The granting of logging permits in the Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, has involved a great deal of investigation by judicial authorities. Luis Diego Hernández, the coordinating prosecutor of the Adjunct Environmental Prosecutor’s Office, believes that the case revolves around benefiting private interests in a protected area.
In addition, he believes that it represents an articulation of a series of actions carried out by institutional hierarchs to the detriment of the Wildlife Refuge. “There is environmental criminality backed by a phenomenon of corruption,” Hernández said emphatically.
The corruption case involves the mayor of Talamanca, Rugeli Morales, directors of the Amistad Caribe Conservation Area (ACLAC), officials of the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), officials of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), and the Rural Development Institute (INDER).
“It is shocking how SINAC, which should protect the environment, has been involved in promoting a real estate business with exorbitant profits to the detriment of the limits of the Gandoca-Manzanillo refuge,” Hernández added.
The coordinating prosecutor also mentioned that a powerful economic group forged a partnership with public officials to reduce the limits of the refuge and extract the natural patrimony of the State to incorporate it into the market.
“In this business, there are names that appear as owners in all this area that has been extracted from the refuge. False land cover and land use reports are now being investigated, which have been necessary to stop applying environmental legislation, de-protect them, and go about changing the use,” he detailed.
According to the prosecutor, this is part of an apparatus of “white-collar crime aimed at enriching a few families in the Central Valley.”
Meanwhile, President Rodrigo Chaves questioned the 26 raids carried out on Tuesday by the Attorney General’s Office and the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ), which were aimed at gathering evidence of apparent irregularities in the granting of construction permits on the refuge.
During a press conference, the president questioned the legitimacy of the actions. He also defended businessman Allan Pacheco Dent, who was temporarily detained in July for allegedly obtaining irregular permits to cut trees in the refuge.
