Ernesto Irizarry Salvá is a Puerto Rican educator, politician and former mayor of

Utuado Utuado () is a town and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the central mountainous region of the island known as the '' Cordillera Central''. It is located north of Adjuntas and Ponce; south of Hatillo and Arecibo; east of Lares; and west ...

. Irizarry is affiliated with the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) and has served as mayor from 2013 to 2021. Earned a Bachelor of Agriculture from the

University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez The University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus (UPRM) or Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez (RUM) in Spanish (also referred to as Colegio and CAAM in allusion to its former name), is a Public university, public land-grant university in Mayagüez ...

. When elected Mayor of Utuado in 2012, he was the youngest elected official in Puerto Rico. Ernesto Irizarry obtained victory in 2012 with a 50.10% of the electoral vote in Utuado and became the first mayor affiliated with the PDP to win the office of mayor of Utuado in over 20 years. This election was against

Jorge Pérez Heredia Jorge "Jorgito" Pérez Heredia is a Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rican politician and current mayor of the municipality of Utuado, Puerto Rico, Utuado, Puerto Rico. He is affiliated with the New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico, New Progressive ...

, candidate for the NPP that year. In the 2016 elections for mayor of Utuado, Ernesto Irizarry Salvá won with 52.44% of the vote while his opponent, Jonathan Tossas of the NPP, obtained 46%. Under Irizarry Salvá's term as mayor of Utuado, he received honors from the White House for his work in the municipality after

Hurricane Maria Hurricane Maria was an extremely powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that affected the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, which accounted for 2,975 of the 3,059 deaths. It is the ...

. He was one of the few mayors of Puerto Rico bestowed with this honor. On July 20, 2019, Irizarry addressed governor

Ricardo Rosselló Ricardo Antonio Rosselló Nevares (; born March 7, 1979) is an American former politician, businessman, neurobiologist and educator. He served as Governor of Puerto Rico from 2017 until his resignation in 2019. In 2021, he returned to active ...

, saying the infrastructure problems of Utuado were yet to be resolved since Hurricane Maria hit 20 September 2017. He showed video of an area of Utuado that gets bogged down when the river floods, decried his inability to pay workers for work they did after Hurricane Maria because

FEMA The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...

had yet to assign federal funds, and implored Rosselló to resign as governor of Puerto Rico. Ernesto Irizarry foreseeing that actions had to be taken to combat the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in early 2020 had a Municipal Executive Order that applied in Utuado, the first of its kind in Puerto Rico that would fine any person that was not using a facemask in crowded areas and within less than six feet of other people. This was implemented following the recommendation of the CDC to avoid propagating the virus. At first, Irizarry Salvá was criticized but, afterwards, the Governor of Puerto Rico,

Wanda Vázquez Garced Wanda Emilia Vázquez Garced (born July 9, 1960) is a Puerto Rican politician and attorney who served as the 188th Governor of Puerto Rico from 2019 to 2021. Prior to her tenure as governor, she served as the 19th Secretary of Justice from 2 ...

, followed suit, implementing the use of facemasks in public in all of Puerto Rico. Ernesto Irizarry Salvá ran for a third term as mayor for the

2020 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2020. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems maintains a comprehensive list of upcoming elections on its E-Guide Platform. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calend ...

but ultimately lost to Jorge Pérez Heredia ( NPP), who ran for the office of mayor a second time against Irizarry Salvá, the first being the

2012 elections * 2012 United Nations Security Council election Africa Egypt * 2012 Egyptian presidential election Mali * 2012 Malian presidential election * 2012 Malian parliamentary election Senegal * 2012 Senegalese presidential election * 2012 Senegalese p ...

References

External links

Ernesto Irizarry page on FacebookErnesto Irizarry Salvá Profile
on

WAPA-TV WAPA-TV (channel 4) is a Spanish-language independent television station in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is the flagship and namesake station of Guaynabo-based WAPA Media Group. WAPA-TV maintains studio facilities on Luis Vigoreaux Avenue ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irizarry Salva, Ernesto Living people Popular Democratic Party (Puerto Rico) politicians People from Utuado, Puerto Rico Year of birth missing (living people)