Juan Lopez de Uralde, the executive director of Greenpeace Spain, has addressed Leire Pajin Iraola, the head of the Ministry of International Cooperation in Spain, to express his concern for the Spanish Embassy?s support to Spanish businesspeople that seek to build hotels in currently protected park areas.
Lopez says that the short-term economic interests of these Spaniards could virtually destroy the national parks of the Dominican Republic. Lopez writes to Spain?s Ministry of International Cooperation to request that department?s cooperation in opposing the developmental initiatives. He also expresses his concern that Spanish Ambassador Maria Jesus Figa Lopez had impeded a meeting of Spanish non-governmental organizations to address the congressional bill that would legalize the use of the lands for hotel construction at the Centro Cultural maintained by the Spanish government in Santo Domingo. Lopez mentions that the development of park land is especially significant because the visitor center years back with Spanish government funds (Agencia Espanola de Cooperacion Internacional) in the National Park of the East is located precisely within the lot of land purchased by Spanish businessman Juan Jose Hidalgo.