The Broken Record

The three-man OAS peace commission sat behind a hotel-dining room table in the provincial Dominican city of Santiago de los Caballeros, and for nearly five hours listened patiently to a stream of attorneys, labor leaders, businessmen, doctors, politicians and housewives. Some supported the loyalist cause of Brigadier General Antonio Imbert Barreras, firmly in command of 95% of the country; others pleaded for Rebel Leader Colonel Francisco Caamano Deno, insisting, "We are not Communists." At last the OAS team departed--to start again in another town. "It's all beginning to sound like a broken record," sighed the U.S.'s Ellsworth Bunker.

As the crisis went into its eighth week, the stumbling block was still Caamano, whose 3,000 well-armed rebels have fortified their square mile of downtown Santo Domingo into a miniature Stalingrad. If anything, Caamano was noisier than before. "Those who believe that time can weaken us are mistaken," he stormed in one movie-house speech. Up went the shouts: "Assassins!" "Traitors!" "Out with the Yanquis!" "If necessary," continued Caamano, "we will write a page that our people will never forget."

To all suggestions that both he and Imbert step aside in favor of OAS-supervised elections, Caamano answered with a flat no. The most he would do was appoint a six-man team to talk to the OAS. On the rebel team, interestingly enough, was Antonio Guzman, who was once regarded as a possible neutral choice to head an interim government. The rebel demands made most of the negotiations academic: 1) restoration of the 1963 constitution written under deposed President Juan Bosch, 2) recognition of Bosch's legislature, 3) "constitutionalist" control of the Dominican military, 4) formation of a government of "democratic personalities," and 5) immediate departure of the 15,250-man Inter-American Peace Force.

In Washington, there was growing impatience for an imposed solution. At OAS headquarters the talk now was of simply setting up a "neutral, third-force" government composed of uncommitted, nonpolitical business and professional men, who would serve as caretakers for at least six months under the protection of OAS troops. Then, perhaps, tempers will have cooled enough to permit elections. No one--except Imbert--seemed ready or willing to force Caamano to come to terms in the near future.

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