DR1 Daily News - Dominican Republic

As global gold prices surge to repeated historic highs, renewing investor appetite for extraction projects, former presidential candidate Abel Martínez has issued a stark warning against mining encroachment in the Cibao region’s most critical water sources, as reported in Listin Diario.

Martinéz, the former mayor of Santiago and a leading figure in the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), has publicly thrown his support behind a grassroots movement led by Father Nino Ramos. The coalition of Catholic clergy, community leaders, and local organizations is mobilizing to protect the Pico Diego de Ocampo, the highest point in the Cordillera Septentrional mountain range, from potential mining exploitation.

Martínez characterized the defense of the peak not as an isolated local dispute, but as a matter of national security. He argues that the rush to capitalize on the current commodities boom...