Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Puerto Rico's Governor Pitches a Story of Progress for His Troubled Island: "No wonder García Padilla immediately dismisses the idea of seeking statehood, arguing that “Puerto Rico will become a Latino ghetto.” Now he has to win over potential investors who worry it’s already there." - La Fortaleza News Review: 09/04/14 - 05/04/14

La Fortaleza News Review 

Image from: Sistema TV Informa: Análisis sobre el retiro de James Tuller... http://prnewslinks.blogspot.com/2014/03/prnw-player.html 

La Fortaleza News Review09/04/14 - 05/04/14

Investors See Turning Point on Puerto Rico Billions

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Puerto Rico's Governor Pitches a Story of Progress for His Troubled Island

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Every Monday, after going to Mass, the governor of Puerto Rico gathers his team at 7:45 a.m. for a special meeting. The focus is building permits, not prayer.
With the U.S. commonwealth now behind South Sudan and Afghanistan in dealing with construction permits—ranking 172 out of 189 economies in a World Bank study—Governor Alejandro García Padilla is pushing to simplify the process through legislation and personal pressure. That’s already led to a much faster turnaround, the governor told an audience at the Palm Beach Strategic Forum this week. The governor believes Puerto Rico is becoming a magnet for business again and promises he is “days away” from presenting its first balanced budget in more than a decade. “We’ve proved that Puerto Rico is not Detroit and not Greece,” he said.
García Padilla’s buoyant pitch came amid news that Puerto Rico’s finance arm has brought in more restructuring lawyers to help it deal with $73 billion of debt. “That’s old news,” said the politician as he left the forum to meet up with his wife for their anniversary. Lawyers from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, much like Millco Advisors, are being retained to help the territory avoid restructuring.
There has been some good news for Puerto Rico lately, including hotel investments from billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson and the recent sale of $3.5 billion in municipal debt. But the island still faces towering challenges as it tries to emerge from its own fiscal crisis. García Padilla, who came to office last year, is tasked with boosting an economy that’s been marked by crime, a talent exodus, complaints of corruption, daunting energy costs, high unemployment, and perilous finances. Add in the credit rating agencies’ downgrade of Puerto Rico’s debt to junk status earlier this year—a fact that clearly enrages the governor, who said he hadn’t met with them and has no desire to—and the difficulty in pitching a story of progress about Puerto Rico becomes clear.
While García Padilla argues that crime has dropped 30 percent since he came to office and points to increased airline service as an indication that tourism is on the rise, he acknowledges the limits on what he could do. For one thing, he doesn’t plan to lay off public-sector workers in the name of austerity, as that would add to the territory’s 15 percent unemployment rate. And that grim figure doesn’t reflect the reality that more than half of working-age Puerto Ricans have opted out of the labor force altogether. The governor wants to keep skilled locals on the island but can’t say how he’ll do it when average income hovers around $15,200 and opportunities are few.
What Puerto Rico does have—a draw that Paulson and others may be eager to exploit—is the tax advantage of territorial status. The U.S. Government Accountability Office just released a report on the financial implications (PDF) of making Puerto Rico the 51st state. The conclusion: The federal government would likely have to pay millions of dollars, maybe billions, in social programs, and Puerto Ricans would be dinged for much more in federal tax.
No wonder García Padilla immediately dismisses the idea of seeking statehood, arguing that “Puerto Rico will become a Latino ghetto.” Now he has to win over potential investors who worry it’s already there.
Read the whole story
 
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Business in Puerto Rico: What Are You Waiting For? - YouTube

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Business in Puerto Rico: What Are You Waiting For?

mikenova
8 minutes ago
REPLY
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ANSWER: They are waiting for a new PR governor and a new PR government which will understand that Puerto Rico is much better politically and economically by becoming THE STATE of the USA!

Latinoamérica necesita nuevo paradigma económico dice Fernández

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Fernández indicó que durante la última década, el crecimiento económico de la región se debió, en gran medida, al aumento de la demanda de materias primas de China, pero la creencia general es que esto no puede ser sostenible en el futuro, lo que hace urgente la implementación de una nueva vía.
El exgobernante dominicano hizo el planteamiento durante una ponencia que sostuvo en el Foro Económico Internacional que se celebra desde ayer, lunes, en el Centro de Convenciones de West Palm Beach.
El líder político habló sobre la importancia de fomentar el crecimiento sostenible en América Latina y el Caribe, un tema que considera crucial en la agenda internacional de desarrollo.
En el marco de su intervención, Fernández explicó que el nuevo modelo económico deberá centrarse en la necesidad de agregar valor a los productos y servicios a través de un proceso de transformación sostenible que hará que las economías de la región sean más productivas, más competitivas, más eficientes, más innovadoras tecnológicamente y con mayor capacidad para generar riquezas.
Según el exgobernante dominicano, este nuevo modelo económico se obtendrá a través de la integración regional, la inversión y la promoción de la cooperación, así como por el aumento del comercio con los principales socios comerciales de la región, entre ellos los Estados Unidos, Europa y Asia.
Fernández indicó que con la estabilidad política, el crecimiento económico, el respeto del estado de derecho y la transparencia, en esta segunda década del siglo 21, América Latina y el Caribe están abiertos a nuevas inversiones en comercio, intercambio educativo y cultural, cooperación y nuevas iniciativas de negocio que pueden ser de beneficio mutuo para la región y sus socios comerciales.
En lo que concierne a la economía dominicana, Fernández dijo que ha crecido consistentemente por encima del promedio de la región, mientras mantiene estabilidad macroeconómica, inflación controlada y bajas tasas de interés.
Destacó que en los últimos 8 años, el Producto Interno Bruto de la República Dominicana se ha triplicado, algo que considera impresionante, sobre todo si se toma en cuenta que ese crecimiento se ha logrado con un entorno global de crisis económica severa.
Sostuvo que en 2013, la inversión extranjera directa en la República Dominicana se calculó en 2.000 millones de dólares, representando el 3,4 % del PIB, mientras que para este año, se prevé que la economía crezca un 5 %, impulsada principalmente por el turismo, la industria manufacturera, las telecomunicaciones, la agricultura, la minería, el comercio y los servicios financieros.
El exjefe de Estado dominicano fue presentado por Fabiola Brumley, presidenta del condado de Palm Beach, quien destacó las cualidades y la trayectoria pública de Fernández, quien ha agotado tres períodos constitucionales como presidente de la República Dominicana.
Conocido también como Foro Estratégico Palm Beach, y convocado bajo el lema “La conformación de la agenda global”, el encuentro reúne a destacados empresarios, especialistas y hombres de negocios básicamente de Estados Unidos, Canadá y América Latina con el objetivo de formular propuestas para hacer frente a los principales desafíos de la gobernanza del nuevo orden económico mundial.
Además del expresidente Fernández, en el Foro participarán como ponentes el secretario general de la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA), José Miguel Insulza; el gobernador del Estado de Florida, Rick Scott; el gobernador de Puerto Rico, Alejandro García Padilla, y el exprimer ministro de Pakistán, Shaukat Aziz.
Además, el presidente del Senado de Puerto Rico, Eduardo Bhatia; la presidenta del Condado de Palm Beach, Fabiola Brumley, y el exprimer ministro canadiense, Paul Martin, entre otras personalidades.
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La Mesa de Acción recibe en audiencia al presidente del PNP

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7 de abril de 2014 – San Juan – El comité ejecutivo de la Mesa de Acción para la Competitividad y el Crecimiento de Puerto Rico concluyó hoy su ronda de audiencias con los partidos políticos para conocer sus propuestas acerca de los cuatro temas que evalúa: baja participación laboral, fuga de talento joven, envejecimiento de la población y economía subterránea.
La secretaria de la Gobernación y copresidenta de la Mesa, Ingrid M. Vila Biaggi, informó que el presidente del Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP), Pedro Pierluisi, compareció hoy ante el comité ejecutivo para presentar sus recomendaciones en cuanto a los temas bajo discusión. El presidente de Puertorriqueños por Puerto Rico, Rogelio Figueroa; Rafael Bernabe del Partido del Pueblo Trabajador; y la presidenta del Movimiento Unión Soberanista, María de Lourdes Guzmán comparecieron ante este grupo el pasado 27 de marzo. Por su parte, el Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño respondió a la invitación a la audiencia con una carta firmada por su presidente ejecutivo, Fernando Martín, refiriendo a la Mesa de Acción a las propuestas que su organización política ha presentado ante el País a través de los años.
Vila Biaggi describió los encuentros con el liderato político como una experiencia enriquecedora. “Los partidos políticos son parte importante en el proceso de búsqueda de soluciones a los retos de país, como son todos los demás sectores de la sociedad. Hemos escuchado lo que tienen que aportar los líderes de estas colectividades y tomaremos en consideración todas las recomendaciones para nutrir el análisis de la Mesa de Acción que está próxima a emitir su informe”, indicó.
Al crear la Mesa de Acción, el gobernador Alejandro García Padilla le encomendó entregarle un informe con recomendaciones de medidas concretas y viables para atender los cuatro temas puntuales, que están muy ligados a la crisis socioeconómica que ha golpeado a Puerto Rico durante casi dos décadas. Algunas de esas propuestas formarán parte del plan de recuperación que presentará el gobernador durante su Mensaje de Estado.
Además de la secretaria de la Gobernación, componen el comité ejecutivo de la Mesa de Acción, el empresario y copresidente, Carlos López Lay; el secretario de Asuntos Públicos de La Fortaleza, Jorge Colberg; el dirigente sindical Roberto Pagán; el director del Instituto de Estadísticas de Puerto Rico, Mario Marazzi; la comunicadora Linda Hernández; el contador público autorizado Carlos Serrano; el académico José Jaime Rivera; y la sicóloga social comunitaria María de Lourdes Lara.
La Mesa de Acción está integrada, además, por el líder comunitario Jorge Oyola; el reverendo Esteban González; la educadora Ana Helvia Quintero; la académica Mareia Quintero; el especialista en asuntos de la población mayor, José Acarón; el joven Alejandro Silva; el sindicalista José Torres; la abogada María Dolores Fernós; la presidenta de la Asociación de Industriales, Waleska Rivera; la socióloga especialista en pobreza, Linda Colón; la sicóloga Carmen Albizu; el inversionista Cyril Meduña; el cooperativista Iván Otero; y el economista José Alameda. 
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Gobernador con agenda de desarrollo económico en Estados Unidos

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6 de abril de 2014 – La Fortaleza – El gobernador Alejandro García Padilla partirá la tarde del domingo a Estados Unidos donde participará de un foro de inversionistas en Florida. Luego marchará a Washington, DC para asistir a varias reuniones de trabajo con funcionarios del gobierno federal.
El lunes el gobernador será el orador principal en el foro “Government Reforms and Promoting Puerto Rico’s Investment Landscape” como parte del Palm Beach Strategic Forum. La misión de este encuentro, que es parte del International Economic Forum of the Americas, es exponer los retos de gobernanza que enfrenta la economía de las Américas y su rol en el mercado global.
El primer ejecutivo llegará el martes a Washington donde participará de una jornada de reuniones, incluyendo una sesión de trabajo en Casa Blanca con el Grupo de Trabajo del Presidente sobre Puerto Rico y funcionarios del gobierno federal.
El secretario de Estado, David Bernier, será el gobernador interino hasta el viernes, 11 de abril, cuando García Padilla regrese a la isla.
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Puerto Rico Governor Heads to Mainland US For Meetings

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April 7, 2014 | 5:01 am | Print
Puerto Rico Governor Heads to Mainland US For Meetings
Above: Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla
By the Caribbean Journal staff
Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla departed for the mainland United States on Sunday for a series of meetings, his office said.
On Monday, Garcia will participate in the Palm Beach Strategic Forum in Florida as the keynote speaker addressing “Government Reforms and Promoting Puerto Rico’s Investment Landscape.”
Following his Florida visit, Garcia will head to Washington on Tuesday for a day of meetings including a working session at the White House.
The trip will also include talks with US President Barack Obama’s Working Group on Puerto Rico and other federal government officials.
La Fortaleza said Secretary of State David Bernier would act as Governor until Garcia’s return to Puerto Rio on April 11.
Read the whole story
 
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Nominado jefe Policía de Puerto Rico resta importancia a demanda en su contra

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08 de abril de 2014 • 17:25
El nominado jefe de la Policía de Puerto Rico, José Luis Caldero López, restó hoy importancia a una demanda civil y administrativa presentada en 2009 en su contra en relación con el traslado de unos subordinados que le habían informado sobre un supuesto caso de corrupción en las fuerzas de seguridad.
Caldero López, coronel con más de tres décadas de experiencia en la Policía y que se convertirá en el nuevo superintendente si es confirmado por el Senado puertorriqueño, explicó este martes a Efe que la demanda fue archivada en su momento.
Añadió que se trató de un hecho sin mayor importancia y al que está expuesto cualquier oficial de la Policía.
El diario El Nuevo Día publicó este martes que Caldero López tiene pendiente una demanda civil y administrativa por ordenar el traslado en 2009 de unos oficiales que le habían informado de supuestos actos de corrupción por parte de un exteniente de la División de Arrestos Especiales.
El rotativo señaló que la demanda, que se presentó en el Tribunal de San Juan en abril de 2009, sostiene que Caldero López llevó a cabo un patrón de hostigamiento contra dos policías después de que le informaran sobre supuestas irregularidades por parte del exteniente Miguel Flores Vázquez.
El exteniente fue acusado en diciembre de 2008 por la Fiscalía federal por escoltar cargamentos de droga mientras ejercía como jefe de la División de Arrestos Especiales y fue condenado a 14 años de cárcel, según el diario de mayor tirada de la isla.
La demanda está pendiente de la Comisión Apelativa del Servicio Público, que se debe pronunciar sobre si los traslados de los policías se atuvieron a la normativa del cuerpo.
El Ejecutivo anunció el pasado viernes que Caldero López será el sustituto de James Tuller, apartado de su cargo después de que el gobernador de Puerto Rico, Alejandro García Padilla, solicitara al Senado la retirada de su nombramiento por no aportar suficiente información sobre sus declaraciones de ingresos antes de ratificarle en la jefatura policial.
EFE en españolEFE - Agencia EFE - Todos los derechos reservados. Está prohibido todo tipo de reproducción sin autorización escrita de la Agencia EFE S/A.
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José Caldero López fue designado superintendente de la Policía | Reuters: More than a quarter of the island's economy is informal, some studies say, from large companies evading taxes to individuals selling items for cash at roadside stands - 08/04/14 12:37 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks

Desperate for taxes, Puerto Rico tries to get grip on underground economy

LARES, Puerto Rico Wed Apr 9, 2014 1:39am EDT

Mattress repairman and fruit vendor Angelo Lopez holds a coconut and a sugar-apple in the shed which he calls his factory in Lares, western Puerto Rico April 7, 2014. REUTERS-Ana Martinez
1 OF 7. Mattress repairman and fruit vendor Angelo Lopez holds a coconut and a sugar-apple in the shed which he calls his factory in Lares, western Puerto Rico April 7, 2014.
CREDIT: REUTERS/ANA MARTINEZ

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(Reuters) - Mattress maker Angel Lopez is both a problem and an opportunity for the Puerto Rican government.
His one-man business works off the books as part of a vast underground economy, which doesn't directly pay into the treasury's coffers and is a major headache for an impoverished island that is $70 billion in debt.
But Lopez has dreams the island's leadership is eager to foster. He wants to open a small factory, hire a few people and register with the town of Lares - as long as the taxes and fees from going above board don't choke off his business.
The Lopez dilemma is playing out across Puerto Rico, which is a U.S. territory in the Caribbean. From the western mountain town of Lares to the capital San Juan, officials are wrestling with how to bring the underground economy out of the shadows and onto the tax rolls without creating such an onerous financial burden that thousands of small and medium businesses can't survive.
More than a quarter of the island's economy is informal, some studies say, from large companies evading taxes to individuals selling items for cash at roadside stands. But estimates vary widely because the activity can be so hard to track.
While not new, the problem has become urgent of late. The government desperately needs to find new revenue to bolster a budget full of holes and turn around an economy now eight years in recession. It is scrambling to avoid a painful debt restructuring some view as almost inevitable.
Last month's $3.5 billion bond sale bought the island some time, but precious little else, with fundamental worries about its shrinking economy still unsolved.
"The government here, they want you to pay here, pay City Hall, pay the Hacienda," said Lopez, referring to the local name for the island's Treasury department.
The divisions between the government and its people leave policymakers in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't position.
"This is the conundrum for the island," said Emily Raimes, lead analyst on Puerto Rico for Moody's Investors Service. "Actions that they can take to help their finances may very well be actions that hurt the economy."
The Puerto Rico Department of the Treasury knows it needs to jump-start both growth and revenue, said Melba Acosta, the island's treasury secretary. But how to do both is a balancing act for policymakers.
"It's the responsibility of the government to make sure that somebody who wants to establish a business doesn't feel that it's too burdensome to do so in a legal way," she told Reuters.
Still, many entrepreneurs feel the costs of being legal are too big a burden, especially when conducting some or all of their business off the grid is a relative breeze. In fact, calling it the "underground economy" is a bit misleading when so much of it operates in plain sight.
Puerto Rico has its share of outright illicit activity, such as drug trafficking, but the vast majority of the $15 billion a year or more of informal commerce is simply activity that would be taxable if the government cracked down on it.
That covers everything from people such as Lopez, who also sells fruit to tourists, to retailchains that don't send the sales taxes they collect to the government.
RINGING UP SALES, BUT NOT TAXES
And it's not limited to traditional cash businesses like the retail trade. Even some professionals will accept cash only, a practice that makes it easy to hide revenue from tax collectors.
In upscale Condado, a beachfront neighborhood in the capital San Juan, for instance, it is common to see doctors' offices with signs declaring cash as the only form of payment.
By its nature, it is difficult to measure the informal economy's size with tremendous accuracy.
Jose Villamil, a local economist and head of consultancy Estudios Tecnicos, pegs it at about 27 or 28 percent of the formal economy of about $70 billion, as measured by its 2012 gross national product, although "that's probably underestimated."
Indeed, some estimates peg it closer to a third of the island economy.
By contrast, the informal economy in the continental United States is estimated to account for about 19 percent of all activity, according to Prof. Richard Cebula of Jacksonville University.
In 2006 the government instituted a sales tax in a bid to capture some of those informal dollars. Everybody spends, the thinking went, even people who are paid off the books and never declare their income. They still buy clothes, food, gasoline, and eat at restaurants.
But local economist Gustavo Vélez says the government only gets about 56 cents of every dollar it's due from that tax, known as IVU in its Spanish acronym, based on his analysis of the tax capture rate.
The government disputes that number but acknowledges that stores from big to little evade the tax. Earlier this year the owners of two local stores were charged with tax evasion for collecting more than $1 million of tax since 2009 but not forwarding it to the Treasury, according to the government.
In other cases, shops simply do not collect the tax at all, keeping all their sales off the books entirely.
If Puerto Rico got the IVU capture rate up to 75 percent, the government could see another $391 million a year, Vélez said, based on a total IVU intake of about $1.2 billion last year.
JUNK RATINGS SPARK FEARS
Puerto Rico certainly does need the money.
All three major credit rating agencies slashed the island's public debt to junk status earlier this year, a move that will make borrowing more expensive.
Many residents, especially the young and educated, have fled for the U.S. mainland, leaving behind an aging population with an overall poverty rate of nearly 45 percent. The island's unemployment rate is 15 percent.
The administration of Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla, in office since early last year, has scrambled to get the economy humming and finances under control. Padilla has raised taxes, pledged to end years of operating deficits and overhauled retirement programs, despite union protests.
"Everything that we've been passing through the legislature has been hitting directly the underground economy," said Rep. Rafael "Tatito" Hernández Montañez, who has recently sponsored bills to make it easier for the government to track businesses and figure out who is and isn't paying the required fees.
The government is also pushing to enforce the laws already on its books.
The Treasury is hiring about 200 more tax specialists. Some of those will be checking on the books of businesses across the island, but some will be mystery shopping - making purchases at specially selected stores without identifying themselves to check for violators.
Sales tax evaders could get slapped with a maximum $20,000 fine.
But $20,000 for a small business could mean a hefty chunk of revenues. That means a delicate balance for the government: Changing attitudes so that more businesses register and pay their taxes and fees, while not piling so many bills onto small businesses that they collapse.
That is why the government is building exemptions into some laws for small businesses, said Rep. Montañez.
It is simply fairer for everyone, he said. For now, "the people who pay taxes pay double, because they pay for themselves and for those who don't pay."
A fifth of the sample in a 2008 study from the Center for a New Economy, a Puerto Rican think tank, did some informal work, even if they had a regular job.
Even Angel Lopez, with his dream of a small mattress factory, is not sure just how above board he's prepared to be.
If he brings his dream to fruition, he might enter his business onto the rolls as a mattress repair shop instead of a production facility making foam mattresses from scratch. That way he says he won't have to pay as much to the government.

(Additional reporting by Reuters staff in Puerto Rico; Editing by Dan Burns, Ross Colvinand Martin Howell)
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Wednesday, April 2, 2014

The strategic post of chief of the Puerto Rico Police Department again became a problem for the government when James Tuller Cintrón resigned Tuesday after just four months on the job | Las autoridades federales incautaron un multimillonario cargamento de cocaína en Dorado, el cual representó uno de los más significativos golpes contra el narcotráfico en tiempos recientes

Puerto Rico's Police Chief Resigns After Only 4 Months On Job

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San Juan –  The strategic post of chief of the Puerto Rico Police Department again became a problem for the government when James Tuller Cintrón resigned Tuesday after just four months on the job.
Tuller asked that his nomination as head of the PRPD be withdrawn so he could attend to personal matters, Gov. Alejandro García Padilla said in a brief communique.
The former head of transportation with the New York Police Department took charge of the PRPD on an acting basis in December, pending confirmation by Puerto Rico's Senate.
Some lawmakers charged with ratifying Tuller in his post said his financial-disclosure statements raised issues.
"My only wish in coming to Puerto Rico was to serve my mother's country that is my country also. From now on I will make no further comments on the matter," Tuller, the New York-born son of a Puerto Rican woman, said in a brief communique.
The unexpected departure of Tuller leaves the PRPD to face without his expertise a crime rate that in 2011 took the lives of 1,136 people, the highest number since 1940.
The number of murders dropped in 2012 by 11.5 percent and by another 12.1 percent last year.
García Padilla made use Tuesday of a press conference about the island's increase in rum production to note that during the months Tuller was heading the PRPD, crime dropped by 30 percent.
He said he did not have precise information about the process being carried out by the Senate commission in charge of Tuller's confirmation.
"The Senate controls that information," the governor, who has made Col. Juan Rodríguez acting head of the PRPD, said.
Tuller leaves his position having provided continuity for the plan launched by his predecessor, Hector Pesquera, who resigned in late October without giving any clear explantion of why he was leaving.
The lack of stability in the position was already seen when Pesquera was there, from March 2012 to November 2013, after being appointed by then-Gov. Luis Fortuño, whom García Padilla succeeded.
Besides fighting crime, the next chief will have to implement a reform plan adopted to settle a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit against the PRPD over civil rights abuses and widespread corruption. 

Confiscan multimillonario cargamento de cocaína en Dorado

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Las autoridades federales incautaron un multimillonario cargamento de cocaína en Dorado, el cual representó uno de los más significativos golpes contra el narcotráfico en tiempos recientes.
Al momento de la incautación, se arrestaron a varias personas.
El anuncio oficial de la incautación y los arrestos lo hará a media mañana de este miércoles el fiscal federal auxiliar, Carlos R. Cardona, en conferencia de prensa.
Se informó en la convocatoria que fue el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE, por sus siglas en inglés) quien estuvo a cargo del operativo.
Mantente conectado a <a href="http://elnuevodia.com" rel="nofollow">elnuevodia.com</a> para la ampliación de esta noticia.

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