What if Trujillo was overthrown in the Dominican Republic in 1947?

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Monthly Donor
There was an attempt by the "Caribbean Legion" that failed at the time.

But what if he were overthrown by an anti-regime invasion, an uprising, or assassinated that year?

What does the future hold for the Dominican Republic in subsequent decades?

Less political murder by the government?

More or less street crime?

Less conservation of Dominican forests? [Trujillo, while a brutal dictator, has a reputation as a conservationist- mentioned in a Jared Diamond book I think]
 
The Cayo Confites expedition was probably doomed; word of it leaked all over the Caribbean. If they had followed through, the person most likely to be killed would be not Rafael Trujillo but the young Fidel Castro:

"1947--the Cayo Confites Expedition. This was an attempt to overthrow
Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, organized by Dominican exile Juan
Bosch, and supported by President Grau. Bosch put together an
expeditionary force consisting of men from several Latin American
countries--the Cuban contingent being organized by the MSR. This would
seem to rule out Fidel's participation; but Bosch liked Fidel so much that
he got Manolo Castro and Masferrer to agree that Fidel could go on the
expedition and that while there, he would be safe, at least from them.

"Fidel's parents were furious with him for agreeing to go, warning him:
"If Trujillo doesn't kill you, Masferrer will." Fidel may have shared
this belief--at this time he made out a "Last Will and Testament." But he
insisted that it was his duty to try to liberate the Dominican Republic,
since a Dominican, General Maximo Gomez, had helped to liberate Cuba. In
any event, the proposed expedition became far too well-known (to Trujillo
among others) to succeed. President Grau called the expedition off, even
though some of the men were already en route to Santo Domingo. Under
Fidel's agreement with Manolo Castro and with Masferrer, the ending of the
expedition meant that the truce was at an end; for that reason, and to
avoid arrest by Grau's navy, Fidel jumped from the ship and swam back to
Cuba--carrying his Thompson submachine gun through several miles of shark-
infested waters..." https://groups.google.com/d/msg/soc.history.what-if/bJMH5QjS4aQ/AgvrPAnY1sMJ

An assassination of Trujillo is another matter, however. I'm not sure his regime could survive; his brother Hector was an unimpressive figure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Héctor_Trujillo and it is probably too early for Balaguer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaquín_Balaguer
 
Top