Santo Domingo. – The Environment Minister on Monday said private interests are behind the protests against the construction of a cement plant in Gonzalo, Monte Plata province (northeast), because the geologists and social groups who today defend Los Haitises National Park, should’ve also done so four years ago when the Samaná highway was built, which he affirms cut it in half.

Jaime David Fernandez Mirabal said as a Government official he adheres to the Executive Branch’s instructions, and that’s where it requested the plant’s construction.

Fernandez Mirabal, interviewed in the TV program on Channel 9, said he’s glad Los Haitises “still has defenders” but affirmed that the cement plant will not affect the zone or the protected area, because it features modern technology to keep its particles from harming the environment. “I observe the rules of the State, and there it’s less risky because of the distance to the populations.”

Environmentalists say the plant will pollute the region’s aquifers, and mention a similar factory operating in the Santiago province town Palo Amarillo, which has devastated a large area around it’s facility.