michael barbaro

From The New York Times, I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.” Today: Hundreds of leaked text messages revealed the governor of Puerto Rico mocking his own citizens. For Puerto Ricans, it was the last straw. It’s Friday, July 19.

[phone ringing]

michael barbaro

Hi, Pati.

patricia mazzei

Hello, Michael Barbaro.

michael barbaro

Hello, hello. How are you?

patricia mazzei

I’ve been better. How are you?

michael barbaro

I’m O.K. Why have you been better? What’s the matter?

patricia mazzei

Well, I’m just tired. It’s been really long nights. But that’s O.K.

michael barbaro

You’ve been staying up late covering the protests.

patricia mazzei

Yes, sir. There’s a meme in Puerto Rico of people saying, O.K., I’m going to bed, and a friend telling them, but what if the governor resigns? And the person lying in bed with their eyes wide open. They don’t want to miss that moment, and so —

michael barbaro

Right, right, right. The one moment you doze off is the moment it all happens.

patricia mazzei

That’s what we live in fear of.

michael barbaro

I reached Pati Mazzei, a national correspondent for The Times, in San Juan. Pati, for most listeners, I suspect the story of Puerto Rico hits the pause button in October of 2017. Hurricane Maria hits. The island is thrown into darkness and into chaos. And President Trump’s response is seen by many as insensitive and insufficient.

patricia mazzei

Yes. But the story came back in April of this year when members of Congress were considering a disaster aid bill.

archived recording Nature’s forces have battered the United States in the past half year — storm winds, floodwaters, and deadly wildfire. To those natural disasters, now add a man-made one.

patricia mazzei

Not just for Puerto Rico, but for a bunch of states on the mainland that had suffered various natural disasters.

archived recording A dispute between President Trump and Democrats over hurricane relief for Puerto Rico is threatening disaster relief funding for California’s wildfire victims.

patricia mazzei

The president wanted to hold up the bill just because he did not want to send money to Puerto Rico. So these were billions of dollars that would have gone to Florida, Texas, states in the Midwest that were suddenly at this impasse because the president said, I’m not sending more to Puerto Rico.

archived recording President Trump accused Puerto Rico’s leaders of misspending money they had already received.

patricia mazzei

He said the government can’t do anything right, that the place is a mess, and nothing works there.

archived recording Here’s part of the tweet: The pols are grossly incompetent, spend the money foolishly or corruptly, and only take from the U.S.A.

patricia mazzei

And therefore, he did not trust Puerto Rican leaders to manage new funds well.

archived recording The best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico, the tweet says, is President Donald J. Trump.

michael barbaro

And what’s the response in Puerto Rico this time?

patricia mazzei

So Puerto Ricans still don’t like being called out by the president. They find that offensive. But that doesn’t mean that some of them, at least, don’t agree with some of the substance of his criticism, which is that the leaders on the island haven’t always been very good fiscal stewards of public funds. Puerto Rico has suffered financial troubles for years and has had corruption scandals for decades. And so people on the island were wary that once again, some of this might come up with billions of dollars in recovery aid flowing into the island.

michael barbaro

So Puerto Ricans don’t entirely disagree with the president that perhaps the island can’t be trusted with the money.

patricia mazzei

No. And that’s what made some of their response nuanced. You can be mad that the president — the only time he talks about you is to say bad things and still think he’s got a point in that our leaders haven’t always done well by us. In fact, Puerto Rico is effectively bankrupt. They’re in a 12-year recession, and they have a debt crisis. Their leaders borrowed until they couldn’t anymore, and the island ran out of money.

michael barbaro

So Pati, what happens next?

archived recording [SPEAKING SPANISH]

patricia mazzei

So three weeks ago, Puerto Rico’s Treasury secretary says in an explosive radio interview that he has gone to federal authorities to report this institutional mafia, he calls it, within the government that is trying to extort him. In a matter of hours, the governor asks the Treasury secretary for his resignation, saying he can’t trust him because the secretary didn’t go to the governor to tell him what he had found. He went straight to the feds.

archived recording [SPEAKING SPANISH]

michael barbaro

He’s firing the Treasury secretary for reporting an alleged extortion attempt to the United States government.

patricia mazzei

As you can imagine, that doesn’t sit well with some of the governor’s critics, and also with some of the secretary’s family members.

archived recording [SPEAKING SPANISH]

patricia mazzei

His son takes to social media to criticize the governor, and then the son gets investigated by police. And this starts turning into a real drama.

archived recording Six people, including two former Puerto Rican officials, were arrested for allegedly diverting millions in federal funds to unqualified, politically connected contractors yesterday.

patricia mazzei

In the middle of all this, last week, the U.S. attorney’s office in Puerto Rico announces six high-profile arrests, including of the former education secretary and of the former executive director of the island’s health insurance administration agency.

archived recording 1 The alleged scam involves $15.5 million in federal funding allocated since 2017. archived recording 2 The feds say they were defrauding the federal government. archived recording 3 Here’s what is really so disappointing. Julia Keleher, she was impressive. She was driven. She seemed like someone who could do some good things. It’s such a slap in the face for an island that needs so much to see her go down if this is true. archived recording 4 And what I was thinking, too, is that Puerto Rico, P.R., does not need any bad P.R.

patricia mazzei

And to top it all off, the governor is on vacation in Europe. He calls off his vacation, leaves his wife and children on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean, and flies back to get back to the island as quickly as possible. And then while he’s flying back, there’s a new wrinkle. Someone leaks bits and pieces of a group chat on the messaging app Telegram between the governor and 11 of his closest aides. And in this leak are offensive and profane comments that they make about some of their political opponents. There is a snapshot that the governor posts of a tweet by the former speaker of the New York City Council, Melissa Mark-Viverito, who is originally from Puerto Rico, where she’s criticizing Tom Perez, the president of the Democratic National Committee. And the governor’s response is [SPEAKING SPANISH], which, in English, means, our people need to go out and defend Tom and go after this whore.

archived recording (ricardo rosselló) So, well, first of all, good afternoon. Thank you all for being here.

patricia mazzei

So by the time the governor lands in San Juan —

archived recording (ricardo rosselló) Briefly, I wanted to talk to the press.

patricia mazzei

The entire press corps has assembled and is ready to pounce.

archived recording What strategy are you using to continue the operations of government and the economy, for the economy to continue? archived recording (ricardo rosselló) So good question. archived recording There’s been some calls for your resignation from your political position. Do you have a decision or an answer to that call? archived recording (ricardo rosselló) So I’m moving forward with all of my elected positions. archived recording You were the leader of this chat room that conspired to discredit people you didn’t like. Why would you do that? archived recording (ricardo rosselló) Well, again, I’ve already mentioned I am — I am not proud of what I did. Those were merely comments, but they were hurtful comments. It’s why I apologize for what I’ve done.

michael barbaro

And how does that explanation go over?

patricia mazzei

Not particularly well. The people who were insulted in the chat say that this is unacceptable behavior by their leaders. And Puerto Ricans in general, who have been seeing these bits and pieces come out, are sort of just waiting for the next one to drop. And then it’s not that there’s another bit that drops.

archived recording Governor Ricardo Rosselló has been under fire since nearly 900 pages of a private group chat were leaked and published this weekend by the Center for —

patricia mazzei

It’s 889 pages published on Saturday morning by Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Reporting detailing two months of this chat in full.

archived recording The leaked chat room conversations between the governor and 11 others are laced with profane, homophobic and sexist comments.

michael barbaro

And what is in this second batch of messages?

patricia mazzei

The second batch of messages has more insults where not only are they targeting critics of the governor and his administration, but also their allies — for example, a young man who is overweight who met with the governor. And there’s a picture in the chat of the two shaking hands and the governor making a crack about [SPEAKING SPANISH]. No, I’m not thinner. It’s an optical illusion. And then saying, [SPEAKING SPANISH]. He generates his own gravity field. I mean, things that are just really —

michael barbaro

Cruel.

patricia mazzei

Inappropriate. Yes. But in addition to that, there is the bigger picture, which is that there are people in this chat who are no longer members of the government, including a lobbyist who has his own business interests. And he is getting fed inside information from his buddies with the governor being aware of it.

michael barbaro

So weeks after President Trump calls the government of Puerto Rico corrupt, there are all these indictments that basically say he’s right. And then there are these leaks that cast the Puerto Rican government as completely insensitive to everyday Puerto Ricans.

patricia mazzei

Yeah. If you thought, cynically, that these people were more concerned about how they look than what they do, if you thought that maybe they didn’t really respect people, even if they pretended outwardly that they did, and if you were concerned that there was — if not real corruption, then the perception of corruption, that it could be happening, that people were really cozy with their friends, with lobbyists and business leaders in their inner circle, then what the chat did was confirm your worst fears and prove that you were right. And so people started taking to the streets spontaneously. And they’re very fed up. And so that’s when I get on a plane and come, because we’re starting to wonder if this is going to force the governor to resign. Is this going to be a moment that changes things?

michael barbaro

We’ll be right back.

[music]

michael barbaro

So Pati, walk me through the last few days in San Juan.

patricia mazzei

The streets of Old San Juan are narrow and colonial. They’re cobblestone streets lined with shops that are painted in colorful red and pink and green and purple. And they have been deserted during the day and packed at night — not because people are going to bars or there’s a bunch of tourists here, but because the protesters come down.

archived recording [CHANTING]

patricia mazzei

They come with flags in hand, and they’re wearing black and white T-shirts with political messages. And they are just standing for hours, sometimes starting in the middle of the day under the scorching sun, in front — or as close as they can get in front — to the governor’s mansion, La Fortaleza, which means the fortress. And —

archived recording [CHANTING]

patricia mazzei

— they start chanting. And this is the Caribbean, so the percussion is great.

archived recording [CHANTING]

patricia mazzei

They find these great rhymes.

archived recording [CHANTING]

patricia mazzei

With the governor’s nickname, Ricky. And so they just keep saying, ¡Ricky, renuncia!” Resign, resign.

archived recording [CHANTING]

patricia mazzei

People were not just mad about these chats. Some of the signs were about that. Some of the chants were about that. But one of the things that was really stunning was the number of protest signs that just listed the number of people who have been estimated could have died under Hurricane Maria. So some signs just said 4,645, the upper-end estimate. These people have suffered not only through hurricanes and a power outage that lasted a year, but also with major economic hardships, and layoffs, and school closures, and people leaving the island en masse to move to the mainland. And it all just was pent up, and it exploded all at once.

archived recording [SPEAKING SPANISH]

patricia mazzei

And then the celebrities joined the people.

archived recording [SPEAKING SPANISH]

patricia mazzei

And on Wednesday night, there is Ricky Martin and the rapper Residente, and the trap musician Bad Bunny, and the singer iLe.

archived recording [SINGING]

patricia mazzei

And they’re standing on the platform of this truck as the sun is setting, and they’re in front of the ocean, the Capitol behind them. And iLe looks out over this crowd between the Capitol and the palm trees and the ocean, and she says, it was about damn time to wake up.

archived recording [SINGING]

michael barbaro

So it’s clear that a lot of this frustration is landing at the doorstep of the governor. But my sense is that because of the complicated relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States, that the governor is not all that powerful, right?

patricia mazzei

It’s interesting that you mentioned that, Michael, because one of the other chants that we heard was ¡Ricky, renuncia, y llévate a la junta!

archived recording [SPEAKING SPANISH]

patricia mazzei

Ricky, resign, and take the board with you. And that refers to this federal oversight board that Congress created to handle Puerto Rico’s finances after it essentially went bankrupt. And that is another big target of these protests, because the board’s role is to tell Puerto Rico what it cannot spend. And that involves layoffs, and school closures, and university tuition hikes, and possibly targeting public pensions. And so the board, which is unelected and comes from Washington, has made Puerto Ricans feel powerless. To a lot of them, it’s just another example of how they have been colonized, first by Spain and then by the United States. And it reminds them that they can elect their governor, they can elect some of their leaders, but they cannot elect the president. They are not a state. They are not a country. And a lot of this is out of their hands.

michael barbaro

So the mismanagement by Puerto Rico’s own leadership leads the federal government, a government that Puerto Ricans don’t think really sees them as equal to the mainland, to step in. And it’s sort of this vicious cycle where the worse Puerto Rico’s leadership behaves, the more the federal government intervenes, and also has sort of proven correct in this argument that Puerto Rico doesn’t deserve or can’t quite properly handle this federal funding.

patricia mazzei

Right. And in the middle, the people of Puerto Rico keep suffering.

archived recording [SHOUTING]

michael barbaro

Pati, what happens now?

patricia mazzei

Well, the people on the streets want the governor to resign, but he says that he’s not going to go. There is talk in the legislature that they might impeach him, but they have not decided if they’re going to yet. Even if he goes, then there is a whole new set of questions. Can his replacement, in that case, govern? Many Puerto Ricans would like more autonomy to govern themselves, but who can they trust when the federal government is not inclined to give them more autonomy? The island government has not proven to be all that effective. How can the next person lead an island under these circumstances, under this sort of federal oversight, without any money, recovering from a hurricane? And basically, the biggest question is, is this island governable? Is this place a place that can be effectively run? And I don’t know the answer to that.

archived recording [CHANTING]

michael barbaro

Pati, thank you very much.

patricia mazzei

Thank you, Michael.

archived recording [CHANTING]

michael barbaro

We’ll be right back. Here’s what else you need to know today. On Thursday, the U.S. Navy shot down an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz not far from where Iran shot down a U.S. drone several weeks ago. The Trump administration said that before it was struck, the unmanned Iranian drone had ignored multiple warnings that it was straying close to an American ship, the U.S.S. Boxer. The attack is expected to inflame tensions between the two countries. And —

archived recording When your supporters last night were chanting “send her back,” why didn’t you stop them? Why didn’t you ask them to stop saying that? archived recording (donald trump) Well, number one, I think I did. I started speaking very quickly.

michael barbaro

President Trump on Thursday tried to distance himself from supporters who chanted “send her back” at a rally the night before when he mentioned Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a reference to his own tweet about Omar and three of her Democratic colleagues.

archived recording (donald trump) I disagree with it, by the way. But it was quite a chant. And I felt a little bit badly about it.

michael barbaro

But contrary to the president’s claim that he tried to quickly end the chant, video shows he listened on for 13 seconds as the crowd repeatedly yelled.

archived recording Send her back! Send her back! Send her back! Send her back! Send her back!

michael barbaro

On Thursday afternoon, a large crowd greeted Congresswoman Omar as she returned to Minnesota.

archived recording Welcome home, Ilhan! Welcome home, Ilhan! Welcome home, Ilhan! Welcome home, Ilhan! Welcome home, Ilhan!

michael barbaro