Puerto Rico governor Ricardo Rossello holds a press conference, almost two days after federal authorities arrested the island’s former secretary of education and five other people on charges of steering federal money to unqualified, politically connected contractors, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Thursday, July 11, 2019. ( AP Photo)Nearly two years ago, Hurricane Maria exposed the raw dysfunction of Puerto Rico, collapsing long-neglected infrastructure and leaving several thousand dead on Gov. Ricardo Rossello’s watch. Last week, two of his top former officials were arrested by the FBI on corruption charges.
But the scandal that is threatening to buckle the 40-year-old governor are the details of a profanity-laced and misogynistic online chat with nine other members of his administration in which some of the US territory’s most powerful men act like a bunch of teenagers.
In the chats on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, Rossello calls one New York politician a “whore,” describes another as a “daughter of a bitch” and makes fun of an obese man.
For many Puerto Ricans, “Chatgate” has proven to be too much.
