Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
ers. Sweden and Brazil became important suppliers of materiel;
combat, training, and transport aircraft were acquired from
Britain and the United States.
Trujillo did not rely solely on rewards to keep control over
the military. He maintained personal command of all aspects
of military organization, including promotions, logistics,
assignments, and discipline. He constantly shuffled personnel
from assignment to assignment to prevent any potential rival
from gaining an independent power base. Trujillo also used
the tactic of frequent inspections, sometimes in person and
sometimes by undercover operatives, to keep tabs on both men
and operations. In addition, he brought many of his relatives
and supporters into the armed forces, promoting them rapidly
as a reward for loyalty.
As part of his effort to maintain control over the armed
forces, Trujillo built up the air force as a political counterbalance
to the army, and he encouraged factionalism in all the services.
A full armored battalion was formed at San Isidro Air
Base outside Santo Domingo. This battalion, which was directly
subordinate to the Ministry of Defense, essentially constituted
a fourth armed force, further splintering power within the military.
The total complement of 10,000 men was supplemented
by a call-up of reservists after Fidel Castro Ruz established his
communist dictatorship in Cuba in 1959. The government
acquired many additional weapons from a variety of sources,
notably 106mm recoilless rifles from the United States and
AMX-13 tanks from France. The Dominican army easily
crushed an invasion from Cuba of anti-Trujillo Dominicans in
July 1959.
After Trujillo was assassinated in 1961, the military, as the
nation's most powerful and best-organized interest group,
claimed a major role in the political competition that followed.
It soon became clear, however, that the factionalism encouraged
by Trujillo prevented the military from acting as a unified
institution. Instead, elements of the armed services allied with
various civilian politicians. After Juan Bosch Gaviho of the center-left
won the presidential election in 1962, portions of the
military became alarmed over his reforms and his tolerance of
leftists and legal communist parties. In 1963 armed forces officers,
led by Elias Wessin y Wessin (a colonel at the time), overthrew
Bosch and replaced him with a civilian junta. Another
faction of officers calling themselves Constitutionalists favored
the return of Bosch. In 1965 this faction overthrew the Chilian
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