An active politician both in and outside government for more than 30 years, Caonabo Javier Castillo died of a heart attack in the early hours of Wednesday, 9 October at the age of 62. Mr. Javier Castillo’s most recent position in government had been as Foreign Minister during the last months of the presidency of Dr. Joaquin Balaguer. His life in politics began at the end of the dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, joining the fight against “El Jefe” in the early 1960’s. After members of the opposition group with which he was associated were discovered, Mr. Javier Castillo escaped to the Argentine Embassy in Santo Domingo and spent two years in Buenos Aires.
After the death of General Trujillo in 1961, and the subsequent election and coup d’etat against President Juan Bosch in 1963, Mr. Javier’s Social Christian movement joined forces with Mr. Bosch’s Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD) in the struggle against the government installed after the coup. He was the only diplomat affiliated with the “government” of Francisco Camaaño during the Revolution of April, 1965 while in the Dominican Embassy in Chile.
The Social Christian movement later joined Dr. Balaguer’s Partido Reformista, now known as the Partido Reformista Social Cristiano (PRSC). In addition to serving as Foreign Minister, Mr. Javier Castillo served as administrator of the Banco de Reservas, director of the Corporación Dominicana de Empresas Estatales (CORDE), and director of the Instituto Nacional de Auxilios y Viviendas (SAVICA). He was a PRSC deputy and one of the candidates for that party’s 1996 presidential nomination, which was eventually won by then Vice President Jacinto Peynado.