The streets of Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan, have been filled with people protesting shoulder to shoulder ever since the governor Rosselló had declared his decision not to resign. Why did the politician’s choice upset so many people and led, to what is now named “the largest modern political demonstration in the U.S. territory’s history”? Why did the protest unite LGBTQ rights lobbyists, Hurricane Maria survivors, and women’s rights activists? Here are your unanswered questions about the political crisis answered.



How it started

When Ricardo Rosselló declared his intent to not resign, it wasn’t what started the protests, but it was a trigger of a gun that’s been loading for several years. The uprising happened for a few reasons, but one of the most important would be the corrupt government. Some Puerto Rican citizens are rightfully convinced that the government is deeply buried in fraudulent schemes and lies. Issues with Puerto Rico’s political system has been on-going: Rossello’s politically take over was the last straw for citizens.

The second reason for the crisis is Hurricane Maria. The devastating disaster killed more than 3,000 people and many survivors homeless. Although Washington did send around $11.2 billion dollars (President Trump keeps insisting it was actually $91 billion) to Puerto Rico in hopes of helping to repair distractions, most of the money has been lost in a corrupt political system of local legislators. The money for disaster relief didn’t reach people without roofs above their heads.

The image above shows how citizens in Puerto Rico are still having to live with blue wraps given as a “30-day fix”.

Lastly, the tension in the country had reached its peak when the Puerto Rican nonprofit Center for Investigative Journalism published several pages of Ricardo Rosselló’s chats with other politicians, where they openly put down LGBTQ community, talk about men’s supremacy, and make fun of hurricane Maria victims. Here is a glimpse into what their chats looked like.



To tie it all together, Ricardo Rosselló stated that he wouldn’t resign momentarily, but rather just not run in the future.

Protests

Once the trigger was pulled, the streets of Puerto Rico was filled with what a crowd of a million people. Marking the largest protest in the territory’s history, and those protesting won’t stop until Ricardo Rosselló resigns.

The crowd was joined by popular singer Ricky Martin and rapper Bad Bunny, who both have Puerto Rican heritage. Influencers only added fuel to the fire and massively increased social media coverage of the protest.

Ricardo Rosselló was clearly lost after announcing he will be staying in power till the end of this term, police (under his leadership) used teargas, pepper spray, and even rubber bullets on protestors.“We are going to defend democracy until the last drop of blood. The protesting is democracy,” said William Ramirez, executive director of the ACLU of Puerto Rico, about the chief of the police department. “Show me where in the constitution it says that at 10 o’clock people lose the right to protest,” added Ramirez.



Rosselló resigns

Wednesday night Ricardo Rosselló announced that he will no longer be staying in power as a governor of Puerto Rico. He mentioned that he “heard the demand of the people” and that he was scared continuing protests would endanger the success he achieved.

Rosselló might have also stepped down due to an overwhelming lack of support from his own party members. July 22nd the front of the largest newspapers in Puerto Rico read “Governor, it’s time to listen to the people: You must resign.”

Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló struggles mightily when Shep Smith presses him to come up with one single person who currently supports him.



"Can you give me one name? Just one name?"



Rossello finally names a single mayor. pic.twitter.com/ig4TCCOjuV — Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) July 22, 2019

The leader of the Puerto Rico house, Carlos J. Méndez Núñez, said the lawmakers were planning on starting the impeachment process this Thursday. And there would have been enough votes to impeach Roselló out of office. It seems that Roselló’s resign was ultimately inevitable.



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Polina Protozanova Polina Protozanova is an eighteen-year-old political journalist from Russia. Through debate and competitive writing she discovered the power of the word that can both divide and unite people. This is why Polina strives to create articles that are both unbiased and credible, she dreams of creating a news source that isn’t just another tool for constructing division but rather a place where people are conscious in making up their opinion.

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