Loma Miranda row: Priest plans to block traffic on main Dominican highway

Bonao, Dominican Republic .- Catholic priest Nino Ramos on Monday asked all brave Dominicans to urgently help hinder traffic on the Duarte Highway next Wednesday, just outside Camp Loma Miranda to protest against what he says is the felling of thousands of trees.

"We leave camp at 9am on Wednesday, March 18 and paralyze traffic in both directions for an hour," the prelate said in a statement.

Ramos asked to citizens of “good will” to protest against Glencore Nicke’s local operation Falcondo, "for killing the pine trees and have already cut more than 1,000 trunks and poles that are removed from the hill after midnight."

"It’s time to again show the government that they are accomplices of evil, from the Environment Ministry and other levels, and that Dominicans are still willing to do anything to save our nation," the pries said.

Falcondo has submitted plans to mine ferronickel at Loma Miranda, where environmentalists have set up a campsite to protest extractions, and have demanded that lawmakers pass a bill to create Loma Miranda National Park.