Cops halt truckers from extracting sand at biggest river

Bonao, DominicanRepublic.- Truckers who’ve staged protests since several days against the EnvironmentMinistry’s ban on extraction of aggregates from the Yuna river were intercepted82 kilometers north of the capital by a group of police, which halted them fromreaching the Duarte highway.

To keep the truckersat bay the police hurled hundreds of tear gas canisters and fired shotguns intothe air, with no injuries reported.

The local truckers associationasked Environment to allow the extraction of sand at the Yuna, the country´s largest river, after orderingthe ban months ago when the river went practically dry.

Truckers´ spokesman JuanSantos said it´s already raining in the country so the water level of the riversis high. "We´re the heads of families and we need to produce, that placewhere we´re taking the material has its legal environment permit, so let uswork already because we have pending debts at the banks."