Dominican Republic, Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD)

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Dominican Republic, Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD)

The PRD was founded in 1939 by Dominican anti-Trujilloist exiles for the purpose of toppling the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. It established branches in Caracas, New York, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Among its founders were Juan Bosch, Juan Isidro Jiménes Grullón, and Angel Miolán. Shortly after Trujillo's assassination in May 1961, a PRD delegation led by Angel Miolán, Nicolas Silfa, and Ramon Castillo returned to Santo Domingo to participate in the now reviving political life that had been stifled for over three decades. In the first national elections (December 1962) after Trujillo's death, PRD candidate Bosch defeated his National Civic Union (UCN) opponent. After only seven months in office, Bosch was toppled by a military coup. While the ensuing Triumvirate remained in power, the PRD spearheaded the opposition to a government that was dominated by UCN members and the military. During the revolution of 1965, the PRD led the struggle of the Constitutionalist cause.

In the first election (1966) after the end of the revolutionary and civil war of 1965, PRD candidate Juan Bosch was defeated by his Reformist Party (PR) opponent, Joaquín Balaguer, who also won the presidential elections of 1970 and 1974. After Bosch broke with the PRD in 1973 in order to form his own political party, the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), PRD party affairs were taken over by José Francisco Peña Gómez, who went on to become vice president of the Socialist International after the PRD, which considered itself a Social Democratic party, had become a member of that organization.

The PRD staged a political comeback in 1978, when its candidate, Antonio Guzmán Fernández, won the presidential election. That victory was followed in 1982 by Salvador Jorge Blanco's winning the presidency on behalf of the PRD. Thereafter, the PRD's fortunes declined as the party fragmented into diverse factions. However, the PRD won the presidential election in 2000. Although the party lost again in 2004, it still remains an important part of electoral politics.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Michael J. Kryzanek, "Political Party Decline and the Failure of Liberal Democracy: The PRD in Dominican Politics," in Journal of Latin American Studies 9, pt. 1 (1977): 115-143.

Angel Miolán, El Perredé desde mi ángulo (1984).

Additional Bibliography

Agosto, Gabriela, and Francisco Cueto Villamán. Los partidos por dentro estructura y funcionamiento del PRD, PRSC y PLD: 1978–2002. Santo Domingo, República Dominicana: Centro de Estudios Sociales P. Juan Montalvo, S.J., 2002.

Gautreaux Piñeyro, Bonaparte. El tiempo de la tormenta Bosch, Caamaño y el PRD. Santo Domingo, República Dominicana: Editora de Colores, 1994.

Kai P. Schoenhals

Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture