53 years ago this week, the National Police was rocked by a protest by hundreds of police agents who succeeded in stopping the new chief from taking office. Although Colonel Manuel Segundino Perez Pena appears as one of the Police Chiefs in the Police historical records, he did not take office, despite having been appointed by the Council of State on Saturday, 17 February 1962.
In its 18 February edition, the headline story in La Nacion newspaper was: “Members of the National Police reject appointment of the new Chief.” El Caribe’s 19 February edition was headlined: “Demonstration keeps recently appointed Chief of National Police from taking office.” Why did they rebel? The newspapers reported that on Sunday, 18 February, the members of the police force called the strike and assembled outside Police Headquarters early in the morning in order to protest. They claimed that the appointed chief had mistreated members of the Armed Forces and was expelled from the army because of his brutality.
In addition, they thought that he planned to disarm the police and send them into the streets with just their batons, and that he would expel the agents known as “calies” (snitches), former agents of the Trujillo dictatorship who had remained as members of the Police. La Nacion newspaper reported that on the day of the revolt, a group of demonstrators entered Perez Pena’s office. “They picked him out of his seat, taking him by his jacket, ripping it, and according to what they said, they even slapped him,” said the story. It added: “several agents said that when Perez Pena was a major in the National Army, he made several soldiers eat rotten avocados and would slap them for the slightest thing, as well as rudely insulting them.”
Council of State members Antonio Imbert Barreras and Luis Amiama Tio visited Police Headquarters and felt the tense atmosphere. President Rafael Bonnelly held a meeting with the Council of State and officers from the Armed Forces and the National Police, and decided to appoint a new Chief, Colonel Bienvenido de Castro Ortiz, who held the post for a short period. The secretary of Interior and Police, Major General Felix Hermida Jr., placed the insignias on De Castro. He reported that Perez Pena resigned “because he could not belong to an institution where he was not wanted.”
On 19 February, La Nacion published the deposed Police Chief’s version of events. Perez Pena, 41, had been dismissed from the National Army during the dictatorship because “he did not tolerate certain abuses.” He was persecuted and expelled from the country. He described the previous day’s events as “the result of a small group of agitators,” and that there was “a contagion of personal interests.” Unofficially, it was reported that the opposition movement instigators were the former “calies” in the Police who feared that Perez Pena would discharge them as undesirables.