Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T12:25:18.932Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Counter-Revolution's Patron: Rafael Trujillo versus Venezuela's Acción Democrática Governments, 1945–8

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2022

Aaron Coy Moulton
Aaron Coy Moulton*
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Latin American History, Stephen F. Austin State University
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: AaronCoyMoulton@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article uncovers the myriad ways Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo destabilised Venezuelan politics between 1945 and 1948, the period known as the Trienio Adeco. In contrast to works focused on Trujillo's personal animosity towards Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt, this article argues that Trujillo sought to sabotage Venezuela's governments under Acción Democrática as part of his regional foreign policy targeting bastions of Dominican exiles, anti-Trujillo critics and democratic institutions. Trujillo financed an informal network of Venezuelan conspirators who produced propaganda and launched plots undermining the Adeco governments. With the 1948 military coup, Trujillo derailed democracy and gained a reliable ally in Latin America as those he had long backed entered influential posts and remained beholden to their former benefactor.

Spanish abstract

Spanish abstract

Este artículo devela las múltiples formas en que el dictador dominicano Rafael Trujillo desestabilizó la política venezolana de 1945 a 1958, periodo conocido como el Trienio Adeco. En contraste con trabajos que se centran en la animosidad personal de Trujillo contra el presidente venezolano Rómulo Betancourt, este artículo indica que Trujillo buscó sabotear al gobierno de Venezuela gobernado por Acción Democrática como parte de su política exterior regional dirigida contra bastiones de exiliados dominicanos, críticos anti-Trujillo e instituciones democráticas. Trujillo financió una red informal de conspiradores venezolanos que produjeron propaganda y organizaron complots para minar los gobiernos de Adeco. Con el golpe militar de 1948, Trujillo logró descarrilar a la democracia y obtuvo un aliado confiable en Latinoamérica en la medida en que quienes patrocinó por mucho tiempo consiguieron puestos influyentes y permanecieron en deuda con su antiguo benefactor.

Portuguese abstract

Portuguese abstract

Este artigo revela as inúmeras maneiras como o ditador dominicano Rafael Trujillo desestabilizou a política venezuelana de 1945 a 1948, período conhecido como Trienio Adeco. Em contraste com os trabalhos focados na animosidade pessoal de Trujillo com o presidente venezuelano Rómulo Betancourt, este artigo argumenta que Trujillo procurou sabotar os governos da Venezuela sob comando da Acción Democrática como parte de sua política externa regional visando bastiões de exilados dominicanos, críticos anti-Trujillo e instituições democráticas. Trujillo financiou uma rede informal de conspiradores venezuelanos que produziram propaganda e lançaram conspirações minando os governos da Adeco. Com o golpe militar de 1948, Trujillo descarrilou a democracia e ganhou um aliado confiável na América Latina, pois aqueles que ele havia patrocinado entraram em cargos influentes e permaneceram em dívida com seu antigo benfeitor.

Keywords

dictatorsDominican RepublicespionageexilesVenezueladictadoresRepública DominicanaespionajeexiliadosVenezueladitadoresRepública DominicanaespionagemexiladosVenezuela
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , February 2022 , pp. 29 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Ben, Mu-Kien Adriana Sang, Cordero, Walter and Zeller, Neici (eds.), La política exterior dominicana, 1844–1961, 3 vols. (Santo Domingo: Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, 2000–2)Google Scholar; Vega, Bernardo, Trujillo y Haití, 1946–1950: vol. 4: El complot contra Estimé (Santo Domingo: Fundación Cultural Dominicana, 2009)Google Scholar; Wells, Allen, Tropical Zion: General Trujillo, FDR, and the Jews of Sosúa (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009)Google Scholar; Guitart, Jorge Renato Ibarra, Las relaciones cubano-dominicanas: Su escenario hemisférico, 1944–1948 (Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nación, 2011)Google Scholar; Matos, Elíades Acosta, La telaraña cubana de Trujillo, vol. 2 (Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nación, 2012)Google Scholar; Moulton, Aaron Coy, ‘Counterrevolutionary Friends: Caribbean Basin Dictators and Guatemalan Exiles against the Guatemalan Revolution, 1945–50’, The Americas, 76: 1 (2019), pp. 107–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Ávila, Gustavo Salcedo, Venezuela, campo de batalla de la Guerra Fría: Los Estados Unidos y la era de Rómulo Betancourt (1958–1964) (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, Fundación Bancaribe para la Ciencia y la Cultura, 2017)Google Scholar.

3 Most recently, Salas, Miguel Tinker, The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture, and Society in Venezuela (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mark Seddon, ‘British and US Intervention in the Venezuelan Oil Industry: A Case Study of Anglo–US Relations, 1941–1948’, PhD Dissertation, University of Sheffield, 2014; Cáceres, Alejandro E., Londres en Caracas y La Haya en Maracaibo: Retos empresariales de la Royal Dutch Shell en la economía venezolana, 1943–1958 (Caracas: Fundación Bancaribe para la Ciencia y la Cultura, 2019)Google Scholar.

4 Ventura, Santiago Castro, Trujillo vs. Betancourt: ¡Rivalidad perpetua! (Santo Domingo: Editora Manatí, 2008)Google Scholar; Gudat, Edgardo Mondolfi, El día del atentado: El frustrado magnicidio contra Rómulo Betancourt (Caracas: Editorial Alfa, 2013)Google Scholar.

5 For a representative example, see José Agustín Catalá (ed.), El golpe militar de 1948 contra el Presidente Gallegos: Artífices y cómplices civiles. Síntesis histórica de la asonada que produjo 10 años de dictadura (Caracas: Ediciones Centauro, 2008), which republishes his 1961 compilation El golpe militar contra el Presidente Gallegos: Gestores, animadores, autores, colaboradores, cómplices y opositores with contemporary newspaper articles, military decrees and public speeches.

6 Ellner, Steve, ‘Venezuela’, in Bethell, Leslie and Roxborough, Ian (eds.), Latin America between the Second World War and the Cold War, 1944–1948 (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 147–69Google Scholar; Aram, Bethany, ‘Exporting Rhetoric, Importing Oil: United States Relations with Venezuela, 1945–1948’, World Affairs, 154: 3 (1992), pp. 94–106Google Scholar; Maya, Margarita López, EE.UU. en Venezuela: 1945–1948 (Revelaciones de los archivos estadounidenses) (Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, 1996)Google Scholar; Rivas, Darlene, Missionary Capitalist: Nelson Rockefeller in Venezuela (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2002)Google Scholar; Schwartzberg, Steven, Democracy and U.S. Policy in Latin America during the Truman Years (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2003)Google Scholar.

7 Lucca, Rafael Arráiz, El ‘trienio adeco’ (1945–1948) y las conquistas de la ciudadanía (Caracas: Editorial Alfa, 2011)Google Scholar; Gudat, Edgardo Mondolfi, Temporada de golpes: Las insurrecciones militares contra Rómulo Betancourt (Caracas: Editorial Alfa, 2015)Google Scholar.

8 Ameringer, Charles, The Democratic Left in Exile: The Antidictatorial Struggle in the Caribbean, 1945–1959 (Coral Gables, FL: University of Miami Press, 1974)Google Scholar; Moulton, Aaron Coy, ‘Militant Roots: The Anti-Fascist Left in the Caribbean Basin, 1945–1954’, Estudios Interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe, 28: 2 (2017), pp. 14–29Google Scholar.

9 Lanz, Laureano Vallenilla, Escrito de memoria (Caracas: Ediciones Garrido, 1967)Google Scholar; Muñoz, Agustín Blanco, Habla el general (Caracas: Editorial José Martí, 1983)Google Scholar.

10 Carrillo, Leonardo Altuve, Yo fui embajador de Pérez Jiménez (Caracas: Ortiz e Hijos, 1973), pp. 185–98Google Scholar; Muñoz, Agustín Blanco, Pedro Estrada habló (Caracas: Editorial José Martí, 1983), pp. 96–8Google Scholar.

11 Gregorio Bustamante, Una satrapía en el Caribe (Mexico City: n.p., 1950). US, Mexican, Cuban, Venezuelan and other archives hold copies of the original memorandum; a complete version is published in Salvador E. Morales Pérez's Almoina, un exiliado gallego contra la dictadura trujillista (Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nación, 2009), pp. 299–352.

12 Comisión Investigadora contra el Enriquecimiento Ilícito (Venezuela), Llovera Páez: Procónsul de la dictadura (Caracas: Ediciones Centauro, 1971).

13 Landaeta, Federico, Cuando reinaron las sombras: Tres años de luchas contra el ‘Romulato’ en Venezuela (Madrid: Gráfica Clemares, 1955)Google Scholar; Alexander, Robert J., Rómulo Betancourt and the Transformation of Venezuela (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1982), pp. 244–7Google Scholar; Edgardo Mondolfi Gudat, General de armas tomar: La actividad conspirativa de Eleazar López Contreras durante el trienio, 1945–1948 (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 2009).

14 See Francis Pou García, ‘Movimientos conspirativos y el papel del exilio en la lucha antitrujillista’, Clío, 78: 177 (2009), pp. 13–72; Juan José Ayuso, Lucha contra Trujillo, 1930–1961 (Santo Domingo: Editorial Letra Gráfica, 2010).

15 On this democratic moment, see Bethell and Roxborough (eds.), Latin America; Greg Grandin, The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2004), pp. 19–71; Aaron Coy Moulton, ‘Building Their Own Cold War in Their Own Backyard: The Transnational, International Conflicts in the Greater Caribbean Basin, 1944–1954’, Cold War History, 15: 2 (2015), pp. 135–54.

16 On the local dimensions, regional proponents, heightened violence and contested chronology of what is often called Latin America's Cold War, see Gilbert M. Joseph, ‘What We Now Know and Should Know: Bringing Latin America More Meaningfully into Cold War Studies’, in Gilbert M. Joseph and Daniela Spenser (eds.), In from the Cold: Latin America's New Encounter with the Cold War (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008), pp. 3–46; Greg Grandin, ‘Living in Revolutionary Time: Coming to Terms with the Violence of Latin America's Long Cold War’, in Greg Grandin and Gilbert M. Joseph (eds.), A Century of Revolution: Insurgent and Counterinsurgent Violence during Latin America's Long Cold War (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010), pp. 1–42; Gilbert M. Joseph, ‘Latin America's Long Cold War: A Century of Revolutionary Process and U.S. Power’, in Grandin and Joseph (eds.), A Century of Revolution, pp. 397–414; Tanya Harmer, Allende's Chile and the Inter-American Cold War (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2011); Alan McPherson, ‘Afterword: The Paradox of Latin American Cold War Studies’, in Virginia Garrard-Burnett, Mark Atwood Lawrence and Julio E. Moreno (eds.), Beyond the Eagle's Shadow: New Histories of Latin America's Cold War (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2013), pp. 307–20; Andrew J. Kirkendall, ‘Cold War Latin America: The State of the Field’, H-Diplo Essay No. 119 (Nov. 2014), pp. 1–17; Aldo Marchesi, ‘Escribiendo la Guerra Fría latinoamericana: Entre el Sur “local” y el Norte “global”’, Estudos Históricos, 30: 60 (2017), pp. 187–202; Gilbert M. Joseph, ‘Border Crossings and the Remaking of Latin American Cold War Studies’, Cold War History, 19: 1 (2019), pp. 141–70; Marcelo Casals, ‘Which Borders Have Not Yet Been Crossed? A Supplement to Gilbert Joseph's Historiographical Balance of the Latin American Cold War’, Cold War History, 20: 3 (2020), pp. 367–72; Thomas C. Field Jr, Stella Krepp and Vanni Pettinà (eds.), Latin America and the Global Cold War (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2020).

17 Ellis O. Briggs, No. 70, Ciudad Trujillo, 5 July 1944, National Archives II, College Park, MD, Record Group 84 (hereafter NARAII), ‘Dominican Republic, Strictly Confidential Files, 1929–1945’, Box 1.

18 Russell Duncan Macrae, ‘Political Situation …’, Ciudad Trujillo, Sept. 1947, National Archives, London (hereafter TNA), FO 371/60919. Trujillo renamed Santo Domingo (the Dominican Republic's capital) ‘Ciudad Trujillo’ in the 1930s.

19 Cyril F. W. Andrews, ‘Abridged Political Review …’, Ciudad Trujillo, 17 March 1944, TNA, FO 371/38261.

20 Alexander Paterson, No. 124, Ciudad Trujillo, 5 July 1944, TNA, FO 371/38261.

21 Acosta Matos's La telaraña cubana touches briefly upon ‘imperialismo dominicano’.

22 ‘Memorándum …’, La Habana, Dec. 1949, Archivo Central del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, La Habana, File ‘Cayo Confites, 1946–1947’.

23 See Vega, Trujillo y Haití.

24 See Acosta Matos, La telaraña cubana.

25 George H. Butler, No. 443, Ciudad Trujillo, 5 Feb. 1947, NARAII, ‘Venezuela, U.S. Legation & Embassy, Caracas, Classified General Records, 1935–1961’ (hereafter US Embassy Caracas), Box 52, Folder ‘710: Dominican Republic and Venezuela’.

26 George Butler, Ciudad Trujillo, 16 Dec. 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 44, Folder ‘800: December 1946’.

27 The ‘Four Freedoms’ originated in Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 6 Jan. 1941 State of the Union Address to Congress; Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter that August.

28 Bethell and Roxborough (eds.), Latin America.

29 [Donald St. Clair] Gainer, No. 41, Caracas, 20 March 1944, TNA, FO 371/38808.

30 Cyril F. W. Andrews, No. 11, Ciudad Trujillo, 17 Jan. 1945, TNA, FO 371/44448.

31 George Ogilvie-Forbes, Caracas, 24 Oct. 1944, TNA, FO 371/38288.

32 Buenaventura Sánchez, ‘Asuntos Dominicanos’, Últimas Noticias, 20 July 1944; ‘Revolutionary Movement of Exiles from the Dominican Republic’, with Robert L. Brown, Caracas, 29 Feb. 1944, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 25, Folder ‘800: Dominican Republic, 1946’.

33 A summary is provided in Joseph Flack, No. 6249, Caracas, 27 July 1944, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 25, Folder ‘800: Dominican Republic, 1946’.

34 ‘Se acordó la constitución …’, Ahora (Caracas), 17 July 1944.

35 Boletín Hebdomadario de Información Confidencial, No. 18, 24 July 1944, with Manuel A. Peña Batlle to Rafael Trujillo, ‘Asunto: Boletín Hebdomadario’, Ciudad Trujillo, 24 July 1944, Archivo General de la Nación, Santo Domingo (hereafter AGNRD), Fondo Presidencia, Colección Secretaría de Estado de Relaciones Exteriores (hereafter SERREE), Box 2903759, File ‘Boletín, 1944, Código 240’.

36 Cyril F. W. Andrews, No. 118, Ciudad Trujillo, 4 Oct. 1944, TNA, FO 371/38298.

37 Manuel A. Peña Batlle, Circular No. 21, Ciudad Trujillo, 24 July 1944, AGNRD, SERREE, Box 2903759, File ‘Boletín, 1944’.

38 Ellis O. Briggs, No. 204, Ciudad Trujillo, 8 Aug. 1944, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 23, Folder ‘710: Dominican Republic and Venezuela’.

39 Frank P. Corrigan, No. 6871, Caracas, 27 Dec. 1944, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 23, Folder ‘710: Dominican Republic and Venezuela’.

40 George Ogilvie-Forbes, No. 106, Caracas, 30 May 1945, TNA, FO 371/45152.

41 George Ogilvie-Forbes, No. 194, Caracas, 29 Oct. 1945, TNA, FO 371/45154.

42 George Ogilvie-Forbes, No. 198, Caracas, 31 Oct. 1945, TNA, FO 371/45154.

43 Russell Duncan Macrae, No. 138, Ciudad Trujillo, 15 Nov. 1945, TNA, FO 371/45154.

44 Leake [sic], No. 13, Guatemala, 19 Nov. 1945 and George Ogilvie-Forbes, No. 238, Caracas, 8 Dec. 1945, TNA, FO 371/45154; Rómulo Betancourt to Juan José Arévalo, Miraflores, 22 Oct. 1946, GT-CIRMA-AH-045-004-002-006-149, Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica, Antigua Guatemala, Archivo Histórico, Fondo Archivo Personal de Juan José Arévalo Bermejo (hereafter CIRMA).

45 Rómulo Betancourt to Juan José Arévalo, Caracas, 18 Feb. 1946, GT-CIRMA-AH-045-004-002-006-105, CIRMA.

46 Roberto Despradel, No. 226, Guatemala, 5 July 1946; Roberto Despradel, No. 263, Ciudad de Guatemala, 5 Aug. 1946, AGNRD, SERREE, Box 2903348, File 3348.

47 Russell Duncan Macrae, No. 86, Ciudad Trujillo, 15 Nov. 1946, TNA, FO 371/52231.

48 Chancery, Caracas, 27 Nov. 1946, TNA, FO 371/52231.

49 George Ogilvie-Forbes, No. 295, Caracas, 25 Nov. 1947, TNA, FO 371/60919; Foreign Office to D. V. S. Hunt, 29 Nov. 1947, TNA, FO 371/61393.

50 George Ogilvie-Forbes, No. 296, Caracas, 25 Nov. 1947, TNA, FO 371/60919.

51 Russell Duncan Macrae, No. 59, Ciudad Trujillo, 4 Aug. 1947, TNA, FO 371/60918.

52 Macrae, ‘Political Situation …’.

53 Russell Duncan Macrae, No. 20, Ciudad Trujillo, 7 Feb. 1947, TNA, FO 371/61390.

54 ‘Memorándum de conversación … con el general venezolano Rafael Simón Urbina’, AGNRD, SERREE, Box 2903226, File ‘1945, Memorándum’.

55 Morales Pérez, Almoina, p. 304.

56 Miguel Montesinos, Report No. R-206-45, 29 Dec. 1945, AGNRD, Colección Bernardo Vega (hereafter CBV), File 064-121.

57 Rafael Simón Urbina, Victoria, dolor y tragedia: Relación cronológica y autobiográfica (Ciudad Trujillo: L. Sánchez Andújar, 1946).

58 For one of the earliest reports to highlight Urbina's slanders, see Emile Lecours, Caracas, 26 Sept. 1946, TNA, FO 371/52209.

59 Anti-Communist National Movement Publication of Free Venezuela, Rafael Simón Urbina's Accusation of His Being a Pederast Pursues Rómulo Betancourt: Proof of the Homosexual Activities of the Present President of Venezuela, 3rd edn (Mexico City: n.p, 1959).

60 On the Venezuelan military and politics in this period, Edwin Lieuwen, Arms and Politics in Latin America (New York: Praeger, 1960); Winfield J. Burggraaff, The Venezuelan Armed Forces in Politics, 1935–1959 (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1972); Alejandro Velasco, Barrio Rising: Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2015).

61 Allan Dawson, No. 8263, Caracas, 7 Jan. 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 43, Folder ‘800: January, 1946’; Allan Dawson to George F. Scherer, Caracas, 12 Feb. 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 43, Folder ‘800: February 1946’.

62 Frank P. Corrigan, No. 8750, Caracas, 18 May 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 43, Folder ‘800: May 1946’.

63 See Joseph F. Santoiana to Frank P. Corrigan, 22 April 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 43, Folder ‘800: April, 1946’; Joseph F. Santoiana to Frank P. Corrigan, Caracas, 25 June 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 43, Folder ‘800: June 1946’.

64 Morales Pérez, Almoina, p. 306.

65 Frank P. Corrigan, No. 9022, Caracas, 26 July 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 43, Folder ‘800: July 1946’; Allan Dawson, No. 9315, Caracas, 4 Oct. 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 44, Folder ‘800: October 1946’.

66 ‘Memorándum de conversación’ (footnote 54).

67 José Vicente Pepper to Emilio Zeller, Puerto Príncipe, 4 July 1946, AGNRD, SERREE, Box 2903226, File ‘1946, Cartas de Emilio Zeller … Díaz Ordóñez’.

68 Rafael Paíno Pichardo to Emilio Zeller, Ciudad Trujillo, 8 July 1946 and Rafael Paíno Pichardo to Virgilio Díaz Ordóñez, Ciudad Trujillo, 8 July 1946, AGNRD, SERREE, Box 2903226, File ‘1946, Cartas de Emilio Zeller’.

69 Pepper, José Vicente, Fichas del romulato (Ciudad Trujillo: Editora Montalvo, 1947)Google Scholar; Pepper, José Vicente, La gran emboscada (Ciudad Trujillo: Editora Montalvo, 1948)Google Scholar.

70 Pepper, José Vicente and de Pepper, Graciela Rincón Calcaño, Realidades dominicanas (Ciudad Trujillo: Editora Montalvo, 1947)Google Scholar.

71 Pepper, José Vicente, I Accuse Braden / Yo acuso a Braden (Ciudad Trujillo: Editora Montalvo, 1947)Google Scholar.

72 José Vicente Pepper, Las garras del Soviet sobre Centro América / Soviet's Claws on Central America (Ciudad Trujillo: Papelera Industrial Dominicana, 1948).

73 Luis F. Thomen, No. 533, 11 Feb. 1948, AGNRD, SERREE, Box 2903349.

74 See Arturo Calventi to Virgilio Díaz Ordóñez, No. 366, Managua, 7 Sept. 1948, AGNRD, SERREE, Box 2903958, File ‘Nicaragua’.

75 José Vicente Pepper, without title, without date, AGNRD, SERREE, Box 2903957, File ‘1948’.

76 Federico Fiallo, ‘Informe enviado desde Trinidad por el Señor Pedro Estrada’, 23 [Feb.] 1947, AGNRD, SERREE, Box 2902655, File ‘1947’.

77 See TNA, FO 371/60919, passim.

78 On López Contreras, see Mondolfi Gudat, General de armas tomar.

79 Eleazar López Contreras, ‘Manifesto Issued to the Press of Caracas’, 17 Jan. 1944, with [Donald St. Clair] Gainer, No. 15, Caracas, 17 Jan. 1944; Ogilvie-Forbes, No. 145, Caracas, 17 Nov. 1944 and George Ogilvie-Forbes, No. 148, Caracas, 23 Nov. 1944, TNA, FO 371/38793.

80 Frank P. Corrigan to Spruille Braden, Caracas, 13 July 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 42, Folder ‘Venezuela 1946 Confidential’.

81 Eleazar López Contreras to Frank P. Corrigan, Medellín, 16 July 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 42, Folder ‘710: Venezuela-Other Am. Republics, 1946’; John Cooper Wiley, [No.] 496, Caracas, 17 July 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 42, Folder ‘Venezuela 1946 Confidential’; Frank P. Corrigan, No. 8498, Caracas, 11 March 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 43, Folder ‘800: March 1946’. There were rumours Corrigan provided encouragement to López Contreras's plots, but no evidence has confirmed this.

82 Carl G. Wagner, R-61-46, Caracas, 30 March 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 43, Folder ‘800: March 1946’.

83 José María Nouel to Rafael Trujillo, Miami, 25 April 1946, AGNRD, CBV, File 067-067.

84 US officials’ sources reported at this time that Venezuelans including General González, Alberto Díaz, General Julio Faria, Raimundo Curiel and General León Jurado – at the time in Colombia – were exchanging letters with López Contreras about leading an uprising after the elections, so it is possible that they were López Contreras's associates as he worked with Nouel in Miami: ‘Re: Political Activities in Venezuela’, 26 Oct. 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 44, Folder ‘800: October 1946’.

85 José María Nouel to Rafael Trujillo, Miami, 26 April 1946, AGNRD, CBV, File 067-067.

86 British and US officials received reports linking López Contreras to various other plots to which he lent moral support: George Ogilvie-Forbes, No. 247, Caracas, 20 July 1946, TNA, FO 371/52208; Joseph F. Santoiana to Frank P. Corrigan, ‘Re: Rumors of Counter-Revolution’, 9 July 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 43, Folder ‘800: July 1946’.

87 Rafael Trujillo to Eleazar López Contreras, Ciudad Trujillo, 14 Aug. 1946, AGNRD, CBV, File 067-063.

88 Eleazar López Contreras to Rómulo Betancourt, Carlos Delgado Chalbaud and Mario R. Vargas, Medellín, 29 July 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 43, Folder ‘800: July 1946’.

89 Allan Dawson, No. 9366, Caracas, 17 Oct. 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 44, Folder ‘800: October 1946’.

90 Allan Dawson, No. 9384, Caracas, 22 Oct. 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 44, Folder ‘800: October 1946’.

91 Although the FBI interviewed Nouel about these activities, the consul was tipped off in advance by Eisenhardt, allowing him to provide minimum information, thereby protecting the operation. Thus, while the FBI and State Department reports in the NARAII collections cited in this article provide broad overviews of the 1946 plot, details of Nouel's working with López Contreras on Trujillo's orders are found in AGNRD, CBV, Folder 073-009, and SERREE, Box 2903226, File ‘1947, Memorándum’.

92 Allan Dawson, Ciudad Trujillo, [No.] 574, Caracas, 15 Dec. 1946 and Allan Dawson, No. 9561, Caracas, 17 Dec. 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 44, Folder ‘800: December 1946’.

93 Allan Dawson, No. 587, 20 Dec. 1946 and Allan Dawson, [No.] 584, Caracas, 18 Dec. 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 44, Folder ‘800: December 1946’. The FBI arrested Eisenhardt and his partners in April 1947 before they could flee the United States, to the relief of Venezuelan and US officials.

94 David Francis, No. 272, Caracas, 17 Dec. 1946, TNA, FO 371/61390; Foreign Office, ‘The Venezuelan Revolution’, 19 Dec. 1946, TNA, FO 371/52208.

95 George Ogilvie-Forbes, No. 59E, Caracas, 7 April 1947, TNA, FO 371/61391.

96 David Francis, No. 282, Caracas, 31 Dec. 1946, TNA, FO 371/61390.

97 George Ogilvie-Forbes, No. 1, Caracas, 28 Jan. 1947, TNA, FO 371/61390.

98 George Ogilvie Forbes [sic], No. 34, Caracas, 18 Jan. 1947, TNA, FO 371/61390.

99 Ibid. The ‘responsibility’ to defend the government is a common theme in works on the Venezuelan military: see footnote 60.

100 Henry J. Armstrong, 53-46, Caracas, 20 Dec. 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 44, Folder ‘800: December 1946’.

101 ‘Memorandum to the Ambassador’, 7 Dec. 1947, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 44, Folder ‘800: December 1946’.

102 Eleazar López Contreras to Julio César Vargas, Philadelphia, 14 Nov. 1946, AGNRD, CBV, Folder 067-066.

103 George Ogilvie-Forbes, No. 61, Caracas, 15 April 1947, TNA, FO 371/61392.

104 ‘Memorándum’, with Betancourt to Arévalo, 20 Dec. 1947, GT-CIRMA-AH-045-004-002-006-300, CIRMA.

105 George Ogilvie-Forbes, No. 69, Caracas, 31 Jan. 1947, TNA, FO 371/61390.

106 British Legation to Chancery, Managua, 12 Feb. 1947, TNA, FO 371/61391; Richard H. Post to Walter J. Donnelly, 13 Jan. 1948, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 65, Freedom of Information Act Request folder.

107 ‘Chapita [Trujillo] ayuda a López Contreras’, Últimas Noticias, 3 Jan. 1947; ‘Bombas en número … López Contreras en Santo Domingo’, El Nacional, 13 March 1947; George Ogilvie-Forbes, No. 71, Caracas, 1 Feb. 1947, TNA, FO 371/61390.

108 José María Nouel to Rafael Trujillo, Miami, 4 Feb. 1947, AGNRD, CBV, File 073-075.

109 Enclosure, with Frank P. Corrigan, No. 9745, Caracas, 7 Feb. 1947, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 54, Folder ‘Feb. 1947, Confidential’.

110 Louis Miccio, ONI No. 104-300, Caracas, 6 Feb. 1947, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 54, Folder ‘Feb. 1947, Confidential’.

111 Report of Conversation, Caracas, 11 July 1946, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 54, Folder ‘800: January, 1947’.

112 Frank P. Corrigan, No. 9842, Caracas, 4 March 1947, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 55, Folder ‘800: March, 1947’.

113 For more on this air-bombing plot, Moulton, Aaron Coy, ‘El cuasi-bombardeo de Caracas en 1948: Dictadores, exiliados y proyectos contrarrevolucionarios propios’, Boletín de la Academia Nacional de la Historia, 53: 412 (2020), pp. 10–44Google Scholar.

114 Altuve Carrillo, Yo fui embajador de Pérez Jiménez, pp. 193–8.

115 George Ogilvie-Forbes, No. 15, Caracas, 4 Feb. 1948, TNA, FO 371/68302.

116 J. V. Rodríguez de Pool to Mario de Diego, ‘Memorándum’, 4 Feb. 1948, Archivo del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Panamá, Ciudad de Panamá, ‘Vol. 5: Embajada de Venezuela en Panamá, 1948–1950’, Folder No. 3.

117 F. J. Stephens to Victor Butler, ‘Venezuela’, 3 Dec. 1947, TNA, FO 371/61393.

118 Rómulo Betancourt to Juan José Arévalo, Miraflores, 24 Nov. 1947, GT-CIRMA-AH-045-004-002-006-290; Rómulo Betancourt to Juan José Arévalo, Miraflores, 20 Dec. 1947, GT-CIRMA-AH-045-004-002-006-300; Juan José Arévalo to Rómulo Betancourt, Guatemala, 26 Dec. 1947, GT-CIRMA-AH-045-004-002-006-302, CIRMA.

119 George Ogilvie-Forbes, No. 300, Caracas, 29 Nov. 1947, FO 371/61393.

120 Foreign Office to Washington, No. 12492, 3 Dec. 1947, TNA, FO 371/61393.

121 F. J. Stephens to Victor Butler, ‘Venezuela’, 2 Dec. 1947 and Foreign Office to Washington, No. 12570, 5 Dec. 1947, TNA, FO 371/61393.

122 Russell Duncan Macrae, No. 10, Ciudad Trujillo, 3 Dec. 1947, TNA, FO 371/61393.

123 Archibald Clark Kerr (Lord Inverchapel), No. 6806, Washington, 4 Dec. 1947, TNA, FO 371/61393. Lord Inverchapel was the British ambassador to Washington, DC.

124 Russell Duncan Macrae, No. 140, Ciudad Trujillo, 3 Dec. 1947, TNA, FO 371/61393.

125 See Seddon, ‘British and US Intervention in the Venezuelan Oil Industry’ and Cáceres, Londres en Caracas y La Haya en Maracaibo.

126 George Ogilvie-Forbes, No. 1, Caracas, 1 Jan. 1948, TNA, FO 371/68302.

127 Stanley Ross to Rafael Trujillo, Barranquilla, 7 Sept. 1948, AGNRD, SERREE, Box 2903957, File ‘1948’.

128 Stanley Ross, ‘Memorándum’, Barranquilla, 7 Sept. 1948, ibid.

129 Information Research Department, ‘Week of December 13–20’, Caracas, 3 Jan. 1949, TNA, FO 371/74887; Thomas J. Maleady, No. 814, Buenos Aires, 28 Dec. 1948, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 66, Folder ‘800: Venezuela Military Coup Correspondence …’.

130 Walter J. Donnelly to Paul C. Daniels, Caracas, 28 Dec. 1948, NARAII, US Embassy Caracas, Box 66, Folder ‘800: Venezuela Military Coup Correspondence …’.

131 K. J. Collie, ‘Memorandum for H. M. Minister’, 11 May 1949, TNA, FO 371/74024.

132 Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi to Rafael Trujillo, Cable, Caracas, 28 April 1949, AGNRD, SERREE, Box 2903959, File ‘Informaciones Confidenciales, Venezuela’.

133 José Vicente Pepper, Cable, no date, AGNRD, SERREE, Box 2903959, File ‘Informaciones’.

134 José Vicente Pepper to Rafael Trujillo, Ciudad Trujillo, 12 Nov. 1949, AGNRD, SERREE, Box 2903959, File ‘Informaciones’.

135 Héctor Incháustegui Cabral to Rafael Trujillo, No. 128, México, 28 Jan. 1950, AGNRD, SERREE, Box 2904052, File ‘1950’; Moulton, Aaron Coy, ‘The Dictators’ Domino Theory: A Caribbean Basin Anti-Communist Network, 1947–1952’, Intelligence and National Security, 34: 7 (2019), pp. 945–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

136 Ramón Brea Messina to Rafael Trujillo, 30 Oct. 1949, AGNRD, SERREE, Box 2903959, File ‘Informaciones’.

137 Altuve Carrillo, Yo fui embajador de Pérez Jiménez, pp. 367–70, does not admit to his deeper involvement in plots against Caribbean Basin governments in the 1950s.

138 Incháustegui Cabral to Trujillo, 28 Jan. 1950 (footnote 135).

139 Francisco Pérez Leyba, No. 505, 10 Aug. 1949, AGNRD, SERREE, Box 2903959, File ‘Informaciones’.

140 Elías Casado to Rafael Trujillo, México, 29 Jan. 1950, AGNRD, SERREE, Box 2904052, File ‘1950’.

141 ‘Memorándum …’, Dec. 1949 (footnote 22).

142 Díaz, Pedro Antonio, Por qué yo maté a Delgado Chalbaud (Caracas: Publicaciones Seleven, 1980), p. 186Google Scholar.