NewsWhore
05-19-2011, 04:50 PM
2011 marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. A new museum, the Memorial Museum of Dominican Resistance, opens on 29 May at Arzobispo Nouel 210 in the Colonial City to commemorate the date. The museum has 168,000 documents on the Trujillo regime that because of their importance have been declared UNESCO documental historical heritage.
The 30 de Mayo Foundation, which honors the memory of the victims of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo during his 30 years in power, said yesterday in a press conference that more than 50,000 people had been killed during the dictatorship. Included in this number are the estimated 17,000 Haitians who were massacred when Trujillo ordered mass killings to discourage more migrants from crossing the border. In addition to this, thousands of people were tortured at several jails nationwide during the regime. The data appears in the National Center for Registration of Victims, Tortured and Disappeared of the Museum of Resistance. The department is headed by historian Franklyn Franco.
Museum Director Luisa de Pena Diaz told Hoy newpaper that Trujillo had the support of an association of dictators to commit crimes abroad against those who left as exiles. Trujillo's collaborators included Anastacio Somoza of Nicaragua, Francisco Franco of Spain, Marcos Perez Jimenez of Venezuela, Carlos Castillo Armas of Guatemala, Fulgencio Batista of Cuba and Gustavo Rojas Pinilla of Colombia. The museum research shows at least 100 Dominicans were killed abroad for crimes linked to the regime
Most of the crimes were committed in the first and last decade of the regime, the 1930s and 1950s. In the 1940s, she said that the regime promoted the creation of political parties (like the Partido Democratico Revolucionario Dominicano) to give the impression of freedom in the country.
Former president of the foundation, Luis Manuel Pellerano Amiama said that in addition to crime and torture, the regime was characterized by a lack of freedom of expression, freedom to travel, religion and property ownership. "That is the other side of the regime that went beyond crime. That is why the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the murder of Trujillo is a landmark in the republican history of the country, because then democracy began with its advances and backward steps," said director De Pena.
De Pena said that the criminal history of Trujillo did not start in 1930, when he became President, but when he entered the Police, and before the decade of the 1920s he engaged in stealing cattle. She said that the crimes he committed in those years are not registered, because when he assumed the Presidency he burned the archives where there were two cases documenting association with criminals and bribery among other charges.
Pena said that the worst inheritance Trujillo left Dominicans were not the crimes, but the degradation of Dominican society with political patronage, and the cult to personality that we still suffer today.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#8)
The 30 de Mayo Foundation, which honors the memory of the victims of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo during his 30 years in power, said yesterday in a press conference that more than 50,000 people had been killed during the dictatorship. Included in this number are the estimated 17,000 Haitians who were massacred when Trujillo ordered mass killings to discourage more migrants from crossing the border. In addition to this, thousands of people were tortured at several jails nationwide during the regime. The data appears in the National Center for Registration of Victims, Tortured and Disappeared of the Museum of Resistance. The department is headed by historian Franklyn Franco.
Museum Director Luisa de Pena Diaz told Hoy newpaper that Trujillo had the support of an association of dictators to commit crimes abroad against those who left as exiles. Trujillo's collaborators included Anastacio Somoza of Nicaragua, Francisco Franco of Spain, Marcos Perez Jimenez of Venezuela, Carlos Castillo Armas of Guatemala, Fulgencio Batista of Cuba and Gustavo Rojas Pinilla of Colombia. The museum research shows at least 100 Dominicans were killed abroad for crimes linked to the regime
Most of the crimes were committed in the first and last decade of the regime, the 1930s and 1950s. In the 1940s, she said that the regime promoted the creation of political parties (like the Partido Democratico Revolucionario Dominicano) to give the impression of freedom in the country.
Former president of the foundation, Luis Manuel Pellerano Amiama said that in addition to crime and torture, the regime was characterized by a lack of freedom of expression, freedom to travel, religion and property ownership. "That is the other side of the regime that went beyond crime. That is why the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the murder of Trujillo is a landmark in the republican history of the country, because then democracy began with its advances and backward steps," said director De Pena.
De Pena said that the criminal history of Trujillo did not start in 1930, when he became President, but when he entered the Police, and before the decade of the 1920s he engaged in stealing cattle. She said that the crimes he committed in those years are not registered, because when he assumed the Presidency he burned the archives where there were two cases documenting association with criminals and bribery among other charges.
Pena said that the worst inheritance Trujillo left Dominicans were not the crimes, but the degradation of Dominican society with political patronage, and the cult to personality that we still suffer today.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#8)