Dominican Republic marks 54 years of its Revolution

Santo Domingo.- Today marks the 54th anniversary of the Revolution of April 1965, a civic-military movement characterized by the active, militant and armed participation of the masses to return Juan Bosch to power.

Bosch is overthrown seven months after being sworn in as constitutional president, the first democratically elected after Rafael Leonidas Trujillo’s 30-year dictatorship.

The putsch occurred on September 24, 1963, by a faction of the Armed Forces led by Elias Wessin y Wessin.

The revolt comes after the promulgation of the 1963 Constitution, which established freedom of religion and expression, political freedom, the right to housing, equality among children born under marriage and those out of wedlock, as well as the return of political dissidents and exiled during the Trujillo regime.

Juan Bosch’s government was to a great extent a rarity in Dominican history at that time, since it was a free election, a liberal, democratic government, which expressed concern for the well-being of all Dominicans.