Editing Rafael Trujillo (section)

==Oppression==
Brutal oppression of actual or perceived members of the opposition was the key feature of Trujillo's rule from the very beginning in 1930 when his gang, The 42, led by Miguel Angel Paulino, drove through the streets in their red Packard ''carro de la muerte'' ("car of death").<ref>{{harvp|Crassweller|1966|p=71}}</ref> Trujillo also maintained an execution list of people throughout the world who he felt were his direct enemies or who he felt had wronged him. He even once allowed an opposition party to form and permitted it to operate legally and openly, mainly so that he could identify those who opposed him and arrest or kill them.<ref>{{cite book|last=Spindel|first=Bernard|title=The Ominous Ear|year=1968|publisher=Award House|pages=74–104}}</ref>

Imprisonments and killings were later handled by the SIM, the [[Servicio de Inteligencia Militar]], efficiently organized by [[Johnny Abbes]], who operated in Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala, New York, Costa Rica, and Venezuela.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fradinger |first1=Moira |title=Binding Violence: Literary Visions of Political Origins |url=https://archive.org/details/bindingviolencel00frad |url-access=limited |date=2010 |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/bindingviolencel00frad/page/n226 214]|isbn=9780804763301 }}</ref> Some cases reached international notoriety such as the disappearance of [[Jesús de Galíndez]] and the murder of the [[Mirabal sisters]], which further eroded Trujillo's critical support by the US government.  

In April 1962, after the flight of the Trujillo family from the country, Attorney General Eduardo Antonio Garcia Vasquez reported that in the previous five years, the former regime was responsible for 5,700 deaths, either as known murders, or of those missing but presumed dead.<ref name=":0">{{Cite magazine |date=1962-04-13 |title=Dominican Republic: Chambers of Horror |language=en-US |magazine= [[Time (magazine)|Time]]| publisher= |url= https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,827264-1,00.html |issn=0040-781X |access-date=2024-01-02}}</ref> The SIM often denied victims' families the remains of their loved ones, disposing of them clandestinely. In the aftermath of Trujillo's assassination, very few of those arrested and killed in the subsequent crackdown had their remains returned, the majority believed by investigators from Vasquez's office to have been tossed to sharks, or were stuffed into an incinerator at nearby San Isidro airbase.<ref name=":0" />