Simon Suarez, the executive vice-president of Coral by Hilton Hotels, is the newly-appointed president of the Bayahibe-La Romana Hoteliers? Association. Suarez is additionally a past president of the Caribbean Hotel Association, and continues to be a member of the board of the regional body. His new function as the head of the Bayahibe association coincides with the Mejia government?s passing of a law that would strip protected park areas of their status and open them to resort development. Some of these contentious sites lie adjacent to the Bayahibe hotels. Suarez had been a strong and vocal opponent to the law?s enactment.