Eduardo Estrella
Nice young guy, lives a couple of blocks over from me. He is a relative to Guaro Estrella, an old Trujillo general. Don Guaro was pretty much the boss of the area around Santiago during the years of the Trujillo regime. However, he did not leave a lot of money behind. But Eduardo met just about everyone that mattered.
Any way, Eduardo went to school, got his engineering degree and has always been involved with the PRSC party. He was chosen to be the Public Works Minister during the last years of Balaguer's reign. Apparently he did a good job and nobody can say he robbed or "borrowed" anything from the state. In fact he still lives in the same little house he had before he was appointed minister, and his wife still sells Tupperware?. This is something that nobody in the PLD or PRD parties can say, since they have all "Moved Uptown" after "serving" the government....Before and after pictures of their digs would cause a riot of laughter...
As a candidate, he offers a slightly more conservative approach to economic questions, and would put an end to this borrowing. However, his party is split, pretty much leaderless and struggling to gain new acceptance as a political force these days. Previously, the PRSC was considered to be the 2nd force in DR politics, but with the death of Balaguer and the squabbling that is going on, it might not make it this time. The PRSC was responsable for Leonel's victory over Pe?a G?mez in 1996, but Balaguer considered that Leonel did not live up to his political obligations and told him that he would not back his party in 2000 and they lost by a lot. Now Estrella is trying to unify the party and get them back into action.
HB