Diario Libre newspaper continues to follow up on the dispute over land use and Cotubanamá National Park in the La Romana-Punta Cana area. For years, the Spanish tourism company Globalia has sought to build a resort on beach land on the outskirts of the protected area. It was not until this January 2020 that a minister of environment would authorize the construction, bringing the dispute back into the public domain.
Environmentalists say the promoters of the 96-cabaña Leaf Bayahibe project obtained the needed environmental permit against local regulations. The former National Parks director Omar Ramirez, and Estevez predecessor, Francisco Dominguez Brito, both say the permit should be revoked.
Diario Libre now reports that in addition to Globalia there are many local big business players interested in profiting from building in the coveted natural reserve area. The newspaper says that government negligence has resulted in the area being in a legal limbo because while the land was expropriated to create the National Park of the East, today the Cotubanama National Park, the state never completed the formality of indemnifying the owners.
Diario Libre reports that the decision that is finally taken by the government to allow or not the construction of the Leaf Bayahibe would open the floodgates for more investment. Over the years, many have purchased land in the park from the original owners, willing to wait it out for a turn in the will of the government to allow construction.
Diario Libre says that even the infamous Angel Rondon, the commercial representative of Odebrecht in the Dominican Republic, is the owner of more than a million square meters of land in the area. Investigative reporters Suhelis Tejero and Marvin del Cid found out that a company owned by Rondon, Lashan Corp, had paid RD$10 million or US$563,063, at the time of the purchase in 2003, to Punta Palmilla del Caribe S.A. to purchase prime land in front of Palmilla Beach. At present, Palmilla is only accessible by boat.
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Diario Libre
19 February 2020