Spanish
Former President Hipólito Mejía challenged the Director General of National Assets and honorary member of the State Sugar Council (CEA), Rafael Burgos, to present evidence that during his presidential term (2000-2004), mafias seized state lands, as he recently claimed.
"As his statements splash, cheerfully, to all of us who work in the governmental period that I had to preside over, I wish to request that, as far as it may refer to me, he specify with facts, cases and details all the files in which the undersigned may be directly or indirectly involved," says Mejía in a public letter to Burgos.
Burgos stated that between the years 2000 and 2020, the governments in power distributed the State's lands like a "piñata" at such a speed that in 20 years at least 2 million tareas were lost.
"Since you claim to have firsthand information, you could also reveal any case or situation that involves me in fraudulent appropriations in my performance as Secretary of State for Agriculture, during the government of President Antonio Guzmán Fernández."
The director of the CEA added that 70% of those lands were acquired by different sectors of national life and many of them were given away or paid for at a low price.
