BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
Thousands of workers in the Dominican Republic participated in a two-day general strike November 11 - 12 demanding higher wages, better electricity and water services, and lower food and gasoline prices.

The government responded to the strike with a militarization of the capital, Santo Domingo, mobilizing troops from the Army, the Marines, and the Air Force, as well as the police. Some 7,000 soldiers took up positions at markets, gas stations, bridges, buses, and major intersections.

One person was killed on the first day of the strike during a confrontation with the troops in the working-class neighborhood of Capotillo in the capital. Jim Padilla Valdez died when he was shot in the head. In the same incident two other protesters were seriously wounded, also shot in the head. Overall, some 24 people were injured and 340 detained that day. The cops had arrested about 500 activists before the strike began.

In the southern part of the country, shops, banks, public and private offices, schools, and universities were completely closed, especially in the provinces of San Juan de la Maguana, Azua, and Barahona. Elsewhere the work stoppage was partial.

Organizers of the protest called the action to demand that the regime of President Leonel Fernández keep its promise to improve government services throughout the country. About 30 percent in this country's 8 million people are unemployed and the official poverty rate is 70 percent. Capitalists have jacked up food prices, citing the effects of a drought, and residents experience power failures that last up to 18 hours a day.  
 
 
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