Mario Antonio Read Vittini (1926–2010) was a politician and diplomat from the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

Biography

Mario Antonio Read Vittini was born in Hatillo, near San Cristóbal, on 15 May 1926. From his father, he descends from William Augustus Read (1820–1887), an American immigrant from

Roxbury, Massachusetts Roxbury () is a Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood within the City of Boston, Massachusetts. Roxbury is a Municipal annexation in the United States, dissolved municipality and one of 23 official neighborhoods of Boston used by the city for n ...

, of English and French descent, who married Dominga Rodríguez Isambert, a Dominican of partial French origin. His mother has Corsican ancestry. Read Vittini became a

Doctor of Law A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL ...

in 1948. On 10 June 1952 he became First Secretary for Embassies and Legations. In 1960 he sought

political asylum The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another enti ...

in the Brazilian embassy and received asylum from the United States and exiled in New York, where he married Carmen Virginia Escobar. He returned to the Dominican Republic after the death of dictator

Rafael Trujillo Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina ( , ; 24 October 189130 May 1961), nicknamed ''El Jefe'' (, "The Chief" or "The Boss"), was a Dominican dictator who ruled the Dominican Republic from February 1930 until his assassination in May 1961. He ser ...

and became the vice presidential candidate of the Democratic Revolutionary Nationalistic Party (Partido Nacionalista Revolucionario Democrático) in the

1962 Dominican Republic general election General elections were held in the Dominican Republic on 20 December 1962.Dieter Nohlen (2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I'', p247 They were the first after the end of the Rafael Trujillo, Trujillo dictatorship two yea ...

, despite he co-founded in that year the

Social Christian Reformist Party The Social Christian Reformist Party ( es, Partido Reformista Social Cristiano, PRSC) is a Christian democratic right-wing political party in the Dominican Republic. It was established on July 24, 1984, by the union of Joaquín Balaguer's ' ...

(PRSC). He favoured the coup against Juan Bosch in September 1963. During the Triumvirate, Read Vittini served as Secretary (Minister) of the Presidency. By 1966 the PRSC had split into three factions and Read Vittini was the leader of one of them: the right-wing party

Christian Democratic Party __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

(PDC), which supported

Joaquín Balaguer Joaquín Antonio Balaguer Ricardo (1 September 1906 – 14 July 2002) was a Dominican politician, scholar, writer, and lawyer. He was President of the Dominican Republic serving three non-consecutive terms for that office from 1960 to 1962 ...

in the 1966 election, but Read declared himself in opposition to Balaguer early in 1968. Read served as Ambassador from the Dominican Republic to the United States from 1969 to 1970. He later served as Legal consultant of the Executive Branch from 1986 until 1988, when he was designated Secretary (Minister) of Labour. He also served as the Dominican representative at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and as Governor of the

Central Bank of the Dominican Republic The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic ( es, Banco Central de la República Dominicana, BCRD) was established by the Monetary and Banking Law of 1947 as the central bank of the Dominican Republic, responsible for regulating the country's moneta ...

from 18 August 1993 to 31 August 1994 with Eligio Bisonó Bisonó as his deputy governor. Read died from

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of t ...

on 20 July 2010, aged 84, at his home in Evaristo Morales, Ensanche Quisqueya, in the city of

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 (Distrito Nacional) , websi ...

Family tree

References