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Dominican Republic Antonio Guzmán, 1978-82
Guzmán's assumption of office on August 16, 1978,
presented
many political challenges to both him and the republic.
Mindful
of the fate of Juan Bosch sixteen years before, Guzmán
determined
to move slowly in the area of social and economic reforms
and to
deal as directly as possible with the threat of political
pressure from the armed forces. He attacked the latter
problem
first with a program of military depoliticization that
included
the removal or the reassignment of general officers of
questionable loyalty or professionalism, the promotion of
younger
and more apolitical officers than those who had held sway
under
Balaguer, and the institution of a formal training course
for
officers and enlisted personnel that stressed the
nonpolitical
role of the armed forces in a democratic society. This
campaign
was largely successful, and it constituted the major
legacy left
by Guzmán to his successor, Salvador Jorge Blanco.
Politically, Guzmán was restrained to some extent by
the
unusual outcome of the 1978 elections. Although the
Central
Electoral Board acknowledged the PRD's victories in the
races for
the presidency and the Chamber of Deputies (the lower
house of
Congress), it managed through some creative
counting--apparently
taking the number of ballots not used in some provinces
and
dividing them among the top two vote-getters--to give
Balaguer's
PR a sixteen to eleven majority in the Senate. This
essentially
granted the PR a legislative veto over any initiatives
Guzmán
might wish to launch, and it also became a factor in the
president's cautious approach to reform.
Some observers felt that Guzmán's economic and social
background--he was a wealthy cattle rancher from the
Santiago
area--influenced his economic policies as well. Despite
his
nationalization of public transportation and an increase
in the
minimum wage, more reform-minded politicians, even within
his own
party, criticized the president for his inadequate
response to
continued economic decline. Jorge was one of Guzmán's
leading
critics in this area; ironically, he too, would be
confronted
with the stark realities of the economy and the lack of
acceptable options available to the president after his
own
election in 1982
(see Dominican Republic - Political Developments since 1978
, ch. 4).
Faced with the continually rising oil prices and declining
sugar
prices, Guzmán opted for politically unpopular austerity
policies, including a steep increase in the retail price
of
gasoline. Compounding to the general woes of a slowed
economy was
the extensive damage wreaked on the country by Hurricane
David in
August 1979.
In retrospect, the Guzmán administration represented a
bridge
between lingering post-Trujillo authoritarianism and a
more
liberal, democratic style of politics and government.
Guzmán's
professionalization of the military was a significant
contribution to this process. Although the Dominican
economic
situation plagued him, Guzmán handled matters with
sufficient
competence to allow for the election of Jorge on the PRD
ticket
on May 16, 1982. (Guzmán had pledged not to seek
reelection.)
Jorge's leading opponents had been PR candidate Balaguer
and
Bosch, who had split from the PRD and had formed his own
party,
the Dominican Liberation Party (Partido de la Liberación
Dominicana--PLD). For reasons never fully explained,
Guzmán
committed suicide in July 1982; he was said to have been
depressed by allegations of corruption and nepotism in his
administration. His vice president, Jacobo Majluta Azar,
served
out the remainder of the term. Guzmán's suicide prevented
what
would have been a historic event--the peaceful transfer of
power
from one freely and fairly elected president to another.
Jorge's
administration also fell victim to corruption and the
effects of
economic austerity. With the election and peaceful return
to
power of Balaguer in 1986, a tradition of fair electoral
competition appeared to be developing; democracy seemed to
be
taking root in the Dominican Republic
(see Dominican Republic - Political Developments since 1978
, ch. 4).
* * *
Works in English dealing with the Dominican Republic
have
been produced by political scientists more often than by
historians. Consequently, the student of the country's
history is
limited to works such as Selden Rodman's Quisqueya: A
History
of the Dominican Republic, which provides good
background,
but little detail; Rayford Logan's short volume, titled
Haiti
and the Dominican Republic; or Sumner Welles's
voluminous,
but dated, Naboth's Vineyard. A sense of the
republic's
history can also be culled from a number of volumes
oriented
toward politics or foreign relations. Among these, Howard
Wiarda's The Dominican Republic: Nation in
Transition
provides a good general introduction to the country.
The
Dominican Republic: A Caribbean Crucible and The
Politics
of External Influence in the Dominican Republic, by
Howard
Wiarda and Michael Kryzanek, chart the republic's further
political and economic progress. Bruce J. Calder's The
Impact
of Intervention is an excellent study of the United
States
occupation and its effects. Trujillo: The Life and
Times of a
Caribbean Dictator, by Robert D. Crassweller, provides
a
vivid portrait of the dominant figure in the nation's
twentiethcentury history. A broader perspective can be obtained
from G.
Pope Atkins and Larman C. Wilson's The United States
and the
Trujillo Regime. The Dominican Republic: Politics
and
Development in an Unsovereign State, by Jan Knippers
Black,
deals effectively with the 1978 transition to democracy
and
subsequent developments. (For further information and
complete
citations,
see Dominican Republic -
Bibliography.)
Data as of December 1989
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