Dominican elections

Update--Front runner José Francisco Peña Gómez died May 10, just days before the elections.

PLD party supporters

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Elections May 16

Goshen students will be in the Dominican Republic when elections are held on Saturday, May 16.

How to muddle on when elections don't quite work. "Generalisimo" Trujillo--the prototypical Latin-American strongman who was assasinated in 1961--has shaped Dominican politics this century.

Joaquin Balaguer, Trujillo's choice at the time of his death for President is still influential, and most recently elected President in the tainted election of 1994.

The election irregularities of 1994 caused presidential (re-held for a four-year term in 1996) and legislative elections (every four years) to get out of step.

1998 features a flamboyant race for mayor of Santo Domingo, including one of the presidential candidates of 1996, now suffering from cancer, and a strong focus on the legislature, where Balaguer's PRSC party still holds a majority.

Grant Rissler, a Goshen College student in the Dominican Republic in 1997, prepared a very short summary of Dominican politics, abridged and expanded below.

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Goshen College

1924 U.S. forces leave after eight years of occupation. Also, the Marines train the "Guardia", soon to be the decisive force in Dominican politics.
1930 Trujillo wins election with more votes than registered voters. In 1936 he renames Santo Domingo "Ciudad Trujillo", and most of the streeets are renameed after his family. 1937 "El Corte": Trujillo, in an effort to "purify" the country, forcibly repatriates Haitians and kills 30,000. (Trujillo himself has a Haitian great-grandparent.)
1940 Trujillo initiates generous Spanish immigraiton program in order to "whiten" the country. 1945 On a trip to the Dominican Republic, Journalist William Krehm notes some of the inscriptions on public buildings: On a hospital: "Only Trujillo cures you". On the most insignificant village pumps: "Trujillo alone gives us water to drink". Near the new harbor in the capital, where some land was reclaimed from the river: "Trujillo, Creator of this land".
1950s growing international pressure from the OAS after Trujillo orders an assassination attempt on Venezuelan president Romulo Betancourt.
1961 Trujillo assassinated by seven former colleagues. Joaquin Balaguer is Trujillo's puppet president at the time of the assasination. 1963 Juan Bosch of the PRD is elected president, then deposed by a coup. 1965 PRD stages coup. On the verge of success, U.S. forces intervene "to prevent another Cuba", and Balaguer returns with U.S. approval. He is president from 1966 to 1978.
1978 With economic problems caused by the oil crisis, the PRD's Juan Antonio Guzman wins the election, only taking office after Jimmy Carter intervenes to convince Balaguer to step down.
1982 Jorge Blanco of the PRD elected. 1986 Balaguer elected. President until 1994, and then...
1994 Balaguer wins again, but under tainted circumstances. Accepts a deal under which he will only stay in office 18 months (later extended to two years, by his PRSC-controlled congress). 1996 No presidential candidate wins more than 50% in the first round. The run-off pits Peña Gomez of the PRD against the PLD (an offshoot of the PRD). Balaguer throws support to Leonel Fernandez of the PLD, who wins the run-off. 1998 The PRSC still controls the Senate. Peña Gomez, now suffering from cancer, decides to run for Mayor of Santo Domingo.

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