People danced on the streets of San Juan’s old city on Wednesday as Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rossello announced he would quit over offensive chat messages that sparked massive protests.
After 12 days of sometimes violent demonstrations, the first-term governor said he would step down on Friday next week, having failed to soothe critics’ concerns by vowing not to seek re-election and giving up the leadership of his party.
“I feel that to continue in this position would make it difficult for the success that I have achieved to endure,” Rossello said, listing accomplishments ranging from creating new industries to promoting equal pay for women during his time in office.
Photo: AP
Packed with protesters awaiting the announcement, San Juan’s historic Old City erupted in joy when news broke that Rossello, whose administration has been dogged by allegations of corruption, was stepping down.
The blocks directly outside the governor’s mansion were filled with thousands of writhing, dancing, mostly young Puerto Ricans.
They waved flags and lit fireworks, as chants of “Fight yes, surrender no,” and “Olay olay” rang out.
“Man it’s amazing, man, it’s wonderful, man I’m so happy,” 19-year-old Leonardo Elias Natal said. “It’s time to wake up and I’m so proud of my country.”
Others, like Elias Natal’s girlfriend, were more measured.
“I’m really, really, really, really happy, but I know we need to stay right here, screaming,” said Julie Rivera, 21, who planned to return yesterday to protest against the woman Rossello tapped to succeed him.
Puerto Rican Secretary of Justice Wanda Vazquez, a 59-year-old former district attorney, was too close to Rossello, Rivera said.
Rossello’s term as governor has seen the island hit with back-to-back 2017 hurricanes that killed thousands of people and wreaked widespread destruction just months after the US territory filed for bankruptcy.
Weary of crisis and a decade-long recession, Puerto Ricans were angered when US authorities on July 10 accused two former Rossello administration officials of pocketing federal money through government contracts.
The final straw for many on the island came on July 13, when Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism published 889 pages of chat messages between Rossello and 11 close allies.
In messages between November last year and January, the group made offensive and sometimes violent statements about female political opponents, singer Ricky Martin and ordinary Puerto Ricans.
The chats tapped into simmering resentment toward the island’s political elites, seen as out of touch by many Puerto Ricans, drawing an estimated 500,000 people onto a San Juan highway on Monday to demand that Rossello quit.
Another massive demonstration was planned for tomorrow.
Rossello also faced the twin threats of an investigation by the Puerto Rican Department of Justice and political impeachment by the territory’s legislature.
Puerto Rico’s lower house president on Wednesday said the impeachment process had begun after an independent panel of lawyers he commissioned found four felonies and one misdemeanor might have been committed in the chats.
However, not all Puerto Ricans were delighted at Rossello’s fall.
Ricky Shub, 33, agreed that the former scientist should step down, but said Rossello that had become a lightning rod for decades of pent up anger toward corrupt governors.
“He’s taking the fall for a bunch of past governors that put us in this position,” said Shub, watching the celebrations in the old city from his friend’s roof deck. “Everyone here is right to do what they’re doing, but they should have done it 20 years ago.”
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