On May 30, 1961, a hail of bullets ended the life of Generalissimo Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, known to his countrymen as “The Goat” for his many revolting excesses, after thirty-one years of brutal rule over the Dominican Republic.
This book is a riveting, minute-by-minute account of the plot to kill Trujillo, who was then the Western Hemisphere’s most ruthless dictator, and the ferocious wave of revenge that ensued before his regime collapsed. The book also reveals the vacillating role of the United States — and the CIA — in first propping up the dictator, and then supplying weapons to slay him.
Bernard Diederich knew most of those involved in the plot, and painstakingly recreates the events in a gripping book that reads like a novel, which also offers essential insights into the history of a troubled Caribbean nation.
“It is an excellent book, that any reader who wants to be informed about Trujillo should read. I have used information the book provides because it’s an excellent reportage about the killing of Trujillo. … Investigative reporting which reads like a riveting police mystery. A fascinating book.”— Mario Vargas Llosa, author of Feast of the Goat, Miami Herald
“The story told by Diederich, veteran Caribbean correspondent and a pungent writer, is both tragic and humorous, with a wildly improbable plot. If the book were a novel the story would be dismissed as preposterous. But it is all true and Diederich describes the actions and motives with considerable zest. Much blood flows and at the end there is scarcely a single character left alive.”— The Guardian