Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello addresses the media at the Fortaleza Government headquarters, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, 16 July 2019.Julio Ricardo Varela, co-host of the political podcast, "In The Thick" and founder of Latino Rebels, called Rosselló "tone deaf" in an interview on ABC News Live's The Briefing Room.
"There’s a bigger deeper thing here that’s happening in Puerto Rico that goes beyond group texts. It’s about decades of corruption, decades of a political class that’s mostly white, and male, and privileged, sort of ignoring the real needs of the island," Varela said. "This is colonialism in action. What we’re seeing right now is the Puerto Rican people finally trying to figure out what the next step is."
“Rosselló is totally tone deaf right now. He’s not listening to the political will at all and he has no allies. He has no allies anywhere," Varela added.
The uproar began Saturday, after the nonprofit journalism group Center of Investigative Journalism published nearly 900 pages of conversations from a leaked group chat between Rosello and several top aides that detail efforts to manipulate public narratives, operations to discredit negative press coverage and criticism of opposition leaders.
The conversations, made through the Telegram app, also contain sexist, homophobic and misogynistic comments from the members of the group, according to the report. These messages have not been independently authenticated by ABC News. After the revelation of the messages, Rossello announced the resignation of a number of government officials including Luis Rivera Marin, the secretary of state.
ABC News' Victoria Moll Ramirez contributed to this report.
Kaynak:Abcnews