General Rafael Trujillo

He officially served as president from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952. His 30 years in power, known to Dominicans as the Trujillo Era, is considered one of the bloodiest ever in Latin America. It has been estimated that Trujillo's rule was responsible for the death of more than 50,000 people, including 20,000 to 30,000 in the infamous Parsley Massacre.

In October 1937, Dominican President Rafael Trujillo ordered the execution of the Haitian people living within the borderlands. The violence resulted in the killing of 20,000 to 30,000 Haitians over a span of approximately five days. This would later become known as the Parsley Massacre based on Trujillo’s method for his soldiers to determine whether or not those living on the border were native Dominicans who spoke Spanish fluently. Soldiers would hold up a sprig of parsley, ask "What is this?", and assume that those who could not pronounce the Spanish word perejil were Haitian; parsley is called pèsi in Haitian Creole. In the Dominican Republic, the massacre is known as El Corte ("the cutting").

The Dajabon RiverMassacre River

Exploitation of Haitian Workers in the Sugarcane Industry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhmgPmHubxU