The Success of Puerto Rico Resistance Movement

Puerto Rico Resistance Movement
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Puerto Rico Resistance Movement
The resistance movement of Puerto Rico was one of its kind because, for the first time in history, it led to the resignation of a sitting Governor; Ricardo Rosselló. The success of the resistance movement is attributed to many factors, most of which could have been downplayed or avoided. The author of this paper explains how lack of timely intervention by Ricardo Rosselló’s government led to his resignation.
Firstly, the people of Puerto Rico demonstrated for twelve consecutive days leading to paralysis of businesses, transport, and other operations, which in effect, led to the fall of Puerto’s economy. Ricardo’s government took too long to send anti-riot officers who could have disrupted the gathering of protestors before getting out of hand. According to Alexia Fernández Campbell (2019), the number of demonstrators who were demanding for the resignation of Governor Ricardo Rosselló kept growing during the twelve days. Campbell further maintains that San Juan based anti-riot police could only intervene on the ninth day of protests during when the number of protestors was in hundreds of thousands. The police shot tear gas to clear the crowd which had packed at main avenues of the capital. The response was too little too late. If the government had reacted on time to counteract the demonstrations, things could not have become messy as they were.  
Secondly, the protests were partly fueled by Hurricane Maria. According to Emma Schwartz (2019), the effect of the hurricane has displaced around 130,000 Puerto Ricans and plunged around 3.5 million residents to a despicable humanitarian disaster. The protests were fueled when investigative officers unearthed leaked telegram text messages between the Governor and his close allies. In the texts, the Governor was ridiculing his political opponents and ...