The doctors’ strike in the public hospitals and those of the Instituto Dominicano de Seguro Social (IDSS) which, now lasting over four months, is the longest in the history of the D.R., does not seem to be near to ending. The president of the Asociación Médica Dominicana (AMD), Dr. Francisco Cano Gonzalez, told the news media that despite the appointment of yet another mediating commission, the strike will continue until the AMD’s demands are met. After internal meetings within the Asociacion , which according to some newspaper reports included heated arguments on what strategies to pursue, Dr. Cano Gonzalez said that his group would demonstrate “the spirit of the Vietnamese (in their struggle against the U.S.)” in negotiations with the government. “The Vietnamese negotiated with Henry Kissinger in Paris, yet did so while gaining ground in the war; that is what we will do.” Dr. Cano Gonzalez’s statement was interpreted as a message that the strike would continue until the terms of an agreement between the government and the AMD signed last August are met. Those terms include a 20% salary increase, a special lower import tax for vehicles brought into the country by AMD members, and the assigning of various apartments being constructed by the government to AMD doctors working in the areas near the Haitian border.
15-21 March 1996