‘I have nothing to fear.’ Puerto Rico governor denies allegations from fired justice official

Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez denied allegations Tuesday that she fired the island’s secretary of justice amid claims that Vázquez mishandled aid for victims of ongoing earthquakes that have struck the island since last December.

The new claims from the now former secretary of justice, Dennise Longo Quiñones, are the latest in a series of political scandals that have roiled Puerto Rico since the devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017 and the dramatic ousting of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló nearly a year ago on July 25, 2019.

On Friday, Longo Quiñones referred several complaints — including allegations against Vázquez — to a special independent prosecutor, hours before the governor reportedly asked Longo Quiñones to submit her resignation, according to El Nuevo Día, which first reported the news.

The exact contents of the claims cited in the referrals are still unknown.

Armed with copies of emails and documents at a press conference on Tuesday, Vázquez launched allegations of her own against Longo Quiñones and acknowledged firing her. But Vázquez said she didn’t know at the time of the firing of any investigations into her role on the distribution of earthquake aid.

“I was never notified of any ongoing investigation against me, much less that there was a possible referral to the Special Independent Prosecutor against [me] or officials working alongside me,” she said.

Instead, Vázquez alleged that the former secretary of justice had “improperly intervened in a federal investigation related to the [Puerto Rican] Department of Health ... related to Medicaid fraud.”

In a September 2019 letter to the Puerto Rico Office of Government Ethics, Longo Quiñones recused herself from participating in investigations related to the Puerto Rican Department of Health. At the time, her mother, Dr. Concepción Quiñones de Longo, was the undersecretary of the health department.

Vázquez’s administration has already faced recent scrutiny. Puerto Rico’s Justice Department investigated contracts awarded to companies that promised COVID-19 test kits for the island but did not deliver, including one awarded to a local construction company discovered to have ties to Vázquez’s pro-statehood political party.

The construction company, Apex General Contractors, had no experience in healthcare supplies and never delivered the promised one million test kits. Vázquez canceled the contract and the government was eventually refunded the initial $19 million deposit, but the scandal delayed Puerto Rico’s coronavirus testing capacity early on.

Longo Quiñones was not involved in that investigation because of her prior recusal, but El Nuevo Día has reported that the relationship between the governor’s mansion and the Puerto Rico Department of Justice had been tense, particularly because of the COVID-19 testing scandal.

‘I have nothing to fear’

At Tuesday’s press conference, Vázquez repeatedly denied that Longo Quiñones’ firing was in retribution over an ongoing investigation, while welcoming any potential probes into her actions.

“I have nothing to fear,” she said, also stating that if the allegations had any merit, she would see it through.

But even as the complaints against Vázquez were on their way to be delivered to the independent panel on Monday, the new head of Puerto Rico’s justice department appeared to intervene at the 11th hour, right before the documents were officially stamped and filed.

In a written statement published Monday just before midnight, Wandymar Burgos, the interim secretary of justice, said that she had given instructions to a staff member, who was already en route to deliver them, to not hand over the reports to the Office of the Special Independent Prosecutor’s Panel.

Burgos added that she wanted to “know what the reports were about … to handle them accordingly as should happen during a responsible transition.” Vázquez denied at the press conference that she had asked the justice secretary to hold the delivery, and asked for the files to be delivered immediately.

A memo released Tuesday by the independent prosecutor’s office also asked for the immediate delivery of the referrals.

“The delivery was configured by the authorization of [Longo Quiñones], even if the physical delivery was interrupted...,” reads the memo. “The panel must safeguard that its legal powers are not undermined.”

And while Vázquez said the investigation had been done “hastily,” Longo Quiñones released a public written statement, countering that the investigation had been ongoing since January, and that the Special Independent Prosecutor’s office had been made aware of its existence two months later.

In an interview later Tuesday with local radio station WKAQ, Longo Quiñones said that “the report related to the governor and her chief of staff” was lengthy, at 74 pages. Local outlet El Vocero reported that three prosecutors signed it and that there were at least six boxes of evidence that supported the referral to the Office of the Special Independent Prosecutor.

A new political scandal

The news also threatens to roil the island’s politics in the middle of a pandemic during a closely watched election year, a year after more than two weeks of massive, historic unrest throughout Puerto Rico forced Rosselló out of office — paving the way for Vázquez to be named as his successor.

This makes Vázquez the first Puerto Rico governor to run as a first-time candidate, in the U.S. territory where residents cannot vote in the presidential election.

Vázquez is facing off in a deeply divided primary for the pro-statehood New Progressive Party against Pedro Pierluisi, former resident commissioner for Puerto Rico who was briefly sworn in as Rosselló’s replacement. (The Puerto Rico Supreme Court later ruled his swearing in was unconstitutional.)

Leaders of the opposition from the Popular Democratic Party called for the Speaker of the House of Representatives to investigate the claims against Vázquez, and suggested the results could prompt an impeachment inquiry.

Meanwhile, Rep. Jenniffer González, Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner in Congress and a member of Vázquez’s political party, said the independent panel should make all allegations public. She also called for the immediate resignation of Burgos, who has been in her position for about two business days, over her “highly irregular management” of the Puerto Rico Justice Department’s referrals.

“Government controversies cannot be the order of the day,” González said in a statement. “If the [Special Independent Prosecutor] determines there is cause to investigate any primary candidate, the NPP should, immediately, convene its leadership and take immediate action.”

Thomas Rivera Schatz, president of the Puerto Rican Senate and a top official of the ruling NPP, also said via a Facebook post that Burgos should resign. He also asked the Office of the Special Independent Prosecutor to announce whether there was cause to act on the complaints that Longo Quiñones shared.

Puerto Rico currently has nearly 7,800 positive cases of COVID-19, a figure that has slowly but steadily increased since the government ended the island’s strict lockdown that lasted three months. As of Tuesday, 157 people have died from the respiratory disease.

Last week, Vázquez announced that amid a rise in cases in the U.S., including in Florida, passengers would be required to show a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival. Others would need to be tested in Puerto Rico and self-quarantine until they received their results.