Keeping with historic trends in Puerto Rico, another corrupt governor has been arrested and indicted on corruption, bribery and fraud charges. Wanda Vazquez Garced replaced Ricardo Rosselló after he was accused of racism and having a homophobic cabinet.
During her term in office, millions of dollars’ worth of Hurricane Maria aid was discovered being stored and sold on the black market from various warehouses. [Go Deep]
The hurricane supplies provided by U.S. taxpayers were never given to citizens and were instead being used by government officials and sold to retailers. The Housing Secretary (Fernando Gil), the Department of Family Secretary (Glorimar Andújar) and the director of Puerto Rico’s emergency management agency were all fired as part of the scandal.
Governor Wanda Vazquez lost her primary reelection bid in August 2020, and today was indicted for corruption, bribery and wire fraud.
(Via DOJ) -A former governor of Puerto Rico was arrested today on bribery charges related to the financing of her 2020 campaign.
Relatedly, a political consultant for the former governor and the president of the international bank have also pleaded guilty to participating in the bribery scheme.
“The alleged bribery scheme rose to the highest levels of the Puerto Rican government, threatening public trust in our electoral processes and institutions of governance,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The Department of Justice is committed to holding accountable those who wrongly believe there is one rule of law for the powerful and another for the powerless. No one is above the rule of law.”
According to the indictment, from December 2019 through June 2020, then-Governor of Puerto Rico Wanda Vazquez Garced, 62, of San Juan, allegedly engaged in a bribery scheme with various individuals, including Julio Martin Herrera Velutini, Frances Diaz, Mark Rossini, and John Blakeman to finance Vazquez Garced’s 2020 gubernatorial election campaign. (read more)
Puerto Rico has a long history of public corruption and abuse of federal funds. Back in 2015 ten government officials in Puerto Rico were arrested for corruption, bribery, honest services wire fraud, extortion and various schemes related to giving payments to friends and family via federal contracts. [LINK] This is the typical corruption PR is known for.
In June 2019, the FBI, Public Corruption Unit, posted a notification of an ongoing corruption probe and provided a tip-line for leads related to bribery and/or corruption of public officials. [LINK] This probe is connected to the billions of dollars U.S. taxpayers have provided to Puerto Rico for recovery after hurricane Maria (2017).
So much money was poured into the island after hurricane Maria that hundreds of local and regional officials seized the opportunity to indulge their friends and family with funds from recovery accounts. This is the widespread corruption President Trump previously drew attention to.
This open corruption was also why Nancy Pelosi took the entire Democrat caucus to Puerto Rico in January 2019 for a vacation with her favorite lobbyists. Everyone in/around PR knows this level of corruption is the norm, not the exception.
Later that same year, six more officials were indicted under new federal charges, including two government officials: Julia Keleher, who served as Puerto Rico’s education secretary until April; and Ángela Ávila-Marrero, who was the executive director of the Puerto Rico Health Insurance Administration. They were all variously charged with wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy, according to the 32-count indictment.
President Trump was exactly right when he both informed and warned voters of what would happen with money dumped into Puerto Rico.
small fish compared to what goes on in the White House and DC in general.
Perhaps but please, please, PLEASE let’s not ever let Puerto Rico become a state, under any circumstances.
They make corruption look saintly.
I had to get my birth certificate re-issued from PR once for some other paperwork I was compiling. It was complicated and I had to hire a 3rd party to maneuver the way to do it. I got it finally and then 6 months later I was informed that it was invalid- because they were stealing numbers from the actual agency who issues them LOL. So I applied again- it was even more byzantine with the second production request- this time the whole thing was supposedly overseen by the FBI to keep the numbers secure! Too many stories to tell about corruption in PR when I grew up there!
I have a friend whose parents are Puerto Rican and split their time between the US and PR. I’ve heard some stories. What a beautiful island though, it’s a shame the people in charge are corrupt.
Serena, the variety of nature in that little island is amazing. From the central mountain chain with tropical rain forests, to the most perfect tropical dry forest on the planet (on the southwest side of the island), the Karst terrain between the mountains and the coastal plains. Beautiful beaches. And the bioluminescent bays, where microorganisms make the water glow at night (there are only 5 bays like that on the planet, where the glow is permanent, and 3 of them are in tiny PR).
It is a shame the people in charge are corrupt, also a shame that the indoctrinated population has let them get away with it for decades.
We need to cut Puerto Rico loose. They do nothing for us, they are a bunch of unpatriotic jerks, and they serve as a financial anchor around America’s neck. Ever since those bums decided the U.S. Navy couldn’t use Vieques any more, I have thought they needed to go. Maybe when President Trump gets back in he will decide that we will unilaterally cut them loose.
The sooner PR is not part of the United States, the better. Addition by subtraction!
Estoy de acuerdo.
Agreed, agreed! I have spent hours researching this. In the wake of the $70B of unpaid debt, and a legal prohibition against backruptcybankruptcy, secured a special Chapter 9 for the debt…To make sure his hedge fund buddies an assured payoff. PROMESA was born, headed by former US-born, overnight Ukrainian finance minister, Natalie Jaresko (very shady character).
Bottom line, PR took the money, fixed nothing (and yet demanding that mainland taxpayers rebuild the islands ENTIRE ELECTRIC GRID.
We fund 100% of their Medicaid (states average a 55% maximum), half the peeps are on welfare, 50% work for gov’t, and got their bonuses altho PR has not paid a penny of debt it owed.
Disaster, useless, cut them loose.
Sorry mac, I call BS on the “bunch of unpatriotic jerks” comment. The list of Puerto Ricans who have served, fought and died for this Country is long and heroic! My friend Hector was a Master Sargeant(Army) , who was a decorated Vietnam war vet and served for 20 years. His son, Hector jr., followed his fathers footsteps and became a Master Sargeant, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he got his Purple Heart.
Thank you for pointing this out. Condemning the people of PR for the corruption from government officials is wrong. It’s the same pretty much in every country. It’s generally not the people who are corrupt, it’s those in power.
The people of PR vote Democrat year after year. That is on them.
Yea but Puerto Ricans make up most of our Military Sealift Command. You know the merchant marine that supplies our armed forces.
It’s really a shame. Puerto Rico is in a great location and has a lot of varied terrain, miles and miles of oceanfront, and US citizens don’t need a passport to go there. It should be a vacation haven and just as rich economically as it is geographically. Only the extreme corruption keeps it such a poor state.
It’s a tax haven now, so that could theoretically change. But it will be hard to get rid of the corruption. It’s like almost Haiti.
My wife, a native Spanish speaker, and I listened to a Latino station in Orlando in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. The DJ’s were talking to someone on a cellphone who was explaining how trucks of supplies sent from the mainland were being held up by highwaymen for lack of a better term. All to line the local politicians pockets. Disgraceful.
Puerto Rico is the arm pit of the Atlantic Ocean. As they say, FJB. And FPR, too.
Sundance is right on target about this. So are those tweets from 2019 by President Trump.
I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. It was already corrupt back then. But I could see the SUPER corruption coming. I tried to warn people about it, but people there had been brainwashed into not using their brain to study how the present affects the future. Party, party, party. All they think about is three days- yesterday, today and tomorrow. And party, party, party.
Part, party, party was a tactic used by Spain to blind and distract the people in its colonies while it robbed them. My maternal grandmother explained it to me- the Spanish saying about it was ‘Baile, baraja y botella.’ which means ‘Dance, card (play cards) and bottle (alcohol).’ Party, party, party. It is one of the tactics that is now used by the NWO to keep people distracted while it robs them.
Right before I left PR in 1977, I sent a letter to a local newspaper. The letter explained why I was leaving- I could see the super corruption coming, had tried to warn people about it, but all they wanted to do was party, party, party. I used a pseudonym, explained to the newspaper I was using a pseudonym because I had non-corrupt relatives that worked for the PR government, and I was afraid that if the newspaper published the letter with my real name, the corrupt would strike back by firing my relatives.
To my surprise, they published the entire letter (in a section called ‘La voz del lector’- The voice of the reader), including the part where I explained that I was using a pseudonym, and why. People commented about it for 3 days. Then another surprise- it was discussed in a PR radio program about politics. and then the big surprise- it was discussed in a PR television program about politics. The people running the radio and the TV program agreed 100% with what I had written, including the part where I pointed out people had been brainwashed into not thinking about the future. Sadly, they could also see that because of the brainwashing, most people would not pay attention to my warning.
Another thing- I hope the former mayor of San Juan also gets arrested. She was the main politician in PR that accused President Trump of not helping the island, while she was stealing a huge part of the help he was sending.
The FBI office in PR is composed mainly of people born and raised in PR. The PR corruption has torn them and their families up. That is why they are finally going after the corrupt. I hope that eventually the same thing happens with the FBI here.
Great post, sir…If I might add…Every Latino country I have visited, and lived in for months, has that legacy from the Conquistadores… Immense graft, corruption, slothfulness, entitlement, lying, stealing, etc. ALL.
The only reason they want statehood is MORE mainland MONEY, AND THATS ALL. They don’t want to learn English, and have no intention of learning it. They don’t prize education.
The Resident Commissioner says as much, often. It’s all about the Benjamin’s. PR has nothing to offer us, and they become insulted if they hear that to be a state, they MUST HAVE SOMETHING OF VALUE TO OFFER THE OTHER 50 STATES.
They want no conditions to meet for statehood, no value to offer. Terrible.
What do they think this is? Illinois?
Remember this when the issue of PR becoming a State. Like we’d need another DC!
I left the island because I realized U had no future there and I am 5th generation puertortican.
There is a mindset there is entrenched. The “people” may complain about the corruption but most of them support the type of maternalistic/socialiatistic government that is the fertile soil for the corruption.
Long past time to cut PR loose.
Isn’t it interesting that a 3rd world shithole like Puerto Rico can indict their governor on bribery and corruption charges but we the people of the United States can’t do the same to a profoundly more corrupt politician currently residing in the White House.
WTF is the reason? Serious question.
Just shows that Puerto Rico has more respect for the rule of law than our current administration!!
Clearly they’re going after her because of her race /sarc