CHECKMATE: DAYS THAT CHANGED THE HISTORY OF PUERTO RICO - PART II
By José E. Velázquez Luyanda Part 1: “Checkmate: Days that Changed the History of Puerto Rico,” provided a survey for the reader of the Summer of 2019 in Puerto Rico, especially for those unfamiliar with the details of the historical moment. I chronicled events leading to the forced resignation of Governor Ricardo Rosello on August 2, 2019 and the complex internal feud within the ruling party, the New Progressive Party ( Partido Nuevo Progresista ). These internal divisions played out like a complex game of chess as the Puerto Rican people watched, having just participated in a movement of civil disobedience that shook the ruling class in its bootstraps. The main chess master was Senate President, Thomas Rivera Schatz, who engineered the removal of Rosello’s hand picked successor, Pedro Pierluisi, when the Puerto Rico Supreme Court unanimously ruled on August 7th that his selection as governor was unconstitutional. The Senate, who had refused to ratify his nomination, played a m