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Puerto Rico’s newly installed Gov. Pedro Pierluisi faces a legal challenge to his authority, further muddling the U.S. territory’s leadership and extending a period of political disarray, the Wall Street Journal reported. Puerto Rico Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz sued Pierluisi in a San Juan court yesterday, two days after he was sworn in, claiming that he usurped the office by ignoring a constitutional requirement. Pierluisi was confirmed Friday as secretary of state, first in line of succession to the governorship, by Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives — but not by the Senate. He was then sworn in as governor when the resignation of his predecessor, Ricardo Rosselló, took effect at 5 p.m. Friday. The lawsuit, arguing that Senate confirmation is required, seeks an injunction stripping Pierluisi’s claim to office and stopping him from carrying out the functions of governor. Pierluisi rose to power under a cloud of legal uncertainty during a chaotic period that has fractured the majority New Progressive Party. As he replaces Rosselló, Puerto Rico’s first sitting governor to resign, he has only a tenuous claim to power and is viewed skeptically by lawmakers and the public. Hoping to shore up his claim to office and prevent a constitutional crisis, Pierluisi said on Friday that he would continue seeking approval from the Senate. If the chamber voted him down, he said, he would step aside in favor of Wanda Vázquez, Puerto Rico’s secretary of justice.

With only hours before Puerto Rico’s disgraced governor was set to step down on Friday, the bankrupt U.S. territory still did not know who would succeed him, Reuters reported. Over a week ago, Governor Ricardo Rosselló bowed to 12 days of mass protests sparked by offensive chat messages and said he would resign at 5 p.m. on Friday. Street protesters vowed to topple the next in line for the job, Justice Secretary Wanda Vázquez, owing to her position in an administration dogged by corruption scandals. Critical of the federal response to deadly 2017 hurricanes and a federally created board overseeing the island’s bankruptcy, protesters demanded a new governor represent their interests, not those of the U.S. government or Puerto Rico’s political elite. So when Rosselló tapped Pedro Pierluisi, the island’s former representative in the U.S. Congress and who worked for the unpopular fiscal control board, as his successor, he was rejected both on the streets and by leaders of the ruling party, who had their eyes on retaining power in the 2020 elections. Rosselló nominated Pierluisi as his secretary of state, a position that would put him next in line to succeed the governor, an appointment that requires approval by the legislature.

Puerto Rico’s political crisis risked deepening today as lawmakers and street protesters opposed Pedro Pierluisi, the island’s former representative in the U.S. Congress, tapped to replace disgraced Governor Ricardo Rosselló, Reuters reported. A day before Rosselló was set to resign over offensive chat messages that sparked mass protests, some members of his party vowed to reject Pierluisi, largely over conflict of interest concerns. Hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans took to the streets to demand Rosselló quit after the leaked messages unleashed rage over suspected administration corruption, slow recovery from 2017’s deadly hurricanes and the U.S. territory’s bankruptcy. Rosselló called a special session of Puerto Rico’s legislature today for lawmakers to vote on Pierluisi as secretary of state, and therefore next in line to succeed him. Members of Rosselló’s New Progressive Party (PNP) said Pierluisi’s role as a lawyer for law firm O’Neill & Borges advising the federally created financial oversight board directing Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy disqualified him for the job. 

Puerto Rico’s embattled governor will name the island’s former representative in the U.S. Congress, Pedro Pierluisi, as his new secretary of state and next in line to succeed him when he steps down, El Nuevo Dia newspaper reported, according to Reuters. Governor Ricardo Rosselló said last week he would resign on Friday in the face of mass street protests and public outrage over the release of profane chat messages and federal corruption charges against two former administration officials. Puerto Rico lower house Representative José Meléndez told the newspaper that legislators were informed of Rosselló’s decision yesterday by the president of the chamber, Johnny Méndez. The newspaper said an official announcement was imminent. Pierluisi, a corporate lawyer who works for Washington law firm O’Neill & Borges, would have to be approved as secretary of state by the legislature of the bankrupt U.S. territory. Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives scheduled a special session for Friday to confirm Rosselló’s pick for the post. It remained to be seen whether Pierluisi, if nominated, could gain sufficient votes.

Puerto Rico’s worst political crisis in decades is intensifying after the commonwealth’s governor-in-waiting Wanda Vazquez, said that she doesn’t want to take power, leaving the bankrupt island facing an unprecedented succession impasse, Bloomberg News reported. Vazquez, the secretary of justice, said in a Twitter post on Sunday that she hoped Governor Ricardo Rosselló would nominate a different successor before he steps down Aug. 2. Vazquez, an ally of the outgoing governor and a member of his New Progressive Party, is next in line because the secretary of state position is vacant. Her announcement raises pressure on Rosselló, who has less than a week to nominate a new secretary of state, adding to Puerto Rico’s dysfunction and political chaos. That person would need confirmation from a majority in both houses of the island’s legislature. The official next in succession after Vazquez is Francisco Pares, the treasury secretary, who, at 31, is not old enough to be governor. The minimum age is 35. Next in line appears to be Education Secretary Eligio Hernandez, who told a local radio station yesterday that he was focused on his current role.

Few have as many reasons as Puerto Ricans to be furious at the status quo, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek commentary. The quarter of the island’s 3.2 million residents who are 21 or younger have lived most of their lives in a grinding recession that forced hundreds of thousands to migrate to the mainland. The U.S. commonwealth declared bankruptcy in May 2017, its economy brought down by an addiction to borrowing that at one point created a $74 billion debt. It now operates under a congressionally mandated fiscal oversight board, which has demanded austerity. Public services were so hollowed out by budget cuts that when Hurricane Maria hit a few months after the bankruptcy filing, there was little help for citizens. Federal aid was slow to arrive and given grudgingly by President Donald Trump, an aggravating echo of the island’s colonial status. At least 3,000 died. Among the protesters’ chief demands in the weeks leading up to Rosselló’s July 24 resignation was an end to Promesa, the federal law that created the oversight board. The question of whether to remain a commonwealth, seek statehood, or try for independence has long been the defining issue for voters. Rosselló’s New Progressive Party, founded in 1967, seeks statehood and controls the governor’s mansion and both houses of the legislature. The minority Popular Democratic Party helped get Puerto Rico commonwealth status and dominated politics for three decades after its 1938 founding. The parties are alike in their ability to engender patronage, graft, and bitter, Kremlinesque internecine conflict. Cracks have begun to appear in the two main parties’ foundations. Historically, around 95 percent of voters went for one of them, but in 2016, about 1 in 5 voted for other parties’ candidates for governor. 

*The views expressed in this commentary are from the author/publication cited, are meant for informative purposes only, and are not an official position of ABI. 

Puerto Rico's recovery from 2017’s Hurricane Maria has been slow, which is why many on the island are fretting at signs that recent political turmoil could further hinder the arrival of desperately-needed federal aid, Reuters reported. Governor Ricardo Rosselló resigned on Wednesday after 12 days of sometimes violent protests over corruption arrests in his administration and leaked texts in which he and advisers insulted constituents with misogynistic and homophobic remarks. The rallies are expected to continue this week as his team scrambles to find a successor. At a July 22 press conference, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Puerto Rico can not be trusted to manage federal aid, saying that it was “in the hands of incompetent people and very corrupt people.” The federal government’s hurricane response is seen among locals as too slow already. Rosselló’s government requested some $94 billion in relief from Washington, while the U.S. Congress has allocated $42.3 billion, of which only $12.6 billion had been disbursed, according to a May report by San Juan-based think-tank the Center for a New Economy. Read more. 

In related news, the woman in line to be the governor of Puerto Rico after Ricardo Rosselló steps down next week said yesterday that she does not want the job running the U.S. territory. Rosselló said last week he will step down on Aug. 2 in the face of mass street protests and public outrage over the release of profane chat messages and embezzlement charges against two former administration officials. Secretary of Justice Wanda Vázquez is next in line to succeed Rosselló as governor because Puerto Rico currently has no secretary of state, who would have precedence. But she said yesterday that she had no interest in taking the reins. “I hope the governor identifies and submits a candidate for secretary of state before Aug. 2 and I have told him as much,” Vázquez wrote on Twitter. Protesters who forced Rosselló from office had opposed Vázquez, saying she is too close to the disgraced governor. Read more. 

The solution to Puerto Rico’s problems is not to simply replace local politicians with U.S. envoys and supervisors, something which for many smacks of a retrenched colonialism, nor is the answer to strengthen the powers of a board that is rooted in legal exceptionalism, according to a commentary in The Hill. After 12 days of protests, the governor of Puerto Rico resigned last week. Some claim that the scandals related to the governor give credence to President Trump’s claims about Puerto Rican politicians being “inept” and “corrupt.” Others have suggested that the current political crisis calls for strengthening federal oversight and increasing the powers of the fiscal control board that is already charged with managing the island’s debt crisis. However, there is no evidence to suggest that increasing federal control would help tackle Puerto Rico’s problems of governance and such an outcome would run contrary to the goals of those marching in the streets, according to the commentary. When Puerto Rico’s fiscal oversight board was first established, some residents held out hope that it would act precisely as a regulatory body that could bring an end to the kind of corruption that has been revealed by the recent FBI arrests. Yet, this has hardly been the case. In its nearly three years of existence the board has not filed a single corruption case or canceled any of the dubious contracts related to the FBI arrests. Further, the board has been sued repeatedly for lack of transparency, a key element for good governance, and several politicians who lobbied for the board’s creation, including Puerto Rico’s former resident commissioner, are now working at firms that hold lucrative contracts with it. What Puerto Ricans need now, according to the commentary is greater democratic tools, not increased control from the outside. This includes stronger independent prosecutorial entities, enforceable anti-corruption laws, and (most importantly) greater civic engagement in the political process, including in the designation of the next Secretary of State, who would be the interim governor.

*The views expressed in this commentary are from the author/publication cited, are meant for informative purposes only, and are not an official position of ABI.