Balaguer Ricardo, Joaquín Videla (1906–2002)

Dominican Republic centre-right politician, president 1960–62, 1966–78, and 1986–96. The country's figurehead president in 1960 under the dictator Rafael Trujillo Molina, he formed the Christian Social Reform Party (PRSC) in 1965, and was elected president in 1966. He established a more democratic regime and closer links with the USA, but faced coup attempts, right-wing terrorism, and left-wing guerrilla incursions. He retired in 1978, but failure of the economic policies of the left-of-centre Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) brought him back to power in 1986.

After re-election in 1990 and 1994, accusations of electoral malpractice led to new elections in 1996, which he did not contest, although his influence continued through his support for the successful candidate Leonel Fernández.

With a doctorate in law from Santo Domingo University and the Sorbonne, Paris, Balaguer first practised as a law professor. During the 1940s he was ambassador to Colombia and Mexico, before entering politics. He was foreign secretary 1954–56 under Trujillo, and fled to the USA soon after the dictator's assassination in 1961, returning to the Dominican Republic in 1965.