Puerto Rico's Governor Acevedo Charged in Sealed Indictment by the Justice Department

Here is the AP/Times Tribune Report:

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila is among several people named in a sealed indictment, officials said Thursday, as U.S. authorities made the first arrests in a long-running probe into his party's finances.

An Associated Press reporter saw at least five officials from the Popular Democratic Party as they were led in handcuffs into the U.S. federal building in San Juan.

An FBI spokesman declined to provide any details, saying there would be news conference later.

Acevedo has said previously that he was a focus of the grand jury probe but he was not among those seen in custody. His spokeswoman said he was still home sleeping at the time of the early morning arrests as far as she knew.

A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the indictment was still sealed, told The Associated Press that Acevedo was among several people named in the indictment.

A government official also said Acevedo would be charged in the indictment and that the governor's attorneys were expected to appear in court later Thursday. The official also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

A Harvard-educated attorney and career politician, Acevedo, 45, served in Washington as the island's nonvoting delegate to Congress, and was elected governor in 2004 after campaigning on an anti-corruption platform. He is running for re-election this year.

Acevedo's party favors maintaining the island's semiautonomous relationship with the U.S. mainland. His leading opponent in the governor's race favors making Puerto Rico the 51st state.

There is no love lost here between the island and the embattled governor, but it will definitely make matters really interesting in November's general election in Puerto Rico.

I must go, PERO UN DIA VOLVERE

After eight months of living in San Juan, I was forced to leave once again. This decision did not come lightly and I stayed as long as I could, though I probably should have left earlier. Now I am back in Orlando, Florida, and I miss mi Viejo San Juan.

For those who have never left the island, and for those who have never returned after leaving, you may not be able to relate, but every word of so many songs now make so much more sense.

I believe we Puerto Ricans are the only ones in the world who sing about their country like we are singing to a lover, and leaving is nothing less than a heartbreak. So many have song about it, only now does it really make sense in my heart.

Here is a video made with pictures I took during the my last 8 months there, with music by Jose Feliciano.

Parking for Mitsubishi Monteros Only

Few people believed me when I told them that in some parts of San Juan there were parking spots reserved for Mitsubishi Montero SUVs. So I took a picture. This photo came from the parking garage at the Muñoz International Airport, it reads:

Area Reserved for
Monteros [model year] '92 to '97
ONLY
Violators will be fined

The explanation seems to be that given the popularity of the Montero (in Puerto Rico and in Latin America) a black market for parts developed, targeting specifically the Montero's computer box found easily under the passenger side dashboard. In an effort to stop these robberies "Montero-Only" parking, with surveillance cameras, became small trend in big San Juan parking garages.

(NOTE: Before anyone mentions it, yes I am aware the Muñoz International Airport is located in Carolina and not in San Juan, but its a distinction only people from Carolina seem to care about.)

An interesting sign in San Juan

The sign reads "We sell belly dancing dresses in bulk"... I admit to not knowing much about belly dancing, but is there some huge demand for belly dancing dresses that I'm unaware of? Who is buying these in bulk? Should I stock up just in case they run out?

Sanjuaneros Somos

On August 4th, 2007 I moved to Puerto Rico after 18 years of living in the United States. I was ten when I left, guided by the hand by my mother, my brother, and my sister. As my studies progressed through high school, college, and graduate school, I have never regretted the decision to move to the United States, but slowly the need to return overcame any other desire. Now I find myself here, living in el Viejo San Juan and looking at life from a different perspective.

For those uninitiated with life in Puerto Rico, I should first explain how similar everything is to the United States. similar however does not mean "same". I am typing this at a Starbucks, on a city square called La Plaza de Armas. In one corner there is a Marshalls, in another a Wendy's, a Subway, a Walgreens, and a Howard Johnson Hotel. It was not always like this mind you. I can't remember exactly how everything used to look, but where the Marshall's is there used to be a Gonzalez Padin. That was the Bloomingdales of Puerto Rico. Every Christmas they would arrange the most spectacular store window with every imaginable Christmas scene you could think of. Now its gone. Somehow, I don't expect the same attention to detail from Marshall's.

There are other businesses, Puerto Rican based businesses like Mundo Taino, which carry Taino inspired artworks at very good prices, I bought a cemi there. Unfortunately this store is one in a sea of souvenir shops hocking everything that China could mass produce with the name of Puerto Rico on it.

But el Viejo San Juan, still belongs to the people. The Piragua carts are still here and the pigeons still have there way with your empanadilla if you get too close. If the world ended tomorrow in a combined hostile takeover by Wal-Mart and McDonald's, I suspect that el Viejo San Juan would be the last bastion of culture left in the world. Because its not for the weak hearted, nor the timid. Its the place where you can still stand in the middle of the street and force the cars to go around you. Its the place where any revolutionary can stand on a park bench and decry all injustices and find an audience to entertain.

Some may ask, what about New York? Fuck New York. I love New York, but this isn't a city built by corporate power or industrial might. El Viejo San Juan is a city built for defense. Encircled by walls at whose ends stand castles, sentinels waiting for the next invasion. This is a city that was never conquered, a city whose only crime has been to allow itself to look like a tourist attraction, when it is in fact the greatest monument to everything that Puerto Rico was, is, and could be.

Let the tourists roam, we will accomodate their needs, but people live here, and here is where the people will always find refuge, whether facing the cannons of Francis Drake or the battleships of the American Navy. This city stands because its people will tell you that they would rather die than live anywhere else, these are the Sanjuaneros.