BOSCH ADMITS U.S. IS RUNNING DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Juan Bosch, who lost out to Joaquin Balaguer in the elections conducted under the auspices of the Pentagon and State Department in the Dominican Republic June 1, 1966, and who is now staying provisionally in Spain, has become very "pessimistic, bitter, and without any illusions about the chances that democracy will be restored in his country in either the immediate or more distant future," according to Marcel Niedergang, who interviewed him in Madrid. (Le Monde, March 1.) :
By running against Balaguer, the candidate favored by Washington, Bosch made it possible for American imperialism to get away with the scandalous fraud that the staged elections were "democratic" although the country had been invaded by an armed force of around 24,000 American troops. Bosch's cooperation with the foreign imperialist army was thus of inestimable service to the Johnson administration, which is now busy welding together the dictatorial machine built by Trujillo that came to pieces under the impact of the April 24, 1965, uprising in Santo Domingo. Realizing that he now stands in the category of a thoroughly squeezed lemon, it is understandable why Bosch is in such a sour mood.
"To define the present situation in the Dominican Republic," -Bosch told Niedergang, "a single word is sufficient -decomposition. Economically, we stand at the brink of catastrophe. The disorganization indirectly provoked by the April 1965 uprising has never been halted. It is continuing. Thousands of workers have been thrown into the streets. Never has misery been so great. Politically there is no government, quite simply because it is not possible to govern today in Santo Domingo."
During the election campaign, which the American Social Democrat Norman Thomas later certified as being in the "democratic" tradition, Juan Bosch was afraid to leave his villa. JUAN BOSCH He remained under constant guard. "After his defeat in the Lo, elections," declares Niedergang, "Juan Bosch continued to live under the constant threat of being assassinated. A number of his bodyguards were killed'in opposing terrorist commandos of the extreme right. He himself, at the time he left, was able to get to the airport only thanks to multiple precautions and the intervention of friendly diplomats."
“Bosch spoke freely of how Balaguer is running the country under the auspices of the Johnson administration: "The terror is permanent. The assassination of former members of the Constitutionalist forces occurs almost daily. It is no secret. The Dominican press reports from day to day the extortion, violence, kidnappings and murders; but the impunity with which the terrorists of the right operate is beyond comprehension. Here are two examples among Others: A former Constitutionalist official remained in the hands of. the police for a week. He was released in such bad condition that he died the: next day from the torture he had undergone. The family filed a complaint, stating that the prisoner had been seen each day in the police headquarters by witnesses. Despite this, the head of the police replied:- 'We never saw the fellow.' -
"Maximo Fiallo, a known organizer of ultrarightist commando killers was arrested after repeated complaints. The pilots of the San Isidro base, the former general headquarters of General Wessin y Wessin, protested. He was their 'friend.'. The police turned them down. The next morning, a commando group of pilots came to release Maximo Fiallo by force. Nobody said anything. I had occasion at a dinner at the nunciature with President Balaguer to expose these facts and to state that the police had set up '‘interroga- -tion centers! in the heart of the city without taking it up with the authorities...But what can be done? There is no government in Santo Domingo..."
Continuing.in this vein, Bosch declared that he had never wanted to give the impression. that the "democratic. game" would be respected in the Dominican Republic, be-~ cause it isn't. "The real government is not in Santo Domingo; it is in Washington. The real master of my country is the United States. I said that the day the marines landed. I say it again today. From this point. of view, nothing has changed."
- Should Balaguer display too much independence, he would be assassinated, and. the army would put one of its. generals in. The U.S. had probably already anticipated this. -And wouldn't. there: be protest? "The United States," said Juan Bosch, "pays absolutely no: attention :to: public opinion. They have only one objective -- to maintain and reinforce the group in the armed forces which they have gained."
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