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Joaquin Balaguer

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Joaquín Amparo Balaguer Ricardo (September 1, 1906 – July 14, 2002) was the President of the Dominican Republic from 1960 to 1962, from 1966 to 1978, and again from 1986 to 1996. He had been a protégé of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, and was accused of election fraud and of intimidating would-be opponents.

Joaquín Balaguer
Joaquín Balaguer

Balaguer was born in Navarrete, a small town in northern Dominican Republic to a Puerto Rican father and a Dominican mother. Balaguer studied law at the Sorbonne, then returned to the Dominican Republic and started working for Trujillo in 1930. After Trujillo was assassinated in 1961, he fled to the United States. In 1963, a military coup overthrew the leftist government of Juan Bosch. In 1965 military officers revolted against the junta to restore Bosch, whereupon U.S. President Lyndon Johnson sent 20,000 U.S. troops to defeat the revolt. Balaguer became the President of the Dominican Republic in 1966, with U.S. backing. He governed the country for three consecutive terms until 1978, when he was defeated at elections by Antonio Guzmán Fernández, leader of the Dominican Revolutionary Party.

He returned to office for a fourth term in 1986. The second period of Balaguer's government was in some aspects different from the three terms (commonly referred as "The Twelve Years").

He left office for the second time, reluctantly, in 1996, after agreeing to hold earlier elections following controversy over his sixth term reelection in 1994, but he remained a power in Dominican politics to the very end of his life. He ran for president again in 2000 but was placed third with 24.6% of the first-round vote. He died of heart failure in 2002. Balaguer never married and had no children (the latter fact being a frequent subject of controversy); he was survived by a sister. In later life he could hardly walk, and suffered also of severe blindness.

Jared Diamond's Collapse mentions Balaguer's push for environmental protection as a key difference between the environment of the Dominican Republic and its neighbour, Haiti. It included the enlargement of the national park system, demolishing illegal construction within the limits, substitution as popular fuel of scarce wood by imported Venezuelan gas. This environmental trend led him to some confrontations with powerful people or the Dominican people. However, Balaguer pushed for it as much as he could while retaining power. There are several reasons proposed for this, including the love for nature of his sisters.

Bibliography

Balaguer was a prolific author, he wrote many important books for contemporary Dominican literature, the most famous of which is his only narrative novel called Los Carpinteros (The Carpenters). He also wrote poetry and several songs, among them one named Lucía. The most controversial of his works is perhaps Memorias de un Cortesano, in which Balaguer, shielded by his political power admitted knowing the truth about the mysterious death of the revolutionary journalist Orlando Martínez. Balaguer left a blank page in the middle of the book: "to be filled in at the time of his death." The mystery was never solved, as Balaguer took it to his grave.

Balaguer explored several branches of literature. As a thorough researcher, he published many biographical books still used as reference, along with compilations and analysis of Dominican folk poets. As a poet, it is hard to categorize him. Mostly of Post-Romantic influence, Balaguer's style of poetry remained strictly unchanged along his long literary career. The main common theme expressed in his work is the struggle with the pain of loss (having survived both his parents and most of his sisters). Other themes, despite the sorrow expressed, are mostly noble: and idyllic view of nature, nostalgia, and memoirs of the past.

His total list of literary works is as follows:

Preceded by:
Héctor García Godoy (provisional) 		1966-1978
1986-1996
Presidents of the Dominican Republic 		Succeeded by:
Antonio Guzmán Fernández
Preceded by:
Salvador Jorge Blanco 		Succeeded by:
Leonel Fernández Reyna

External links

 

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