Strikes Continue in Dominican Repubic

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, #393, 10 August 1997

More than ten people have been killed in the Dominican Republic in the current wave of strikes and protests against the neoliberal economic policies promoted by the government of President Leonel Fernandez and his Dominican Liberation Party (PLD). Young protester Enrique Perez died on July 29, two weeks after being shot by police in San Cristobal, at a protest in which ten others were wounded, including police agents. [El Diario-La Prensa 7/30/97 from EFE] Five people were injured in Azua, in the western area of the country, in clashes between protesters and police; some vehicles were damaged and more than ten people were arrested. [ED-LP 8/2/97 from EFE] Interior Minister Norge Botello insists that the strikes have lost popular support because they are politically motivated and financed by drug traffickers. [ED-LP 8/9/97]

On July 30, Jose Francisco Pena Gomez, president of the social- democratic opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), called on the government to lower the price of gasoline 30%, noting that petroleum prices have fallen on the world market. Fernandez rejected the idea, saying that the gasoline surcharge is necessary to help repay the country's $4 billion foreign debt. [ED-LP 8/2/97 from EFE]