Puerto Rico party mulls move to make a change at governor
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A day after Puerto Rico got its third governor in less than a week following angry street protests, top officials from new leader Wanda Vazquez’s own party talked openly Thursday about their desire to see a fourth take over the position.
Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz, who played a key role in the successful court challenge to the swearing-in of Pedro Pierluisi after Gov. Ricardo Rossello resigned, publicly backed Resident Commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez — Puerto Rico’s representative to the U.S. Congress — to become governor.
Party allies appeared to fall in line.
“The leadership basically agrees that Jenniffer should be the governor,” said Jose Melendez of the New Progressive Party. “It is a matter that must be treated bit by bit because we do not know what is in the mind of Wanda Vazquez.”
For Gonzalez to become governor, she would have to be nominated to the open secretary of state position and confirmed. Then Vazquez would have to resign, though the new governor said she did not intend to step down despite previous comments that she didn’t want the job.
Rivera Schatz held a closeddoor meeting Thursday with senators, legislators and Gonzalez.
“We truly don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Mayor Francisco Lopez of the central mountain town of Barranquitas, who expressed support for Gonzalez.
Gonzalez said the presidents of the House and Senate called her last weekend asking if she was available to become secretary of state as a candidate of consensus, and she agreed if it would help restore credibility and stability to Puerto Rico.
“There must be fundamental changes in the entire structure of government, in all Cabinet officials and in all contracts that the government of Puerto Rico has,” Gonzalez said, adding that she would meet with Vazquez. “It’s time that people and not politicians become the priority.”
Gonzalez, who is also chairwoman of the Republican Party of Puerto Rico, also warned that the U.S. government has doubts about how the island is handling federal funds: “The specter of corruption has called into question access to those funds. They don’t trust Puerto Rico’s institutions or its officials.”
Even after a Supreme Court ruling Wednesday that Pierluisi had been placed in office unconstitutionally, resulting in Vazquez swearing in as governor the same evening, people on the economically struggling territory of 3.2 million were bracing for more turmoil.
The political establishment was knocked off balance by huge street protests spawned by anger over corruption, mismanagement of funds and a leaked obscenity-laced chat in which Rossello and several top aides disparaged women, gay people and victims of Hurricane Maria, among others.
On July 10, Rossello’s former education secretary, former Health Insurance Administration chief and three others were arrested on charges of steering federal money to unqualified, politically connected contractors.
Islanders also are angry over the territory’s protracted economic woes and slow recovery from 2017’s devastating Hurricane Maria.
Vasquez sought to calm the anger in a televised statement late Wednesday, saying she shares the pain of recent weeks and vowing to bring unity and stability.
“We have all felt the anxiety provoked by the instability and uncertainty,” Vazquez said. “Faced with this enormous challenge and with God ahead, I take a step forward with no interest other than serving the people as I have done my whole life.”