Beatriz Isabel Areizaga (born January 4, 1985), aka Beatriz Rosselló, is the former

First Lady of Puerto Rico First Lady or First Gentleman of Puerto Rico ( es, Primera Dama o Primer Caballero de Puerto Rico) is the official title given by the government of Puerto Rico to the spouse of the governor of Puerto Rico or the relatives of the governor, should ...

and wife of

Ricardo Rosselló Ricardo Antonio Rosselló Nevares (; born March 7, 1979) is a Puerto Rican politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 2017 to 2019. He resigned on August 2, 2019, after protests related to the Telegramgate scandal. He is the s ...

, the former

Governor of Puerto Rico The governor of Puerto Rico ( es, gobernador de Puerto Rico) is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and commander-in-chief of the Puerto Rico National Guard. The governor has a duty ...

. She served as

from January 2017 to August 2019.

Personal life

Rosselló was born Beatriz Isabel Areizaga García in San Juan, Puerto Rico on January 4, 1985. She married

on October 14, 2012, in a ceremony in New Orleans, Louisiana. The couple have two children: Claudia Beatriz and Pedro Javier.

Early life and education

Rosselló studied at the Julián Blanco School, which specializes in ballet. She attended college at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. She completed her bachelor's degree in psychology at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, where she graduated

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

. Rosselló also pursued post-graduate studies at the Sanford School of Public Policy at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

in North Carolina, where she was the only Puerto Rican woman selected among a group of 56 students.

Early career

Rosselló was the chapter president of the

Puerto Rico Statehood Students Association The Puerto Rico Statehood Students Association (PRSSA) es, Asociación de Estudiantes Estadistas de Puerto Rico is a Puerto Rican non-profit student organization dedicated to promoting statehood for Puerto Rico. It was founded in 1979, and re ...

at the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico and vice president of the New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico's youth group in San Juan.

Tenure as first lady

Rosselló has been involved in initiatives such as “Fortaleza Para Ti”, Back To School, Women's Council, and Spayathon for Puerto Rico. As a First Lady she ordered the commissioning of a monument to diversity called "Portico de la Igualdad" in June 2019, which was subsequently painted white during the Telegramgate protests.

''Unidos por Puerto Rico'' Controversy

In July 2019, among calls for her husband to resign due to a scandal stemming from his involvement in an incriminating group chat with other government officials, Beatriz Rosselló was criticized for her management of ''Unidos for Puerto Rico'', an agency established after Hurricane María which is currently under investigation by the FBI. Rosselló has been pointed out as having delayed the distribution disaster relief supplies. In August 2018, at least 10 trailers which held these supplies were found abandoned in a lot near a state election office; according to The New York Times, they had "broke open and became infested by rats". A spokeswoman for the elections commission said the offices were being used as a storage point at the request of the First Lady. Raúl Maldonado Nieves, the son of former CFO and

Treasury Secretary The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

Raúl Maldonado Gautier, claimed to have been present in a meeting in which Ricardo Rosselló demanded an amendment to an audit report into the containers as, according to Maldonado Nieves, the report would have “affected” the First Lady. The FBI is also investigating the organization's finances and donations. The organization received $41 million in donations, and it was run for a time by Jorge del Pino, the brother-in-law of lobbyist and group chat member Elías Sánchez.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosselló, Beatriz Living people 1985 births First ladies and gentlemen of Puerto Rico Interamerican University of Puerto Rico alumni Politicians from San Juan, Puerto Rico Puerto Rican female models Puerto Rican people of Basque descent Puerto Rico Statehood Students Association alumni Rosselló family