Hoy: Their lead editorial today analyzes the worrisome situation facing the petroleum refinery, which is having trouble meeting the needs of the country. A lower cash flow in dollars has produced a scarcity, especially in the outlying areas of Santo Domingo. The energy deficit is also tied into the lack of hard currency. The editorialist points out that the deficit in energy creates a demand for emergency units and these, in turn, use more fuel. A 50-megawatt unit is much more efficient that 100 units of 5 kilowatts. The nerve center for the problem can apparently be found in the exchange market, where the editorial recognizes the various pressures being exercised as speculation; the bigger buyers attempting to buy more dollars than usual; and the rise in prices for just about everything. The most worrisome thing, says the writer, is that there is no solution at hand.
Listin Diario: Today’s editorial praises the new law that bestows Manolo Tavarez Justo with the rank of National Hero. His fallen revolutionary comrades are now known as Martyrs for the Fatherland.
El Caribe: Today’s perspective piece says that the government has been incapable of finding a solution to the crisis in the energy sector, in spite of all its experiments such as the Madrid Accords and the repurchase of the electricity distributors Ede-Norte and Ede-Sur, and calling the government’s actions “a comedy of errors.” Now, on the brink of a total collapse, says the writer, the government is clinging to the tiny branch that is the IDB loan for a stopgap breather. But they haven’t gotten to the bottom of the problem. Dominicans deserve an end to the long agony of the blackouts, and not through occasional makeshift solutions for Christmas lights and vote-getting at election time, the editorialist admonishes. A problem as serious as this should be looked at with seriousness, not as a one-act farce. The other two El Caribe editorials refer to a good example and a bad example. Representing the good example are the community-based micro-businesses in La Zurza, Maria Auxiliadora, Los Tres Brazos and Capotillo, which will be performing garbage collection in a project supported by the European Union. The bad example comes in the form of a critique of what the doctors are doing while demanding higher salaries. The editorial does not deny they need better pay, but what it objects to is that the disgruntled physicians should be trying to identify who should be taxed to pay for their salary rises.