Rafael Trujillo, the often blood-thirsty dictator of the Dominican Republic for 31 years, perhaps deserved his fate in an even-handed appraisal of history.

The recent history of the Dominican Republic is an almost classical study of the way in which even a professedly benevolent dictatorship tends to become oppressive.

The Dominican Republic could turn toward Communist-type authoritarianism as easily as toward Western freedom.

For that reason any democratic reform and effort to bring genuine representative government to the Dominican Republic will need the greatest sympathy and help.

If the Dominican Republic achieves free, democratic government, it will be due in large part to the U.S. show of force that enabled President Balaguer to prevent a threatened restoration of Trujillo dictatorship.

In some countries the trend has gone further than others: Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela are displaying open sympathy for Castroism, and there is no country -- save the Dominican Republic whose funeral services we recently arranged -- where Castroism and Anti-Americanism does not prevent the government from unqualifiedly espousing the American cause.

The southern arrows bend northward just east of the Dominican Republic before straightening out again.

Countries where ASL or a derivative of ASL is the national or a widespread language include Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Botswana ( with BSL ), Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, the Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d ' Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Kenya ( minority use ), Liberia, Madagascar ( minority use ), Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Philippines ( L2 use ), Puerto Rico, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Trinidad and Tobago, Togo, and Zimbabwe ( with ZSL ).

Worry beads ( masbaha ) made of Dominican Republic blue amber.

Amber jewellery from Dominican Republic

* Adrián Beltré, Dominican Republic baseball player

* Restoration Day ( Dominican Republic )

* 1965 – United States occupation of the Dominican Republic: American troops land in the Dominican Republic to " forestall establishment of a Communist dictatorship " and to evacuate U. S. Army troops.

* 1946 – An earthquake of magnitude 8. 0 hits northern Dominican Republic.

* Alexandra Caso ( born 1987 ), Dominican Republic volleyball player

* 1965 – Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic when Colonel Francisco Caamaño, overthrows the triumvirate that had been in power since the coup d ' état against Juan Bosch.

ARIN formerly covered Argentina, Aruba, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Dutch West Indies, Ecuador, El Salvador, Falkland Islands ( UK ), French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela until LACNIC was formed.

About 5 % of the population is of Hispanic origin, regardless of race, primarily from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

With a $ 1. 92-billion-a-year tourism industry, Costa Rica stands as the most visited nation in the Central American region, with 1. 9 million foreign visitors in 2007, thus reaching a rate of foreign tourists per capita of 0. 46, one of the highest in the Caribbean Basin, and above other popular destinations such as Mexico ( 0. 21 ), Dominican Republic ( 0. 38 ), and Brazil ( 0. 03 ).

Costa Rica joined other Central American countries, plus the Dominican Republic, in establishing a Trade and Investment Council with the United States in March 1998.

Had U.S. warships not appeared off the Dominican coast, there is every possibility that the country would now be wracked by civil war.

Dominican amber, especially Dominican blue amber, is mined through bell pitting, which is dangerous due to the risk of tunnel collapse.

Although all Dominican amber is fluorescent, the rarest Dominican amber is blue amber.

Its most familiar representative is Dominican amber.

Resin from the extinct species Hymenaea protera is the source of Dominican amber and probably of most amber found in the tropics.

St. Raymond of Penyafort ( 1175 – 1275 ), a Spanish Dominican priest, is the patron saint of canonists, due to his important contributions to the science of canon law.

Cable television in the Dominican Republic is provided by a variety of companies.

The main service provider in the Dominican Republic is Telecable from Tricom.

Aster is concentrated in Santo Domingo, but is expanding its service throughout the Dominican Republic.

The Dominican Republic ( Spanish: República Dominicana ) is a country in the West Indies that occupies the eastern two-thirds of Hispaniola.

The land border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which occupies the western one-third of the island, is 388 km long.

: Shares island of Hispaniola with Haiti ( eastern two-thirds is the Dominican Republic, western one-third is Haiti )

Many of the human religions depicted in the Babylon 5 universe are the same ones which exist today: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and others are depicted on episodes of the series ; most notably, an order of Dominican friars set up a mission on the station, Commander Susan Ivanova is an occasionally practicing Jew, and Michael Garibaldi, though raised Catholic, is an agnostic.

* St. Mary's Church-former Dominican church, erected in the 13th century, rebuilt in the 14th and 16th centuries ; damaged in World War II and reconstructed in 1961 as an art gallery ; remnants of cloister are partially preserved

It was a sort of poetic justice that at the time of his own demise a new plot to overthrow the Venezuelan government, reportedly involving the use of Dominican arms by former Venezuelan Dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez, has been uncovered and quashed.

Ultimately either the Trujillos would have been returned to power or the conflict would have produced conditions favorable to a takeover by Dominican elements responsive to Castro in Cuba.

Dominican amber differentiates itself from Baltic amber by being mostly transparent and often containing a higher number of fossil inclusions.

During the exercise of his duties he enhanced his reputation for humility by refusing to ride a horse — in accord with the dictates of the Dominican order — instead walking back and forth across his huge diocese.

He also translated four books against the errors of the Greeks, by Manuel Kalekas, Patriarch of Constantinople, a Dominican friar ( Ingolstadt, 1608 ), P. G., CLII, col. 13-661, a work known only through Ambrose's translation.

The traveling Dominican clergyman and writer Bartolomé de las Casas estimated that the neo-Taino population of Cuba had reached 350, 000 by the end of the 15th century.

The Dominican Republic's small Catalina Island has been studied since 13 December 2007, by a team of underwater archaeologists from Indiana University, after an Italian tourist announced the discovery of an old wreck at just under the clear blue waters, at a distance of no more than offshore.

It was reported on 13 December 2007, that " wreckage of a pirate ship abandoned by Captain Kidd in the 17th century has been found by divers in shallow waters off the Dominican Republic.

The Dominican Republic's shores are washed by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and the Caribbean Sea to the south.

Lost Dominican business was captured by firms in Central America and Asia.

The use of a foreign company for the extraction of gold at the largest mine in the Western Hemisphere has startled and concerned many Dominican's who believe that this gold is Dominican gold and should be extracted by Dominican companies and not foreign.

The Order of Preachers (), after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Roman Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III ( 1216 – 27 ) on 22 December 1216 in France.

The Dominican Order is headed by the Master of the Order, who is currently Father Bruno Cadoré.

The Dominican nuns were founded by St. Dominic even before he had established the friars.

As well as the friars, Dominican sisters live their lives supported by four common values, often referred to as the Four Pillars of Dominican Life, they are: community life, common prayer, study and service.

" Henri Matisse was so moved by the care that he received from the Dominican Sisters that he collaborated in the design and interior decoration of their Chapelle du Saint-Marie du Rosaire in Vence, France.

Dominican laity are governed by their own rule, the Rule of the Lay Fraternities of St. Dominic, promulgated by the Master in 1987.