Joaquín Balaguer

Joaquín Antonio Balaguer Ricardo (1 September 1906 – 14 July 2002) was a Dominican politician, scholar, writer, and lawyer.

Balaguer was born on 1 September 1906 in Navarrete, later named Villa Bisonó in the Santiago Province in the northwestern corner of the Dominican Republic.

His father was Joaquín Jesús Balaguer Lespier, a Spaniard native of Catalan and French ancestry born in Puerto Rico, and his mother was Carmen Celia Ricardo Heureaux, daughter of Manuel de Jesus Ricardo and Rosa Amelia Heureaux (of French descent), who was also a half-cousin of President Ulises Heureaux.

Balaguer was the only son in a family of several daughters.

From a very early age, Balaguer felt an attraction to literature, composing verses that were published in local magazines even when he was very young.

He was taught by Santiago-born educator and feminist writer Rosa Smester Marrero; in his memoirs, Balaguer recalled Smester's great influence on his intellectual formation.

After graduating from school, Balaguer earned a law degree from the University of Santo Domingo (UASD) and studied for a brief period at the University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne.

As a youth, Balaguer wrote of the awe with which he was struck by his father's fellow countryman, the Harvard graduate and political leader from Puerto Rico, Pedro Albizu.

Despite the profound differences regarding their ethical and world visions, Albizu's fiery and charismatic rhetoric captured Balaguer's imagination and his recollection of this occasion was a harbinger of his passion for politics and intellectual debate.

Balaguer's political career began in 1930 (before Rafael Trujillo took control of the government) when he was appointed Attorney in the Court of Properties.

In later years, he served as Secretary of the Dominican Legation in Madrid (1932–1935), Undersecretary of the Presidency (1936), Undersecretary of Foreign Relations (1937), Extraordinary Ambassador to Colombia and Ecuador (1940–1943 and 1943–1947), Ambassador to Mexico (1947–1949), Secretary of Education (1949–1955), and Secretary of State of Foreign Relations (1953–1956).

When Trujillo arranged to have his brother Héctor re-elected to the presidency in 1957, he chose Balaguer as vice-president.

Three years later, when pressure from the Organization of American States (OAS) convinced Rafael that it was inappropriate to have a member of his family as president, Trujillo forced his brother to resign, and Balaguer succeeded to the post.

He was President of the Dominican Republic serving three non-consecutive terms for that office from 1960 to 1962, 1966 to 1978, and 1986 to 1996.

His enigmatic, secretive personality was inherited from the Trujillo era, as well as his desire to perpetuate himself in power through dubious elections and state terrorism, and he was considered to be a caudillo.

His regime of terror claimed 11,000 victims who were either tortured or forcibly disappeared and killed.

Nevertheless, Balaguer was also considered to be instrumental in the liberalization of the Dominican government, and his time as leader of the Dominican Republic saw major changes such as legalized political activities, surprise army promotions and demotions, promoting health and education improvements and instituting modest land reforms.

The situation was dramatically altered, however, when Trujillo was assassinated in May 1961.

Balaguer initially remained president, with the real power held by Trujillo's son, Ramfis.

They initially took steps to liberalize the regime, granting some civil liberties and easing Trujillo's tight censorship of the press.

Meanwhile, he revoked the nonaggression pact made with Cuba in January 1961.

These measures did not go nearly far enough for a populace who had no memory of the instability and poverty that preceded Trujillo, and wanted more freedom and a more equitable distribution of wealth.

At the same time, Ramfis' reforms went too far for the hard-line trujillistas led by his own uncles, Héctor and José Arismendi Trujillo.

As the OAS continued economic sanctions imposed for Trujillo's attempted murder of Venezuelan President Romulo Betancourt, Ramfis warned that the country could descend into civil war between left and right.

Although official and unofficial repression of the opposition parties (the Dominican Revolutionary Party and National Civic Union, as well as the communist Dominican Popular Movement) continued, Balaguer publicly condemned this repression and in September he pledged to form a coalition government.

Hector and Jose Trujillo left the country in October but the opposition parties demanded Ramfis withdraw from the government as well.

At the end of October, Ramfis announced that he would resign if the OAS agreed to lift the economic sanctions.

The OAS agreed on November 14 but Ramfis' uncles returned to the country the following day, hoping to lead a military coup.

Ramfis resigned and went into exile on November 17 and rumours circulated that Air Force general Fernando Arturo Sánchez Otero would support pro-Castro revolutionaries.

The United States now sent a small fleet of ships and 1,800 marines to patrol Dominican waters.

The US consul informed Balaguer that these forces stood ready to intervene at his request, and would be supported by forces from Venezuela and Colombia.

Air Force general Pedro Rafael Ramón Rodríguez Echavarría announced his support for Balaguer and bombed pro-Trujillo forces.

The Trujillo brothers again fled the country on November 20 and Echavarría became Secretary of Armed Forces.

The American consul mediated between the two sides and in January 1962 final agreement led to the creation of a seven-member Council of State, led by Balaguer but including members of the UCN, to replace both the Dominican Congress and the President and his cabinet until the election.

The OAS finally lifted sanctions against the country upon the formation of the council.

However, popular unrest against Balaguer continued and many saw Echaverría as positioning himself to seize power.

Military forces opened fire on demonstrators on 14 January which led to rioting the following day.

On 16 January, Balaguer resigned and Echaverría staged a military coup d'état and arrested the other members of the council.

The Union Civica Nacional (UCN) called a national strike and demanded the formation of a provisional government under their leader, Viriato Fiallo, with elections to be delayed until 1964.

The military were vehemently against the UCN taking power and Echaverría proposed a continuation of the Balaguer regime until the elections.