The left has been unable to build an alternative capable of winning
In Santo Domingo, Dominican leftist parties gathered at the tomb of assassinated leader Maximiliano Gómez to mark fifty-five years since his death — and to confront a question that has haunted the left for just as long: why, despite the urgency of their cause, have progressive forces never managed to unite into something capable of winning? The Movimiento Popular Dominicano used the occasion to argue that the era of choosing between lesser evils is over, and that the conditions for a genuine democratic coalition — one capable of challenging oligarchic rule, foreign influence, and the slow mortgaging of Dominican sovereignty — have at last arrived.
- The MPD's own spokesperson opened the memorial by admitting what opponents have long argued: the Dominican left has failed for fifty-five years to build a unified front capable of contesting real power.
- The urgency is sharpened by specific grievances — the Abinader government is accused of burying the country in debt while ceding control of major ports and airports to the U.S. Southern Command.
- Rather than back any existing party, the MPD rejects the entire established spectrum — PRM, PRD, PLD, and others — as servants of national and international capital, demanding a genuinely new political vehicle.
- The gathering drew multiple left organizations and doubled as a platform for international solidarity, with the party condemning U.S. policy toward Cuba, backing Venezuela and Nicaragua, and framing Dominican struggles within a broader anti-imperialist arc.
- The coalition's stated destination is a constitutional assembly with popular participation — a refounding of the Dominican Republic itself, not merely a change of government.
On a Sunday morning in Santo Domingo, members of the Movimiento Popular Dominicano and allied organizations gathered at a national cemetery to remember Maximiliano Gómez — El Moreno — assassinated in Brussels on May 21, 1971. The anniversary was not only an act of mourning. It was a political reckoning.
Fernando Hernández, the MPD's national spokesperson, spoke at Gómez's tomb with unusual candor: for fifty-five years, he said, the Dominican left had failed to forge a unified front capable of challenging the country's entrenched conservative powers. That failure carried a price. Under President Luis Abinader, the MPD argues, the nation is being mortgaged through debt while sovereignty is quietly surrendered — control of principal ports and airports handed to the U.S. Southern Command, and the country's mountain ranges and valleys opened to resource extraction.
But the party's critique extended beyond any single administration. Hernández rejected the logic of the lesser evil, dismissing the full roster of established parties — PRM, PRD, PLD, FP, PRSC — as vehicles for national and international capital. To choose among them, he argued, was to remain inside a system designed to foreclose genuine alternatives. The left had to build something different, or accept permanent irrelevance.
The event also served as a platform for international solidarity. The MPD condemned the U.S. embargo on Cuba, rejected American legal proceedings against Raúl Castro as violations of international law, expressed support for Venezuela's Maduro government, and voiced backing for Nicaragua, Bolivia, Iran, and other nations it described as fighting for self-determination.
Representatives from the Communist Party of Labor, the Dominican Left Reference group, and other organizations attended. What took the form of a memorial was, in substance, a declaration: that the conditions for left unity had finally arrived, that the cost of continued fragmentation was too great, and that Gómez's legacy demanded more than remembrance — it demanded a constitutional assembly capable of refounding the Dominican Republic itself.
In Santo Domingo on a Sunday morning, the Dominican left gathered at a cemetery to remember a man killed fifty-five years ago and to argue, once again, that the moment had finally come to build something they had never managed to build before: a unified political force capable of actually winning power.
Maximiliano Gómez, known as El Moreno, was assassinated in Brussels on May 21, 1971. He had been the general secretary of the Movimiento Popular Dominicano, the MPD, and on this anniversary the party brought together its members and allies to make a case about what his death meant and what it demanded of them now. Fernando Hernández, the MPD's national spokesperson, stood at Gómez's tomb in the Máximo Gómez National Cemetery and spoke with the weight of someone delivering a reckoning.
The left, Hernández said, had failed. For fifty-five years, the democratic and progressive forces of the Dominican Republic had been unable to forge an alternative front capable of challenging the country's entrenched conservative and reactionary powers. That failure mattered because the stakes were clear: the government of Luis Abinader was, in the MPD's view, mortgaging the nation's future through debt while surrendering its sovereignty to the United States Southern Command, handing over control of the country's principal ports and airports. The party also opposed what it saw as the plunder of natural resources—the exploitation and destruction of the Cordillera Septentrional, the Cordillera Central, and the San Juan Valley.
But the MPD's argument went deeper than opposition to a single administration. Hernández rejected the idea that the left should settle for supporting the lesser evil among the country's established parties. The PRM, the PRD, the PLD, the FP, the PRSC—all of them, he said, served the interests of national and international capital and American imperialism. To choose between them was to remain trapped within a system designed to exclude genuine alternatives. The left needed to build something genuinely different, or it would continue to lose.
The gathering also became a platform for the MPD to articulate its international solidarity. The party condemned the U.S. economic, commercial, and petroleum embargo against Cuba and rejected the Justice Department's accusations against Raúl Castro, arguing that the United States had no moral authority to prosecute citizens of other nations and that doing so violated international law and the United Nations Charter. The MPD expressed support for Venezuela's government under Nicolás Maduro and demanded the freedom of Cilia Flores, a deputy detained in that country. It backed Bolivia's people in their struggle to preserve natural resources and criticized the government of Rodrigo Paz Pereira as a puppet of imperialism. It voiced support for Nicaragua's government and praised the heroism of Iran and other nations fighting for national liberation and self-determination.
In Gómez, the MPD saw a model—the greatest proletarian leader of all time, a figure who remained, fifty-five years after his murder, a light and hope for the revolutionary movement across the Dominican Republic and Latin America. The party committed itself to his legacy by pledging to push for a constitutional assembly with popular participation, one that would refound the Dominican Republic on different principles.
The event drew representatives from the Communist Party of Labor, the Dominican Left Reference group, the Homeland for All and All party, and other political and social organizations. It was, in form, a memorial service. In substance, it was a call to arms—a declaration that the left's long fragmentation had to end, that the conditions for unity finally existed, and that the cost of continued failure was too high to bear.
Citações Notáveis
The democratic and progressive forces have been incapable of forging an alternative front capable of disputing power with the reactionary and conservative forces of the country— Fernando Hernández, MPD national spokesperson
All established parties respond to the interests of national and international capital and American imperialism— Fernando Hernández, MPD national spokesperson
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why now? The left has been fractured for decades. What's changed that makes unity suddenly possible?
The source doesn't say the conditions are new—it says they exist. I think what's shifted is the urgency. Abinader's policies on debt and sovereignty have crystallized the threat in a way that makes the old arguments about lesser evils harder to sustain. When you're watching ports handed over to a foreign military command, theoretical purity becomes a luxury.
The MPD explicitly rejects voting for the lesser evil. But doesn't that risk splitting the vote and guaranteeing a right-wing victory?
That's the tension the piece doesn't resolve. Hernández is saying that accepting the lesser evil is how the left stays weak. But he's also acknowledging they've been unable to build an alternative. It's a critique of a trap, not yet a way out of it.
Why invoke Maximiliano Gómez now? What does a man killed in 1971 offer to a 2026 political problem?
He's a symbol of what the left claims it lost—a unified, powerful voice. By framing him as the greatest proletarian leader ever, they're saying: this is what we had, this is what we need again. It's both memorial and indictment.
The international solidarity section—Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Iran—seems almost separate from the domestic argument. Why include it?
Because for the Dominican left, these aren't separate. The U.S. influence they're fighting at home is the same force they see attacking those countries. It's all one struggle in their framework. The cemetery becomes a place to say: we stand with everyone resisting American power.
What does a constitutional assembly actually mean in this context?
It's the concrete proposal—a way to refound the state itself, not just change who runs it. It signals they're not asking for reforms within the existing system. They want to rebuild the system from the ground up, with popular participation.