Saturday?s Diario Libre recounts how the number of generals in the Dominican Armed Forces has dramatically increased during the Mejia administration. According to the paper, the country is suffering from an ?inflation? of generals. Not including those in the National Police, there are 190 generals in the three branches of the Armed Forces. The writers say that 88% of current generals received their promotions during or after August 2000, when Hipolito Mejia was sworn in as president. In absolute terms, the year 2003 was a bumper crop for the generals? ranks with 70 new generals getting their stars. The year 2004 is not far behind, however, with 54 new general officers so far. The paper?s lead article, which is not credited to any particular writer, says that this quantity of generals forms an exceptional military situation in the world today, where so many generals command only 41,000 troops. Each general would have 215 troops under his command, although there are generals that command only souls, as in the case of Major General and Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez. A few of the generals have passed the retirement age, such as Major General Luis Maria Perez Bello, a former military backstop for President Joaquin Balaguer who celebrated his 75th birthday last 31 March. The Army has the most generals, with 29 major generals, 65 brigadier generals and one lieutenant general – the Minister of Armed Forces. All of these generals command about one half of the 41,000 troops. The Dominican Air Force has 14 major generals and 39 brigadier generals. The emaciated Navy has nine vice-admirals and 33 rear-admirals. Perhaps modesty has kept them from having an admiral. In August 2000, the Mejia government inherited an Armed Forces with 33,000 members and 23 generals. Major generals at that time were the cardinal, national hero Antonio Imbert Barrera and Manuel Antonio Frias Gomez. Among brigadier generals was Miguel Angel Santana Mercado, the military chaplain.