José Francisco Peña Gómez
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José Francisco Peña Gómez (born March 6, 1937 in Mao, Valverde, Dominican Republic, died May 10, 1998 in Cambita Garabitos, San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic) was the leader of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) and former Mayor of Santo Domingo.
Born to poor immigrants from Haiti, Peña Gómez was adopted as an infant by a Dominican family when his parents were forced to flee to Haiti as the Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo unleashed a campaign of hatred against Haitians.
Peña received a doctorate at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) in 1966 before going on to higher studies at the Sorbonne in Paris.
In 1961, he became a supporter of Juan Bosch, then leader of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), who, despite winning the presidential elections of 1962, was ousted in a military coup in September 1963. In 1965, Peña rose to political prominence as he went on Radio Santo Domingo and called for a popular insurrection against the military dictatorship and a return of Bosch. Peña worked with Bosch in the PRD until Bosch left to form the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) in 1973. Under Peña's leadership, the PRD won the presidential election in 1978 (Antonio Guzmán Fernández) and 1982 (Salvador Jorge Blanco), and he himself was Mayor of Santo Domingo from 1982 to 1986.
Peña ran for the presidency in 1990, coming in third behind Joaquín Balaguer of the Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC) and Bosch of the PLD. In 1994's presidential race, Peña lost to Balaguer in an extremely tight election marred by irregularities and fraud. Peña called a general strike which was widely supported by his followers and after international protest, Balaguer announced that he would leave office prematurely in 1996 after serving seven terms in power. In the 1996 poll, Peña won the first round of voting but fell short of the majority needed. In the second round of voting, Leonel Fernández, a lawyer representing the PLD, won a narrow victory due to an alliance between the PLD and the PRSC.
Peña Gómez, who suffered from pancreatic cancer, died in his home from a pulmonary edema, 10 days before the 1998 mayoral elections of Santo Domingo, in which he was running.
He is considered, by his PRD followers, as the most important leader in recent political history in Dominican Republic.
[edit] Trivia
- One of the latest Dominican "old school" political leaders (He along lifelong rivals Joaquín Balaguer and Juan Bosch).
- Was City Mayor of Santo Domingo from 1982 to 1986. His period is mostly remembered for the creation of the Playa Güibia (Güibia Beach), on the seaside boulevard and plantation of ornamental trees in mayor city avenues.
- Was always targeted of Haitian ancestry, a fact that his followers vehemently denied at each electoral campaign, albeit Peña Gómez himself never denied nor confirmed his true origins.
- He encouraged the violently infamous incident called the Concordazo[1] during a bout in 1985 against candidate Jacobo Majluta on who was going to run for the country's presidency on behalf of the PRD.
- It’s arguable that Peña Gómez exploited reverse discrimination to further advance his political career. His campaign managers argued in his last presidential campaign that since the country was "composed mostly of black people", they should vote for him. That statement backfired because the opponent, Leonel Fernández Reyna, was a mulatto and won such elections. The country’s main ethnicity groups are composed mostly by mulattos (65%), then blacks (20%) and lastly 10% of whites who, nonetheless maintain political supremacy.
- He is also credited as being the implicit creator of the infamous "Dos mas Dos" (two plus two) a political formula created to permit two candidates take office of a single senate seat, concurrently, during a single electoral period. This was created to please angered PRD party members who would not concede victory to another member running for the same spot. Albeit a clearly anti-democratic move, there is a loophole in the Dominican Constitution which permits an elected officer to "bargain" or trade his seat to favor his own party members with all the privileges a senator earns.
- Being a key political figure until his death, the main Dominican Republic international airport was renamed from "Aeropuerto Internacional Las Américas" to "Aeropuerto Internacional Las Américas José Francisco Peña Gómez". Honoring his memory was not the motivation, but mainly a political retaliatory action excised by the PRD congressional members against the executive branch's naming the newly founded Puente Presidente Bosch (President Bosch Bridge) after the winning party’s late founder.
- Died of pancreatic cancer, just days before a city election for Mayor of Santo Domingo for the second time.
- During his funeral, one of his members was mistaken for Pelegrín Castillo (FNP party president), and got severely beat-up by his own angered militants.
