Hours after Governor Ricardo Rosselló resisted calls to step down over leaked — mocking victims of Hurricane Maria and attacking fellow politicians with misogynistic slurs — an 400,000 Puerto Ricans took to the streets on July 22 and demanded Rosselló's resignation.
"The people have spoken," New York Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — whose mother was born in Puerto Rico — in response to video footage of Puerto Ricans flooding miles of the Las Américas highway.
The highway march — described as in the island's history — was part of an island-wide aimed at forcing Rosselló's ouster.
As the New York Times , classes on the island were canceled, the largest mall in San Juan was closed, and banks did not open amid the massive demonstrations against Rosselló.
In an on July 21, Rosselló announced he was stepping down as head of his party and would not run for reelection in 2020, but stopped short of resigning.
"Governor Ricardo Rosselló has made further mockery of the Puerto Rican people by refusing to leave office," the progressive coalition Power 4 Puerto Rico said in a statement on July 22. "As worldwide demonstrations calling for the governor to step down continue, the legislature of Puerto Rico must now commence an impeachment process based on the ample evidence corroborated by many jurists of Rosselló breaking the law."
Laura Rexach Olivencia, a Puerto Rico radio host, Rosselló's refusal to listen to the public and step down "a slap in the face to all Puerto Ricans".
"For him to think he can keep governing for another year and a half as if nothing has happened is insulting to our core," said Olivencia.
Author and environmentalist Naomi Klein — who has written extensively on how Wall Street vultures have Puerto Rico's debt crisis for profit as residents suffer — called the demonstrations "absolutely extraordinary" and said they are about problems that run much deeper than Rosselló.
"Sending love and solidarity to Puerto Rican revolutionaries who are showing the world how it's done," Klein . "This is about #RickyRenuncia but also the , the odious debt, and the right to sovereignty on every front!"
[Reprinted from .]