Puerto Rico protests: With governor gone, this is ‘just the beginning’

First there was Hurricane Maria, which struck Puerto Rico in September 2017 with a near-knockout blow.

Then this month came the political scandals, revealing a self-serving and aloof governing clique that in many ways had squandered the island’s post-Maria recovery effort.

Two of the U.S. territory's top officials and several of their associates were arrested by the FBI earlier this month and charged with misuse of federal aid. That was followed in short order by the publication of a trove of derogatory, callous emails between Gov. Ricardo Rosselló and his close circle of male aides that exposed an out-of-touch government.

But when Governor Rosselló announced Wednesday, after two weeks of unrelenting street protests, that he will resign from office Aug. 2, it underscored that while the one-two punch of Maria and ineffective, arrogant governance may have knocked the people of Puerto Rico down, it has them anything