Puerto Ricans gather for massive protest to try to expel governor

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Puerto Ricans gather for massive protest to try to expel governor
By Marisa GerberStaff Writer

Thousands of demonstrators descended on Puerto Rico’s capital early Monday for what was expected to swell into the biggest protest in more than a week of public calls for Gov. Ricardo Rossello’s resignation.

Laura Rodriguez, a music teacher from Caguas who arrived in San Juan around dawn, said she was incensed that Rossello has refused to step down in spite of prolonged demands by a broad cross section of Puerto Ricans. Many people at the protest — grandmas in wheelchairs and teenagers, computer engineers and stay-at-home moms — said the governor’s comments in recently leaked messages were offensive and unforgivable.

“I feel indignation, pure indignation,” said Rodriguez, 34.

In 900 pages of group-chat messages that were published by Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism, the governor and some of his aides used sexist and misogynistic language, engaged in fat-shaming and joked about dead bodies accumulating in the days after Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island in September 2017. Three days before the messages were published, two of Rossello’s former Cabinet members were arrested on corruption charges in connection with the directing of about $15.5 million to politically connected businesses.

Read more at: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-07-22/puerto-rico-governor-rossello-protest