A coalition of community organizations met yesterday with the so-called Social Cabinet of the Mejia administration. Capotillo, where 80,000 people live in a one square kilometer slum area, recently made headlines after confrontations with police ended in four deaths. The police took over the neighborhood known as a haven for delinquents and for its points where drugs are reportedly sold. But the community feels its reputation as a trouble-making area is not deserved. More than 50 community and religious organizations work in the area and El Caribe newspaper points out that a team of young basketball players was beating a neighborhood team in Curacao at the time of the revolt. The group that met with the Social Cabinet, headed by Peggy Cabral, said what the community wanted was the construction of schools, a vocational high school, a library and a sports center. They also want a small clinic, drainage works, housing improvement plans and treatment of a gully that passes through the area. As reported in El Caribe, one spokesman for the community, Father Fermin, responded to inquiries from the social cabinet. “May the people of the cabinet excuse me, but it is unnecessary to be asking so many people what has to be done because everyone knows what has to be done. I think that all that has to be done is to start,” he said. Meanwhile, the government ordered a RD$1 million purchase of a power plant to guarantee potable water in the municipality of Navarrete and other public works. Navarrete was also recently affected by vandalism when supposed protests got out of hand.
