Senator calls officials, colleague ‘merchants of mining’

Santo Domingo.- “The lie has gone so far that they are saying that Loma Miranda doesn’t have water,” affirmed the senator for La Vega (central) Wednesday, and called a colleague, the head of the Mining Agency and the Environment Minister “employees of Falcondo.”

Euclides Sanchez called Loma Miranda a water mine, “and it’s not only me, the UNDP (UN Development Program) has also said it.”

The lawmaker slammed an alleged media campaign by Glencore Falcondo to “undermine” the will of the people of the region. “First it was that there was no water, then it was the jobs, that fell flat, so we as Dominicans under any circumstance, cannot allow a company, by using its funds, to overwhelm us.”

Sanchez questioned that despite that Environment minister Bautista (Bauta) Rojas discarded Falcondo’s environmental impact study to mine Miranda, the official in his view, now supports the planned mine. “Bauta himself even said that the government’s decision was above that of the UND. Bauta also admitted that the government had denied the environment licensee to the miner.”

New element

The lawmaker said that consultations agreement for another study with the UN Environment Program (UNPE) adds a new element to the conflict.

He said in addition to Rojas, Mining director Pelegrin Castillo and Monseñor Noel senator Felix Nova are “merchants of mining at the service” of Falcondo. “I prefer environmental fundamentalists who stand for the rights of the people over merchants of mining, we cannot forget the environmental debt left by Falcondo, it is there.”

“You cannot fathom the extent of Falcondo’s economic campaign, but the governments are of the people, for the people and the power of the people is sovereign, and nations don’t make mistakes,” Sanchez said, interviewed by Marino Zapete on Colorvision Channel 9.

He invited the people who support the creation of Loma Miranda National Park to a rally Wednesday morning at La Vega’s Duarte Park, headed by diocese bishop Antonio Camilo.