|
Dominican Republic Missions
The Dominican Republic faced no serious external
military
threat during the 1980s, and as of 1989, it appeared
unlikely
that the armed forces would be required to undertake an
external
defense mission during the 1990s. Nonetheless, military
posture
continued to focus on the potential security threats
represented
by Haiti and Cuba.
The nation's traditional enmity toward Haiti made
security
along the common border a matter of concern, and army
troops and
observation posts were located along the length of the
388-
kilometer frontier. The Dominican armed forces did not
view
defense against a possible Haitian invasion as a
particularly
high priority, however. Border defense commanded
relatively few
military resources, in part because Haitian military
capability
was clearly unequal to that of Dominican forces. Despite
these
factors, the Dominicans showed no signs of forgetting
Haiti's
historically proven ability to raise large armies on short
notice. Practically speaking, however, continuing
political
upheaval in Haiti represented a more serious concern than
did a
potential invasion. Several hundred thousand illegal
Haitian
immigrants were working in the nation as agricultural
laborers,
and the Dominicans feared that the number could grow if
the
economic situation in Haiti continued to deteriorate.
Continuing
border disputes between the two nations were also a source
of
concern
(see Dominican Republic - Foreign Relations
, ch. 4).
After Fidel Castro Ruz's assumption of power in 1959,
the
Dominican Republic also viewed Cuba as a potential
external
threat. This stance was rooted in the anticommunist
sentiments
first espoused by Trujillo and still felt by most military
officers as the 1980s ended. It also had a basis in a 1959
Cubanbased invasion attempt by anti-Trujillo Dominicans. Cuba
itself
had never taken overt military action against the nation,
however, and security concerns usually focused on the
prevention
of Cuban-sponsored insurgency. Critics of the armed forces
charged that the military justified attacks on political
groups
and on political and labor activists by falsely accusing
them of
having ties with Cuba.
In practice, the primary mission of the armed forces
was to
maintain internal security and public order in the nation.
Until
the mid-1970s, the military occasionally conducted
operations
against limited insurgencies, but by the late 1970s, the
country
was relatively free of insurgent groups. Those still in
existence
in 1989 were small underground groups confined mainly to
remote
mountain areas. These groups rarely presented a threat to
public
peace.
As part of its mission to assist the police in
maintaining
public order, the military kept close watch on political
groups
that it deemed possible sources of instability, including
legal
opposition parties. The armed forces were also frequently
called
out to augment police efforts to control demonstrations
and
riots. On several occasions during the 1980s, such
disturbances
resulted in injuries and loss of life, leading critics to
charge
that the armed forces had used unnecessarily harsh tactics
to
restore order.
Article 93 of the Constitution states that an objective
of
the creation of the armed forces is to pursue civic action
programs and, at the direction of the executive branch, to
participate in projects that promote national social and
economic
development. As a result, the armed forces maintained an
active
civic action program. Units of the armed forces dug wells,
constructed roads, built houses and schools, and provided
educational and sports equipment to rural schools.
Military
medical and dental teams made visits around the country.
As part
of its civic action mission, the army was largely
responsible for
protecting and replanting the nation's forests. It
supervised the
Directorate General of Forestry, through which the army
helped to
protect against forest fires and worked to publicize the
need for
forest conservation. The air force transported medicine,
doctors,
and food to areas damaged by hurricanes or other natural
disasters, and flew the injured to hospitals. Navy schools
trained most of the nation's diesel mechanics, and the
navy
played a large role in transporting the nation's stock of
fuel
oil. Critics of the armed forces asserted that these
contributions, although varied, were sometimes limited in
scope
and were not nearly so important to national development
as
claimed in armed forces public relations statements.
Data as of December 1989
|
