On May 30, 1961, seven assassins’ bullets struck down dictator Rafael Trujillo who was on the way to visit his mistress in San Cristobal in the Dominican Republic.
Since 1930, he had ruled with an iron hand that pushed God to a secondary place in society. He loved cruising by a blinking neon sign that at first proclaimed, “Dios y Trujillo,” but then that was changed to “Trujillo et Dios.” Just so you would get the point of whom was bigger than God, the sign got bigger and bigger. It was merely a matter of time that only “Trujillo” would be declared ultimate leader. He pushed the Catholic church to serve him and suppressed Protestants. His rule was as sacrilegious as it was savage.
In a letter, a year before the assassination of “El Jefe,” the de facto CIA station chief at the United States Embassy, wrote, “If I were a Dominican…, I would favor destroying Trujillo as being the first necessary step in the salvation of my country and I would regard this, in fact, as my Christian duty.”
The Dominicans put up a plaque near the spot where Trujillo died saying, “ajusticiamiento,” justice was done here.
Soon after Trujillo’s assassination, a religious revival started in the island republic. We don’t know if the CIA was watching that day but as sure as anything that while the participants were beetle-eyed on Trujillo and his driver, God’s eye may well have been looking to the future, even to the Spirited network of Dominican American churches in Washington Heights, Manhattan and The Bronx.
Ignacio Lopez-Calvo, 2005. God and Trujillo.Gainesville: University of Florida Press.
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