“Garage” university students protest for illegal pedestrian walk-UPDATE

UPDATE: Riot Police, headed by general Rommel de los Santo, dispersed the proteste with tear gas.

Santo Domingo.- Students of the Unicaribe University are protesting Wednesday morning to halt the demolition of pillars of a pedestrian bridge which one government agency planned to build over the 30 de Mayo Highway (El Malecon).

Today’s development comes after several weeks of dispute pitting the Santo Domingo City Council and the Dominican Government’s State Works Supervisory Engineers Office (OISOE).

Demonstrators had blocked traffic in both directions, after the National District City Council, which opposes the structure, and the Public Works Ministry sent crews to topple the pillars built by OISOE at Unicaribe’s request.

On May 21 the National District Municipal Justice of the Peace ruling to provisionally halt the structure at the City Council’s request, for "failing to obtain the city permits or submitting the corresponding blueprints."

Residents of the sector Dominicanos Ausentes, where Unicaribe operates, have complained of the sprawl and plummeting property values from the “garage university” so-called on the lack of planned growth and for violating the zoning laws.