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| Puerto Rico protesters to block highway as governor remains defiant | Puerto Rico protesters to block highway as governor remains defiant |
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| Puerto Rico is braced for more massive protests as the US territory’s governor, Ricardo Rosselló, clings to power despite resigning as president of the ruling New Progressive Party on Sunday and announcing he will not run for re-election next year. | Puerto Rico is braced for more massive protests as the US territory’s governor, Ricardo Rosselló, clings to power despite resigning as president of the ruling New Progressive Party on Sunday and announcing he will not run for re-election next year. |
| Hundreds of thousands will take part in a general strike across the island on Monday as protesters plan to flood one of the island’s busiest highways. Demonstrations demanding Rosselló’s resignation have gripped the island since hundreds of pages of leaked text messages between the governor and 11 members of his inner circle were published on 13 July. | Hundreds of thousands will take part in a general strike across the island on Monday as protesters plan to flood one of the island’s busiest highways. Demonstrations demanding Rosselló’s resignation have gripped the island since hundreds of pages of leaked text messages between the governor and 11 members of his inner circle were published on 13 July. |
| The messages contain homophobic and sexist slurs against political rivals and cultural figures. They also contain a joke about dead bodies during Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island in September 2017. | The messages contain homophobic and sexist slurs against political rivals and cultural figures. They also contain a joke about dead bodies during Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island in September 2017. |
| 'Ricky, resign!' Puerto Rico's famous musicians lend voice to surging protesters | 'Ricky, resign!' Puerto Rico's famous musicians lend voice to surging protesters |
| Puerto Rico’s largest mall, Plaza de las Américas, closed before Monday’s demonstration along with many other businesses. Last week police used teargas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters at a huge rally outside the governor’s residence in the island’s capital, San Juan. | |
| Organizers have branded the planned shutdown “660,510 + 1”, representative of the number of people who voted for Rosselló plus one, in order to reject the governor’s suggestion that he is not resigning due to his popular mandate. | Organizers have branded the planned shutdown “660,510 + 1”, representative of the number of people who voted for Rosselló plus one, in order to reject the governor’s suggestion that he is not resigning due to his popular mandate. |
| “Governor Ricardo Rosselló has made further mockery of the Puerto Rican people by refusing to leave office,” said a statement from Power 4 Puerto Rico, a Puerto Rican diaspora group created after Maria. | “Governor Ricardo Rosselló has made further mockery of the Puerto Rican people by refusing to leave office,” said a statement from Power 4 Puerto Rico, a Puerto Rican diaspora group created after Maria. |
| “As worldwide demonstrations calling for the governor to step down continue, the Legislature of Puerto Rico must now commence an impeachment process based on the ample evidence corroborated by many jurists of Rosselló breaking the law.” | “As worldwide demonstrations calling for the governor to step down continue, the Legislature of Puerto Rico must now commence an impeachment process based on the ample evidence corroborated by many jurists of Rosselló breaking the law.” |
| Rosselló and the 11 others implicated in the message scandal have been issued summonses by the island’s justice department. While a number of those in the chat group, including the former secretary of state Luís Rivera Marín, have resigned over the affair, Rosselló has maintained the messages contained nothing illegal. | Rosselló and the 11 others implicated in the message scandal have been issued summonses by the island’s justice department. While a number of those in the chat group, including the former secretary of state Luís Rivera Marín, have resigned over the affair, Rosselló has maintained the messages contained nothing illegal. |
| “I have made mistakes and I have apologized for them,” he said during his address on Facebook Live on Sunday evening. “I am a good man who loves his island and everyone. Since I started my term to lead Puerto Rico’s destiny, in front of the most devastating economic and fiscal panorama ever.” | “I have made mistakes and I have apologized for them,” he said during his address on Facebook Live on Sunday evening. “I am a good man who loves his island and everyone. Since I started my term to lead Puerto Rico’s destiny, in front of the most devastating economic and fiscal panorama ever.” |
| The administration has been plagued by corruption scandals since Maria and has hardened an austerity drive, under an unelected fiscal control board overseen in Washington, amid a multibillion-dollar debt crisis. | |
| Shortly before the text message scandal erupted, the FBI arrested a number of administration officials and contractors – including Rosselló’s former education secretary – over allegations of corruption and misappropriation of $15.5m (£12.5m) in federal funds apportioned to Puerto Rico after Maria. | |
| Many protesters have carried placards with the number 4,645, the estimated death toll in the wake of Maria, according to a Harvard research paper. Rosselló’s administration had initially recorded Maria’s death toll at 64, before eventually revising the number to 2,975. | |
| The island continues to reel from the effects of the devastating hurricane amid a faltering recovery effort led by the Trump administration. | |
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