Yesterday was another historic day for Puerto Rico. We still haven’t gotten the governor to resign but Puerto Ricans have come together like never before, to get him out of here.
There have been protests for about 10 days straight, since the nasty chat conversation was first leaked. These protests have not just been held in San Juan but all over the island. Yesterday we had a national strike bigger than any other held on the island before. The largest one was held 19 years ago to get the US Navy out of Vieques, one of our two island municipalities. The support for that strike was so big, we got the Navy out.
Yesterday, we had the same ambition, we just wanted to get one person out, not the whole Navy so you would think it would have been easier. We showed up there with an army of over half a million people and some say we did get to a million . It was twice as big as the last one, and the guy still won’t leave, at least he hasn’t announced anything yet.
Even if this doesn’t force him out, we should all feel very proud of ourselves because not only did half a million people showed up, there were no accidents, or felonies during the march. Everyone followed instructions and there were even citizens with trash bags at different points so people could throw away their water bottles and anything else.
This strike was not an official event, the news about it was spread by word of mouth and social media and people just went with it. There were people of all ages but it has been said that the majority was young people, millennials. This is our island, it’s our future and we will not allow corrupt politicians keep taking everything we work for. We don’t want to raise children in a world like that.
Yesterday was the beginning of a new Puerto Rico, a better and stronger Puerto Rico. There were no accidents or crimes reported during the event yesterday, no one was hurt and no properties were damaged. People didn’t even quit when it started to rain, the events at the end of the walk still went on as people listened to the messages from singers like Ricky Martin, Residente, Ednita Nazario Olga Taño, Sie7e, and athletes like Tito Trinidad, among others.
After the strike ended people went on to Old San Juan to continue putting pressure on the governor to resign. By not resigning he is digging his own grave. He thinks he knows what to do and that lead him to address us, with no journalist, news stations, or professionals, through a message on Facebook live. On that message he stuck to his old, tired and only message which is to keep working for the people of Puerto Rico (he has never worked for the people of Puerto Rico, or for anything else in his life), he will fight corruption (his father, the governor during the 90s was in trouble during his time and a lot of the people working under his administration has been arrested for being corrupt), and he has a plan (which he has been talking about since his campaign and to this day he still hasn’t shared his plan with us). After lying to our faces, like we were idiots, he said he wouldn’t be running for governor in 2020 and he is stepping down as president of his party, the New Progressive Party. That’s it.
I don’t know what he expected from this little charade but this was the icing on the cake and people who were still making up their minds about the whole situation snapped. That message was a slap in the face and it showed that he is not listening, he doesn’t see, hear or care about the people. This is just a game to him and he thinks it will blow over, he thinks people will forget. News flash, we won’t forget and we won’t let you get away with it.
Yesterday he had an interview with Fox, which was surprising for everyone because he is refusing to do interviews, but he obviously thought they would go easy on him because he even shaved for the interview. If he thought shaving and doing an interview with a major network would help him, he was so wrong. He had trouble answering every one of Shepard Smith’s questions, stuttering and not answering what he was asked. And Shepard wouldn’t have it, he kept asking. His dignity was destroyed, not by Fox News, but by himself and everyone saw it.
In addition to him embarrassing himself, every day we see as another one of his staff members resign; he is becoming weaker and has less people around him. As he was told during his interview with Shepard Smith, he’s a man on an island by himself. The rest of Puerto Rico becomes stronger, angrier and more united every day.
Unstoppable María 