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Juan Emilio Bosch Gaviño (30 June 1909 – 1 November 2001) was a Dominican politician, historian, writer, essayist, educator, and the first democratically-elected
president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
of the
Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...
for a brief time in 1963. Previously, he had been the leader of the Dominican opposition in exile to the dictatorial regime of
Rafael Trujillo Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina ( , ; 24 October 189130 May 1961), nicknamed ''El Jefe'' (, "The Chief" or "The Boss"), was a Dominican dictator who ruled the Dominican Republic from February 1930 until his assassination in May 1961. He ser ...
for over 25 years. To this day, he is remembered as an honest politician and regarded as one of the most prominent writers in Dominican literature. He founded both the
Dominican Revolutionary Party The Dominican Revolutionary Party ( es, link=no, Partido Revolucionario Dominicano, PRD) is a political party in the Dominican Republic. Traditionally a left-of-centre party and social democratic in nature, the party has shifted since the 2000 ...
(PRD) in 1939 and the
Dominican Liberation Party The Dominican Liberation Party ( Spanish: Partido de la Liberación Dominicana, referred to here by its Spanish acronym, the PLD) is a political party in the Dominican Republic. Founded in 1973 by former president Juan Bosch, the party, along ...
(PLD) in 1973.


Early life

He was born to a Catalan father and a Puerto Rican mother of Galician descent. In 1934, he married Isabel García and had two children with her: Leon and Carolina. During Trujillo's dictatorship, Bosch was jailed for his political ideas, being released after several months. In 1938, Bosch managed to leave the country, settling in
Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...
.


Exile

By 1939 Bosch had gone to Cuba, where he directed an edition of the completed works of Eugenio María de Hostos, something that defined his patriotic and humanist ideals. In July, with other Dominican expatriates, he founded the ''Partido Revolucionario Dominicano'' (PRD), which stood out as the most active front against Trujillo outside the Dominican Republic. Bosch heavily sympathised with leftist ideas, but he always denied any communist affiliation. He collaborated with the Cuban Revolutionary Party and had an important role in the making of Cuba's 1940 Constitution. Bosch met his second wife, Carmen Quidiello, a Cuban poet and playwright, in
Matanzas Matanzas (Cuban ) is the capital of the Cuban province of Matanzas. Known for its poets, culture, and Afro-Cuban folklore, it is located on the northern shore of the island of Cuba, on the Bay of Matanzas (Spanish ''Bahia de Matanzas''), east ...
in 1941. The couple married in 1943 and had two children, Patricio and Barbara. At the same time, his literary career was ascending, gaining important acknowledgments like the Hernandez Catá Prize in Havana for short stories written by a Latin American author. His works had a deep social content, among them "La Noche Buena de Encarnación Mendoza", "Luis Pié", "The Masters" and "The Indian Manuel Sicuri", all of them described by critics as masterpieces of the sort. Bosch was one of the main organizers of the abortive Cayo Confites expedition of 1947, in which a military force backed by the Caribbean Legion unsuccessfully attempted to invade the Dominican Republic from Cuba. Bosch fled to
Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in t ...
after the expedition's failure, where he continued his anti-Trujillo campaign. In Cuba, where he returned by requirement of his friends in the Authentic Revolutionary Party, he played a notorious part in the political life of Havana, being recognized as a promoter of social legislation and author of the speech pronounced by President Carlos Prío Socarrás when the body of
José Martí José Julián Martí Pérez (; January 28, 1853 – May 19, 1895) was a Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the libera ...
was transferred to
Santiago de Cuba Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana. The municipality extends over , and contains ...
. When
Fulgencio Batista Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (; ; born Rubén Zaldívar, January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who served as the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and as its U.S.-backed military dictator f ...
led a coup d'état against Prío Socarrás and took over the presidency in 1952, Bosch was jailed by Batista's forces. After being liberated, he left Cuba and headed to Costa Rica, where he dedicated his time to pedagogical tasks, and to his activities as leader of the PRD.
Molasses Molasses () is a viscous substance resulting from refining sugarcane or sugar beets into sugar. Molasses varies in the amount of sugar, method of extraction and age of the plant. Sugarcane molasses is primarily used to sweeten and flavour foods. ...
tycoon Jacob Merrill Kaplan earned his fortune primarily through operations in Cuba and the
Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...
. The J.M. Kaplan Fund was found in a 1964 Congressional investigation to be a conduit for funneling
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
money to Latin America, including through the Institute of International Labor Research (IILR) headed by
Norman Thomas Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 – December 19, 1968) was an American Presbyterian minister who achieved fame as a socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. Early years Thomas was th ...
, six-time Presidential candidate for the
Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America ...
. These funds were used in Latin America by José Figueres Ferrer, Sacha Volman, and Juan Bosch. Via the Fund, the CIA gave Figueres money to publish a political journal, ''Combate,'' and to found a left-wing school for Latin American opposition leaders. Funds passed from a shell foundation to the Kaplan Fund, next to the IILR, and finally to Figueres and Bosch. In 1959 the Cuban Revolution took place, led by
Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 20 ...
, causing a major political, economic and social upheaval in the Caribbean island.
Cord Meyer Cord Meyer Jr. (; November 10, 1920 – March 13, 2001) was a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official. After serving in World War II as a Marine officer in the Pacific War, where he was both injured and decorated, he led the United World ...
, a CIA official, was chief of International Organizations Division, a CIA-sponsored group for promoting democracy in international groups. He used the contacts with Bosch, Volman, and Figueres for a new purpose – as the United States moved to rally the hemisphere against Cuba's
Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 20 ...
,
Rafael Trujillo Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina ( , ; 24 October 189130 May 1961), nicknamed ''El Jefe'' (, "The Chief" or "The Boss"), was a Dominican dictator who ruled the Dominican Republic from February 1930 until his assassination in May 1961. He ser ...
, the strongman ''
caudillo A ''caudillo'' ( , ; osp, cabdillo, from Latin , diminutive of ''caput'' "head") is a type of personalist leader wielding military and political power. There is no precise definition of ''caudillo'', which is often used interchangeably with " ...
'' that ran the
Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...
for 30 years had become a liability. The United States needed to demonstrate that it opposed all dictators, not just those on the left. Bosch accurately perceived the process that had begun from those events and wrote a letter to Trujillo, dated 27 February 1961. He told Trujillo that his political role, in historical terms, had concluded in the Dominican Republic. For over a year, the CIA had been in contact with dissidents inside the Dominican Republic who argued that assassination was the only certain way to remove Trujillo. According to
Chester Bowles Chester Bliss Bowles (April 5, 1901 – May 25, 1986) was an American diplomat and ambassador, governor of Connecticut, congressman and co-founder of a major advertising agency, Benton & Bowles, now part of Publicis Groupe. Bowles is best known f ...
, the Undersecretary of State, internal
Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nat ...
discussions in 1961 on the topic were vigorous.
Richard N. Goodwin Richard Naradof Goodwin (December 7, 1931 – May 20, 2018) was an American writer and presidential advisor. He was an aide and speechwriter to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and to Senator Robert F. Kennedy. He was married t ...
, Assistant Special Counsel to the President, who had direct contacts with the rebel alliance, argued for intervention against Trujillo. Quoting Bowles directly: ''The next morning I learned that in spite of the clear decision against having the dissident group request our assistance Dick Goodwin following the meeting sent a cable to CIA people in the Dominican Republic without checking with State or CIA; indeed, with the protest of the Department of State. The cable directed the CIA people in the Dominican Republic to get this request at any cost. When
Allen Dulles Allen Welsh Dulles (, ; April 7, 1893 – January 29, 1969) was the first civilian Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), and its longest-serving director to date. As head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the early Cold War, he o ...
found this out the next morning, he withdrew the order. We later discovered it had already been carried out.''


Presidency and opposition

In May 1961, the ruler of the
Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...
,
Rafael Trujillo Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina ( , ; 24 October 189130 May 1961), nicknamed ''El Jefe'' (, "The Chief" or "The Boss"), was a Dominican dictator who ruled the Dominican Republic from February 1930 until his assassination in May 1961. He ser ...
was murdered. An internal CIA
memorandum A memorandum ( : memoranda; abbr: memo; from the Latin ''memorandum'', "(that) which is to be remembered") is a written message that is typically used in a professional setting. Commonly abbreviated "memo," these messages are usually brief and ...
states that a 1973
Office of Inspector General In the United States, Office of Inspector General (OIG) is a generic term for the oversight division of a federal or state agency aimed at preventing inefficient or unlawful operations within their parent agency. Such offices are attached to ma ...
investigation into the murder disclosed "quite extensive Agency involvement with the plotters." The CIA described its role in "changing" the government of the
Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...
"as a 'success' in that it assisted in moving the Dominican Republic from a totalitarian dictatorship to a Western-style democracy."CIA "Family Jewels" Memo, 1973 (see page 434)
Family Jewels (Central Intelligence Agency) "Family Jewels" is the name of a set of reports detailing illegal, inappropriate and otherwise sensitive activities conducted by the United States Central Intelligence Agency from 1959 to 1973. William Colby, the CIA director who received the rep ...
After 23 years in exile, Juan Bosch returned to his homeland months after Trujillo was assassinated. His presence in the national political life, as the
Dominican Revolutionary Party The Dominican Revolutionary Party ( es, link=no, Partido Revolucionario Dominicano, PRD) is a political party in the Dominican Republic. Traditionally a left-of-centre party and social democratic in nature, the party has shifted since the 2000 ...
presidential candidate, was a fresh change for the Dominicans. His manner of speaking, direct and simple, especially when addressing the lowest classes, appealed to farmers as much as people from the cities. Immediately he was accused by the Church and by conservatives of being a communist. However, in the
elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...
of December 20, 1962, Bosch and his running mate, Armando González Tamayo, won a sweeping victory over Viriato Fiallo of the ''National Civic Union'' in what is acknowledged to be the first free election in the country's history. On 27 February 1963, Bosch was sworn in as president in a ceremony that was attended by important democratic leaders and personalities of the region, like Luis Muñoz of Puerto Rico and José Figueres of Costa Rica. Bosch immediately launched a deep restructuring of the country. On April 29, he promulgated a new liberal constitution. The new document granted the people freedoms they had never known. Among other things, it declared specific labour rights, and mentioned unions, pregnant women, homeless people, the family, rights for the child and the young, for the farmers, and for illegitimate children. However, Bosch faced powerful enemies. He moved to break up
latifundia A ''latifundium'' (Latin: ''latus'', "spacious" and ''fundus'', "farm, estate") is a very extensive parcel of privately owned land. The latifundia of Roman history were great landed estates specializing in agriculture destined for export: grain, o ...
, drawing the ire of landowners. The Church thought Bosch was trying to oversecularize the . Industrialists did not like the new Constitution's guarantees for the working class. The military, who previously enjoyed free rein, felt Bosch put them on too short a leash.


Coup d'état

On 25 September 1963, after only seven months in office, Bosch was overthrown in a coup led by Colonel Elías Wessin and replaced by a three-man
military junta A military junta () is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term '' junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the national and local junta organized by the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Spain i ...
. Bosch went back to exile in
Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...
. Less than two years later, growing dissatisfaction generated another military rebellion on 24 April 1965, that demanded Bosch's restoration. The insurgents, commanded by Colonel Francisco Caamaño, removed the junta from power on April 28. The United States dispatched 42,000 troops to the island in ''Operation Power Pack'' during the ensuing
civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policie ...
in support of the anti-Bosch forces. An interim government was formed, and elections were fixed for 1 July 1966. Bosch returned to the country and ran as his party's presidential candidate. However, he ran a somewhat muted campaign, fearing for his safety and believing he would be thrown out of office by the military again if he won. He was soundly defeated by
Joaquín Balaguer Joaquín Antonio Balaguer Ricardo (1 September 1906 – 14 July 2002) was a Dominican politician, scholar, writer, and lawyer. He was President of the Dominican Republic serving three non-consecutive terms for that office from 1960 to 1962 ...
, who garnered 57% of the vote. The last US battalion left in September 1966. During the last half of the 1960s, Bosch remained a very prolific writer of essays, both political and historical. He published some of his most important works during this time: "Dominican Social Composition", "Brief History of the Oligarchy in Santo Domingo", "From Christopher Columbus to Fidel Castro", and numerous articles of different sorts. By 1970, Bosch had the intention of reorganizing the PRD and turning its members into active, studious militants of the historical and social reality of the country. His project was not accepted by most of the PRD, most of whose members were turning in a more mainstream social democratic direction. Also, given the military repression, and lack of political equality between the PRD and the official Reformist Party, Bosch abstained from the 1970 elections. Bosch became studious of Marxist ideology. He will describe himself as a "Marxist- non
Leninist Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party as the political prelude to the establishm ...
". The differences and contradictions between Bosch and an important sector of the PRD on ideology, as well as the corruption that had started to grow within the party, made him leave the organization in 1973, and thus he founded the
Dominican Liberation Party The Dominican Liberation Party ( Spanish: Partido de la Liberación Dominicana, referred to here by its Spanish acronym, the PLD) is a political party in the Dominican Republic. Founded in 1973 by former president Juan Bosch, the party, along ...
(PLD) on December 15 of that same year. The PLD originally was considerably to the left of Bosch's original party, the Dominican Revolutionary Party which continued to advocate for social democracy within the Socialist International organization. Later he ran unsuccessfully for president as the PLD candidate in 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, and 1994. He came closest to winning in 1990, but there were serious allegations of fraud against Balaguer. After placing third in the 1994 election, Bosch retired from politics. He was already 83 years old and presumably suffering from
Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As ...
. In 1996 he was practically carried to the consolidation of the "Patriotic Front", an alliance between the PLD and his lifelong opponent Balaguer, as part of the latter's plan to defeat the PRD in the next presidential election.


Death and legacy

Juan Bosch died on 1 November 2001, in Santo Domingo. As a former President, he received the corresponding honors at the National Palace, and was buried in his hometown of La Vega. A
metro station A metro station or subway station is a station for a rapid transit system, which as a whole is usually called a "metro" or "subway". A station provides a means for passengers to purchase tickets, board trains, and evacuate the system in the ...
in Santo Domingo was named in Bosch's honor in 2009. His wife, former First Lady Carmen Quidiello, died on 19 December 2020, at the age of 105.


Bibliography


Short stories

* ''Camino real'' * ''Cuentos escritos antes del exilio'' * ''Cuentos escritos en el exilio'' * Dos pesos de agua * El Funeral * ''Más cuentos escritos en el exilio''


Novels

* ''La mañosa'' * ''El oro y la paz''


Essays

* ''Hostos, el sembrador'' * ''Cuba, la isla fascinante'' * ''Judas Iscariote, el calumniado'' * ''Apuntes sobre el arte de escribir cuentos'' * ''Trujillo: causas de una tiranía sin ejemplo'' * ''Simón Bolívar: biografía para escolares'' * ''David, biografía de un Rey'' * ''Crisis de la democracia de América'' * ''Bolívar y la guerra social'' * ''Pentagonismo, sustituto del imperialismo'' * ''Dictadura con respaldo popular'' * ''De Cristóbal Colón a Fidel Castro: el Caribe Frontera Imperial'' * ''Breve historia de la oligarquía en Santo Domingo'' * ''Composición social dominicana'' * ''La revolución haitiana'' * ''De México a Kampuchea'' * ''La guerra de la Restauración en Santo Domingo'' * ''Capitalismo, democracia y liberación nacional'' * ''La fortuna de Trujillo'' * ''La pequeña burguesía en la historia de la Repúblia Dominicana'' * ''Capitalismo tardío en la República Dominicana'' * ''El Estado, sus orígenes y desarrollo'' * ''Póker de espanto en el Caribe'' * ''El PLD, un nuevo partido en América'' * ''Breve historia de los pueblos árabes'' * ''Viaje a los Antipodas''


References


External links


International Jose Guillermo Carrillo Foundation

Overview of modern Dominican history

Juan Bosch Foundation (in Spanish)



Juan Bosch: Una vida por la democracia, by Jesús Adolfo Becerril Valencia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bosch, Juan 1909 births 2001 deaths Presidents of the Dominican Republic Dominican Republic short story writers Leaders ousted by a coup People from La Vega Province Dominican Republic people of Catalan descent Dominican Republic people of Galician descent Dominican Revolutionary Party politicians Dominican Liberation Party politicians Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Political party founders Dominican Republic male writers Male short story writers Male essayists 20th-century Dominican Republic historians White Dominicans 20th-century short story writers 20th-century essayists 20th-century male writers 20th-century Dominican Republic politicians