Pilgrims from El Seibo ask President Medina for land title

The pilgrims of El Seibo, grouped in the Association of Agricultural Producers Mamá Tingó, declared themselves yesterday in “victory” from the House of the Dominican Missionaries, where they were forced to be by the National Police. From there they declared to the President of the Republic, Danilo Medina, that they will not leave until he orders that they are given possession of their lands and receive the right of the title, in official documents.

Silvio Molina, evangelical pastor and spokesperson for the 613 families affected and who denounce that a Cuban-American citizen wants to strip them of their agricultural land, asked President Medina to end the ordeal they’ve had since October 21, when they walked, leaving El Seibo to arrive at the National Palace, around which they were forcibly removed by a contingent of the National Police in the early hours of last week.

The farmers are naturally tired and have gone almost two weeks of not seeing their children. Farmers like Manuel Charles, who has four children, the youngest being eight years. With the anguish of not knowing the destiny that awaits them, these peasants tried yesterday in front of the Government House to program other strategies to reclaim orders that President Medina demands the Dominican Agrarian Institute (IAD) formalize the titles that accredit them, landowners of land, the foreigner they identify as Pedro Guillermo Barón allegedly wants to snatch.

Molina reiterated that they have occupied the land since their ancestors lived in the Vicentillo community, La Culebra, in El Seibo, near Hato Mayor. He recalled that a decree by President Joaquín Balaguer delivered the land in 1975.

They accuse Senator Rubén Cruz (Rubén Toyota) and the main authorities of the Government of El Seibo, of lending to collaborate with the US Cuban, who they claim would have declared that the eviction of the farmers cost him several million pesos.

The Catholic priest Miguel Ángel Grullón, director of Radio El Seibo; Community and political leaders have joined their struggle, and Molina asks the media to accompany them to return to the National Palace environment, to be heard by President Danilo Medina, who is asked to make a surprise visit to Vicentillo, La Culebra, in El Seibo.

Felix Mejía

This farmer said that the Cuban American Pedro Guillermo Barón comments in Vicentillo that his strength is that he would have contributed a substantial sum for past campaigns of the government party, the PLD.