Dominican Republic: Political Pamphlets

Pamphlets, poems, declarations, reports, manifestos and conference proceedings issued by the Central General de Trabajadores (Dominican Republic), Centro de Estudios de la Educacin (Dominican Republic), Centro de Investigacin y Apoyo Cultural (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic), Centro de Planificacin y Accin Ecumnica (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic), Grupo de Accin Crtica (Dominican Republic), Instituto de Comunicacin y Educacin (Dominican Republic), Instituto Dominicano de Investigaciones, International Student Conference, Ncleo Comunista de los Trabajadores (Dominican Republic), Partido Revolucionario Dominicano, Sociedad de Amistad con los Pueblos, and the Universidad Autnoma de Santo Domingo.

Following the assassination of Trujillo in 1961 the Dominican Republic endured a series of shortlived governments punctuated by coups prior to the United States military intervention in 1965. This sought to lessen potential communist influence on the island by denying the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD) power, and led to the 1966 election victory of Joaqun Balaguer Ricardo. Balaguer ruled until 1978, when American pressure forced him to accept the election victory of the PRD's Antonio Guzmn. Guzmn and his successor Salvador Jorge Blanco checked the role of the military in politics, and attenpted to implement reforms, but the PRD still lost the 1986 elections and Balaguer returned to power. Economically, this period saw the Dominican Republic prosper in the late 1960s and the 1970s with the rise in sugar prices, but when these began to fall, US import quotas were cut and oil prices rose. The result was an economic crisis which saw IMF intervention and food riots by 1985. The materials held here reflect these political and economic developments, with the predominant perspectives being those of Christian organisations working with the peasantry and of the main union federation, the Central General de Trabajadores (CGT).

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Open to all for research purposes; access is free for anyone in higher education.

Description compiled by Daniel Millum, Political Archives Project Officer at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the Institute for the Study of the Americas

Records at item level on library catalogue (SASCAT)

Copies can usually be obtained - apply to library staff.

The majority of the materials held in the political archives of the Library of the Institute for the Study of the Americas (ISA) originate from the Contemporary Archive on Latin America (CALA), a documentation and research centre on Latin America which donated its holdings to the Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS) upon its closure in 1981. In 2004 ILAS merged with the Institute of United States Studies (IUSS) to form ISA, which inherited the political archives. The core collection has continued since 1981 to be supplemented by further donations and by materials acquired through the visits of Institute staff and their contacts to the relevant countries.

Further accruals are expected

See also Political Pamphlet material for other countries in the region, as well as related material in the library's main classified sequence, all held in the ISA library.