ABSTRACT
Few political leaders in the twentieth century have been as sanguinary, venal, and corrupt as Generalissimo Rafael Leonidas Trujillo y Molina in the Dominican Republic. From the day he assumed power in that unhappy little country in 1930, until his death by assassination in 1961, Trujillo ruled "his" country with an iron hand. The Dominican Party was officially founded on March 11, 1932, with Rafael Leonidas Trujillo listed as its Director. Plans for the Party had been underway, however, almost from the time Trujillo assumed power in the Dominican Republic in August, 1930. In a sense, by 1932 Trujillo was the environment in the Dominican Republic, as he dominated not only the political structure but the entire life of the nation. Rafael Trujillo was born in 1891 in the little town of San Cristobal, eighteen miles west, along the Caribbean coast, from Santo Domingo.
