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Violence, Corruption, and Clientelism: The Assassination of Jesus de Galindez, 1956

NCJ Number
122492
Journal
Social Justice Volume: 16 Issue: 2 Dated: (Summer 1989) Pages: 64-88
Author(s)
A A Block
Date Published
1989
Length
25 pages
Annotation
The political murder of Jesus de Galindez Suarez in March 1956 shows the mixture of secret services, political corruption, and political violence that bound the United States and the Dominican Republic together throughout the regime of the dictator Trujillo and beyond that regime.
Abstract
Galindez had spent several years in the Dominican Republic during World War II and was at Columbia University in New York City finishing a doctoral dissertation that critically examined the first 25 years of Trujillo's administration. Galindez was last seen on March 12, 1956 when he was taken to the Dominican Republic. It is not known whether he was alive or dead when he made that journey. It is clear that the dissertation was the cause of his murder. However, Galindez, who was born and initially educated in Spain, had also been an FBI informant during and after World War II and was also a representative of the Basque movement. The role of Americans and Dominicans in his killing illustrates how the Dominican Republic has been and is a client state of the United Nations, with the more powerful nation training and arming the local military that maintains domestic stability while allowing economic exploitation and inequality. Notes and 25 references.