{"id":135748,"date":"2020-01-30T13:12:21","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T13:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ny1.dr1.com.do\/wordpress\/?p=135748"},"modified":"2020-01-30T19:55:31","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T19:55:31","slug":"the-controversial-career-of-angel-estevez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/2020\/01\/30\/the-controversial-career-of-angel-estevez\/","title":{"rendered":"The controversial career of Angel Estevez"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A feature in N Digital looks into the controversial career of current Environment Minister Angel Estevez. Estevez has been minister of Agriculture and Environment in the two Medina administrations. N Digital reports that with less than two years in office, Environment Minister Angel Estevez\u2019s term has met with scandals that have lead sectors of Dominican society on several occasions to demand he be removed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has had constant clashes with environmental groups. Est\u00e9vez’s latest scandal is the granting of a permit for the construction of a hotel in the Cotubanam\u00e1 National Park (Parque Nacional del Este), near the island of Saona. Such was the reaction that President Danilo ordered construction to stop. The President named a commission that includes the minister himself, to review the legality of the construction of the hotel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

N Digital recalls that upon Estevez\u2019s appointment as Environment Minister, the removal of farming from the Valle Nuevo National Park took a step back. Estevez allowed farmers to return to plant strawberries, potatoes and onions, among other items. The Moscoso Puello Foundation has accused Minister Est\u00e9vez on several occasions of allowing the return of large machinery, equipment and supplies that had already been evicted from the park by Estevez\u2019s predecessor, Francisco Dom\u00ednguez Brito.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the lax attitude to farming in protected areas does not stop in Valle Nuevo. The Sierra de Bahoruco is another of the nightmares under Est\u00e9vez’s environmental management. The minister himself has justified planting avocados in this protected area, stating categorically “that he will not destroy a single tree that has been planted.\u201d The park is now being used for the planting of Hass avocados for export. Avocados trees are large consumers of water. Environmental groups maintain that the Bahoruco Sierra is essential water source for the Dominican Republic and Haiti and the avocados will put stress on this water source. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The depredation of endemic species in the F\u00e9lix Servio Ducoudray Natural Monument Scientific Reserve, better known as Las Dunas de Ban\u00ed, also suffered under the term of Estevez. For weeks, trucks preyed on the natural area, until the bishop of the Ban\u00ed diocese, V\u00edctor Masalles, denounced the illegal act through social networks. It was not until then that the authorities ordered the reinforcement and subsequent stop to the mining of construction materials from the zone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guillermo Moreno, presidential candidate of the Alianza Pa\u00eds party, calls Est\u00e9vez the number one enemy of environmental preservation and protection in the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c1ngel Est\u00e9vez was appointed in May 2018, replacing Francisco Dom\u00ednguez Brito at the Ministry of Environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As reported in N Digital, Estevez term at the Ministry of Environment was a follow up to his controversial work when he headed the Ministry of Agriculture. He was accused of monopolizing agriculture imports. Est\u00e9vez has been criticized for serious conflicts of interest with his family businesses that represent agrochemicals and food imports (Eurosuministros, Tavan Caribe SRL, Agroterra Dominicana, Comercial Est\u00e9vez, SRL, Joara Import, SRL, according to Al Pais deputy Fidelio Despradel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more in Spanish:
N Digital<\/a>
Hoy<\/a>
Hoy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

30 January 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A feature in N Digital looks into the controversial career of current Environment Minister Angel Estevez. Estevez has been minister of Agriculture and Environment in the two Medina administrations. N Digital reports that with less than two years in office, Environment Minister Angel Estevez\u2019s term has met with scandals that have lead sectors of Dominican … <\/p>\n

Read more\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[271,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135748"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135748"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135813,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135748\/revisions\/135813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}