The head of the Catholic Church in the Dominican Republic, Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez, said at a religious service yesterday that the country has been “totally abandoned, unprotected and exposed,” as he called on the public to “express their views” in the May elections. The Cardinal is known for his uncompromising stance on many social and political issues, and he has been a fierce critic of the present government and its policies. “You must ask the government what it is doing, creating a country with no fuel or electricity: there is no hope or light: the government has been told what it has to do, but one tires of talking to them,” he said, explaining that he too had been suffering the effects of the current blackouts and had been forced to switch off his backup generator during the 12-hour power cuts for fear it would break down. Lopez Rodriguez described the current squabbles within the ruling PRD as “ridiculous and shameful.” He was speaking at a thanksgiving service for the children who were operated on by a team of US doctors from Heart Care International, as reported in yesterday’s DR1 news.