Florida political leaders responded to protests taking place in Puerto Rico amid the publication of a private chat. In it, the governor of Puerto Rico and top officials wrote misogynist and homophobic comments about artists and politicians.

More: ’Chatgate’ scandal threatens to doom Puerto Rico's governor: 'I think Ricardo Rosselló has lost legitimacy'

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio said today in a tweet that he doesn't have an opinion on whether Governor Ricardo Rosselló should step down but that the scandal engulfing his administration is negatively affecting his efforts to help Puerto Rico in Washington.

"I'm not going to opine on whether Governor Rosselló should resign because I'm not a voter in Puerto Rico, he is not accountable to me," Rubio said in a 38-second video uploaded to his Twitter account. "What I can tell you as a federal official who cares a lot about Puerto Rico and its future is that this controversy has made it more difficult to work on behalf of Puerto Rico."

He continued: "I can tell you that as long as governor Rosselló is in his position, it's going to make it difficult," Rubio said. "We are going to continue to do everything we can because I don't believe that the people of Puerto Rico should be punished for the wrong doings of politicians."

U.S. Senator Rick Scott made several trips to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria decimated the island in 2017, leaving millions of American citizens without power for months. "Puerto Rican families deserve better," Scott said in a tweet on July 14. "I’ve been there for the island and I remain committed to the families of Puerto Rico."

Scott went further in a following tweet. "But all credibility has been lost," he wrote. "It is clear that the families of Puerto Rico need leadership committed to creating better opportunities on the island."

The chat is not the only reason why some Puerto Ricans are protesting in the island and in cities like Miami and Orlando.

"Former Education Secretary Julia Keleher and Ángela Ávila-Marrero, former head of Puerto Rico's Health Insurance Administration, were arrested on 32 counts of fraud, theft and money laundering, along with two businessmen and two sisters who worked as education contractors," USA Today reported last week.

More than 1 million Puerto Ricans lived in Florida in 2016, according to the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Florida. This figure has likely gone up after thousands of Puerto Ricans moved to Florida amid the Hurricane Maria crisis.

Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory of the United States and has one non-voting representative in U.S. Congress.

More: US lawmaker who oversees Puerto Rico calls for governor to resign after 6 arrested on corruption charges </s> Rosselló’s administration was rocked by the publication of a trove of derisive messages sent by the governor and some of his Cabinet members and top aides in a private chat on the messaging app Telegram. The messages mocked political foes and allies alike, often with profanity.

On Saturday, the governor tried to contain the fallout of the rapidly unfolding scandal by announcing that his chief financial officer and secretary of state had stepped down over their participation in the chat. But the high-profile exits proved insufficient to quell the widespread furor on the island that mushroomed in the hours after 889 pages of Telegram messages were published by Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism.

Protesters gathered outside the governor’s mansion, La Fortaleza, in San Juan late into the night Saturday and demanded Rosselló’s resignation, less than 18 months before the end of his term.

On Sunday, Rosselló attended services at an evangelical church in Carolina, Puerto Rico, and said he had sought forgiveness.

“I humble myself before you and before the Almighty for the faults I have committed,” he said, according to a report in the El Nuevo Día newspaper. Outside of the governor’s mansion, demonstrators used a previously planned march to insist on Rosselló’s resignation. The protests continued into the afternoon. The authorities deployed police officers in riot gear.

The governor’s office said in a statement Sunday that Rosselló 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,” Rosselló said in a statement in Spanish.

The messages in the private chat, which Puerto Ricans dubbed #TelegramGate and #RickyLeaks, appeared to unleash anger over grievances against the Rosselló administration that had begun accumulating even before Hurricane Maria decimated the island in 2017.

Puerto Rico’s finances have been controlled by a federal oversight board since 2016, the year Rosselló 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 Rosselló’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 Rosselló’s power. Still, he had been expected to run for re-election in 2020.

Some of Rosselló’s critics, including Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz of San Juan, a candidate for governor, said on Puerto Rican radio Saturday that the scandal surrounding the governor would only fuel more distrust from Washington, where Trump has made clear that he does not want to send the island more federal aid.

Cruz also said she had filed a police complaint against Rosselló 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,” Rosselló appeared to respond.

Radio and television stations on the island ran special coverage about the scandal over the weekend, extending their broadcasts into the night much as they had done during Hurricane Maria. Pundits opined that Rosselló’s departure would be imminent, whether he resigned or lawmakers convened to push him out.

Any intended transition was complicated by the departure Saturday of Luis Rivera Marín, Rosselló’s secretary of state and lieutenant governor, who would have assumed the governorship in the event Rosselló chose to resign. The next official in the line of succession is the secretary of justice, Wanda Vázquez Garced.

Rosselló, 40, apologized Thursday after an excerpt from the chat was first published by local media showing he had referred to Melissa Mark-Viverito, the former speaker of the New York City Council, who was born in Puerto Rico, using the Spanish word for “whore.” In English, he also used a profane expression in reference to the oversight board that controls Puerto Rico’s finances, followed by emojis of a raised middle finger.

In a news conference held shortly after he returned from cutting short a family vacation in France, Rosselló insisted late Thursday that he would remain in office.

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 Rosselló 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.

By Saturday afternoon, Rep. Jenniffer González-Colón, Puerto Rico’s nonvoting member in Congress and a member of the New Progressive Party, said that Rosselló should not seek reelection 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.”

Puerto Rico’s Senate president and House majority leader, both of whom are members of Rosselló’s party and had been mocked in the chat, also said they had lost faith in the governor. So did Martin, an actor and singer. The trap artist Bad Bunny urged Puerto Ricans to take to the streets.

Rosselló and the other participants also conducted public business on the chat, even though some of the men no longer worked in the administration and should not have been privy to some of the internal details under discussion.

In one exchange, Sobrino, the former chief financial officer who also was the governor’s representative to the oversight board, responded to a question about the budget for forensic pathologists by cracking a joke about the dead bodies accumulating during and after the hurricane at the understaffed morgue.

“Now that we are on the subject, don’t we have some cadavers to feed our crows?” he wrote, apparently referring to the administration’s critics. “Clearly they need attention.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times. </s> Protests demanding the immediate resignation of Puerto Rico governor Ricardo A. Rosselló erupted for a third day Monday night, with police in riot gear creating a human barricade outside of the governor’s mansion and launching tear gas and pepper spray into the crowd.

Demonstrations began after hundreds of pages from a private group chat between the 40-year-old governor and nine confidants leaked Saturday, exposing a profanity-riddled conversation.

The newest scandal — which has been called “Chatgate” or “Rickyleaks” — led several country officials to pull their support for Rosselló and comes days after the FBI arrested two former officials on corruption charges for the misuse of $15.5 million in federal funding between 2017 and 2019.

The misogynistic chat, stored on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, used racial and homophobic slurs and included derogatory comments about Rosselló’s political rivals.

There are crude comments directed at a federal control board overseeing Puerto Rico’s financial crisis, singer Ricky Martin’s sexuality and former New York City Council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.

Former chief fiscal officer Sobrino complained about San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz in the leaked conversations, according to CNN. After saying he would like to shoot her, Rosselló replied, “You’d be doing me a grand favor.”

In the Telegram group were Luis Rivera Marín, Rosselló’s secretary of state; Christian Sobrino, the one-time chief fiscal officer who sat on the board managing Puerto Rico’s fiscal crisis; Carlos Bermúdez, a former communications aide; Edwin Miranda, a communications consultant; Interior Secretary Ricardo Llerandi; Public Affairs Secretary Anthony Maceira and Elías Sánchez, who once worked on the board overseeing the country’s bankruptcy.

Of the men, Rivera Marín, Sobrino, Bermúdez and Miranda have resigned or been fired and Llerandi has tendered his resignation.

Mark-Viverito has traveled to Puerto Rico to join demonstrators calling for his resignation.

Other Puerto Rican artists — like Lin Manuel Miranda and Benito A. Martínez Ocasio, known Bad Bunny — have voiced their support of the protests.

[FBI makes arrests in Puerto Rico corruption scandal, prompting calls for governor’s ouster and concerns about billions in storm aid]

According to CNN, the first lady, Beatriz Rosselló, defended her husband in a letter to the nation, claiming that he “made a mistake, he recognized it, and immediately apologized for it."

Late Monday, Rosselló released a statement saying he respected the protests and was taking their message into account.

[Puerto Rico corruption scandal ripples through Washington as White House, Congress call for greater spending scrutiny]

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He’s the Rush Limbaugh of Brazil. He has Bolsonaro’s ear. And he lives in rural Virginia. </s> Embattled Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló refused to step down Tuesday amid demonstrations calling for his resignation after a series of scandals that continue to rock his administration of the island territory.

“Aside from these [protests] I recognize their importance, I recognize the magnitude, and it’s important to me that the government continues working for the island and we get results,” he said at a news conference, according to McClatchy D.C.

Rosselló’s government was thrown into chaos Saturday after the Center for Investigative Journalism in Puerto Rico released 889 pages containing sexist, homophobic and profane text messages from the encrypted app Telegram between him and 11 other male members of his administration.

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The chat group included Luis Rivera Marín, Rosselló’s secretary of state; Christian Sobrino, who held a series of important economic posts; Carlos Bermúdez, a onetime communications aide; Edwin Miranda, a communications consultant; Interior Secretary Ricardo Llerandi; Public Affairs Secretary Anthony Maceira; and Elías Sánchez, onetime representative to the board overseeing Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy

In the leaks, Rosselló describes New York politician Melissa Mark-Viverito, who was born in Puerto Rico, as the Spanish word for “wh—,” and made fun of Puerto Rican pop star Ricky Martin for being gay.

San Juan Mayor — and frequent critic of President Trump — Carmen Yulin Cruz was also targeted. “I’m dying to shoot her up,” Rosselló’s chief financial officer, Christian Sobrino, said of Cruz in the chat.

The chat also contained emojis of a raised middle finger directed at the federal control board that oversees the island’s finances. Rivera Marín, Sobrino, Bermúdez and Miranda have already resigned or been fired.

The leaks came days after six former government officials and contractors, including the commonwealth’s former education secretary, were arrested in a federal corruption probe.

Protesters took to the cobblestone streets of Old San Juan on Monday evening holding signs and chanting, “Ricky, renuncia,” or Ricky, resign. Some participants spray-painted insults used in the chats on walls.

Rosselló said 21 police officers were injured during confrontations with the crowd; police used tear gas to disperse protesters who lit fireworks in front of the governor’s mansion.

“We cannot protect vandalism, aggression and violence,” the governor said. “I want to make sure that following this blow, we can rise again.”

The scandals are a blow to Puerto Rico, which is still recovering from the devastation left by Hurricane Maria in 2017 and a continuing debt crisis and 13-year recession.

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Rosselló’s refusal to resign has elicited outrage from Puerto Ricans in Florida, many whom migrated after the hurricane.

“The institutions of government in Puerto Rico are as fragile as its infrastructure after Maria,” Jorge Bonilla, a conservative Puerto Rican talk-show host based in Central Florida, told McClatchy. “I think it’s unsustainable that he continues to be governor. … At this point you have to wonder what more can happen before Congress takes control” of the island.”

Members of Rosselló’s pro-statehood New Progressive Party do not support beginning impeachment proceedings against him, said Carlos Méndez Núñez, the president of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives.

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He said Rosselló was given a one-week deadline to show he can govern.

“This week he’ll meet with mayors, with legislators, and we have to give him this time,” Méndez Núñez said. “Impeachment isn’t on the table yet. But we reserve the right to evaluate if that’s merited.”

Fox News reporter Robert Gearty and The Associated Press contributed to this report. </s> San Juan, P.R. — Defying growing calls for his immediate resignation, Puerto Rico's beleaguered Gov. Ricardo Rosselló on Tuesday vowed to remain in office and bring more transparency and accountability to the Puerto Rican government. In recent days, his office has been rocked by high-profile corruption arrests and escalating protests over the revelation of vulgar and inappropriate private messages between the governor and his staff.

A political crisis has swept the Caribbean island — home to approximately 3.2 million U.S. citizens — since a non-profit journalism group, Puerto Rico's Center for Investigative Journalism, published a trove of messages in which Rosselló and his top lieutenants mocked political opponents, talked about retaliating against journalists and made sexist and homophobic remarks. The scandal prompted the resignation of several officials in the messaging group, including his secretary of state and chief financial officer, but the governor has tried to quell the fallout and save his political career.

Protesters call for Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló's ouster outside his official residence in the heart of San Juan. LUIS ALCALA DEL OLMO / AP

During his first press conference since the crude messages were leaked, Rosselló said that after days of introspection, he had determined that it was in the best interest of the island for him to continue in his role.

"I'm not proud of what I did," he told reporters at his official residence in the capital on Wednesday when asked about the leaked messages by CBS News. "Those were merely comments — but they were hurtful comments. So, I apologize for what I've done but again, I need to move forward and continue on the work we're doing for Puerto Rico."

Pressed about the leaked messages, dubbed #Telegramgate by Puerto Ricans in reference to the app used by the group, Rosselló cited a legal analysis that supposedly determined that they did not contain evidence of any criminal act. "I did not commit illegal acts or ones of corruption. I did commit inappropriate acts," he told reporters.

He would not say who conducted the analysis and demurred when asked by CBS News if the findings of the internal probe would be released.

Puerto Rico‘s Governor told us a legal analysis was done to determine that the contents in the 889 page chats, that were leaked, were not illegal. He wouldn’t tell us who did that legal analysis and he wouldn’t give us a copy. — David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) July 16, 2019

The embattled governor stressed he was committed to protecting the First Amendment rights of his detractors — who in recent days have surrounded Rosselló's residence, La Fortaleza, to call for his ouster and clashed with police. On Monday night, police equipped with riot gear used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse the crowd outside La Fortaleza. But the governor urged the protesters to not turn to violence.

Rosselló also strongly denied that either he or his wife were were being investigated by federal authorities conducting a sweeping corruption probe on the island. Last week, the FBI arrested two former agency directors in Rosselló's administration and accused them of illegally diverting federal funds to political consultants.

The White House on Tuesday said the political crisis vindicated President Trump's repeated accusations that the Puerto Rican government is corrupt.

"The unfortunate events of the past week in Puerto Rico prove the President's concerns about mismanagement, politicization, and corruption have been valid," White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement. "We remain committed to Puerto Rico's recovery and steadfast in protecting taxpayers and the Puerto Rico survivors from political corruption and financial abuse."

During the press conference, Rosselló, who has sparred with Mr. Trump repeatedly over Washington's handling of recovery efforts in the aftermath of the devastation caused by hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, responded to the White House's statement by saying corruption is a social "ill" rampant in both government and the private sector. He vowed to combat it during the remainder of his tenure.

"I just hope we can have a serious conversation about what we're doing to battle it as opposed to pointing fingers," he said. </s> Puerto Rico governor Ricardo Rossello holds a press conference, almost two days after federal authorities arrested the island’s former secretary of education and five other people on charges of steering federal money to unqualified, politically connected contractors, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Thursday, July 11, 2019. At the time of the arrests, Rossello was in the middle of a family vacation in France, which he canceled to travel back to the Island. U.S. Attorney for Puerto Rico Rosa Emilia Rodríguez said Gov. Ricardo Rossello was not involved in the investigation. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Nearly two years ago, Hurricane María exposed the raw dysfunction of Puerto Rico, collapsing long-neglected infrastructure and leaving several thousand dead on Gov. Ricardo Rosselló’s watch. Last week, two of his top former officials were arrested by the FBI on corruption charges.

But the scandal that is threatening to buckle the boyish 40-year-old governor centers on a profanity-laced and at times misogynistic online chat with nine other male members of his administration in which some of the U.S. territory’s most powerful men act like a bunch of teenagers. The leak of at least 889 pages of the private chat has sunk Rosselló into the deepest crisis of his career.

In the chats on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, Rosselló calls one New York female politician of Puerto Rican background a “whore,” describes another as a “daughter of a bitch” and makes fun of an obese man he posed with in a photo. The chat also contains vulgar references to Puerto Rican star Ricky Martin’s homosexuality and a series of emojis of a raised middle finger directed at a federal control board overseeing the island’s finances.

For many Puerto Ricans still recovering from one of the United States’ worst-ever disasters, on the back of the island’s biggest public financial collapse, the scandal analysts and ordinary people are calling “Chatgate” or “Rickyleaks” has proven to be too much.

Thousands of protesters marched in the capital for a third day Monday to call for Rosselló’s resignation. Police tried to disperse the marchers with pepper spray in front of the Fortaleza governor’s residence, which was protected by barricades.

The leaders of the U.S. territory’s house and senate said they weren’t planning impeachment proceedings, but an influential association of mayors from Rosselló’s pro-statehood party said he had lost their support. Puerto Rican artists Benito A. Martínez Ocasio, known Bad Bunny, and René Pérez, known as Residente, both said on Twitter they planned to return to Puerto Rico to join the protests. Playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose production of “Hamilton” on the island is mentioned in the chats, called them “a very disturbing portrait of how this Administration operates.”

Even if Rosselló survives until election day next year, it seems clear to many observers that he has been profoundly weakened and less able to deal with crises ranging from the island’s bankruptcy proceedings to its continued efforts to receive federal funding to help recovery from María.

The governor repeated at a news conference on Tuesday that he has no plan to resign.

“I have not committed an illegal act and I have not committed an act of corruption,” he said. “I committed some improper acts and I asked forgiveness for that.”

Chatgate erupted a day after Rosselló’s former secretary of education and five other people were arrested on charges of steering federal money to unqualified, politically connected contractors. Starting Thursday, an anonymous person or people with access to the chats leaked dozens of pages of them to two local outlets. On Saturday, Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism published 889 pages.

In the chat group were Luis Rivera Marín, Rosselló’s secretary of state; Christian Sobrino, who held a series of important economic posts; Carlos Bermúdez, a one-time communications aide; Edwin Miranda, a communications consultant; Interior Secretary Ricardo Llerandi; Public Affairs Secretary Anthony Maceira and Elías Sánchez, one-time representative to the board overseeing Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy.

The group mentions then-New York City Council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who had criticized Democratic Party head Tom Pérez for opposing Puerto Rican statehood, with Rosselló calling her the Spanish word for “whore.”

Referring to Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan who had announced her intent to run against Rosselló in 2020, the governor says, “she’s off her meds.”

“Either that, or she’s a tremendous HP,” he continues, using the Spanish initials for “son/daughter of a bitch.”

Federal officials said Wednesday morning that former Education Secretary Julia Keleher; former Puerto Rico Health Insurance Administration head Ángela Ávila-Marrero; businessmen Fernando Scherrer-Caillet and Alberto Velázquez-Piñol, and education contractors Glenda E. Ponce-Mendoza and Mayra Ponce-Mendoza, who are sisters, were arrested by the FBI on 32 counts of fraud and related charges.

The alleged fraud involves $15.5 million in federal funding between 2017 and 2019. Thirteen million was spent by the Department of Education during Keleher’s time as secretary while $2.5 million was spent by the insurance administration when Ávila was the director.

Judd Deere, the deputy press secretary for President Donald Trump said Tuesday that “the unfortunate events of the past week in Puerto Rico prove the President’s concerns about mismanagement, politicization, and corruption have been valid.

“We remain committed to Puerto Rico’s recovery and steadfast in protecting taxpayers and the Puerto Rico survivors from political corruption and financial abuse,” he added.

Despite widespread cynicism in Puerto Rico about politicians’ corruption and self-dealing, the chat shocked residents in a way that other scandals haven’t, particularly given Rosselló’s image as a gentle, even meek family man, said Mario Negrón Portillo, a professor at the University of Puerto Rico’s school of public administration.

“Everyone woke up one day and the governor was spouting vulgarities,” Negrón said. “There’s nothing worse for a politician than losing legitimacy. I think Ricardo Rosselló has lost legitimacy.”

One chat member calls the head of the federal oversight board a “kitten.” Another participant jokes that a female member of the territory’s senate belonged in a whorehouse. Along with a photo of himself greeting an obese man, the governor writes “I’m still there. It’s my fourth orbit. He generates a strong gravitational pull.” Talking about a lack of forensic pathologists at a government forensic agency, Sobrino says “can’t we feed a body to the crows?”

Rivera Marín, Sobrino, Bermúdez and Miranda have already resigned or been fired.

Rosselló, the son of former governor Pedro Rosselló, said in a radio interview Monday that “I’m committed to keep working.”

“I know some people think differently, but I’ve determined that it’s better to keep working without distraction, dealing with all the different issues that this situation has created.”

The president of the commonwealth’s House of Representatives, Carlos Méndez Núñez, said Sunday night that legislators from Rosselló’s pro-statehood New Progressive Party, which has a majority in both houses, did not support starting impeachment proceedings against the governor.

Méndez Núñez said Rosselló had been given a one-week deadline to reflect, show contrition and prove he could continue to govern.

“This week he’ll meet with mayors, with legislators, and we have to give him this time,” Méndez Núñez said. “Impeachment isn’t on the table yet. But we reserve the right to evaluate if that’s merited.” </s> ROCHESTER, NY (WROC) — Puerto Ricans in Rochester are uniting in solidarity Wednesday with other Boricuas across the country and on the island, demanding justice for the people in Puerto Rico. They’re are calling for the embattled Governor Ricardo Rosselló to be ousted.

This comes after leaked chat room conversations between Rosselló and 11 others are laced with profane, homophobic, sexist comments and mocked victims of Hurricane Maria.

Last week the FBI arrested two of his former top officials on fraud charges. Rosselló’s administration has been under scrutiny for its spending of government funds after Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017.

Local activists say they have lost confidence in the leaders.

“It speaks volumes to the level of arrogance that the governor has. There are Puerto Ricans who are displaced. In fact the building here houses the majority of the folks were displaced from Puerto Rico,” said Mercedes Vazquez-Simmons, rally organizer & activist.

“It’s embarrassing that we trust a leader and he just literally betrayed us as a country. and we deserve an explanation and we deserve respect, it’s about respect,” said Madeline Santana, activist. “We don’t want him there. It’s very insulting to our community to have a person that makes fun of us, instead of helping us.”

Meanwhile, after several violent protests in the last few days, Governor Rosselló said he will not step down.

“I am not proud of what I did. Those were merely comments they were hurtful comments. I apologize for what I’ve done. I need to move forward and continue doing the work for Puerto Rico.”

Shortly after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, more than 160,000 residents fled the island, to which 3,000 relocated to the greater Rochester area.

The peaceful protest is scheduled for 6pm at Don Samuel Torres Park 50 Oakman Street Rochester, NY. </s> Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló doubled down on his plans to stay in his job after protests calling for his resignation turned violent Monday night. The massive protests injured about two dozen police officers and roughly five protesters were arrested as a result of the demonstration, according to authorities.

During a press conference Tuesday afternoon, the embattled governor said, “I was elected by the people,” citing this as one of his main reasons for not resigning.

The remarks and the protests come in the wake of multiple scandals that have hit the Rosselló administration during recent weeks regarding corruption investigations and the leaking of private chats between the governor and some officials and close associates.

At least 889 pages of the private chats, which included profanity-laced, misogynistic and homophobic comments were released Saturday by Puerto Rico’s top investigative journalism media outlet after excerpts were first reported days before.

In the chats on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, Rosselló made fun of an obese man he posed with in a photo, called former New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito a “whore” and said Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan who had announced her intent to run for governor against Rosselló in 2020, was “off her meds.”

“Either that, or she’s a tremendous HP,” the governor said, using the Spanish initials for “son/daughter of a b----.”

The members of the chat group were Luis Rivera Marín, Rosselló’s secretary of state; Christian Sobrino, who held a series of important economic posts; Carlos Bermúdez, a one-time communications aide; Edwin Miranda, a communications consultant; Interior Secretary Ricardo Llerandi; Public Affairs Secretary Anthony Maceira, and Elías Sánchez, one-time representative to the board overseeing Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy.

The chat also contains vulgar references to Puerto Rican star Ricky Martin’s homosexuality and a series of emojis of a raised middle finger directed at a federal control board overseeing the island’s finances.

Talking about a lack of forensic pathologists as the death toll rose after Hurricane Maria, Sobrino said, “Can’t we feed a body to the crows?”

The scandal has sunk Rosselló into the deepest crisis of his career.

The messages were leaked shortly after Puerto Rico's former secretary of education, former Puerto Rico Health Insurance Administration head Ángela Ávila-Marrero and four other people with government contracts under Rosselló’s administration were arrested last week and are facing 32 counts of money laundering, fraud and other related charges for the alleged embezzlement of $15.5 million in federal funding between 2017 and 2019.

The White House reacted to the unrest in Puerto Rico on Tuesday afternoon saying, “The unfortunate events of the past week in Puerto Rico prove the President’s concerns about the mismanagement, politicization, and corruption have been valid.”

“We remain committed to Puerto Rico’s recovery and steadfast in protecting taxpayers and the Puerto Rico survivors from political corruption and financial abuse,” the statement said.

In reaction to comments from the White House, Rosselló said that “corruption is a social evil” and it “has occurred in all administrations.”

The U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, is expected to make a stop in San Juan on Thursday, as part of an official trip that will take him to Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico and El Salvador.

The scandal comes as the U.S.Senate is prepared to add more restrictions that could limit federal funds for the island, including $12 billion in Medicaid appropriations for the next four years and other hurricane-recovery aid.

Puerto Rico is still recovering from the category 4 hurricane that destroyed the island’s long-neglected infrastructure and power grid and resulted in the deaths of at least 2,975 people, making it the deadliest U.S.-based natural disaster in 100 years and has come to define a sad turning point in the island's history.

For many Puerto Ricans still recovering from Hurricane Maria and on the back of the island’s biggest public financial collapse, the scandal analysts and ordinary people are calling “Chatgate” or “Rickyleaks” has resulted in unprecedented protests against the U.S. commonwealth's chief executive.

As thousands marched in the capital Monday calling for Rosselló’s resignation, police tried to disperse them with pepper spray in front of the Fortaleza governor’s residence, which was protected by barricades.

Puerto Rico police spokesperson Axel Valencia told Telemundo during live coverage of the demonstrations that such protests are one of the biggest, most intense he’d seen in the island in recent history — leaving about 40 properties in Old San Juan, where protests took place, damaged.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Drug Enforcement Administration are investigating the violent acts and vandalism that took place Monday.

Protesters have been calling for Rosselló's resignation for over three consecutive days. Demonstrations first started with hundreds of people, then growing to the thousands. The growth was reflected on Twitter as the hashtag #RickyRenuncia (Resign Ricky, a shortened version of his name, Ricardo) was trending worldwide Monday.

Some leaders of the U.S. territory’s Legislature said they weren’t planning impeachment proceedings. Others introduced a resolution to initiate a process of impeachment for Rosselló. In it, House Rep. Dennis Márquez outlined 18 possible crimes that stem from the leaked chats.

At the same time, an influential association of mayors from Rosselló’s pro-statehood party said he had lost their support.

The president of the commonwealth’s House of Representatives, Carlos Méndez Núñez, said Sunday night that legislators from Rosselló’s pro-statehood New Progressive Party, which has a majority in both houses, did not support starting impeachment proceedings against the governor. He said they gave Rosselló a one-week deadline to reflect, show contrition and prove he could continue to govern.

“Impeachment isn’t on the table yet," he said. "But we reserve the right to evaluate if that’s merited.”

Puerto Rican artists Benito A. Martínez Ocasio, known as Bad Bunny, and René Pérez, known as Residente, both said on social media they planned to return to Puerto Rico to protest Rosselló’s administration on Wednesday.

Playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose production of “Hamilton” on the island is mentioned in the chats, called them “a very disturbing portrait of how this Administration operates.”

Even if Rosselló survives until next year's election, it's clear to many observers that he has been profoundly weakened and less able to deal with crises.

Despite widespread cynicism in Puerto Rico about politicians’ corruption and self-dealing, the chat shocked residents in a way that other scandals haven’t, particularly given Rosselló’s image as a gentle, even meek family man, said Mario Negrón Portillo, a professor at the University of Puerto Rico’s school of public administration.

“Everyone woke up one day and the governor was spouting vulgarities,” Negrón said. “There’s nothing worse for a politician than losing legitimacy. I think Ricardo Rosselló has lost legitimacy.” </s> - Nearly two years ago, Hurricane María exposed the raw dysfunction of Puerto Rico, collapsing long-neglected infrastructure and leaving several thousand dead on Gov. Ricardo Rosselló's watch. Last week, the FBI arrested two of his top former officials on corruption charges.

But the scandal that is threatening to buckle the boyish 40-year-old governor are the details of a profanity-laced and at times misogynistic online chat with nine other male members of his administration in which some of the U.S. territory's most powerful men act like a bunch of teenagers. The leak of at least 889 pages of the private chat has sunk Rosselló into the deepest crisis of his career.

In the chats on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, Rosselló calls one New York female politician of Puerto Rican background a "whore," describes another as a "daughter of a bitch" and makes fun of an obese man he posed with in a photo. The chat also contains vulgar references to Puerto Rican star Ricky Martin's homosexuality and a series of emojis of a raised middle finger directed at a federal control board overseeing the island's finances.

For many Puerto Ricans still recovering from one of the United States' worst-ever disasters, on the back of the island's biggest public financial collapse, the scandal analysts and ordinary people are calling "Chatgate" has proven to be too much.

Protesters marched in the capital for the third day on Monday to call for Rosselló's resignation. The leaders of the U.S. territory's house and senate said they weren't planning impeachment proceedings, but an influential association of mayors from Rosselló's pro-statehood party said he had lost their support. Puerto Rican artists Benito A. Martínez Ocasio, known Bad Bunny, and René Pérez, known as Residente, both said on Twitter they planned to return to Puerto Rico to join the protests.

Playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose production of "Hamilton" on the island is mentioned in the chats, called them "a very disturbing portrait of how this Administration operates."

Even if Rosselló survives until election day next year, it seems clear to many observers that he has been profoundly weakened and less able to deal with crises ranging from the island's bankruptcy proceedings to its continued efforts to receive federal funding to help recovery from María.

Chatgate erupted a day after Rosselló's former secretary of education and five other people were arrested on charges of steering federal money to unqualified, politically connected contractors. Starting Thursday, an anonymous person or people with access to the chats leaked dozens of pages of them to two local outlets. On Saturday, Puerto Rico's Center for Investigative Journalism published 889 pages.

In the chat group were Luis Rivera Marín, Rosselló's secretary of state; Christian Sobrino, who held a series of important economic posts; Carlos Bermúdez, a one-time communications aide; Edwin Miranda, a communications consultant; Interior Secretary Ricardo Llerandi; Public Affairs Secretary Anthony Maceira and Elías Sánchez, one-time representative to the board overseeing Puerto Rico's bankruptcy.

The group mentions then-New York City Council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who had criticized Democratic Party head Tom Pérez for opposing Puerto Rican statehood, with Rosselló calling her the Spanish word for "whore."

Referring to Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan who had announced her intent to run against Rosselló in 2020, the governor says, "she's off her meds."

"Either that, or she's a tremendous HP," he continues, using the Spanish initials for "son/daughter of a bitch."

Federal officials said Wednesday morning that former Education Secretary Julia Keleher; former Puerto Rico Health Insurance Administration head Ángela Ávila-Marrero; businessmen Fernando Scherrer-Caillet and Alberto Velázquez-Piñol, and education contractors Glenda E. Ponce-Mendoza and Mayra Ponce-Mendoza, who are sisters, were arrested by the FBI on 32 counts of fraud and related charges.

The alleged fraud involves $15.5 million in federal funding between 2017 and 2019. Thirteen million was spent by the Department of Education during Keleher's time as secretary while $2.5 million was spent by the insurance administration when Ávila was the director.

Despite widespread cynicism in Puerto Rico about politicians' corruption and self-dealing, the chat shocked residents in a way that other scandals haven't, particularly given Rosselló's image as a gentle, even meek family man, said Mario Negrón Portillo, a professor at the University of Puerto Rico's school of public administration.

"Everyone woke up one day and the governor was spouting vulgarities," Negrón said. "There's nothing worse for a politician than losing legitimacy. I think Ricardo Rosselló has lost legitimacy."

One chat member calls the head of the federal oversight board a "kitten." Another participant jokes that a female member of the territory's senate belonged in a whorehouse. Along with a photo of himself greeting an obese man, the governor writes "I'm still there. It's my fourth orbit. He generates a strong gravitational pull." Talking about a lack of forensic pathologists at a government forensic agency, Sobrino says "can't we feed a body to the crows?"

Rivera Marín, Sobrino, Bermúdez and Miranda have already resigned or been fired.

Rosselló, the son of former governor Pedro Rosselló, said in a radio interview Monday that "I'm committed to keep working."

"I know some people think differently, but I've determined that it's better to keep working without distraction, dealing with all the different issues that this situation has created."

The president of the commonwealth's House of Representatives, Carlos Méndez Núñez, said Sunday night that legislators from Rosselló's pro-statehood New Progressive Party, which has a majority in both houses, did not support starting impeachment proceedings against the governor.

Méndez Núñez said Rosselló had been given a one-week deadline to reflect, show contrition and prove he could continue to govern.

"This week he'll meet with mayors, with legislators, and we have to give him this time," Méndez Núñez said. "Impeachment isn't on the table yet. But we reserve the right to evaluate if that's merited."
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló says that he will remain in office despite protests.