The Medina administration has opened talks with the El Seibo farmers that had camped out near the Presidential Palace. The farmers claim as theirs the land where they say they have been farming for 44 years. They were recently evicted from the land after a landholder claimed the land as his.
The El Seibo farmers were received at the Presidential Palace on Tuesday, 4 November 2019 by a government commission headed by Administrative Minister of the Presidency José Ramón Peralta. Others participating in the meeting were Omudswoman Zoila Martinez, the director of the Dominican Agrarian Institute Emilio Toribio Olivo, the director of the State Sugar Council (CEA) and the deputy for El Seibo, Jean Luis Rodríguez.
The government says that the land claimed by the farmers exceeds that which was granted by a presidential decree in 1975. “We listened to all their allegations and they are protected by a decree that Balaguer made in 1975 regarding 2,000 tareas [1 tarea = 629 square meters]. The occupation is of 16,000 to 20,000 tareas, and therefore exceeds the decree”, revealed Peralta.
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El Dia
6 November 2019