Intervention in the Caribbean by Palmer Bruce Jr.;Palmer General Bruce Jr.;

Author:Palmer, Bruce, Jr.;Palmer, General Bruce , Jr.; [Palmer, Jr. General Bruce]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2021-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

The IAPF Completes Its Mission: 26 October 1965–21 September 1966

With the Inter-American Peace Force in control of the old rebel zone, life in Santo Domingo began to improve steadily, though only gradually. On 26 October we withdrew all IAPF tanks from the city and by the end of the month had thinned out our troops in Ciudad Nueva and the old corridor. Police performance in the city was still disappointing, however, and tension still high, while outrages continued to occur in the countryside. In one instance the left-leaning governor of Van Verde Province was foully murdered near Santiago in late October, allegedly by regular Dominican military personnel. We assisted the provisional government and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in the investigation by escorting eyewitnesses, some of whom had also been attacked and had to be hospitalized, to Santo Domingo.

The human rights commission had been performing in a remarkable way since its arrival in the republic on 1 June. In contrast to the similar UN commission, the inter-American commission showed great courage in impartially investigating crimes reportedly committed by rightists or leftists. With its constant scrutiny and widely known public presence, the commission kept the pressure on both sides and in a few short months dramatically brought down the number of reported violations and reduced the number of political prisoners from an estimated 4,000 in early June to about 700 in August.1

One of the remunerative results of clearing Ciudad Nueva was the closing of the headquarters of three Communist parties that had been conducting illegal activities in the country. Many incriminating documents were found in two of these offices—those of the Castro-oriented IJ4 (Movimiento 14 Junio) and the more Chinese-oriented MPD (Movimiento Popular Dominicano); the offices of the smaller PCD (Partido Communista Dominicano) were found abandoned and empty. These leftist parties had placed huge anti-U.S. and anti-IAPF signs at key locations in Ciudad Nueva such as Independence Plaza; their favorite one read “Fuera Yanquis de Quisqueya,” meaning “Yankees begone from Quisqueya” (the old Dominican name for the country). Our forces also put the MPD newspaper La Patria out of business, Godoy directing that it be permanently closed and the premises turned back to the rightful owners.

On 2 November, a red-letter day, all the major banks reopened in Santo Domingo for the first time since the rebellion. A short time later the old reliable and more moderate, conservative newspapers El Caribe and Listin Diario returned to print. On 11 November Godoy felt confident enough to lift the government curfew, but in mid-November leftist demonstrations, during one of which a U.S. flag was burned, were allowed in front of the palace without any interference—a poor performance by the police and Chief Despradel, as well as Interior Minister Castillo and the president himself. Santo Domingo was having its ups and downs.2

One important factor in bringing a measure of stability to the Dominican Republic was the relatively moderate line taken by the two major political parties, Balaguer’s PR (Reformist party) and Bosch’s PRD (Dominican Revolutionary party), in support of Godoy’s provisional government.

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