Dozens of demonstrators gathered Monday in front of the governor’s mansion in Puerto Rico’s capital to demand the resignation of the U.S. territory’s governor and protest the recent discovery of apparently forgotten disaster supplies amid ongoing earthquakes.
The scene reminded many of the beginning of protests that escalated over the summer and led to the resignation of former Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, with demonstrators once again vowing to remain in the streets until current Gov. Wanda Vázquez steps down.
The protest came a day after Vázquez fired two more high-ranking officials in her administration, Housing Secretary Fernando Gil and Department of Family Secretary Glorimar Andújar, over the lack of information regarding aid collection and distribution centers. On Saturday, she fired former emergency management director Carlos Acevedo.
People protest outside the executive mansion known has La Fortaleza in Old San Juan demanding the resignation of Governor Wanda Vázquez after the discovery of an old warehouse filled with emergency supplies in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. Anger erupted in Puerto Rico on Saturday after an online blogger posted a live video of the warehouse in the southern coastal city of Ponce filled with water bottles, cots, baby food and other basic supplies that had apparently been sitting there since Hurricane Maria battered the U.S. territory in September 2017. (AP PhotoCarlos Giusti)
Vázquez said she had lost confidence in those officials after the discovery of a warehouse in the southern coastal city of Ponce that was filled with disaster supplies dating from when Hurricane Maria hit the island in September 2017 as a Category 4 storm.
She ordered an investigation into the incident and said those who broke into the warehouse to distribute supplies to people affected by a recent 6.4 magnitude earthquake that killed one person and caused more than an estimated $200 million in damage would not be prosecuted.
The investigation was scheduled to be completed on Monday.