Hoy newspaper spotlights today the name change of the highest peak in the Caribbean, from Pico Duarte to Pico Trujillo, as part of the changes contained in the Sectoral Protected Areas Bill. The bill, while highly controversial for the modifications it makes to the National Park lands, was approved by the PRD-majority Congress, with the support of President Hipolito Mejia. According to President Mejia, he intends to sign the bill into law this week.
The newspaper says that the name of Pico Trujillo was the appellation given to the mountain to praise the dictator of the time, the infamous Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. Among the changes being pushed forward is the reinstatement of the park area defined in the legislation of 1959 legislation, thus overriding what was defined by Environmental Law 64-00 in August 2000. The name change was made when the legislators acted upon a request made by Monsignor Jose Dolores Grullon Estrella of San Juan de la Maguana to the Chamber of Deputies. In the 8 May letter, the monsignor requested that the deputies revert to the limits set in 1959. The legislation of the time established that the boundaries of the Parque Jose del Carmen Ramirez would ?follow the Cordillera Central to the east until Pico Trujillo.?
The name change is pointed out as an extreme of the many absurdities incorporated into the bill during its expedited revision in Congress responding to special interest groups.
The revisions to the Sectoral Protected Areas Bill have met with strong opposition from the Ministry of Environment, environmental groups, the tourism industry (including the National Association of Hotels & Restaurants), the United Nations Development Program, the United States Embassy and several other foreign embassies, as well as international environmental organizations, Dominican civic groups, the PRSC?s presidential candidate Eduardo Estrella and President-elect Leonel Fernandez.