Cabarete hotel project goes to court

Santo Domingo.- Several institutions and civil society organizations filed a complaint on Thursday with the Environment Prosecutor against Environment Minister, Ángel Estévez and others related to the environmental license issued for the construction of a hotel in Boca de Yásica, protected area of Cabarete township, Puerto Plata.

The plaintiffs affirm that the authorities and the promoters of the Ritz Carlton project have sold the idea that it is a construction adhering to the highest environmental and ecological standards, “but in reality what they have done is destroy the place where there are critically endangered species on the brink of extinction.

They say that as a result of the work thousands of square meters of wetlands have been drained and the fauna of the place has been eliminated. They also say that more than 20 thousand square meters of mangroves and other varieties have been cut down.

“They gave an environmental license to build 438 hotel rooms in a protected area where previous ministers had already canceled a license” that had been granted to build five cabañas, said lawyer Euren Cuevas Medina.