Dominican Republic 1963
Written: 1963;
Source: The Militant, Vol. 27, No. 45, 1963, p. 6;
Transcribed: by Amaury Rodriguez, 2014.
Transcriber’s note: This appeared in The Militant, organ of the US Socialist Workers Party (SWP), which sympathized with the Fourth International.
The military government of the Dominican Republic continues to predict optimistically that it is about to crush a group of civilians who have risen up in arms against the military’s own violent seizure of power. The Dominican armed forces deposed the constitutional regime of Juan Bosch Sept. 25.
“Jungle trained” troops – no doubt including graduates of the U.S. Special Warfare school in the Panama Canal Zone – have been thrown against the rebels, along with air-force fighter planes. The government claims the rebels are trapped in foothills near the city of Santiago. [1] Armed forces spokesmen say the rebels are members of the socialist 14th of June Movement. [2]
1. Santiago is located in the northern Cibao region.
2. The 14th of June Movement (1J4) did not espouse an explicitly socialist program. It was, in fact, a mass left wing, radical organization that had within its ranks left-wing nationalists and anti-imperialists, left-reformists and socialists of various political stripes and tendencies.