The Attorney General of the Republic, Yeni Berenice Reynoso, ordered an exhaustive and immediate investigation into the damages, illegal occupations and possible real estate fraud in various protected areas of the country, including the Jaragua National Parkthe Bucanyé area, Valle Nuevo, the Baní Dunes, the Sierra de Bahoruco and the Hoyo del Pino National Park.
For this purpose, the judge appointed a special task force made up of heads of various specialized areas, under the coordination of the deputy attorney general. Wilson Camacho head of the General Directorate of Prosecution of the Public Ministry.
The investigative team is also made up of court prosecutors Mirna Ortiz, head of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca); Francisco Contreras, from the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Defense of the Environment and Natural Resources (Proedemaren); Ramona Nova, from the Specialized Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prosecutor’s Office; and Ana Burgos, head of the Real Estate Research Unit. It is also made up of Gedeón Platon Bautista Liriano, State lawyer before the Real Estate Jurisdiction of the Central Department.
Scope of the investigation
The instruction establishes that the team must extend its investigations to all legal, administrative acts or transactions that have led to the issuance of property titles or private actions that affect the integrity of these protected areas.
Attorney General instructs criminal investigation into damages in Protected Areas
The objective is to determine the existence of criminal networks, corruption, falsification or prevarication that have facilitated the seizure of natural public assets.
In addition, The Attorney General ordered that the task force carry out, together with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, a detailed report on the legal situation and the impact of environmental crimes in the 134 spaces that make up the National System of Protected Areas.
Commitment to natural heritage
The Attorney General stated that the conservation and preservation of protected areas guarantees the permanence and optimization of the environmental and economic services that these ecosystems offer to Dominican society, both in the present and in the future.
The Public Ministry explained that this instruction implies a structural change in the prosecution of ecological crimes, which due to their often irreversible impact will be treated with the same rigor as organized crime.
