Amid the insolence echoing how little our federal government is doing, namely FEMA via President Trump’s authorizing relief for post-Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico, it seems some nefarious political activities are afoot within a few of the island’s local governments.
The FBI is investigating whether allegations of misguided Puerto Rico politicians concealed FEMA-provided goods and are single-handedly diverting products to certain constituents instead of the population at-large.
According to PRInforma —“Puerto Rico’s Citizen-Driven News Network”– Puerto Rico’s highest-ranking federal prosecutor, US Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez “acknowledged that they have received several complaints on the matter, but she declined to reveal which municipalities are [being] investigated.”
Despite the prosecutor’s discretionary authority and protocols, PRInforma alludes to its confidential sources in Puerto Rico who claimed “the municipalities [being] investigated are Patillas, San Juan, Arecibo, Aguadilla and Vieques Island.”
“We have FBI agents who this morning moved to one of the villages on the Island where they informed us that apparently the supplies delivered by FEMA were being stored, and are being kept for the political benefit of a person or some persons for them to ingratiate themselves politically.”
In San Juan, a coliseum containing mass-stores of federal aid was discovered. Idle pallets full of deliverables were videotaped and published via PRInforma‘s Twitter/Facebook pages:
LEAKED video allegedly shows MASSIVE amounts of supplies being held in a Coliseum in San Juan, just "sitting… https://t.co/ZTLvnyAjne
— PRinforma (@PRinforma) October 12, 2017
PRInforma‘s Facebook page depicts a photo of stacked supplies with the words “just sitting there” and a comment by a citizen which reads “So many people can benefit from this!” No argument there. So what is the impediment? Who is responsible? The FBI is sleuthing any hints of wrongdoing.
There are a few people in the photograph above. It is entirely possible that this San Juan coliseum site is determined as a staging area for translocation of goods from the nearby major maritime port to inland villages and municipalities. FEMA does have San Juan listed as one of its main emergency-relief control points.
San Juan Mayoral Display
“NASTY” was on the front of a shirt San Juan Mayor Carmen Cruz (D) wore recently. The back-and-forth finger-pointing between the two after President Trump and Ms. Cruz debated resources supplied to Puerto Rico dragged on for days. It persists still.
https://twitter.com/GMONEYMOTO/status/916285082213765120
Ultimately, Mayor Cruz’s character traits were paradoxically staged when she complained that no food or water was being sent while she also criticized Pres. Trump with insinuation that he is allowing people to die. Cruz spoke those sentiments from a media-mic’d podium behind which were stacked pallets of products from the US mainland, compliments of President Trump’s FEMA. Mayor Cruz’s bio and sojourn are interesting:
https://twitter.com/1zealnews/status/915562317395496966
Taken to Live media broadcasts, Mayor Cruz did not deliberate her comments. In fact, she harshly condemned the federal government for “inefficiency” and, extending further, strongly implied President Trumps’s “bureaucracy” while bemoaning “we will make it either with you or without you!” For days, barbs followed, and appearances via media outlets imploring the mainland government to do more while denouncing the Trump presidency persisted:
As Trump is set to visit hurricane-battered Puerto Rico, San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz says "too little too late" https://t.co/1ws4u6uarY pic.twitter.com/zWR6qqYqXg
— TRT World (@trtworld) October 3, 2017
Often entangled politically, unions were in the mix of breakdown while FEMA bled knuckles to facilitate food, water, and public safety personnel. Reportedly, Puerto Rico’s truckers were demanding increased hourly compensation to pick-up and transport amassed shipping containers loaded with sustenance. At times of utter crisis and human desperation, predatory practices give rise to the seedy sides of walk-on (or walk-off) actors in an unscripted catastrophe. Is that local dilemma something for which local politicians should seek resolve or was it a White House problem?
Puerto Rico Policewoman Reports
Earlier this month, a radio station was able to transmit what it purports is a Puerto Rico policewoman who spontaneously called in to explain what she is witnessing during duty hours. Rife with emotion, the female cop’s tone evinces a law enforcement official whose conscience compels her to speak out against island corruption, squandering, human suffering, and gross politicization among some local leadership:
https://twitter.com/SteveTatum1985/status/914686615888506880
Pursuant to an interview with PRInforma, Rodríguez said, “We have FBI agents who this morning moved to one of the villages on the Island where they informed us that apparently the supplies delivered by FEMA were being stored, and are being kept for the political benefit of a person or some persons for them to ingratiate themselves politically.”
Along with Puerto Rico law enforcement, Governor Ricardo Rossello cast his attention regarding the possibility of fraud and collusion in some municipalities: “They’ll be hell to pay!”
Here’s what we know about the FBI & local authorities in Puerto Rico investigating possible fraud involving hurricane relief supplies pic.twitter.com/VuMzpFWU2B
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) October 11, 2017
However, the Puerto Rico policewoman whose radio testimony we heard implicated not only San Juan Mayor Cruz but also Puerto Rico’s governor, claiming it “looks like communism” in Puerto Rico “because San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz and Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello have been withholding emergency supplies for political reasons,” according to a report in GotNews.com.
“There have to be cameras here and there because, you know, they are just looking for votes for the upcoming years.”
That same policewoman described the undercurrents and what may be motivating what appears to be a political power-play: “There have to be cameras here and there because, you know, they are just looking for votes for the upcoming years.” That is a cop whose courage, integrity and stamina is of significant import, given the circumstances.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation field office in San Juan, Puerto Rico confirmed reports that they are indeed scrutinizing after multiple reports of “misappropriation of emergency funds” and asked for the public ‘s assistance with providing information to further their investigation.
https://twitter.com/NewtTrump/status/918556670925660160
The FBI Public Corruption Squad is ordinarily tasked with such affairs which, at its core, investigates “violations of federal law by public officials at the federal, state, and local levels of government.” Moreover, the Corruption Squad bills its purpose as “the FBI’s top criminal investigative priority.”
The FBI San Juan field office got right to the point. “The FBI has received numerous complaints of mishandling and misappropriation of emergency supplies provided by the federal government for the people of Puerto Rico, by local government officials. We are working to quickly determine any basis for criminal charges against any public official who would abuse their office and the people of Puerto Rico in this manner. In order to help us present all available evidence to federal and state prosecutors, anyone with information, pictures, recordings, or any other material that relates to this type of conduct is asked to call 1-800-CALLFBI (1-800-225-5324),” announced Douglas A. Leff, the FBI San Juan Special Agent in Charge.
In her Septemner 29, 2017 press conference, Mayor Cruz said: “We are dying here. And I cannot fathom the thought that the greatest nation in the world cannot figure out logistics for a small island of 100 miles by 35 miles long… People are drinking off a creek. So I am done being polite. I am done being politically correct. I am mad as hell… So I am asking the members of the press, to send a mayday call all over the world. We are dying here… And if it doesn’t stop, and if we don’t get the food and the water into people’s hands, what we are going to see is something close to a genocide.”
The notion and suggestion of genocide is preposterous. However, citizens of Puerto Rico ponder suicide stemming from mounting desperation amid ravaged homeland, as reported October 12, 2017 by PRInforma. According to data suggested by PRInforma, 14 people have taken their lives subsequent and/or attributable to Hurricane Maria’s carve through Puerto Rico. That would strongly imply that any political corruption and misappropriation substantiated by the FBI, the US Attorney’s Office in Puerto Rico, and local law enforcement has latent blood-on-your-hands attributes for those found culpable.
It is hard to conceive the scope of FEMA’s twelve thousand-plus personnel on an island not maintaining watch and deliberate logistical control over goods and services. I am compelled to believe bills of lading are chronicling how much product is being disseminated and to whom it is transferred for storage/distribution. Then again, local officials skimming relatively unnoticeable amounts of commodity for self-interests is still enough to click-click the cuffs.
