President Hipolito Mejia told students at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) yesterday that the flyash (also known as rockash) deposited in Monte Cristi and Samana should be returned to Puerto Rico immediately. As reported in El Caribe newspaper, President Mejia said the material entered the country due to “a weakness of the Environment Ministry.” A permit from the ministry reportedly authorized the import. “Those are weaknesses that should not be allowed,” said Mejia to the students. According to the President, however, the environmentalists have exaggerated because “rockash is not such a big thing.”
In reference to the preservationists, he added: “They are babosos,” meaning slobbering fools who talk too much. Environmentalists criticized the fact that the government had allowed the import of shipments containing some 75,000 tons of the refuse-derived material, despite the substance being prohibited by law.