BOSCH (GAVIO), JUAN

born June 30, 1909, La Vega, Dom. Rep. Dominican writer, scholar, and politician elected president of the Dominican Republic in 1962 but deposed less than a year later. Bosch, an intellectual, early opposed Rafael Trujillo's dictatorial regime. He went into exile in 1937 and in 1939 founded the leftist Dominican Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Dominicano; PRD). The PRD was the first organized political party of the Dominican Republic and the only one with a constructive program ready to step in after Trujillo's death. Bosch, a dazzling and charismatic orator, won a landslide victory in the elections of Dec. 20, 1962. He was the first politician to directly address the peasantry, a heretofore ignored group that gave Bosch an overwhelming majority in the election, and he appealed not only to the poor but cut across class lines to win the favour of the middle class and intellectuals. Bosch, entering office on Feb. 27, 1963, faced severe problems at the outset of his term. The United States was dismayed by the Fidel Castro government in Cuba and leery of the slightest whiff of leftist politics in the Caribbean. This fear was fed by damaging reports of the new regime from an openly hostile U.S. ambassador in the Dominican Republic. And Bosch's constitution of April 29, liberal and democratic, alienated four powerful groups in the country: landholders, even small ones, were frightened by his prohibition against latifundia; the church was angered by the secular nature of the constitution; industrialists felt the constitution was worker-oriented; and the military considered that its powers were curtailed. On Sept. 25, 1963, the military deposed Bosch. After a two-year exile in Puerto Rico (September 28, 1963September 1965), Bosch was allowed to return and reluctantly agreed to take part in the new elections. Fearful for his safety, Bosch campaigned half-heartedly, making no public appearances, and lost to Joaqun Balaguer, the conservative candidate with heavy backing from the United States. Bosch and his party abstained from participating in the 1970 elections, but by 1973 the PRD wanted to rejoin the political process. Bosch resigned from the PRD and formed a third party, the Party of Dominican Liberation (Partido de la Liberacin Dominicana). In subsequent presidential elections Bosch repeatedly lost but repeatedly claimed vote fraud. His term in office was too short to judge his effectiveness as a president, but Bosch's contribution to his country's political development is of paramount importance. After 31 years of dictatorship, Bosch created a genuine political party, forcing the opposition to do the same, and enabling his country to have legitimate, representative elections. Bosch is considered an excellent historian and essayist, having written mostly on Dominican and Caribbean politics. He also wrote novels and a biography, Simn Bolvar (1960).