SANTO DOMINGO -- Former President Juan Bosch, the founder of two of the
             Dominican Republic's three main parties, is being treated in Cuba for medical
             problems, party officials confirmed Wednesday.

             Bosch, 89, has been suffering frequent nosebleeds. He left for Cuba on Tuesday.

             Bosch founded the Dominican Revolutionary Party during the rule of strongman
             Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. He was elected president in 1962, a year after Trujillo's
             death, but was toppled by a military coup the following year.

             In 1973, Bosch left the Dominican Revolutionary Party and founded the moderate
             Dominican Liberation Party. He ran unsuccessfully for president on the Liberation
             Party ticket in 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990 and 1994.