Héctor B. Trujillo: only five relatives left Dominican Republic with Trujillo’s wealth

Santo Domingo.- Héctor B. Trujillo, nephew of Dominican dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, offered a different account of the family’s fortune after the tyrant’s assassination. Contrary to rumors that all relatives fled with large sums of money, Héctor stated that only five people—Trujillo’s widow María Martínez, their children Ramfis, Radhames, Angelita, and Héctor himself—left the country with funds. According to a CIA document from September 1961, María departed for Paris on her yacht “Angelita” with US$46 million. Héctor emphasized that Trujillo never allowed anyone to remove money from the country during his lifetime.

Héctor recalled that in early 1961, Trujillo had instructed his secretary to register eight commercial properties in the names of Héctor and his two brothers, generating a modest monthly allowance of 1,500 pesos each. After the dictator’s assassination in July 1961, Héctor’s mother received 28,000 pesos saved from these properties, which was the only money the family took out of the Dominican Republic. Other family members, including José Arismendy, Pedro Vetilio, Romeo Amable, and Nieves Luisa Trujillo, were left with nothing and relied on support from Bienvenido Trujillo.

Héctor, who was particularly close to his uncle, described a relationship marked by favoritism; he was the only nephew who could freely ask Trujillo for favors. He often spent time with the dictator at the National Palace and racetrack, where Trujillo even gifted him six horses. Héctor stressed that all of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo’s brothers, except him, died in poverty, and that the notion of the entire family fleeing with riches is a misconception.