War Power

By act of his subservient Congress, Dominican Dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo last week became the hemisphere’s only chief of state empowered to declare war whenever he sees fit. Technically, this meant that he could strike fast at any Caribbean state harboring Dominican exiles and others plotting against him. He could shoot first, then ask or answer questions in the Organization of American States afterwards.

In three years, shouted Trujillo to the Congress, two invasions had been launched against him, and a third was being plotted now in Cuba. To defend himself, he had had to spend $20 million for guns, warships, aircraft. He added: “The state of war in which we are virtually kept compels us to increase expenditures to the point of sacrifice.”

To ease the financial load, Trujillo was willing to endure the displeasure of the U.S. State Department (TIME, Dec. 26) and the criticism of the Organization of American States. Last week, under the indignant prodding of Cuban Ambassador Gonzalo Giiell, the five-man Inter-American Peace Commission finally got off a letter to Trujillo expressing “grave concern” and pointing out that the O.A.S. had machinery to settle quarrels between states. At week’s end Trujillo sent a tart rejoinder: “The Dominican Republic, a victim of aggression, is anxious to study the problem with other American states.”