Thousands Of Puerto Rico Protesters Turn Streets Of San Juan Into 'War Zone' Over Corruption

[Swordsmyth]

Thousands of Puerto Ricans took to the streets of Old San Juan to demand the ouster of Governor Ricardo Rosselló following corruption investigations and the leaking of 889 pages of text messages revealing him to be vindictive, sexist and profane - including against those who died following Hurricane Maria.

Demonstrations started with hundreds of people, then grew to the thousands. The growth was reflected on Twitter as the hashtag #RickyRenuncia (Resign Ricky), a shortened version of his name, Ricardo, and it was trending worldwide Monday.
Until Wednesday night, the rallies had been largely peaceful. On Monday night, about two dozen police officers were injured during a protest, and at least five protesters were arrested, authorities said. -NBC News
​

On Wednesday night protesters broke past a barricade at the governor's mansion, resulting in the deployment of tear gas. "By early hours Thursday, the old city of San Juan resembled a war zone, with police chasing protesters through the streets while firing rubber bullets, gas canisters and what appeared to be flash bombs," according to NPR.

​

Pictures from San Juan, Puerto Rico where marchers are moving to the Governors mansion pic.twitter.com/wiCtOACWI2
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) July 17, 2019​

I’ve looked at this video from San Juan 20 times.
I now see something thrown from the protester side into the police side.
There’s a flash.
Then, you see an officer holding something that ignites in his hand.
Then police move in on protesters. pic.twitter.com/xEnN8dPRix
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) July 18, 2019​

Some of the island's biggest stars such as Ricky Martin and reggaeton artist Benito Martinez Ocasio (aka Bad Bunny) turned out to rally a crowd for this week's second mass demonstration against the embattled government.


More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019...s-turn-streets-san-juan-war-zone-over-corrupt

 

[Zippyjuan]

Trump heaps praise on San Juan's mayor, Puerto Rican governor.

https://www.npr.org/2019/07/18/7429...ear-gas-at-huge-protests-over-governors-texts

Streets A 'War Zone' As Protesters Call For Puerto Rico's Governor To Resign


Some of Puerto Rico's biggest stars rallied a crowd of many thousands in San Juan on Wednesday, calling on the island's governor, Ricardo Rosselló, to resign. It was the fifth day in a row of protests in the U.S. territory, following a leak of hundreds of pages of misogynistic and homophobic texts between the governor and his main advisers.

During the day, trap artist Bad Bunny and singer Ricky Martin were among the huge crowd that marched to the governor's mansion.

Tensions ratcheted up in the evening as protesters burst through a barricade at the governor's mansion and security forces fired tear gas at the crowd, causing many to flee into surrounding streets. A livestream from Puerto Rican news site El Nuevo Día showed chaotic scenes of demonstrators confronting riot police a few minutes after midnight local time.

By early hours Thursday, the old city of San Juan resembled a war zone, with police chasing protesters through the streets while firing rubber bullets, gas canisters and what appeared to be flash bombs.

Earlier, demonstrators wearing gas masks and hard hats set a pile of garbage on fire in a plaza, and police quickly fired tear gas at them. A street was shown littered with debris and broken glass.

As El Nuevo Día reported, police spokesperson Axel Valencia said five people were arrested and two people were reported injured.

He said several senior police officers were in the area and ordered the protesters to stand down.

"They were given verbal commands to cease and desist what they were doing. They were throwing rocks, quarter sticks of dynamite. They were throwing many things," Valencia said, according to the news site. "You all saw how close they got to the fences of the perimeter, and well, there came a moment when our personnel had to use tear gases."

The protests have been gaining momentum every day with high-profile support, including from Lin-Manuel Miranda, who led a demonstration in New York calling on Rosselló to step down.

 

[oyarde]

Trump heaps praise on San Juan's mayor, Puerto Rican governor.

https://www.npr.org/2019/07/18/7429...ear-gas-at-huge-protests-over-governors-texts

What did trump say there that was wrong ?

 

[Zippyjuan]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/16/us/puerto-rico-governor-rossello-private-chats/index.html

These are some of the leaked chat messages at the center of Puerto Rico's political crisis

Protesters took to the streets in recent days after nearly 900 pages from the messaging app Telegram were published by Puerto Rico's Center for Investigative Journalism.

The governor and 11 top aides and Cabinet members exchanged profanity-laced, homophobic and misogynistic messages about fellow politicians, members of the media, celebrities and others in a scandal many are calling "RickyLeaks." The messages were sent in December 2018 and January 2019.

"I will continue my work and my responsibility to the people of Puerto Rico," the governor told reporters Tuesday.

The scandal has already led to the resignations of two members of Rosselló's Cabinet.

Here are some targets of the offending exchanges.

Former New York City Council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito

Rosselló apologized last week after the leak of a chat message in which he referred to Melissa Mark-Viverito, the Puerto Rico-born former speaker of the New York City Council, using the Spanish word for "whore."

The governor wrote that he was upset Mark-Viverito had criticized Tom Perez, chair of the Democratic National Committee, for backing statehood for Puerto Rico.

"Our people should come out and defend Tom and beat up that whore," Rosselló wrote.

Mark-Viverito traveled to the island to join protesters in their calls for the governor to resign.

"A person who uses that language against a woman, whether a public figure or not, should not govern Puerto Rico ...this type of behavior is completely unacceptable," she wrote on Twitter.

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz is frequent critic of the governor.

In the chat, Christian Sobrino Vega -- who was Puerto Rico's chief fiscal officer at the time, and Roselló's representative on the federal board responsible for managing Puerto Rico's financial crisis -- expressed frustration with Yulín Cruz.

"I am salivating to shoot her," he wrote.

"You'd be doing me a grand favor," the governor responded, according to the leaked chats.

At one point, the governor writes that Yulín Cruz must be "off her meds" by deciding to run against him.

"Either that, or she's a tremendous HP," he said, using the Spanish acronym for "son/daughter of a bitch."

Yulín Cruz belongs to the opposition Popular Democratic Party and is running for governor.

Sobrino Vega and Secretary of State Luis Rivera Marin, who also participated in the chats, have both resigned.

Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin

In the chats, Sobrino Vega made vulgar references to Puerto Rican star Ricky Martin's sexuality.

"Nothing says patriarchal oppression like Ricky Martin," he wrote.

"Ricky Martin is such a male chauvinist that he f---- men because women don't measure up. Pure patriarchy."

Martin and other artists on the island took to social media to condemn Rossello's government and call for his resignation.

 

[Pauls' Revere]

Calling the mayor despicable is praise????

3

Donald J. Trump
✔
[MENTION=68777]real[/MENTION]DonaldTrump
· 13h

A lot of bad things are happening in Puerto Rico. The Governor is under siege, the Mayor of San Juan is a despicable and incompetent person who I wouldn’t trust under any circumstance, and the United States Congress foolishly gave 92 Billion Dollars for hurricane relief, much....

 

[Swordsmyth]

Calling the mayor despicable is praise????

3

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
· 13h

A lot of bad things are happening in Puerto Rico. The Governor is under siege, the Mayor of San Juan is a despicable and incompetent person who I wouldn’t trust under any circumstance, and the United States Congress foolishly gave 92 Billion Dollars for hurricane relief, much....

Is zippy admitting she is really much worse than despicable?

 

[Pauls' Revere]

Is zippy admitting she is really much worse than despicable?

Or Dyslexia?

 

[kona]

I don't doubt that all of this is going on, but personally I know a few people in PR, and even now they say it's great. Of course, they are not native, and only moved there so they could legally pay zero taxes, as PR is a tax haven for Americans (though not for Puerto Ricans).

Peter Schiff also lives there and loves it.

 

[dannno]

I don't doubt that all of this is going on, but personally I know a few people in PR, and even now they say it's great. Of course, they are not native, and only moved there so they could legally pay zero taxes, as PR is a tax haven for Americans (though not for Puerto Ricans).

Peter Schiff also lives there and loves it.

I'm champing at the bit.. can't wait for bitcoin to shoot the moon again. (champing? seriously?)

 

[kona]

I'm champing at the bit.. can't wait for bitcoin to shoot the moon again. (champing? seriously?)

I don't understand...

 

[donnay]

 

[Swordsmyth]

Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello announced late on July 21 that he will step down as head of his party and will not run for re-election in 2020, but stopped short of resigning as governor.
Rossello made the announcement in a video message posted to Facebook.
El Nuevo Dia reported that Rossello said he resigned as head of the New Progressive Party (NPP) to focus on leading the country, and looked forward to the process of impeachment, whose initial stages have begun in Puerto Rico’s legislature.

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/puerto-rico-governor-resigns-party-232346095.html

 

[euphemia]

Is zippy admitting she is really much worse than despicable?

Again, I ask you to look back at the visuals. All the time she claimed her people were suffering with no water or power, she was always freshly showered, coiffed, made up, and well fed.

 

[ThePaleoLibertarian]

The guy may be a corrupt scumbag, but the idea that private text messages can destroy a person is a truly terrible development. Either the culture is going to change, or every one of us will be ruined eventually.

 

[Swordsmyth]

President Trump on Monday blasted Puerto Rico's Ricardo Rosselló as “a terrible governor” just hours after the leader of the U.S. territory announced he would not seek re-election amid corruption allegations that have led to widespread protests across the island.
The governor, however, is refusing to resign.
“The governor is not good,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “The U.S. gave Puerto Rico $92 billion and it’s in the hands of terrible and corrupt people…You have grossly incompetent leadership.”

More at: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tr...rible-governor-following-refusal-to-step-down

 

[Swordsmyth]

https://twitter.com/javimorgado/status/1154239296003543040

 

[UWDude]

This looks like exactly where foreign (oops) meddling is good. Lots of swamp getting drained in Peurto Rico.
Pin one falls.

 

[aGameOfThrones]

The guy may be a corrupt scumbag, but the idea that private text messages can destroy a person is a truly terrible development. Either the culture is going to change, or every one of us will be ruined eventually.

I have no love for that dirty democrat governor, but we didn't march like this against taxes, for statehood or for the many corrupt politicians before. Now, for a private chat--why not.

Anyway, he resigned. BTW, the SJ mayor is no better.

 

[Swordsmyth]

The lawyer tapped to succeed Puerto Rico's outgoing governor faced opposition on Wednesday largely over conflict of interest concerns, two days before the bankrupt U.S. territory's top executive plans to bow to the demands of protesters and resign.Governor Ricardo Rosselló formally nominated the island's former nonvoting representative in the U.S. Congress, Pedro Pierluisi, as secretary of state, which would position Pierluisi to take over the government if he is confirmed by lawmakers.
But some members of Rosselló's New Progressive Party voiced opposition, citing Pierluisi's role as a lawyer advising the federally created financial oversight board directing Puerto Rico's bankruptcy, which is highly unpopular with residents.

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/outgoing-puerto-rico-governor-nominates-123933743.html

 

[Swordsmyth]

Trump administration pulling $8 billion in aide to Puerto Rico until their leadership issues are worked out