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Military commands follow family lines

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Military commands follow family lines
SD. Among the recent appointments of military commanders made by the Executive Power once again family ties are seen in questions regarding military leaders.

The new chief of staff of the Army of the Dominican Republic, Major General José Matos de la Cruz, is the son of the former Secretary of the Armed Forces, retired general Ramiro Matos Gonzalez, and the new commanding general of the Air Force, Brigadier General Elvis Feliz Perez, is the nephew of the former chief of staff of the National Army retired Major General Enrique Perez y Perez.

The historian and former Secretary of the Armed Forces, retired general José Miguel Soto Jimenez, said that these relationships among the Dominican military are "a very old custom in all the periods of the Republic."

"General Pedro Santana himself had a twin brother who was named Ramon Santana, who was also a general," he said.

"This is the country of the interconnections - he adds -, and therefore there are ties, and this is part of the Dominican culture. Francisco Del Rosario Sanchez, and his descendents were all generals," he explains.

In the country's military and police registries are found the names of different commanders, who were preceded by strong bloodline connections, including even the same position.

One such case is that of the former chief of the National Police, retired Major General Rafael Guillermo Guzmán Fermin, the son of the former Police Chief, retired Major General Rafael Guillermo Guzmán Acosta.

Also, they can watch out for the names of the former chief of the Dominican Navy and the National Police, Admiral Luis Homero Lajara Burgos, whose son the retired vice Admiral Homero Luis Lajara Solá was chief of the Dominican Navy, today called the Armada of the Dominican Republic.

Among other military personnel that have occupied positions and who descend from top rank officers there is Major General Carlos Luciano Diaz Morfa, who occupied the position of commander of the National Army, and who is the son of the Army general Luciano Diaz Morfa.

There is also Juan Rafael Folch Hubieral, the former director of the National Directorate of Drug Control, the son of Major General Juan Nepomuceno Folch Perez.

Juan Danilo Balcacer, a member of the Dominican Academy of History and president of the National Commission of Patriotic Anniversaries, points out that in the Dominican Republic "there is a tendency within the military that there is sort of a family succession."

"In the case of military parents, it is evident that there is a component of influence identified with what your father does, not necessarily something imposed, and which occurs in the case of many through the years who followed the military careers of their fathers, while others did not do," he pointed out.

The lines of family succession are also found in other social sectors such as the judicial and business sectors.

Decrees

Last Tuesday President Danilo Medina swore in the new Minister of Defense, Lieutenant General William Munoz Delgado and the top military commanders appointed in Decrees Number 300, 301, 302 and 303 - 14.

Decree 301 - 14 promotes Brigadier General and pilot Elvis Feliz Perez to the rank of Major General and appoints him the Commander General of the Air Force of the Dominican Republic. Decrees 301 - 14 also promoted Brigadier General José Eugenio Matos Delacruz to the rank of Major General, and appointed him Commanding General of the Army of the Dominican Republic.