Abel Nazario Quiñones (born 24 June 1970) is former senator at large of the

26th Senate of Puerto Rico The 26th Senate of Puerto Rico is the upper house of the 18th Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico. Its counterpart in the lower house is the 30th House of Representatives of Puerto Rico. The body will meet from January 2, 2017 to January 1, 2 ...

and was mayor of

Yauco, Puerto Rico Yauco () is a Yauco barrio-pueblo, town and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in southern Puerto Rico. Although the Yauco barrio-pueblo, downtown is inland, the municipality stretches to a southern coast facing the Caribbean Sea. Yauco ...

. He was first elected in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

representing the New Progressive Party (PNP). He was reelected in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, 2008 and 2012. Nazario is also the vice president of the PNP and also for the local Republican Party. He was arrested on 12 September 2018 by the FBI for illegal appropriation of federal funds.

Political career

Prior to serving as mayor, Nazario served as staff director of the Senate of Puerto Rico Committee on Tourism, chaired by then-senator Enrique Rodríguez Negrón. As such, he was instrumental in the passage of most of the bills in then executive director of the

Puerto Rico Tourism Company The Puerto Rico Tourism Company ( es, Compañía de Turismo de Puerto Rico, or simply ''Turismo'') is the government-owned corporation in charge of tourism matters and regulations in Puerto Rico. The company was created during Governor Luis A. F ...

Luis Fortuño's legislative agenda, including a new Casino Law. Fortuño later on became Governor of Puerto Rico in 2008 in what was the biggest margin of any election in Puerto Rico. On his actual working days, Abel Nazario is known for being one of the many mayors to reduce his salary from $3,000 (2012 amount) to $1,500 (actual salary). He also had other sources of income, including professor of the University of North East (UNE), etc. He succeeded as senator-at-large in the 2016 General Election. As of 2017, he is the president of the Senate of Puerto Ricos Committee on Education and University Reform, Education and University Reform.

Arrest and conviction

On 12 September 2018, Senator Nazario was arrested at 6 a.m. by FBI agents as part of an ongoing investigation into misuse of public funds and corruption. After his release from custody while awaiting trial the Senator organized fundraising activities for his legal defense. On March 21, 2020, he was found guilty on 28 of the 31 charges against him. In 2021 he was sentenced to a 18 months in prison and ordered to pay his victims, municipal employees, compensation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nazario, Abel Interamerican University of Puerto Rico alumni Mayors of places in Puerto Rico Living people People from Yauco, Puerto Rico Republican Party (Puerto Rico) politicians 1970 births