19241776 Club
U.S. Marines leave Santo Domingo; eight years of occupation end with Vásquez Lajara in office
Rear Admiral Caperton's 1916 landing to manage a debt crisis outlasted three Dominican governments; policing authority now passes to the National Guard.
For eight years, the Dominican Republic had been governed not by Dominicans but by U.S. military officers enforcing American financial and strategic interests. The occupation had begun in May 1916, when Rear Admiral William B. Caperton landed Marines to stabilize a debt crisis and a domestic power struggle — and never left. On September 18, 1924, U.S. forces formally withdrew, handing policing authority to the Dominican National Guard after the election of Horacio Vásquez Lajara. The Americans departed, but a treaty signed that December left Washington in control of Dominican customs revenues until 1941 — and the National Guard they built would soon belong to Rafael Trujillo…
