On Saturday, former President Hipolito Mejia, speaking in San Francisco de Macoris, before a select audience of about 150 PRD members, and standing in the back yard of former Presidential Minister and head of the Renove Program, Siquio Ng de la Rosa, said that the current PLD government had “burned itself out” with its economic policies during the first 180 days of its term in office. Mejia criticized the methodology used by the PLD economic team to bring down the cost of the dollar in the exchange markets, claiming that it only increases the quasi-fiscal deficit even more. He also criticized the lack of money in circulation. During his short, 30-minute talk, Mejia took exception to most of the current PLD policies, and the attempts of the government to link him to the latest drug scandals, calling them “stupidities” that “bounce off his bald head.”
Of course, the government spokespersons were quick to reply. Roberto Rodriguez Marchena told reporters that Mejia’s criticisms of the government’s economic policies were “like Quirino Paulino Castillo pretending to give a short course on how to combat drug trafficking.” Rodriguez said that apparently Mejia forgot that he had increased the number of poor people in the Dominican Republic by one million. The Minister of Finance, Vicente Bengoa, said that Mejia left an economy so beat up that the country has had to cede part of its sovereignty in order to strike a deal with the IMF.