Puerto Rico protests: With governor gone, this is 鈥榡ust the beginning鈥�
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Howard LaFranchi Staff writer
| Washington
First there was Hurricane Maria, which struck Puerto Rico in September 2017 with a near-knockout blow.
Then this month came the political scandals, revealing a self-serving and aloof governing clique that in many ways had squandered the island鈥檚 post-Maria recovery effort.
Two of the U.S. territory's top officials and several of their associates were arrested by the FBI earlier this month and charged with misuse of federal aid. That was followed in short order by the publication of a trove of derogatory, callous emails between Gov. Ricardo Rossell贸 and his close circle of male aides that exposed an out-of-touch government.
Why We Wrote This
Governor Rossell贸鈥檚 resignation was about more than a trove of offensive messages. Puerto Ricans were protesting years of mismanagement. But many demonstrators were reclaiming something, too: a sense of their own power.
But when Governor Rossell贸 announced Wednesday, after two weeks of unrelenting street protests, that he will resign from office Aug. 2, it underscored that while the one-two punch of Maria and ineffective, arrogant governance may have knocked the people of Puerto Rico down, it has them anything but out.
Indeed, for some who have protested day after day, demanding not just a governor鈥檚 resignation but a clean sweep of a decades-old political culture, it was more than anything else one particular message that energized a still-suffering people to reclaim their dignity. In it, the governor and his privileged buddies appear to mock Maria鈥檚 dead.
鈥淒on鈥檛 we have some cadavers to feed our crows?鈥� the Rossell贸 administration鈥檚 former chief financial officer said in a chat message with the governor and 10 other top aides, in a reference to the bodies that piled up after Maria, when overloaded morgues were unable to handle them. The 鈥渃rows鈥� were apparently media and other critics of the government鈥檚 recovery efforts.
鈥淧eople can take many things. We Puerto Ricans have lived for a very long time under a lot of bad governments and with a lot of indignities, but this was just too much,鈥� says Yolanda Gonz谩lez, an assistant professor at the University of Puerto Rico鈥檚 Graduate School of Education who joined her neighbors in a nightly round of pot-banging to let 鈥淩icky鈥� (as Governor Rossell贸 is known) know that they weren鈥檛 going to take it anymore.
鈥淚t was so hurtful. It showed such a lack of compassion and solidarity to make fun in that way of all those people who died after Maria because of that group鈥檚 inaction and an unresponsive government,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 when people said, 鈥楴o, no more 鈥� we must change this.鈥欌��
Time and again, people have referred to that one exchange, amid a chat full of misogynistic and homophobic rants, as the drop that made the public fury spill over.
鈥淭here are so many elements to explain this public uprising against the governor and what he represents, but it was this mocking of those most affected by Maria that was the last straw,鈥� says Ricardo Barrios, an associate of the Asia and Latin America program at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. 鈥淔or people who had lost loved ones for lack of an effective disaster response, this was no laughing matter.鈥�
Salt in the wound
While the derisive chats galvanized and sustained a movement, many other factors contributed, some reaching back to well before Maria, says Mr. Barrios, who is Puerto Rican.
He cites a succession of ineffective governments, corruption scandals, and the island鈥檚 economic retreat to the point of bankruptcy. Not insignificant, he adds, is the fact that Mr. Rossell贸鈥檚 father, Pedro Rossell贸, was a governor in the 1990s who endured a number of corruption scandals.
鈥淢any people thought the father should have served time like some of his cabinet members did, and there was this sentiment that 鈥榃e鈥檙e not going to let another Rossell贸 get away with it,鈥欌�� he says.
But like many Puerto Ricans, Mr. Barrios says that corruption, ineffective governance, and a detached political class have existed for a long time and probably would not have led on their own to a governor鈥檚 downfall. It took Maria and above all the trauma of an absent government in the recovery phase to seal Mr. Rossell贸鈥檚 fate.
鈥淚t was in the aftermath of Maria that the triggers of this movement we have now sprang up and developed,鈥� says Yazmin Maldonado, a social community psychologist in San Juan who has been a daily participant in the protests that Puerto Ricans refer to simply as la marcha.
鈥淭he government鈥檚 absence in the aftermath of Maria really shook people, but it also convinced many people that they would have to manage for themselves, and that聽encouraged a new sense of community among sectors of society and a desire for new tools to get us out from under Maria,鈥� Dr. Maldonado says. 鈥淏ut then people started coming together to see if those same new tools could be used to get us out of our long political crisis.鈥�
鈥淧eople learned from the recovery period that there were many things we could do without the government; there was this sense about a government that didn鈥檛 seem to be operating that 鈥榃e don鈥檛 need them anymore,鈥欌�� says Dr. Gonz谩lez. 鈥淭hat became very dangerous for Ricky when the corruption and chats started coming out.鈥�
Another critical piece of the post-Maria movement was the growing independent media, ranging from personal blogs and community websites to startup publications disassociated from the island鈥檚 traditional political parties and power circles.聽
鈥淲e're experiencing a historical moment in Puerto Rico, and real journalism is needed,鈥� says journalist Sandra Rodr铆guez Cotto, who reported on over 50 pages of the chat on July 10. When聽the Center for Investigative Journalism obtained and published nearly 900 pages of chats July 13, that got the protest ball rolling.
Then there was the fact that the movement was led not by politicians, but by artists of particular inspiration to the island鈥檚 young, including Ricky Martin, Bad Bunny, Calle 13, and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
For some Puerto Ricans, the fact that the corruption charges involved education funds made them especially damaging, given the island鈥檚 post-Maria experience.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not talking about complex movements of cash from the treasury, or some really complicated tax-evasion scheme. This was $15 million in education [and health] funding siphoned off to people in the governor鈥檚 circle at a time when聽schools were closed and Puerto Ricans were being told there was no money to open them back up,鈥� says Mr. Barrios.
鈥淭his affected the most vulnerable people on the island, the children, and you also have to remember that thousands of families had left [for Florida and other places in the mainland U.S.] because they were desperate to get their kids in school,鈥� he adds. 鈥淭he involvement of education funding was like a stab to the heart. It really brought the corruption home to everybody.鈥�
鈥淲e found a new strength鈥�
One thing the post-Maria months of no power, closed schools, and undelivered food and rebuilding supplies taught many Puerto Ricans was not so much that they could get by without government, some marcha participants say, but that they deserved not just a new government 鈥� but a new kind of governance.
鈥淚 truly believe that Hurricane Maria came to Puerto Rico to open our eyes to the unacceptable realities that we have been living with for many years,鈥� says Jos茅 David Col贸n Vega, a high school Spanish teacher who has been active on social media to keep information about the demonstrations flowing.
鈥淲hat I think is so important is that through the experience of Hurricane Maria, we found a new strength, and that is what has allowed us to rise up against corruption, bad politics, and all kinds of discrimination 鈥� including against the poor. Before we were not a united people,鈥� he adds, 鈥渂ut after Maria we have found our voice.鈥�
Mr. Col贸n, who is diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair, says that one reason the officials鈥� chats were such a mobilizing factor is that they demonstrated such detachment from the solidarity and compassion that had blossomed across Puerto Rico in Maria鈥檚 wake.
鈥淎s a human being with a disability, I felt so offended by those comments about women, about people from the LGBT community, even about a blind person,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut I know I鈥檓 not alone. The huge demonstrations day after day showed the world this new spirit of Puerto Ricans caring about each other.鈥�
Perhaps most inspiring to Mr. Col贸n is that the nightly marches he watched on his computer were conducted not with rancor and vindictiveness, but with a sense of joy 鈥� with music, with creative chants, and with that newfound solidarity.
He admits he鈥檚 a little concerned that, now that Ricky is leaving office, some Puerto Ricans will consider the job done. Not so, he says.
鈥淚 think we have to see this moment as just the beginning,鈥� he says, noting that he plans to do what he can as a teacher to keep the spirit alive with young people.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not done,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 up to us to write a new history for Puerto Rico that is based on progress, civil rights, and wellness for this island we love.鈥�
Danny Jin contributed reporting from Boston.
