ABSTRACT
Latin America has never been renowned for political stability. In the modern world there seems to be something about 'Latin' states that makes for political turbulence of one kind or another. The 'Era of Trujillo' was one of the most notable periods in the recent history of the Latin American states. Like so many Latin American states it was plagued by protest movements and banditry for many years and had uncertain relations with its neighbouring state, Haiti. The chapter considers briefly just two incidents, in Dominica and Nicaragua respectively, the first of which could have come straight out of the pages of Deighton or Le Carre. With so much pressure coming from the Americans on whom they were economically dependent, the Dominican government decided that they had to take these matters more seriously. The Americans hardly welcomed political turbulence so near to home, and had tried to achieve some kind of rapprochement between the various ideological and regional factions.
