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Ricardo Antonio Rosselló Nevares (; born March 7, 1979) is a Puerto Rican politician who served as the
governor of Puerto Rico The governor of Puerto Rico ( es, gobernador de Puerto Rico) is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and commander-in-chief of the Puerto Rico National Guard. The governor has a duty to enforce local laws, to co ...
from 2017 to 2019. He resigned on August 2, 2019, after protests related to the
Telegramgate Telegramgate, also known as Chatgate or RickyLeaks, was a political scandal involving Ricardo Rosselló, then Governor of Puerto Rico, which began on July 8, 2019, with the leak of hundreds of pages of a group chat on the messaging application ...
scandal. He is the son of former governor of
Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...
and pediatric surgeon
Pedro Rosselló Pedro Juan Rosselló González, (; born April 5, 1944) is a Puerto Rican physician and politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 2001. He was President of the New Progressive Party from 1991 to 1999 and 2003 to 2008, a ...
. In 2010, Rosselló founded the political advocacy group ''Boricua ¡Ahora Es!'' to advocate for changing the current political status of Puerto Rico. Rosselló supports Puerto Rican statehood. Following several years of political advocacy, Rosselló announced that he would seek the nomination of the New Progressive Party (PNP in Spanish) for Governor of Puerto Rico in 2016. After winning the New Progressive Party primary, Rosselló was elected governor in the 2016 general election, defeating five other candidates. In July 2019, Rosselló faced widespread controversy after a group chat on the
Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...
app between Rosselló and his staff was made public. The chat included vulgar, sexist,
homophobic Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...
and
misogynistic Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practiced f ...
language, a discussion of the operation of
Internet troll In slang, a troll is a person who posts or makes inflammatory, insincere, digressive, extraneous, or off-topic messages online (such as in social media, a newsgroup, a forum, a chat room, a online video game), or in real life, with the i ...
networks on social media,
elitist Elitism is the belief or notion that individuals who form an elite—a select group of people perceived as having an intrinsic quality, high intellect, wealth, power, notability, special skills, or experience—are more likely to be constr ...
comments, and mockery of the troubles of Puerto Ricans as they continue to recover from 2017's Hurricane Maria that caused approximately 3,000 deaths. In one message, Rosselló's chief financial officer joked about the people who died in Hurricane Maria, and an apparent death threat made by Rosselló against Mayor of San Juan
Carmen Yulín Cruz Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto (born February 25, 1963) is a Puerto Rican politician who served as mayor of the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico from 2013 to 2020. From 2009 through 2013, Cruz served in the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico. Ea ...
. As a result of the leak, protests were held for several consecutive days throughout Puerto Rico demanding Rosselló's resignation. An estimated 500,000 people took to
Old San Juan Old San Juan ( es, Viejo San Juan) is a historic district located at the "northwest triangle" of the islet of San Juan. Its area roughly correlates to the Ballajá, Catedral, Marina, Mercado, San Cristóbal, and San Francisco sub-barrios (s ...
on July 17, 2019, as part of the protests. After first stating that he intended to complete his term as governor, Rosselló later promised to resign on August 2, which he did.


Early life and education

Rosselló was born 1979 in
San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the ...
, the son of
Pedro Rosselló Pedro Juan Rosselló González, (; born April 5, 1944) is a Puerto Rican physician and politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 2001. He was President of the New Progressive Party from 1991 to 1999 and 2003 to 2008, a ...
and Maga Nevares. His older brothers are Juan Óscar (b. 1971) and Luis Roberto (b. 1973). Pedro Rosselló served as
Governor of Puerto Rico The governor of Puerto Rico ( es, gobernador de Puerto Rico) is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and commander-in-chief of the Puerto Rico National Guard. The governor has a duty to enforce local laws, to co ...
from 1993 to 2001. Rosselló's paternal great-grandfather, Pedro Juan Rosselló Batle, immigrated in 1902 at the age of 23 from Lloseta,
Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bale ...
, Spain. Rosselló attended high school at Colegio Marista de Guaynabo. He was selected to compete in the
International Mathematical Olympiads The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. It has since been held annually, except ...
. Rosselló earned a bachelor's degree from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...
(MIT) in 2001 in biomedical engineering and economics. As a researcher in college, Rosselló focused on adult stem cell research. He received a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...


Early career


Scientific career

Rosselló is a co-founder of Beijing Prosperous Biopharm, a medical research company in
Beijing, China } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
. Rosselló claimed to have developed various drugs then later clarified that they were still in the research phase of development.


Early political involvement

Rosselló became involved in politics during the 2008 Puerto Rico gubernatorial election when his father Pedro Rosselló lost a party primary against the eventual Governor
Luis Fortuño Luis Guillermo Fortuño Burset (born 31 October 1960) is a Puerto Rican politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, from 2009 to 2013. Fortuño served as the first secretary of econom ...
. Rosselló was a
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
delegate to the 2008 nominating convention and an
Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
delegate to the 2012 convention. In 2008, he participated in Clinton's get-out-the-vote efforts for the June 1 Puerto Rico presidential primary, appearing in her final TV ad with several Democratic political leaders, including fellow statehooder
Kenneth McClintock Kenneth Davison McClintock-Hernández (born January 19, 1957) is a politician who served as the twenty-second Secretary of State of Puerto Rico, one of the four longest serving in that post. McClintock served as co-chair of Hillary Clinton’s Na ...
and commonwealth's Roberto Prats and José A. Hernández Mayoral. Following this event, Rosselló became a political commentator, writing columns for ''
El Vocero ''El Vocero de Puerto Rico'' is a Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican free newspaper that is published in San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan. Published since 1974, ''El Vocero'' was at first the third of the four largest Puerto Rico newspapers, trailing ''El M ...
'', a daily newspaper published in
San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...
, covering politics, science, healthcare and economics topics. Additionally, Rosselló appeared as a regular guest analyst in several political radio
talk shows A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Sh ...
. He published a book that depicted the accomplishments of his father's administration (1993–2001). All copies of the limited edition print were exhausted in one day. To diffuse the message, he allowed the material to be public domain and published it on the La Obra de Rosselló website for everyone to read. In 2012, Rosselló founded ''Boricua ¡Ahora Es!'', a political advocacy group that advocates changing Puerto Rico's current political status. The movement featured a grass-roots educational campaign, suggesting that involvement of the international community may be necessary for the
United States government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...
to take action. ''Boricua ¡Ahora Es!'' actively campaigned during the 2012 Puerto Rico status referendum. Rosselló was accused by
Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
n author Lupe Andrade of plagiarizing her column ''Responsabilidad y democracia'' ("Accountability and Democracy"). He denied the claim and no legal action followed.


Governor of Puerto Rico


2016 gubernatorial campaign

Since 2012, Rosselló was mentioned as a potential gubernatorial candidate for the 2016 election cycle. In 2013, he began organizing a group of collaborators to build what he called ''Plan para Puerto Rico'' (''Plan for Puerto Rico''). This plan would serve as a blueprint to deal with the economic and political problems and Puerto Rico and by being built years before a candidacy, it would represent a more complete and realistic political agenda. In 2014, Rosselló utilized his political platform to perform several protest events against the policies of the incumbent governor of Puerto Rico,
Alejandro García Padilla Alejandro Javier García Padilla (; born August 3, 1971) is a Puerto Rican politician and attorney who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 2013 to 2017. Prior to this position, García Padilla held various roles in the political la ...
. Some of these events included a march against a proposed
Value Added Tax A value-added tax (VAT), known in some countries as a goods and services tax (GST), is a type of tax that is assessed incrementally. It is levied on the price of a product or service at each stage of production, distribution, or sale to the en ...
. Rosselló described that he intended to apply a scientific approach to governance. As a part of this, he traveled to other countries and US states to study how they approached various problems in governing, such as Finland, Estonia, and Florida. On September 19, 2015, he confirmed his intention to run for
Governor of Puerto Rico The governor of Puerto Rico ( es, gobernador de Puerto Rico) is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and commander-in-chief of the Puerto Rico National Guard. The governor has a duty to enforce local laws, to co ...
in the 2016 election, and held a campaign rally the next day at
Roberto Clemente Coliseum Roberto Clemente Coliseum ( Spanish: ''Coliseo Roberto Clemente'') is a sports and concert arena located in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was, for many years, Puerto Rico's largest indoor event facility, and remains one of the largest. General info ...
in San Juan that surpassed the previous attendance record held by Ricky Martin. At the rally, he endorsed
Jenniffer González Jenniffer Aydin González Colón (born August 5, 1976) is a Puerto Rican politician who serves as the 20th Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico. González has served in leadership positions in the New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico (PNP) and in ...
, a Republican, for Resident Commissioner. On June 5, 2016, Rosselló won the New Progressive Party primary against incumbent
Resident Commissioner Resident commissioner was or is an official title of several different types of commissioners, who were or are representatives of any level of government. Historically, they were appointed by the British Crown in overseas protectorates (such ...
Pedro Pierluisi Pedro Rafael Pierluisi Urrutia (born April 26, 1959) is a Puerto Rican politician and lawyer currently serving as governor of Puerto Rico. He has previously served as Secretary of Justice, Resident Commissioner, acting Secretary of State, i ...
, thus becoming the party's candidate for governor and heading to the general election against PPD candidate
David Bernier David Enrique "Quique" Bernier Rivera (; born January 21, 1977) is a Puerto Rican dentist and politician that has served in various roles in public service in Puerto Rico. Bernier first served as executive director of the Office of Youth A ...
. He made Puerto Rican statehood the central issue of his campaign, and views statehood as the key to economic recovery. On November 8, 2016, Rosselló defeated five other gubernatorial candidates and was elected Governor of Puerto Rico, receiving 41% of the vote. He was sworn in on January 2, 2017.


Tenure


Domestic policies

Upon his election, Rosselló was the second-youngest person to become Governor of Puerto Rico. On his first day as governor, Rosselló signed six executive orders. His first executive order was the OE-2017-001, decreeing a state of fiscal emergency. The second order was the OE-2017-002, which creates the COF with the intent of obtaining, maximizing and overseeing more federal funds. The third executive order, OE-2017-003, looks to streamline the permit obtaining process for development of projects that promote a new or improved infrastructure for the lending of services for the citizens and for economic development within Puerto Rico. The fourth executive order, OE-2017-004, creates an interagency group of projects critical for the infrastructure, a collateral effect of the OE 2017–003. The fifth executive order, OE-2017-005, orders the implementation of the method of zero base budget for the preparation of the budget for the fiscal year 2017–2018. The last executive order Rosselló signed on his first day was the OE-2017-006; it decrees a public policy within the Government of Puerto Rico that guarantees equal pay and work for women employees. He also began the process of restructuring Puerto Rico's national debt. In 2017, Rosselló signed the ''Permitting Reform Act'', streamlining business permitting processes on the island, and he also created the Puerto Rico Department of Public Safety. In July 2017, Rosselló signed a bill that enacts regulations and makes the use of marijuana legal for medicinal use. The move goes further than the executive order issued by his predecessor which in Roselló's words, "ignored the legislative process and, following an executive order, promulgated a regulation without due discussion with all sectors and representatives elected by the people." Rosselló has stated that he intends to shrink the size of government, through reducing funding to various parts of the bureaucracy. He also started an effort on labor reform, which was revoked after differences between the governor's intended version and the version developed by the Financial Oversight and Management Board. Rosselló then tabled a second version of the plan in March 2018. Rosselló took credit for raising the minimum wage in Puerto Rico. and in 2017 signed the Equal Pay Act, pushing for equal pay regardless of gender. In 2018 he signed six laws targeting the reform of the insurance industry, as a response to how insurance companies acted during recent hurricanes. In December 2017, Rosselló signed the "New Government Law", which was intended to consolidate agencies in order to improve efficiency and save capital. Rosselló stated, "the objective is to establish a platform where we can reduce a 131 agencies to 30 or 35 agencies in Puerto Rico." In June 2019, Ricardo Rosello announced that $2 million had been appropriated to the
Puerto Rico Office for Socioeconomic and Community Development The Puerto Rico Office for Socioeconomic and Community Development ( es, Oficina para el Desarrollo Socioeconómico y Comunitario de Puerto Rico (ODSEC)) is a executive department of the government of Puerto Rico, government agency of Puerto Ric ...
(ODSEC by its Spanish initials) for construction of new roofs. The total number of homes that could receive new roofs was 180, of the 20,000 to 30,000 homes still missing roofs since
Hurricane Maria Hurricane Maria was a deadly Category 5 hurricane that devastated the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly Dominica, Saint Croix, and Puerto Rico. It is regarded as the worst natural disaster in recorded history to affect ...
hit Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017. Wanda Vázquez Garced, the governor who followed his troubled tenure, stated all contracts signed by Rosselló would be reviewed by her administration. Rosselló's alleged corruption was given as a reason to further delay promised funds for Hurricane Maria recovery, as announced by
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the Secretary of Housing and Ur ...
on August 6, 2019.


Economic strategies

By the time Rosselló took office, the
Puerto Rican government-debt crisis The Puerto Rican government-debt crisis was a financial crisis affecting the government of Puerto Rico. The crisis began in 2014 when three major credit agencies downgraded several bond issues by Puerto Rico to "junk status" after the governmen ...
posed serious problems for the government which was saddled with outstanding debt of $70billion or $12,000 per capita at a time with a 45% poverty rate and 14.2% unemployment that is more than twice the mainland U.S. average. The Commonwealth had been defaulting on many debts, including bonds, since 2015. Rosselló discussed the situation and sketched out his plans in an interview with the international ''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' in mid January and indicated that he would seek an amicable resolution with creditors and also make fiscal reforms. "There will be real fiscal oversight and we are willing to sit down. We are taking steps to make bold reforms. ... What we are asking for is runway to establish these reforms and have Washington recognise that they have a role to play." He also implemented austerity measures, instructing Puerto Rican government agencies to cut operating expenses by 10% and reduce political appointees by 20%. To ensure funds would be available to pay for "essential" government services Rosselló signed a fiscal emergency law on January 28, 2017, that would set aside funds that might otherwise be required for debt payments. In late January, the federal control board created under
PROMESA The Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) is a U.S. federal law enacted in 2016 that established a financial oversight board, a process for restructuring debt, and expedited procedures for approving critical i ...
gave the government until February 28 to present a fiscal plan - including negotiations with creditors - to solve the problems. It is essential for Puerto Rico to reach restructuring deals to avoid a bankruptcy-like process under PROMESA. A moratorium on lawsuits by debtors was extended to May 31. Rosselló hired investment experts
Rothschild & Co Rothschild & Co is a multinational investment bank and financial services company, and the flagship of the Rothschild banking group controlled by the French and British branches of the Rothschild family. The banking business of the firm covers th ...
to assist in convincing creditors to take deeper losses on Puerto Rico's debts than they had expected. The company was also exploring the possibility of convincing insurers that had guaranteed some of the bonds against default, to contribute more to the restructuring, according to reliable sources. The governor also planned to negotiate restructuring of about $9billion of electric utility debt, a plan that could result "in a showdown with insurers". Political observers suggest that his negotiation of the electrical utility debt indicated Rosselló's intention to take a harder line with creditors. Puerto Rico has received authority from the federal government to reduce its debt with legal action and this may make creditors more willing to negotiate instead of becoming embroiled in a long and costly legal battle. On May 31, Rosselló unveiled his $9.56billion proposed budget for the 2018 fiscal year. The budget prioritized paying pensions, increasing spending in the island's health system, public safety, and transportation. At the same time, the budget proposed cutting in the departments of education, natural resources, housing, agriculture, correction, and justice. Of the education cuts, it included over a $200million cut for Puerto Rico's public university, which had experienced organized student strikes for over two months. The budget directed $2billion for the public pension system of Puerto Rico that were underfunded by about $50billion. To balance this increase, the budget eliminated millions of dollars in annual subsidies to 78 municipalities of Puerto Rico, forcing the mayors to find funding in other areas. In addition, the budget focused payments for the debt services and the federal control board. Rosselló also announced tax breaks for the working class and retirees. A tax reform bill was presented by the governor in December 2018, which included a work tax credit of between $300 and $2000 to each taxpayer and reduced the corporate tax rate from 39% to 37.5%. Prior to this, Rosselló reduced the sales tax from 11.5% to 7% for restaurant prepared foods. During 2018, Rosselló announced that Puerto Rico had reached its lowest unemployment rate in the region history, at 9.3%. However, because Rosselló had fired the director of Puerto Rico's Office of Statistics due to dissatisfaction with the unflattering reports emanating from that office, it is unclear how accurate this information (or any of the statistical data touted by the Rosselló administration) is. In June 2018, he began the process of privatizing the island's energy infrastructure, and in November 2018, he pledged for Puerto Rico to switch entirely to renewable energy by 2050. In 2018 Rosselló also started InvestPR, a program intended to attract business investment to Puerto Rico, put in place by Law 13–2017; in addition to creating the Destination Marketing Organization, which encourages tourists to visit the island, enacted in 2017 by Law 17–2017.


Education

On February 5, 2018, Rosselló announced a broad education reform. The reform aim to incorporate
school voucher A school voucher, also called an education voucher in a voucher system, is a certificate of government funding for students at schools chosen by themselves or their parents. Funding is usually for a particular year, term, or semester. In some cou ...
s and
charter schools A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...
into the bankrupt U.S. territory's education system. It was signed into law in March 2018.


Inter-state positions

In 2019, Rosselló became the president of the Council of State Governments.


Social issues

Rosselló is considered
socially liberal Cultural liberalism is a social philosophy which expresses the social dimension of liberalism and advocates the freedom of individuals to choose whether to conform to cultural norms. In the words of Henry David Thoreau, it is often expressed a ...
. He supports
abortion rights Abortion-rights movements, also referred to as pro-choice movements, advocate for the right to have legal access to induced abortion services including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pre ...
,
gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...
, legalization of
medical marijuana Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana (MMJ), is cannabis and cannabinoids that are prescribed by physicians for their patients. The use of cannabis as medicine has not been rigorously tested due to production and governmental restriction ...
but opposes its legalization for recreational use. In terms of
LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, ...
, Rosselló has a mixed record. Initially, he came out against
marriage equality Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
, however he was a proponent of adoption rights for
same-sex couples A same-sex relationship is a romantic or sexual relationship between people of the same sex. ''Same-sex marriage'' refers to the institutionalized recognition of such relationships in the form of a marriage; civil unions may exist in countries ...
, created the first advisory board on LGBT issues, supported a ban on
conversion therapy Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms. In contrast to evidence-based medicine and clin ...
and under his administration for the first time the residence of the governor was illuminated in rainbow colors, a nod to the support of his administration to the LGBT community. Furthermore, Rosselló was highly critical of President Donald Trump's anti-immigration policies.


Views on statehood

Rosselló was strongly in favor of statehood for Puerto Rico to help develop the economy and to help Puerto Rico's 500-year old colonial dilemma. "Colonialism is not an option .... It's a civil rights issue ... The time will come in which the United States has to respond to the demands of 3.5million citizens seeking an absolute democracy" he stated. In January 2017, he announced that Puerto Ricans will be given an opportunity to vote in the fifth plebiscite on June 11, 2017, with three options: "Statehood", "Current Territorial Status" and "Independence/Free Association". It initially did not offer the second option, which was added at the request of
United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...
(U.S. DOJ). On June 11, 2017, the results of the
plebiscite A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of ...
were 97% in favor of statehood. However, the plebiscite results have been marred and been called into question. Due to months of calls for boycotting by his political rivals and confusion, the turnout for the plebiscite was 23% of the eligible electorate. Rosselló plans on creating a commission that will ensure the validity of the referendum in Congress. He has stated that he does not believe that Puerto Rico yet has the political infrastructure to pursue statehood, and that he intends to develop it.


Telegram scandal

On July 8, 2019, screenshots of a group chat on the Telegram messaging service, which the governor belonged to, were leaked. The authenticity of these screenshots was confirmed the following day by Chief of Staff Ricardo Llerandi, who — along with several other high-ranking government officials — participated in the chat. Some on Twitter have dubbed the scandal ''Telegramgate.'' Rosselló interrupted his vacation in
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
to fly to Puerto Rico and attend a press conference where he took responsibility for his part in the Telegram chat. Rosselló released a statement in which he apologized for the comments, excusing himself by explaining that he had been working 18-hour days and was releasing tension. Rosselló added that he would not resign as Governor of Puerto Rico and indicated that he did not know who leaked the chat or when it was deleted. On July 13, 2019, the entirety of the chat was made public by local news agency ''Centro de Periodismo Investigativo''. The screenshots were reported by ''
El Nuevo Día ''El Nuevo Día'' (English: ''The New Day'') is the newspaper with the largest circulation in Puerto Rico. It was founded in 1909 in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and today it is a subsidiary of GFR Media. Its headquarters are in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. ...
'' as containing vulgar and homophobic comments and attacks against other politicians, such as former Speaker of the
New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government model, the performance of ...
Melissa Mark-Viverito Melissa Mark-Viverito (born April 1, 1969) is an American Democratic politician and former speaker of the New York City Council from 2014 to 2017, as well as councilmember for the 8th district from 2006 to 2017, representing Concourse, Concour ...
, as well as local journalists and celebrities. Rosselló described Mark-Viverito as a , Spanish for whore; Mark-Viverito responded to this soon afterwards on her Twitter account, condemning his use of the word. Several members of the New Progressive Party also condemned the governor's expressions. The transcript, released July 13, shows government officials, including Rosselló, conspiring to operate an
internet troll In slang, a troll is a person who posts or makes inflammatory, insincere, digressive, extraneous, or off-topic messages online (such as in social media, a newsgroup, a forum, a chat room, a online video game), or in real life, with the i ...
network to discredit press, journalists and opposition politicians, according to several news sources. In one message, Rosselló jokes about shooting
Carmen Yulín Cruz Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto (born February 25, 1963) is a Puerto Rican politician who served as mayor of the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico from 2013 to 2020. From 2009 through 2013, Cruz served in the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico. Ea ...
, the mayor of San Juan. Allegedly, Rosselló improperly conducted public business on the chat, as one of the participants — Elías Sánchez — no longer worked directly with Rosselló. The chat has been cited as giving Sánchez an unfair advantage in his business dealings, as he was privy to internal government affairs while working for Wolf Popper, a company that does business with government agencies. Puerto Rico's sole representative in the
U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...
,
Jenniffer González Jenniffer Aydin González Colón (born August 5, 1976) is a Puerto Rican politician who serves as the 20th Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico. González has served in leadership positions in the New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico (PNP) and in ...
, said that she believed Rosselló should not seek re-election as a result of the incident, but supported the idea that he should remain in office.
Thomas Rivera Schatz Thomas Rivera Schatz (born June 10, 1966) is a Puerto Rican politician, legal advisor, attorney, and former prosecutor, who was the fourteenth and sixteenth President of the Senate of Puerto Rico. He is affiliated with New Progressive Party o ...
, President of the Puerto Rican Senate, called upon Rosselló and every government official included in the chat to resign, but not before supporting the Governor's position to remain in office, and downplaying the protests calling for Rosselló's resignation as a "small" group of people that are "always protesting". Calls for his resignation were made by Democratic U.S. Representative
Raúl Grijalva Raúl Manuel Grijalva (; born February 19, 1948) is an American politician and activist who has served as the United States representative for since 2003. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 7th from 2003 to 2 ...
, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee; former governor
Sila María Calderón Sila María Calderón Serra (born September 23, 1942) is a Puerto Rican politician, businesswoman, and philanthropist who was the governor of Puerto Rico from 2001 to 2005. She is the first woman elected to that office. Prior to her term as gove ...
, former governor
Luis Fortuño Luis Guillermo Fortuño Burset (born 31 October 1960) is a Puerto Rican politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, from 2009 to 2013. Fortuño served as the first secretary of econom ...
, former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and presidential contender
Julian Castro Julián Castro ( , ; born September 16, 1974) is an American lawyer and politician from San Antonio. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the youngest member of President Obama's cabinet, serving as the 16th United States Secretary of Ho ...
, and Democratic U.S. Representative and presidential contender
Tulsi Gabbard Tulsi Gabbard (; born April 12, 1981) is an American politician, United States Army Reserve officer and political commentator who served as the U.S. representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021. Gabbard was the fi ...
. On July 17, 2019, an estimated 500,000 people participated in a mass protest in Old San Juan calling for Rosselló to resign as governor. Artists such
Ricky Martin Enrique Martín Morales (born December 24, 1971), known professionally as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, and actor. He is known for his musical versatility, with his Ricky Martin albums discography, discography spanning ...
were present. Protests were also held in other cities and countries, including
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
,
Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...
,
Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
,
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...
, New York City,
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...
,
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
,
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,
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
,
Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...
,
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
,
Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...
,
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...
, and
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
. On July 24, 2019, after previously defending the Governor and refusing to impeach him, the
Puerto Rico Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico ( es, Asamblea Legislativa de Puerto Rico) is the territorial legislature of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, responsible for the legislative branch of the government of Puerto Rico. The Assembly is a bic ...
announced that they would immediately begin impeachment proceedings unless Rosselló resigned. Later that day he announced that he would resign as governor of Puerto Rico effective 5 pm AST August 2, to be replaced by Justice Secretary Wanda Vázquez Garced until she reportedly declined the position. In his last minutes in office, Rosselló nominated
Pedro Pierluisi Pedro Rafael Pierluisi Urrutia (born April 26, 1959) is a Puerto Rican politician and lawyer currently serving as governor of Puerto Rico. He has previously served as Secretary of Justice, Resident Commissioner, acting Secretary of State, i ...
as Secretary of State of Puerto Rico, with the intention of Pierluisi becoming Puerto Rico's next governor.


Personal life

Rosselló was married to Natasha Marie Cervi from 2008 to 2010. On October 14, 2012, Rosselló married
Beatriz Areizaga Beatriz (, ) is a Spanish, Galician and Portuguese female first name. It corresponds to the Latin name Beatrix and the English and Italian name Beatrice. The name in Latin means 'brings joy' and in other languages also means 'she who brings oth ...
in a wedding ceremony held in . The couple have a daughter, Claudia Beatriz, and a son, Pedro Javier. His cousin is
Roy Rossello Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin. In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise to ...
, a singer and former member of boy band Menudo. Rosselló was linked to a car accident caused by a drunk driver in 1994, when he was 15, that killed a woman and her child. The original 1994 newspaper note that reported on the crash, along with the victims' son and twin brother, respectively, named Rosselló as the drunk driver. The court that saw the case, however, concluded that the other person in the vehicle, Rosselló's friend Ricardo Molinari Such, was the driver.


Ancestry


References


Further reading


Research

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Books

*


External links

*
Ricardo Rossello
on the
Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Rossello, Ricardo 1979 births 21st-century Puerto Rican politicians American people of Asturian descent Democratic Party (Puerto Rico) politicians Democratic Party governors of Puerto Rico Duke University fellows Governors of Puerto Rico Leaders ousted by a coup Living people MIT School of Engineering alumni MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences alumni New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico) politicians Presidents of the New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico) Puerto Rican people of Asturian descent Puerto Rican people of Spanish descent Puerto Rican Roman Catholics University of Michigan College of Engineering alumni Rosselló family