Puerto Rico's governor, Ricardo Rossello, should do exactly what hundreds of thousands of protesting Puerto Ricans have been telling him to do for the past week: resign.
The massive demonstrations on the U.S. territory have been growing in the wake of Telegram app group messages in which Rossello and nearly a dozen other administration officials � all men � insulted top elected officials, celebrities and victims of Hurricane Maria with obscene, homophobic and sexist remarks. The chats also contain evidence of potential criminal wrongdoing by the governor's top aides.
The controversy erupted earlier this month when Puerto Rico's Center for Investigative Journalism published nearly 900 pages of the chat group's messages. They were made public just days after the FBI announced the arrest of Puerto Rico's former education secretary and former health insurance chief for bypassing bidding rules and directing multi-million-dollar contracts to politically connected businesses.
Even before the latest scandal, Puerto Ricans were frustrated with their 40-year-old governor for his poor handling of recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria, the worst storm to strike the island in more than a century. You may recall it took months before electric power was restored for most people.
This came on the heels of a decade-long financial crisis, stoked by allegations of corruption and conflicts of interest.
The depth of resentment toward Rossello is so deep and bipartisan that even Florida's Republican Sen. Rick Scott and New York's Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez � two opposites in American politics � are in agreement that the governor must go.
Said Scott in a statement: "The current leadership has lost the confidence of the people of Puerto Rico. The island deserves new leadership. Rossello should resign."
Said Ocasio-Cortez via Twitter: "The people of Puerto Rico have spoken loudly and clearly for the world to hear. We must stand with the isla. Rossello must resign."
Loudly. Clearly. That's an understatement. Last Thursday, an estimated 500,000 people marched throughout Old San Juan, shouting "Ricky, Renuncia!" (Ricky, resign!) That's about 15% of the island's population. It's as if 48 million protested in Washington or 3 million demonstrated in Tallahassee.
Rossello insists he did not commit "any illegal or corrupt acts," but regrets having "committed inappropriate acts."
Late Sunday, Rossello, who had been in hiding for days, appeared in a Facebook recording to tell Puerto Ricans he would not seek re-election in 2020 and that he would step down as president of the New Progressive Party. He's obviously in denial.
"The executive branch will continue working to guarantee that all of the government's operations continue providing services to our people," he said.
But given his remarks, Rossello has lost all credibility.
In one message, he called the former speaker of the New York City Council, Melissa Mark-Viverito, who is Puerto Rican, "a whore."
In responding to another message calling for San Juan's mayor, Carmen Yulin Cruz, to be shot, he replied, "you'd be doing me a grand favor."
In yet another, he shared his opinion of the oversight board created by Congress three years ago to assist the island government in fixing its troubled finances, including $70 billion in debt. "Dear OB, Go f_yourself," he wrote. He punctuated the text with six middle-finger emojis.
Neither did the governor call out his friends for making vulgar jokes about an obese man, a gay celebrity, his political rivals or even the corpses that piled up after Hurricane Maria.
Beyond the chats, though, is the belief that Rossello's administration fits President Trump's narrative about the island government being "corrupt." The president says Puerto Rico is getting too much hurricane recovery relief, wrongly claiming Congress has awarded it $92 billion. So far, the island has received $14 billion of a promised $42 billion.
This is a critical time for Puerto Rico. The oversight board will soon announce an end to its court-supervised bankruptcy, and those tens of billions of dollars in hurricane recovery funds are still up in the air.
By stepping down now, Rossello will allow his fellow Puerto Ricans to move forward in rebuilding the island's economy and begin restoring their trust and faith in government.
