Civil War

The Triumvirate established itself in the Dominican State by bloody and repressive force: it dissolved the National Congress and annulled the democratic Constitution of 1963. In December, guerrillas directed by the leaders of the Movimiento Revolucionario 14 de Junio stirred up a revolt in the mountains and were imprisoned and massacred by the army. The disgruntled population organized itself in an attempt to reestablish constitutionality. A group of military men, led by Colonel Francisco Alberto Caamaño Deñó and the Lieutenant Colonel Rafael Tomás Fernández Domínguez decided to defend popular will: on April 25, 1965, the Civil War erupted in the city of Santo Domingo. Three days later, April 28, the disembarkment of 42,000 U.S. soldiers began on the Dominican coast.

Various months of confrontation between the parallel governments passed (the "constitutionalist" and the "national reconstruction" governments, the latter supported by the United States) until in September, the Act of Reconciliation was signed and the provisional government of Hector García Godoy was inaugurated. The elections supervised by the invading troops that, on their campaign, had assassinated more then 350 political activists of the PRD and the left, gave the title of "victor" to Doctor Joaquín Balaguer and his Partido Reformista Social Cristiano. Dominican conservatism, Trujillo ideology in a new suit, retook power. The "twelve years" began.

April Revolution