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Dominican Republic INTERNAL SECURITY AND PUBLIC ORDER
A domestic austerity program, begun in the mid-1980s,
and
falling prices for agricultural commodities, principally
sugar,
combined to produce a serious economic downturn in which
unemployment rose steadily and wages failed to keep pace
with
inflation
(see Dominican Republic - Growth and Structure of the Economy
, ch.
3). As
living standards declined, unrest manifested itself in the
form
of demonstrations, strikes, and illegal occupations of
publicly
owned lands. Most marches, mass assemblies, and
demonstrations
were relatively peaceful, but a few such events turned
violent,
resulting in numerous arrests and injuries and in a number
of
deaths. The decade's most violent protest took place in
April
1984, when at least sixty people were killed in riots that
followed the announcement of austerity measures and price
increases for basic foodstuffs and fuel. Another series of
riots,
provoked by further price increases, left four dead and
more than
fifty injured in February 1985.
Among the groups most frequently involved in protests
that
turned violent were Marxist and radical leftist parties,
populist
agrarian organizations, organized labor, and students.
Dominican
Marxist parties, illegal under Trujillo, emerged from the
underground after his death, and they supported Bosch and
the
Constitutionalists during the civil war. After Balaguer
was
elected president in 1966, several of the leftist parties
unsuccessfully attempted to launch guerrilla warfare
against his
regime. During the 1980s, most of these groups operated as
legal
political parties. Some contested both the 1982 and the
1986
elections, but they failed to win any seats in the
legislature.
Communist party organizations were badly fragmented by
dissension over leadership and policy issues. The oldest
and
largest of the Marxist parties was the pro-Soviet
Dominican
Communist Party (Partido Comunista Dominicano--PCD). As of
1988,
there were fifteen to twenty additional Marxist
organizations in
the nation, their orientations ranging from Maoist to
pro-Cuban,
to pro-Albanian, to pro-Soviet; some of these parties had
fewer
than twenty members.
Despite being weak, divided, and poorly supported,
Marxist
and leftist parties continued to be closely scrutinized by
the
police and the military. The government regularly detained
members of such groups, as well as members of labor
organizations
and populist groups, who were believed to be preparing to
instigate public disturbances. Such detentions were
particularly
prevalent during political campaigns. For instance, in May
1986
police detained four PCD candidates; their arrests brought
to
some 6,000 the number of communist militants detained
during the
campaigns. Those detained were usually released within
fortyeight hours, which by law was the maximum period a person
could
be held without charge.
Organized labor and populist agrarian organizations
staged
several strikes, demonstrations, and other work-related
actions
during the late 1980s. These were generally peaceful
events,
designed to protest social conditions, low wages, and
deteriorating public services. There were a few
exceptions,
however. Labor officials, for example, called a one-day
nationwide general strike in July 1987; violence was
isolated,
but one man was killed during clashes between police and
protesters in the capital.
Students frequently staged demonstrations in support of
labor
protests, or they joined directly in those protests.
Student
groups also mounted demonstrations concerning purely
educational
issues; some of these protests ended violently. In March
1985,
for instance, students called for demonstrations to
support
increased funding for a university in the capital; these
resulted
in clashes with police that left one student dead.
Students
protesting the United States attack on Libya in April 1986
also
clashed violently with police, forcing suspension of
university
classes for several days.
Political violence associated with campaigning and
voting
also broke out at times during the 1980s. Campaigning was
for the
most part free, open, and peaceful, but on a few occasions
when
rival political groups held competing campaign events,
violence
resulted. In November 1985, factionalism in the
then-ruling PRD
degenerated into violence as supporters of rival
candidates for
the party's presidential nomination engaged in
confrontations
that left two dead and caused the PRD convention tally to
be
delayed several weeks. In the months that followed, there
were
thirteen additional deaths related to the May 1986
elections;
these occurred at polling places and during demonstrations
over
vote counting. Many of these deaths were caused by members
of the
security forces, who fired on demonstrators. Nine officers
were
either retired or dismissed as a result of one incident.
The treatment of Haitians living illegally in the
Dominican
Republic was a subject of controversy. Several Haitians
were
killed in 1985 during disturbances at a sugar plantation.
The
exact circumstances of the deaths were unclear, but it
appeared
that the incident was triggered by Haitian frustration
over
delays in the repatriation of cane cutters who had come to
the
Dominican Republic on temporary contract. After 1985 the
government halted the practice of contracting for Haitian
cane
cutters, but this did not end the problem. The Roman
Catholic
Church, several political parties, labor groups, and
several
human rights groups charged that the government had forced
illegal Haitian residents to engage in cane cutting by
picking
them up and giving them the choice of cutting cane or
being
forcibly repatriated. The government denied such charges,
as well
as allegations that some Haitians were forcibly removed
from
their homes and involuntarily repatriated.
Data as of December 1989
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