Juan Bosch

[Viva Fidel]

Does anyone know who this man is?

[fernando]

the yankees removed him...

[Viva Fidel]

yeah i know who he is i am interested in knowing who else does because i havent seen much talk about him on this board

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

He was a writer and bourgeois liberal who opposed the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic and was forced into exile in 1937.

He was elected as president of the Dominican Republic in 1962 in the first bourgeois 'democratic' election after the assination of the Dictator Trujillo (after Trujillo was killed, Joaquín Balaguer ruled the DR until the inaugurated of Bosch).

A few months after his inauguration (Sept 1963) he was overthrown in a right-wing military coup, which was backed by the Imperialists for what they called his "communist policies" (This was 3 years after the victory of the Cuban Revolution). He was far from being a communist, and this was wholey obvious.

A "Triumvirate" established a military "junta" (read: dictatorship) which reigned until April 24, 1965 when a section of military officers tried to commit a 'counter-coup' against the military junta in efforts to reinstall Bosch, this had the support of a very wide section of the population (especially the working and peasant classes). This is known by Dominicans as 'la revolucion de 65.'

The 'constitutionalists' battled the 'loyalists' in an attempt to reinstate the constitution and reinstall Juan Bosch.

After a few months, US president Lyndon Johnson sent 20,000 troops to occupy the Dominican Republic and crush the revolt -- the official reason was "to protect U.S. citizens."

This lead to re-installment of Joaquín Balaguer, Trujillo's right hand man -- who would rule over the Dominican Republic in a US supported Quasi-dictatorship that would last until 1996 when one of his terms was cut short after widespread reports of election fraud.

A good source for questions like these is http://www.wikipedia.org -- but be sure to double and triple check the info against other sources.

Hope that helped!