DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Man of Discernment

As a man of discernment and honesty, Dean J. A. Bonilla Atiles of the University of Santo Domingo’s law school refused to plump for Dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo’s reelection.

Because he was also a prudent man, Dean Bonilla immediately hightailed it for the safety of the Mexican Consulate. When he emerged, on the Government’s guarantee of security, a member of the secret police clubbed him with a steel riding crop as he strode into Ciudad Trujillo’s Rialto Theater. He would probably have been shot had not his wife thrown herself in front of him as a shield. Bonilla got back to the consulate.

But last week Bonilla was breathing the free, cindery air of Manhattan. Pressure from the Mexicans and the strong, but repressed resentment of the Dominican populace had persuaded the Dictator to grant Bonilla another security guarantee. This time he did not stop at the movies.

“I was very fortunate to escape from the Dictator’s assassins,” said Bonilla in Manhattan last week. “The ceremony of murder in Santo Domingo is usually more efficient.” When Oppositionist Servio Fuentes was shot down on the street recently, the Government ambulance was standing nearby, the grave was dug and waiting.