[Peace-discuss] Obiturary for Dominican "strongman"

[David Green]

JOAQUIN BALAGUER, 95
Dominican Republic's president for 22 years

Associated Press
Published July 15, 2002

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- One of the last
strongmen in Latin America, Joaquin Balaguer, who
ruled the Dominican Republic for 22 years and
dominated its politics long afterward, died Sunday. He
was 95.

The former president died of heart failure at Santo
Domingo's Abreu Clinic, where he had been hospitalized
since July 4 for a bleeding ulcer, said Rafael Bello
Andino, his closest aide and vice president of Mr.
Balaguer's Reformist Social Christian Party.

"Balaguer, without you this island will sink!" cried
one man among hundreds of supporters outside his
modest home, where his body was taken.

Inside, mourners filed past his body. The government
declared three days of national mourning leading to
his funeral on Wednesday.

President Rafael Hipolito Mejia praised Mr. Balaguer
as "one of the most distinguished political leaders in
all of Dominican history" and as a "keeper of our
democracy."

One of Latin America's last "caudillos," or strongmen,
Mr. Balaguer presented more the image of kindly
country doctor--standing little more than 5 feet tall,
lame and squinting from behind glasses.

But his power was as pervasive as that of his mentor,
dictator Rafael Trujillo, who ruled this Caribbean
nation from 1930 until he was assassinated in 1961.

Mr. Balaguer held the presidency from 1966-1978 and
1986-1996. Under him, the Dominican Republic was one
of the biggest U.S. aid recipients in the Caribbean.
Still, more than half of the country's 8 million
people lived in poverty, and thousands fled hardship
for the United States.

He was revered by many and reviled by others. But he
largely escaped blame for the killings and torture of
opponents during Trujillo's rule. Even after leaving
office, he remained the pole around which all
Dominican politics revolved.

He helped engineer the election of his successor,
Leonel Fernandez Reyna, and then of Mejia. In 2000, at
age 92, he ran again for the presidency, coming in
third.

Joaquin Antonio Balaguer Ricardo was born Sept. 1,
1906, the northwestern town of Navarrete, now called
Villa Bosono.

After studying law and political science at the
Sorbonne in Paris, he began his long association with
Trujillo by working in the then-army chief's 1930
campaign.

In 1956, Trujillo named him vice president, then four
years later elevated him to president.

After Trujillo's assassination, Mr. Balaguer fled to
New York City. His successor, leftist Juan Bosch,
worried the United States with his support for land
reform and nationalizing businesses, and he, too, was
ousted in a military coup.

Leftists in the army revolted in 1965 and tried to
restore Bosch but President Lyndon Johnson sent 20,000
Marines to stifle the revolt. Mr. Balaguer returned
and, with U.S. backing, was elected president in 1966.

Early in his rule, hundreds of people were kidnapped
or disappeared, and many critics went into exile.
Later, his human-rights record improved, but he kept a
tight rein on government.

Defeated in 1978, he was re-elected in 1986. After
1990 and 1994 elections marred by fraud accusations,
he allowed a new vote in 1996 in which he could not
run because of new laws limiting the president to one
term.

Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune 


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