Jenniffer González Colón was sworn in Jan. 2 as Puerto Rico’s new governor as the island prepared for a normally ebullient ceremony overshadowed by widespread anger over a blackout that hit the United States territory days ago.
Ms. González, a Republican who backs President-elect Donald Trump and whose pro-statehood New Progressive Party secured a historic third consecutive term after she won the Nov. 5 election, has pledged to stabilize the Caribbean island’s crumbling power grid.
Before the start of a ceremony in front of Puerto Rico’s seaside Capitol to celebrate her swearing-in, Ms. González attended Mass surrounded by family and supporters.
“What better than to come first to thank God and to ask God to give me the wisdom, the fortitude, and the tools to fulfill everything I promised the people of Puerto Rico,” she told reporters.
A lone protester, with her face covered, interrupted the Mass at Parroquia Santa Teresita in San Juan. She yelled, “Jenniffer, we came for you. Puerto is without power.”
Meanwhile, a growing number of protesters gathered at the Capitol before Ms. González’s arrival.
Ms. González has promised to appoint an energy “czar” to review potential contractual breaches while another operator is found to possibly replace Luma Energy, a private company that oversees the transmission and distribution of power in Puerto Rico.
However, no contract can be canceled without prior approval from Puerto Rico’s Energy Bureau and a federal control board that oversees the island’s finances.
Outages were still being reported on Jan. 2 as crews tried to stabilize the grid following the blackout that hit early Dec. 31, leaving 1.3 million customers in the dark as Puerto Ricans prepared for New Year’s Eve.
While electricity had been restored to 98.9% of 1.47 million total customers, more than 600,000 were temporarily left without power on New Year’s when part of the system collapsed again, according to Luma.
“The stability of the system is fragile,” Luma said late Jan. 1, warning of more outages on Jan. 2 given an ongoing lack of generation. “We know and understand how frustrating it is for our clients to be without service for long periods of time.”
Backup generators were installed to ensure a smooth swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 2, given that renowned musicians were scheduled to perform.
The anticipated revelry was characteristic of Ms. González, a 48-year-old attorney and recent mother of twins who, prior to the election, showed up at her party’s assembly wearing a Wonder Woman tiara and cuffs. She also made the news after peeling out of one of her party’s conventions in an off-road vehicle earlier this year.
Ms. González, of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, had beat former Gov. Pedro Pierluisi during their party’s primary in June.
At the time, she was Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress and had run on Mr. Pierluisi’s ticket four years ago.
After beating him, she won the Nov. 5 general election with more than 526,000 votes or 41%. Trailing her was Juan Dalmau, who represented Puerto Rico’s Independence Party and the Citizen Victory Movement.
It was the first time that the Popular Democratic Party, which supports the island’s territorial status quo and is one of Puerto Rico’s two main parties, came in third in a gubernatorial race.
While Ms. González’s immediate challenge is Puerto Rico’s fragile power grid, she also inherits a feeble economy that has slowly been strengthening since the U.S. territory’s government declared in 2015 that it was unable to pay its more than $70 billion public debt load.
In 2017, it filed for the biggest U.S. municipal bankruptcy in history.
All but one government agency has since restructured its debt, with Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority still struggling to do so. It holds more than $9 billion in debt, the largest of any government agency.
Experts warn that the island will continue to struggle to attract investors until the debt is restructured and the power grid is strengthened.
Ms. González will also have to work alongside a federal control board that the U.S. Congress created in 2016 to oversee Puerto Rico’s finances and supervise the ongoing reconstruction after Hurricane María, a powerful Category 4 storm that razed the electrical grid in September 2017, slammed into the island.
She also faces pressure to create affordable housing, lower power bills and the general cost of living, reduce violent crime, boost Puerto Rico’s economy, with the island locked out of capital markets since 2015, and improve a limping health care system as thousands of doctors flock to the U.S. mainland.
Like other governors of the pro-statehood party, Ms. González has said she would push for Puerto Rico to become the 51st state, but such a change would require approval from U.S. Congress and the U.S. president.
A nonbinding referendum held during the Nov. 5 election, the seventh of its kind, asked voters to choose one of three options: statehood, independence, and independence with free association, under which issues like foreign affairs, U.S. citizenship, and use of the U.S. dollar would be negotiated.
With 63% of voters participating, statehood earned more than 615,000 votes, or 59%, with independence coming in second for the first time with more than 309,000 votes, or 29%. Independence with free association garnered more than 128,000 votes, or 12%.
This story was reported by The Associated Press.
