More than 300 marchers from La Vega to Santo Domingo who wanted to deliver a letter to President Danilo Medina at the Presidential Palace on 27 of February were left outside when Palace spokesmen said that only security guards could receive the letter.
The protestors are calling on President Danilo Medina to give his opinion on the proposed mining in the Loma Miranda area. The protestors say that the President has sold out to Falcondo, the company that seeks to extract the minerals in the mountain.
The Chamber of Deputies voted to declare the mountain a national park in order to give it protected status, but the bill is on hold in the Senate.
Last year, the Medina administration asked the United Nations to give an opinion. The UN experts said that the impact assessment study presented by Falcondo was incomplete. But in contrast with the Los Haitises case when the UN conclusions led to a complete halt to the installation of a cement factory next to an environmentally vulnerable area, the Minister of Environment has been open to mining in the area if certain conditions are met.
The Academy of Sciences, the UASD state university environmental commission and United Nations Development Program experts have issued unfavorable statements about the proposed mining under the terms stated by Falcondo.