The Feast of the Goat

Trujillo meets with Senator Henry Chirinos, whom Trujillo has nicknamed “the Constitutional Sot” due to both his legal prowess and his alcoholism—he also sometimes calls Chirinos “the Walking Turd” (111). Trujillo is disgusted by Chirinos’s stroking of his ear hair and his untidy appearance, but he believes that his continued trust in Chirinos is “proof that when it was time to choose his collaborators, the Generalissimo did not let himself be guided by personal likes or dislikes” as Chirinos is “one of the most capable of the men accepted into [his] exclusive club” (112).

Chirinos, a former lawyer and constitutional scholar, wrote Trujillo’s constitution. In the current government, he provides legal justification for Trujillo’s wishes. He “[has] been everything one could be during the 30 years of the Era” due to his skill and amorality, both in law and economics (112).

Chirinos tells Trujillo that due to the current sanctions, Dominican businesses, including ones with which the Trujillo family is involved, are doing poorly. Abbes, however, has staved off the worst of the sanctions by having fuel and replacement parts for cars and planes smuggled in through Haiti. Chirinos reminds Trujillo that despite the downturn, no workers have experienced layoffs; he asks for authorization to reduce personnel, which Trujillo denies in order to avoid “an explosion of thousands of unemployed workers” (115).

Chirinos then offers an alternative: nationalizing a portion of the Dominican Republic’s industries. Despite Trujillo’s irritation, Chirinos explains that this will transfer the losses to the State, minimizing Trujillo’s own losses. Trujillo doesn’t like this, either. He explains at first that he does not take over business in order to enrich himself—by keeping businesses in his own name, it disincentivizes theft because people fear him—but it then comes out that Trujillo’s wife has disobeyed his orders and asked for a transfer of 1 million dollars to Switzerland, supposedly in the interest of Trujillo. Chirinos demurred, but he worries that he’ll lose her confidence if he continues to deny her requests. Trujillo believes that Doña Maria, his wife, is among those who have no faith in his regime and may even be plotting against it.

Ramfis had also countermanded a transfer of money from the sale of sugar and ordered it sent to Paris. Trujillo ordered, through Chirinos, Ramfis to call and apologize to the bank and clear up the confusion. When Trujillo tells Chirinos that he wishes his own family was worth as much as Henry is, he realizes that Chirinos is in an awkward position: He can’t very well agree with Trujillo and speak against Trujillo’s wife and children.

Chirinos suggests that perhaps Trujillo allow the payments to Americans allegedly working to overturn U.S. government sanctions to remain stopped if these Americans can’t help them. Trujillo disagrees, believing that such payments constitute their best hope for sanctions relief. Chirinos suggests that they should prepare for further trouble by transferring their American accounts to Canada or Switzerland, which disappoints Trujillo. Trujillo then asks for Chirinos’s opinion regarding the bishops, and he tells him of Abbes’s two plans. Chirinos suggests that Trujillo should corrupt the Church with gifts while leaving the door open for reconciliation.

The Chief asks confidentially how much Chirinos has saved overseas. Chirinos is uncomfortable, but he tells him that he has only about $400,000 in two accounts. He explains that he never cared much about money, that he only needs enough to dress, eat, and drink well, and buy books as he wishes. Trujillo then asks who has taken the most precautions by hiding money overseas, but Chirinos does not answer, suggesting instead that no one has saved much outside the country, as they’re all loyal to Trujillo. They begin to gossip about other things, but Trujillo can only think of the money likely saved overseas; he wets himself again. He sends Chirinos away, locks himself into his bathroom, and waits for Sinforoso to discreetly bring him a change of clothing.

As he changes, he asks Sinforoso what he should do about the bishops, summarizing the positions. Sinforoso, a loyal adjutant, replies that he should kill them both. As he explains, though, the Chief stops listening because he’s remembered that he intended to reprimand General Román; the fact that he has forgotten worries him. After Sinforoso leaves, he calls Román and asks him to meet him in the afternoon, but refuses to tell him why, cheered slightly by his continued ability to strike fear into his subordinates.

Antonio de la Maza asks Tony Imbert about Tony’s brother Segundo. Segundo had been promised amnesty to return from Puerto Rico, only to be sentenced to 30 years in prison. Years earlier, a group of anti-Trujillo exiles had led a mission to Puerto Plata, where Tony served as governor. After the mission’s failure, Trujillo granted the invaders amnesty and allowed them to go into exile again as a show of compassion for the world. Back at home, he responded harshly against collaborators, stripping Tony and Segundo of their ranks, imprisoning them, and beating them.

Imbert thinks of how many innocent people paid for the failure of that plan, and he wonders how many might pay if they fail tonight. They believe the plan should go smoothly: Following Trujillo’s assassination, General Pupo Román will assume command, establish a civilian-military junta, and assassinate high-ranking officials, like Abbes and the Trujillo brothers. Imbert believes everything will be justified as long as Trujillo is killed.

Imbert hatched a failed plan to assassinate Trujillo two and a half years earlier. He planned to detonate a bomb during Trujillo’s walk, killing both the Chief and many of his men: “It would be a service to the country to eradicate so many of his henchmen at the same time as the tyrant” (131). Imbert involved few people in that plan, which “took advantage of the maniacal discipline that Trujillo brought to his routine activities” (132). After completing the preparatory work, he asked two young anti-Trujillistas he knew to prepare and place the explosives. They planned to act on June 15, when Trujillo returned from a trip.

On June 14, however, a series of planes filled with anti-Trujillistas launched a failed invasion. Trujillo rounded up revolutionaries, including Tony’s collaborators. Tony expected them to give him up under torture, and he prepared to go down fighting, but SIM agents never came for him. Following the invasion, he dismantled the explosives, returned the dynamite to the quarries, and began planning the next attempt. He included Turk, whom he had excluded previously under the assumption that Turk’s faith would prevent him from participating; however, Turk had also concluded that Trujillo had to be taken out. A short time later, Amadito’s tragedy occurred, and he too joined their conspiracy.

Tony can’t define a single moment when he moved from Trujillista to anti-Trujillista; it feels more like a series of holes slowly poked in the logic of the regime. He knows that after he stopped serving as governor of Puerto Plata, he stopped being a Trujillista, even if he continued to act like one in public. When he became friends with Turk, Tony freely opened up about his anti-Trujillista feelings. Turk’s devout, honorable conviction in everything he did made him Tony’s “model as well as his best friend” (141).