Turn to the Left

The last surviving example of the medal-jangling school of self-enriching Latin American dictators is executing a cynical maneuver. After 31 years, the Dominican Republic's Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, a strongman of the extreme right, is turning left. He does so not from conviction, but in an angry tyrant's reaction to the determination of his neighbors--including the U.S.--to be finished with him, and to the mounting desire of his own people to do away with him.

Signals of the turn inside Trujillo's supertight Caribbean island nation are clear. After years of posing as Latin America's strongest anti-Communist bulwark, the dictator has started cozying up to Castro and the Soviet bloc. Six months ago Trujillo's Radio Caribe propaganda outlet adopted a Marxist, anti-U.S. cant in its commentary. Last August the dictator sent emissaries to Europe and began the first of a series of secret meetings with Iron Curtain leaders; rumors are buzzing in Ciudad Trujillo that diplomatic relations will soon be established with Poland and Russia.

Most startling of Trujillo's moves to the left is his sudden about-face on Fidel Castro, who two years ago sent revolutionaries to invade the Dominican Republic. Two months ago Trujillo reportedly sent a pair of trusted henchmen to a secret meeting in eastern Cuba with Castro emissaries. The result: a tentative non-aggression agreement between the two dictators and, further, possible future cooperation against common enemies, such as Venezuela's moderate President Romulo Betancourt.

There is little to prevent Trujillo from calling his turn. Last fortnight's embargo on truck and petroleum sales by the Organization of American States is largely ineffectual; the ban does not affect Trujillo's principal income earners, sugar and coffee. Trujillo has also just about completed the destruction of his only serious opposition at home--the educated upper and middle classes, which nearly brought off a coup last January.

The biggest question mark hanging over Trujillo is the Dominican army, well fed, well trained, well equipped. A large part of the top brass is bound personally to Trujillo. But others in the middle echelons are increasingly worried about what happens to them if the old man goes, now are said to listen thoughtfully to anti-Trujillo talk. Helping their speculations along are two opposition hopes. One is that an attempt to assassinate the tyrant will succeed. In the past year, two attempts have been made: two months ago an escort car in his motorcade through the countryside was shot up and a bodyguard wounded; earlier, three army officers tried and failed to plant a bomb in his car. The other opposition hope is that stronger sanctions by the Organization of American States, with participation by the U.S. as Trujillo's principal customer, will bring the dictator down.

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