Joaquín Balaguer
Encyclopedia
Joaquín Antonio Balaguer Ricardo (September 1, 1906 – July 14, 2002) was the President of the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

 from 1960 to 1962, from 1966 to 1978, and again from 1986 to 1996.

Early life and introduction to politics

Balaguer was born in Villa Bisonó
Villa Bisonó
Villa Bisonó, usually known as Navarrete, is a small municipality in the Dominican Republic northwestern section, created in 1956. It lies approximately from Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic's second largest city...

 (also known as Navarrete), Santiago Province in the northwestern corner of the Dominican Republic. His father was Joaquín Balaguer Lespier, a Puerto Rican
Puerto Rican people
A Puerto Rican is a person who was born in Puerto Rico.Puerto Ricans born and raised in the continental United States are also sometimes referred to as Puerto Ricans, although they were not born in Puerto Rico...

 of Catalan
Catalan people
The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...

 ancestry, and his mother was Carmen Celia Ricardo, daughter of Manuel de Jesus Ricardo and Rosa Amelia Heureaux. He was the only son in a family of several daughters.

From a very early age, Balaguer felt an attraction to literature, composing verses that were published in local magazines even when he was very young. He became involved in politics due to the American military occupation (1916–24). After graduating from school, Balaguer earned a law degree from the University of Santo Domingo
Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo
The Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo is the public university system in the Dominican Republic with its main campus in Santo Domingo and regional centers across the Republic...

 and studied for a brief period at the University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne. As a youth, Balaguer wrote of the awe with which he was struck by his father's fellow countryman, the Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 graduate and political leader from Puerto Rico, Pedro Albizu
Pedro Albizu Campos
Don Pedro Albizu Campos was a Puerto Rican politician and one of the leading figures in the Puerto Rican independence movement. He was the leader and president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party from 1930 until his death...

. Despite the profound differences regarding their ethical and world visions, Albizu
Pedro Albizu Campos
Don Pedro Albizu Campos was a Puerto Rican politician and one of the leading figures in the Puerto Rican independence movement. He was the leader and president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party from 1930 until his death...

's fiery and charismatic rhetoric captured Balaguer's imagination and his recollection of this occasion was a harbinger of his passion for politics and intellectual debate.

Balaguer's political career began in 1930 (before Rafael Trujillo took control of the government) when he was appointed Attorney in the Court of Properties. In later years, he served as Secretary of the Dominican Legation in Madrid (1932-1935), Undersecretary of the Presidency (1936), Undersecretary of Foreign Relations (1937), Extraordinary Ambassador to Colombia and Ecuador (1940-43 and 1943-47), Ambassador to Mexico (1947-49), Secretary of Education (1949-55), and Secretary of State of Foreign Relations (1953-56).

There has been much discussion regarding Balaguer's role during the Era of Trujillo, especially the relationship between the diminutive soft-spoken scholar and the boisterous Generalissimo. Throughout the three decades working as a Trujillista politician, Balaguer was seen alternately both as a mere employee or as a distinguished close counselor of Trujillo. Despite the fact that Trujillo notoriously enjoyed humiliating and insulting his "servants" in public, the dictator never tried to degrade Balaguer nor to play practical jokes on him.

Balaguer reciprocated Trujillo's respect by spending the three decades of the Era as one of the most efficient public aides of the dictatorship, without seeming perturbed or showing the smallest gesture of disgust for the excesses and aberrations that were common at the time. Balaguer was, without doubt, a useful minister of Trujillo, although it is not entirely possible to speak of total loyalty.

First presidency and its aftermath

When Trujillo arranged to have his brother Héctor
Héctor Trujillo
Hector Bienvenido Trujillo Molina , general, and political figure; president of Dominican Republic 1952-1960; brother of Rafael Trujillo.-Biography:...

 re-elected to the presidency in 1957, he chose Balaguer as vice-president. Three years later, when pressure from the Organization of American States
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States is a regional international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States...

 (OAS) convinced the dictator that it was inappropriate to have a member of his family as president, Trujillo forced his brother to resign, and Balaguer succeeded to the post. However, he had virtually no power, and was regarded as a mere puppet to Trujillo.

The situation was dramatically altered, however, when Trujillo was assassinated in 1961. Although he had long been associated with El Benefactor, Balaguer took steps to liberalize the regime, granting some civil liberties and easing Trujillo's tight censorship of the press. The OAS was satisfied enough to lift the economic sanctions imposed on the Dominican Republic for Trujillo's attempted murder of Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

n President Romulo Betancourt
Rómulo Betancourt
Rómulo Ernesto Betancourt Bello , known as "The Father of Venezuelan Democracy", was President of Venezuela from 1945 to 1948 and again from 1959 to 1964, as well as leader of Accion Democratica, Venezuela's dominant political party in the 20th century...

. However, Balaguer's tentative reforms were too much for the hard-line trujillistas and didn't go nearly far enough for those who wanted more freedom and a more equal distribution of wealth.

Due to the pressure exerted by the National Civic Union, a Council of State was created, and Balaguer only retained power until January 16, 1962. A military coup d'état, led by air force chief Rodríguez Echaverría, forced him into exile in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

.

During those years the Dominican Republic had only seven months of true democracy, under the presidency of Juan Bosch
Juan Bosch
Juan Emilio Bosch Gaviño was a politician, historian, short story writer, essayist, educator, and the first cleanly elected president of the Dominican Republic for a brief time in 1963. Previously, he had been the leader of the Dominican opposition in exile to the dictatorial regime of Rafael...

. When a military coup overthrew Bosch, the country began a tumultuous period which resulted in the civil war of April 24, 1965. Military officers had revolted against the provisional Junta to restore Bosch, whereupon U.S. President Lyndon Johnson, under the pretext of eliminating Communist influence in the Caribbean sent 42,000 U.S. troops to defeat the revolt in Operation Power Pack
Operation Power Pack
The second United States occupation of the Dominican Republic began when the United States Marines Corps entered Santo Domingo on April 28, 1965. They were later joined by most of the United States Army's 82nd Airborne Division and its parent XVIIIth Airborne Corps...

, on April 28.

The provisional government, headed by Héctor García Godoy
Héctor García Godoy
Héctor Rafael García Godoy was a politician from the Dominican Republic. He served as provisional president of the Dominican Republic from September 3, 1965 until July 1, 1966.-Reference:...

, announced general elections for 1966. Balaguer seized his chance, and using his mother's illness as an excuse, asked permission to return from exile, which was granted. He formed the Reformist Party and entered the presidential race against Bosch, campaigning as a moderate conservative advocating gradual change. He quickly gained the support of the establishment and easily defeated Bosch, who ran a somewhat muted campaign out of fear of military retribution.

The "12 Years" (1966-1978)

Balaguer found a nation severely beaten by decades of turbulence, with few short times of peace, and virtually ignorant of democracy and human rights. He sought to pacify the enmities surviving from the Trujillo regime and from the 1965 civil war, but political murders continued to be frequent during his administration. He succeeded in partially rehabilitating the public finances, which were in a chaotic state, and pushed through a modest program of economic development. He was easily reelected in 1970 against fragmented opposition, and won again in 1974 after changing the voting rules in a way that led the opposition to boycott the race.

During his years as President (known popularly in Dominican politics as simply "the 12 years"), Balaguer ordered the construction of schools, hospitals, dams, roads, and many important buildings. He also presided over steady economic growth. However, his administration soon developed a distinct authoritarian
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...

 cast, constitutional guarantees notwithstanding. Political opponents were jailed and sometimes killed, and opposition newspapers were occasionally seized. Despite his authoritarian methods, Balaguer had far less power than Trujillo, and his rule was much milder.

Defeat and return to power

In 1978, Balaguer sought a fourth term. However, by this time, inflation was on the rise, and the great majority of the people had gotten little benefit from the economic boom of the past decade. Balaguer faced Antonio Guzmán
Antonio Guzmán Fernández
Silvestre Antonio Guzmán Fernández was a Dominican businessman and a politician. He was the 46th President of the Dominican Republic, from 1978 to 1982.- Early life :Antonio Guzmán was born in the town of La Vega...

, a wealthy rancher running under the banner of the Dominican Revolutionary Party
Dominican Revolutionary Party
The Dominican Revolutionary Party is one of the main political parties of the Dominican Republic. It has a moderate centrist position, social democratic in name. The party's distinctive color is white....

. When election returns showed an unmistakable trend in Guzmán's favor, the military stopped the count. However, amid vigorous protests at home and strong pressure abroad, the count resumed. When the returns were all in, Guzmán handed Balaguer the first loss of his electoral career. When Balaguer left office that year, it marked the first time in the Dominican Republic's history that an incumbent president peacefully surrendered power to an elected member of the opposition.

In the 1982 elections, the PRD's Salvador Jorge Blanco
Salvador Jorge Blanco
José Salvador Omar Jorge Blanco was a politician, lawyer and a writer. He was the 48th President of the Dominican Republic, from 1982 –1986. He was a Senator running for the PRD party...

 defeated Balaguer, who had merged his party with the Social Christian Revolutionary Party to form the Social Christian Reformist Party
Social Christian Reformist Party
The Social Christian Reformist Party is a conservative, christian democratic, economic liberal and a populist party in the Dominican Republic formed by the union of the Partido Reformista and the Partido Revolucionario Social Cristiano...

 two years earlier.

Balaguer ran again in 1986, and took advantage of a split in the PRD and an unpopular austerity program to win the presidency again after an eight-year absence. By this time, he was 80 years old and almost completely blind (he had suffered from glaucoma
Glaucoma
Glaucoma is an eye disorder in which the optic nerve suffers damage, permanently damaging vision in the affected eye and progressing to complete blindness if untreated. It is often, but not always, associated with increased pressure of the fluid in the eye...

 for many years).

Third presidency

Balaguer's third presidency was considerably more liberal than the previous one. He was much more tolerant of opposition parties and human rights.

He undertook massive infrastructure projects, such as the construction of highways, bridges, schools, housing projects and hospitals. Following the style of Trujillo, these highly visible projects were very publicized over government-controlled media and through grandiose public ceremonies designed to enhance Balaguer's popularity. The projects were also used as a means to reward his political supporters with lucrative public works contracts. The economy also improved considerably.

Balaguer was narrowly reelected in 1990, defeating his old foe Juan Bosch by only 22,000 votes out of 1.9 million votes cast amid charges of fraud.

For the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...

' landing in the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

 and the visit of Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

 John Paul II, Balaguer spent millions on a restoration of parts of historic, colonial Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...

, and on sprucing up the parts of the City to be transversed by the Pope, including the construction of a grand new avenue lined with modern housing blocks.
More controversial was that Balaguer spent two hundred million US Dollars on the construction of a massive ten-story Columbus Lighthouse. Completed in 1992, the Columbus Lighthouse was designed to beam the image of a Christian cross
Christian cross
The Christian cross, seen as a representation of the instrument of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, is the best-known religious symbol of Christianity...

 into the night sky and to be visible for tens of miles. Since completion, the Columbus Lighthouse, which supposely houses Columbus' remains, has been a minor tourist attraction. Its light has almost never been used due to extremely high energy costs and frequent blackouts in the country. However, its symbolism and expense were the source of much controversy.

In January 1994 he decided to run again for the presidency, even when he was almost 90 years old and completely blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...

. This time, his most prominent opponent was José Francisco Peña
José Francisco Peña Gómez
José Francisco Peña Gómez was a politician from the Dominican Republic. He was the leader of the Dominican Revolutionary Party , a three-time candidate for president of the Dominican Republic and former Mayor of Santo Domingo...

 of the PRD.

The campaign was one of the nastiest in Dominican history. Balaguer frequently played up Peña's Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

an ancestry to his advantage; Dominicans historically have a deep fear and mistrust of anyone with Haitian blood. For example, Balaguer claimed that Peña would try to merge the country with Haiti if elected. When the returns were announced, Balaguer was announced as the winner by only 30,000 votes. However, many PRD supporters showed up to vote only to discover their names had vanished from the rolls. Peña screamed fraud, and called a general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...

. Demonstrations took place in support of the strike.

An investigation later revealed that the electoral board didn't know the total number of registered voters, and the voting lists distributed at polling stations didn't match those given to the parties. The investigation also revealed that about 200,000 people had been removed from the polls. Amid such questions about the poll's legitimacy, Balaguer agreed to hold new elections in 1996—in which he would not be a candidate.

In the 1996 election, Balaguer's vice president, Jacinto Peynado, finished well short of making it to the runoff. Balaguer then threw his support to the Dominican Liberation Party
Dominican Liberation Party
The Dominican Liberation Party is one of the main political parties of the Dominican Republic, and has a centrist position.The party has been elected into office thrice now with Leonel Fernández as President of the Dominican Republic in the 1996, 2004 and 2008 elections, though losing in 2000...

's Leonel Fernández
Leonel Fernández
Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna is a Dominican lawyer, academic, and the current President of the Dominican Republic since 2004. He held the same office from 1996 to 2000...

 in an unusual coalition with Bosch, his political foe of over 30 years.

Death and legacy

In 2000, Balaguer decided to seek an eighth term as president. He won around 23% of the votes in the election
Dominican Republic presidential election, 2000
Presidential elections were held in the Dominican Republic on 16 May 2000. Hipólito Mejía of the Dominican Revolutionary Party won the election, defeating Danilo Medina of the Dominican Liberation Party and former president Joaquín Balaguer of the Social Christian Reformist Party...

, well short of the runoff. On July 14, 2002, Joaquín Balaguer died of heart failure at Santo Domingo's Abreu Clinic at the age of 95.

He was a polarizing figure who could incite as much hate as love from the population.

Ronald Reagan once said of him "President Balaguer has been a driving force throughout his country's democratic development. In 1966 he led democracy's return to the Dominican Republic after years of political uncertainty and turmoil. Indeed, he is, in many ways, the father of Dominican democracy" and Jimmy Carter complimented him saying "President Balaguer has set an example for all leaders in this nation in changing his own country and his own people away from a former totalitarian government to one of increasingly pure democracy."

External links

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