The entering into operation of the Santo Domingo Metro last week, the millions the Medina administration spends on propaganda every day, and the forecast of heavy rains were not able to dilute the hundreds of thousands from all around the Dominican Republic that turned up to add their presence to the Marcha Verde call to penalize corruption and impunity in government. A thunderstorm with intense rain fell on the marchers around noon but did not disperse the march. Aerial photos revealed comparative number of persons in the Sunday, 12 August march to previous marches on this route. Diario Libre reports that the spontaneous spirit of the march was the same as the legendary first Green March on 22 January 2017.
The march of people created a river of green that flowed alongside from Tiradentes, down Bolivar and then south of Av. Winston Churchill down the Av. Enrique Jimenez Moya to the Centro de los Héroes where the Supreme Court of Justice is located.
A document read by youth Danni Martinez in the name of the organizers of the Green March Movement said that the march called for penalties to those accused of corruption in public administration. ”
“We clearly point to President Danilo Medina, former President Leonel Fernández and the Dominican Liberation Party leadership, as the main architects and responsible today for the present regime of theft of public resources. They undemocratically control the institutions for the prosecution of crime, the high courts and important media of the country, to prevent justice being done in the Odebrecht case and in other important cases for which President Medina himself must be politically tried, and an independent criminal investigation be held to ensure exemplary penalties.” The PLD has been government in the Dominican Republic continuously from 2004.
Diario Libre reported that among those who accompanied Martinez were former Vice President Milagros Ortiz Bosch and Jose Ignacio Paliza of the PRM political party, Max Puig of Alianza para la Democracia, legislator Guadalupe Valdez, gender activist Lourdes Contreras, singer-politician Manuel Jimenez, environmentalist Luis Carvajal.
Shortly before the delivering of the march manifest, journalists Huchi Lora, Altagracia Salazar had called for the need to reform the constitution to impede that a militant politician be named the country’s attorney general.
The speeches were made from the Centro de los Heroes where the National Congress and Supreme Court of Justice and the Attorney General offices are located. Marching under the banners of the Green March, the crowds proclaimed that they would continue to protest until all those who have benefited from the illegal use of state funds are properly investigated, charged and convicted. The spokesperson of Marcha Verde said that any involvement of President Danilo Medina in corruption should be thoroughly investigated by an independent counsel.
One of the slogans most heard during the demonstration was the shout: “We are a united and strong people!”
In a statement that called for the impeachment of Medina, the protestors criticized President Medina as the “client and electoral beneficiary of international criminal Joao Santana.”
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Marcha Verde
