Spanish woman reports attempt to strip her of inheritance in Puerto Plata

A Dominican-Spanish citizen, Ainhoa Simón Estrada, yesterday denounced a plot against her by a group of people who, through seizures and other threats, have attempted to strip her of her inherited property in the community of Saballo, in the municipality of Imbert, Puerto Plata province, following the death of her father on June 2, 2018.

“There is a network of people who continue to interfere in this process, preventing me from receiving my property and trying to take it for themselves. They believe that it belongs to them, that as a woman and a foreigner, I should give up my right to property and my legitimate inheritance,” she said.

During a press conference held in Santiago, the woman called on the Public Ministry authorities to stop the abuse against her by the group, allegedly made up of her relatives, lawyers, and other legal assistants, who are trying to take away her legitimate property. She also said that she fears for her life and that of her children in the face of the aggressive attacks she is suffering.

“I am making this appeal once again because, although my hope in the due process of law that is taking its course has not faltered, this network of people, this network set up by Héctor Nicolás Bienvenido Martínez Simón and Rafael Carlos José Balbuena Pucheu, among others, continues to violate my rights and it seems that they will not stop until they leave me with nothing,” she said.

Ainhoa Simón Estrada said she is going through a painful process in which they are trying to exclude her from a legacy that she claims belongs to her, not only by right but also through ties of love, blood, and shared history.

She explained that one of her late father’s assets was an agricultural company called Los Robles, S.R.L., which includes three properties and numerous head of cattle. She said that her father was the general manager and administrator, so she inherited 87% of the shares, and that the other minority partner, with 13%, is her father’s nephew, whom she identified as Héctor Nicolás Bienvenido Martínez Simón.

Simón Estrada stated that Martínez Simón was collaborating with Rafael Carlos José Balbuena Pucheu to obstruct the entire due process.

She reported that these men had withheld the original title deeds to all the real estate owned by the company and her father and had made numerous attempts to usurp the property without having the legal standing to do so.

“It should also be remembered that the first notification from Mr. Balbuena Pucheu was made through his attorney at the time, the late Basilio Guzmán, who was murdered in Santiago, but it was Mr. Héctor Martínez who was notified, using my address; that is, through a false notification, they attempted to execute in 2018, just months after my father’s death,” said the woman, distraught by what had happened.