SANTO DOMINGO. – Two of the Dominican Republic’s most feisty and respected women are on the verge of a heated battle over reports of a posh summer villa in the country’s Central Mountain Range.

Education minister Alejandrina German –dubbed the “Iron Lady” for her confrontations with former president Hipolito Mejia- today challenged the famed television producer Nuria Piera -who had also confronted the former chief executive- to publicly retract within 72 hours her allegation on the residence she’s building in Jarabacoa, or face charges of slander.

The official, one of only three women members of the ruling PLD party’s elite Political Committee, said the house is worth RD$5 million and that it figures in her husband’s sworn financial statement of 2004. She said to build the 4-story house, begun at the end of 2002, her husband, the deputy Jose Maria Sosa, took out a RD$1.3 million loan.

German also said the two vehicles Piera shows in her TV program don’t have anything to do with the Education Ministry, affirming they are owned by the contractors who build the house.

She also offered to sell the house to Piera for six million pesos "just a bit more than what’s been invested, because of the sacrifice which the construction has entailed which has taken more than five years and hasn’t been finished yet. So we offer Ms. Piera the possibility of negotiating the "mansion" for the price that she attributes to it, which will allow her to make at least 40 million pesos."

German said her action is personal and formulates it neither as Minister of Education nor as political leader, adding that her husband bought the 200 tareas of land in 1997, at a price of RD$300,000. The lot is located some 15 kilometers west of Jarabacoa, near the village Jumunuco.