It’s time for the Truth on the dictatorship’s violence, terror

Santo Domingo. – It’s time, especially now, to create an Official Truth Commission to unmask the political violence and terror unleashed by the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo and officially demystify the system of economic, political and ideological dominance the era imposed from February 23, 1930, to Joaquin Balaguer’s fleeing the country on January 16, 1962.

Roberto Alvarez, who proposes the creation of such a Commission, says it’s the State’s historical duty "to the dictatorship’s countless victims, including the Dominican people, to strike a lasting balance between memory and truth, while strengthening democracy and the rule of law in our country."

"We haven’t had a Truth Commission because of the still proximity of the personalities in the facts are in power and a lack of political will,” Alvarez said to hoy.com.do.

Alvarez notes that a Gallup poll found that Trujillo is one of the most admired personalities in the country, even above Guillermo Moreno, Hipolito Mejia, Jacobo Majluta, Francisco Alberto Caamaño and Margarita Cedeño.

And, more disturbingly, he notes, Balaguer surfaces as the most admired politician, above Juan Bosch, Antonio Guzman, Danilo Medina and Leonel Fernandez.

Why hasn’t such as Commission been created? Alvarez: "There’s been no political will to create a Truth Commission, on the contrary, many of the leaders who’ve been in power in some way or another have been linked to the dictatorship and therefore the conditions for that weren’t created."

The former Dominican Ambassador to the OAS also notes that there was never a self-criticism and Balaguer himself never had interest in convening a Commission on the crimes during Trujillo’s dictatorship "because somehow it was going to involve if not his role directly, also many people whom he had lived and worked with and protected in one way or another, or crimes he knew of and on which he kept silence."

Alvarez’s proposal has piqued interest and expectations among various sectors of Dominican society, even if the proponent is aware that many sectors try to detail its creation.

It’s important to note that the Memorial Museum of the Dominican Resistance collects thousands of signatures to support the Commission’s creation and deliver it to president Danilo Medina next December 10, to convince him to materialize the project. "People who can believe in the importance of this Truth Commission should join the campaign by signing the petition."