Puerto Rico goes through 3 governors in 6 days
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s former secretary of justice, Wanda Vazquez, was sworn in as governor on Wednesday afternoon, the third person in six days to have the island’s top job, hours after the U.S. territory’s supreme court ruled her predecessor was put in place in violation of the constitution.
Vazquez replaces Pedro Pierluisi, the man who was appointed Puerto Rico’s governor last week amid unprecedented political turmoil. Pierluisi was ordered to step down earlier Wednesday by the island’s supreme court.
In a unanimous ruling, the high court said that the 2005 law that the outgoing governor, Ricardo Rossello, used to put Pierluisi in power was unconstitutional.
Vazquez had originally said she didn’t want the governorship. But in a statement issued shortly after the ruling, she said it was her constitutional duty to assume the role given that there was no sitting secretary of state.
“Puerto Rico needs certainty and stability and our actions are directed to that end,” she said. “That will always come first.”
Pierluisi, 60, was appointed secretary of state, Puerto Rico’s second in command, last week just days before Rossello stepped down on Friday. But the island’s Senate hadn’t ratified Pierluisi in his cabinet position before he assumed the governor’s post.
Under Puerto Rico’s constitution, both chambers needed to approve his role as secretary of state — a position the court underscored on Wednesday.
Rossello was midway through his term when he resigned amid a burgeoning corruption scandal and mass protests that erupted after it was revealed that he used misogynistic and homophobic language in a private chat group with 11 of his advisers and confidants.
Wednesday’s ruling is just the latest twist for the U.S. territory of 3.2 million that is struggling to find its feet amid a debt crisis and as it is still recovering from a devastating 2017 hurricane season.
On the streets of San Juan, there was frustration with the political whiplash amid the news the island would have its third governor within a week.
“I was never a fan of Pierluisi’s but I would have preferred for him to stay; there’s so much uncertainty now,” said Melissa Rodriguez, a 45-year-old cafeteria worker, who had participated in the mass marches to oust his predecessor.
Like others, Rodriguez feared the changes weren’t over, that once Vazquez is sworn in, she might appoint a new secretary of state and then resign.
Miguel Laureano, who owns a food truck, put the blame for the turmoil on the powerful president of the Senate, Thomas Rivera Schatz. He said he wouldn’t be surprised if Rivera Schatz — who had been antagonistic to Rossello and created obstacles for Pierluisi’s ratification despite being a member of their same New Progressive Party, PNP — ends up in the governor’s chair.
“If that happens, I think the people would rise up again,” he said, “and this country would be more stuck than ever.”
The legal dispute hinged on an obscure 2005 amendment to Puerto Rico’s law of succession passed in 1952, that partly suggested that a secretary of state did not need the consent of the island’s legislature to be sworn in as governor.
A section of that law said that a secretary of state named “in recess” — as Pierluisi was — did not have to be confirmed by both chambers in the island’s legislature.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday found that portion of the amendment was unconstitutional.
If Pierluisi were to remain in power, the judges wrote, “the government of Puerto Rico would be headed by a governor who was exclusively chosen by an outgoing governor,” without the people’s consent.