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Dominican Republic RENEWED CONFLICT, 1899-1916
After a brief period of armed conflict, the
revolutionaries
prevailed. Vásquez headed a provisional government
established in
September 1899. Free, direct elections brought to the
presidency
Juan Isidro Jiménez Pereyra on November 15. The Jiménez
administration faced a fiscal crisis when European
creditors, led
by the French, began to call in loans that had been
contracted by
Heureaux. Customs fees represented the only significant
source of
government revenue at that time. When the Jiménez
government
pledged 40 percent of its customs revenue to repay its
foreign
debt, it provoked the ire of the San Domingo Improvement
Company.
A United States-based firm, the Improvement Company had
lent
large sums to the Heureaux regime. As a result, it had not
only
received a considerable percentage of customs revenue, but
also
had been granted the right to administer Dominican customs
in
order to ensure regular repayment. Stung by the Jiménez
government's resumption of control over its customs
receipts, the
directors of the Improvement Company protested to the
United
States Department of State. The review of the case
prompted a
renewed interest in Washington in Dominican affairs.
The death of Heureaux, however, had by no means ushered
in an
era of political tranquility. Jiménez's various financial
negotiations with foreign powers had aroused opposition
among
nationalists, particularly in the Cibao, who suspected the
president of bargaining away Dominican sovereignty in
return for
financial settlements. Government forces led by Vásquez
put down
some early uprisings. Eventually, however, personal and
political
competition between Jiménez and Vásquez brought them into
more
serious conflict. Vásquez's forces proclaimed a revolution
on
April 26, 1902; with no real base of support, Jiménez fled
his
office and his country a few days later. Although highly
principled, Vásquez was not a strong leader. Squabbles
among his
followers and opposition to his government from local
caciques
grew into general unrest that culminated in the seizure of
power
by ex-president Woss y Gil in April 1903.
Dominican politics had once again polarized into two
largely
nonideological camps. Where once the Blues and the Reds
had
contended for power, now the jimenistas (supporters
of
Jiménez; sing., jimenista) and the
horacistas
(supporters of Vásquez and Cáceres; sing.,
horacista) vied
for control. Woss y Gil, a jimenista, made the
mistake of
seeking supporters among the horacista camp and he
was
overthrown by the jimenista general, Carlos F.
Morales
Languasco, in December 1903. Rather than restore the
country's
leadership to Jiménez, however, Morales set up a
provisional
government and announced his own candidacy for the
presidency--
with Cáceres as his running mate. The renewed
fraternization with
the horacistas incited another jimenista
rebellion.
This uprising proved unsuccessful, and Morales and Cáceres
were
inaugurated on June 19, 1904.
Conflict within the Morales administration between
supporters
of the president and those of the vice president
debilitated the
government. By late 1905, it became clear that Morales had
lost
effective control to Cáceres and the cabinet. Morales
resolved to
lead a coup against his own government; his plan was
discovered
by the horacistas, however, and he was captured and
dispatched into exile. Cáceres assumed the presidency on
December
29, 1905.
The influence of the United States had increased
considerably
during the first few years of the twentieth century.
United
States military forces had intervened in a minor way to
ensure
the safety of United States citizens and to prevent the
deployment of warships by European governments seeking
immediate
repayment of debt. By 1904 Washington had begun to take a
greater
interest in the stability of Caribbean nations,
particularly
those--like the Dominican Republic--situated along the
approaches
to the forthcoming Panama Canal. The administration of
Theodore
Roosevelt took a particular interest in resolving the
republic's
economic situation. It negotiated an agreement in June
1904
whereby the Dominican government bought out the holdings
of the
San Domingo Improvement Company. The Morales government
also
agreed to accept the appointment by the United States
government
of a financial agent to oversee the repayment of the
outstanding
debt to the Improvement Company from customs duties. This
agreement was subsequently superseded by a financial
accord
signed between the two governments on February 7, 1905;
under the
provisions of this accord, the United States government
assumed
responsibility for all Dominican debt as well as for the
collection of customs duties and the allocation of those
revenues
to the Dominican government and to the repayment of its
domestic
and foreign debt. Although parts of this agreement were
rejected
by the United States Senate, it formed the basis for the
establishment in April 1905 of the General Customs
Receivership,
the office through which the United States government
administered the finances of the Dominican Republic.
The Cáceres government became the financial beneficiary
of
this arrangement. Freed from the burden of dealing with
creditors, Cáceres attempted to reform the political
system.
Constitutional reforms placed local ayuntamientos
(town
councils) under the power of the central government,
extended the
presidential term to six years, and eliminated the office
of vice
president. Cáceres also nationalized public utilities and
established a bureau of public works to administer them.
All of
these actions engendered both opposition and support. The
curtailment of local authority particularly irked those
caciques
who preferred to rule through compliant
ayuntamientos. The
continued financial sovereignty of the Yankees also
outweighed
the economic benefits of the receivership in the minds of
many
nationalistic Dominicans. Intrigues fomented in exile by
Morales,
Jiménez, and others beset Cáceres. On November 19, 1911, a
small
group headed by Luis Tejera assassinated Cáceres as he
took his
evening drive through the streets of Santo Domingo.
Data as of December 1989
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