castle, in politics what matters is not what is being said but how. if he can sell himself well he'll find plenty of support.
That is true. However, I think he hasn't been able to sell himself, and that's why he every year comes back with the same speech with no real results so far. He says he doesn't have to apologize for what Trujillo did, and I agree, but then he wants to claim political benefits for other things Trujillo did. I think that if he wants to gather enough supporters to do something beyond his yearly interview at the end of May, he needs to man up and either take on Trujillo's faults or explain (convincingly) why he thinks the bad things were not as others say. He hasn't done either thus far. He says he's against corruption, but he comes from a family that stole all they have ever gotten (and still have) from the people of DR. And then he says all those things were stolen from his family, like they ever really belonged to them. I think he's full of it. A poor soul who hasn't been able to move on from events from he wasn't even born yet.
This country is still suffering from that horrible period. People still live under an unfair boss/subaltern relationship model. Bosses are to be feared. Subaltern are to be quiet and submissive. At work, within the family, in society in general. Few people really realize how much damage was done by Trujillo to the social fabric of the Dominican Republic.
"Nothing is more dangerous than letting the same person stay for too long in power. The people get used to obey him, and he gets used to command them, from which tyranny and encroachment emerge." Simon Bolivar.
