Servicio de Inteligencia Militar

The Servicio de Inteligencia Militar (SIM) (English: Military Intelligence Service) was the main secret police force and death squad during the later part of the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo to keep control within the Dominican Republic.

Operation

Around 1957 the Department of State for Security, headed by General Arturo Espaillat was dissolved, replaced by SIM and its sister agency, the Servicio Central de Inteligencia (SCI).[1] Under the leadership of Johnny Abbes García, SIM employed thousands of people and was involved in immigration, passports, censorship, supervision of aliens, and undercover work.[2] At the Palace of Communications some fifty people intercepted and recorded domestic and foreign phone conversations.[1] Its secret activities used murder, kidnapping, extorsion and terror to achieve its goals. Money was spent to lobby American legislators.[1]

In the population members of SIM were known as "caliés" (Thugs), they patrolled the streets in their black VW beetles called "cepillos" (brushes). Infamous detention centers were La Nueve (The Nine) and La Cuarenta (The Forty) where prisoners were tortured and killed.

SIM was dissolved in 1962, after the fall of the Trujillo regime.

Directors

No.	Director	Took office	Left office	Time in office
1	Abbes García, JohnnyColonel Johnny Abbes García (1924–1967)	1957	1960	2–3 years
2	Torres, CándidoColonel Cándido Torres	1960	1960	0 years
3	Figueroa Carrión, RobertoColonel Roberto Figueroa Carrión	1961	1962	0–1 years

Famous operations

1956: Murder of Jesús Galíndez
1958: Murder of Octavio de la Maza
1959: Attempt to invade Cuba
1960: Murder of the Mirabal sisters
1960: Attempt to assassinate Rómulo Betancourt
1961: Murder of assassins of Trujillo

Cultural references

SIM and its leader Johnny Abbes García are frequently mentioned in Mario Vargas Llosa's historical novel, The Feast of the Goat.

References

Bernard Diederich. Trujillo. The Death of the Goat. Little, Brown, and Co, 1978. p. 33ff. ISBN 0-316-18440-3.
Crassweller RD. Trujillo. The Life and Times of a Caribbean Dictator. The MacMillan Co, New York (1966). p. 329ff.

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[diederich-1] Bernard Diederich. Trujillo. The Death of the Goat. Little, Brown, and Co, 1978. p. 33ff. ISBN 0-316-18440-3.

[crassweller-2] Crassweller RD. Trujillo. The Life and Times of a Caribbean Dictator. The MacMillan Co, New York (1966). p. 329ff.