A woman claiming to be a Puerto Rican police officer has accused San Juan's mayor and Puerto Rico's governor of holding back supplies in order to make for better photo opportunities.

The woman, who did not give her name, told New York radio station Mega 97.9 on Thursday that Governor Ricardo Rossello and Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz were refusing to cut through bureaucracy.

That was leading to people starving to death and turning to murder to seize supplies for their families, she claimed.

'We want the US to come in, the strongest forces to come in, and take the governor out,' the officer said in Spanish. 'He is not doing anything, he is just going around and around.'

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A woman claiming to be a Puerto Rican cop told a New York radio show that officials there were holding back on handing out supplies because they only wanted photo-opportunities - and demanded the US come in to take over

The woman - who did not provide proof of being a cop - said that she was calling from Guynabo, a municipality that borders San Juan.

Supposedly speaking through an app that took an hour and a half to download, she claimed that supplies had been piling up since Hurricane Maria hit, but were not being distributed.

'The mayor, Carmen Yulin, is not allowing anyone to distribute,' she said, audibly upset. 'We need... what us Puerto Ricans need is that the US armed forces come in and distribute the aid.'

She also demanded that they 'stop Governor Rossello,' adding 'It's an abuse, it looks like Communism, on our own island' before breaking into tears.

The officer didn't make it clear in what capacity she worked as a cop, or how she was aware of the politicians' motivations.

But she said that they were lying that the aid could not be distributed due to licensing problems or a lack of buses.

'There are thousands and thousands of items of food, and when people ask we cannot give anything away because Carmen Yulin says that we cannot take anything out,' she said.

Supplies and money have been donated by US volunteers such as these men, and foreign individuals. The supposed cop - who did not give her name - said it was all tied up in red tape.

She claimed that San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz (left) and Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello (right) were not fighting bureaucracy unless they could be sure of good press

Yulin Cruz and Rossello claimed that a lack of manpower and gasoline meant that trucks were unable to distribute goods; Rossello on Sunday said fuel was inbound over the next two days

'Everything is a soap opera, everything is a show, there have to be cameras here and there because, you know, they are just looking for votes in the coming years.

'And the governor won't move unless there is a camera behind him, Carmen Yulin won't move unless there is a camera behind her.'

She also lambasted the government for turning down aid from Cuba and Venezuela, and said that people were killing each other over gasoline so they could be the first to get supplies for their families.

The call and its details could not be verified.

Yulin Cruz herself has blamed the Trump administration for dragging its heels about getting aid to the island.

She said that a lack of manpower was resulting in a bottleneck as goods waited in ports without enough people to hand them out across the island.

Responding to a remark by acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke that the response was a 'good news story,' Yulin Cruz said: 'This is, damn it, this is not a good news story.

'This is a "people are dying" story. This is a "life or death" story. This is "there's a truckload of stuff that cannot be taken to people" story. This is a story of a devastation that continues to worsen.'

Trump has dismissed her as a 'politically motivated ingrate' and said that claims that the White House had not responded fast enough were 'fake news.' On Sunday he dedicated a golf win to the victims on the island.

Whatever the reason, the situation in Puerto Rico is dire.

Donald Trump dashed off three tweets insisting that the federal government had done a good job assisting Puerto Rico, blasting 'politically motivated ingrates' for suggesting otherwise

Queues can stretch from the tens to the hundreds as people try to get vital goods. Rossello promised that goods would be able to be distributed properly from Sunday onward

Relief supplies are sorted into boxes at the Roberto Clemente stadium, San Juan, on September 30. The claims made by the supposed cop could not be verified

For days now, residents have awoken each morning to decide which lifeline they should pursue: gasoline at the few open stations, food and bottled water at the few grocery stores with fuel for generators, or scarce cash at the few operating banks or ATMs.

The pursuit of just one of these essentials can consume an entire day - if the mission succeeds at all - as hordes of increasingly desperate residents wait in 12-hour lines.

Jimenez, a 24-year-old medical student from Ponce, on the island's southern coast, told Reuters: 'Every day we say, "What"s the thing that we need the most today?" and then we wait in a line for that.'

He was speaking on Sunday morning from a 400-person-long line outside a Walmart, where he hoped to be able to pick up his grandmother's blood-thinning medicine.

The store's generator collapsed at noon, causing it to close down before he could even get inside.

On Sunday Rossello told The New York Times that there would be a flood of aid over the next two days thanks to increased numbers of aid workers from the Defense Department and other federal agencies.

More than half a million barrels of diesel fuel and nearly a million barrels of gasoline would reach Puerto Rico between Sunday and Tuesday, Rossello said.

That would then be used to fuel generators and supply vehicles that could be used to distribute food and other aid, he promised.