Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló announced late Wednesday night that he will resign next month in the wake of massive protests after the leak of obscenity-laced online chats between Rosselló and his advisers.

ROSSELLÓ WILL LEAVE OFFICE IN AUGUST

Speaking close to midnight on Facebook Live, Rosselló said he would resign August 2. His term was set to end in 2021.

It follows nearly two weeks of furious protests and political upheaval touched off by the leak of crude and insulting chat messages between Rosselló and his top advisers.

A crowd of demonstrators outside the governor's mansion in Old San Juan erupted into cheers and songs after his announcement.

The 40-year-old Rosselló, a Democrat elected in 2016, is the first governor to resign in the modern history of Puerto Rico, a territory of 3.2 million U.S. citizens that is mired in a 13-year recession and still recovering from the Category 4 Hurricane Maria two years ago.

Public outrage over the leaked chats and federal corruption charges against former government officials sparked massive demonstrations across San Juan in the largest protest movement on the island since Puerto Ricans successfully marched to demand an end to U.S. Navy military training on the island of Vieques more than 15 years ago.

Under Puerto Rico's constitution, the secretary of state would normally assume the governorship, but since Secretary of State Luis Rivera Marín became one of more than a dozen officials to resign in the uproar over the leak, leadership of the island would fall to Justice Secretary Wanda Vázquez. She would become Puerto Rico's second female governor.

A RESIGNATION AFTER THE THREAT OF IMPEACHMENT

The resignation announcement came after the governor pledged to deliver a message to the people of Puerto Rico, then passed hour after hour in unexplained silence as thousands of protesters chanted demands for his resignation.

Frustration and anger built among demonstrators who filled the streets outside Rosselló's official residence awaiting the promised address.

(Demonstrators, some waving Puerto Rican national flags, gather in front of the governor's mansion La Fortaleza, in San Juan, Puerto Rico on July 24, 2019. Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo/AP).

An announcement was first expected at 5 p.m., filling protesters with hope that Rosselló was about to resign over widespread anger in reaction to the leak of obscenity-laced online chats between the governor and a group of close advisers.

At 6:30 p.m., Public Affairs Secretary Anthony Maceira emerged from the executive offices to say that a message from the governor was coming. Local television stations went live, and thousands filled the cobblestoned streets around La Fortaleza, the 16th century fortress that serves as the governor's mansion.

As midnight edged ever closer, there was still nothing.

"Enough already," Puerto Rico Rep. Gabriel Rodríguez told The Associated Press. "The people of Puerto Rico on a social level, on an economic level, on an emotional level cannot take it anymore."

Rodríguez, a member of Rosselló's pro-statehood party, said legislators had initially agreed to set aside the impeachment process and give the governor until 5 p.m. Wednesday to announce that he was going to resign.

"We waited at 5 p.m., 6, then 7, then 8 at night, and it hasn't happened," Rodríguez said. "He has to put a stop to this. The only one who can bring peace to Puerto Rico is the governor, today, tonight."

The president of Puerto Rico's House of Representatives issued the embattled governor an ultimatum: Either take the best decision for a U.S. territory demanding his resignation or face an impeachment process.

"This process will only be detained if the governor takes a decision for the well-being of Puerto Rico," Rep. Carlos Méndez said. "We will address this issue with the seriousness it requires."

Rodríguez said legislators were set to meet in a special session Thursday afternoon to start impeachment.

At one point, dozens of officers in full riot gear marched out of the governor's mansion toward protesters. Demonstrators led by musicians including Bad Bunny and Residente banged on pots, waved Puerto Rican flags and blew whistles.

"We want peace, and they want war!" the crowd yelled as many became increasingly frustrated that the governor had not spoken by late Wednesday.

THE LEAKED CHATS

The 889 pages of chat on the encrypted app Telegram between the governor and 11 close allies and members of his administration, all men, showed the governor and his close advisers insulting women and mocking constituents, including the victims of Hurricane Maria.

Hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans have been outraged by the content of the chats, which included misogynistic and homophobic language. Protesters have demonstrated for nearly two weeks demanding Rosselló's resignation.

Advocates in New York City — home to scores of Puerto Rican families, including many that left the island after the devastation Hurricane Maria wrought — have protested in solidarity with Puerto Rico. Several elected officials in New York, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, also asked Rosselló to step down, claiming he no longer has the authority to run the island. Several New York elected officials associated with Rosselló in the past, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2018 when he rallied with the island's governor demanding Washington provide more aid to Puerto Rico after the hurricane.

The chat participants talked about politics and government contracts and also insulted women and mocked constituents. Puerto Rico's governor apologized late Thursday for the profanity-laced comments. He said he was working 18-hour days and releasing tensions when he called former City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito the Spanish word for "whore" and in English told the board "go f--- yourself" followed by a string of emojis with the middle finger raised. Rosselló also referred to another female politician as a "daughter of a bitch," and made fun of an obese man.

"None of this justifies the words I've written," he said in reference to excerpts from a chat extracted from a messaging system used by government officials that were published by local media. "My apologies to all the people I have offended. …This was a private chat."

Rosselló had said he would not resign in the face of public furor over the leaked online chat, but he would not seek reelection or continue as head of his pro-statehood political party.

The comments drew the ire of many Puerto Ricans who said they were ashamed of his language and of how this might affect the reputation of the U.S. territory, which had already come under scrutiny earlier this week with the arrests of former government officials including the island's education secretary.

Rosselló said he had not yet spoken to Mark-Viverito, who posted a lengthy statement on Twitter that read in part, "A person who uses that language against a woman, whether a public figure or not, should not govern Puerto Rico ...this type of behavior is completely unacceptable."

 

(Former City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, center, joins protesters outside La Fortaleza, in San Juan, Puerto Rico on July 24, 2019. Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo/AP).

In the chat, Rosselló wrote that he was upset Mark-Viverito had criticized Tom Perez, chair of the Democratic National Committee, for supporting statehood for Puerto Rico.

Those who participated in the chat included Ricardo Llerandi, Puerto Rico's Chief of Staff; Christian Sobrino, executive director of Puerto Rico's Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority; and Ramón Rosario, former public affairs secretary. Rosselló said the entire chat, which has not been released publicly, has since been erased and that he does not know who leaked part of it.

Rosselló spoke a day after FBI agents arrested Julia Keleher, Puerto Rico's former education secretary, and five other people on charges of steering federal money to unqualified, politically connected contractors.

Officials said the alleged fraud involves $15.5 million worth of federal funding issued between 2017 and 2019. They said $13 million was spent by Puerto Rico's Department of Education while Keleher was secretary and another $2.5 million spent by Ángela Ávila Marrero when she was director of Puerto Rico's Health Insurance Administration. Ávila Marrero was charged along with businessmen Fernando Scherrer-Caillet and Alberto Velázquez-Piñol, and education contractors Glenda E. Ponce-Mendoza and Mayra Ponce-Mendoza, who are sisters.

Officials said there was no evidence that Keleher or Ávila-Marrero had personally benefited from the scheme.

"I am ashamed to have to listen to the allegations that have been made against former public officials," Rosselló said. "It is simply unacceptable, it is unprecedented what our people have had to go through."

Earlier Thursday evening, a group of protesters had gathered at Puerto Rico's main international airport to receive Rosselló as he cut a European vacation short to address the arrests and the leaked chat. The protesters then traveled to the governor's seaside mansion where Rosselló spoke late Thursday and demanded his resignation.

"He's not a person of worth to be governing Puerto Rico," said Vanesa Contreras, one of the protesters. "We deserve better."

On Tuesday, officials announced that a Puerto Rico judge had issued search warrants for the cellphones of government officials involved in the chat as part of an ongoing investigation. One of the search warrants said officials used the chat to transmit official and confidential information to private citizens in potential violation of ethics laws.

More than a dozen government officials have resigned since the chat was leaked earlier this month, including Llerandi, former Secretary of State Luis Rivera Marín, and former chief financial officer Christian Sobrino, who also held five other positions.

A report issued Wednesday by a special committee tasked with investigating whether legislators could proceed with an impeachment process against Rosselló recommended that Puerto Rico's House of Representatives do so. It was unclear if there were enough votes to do so.

"We are not going to tolerate this corruption. No more lies, no more stealing," said a protester here in the city.

The outrage has been building for months. Puerto Rico has been in a recession for at least a decade. In order to pay off its debt, exacerbated in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, Rosselló's government has put austerity measures in place, cutting back on essential services and closed schools.

But as Puerto Ricans tightened their belts, high-ranking government officials padded their pockets. Six officials were arrested after they funneled more than $15 million in federal contracts to politically-tied consultants.

Carlos Vargas-Ramos, the director of public policy in the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, said the messages revealed a side of Rosselló never previously seen before.

"It provides a different view. The chats show him and some of his cabinet members using very demeaning language towards others, towards women," Ramos said.

Mark-Viverito, a frequent critic of the governor, said the governor should listen to his constituents.

"Vile, aggressive, misogynistic, sexist, homophobic language," the former Council speaker said. "The governor needs to listen to the demands of his people. He needs to step down and resign because people are telling him, 'You do not represent the leadership that we want to see.'"

Yarimar Bonilla, a professor of Puerto Rican studies and anthropology at Hunter College, said the protests have been historic, marked by agreement across different sections of the population who feel the government has failed them.

"Last night was historic. Nobody here has seen anything like it, the kind of broad base support, the diversity of age, class, gender, sexual orientation, everyone united in wanting to get rid of the current governor," Bonilla said.

The upheaval comes as the island tries to restructure part of $70 billion in debt and cope with a 13-year recession that has led to an exodus of nearly half a million people to the U.S. mainland in the past decade. Many Puerto Ricans are resentful over the resulting pension cuts, school closings, and other austerity measures.

The economic crisis is in part a result of previous administrations — including that of Rosselló's father, Pedro — that overspent, overestimated revenue and borrowed millions as the island sank deeper into debt. In 2017, Puerto Rico filed for the equivalent of bankruptcy. Congress approved a financial package, and a federal board is overseeing the island's finances.

An MIT graduate with a doctorate in genetics, Rosselló spent much of his time as governor fighting austerity measures and seeking federal funds after Maria devastated the island in September 2017, causing thousands of deaths and more than $100 billion in damage.

Nearly two years later, some 30,000 homes still have tarp roofs, power outages remain common, and Puerto Rico has received less than a third of the roughly $40 billion pledged by the U.S. government. Rosselló complained earlier this year of unfair treatment and a hostile attitude from some U.S. officials.

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Information from the Associated Press was used in this story.