Homage to Balaguer

Didn't Balaguer regain power in 1986? I believe that PRD was in power for 8 years.

But you are right that Balaguer and the Dominican Republic have been almost synonymous.

I can't think of anyone in US history that could compare with Balaguer in durability and influence.

Balaguer

Many people loved him, many people hated him but everyone listened to him.

Taken from BBC's News Site 14.07.02

One of Latin America's most remarkable and durable politicians, the former president of the Dominican Republic, Joaquin Balaguer, has died at the age of 95.

In a career spanning seven decades, he held the presidency for no fewer than 22 years.

His appetite for power was insatiable

He was by no means a model democrat, but even his detractors would find it hard to deny a grudging admiration for his political skills.

Rarely has so powerful a politician appeared so unthreatening.

Joaquin Balaguer was a tiny, mild-mannered man who gazed inscrutably through thick glasses at a world bathed in the light of the Caribbean sun.

He never married and led an austere private life. But his appetite for power was insatiable.

He began his career in the 1930s, working for the Dominican Republic's notorious dictator, Rafael Trujillo, and eventually becoming president in name.

Critics in exile

After Trujillo's assassination in 1961, there was a period of political turmoil, and Mr Balaguer went into exile in the United States.

In 1966, he was restored to power with US backing.

There were hopes he might run again in 2004 (AP)

His rule was not as brutal as Trujillo's, but hundreds of people were kidnapped or disappeared, and many critics went into exile.

Mr Balaguer was out of power in the early 1980s, but went on to win three more elections, two of them marred by serious allegations of fraud.

In 1996, he lost the presidency and never regained it, though not for lack of trying.

He played an important part in engineering the victory of the current president, Hipolito Mejia and some of his supporters were hoping that Mr Balaguer himself would run again in 2004.

As president, he spent billions of dollars on public works, including a massive lighthouse to commemorate the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas.

But his critics said had got his priorities wrong in what remains one of the western hemisphere's poorest countries.

Balaguer: the end of an era or a new beginning...

I'll leave it to history to judge Balaguer's contributions and accomplishments. To my mind, he was the final vestige of the Trujillo era. Much has been published about Trujillo's reign of terror, corruption, violence, racism and cloak and dagger shenanigans. That was then, and now that Balaguer is gone, this is now.

The country has a new opportunity to get its head around making social and economic progress and modernizing itself to the level of the rest of the hemisphere. Other obstacles remain:

- a cynical political and business elite with delusions of aristoratic grandeur

- using Haiti as a scapegoat for every Dominican shortcoming from neglect of the environment to low productivity to money laundering

- a substandard and underfunded public education system

- inconsistent tax code enforcement

- rampant official corruption

Just my opinion, but the facts bear them out

Faro Colo

Not to mention the construction of
Faro Colon, during the anniversary of Colubus, a light in the sky when 3/4 of the country had no electricity.

Maybe they should light it now that he is gone.

Balaguer (the S.O.B.) is gone. . .

("As president, he spent billions of dollars on public works, including a massive lighthouse to commemorate the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas.

But his critics said had got his priorities wrong in what remains one of the western hemisphere's poorest countries.")

. . . and Hip?lito Mej?a is doing his very best too see that la Rep?blica Dominicana remains in debt for many years down the road.

Hopefully a new breed of politician can bring some positive changes in the near future. . .

The "Head" (Balaguer) may have fallen from the "Body",.....

....but it(the body) remains alive,and filled with cancer! For those of you who expect,or wish for,a "New Beginning" in Dominican Politics I say,"No way "Jose"!!!The "patient" is beyond hope.The system so filled with corruption.ingrained with greed,that it cannot,will not,and does not, want to change!This "Gravy Train" left the station a long time ago!No one gets off this train by choice,they must be thrown off!The "Future Polititians" are lining the tracks ahead,not to flag down the train,but to jump onboard.Aspiring polititians look to elective office not to serve their country,but to serve themselves.They wait in line at the "Buffet table"of Dominican political office to help themseves,and their cronies, to a virtual "Smorgesboard" of "Scandalous Delights"!"The King is Dead,Long Live the King"!!!CRISCO

Porfio,you are on the right "Track"!

Except that the "Debtor Nations" of the world have learned a few "tricks"! "Re-negotiate your DEBT! You build up a huge international debt. Once the "Poor Citizens" of your country can never be expected to progress with the debt payments anchoring them down, you ask for, and recieve, a "re-structuring" of your debt.Later,you ask for the "Forgiveness" of that debt.Its all part of the International Monetary Game! "Hipolito" knows that once the debt is "unpayable" it will eventually be restructured,then forgiven!Not bad "Eh"?CRISCO