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Juan Bosch | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Juan Bosch in 1963 | |
| President of the Dominican Republic | |
| In office 27 February 1963 – 25 September 1963 | |
| Vice President | Armando González Tamayo |
| Preceded by | Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly |
| Succeeded by | Dominican Provisional Government Junta |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1909-06-30)30 June 1909 La Vega, Dominican Republic |
| Died | 1 November 2001(2001-11-01) (aged 92) Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic |
| Political party | Revolutionary (1939–73) Liberation (1973–2001) |
| Spouse(s) | Isabel García (m. 1934–1943?) Carmen Quidiello (m. 1943–2001;his death) |
Juan Emilio Bosch y Gaviño (30 June 1909 – 1 November 2001), also known asEl Profesor (Spanish forthe Teacher), was a Dominican politician, historian, writer of short stories and novels, essayist, educator, and the first democratically electedpresident of theDominican Republic for seven months in 1963.[1]
Previously he had been the leader of the Dominican opposition in exile to the dictatorial regime ofRafael Trujillo for over 25 years. He is remembered as an honest politician[2][3][4] and regarded as one of the most prominent writers inDominican literature.[5][6][7] He helped found theDominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) in 1939, and left it in 1973 to found theDominican Liberation Party (PLD).[1]
Juan Bosch Gaviño was born in the city ofLa Vega on 30 June 1909. His father was aSpaniard ofCatalan origin, and his mother was aPuerto Rican fromJuana Diaz, Puerto Rico. He lived the first years of his childhood in a rural community called Río Verde, where he began his primary studies. He did his secondary studies at the San Sebastián de La Vega school, only reaching the third level of high school. In 1924 he moved toSanto Domingo, where he worked in several commercial stores. Later in 1929 he traveled to Spain, Venezuela and some Caribbean islands.[8][9]In 1934, he married Isabel García and had two children with her: Leon and Carolina. During Trujillo's dictatorship, Bosch was jailed for his political ideas, being released after several months. In 1938, Bosch managed to leave the country, settling inPuerto Rico.
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By 1939 Bosch had gone toCuba, where he directed an edition of the completed works ofEugenio María de Hostos, something that defined his patriotic and humanist ideals. In July, with other Dominican expatriates, he founded thePartido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD), which stood out as the most active front against Trujillo outside the Dominican Republic.
Bosch heavily sympathised with leftist ideas, but he always denied any communist affiliation. He collaborated with theCuban Revolutionary Party and had an important role in the making of Cuba's1940 Constitution.
Bosch met his second wife,Carmen Quidiello, a Cuban poet and playwright, inMatanzas in 1941.[10] The couple married in 1943 and had two children, Patricio and Barbara.[11] At the same time, his literary career was ascending, gaining important acknowledgments like the Hernandez Catá Prize in Havana for short stories written by a Latin American author. His works had a deep social content, among them "La Noche Buena de Encarnación Mendoza", "Luis Pié", "The Masters" and "The Indian Manuel Sicuri", all of them described by critics as masterpieces of their sort.
Bosch was one of the main organizers of the abortiveCayo Confites expedition of 1947, in which a military force backed by theCaribbean Legion unsuccessfully attempted to invade the Dominican Republic from Cuba. Bosch fled toVenezuela after the expedition's failure, where he continued his anti-Trujillo campaign. In Cuba, where he returned by requirement of his friends in theAuthentic Revolutionary Party, he played a notorious part in the political life of Havana, being recognized as a promoter of social legislation and author of the speech pronounced by PresidentCarlos Prío Socarrás when the body ofJosé Martí was transferred toSantiago de Cuba.
WhenFulgencio Batista led a coup d'état against Prío Socarrás and took over the presidency in 1952, Bosch was jailed by Batista's forces. After being liberated, he left Cuba and headed toCosta Rica, where he dedicated his time to pedagogical tasks, and to his activities as leader of the PRD.
Molasses tycoonJacob Merrill Kaplan earned his fortune primarily through operations inCuba and theDominican Republic.[12] TheJ.M. Kaplan Fund was found in a 1964 congressional investigation to be a conduit for funnelingCIA money to Latin America, including through theInstitute of International Labor Research (IILR) headed byNorman Thomas, six-time presidential candidate for theSocialist Party of America.[12] These funds were used in Latin America byJosé Figueres Ferrer,Sacha Volman, and Juan Bosch.[13]
Via the Fund, the CIA gave Figueres money to publish a political journal,Combate, and to found a left-wing school for Latin American opposition leaders. Funds passed from a shell foundation to the Kaplan Fund, next to the IILR, and finally to Figueres and Bosch.[14]
In 1959 theCuban Revolution took place, led byFidel Castro, causing a major political, economic and social upheaval in the Caribbean island.Cord Meyer, a CIA official, was chief ofInternational Organizations Division, a CIA-sponsored group for promoting democracy in international groups.[14] He used the contacts with Bosch, Volman, and Figueres for a new purpose – as the United States moved to rally the hemisphere againstCuba'sFidel Castro andRafael Trujillo, the strongmancaudillo who had run theDominican Republic for 30 years and had become a liability.[14] The United States needed to demonstrate that it opposed all dictators, not just those on the left.[14]
Bosch accurately perceived the process that had begun from those events and wrote a letter to Trujillo, dated 27 February 1961. He told Trujillo that his political role, in historical terms, had concluded in the Dominican Republic.[citation needed]
For over a year, the CIA had been in contact with dissidents inside the Dominican Republic who argued that assassination was the only certain way to remove Trujillo.[14] According toChester Bowles, the Undersecretary of State, internalDepartment of State discussions in 1961 on the topic were vigorous.[15]Richard N. Goodwin, Assistant Special Counsel to the President, who had direct contacts with the rebel alliance, argued for intervention against Trujillo.[15] Quoting Bowles directly: "The next morning I learned that in spite of the clear decision against having the dissident group request our assistance Dick Goodwin following the meeting sent a cable to CIA people in the Dominican Republic without checking with State or CIA; indeed, with the protest of the Department of State. The cable directed the CIA people in the Dominican Republic to get this request at any cost. WhenAllen Dulles found this out the next morning, he withdrew the order. We later discovered it had already been carried out."[15]
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In May 1961, the ruler of theDominican Republic,Rafael Trujillo was assassinated. An internal CIAmemorandum states that a 1973Office of Inspector General investigation into the assassination disclosed "quite extensive Agency involvement with the plotters." The CIA described its role in "changing" the government of theDominican Republic "as a 'success' in that it assisted in moving the Dominican Republic from a totalitarian dictatorship to a Western-style democracy."[16][14]
After 23 years in exile, Juan Bosch returned to his homeland months after Trujillo was assassinated. His presence in the national political life, as theDominican Revolutionary Party presidential candidate, was a fresh change for the Dominicans.[citation needed] His manner of speaking, direct and simple, especially when addressing the lowest classes, appealed to farmers as much as people from the cities[citation needed]. Immediately he was accused by the Church but he threatened to pull out of the election which caused the Church to retract the accusation; Conservatives also accused him of being a communist.[17] However, in theelections of 20 December 1962, Bosch and his running mate, Armando González Tamayo, won a sweeping victory overViriato Fiallo of theNational Civic Union in what is acknowledged to be the first free election in the country's history.
On 27 February 1963, Bosch was sworn in as president in a ceremony that was attended by important democratic leaders and personalities of the region, likeLuis Muñoz governor of the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico andJosé Figueres ofCosta Rica. Bosch immediately launched a deep restructuring of the country. On 29 April, he promulgated a new social democratic constitution. The new document changed the laws in various ways. Among other things, it declared specific labour regulations, and mentioned unions, pregnant women, homeless people, the family, rights for the child and the young, for the farmers, and for illegitimate children.
However, Bosch faced powerful enemies.[citation needed] He moved to break uplatifundia, drawing the ire of landowners. The Church thought Bosch was trying tooversecularize the country.[citation needed] Industrialists did not like the new Constitution's guarantees for the working class. The military, who previously enjoyed free rein, felt Bosch put them on too short a leash.[citation needed]
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On 25 September 1963, after only seven months in office, Bosch was overthrown in a coup led by GeneralElias Wessin y Wessin, GeneralAntonio Imbert Barreras, and other military leaders which established a three-manmilitary junta.[18] Bosch was deported toGuadeloupe on 28 September 1963, but would fly toPuerto Rico on 1 October 1963, where he spent the remainder of his exile.[18]
Less than two years later, growing dissatisfaction generated another military rebellion on 24 April 1965, that demanded Bosch's restoration. The insurgents, commanded by ColonelFrancisco Caamaño, removed the junta from power on 28 April. The United States dispatched 42,000 troops to the island inOperation Power Pack during the ensuingcivil war in support of the anti-Bosch forces.
An interim government was formed, and elections were fixed for 1 July 1966. Bosch returned to the country and ran as his party's presidential candidate. However, he ran a somewhat muted campaign, fearing for his safety and believing he would be thrown out of office by the military again if he won. He was soundly defeated byJoaquín Balaguer, who garnered 57% of the vote. The last US battalion left in September 1966.
During the last half of the 1960s, Bosch remained a very prolific writer of essays, both political and historical. He published some of his most important works during this time: "Dominican Social Composition", "Brief History of the Oligarchy in Santo Domingo", "From Christopher Columbus to Fidel Castro", and numerous articles of different sorts.
By 1970, Bosch had the intention of reorganizing the PRD and turning its members into active, studious militants of the historical and social reality of the country. His project was not accepted by most of the PRD, most of whose members were turning in a more mainstream social democratic direction. Also, given the military repression, and lack of political equality between the PRD and the official Reformist Party, Bosch abstained from the 1970 elections.
Bosch became studious ofMarxist ideology. He described himself as a "Marxist- nonLeninist". The differences and contradictions between Bosch and an important sector of the PRD on ideology, as well as the corruption that had started to grow within the party, made him leave the organization in 1973, and thus he founded theDominican Liberation Party (PLD) on 15 December of that same year. The PLD originally was considerably to the left of Bosch's original party, the Dominican Revolutionary Party which continued to advocate for social democracy within the Socialist International organization.
Later he ran unsuccessfully for president as the PLD candidate in 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, and 1994. He came closest to winning in 1990, when he lost narrowly in an election marred by a large number of irregularities favouring the Balaguer campaign, and PLD allegations of fraud against the PRD.[19]
After placing third in the 1994 election, Bosch retired from politics at the age of 83.
Juan Bosch died on 1 November 2001, in Santo Domingo.[20][21][22] As a former president, he received the corresponding honors at the National Palace, and was buried in his hometown of La Vega. Ametro station in Santo Domingo was named in Bosch's honor in 2009.[citation needed]
His wife, former First LadyCarmen Quidiello, died on 19 December 2020, at the age of 105.[11][10]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | President of the Dominican Republic February 1963 – September 1963 | Succeeded by |
