During the Dominican Republic Civil War that began on April 24, 1965, Francisco Alberto Caamaño was one of the leaders in the movement to restore the democratically elected President Dr. Juan Bosch, who had been overthrown in a clandestine U.S. backed military coup d'état in September, 1963. This faction of loyalists came to be known as the Constitucionalistas for their desire to return to a rightful and constitutional form of government, as opposed to the military junta that was in place as a puppet regime working towards establishing a dictatorship that benefited U.S. and other foreign interests.
As the Constitucionalistas successfully seized and held Santo Domingo over the initial days of the uprising, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson ordered an invasion by the U.S. military, dubbed as Operation Power Pack, under the pretext that the lives of American citizens there needed to be protected. It is also worth noting that there was fear speading amongst many in the U.S., that these Dominican "Constitucionalistas" would bring about a new communist regime in the region, and the Americans simply just weren't havin that...
Facing ongoing threats and attacks during the following months, including a particularly violent attack at the Hotel Matum in Santiago de los Caballeros, Camaaño accepted an agreement imposed by the United States government. Both constitucionalista President Caamaño and his rival, loyalist President Antonio Imbert Barrera, resigned from office on August 30, 1965. The were succeeded by one provisional president, Héctor García-Godoy who had sent Caamaño as the Military Attache to the Dominican Embassy to the United Kingdom. While there, Caamaño was contacted by Cuban officials and he fled to Cuba to start a guerrilla group.
In 1973, after laying low for several years in Cuba, Caamaño led a small group of rebels onto Playa Caracoles, near Azua off the southern coast of the Dominican Republic, and then into the mountains of the Cordillera Central, with the purpose of starting a peasant revolution to overthrow Dominican Dictator Joaquín Balaguer, the prodige of the white supremacist, brutal dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. Balaguer's government was repressive and highly centralized just like his predecessor Rafael Trujillo's had been. After a few weeks of guerrilla war against Balaguer's army, Caamaño's group was ambushed and killed by heavy artillery and gunfire from military warplanes. Caamaño was wounded and captured by Dominican government forces, and then summarily executed. He died fighting against U.S. and European foreign imperialists who worked through the power-hungry and corrupt Dominican so called leaders, for the heart and soul of his people and the rights to exploit the lands which for centuries had nurtured them. Today, in the Dominican Republic, it is regular to see Graffiti in the Cities bearing the words "Caamaño Vive!"(Caamaño Lives!"), showing that his spirit of resistance and national pride still lives on to this day.
HISTORY IS CRITICAL TO OUR WORLD PERSPECTIVE.
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2021
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