Rafael Leónidas Trujillo
This article is about Rafael L. Trujillo, former dictator of the Dominican Republic. For other persons see Rafael Trujillo (disambiguation).Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina (
October 24,
1891–
May 30,
1961) was dictator of the
Dominican Republic from 1930 until 1961, occupying the office of President of the Republic (
1930–
1938,
1942–
1952). At the end of his final term as President, he engineered his continued rule of the country as de facto head of state or
dictator.
Trujillo was born to poor mulatto parents in
San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic. During the
United States occupation (1916–1924), Trujillo joined the
National Guard, trained by the
United States Marines to maintain order after the occupation. Quickly rising to high rank, Trujillo overthrew President
Horacio Vásquez in
1930. After a devastating
hurricane destroyed much of
Santo Domingo, Trujillo devised a rebuilding plan to modernize the city, which he renamed
Ciudad Trujillo (Trujillo City). He also renamed the highest mountain of the country
Pico Trujillo (Trujillo Peak) after himself. Statues of himself were everywhere in the Republic.Trujillo used his political control to obtain great personal wealth. He achieved support from the United States by becoming one of Latin America's leading
anti-communists.
He ruled with absolute authority. Until his demise, Dominican schoolchildren recited daily prayers for "God, country, and Trujillo," many households were required to post plaques professing allegiance to the official state party,
Partido Dominicano, and travel by Dominicans within their country was surveiled or prohibited. His
secret police jailed, tortured, or killed any opposition.
Trujillo legitimized his absolute power over the country by passing new
constitutions and by winning elections in which he and his party, el
Partido Dominicano were the only participants.
Trujillo gained international attention for his rather open policy of allowing
Jewish immigration from
Europe in the
1930s, at a time when larger and wealthy nations were turning back Jewish refugees. After the
Spanish Civil War, he also encouraged the immigration of
Republican exiles.Some historians regard these gestures as a public relations ploy and perhaps as an attempt by Trujillo to "whiten" the predominantly mixed-race nation, a policy called
blanquismo. In pursuing
blanquismo, he ordered Dominican troops to massacre 20,000 dark-skinned
Haitian sugar cane workers in 1937, an action that he claimed was a sovereign response to the Haitian government's support of exiled Dominicans who were working to overthrow him. The US demanded that Trujillo pay reparations, which Trujillo bargained down to $500,000. The Haitian workers were identified as immigrants, and then murdered by the truckload, if they
could not pronounce the letter r in "perejil" the Spanish word for parsley. This action firmly established the Haitian-Dominican border at
Río Massacre, or Massacre River (a river that was in fact named after the slaughter of French Pirates in the 17th century). He then settled the border region with Haiti, relocating Dominican families to new agricultural developments there.
Trujillo sided with the
Allies during
World War II, and his
anti-Communist policies initially gained the favor of the United States.
Trujillo's demise was partially brought about by his poorly concealed involvement in an attempt on the life of
Venezuelan
President Rómulo Betancourt (publicly announced on Dominican radio half an hour before it actually took place), which led to economic sanctions from the United States and other
Latin American countries. By 1960, the
Organization of American States had unanimously approved to attempt to destabilize the Trujillo regime by continuing harsh sanctions and ending diplomatic ties.
Trujillo oversaw the modernization of the Dominican Republic. Under his reign, a middle class of professionals and technocrats was created, along with scores of other public services such as a school system and a health system. He expanded and maintained the telecommunications and transportation infrastructure that had been created under the US occupation earlier in the century.
Trujillo undertook many public works projects and openly encouraged foreign investment, and the country prospered. During his regime, the country saw growth in key agricultural sectors, especially
sugar; steadily declining infant mortality rates; rapid population growth, and, by many measures increasing quality of life.Since Trujillo owned many of the profitable businesses, either directly or through proxies, development of the country meant his personal enrichment.
Jared Diamond's
Collapse mentions Trujillo's protection of the Dominican environment, much enlarged later by Balaguer, as one of the reasons for the better state of Dominican nature over the Haitian one. Dominican historians such as Bernardo Vega argue that most of the economic boom of the era was a result of external causes. After World War II many developing nations profitted from a surge in agricultural sales. Supporters of Trujillo constantly point out that during his reign the national debt was paid in full, but Vega points out that Haiti achieved the same feat during the time.
Adding to the resentment of him was the murder of the
Mirabal sisters, which he ordered. The Mirabal sisters were political activists and revolutionaries who were trying to overthrow the government. They were driving home unarmed after seeing their imprisoned husbands when they were picked up by their killers. They were led into a sugar cane patch, and beaten and strangled to death.
Another famous scandal was the disappearance of
Jesús de Galíndez in 1960. [
1] Galíndez was a
Basque exile who initially served the regime and worked as a
CIA agent. Later in the USA, he wrote his PhD thesis "
The Age of Trujillo" revealing the functioning of the dictatorship. Days before publication, Galíndez was kidnapped in
New York, never to be found again. There had been strong suspicions that he was flown to the Republic to be tortured and executed.
With the rug pulled from under his regime, Trujillo was shot dead by members of his own armed forces on
May 30,
1961 while traveling in an
automobile. It has been said that his killers uttered the words "This is the end, Bottlecap" just before the assassination ("Bottlecap", is the english for the original spanish nickname, "Chapita", Trujillo's childhood nickname, one that El Jefe hated with a passion). He was shot five times at point-blank range, then his body was thrown into the trunk of the killers's car and taken from the scene. The
CIA had provided weapons, which where kept by
Simon Thomas Stocker, an American citizen, code named "Hector" by the CIA, and resident of the Dominican Republic since 1942, who willingly declined CIA monetary retribution for his efforts. The weapons were hidden for more than two months, at his own risk, inside a small closet in his personal study, at his private residence (recently demolished), previously located on the south side of Independecia Av., near the crossing with
General Maximo Gomez Av. It is suggested that the CIA hoped to create the possibility of the formation of a less reactionary government, fearing that Trujillo's repressive tactics could lead to another "revolutionary situation" as had occurred in nearby
Cuba.
Trujillo is buried in the famous Parisian cemetery,
Cimetière du Père Lachaise at the request of his many relatives who fled into exile to Canada, France, and Spain. [
2]
His son
Ramfis Trujillo took power, brutally repressing any elements believed to be connected with his father's death. Former
Trujillistas maintained much of their power within the country until the early
1990s within the many terms served by the former Trujillo protégé
Joaquín Balaguer.
Because of the general economic downturn since the
1960s, some rural Dominicans feel nostalgia for the Trujillato and the reign of Balaguer. Among Dominicans, there is still discussion as to the merits of his rule. He modernized the country, and oversaw the creation of basic services that Dominicans enjoy today, but in doing so, brutally tortured or silenced all opposition.
Mario Vargas Llosa wrote a historical novel about Trujillo and his hold over the country entitled
The Feast of the Goat.
Luis Llosa directed a movie with the same name based in this novel, which was released in June, 2006.
In 2003 a Spanish movie on
Jesús Galíndez,
El misterio Galíndez, was released. The movie is based on a novel by Spanish writer
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán and focuses in the abduction, torture and death of Galíndez. Trujillo appears in several scenes and is played by Cuban actor Enrique Almirante.
Edwidge Danticat wrote a historical novel about the massacre of Haitians, "The Farming of Bones."
In the
2001 motion picture In the Time of the Butterflies, based on the novel by
Julia Álvarez of the
same name. Trujillo is played by
Edward James Olmos. The story is about the
Mirabal sisters.
In the film
The Day of the Jackal, it is portrayed that the Jackal is the same
assassin who killed
Patrice Lumumba and Rafael Leónidas Trujillo before attempting to murder
Charles de Gaulle.
Trujillo himself had a brush with Hollywood fame in 1942 when the
film Casablanca was released, in which he had a rare cameo. He can be seen in the background of the famous airport tarmac scene starting a silver-colored airplane's propellor on the right-hand side of the screen.
