Protesters in Phoenix demand governor of Puerto Rico resign

Claudio Medina moved to Arizona nearly three years ago, after Hurricane Maria destroyed his home in Puerto Rico.

He remembered the aftermath of the storm. He watched his neighbors suffer in the heat as they worked to rebuild their lives while government officials worked in the air conditioning, offering only sporadic assistance to the people they were supposed to be helping.

On Wednesday, Medina attended a protest in the shadow of the state Capitol in Phoenix. He and dozens of others joined protesters in Puerto Rico and across the United States in calling for the resignation of Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello.

Protesters chanted “Ricky renuncia” as they marched in a circle, with most holding poster-board signs condemning the governor for exploiting the people of Puerto Rico in the wake of the hurricane.

Ann Teresa Ortiz said she came from Tucson to protest in Phoenix out of solidarity with Puerto Ricans who are still suffering in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

“In many ways, we’ve been used to being second-class citizens, having half the country having to live outside of its borders because economically it’s not possible for people to be here,” she said. “But I think it’s the shamelessness of the corruption, lack of services plus self-interest.

“And to see that the governor has made jokes about the suffering of his own people. That’s disgusting.”

Hundreds of leaked private messages from a group chat between the Democratic governor and his inner circle on the app Telegram have sparked widespread protests like the one in Phoenix.

Many of the leaked messages, sent in December and January, were profane, misogynistic and homophobic insults directed at members of the media, politicians and celebrities critical of the governor.

In one part of the chat, Puerto Rico’s former chief financial officer Sobrino Vega responded to a question about the budget for forensic pathologists with a joke about the growing numbers of dead bodies arriving at morgues after Hurricane Maria, CNN reported.

“Now that we are on the subject, don’t we have some cadavers to feed our crows?” Vega wrote, apparently referencing government critics. “Clearly they need attention.”

Medina said the messages show the governor and his acolytes have a disturbing superiority complex.

“That is a failure of humanness,” Medina said of the messages making light of Maria’s death toll, an estimated 2,975 people. “It is very hard to think about that kind of person.”

Edauri Navarro Péres, one of the organizers of the protest, called the messages deeply hurtful.

“I was there during the hurricane,” she said. “I remember how hard it was to survive. When I read some of the messages on the chat, when he was making fun of some people who died, violent statements against women, it really hurt me.”

Cristalis Capielo Rosario, an assistant professor of psychology at Arizona State University and an organizer of Wednesday’s protest, said the messages tore open old wounds for many Puerto Ricans.

Even those who were not on the island during the storm experienced secondhand trauma, Rosario said.

Rosario had to wait close to five weeks before she heard from several family members, who were in Puerto Rico when Maria made landfall.

“It was very personal,” Rosario said of her reaction to the leaked chat messages. “It was very painful.”

The messages, most of which were published by the Center for Investigative Journalism earlier this month, prompted the resignation of two members of Rossello’s administration.

The scandal has compounded a political crisis that began spiraling last week after the FBI arrested two former senior officials in Rossello’s administration on suspicion of illegally directing federal funding to politically connected contractors.