republic · Mesoamerica and the Caribbean
Dominican Republic
Origins
After the civil war and US intervention of 1965 ended the Third Dominican Republic, an interim government organised elections in June 1966. Joaquín Balaguer, a former aide of Trujillo, defeated Juan Bosch and introduced a new constitution in November 1966.
Rule and society
Balaguer ruled for twelve years with repression of the left, public works and sugar exports. The 1978 election brought a peaceful transfer to Antonio Guzmán, but Balaguer returned from 1986 to 1996. Leonel Fernández and Danilo Medina of the Dominican Liberation Party then governed for most of the next two decades. Tourism, free trade zones, mining and remittances from Dominicans in the United States transformed the economy, making it one of the fastest growing in Latin America.
To the present
Luis Abinader of the Modern Revolutionary Party won the presidency in 2020 and was re-elected in 2024. Relations with neighbouring Haiti, migration and inequality remain the central issues of the republic.
Lineage
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Dominican Republic. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/dominican-republic
- MLA
- “Dominican Republic.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/dominican-republic. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Dominican Republic.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/dominican-republic.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Dominican Republic’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/dominican-republic (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻