Shortages of Gasoline, Food and Even Sugar Hit Dominican Republic : Caribbean: Protests mount as the president imposes economic austerity program at beginning of second term.

Francia Martinez stood in line for rice, beans and flour. She wanted sugar, too, but knew there would be none of that sweet staple.

Sugar, the foundation of this Caribbean nation’s economy for 400 years, is gone from store shelves. It is being shipped to foreign buyers, who pay more than Dominicans can afford.

“Nobody understands what’s going on in this country,” said Freddy Sanchez, waiting in a nearby gasoline station line that was four blocks long. “Prices go up, but we’re still short.”

Martinez, taking shelter from the midday sun under a black umbrella, said she was “lacking everything at home” for her husband and three children.

Rising consumer prices and shortages of gasoline, food, electricity--even water--are causing hardships and widespread protest among the Dominican Republic’s 7 million people.

Two nationwide protest strikes since August have led to violence between security forces and demonstrators in which at least 14 people have been killed and 90 wounded. Police report 2,300 arrests, but strike leaders say the number is higher.

A few days before a strike in September, three Santo Domingo university students were killed by the explosion of a bomb they were making on campus. Police found an arsenal of explosives in Santiago, the second-largest city.

Protest began when President Joaquin Balaguer imposed economic austerity shortly before beginning his second consecutive four-year term in August.

He ended subsidies for such basic goods as flour, cooking oil and gasoline, causing prices to triple in some cases. Gasoline has risen since August from 55 cents a gallon to $1.42, with added impetus from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2.

Balaguer’s government could not afford the normal level of oil imports after the Persian Gulf crisis drove world prices up, so it began importing about one-third less and rationed gasoline.

“There’s no flour, sugar, gas, medicine because the country has no dollars, no foreign currency, no reserves,” said Andres Dauhakre, a leading economist. “Certainly the crisis in the Middle East doesn’t help.”

Economic problems have mounted since world sugar prices collapsed and U.S. import quotas were cut in the 1980s. Last year’s crop was smaller than usual.

The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, has a foreign debt of $4.1 billion. By conservative estimates 28% of its workers are jobless and annual inflation is 70%.

A $500-million building spree largely tied to the 500th anniversary in 1992 of Columbus’ discovery of America has created schools, roads, housing, irrigation dams and monuments, but the government has financed it by the inflationary means of printing money.

Power plants have deteriorated from neglect, causing blackouts of up to 18 hours a day. Many homes and factories have their own generators, but fuel shortages make them unreliable. Breakdowns of electric pumps cause water shortages.

The International Monetary Fund demanded the austerity measures. Balaguer, 84 and blind from glaucoma, said they are necessary and has urged Dominicans to conserve.

“We have to use less gas, go out less, go to the beach less,” he said recently. “We must appeal to Dominican patriotism so that we can overcome this crisis.”

There is no current agreement with the IMF.