The Tandem Cave, identified in 1987, was buried under piles of earth during a supposed remediation plan allegedly carried out by the company DOCALSA, ten months after President Abinader ordered the cessation of all mining activity in the area
SANTO DOMINGO. – A cave containing rock art by indigenous people was buried near the Pomier Caves Anthropological Reserve Natural Monument in San Cristóbal, according to environmentalists Domingo Abréu Collado, a member of the Presidential Commission for the Pomier Caves, and Manuel Antonio Nina, of the San Cristóbal Platform.
Interviewed on the program El Día, Abreu and Nina explained that the damage is the result of operations linked to the company Dominicana de Cales, SA (DOCALSA), a fact that was verified on Tuesday, May 26, 2026 by a commission in which representatives of the Ministry of Environment, the Presidential Commission for the Pomier Caves, the San Cristóbal Platform and the neighborhood council of the area participated.
The affected cave is the so-called Tandem Cave, cataloged by the Santo Domingo Speleological Group in 1987. According to the complaint from the San Cristóbal Platform, the cave was covered by earthworks carried out as part of a remediation plan operated by a company contracted by DOCALSA.
Damages described by the San Cristóbal Platform
The San Cristóbal Platform, an organization that issued a public statement to this media outlet, describes four types of damage: patrimonial, due to the burial of the cave with rock art; institutional, due to the continuation of operations in defiance of the State's authority.
Also, the cumulative damage to the cave system, which includes the deterioration of the aboriginal paintings in Cave No. 4 and the dispersal of bat populations; and ecological-hydrological damage, due to the impact on aquifers and the biodiversity linked to the cave system.
The organization demands the immediate cessation of all operations that pose a risk to the cave system, an independent technical investigation into the burial of the Tandem Cave, the full publication of the Remediation Plan and the technical reports for the area, and the definitive removal of machinery incompatible with the conservation of the heritage.
Call for applications and context
The San Cristóbal Platform called for an artistic, cultural and protest activity on Saturday, June 20, 2026, starting at 5:00 p.m., in the Piedras Vivas Park of the city of San Cristóbal, as a way to draw attention and involve the population in the defense of the cultural heritage of the province.
The declaration also bears the signature of the Environmental Commission of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD).
The Pomier Caves, declared the Prehistoric Capital of the Caribbean, house one of the most extensive collections of rock art in the insular Caribbean. The area is included in ecotourism development plans for the province of San Cristóbal, whose real estate and tourism sector has seen increasing investment interest in recent years.
The rules that the company violates
On February 27, 2025, during his accountability to the Nation, President Luis Abinader acknowledged that mining operations, both legal and illegal, continued to affect the core and buffer zone of the Natural Monument, and announced measures for its rescue.
A day earlier, the Ministry of Environment had issued Resolution No. 013/2025, which ordered the immediate cessation of mining in those areas and prohibited dynamiting and any other mining activity in the protected territory.
On July 25, 2025, Decree No. 403-25 created the Presidential Commission of the Pomier Caves to coordinate actions for protection, sustainable use and ecotourism development in the reserve.
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