Red World: Dominican Republic target of three failed communist coups before 1963 military dictatorship; Castro led 1947 attempt
Pictured here: Juan Emilio Bosch y Gaviño (1909-2001), briefly President of the Dominican Republic in 1963 and founder of the social democratic Dominican Revolutionary Party and Dominican Liberation Party. Reportedly an anti-communist reformer, he nevertheless refused to ban communism. Bosch was deposed by a US-supported military coup and fled to Cuba. To this day Bosch is an anti-imperialist icon in the Dominican Republic. In this picture observe the framed photograph of Bosch and Fidel Castro above the bookcase.In 1998 Castro visited the Dominican Republic where he met with Bosch and former President Joaquín Balaguer, a protege of dictator Rafael Trujillo. While failing to officially recognize communist Cuba, Balaguer nevertheless legalized communism in his own country and permitted Dominican businessmen to conduct covert trade with Havana. On April 16, 1998 the two countries restored full diplomatic relations for the first time since Cuba was expelled from the Organization of American States in 1962.
Dominican Republic
Type of state: Republic with multiparty system featuring communist party in ruling coalition
Independence: February 27, 1844 (from Haiti)
President of Dominican Republic: Leonel Fernández Reyna (Dominican Liberation Party): August 16, 1996-present
Political composition of national legislature: In the last election for the Congress of the Dominican Republic, which occurred on May 16, 2004, the seats were distributed in the following manner: Progressive Bloc (consisting of Dominican Liberation Party (liberal), Institutional Social Democratic Bloc, Alliance for Democracy (left socialist), Christian Democratic Union, Dominican Workers’ Party (communist), and Liberal Party of the Dominican Republic) 96, and Grand National Alliance (consisting of Dominican Revolutionary Party (social democratic), Social Christian Reformist Party (conservative, formed by Joaquín Balaguer), National Unity Party, Quisqueyano Christian Democratic Party, Green Party of Democratic Unity, National Civic Veterans’ Party, Dominican Social Alliance, Popular Democratic Party, and Christian People's Party) 82.
Next general elections: The Dominican Republic’s next presidential election is scheduled for 2008, while the next congressional election is scheduled for 2010.
Communist government:
1) Progressive Bloc (including communist Dominican Workers' Party): 2006-present
2) Socialist presidency of Juan Emilio Bosch y Gaviño (Dominican Revolutionary Party) with alleged support of the Castroite June 14th Revolutionary Movement and other communists: February 27-September 25, 1963
Communist insurgency:
1) In the summer of 1947 Fidel Castro and Rolando Masferrer, operating under the auspices of the Caribbean Legion, attempted to overthrow the hopelessly corrupt dictator of the Dominican Republic Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina. Costa Rican businessman José María Hipólito Figueres Ferrer organized the Caribbean Legion for the purpose of overthrowing the reformist president of his own country, Teodoro Picado Michalski. Although an anti-communist Figueres, strategically allied himself with other Latin American reformists and communists through the Pact of the Caribbean, around which the 700 guerrilla fighters of the Caribbean Legion were organized. The Legion pledged itself to overthrow the governments of the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
2) In 1959 members of the Castroite June 14th Revolutionary Movement attempted to invade the Dominican Republic from the new communist state of Cuba, with the intent of ousting the dictator Trujillo. In 1961 Trujillo was finally assassinated by his own army, allegedly with on-the-ground support from the US Central Intelligence Agency, which hoped to head off a Cuban-style communist revolution in Santo Domingo.
3) Juan Emilio Bosch y Gaviño (Dominican Revolutionary Party, PRD, perredeistas) was elected president of the Dominican Republic on December 20, 1962. He assumed office on February 27, 1963. When Bosch refused to restrict the right of Dominican communists to travel to Cuba and elsewhere, General Elías Wessin y Wessin demanded that the president outlaw communism. Bosch refused and demanded Wessin y Wessin's resignation. Alarmed that the president’s socialist policies, including land redistribution and the nationalization of certain foreign holdings, would facilitate the exportation of revolution from the young communist regime in Cuba, General Wessin instigated a military coup on September 25, 1963. "As far as I'm concerned," proclaimed Wessin y Wessin, "Bosch is a Communist." Bosch fled to Puerto Rico and communist activities were outlawed. The military-imposed government operated under the leadership of a triumvirate consisting of Emilio de los Santos, Ramón Tapia Espinal, and Manuel Tavares Espaillat. Donald Reid Cabral chaired the triumvirate from December 29, 1963 to April 25, 1965.
The May 7, 1965 issue of Time magazine reported that at least 65 Dominicans had been spotted in the Cuban port of Santiago boarding three boats bound for the Dominican Republic. "I reported the conspiracy to President Reid for 15 or 20 consecutive days," stated Wessin y Wessin, "but he paid no attention to me.” On April 25, 1965 civilian and military supporters of Bosch, who referred to themselves as Constitutionalists, deposed President Reid and installed Rafael Molina Ureña as provisional president. However, the revolt provoked a counter-response from the military, who styled themselves Loyalists. Civil war erupted between the Constitutionalists, who were supported by the perredeistas and communists, and the Loyalists, who were supported by the country’s business oligarchy. On April 25, 1965 the Loyalists launched an assault, deploying both tanks and aircraft, against the Constitutionalists, but the latter retained power. In defense, the Constitutionalists organized armed gangs, known as “Los Tigueres.” Civilians were caught in the crossfire.
Assessing the situation in the Dominican Republic, US President Lyndon B. Johnson declared: "I will not have another Cuba in the Caribbean.” On April 28 the USA deployed 42,420 troops to the island state in Operation Powerpack. The extent of participation by Castroites, including the June 14th Revolutionary Movement, in the Constitutionalist camp is the subject of debate. President Johnson, however, justified the invasion based on his belief that the PRD was infiltrated with communists. The Time magazine article cited above reported that “the State Department released a list of 58 Communist agitators, many of them graduates of Red Chinese and Czechoslovakian political warfare schools, who were leading the street fighting. Some of the leaders: Jaime Durán, a Cuban-trained member of the Dominican Young Communists' Party; José D. Issa, a Communist who received guerrilla training in Cuba, visited Prague in 1963, Moscow in 1964; Fidelio Despradel Roques, a Peking-lining Communist.”
Colonel Francisco Alberto Caamaño Deñó was the de facto Constitutionalist president of the Dominican Republic between May 4 and August 30, 1965. After keeping a low profile for a number of years, in 1973 Caamaño landed a small group of rebels at Playa Caracoles, from where they hiked into the Cordillera Central. There Caamaño hoped to foment a peasant revolution to overthrow President Joaquín Amparo Balaguer Ricardo, a protégé of dictator Trujillo. After fighting the Dominican regular army for several weeks, Caamaño failed to secure support from the peasantry, was wounded, captured, and then executed. Twenty years later Dominican authorities honored Caamaño’s attempt to restore constitutional government by naming an avenue in Santo Domingo after him.
Communist parties:
1) Alliance for Democracy (APD): This left socialist party split from the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) in 1992, but remains allied with the PLD. The APD associates with the Sao Paulo Forum.
2) Anti-Imperialist Patriotic Union (UPA): Founded in 1978 this radical left party contests elections on lists of People’s Unity.
3) Communist Labour Party (PCT): Founded in 1980 as a split from the Dominican Popular Movement, this Stalinist party associates with the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (Hoxhaist) and contests elections on lists of People’s Unity.
4) Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) (PC-ML): Founded in 1988 the PC-ML split from the Communist Party of the Dominican Republic. This Maoist party associates with the International Communist Seminar and contests elections on lists of People’s Unity.
5) Communist Party of the Dominican Republic (Pacoredo): Founded in 1966 as a split from the Dominican Popular Movement, this party is Maoist in orientation.
6) Dominican Popular Movement (MPD): Founded in 1956 this party is Maoist in orientation and associates with the Sao Paulo Forum. Several parties have emerged from the MPD, including the Communist Party of the Dominican Republic (1966), Communist Labor Party (1980), and United Left Movement (1982).
7) Dominican Workers' Party (PTD): Founded in 1979 this communist party operates under the leadership of José González Espinosa and associates with the Sao Paulo Forum.
8) Dominican Workers' Party (Marxist-Leninist) PTD-ML: Founded in 1986 as a split from the PTD, this party operates under the leadership of Iván Rodríguez, associates with the International Communist Seminar and Sao Paulo Forum, and contests elections on lists of People’s Unity.
9) Free People's Movement (FPM): The FPM is a communist organization that advocates armed revolution and supports branches worldwide. In the USA the FPM organizes in New York, Connecticut, Maryland/Washington DC, Ohio, Nevada, Colorado, and Florida. The FPM also operates in Canada, the United Kingdom, Philippines, Dominican Republic, Solomon Islands, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Uganda. The FPM draws inspiration from Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Che Guevara. The FPM publishes two newspapers, The Free Press and ¡Ya Basta!, and a theoretical journal Liberation. The FPM branch in the Dominican Republic publishes Dominicano Libre. The FPM youth section is called Revolutionary Youth.
10) New Alternative Party (PNA) Founded in 1997 the PNA operates under the leadership of Ramón Almánzar and contests elections on lists of People’s Unity.
11) Party of Dominican Identity (PID): This party operates under the leadership of Aulio Collado Anico and contests elections on lists of People’s Unity.
12) People's Unity (UP): This alliance was founded in 2002 by 11 leftist parties.
13) Political Workers’ Organization (OPT): This party is radical left in orientation.
14) Revolution Force (FR): Founded through a merger of the Dominican Communist Party and others in 1996, the FR contests elections on lists of People’s Unity.
15) Revolutionary People's Organization (ORP): This party is radical left in orientation.
16) Socialist Structure (ES) This radical left party operates under the leadership of Ismael Rodríguez.
17) Socialist Workers' League (LST): Founded in 1982 as Movement for Socialism, the LST contests elections on lists of People’s Unity.
18) Solidarity Nation: This radical left party operates under the leadership of Alejandro Ortiz.
19) Unified Communist Party (PCU): This party was founded in 1986 as a split from the Dominican Communist Party before the latter merged into Revolution Force in 1996.
20) United Left Movement (MIU): Founded in 1982 as a split from the Dominican Popular Movement, this radical left party operates under the leadership of Miguel Mejía and associates with the Sao Paulo Forum.
Other important parties:
1) Dominican Liberation Party (PLD): Founded in 1973 by former president Juan Emilio Bosch y Gaviño, as a split from his earlier political project, the Dominican Revolutionary Party, the liberal PLD associates with the Sao Paulo Forum (FSP).
2) Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD): The social democratic PRD was founded in 1939 and associates with the Socialist International. The Dominican Republic’s first democratically elected president Juan Emilio Bosch y Gaviño founded and ran on the PRD ticket in 1963. Bosch was deposed in a military coup the same year. Two years later US troops invaded the Dominican Republic to end a civil war between supporters and opponents of Bosch. Bosch founded the Dominican Liberation Party in 1973. To this day Bosch is an anti-imperialist icon in the Dominican Republic. Both the PRD and PLD claim to have inherited his ideology.
3) Institutional Social Democratic Bloc BIS): Founded in 1989 as a split from the Dominican Revolutionary Party, the BIS is allied with the Dominican Liberation Party.
Communist Bloc memberships: United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Caribbean Community (observer), Petrocaribe S. A.
Socialist International presence: Dominican Revolutionary Party
Sao Paulo Forum presence: Dominican Liberation Party
Moscow-Beijing-Havana-Caracas Axis political/economic/military presence: Among the Caricom states Belize, Haiti, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines recognize Taiwan, while the rest have diplomatic relations with China. A post at the unofficial Caricomblog.com admits: “The Chinese government has shown no reluctance to be active in the Caribbean, and officials in China would undoubtedly welcome the opportunity to map out a joint strategy for China’s involvement in the region, as they have done in Africa.”