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Rossello Clings to Office as Puerto Ricans Debate Impeachment

Rossello Clings to Office as Puerto Ricans Debate Impeachment

(Bloomberg) -- As protesters flood Puerto Rican cities demanding that Governor Ricardo Rossello resign, the man himself has ducked local reporters and stayed out of sight as demonstrations surrounded the executive mansion in the capital’s colonial quarter.

Meanwhile, in the bankrupt commonwealth’s legislature, pressure is growing to remove Rossello if he refuses to go on his own. Lawmakers convened a panel of lawyers to evaluate whether Rossello can be impeached after the publication of scabrous text messages that insulted rivals and ordinary residents, and widespread allegations of corruption that have resulted in six indictments, including two former administration officials.

Rossello Clings to Office as Puerto Ricans Debate Impeachment

“If the governor doesn’t resign in the next two or three weeks, then he may be confronted with a formal impeachment process,” said Kenneth McClintock, a former commonwealth secretary of state and senate president from Rossello’s New Progressive Party. Lawmakers “are feeling the public pressure, but they’re also aware that they have to follow legislative formalities. It’s not an immediate process.”

The U.S. commonwealth’s worst political crisis in decades has intensified for almost two weeks with Puerto Ricans pouring into streets to call on Rossello to step down. The publication of the leaked text messages unleashed years of pent-up anger over the island’s governance amid a debt crisis, an economic recession that has lasted more than a decade and a fitful recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017.

“Puerto Ricans feel that they’re on an airplane and the pilot has gone crazy,” said Eduardo Bhatia, minority leader of Puerto Rico’s senate and a member of the opposition Popular Democratic Party. “We’re afraid of having this guy with no credibility as governor, and we’re losing minute by minute the trust of people in the government of the United States who are going to disburse money for hurricane relief.”

The situation may impede the island’s record bankruptcy, which is being managed by a federal oversight board negotiating with bondholders to reduce billions of debt. There are almost $18 billion of bonds tied to the central government and a pension system on the hook for an estimated $50 billion owed to current and future retirees. The government electric utility also wants to restructure $9 billion of debt. The board aims to submit a workout plan in the next few weeks, and a judge will hold a hearing in the case Wednesday.

Rossello Clings to Office as Puerto Ricans Debate Impeachment

Changing Tunes

Rossello has been battered on all sides, with federal lawmakers and Democratic presidential candidates calling for his departure and President Donald Trump continuing a drumbeat of accusations that the commonwealth misspent billions in disaster aid. The president in 2017 called Rossello “a great guy and leader,” but Monday said he has “done a terrible job,” and that the federal aid is in “the hands of incompetent people and very corrupt people.”

On Monday, tens of thousands marched in San Juan, paralyzing the city and shouting their fury with the governor, who has said he won’t run for re-election in 2020 and stepped down from leadership of his party. At night, thousands of of protesters again surrounded the governor’s mansion, banging on pots and pans, dancing to reggaeton music and, in a new fashion statement, sporting t-shirts depicting Rossello’s severed head being held up by the hair.

Paper Chase

No matter how intense, protests haven’t achieved their ultimate goal.

Rossello’s fate may now rest in the hands of his party, which controls both chambers of the legislature. House Speaker Carlos “Johnny” Mendez asked three attorneys to prepare a report on whether Rossello’s conduct had risen to an impeachable offense. That report is expected next week. The Puerto Rico Bar Association has said a group of its members concluded that there is sufficient evidence to move ahead with impeachment based on Rossello’s conduct.

The island’s secretary of state would become governor if Rossello were to leave, according to Puerto Rico’s 1952 constitution. But that position is vacant after Luis Rivera Marin left the post amid the chat scandal. Next in line of succession is Secretary of Justice Wanda Vazquez.

Rossello Clings to Office as Puerto Ricans Debate Impeachment

Donner Party

“The impeachment process is inevitable,” said Phillip Arroyo, a political analyst who worked in the island’s Department of State. “What you’ll start seeing is political cannibalism within the party. The question will be whether it gets to a point where the senate will convict him.”

Calls and emails to the governor’s office and majority leaders in the house and senate seeking comment were not returned.

While the governor hasn’t spoken to reporters on the island, he was interviewed Monday -- in English -- on Fox News. He reiterated his plan to stay in office, and said he supported a federal funds czar to oversee spending. “I am fully committed to battling corruption here in Puerto Rico and that will be the focus for the remainder of my administration,” said the governor.

Since Rossello returned from a European vacation two weeks ago -- only to be met by demonstrators at San Juan’s airport -- he has moved continuously, staying some nights at the tony beach community of Dorado, just west of San Juan, according to reports in the newspaper El Vocero.

As protests continued to grow, Rossello, 40, tried to calm the situation Sunday by pledging in an address streamed on the Internet not to run for re-election and stepping down as president of the PNP. When Rossello later met with party officials in the wealthy San Juan suburb of Guaynabo, the building was quickly surrounded by protesters who were dispersed only by police firing tear gas.

Rossello’s speech “made things worse for him,” said Juan Angel Giusti-Cordero, a history professor at the University of Puerto Rico. “That was the announcement he should have made last week. He seems to be living in a bubble and getting terrible advice.”

--With assistance from Michelle Kaske.

To contact the reporters on this story: Michael Deibert in San Juan at mdeibert@bloomberg.net;Ezra Fieser in Bogota at efieser@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at smerelman@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Campbell

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