Mayor Carolina Mejía of the National District (Santo Domingo) is facing a civil and criminal complaint after allegedly authorizing permits for large-scale residential construction in the city’s protected Green Belt (Cinturón Verde), a move opponents warn is a grave threat to the capital’s crucial ecological breathing space.
The lawsuit, filed with the Attorney General’s Office, directly accuses the Mayor and other high-ranking officials of violating environmental laws by issuing land-use permits for projects in a zone designated for environmental protection where multi-family housing is reportedly prohibited.
The action was initiated by private citizen Francisco Romeo Roa Jiménez, who alleges his 4,000 square-meter home in the Prados de Arroyo Hondo sector was destroyed as part of the controversial development.
According to the complaint, Mejía’s administration, through the National District City Hall (ADN), granted at least two land-use certificates for the development of more than 300 apartments across three and four-story buildings. The total area covered by the disputed permits, for the projects known as Balcones del Cerro and Balcones de la Rivera, spans over 62,000 square meters.
The legal battle is being supported by the Institute of Lawyers for Environmental Protection (Insaproma). The claim has the backing of neighborhood groups in the northern area of the National District.
Euren Cuevas Medina, the executive director of Insaproma, condemned the Mayor’s failure to revoke the permissions, even after receiving formal warnings about the potential environmental destruction.
Insaproma argues that the permits—identified as certificates No. ADN-DPU-2022-0933 and ADN-DPU-2022-1193—constitute environmental crimes under current Dominican law and should result in criminal sanctions.
“It is lamentable that the Mayor did not revoke the permits despite being formally warned and advised of the environmental damage,” Cuevas Medina stated.
The complaint names two other senior government figures in connection with the scandal:
Danny Santos Comprés, Vice Minister of Housing and Construction, who is reportedly the owner of the construction company executing the works in the protected Green Belt area and Armando Paíno Henríquez, the Minister of Environment.
The filing casts a shadow over the government’s commitment to preserving the capital’s ecological heritage, putting pressure on the Public Prosecutor’s Office to thoroughly investigate the alleged environmental and administrative violations.
Read more in Spanish:
El Nacional
9 October 2025