Hoy newspaper reported that a loan request made by the Dominican Republic to “bridge” the shortfalls in the electric sector and fulfill other obligations required by the IMF was denied. The idea of the “bridge” was to meet these obligations until the standby agreement with the IMF is signed and funds from other international monetary organizations start to flow into Dominican coffers. Marcelo Figuerola, the chief of the IMF mission to the DR, rejected the loan request and John Taylor, the Under Secretary for International Affairs at the United States Treasury Department, did not even acknowledge it. Apparently, the single condition for the loan was that the IMF agreement be signed. Nevertheless, this, in itself, seems to be a problem, as within the IMF Agreement there is a proviso for the creation of a Financial Emergency Law and a balanced budget for 2004, but the Government has not been able to identify the source of RD$6.5 billion it needs to balance the 2004 budget. According to Claudio Cabrera, writing in Hoy’s economics and business section, other countries have received much better treatment, especially Mexico and Argentina.