Seems the NY Times is pretty much echoing what the Washington Post said in November. The country is using the fishbowl method of paying it's bills. Only the most urgent bills are getting paid to avoid a crisis or bloodletting, even if it means 12- 16 hr. a day electricity blackouts for the entire country.
So what that hospitals cannot get medical supplies; that there is no electricity to keep businesses operating and patients from dying in hospitals; that there is no money to pay salaries of government workers in the Social Security Institute, Education Ministry, Public Health Ministry, and Postal Service, - as long President Mejia has money to give away free cement and other supplies from flatbed trucks to poor Dominicans that he deems gullible enough to cast their vote for him, why should he care if everything else in the country goes to hell.
I will go halfway with a man. But, even the New York Times pointed out that President Mejia had pledged not to run again for President. When Hipolito broke his word many months ago, he lost his credibility. And when a man loses his credibility, regardless of being President of his country, he is dimissed as a charleton.
You would think Hipolito would have some sense that he is very unpopular and people do not want him relected. But, what's really apparent is that the President cares nothing about what common Dominicans think. So what that the country is suffering badly. Hipolito's mind set is being the boss and staying in power. Looking important, looking Presidential, maintaining his big ego with the vanities of pomp and circumstance that goes with the job.
As the NY Times state, Hipolito should focus on spending his remaining months to "strenthen the country's institutions." Not worry about maintaining his political stature in the world. What a disgrace. A man is judged by his actions and not his words. President Mejia has showed his priorities by spending half his time out of the country, obviously to enjoy the luxury ass-kissing of foreign governments where he feels some measure of respect.
Yet, President Mejia left the Dominican Republic behind to suffer the effects of his bloated government payrolls, bloated government spending, blatent corruption, lack of proper regulation, and lack of transparency.
It is a wonder that the New York Times did not expound more on Hipolito's legacy. A country now left in the wake of paying 40% of its GNP to foreign loans. Even if the Dominican Republic is a poor Caribbean nation, at least there would be more measure of respect in having a President who is honest and not beset in cronyism and vote buying. Hipolito's mismanagement, which has only been directed to further his ambitions, has left the country in economic ruin.
The Dominican Republic needs to get Hipolito Mejia out of office and return honesty and character to the office of President.