DOMINICAN POLITICS III #3: BALAGUER COMMEMORATION:

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 002900 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA, WHA/CAR, INR/IAA; USSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD; TREASURY FOR OASIA-JLEVINE; DEPT PASS USDA FOR FAS; USDOC FOR 4322/ITA/MAC/WH/CARIBBEAN BASIN DIVISION; USDOC FOR 3134/ITA/USFCS/RD/WH; DHS FOR CIS-CARLOS ITURREGUI E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: DR PGOV PREL SUBJECT: DOMINICAN POLITICS III #3: BALAGUER COMMEMORATION: FERNANDEZ WALKS FINE LINE ¶1. This is the third cable in our series on Dominican politics in the third year of the administration of President Leonel Fernandez. (SBU) Summary. The commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of longtime president Joaquin Balaguer presented Dominican politicians with many difficult questions. The length of Balaguer's career and the nature of his rule -- he served seven terms as President and frequently shifted alliances -- meant that most current politicians had been both allied with and opposed to Balaguer's PRSC party at some time. President Fernandez presided over a commemoration at the National Palace that was designed to be non-partisan and, on balance, praised Balaguer's service to the Dominican people, particularly his public works. In contrast, leftists, including a key advisor to Fernandez, held little back in their criticism of Balaguer, focusing on the excesses of his anti-communist campaigns during the Cold War. The formal event was a numbing four hours long. There was an eerie Balaguerist twist to the event: Fernandez conceding the stage to the older-generation PRSC group led by Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Tronocso that had abandoned the PRSC nominee to support Fernndez in his presidential bid, and putting the current PRSC leadership in a dither on whether or not to attend. Senator-elect Amable Aristy Castro did so; PRSC president Quique Antun and Secretary General Victor Gomez Casanova did not. End summary. Seven-Time President (SBU) Joaquin Balaguer's first term as President, 1960-62, began as a figurehead during the Trujillo dictatorship. Later, he won elections in 1966, 1970, 1974, 1986, 1990, and (at the age of 88) 1994 that reflected the developing nature of Dominican democracy -- some were free and fair, others not. In the 1960s and 1970s, Balaguer's battles with the PRD and PLD parties were legendary, and often brutal. In a compromise following the disputed 1994 election, Balaguer agreed to serve only a two-year term. In the 1996 election, when PRD candidate Jose Francisco Pena Gomez won a plurality in the first round, Balaguer threw his support in the second round to former rivals the PLD and their candidate Leonel Fernandez, who went on to win the presidency. The PRD never forgave Balaguer for 1996; however, following his death, they joined with his PRSC in an election coalition for the 2006 legislative elections. The PRSC is now deeply divided: some of the old guard members have joined Fernandez's cabinet, some PRSC leaders attended the event in the palace, and others refused to attend last week's official commemoration and organized a separate, smaller event. A Mixed Record (SBU) At the official commemoration held in the crowded Salon de las Caryatides at the National Palace, held on September 1 and attended by DCM and POLOFF, a panel of speakers and a video presentation detailed Balaguer's long career of public service, often focusing on the public works projects and overall economic progress of the country during his presidencies. The evening culminated with a speech by President Fernandez, who argued that historical figures cannot be judged in black and white terms. Nor, he said, should Balaguer's ties to Trujillo mar his entire record, given that now-revered figures such as King Juan Carlos of Spain were also associated with dictators. On balance, Balaguer was one of most intelligent, hard-working, and patriotic leaders in the history of the Dominican Republic. Fernandez, who has not said whether he will run again in 2008, drew a raucous applause from the gallery when he quoted a Balaguer re-election axiom, "You don't change horses when you're in the middle of the river." With a slight smile, Fernandez then lightly castigated his supporters for "misinterpreting" his remark. Fallen Comrades (SBU) The tone was decidedly different among those farther left. Reflecting divisions over Balaguer even within the Fernandez Administration, the President's senior advisor for press and public relations, sociologist Carlos Dore Cabral, turned down an invitation to the official commemoration. He was open in comments to the media: "I don't have any particular reason to inform the President (of my decision)," and listed the names of three fellow Communist Party colleagues whom he said were assassinated by Balaguer's security forces. "Those are the reasons -- personal and political -- that I have for not attending that event." In following days the Op-Ed pages also carried articles from the country's most incisive commentators, almost all critical of the official commemoration, most focused on the repression they were subjected to during the Cold War. Speaking out were the leftist/Caamanoist thinker Hamlet Hermann, sociologist Rosario Espinal, and historian/former ambassador to Washington Bernardo Vega. There were Balaguer sycophants out there as well, still at work. Comment (SBU) President Fernandez's keen political skills were on display at the Balaguer commemoration. He praised the man who helped him get elected while implicitly acknowledging the pain Balaguer had cause to others, including Fernandez allies. Many in the audience must have noted the irony of a President from the PLD -- which originated as a leftist breakaway group from the populist PRD -- presiding over an event in honor of a man who tolerated (and at times encouraged) the crushing of the left in the 1960s and 70s. However, Dominican political parties have long had more of business than of ideology to them. The PRD is working on putting together its first coherent party platform and the PRSC has been switching alliances regularly in search of survival. Dore Cabral, the old leftist no less, stood out this week as a politician who stuck to his principles even at the risk of piquing the president who appointed him. ¶2. (U) Drafted by Peter Hemsch. ¶3. (U) This report and extensive other material can be consulted on our SIPRNET site, http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo/ . HERTELL