Round-the-clock power blackouts and nightly gunfights between rival drugs gangs that lurk on her doorstep in Gualey, a barrio of Santo Domingo, make life tough for Rosa Pimentel.

But if subsistence in a zinc-roofed shack was not miserable enough, it would become unbearable for Rosa if she were unable to run her cooker with cheap propane gas. “If the government lifts the subsidy on gas we would fall into the abyss,” says Ms Pimentel, 43, as she boils a pot of rice for her five hungry children.