Since the beginning of his regime, Trujillo abolished almost all political parties of the Dominican Republic, except for his own party known as the “Dominican Party”. Trujillo's strategy to satisfy his wishes was the use of psychological pressure and fear, in order to control and repress the opposition parties. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, known as the “Generalísimo”, ruled according to the doctrine of personalism, which means that he exalted his personality among people.
Rafael Leonidas Trujillo also created the most efficient police apparatus in Latin America utilizing a huge network of informers called calies and a secret intelligence service know as the SIM (Servicio de Inteligencia Militar)” (Robinson,174). The “Calies” work was to inform the authorities about the people that were against Trujillo’s regime and the SIM was in charge of killing, torturing or imprisoning those that were fighting against Trujillo forces and ideologies.
Castro used similar methods to control people and to keep his legitimacy. First, “Castro […] suppressed the right of free press and the centuries old autonomy of the University of Havana” (Keen, Haynes, 391) and he also created the Cuban secret police, which was in charge of imprisoning and scaring all of Castro´s opponents. Also Castro ruled according to the doctrine of personalism.
