SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Juan Bosch, a towering figure in Dominican politics for more than five decades whose leftist policies prompted a military coup and later a U.S. invasion, died Thursday. He was 92.
He had been receiving treatment for neurological, respiratory and intestinal problems. He died about 3 a.m., said Dr. Pedro Urena.
Bosch held the presidency for only seven months following the assassination of dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1961 but was one of the Spanish-speaking nation's most influential politicians. News of his death spread quickly here, with some Dominicans waving flags as they watched reports of Bosch's death on television.
The government declared three days of national mourning.
"We lost a great intellectual and political leader," said Melquiades Cabral, a 53-year-old rental car manager who had joined rebels in the 1960s to fight against Trujillo. "Bosch was one of the most important figures of Latin America and the world for that matter."
Elected in a landslide in 1962, he was ousted one year later by soldiers who accused him of being a communist.
His plans for land reform would have shared sprawling sugar plantations owned by generals among subsistence farmers, and his talk of nationalizing businesses would have hurt the elite.
In a letter to the Dominican people after the coup, Bosch wrote: "Men may fall, but not principles. We may fall, but the people shouldn't allow democratic dignity to fall."
In 1965, leftist soldiers led an uprising and demanded Bosch be restored. President Lyndon Johnson, fearing a Cuban-style revolution, sent in 20,000 Marines. U.S. troops occupied Santo Domingo for several months until a provisional government was formed.
Bosch never regained power, but helped found two of the country's three main political parties. He also wrote more than 40 books.
"Juan Bosch was a true pillar of democracy," former President Leonel Fernandez, the veteran politician's protege, said recently.
In a 1991 television interview, Bosch quipped that "the presidency is too small for me, as I already have built up a political and literary legacy in which my name will live on."
Bosch's body would be taken Thursday to the headquarters of the Dominican Liberation Party, a party he helped found in 1973. On Friday morning his body would be on display at the National Palace and in the afternoon, Bosch was to be buried in the Ornamental Cemetery in his birthplace of La Vega, about 60 miles northwest of Santo Domingo.
He is survived by his second wife, Carmen Quidiello, and four children.