In early 1930, the Dominican Republic was faced with the dilemma of electing a new president. Rafael Trujillo, through coercion and murdering those that supported his opposition, won the presidential election by a landslide. He completely dominated the country with his authoritarian regime, until his assassination in 1961 ("Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina"). Trujillo was one of the most powerful men in Latin America during his reign. Prestige and wealth was of great importance for him. His desire to be in command of a nation with high regard and prosperity pushed Trujillo to cross moral boundaries, as well as pay the price for his brutality.
Haiti had historically occupied the Dominican Republic when the country was much less populated during the mid 19th century. The relationship between the two countries has been continuously unsteady throughout the centuries and the border between them has remained poorly defined. The two countries are a part of the…show more content… In his early years, Trujillo trained with the U.S. Marine Corps and worked his way up the ranks to become the commander-in-chief in 1925 of the Dominican Republic’s first municipal police force ("Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina"). The Roosevelt administration at the time was focusing on establishing a Good Neighbor policy toward Latin America by trying to limit the authoritarian regimes that were brought to light during U.S. intervention. The Haitian massacre brought on by the Trujillo regime created an international outcry that was comparable to that of Hitler and Mussolini. The negative publicity of Trujillo’s actions consequently threatened to undo the work of the Good Neighbor policy in promoting inner-American cooperation. Roosevelt demanded that Trujillo pay reparations to the families of the victims, but Trujillo justified the mass murder by mentioning Haiti’s occupation of the Dominican Republic one century