SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Protesters in Puerto Rico gathered outside La Fortaleza, the governor's residence, on Sunday, demanding Gov. Ricardo Rossello step down for his involvement in a private chat in which he used profanities to describe an ex-New York City councilwoman and a federal control board overseeing the island's finances.
The demonstrators, including teachers, union workers, students, members of a feminist collective and others, congregated in front of the mansion chanting, "Ricky resign, the people don't want you!"
The governor's office said in a statement Sunday that Rossello was not resigning, in spite of the recent "difficulties," and added that he had spent the day holding meetings with agency directors. He plans to announce a government reorganization and anti-corruption measures in the coming days, the statement said.
"We do not give up on the work underway, and today more than ever, many people are counting on my commitment to that work," Rossello said in a statement in Spanish.
Michelle De la Cruz, the undersecretary of La Fortaleza's press office, said she did not know if the governor was home on Sunday. The residence's main doors were padlocked, and other entrances were barricaded shut and monitored by police.
Some activists say they are ashamed of the language used by Rossello in the group chat and the ways the reputation of the U.S. territory might be affected.
The chat, which came to light last week, showed that the governor called former New York City Council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito the Spanish word for "whore," and in English told the oversight board to "go f*** yourself" followed by a string of emojis with the middle finger raised.
Two top officials, Chief Financial Officer Christian Sobrino and Secretary of State Luis G. Rivera Marin, have already resigned over the chat.
Rossello said at a church in the capital of San Juan on Sunday that he was humbled by events and would look to God to guide him through "figurative or real" hurricanes.
He said that his "commitment is to learn from what was done" and continue "advancing efforts so that Puerto Rico can move forward."
The messages in the private chat, which Puerto Ricans dubbed #TelegramGate and #RickyLeaks, appeared to unleash anger over grievances against the Rossello administration that had begun accumulating even before Hurricane Maria struck the island in 2017.
Puerto Rico's finances have been controlled by a federal oversight board since 2016, the year Rossello was elected, limiting his ability to govern and simultaneously making him party to unpopular economic austerity policies. The bankrupt island has been in a recession for 12 years.
But it was Rossello's handling of the slow storm recovery, including what many Puerto Ricans viewed as his meek approach toward President Donald Trump, that put him under increased scrutiny. His government took nearly a year to acknowledge that thousands of people had died in Maria's aftermath.
A series of corruption scandals, including the arrests Wednesday of two former Cabinet members, further diminished Rossello's power. Still, he had been expected to run for re-election in 2020.
But on Saturday morning, the Center for Investigative Journalism published the entirety of the leaked chat, which spanned from late 2018 to January and included Rossello and 11 other men in his close political circle. The cache of messages showed that the governor and his current and former aides had also derided many others, including leaders of their New Progressive Party and the Puerto Rican celebrity Ricky Martin.
Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz of San Juan, a candidate for governor and a critic of Rossello, said on Puerto Rican radio Saturday that she had filed a police complaint against Rossello and his former chief financial officer, Christian Sobrino, over a leaked message in which Sobrino had written in Spanish about Cruz: "I am salivating to shoot her."
"You do me a favor," Rossello appeared to respond.
By Saturday afternoon, Rep. Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, Puerto Rico's nonvoting member in Congress and a member of the Progressive Party, said that Rossello should not seek re-election in 2020 and the governor should "immediately reflect on his role as governor."
"I feel ashamed by everything being said in these private communications," she said. "The people are disgusted, disappointed by this telenovela."
Information for this article was contributed by Patricia Mazzei of The New York Times; and by staff members of The Associated Press.
A Section on 07/15/2019