Dominican Republic Poses Problems for U.s Imperialism

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for general T'he eventually Shah chaotic outcome of last week's presidential election in the Dominican republic has created a major dilemma for American imperialism.

Having supported the ultra-right wing incumbent Joaquin Balaguer for the last twelve years, there are some signs that in the last few weeks the Carter administration was prepared to drop this long-time US protege and switch horses if necessary to his main electoral challenger Antonio Guzman.

in any event the Carter administration seemed ready to accept a victory for either of these two candidates as being compatible with the lucrative interests of US imperialism in the Dominican republic.

Respect results And it was partly under US pressure that the two candidates had made an agreement that they would respact the result of polls whatever it was.

• After this, the actual outcome was just what Carter and his advisors wanted to avoid.

As soon as the count began to show a decisive lead of 158,811 for Guzman against 66,730 for Balaguer a section of the army moved in to stop the counting and, temporarily at least, seized power.

Whether this move was' with the approval of Balaguer remains in doubt.

There is little doubt that it gravely embarassed Carter who wanted to see an apparently democratic election even if it meant the election of a candidate like Guzman who was committed, though very half-heartedly, to "reform"

The military have reportedly allowed the count to resume and now both Guzman and Balaguer are claiming victory, the latter saying that Guzman's apparently unassailable early lead had been reversed "by late results from the countryside"one of the oldest tricks in the election riggers' book.

The latest round of antiShah demonstrations in Iran were by far the largest of the mounting opposition to the dictatorship of the last year. • A move So a process which was supposed to help the stabilisation of imperia lism in the Dominican Rep lublic has apparently turned into a major crisis of authority.

Spectre of 1960s

This, of course, is nothing new for the American imperialists, and they are haunted still by the spectre of the history of the Dominican republic in the 1960s-events in which both Balaguer and Guzman played a pernicious role and which, as a prelude to the climax. of Vietnam War, exposed the full venom of American imperialism.

Balaguer was a trusted political ally of the bloody tyrant Rafael Trujillo who, with US support ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 until 1961.

In that year, in the unstable aftermath of the Cuban revolution of 1959, Trujillo appeared to the now Kennedy administration too like the old Cuban dictator Batista-a provocation to revolution.

In fact, in mid 1959 Castro had aided a completely abortive rebellion by a group of Dominican exiles.

Kennedy withdrew support from Trujillo and in April 1961 the dictator was assassinated by a group of right-wing military officers in league with the CIA.

Kennedy stated at this time:

ties The reescending order of detened order of preference-a decent democratic regime a continuation of the Trujillo regime or a Castro regime.

Formula

We ought to aim at the first, but we really can't renounce the second until we are sure that we can avoid the third"

In 1961 the application of this formula for counter-revolution led Kennedy to adopt (in the absence of any "decent democrats")Trujillo's son Ramfis and Joaquin Balaguer whose loyalty to the old dictator had won him the headship strike last week was contained only by a full scale occupation of the streets of Teheran by tanks and armoured vehicles.

Carter of state..

The Dominican people had other ideas and street riots forced Trujillo and Balaguer into exile.

Right The anti-Trujillo/Balaguer fortes then consisted of the right wing National Civil Union (UCN) lead by the opportunist new president Rafael Bonelly (Trujillo's former interior Minister and Police Chief), the Castroite ard nationalist Fourteenth of June Movement and the reformist Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) led by a novelist Juan Bosch, who now returned from many years of exile.

In addition there were two tiny "communist" parties, the pro-Moscow Popular Socialist Party, (the majority of which later re-adopted the name Dominican Communist Party)

and the pro-Peking Dominican Popular Movement.

Popular frontist Both of them have consistently pursued popular frontist policies.

These parties were used by all the right wing bourgeois out on his trip to Hungary and Bulgaria whose "communist" governments like that of the Soviet Union have consistently given material aid to the Shah's reactionary and brutal His temporary reward was the support of the Kennedy administration which hoped it had found a "decent democrat"

But the masses who had voted him into office expected much more from Bosch and began to express their impatience.

US capitalists increasingly saw danger signs and began a ruthless campaign of denunciation of the 'communist Bosch.

They were directly aided by the American trade union The union federationinter The Inter American network known as the American. Institute for Free regime.

But he will terror to face round of opposi sations which planned a month all manner of repression.

They were also cynically used by the anti-communist, reformist Bosch to warn the bourgeoisie of what might happen unless they supported his brand of reformism.

The American administration backed anti-communist repression by the Bonelly government but also prevailed upon it to hold elections which took place in early 1963.

Popular majority

Juan Bosch, though the Catholic hierarchy had denounced him as a "Marxist-Leninist" • won an enormous popular majority on a pro• gramme of "revolutionary democracy" which consisted of a ton of radical-sounding rhetoric for every ounce of reforms.

The main reform which went ahead was a land reform based on the distribution to the peasants of the vast estates of the Trujillo family.

The Minister of Agriculture who supervised this was none other than last week's other main presidential candidate Silvestre Antonio Guzman.

The Bosch government introduced a few minor tax increases on American firms and tried to re-negotiate long term trade agreements.

But Bosch was emphatic that there would be no expropriations on the Cuban model.

Decent democrat

return in the next ion mobiliare being from now.

Johnson Labour Development set up the National Confederation of Free Workers (CONATRAL), a rival union federation to the existing Dominican union which were part of Bosch's political base.

One week before Bosch's overthrow CONATRAL put an advertisement in the papers urging the people to trust in the army to defend them against communism.

The military overthrew Bosch in September 1963. The US administration connived at the coup though for form's sake Kennedy lin one of his last acts before his assasination) cut off aid until constitutional rule was restored.

The Dominican Communist Party had no such scruples and supported the new military junta.

A few weeks later Lyndon Johnson had restored relations again, and began to flood the country with "aid", though the US was still searching for a more stable form of pro-imperialist rule.

Plot

Meanwhile by 1965 Bosch (in exile in Puerto Rico) had made a plot with his allies in the army, notably a Colonel Caamano, to get rid of the new The two communist parties and the Fourteenth of June Movement independently decided to support the plot.

On April 25th 1965 the rebellion began and met with popular support and almost instant success.

The president, Reid Cabral gave way to a Bosch nominee called Molina Urena.

After a moment of hesitation, the US decided that this move was potentially dangerous for imperialism and cooked up a pack of bare-faced lies about the rebellion being led by 53 named communists (most of whom were in exile or jail) in order to justify a massive US invasion.

Crush US marines invaded the Dominican Republic "to crush the threat of international communism"

This was the launching of the so-called "Johnson Doctrine" under which the US publicly awarded itself the unrestricted right to intervene militarily anywhere it wished.

The US invasion lad immediately to the replacement of the pro-Bosch government by a new military dictatorship under General Ibert.

But Johnson still wanted to restore a regime or more democratic appearance.

Fighting next of fighting between US forces (aided by other Latin American countries) and anti-imperialist fighters, the Johnson administration also tried to set up a ''constitutional" government led by either Bosch's former foreign minister Garcia Goday or by the former agriculture minister Antonio Guzman.

Favoured candidate At one stage Guzman was the favoured candidate in the US State Department.

He was at length rejected as lacking in sufficient authority because of his identification with what an Under-secretary of State called that "unclean Bosch crowd"

The US finally rediscovered Trujillo's old trusty, Joaquin Balaguer.

In June 1966 Balaguer won (against Bosch) a rigged presidential election. was 'elected' again in 1970 and 1974.

For 12 years with American support he has headed a repressive dictatorship in the Dominican Republic.

It is estimated that since 1966 his regime has murdered 2,000 oppositionists.

In recent months, however, the declining authority of US imperialism has been reflected in the weakening of Balaguer's position.

In last 'week's election he faced ten other candidates though only Guzman had any chance of winning since his (and Bosch's) PRD remains the only mass party in the Dominican Republic.

Memory of past

But the PRD continues to get the votes of workers and peasants not because of its present programme (which is hard to distinguish from that of Balaguer's Reformist Party) but because of the memory of its past, largely undeserved reputation as an anti-imperialist party.

If by any remote chance Guzman were allowed to succeed to the electoral victory he undoubtedly won last week, he would open up expectations which in no time at all would be shattered.

It is for this reason that, harmless as are Guzman's intentions, Castro may still behappier with another few years of the ageing dictator Balaguer.

Whoever the imperialists and their local agents allow to "win" the interests of the Dominican workers and peasants will be equally passed over.

But the election fiasco and subsequent internecine squabbling with the bourgeoisie could, given an authentic revolutionary leadership, open the way to a successful independent struggle for power by the oppressed classes.

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Wednesday 24 May 1978