The medal was instituted in 1959 and awarded to members of the Dominican Army who had confronted the landing at Constanza Airport by members of the Movimiento de Liberación Dominicano dressed in Dominican Air Force uniform and subsequently hunted them after they fled to the hills. Trujillo was dictator of the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination on 30 May 1961. Although the landings at Constanza and on the coast failed, they helped sow the seeds of the destruction of the regime some two years later both internally and internationally. A rare medal