(3 Nov 1996) Spanish/Nat
The new Dominican president Leonel Fernandez has fired four senior military officers including the armed forces chief whom he accused of insubordination.
The sackings were only part of a wide-ranging purge of the military.
On Monday he had forced 24 of the Caribbean nation's 61 generals into retirement, all close to former veteran President Joaquin Balaguer.
The new Dominican president Leonel Fernandez fired four more officers Friday, including his newly appointed armed forces chief, Juan Bautista Rojas Tabar.
President Leonel Fernandez went on national television Friday to say he was firing Juan Bautista Rojas Tabar for insubordination and said that should serve as an example to all his military and civilian underlings
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"In this government, democracy will not perish. But it will be a democracy with order, with authority and with respect."
SUPER CAPTION: Leonel Fernandez, President of the Dominican Republic
Fernandez had already forced into retirement 24 of the Caribbean nation's 61 generals on Monday.
All 24 were close to longtime President Joaquin Balaguer, whom Fernandez succeeded in August.
Balageur's leadership was plagued by corruption on a massive scale.
Rojas Tabar and other officers had pushed for the purge, arguing that the army was overloaded with ageing generals given sinecures under Balaguer's corrupt regime.
On Thursday, Rojas Tabar called for Fernandez to get rid of more generals.
Rojas Tabar claimed the generals had been spreading rumours that he had ordered the murder of an outspoken critic of Balaguer two years ago.
Rojas Tabar had threatened to quit if the president did not retire them.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"I am a very serious man and the games in this country are going to end. Either we respect each other, or we do not continue like this. Mr. President, I hope - and I told him last night - that he take the proper measures. Either they are retired, or I go home - today, or whenever necessary."
SUPER CAPTION: Juan Bautista Rojas Tabar, Former Armed Forces Chief of the Dominican Republic
The next day he did go home, but for a different reason - he was fired and publicly dressed-down.
Fernandez did not take kindly to General Tabar's demands.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"I cannot permit, under any circumstances, that he or any other member of the armed forces or of the police place me in a dilemma of this nature before the Dominican people, because accepting it,
the person who would have to go home would be the president of the republic. This president of the republic will go home with a free conscience and calm spirit on the 16th of August of the year 2000 (the end of his presidential term)."
SUPER CAPTION: Leonel Fernandez, President of the Dominican Republic
Fernandez also fired - without saying why - the chief of the navy, Rear Admiral Geraldo Santana Solano, and ordered the retirement of army General Fernando Sanchez Aybar and National Police General Ramon Alcide Rodriguez Arias.
All three were Balaguer appointees, but the navy chief had been reconfirmed after Fernandez succeeded Balaguer in August.
The military purges have created tension in the highest ranks of the new government, which has little congressional support.
That has left Fernandez facing an uphill battle to carry out his campaign promise to halt the corruption that became endemic under Balaguer.
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