Assassination In Santo Domingo

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30884, 18 October 1965, Page 15

Assassination In Santo Domingo

(N.Z. Press Association— Copyright) . SANTO DOMINGO, October 17. An angry mob tonight attacked the residence of Severo Cabral, a long-time opponent of the former Dominican President, Juan Bosch, and killed him in a burst of machine-gun fire.

Cabral’s wife and daughter also were injured in the shooting, the latest in a long series of violent acts which have racked Santo Domingo since a shaky truce was declared on August 31 between rebel followers of Bosch and the opposing military junta.

Severo Cabral, formerly an Ambassador to Israel, was a distant relative and political ally of Donald Reid Cabral, who headed the civilian junta which ruled the nation for 17 months before pro-Bosch rebels overthrew him last April. This attempt to return Bosch to power touched off four months of bloody rioting between rebels and powerful sections of the military which opposed the return of the Premier from his exile in Puerto Rico.

The shooting apparently stemmed from animosities generated during the rebellion. The attack occurred as Cabral and his family were leaving their home. The mob burned their car and attacked the house with rifle and machine-gun fire. Cabral died on the way to hospital. His wife and daughter were both admitted to hospital. Ambulance Called Police said Cabral, who was 56, was gunned down when he entered the formerly rebelheld sector to remove furniture from his home there.

His daughter, Ada, aged 26, said that an assailant entered the ambulance taking him away and fired more shots which killed him. Cabral served as Interior Minister of the junta which deposed President Juan Bosch and incurred the wrath of Leftists for action taken against their organisations and leaders.

Eye witnesses said that the mob gathered when word spread that the Cabral family had re-entered the home they abandoned at the time of the uprising last April.

Police said the crowd yelled: “Death to the traitor,” “Death to Severo Cabral.” When the family tried to leave by a rear door, they were shot.

“They kept shouting they wanted to kill my father,” Cabral’s daughter said. “A man with a machine-gun fired one burst and wounded my father in the shoulder and my mother in the arm. J tried to cover my father so they wouldn’t see that he was still alive.

“Some police agents arrived just as part of the crowd approached in a threatening manner asking if my father was still alive.

“The police put my father in an ambulance. But just as I got into the ambulance with my father, someone stuck his arm through a window and fired three more shots into my father's body and wounded me ih the arm.”