Battle for Power in Puerto Rico Heads to Island’s Supreme Court

(Bloomberg) -- Puerto Rico's roiling political crisis has entered a new phase, with the U.S. territory's top court agreeing to consider whether newly sworn Governor Pedro Pierluisi assumed the office legally.

The island's supreme court responded rapidly to a lawsuit filed Sunday by Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz seeking an order to force Pierluisi to give up the functions of the office. The court ordered all sides to submit written arguments by Tuesday at noon.

The court hasn't said whether it will hold a hearing and it's unclear how soon it might issue a decision, but as the ruling would cover a local constitutional issue, the island's top court will have final say.

Pierluisi was nominated for secretary of state by former Governor Ricardo Rossello, putting him next in line for the island's governorship. But his nomination didn't get a vote in the Senate -- dominated by Pierluisi's own deeply-fractured New Progressive Party (PNP) -- a requirement under the island's constitution, according to Pierluisi's critics.

The dizzying developments that followed reflected the constantly moving story playing out simultaneously in court, the halls of the legislature and the streets of San Juan, where protesters have been active for much of the the past month and forced Rossello's resignation , which took effect Friday.

‘Nonviolent Coup'

“Pierluisi became governor in a nonviolent coup orchestrated by Rossello and himself,” said San Juan's mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, a member of the opposition Popular Democratic Party who filed a separate petition with the high court seeking his removal. “Pierluisi the usurper is a more refined version of the same corruption that sent people out to the streets of San Juan.”

Rossello announced he'd resign on July 24 after weeks of massive protests that followed leaks of chat messages in which he mocked and disparaged the commonwealth's citizens.

Pierluisi's first remarks as “governor” implied he would accept a Senate vote, but late Sunday, he appeared to say that the Senate's decision on his nomination was moot, and he wanted judges to decide. Shortly before Monday's Senate session, he changed tack again, saying he would respect the will of the chamber if it voted on his “incumbency.” By Monday evening, Pierluisi said he would “await the decision” of the supreme court.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere in the island's corridors of power appeared to hover somewhere between “House of Cards” and “Macbeth”.

Jenniffer Gonzalez, the island's nonvoting member of the U.S. congress, made her way into Rivera Schatz's office through a crush of reporters Monday, saying she didn't want to see the crisis resolved through “any legal subterfuge.” She said Pierluisi's appointment required approval by both chambers of the legislature.

‘Vulture Governor'

At a raucous debate in the senate Monday, one opposition lawmaker savaged Pierluisi as a “vulture governor,” while Rivera Schatz mocked his fellow member of the New Progressive Party.

“They made all the calls, all the lobbying, they had all the time in the world and what they have is five votes,” said Rivera Schatz, holding his hand up for emphasis.

Protesters who forced Rossello out have demanded a general reordering of the island's ossified political structure and now have their sights set on Pierluisi. The streets of San Juan's colonial quarter, where the governor's mansion is, bear fresh graffiti reading “Pierluisi you're next!” and “Puerto Rico has no governor.”

The street activists criticized Pierluisi for his role in creating a controversial fiscal oversight board that has controlled the island's finances since 2016, to his law firm's representation of that board as well as the utility giant AES Corp., which had been accused of polluting the island's groundwater with toxic ash.

“The people are not satisfied with this establishment and request to democratically elect their leader,” said Rosa Segui Cordero, a spokeswoman for the Citizen's Victory Movement, a political coalition formed earlier this year which has been active in the protests. “Until this is obtained, the popular uprising will remain, strong and united.”

The image of an unelected governor ruling by decree as various factions within the ruling PNP descend into a spiral of internecine plotting and mutual recrimination was probably not the change many sought.

“The governing class has proven oblivious to the concerns of the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets,” said Efren Rivera Ramos, a law professor at the University of Puerto Rico. “The real crisis here is not a constitutional one, but a deeply political crisis that confirms the failings of an entrenched, perverted political culture.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Deibert in San Juan at mdeibert@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Matthew Bristow at mbristow5@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider, Michael B. Marois

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