The Mirabal sisters died on November 26, 1960, while the dictator was still alive. Patria was thirty-six, Minerva thirty-four, and Maria Teresa twenty-four. They were returning from visiting their husbands in prison, when they were accosted by assassins commissioned by Trujillo. The three women, along with their driver Rufino de la Cruz, were taken into the sugar cane fields and beaten to death.
It is believed that Trujillo masterminded the murder of the Mirabal sisters because they were popular leaders of the rebel element in the country and were a definite threat to his regime. Also, he was known to be extremely egotistical, and had been snubbed years earlier by Minerva at a party. The assassinations backfired - the Mirabal sisters were much loved by the Dominican people, and their murders served to strengthen the cause of the revolution.
On May 30, 1961, Rafael Trujillo was himself assassinated by members...
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of the revolutionary ranks, shot in his car as he was being driven along a deserted highway. His death did not end dictatorial rule in the Dominican Republic, however. He was replaced in his office by his son Ramfis Trujillo and a powerful military, and his assassins and their families and friends were systematically rounded up, tortured, and killed.
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