BY BRIAN TAYLOR
On Dec. 20, 1996, Dominican president Leonel Fernández raised gasoline prices by 30 percent, from 20 pesos (US$1.43) to 26 pesos (US$1.85), setting off a string of protests actions that have not stopped since. Among the first to take action were transportation workers, who were promised a $160 monthly subsidy to cover the price hike, but never received it.

On January 15, transit workers paralyzed the eastern part of the Dominican capital, home to more than 40 percent of Santo Domingo's two million people.

Also as part of the austerity package, the Fernández government devalued the Dominican peso from 12.85 to 14 pesos to the dollar. Many have come out into the streets to oppose these measures. On January 28, in what the Spanish- language newspaper El Diario/La Prensa describes as "mobilizations ... against the government's economic measures," thousands of workers and students demonstrated throughout the capital. Protesters blocked major roads with flaming tires, logs, rocks and bumper jacks. Two people were shot - presumably by cops, the article stated. More than 30 people were injured, and nearly a hundred were arrested. The same day, 43,000 teachers, members of the Dominican Association of Teachers, struck, demanding higher pay and improvements in the educational system.  
 
 
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