El Caribe newspaper reports that, only five days after
President Hip?lito Mej?a was met with clanging empty pots in the La Ci?naga slum
area, where he chose to begin his campaign for re-election, he was subject to a
critical sermon by the priest of his native Gurabo community in Santiago while
on his second campaign event this Sunday. The priest spoke up, despite being
face-to-face with the President during the mass held at the church. Present were
key officials of the Mej?a government, accompanying him on his visit to
Santiago.
During the sermon, Priest Milton Amparo Tapia of San Bartolo Gurabo Church
stated that the Mej?a administration had been the worst Dominican government in
the past 42 years.
?The people are desperate, tired and fed up with the economic situation and the
inflation levels,? he said, adding that between all the jokes made by the
President, poverty, inflation and unemployment have increased. He also mentioned
the continual rises in the price of fuel, basic foodstuffs, medicines, power and
tolls.
The priest did not limit his disapproval to current economic woes, as he went on
to say the current government has shown totalitarian and dictatorial tendencies,
intolerance with the press and all those who have been critical of Mej?a. He
said proof of this could be seen by the monument lifted in Constanza to honor
the military of the Trujillo dictatorship and also by the transfers of funds
from the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Armed Forces.
The sermon also attacked the law promoted by the PRD-majority Senate that calls
for the construction of a statue to former President Joaqu?n Balaguer with the
reference of him as ?father of Dominican democracy.? As reported in the List?n
Diario, Tapia said the President forgets that Balaguer, despite his overwhelming
loss to the PRD in 1978, conditioned the relinquishment of power on his party?s
retaining control of the legislative and judicial branches of government, the
fraudulent elections under his control and the violence of the then-named ?banda
color?? that killed many who opposed the Balaguer regime during its first 12
years.
While the priest spoke, President Mej?a observed with fixed eyes, but the priest
continued to read on.
He said that to the government, anyone who complains is a ?tiguere?, and thus
the people have only been able to express their discontent via the Internet and
polls such as the legendary survey in which the people of Monte Cristi said they
would rather vote for the devil than for Hip?lito. He mentioned that the
professional organizers of strikes are on the government?s payroll and no longer
promote such action.
President Mej?a commented on the sermon: ?He is of the same group as Rogelio
[Cruz], but in addition is enrolled in the PLD. The paint of the church is
purple. I knew he was going to speak that way, but I went, and I stayed, even
though the letter he read was disrespectful.?