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08/17/2004:
"Dominican Resumes Presidency on Stern Note"
New York TimesSANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, Aug. 16 - Leonel Fernández returned to the presidency of this nation after a four-year hiatus on Monday, bracing Dominicans for austerity measures needed to ease an economic crisis that has caused living standards to plummet during the past year.
Mr. Fernández, a lawyer and former university professor, said in a speech at a swearing-in ceremony that he would restrict spending by government agencies, preventing civil servants from using public funds to buy the imported sport utility vehicles that have become symbols here of skewed income distribution, rubbing up against the dilapidated motor scooters that fill the streets of this city.
He also said his administration would limit international phone calls by civil servants, among other cost-cutting measures intended to reduce a budget shortfall that has depleted resources to import fuel and generate electricity. In a jab against his predecessor, Hipólito Mejía, a populist businessman against whom Mr. Fernández won a landslide victory in May, he deplored the "absence of seriousness in everything."
...Mr. Fernández reached out to President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela in a trip to Caracas last month, seeking to preserve an agreement allowing the Dominican Republic to import oil on favorable terms. And Mr. Fernández was scheduled to meet Monday evening with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil in an effort to strengthen ties with that country, Latin America's largest. full article
Maybe what we are seeing is the start of a 'reverse domino theory', countries one by one escaping the traps set for them by the US and Europe.
