NEW YORK.- Members of New York’s Dominican community sent a letter to president Leonel Fernandez today, to request the repeal of the permits to build a cement plant near the Los Haitises National Park (northeast).

The Dominicans tell the chief executive that they agree with the Chamber of Deputies Environment Commission advice to the Environment Ministry, to void the permits issued to the company Consorcio Minero Dominicano to build the plant.

The letter affirms that the various studies found that the construction of a cement plant in the area " is not only detrimental to the flora, the fauna, the ground and the aquifers of the Dominican Republic’s most important environmental lung, but it’s also a serious threat to the health and quality of life of the tens of thousands of the regions’ inhabitants."

"The sons and friends of Sabana Grande de Boyá, Gonzalo, Monte Plata, Bayaguana, Yamasá, Peralvillo, Los Botados, Chirino, Las Taranas, Majagual, El Rodeo, Los Limones and the other nearby communities reject the intention of the business group which seeks to suffocate us with the dust from that cement plant," says the letter to Fernandez.