Dominican Republic 1967
Published: December 8, 1967;
Source: World Outlook, Vol.5, No.40 p. 1002;
Transcribed: by Amaury Rodriguez, 2019.
Transcriber’s note: This article appeared in World Outlook published by Pierre Frank, Joseph Hansen, and Reba Hansen, sympathizers of the United Secretarial of the Fourth International.
Col. Francisco Caamaño Deñó was reported November 28 to be missing from his diplomatic post in London.[1] His wife said he vanished in mid-October after he left for Spain via the Netherlands. Presumably he met with foul play.
Caamaño was thrust into a position of leadership in the 1965 uprising in San Domingo[2] which was crushed through the massive intervention of U.S. troops sent in by President Johnson. Caamaño agreed to go into exile as a leader of the left.
Gen. Wessin y Wessin,[3] a militarist of the Trujillo days, was one of the few ultra- right figures to also go into exile in a show of impartial treatment of both right and left which, it was claimed, would help stabilize the situation in the Dominican Republic.
Recently there have been repeated rumors that Gen. Wessin y Wessin is preparing to return to the island. This could lead to another explosion of popular anger in which there would be heavy pressure on the Balaguer government to permit the return of Caamaño. The question now being asked is, did the secret political police decide to get rid of the popular leftist leader as a preventive measure?
1. Col. Francisco Alberto Caamaño Deñó (1932-1973). For more on Francisco Alberto Caamaño Deñó’s exile in London see: Fred Halliday, Caamaño in London: the exile of a Latin American revolutionary. Institute for the Study of the Americas:London, UK, 2010.
2. The correct spelling is “Santo Domingo.”
3. Gen. Elias Wessin y Wessin (1924-2009) was a staunch anti-communist and close ally of the United States government. During the 1965 revolution in Santo Domingo, Wessin y Wessin committed some of the worst atrocities against the civilian population.