{"id":1031,"date":"2007-02-02T17:27:23","date_gmt":"2007-02-02T13:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dominicana-online.org\/?p=1031"},"modified":"2018-03-24T03:45:46","modified_gmt":"2018-03-24T03:45:46","slug":"doce-anos-balaguer","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/historia\/doce-anos-balaguer\/","title":{"rendered":"The 12 Years of Balaguer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joaqu\u00edn\u00a0Balaguer’s\u00a0mandate, in accordance with his U.S. sponsors, had as a primary goal the destruction of the popular groups that had participated in the April ’65 Revolution. For this purpose, he used the army as well as a paramilitary group of professional killers called “La Banda”, which he called “uncontrollable forces” in his speeches. It is estimated that more than 3,000 Dominicans were murdered between 1966 and 1974. Upon turning over the presidency in 1978,\u00a0Balaguer\u00a0had exterminated the most promising youth with the most advanced ideas in the nation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Foreign I<\/b>nvestment<\/b>.\u00a0Throughout the course of his government, extended through repression and fraudulent elections for three constitutional periods,\u00a0Balaguer\u00a0favored the foreign investment\u00a0of U.S. capital: from 155 million dollars in U.S. investments in the Dominican Republic in 1965, the figure catapulted to almost 600 million dollars in 1977 in the areas of financing, communications, the sugar sector, the mining sector, tourism, duty-free zones, etc. Among the companies that arrived or that broadened their investments during this time were Falconbridge\u00a0Dominicana, a Canadian-American firm dedicated to iron nickel extraction; Rosario\u00a0Dominicana, U.S. gold extraction company; Shell, Nestl\u00e9, Gulf & Western and Philip Morris.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Economic\u00a0<\/b>Aid and External D<\/b>ebt.<\/b>\u00a0A total of 122 million dollars was distributed by the United States between April 1965 and June 1966 to avoid the total economic paralysis of the country. This sum rose to 133 million dollars annually during the three following years, while from June 1969 to June 1973, the assistance averaged some 78 million per year. These funds were supplied through donations and long-term loans negotiated through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In addition, the\u00a0Balaguer\u00a0government guaranteed the influx of significant amounts of foreign currency thanks to the Dominican sugar quota in the U.S. market.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Infrastructure W<\/b>orks<\/b>. Public investment during the twelve years was, for the most part, directed toward the construction of public works: ports, highways, aqueducts, streets, schools, cultural centers, sports complexes, sidewalks, hydroelectric dams, etc. The cities of Santo Domingo and Santiago\u00a0were the major\u00a0receipients, and the other towns also grew and modernized.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Economic Growth and Social I<\/b>nequality.<\/b>\u00a0The flow of investment and economic assistance from the United States contributed to enlivening the national economy, allowing the Dominican Republic to enjoy one of the highest macroeconomic growth rates in Latin America. However, the benefits were concentrated on the small local bourgeoisie that consolidated foreign interests. Consequently, in 1972, the annual inflation rate was 15%, the buying power of the peso descended by 26%, the unemployment rate increased by more than 20%, the underemployment rate reached over 60% and salaries were frozen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Government C<\/b>orruption<\/b>.\u00a0Another of the disproportionate sources of wealth enjoyed by the small national elite supported by the\u00a0Balaguer\u00a0government was public administration.\u00a0Among public officials, an innumerable quantity of illegal operations and fraudulent acts became normal: bribes, contraband, commission charges, extortion of businessmen and tax avoidance were part of daily life. Facing the\u00a0impossibility of denying what was far too obvious,\u00a0Balaguer\u00a0dared to affirm that corruption “was held at the door of his office”.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Surrender of P<\/b>ower in 1978<\/b>.\u00a0In the 1978 elections, Doctor\u00a0Joaqu\u00edn\u00a0Balaguer\u00a0with his\u00a0Partido\u00a0Reformista\u00a0Social Cristiano (PRSC)\u00a0faced\u00a0Antonio\u00a0Guzm\u00e1n\u00a0Fern\u00e1ndez\u00a0for the\u00a0Partido\u00a0Revolucionario\u00a0Dominicano\u00a0(PRD), a political organization that in 1973 had\u00a0seen\u00a0the resignation of its leader and creator, Professor Juan Bosch, who immediately founded the\u00a0Partido\u00a0de la\u00a0Liberaci\u00f3n\u00a0Dominicana.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The overwhelming victory of the PRD was not accepted in principle by Dr.\u00a0Joaqu\u00edn\u00a0Balaguer, who ordered a military assault on the Central Electoral\u00a0Committee, interrupting the counting and confiscating and destroying the urns of votes. The pressure exercised by the United States president Jimmy Carter\u00a0refusing to accept a government that did not have a majority vote was necessary to diffuse the situation. However, through the falsification of the electoral results that gave a senatorial majority and an ample participation in the House to the\u00a0Partido\u00a0Reformista,\u00a0Balaguer\u00a0ensured control of the Senate and with it, judicial power, for himself, as judges were named by the Senate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In this way,\u00a0Balaguer\u00a0protected himself and the members of his party against an eventual judicial subjugation for any of the multiple cases of crimes or corruption committed in his prolonged presidency and guaranteed an important amount of power while outside of the presidency, to which he would return for 10 more\u00a0years, from 1986 to 1996.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Joaqu\u00edn\u00a0Balaguer, one of\u00a0the fundamental officials and intellectuals of the Trujillo dictatorship, a central figure in the 18 years after the tyranny, would also dominate national politics during the shaky electoral “democracy” established in the period from 1979 to the beginning of the 21st century.<\/p>\n

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Joaqu\u00edn<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>Balaguer<\/b>\u00a0Biography<\/b><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>Poet, politician, lawyer and essayist, he was born in\u00a0Navarrete\u00a0on September 1, 1906 and died in Santo Domingo on July 14, 2002. He was President of the Dominican Republic seven times. He was the son of Puerto Rican Joaquin\u00a0Balaguer\u00a0Lespier\u00a0and Dominican Carmen Celia Ricardo. He completed his primary and middle school at the\u00a0Escuela\u00a0Paraguay, in Santiago de los Caballeros, under the mentorship of Juan Tomas Lithgow, and his secondary\u00a0school at the\u00a0Escuela\u00a0Normal\u00a0Te\u00f3rica, in Santiago.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He graduated from high school in 1922, and seven years later, in 1929, he received a law degree from the University of Santo Domingo.\u00a0 In 1924, he completed his doctoral studies in law at Sorbonne University in Paris, where he also studied Political Economy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He entered public life at a young age as a public high school teacher. He was a State Attorney at the Tribunal de Tierra (Land Court) in 1930, Secretary of the Dominican Delegation in Madrid (1932-1935), Undersecretary of the Presidency (1936), Undersecretary of Foreign Relations (1937), Special Envoy and Plenipotentiary Minister to the Colombian and Ecuadorian governments (1940 and 1943), Ambassador in Mexico (1947), Secretary of Education and Fine Arts (1949 and 1955), Secretary of Foreign Relations (1953 and 1957), Secretary of the Presidency (1956) and Vice-president of the Republic (1957). In 1960, when Hector B. Trujillo resigned,\u00a0Balaguer\u00a0became the President of the Republic and, in 1962, he\u00a0presided the State Council. After Trujillo\u2019s assassination,\u00a0Balaguer\u00a0founded the conservative Reformist Party (which later became the Christian Social Reformist Party) that took him to the presidency of the Republic six times (1966-1970, 1970-1974, 1974-1978, 1986-1990, 1990-1994 and 1994-1996).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He developed his literary career along with his political career, although, he started on the former earlier during his adolescence. His literary work includes poetry, essay, history, literary critique, speeches and biography. Historical and biographical essays stand out above the rest of his work. For several decades, his \u201cHistoria\u00a0de la\u00a0Literatura\u00a0Dominicana\u201d was used\u00a0as the official senior year Literature text book in high schools across the country.<\/p>\n

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Joaqu\u00edn<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>Balaguer<\/b>\u00a0Bibliography<\/b><\/h2>\n

POETRY\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n