Joaquín Balaguer
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Joaquín Amparo Balaguer Ricardo (September 1, 1906 – July 14, 2002) was the President of the Dominican Republic from 1960 to 1962, from 1966 to 1978, and again from 1986 to 1996. An unlikely strongman, he had been a protégé of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, and, though frequently accused of election fraud and of intimidating would-be opponents, is also considered one of the craftiest politicians in the history of the country and a foundation for the modern Dominican state.
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[edit] Early life and education
Balaguer was born in Navarrete, a small town in northern Dominican Republic, to a Puerto Rican father and a Dominican mother. Balaguer studied law at the Sorbonne, then returned to the Dominican Republic and started working for Trujillo in 1930.
[edit] Assumes the presidency
Balaguer was the puppet president of dictator Trujillo at the time of the Trujillo assassination in 1961, after which he fled to the United States. In 1963, a military coup overthrew the leftist government of Juan Bosch. In 1965 military officers revolted against the junta to restore Bosch, whereupon U.S. President Lyndon Johnson sent 42,000 U.S. troops to defeat the revolt in Operation Powerpack. In this upheaval, Balaguer, despite his small stature, pronounced eyeglasses and professorial appearance, outmanuevered seemingly more imposing rivals to become President of the Dominican Republic, with U.S. backing, in 1966 - a feat of political skill captured by Mario Vargas Llosa in his historical novel The Feast of the Goat. He would go on to govern the country for an initial three consecutive four-year terms.
During his first years as President, hundreds were kidnapped or disappeared as political control was consolidated.[1] Though not charasmatic in the traditional manner, Balaguer nonetheless fully achieved the personality cult of a typical Dominican caudillo, or strongman. In 1973, Balaguer oversaw the military defeat of a guerilla invasion by Dominican expatriates led by former Dominican National Guard Colonel Francisco A. Caamaño Deñó.
In 1978, Balaguer was defeated at elections by Antonio Guzmán Fernández, leader of the Dominican Revolutionary Party. Balaguer left office only after the political intervention of U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
[edit] Return to power
The second period of Balaguer's government was notably different from the first three terms. When Balaguer reassumed the presidency in 1986, it was by legitimate democratic selection and, from that period forward, Balaguer maintained power mainly through a combination of savvy political skill and patronage as a right-of-center populist. During all periods, though, Balaguer continued the oligarchical cronyism and economic protectionist policies of Trujillo, and the legitimacy of Dominican presidential elections were frequently questioned.
He left office for the second time, reluctantly, in 1996, at age 90 and practically blind, after agreeing to hold earlier elections following the controversy over his sixth term reelection in 1994 and subsequent political pressure by the administration of U.S. President Bill Clinton. But he remained a power in Dominican politics to the very end of his life. Balaguer never married and had no children (the latter fact being a frequent subject of controversy); he was survived by a sister.
[edit] Infrastructure Projects and Columbus Lighthouse
During Balaguer's terms, massive infrastructure projects, such as the construction of highways, bridges, schools, housing projects and hospitals, were undertaken. Following the style of Trujillo, the completion of these highly visible projects were highly touted over government-controlled media and through grandiose public ceremonies designed to enhance Balaguer's popularity. The projects were also used as a means to award his political supporters with lucrative public works contracts.
However, once completed, much of this infrastructure would go unmaintained or unsupported. Schools without teachers or books, and hospitals without doctors or medicine, were commonplace.
For the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' landing in the Americas and the contemporaneous visit of Pope John Paul II, Balaguer spent richly on a highly successful restoration of parts of historic, colonial Santo Domingo, and on sprucing up the parts of the City to be transversed by the Pope, including the construction of a grand new avenue lined with modern housing blocks.
Perhaps most controversially during this period, Balaguer spent two hundred million US Dollars on the construction of a massive ten-story Columbus Lighthouse. Completed in 1992, the Columbus Lighthouse was designed to beam the image of a Christian cross into the night sky and to be visible for tens of miles. Since completion, the Columbus Lighthouse, now also housing, debatably, Columbus' remains, has been a minor tourist attraction. It's light has almost never been used due to extremely high energy costs and frequent blackouts in the country.
[edit] Recognized as an environmentalist
Jared Diamond's Collapse mentions Balaguer's push for environmental protection as a key difference between the environment of the Dominican Republic and its neighbour, Haiti. It included the enlargement of the national park system, demolishing illegal construction within the limits, substitution as popular fuel of scarce wood by imported Venezuelan gas.
This environmental trend led him to some confrontations with powerful landowners, and was controversial because of its impact on the rural poor. However, Balaguer actively worked on environmental matters despite the political risk.
There are several reasons proposed for this, including that his sisters had a great love for nature and that he specifically desired to distinguish the Dominican Republica from Haiti, the neighboring country which he despised for being unabashadly of African influence.
[edit] Bibliography
Balaguer was a prolific author, having written many important books for contemporary Dominican literature. His most famous work was his only narrative novel, called Los Carpinteros (The Carpenters). The most controversial of his works is perhaps Memorias de un Cortesano, in which Balaguer, shielded by his political power admitted knowing the truth about the mysterious death of the revolutionary journalist Orlando Martinez. Balaguer left a blank page in the middle of the book: "to be filled in at the time of his death." The mystery was never solved, as Balaguer took it to his grave. Balaguer explored several branches of literature. As a thorough researcher, he published many biographical books still used as reference, along with compilations and analysis of Dominican folk poets. Mostly of Post-Romantic influence, Balaguer's style of poetry remained strictly unchanged along his long literary career. Other themes, despite the sorrow expressed, are mostly noble: and idyllic view of nature, nostalgia, and memoirs of the past.
His total list of literary works is as follows:
- Psalmos paganos (1922)
- Claro de luna (1922)
- Tebaida lírica (1924)
- Nociones de métrica castellana (1930)
- Azul en los charcos (1941)
- La realidad dominicana (1941)
- El Tratado Trujillo‑Hull y la liberación financiera de la República Dominicana (1941)
- La política internacional de Trujillo (1941)
- Guía emocional de la ciudad romántica (1944)
- Letras dominicanas (1944)
- Heredia, verbo de la libertad (1945)
- Palabras con acentos rítmicos (1946)
- Realidad dominicana. Semblanza de un país y un régimen (1947)
- Los próceres escritores (1947)
- Semblanzas literarias (1948)
- En torno de un pretendido vicio prosódico de los poetas hispanoamericanos (1949)
- Literatura dominicana (1950)
- El Cristo de la libertad (1950)
- Federico García Godoy (antología, 1951)
- El principio de alternabilidad en la historia dominicana (1952)
- Juan Antonio Alix: Décimas (Prólogo y recopilación, 1953)
- Consideración acerca de la producción e inversión de nuestros impuestos (1953)
- Apuntes para una historia prosódica de la métrica castellana (1954)
- El pensamiento vivo de Trujillo (1955)
- Historia de la literatura dominicana (1956)
- Discursos. Panegíricos, política y educación política internacional (1957)
- Colón, precursor literario (1958)
- El centinela de la frontera. Vida y hazañas de Antonio Duvergé (1962)
- El Reformismo: filosofía política de la revolución sin sangre (1966)
- Misión de los intelectuales (Discurso, 1967)
- Con Dios, con la patria y con la libertad (Discurso, 1971)
- Conjura develada (Discurso, 1971)
- Ante la tumba de mi madre (1972)
- Temas educativos y actividades diplomáticas (1973)
- La marcha hacia el Capitolio (1973)
- Discursos. Temas históricos y literarios (1973)
- Temas educativos y actividades diplomáticas (1974)
- Cruces iluminadas (1974)
- La palabra encadenada (1975)
- Martí, crítica e interpretación (1975)
- La cruz de cristal (1976)
- Discursos escogidos (1977)
- Discurso en el develamiento de la estatua del poeta Fabio Fiallo (1977)
- Juan Antonio Alix, crítica e interpretación (1977)
- Pedestales. Discursos históricos (1979)
- Huerto sellado. Versos de juventud (1980)
- Mensajes al pueblo dominicano (1983)
- Entre la sangre del 30 de mayo y la del 24 de abril (1983)
- La isla al revés (1983)
- Galería heroica (1984)
- Los carpinteros (1984)
- La venda transparente (1987)
- Memorias de un cortesano de la «Era de Trujillo» (1988)
- Romance del caminante sin destino (Enrique Blanco) (1990)
- Voz silente (1992)
- De vuelta al capitolio 1986‑1992 (1993).
| Preceded by Héctor B. Trujillo |
President of the Dominican Republic 1960–1962 |
Succeeded by Rafael Bonelly |
| Preceded by Héctor García Godoy (provisional) |
President of the Dominican Republic 1966–1978 |
Succeeded by Antonio Guzmán Fernández |
| Preceded by Salvador Jorge Blanco |
President of the Dominican Republic 1986–1996 |
Succeeded by Leonel Fernández Reyna |
