Dominican Republic: US intervention then and now
- Constitutionalists march in Santo Domingo. Caamaño is in the second row on the left.
[Translations of two articles from El Nuevo Diario of Santo Domingo for April 23. See originals here and here and related article here.
April 24 is the anniversary of the 1965 military and popular uprising against the “Triumvirate,” the junta that ruled the country after the coup d’état against center-left President Juan Bosch. Bosch was the first democratically elected president after the 31-year bloody dictatorial regime of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, who had been assassinated in 1961. Bosch was in office for seven months. Led by Colonel Francisco Caamaño Deñó, the April 24 rebels, known as Constitutionalists, sought a return to constitutional rule and the reinstatement of Bosch to the presidency. Soon after the uprising began, US ambassador William Tapley Bennett reported to President Lyndon Johnson, falsely, that the embassy was under fire and that US citizens in the country were in danger and by April 28 some 400 US marines landed on the island, followed within a few days by several thousand members of the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. There was sporadic fighting, mostly in Santo Domingo, the capital, until early September, resulting in some 4,000 Dominican combatants killed and 9,000 wounded, with 44 US soldiers killed and 283 injured. In June, 1966, while the country was still under heavy military occupation, presidential elections were held, pitting Bosch against Joaquín Balaguer, a protegé of Trujillo’s and puppet president during his regime. While the CIA monitored the vote count closely and the occupying soldiers fingered their weapons, Balaguer won the election. He was in office until 1978 and again from 1986 until 1996.
After supporting him throughout his regime, the United States took part in the assassination of Trujillo, the CIA supplying the weapons, out of fear that the Dominicans would emulate the Cubans, who had toppled the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista two years earlier, shortly afterward declaring their Marxist political beliefs. The CIA is widely assumed to have been behind the coup against Bosch who, it was claimed, had close ties to the Cuban revolutionaries. The Constitutionalists were routinely described by US officials and the media as communists.
Click here to download “Himno a la Revolución Constitucionalista” (“Anthem to the Constitutionalist Revolution”) by Aníbal de Peña, “Compuesto en plena revolución como estímulo a los combatientes” (“Composed in full revolution as a stimulus to the combatants”), in MP3 format.]
Heroes to be remembered on Sunday, April 24
"Constitución sí, Intervención no" -- DM photo
Organizers are expecting close to 10,000 people in Duarte Park in San Pedro de Macorís [on the southern coast, a few kilometers east of Santo Domingo] on Sunday, April 24, to pay homage and recognition to the combatants in the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1965, on the occasion of the 46th anniversary of the military and popular Constitutionalist uprising.
To allow room comfortably for that many people, Sánchez and General Leger Streets, along Duarte Park, will be closed to traffic at three in the afternoon and activities will begin at five with the opening of an exposition of gigantic photographs from the Gesta Patriótica of April, made availablle by the national archives.
The main activity of the event will be the debut presentation of the new production by René Fortunato, “Macorisanos Constitucionalistas,” about the Petromacorisanos [residents of San Pedro de Macorís] who took part in the war of April, 1965, alongside Colonel Francisco Alberto Caamaño Deñó…
More than 50 Petromacorisanos participated actively in the different Constitutionalist commandos during the patriotic April War and some of them told their stories for the new production…
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Organization rejects US military in Mao
Mao, Valverde – The Movimiento Popular Dominicano (MPD) charges that United States military presence in Mao [in the northern province of Valverde], part of the so-called Operation Beyond the Horizon, threatens our sovereignty and characterized it as occupation of the province by the United States Southern Command.
Fernando Hernández, national spokesman for the MPD, declared that the deployment of United States troops in a military fortress in Mao is the clear sign of an occupation, which should not go unnoticed by citizens with a patriotic sense and by the Dominican people in general, who historically have been the victims of aggression, occupation and intervention by the Empire of the North.
He stated that the Southern Command, under Beralinn Dash, carries out military operations in Central America and throughout the Caribbean, adding that they correspond to geopolitical and military needs of the United States, for which the region is significant in its efforts to maintain its hegemony in Latin America.
“It is no coincidence that the Southern Command’s decision to intensify its activities in the country follows the 33rd meeting of the conference of Central American Armed Forces in Punta Cana, under their guidance. It is clear we are witnessing a decision by United States imperialism to advance its project of eventually occuppying the entire island, in case changes threaten its local or regional political hegemony,” Fernando Hernández declared.
He stressed that Operation Beyond the Horizon is a continuation of the so-called Operation New Horizon, held in the province of Barahona in 2006, and the one held in Monte Plata in 2001, as he rejected the claim often repeated that it is a matter of humanitarian aid, pointing out that it does not take a batallion of foreign soldiers to construct two schools and offer dental services, and that what they are seeking in reality is to become familiar with every part of our country for imperial puposes.
“What they are seeking with these joint military exercises is in reality to become familiar with every part of our country for imperial purposes, at the same time that it allows them to recruit Dominican officers and soldiers for their strategic plans for the island, the Caribbean and Central America. Fruthermore, under threat of its decline, the Empire of the North is seeking mineral and natural energy resources, the control of which would allow them to prolong their hegemony on a world scale, which is now being challenged by the advance of other powers.”
“It is precisely the area of Mao chosen for Operation Beyond the Horizon where Barrick and Unigold hold concesions for mineral exploitation as disruptive and having as much broad environmental impact as that of Pueblo Viejo in Cotuí,” the MPD spokesman stated. Fernando Hernández said that Operation Beyond the Horizon is carried out by soldiers of the United States Southern Command Transportation Batallion, under Lt. Col. Hilburn, who was entertained by General Ramón Manuel Hernández at the Puerto Plata Air Base, from which the foreign troops were transported to the General Benito Monción Fortress, site of the Fourth Infantry Brigade of the National Army in Mao.
The leftist leader indicted that the act carried out at the General Benito Monción Fortress, which was presided over by United States ambassador Raúl Yzaguirre; the Vice Minister of the Armed Forces, Gilberto Delgado Valdez; chief of the National Army… does not confer legality on conversion of the Mao Fortress into a United States base, since an operation the size of Beyond the Horizon, which requires the use of military equipment and the presence of foreign troops for more than four months, requires the approval of the National Congress.
Hernández called on the entire population to repudiate the United States military base in Mao and to take part in a series of activities to mark the 46th anniversary of the April War, and against the United States base in Mao and in repudiation of their military operations in the province of Valverde, to be carried out by MPD, FALPO [Frente Amplio de Lucha Popular – Broad Front for Popular Struggle] and the Movimiento Caamañista…
Tags: April War, Constitutionalists, Dominican Republic, Francisco Caamano Deno, Joaquin Balaguer, Juan Bosch, Movimiento Popular Dominicano, Operation Beyond the Horizon, Southern Command, US intervention