President of the Chamber of Deputies Rafaela Alburquerque said that her party’s leader, former President Joaquin Balaguer, known for his reticence in taking on international loans, instructed his congressmen and women to not pass any more foreign loans. Nevertheless, she said Balaguer left each deputy to act on his/her own conscience when voting on the sovereign bonds. An article in El Caribe newspaper speculates today that Balaguer’s lack of total opposition to the bonds comes with the condition that President Mejia fulfill his word to not send to Congress any more loans after 16 August 2001.
