DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: EI Benefactor

Before 2,000 delegates of his obedient Dominican Party, Dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina announced last week that he would not seek a fifth term in next year's presidential election. But, he added, "my presence shall not be lacking in the solution of any fundamental problem." Dominicans knew what that meant: Generalissimo Trujillo, self-styled Benefactor of the Fatherland, would still be watching.

For Trujillo, giving up the presidency does not necessarily mean giving up power. His countrymen learned that much in 1938. The year before, Trujillo's soldiers butchered thousands of Haitians who had settled...