SAN JUAN: After the governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rossello, bowed to two weeks of protests and resigned, here is some background about the US territory in the Caribbean.
- 100 years of US nationality -
===============================
A former Spanish colony, it was annexed by the United States after the 1898 Spanish-American War.
Its mostly Spanish-speaking people have had US nationality since 1917 but they are not able to vote in US presidential elections.
Puerto Rico has limited representation in the US Congress, with only one non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives.
It also fields its own Olympic teams.
The closest major US mainland city is Miami, about 1,660 kilometers (1,030 miles) away.
- With its own government -
============================
It has had its own government and constitution since 1952 and has chosen not to take the status of a US state.
It also has its own flag and national anthem.
Two parties have alternated in power since the 1950s -- Rossello's New Progressive Party and the opposition Popular Democratic Party.
Rossello took over in January 2017, aged 37, after winning November 2016 elections held amid a crippling recession and with the island deep in debt.
Protests demanding that he quit began on July 13 after the leak of a group text chat in which he and other officials make fun of journalists, gay people, women and hurricane victims.
With no let up in the demonstrations, he announced on July 25 that he would leave office on August 2.
- Economic downturn -
=====================
The 9,000-square-kilometer (3,475-square-mile) island has been locked in recession for more than a decade.
In May 2017 it declared itself bankrupt, with public debt surpassing $70 billion, having defaulted on $422 million in debt a year earlier.
A lack of employment and the recession have seen Puerto Ricans leaving in droves, with even more joining the exodus after the devastating Hurricane Maria in 2017.
The population has fallen from 3.8 million in 2006 to under 3.2 million in 2018, according to the US Census Bureau, which puts the poverty rate at 44 percent.
Unemployment was 8.5 percent in May 2019, the highest for the United States, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Hurricane Maria -
===================
The storm struck in September 2017 and resulted in the deaths of 2,975 people, according to a government-commissioned study released almost a year later.
The toll was a shock as the government had previously said that 64 people had died.
After the storm hit, households went for an average of 84 days without electricity, 64 days without water and 41 days without cellular telephone coverage, investigations found.
US President Donald Trump rejected the toll of nearly 3,000 as inflated after his administration's response was highly criticized, including for not providing additional federal funds for emergency housing and debris removal.
- Most-watched video -
======================
The music video "Despacito" has been a major hit for Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi, also attracting publicity for the La Perla barrio of the capital's Old San Juan area where it was filmed.
First released in January 2017 by Fonsi and Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee, it passed more than six billion views on YouTube in February 2019, making it the service's most-watched video at the time.
Ricky Martin, one of the biggest stars of the Latin music world and famous for "Livin' la Vida Loca" and "She Bangs," also hails from Puerto Rico.
Martin, one of those ridiculed in Rossello's leaked chats, has been among local celebrities leading support for the protests against the governor.
Comments
Comments are closed.