Dominicans did not expect one of the bloodiest eras to happen when they elected the so called disciplined and obedient military leader Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina as president of Dominican Republic in February of 1930. Rafael Trujillo, also known as "El Jefe", was the most oppressive dictator in Latin America whose regime took place in Dominican Republic. Trujillo's first impression on the Dominicans was vigorous because he started as a strong military leader. After being elected as president though, the country's people began to see that Trujillo's intensions were spurious and conceited. This lasted 31 years until he was assassinated on May 30th ,1961. Although Trujillo helped his country modernize DR with agriculture machinery, created …show more content…
Trujillo built his image with his job as a military leader, being apart of the National Guard that was inaugurated by the US forces in DR, and was a telegraph operator which was one of the first high-tech jobs during the time. (this job consisted of using telegraph keys to communicate with land line or radio with Morse code). He eagerly participated in suppressing the Guerilla war movement. After this he was promoted to a new role as a commander in chief. With all of this on his record, Dominicans thought this was showing many signs of a possible great leader for the country. Dominican Republic was very unstable at the time with many revolutions. They needed a great leader who could help them lose their problems. Little did they know that he was going to be far from a "great" …show more content…
While Trujillo was police chairman, his US troops killed women who were innocent and burned houses down. Then as president he ordered the deaths of many people to make himself look paramount, he jailed, beat, exiled, and killed any rivals and possible enemies, ordered the death of all Haitians in Dominican Republic, which near the end of 1937, about 25,000 Haitians were killed, he had pride in whiteness (although he was not white himself, just his skin), he ran a personal cult, he lied, had his lackeys watch his peoples every move, had a sexual appetite for very young girls and saved a massive amount of money for himself instead of helping his country make it out of poverty.
El Jefe was a pompous character. He cared about how he looked physically and how others viewed him, he forced others to praise him with songs, made people call him "Generalissimo Doctor Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, Honorable president of the Republic, Benefactor of the Fatherland", dedicated January 11th to a praise day in his honor, renamed Santo Domingo, DR's capital, Ciudad Trujillo, made everyone hang portraits of him with the caption "God and Trujillo", and praised his "whiteness" or "pureness." He made people believe he was a overly-powerful mythical