Officials oppose impunity in Dominican Republic’s biggest land fraud case

Santo Domingo.- National District prosecutor Yeni Berenice Reynoso on Monday asked the Supreme Court to send the case of Bahia de las Aguilas to another venue, claiming that contrary to the 2nd National District Appellate Court ruling, the period allowed to proceed with a criminal prosecution hasn’t expired.

Reynoso joins senator Wilton Guerrero, both of the ruling PLD party, in opposing president Danilo Medina’s decision to desist from prosecution in what many sectors call the biggest land fraud in the country’s history

On Monday the Supreme Court set a new hearing in the case whose investigation dates to June 30, 1997, with former Dominican Agrarian Institute director Jaime Rodríguez Guzman, his brother Rafael and his wife Reyna Margarita Martinez as defendants, all three free on bond.

Reynoso asked the justices to remand the case to the National District 1st Criminal Court to hear the charges in which thousands of hectares were expropriated in the National Jaragua Park, Pedernales (southwest), and in Cabarete beach, Puerto Plata (north).

Senator

In 1997 Peravia province (south) senator Wilton Guerrero was the first official to file criminal charges in the case, and has pressed for prosecution ever since.