http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...102-6544556-4325709?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
Living in the states now, will go back to DR to live one day soon.
Picked this up at a local Barnes & Noble bookstore in Washington.
The early history is interesting but the Jorge Blanco-Balaguer era fascinated me the most. The history only goes up to 1993, but it's extremely interesting to see the specifics of how the economy declined in the mid to late 80s and how Balaguer LITERALLY institutionalized corruption in the government (so much so he literally wrote bribes into actual dominican law).
Here's a couple of juicy tidbits. When Balaguer came to power (yet again) in the late after Jorge Blanco there were 15 fully functioning power plants in the DR. Just 1 year after Balaguer came into power, there were only 3. The majority of the money to run these plants kept rolling in, obviously to the Balaguer cronies pockets.
After 2 years in power Balaguer's govt informed the WTO they would not be repaying the 80 million dollars which was paid off regularly under the past Blanco administration, as well as informing Venezuela they would not pay back over 10 million dollars in funds owed for oil.
In addition to this, to pay off other debts/bribes, Balaguer printed 300% more pesos to put into circulation in just under 2 years. Balaguer is wholly responsible for the sad state of affairs right now in the DR. There is so much more than just these few facts, but they are certainly fascinating and helps you understand just how deep corruption runs in the DR. It also sheds light on the hundreds of people that are killed each month in the DR for political/racial purposes by the Dominican police/army/government. It's really shocking. Keep in mind many of the people STILL in power in the DR were associated with this same regime, and not much has changed.
If you want to learn more about a side of the DR you know exists....check out this book. I know this sounds like an advertisement, but it really isn't........just found this book locally and was so impressed I thought everyone here might enjoy it as well.
Living in the states now, will go back to DR to live one day soon.
Picked this up at a local Barnes & Noble bookstore in Washington.
The early history is interesting but the Jorge Blanco-Balaguer era fascinated me the most. The history only goes up to 1993, but it's extremely interesting to see the specifics of how the economy declined in the mid to late 80s and how Balaguer LITERALLY institutionalized corruption in the government (so much so he literally wrote bribes into actual dominican law).
Here's a couple of juicy tidbits. When Balaguer came to power (yet again) in the late after Jorge Blanco there were 15 fully functioning power plants in the DR. Just 1 year after Balaguer came into power, there were only 3. The majority of the money to run these plants kept rolling in, obviously to the Balaguer cronies pockets.
After 2 years in power Balaguer's govt informed the WTO they would not be repaying the 80 million dollars which was paid off regularly under the past Blanco administration, as well as informing Venezuela they would not pay back over 10 million dollars in funds owed for oil.
In addition to this, to pay off other debts/bribes, Balaguer printed 300% more pesos to put into circulation in just under 2 years. Balaguer is wholly responsible for the sad state of affairs right now in the DR. There is so much more than just these few facts, but they are certainly fascinating and helps you understand just how deep corruption runs in the DR. It also sheds light on the hundreds of people that are killed each month in the DR for political/racial purposes by the Dominican police/army/government. It's really shocking. Keep in mind many of the people STILL in power in the DR were associated with this same regime, and not much has changed.
If you want to learn more about a side of the DR you know exists....check out this book. I know this sounds like an advertisement, but it really isn't........just found this book locally and was so impressed I thought everyone here might enjoy it as well.
