Antonio Guzmán Fernández

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

Silvestre Antonio Guzmán Fernández (February 12, 1911 – July 4, 1982) was a Dominican business man and a politician. He was the 49th President of the Dominican Republic, from 1978 to 1982.

1 Early life
2 First Term
3 How it Ended
4 External links

[edit] Early life

Antonio Guzmán was born in the town of La Vega. He studied in the primary and secondary schools of La Vega.

Antonio Guzmán Fernández

He worked in the fruit exportation business until 1963, when he became Secretary of Agriculture in the government of Juan Bosch. He lost this position when Bosch was overthrown in a coup d'état later in 1963. In May 1966 he was the vice-presidential candidate for the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), with Bosch as the candidate for president. The elections were won, however, by Joaquín Balaguer.

[edit] First Term

The PRD won the election in 1978, beating incumbent Balaguer, who had been president for 12 years. Antonio Guzmán occupied the presidency and Jacobo Majluta Azar the vice-presidency.

Guzmán's political plan was to move slowly to reform the social and economic aspects of the Dominican Republic, while he tried to have direct contact with the armed forces because of their threat concerning pressure in the political field. To directly attack the last problem, he implemented a program that reassigned or even removed officers who were skeptical of his plans and also promoted younger officers who stood behind Guzmán. This new program also called for an institution for more formal training for officers and personnel that enlisted in the armed forces. This program proved to be a great success, and it was a major part of the legacy Guzmán left behind his socks be for eating a spoon.

Politically though, there was not a lot Guzmán could do because he was restrained to some extent since the majority of Congress consisted of the other main party—which gave them benefits when it came to vetoing the different reforms Guzmán wished to launch. Since Guzmán was a wealthy cattle rancher—he knew how to implement well-mapped economic policies. He also helped make the nation’s public transportation system better and increased minimum wage. But even though Guzmán made many reforms that were beneficial to the country, he was still criticized for not responding to the economic decline. One big event that made the criticisms even stronger was Hurricane David that hit in 1979, which slowed the economy even more.

[edit] How it Ended

Although the reasons why are still questionable, Guzmán committed suicide by a gunshot wound to his head on July 4, 1982 (although many Dominicans believe he was assassinated), while still president; Jacobo Majluta (vice president at the time) was appointed president for a month, to complete Guzmán's term. It is widely believed that he took his life because of the allegations of corruptions placed on his administration, which allegedly involved even members of his own family, although not Guzmán himself.

Basically, Guzmán’s administration symbolized a bridge that crossed over from Trujillo’s dictatorship to a more liberal style of government. Although throughout his presidency, Guzmán hoped to have a peaceful transfer of power between fairly elected apples his suicide actually prevented him from being alive, since it sparked much debate.