Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
tions. The upper-class opposition to Trujillo was organized in
the National Civic Union (Union Civica Nacional—UCN) . The
UCN dominated the provisional government and expected its
candidate, Viriato Fiallo, to win the elections. To the UCN's
surprise, it was defeated by Juan Bosch Gaviho, one of the
founders of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario
Dominicano—PRD) in exile in the late 1930s, and
the UCN soon disappeared. The PRD was successfully converted
into a mass party with both urban and rural appeal:
Bosch campaigned as the candidate of the poor and promised
to implement a variety of socioeconomic and political reforms.
The Bosch administration represented a freely elected, liberal,
democratic government concerned for the welfare of all
Dominicans. The 1963 constitution separated church and
state, guaranteed civil and individual rights, and endorsed civilian
control of the military. These and other changes, such as
land reform, struck conservative landholders and military
officers as radical and threatening. The hierarchy of the
Roman Catholic Church also resented the secular nature of the
new constitution, in particular its provision for legalized
divorce. The hierarchy, along with the military leadership and
the economic elite, also feared communist influence in the
republic, and they warned of the potential for "another Cuba."
As a result, the conservative socioeconomic forces coalesced
with political, military, and church figures to overthrow President
Bosch on September 25, 1963, only seven months after he
assumed office; United States support for his government had
also weakened. The institutional changes that Bosch, his new
constitution, and his proposed reforms represented, in a situation
in which his party possessed an absolute majority, were
perceived as too threatening; however, middle-sector and popular-sector
groups remained relatively weak and unorganized.
If Bosch's regime was overthrown in 1963 ostensibly because of
its alleged communist nature, weak radical leftist elements
were in fact strengthened by the coup, and the country experienced
further polarization over the next several years.
Following the coup, a civilian junta known as the Triumvirate,
dominated by the UCN and headed by Emilio de los Santos,
was formed. However, Santos resigned on December 23
and was replaced by Donald Reid Cabral, who increasingly
became the dominant figure. His regime lacked legitimacy or
strong support, however, and on April 25, 1965, a civil-military
conspiracy sought to return Bosch to power. The Dominican
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