Joaquín Balaguer

Joaquín Balaguer
President Joaquin Balaguer
President of the Dominican Republic
In office 16 August 1986 – 16 August 1996
Vice President	Carlos Morales Troncoso Jacinto Peynado y Garrigosa
Preceded by	Salvador Jorge Blanco
Succeeded by	Leonel Fernández
In office 1 July 1966 – 16 August 1978
Vice President	Francisco Augusto Lora Carlos Rafael Goico
Preceded by	Héctor García-Godoy
Succeeded by	Antonio Guzmán Fernández
In office 3 August 1960 – 16 January 1962
Vice President	Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly
Preceded by	Héctor Trujillo
Succeeded by	Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly
Vice President of the Dominican Republic
In office 16 August 1957 – 3 August 1960
President	Héctor Trujillo
Preceded by	Manuel Troncoso de la Concha
Succeeded by	Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly
Personal details
Born	1 September 1906 Bisonó, Dominican Republic
Died	14 July 2002 (aged 95) Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Political party	Dominican Party (1957–1961) Independent (1961–1966) Social Christian Reformist Party (1966–1996)
Religion	Catholicism, Freemason

Joaquín Antonio Balaguer Ricardo (1 September 1906 – 14 July 2002) was the President of the Dominican Republic who served three non-consecutive terms for that office for his first term from 1960 to 1962, again for a second term from 1966 to 1978, and again for a third and final term from 1986 to 1996.

Balaguer was born in Villa Bisonó (also known as Navarrete), Santiago Province in the northwestern corner of the Dominican Republic. His father was Joaquín Jesús Balaguer Lespier, a Puerto Rican native of Catalan and French ancestry, and his mother was Carmen Celia Ricardo Heureaux, daughter of Manuel de Jesus Ricardo and Rosa Amelia Heureaux (of French descent), who was also a cousin of President Ulises Heureaux. Balaguer was the only son in a family of several daughters.

From a very early age, Balaguer felt an attraction to literature, composing verses that were published in local magazines even when he was very young. After graduating from school, Balaguer earned a law degree from the University of Santo Domingo and studied for a brief period at the University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne As a youth, Balaguer wrote of the awe with which he was struck by his father’s fellow countryman, the Harvard graduate and political leader from Puerto Rico, Pedro Albizu. Despite the profound differences regarding their ethical and world visions, Albizu’s fiery and charismatic rhetoric captured Balaguer’s imagination and his recollection of this occasion was a harbinger of his passion for politics and intellectual debate

Balaguer’s political career began in 1930 (before Rafael Trujillo took control of the government) when he was appointed Attorney in the Court of Properties. In later years, he served as Secretary of the Dominican Legation in Madrid (1932–1935), Undersecretary of the Presidency (1936), Undersecretary of Foreign Relations (1937), Extraordinary Ambassador to Colombia and Ecuador (1940–1943 and 1943–1947), Ambassador to Mexico (1947-1949), Secretary of Education (1949–1955), and Secretary of State of Foreign Relations (1953–1956).