Inflaming the Inflammable

Every weekend, as he travels from hamlet to hamlet, President Joaquin Balaguer carries with him a large bottle of alcohol and a supply of cotton. While he shakes hands with the country folk and listens attentively to their complaints, he constantly wipes his hands with alcohol as a precaution against disease. In the Dominican Republic, however, it is a lot easier to ward off germs than political foes. Balaguer is plagued by enemies and rivals. Last week he decided to face them down by announcing his decision to run again in the next elections, scheduled for May 1970.

His decision may well inflame political passions among the Dominicans, who have a historic distaste for presidential re-elections. It was shaped during the brutal reign of Dictator Rafael Trujillo, who was elected President in 1930 and kept on getting himself or his confederates re-elected until assassins' bullets cut him down in 1961.

Balaguer faces most of his opposition on the left, which is fractured almost to the point of incomprehensibility by at least eleven squabbling factions that range from Maoist to moderate social democrats. Moreover, the left is virtually as leaderless as it is splintered. The left's old hero, Juan Bosch, whom Balaguer defeated for the presidency in 1966, remains in voluntary exile in Spain. Similarly, another potential leader, Francisco Caamano Deo, 37, who was the military commander of the anti-establishment "Constitutionalists" during the 1965 civil war, is reportedly holed up in Cuba or The Netherlands. Balaguer also will have opposition within his own middle-of-the-road Reformista Party, which is split between his supporters and those who favor the election of Vice President Francisco Lora next time around.

Outside his party, Balaguer has another potential rival in Career Diplomat Hector Garcia-Godoy, now Ambassador to the U.S., who as provisional President helped guide the Dominican Republic back to peace after the 1965 civil war. He also faces a rightist challenge by former General Elias Wessin y Wessin, a major instigator of the coup that backfired into war and brought U.S. intervention. Wessin recently returned from three years in exile to lead an ultraconservative party.

Though he has many critics among urbanites, Balaguer has cultivated his popularity in the countryside by his frequent visits. A diminutive 62-year-old bachelor who neither smokes nor drinks, he thoughtfully sends back gifts, such as a few pesos and on occasion sewing machines, to some of those who have asked for help. If he is not swept out of office by political intrigue or an army takeover, he can probably count on the farmers to help re-elect him for another four-year term.

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