Dominicans warned of Medina ’s ‘prolonged silence’ on contested mine

Santo Domingo.- Several organizations marched to Congress on Monday demand that the Senate pass the bill to create Loma Miranda National Park, a measure that would dash Xstrata Nickel Falcondo’s planned mine, and warn Dominicans on what they call president Danilo Medina’s “prolonged silence” on the issue.

The organizers who set off from the offices of the Dominican Doctors’ Guild (CMD) say it’s high time for the Senate Commission which studied the proposed legislation render its report and reject Falcondo’s plan to exploit the region.

Organizations and grass root movements, doctors, lawyers, journalists, engineers and surveyors are also taking part in the demonstration, who say the water sources at Loma Miranda guarantees the livelihood for livestock and farmlands.

"We alert the population on president Danilo Medina’s prolonged silence and the Senate’s delays in declaring Loma Miranda National Park, a maneuver which Falcondo exploits to advance its plans, proposing to divide Loma Miranda in two: one a National Park and the other to exploit and plunder," the organizations say in a statement to the media.