<< The Trujillo Era || The 21st Century >>
After the assassination, Trujillo’s son took power for several months, just enough time to murder all the suspected plotters and loot the public treasury one last time. He fled the country in November 1961, as his father’s former vice-president, Dr. Joaquín Balaguer, briefly took over. In 1962, Juan Bosch of the leftist Dominican Revolutionary Party was elected president in the country’s first free elections in 38 years, only to be overthrown by a military coup in 1963. (Again, the CIA was implicated.) In 1965, Bosch supporters launched a counter-coup. Four days later, US Marines landed again, intervening against pro-Bosch forces under the pretext that they were Communists.
In what was widely regarded as a rigged election, Balaguer was elected president in 1966, beginning an on-and-off reign of 30 years, marked by widespread corruption and repression. His next two election victories, in 1970 and 1974, were also considered tainted. In 1978, Balaguer was finally defeated by Antonio Guzmán, though not before Balaguer’s supporters tried to steal back the election. The international community, led by then-US President Jimmy Carter, successfully pressured Balaguer to concede defeat. But Guzmán, himself corrupt and who committed suicide under a cloud of suspicion before his first term ended, and his successor, Salvador Jorge Blanco, who faced his own charges of corruption (and was later convicted of it), paved the way for Balaguer’s return. With the country racked by rising prices, riots, and scandal in the mid-1980s, Balaguer won back the presidency in 1986. The DR’s economic slide continued, marked by soaring inflation, currency devaluations, frequent shortages of basic services including water and electricity, and a nationwide workers’ strike in 1989.
Despite it all, and with the help of some old reliable vote fraud, Balaguer was reelected in 1990, proceeding to spend freely, if not wisely, on elaborate public works projects. The most notable, and controversial, was the construction of a hugely expensive concrete lighthouse in Santo Domingo, the Faro de Colón, in 1992 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival. In protest of the cost, massive demonstrations followed, disrupting the inaugural ceremonies. Balaguer’s subsequent reelection in 1994 was once again tainted by charges of voter fraud. Though he took office, he agreed to step down in two years rather than finish out the regular four-year term. In 1996, Leonel Fernández Reyna, who attended high school in New York City, was elected to succeed him, on a platform of economic and judicial reform.
<< The Trujillo Era || The 21st Century >>
