If any of you are curious about what the hell is happening in Puerto Rico, here is a quick synopsis of the serious injustice and corruption. A couple of weeks back, details of a group chat between the governor of Puerto Rico (Ricardo Roselló), some of his allies and members of his administration were leaked. Some embarrassing stuff was revealed. A day or so later, the FBI implicated his former Secretary of Education, members of his administration and private contractors in schemes to influence the allocation of federal contracts to politically connected consultants and money laundering among other charges. This is just the beginning, get your popcorn ready
At the end of the week nearly 900 pages of screenshots of the group chat were revealed by the Puerto Rico Center for Investigative Journalism. This chat includes all manner of misogyny, homophobia, jokes about killing political enemies, threatening journalists, sharing confidential state info with lobbyists who were in the chat and stood to possibly benefit. But the most disgusting part of these chats was when the CFO joked about allowing vultures to feed off dead bodies from Hurricane Maria as a way to help with cleanup.
As a point of reference, Maria was a Hurricane Katrina level event that took place on a 100 x 35 mile island so you can’t just get your shit and drive inland to escape the damage. Both were Category 5 storms for which government agencies were ill prepared and handled poorly in their aftermath. Bodies piled up in morgues across the island following Maria, bodies the administration refused to acknowledge. 4,600 people died as a result and alleged leaders were joking about the deaths of our fellow citizens.
Our people deserve better leadership than this.
Across the island, people are protesting and demanding the resignation of the governor. Puerto Ricans have gathered in NYC, DC, Miami, Chicago, Orlando, Madrid, even Austria (I know, right?!?!) insisting that he step down. He doesn’t even have the support of his party anymore. The people are fed up, the group chat was the final straw. It’s time to go, Ricky.
This photo was taken earlier today (day ten of the protests) at Las America’s Avenue which at this point is six lanes wide:
At the end of the week nearly 900 pages of screenshots of the group chat were revealed by the Puerto Rico Center for Investigative Journalism. This chat includes all manner of misogyny, homophobia, jokes about killing political enemies, threatening journalists, sharing confidential state info with lobbyists who were in the chat and stood to possibly benefit. But the most disgusting part of these chats was when the CFO joked about allowing vultures to feed off dead bodies from Hurricane Maria as a way to help with cleanup.
As a point of reference, Maria was a Hurricane Katrina level event that took place on a 100 x 35 mile island so you can’t just get your shit and drive inland to escape the damage. Both were Category 5 storms for which government agencies were ill prepared and handled poorly in their aftermath. Bodies piled up in morgues across the island following Maria, bodies the administration refused to acknowledge. 4,600 people died as a result and alleged leaders were joking about the deaths of our fellow citizens.
Our people deserve better leadership than this.
Across the island, people are protesting and demanding the resignation of the governor. Puerto Ricans have gathered in NYC, DC, Miami, Chicago, Orlando, Madrid, even Austria (I know, right?!?!) insisting that he step down. He doesn’t even have the support of his party anymore. The people are fed up, the group chat was the final straw. It’s time to go, Ricky.
This photo was taken earlier today (day ten of the protests) at Las America’s Avenue which at this point is six lanes wide:
"This is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. I regret to report that both our Jedi Order and the Republic, have fallen with a dark shadow of the Empire rising to take their place. This message is a warning and a reminder for any surviving Jedi. Trust in The Force. Do not return to the Temple... that time has past. And our future is uncertain. We will each be challenged. Our trust. Our faith. Our friendships. But we must persevere. And in time, a new hope will emerge. May the Force be with you, always."