1973: Francisco Caamaño, the Dominican Republic’s would-be Fidel
February 16th, 2008 Headsman
On this date in 1973, Col. Francisco Caamano was (perhaps*) captured by forces of the Dominican dictatorship and summarily executed while trying to organize a guerrilla resistance.
Caamano was heir to a long family military tradition; his father had been a Defense Minister for the dictator Rafael Trujillo.
Unsteady governments followed Trujillo’s 1961 assassination. Caamano came to prominence by mounting a 1965 coup against a military junta and in favor of the constitutional regime it had overthrown two years earlier. The coup was an initial success — Caamano was temporarily the de facto head of state — but also triggered an American intervention against the distrusted leftist government.
Caamano licked his wounds in Cuba for a few years before mounting a small landing in early February 1973 with a handful of followers, looking to foment a peasant revolution — a play right out of the Cuban Revolution, but considerably less successful. Harried by the military, the operation was crushed within weeks with only three survivors.
A Spanish-language tribute to Caamano is here. Another more general educational page (also in Spanish) is here.
* This is the guerrillas’ version. The government’s version was that Caamano was killed in battle.
Note: Title corrected.
Also On This Date
- 1912: Thomas Jennings, fingerprinted
- 1939: The only triple execution in Manitoba
- 1535: Etienne de la Forge, John Calvin's friend
- 1495: William Stanley, Lord Chamberlain
Possibly Related Executions
- 1948: Amir Sjarifuddin
- 1918: Tsar Nicholas II and his family
- 1967: Ernesto “Che” Guevara
- 1871: The Paris Commune falls
- 1872: Du Wenxiu, Panthay rebellion leader
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Borderline "Executions",Cuba,Dominican Republic,Famous,Heads of State,Martyrs,No Formal Charge,Power,Revolutionaries,Shot,Soldiers,Summary Executions,Wartime Executions
Tags: 1970s, 1973, february 16, francisco caamano
May 27th, 2009 at 3:54 am
Nitpick. He wasn’t Dominica’s would-be Castro, he was the Dominican Republic’s. They’re two rather different places.
May 27th, 2009 at 9:44 am
Headline fail! Thanks for that catch.