Antonio Imbert Barrera

Imbert was born into a prominent family[2] of military tradition: his father, Brigadier General Segundo Manuel Imbert Mesnier had a leading role in the northern region of the Dominican Republic; Brigadier General Segundo Francisco Imbert, Imbert Barrera's grandfather, was Vice-President of the Dominican Republic and candidate for president, and fought in the Dominican Restoration War; meanwhile his great-grandfather, Major General José María Imbert, who was a French migrant, achieved important victories against Haiti in the Dominican War of Independence.

Imbert's first significant position was as governor of Puerto Plata in 1940.[2] He was removed from the post by then president Rafael Trujillo for sending him a telegram informing upon the names of the survivors of the failed Luperón invasion. This caused, in a personal manner, the beginning of the assassination plan against Trujillo.

His brother Segundo, an army official too, was imprisoned in 1956 by Trujillo's regime.[2] Segundo was convicted for murder;[3][4] implicated in the murder of Domingo Marión in 1943.[5]

On May 30, 1961, Trujillo was shot dead when his car was ambushed on a road outside the Dominican capital.[6] Imbert, the driver of the ambushing vehicle, was accompanied by Antonio de la Maza, Salvador Estrella Sadhalá and Amado García Guerrero - the active participants who carried out the plot. Most of those involved in the assassination plot were subsequently captured and executed, with the exception of Imbert and Luis Amiama Tió. Imbert went into hiding until December 2.[7]^:253

After Joaquín Balaguer, Trujillo's figurehead president, was overthrown in 1962 and the Trujillo family was ousted, Imbert was declared a "National Hero" and was promoted to Major General with the special grant of it being ad vitam or lifelong. In the Civil War in the Dominican Republic of 1965 he led one of the factions in the struggle which faced the constitutionalist government led by Colonel Francisco Caamaño, who tried to bring back Juan Bosch to the country's presidency. Imbert's faction, called the Government of National Reconstruction was endorsed by the U.S. troops inspectors, in addition, he was one of the collaborators with the Americans, finally signing a peace act that put an end to the April war.

On March 21, 1967, he was shot in Santo Domingo while traveling with Marino García,[7]^:256 in an attempted assassination made by the late dictator Trujillo's supporters. He survived by driving himself to a medical clinic. On February 15, 1970, the Dominicana de Aviación flight wherein his sister Aída Imbert Barrera, his wife Guarina Tessón Hurtado, and his daughter, sportswoman Leslie Imbert Tessón, were travelling, crashed into the Caribbean Sea.[8][9]

He was Minister of Defense of the Dominican Republic from 1986 to 1988 (period in which he held the rank of Lieutenant General as incumbent of Defense); earlier that decade, his second-cousin Mario Imbert McGregor was also Minister of Defense. In 1989 he was assigned chairman of the board of directors of Rosario Dominicana. In September 2013, the Constitutionalist Soldiers of 25 April 1965 Foundation asked the National Congress of the Dominican Republic to explore the possibility of stripping Imbert his status of national hero as it considered that he went against constitutional precepts when he supported the coup against Bosch and the U.S. occupation of the country, among other accusations.[10]

Imbert died on May 31, 2016, the day following the fifty-fifth anniversary of Trujillo's assassination, at the age of 95. Dominican President Danilo Medina declared three days of mourning.[11][12] His niece, Carmen Imbert Brugal, said that cause of his death was complications of pneumonia.[2]

Antonio Imbert is a character of Mario Vargas Llosa's novel The Feast of the Goat. In the film adaptation, he was played by Carlos Miranda.