Dominican Republic: The Promise of Peace

After much tension but surprisingly little violence, the Dominican Republic last week seemed to be heading for stability. Seven months after the assassination of Trujillo. which ended 31 years of dictatorship, a peaceful transition to democracy was agreed to by all factions. If all now goes well, there will emerge a Swiss-style Council of State, and free elections will be held next year. Agreement on all this was reached by the opposition and by President Joaquin Balaguer and the army’s strongman. General Pedro Ramón Rodriguez Echavarria, 37.

Unlikely Go-Betweens. Thus ended an explosive, six-week crisis verging often near the flash point of civil war. Last month Balaguer and Rodriguez Echavarria—with an assist from Washington, which stationed warships and marines off the Dominican coast—became heroes for a day by blocking a comeback coup by two Trujillo brothers. But their authoritarian rule still did not meet the nation’s hankering for freedom. The opposition National Civic Union, a moderate group, demanded that Balaguer and Rodriguez Echavarria themselves abandon power. At first the two Trujillo holdovers refused. It remained for two unlikely go-betweens to bring about a settlement—Luis Amiama Tió and Antonio Imbert Barreras. sole survivors of the Trujillo assassination plot. Invoking their present popularity as tyrannicides, Amiama Tió and Imbert quietly sold Rodriguez Echavarria and Balaguer on a compromise. Warily, the National Civic Union accepted, too.

Under the compromise, which is slated to be ratified by Congress this week. Balaguer will appoint a seven-man Council of State over which he will preside, at least in the beginning—and with the right to retain Rodriguez Echavarria as armed forces chief. All six other Council member-designates are either independents or men who turned against Trujillo. Amiama Tió, a small businessman, and Imbert, a cement plant manager who drove the assassination car, will each be represented.

Conditions for Departure. Once the Council is constituted and working smoothly. Balaguer promises to resign. But first two conditions must be met: 1) the Organization of American States must lift all diplomatic and economic sanctions, and 2) the Dominican Republic must be allowed to share again in the U.S. premium-price sugar market and in Alliance for Progress aid, both of which Washington has withheld as punishment for Trujillo’s misdeeds.

To Washington, which has been working desperately to help the Dominicans rid themselves of the Trujillos without leaving a vacuum for Communism to fill, the compromise seemed a workable answer if not a perfect one. President Kennedy hailed the solution, promised U.S. support in getting the sanctions lifted, increased sugar purchases, and the quick dispatch of Alliance teams to size up the country’s development needs.

The help could hardly come soon enough. The country’s foreign exchange reserves, which were at a peak of $36,600,000 before sanctions were imposed last year, are down to a rock-bottom $3,800,000, and its gold stocks stand at a minuscule $3,000,000. Much of the money drain is the effect of the sanctions, but the departing Trujillo clan looted the remainder. The continuing civil strife has choked off investment; industry and commerce are hard hit, and at latest count fully one-half of the tiny republic’s 2,900,000 people are out of work.