The Dominican dictator who renamed the capital, and the highest mountain, after himself
For a quarter-century the Dominican capital was called Ciudad Trujillo, the nation's tallest peak was Pico Trujillo, and churches displayed a slogan pairing God in heaven with Trujillo on earth. Rafael Trujillo, nicknamed El Jefe, the Boss, ran the Dominican Republic for 31 years, among the longest rules by any non-royal leader.
Born in San Cristóbal in 1891 to a lower-middle-class family, Trujillo pinned bottle caps to his clothes as a boy to look like medals. He worked as a telegraph operator, drifted into cattle theft and forgery, and served time in prison. His break came with the American occupation that began in 1916. He joined the new US-trained National Guard in 1918 and rose steadily, and President Horacio Vásquez made him national police chief in 1924. Trujillo turned the police into an army loyal to himself.
When rebels moved against Vásquez in 1930, Trujillo quietly kept his troops in barracks in exchange for a shot at the presidency. Rival candidates were harassed into withdrawing, and he won with an implausible 99 percent; the American ambassador reported more votes than voters. Weeks after he took office, Hurricane San Zenón killed 2,000 people in Santo Domingo, and Trujillo imposed martial law to rebuild. His Dominican Party became the only legal party, state workers handed over 10 percent of their pay, and people without a party card could be arrested for vagrancy.
The personality cult was total, from licence plates bearing his praise to mass-produced statues, and admirers even nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize, which the committee declined. His rule was also exceptionally violent. Estimates of deaths and disappearances range from 25,000 to more than 50,000, and in 1937 the army killed between 17,000 and 35,000 Haitians in the Parsley massacre.
Repression abroad proved his undoing. An attempt on the life of Venezuelan president Rómulo Betancourt in 1960 and the killing of the Mirabal sisters, prominent opponents, brought sanctions from the Organization of American States and turned the military against him. Conspirators led by General Antonio Imbert Barrera killed Trujillo on 30 May 1961, his family went into exile that November, and a stable multi-party system arrived only in 1966.
Source: Rafael Trujillo
