The scene of an angry mob carrying a guillotine towards the home of a high-ranking government official in pouring rain may seem reminiscent of the French Revolution, but a video of just that from Puerto Rico, which has been circling around social media, is all too modern.

The video originated from a nearly week-old Twitter post by Joshua Potash, which documented the delivery of a guillotine to Puerto Rican Governor Wanda Vázquez’s mansion on January 23rd by angry citizens. Potash emphasized in his post that the guillotine was not brought to incite violence, saying that he was, “99% sure it was just symbolic and not usable. Couldn’t see 100% in the rain/dark but 99% sure.”

Um, the people of Puerto Rico are carrying a guillotine to the Governor’s mansion right now. pic.twitter.com/uAeH1WoLcN — Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) January 23, 2020

This recent protest is the culmination of multiple natural disasters and government corruption scandals that have rocked Puerto Rico. One of the key factors in its occurrence was the discovery of unused emergency aid in the Southern Puerto Rican city of Ponce. The unused emergency aid, including diapers, bottles of water, and canned food, was found in an empty government warehouse. The supplies dated back to 2017’s Hurricane Maria.

“These supplies…were specifically meant to be distributed during the 2017 Hurricane Maria… My best guess as to why it was kept there would probably be they wanted to keep it stored for emergency purposes for themselves,” said Puerto Rico resident Joan Perez in an interview with The New Voice.

Over the past few years, Puerto Rico has struggled with constant government corruption. Just last year its governor changed three times in a week due to high-profile scandals and angry street protests. The two resignations that allowed Governor Vázquez to be in power were due to a scandal called ‘TelegramGate,” where vulgar and offensive messages from a group chat containing former Puerto Rican governor Ricardo Rosselló and many other high government officials on the app Telegram were leaked. Rosselló authored many of the messages, which contained misogynistic, homophobic, and generally insulting content.

The leak was followed by days of protests, which lead to Rosselló resigning and nominating Pedro R. Pierluisi as his replacement. Pierluisi’s swearing-in as governor was later deemed unconstitutional by Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court, leaving Governor Vázquez in the position she is in today. It’s quite possible, with the recent protests, that the people are signaling they do not want Governor Vázquez to be in power much longer either. She has been readily disliked since she came to office; with citizens using the hashtag #WandaRenuncia (#WandaResign) in an attempt to get her to step down.

“It’s pretty clear nobody is happy with how she’s handling the situation,” said Perez.

In the wake of the warehouse discovery, Governor Vázquez fired the island’s commissioner of the National Emergency Management and Disaster Relief Agency (NEMA), Carlos Acevedo. She deemed it unforgivable that the aid was undistributed. Housing Secretary Fernando Gil and Department of Family Secretary Glorimar Andújar were also fired the day after, and an investigation was launched into the warehouse and the possibility of there being more like it.

“I have given 48 hours for this investigation. The investigation is to include this warehouse and any others which may exist,” read a statement from Governor Vázquez. “In the same vein, I have decided to relieve Carlos Acevedo of his duties as the commissioner of the National Emergency Management and Disaster Relief Agency.”

Acevedo’s firing and the newly launched investigation, however, is unlikely to save Governor Vázquez from more protests or cause citizens to regard her highly. Puerto Rican citizens are still facing undeniable hardships, and have been even before she became governor. There is a forty-three-percent poverty rate, only twenty percent of schools have reopened due to ongoing earthquake aftershocks, and over four-thousand people are still sleeping in emergency shelters due to the natural disasters that have occurred.

Source: Scott Dalton/American Red Cross

This is due in part because the island has had an incredibly hard time recovering from 2017’s Hurricane Maria, which was the worst storm to strike the island in over eighty years. In a recent report from the Puerto Rican government, it said it expected the storm’s damage to drive an 8% drop in the population by 2024. Puerto Rico lost an estimated 129,848 people between July 1, 2017, and July 1, 2018, alone.

“Just by living here you can tell nothing is particularly paid for and the quality of life in general here is really low,” said Perez.

The island has also faced multiple earthquakes, which have burdened it with aftershocks, which the United States Geological survey says can last from years to decades with decreasing frequency.

Nonetheless, through rain, shine, earthquakes, and storms, the Puerto Rican people are resisting the corruption that plagues their island. They are, undeniably, fighting for equity, the end of government corruption, and their 18th-century twist to it is catching people’s attention and giving them hope.

“It’s somewhat depressing that thousands of houses had to be destroyed for the people to finally stand up against abuse, but nonetheless the fact they’re doing it at all gives me at least some good bit of hope,” said Perez.

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