Believe me if you want, but this is the truth

-Dominican Republic is the only country in the world where this was possible: a gold mine(La Rosario), a state lottery(Loteria Nacional), 3 major banks in less than 6 months(Baninter, Bancredito, Mercantil) went bankrupt. The odds against a gold mine going bust are as high as winning the lotto twice in the same month. No state lottery in the world other than our has gone broke.

-Born in 1977 from Dominican parents, one of them a junkie and drug dealer, Felix(the fake)Sanchez had a selfish reason to fake his love for Dominicans. After failing to make the U.S. hurdling team in 1999 by placing 6th., he also came in 4th. at the 1999 Pan Am Games. Felix could not patiently wait his time and was so ambitious and in need of fame, that he turned his back on the country that gave him everything, the good old USA. He sought Dominican agents and buscones to help him join the Dominican team to further his career, not his patriotism. This guy is so fake that if given a good contract in the U.S. he would just as fast turn his back on DR.

-Some streets in Santo Domingo are named after heroes as fake as Felix Sanchez. For instance Antonio De La Maza Street. This guy participated in the Trujillo assasination. De La Maza was a Trujillo protege, so powerful that Trujillo made him a regional "godfather" in the Haiti border towns. Trujillo gave him a license to cut down every fine lumber tree in the towns of Restauracion, Loma De Cabrera and the western Cordillera. He owned the entire lumber business in the border. Trujillo gave him a military rank of liutenant, yet all the top officers, including generals in the area had to report to him and kiss his ring. He owned everything, including the best women. Young girls had to be hidden by parents when his visits to towns were announced. He visited Trujillo every week. His problem with Trujillo had to do with the death of his brother. His brother was the pilot who flew the kidnapped writer Jesus Galindez to DR to be tortured by Trujillo for his betrayal of "El Jefe". De La Maza brother was a killer himself who talked too much and Trujillo got rid of him. Galindez also was a traitor, who was brought from Spain by Trujillo to teach his wife good manners and writing skills. Galindez was paid a juicy salary and lived like a king under Trujillo. But then he went to the U.S. for a doctorate degree and used his Trujillo family secrets for his thesis. Trujillo got rid of this worm too.

-General Juan Tomas Diaz, another Trujillo assasination hero, was an ambitious officer who flourished under Trujillo and had great influence with El Jefe. He cut down many of his fellow officers with his gossip. He would see Trujillo and badmouth other officers to get his way. He was as feared as De La Maza and had dreams of becoming like Trujillo. He ended up in a ditch for his treason.

-Colonel Francisco Caama?o De?o, another fake hero of the 1965 Revolution. This guy was always a lowly, undisciplined and low rated officer, who went from one end of the armed forces to the other. He was in the army, police, navy and other special assignments and always failed. He was the son of one of the smartest and most distinguished officers ever in the DR, General Fausto Caama?o. General Caama?o was as impressive as Rommel in his looks. Yet his son was a sweaty mess who always perspired over his shirts and never wore t-shirts. Caama?o failed at everything including the Revolution. His failed leadership led to Lyndon Johnson ordering the invasion. Then Caama?o went to Cuba and drove Fidel Castro nuts. Castro finally allowed him to go on a suicide invasion to DR and Balaguer cut him down to pieces. This is the greatest fake hero of our nation. Almost every officer who helped Caama?o was as undisciplined and low life as him. I can tell their stories one by one.

-Hipolito Mejia is trying to cut down his opposing candidates in his own party(PRD) by calling them losers, who cannot add any votes and have never won anything. Yet Hippo was always a loser before luckily winning the presidency in 2000. He ran for congress several times and also as a vice-presidential candidate with Pe?a Gomez and always came last. He never gathered more than 6% of the vote in prior elections to 2000. Yet he discards his opposition because he claims they cannot get more than 6% of the vote. He was secretary of agriculture for another fake hero, President Antonio Guzman, a man who was such coward he killed himself in his desk at the national palace. He drank heavily and was a peasant mouth like Hippo. It would be great if Hippo joins him.

There are so many fake heroes in DR that if anyone cares to ask for more, just drive around and give me names and I will give you their rap sheet. How about Padre Billini? Duarte? Balaguer? Pe?a Gomez? Viriato Fiallo? Ramon A. Castillo? Winston Arnaud? The Mirabal Sisters, Tavarez Justo?

If you asked me, only two men are the true leaders of this nation. Trujillo and General Luperon. All the others were sissies created by both or by the Spaniards.

TW

Samian

I will accept your version, as long as you accept mine. Remember, I hold the edge because when Galindez was "judged" by the gran jefe he had just left DR to get his degree.

Regardless of whta you think, galindez was a two-faced nobody, who tried to crew Trujillo. And you dont play with a major leaguer using aluminum bats.

Galindez was brought in to teach Mrs. Trujillo , Do?a Maria. He helped her write two books to be used as text books in the DR school system to help build her credibility as an intelligent, educated woman. But she was a brainless fat slob. Actually, he wrote the books for her. Galindez was paid handsomely and was very well treated by Trujillo. Trujillo never accepted traitors.

As to Trujillo and leadership, here is a man who stood tall over a period a lawlessness before and during the U.S. occupation and rose from nowhere as the top military leader in DR. He was the favorite of Americans because of his brashness and toughness. He got rid of all the gangs and mob leaders that ruled the interior. He took over the greatest natural disaster ever in DR, Zansenon hurricane and built the country as fast as 1,2.3 and helped get the Americans out and return our republic to Dominican hands. He was able to bring in the intelligentsia into his government and used the best brains to rebuild. He got everyone to cooperate. He was feared and respected. He was a nationalist who kept everything in DR and never permitted DR to get into foreign debt. We were debt free for 30 years and our currency was stronger than the dollar. We had silver and gold currency and even a penny that had nothing to envy the U.S. penny. He plainly built this country from the ashes.

TW

Porfirio

Trujillo was not born to live forever. In fact, he was within a few years of natural death because he was sick with cancer. So while he lasted he achieved what no other Dominican has achieved yet, including Balaguer.

But let suppose that he were alive. Just about the year he died, another dictator was taking a hold in Cuba(Castro), who is still there and has brought great advances to Cuba, such as great health and education. Yet, due to the nature of his dictatorship and his alienation of western powers thru communism, the side of economic prosperity and certain freedoms has not flourished. Note that freedom under Trujillo was many times more open than in the Cuban regime. So with his form of state sponsored capitalism, Trujillo would have succeeded in maintaining DRs economy well today. We would still own our electricity.

Our migration to the U.S. would not have been that great. Remember that before Trujillo died our community abroad was minimal, while Mexicans at that time were already a big minority in the US. We began to lose Dominicans to New York when our resources began to end up in the pockets of speculators who took our riches away and those washed away by corruption. Even considering population growth, why did Pinochet succeed economically with a Chilean growing population? How was Fujimori succeeding? How come arab dictatorships keep their economies well, yet democracies like Mexico and Venezuela with the same oil resources cannot? Simply put, dictatorships are more efficient. Other examples are Generalissimo Chan in Taiwan and Franco in Spain who turned over power after his death peacefully and Spain prospered. Spain never lost a step due to Francos legacy.

Many people who were not pro-Trujillo activists or given special priviledges succeeded under his regime. My family was well off and I was brought up as a jevito during Trujillo. I did the same things jevitos do today, even better. I had good cars, money and fashionable clothes. I was never forced to do anything in his regime. But I never had to fight his regime either. Why should I when I was living in Sarasota Avenue, the newest chic street in Santo Domingo, went to the best schools(La Salle and CMS) and had girls I did not know what to do with.

I used to hear that people were forced to attend Trujillo parades at the Malecon. Why would it take any force to have so much fun? His parades were sights to be seen. His air force would perform beautiful air shows over the sea. His armored divisions were impressive at the time. I can live to tell I saw real operative P-51s doing aerial maneuvers. Trujillo in full uniform was an impressive sight. Even Ramfis Trujillo looked kind of cool and drove supercars to parades. The diablo cojuelos were in their prime during Trujillo and the tradition of the La Vega Carnival grew from that. Maniceros had real heated peanut with charcoal heaters, instead of todays cold wrap paper. Frio Frios were for real. Have you noticed we dont have frio frio de melao today? The ice used for todays frio frio is not fit for human consumption. Everything is fake today, even our coin and money. I have Trujillo gold and silver coins. I could have driven forever without worries about gasoline. We had two drivers at home, two maids, a gardener and several messengers. We could use up all the water we wanted and drink it from the fawcet. Our mountains had 100% tree coverage. The island looked as good as when Columbus discovered it. We had to pay ransoms to kill woodpeckers, instead of trying to save them. Almost every household had "cotorras" at home as pets and stiil there were millions in the wild. Today they are endangered species. Manaties were a common sight. We had the "juron", a rodent that disappeared after Trujillos death. I dont remember ever seeing an unpaved street or a highway with potholes.

TW

The argument is moot

I think this whole thing remains a matter of taste. Funny however how after living thru all these differnt regimes after Trujillo and being on top financially throughout, I still choose Trujillo as the best. And this is not just my imagination. I have better housing, better cars, better clothing and earn more today, yet I still believe he was the best.

Something that people ignore is that poor peasants, working people and the great majority of Dominicans liked El Jefe. It was only a tiny minority who disliked him. However, when a regime falls everybody claims they were against it. Notice how Russians turned against communism in a hurry during Perestroika. Today many yearn for the good old days of order. Our new theorists take the responsibility to change peoples minds as time goes on and try to erase the memory of the population.

Many people today accept Caama?o and the revolutionaries of 1965 as heroes because they are told to believe this. But hardly any of them experienced it. Our new leaders like Hippo, Leonel Fernandez, and the candidates for office for 2004 are in my opinion midgets of leaders. Balaguer, considered to be the greatest president ever by a large segment of the population was but a messenger boy for Trujillo and his personal puppet. Yet he was able to fool for generations all our new leaders today, including Pe?a Gomez.

One must take a frame of reference in these comparisons to be truthful. This is why a baseball player like Richie Henderson, who faced the likes of Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Roger Clemens, as well as newer stars Pedro Martinez and Mike Mussina was better than all first hitters in history.

I am afraid some of the people giving their opinions here were not here then, may not be here now or know very little about what they are talking about. Reading books is not the real thing. We can all do that. I suggest those who give their opinions here tell me why they know about this and their pedigree. I will respect you more for it.

I am not an old fart who just misses the past. I am even considered by young people who generally sorround me as being too liberal. I like electronic music over any other type(Future Sound of London, Orbital, Autechre), I still enjoy fast cars over jeepetas, and prefer younger women over mature women. But I know good government when I see it. I know a good leader from a lousy one. I still choose Bill Clinton over Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Johnson, Truman,and the rest. I lived in the USA under these men, except Truman. I just did not read about them.

TW