The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic

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he had fought against the Partisans, before in Yugoslavia and then in Italy, on the mountains around Venice,
until his unit was forced to leave the border in 1945. At that time, he said, he believed that honor and Italy
should be saved from Communism. “I’ve been a soldier all my life, always on the wrong side,” he admitted.
But finally, he had understood. And now, in the Dominican Republic, he was going to die on the right side.
Capozzi thanked the volunteers and invited them to try to get some sleep, because the next day would be diffi-
cult.15 A few hours later, it was all over. The radio channel of the putschists gave the news of the failed attack as
follows: “In a desperate attempt to take the National Palace, a group of communist thugs was overwhelmingly
rejected. Among those killed [...] was Idririo (sic) Capozzi, an Italian communist who worked as an instructor
for the Dominican Navy’s frogmen.”16
Before leaving for the last mission, Capozzi had taken off his watch and entrusted it to President Caamaño.
When the April Revolution was defeated, and Caamaño went into exile, he took the watch with him. He wore
it on his wrist when he passed through Rome months later and met Capozzi’s widow and son. “That was your
father’s watch,” Elida told her son, Alessandro.17
ENDNOTES
1 On September 8, 1943, the head of the Italian government,
general Pietro Badoglio, announced the armistice reached with
the Anglo-American allies. The German troops immediately oc-
cupied a large part of the Italian territory; all the country was
eventually freed from Nazi occupation by the allied troops with
the help of the Italian Partisans who fought against the Nazis and
their Fascist allies, who had regrouped in the Italian Social Re-
public, based in Salò, a small town on banks of Lake Garda. The
Italian civil war lasted almost twenty months.
2 C. Mazzantini, I balilla andarono a Salò (Venezia: Marsilio,
1995).
3 Alessandro Capozzi, telephone interview, Rome, Italy, June
27, 2020.
4 G. Giovannini, “Personaggi da romanzo e molte avventure
per i trecento italiani di Santo Domingo,” La Stampa, May 21,
1965, 3.
5 A. Capozzi, June 27, 2020.
6 G. Fr., “Come Ilio Capozzi partì per Santo Domingo,” Stam-
pa Sera, May 24, 1965, 15.
component/option,com_lastampa/task,search/mod,libera/
action,viewer/Itemid,3/page,15/articleid,1550_02_1965_012
0A_0031_23540978/
7 W.W. McVittie, Confidential 01/1/3. American Department
of the British Foreign Office, AD1194/1, May 12, 1960.
8 Central Intelligence Agency – Office for Research and Re-
ports. Dominican Republic – Part IV: Armed Forces and Security. CIA/
RR GR L-61-1, February 1961, 12.
9 S. Frias, Comandante Montes Arache – El hombre rana. (Santo Do-
mingo: Colegio dominicano de periodistas, 2007), 101.
10 Lovasto was captured by putschist troops in May 1965 while
on his way to his Dominican wife in the city of Santiago (Giovan-
nini, 1965). He survived the war and returned to Rome, where he
died, alone and alcoholic, in 1974. In the last months of his life,
he hosted Capozzi’s widow and son Alessandro at his home (A.
Capozzi, 2020).
11 AGN, “Gesta de Abril de 1965: el 30 de abril hace 50 años,”
accessed July 3, 2020,
cias/noticias/2015/gesta-de-abril-del-1965-el-30-de-abril-hace-
50-anos/
12 Giovannini, 1965.
13 Telegram sent on May 10, 1965. Diplomatic Historical Archive
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation,
Directorate General of Political Affairs - Office XII 1964-1976,
Year 1965, b. 1 A.
14 The Events of 1965 in the Dominican Republic – Documents from
the United Kingdom’s National Archives (Facsimile edition). Archivo
General de la Nación, Repubblica Dominicana, 2016, vol. 272.
15 R. Sandri, “Storia di Ilio, fascista poi caduto per la libertà,”
L’Unità, May 5, 1985, 1.
16 Telegram from the Foreign Office in London to the British
Embassy in Santo Domingo.
17 Capozzi, 2020.
THE CHOICE OF FREEDOM: ILIO CAPOZZI AND THE 1965 APRIL REVOLUTION