Santo Domingo.- Like any misdeed shielded by the darkness of night, the coup which toppled the government headed by Juan Bosch 49 years ago today, occurred in the pre-dawn hours, taking advantage of the sleeping great majority of Dominicans who chose it to guide the country’s destiny.

Bosch was arrested after 2am on September 25, 1963, by a group of military officers whose duty was to ensure their safety and that of the entire country. That same military junta decided to form an interim rule that would the very next day, impose the de facto government known as the Triumvirate.

These facts, which cover less than 48 hours of Dominican history, weigh today as a major setback in the country’s democratic process, says the historian Bernardo Veg.

He notes that what occurred then not only resulted in the 1965 Revolutionary, with the subsequent U.S. occupation, but also the period of 12 years headed by the late Joaquín Balaguer, a repressive era which many Dominicasn still painfully remember.