born June 30, 1909, La Vega, Dom. Rep.
died Nov. 1, 2001, Santo Domingo
Scholar, poet, and president of the Dominican Republic (1963).
Bosch was raised in a lower-middle-class family. Dismayed by the brutality of the dictator Rafael Trujillo , he spent 24 years in exile but returned after Trujillo's death to build a leftist anticommunist movement. After winning the first free presidential election in 38 years, he instituted liberal constitutional changes, many of which benefited the country's poor. His reforms, however, alienated landholders and industrialists, and after only seven months in office Bosch was ousted in a military coup. When his supporters revolted against the ruling junta in 1965, U.S. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson, claiming that Bosch's followers were communists, sent troops to suppress the rebellion. Over the subsequent three decades, Bosch ran repeatedly but unsuccessfully for president.