Thousands take to the streets in Puerto Rico to demand governor's resignation

SAN JUAN, - Puerto Ricans filled the streets in a massive planned protest, paralyzing a major San Juan highway in an islandwide demonstration to demand that their governor must go.

The embattled Puerto Rican leader has refused to resign after more than a week of growing protests in the U.S. territory's capital city. Ricardo Rosselló, 40, a Democrat and member of the island's statehood party, said Sunday he would not seek re-election in 2020 and would step down from his role as head of the party.

But the announcement did nothing to assuage Puerto Ricans incensed by leaked group-chat messages in which Rosselló and his closest collaborators denigrated their opponents, insulted women and gay people, made light of Hurricane Maria's dead and revealed potentially criminal behavior by his administration.

Monday's demonstration could represent the largest mobilization in the history of Puerto Rico, a colony the United States acquired during the Spanish-American War of 1898. The island has been a self-governing territory since 1952, following the adoption of its constitution a few years after residents elected their first native-born governor.

The masses assembled in San Juan early Monday, with tens of thousands flooding the streets ahead of a planned 9 a.m. start time, while photos and videos of the march inundated social media.

Music blasted as protesters expressed themselves through song, with some dancing in the roads that had surrendered to the wave of demonstrators.

Veronica Caro sat inside the grounds of Hiram Bithorn Stadium, which has hosted Major League Baseball games, waiting for the march to begin. She sat clutching a large Puerto Rico flag and was incredulous that the island's leader had disrespected the people so deeply.

"We voted for him because he promised to bring a new face to Puerto Rican politics and change things," Caro, 31, told The Washington Post. "But he turned out to be more of the same."

Sitting next to her was Marta Rivera, a 59-year-old retiree from Carolina who called the governor "worse than Trump."

A slogan calling for the governor's resignation, "Ricky Renuncia," was everywhere: In hashtags and on hats, on signs and sidewalks, and on the lips of protesters who hoped their show of force would succeed in driving him from power.

Leaders of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives are exploring the possibility of impeachment, but it is not clear when or whether proceedings will take place. Rosselló said he respects the process and welcomes the inquiry. The secretary of state is the next in line to lead the government, but the Rosselló has yet to fill the vacancy left by Luis Rivera Marín, who resigned earlier this month because of his connection with the content leaked from the Telegram messaging app.

Residents of the archipelago are growing impatient.

The past week has been marked by creative and expressive demonstrations. From scuba divers holding protest signs under the crystal-blue waters of the Caribbean to residents of neighborhoods across the island banging pots outside their windows in unison every night at 8 p.m., there has never been a display on the island quite like it.

The protests have morphed from a targeted repudiation of their leader to an expression of all the grievances Puerto Ricans have harbored for years: The debt. The economy. The nonelected federal oversight board managing the territory's finances. The lack of opportunity for its young people.

Lucia Crespo, 15, came to the march Monday with her mother, carrying a sign in English lamenting the fact that she had to leave Puerto Rico in 2015 because there were few prospects for her family after her father lost his job in the slow economy. She now lives in Denton, Texas. But she would rather be home.

"We moved there for a better life, but we want to come back," she said. "But it's just impossible and it's really sad."

In an interview with CNN, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz declared that "it is impeachment time" for Rosselló.

The mayor had been a target in the controversial chat group, and she did not hold back in her criticism of the governor.

"The crimes committed by the governor are so horrendous that it cannot wait," she said. "He's obstinate. His mental health isn't there. He doesn't want to resign. It's impeachment time."

Former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton tweeted her support for Puerto Rico's protesters Saturday, writing that "like all Americans, they have the fundamental right - and duty - to hold their leaders to account."

On Sunday, celebrity chef José Andrés called for Americans to support the demonstrations on the island.

Meanwhile, Rosselló has displayed signs of defiance as tens of thousands march to oust him.

Rosselló met with Puerto Rico's mayors and New Progressive Party (PNP) leadership late Sunday in a meeting closed to the public. A few PNP officials began to defend the governor on the airwaves, saying that he did not commit any crimes in the chat and that the calls for removing him are undemocratic. The message seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

Analysts say Rosselló seems to be trying to wait out the outrage and dare politicians to force him out by impeachment.

"There is nothing more democratic than exercising our rights to protest and invoking our constitution, which lays out the way to impeachment," said Amarilis Padilla-Lugo, the former director of a health program for the homeless. "Our elected leaders have a responsibility to listen to us."

And if they don't, protesters will target them next, they say.

Late Sunday, dozens of people arrived at the PNP headquarters in Guaynabo, where the governor was meeting with other politicos, and blocked the exits into the evening.

"Where is Ricky?" they chanted, referring to a diminutive nickname for the governor. "Ricky is not here - he's selling what's off left of the country." The demonstration was dispersed when police launched tear gas, and images of the countermeasure filled social media overnight.

On Monday, Azalea Ramos and Valerie Santos sang along with the swelling crowd on Franklin Delano Roosevelt Avenue in downtown San Juan's commercial district. They are both students at local universities, one public, the other a private institution. They said the parties that dominate island's political rhetoric, aligned along the question of Puerto Rico's U.S. status - the PNP, statehooders who wish for Puerto Rico to join the 50 states, and the Popular Democratic Party, which endorses enhanced but undefined autonomy - don't represent them.

"We are here to represent the future and show the world and prove to ourselves that we have the power and will to change things," said Ramos, 19.

The future they envision is "a just one," said Santos, 20, "one full of opportunities for our generation."

"It doesn't end here," she said, taking in the celebratory scene around her. "All of this is a spotlight, so people can see that there is no way we will allow anyone to take advantage of us again."

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Epstein reported from Washington.