All levity has since been dispelled, as protests have grown and become occasionally violent as police broke them up. On 8 July one such clash claimed the life of a Chinese shopkeeper, hit by a stray bullet in the Capotillo district of Santo Domingo. Dozens were reportedly injured in confrontations the following day.
The police responded by arresting Víctor Gerónimo, coordinator of the Colectivo de Organizaciones Populares (an umbrella body of organisations that have been campaigning against price increases and power blackouts).
Faced with the prospect of his detention becoming a motive for the escalation of protests, Gerónimo was released after a day -'because we have not yet been able to find a weighty enough legal argument to prosecute him,' as police spokesman Ramón Francisco Rodríguez put it. The government then again raised fuel prices, and the Colectivo announced an escalation of the protests.
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