Dominican Violence

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30939, 21 December 1965, Page 21

Dominican Violence

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) SANTO DOMINGO, December 20. A force of 150 American paratroopers raced to Santiago and ended a violent battle between Dominican Army regulars and former rebels barricaded in a hotel, the Associated Press reported. At least 11 persons were killed in yesterday’s fighting —nine Army regulars and two rebels including Colonel Juan Lora Fernandez, funner Chief of Staff of the rebei army. The violence swirled into

Santo Domingo, 120 miles to the south, where an angry pro-rebel mob disarmed a policeman and then shot him dead. Bands of youths swarmed through the streets, upsetting dustbins, setting fire to tyres and erecting barricades that partially disrupted east-west traffic. There were no reports of Americans being injured. American and Brazilian troops of the inter-American peace force reinforced two companies in the heart of Santo Domingo to restore order. Some shooting broke out in the city as night fell. The American troops sped to Santiago at the request of the provisional Presidon’., Mr Hector Garcia-Godoy The Interior Minister, Mr Manuel Joaquin, said the

battle ended in the early afternoon when the U.S. paratroopers sealed off the Hotel Matum.

Army officers had ordered tanks into the battle to flush the rebel fighters out of the two-storey hotel. They said the rebels were armed with two heavy machine-guns, but this was denied by a rebel captain. Hotel Evacuated Thirteen Americans at the hotel were evacuated by U.S. helicopters to a nearby air base. The rebel fighters barricaded in the hotel were flown by United States helicopters from the hotel to an airport near Santo Domingo end then taken by truck to their camp on the eastern outskirts of the city. Among those removed was rebel chief Colonel Francisco Caamano Deno.

A delegation of labour leaders demanded that President Hector Garda-Godoy ramove the top military leaders. If he did not they said, they would call a general strike.