With only two days left in the legislative session, the Chamber of Deputies ratified US$200.1 million in new loans yesterday. The sessions, nevertheless, resume on 27 February. These credits, previously approved by the Senate, survived the Chamber session and the resistance of the PLD deputies, who declared through their spokesperson, Teodoro Reyes, that “Hipolito Mejia has mortgaged even the air and indebted the country: his government has only brought hunger and misery.” One of the loans, signed with the World Bank, is for US$100 million and will purportedly be used to pay off the debt the government has taken on with the electric generators and to finance social programs of the Executive Branch. These funds are included within the framework of the IMF standby agreement. During the session, the deputies also approved a loan with the foreign bank Societe Generales. This loan of US$64,268,479 is destined to build a pumping station and electric transmission lines. Another loan of US$18.6 million is meant to supply and equip the health center pharmacies run by the government (“boticas populares”) that sell primarily generic low cost medicines.