Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly Fondeur (August 22, 1904 – December 28, 1979) was a lawyer, scholar, diplomat, and, from 1962 until 1963, the

President of the Dominican Republic The president of the Dominican Republic ( es, Presidente de la República Dominicana) is both the head of state and head of government of the Dominican Republic. The presidential system was established in 1844, following the proclamation of th ...

. Before he became president, he was vice president of the country from 1960 to 1962.

Early life

Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly Fondeur was born to Carlos Sully Bonnelly Arnaud and Luisa Fondeur in

Santiago de los Caballeros Santiago de los Caballeros (; '' en, Saint James of the Knights''), often shortened to Santiago, is the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic and the fourth-largest city in the Caribbean by population. It is the capital of Santiago Prov ...

, 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 ...

. Bonnelly was born into a family of Corsican and French descent, descendants of white colonists that settled briefly in

Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue () was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city in the island, Santo Domingo, which came to ref ...

prior the

Haitian Revolution The Haitian Revolution (french: révolution haïtienne ; ht, revolisyon ayisyen) was a successful insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolt began on 22 ...

, two generations of the Bonnelly family lived in Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas, and then they moved to the

Cibao The Cibao, usually referred as "El Cibao", is a region of the Dominican Republic located at the northern part of the country. As of 2009 the Cibao has a population of 5,622,378 making it the most populous region in the country. The region constit ...

region in the Dominican Republic. While the origins of his ''Fondeur'' family was said to be born in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

(between 1812 and 1818, proposed Penzo), they may have arrived at the years of

España Boba In the history of the Dominican Republic, the period of ''España Boba'' (Spanish: "Meek Spain") lasted from 1809 to 1821, during which the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo was under Spanish rule, but the Spanish government exercised minimal ...

''(Foolish Spain)'' or during the Haitian occupation (for the author cited between 1819 and 1822). Bonnelly obtained his baccalaureate in Law on March 27, 1926, from the university of

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 ( Distrito Nacional) , webs ...

. He became a teacher at the Normal School in Santo Domingo from 1926 to 1930. Bonnelly married his former student,

Aida Mercedes Batlle ''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 Decemb ...

, in 1930. The couple had four children during their marriage: Luisa Amelia, Rafael Francisco, Juan Sully and Aida María. Bonnelly was also the uncle of fashion designer Sully Bonnelly. Bonnelly's first foray into public life was his participation in the revolt against President

Horacio Vásquez Felipe Horacio Vásquez Lajara (October 22, 1860 – March 25, 1936) was a Dominican general and political figure. He served as the president of the Provisional Government Junta of the Dominican Republic in 1899, and again between 1902 and 1903. ...

in 1930, led by Dr. Rafael Estrella Ureña, and supported by then head of the Army, General

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 ...

. Bonnelly later became a Deputy at the National Congress, but rapidly had a falling out with Trujillo, who had deported Dr. Estrella Ureña and assumed the Presidency of the Country, after publicly voting against an Education bill sent by the dictator to Congress. His fall out with Trujillo in 1931 led to a 12-year professional hiatus, in which Bonnelly was prevented from working as a lawyer. The return of Dr. Estrella Ureña to the Dominican Republic in 1942, under an amnesty granted by Trujillo, led to Bonnelly's reappearance into Dominican public life as a Senator, between 1942 and 1944. After Dr. Ureña's death in 1945, Bonnelly started an ascending career as a public servant, which culminated with his naming as President of the Dominican Republic in January 1962.

Ancestors

Public service

During these years, Bonnelly held the following posts: 1944–46 Minister of the Interior; 1946–48 Minister of Labor; 1948–49 Attorney General; 1949–53 Dean of the University of Santo Domingo; 1949–53 Professor of Constitutional and Civil Law; 1953–54 Prime Minister; 1954 Minister of Education; 1954–56 Ambassador to Spain; 1956–57 Minister of Justice, 1957–59 Ambassador to Venezuela; 1960–62 vice-president of the Dominican Republic. Bonnelly's main achievement as president was to organize the Dominican Republic's first free elections after the end of the 30-year-long Trujillo dictatorship, in which Dr. Juan Bosch was elected. But, during his brief but intensive Presidency, Bonnelly's Government wrote and passed some of the principal legislation in the country, such as the Banking and Housing laws, which are still used. In 1966, Bonnelly made an unsuccessful run for the presidency in an election which was won by Dr.

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 ...

, with strong backing from the government of American President Lyndon Johnson. Bonnelly and Balaguer were friends in their early days, and served together in several posts during the Trujillo dictatorship, but they became political opponents after Balaguer was ousted from the Presidency in 1961, being substituted by Bonnelly, his vice-president at the time.

Head to head with Balaguer

Bonnelly's last public bout with Balaguer was a national display of penmanship between the two leaders, right after the national elections of May 1978. Seeing that Balaguer's Partido Reformista was losing the elections, Balaguer's generals raided the Electoral Board and stopped the vote counting, sinking the country in a state of unrest and uncertainty. During two weeks, Bonnelly and Balaguer engaged in a public debate published in the main newspapers of the country, which ended with Balaguer accepting his defeat and proclaiming Antonio Guzmán, the candidate for the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD) and the President-Elect. In the summer of 1979, he was awarded the Doctorate Honoris Causa by the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM), the leading private university in the country. On December 28, 1979, Dr. Rafael Bonnelly died of cancer in his home in Santo Domingo.

References