Operations at the Duquesa refuse dump returned to a sort of normality yesterday, Tuesday 23 July with the arrival of 70 trucks and 15 tractor-trailer dump trucks. The Duquesa site is being managed by the Santo Domingo North city government after a take-over last week. According to El Caribe, the general manager of the Brazilian company, the Lajun Corporation, Max Da Silva, said that the corporation had filed for an injunction against the unilateral cancellation of the contract by the City Council, headed by Mayor Francisco Fernandez. Da Silva told reporters that “not only did the City Council take over, illegally, the company’s private property, but they are currently operating the refuse dump with equipment belonging to the company, and which are company assets.” Da Silva said that in a series of meetings with the mayor, he was under the impression that they had reached some understanding about the difficulties affecting the Duquesa site and that time extensions would be granted to comply with all the aspects of the contract.
Lajun Corporation changed ownership on 26 June and the new owners took over on 19 July, as reported in Diario Libre. The new owners, businessman Michael Lee Chin of Portland Holdings (Jamaican investment) and Luis Jose Asilis of the Grupo Metro (Dominican investment) say that what the Santo Domingo Municipality has done is to expropriate a private asset. The new owners said they took over the dump to create a model garbage management company. They say they will wait until 30 July when the Supreme Administrative Court is set to rule on the case.
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