As global gold prices surge to repeated historic highs, renewing investor appetite for extraction projects, former presidential candidate Abel Martínez has issued a stark warning against mining encroachment in the Cibao region’s most critical water sources, as reported in Listin Diario.
Martinéz, the former mayor of Santiago and a leading figure in the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), has publicly thrown his support behind a grassroots movement led by Father Nino Ramos. The coalition of Catholic clergy, community leaders, and local organizations is mobilizing to protect the Pico Diego de Ocampo, the highest point in the Cordillera Septentrional mountain range, from potential mining exploitation.
Martínez characterized the defense of the peak not as an isolated local dispute, but as a matter of national security. He argues that the rush to capitalize on the current commodities boom poses a direct threat to the communities of Piché, Jacagua, and the rural outskirts of Santiago.
“The Pico Diego de Ocampo and its surroundings are not simple geographical elevations,” Martínez stated. “They are zones of water recharge, headwaters, climatic equilibrium, and biodiversity.”
With gold and precious metal prices incentivizing the exploration of previously untouched terrains, Martínez argued that the cost-benefit analysis for the Dominican Republic remains negative.
“The environmental sacrifice implied by mining in this area would be far superior to any immediate economic gain, especially when those benefits do not translate into real well-being for the communities nor the country,” he added.
The “great social scam”
The former mayor emphasized the role of the Cordillera Septentrional as a natural regulator of rainfall and a protector of soil integrity. He warned that the traditional extraction model often leaves the state with long-term ecological liabilities that outweigh short-term fiscal revenue.
“The country cannot keep repeating a model where non-renewable natural resources are extracted, essential ecosystems are degraded, and, in the end, the benefits do not reach the people while we all pay the environmental and social costs,” Martínez said. “That, in practice, ends up constituting a great environmental and social scam against the nation.”
Martínez called on the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Energy and Mines to exercise “absolute transparency.” He urged regulators to ensure that the allure of high metal prices does not lead to the approval of concessions that compromise strategic ecosystems.
He also praised the involvement of the Church, specifically highlighting the leadership of Father Nino Ramos in organizing the resistance.
“When the Church, the communities, and the citizens unite to defend life and natural resources, the State has the duty to listen,” Martínez asserted.
He concluded by reiterating that the protection of water sources is a “decision of the future” and a matter of “historical responsibility” for the Dominican Republic.
Read more in Spanish:
Listin Diario
Diario Libre
19 January 2026