Dominican Republic 1970
Published: December 14, 1970;
Source: Intercontinental Press, Vol. 8, No. 42, p.1083;
Transcribed by: Amaury Rodriguez, 2016.
Transcriber’s note: This article appeared in Intercontinental Press (IP), a weekly magazine published in New York on behalf on the Fourth International from 1963 to 1986. I thank Pathfinder Press for granting me permission to post this article.
Santo Domingo. – The situation of widespread terror is continuing in this city, the authorities demonstrating their complete incapacity for controlling it. It is thought here that the terror is being directed against the opposition forces by the American CIA.
In the Los Minas areas of the city, where 90,000 people live, three persons have been killed and another four wounded since November 4 in terrorist attacks. One of those wounded has accused two police officers of the attempt on his life. They are still at liberty.
The neighborhood of Los Minas declared a twenty-four-hour cessation of all activities in protest against the terror. The Citizens Committee that led the action issued a declaration, which said, among other things:
“The inhabitants of Los Minas are tired of seeing their sons, friends, neighbors, and acquaintances being brutally murdered.” The statement continued: “Although mysterious murders keep occurring , the president of the republic, Doctor Joaquín Balaguer, [1] has made statements claiming in one way or another that such acts are normal everywhere. But the Dominican people know that the first duty of any government is to protect human life. And they know that when the government does not fulfill this duty, as the one headed by Doctor Balaguer does not, the citizens have the right to use all means at their command to demonstrate that they are opposed to crime and are ready to fight it.”
Former president Juan Bosch, chairman of the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano [Dominican Revolutionary Party], said that if the government really wanted to, “it would be relatively easy to end the situation of abuses and outrages the people are suffering.”
When Balaguer went to Puerto Rico to open a Dominican-Puerto Rican conference November 23, he was greeted by many Dominicans and Puerto Rican students shouting “Balaguer, Murderer!”
1. Joaquín Balaguer (1906-2002) was a right wing, racist ideologue and collaborator of the Trujillo dictatorship. A staunch anti-communist, Balaguer became one of the closest allies of the US during the Cold War.