Rafael Trujillo

Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina was a Dominican military officer who seized power in August 1930 and held it through figurehead presidents and his title of generalissimo until May 1961. The Trujillo Era stretched across three decades when Caribbean dictatorships flourished, but his regime stood out for its reach and violence: the state terrorism apparatus extended beyond borders to New York, Venezuela, and Mexico, hunting critics and dissidents. By 1960, the abduction of Jesús Galíndez in New York, the attempted assassination of Venezuelan president Rómulo Betancourt, and the killing of the Mirabal sisters brought OAS sanctions and severed the regime's support. On 30 May 1961, conspirators led by General Antonio Imbert Barrera assassinated him; his son Ramfis executed most of them before the family was forced into exile by November, leaving civil strife that ended in foreign intervention and the return of multi-party rule in 1966.