Rafael Trujillo

Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo
Trujillo in 1952
36th & 39th President of the Dominican Republic
In office 16 August 1930 – 16 August 1938
Vice President	Rafael Estrella Ureña (1930–1931) vacant (1932–1934) Jacinto Peynado (1934–1938)
Preceded by	Rafael Estrella Ureña (acting)
Succeeded by	Jacinto Peynado
In office 18 May 1942 – 16 August 1952
Vice President	None
Preceded by	Manuel de Jesús Troncoso de la Concha
Succeeded by	Héctor Trujillo
Personal details
Born	Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina (1891-10-24)24 October 1891 San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic
Died	30 May 1961(1961-05-30) (aged 69) Ciudad Trujillo, Dominican Republic
Nationality	Dominican
Political party	Dominican Party
Spouse(s)	Aminta Ledesma y Pérez (1922-1925) Bienvenida Ricardo y Martínez (1927-1935) María de los Ángeles Martínez y Alba (1937-1961)
Children	Flor de Oro Trujillo Ledesma (1915–1978)[1] Ramfis Trujillo Martínez (1929–1969)[1] Odette Trujillo Ricardo (b. 1936)[1] María de los Ángeles del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Trujillo Martínez (b. 1939)[1] Yolanda Trujillo Lovatón (b. 1939)[1] Leonidas Radhamés Trujillo Martínez (b. 1942)[1] Rafael Trujillo Lovatón (b. 1943)[1]
Residence	Santo Domingo
Profession	Soldier, Businessman, Statesman

Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina (/truːˈhiːjoʊ/; Spanish: [rafaˈel leˈoniðas tɾuˈxiʝo]; 24 October 1891 – 30 May 1961), nicknamed El Jefe (Spanish: [el ˈxefe], "The Chief" or "The Boss"), was a Dominican politician, soldier and dictator, who ruled the Dominican Republic from February 1930 until his assassination in May 1961.^[2] He served as president from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952, ruling for the rest of the time as an unelected military strongman under figurehead presidents.^{[Note 1]} His 31 years in power, to Dominicans known as the Trujillo Era (Spanish: El Trujillato), are considered one of the bloodiest eras ever in the Americas, as well as a time of a personality cult, when monuments to Trujillo were in abundance. Trujillo and his regime were responsible for many deaths, including between 1,000 and 30,000 in the infamous Parsley massacre.^{[3][4][5][Note 2][Note 3]}

During this long period of oppression and death, the Trujillo government extended its policy of state terrorism beyond national borders. Notorious examples of Trujillo’s reach abroad are the unsuccessful assassination attempt in Caracas against Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt (1960), the abduction and subsequent disappearance in New York City of the Spaniard Jesús Galíndez (1956), the murder of writer José Almoina in Mexico, also a Spaniard, and crimes committed against Cubans, Costa Ricans, Nicaraguans, Puerto Ricans, as well as United States citizens.^[8]

The Trujillo era unfolded in a Hispanic Caribbean environment that was particularly fertile for dictatorial regimes.^{[Note 4]} In the countries of the Caribbean Basin alone, his dictatorship was concurrent, in whole or in part, with those in Cuba, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Venezuela, and Haiti. In retrospect, the Trujillo dictatorship has been characterized as more prominent and more brutal than those that rose and fell around it.^[10]

Trujillo's rule brought the country a great deal of stability and prosperity throughout his 31-year reign. The price, however, was high—civil liberties were non-existent and human rights violations were routine. Due to the longevity of Trujillo's rule, a detached evaluation of his legacy is difficult. Supporters of Trujillo claim that he reorganized both the state and the economy, and left vast infrastructure to the country. From a moral point of view, however, a detached evaluation is not difficult at all. Everyone agrees on the brutality of his rule, and critics also claim that much of the country's wealth wound up in the hands of his family or close associates.^{[citation needed]}

Early life[edit]

Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina was born in San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic into a lower-middle-class family,^[11] to José "Pepito" Trujillo Valdez,^{[Note 5]} whose father was a Spanish sergeant,^[13] and Altagracia Julia Molina Chevalier, later known as Mamá Julia, whose mother was of Franco-Haitian and Mulatto Haitian origin.^[13][14] He was the third of eleven children;^{[11][Note 6]} he also had an adopted brother, Luis Rafael "Nene" Trujillo (21 January 1935 – 14 August 2005), who was raised in the home of Trujillo Molina.^[13]

In 1897, at age six, Trujillo was registered in the school of Juan Hilario Meriño. One year later he transferred to the school of Broughton, where he became a pupil of Eugenio María de Hostos and remained there for the rest of his primary schooling. At the age of 16, Trujillo got a job as a telegraph operator, which he held for about three years. Shortly after Trujillo turned to crime—cattle stealing, check counterfeiting, and postal robbery. He spent several months in prison, which did not deter Trujillo, as he later formed a violent gang of robbers called the 42.^[15][16]

Ancestors of Rafael Trujillo

8. Pedro Trujillo 4. José Trujillo Monagas (1841–circa 1890) 9. María Monagas 2. José Juan de Dios Trujillo Valdez (1865–1935) 5. Silveria Valdez Méndez 1. Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina (1891–1961) 6. Pedro Molina Peña (1840–?) 3. Altagracia Julia Molina Chevalier (1865–1963) 28. Barthélémy Carrié Levigne (1804–?) 14. Justin Alexis Victor Turenne Carrié Blaise (1827–1905) 29. Blaisine Blaise Croside 7. Luisa Erciná Chevalier (?–1940) 30. Bernard Chevallier 15. Eleonore Juliette "Diyeta" Chevallier Moreau (1810–1905) 31. Louise Moreau

Rise to power[edit]

In 1916, the United States occupied the Dominican Republic due to threats of defaulting on foreign debts. The occupying force soon established a Dominican army constabulary to impose order. Trujillo joined the National Guard in 1918 and trained with the U.S. Marines.^[17] Seeing opportunity, Trujillo impressed the recruiters and won promotion from cadet to general and commander-in chief of the Army in only nine years.^[16]

A rebellion (or coup d'état^[18][19]) against President Horacio Vásquez broke out in February 1930 in Santiago. Trujillo secretly cut a deal with rebel leader Rafael Estrella Ureña; in return for Trujillo letting Estrella take power, Estrella would allow Trujillo to run for president in new elections. As the rebels marched toward Santo Domingo, Vásquez ordered Trujillo to suppress them. However, feigning "neutrality", Trujillo kept his men in barracks, allowing Estrella's rebels to take the capital virtually unopposed. On 3 March, Estrella was proclaimed acting president, with Trujillo confirmed as head of the police and of the army. As per their agreement, Trujillo became the presidential nominee of the Patriotic Coalition of Citizens (Spanish: Coalición patriotica de los ciudadanos), with Estrella as his running mate.^[20] The other candidates became targets of harassment by the army. When it became apparent that the army would not allow anyone other than Trujillo to campaign unhindered, the other candidates pulled out. Ultimately, the Trujillo-Estrella ticket was proclaimed victorious with an implausible 99 percent of the vote.^[21] In a note to the State Department, American ambassador Charles Boyd Curtis wrote that Trujillo received far more votes than actual voters.^[22]

Trujillo government[edit]

Stamp issued in 1933 on the occasion of Trujillo's 42nd birthday

Three and a half weeks after Trujillo ascended to the Presidency the destructive Hurricane San Zenon hit Santo Domingo and left 2,000 dead. As a response to this disaster, Trujillo placed the Dominican Republic under martial law and began to rebuild the city. After the city was rebuilt he renamed the capital of the Dominican Republic Ciudad Trujillo (Trujillo City) in his honor and had streets, monuments, and landmarks to honor him throughout the country. ^[23]. On 16 August 1931, the first anniversary of his inauguration, Trujillo made the Dominican Party the nation's sole legal political party. However, the country had effectively become a one-party state with Trujillo's swearing-in. Government employees were required by law to "donate" 10 percent of their salaries to the national treasury,^[24][25] and there was strong pressure on adult citizens to join the party. Party members had to carry a membership card, nicknamed the "palmita" as the cover had a palm tree on it, and a person could be arrested for vagrancy without one. Those who did not join or contribute to the party did so at their own risk. Opponents of the régime were mysteriously killed.^[26] In 1934 Trujillo, who had promoted himself to Generalissimo of the army, was up for re-election. By this time, there was no organized opposition left in the country, and he was elected as the sole candidate on the ballot. In addition to the widely rigged (and regularly uncontested) elections, which never saw a functioning opposition, he instated "civic reviews", with large crowds shouting their loyalty to the government.^[24]

Personality cult[edit]

Heraldic flag used by Trujillo as Generalissimo of the Armies

In 1936, at the suggestion of Mario Fermín Cabral, Congress voted overwhelmingly to change the name of the capital from Santo Domingo to Ciudad Trujillo. The province of San Cristóbal was renamed "Trujillo", and the nation's highest peak, Pico Duarte, was rebaptized Pico Trujillo. Statues of "El Jefe" were mass-produced and erected across the Republic, and bridges and public buildings were named in his honor. The nation's newspapers had praise for Trujillo as part of the front page, and license plates included slogans such as "¡Viva Trujillo!" and "Año Del Benefactor De La Patria" (Year of the Benefactor of the Nation.) An electric sign was erected in Ciudad Trujillo so that "Dios y Trujillo" could be seen at night as well as in the day. Eventually, even churches were required to post the slogan "Dios en cielo, Trujillo en tierra" (God in Heaven, Trujillo on Earth). As time went on, the order of the phrases was reversed (Trujillo on Earth, God in Heaven). Trujillo was recommended for the Nobel Peace Prize by his admirers, but the committee declined the suggestion.^{[citation needed]}

Era de Trujillo sign: "In this household, Trujillo is a national symbol"

Trujillo was eligible to run again in 1938, but, citing the United States example of two presidential terms, he stated: "I voluntarily, and against the wishes of my people, refuse re-election to the high office."^[27] In fact, a vigorous reelection campaign had been launched in the middle of 1937 but the international uproar that followed the Haitian massacre later that year forced Trujillo to announce his "return to private life".^[28] Consequently, the Dominican Party nominated Trujillo's handpicked successor, 71-year-old vice-president Jacinto Peynado, with Manuel de Jesús Troncoso as his running mate. They appeared alone on the ballot in the 1938 election. Trujillo kept his positions as generalissimo of the army and leader of the Dominican Party. It was understood that Peynado was merely a puppet, and Trujillo still held all governing power in the nation. Peynado increased the size of the electric "Dios y Trujillo" sign and died on 7 March 1940, with Troncoso serving out the rest of the term. However, in 1942, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt having run for a third term in the United States, Trujillo ran for president again and was elected unopposed. He served for two terms, which he lengthened to five years each. In 1952, under pressure from the Organization of American States, he ceded the presidency to his brother, Héctor. Despite being officially out of power, Trujillo organized a major national celebration to commemorate twenty-five years of his rule in 1955. Gold and silver commemorative coins were minted with his image.^{[citation needed]}

Oppression[edit]

Rafael Trujillo (right) and guest Anastasio Somoza at the inauguration of Héctor Trujillo as president in 1952

Brutal oppression of actual or perceived members of the opposition was the key feature of Trujillo's rule right from the beginning in 1930 when his gang, "The 42", under its leader Miguel Angel Paulino, drove through the streets in their red Packard "carro de la muerte" ("car of death").^[29] Trujillo also maintained an execution list of people throughout the world who he felt were his direct enemies or whom he felt had wronged him. He did even at one point allow an opposition party to legally form and permitted them to operate openly. This was mainly so he could identify his opposition and arrest or kill them.^[30]

Imprisonments and killings were later handled by the SIM, the Servicio de Inteligencia Militar, efficiently organized by Johnny Abbes. Some cases reached international notoriety such as the Galíndez case and the murder of the Mirabal sisters further eroding Trujillo's critical support by the US government.^{[citation needed]}

Immigration[edit]

Trujillo was known for his open-door policy, accepting Jewish refugees from Europe, Japanese migration during the 1930s, and exiles from Spain following its civil war. He developed a uniquely Dominican policy of racial discrimination, Antihaitianismo ("anti-Haitianism"), targeting the mostly-black inhabitants of his neighboring country and those within the Platano Curtain, including many Afro-Dominican citizens. At the 1938 Évian Conference the Dominican Republic was the only country willing to accept many Jews and offered to accept up to 100,000 refugees on generous terms.^[31] In 1940 an agreement was signed and Trujillo donated 26,000 acres (110 km²) of his properties for settlements. The first settlers arrived in May 1940; eventually some 800 settlers came to Sosua and most moved later on to the United States.^[31]

Refugees from Europe broadened the Dominican Republic's tax base and added more whites to the predominantly mixed-race nation. The government favored white refugees over others while Dominican troops expelled illegal aliens, resulting in the 1937 Parsley Massacre of Haitian immigrants.^{[citation needed]}

Environmental policy[edit]

The Trujillo regime greatly expanded the Vedado del Yaque, a nature reserve around the Yaque del Sur River. In 1934 he banned the slash-and-burn method of clearing land for agriculture, set up a forest warden agency to protect the park system, and banned the logging of pine trees without his permission. In the 1950s the Trujillo regime commissioned a study on the hydroelectric potential of damming the Dominican Republic's waterways. The commission concluded that only forested waterways could support hydroelectric dams, so Trujillo banned logging in potential river watersheds. After his assassination in 1961, logging resumed in the Dominican Republic. Squatters burned down the forests for agriculture, and logging companies clear-cut parks. In 1967, President Joaquín Balaguer launched military strikes against illegal logging.^[25]

Trujillo encouraged foreign investment in the Dominican Republic, particularly from Americans. He gave a concession with mineral rights in the Azua Basin to Clem S. Clarke, an oilman from Shreveport, Louisiana.^[32]

Foreign policy[edit]

Trujillo tended toward a peaceful coexistence with the United States government. During World War II Trujillo sided with the Allies and declared war on Germany, Italy and Japan on 11 December 1941. While there was no military participation, the Dominican Republic thus became a founding member of the United Nations. Trujillo encouraged diplomatic and economic ties with the United States, but his policies often caused friction with other nations of Latin America, especially Costa Rica and Venezuela. He maintained friendly relations with Franco of Spain, Perón of Argentina, and Somoza of Nicaragua. Towards the end of his rule, his relationship with the United States deteriorated.^{[citation needed]}

The extensive development of the Dominican military during World War II, a buildup that continued unabated after the war with the assistance of arms-dealing countries such as Brazil and Sweden, disturbed the Caribbean peace even as the global conflict ended. Military might, much of its surplus merchandise such as P-51 Mustang fighters and B-26 Marauder bombers, maintained Trujillo as the unassailable master of the Dominican Republic. Trujillo's war-based military complex, most notably its air capability, kept neighboring Haiti in a near-constant state of tension. The threat of being bombed by the Dominican Republic extended to Cuba, Mexico, and Venezuela, among other places, as long as Rafael Trujillo retained his capricious control until 1961.^[33]

Hull–Trujillo Treaty[edit]

Early on, Trujillo determined that Dominican financial affairs had to be put in order, and that included ending the United States's role as collector of Dominican customs—a situation that had existed since 1907 and was confirmed in a 1924 convention signed at the end of the occupation.^{[citation needed]}

Negotiations started in 1936 and lasted four years. On 24 September 1940, Trujillo and the American Secretary of State Cordell Hull signed the Hull–Trujillo Treaty, whereby the United States relinquished control over the collection and application of customs revenues, and the Dominican Republic committed to deposit consolidated government revenues in a special bank account to guarantee repayment of foreign debt. The government was free to set custom duties with no restrictions.^[34]

This diplomatic success gave Trujillo the occasion to launch a massive propaganda campaign that presented him as the savior of the nation. A law proclaimed that the Benefactor was also now the Restaurador de la independencia financiera de la Republica (Restorer of the Republic's financial independence).^[35]

Haiti[edit]

Trujillo with President Magloire of Haiti. Hector and Ramfis Trujillo in attendance

Haiti had historically occupied what is now the Dominican Republic, from 1822–1844. Encroachment by Haiti was an ongoing process, and when Trujillo took over, specifically the northwest border region had become increasingly "Haitianized."^[36] The border was poorly defined. In 1933, and again in 1935, Trujillo met the Haitian President Sténio Vincent to settle the border issue. By 1936, they reached and signed a settlement. At the same time, Trujillo plotted against the Haitian government by linking up with General Calixte, Commander of the Garde d'Haiti, and Élie Lescot, at that time the Haitian ambassador in Ciudad Trujillo (Santo Domingo).^[36] After the settlement, when further border incursions occurred, Trujillo initiated the Parsley Massacre.

Parsley Massacre[edit]

Known as La Masacre del Perejil in Spanish, the massacre was started by Trujillo in 1937. Claiming that Haiti was harboring his former Dominican opponents, he ordered an attack on the border that slaughtered tens of thousands of Haitians as they tried to escape. The number of dead is still unknown, though it is now calculated between 1,000 and 30,000.^{[Note 7]} The Dominican military used machetes to murder and decapitate many of the victims; they also took people to the port of Montecristi, where many victims were thrown into the ocean to drown with their hands and feet bound.^[38] It has been argued that the number of dead may have been less than commonly reported. Numbers of deaths reported at the time range from as little as 1,000 to 12,000—but this is significantly lower than the higher 30,000 estimate commonly reported. This high estimate has been attributed by some to the propaganda of anti-Trujillo exiles who wanted to rally international support against the dictator. The earliest report, dated 11 October 1937, by the United States consul in Cap-Haïtien, puts the number at “almost one thousand.” On 6 November 1937 an official diplomatic note from the Haitian to the Dominican government speaks of 2,040. By 19 December, a Haitian minister in Washington gave the number 12,168. Similar figures of 12,000 have been given at later dates by Haitian President Élie Lescot in 1953 and by Haitian historian Jean Price-Mars who cited 12,136 deaths and 2,419 injuries. On the first of January 1938, the Dominican foreign minister offered a figure of 547 dead. In 1975, Joaquín Balaguer, the Dominican Republic's interim Foreign Minister at the time of the massacre, put the number of dead at 17,000.^[39][40]

The Haitian response was muted, but its government eventually called for an international investigation. Under pressure from Washington, Trujillo agreed to a reparation settlement in January 1938 of US$750,000. By the next year, the amount had been reduced to US$525,000 (US$8.95 million in 2018); 30 dollars per victim, of which only 2 cents were given to survivors, due to corruption in the Haitian bureaucracy.^[27][41]

In 1941, Lescot, who had received financial support from Trujillo, succeeded Vincent as President of Haiti. Trujillo expected that Lescot would be his puppet, but Lescot turned against him. Trujillo unsuccessfully tried to assassinate him in a 1944 plot, and then published their correspondence to discredit him.^[36] Lescot was exiled after a 1946 palace coup.^{[citation needed]}

Cuba[edit]

In 1947 Dominican exiles, including Juan Bosch, had concentrated in Cuba. With the approval and support of Cuba's Grau government, an expeditionary force was trained with the intention of invading the Dominican Republic and overthrowing Trujillo. However, international pressure, including from the United States, made the exiles abort the expedition.^[42] In turn, when Fulgencio Batista was in power, Trujillo initially supported anti-Batista supporters of Carlos Prío Socarrás in Oriente Province in 1955, however weapons Trujillo sent were soon inherited by Fidel Castro's insurgents when Prío allied with Castro. After 1956, when Trujillo saw that Castro was gaining ground, he started to support Batista with money, planes, equipment, and men. Trujillo, convinced that Batista would prevail, was very surprised when he showed up as a fugitive after being ousted. Trujillo kept Batista until August 1959 as a "virtual prisoner".^[43] Only after paying between three and four million U.S. dollars could Batista leave for Portugal, which had granted him a visa.^[43]

Castro made threats to overthrow Trujillo, and Trujillo responded by increasing the budget for national defense. A foreign legion formed to defend Haiti, as many expected that Castro might invade the Haitian part of the island first and remove François Duvalier as well. On June 14, 1959, an abortive invasion to topple Trujillo began. On that day, a plane with Dominican markings left Cuba and landed at the Cordillera Central in the Dominican Republic. On board were 225 men led by a Dominican named Enrique Jimenez Moya and a Cuban named Delico Gomez Ochoa, both of whom were friends of Castro. The invasion force was composed of men from various Latin American countries and Spain. Some Americans also participated. As soon as the invaders landed, they were met by soldiers of the Dominican Army, and 30 to 40 men escaped.^{[citation needed]}

A week later, another group of invaders boarded two yachts and was escorted by Cuban gunboats to Great Inagua, in the Bahamas, heading for the Dominican coast. Instead, the group was spotted by Dominican soldiers who blasted the yacht to pieces. Trujillo ordered his son, Ramfis, to lead the hunt for the invaders, and soon they were captured. The leaders of the invasion were taken aboard a Dominican Air Force plane and then pushed out in midair, falling to their deaths.^{[citation needed]}

In turn, in August 1959, Johnny Abbes attempted to support an anti-Castro group led by Escambray near Trinidad, Cuba. The attempt, however, was thwarted when Cuban troops surprised a plane he had sent as it unloaded its cargo.^[44]

Betancourt incident[edit]

By the late 1950s, opposition to Trujillo's regime was building to a fever pitch. Many clamored for democratization. The Trujillo regime responded with greater repression. The Military Intelligence Service (SIM) secret police, led by Johnny Abbes, remained as ubiquitous as before. Other nations ostracized the Dominican Republic, compounding the dictator's paranoia.^{[citation needed]}

Trujillo began to interfere more in the domestic affairs of neighboring countries. He expressed great contempt for Venezuela's president Rómulo Betancourt. An established and outspoken opponent of Trujillo, Betancourt associated with Dominicans who had plotted against the dictator. Trujillo developed an obsessive personal hatred of Betancourt and supported numerous plots by Venezuelan exiles to overthrow him. This pattern of intervention led the Venezuelan government to take its case against Trujillo to the Organization of American States (OAS). This infuriated Trujillo, who ordered his agents to plant a bomb in Betancourt's car. On 24 June 1960, while Betancourt was driving through the streets of Caracas, Venezuela, during the annual Army Day parade, a powerful bomb exploded in his motorcade. The bomb had been placed in a green Oldsmobile parked near the parade route and contained 65 kilos of TNT. The blast exploded right under the car carrying Betancourt and his party. The car was sent flying across the street. One person in the auto was killed, and Betancourt suffered severe burns to his hands.^[45]

The Betancourt incident inflamed world opinion against Trujillo. Outraged OAS members voted unanimously to sever diplomatic relations with his government and impose economic sanctions on the Dominican Republic. The brutal murder on Friday, 25 November 1960, of the three Mirabal sisters, Patria, María Teresa and Minerva, who opposed Trujillo's dictatorship, further increased discontent with his repressive rule. The dictator had become an embarrassment to the United States, and relations became especially strained after the Betancourt incident.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[edit]

Trujillo's "central arch" was his instinct for power.^[46] This was coupled with an intense desire for money, which he recognized as a source of and support for power. Up at four in the morning, he exercised, studied the newspaper, read many reports, and completed papers before breakfast. At the office by nine, he continued his work, and took lunch by noon. After a walk, he continued to work until 7:30 pm. After dinner, he attended functions, held discussions, or was driven around incognito in the city "observing and remembering."^[46] Until Santo Domingo's National Palace was built in 1947, he worked out of the Casas Reales, the colonial-era Viceregal center of administration. Today the building is a museum; on display are his desk and chair, along with a massive collection of arms and armor that he bought. He was methodical, punctual, secretive, and guarded; he had no true friends, only associates and acquaintances. For his associates, his actions towards them were unpredictable.^{[citation needed]}

Postage stamps honoring family members

Trujillo and his family amassed enormous wealth. He acquired cattle lands on a grand scale, and went into meat and milk production, operations that soon evolved into monopolies. Salt, sugar, tobacco, lumber, and the lottery were other industries that he or his family members dominated. Family members also received positions within the government and the army, including one of Trujillo's sons who was made a colonel in the Dominican Army when he was only four years old.^{[Note 8][Note 9]} Two of Trujillo's brothers, Héctor and José Arismendy, also held positions in his government. José Arismendy Trujillo oversaw creation of the main radio station, La Voz Dominicana, and later the television station, the fourth in the Caribbean.^{[citation needed]}

By 1937 Trujillo's annual income was about $1.5 million ($26 million in 2017);^[48] at the time of his death the state took over 111 Trujillo-owned companies. His love of fine and ostentatious clothing was displayed in elaborate uniforms and suits, of which he collected almost two thousand.^[49] Fond of neckties, he amassed a collection of over ten thousand. Trujillo doused himself with perfume and liked gossip.^[50] His sexual appetite was rapacious, and he preferred mulatto women with full bodies, later tending to rape "very young" women.^[46] Many who sought his favors procured women for him, and later, he had an official on his palace staff to organize the sessions. Encounters typically lasted for one or two sessions, but he often kept favorites for longer terms. If women resisted, Trujillo pressured their families to get his way.^[46]

Trujillo with his second wife Bienvenida in 1934.

Trujillo was married three times and kept other women as mistresses. On 13 August 1913, Trujillo married Aminta Ledesma Lachapelle. On 30 March 1927, Trujillo married Bienvenida Ricardo Martínez, a girl from Monte Cristi and the daughter of Buenaventura Ricardo Heureaux. A year later he met María de los Angeles Martínez Alba "la españolita", and had an affair with her. He divorced Bienvenida in 1935 and married Martínez. A year later he had a daughter with Bienvenida, named Odette Trujillo Ricardo.^{[citation needed]}

Trujillo's three children with María Martínez were Rafael Leónidas Ramfis, who was born on 5 June 1929, María de los Ángeles del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús (Angelita), born in Paris on 10 June 1939, and Leónidas Rhadamés, born on 1 December 1942. Ramfis and Rhadamés were named after characters in Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida.^{[citation needed]}

In 1937, Trujillo met Lina Lovatón Pittaluga,^[51] an upper-class debutante with whom he had two children, Yolanda in 1939, and Rafael, born on 20 June 1943.^{[citation needed]}

In spite of Trujillo's indifference to the game of baseball, the dictator invited many black American players to the Dominican Republic, where they received good pay for playing on first-class, un-segregated teams. The great Negro League star Satchel Paige pitched for Los Dragones of Ciudad Trujillo, a team organized by Trujillo. Paige later claimed, jokingly, that his guards positioned themselves "like a firing squad" to encourage him to pitch well. Los Dragones won the 1937 Dominican championship at Estadio Trujillo in Ciudad Trujillo.^[52]

Trujillo was energetic and fit. He was generally quite healthy, but suffered from chronic lower urinary infections and, later, prostate problems. In 1934, Dr. Georges Marion was called from Paris to perform three urologic procedures on Trujillo.^[53]

Over time Trujillo acquired numerous homes. His favorite was Casa Caobas, on Estancia Fundacion near San Cristóbal.^[54] He also used Estancia Ramfis (which, after 1953, became the Foreign Office), Estancia Rhadames, and a home at Playa de Najayo. Less frequently he stayed at places he owned in Santiago de los Caballeros, Constanza, La Cumbre, San José de las Matas, and elsewhere. He maintained a penthouse at the Embajador Hotel in the capital.^[55]

While Trujillo was nominally a Roman Catholic, his devotion was limited to a perfunctory role in public affairs; he placed faith in local folk religion.^[46]

He was popularly known as "El Jefe" ("The Chief") or "El Benefactor" ("The Benefactor"), but was privately referred to as Chapitas ("Bottlecaps") because of his indiscriminate wearing of medals. Dominican children emulated Trujillo by constructing toy medals from bottle caps. He was also known as "El Chivo" ("The Goat").^{[citation needed]}

Assassination[edit]

"Memorial to the Heroes of the 30th of May", a 1993 sculpture by Silvano Lora along Autopista 30 de Mayo where Trujillo was shot

On Tuesday, 30 May 1961, Trujillo was shot and killed when his blue 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air was ambushed on a road outside the Dominican capital.^[56] He was the victim of an ambush plotted by a number of men, among them General Juan Tomás Díaz, Pedro Livio Cedeño, Antonio de la Maza, Amado García Guerrero and General Antonio Imbert Barrera.^[57] The plotters, however, failed to take control as the later-to-be-executed General José ("Pupo") Román betrayed his co-conspirators by his inactivity, and contingency plans had not been made.^[58] On the other side, Johnny Abbes, Roberto Figueroa Carrión, and the Trujillo family, put the SIM to work to hunt the members of the plot, and brought back Ramfis Trujillo from Paris to step into his father's shoes. The response by SIM was swift and brutal. Hundreds of suspects were detained, many tortured. On 18 November the last executions took place when six of the conspirators were executed in the "Hacienda María Massacre".^[59] Imbert was the only one of the seven assassins who survived the manhunt.^[60] A co-conspirator named Luis Amiama Tio also survived.^{[citation needed]}

Trujillo's funeral was that of a statesman with the long procession ending in his hometown of San Cristóbal, where his body was first buried. President Joaquín Balaguer gave the eulogy. The efforts of the Trujillo family to keep control of the country ultimately failed. The military uprising on 19 November of the Rebellion of the Pilots and the threat of American intervention set the final stage and ended the Trujillo regime.^[61] Ramfis tried to flee with his father's body upon his boat Angelita, but was turned back. Balaguer allowed Ramfis to leave the country and to relocate his father's body to Paris. There the remains were interred in the Cimetière du Père Lachaise on 14 August 1964, and six years later moved to the El Pardo cemetery near Madrid, Spain.^[62]

The role of the Central Intelligence Agency in the killing has been debated. Imbert insists that the plotters acted on their own.^[60] In a report to the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, CIA officials described the agency as having "no active part" in the assassination and only a "faint connection" with the groups that planned the killing.^[63] An internal CIA memorandum states that a 1973 Office of Inspector General investigation into Trujillo's murder disclosed "quite extensive Agency involvement with the plotters."^[64] The weapons of the assassins included three M1 carbines that had been supplied with the approval of the CIA.^[60] President John F. Kennedy learned of Trujillo's death during a diplomatic meeting with French President Charles de Gaulle.^[65]

Honors and awards[edit]

• Legion d'honneur^[66]
• Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem^[67]

Trujillo in media[edit]

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Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• G. Pope Atkins (Author), Larman C. Wilson (Author). The Dominican Republic and the United States: From Imperialism to Transnationalism (January 1998 ed.). University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0-8203-1931-7.
• Richard Lee Turits, Foundations of Despotism: Peasants, the Trujillo Regime, and Modernity in Dominican History, Stanford University Press 2004, ISBN 0-8047-5105-6
• Secretaría de Estado de las Fuerzas Armandas (in Spanish)
• Ignacio López-Calvo, "God and Trujillo": Literary and Cultural Representations of the Dominican Dictator, University Press of Florida, 2005, ISBN 0-8130-2823-X

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rafael Leónidas Trujillo.

• Works by or about Rafael Trujillo at Internet Archive
• Biography (in Spanish)
• The short film Interview with General Rafael Trujillo (1961) is available for free download at the Internet Archive