Outward Bound

As much as they would like to see the Dominican Republic's post-Trujillo government make way for democracy, U.S. policymakers feared that too abrupt a change could lead to a Castro-type takeover. They were reluctant to go along with demands by the anti-Trujillo opposition that the late dictator's heirs, led by his own son, Rafael Leonidas ("Ramfis") Trujillo Jr., be forced to give up the reins of government and clear out of the country. Last October U.S. planners thought that they had worked out a way to have democracy and Trujillos as well. Last week the plan suddenly went sour, and in the midst of the uproar, young Trujillo quit as head of the armed forces and reportedly left the country.

Seaborne Uncles. The U.S. labored to arrange a nonviolent transition. On the Dominican side, several members of the wealthy Trujillo family--but not Son-and-Heir Ramfis--were to go into exile. Police brutality would be curbed (though Castroite political groups would continue to be suppressed). Large chunks of the Trujillo family's land and industrial empire would be turned over to the nation. In return, the U.S. would seek the lifting of economic sanctions imposed by the Organization of American States after the late dictator was caught in a nearly successful 1960 plot to kill Venezuela's President Romulo Betancourt.

Ramfis went along with the arrangement, and by his standards, evidently thought that he had lived up to his part. His Uncle Arismendi sailed off across the Caribbean in the frigate Presidente Trujillo. His Uncle Hector cruised the same sea in the family yacht Angelita. He surrendered eight sugar mills. Not only was the Castroite Popular Dominican Movement proscribed, but the police even began to look for its leader, Maximo Lopez Molina. Last week, as time drew near for the U.S. quid pro quo at an OAS meeting in Washington, Lopez Molina was "found" sunning himself in a rocking chair on a boardinghouse porch.

Partial Reward. In Washington, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Robert Woodward went before the OAS Sanctions Committee. Despite reservations expressed in an OAS Human Rights Commission report (e.g., "the serious problem that has arisen as a result of the arrest and disappearance of several persons"), said Woodward, democracy was looking up in Trujilloland. "A vigorous political opposition acts openly, opposition newspapers circulate, key figures closely associated with the former regime have departed." The U.S. therefore recommended, he said, that sanctions prohibiting the export of petroleum products and trucks to the Dominican Republic be lifted. Remaining economic sanctions would stay in effect pending further progress toward democracy.

In the Dominican Republic, Woodward's words brought sharp protest from anti-Trujillo Dominicans. Viriato Fiallo, head of the National Civic Union, the country's largest anti-Trujillo organization, flew to Washington to protest. But the bitterest reactions were among the Trujillos themselves. Ramfis had expected the U.S. to go all the way on the removal of sanctions, and counted particularly on removal of U.S. sanctions against imports of Dominican sugar, which cost Trujillo $56 million last year. "I've done everything they asked," he told friends. "What are they waiting for?" As his bitterness turned to anger, Castroite Lopez Molina was deposited back on his front porch as gently as he had been removed.

Uncles Hector and Arismendi were even angrier. "The boy is giving away the island," raged General Arismendi, and, over Ramfis' protests, the two flew home. Woodward was left with no alternative but to make an embarrassing return trip to the OAS to ask that action on his request be delayed "indefinitely." Ramfis resigned as armed forces chief of staff, and a communique in his own handwriting said that he had boarded the Angelita and sailed for Europe. At week's end Secretary of State Rusk announced worriedly: "It appears that [Hector and Arismendi] may be planning to reassert dictatorial domination. In view of the possibility of political disintegration, the Government of the U.S. is considering further measures." Rusk's aides added that the U.S. would act unilaterally outside the framework of the OAS if necessary. Presumably, the further measures that Rusk was talking about were military.

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