Anti-communism had been used to justify mass deportations, torture and summary executions. Workers who had asked for wage increases were labeled communists, and shot, as were farmers who tried to stop their land from from being confiscated.
Trujillo eventually controlled over 80% of the country's sugar plantations, using slave labour provided by neighbouring Haiti to keep profits high.
20,000 Haitians had been killed between 1937 and 1961.