Ricardo Rosselló Steps Down as Puerto Rico’s Governor, and Pedro Pierluisi Is Sworn In - The New York Times

SAN JUAN, P.R. — As the clock ticked toward 5 p.m. on Friday, when Ricardo A. Rosselló was to step down as Puerto Rico’s governor, no one knew who the next governor would be. Not the lawmakers inside the Capitol who had voted on his possible successor an hour earlier. Not the protesters who gathered outside the governor’s mansion to celebrate Mr. Rosselló’s departure.

“It is not known who will govern at 5,” read the chyron on a local television news station. It was 4:58 p.m.

Only once Mr. Rosselló’s resignation became effective did the outgoing governor reveal that Pedro R. Pierluisi, whom he had recently nominated to be the island’s secretary of state, would take the oath of office as his successor. Mr. Pierluisi was sworn in immediately by an appellate judge at his sister’s house.

“We will proceed according to existing law,” Mr. Rosselló said in a carefully written statement outlining his thinking.

But the announcement did little to resolve the turmoil that has roiled Puerto Rico for three weeks, following a popular rebellion that forced Mr. Rosselló out of office. Mr. Pierluisi’s ascent to the governor’s seat will probably be contested in court, thrusting the island into a period of constitutional uncertainty.

“The people of Puerto Rico can be confident that their government is in good hands,” Mr. Pierluisi said at a news conference after he was sworn in as governor.

He acknowledged, however, that he may be in office for only a few days. “I could be very short-lived. I hope not,” he said.

Outside La Fortaleza, the governor’s mansion in San Juan, the capital, revelers celebrated Mr. Rosselló’s exit by blowing whistles, banging pots and pans, and eating roasted pork — even if they did not rejoice in Mr. Pierluisi’s arrival. “¡No lo queremos!” people chanted. We don’t want him.

“It’s a moment of celebration beyond the poor decision by the Legislature to confirm Pierluisi,” said Willmai Rivera, a lawyer who attended the protest with her 78-year-old mother. “I’m not entirely happy because we know that difficult times are ahead, but this was historic, and we have to celebrate it.”

The House of Representatives confirmed Mr. Pierluisi, 60, as secretary of state on Friday afternoon. But the Senate has yet to take up his nomination, leaving the legality of the appointment unclear. At least one senator has said he intends to challenge the process in court on Monday.

Puerto Rico’s Constitution requires that a secretary of state be confirmed by both chambers of the Legislative Assembly. But Mr. Rosselló availed himself of a legal statute from 1952 that was amended in 2005 to exempt the secretary of state — but no other official in the line of succession — from legislative confirmation.

Most legal experts on the island consider the amended statute to be unconstitutional. But because it has never been challenged, it must be presumed valid until a court rules otherwise, said Carlos E. Ramos González, a law professor at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico.

“It’s absurd,” he said. “How is it possible, if the successor were the secretary of treasury or justice, to have to comply with all the constitutional requirements of confirmation, but not the secretary of state?”

The Senate could make any legal challenge moot if it confirms Mr. Pierluisi before the courts take up the issue, Mr. Ramos González said. The Senate is scheduled to vote in a special session on Monday.

Senator Eduardo Bhatia of the opposition Popular Democratic Party said he was preparing to sue.

“This is kindergarten in terms of leadership,” Mr. Bhatia said. “There is no way in hell someone like him, a secretary of state, can become governor unless he has been approved by both chambers.”

Mr. Rosselló was forced to resign last week following intense protests prompted by the publication of hundreds of mean and profane messages that the governor and members of his inner circle exchanged in a private group chat on the Telegram messaging app. The leaked chat transcripts unleashed a torrent of pent-up anger in Puerto Rico over financial mismanagement, broken promises and corruption.

The secretary of state is supposed to take over when the governor steps down. The previous secretary of state, Luis Rivera Marín, resigned last month when he was caught up in the chat scandal. Mr. Rosselló nominated Mr. Pierluisi, the island’s former nonvoting representative in Congress, to the position only on Wednesday, a week after announcing his resignation.

The House confirmation helped advance Mr. Pierluisi’s position as successor. But before 5 p.m., it was unclear if he would become governor — or whether the job would go to the next in line under the Constitution, Wanda Vázquez, the secretary of justice.

Ms. Vázquez, an ally of Mr. Rosselló, had said she had no interest in the governor’s position but would fulfill her constitutional duties if needed. She was not expected to challenge Mr. Pierluisi’s swearing in.

Mr. Pierluisi said the Senate would be able to “ratify” his position as governor next week. If it fails to do so, he said, then Ms. Vázquez would take over. He encouraged senators to think hard about their role and urged them to bring legitimacy to the situation to avoid a court fight.

“I recognize there is a novel legal controversy here,” he said.

It appeared that at least some senators were not prepared to quickly concur. “He’s making up his own constitution,” Mr. Bhatia said. “Inviting the Senate to ratify him. Ratify what? What is that?” The Legislative Assembly, he said, confirms secretaries of state, not governors.

Two minutes after Mr. Rossello left office, Ms. Vázquez’s Justice Department announced that it had notified the special prosecutor’s office in charge of cases against elected officials that it had begun a preliminary investigation of whether any crimes were committed in the Telegram chat.

Carlos J. Méndez Núñez, the House speaker and a leader of the ruling New Progressive Party, which supports statehood for Puerto Rico, said before Mr. Pierluisi’s confirmation hearing that no matter the outcome, the governorship should go to Ms. Vázquez, because Mr. Pierluisi had not been confirmed as secretary of state by the Senate. After Mr. Pierluisi was sworn in, Representative Jenniffer González-Colón, Puerto Rico’s nonvoting resident commissioner in Congress, belatedly agreed.

For Mr. Pierluisi, the confirmation hearing amounted to a rare job interview for a potential governor. He called the chat scandal “sad and unfortunate” and said he would forbid the sharing of sensitive government information with people outside his administration, as Mr. Rosselló’s aides did on Telegram.

“You will not find a public servant more committed, judicious and hard-working than me,” Mr. Pierluisi said.

He overcame concerns, at least for those who voted to confirm him in the House, about his potential conflicts of interest. Until earlier this week, Mr. Pierluisi had worked as a lawyer for a firm that was hired by the unpopular federal oversight board that manages Puerto Rico’s finances. The oversight board has repeatedly clashed with the Legislative Assembly over the imposition of austerity measures.

Mr. Pierluisi’s brother-in-law, José B. Carrión III, is the board’s chairman, though Mr. Pierluisi is in the middle of a divorce, according to Puerto Rico news reports.

But Mr. Pierluisi argued that his extensive knowledge of Promesa, the bankruptcy law that Congress wrote to create the board, as well as his contacts on the board and on Capitol Hill, made him more qualified to serve as governor.

“Who better than me to advocate for our people before the board?” Mr. Pierluisi said. “Who better than me to lead the process for the board to leave? That’s what we all want.”

Mr. Pierluisi received the minimum 26 votes needed for confirmation. He faces strong opposition from Thomas Rivera Schatz, the powerful Senate president who wants to run for governor himself next year. Mr. Pierluisi declined to say if he would run for governor in 2020.

Mr. Rivera Schatz, who has said that Mr. Pierluisi does not have the votes to be confirmed in the Senate, decried Mr. Rosselló’s final action as governor — announcing Mr. Pierluisi as his successor — as offensive.

“Those who betrayed Puerto Rico want to remain in power unscrupulously,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “Law, order, morality and the common good will prevail.”

Before serving for eight years as the nonvoting resident commissioner in Congress, Mr. Pierluisi was Puerto Rico’s secretary of justice. He is a Democrat when it comes to national politics, though political parties on the island do not neatly match up with those on the mainland.

Several labor unions opposed Mr. Pierluisi’s nomination. Mr. Pierluisi said he would have continued the policies put forward by Mr. Rosselló, who was elected to a four-year term in 2016. (He defeated Mr. Pierluisi in the New Progressive primary.)

Mr. Pierluisi backed public-private partnerships and the privatization of the troubled public power utility. He opposed the closure of more public schools — hundreds have been shuttered as a result of a population drop and budget cuts — and the elimination of a popular Christmas bonus for public employees, as the oversight board has suggested.

On his way out of office, Mr. Rosselló signed several bills into law, including one moving the Democratic presidential primary in 2020 to March from June.

“By making Puerto Rico an early voting state, candidates will be forced to pay attention to our needs,” Mr. Rosselló said.

Later, the departing governor posted a short goodbye on Instagram with a video of a setting sun. “It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve our people,” he said.

Frances Robles reported from San Juan, and Patricia Mazzei from Miami. Edmy Ayala and Alejandra Rosa contributed reporting from San Juan.

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Puerto Rico’s Governor Is Out, and Successor Steps In, but Dispute Isn’t Over

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