is, to the complete satisfaction of the sadistic examiners, became a condemned individual. This holocaust is recorded as having a death toll reaching thirty thousand innocent souls, Haitians as well as Dominicans. - ^ p.41 - Madison Smartt Bell. A Hidden Haitian World - New York Review of Books - Volume 55, Number 12 (July 17th, 2008 ed.). New York Review of Books. pp. 4039 words.
- ^ Justice Department Memo, 1975; National Security Archive
- ^ CIA "Family Jewels" Memo, 1973 (see page 434) Family jewels (Central Intelligence Agency)
- ^ G. Pope Atkins (Author), Larman C. Wilson (Author). The Dominican Republic and the United States: From Imperialism to Transnationalism (January 1998 ed.). University of Georgia Press. p. 288. ISBN 0820319317.
{{cite book}}:|last=has generic name (help) - ^ "The Dictator's Seduction: Gender and State Spectacle during the Trujillo Regime", by Lauren Derby, Callaloo, v. 23 n. 3 (2000), pp. 1112-1146.
Bibliography
- Richard Lee Turits, Foundations of Despotism: Peasants, the Trujillo Regime, and Modernity in Dominican History, Stanford University Press 2004, ISBN 0804751056
- Secretaría de Estado de las Fuerzas Armandas In Spanish
- Ignacio López-Calvo, “God and Trujillo”: Literary and Cultural Representations of the Dominican Dictator, University Press of Florida, 2005, ISBN 0-8130-2823-X