Editing Dominican Republic (section)

===Trujillo Era (1930–1961)===
[[File:Rafael L. Trujillo en la silla presidencial (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Rafael Trujillo]] imposed a dictatorship of 31 years (1930–1961).]]
There was considerable economic growth during [[Rafael Trujillo]]'s long and iron-fisted regime, although a great deal of the wealth was taken by the dictator and other regime elements. There was progress in healthcare, education, and transportation, with the building of hospitals, clinics, schools, roads, and harbors. Trujillo also carried out an important housing construction program and instituted a pension plan. He finally negotiated an undisputed border with Haiti in 1935, and achieved the end of the 50-year customs agreement in 1941, well before it would have expired in 1956. He made the country debt-free in 1947.<ref name=Encarta/><ref name=Galvan>{{cite book |author=Javier A. Galván |title=Latin American Dictators of the 20th Century: The Lives and Regimes of 15 Rulers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6AdAEQi2WZwC&pg=PA49 |year=2012 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-0016-1 |page=49 |access-date=February 13, 2018 |archive-date=January 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111005250/https://books.google.com/books?id=6AdAEQi2WZwC&pg=PA49#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> This was accompanied most noticeably by absolute repression and the copious use of murder, torture, and terrorist methods against the opposition.

Several Dominicans were assassinated in [[New York City]] after taking part in anti-Trujillo activities.<ref name=nyt>{{cite news |title=TRUJILLO REGIME CRUEL, RUTHLESS |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/06/13/archives/trujillo-regime-cruel-ruthless-dominican-dictator-ruled-30-years.html |work=The New York Times |date=June 13, 1975 |access-date=June 2, 2023 |archive-date=June 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230602135023/https://www.nytimes.com/1975/06/13/archives/trujillo-regime-cruel-ruthless-dominican-dictator-ruled-30-years.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In October 1937, Dominican troops murdered 10,000 to 15,000 Haitian men, women, and children—mostly with machetes—along the Haitian-Dominican border under the orders of Trujillo.<ref name=nyt/>

During [[World War II]], Trujillo symbolically sided with the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]]. During the course of the war, German U-boats torpedoed and sank two Dominican merchant vessels—the ''San Rafael'' off the coast of Jamaica, and the ''[[SS Presidente Trujillo|Presidente Trujillo]]'' off [[Fort-de-France]]—along with four other Dominican-manned ships in the Caribbean. The country did not make a military contribution to the war, but Dominican sugar and other agricultural products supported the Allied war effort, and the Dominican Republic also accepted Jewish refugees [[Évian Conference|fleeing Nazi persecution]].

The arsenal at [[San Cristóbal Province|San Cristóbal]], operated under Trujillo's regime, produced rifles, machine guns, and ammunition.{{sfn|Scheina|2003b|p=175}} Trujillo also formed a Foreign Legion of 3,000 mercenaries to attempt to overthrow [[Fidel Castro]] in Cuba. Major [[William Alexander Morgan|William Morgan]] agreed to lead the attack for $1 million, but Castro learned of the plot and instructed Morgan to go along with it and report back. Trujillo was tricked into believing that Morgan had captured [[Trinidad, Cuba|Trinidad]]. On August 13, 1959, a [[Douglas C-47 Skytrain|C-47]] transport flying from the Dominican Republic carrying military advisors and supplies landed at Trinidad airport. Castro seized the aircraft and the ten occupants and arrested some 4,000 suspects throughout Cuba.{{sfn|Scheina|2003b|p=240}}

On November 25, 1960, Trujillo's henchmen killed three of the four [[Mirabal sisters]], nicknamed ''Las Mariposas'' (The Butterflies). Along with their husbands, the sisters were conspiring to overthrow Trujillo in a violent revolt. The [[International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women]] is observed on the anniversary of their deaths.

[[File:1960. Junio, 24. Atentado a Rómulo Betancourt en Los Próceres.jpg|thumb|Aftermath of the June 24, 1960, assassination attempt in [[Caracas]], which wounded the Venezuelan president and his Minister of Defense, and killed an air force colonel and a policeman. In August, the OAS voted unanimously to condemn the Dominican Republic for its aggression and imposed an arms embargo.{{sfn|Scheina|2003b|p=256}}]]
For a long time, the U.S. and the Dominican elite supported the Trujillo government. This support persisted despite the assassinations of political opposition, the [[parsley massacre|massacre of Haitians]], and Trujillo's plots against other countries.<ref name="Wucker">{{cite web |last=Wucker |first=Michele |title=Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians and the Struggle for Hispaniola |work=Windows on Haiti |url=http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_2003/ling001/wucker.html |access-date=December 26, 2007 |archive-date=August 31, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180831131817/http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_2003/ling001/wucker.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The U.S. finally broke with Trujillo in 1960, after Trujillo's agents attempted to assassinate the Venezuelan president [[Rómulo Betancourt]] with a car bomb, as he was a fierce critic of Trujillo.<ref name=locdr11>{{cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/dominican-republic/11.htm|title=Dominican Republic&nbsp;– The era of Trujillo|work=Country Studies|publisher=[[Library of Congress]]; Federal Research Division|access-date=June 9, 2007|archive-date=June 23, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110623160133/http://countrystudies.us/dominican-republic/11.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,826562,00.html |title=Trying to Topple Trujillo |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=September 5, 1960 |access-date=December 26, 2007 |archive-date=November 6, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161106155313/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,826562,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> During Betancourt's earlier exile in Cuba, Trujillo's agents attempted to inject poison into him on a Havana street in broad daylight.<ref name=Sifakis>{{cite book |last1=Carl Sifakis |title=Encyclopedia of assassinations: more than 400 infamous attacks that changed the course of history |date=2013 |publisher=Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. |pages=105–106}}</ref>

After its representatives confirmed Trujillo's complicity in the nearly successful assassination attempt, the [[Organization of American States]] (OAS), for the first time in its history, decreed sanctions against a member state.{{sfn|Gleijeses|1978|p=28}} The United States severed diplomatic relations with the Dominican Republic on August 26, 1960, and in January 1961 suspended the export of trucks, parts, crude oil, gasoline and other petroleum products. U.S. President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] also took advantage of OAS sanctions to drastically cut purchases of Dominican sugar, the country's major export. This action ultimately cost the Dominican Republic almost $22,000,000 in lost revenues at a time when its economy was in a rapid decline. Trujillo had become expendable, and dissidents inside the Dominican Republic argued that assassination was the only certain way to remove him.<ref name="Cord Meyer">{{cite book |url=http://www.umsl.edu/~thomaskp/plwordab.htm |last=Ameringer |first=Charles D. |title=U.S. Foreign Intelligence: The Secret Side of American history |edition=1990 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-0669217803 |date=January 1, 1990 |access-date=January 11, 2024 |archive-date=June 10, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610085607/http://www.umsl.edu/~thomaskp/plwordab.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="CIA">{{cite web |date=November 24, 1972 |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP84-00499R001000100003-2.pdf |title=The Kaplans of the CIA – Approved For Release 2001/03/06 CIA-RDP84-00499R001000100003-2 |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency |access-date=January 17, 2019 |pages=3–6 |archive-date=April 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412055748/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP84-00499R001000100003-2.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> On May 31, 1961, Venezuela arrested several individuals plotting to overthrow the government, armed with weapons traced to the Dominican Republic.{{sfn|Scheina|2003b|p=257}} On May 30, 1961, Trujillo was shot and killed by Dominican dissidents.<ref name=nyt/>