Constanza community members and environmentally-aware persons are calling for justice after environmental defender, 39-year old Francisco Ortiz Baez was murdered. He had denounced the indiscriminate extraction of materials for the construction from a Tireo, Constanza river in La Vega province.
Olmedo León, executive director of the Ecological Society of Cibao (Soeci), said the murder was possible due to the lack of a regime of consequences in the country.
According to the environmentalist, the environmental damage to the tributary in Tireo is a complaint that Soeci has been making for more than two decades, “without anyone intervening.”
León maintains that the lack of authority gives power to the unscrupulous who damage natural resources.
He says that environmentalists are constantly threatened and sometimes attacked when they report the occurrence of ecological crimes.
“In the Ministry of the Environment we need authorities with pants to enforce the rules,” he said.
Olmedo León warned that if corrective measures are not taken by the central government, the population will be forced to assume the role of safeguarding natural resources.
Dozens of community people have been lighting candles to demand those who planned and committed the murder be taken to justice.
Relatives of Ortiz Baez had denounced his disappearance after he reported on the damages to the environment caused by the extraction of the construction materials. His corpse was later found buried in the community of Las Cuevas de las Sabanas in San Juan de la Maguana. The coroner said he died of wounds to the head by a gun.
Last week the Police National arrested two men who are suspect of the crime. 53-year old Reynaldo Cruz Castillo, and 25-year old Andy Joel Payano (alias El Guardia) were arrested in search operations in Bonao, Monseñor Nouel and Jimaní, Independencia province.
The Police said that Cruz Castillo had with him a gun and a Maverick rifle, registered to the victim. In a press release, the Police said that Cruz Castillo provided the information that led to the discovery of the corpse in Las Cuevas.
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17 April 2024