History
After the inception of the Dominican Republic, the country was run by a Central Governing Junta lead by Pedro Santana. As such, there was no need for a Vice President at the time. Yet, it is believed that the first Vice President of the Republic was Felipe Benicio Alfau Bustamante, who was elected as Acting Vice President by Pedro Santana. This was spurred because Santana was invited to go abroad yet the Republic had to be seen to in his absence.
The Constitution of the Dominican Republic has been amended many times, and in some instances the office of the Vice President had been eliminated to later be recreated. In times when the office was eliminated, if the President was leaving the country, an acting President was designated, therefore creating the post of a second in command. For example the 30th President of the Dominican Republic, Carlos Felipe Morales, elected Ramón Cáceres to be his Vice President from 1903 until 1905. Then from 1905–1911, the previous Vice President Ramón Cáceres is elected as President and the office of the Vice President is eliminated during that time span.
Also during the 31 year dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, the office of the Vice President was eliminated or vacated on several occasions.
Since 1966, which is considered the beginning of the 4th Republic, the office of the Vice President of the Dominican Republic has been a permanent post. Also, the Vice President has to be elected along with the President, not appointed by the latter.
Read more about this topic: List Of Vice Presidents Of The Dominican Republic
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“In history an additional result is commonly produced by human actions beyond that which they aim at and obtain—that which they immediately recognize and desire. They gratify their own interest; but something further is thereby accomplished, latent in the actions in question, though not present to their consciousness, and not included in their design.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.”
—E.L. (Edgar Lawrence)