Dominicans mark 30 years since tragic upheaval

Santo Domingo.- It was a hot Monday, April 23, 1984, when the slums in the capital and towns of the interior exploded in a grassroots uprising that ended three days later with an official toll at more than 125 people dead, though other sectors placed it as high as 300.

Over one year of complaints and protests nationwide by the Popular Struggle Committees (CLP) preceded the uprising, which former president Juan Bosch called a "poblada" (wave of people), led by leftists, and church and community groups against the negotiations between the administration of then president Salvador Jorge Blanco with the IMF, which implemented the so-called "shock policy" in Latin America.

The IMF’s "shock policy" was the proposal of economists taught in the Chicago School of Business (Chicago Boys), headed by Nobel Prize for Economy Milton Friedman, who said that unpopular reforms to restart the economy can be applied in the midst of upheavals and internal strife.