SOURCE: ACTIVIST POST

By Ángel Carrión

The governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rosselló, has resigned after two weeks of massive protests and intergenerational civil unrest. In the absence of a secretary of state, Secretary of Justice Wanda Vázquez will become governor. Rosselló’s resignation is effective as of 5:00 p.m. on August 2.

This self-convened and growing national movement erupted as a result of an intricate corruption scheme and a leaked Telegram chat containing sexist, misogynistic, homophobic and body-shaming language, along with the discussion of public policy among members and non-members of Rosselló’s cabinet.

The leaked Telegram chat was preceded by the federal arrests of high-ranking members of Rosselló’s administration, including the former Secretary of Education, Julia Keleher, on charges which include money laundering, wire fraud and theft, among others.

The 14 consecutive days of demonstrations included daily protests at the governor’s mansion. The protests soon spread to many other municipalities of Puerto Rico. The largest was held on July 22, estimated to have attracted as many as 600,000 people in San Juan alone.

#FunFact of this march in #PuertoRico. It wasn’t scheduled by any organization. It happened organically in social media by #PuertoRicans who wanted to protest against #Rosselló, demanding his resignation. #ParoNacional #News #ParoNacionalPR#RickyRenuncia 🎥:@NoticentroWAPA pic.twitter.com/gpLBXPhbPY

— Cristina Corujo (@cristina_corujo) July 22, 2019

But the activity wasn’t limited to Puerto Rico. Several protests were convened in countries where Puerto Ricans are residents, including Spain, Argentina, Slovenia, France, The Netherlands and the United States.

Protesters rejoicing in the rain on July 22 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Image widely circulated on social media and taken from the Twitter account of social worker Larry Emil Alicea-Rodríguez (@larryemil).

The protests also included cultural and artistic interventions. Journalist Victoria Leandra created a Twitter thread that highlights some of the creative ways Puerto Ricans found to protest:

👇🏽THREAD: All the original ways in which Puerto Ricans have said #RickyRenuncia

— Victoria Leandra (@leandrareports) July 20, 2019

The police have been accused of using excessive force, violating the police reforms ordered by Federal Courts. It must be said that the protests in Puerto Rico have been exceptionally peaceful, as pointed out by cultural anthropologist and essayist Rima Brusi on Twitter:

500000 marching, and only five arrests, at the very end? I’d say the protesters were not only non-violent- they were remarkably disciplined, creative and restrained. #RickyRenunciaYa pic.twitter.com/T1DyXaJRHQ

— Rima Brusi (@RimaBrusi) July 19, 2019

Protesters also returned the following day to areas where protests were held to help clean up:

Things they won’t show you in the media because they want you to think the worse:

1- people cleaning the damage done last night
2- a united people giving each other a hand pic.twitter.com/Q0hBD7HYCP

— next latina to accept an EGOT 🇵🇷 (@TheJosieMarie) July 16, 2019

But several days before the news broke of Rosselló’s resignation, Xiomara Torres Rivera, a columnist writing for the jounalism project Todas, reminded readers that the real work would start once the governor left office:

Global Voices will continue to cover this developing story.

Ángel Carrión — Musician and blogger from Caguas, Puerto Rico. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music from the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music and a Master’s Degree in the History of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean from the Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe. He is passionate about music, books, and the right to free speech. Once upon a time, Ángel blogged at dialogolibre.blogspot.com.

This article was sourced from GlobalVoices.org

Top image credit: NACLA

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