The Electoral Process as a Colonial Trickery

Nichole Bodin

Published:10/03/2024, 2:46pm
Updated: 10/18/2024, 2:21pm

On Sunday Sept. 22^nd, 2024, Jenniffer González Colón, a Trumpist lawyer and the 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.

The New Progressive Party started their assembly with a strong sexual message and with reggaeton music on Sept. 22.

Photo credit: NOTICEL / Santiago Omar Escobar Colon

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 energy transmission.

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.

A transfiguration and apparent unfriendliness between these PNP members (New Progressive Party) imparts a false sense of change anchored in the same party structure at 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.

However, 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.

Since the Electoral Code designed by the PNP was approved in 2020, the conditions are in place for the elections to be fraudulent with numerous unclarified accusations that the PNP had “won” by cheating. This disaster has deeply intensified when the real authority to investigate simply say that the electoral machines just miscounted.

The PNP Electoral Code supposedly simplified and facilitated the request for absentee voting and the use of mail to send votes became acceptable. Allegedly, this could facilitate illegal absentee voting, such as Puerto Ricans in the diaspora, giving an address as if they are residents and voting by mail in Puerto Rican elections even though, upon moving to the Mainland, they lost that right. Control of the CEE (State Election Commission) was placed in the hands of the Presidency, which is PNP.

In Puerto Rico, there has been low participation that seems to be caused mainly by apathy, something that contradicts democratic principles. This enforces the colonialism impacts environmental degradation, the spread of disease, financial uncertainty, cultural oppositions, and more importantly human rights violations, enforcing the charade of the democratic vote sham.

Jenniffer Gonzalez arriving to a New Progressive Party assembly in 2023. Photo credit: El Nuevo Dia

SOURCES

Luz. (2024, September 27). Las caras de Jennifer González: la política como “performance.” Metro Puerto Rico. https://www.metro.pr/opinion/2...

Melgar, A. (2022, August 4). Acusan a Wanda Vázquez, exgobernadora de Puerto Rico, de cargos de corrupción durante su campaña en 2020. CNN; CNN en Español. https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/202...

‌Metro Puerto Rico. (2024, September 27). DOCUMENTO: FBI indagó sobre posible conspiración para sacar a Wanda Vázquez de Fortaleza. Metro Puerto Rico. https://www.metro.pr/noticias/...

Narváez, C. (2024). Jennifer González “se disfraza de cualquier cosa para lograr el voto de la audiencia.” Noticel.com. https://www.noticel.com/elecci...

PBS NewsHour, & Carey, T. (2017, September 29). The Jones Act, explained (and what waiving it means for Puerto Rico). PBS NewsHour. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/n...

Rivera, I. (2024, July 20). Las elecciones de 2024: Fraude a la vista. Metro Puerto Rico. https://www.metro.pr/opinion/2...

Rivera, J. (2024, September 27). Revelan que Wanda Vázquez grabó a TRS y JGo tras denunciar alegado soborno al FBI. WAPA.TV. https://wapa.tv/noticias/local...

Serrano, O. J. (2024). Wanda Vázquez grabó a Rivera Schatz y a González Colón alegando soborno ante FBI. Noticel.com. https://www.noticel.com/tribun...