Will Governor Ricardo Rossello of Puerto Rico resign?

Protesters calling for the resignation of Puerto Rico. New York Times.

Governor Ricardo Rossello of Puerto Rico may resign or be impeached in the wake of a major scandal. New York. He was supposed to address the people of the territory this evening but has not done so. Many people were expecting him to resign. The scandal erupted from a series of leaks from private chats that showed crude conversations and pointed to possible wrongdoing. The chats included death threats against the Mayor of San Jaun, calling women whores and making fun of the almost 3000 dead from Hurricane Maria. Also contributing to the mess is the arrest of six people, including two of his aids, for federal corruption charges. The poor response to Hurricane Maria and the terrible financial situation of Puerto Rico. Rossello is a member of the New Progressive Party and is also a Democrat. His actions have lead to massive protests against him. 

My Comment:

I haven't been following this story closely but it is probably one of the biggest political scandals to hit Puerto Rico in recent memory. It seems very clear that in one way or another Rossello is going to be gone very soon. He will likely resign and if he doesn't he will be impeached. There is no way he is going to survive this.

But why is everyone mad at him? I don't think it was just the leaked telegram posts. He was pretty horrible in those posts but politicians are horrible in their private chats all the time. To be sure, joking about killing his political opponents and all the people who died in the Hurricane is probably not going to win him any friends, but if he was in a stronger political position, he would be fine. 

Those leaks certainly didn't help him and may have been the last straw but I think it was the corruption and the horrible response to Hurricane Maria that sunk him. The economy has been terrible as well, but Maria is partially responsible for that as well. 

What did Rossello do wrong with the hurricane response? He downplayed how serious the storm was and didn't want to admit how many people had died. He also completely failed in coordinating with the US government in delivering aid supplies to the people who needed it. 

Most shamefully, the horrible corruption in Puerto Rico meant that much of the supplies were either stolen or left to rot. Only the people with connections were guaranteed help. Rossello knew this but did nothing to stop it and may have even been involved with it. 

Rossello is a political opponent of Donald Trump and has focused much of his time attacking the President instead of actually helping his people. Trump gave it right back to him and he has been vindicated in his criticism of the government of Puerto Rico. 

As for Puerto Rico itself the government has long been a basket-case. I think this scandal is a good example why they need some kind of change. Either they should finally become a state or they should be an independent country, but it's clear that the status quo isn't working. They need a whole new government and they won't get that the way they are now. I'd prefer they go independent but my guess is that the status quo will remain even after Rossello is gone.