Losing gubernatorial candidate puts damper on Puerto Rican holiday celebrations

by Philip S. Stinard

The battle for Puerto Rico’s governorship ended on Christmas Eve, when a vote recount confirmed the victory of pro-commonwealth Popular Democratic Party (PPD) candidate Aníbal Acevedo Vilá over pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP) candidate Pedro Rosselló. After two months of public anxiety compounded by Rosselló’s attempts to have votes for Acevedo Vilá discarded by a federal district court judge, attempts that were rebuffed by the US First Circuit Court of Appeals, the people of Puerto Rico, members of all political parties alike, thought that Rosselló’s attempts to seize power by non-democratic means had ended, and a sense of celebration and unity prevailed. Rumors that Rosselló would seek an unelected seat in the Puerto Rican Senate circulated, but were discarded as being too fantastic and outrageous to be true. However, fantasy became reality when a PNP senator gave up his seat after serving for only two days.

PNP senators had been complaining about pressure from Rosselló operatives to resign their seats so that Rosselló could be named in their stead. The pressure included monetary bribes of from $140,000 to $500,000 in annual government contracts in municipalities controlled by the PNP as well as an offer of the position of Secretary of the Senate, paying an additional $108,000 annually. In late December, PNP Senators Lucy Arce and Carlos Díaz stepped forward to expose and denounce the pressure, and it was thought that public shame, not to mention the threat of criminal prosecution, would put a damper on Rosselló’s plans. However, on January 3, Senator Víctor David Loubriel Ortiz held a press conference at a restaurant that had been booked for the purpose one week in advance, and flanked by Manatí mayor Juan Aubin Cruz Manzano and ex-governor Carlos Romero Barceló, also known as the “Butcher of Cerro Maravilla” for his presumed complicity in the entrapment and assassination of two independence activists, a visibly upset Loubriel Ortiz announced his resignation, “motivated by a patriotic duty and a lifetime commitment to my party and the statehood movement.” PNP sources cited by San Juan newspaper El Nuevo Día said that the offer made to Loubriel Ortiz to abandon his seat originally included the $140,000, the position as Secretary of the Senate, and a Humvee valued between $75,000 and $94,000. However, when Arce and Díaz stepped forward and denounced the bribery scam, the offer to Loubriel Ortiz changed to $350,000 in contracts with PNP municipalities and an undisclosed amount of cash, a bribe that would be harder to trace and prosecute. And in case the monetary inducement was insufficient, the mayor of Manatí reportedly threatened to release a photo showing Loubriel Ortiz in a compromising homosexual relationship. The pressure proved too much for Loubriel Ortiz, who some political analysts have placed on a suicide watch. Puerto Rican Comptroller Manuel Díaz Saldaña, a member of Rosselló’s own party, is investigating Loubriel’s case. When asked whether he would accept the lucrative municipal contracts, Loubriel Ortiz said, “Caramba, I think I also have a right to work. They should evaluate me like any other job candidate. What’s wrong with that?”

Rosselló, who has never held a seat in the Puerto Rican legislature, was quick to announce that he would seek the seat vacated by Loubriel Ortiz, and that he would not be content to be “just another Senator.” Rosselló declared that he not only seeks to occupy a senate seat to which he was not elected, he also seeks the presidency of the Puerto Rican Senate. In order to do that, he will have to fight PNP Senator Kenneth McClintock, to whom Rosselló, as president of the PNP, had already offered the Senate Presidency in a November 4 backroom deal. McClintock has vowed that he will not give up his position to Rosselló willingly. McClintock claims to have the necessary number of votes to be elected Senate President on Monday, January 10, when the new Senate convenes. In the meantime, Rosselló and his hatchet men Romero Barceló and PNP election commissioner Thomas Rivera Schatz are calling up newly elected Senators in a bid to twist arms. In exchange for their votes, Rosselló is offering high positions in the PNP and in the Senate. This is politics as usual for a desperate man, who, rejected by the Puerto Rican electorate, is clinging to power in a life and death struggle.

Rosselló's volatility has become a national worry for Puerto Ricans who tried to celebrate Christmas and the New Year in peace, but who now face a Three Kings Day dominated by political worries. Without Loubriel Ortiz’s resignation even having become effective (fifteen days must pass before his seat can be declared vacant), Rosselló declared that he won the November 2 election for governor, that the election was stolen from him, and that as Senate President, he will not approve any of Governor Acevedo Vilá’s political appointments who do not put in place the PNP’s plan of government, which is to say that Rosselló wishes to rule Puerto Rico by decree from an unelected seat as Senate President that doesn’t even exist yet. However, Rosselló’s compatriots view Rosselló’s attempted coup d’etat as harmful for the long term interests of both the PNP and Puerto Rico. In an interview with El Nuevo Día, pro-statehood lawyer Benny Frankie Cerezo said, “I think that this man is truly a psychiatric case, and I’m not joking. His ego has consumed him. He already consumed his party (the PNP), and now he is trying to influence the entire population of Puerto Rico and its established order… Rosselló said that he was stupefied when this man (Víctor David Loubriel Ortiz) resigned. How is it possible that (PNP activists) Frances Rodríguez and Javier Maymí, and (pro-statehood radio station) WAPA Radio were speaking of the resignation and he was surprised? That is the same theory (put forth during the corruption scandals that wracked Rosselló’s previous two terms as governor) that he didn’t know anything, or it is a measure of the alienation or lack of respect that he has for the people of Puerto Rico.”

It is too late to salvage this year’s holiday season in a land that normally celebrates the birth of Christ with gusto. Pedro Rosselló’s public airing of his personal inadequacies and discontents holds Puerto Rico hostage this year, but there is hope in new PNP leaders such as embattled Senator Kenneth McClintock and Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuño, who are willing to work with Acevedo Vilá for the advancement of Puerto Rico rather than the personal aggrandizement of a sore loser. May the coming year bring many new and good things to Puerto Rico!