Word: trujillos
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After 30 years of collaborating with Dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, the Dominican Republic's Roman Catholic hierarchy broke sharply with the strong-man last year. In a pastoral letter signed by all six of the country's bishops in January, the church called clearly and unequivocally for "freedom of conscience, press and assembly," for a climate of liberty, for an end to "anonymous denunciations." Last week the news filtered up from the Byzantine depths of Trujillo's country that the church had been forced to bend to the dictator again...
Signals of the turn inside Trujillo's supertight Caribbean island nation are clear. After years of posing as Latin America's strongest anti-Communist bulwark, the dictator has started cozying up to Castro and the Soviet bloc. Six months ago Trujillo's Radio Caribe propaganda outlet adopted a Marxist, anti-U.S. cant in its commentary. Last August the dictator sent emissaries to Europe and began the first of a series of secret meetings with Iron Curtain leaders; rumors are buzzing in Ciudad Trujillo that diplomatic relations will soon be established with Poland and Russia...
Most startling of Trujillo's moves to the left is his sudden about-face on Fidel Castro, who two years ago sent revolutionaries to invade the Dominican Republic. Two months ago Trujillo reportedly sent a pair of trusted henchmen to a secret meeting in eastern Cuba with Castro emissaries. The result: a tentative non-aggression agreement between the two dictators and, further, possible future cooperation against common enemies, such as Venezuela's moderate President Romulo Betancourt...
There is little to prevent Trujillo from calling his turn. Last fortnight's embargo on truck and petroleum sales by the Organization of American States is largely ineffectual; the ban does not affect Trujillo's principal income earners, sugar and coffee. Trujillo has also just about completed the destruction of his only serious opposition at home-the educated upper and middle classes, which nearly brought off a coup last January...
...biggest question mark hanging over Trujillo is the Dominican army, well fed, well trained, well equipped. A large part of the top brass is bound personally to Trujillo. But others in the middle echelons are increasingly worried about what happens to them if the old man goes, now are said to listen thoughtfully to anti-Trujillo talk. Helping their speculations along are two opposition hopes. One is that an attempt to assassinate the tyrant will succeed. In the past year, two attempts have been made: two months ago an escort car in his motorcade through the countryside was shot...