THE ELECTORAL PROCESS AS A COLONIAL TRICKERY

Nichole Bodin
Published: 10/03/2024, 2:46pm, EST
Updated: 11/17/2024, 9:46am EST

  On Sunday Sept. 22^nd, 2024, Jenniffer González Colón, a Trumpist and  current resident commissioner of Puerto Rico in the United States House of Representatives arrived at the Puerto Rico Coliseum José Miguel Agrelot (Choliseo) dressed as the powerful leader and warrior ‘Wonder Woman', sporting a red outfit and wearing a gaudy tiara with bizarre golden bracelets.

    This message transmitted as an introduction for the convention had a clear sexual insinuation. González unabashedly danced prior to her taciturn speech in which she said "LUMA out", with a clear allusion that if she achieves the governorship, she will eliminate the consortium in charge of the electric service.

JGo (González’s stage name) strongly condemned the LUMA Energy contract, a private power company that is responsible for power distribution, maintenance and modernization of the current inefficient power infrastructure in Puerto Rico. González severely criticized the slowness in the use of funds for reconstruction and the ineffectiveness of the Pierluisi administration, going so far as to say that she “is not part of this administration” because she is a federal legislator although elected by the people as Resident Commissioner and in the same ballot as Governor Pierluisi.

PNP Assembly: JGo arrives as “Wonder Woman” and says that LUMA is leaving.

   A transfiguration and apparent unfriendliness between these PNP members (New Progressive Party) imparts a false sense of change anchored in the same party structure and is becoming more of a brand with a political nickname. JGo is not the first woman to run for governor of Puerto Rico, although she is the first for the New Progressive Party (PNP). Wanda Vázquez, who became governor by succession after the forced resignation of Ricardo Roselló in the summer of 2019, was defeated in primaries by Pedro Pierluisi. Vázquez served as governor of Puerto Rico from 2019 to 2020, was Secretary of Justice before that, and was indicted on bribery charges related to the financing of her 2020 election campaign.

    JGo is now on the focus of attention by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations). Just recently, she has been in a recent FBI report that shows that the agency suspects the possibility of a conspiracy in 2019 to unseat the constitutional governor, Wanda Vázquez, so that the New Progressive leaders Thomas Rivera Schatz and/or González could occupy the position. This occurred under the direction of the then director of the FBI, Douglas Leff.

   Leff led the investigation for which Vázquez Garced agreed to use covert microphones to record conversations. It began with one he had with a Department of Justice contractor who had been approached by former Juvenile Institutions administrator Miguel Rivera Hernández about “arranging a meeting between Vázquez and (Rivera Schatz) about the governorship.”Rivera Hernández is Rivera Schatz's cousin and a federal convict for public corruption.

    This “significant episode” occurred while Vázquez Garced was secretary of the Department of Justice and the resigning Ricardo Rosselló Nevares left his governor position. Now, the motion highlights that Vázquez Garced went to the FBI to report an alleged corrupt scheme in Summer of '19 in which two politicians allegedly tried to bribe her to appoint an elected official of the New Progressive Party (PNP) as secretary of State to replace Ricardo Rosselló after his resignation. For this move, Vázquez Garced had to leave aside the constitutional order that left her in office, having been Secretary of Justice at that time and there being no person in the position of Secretary of State.

     However, newspaper reports from 2019 indicate that the president of the Senate, Thomas Rivera Shatz, pushed Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González to be appointed Secretary of State to assume the governorship. That same year, Puerto Rican officials confirmed that Vásquez was under an investigation for suspicions of mismanagement of resources intended to mitigate the damage caused by the earthquake that occurred in January of that year. Feeling pressure to prevent her arrival in La Fortaleza in the middle of the Summer of 19, or to remove her if she succeeded, the former governor Vázquez reported to the FBI an alleged bribery scheme by two large leaders of his party. This scandalous disclosure was made known in a motion by one of the two co-defendants, Julio Herrera Velutini and Mark T. Rossini, in the case Vázquez faces for conspiracy, bribery and honest services wire fraud. 

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By October 17, 2024, the electoral commissioner of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), Karla Angleró González, and alternate commissioner, Gerardo “Toñito” Cruz, denounced an alleged electoral fraud scheme of the New Progressive Party (PNP) with requests for early voting by mail.

In the case of the small town of Villalba, it was publicly denounced that the local commissioner for the PNP, Arkel Sánchez Torres, processed, under oath, more than 40 requests for early voting by mail for voters residing in the United States.

Earlier that week, the U.S. Attorney's Office appointed the head of the Financial Fraud and Corruption Section, Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Erbe, to serve as District Election Officer (DEO) for the District of Puerto Rico. Erbe is responsible for overseeing the handling of complaints about voting rights issues, threats of violence to election officials or staff, and voter fraud, in consultation with the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington. But not much has been done.

Municipal employees of Naranjito alleged that they were forced to take photos of the ballots with the vote under the PNP insignia. Allegations about targeting people who are dead as voters and taking advantage of elders, as well as claims that people voted for JGO in exchange for continuing to receive benefits from Section 8 (housing benefits), while the PNP party defends themselves saying that these are unfounded complaints. Rumors about people being forced to vote for JGO created a serious contention.

But after all of that commotion, and as expected, Jenniffer González won the elections. The news of her winning the governorship was carried with a sentiment of total dissatisfaction and hopelessness for those who anguish for a change for the better.  On Nov 6, protesters gathered in front of the headquarters of the Government of Puerto Rico to protest the results of the elections. She has been viciously called "corrupt" by various citizens and local media after all of the corrupt controversies exposed over the news and this has definitely tampered the hope that the supposed democratic process should have brought.

But none of these accusations about schemes and voter fraud are going to be resolved. These complaints of electoral crimes will forever remain pending and there is no interest in being resolved at all. This is the effect of the obsolete colonial policy that shamelessly excludes the freedom of speech and most definitely the human right of living with opportunities, depraving education, eliminating health care and extinguishing the hope of an overall well being. Locals feel like they are living in a senseless colonial time, for which these colonizers (that still infiltrate schemes to steal land) will incessantly remain in power due to a strong pirate gene habit that nepotism will endure for many years to come.

SOURCES

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EFE Latam Videos. (2024, November 5). Llaman “corrupta” a la candidata Jenniffer González al votar en comicios de Puerto Rico. Yahoo News; Yahoo Noticias. https://es-us.noticias.yahoo.com/llaman-corrupta-candidata-jenniffer-gonz%C3%A1lez-201300393.html

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Suárez, D. (n.d.). [CHEQUEO DE DATOS] Jenniffer González, sobre la empleada que filtró datos electorales: “Yo no la puedo botar, no la puede botar Aníbal”. Centro De Periodismo Investigativo. https://periodismoinvestigativ...