Trujillo Molina, Rafael Leonidas, << troo HEE yoh moh LEE nah, `rah` fah EHL `lay` oh NEE thahs >> (1891-1961), controlled the government and military of the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1961. He served as president from 1930 to 1938 and from 1942 to 1952. At other times, he controlled the country through puppet governments.
Trujillo was born in San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic, on Oct. 24, 1891. He received military training from the United States Marine Corps during the U.S. occupation of the Dominican Republic from 1916 to 1924. By 1930, Trujillo had risen to chief of the Dominican army. That year, he supported a revolt that unseated the government. He then became president in a fraudulent election.
Trujillo imposed order on the Dominican Republic. He ordered many public works programs. Trujillo himself bought much of the Dominican sugar industry from foreign companies. His biggest achievements were paying the country’s external debt and establishing the Dominican peso as the national currency in 1947.
Trujillo’s government was corrupt and abusive. Most of his relatives held high positions in the government or military. Trujillo himself came to own most of the large industries in the country. His harsh rule caused many of his opponents to go into exile. In 1937, Trujillo ordered the murder of ethnic Haitians in the Dominican Republic. Thousands of Haitians were killed in what became known as the Haitian Massacre. On May 30, 1961, former supporters of Trujillo shot and killed him.
