José Salvador Omar Jorge Blanco, (5 July 1926 - 26 December 2010) was the 41st President of the Dominican Republic.[1] He was the first Dominican president to be charged with corruption.[1]
Early life
Blanco was born in Santiago de los Caballeros and studied law at the University of Santa Dominigo.[1] He went into politics in the 1960's after the dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo was murdered. He joined a social democratic party, the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD). Blanco became leader of the party and won the 1982 presidential election.[1]
Career
At the same time Blanco became president, the world price on sugar dropped. The economy of the Dominican Republic was in a financial crisis as the government was spending far more than the country could afford and was three billion dollars in debt.[2] The International Money Fund demanded cuts to spending. There were protests and riots. Blanco sent in the army to crush the protests: more than 100 people were killed, 500 wounded and thousands were put in prison.[1] It was claimed that Blanco and other members of the government were making a lot of money through corrupt dealings with the army and military contracts.[1]
Blanco did not stand in the 1986 election, and the new government put him on trial for corruption.[2] He tried to gain asylum from Venezuela, but they said no.[1] He was permitted to go the United States for medical treatment for a heart condition.[1] While he was in the US he was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to prison for 23 years.[1] There were many legal challenges, and he finally only spent two months in prison. In 2001 the Supreme Court ruled that the corruption charges were not true.[1]
He died in 2010 from a heart attack after falling out of bed and hitting his head.[2]
References
