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Pedro Pierluisi has just become governor for his sixth term. This momentum in Puerto Rican politics in the twenty-first century has been interrupted only by two midterm governors: Ricardo Rosselló and Wanda Vázquez, who were abandoned like the rest.
Why? The LUMA blackout was a unanimous response. Of course, Governor Pierluisi was the promoter, defender and implementer of LUMA as the privatization of the state’s electricity system. It is therefore hard to avoid thinking that the primary election would somehow turn into a referendum on LUMA. In this context, the crushing defeat of Pierluisi should not surprise anyone.
But Pierluisi’s defeat was not just about dissatisfaction with the LUMA blackout. During the union protests in February 2022, I wrote a column titled “Pierluisi has resigned.” He then argued:
Telling the police and firefighters, whose fair wages and decent retirement claims they have no obligation to continue in those positions, shows the typical callousness and stupidity of petty tyrants and spoiled brats. This is not the proper response of a ruler in a democracy where moral, BroadCast Unitedlectual and ethical authority is a condition of institutional leadership. If he were king, he would go down in history as Peter the Little, because he could not even reach Peter the Cruel. Theirs is not cruelty, but the arrogance of powerless men. The position of Governor has become so important to him that he has sent us all to the farthest reaches of the ship. If you don’t like your working conditions, don’t bother, go do something else or leave the country, he seems to tell us without hesitation. Curiously, he does not say the same thing to the mayors of Guaynabo and Cataño, who, instead of protesting for higher wages, have increased them by stealing..
LUMA was not the reason for Pedro Jr.’s defeat. Nor was it the populism of Jenniffer González, the mother of a Trumpist family and a fervent Christian who now distances herself from her involvement in the NPP government for more than two decades. Pierluisi’s defeat was due to his arrogance and his contempt for the electorate. As I said in February 2022: More than a year after his election, Pierluisi has given up facing national problems with decorum and composure. His phobia (hatred of the poor) is stronger than his ambition. With no profession and no moral verticality, the protests of the populace with dilapidated cars and teachers, policemen, firefighters and nurses living on the edge of poverty reveal their cowardice; he retreats. The man is mean, but rarely has a temper.
The Popular Party voters, his people, passed his bills. Those who drove old cars, waited long hours in medical centers and prayed, their souls connected, trying their best every month, did not believe what was happening. They compared the ads with reality while carefully observing the ranks of corrupt people in the federal courts: Angel Perez, Pierluisi’s cousin, Tata Charbonnier, Elcano Delgado, Raymond Rodríguez (JR Asphalt), Wanda Vázquez.
The millionaire PAC, the $5 million illegally looted for his campaign, the online photos and misleading ads were not enough to dispel the sense of abandonment among the NPP voters. After his disastrous defeat, Pedro Pierluis became part of the pantheon of evil rulers who led to the collapse of the country’s political economy. It will be another mummy of that failed ruling class.
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