The Coalition for the Defense of Protected Areas on 17 January 2024 denounced an attempt at real estate fraud by an international firm — DC Internacional SRL — that claims ownership of 700 square kilometers of the Sierra de Bahoruco National Park, equivalent to 70% of the park.
What makes the matter more serious, claims the environmentalists, is that the company has already achieved two favorable rulings in the Superior Administrative Court (TSA). The situation had not been known before.
As reported in El Dia, the company could be preparing to seek billionaire compensation for the state’s expropriation of the land.
Luis Carvajal of the state university (UASD) served as spokesperson for the Coalition. Also participating in the press conference to denounce the situation were: the president of the Academy of Sciences of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, Eleuterio Martínez; Yolanda León of the Jaragua Group, Nelson Bautista of the Green Action Foundation and Nelson Pimentel, lawyer representing the Coalition, warned of the maneuver of DC Internacional SRL.
“This would be the largest fraud in financial and real estate terms that may involve payments of more than RD$100 billion, and to make matters worse, that person (Dante Castillo) who was recognized forty pesos per square meter is demanding that they pay him more. This is a person who had already participated in other similar real estate claims in Parque Cotubanamá or Parque del Este that fortunately was annulled in the Supreme Court of Justice,” said Carvajal. DC International SRL and its representative Tomás Rosendo Dantes-Castillo Soto seek millions in compensation from the state for the supposed expropriation of seven plots of 184 million square meters in the national park area.
The Coalition asked the Attorney General’s Office and the Ministry of the Environment to take the case to its final consequences and even investigate Dominican government officials who may be involved.
He called for investigating whether there is collusion with the National Title Registry Agency, and that the TSA explain why it accepted the case, for which it has issued at least two sentences: one for RD$590 million and another for RD$676 million in favor of the company.
Nelson Pimentel, lawyer for the Coalition, said that this case questions the legal security of the country and all the money spent to guarantee the southwest’s land situation and future of tourism in the region.
Yolanda León, representative of the Jaragua Group, said that the Sierra de Bahoruco National Park was left clean with its declaration of a protected and public utility area in 1983.
These were common lands never developed since the Spanish colony, stated Eleuterio Martínez, president of the Academy of Sciences. He said the present situation came as a surprise. The national park is the country’s largest and is located in the center of the Bahoruco mountain range and has an area of 1,200 square kilometers.
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Hoy
El Dia
18 January 2024