Senator Cholitín warns La Altagracia is being “punished by success”

Santo Domingo.- Senator Rafael Barón Duluc, known as Cholitín, warned that La Altagracia is facing rapid but poorly planned growth, despite the tourism success of Punta Cana and Bávaro. Speaking in the Senate, he said the province has been “punished by success,” with economic expansion failing to translate into adequate public investment, infrastructure, and social development.

Duluc noted that La Altagracia has the country’s highest level of accumulated poverty and argued that official population figures significantly underestimate the number of residents. He supports a Senate resolution urging President Luis Abinader to instruct the National Statistics Office (ONE) to conduct a special census in the province, which he says now has more than one million inhabitants.

The senator said the lack of accurate data has contributed to shortages in classrooms, transportation, and basic services, while worsening traffic congestion in Punta Cana and Verón. He cited comments by tourism pioneer Frank Rainieri, who recently described the region’s unregulated growth as unsustainable. Duluc argued that a special census is the most urgent step needed to guide future planning and investment in La Altagracia.