Watching the Transformation

The four-man OAS inspection team last week reported on its brief June visit through the jails and files of slain Dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. The 62-page report reflected the conflicting views of its authors. The three Latin American members favored a relatively clean bill of health to pave the way for readmission of the Dominican Republic into polite inter-American society. The U.S. pressed for a stronger report, condemning the Trujillos for their many past crimes, skeptical of their promises to reform.

The result was a compromise of sorts. The four ambassadors noted, without comment, that the government had declared "its intention to bring about a democratic transformation," had pledged never again to meddle in the internal affairs of another state--a reference to Trujillo's plot to murder Venezuela's President Romulo Betancourt. The OAS team also noted charges that police repressions continued even after the old dictator was dead. Conclusion: "It would be premature to determine the depth of change in the character and policy of the Dominican Republic."

New Invitation. In Ciudad Trujillo, President Joaquin Balaguer immediately invited the OAS investigators to return and see for themselves. He also sent personal invitations to a number of leading Latin American jurists to attend the trial of the accused assassins of Dictator Trujillo.

Balaguer. who had faithfully served the old dictator as President, is nonetheless widely regarded as a sincere and decent man. He appears to have more to be proud of than to hide. There were still scattered reports of strong-arm repressions: 20 arrests in the city of Santiago. the "accidental" death of a youth jailed for ripping Trujillo's picture off a nightclub wall. The government outlawed the far-left Movimiento Popular Dominicano.

Growing Opposition. Yet Balaguer made no attempt to curb three booming, middle-of-the-road opposition parties. One led by three returned exiles, reported signing up 800 new members a day, were met by crowds so exuberant that they even embraced the police escorts. Another group, known as the National Civic Union, signed up 2,500 members in a three-day canvass of the non-Trujillo upper classes. The party's first act was to buy a two-page ad in El Caribe criticizing the government. Balaguer answered with a 2,000-word letter agreeing that changes were needed, but asking for patience. "You want the country to be converted into a new Switzerland,'' he complained, "and demand that I effect that miracle overnight."

Despite the encouraging signs, the opposition fears that no real change is possible until the Trujillos are gone for good. Says one opposition leader, Nicolas Silfa: "They must go not only because they are in so many key positions, but also because they own so much of the island. And, most important, the people hate them."

Many opposition members believe that the Trujillos intend to stay on at all costs. But there is the alternate possibility that they will go quietly, leaving Balaguer as the legitimate head of the government, at least until the elections, promised next May. Such a course would avert the danger of a chaotic period, in which the forces of Castro and Communism work best.

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