The latest rounds of protests began May 12 when police killed Rubén Darío in Capotillo, a working-class neighborhood in the northern part of Santo Domingo, the capital city.

The cops fatally shot Darío while he was reading a newspaper at his front door, according to the Spanish-language daily Hoy, published in New York. The Dominican Human Rights Committee charged that he was killed because he had managed to avoid an April 24 police operation to capture political activists. Abel Rojas, a community leader, was arrested in that action.

Neighborhood residents took to the streets immediately, protesting the killing and demanding the removal of Maj. Gen. Pedro de Jesús Candelier, the chief of the National Police, who is widely hated. Since the start of the protests five people in Capotillo have been killed and more than 200 arrested.

Candelier, a graduate of the U.S. School of the Americas, was named chief of police two years ago under the government of President Leonel Fernández of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD).

The current president, Hipólito Mejía of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), promised to bring to justice those responsible for the killings in Capotillo, but kept Candelier in his post. The police chief tried to defend the killings, claiming the victims "are not little angels." Over the past two years, more than 400 people have been killed by the police.

Three days after Darío’s death, protests against electrical blackouts and the lack of drinking water began in Santiago, in the north of the country, and Neyba in the south. There have also been protests in San Cristóbal, 22 miles southeast of Santo Domingo. The widespread and unpredictable blackouts and the general deterioration of basic services have generated increasing outrage in working-class neighborhoods and rural areas of this Caribbean nation over the years.  
 
36-hour blackouts
According to El Nacional, a daily newspaper in Santo Domingo, blackouts--some for up to 36 hours at a time--are increasingly common throughout the country "in spite of the fact that electrical generation exceeds the demand." In many cases the electric company claims that it has to cut off electricity to whole neighborhoods because people are not paying their bills.

Several people were wounded in attacks by the cops in Navarrete, where protesters were demanding more schools, roads, and public works programs. The Broad Front of Popular Struggle (FALPO) organized strike actions, which also included a demand for "more equitable" distribution of power outages.

The cops accused demonstrators in Navarrete of firing on them with automatic weapons. "Until now the police have been prudent," claimed police spokesperson Major Nelson Rosario, "But we will not be pusillanimous in the face of vandalism and disturbance of peace and tranquillity." He threatened that the cops would "employ all the power they consider necessary."

Fidel Santana, national spokesperson of FALPO, denied that demonstrators have been armed. From police custody he charged that it is the cops themselves who have infiltrated demonstrations to make it look like the protesters are violent. Their objective, Santana said, "was to create scapegoats so that they can continue repressing" the protest actions.

Some 20 leaders of FALPO have been detained by the police for having called for protests demanding the release of those arrested during the past week.

Capotillo, a traditional center of working-class militancy, has been occupied by the police, the National Directorate of Drug Control, and police SWAT teams. According to Hoy, "Since 4:00 a.m. on May 26, SWAT, drug agents, and antiriot police patrols occupied the streets" of Capotillo, brazenly entering homes. As of June 1 the cops were still posted at all the entrances to the neighborhood and have arrested dozens of youth. The police and army have also occupied neighborhoods in Navarrete and Licey.  
 
 
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