The island’s two tyrants meet once, on a salt flat, and never again

In December 1958 Duvalier signed a peace pact with Trujillo on the saline flats between the two countries, having first kept him waiting more than an hour in the sun. Photographing the scene, Diederich watched sweat cut channels through the Dominican dictator’s makeup as he sat in a three piece suit in thirty eight degree heat. When Duvalier finally arrived the two exchanged sugary smiles and each promised to deny refuge to the other’s enemies. Trujillo undertook in particular to protect Duvalier if the bearded rebel then in the Sierra Maestra came to power. A month later Castro was in Havana and Batista was in exile in Ciudad Trujillo. Diederich records that this was the first and last meeting between the two rulers of the island, and that Trujillo was assassinated in May 1961.