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He grew up in grinding poverty, a wiry, vicious brawler in his sugar-cane town of San Cristóbal. Opportunity arrived with the U.S. Marines, who landed in 1916 to watch over customs collections and bond payments, and who used Trujillo as an informer and procurer of obliging ladies. Trujillo's idol was a trigger-happy captain named C. F. Merkle, whose idea of order was shooting "troublemakers." Merkle was finally arrested, and committed suicide before he could be tried. But Trujillo went on to become boss of the Dominican armed forces, a position he used to make himself President in 1930. "God & Trujillo." No absolute ruler—not even France's Sun King—was more foppishly vain. Applying his own version of droit du seigneur, Trujillo took three wives, countless mistresses. Scattered about his peanut-sized fief were twelve palaces and ranches at which a full staff of servants faithfully prepared every meal every day just in case the master dropped in. At each mansion, Trujillo kept a full wardrobe of uniforms complete with white-plumed fore-and-aft hats.
Busts of Trujillo adorned every park; plaques proclaiming that "in this house, Trujillo is boss" dangled from the wall of every shop. Along the roadside, signs proclaimed "Thank You, Trujillo," and neon beacons flashed the message "God and Trujillo." No Dominican dared oppose, or even snicker.
Object Lesson. For Trujillo understood the power of terror. Thousands of opponents perished quietly in SIM secret-police dungeons, in spectacular "auto accidents" and incredible "suicides." Trujillo's avenging arm reached even to the U.S. in the famed 1956 kidnap-murder of Columbia University Lecturer Jesus de Galindez, a bitter Trujillo critic and onetime tutor of the dictator's children. The peak of his terror was reached one October night in 1937, when Trujillo issued instructions to eliminate Haitian squatters along the northwest border. Working nonstop for 36 hours, Trujillo's highly efficient army butchered a reported 15,000 men, women and children.
Looking the Other Way. Trujillo horrified many people in the U.S. and Latin America. But he did not rule by terror alone. He had a natural talent for autocratic management. Starting with the 1930 hurricane that destroyed 70% of the capital, Trujillo imposed a rigidly controlled economy that rebuilt the city in short order. When he took power, the republic was burdened by a $20 million unpaid—and unpayable—debt. Trujillo decreed such heavy taxes that the debt was paid off in 17 years.