Dominican Republic: A Government–At Last

In a dimly lighted third-floor office in downtown Santo Domingo, Colonel Francisco Caamaño Deñó and five of his rebel lieutenants quietly put their signatures on a document entitled the Dominican Act of Reconciliation. A few hours later, in the Dominican Congressional Palace across town, four other officers, who had supported the loyalist junta of Brigadier General Antonio Imbert Barrera, added their names with equal severity. Thus, without fanfare or even much reconciliation, ended the bloody civil war that began April 24, took the lives of 3,000 Dominicans and 31 U.S. servicemen, and involved the U.S. and other OAS nations in a major military operation.

Under the agreement, the loyalist and rebel sides accepted a provisional government headed by Dominican Diplomat Hector García-Godoy, who will serve until elections are held in six to nine months. Both sides received a general amnesty and in turn promised to put their troops under the command of the provisional President. The provisional government was also to “begin negotiations at once” with the OAS for the withdrawal of the 12,000-member peace-keeping force—mostly U.S.—still in the Dominican Republic.

Give In or Go. OAS diplomats called it a settlement. In reality, it was an imposed truce, coming after four months of agonizing negotiations that were often blocked by Caamaño, and more recently by Imbert. To soften up Imbert—and Caamaño—the U.S. and OAS applied stiff diplomatic pressures, then cut off the money they needed to pay their troops and civil servants. Other pressure came from Navy Commodore Francisco Rivera Caminero, leader of the armed forces, who warned Imbert to give in or be forced out. Even then, Imbert kept insisting that the proposed settlement was too favorable to the leftist rebels. In a last-ditch flurry, the loyalists one night last week lobbed mortar shells into the rebel zone, touching off a two-hour exchange that left six dead.

Eventually, the patient, persistent negotiating of U.S. Special Delegate Ellsworth Bunker paid off. He got a late-hour assist from President Johnson.

“Any who continue to oppose the OAS solution,” L.B.J. said at a news conference, “are serving no true interest of their country or peace in the world.” At last, Imbert admitted defeat. Twenty-four hours after the mortar attack, he went on TV and announced the resignation of the junta, as a face-saving gesture to avoid signing the final truce. “To wait longer, to add to this period which is affecting the nation and democracy,” he announced solemnly, “is not what patriotism recommends.”

Brink of an Abyss. At week’s end, in a brief ceremony at the National Palace in downtown Santo Domingo, García-Godoy was officially installed as his country’s 47th President. He is, by all accounts, an able, well-regarded man: a middle-of-the-road liberal and a foreign minister under ex-President Juan Bosch. “We are a country,” said García-Godoy in his inaugural speech, “at the brink of an abyss. We must react with honest administration, intensive popular education, the establishment of a civil service, an agrarian reform, an armed forces which is completely nonpolitical.”

It may take years to effect a genuine reconciliation. The Castroites, who controlled fully 25% of the 7,000 armed rebels, have been stashing away weapons and training for guerrilla war. But last week’s agreement was at least a start in the right direction. “There are still grave problems facing the Dominican people,” said President Johnson, “but the way has been opened for an end to strife and for the choice of leaders through the process which all free men cherish.”