Produced, packaged and sent by Trump in the Puerto Rico Supreme Court Envelope, with Douglas Leff The MAMABICHO as the mailman.
This only confirms that Puerto Rico is a Banana Republic, and now Trump will try to turn the Island into the one of his geopolitical WHORES.
“The summer of 2019 will be remembered as an unprecedented moment in which Puerto Ricans — of all ages, ideologies, backgrounds and creeds — threw themselves into the street to demand more from their government,” she wrote in a concurring opinion issued along with the court’s ruling.
M.N. With all due respect to the authors of this statement, I must say that ziz iz the cheap PR (both Puerto Rican and the Public Relations) BALONEY!
It is obvious that these demonstrations were very well prepared in advance, well organized, paid for, staged, filmed, and publicized by the Trumpian propaganda machine.
M.N.: If this is not the Coup D’Etat, then what is it?!
Wanda Vázquez was installed by Trump, Leff The Mamabicho, and the FBI.
The Puerto Rico Nazi Trumpian Coup D’Etat continues and it is in progress!
It is not Ricardo Rossello who acts like king, not at all; it is Trump, who does. He simply appointed his Viceroy, or more exactly, his ViceRegina.
0:40Wanda Vázquez Is Sworn In as Puerto Rico’s New Governor
The former secretary of justice Wanda Vázquez was sworn in by Chief Justice Maite D. Oronoz Rodríguez in San Juan, P.R., on Wednesday.CreditCreditErika P. Rodriguez for The New York Times
SAN JUAN, P.R. — The uneasy calm that had settled over Puerto Rico after huge protests brought down one governor and a second one was installed in his place ended on Wednesday when its Supreme Court ruled that the only way to maintain the constitutional order was to swear in the island’s third governor in a week.
In short order after the high court ruling, Pedro R. Pierluisi, who had filled the position since Friday, stepped down. Wanda Vázquez, the former secretary of justice, took the oath as governor, just the second woman to hold the office.
And Puerto Rico was thrust into a new period of political tumult over how long the unpopular Ms. Vázquez might remain on the job — and what machinations might be underway to prepare for her possible succession.
After a dizzying month full of remarkable moments, Wednesday’s turn of events might have given Puerto Ricans confidence in their rule of law, but the continuing saga offered little certainty over what the leadership of their troubled government might look like in the coming months.
Chief Justice Maite D. Oronoz Rodríguez called the past few weeks “the most important juncture” in Puerto Rico’s history as a democracy.
“The summer of 2019 will be remembered as an unprecedented moment in which Puerto Ricans — of all ages, ideologies, backgrounds and creeds — threw themselves into the street to demand more from their government,” she wrote in a concurring opinion issued along with the court’s ruling.
The nine-member court ruled unanimously that Mr. Pierluisi was sworn in on unconstitutional grounds on Friday. The 29-page ruling ordered that a new governor, this time following the constitutional line of succession, assume the office by 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Because the secretary of state post is vacant, the job fell to Ms. Vázquez, 59. With her husband and daughter by her side, she raised her right hand and took the oath inside the Supreme Court in San Juan, the capital.
“We will work together on all that unites us, and we will look for consensus where we disagree,” Ms. Vázquez said in a televised speech late on Wednesday in which she promised to meet with diverse sectors of society to chart a path forward. “The times demand that.”
A career prosecutor with no experience in elective office, she had previously said she did not want the job but would fulfill her constitutional duties. “I will remain focused on resuming the course for our people in an orderly and peaceful fashion,” she added.
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But Ms. Vázquez brings her own baggage. She was suspended from office last year after being accused of intervening in a case involving her daughter. When she was the head of the women’s affairs office, feminist groups accused her of being an obstacle to real improvements for women.
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Pedro R. Pierluisi made no major decisions and issued no executive orders in his brief tenure as governor of Puerto Rico.CreditErika P. Rodriguez for The New York Times
When Ms. Vázquez arrived at La Fortaleza, the governor’s mansion, in a dark S.U.V., protesters who had gathered not far from the gates could be heard loudly yelling.
“She’s not qualified to be the new governor,” said Yanira Arias, a 47-year-old organizer who demanded Ms. Vázquez’s resignation. “What’s happening now is an expression of discontent over the corruption and lack of authentic answers from a government that is not legislating in favor of the Puerto Rican people.”
In a videotaped message on Facebook, Mr. Pierluisi emphasized that the law he cited to take office had been presumed constitutional until the high court ruled otherwise on Wednesday.
“I want to be clear that the only motivation I have had during this time, as always, has been the well-being of Puerto Rico,” he said, wishing Ms. Vázquez well in her new role. “This is a time when we must all unite for Puerto Rico, leaving behind any partisan, ideological or personal agendas.”
Mr. Pierluisi, a 60-year-old lawyer and the island’s former nonvoting resident commissioner in Congress, said he would continue to serve Puerto Rico, though he did not lay out specific plans.
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He had become governor on Friday even though as a new nominee he had not previously been confirmed as secretary of state by both chambers of the Legislative Assembly. Only the House of Representatives approved his recess appointment.
Mr. Pierluisi and his predecessor as governor, Ricardo A. Rosselló, 40, whose resignation became effective at 5 p.m. Friday, had cited a 2005 statute that said the secretary of state did not require legislative confirmation to step in as governor. The Senate sued.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court declared that the portion of the law cited by Mr. Pierluisi was unconstitutional. The rest of the law regarding the line of succession is valid, the court found.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Ángel Colón Pérez likened the way in which Mr. Rosselló had handed over power to Mr. Pierluisi to how a king turns over his throne.
“If a country’s ruler were empowered to choose his successor, or possible successor, without a minimal guarantee of democratic consensus, there would not be much difference between our system of government and a monarchy,” he wrote. “We do not live in a monarchy.”
Legal scholars who had questioned Mr. Pierluisi’s ascent to the governor’s seat from the start praised the ruling and said the fact that it came so quickly signaled that the justices considered the issue clear-cut.
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“The Constitution requires the advice and consent of both chambers,” said Yanira Reyes Gil, a constitutional scholar and associate law professor at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. “It is a basic principle of constitutional law that the Constitution takes precedence.”
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The Puerto Rico Supreme Court in San Juan. Its nine justices ruled unanimously in favor of the Puerto Rico Senate, which asked for a preliminary injunction against Mr. Pierluisi.CreditErika P. Rodriguez for The New York Times
Mr. Pierluisi’s 120 hours in office made him the shortest-serving governor in modern Puerto Rican history. Andrés González Muñoz, a Cuban military general who was named governor in 1898 while Puerto Rico was under Spanish rule, died the same day he arrived to take over the job.
Mr. Pierluisi’s lawyers argued that the Senate could have voted on his nomination but chose not to do so before Mr. Rosselló’s resignation became effective on Friday. Mr. Rosselló was forced out of office by massive public protests prompted by the leak of hundreds of pages of private messages in which he and his aides insulted politicians and everyday Puerto Ricans.
Even before he took office, Mr. Pierluisi struggled to overcome questions about the conflicts of interest he could face as governor. Lawmakers asked him whether he might find himself having to assert attorney-client privilege in matters relating to the federal oversight board created by Congress to oversee Puerto Rico’s finances because of its more than $70 billion in public debt.
Court filings show that Mr. Pierluisi earned about $20,000 doing legal work for the fiscal control board, according to the Public Accountability Initiative, a nonprofit group that conducts research on Puerto Rico.
The group found that he even billed the board for meetings with his former chief of staff, who now works for the control board. The president of the board is Mr. Pierluisi’s brother-in-law.
Mr. Pierluisi, the group said, did legal work for the board relating to the restructuring of the electric company’s debt while at the same time serving as a lobbyist for the AES Corporation, one of the electric company’s creditors.
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Mr. Pierluisi, like Mr. Rosselló, is a member of the ruling New Progressive Party, which supports statehood for Puerto Rico. He is also a Democrat when it comes to national politics, though political parties on the island do not match up with those on the mainland. The national political affiliation of Ms. Vázquez is unclear.
In his brief time as governor, Mr. Pierluisi made no major decisions but tried to give off an air of stability, holding meetings with agency heads and discussing matters such as hurricane preparedness and the new school year.
But the political crisis has paralyzed much of the government for a month and has hurt Puerto Rico’s credibility in Washington, where the Trump administration has already delayed more than $8 billion in federal disaster prevention funds pending more oversight.
If Ms. Vázquez does not wish to remain governor, she could appoint a new secretary of state and then resign. If that were to occur, one possible candidate would be Jenniffer González-Colón, Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner in Congress, who has been talked about as running for the seat in 2020.
Thomas Rivera Schatz, the powerful Senate president, made clear on Wednesday that he would have preferred Ms. González-Colón in the governor’s seat. She is a Republican and a chair of President Trump’s Latino coalition, and her broad popularity on the island could help the New Progressive Party hold on to power next year.
But the crisis has revealed serious rifts among New Progressives, and protesters have made clear that they do not trust most institutions — especially not the party in government.
Correction:
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of a capsule summary for this article misspelled the surname of Puerto Rico’s new governor. She is Wanda Vázquez, not Vásquez.
Alejandra Rosa reported from San Juan, Patricia Mazzei from Miami and Frances Robles from Key West, Fla. Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Ruling Topples New Governor Of Puerto Rico. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
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