Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló resigned late Wednesday after days of mass protests that erupted amid an email scandal and allegations of corruption. His resignation is effective Aug. 2.
Rosselló will be succeeded by Justice Secretary Wanda Vasquez.
"The demands have been overwhelming and I’ve received them with highest degree of humility," Rosselló announced in a video posted to Facebook just before midnight local time. With his resignation, he becomes the first governor to resign in history for the territory that has seen various challenges over his term including a Category 4 hurricane that devastated the island nearly two years ago.
Hundreds of thousands of Puerto Rico residents have flooded the streets in recent days demanding Rosselló's resignation after nearly 900 pages of private messages between the former governor and his staff and high-level administration officials were leaked by Puerto Rico's Center for Investigative Journalism. The messages were leaked to the public after two former Puerto Rico officials, former Puerto Rico Education Secretary Julia Keleher and former Health Insurance Administration head Ángela Ávila-Marrero were arrested for allegedly helping friends get lucrative government contracts.
Rosselló's resignation was celebrated by Puerto Rico residents and residents on the mainland alike.
"This is democracy in action," 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro tweeted early Thursday. "The Puerto Rican people demanded change and refused to accept anything less. The Governor has made the right decision."
"The people of Puerto Rico have endured so much—disaster and tragedy, economic crisis, government corruption, generations of disrespect," another Democratic presidential candidate, Elizabeth Warren wrote on Twitter. "I'm inspired by my fellow U.S. citizens and their movement to hold their government accountable."
The private chats leaked by the Center revealed a series of profanity-laced, misogynistic and homophobic comments by Rosselló that included cynical remarks about deaths that followed Hurricane Maria in 2017.
In one message, Rosselló appeared to refer to Melissa Mark-Viverito, a Puerto Rico-born former speaker of the New York City Council, using the Spanish word for "whore" after she criticized the chair of the Democratic National Committee for backing statehood for Puerto Rico.
"Our people should come out and defend Tom and beat up that whore," Rosselló wrote.
Another message showed Puerto Rico's chief fiscal officer at the time, write to Rosselló that he was "salivating to shoot" the mayor of San Juan, Yulín Cruz.
"You'd be doing me a grand favor," the governor replied.
Former Secretary of State Luis Rivera Marin also resigned July 13 following the leak of the private messages.
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