Wednesday Mar 5, 2025

2 GOOD MORNING

The San Juan Daily Star, the only paper with News Service in English in Puerto Rico, publishes 7 days a week, with a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday edition, along with a Weekend Edition to cover Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Police Bureau names its first female associate commissioner

By THE STAR STAFF

Utuado region commander Diana Crispín was named on Tuesday as the new associate commissioner of the Puerto Rico Police Bureau (NPPR by its initials in Spanish), becoming the first woman to hold the position in the history of the island police force.

“Women have demonstrated their ability, commitment and courage in each of our police regions,” Police Commissioner Joseph González said in a written statement. “Today, a woman assumes the position of associate commissioner, a very important position in the leadership of the police. Diana Crispín has dedicated her life to serving Puerto Rico and I know that she is more than prepared for this challenge.”

With 34 years of service, Crispín will assume the responsibility of managing and attending to all Police Bureau administrative matters. Her appointment took place at General Headquarters during Women’s Week.

“This appointment represents an honor, but also a great responsibility,” she said. “I assume this position with the same dedication with which I have served for more than

three decades. I know that the road will not be easy, I know that there will be many challenges, but Diana Crispín can do it.”

González also announced the appointment of Capt. José Luis Rosa López NPPR chief of staff. Rosa López, with 28 years of service in the force, has directed units such as the Arrest and Extradition Division, the FBI Task Force in Joint Operations and the Intelligence Support Center of HIDTA for Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. In addition, he coordinated intelligence and security strategies in the Public Safety Department, where he served as assistant secretary.

By THE STAR STAFF

The Popular Democratic Party (PDP) minority leader in the island House of Representatives, Héctor Ferrer Santiago, filed a measure on Tuesday so that all debates in the lower chamber on the issue of status would be conducted in English.

“To amend section 35.4 of House Resolution 1 …, in order to provide that regarding the turns of debate, any measure that proposes to make statements, send messages

or establish positions related to the political status of Puerto Rico will be presented and debated in the English language,” reads Ferrer Santiago’s measure, House Resolution 180.

“It is essential to adopt English as the language of legislative debates that exclusively address the issue of Puerto Rico’s political status, which provides key advantages for clarity and effectiveness in communication,” the lawmaker said.

“Aligning Puerto Rico’s status debates with the policy announced by President Donald Trump’s government is key to ensuring effective and direct communication, especially on an issue of great political relevance such as status,” said Ferrer Santiago, referring to the recent executive order signed by Trump declaring English as the official language of the United States.

“Puerto Ricans deeply value our main language, Spanish, and proudly celebrate our rich Latino heritage and culture,” the resolution states. “But we also recognize that the use of English in status debates responds to practical and strategic needs.”

“By using English, the dominant language in the U.S. political sphere, we ensure that every statement and argument on status is expressed directly, precisely and without the need for translations that could dilute the content or alter its meaning,” Ferrer Santiago stressed.

Appointed Associate Police Commissioner Diana Crispín and Police Commissioner Joseph González

Teachers Assn. joins union effort to educate about threatened federal funds

By THE STAR STAFF

Puerto Rico Teachers Association (AMPR by its initials in Spanish) President Víctor Manuel Bonilla Sánchez announced Tuesday that the AMPR has joined the initiative of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO), to carry out an orientation campaign on the consequences of eliminating funds from the federal Department of Education, which President Donald Trump is seeking to eliminate.

“We are joining this event to raise awareness about the devastating effects of President Donald Trump’s plans for the federal Department of Education and to exert pressure at the same time so that our local officials demand that federal funds for public education not be limited,” Bonilla

Sánchez said at a press conference. “With this event we are joining the Day of Action to Protect our Children, organized by the AFT …, an orientation exercise for the entire school community.”

The AMPR president continued: “As we all know, … Trump has expressed the intention of eliminating the federal Department of Education of the United States and cutting federal funds for public education. If this assault on public education is carried out, the education and programs offered to millions of students throughout the North American nation, including Puerto Rico, would be at risk.”

Bonilla Sánchez added that 50% of the island Department of Education’s budget comes from federal funds.

The union leader pointed out that while eliminating the federal Department of Education requires approval from Congress, the president can cut its funds.

Morovis to continue case against PRASA over poor service

By THE STAR STAFF

In a significant development, Morovis Mayor Carmen Maldonado González appeared before the U.S. District Court in San Juan on Tuesday to address longstanding grievances regarding inadequate water services provided by the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA). Despite consistent payments, communities within Morovis have endured an inconsistent water supply, with some residents going without access for weeks at a time.

Maldonado González expressed her determination to fight for the rights of her constituents through various avenues, including meetings, public hearings and protests.

“The people of Morovis have suffered for too long due to intermittent, and in some

cases, non-existent drinking water service,” the mayor said. “Since my tenure began in January 2017, we have spent over a million dollars to mitigate these challenges, with no reimbursement from PRASA.”

In an effort to escalate the issue, the municipality filed a claim with the Court of Appeals in Boston in October 2023. While PRASA management initially sought to block the hearing, both parties were ultimately allowed to present their arguments before Judges David Barron, Ojetta R. Thompson and Julie Rikelman, who will review the case and issue a ruling.

Maldonado González, who recently began her third four-year term, underscored the public corporation’s failure to fulfill its duty to residents, stating: “Just as quickly

as they send out invoices each month, they should provide the service that residents are paying for.”

For years, media reports have highlighted PRASA’s lack of accountability regarding a reported 60% water loss, exacerbating the issue of insufficient water service for many communities across Puerto Rico. Maldonado González remains steadfast in her pursuit of justice, emphasizing that her administration will not relent until a resolution is reached.

“Years pass, and this inefficiency is accepted as normal,” she said. “Imagine if for every dollar you earned, they took sixty cents. That’s the situation with PRASA. We will continue this fight because we seek justice.”

Island’s first dengue death of year confirmed

By THE STAR STAFF

Designated Health Secretary Víctor Ramos Otero has confirmed the first death from dengue on the island so far this year after an 85-year-old patient who resided in the Mayagüez region died due to complications related to the disease.

“We deeply regret the loss of this life. Dengue remains a serious threat in Puerto Rico, especially for the most vulnerable groups such as the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions,” Ramos Otero said in a written

statement on Monday. “This incident reinforces the importance of prevention, early detection and treatment.” The official said the Health Department has stepped up its prevention efforts with community activities in all municipalities that include spraying operations, home visits and awareness campaigns to eliminate breeding grounds for the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits the dengue virus.

According to the most recent epidemiological report, 849 cases of dengue have been reported in Puerto Rico so far in 2025, with 46.2% of them requiring hospitalization.

Designated Health Secretary Víctor Ramos Otero

Some 50% of the island Education Department’s budget comes from federal funds, said the president of the Puerto Rico Teachers Association, Víctor Manuel Bonilla Sánchez, seated at right.

Morovis Mayor Carmen Maldonado González

Labor Dept., VOCES ally to prevent chronic diseases in workplace

By THE STAR STAFF

In a significant move to prioritize workplace health and well-being, the Department of Labor and Human Resources (DTRH by its initials in Spanish) and the community-based coalition VOCES announced a strategic alliance on Tuesday to implement the TEAL Healthy Companies program, an initiative focused on chronic disease prevention and early detection within work environments.

Designated DTRH Secretary Nydza Irizarry Algarín emphasized the importance of safe and healthy working conditions.

“Through this alliance with VOCES and the TEAL program, we are fostering preventive strategies and early detection of chronic diseases, aligning with Gov. Jenniffer González Colón’s program,” she said. “This collaboration strengthens public policies that protect our workforce.”

VOCES founder Lilliam Rodríguez Capó highlighted the necessity of integrating preventive health measures in the workplace.

“Our collaboration with the DTRH signifies a crucial

step toward a preventive approach for employee health in Puerto Rican companies,” she said. “Our goal is to reduce the impact of chronic diseases and cultivate a culture of

well-being.”

As part of the agreement, the DTRH will facilitate the implementation of the TEAL program in various companies, promoting public policies aimed at enhancing preventive health measures and integrating those initiatives into existing occupational health and safety programs.

In turn, VOCES will establish an advisory panel comprising both public and private sector representatives, offering health promotion workshops within companies and assisting in the organization of health fairs for employees.

In a timely demonstration of this alliance, an immunization clinic, open to employees and the general public alike, was held at DTRH headquarters in Hato Rey. Attendees received vaccines for HPV, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, pneumococcal pneumonia, hepatitis and shingles, along with expert guidance on each.

The partnership between the DTRH and VOCES underscores the importance of health in the workplace, driving preventive measures and fostering the well-being of Puerto Rico’s workforce, the officials said.

Polaris completes acquisition of Punta Lima wind farm

By THE STAR STAFF

Canadian firm Polaris Renewable Energy Inc. announced Tuesday that it has closed on the equity capital contribution agreement and LLC agreement with respect to the Punta Lima Wind Farm LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Santander Bank N.A.

The project is an operating onshore wind farm called Punta Lima Wind Farm with a nameplate capacity of 26.0 megawatts located in Naguabo. The project was reconstructed and recommissioned by Santander following the 2017 hurricane season and has a 20-year power purchase agreement in place with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority terminating in March 2044.

The transaction has been completed using a tax-equity

structure which results in Polaris becoming the manager and operator of the project with a controlling equity interest and Santander retaining a tax equity interest in the project. The transaction was subject to customary closing conditions, which principally consisted of approval of the acquisition by local regulatory bodies as well as the execution of the corresponding LLC agreement. The total equity contribution of $20 million from Polaris was subject to customary closing adjustments including working capital changes. Santander Corporate & Investment Banking acted as sole financial adviser to Santander Bank N.A.

“This strategic acquisition further deploys Polaris capital into another jurisdiction while adding wind into our generation mix,” said Marc Murnaghan, president and CEO of Polaris.

“We believe that this transaction provides attractive near-term

returns to our shareholders as well as enhancing our growth opportunities significantly. This includes the use of energy storage to provide competitively priced energy and grid stabilization services as well as exploring further strategic opportunities on the island given its stated future energy requirements.”

“Santander is proud to have rebuilt the Punta Lima wind farm in Puerto Rico and is very pleased to be selling its interest to a specialist partner in Polaris,” said Nuno Andrade of Santander Corporate & Investment Banking. “It was the right thing to do to support the island’s clean energy efforts and we are very happy with this outcome.”

Polaris Renewable Energy Inc., based in Toronto, Ontario, is a publicly traded company engaged in the acquisition, development, and operation of renewable energy projects in Latin America & the Caribbean.

Saltchuk Group enters into educational partnerships with RUM, PUPR

By THE STAR STAFF

In a significant move to bolster Puerto Rico’s transportation and logistics sector, the Saltchuk Group has announced partnerships with the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (RUM by its acronym in Spanish) and Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico (PUPR).

The collaborations aim to establish programs focused on talent development and industry-specific education, according to Marine Log.

Saltchuk subsidiaries – TOTE Maritime, Tropical Shipping, Puerto Rico Terminals, Aqua Gulf, and StratAir – play a crucial

role in the island’s supply chain and global trade connections.

Through a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with RUM, Saltchuk will help establish the Caribbean’s first Center of Excellence for Transportation and Logistics (CETL). The center’s aim will be to develop academic programs, facilitate applied research, and foster industry partnerships, thereby ultimately strengthening the region’s talent pipeline.

“We recognized a need to create an opportunity for Puerto Ricans to pursue a graduate degree in Transportation and Logistics within Puerto Rico, and we identified [RUM] as the leading institution that can make this happen,” said Mark Tabbutt, chairman of Saltchuk. “The enthusiasm and vision at

[RUM] made our commitment an easy decision.”

Moreover, Saltchuk has partnered with PUPR to launch a Talent Development Program designed to equip students and professionals with specialized skills required for careers in transportation and logistics. The program will commence this year, enhancing the PUPR’s existing supply chain and logistics associate degree through targeted training, internships, certifications and apprenticeships.

With an initial investment of $200,000 and potential additional funding over 10 years, Saltchuk aims to empower a new generation of professionals, benefiting individuals, businesses and Puerto Rico’s economic development.

Labor & Human Resources Secretary Nydza Irizarry Algarín

Senate confirms Linda McMahon as education secretary

By MICHAEL C. BENDER

The Senate voted earlier this week along party lines to confirm Linda McMahon as the nation’s next education secretary, putting the former pro-wrestling executive in charge of an agency that the Trump administration wants to eliminate.

A wealthy Republican donor who served in the first Trump administration, McMahon has little experience in education. That lack of firsthand knowledge has been framed as an asset by a White House looking to abolish the department she now leads and as a glaring deficiency by her critics.

McMahon, 76, told lawmakers during her confirmation process that she “wholeheartedly” agreed with President Donald Trump’s “mission” to eliminate the Education Department. During her hearing last month, she argued that most Americans did, too, and that she was ready to make it happen.

But there appears to be significant public opposition to getting rid of the Education Department.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans said last week that they opposed eliminating the agency, according to the NPR/PBS News/Marist poll. In North Carolina, one of seven battleground states that Trump swept in November, a similar share, 63%, also said they opposed abolishing the agency, according to a Meredith College poll last month.

The Education Department has already been a top target of the aggressive government overhaul project overseen by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a key Trump adviser. At least 60 employees have been suspended as part of the administration’s purge of diversity efforts, and Musk’s team has discussed the possibility of an executive order that would effectively shut down the department.

On Friday, employees in the department were given a “one-time offer” of up to $25,000 if they agreed to retire or resign by the end of the day Monday. The message, sent by Jacqueline Clay, the department’s chief human capital officer, said the offer was being made before “a very significant reduction in force.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who caucuses with Democrats and is their top representative on the Senate Education Committee, said the department provides “enormously important resources” to children in high-poverty school districts and those with disabilities.

“We must make the Department of Education stronger and more efficient, not to

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dismantle it as Trump has proposed,” Sanders said in a statement.

Among the first 20 Trump nominations confirmed by the Senate, McMahon is the sixth whom Democrats unanimously opposed.

The others were Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense; Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence; Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health; Russell T. Vought, the White House budget director; and Howard Lutnick, the secretary of commerce.

The Education Department’s primary role has been sending federal money to public schools, administering college financial aid and managing federal student loans. The department tracks student achievement, but does not dictate what is taught in public schools. With about 4,200 employees as of September, the agency’s workforce was the smallest of the 15 Cabinet-level executive departments.

McMahon has said she would push for more local control of education programs and to “free American students from the education bureaucracy” by pushing for school choice programs.

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the Republican chair of the Education Committee, said McMahon would help streamline the department.

“We need a strong leader at the department who will get our education system back

on track,” Cassidy said after the confirmation vote. “Secretary McMahon is the right person for the job.”

McMahon received a teaching certificate, but never taught. She has been a member of the board of trustees at Sacred Heart University, a private school in Connecticut with about 8,500 students, for about 16 years. She and her husband, Vince McMahon, from whom she is separated, have donated millions to the Catholic university, where the student commons bears her name.

She also served for about a year on the Connecticut Board of Education, although some state lawmakers questioned her experience for the position and said she ran a wrestling company that promoted violent and sexual images to children.

Her nomination to run the Education Department prompted a new round of concerns about her experience, as critics have said she is ill-prepared to navigate the effects that Trump’s politically charged agenda may have on the nation’s schools.

Trump told reporters last month that the Education Department was “a big con job” and that “I’d like to close it immediately.” Musk has said the administration has terminated 89 contracts worth $881 million at the agency.

At her confirmation hearing, McMahon

presented a more nuanced version of potential changes. She said the administration planned to “reorient” the department while acknowledging that some of the agency’s largest programs would remain in place. She also said core programs, such as Title I money for low-income schools and Pell grants for the poorest college students, would not be eliminated.

She also agreed that an act of Congress would be required to abolish the department, which was created in 1979 to ensure equal access to education, help parents and local communities improve the quality of education and coordinate federal education programs.

A more likely target for cuts was federal money to schools and colleges that defy Trump’s orders seeking to bar transgender women from competing in women’s sports, and doing away with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Responding to a question at the hearing last week from Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., McMahon said schools should allow events celebrating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., but was more circumspect about classes that focused on Black history.

“I’m not quite certain and I’d like to look into it further,” McMahon said.

During Trump’s first term, McMahon served as the head of the Small Business Administration until stepping down in 2019 to run a super political action committee supporting Trump. That super PAC, America First Action, spent more than $185 million before Trump’s loss in 2020.

During the 2024 election, McMahon was among the largest contributors to Trump’s campaign. She and her husband contributed more than $20 million to Trump’s reelection campaign and associated PACs, according to data compiled by Open Secrets, a government transparency group.

After Trump was voted out of office in 2020, McMahon became chair of the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank heavily staffed by former Trump officials. She has also taken on roles with other conservative policy organizations and The Daily Caller, a conservative news site.

She is paid $18,400 every three months by the Trump Media & Technology Group, where she is a director. and has received thousands of shares in the company as compensation for her work. The group is the parent company of Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social. McMahon vowed to resign from those positions and divest from Trump’s business if confirmed.

Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Education, arrives for her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 13, 2025. The Senate on Monday, March 3, 2025, voted along party lines to confirm McMahon as the nation’s next education secretary, putting the former pro-wrestling executive in charge of an agency that the Trump administration wants to eliminate.

Jiang/The New York Times)

Struggling with errors, DOGE deletes billions more from list of savings

By DAVID FARENTHOLD, EMILY BADGER and JEREMY SINGER-VINE

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has deleted hundreds more claims from its mistake-plagued “wall of receipts,” erasing $4 billion in additional savings that the group said it had made for U.S. taxpayers.

Late Sunday, the group erased or altered more than 1,000 contracts it had claimed to cancel, representing more than 40% of all the contracts listed on its site last week. The deleted items included five of the seven largest savings that it had claimed credit for just last week. At the same time, the group added about 1,000 additional canceled contracts, worth smaller total savings.

It was the second time in a week that DOGE had deleted some of its greatest claims of success. Early last week, it erased all five of the largest savings it had claimed when the wall of receipts, which is what the group is calling its list of canceled contracts, was originally posted Feb. 19.

Since that first posting, the total amount of savings that the initiative has claimed from cutting contracts has steadily declined, from $16 billion at first to less than $9 billion now.

The “wall” shows only some of the cuts Musk has imposed on government, making it

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has deleted hundreds more claims from its mistake-plagued “wall of receipts,” erasing $4 billion in additional savings that the group said it had made for U.S. taxpayers. (Eric

Lee/The New York Times)

difficult to assess the claim that his initiative has saved taxpayers more than $100 billion. But the site is the only place where the group has given a detailed public accounting of its work, providing a rare look at its basic competence and familiarity with government data.

Contracting and budget experts say that look has been worrisome.

From its start, the list has been full of er-

rors: claims that confused billions with millions, triple-counted the same cancellation, or claimed credit for contracts that had ended years or even decades before. Contracting experts said these mistakes raised questions about DOGE’s basic understanding of the federal government, at a time when Musk’s group is attempting to rapidly overhaul it.

“Overall, there’s a certain randomness to it,” said Jessica Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. “It seems like DOGE had certain agencies pull together some random lists of contracts that may or may not currently exist anyway, and then, without checking the data very well, uploaded it onto a website and summed up the amounts. It doesn’t seem to be centrally coordinated.”

Musk’s group and the White House did not respond to requests for comment about the new deletions sent Monday morning. Since news media outlets began to point out errors in the list, the group has added language on its website that shifts the blame onto individual federal agencies — saying the dollar figures on its site “originate directly from agency contracting officials.”

Among the largest claims that disappeared:

— A $1.9 billion savings that the group said it had achieved by canceling an Internal Revenue Service contract for tech help. Before Sunday

night, this had been the biggest single savings on the site. But The New York Times reported that the contract was actually canceled in November, while Joe Biden was president.

— A $149 million savings attributed to canceling a contract to provide three administrative assistants at the Department of Health and Human Services. The entry on the site last week contained numerous errors, including a link to a different contract, with a different company, that did not involve administrative assistants or $149 million. On Sunday, after the Times mentioned this garbled entry, it disappeared.

—

A $133 million savings that the group said had come from canceling a U.S. Agency for International Development contract for work in Libya. The contractor, Chemonics International, posted last year on LinkedIn that its work on that contract had already ended.

Even after the changes to the group’s website, however, some errors remained. As of Monday morning, the list still included claims that DOGE achieved $106 million in savings by canceling a pair of contracts that the Coast Guard signed for administrative help. That was wrong. Federal procurement data shows that these contracts were actually completed in 2005 and 2006, when George W. Bush was president.

Democrats block bill to bar transgender girls from female sports teams

By ANNIE KARNI

Democrats earlier this week blocked a Republican-written bill aimed at barring transgender women and girls from school sports teams designated for female students, thwarting consideration in the Senate of the GOP’s latest move to use transgender people as leverage at the dawn of President Donald Trump’s second term. With Democrats opposed, the measure stalled on a vote of 51-45, falling short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster and be brought up for consideration. The bill, which passed the House in January on a largely partyline vote, would prohibit federal funding from going to K-12 schools that include transgender students in women’s and girls’ athletic programs. It mirrors one of the goals of an executive order Trump signed last month titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” which charged the Education Department with changing its interpretation of civil rights laws so that schools that failed to bar transgender athletes could lose federal funding.

Senate Republicans argued it was essential to protecting girls from predatory men encroaching on their private spaces and seeking to gain an unfair athletic advantage on the basis of sex, even as they hinted that the measure was intended to lay a political trap for Democrats.

“Democrats can stand for women or stand with a radical transgender ideology,” Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the majority leader, said Monday. If they opposed the legislation, he said, “they’ll have to answer to the women and girls they vote to disenfranchise.”

Democrats denounced the legislation as a craven effort by Republicans to wring political advantage from a small but vulnerable population of transgender children that would ultimately put at risk the girls it purported to protect.

“What Republicans are doing today is inventing a problem to stir up a culture war and divide people against each other and distract people from what they’re actually doing,” said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. He called the bill “totally irrelevant to 99.9% of all people across the country.”

The measure was sponsored by Sen. Tommy

Tuberville, R-Ala., a former high school girls basketball coach, who framed it as an example of how Democrats were out of touch with a mainstream point of view. On the Senate floor, GOP lawmakers cited polls showing a majority of Americans, including most Democrats, believed that biological males should not be allowed to play women’s sports.

Many congressional Democrats have agreed that there are real concerns about transgender athletes competing in women’s sports at the highest levels. But they have argued that athletic associations should be making those decisions, not lawmakers passing broad bills at the federal level that lump together competitive athletes and young children who simply want to participate in school activities with their friends.

More than two dozen states already bar transgender athletes from participating in school sports, whether in K-12 schools or at the collegiate level.

On Monday, Senate Democrats argued that the legislation was not only an attack on basic human dignity but also a waste of time. Of more

than 500,000 NCAA athletes, they noted, fewer than 10 identified as transgender.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., also noted that the bill had no enforcement mechanism and “could subject women and girls to physical inspection by an adult if someone from an opposing team accused them of being transgender.”

Out of power and in the political wilderness, congressional Democrats have few levers to pull to stand in the way of the Republican governing trifecta. But the filibuster remains one of their final ways of blocking legislation that otherwise could make its way to Trump’s desk for his signature.

Earlier this year, Senate Democrats blocked a measure that would subject some doctors who perform abortions to criminal penalties. They also blocked a Republican bill to impose sanctions on officials affiliated with the International Criminal Court, which Republicans have wanted to rebuke for the decision of its top prosecutor to bring war crimes charges against top Israeli leaders for their military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Trump’s tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China snap into effect

By ANA SWANSON, IAN AUSTEN and SIMON ROMERO

Sweeping tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China went into effect just after midnight Tuesday, raising U.S. tariffs to levels not seen in decades and rattling foreign governments and businesses that depend on international trade.

As of 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, the Trump administration added a 25% tariff on all imports from Canada and Mexico. The administration also added another 10% tariff on all imports from China. That comes on top of a 10% tariff on Chinese goods put into effect just one month ago and a variety of older levies, including those that remain from the China trade war in President Donald Trump’s first term.

The tariffs will make good on Trump’s campaign promise to rework America’s trade relations, and they are likely to encourage some manufacturers who want to sell to American customers to set up factories in the United States, instead of other countries.

But by altering the terms of trade between the United States and its largest economic partners, the tariffs will also probably rattle supply chains, strain some of the country’s most important diplomatic relationships and add significant costs for American consumers and manufacturers.

Canada, Mexico and China are the three largest trading partners of the United States, accounting for more than 40% of both U.S. imports and exports last year. The three countries supply the bulk of crude oil, beer, copper wire, toilet paper, hot-rolled iron, cucumbers and chocolate imported by the United States, as well as a dizzying array of other products.

The tariffs came as somewhat of a surprise, given that Mexico and Canada have gone to great lengths in recent weeks to convince the president that they were stepping up enforcement of their borders. The president initially threatened in November to impose the tariffs, saying that the three countries were not doing enough to halt the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States.

On Monday, however, Trump appeared to change his terms, saying that Canada and Mexico needed to relocate auto factories and other manufacturing to the United States.

“What they have to do is build their car plants, frankly, and other things in the United States, in which case they have no tariffs,” he said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada said Monday evening that his country would respond with its own tariffs of 25% on $155 billion of American goods. Tariffs on $30 billion would go into effect Tuesday, and the remainder in 21 days, he said.

Trudeau said that less than 1% of the fentanyl intercepted at the U.S. border came from Canada, but that the country had still worked to stop its flow, pushing fentanyl seizures to near zero by January.

“Canada will not let this unjustified decision go unanswered,” Trudeau said.

The Mexican government had also gone to great lengths to step up its border enforcement, including cracking down on the cartels producing fentanyl and handing over dozens of top cartel operatives to the United States. Mexico also pledged to deploy 10,000 National Guard troops to help deter migration, building on earlier efforts to disassemble migrant caravans well before they reach the border with the United States.

Feb.

Activity at the border had already calmed by the time Trump took office in January, but in recent weeks border crossings have declined to the lowest in recent history. At one point in February, U.S. personnel on the Mexican border encountered only 200 migrants in a single day, levels that were once unthinkable.

In Canada, which is a minuscule source of fentanyl compared with Mexico, the threat of tariffs sparked frustration and outrage. It also led to a surge of patriotism and anti-American sentiment, which was intensified by Trump’s repeated calls for the annexation of

Canada.

Shortly after Trump, as president-elect, first made the tariff threat in November, Trudeau flew to Florida to meet him at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s estate and private club. Canada began assembling a list of retaliatory tariffs and put together a plan to increase security at its border. That included appointing a “fentanyl czar,” leasing Black Hawk helicopters for Royal Canadian Mounted Police patrols and buying a fleet of drones.

Days before the tariffs were imposed, some business leaders who are members of a Canada-U.S. relations group that Trudeau set up after the tariff threat were already pessimistic that the lobbying, the alliance building and the border strengthening would bring another last-minute reprieve.

Steve MacKinnon, Canada’s employment minister, said Monday that the government would move to introduce extra wage supports for workers who are left jobless because of the tariffs.

Economists have estimated that the tariffs will lower economic growth throughout North America, but that they will hit Canada and Mexico the hardest, given that those countries send roughly 80% of their exports to the United States.

In contrast, China sends only about 15% of its exports to the United States, so it is much less exposed to the tariffs. While Canada and Mexico worked hard to appease Trump, China did not make similar overtures. The Chinese government did not want to be seen as pleading and was wary of offering concessions before it understood the parameters of the negotiation, people familiar with their thinking said.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said China was “strongly dissatisfied” and would take countermeasures to “safeguard its own rights and interests.” The spokesperson accused the United States of disregarding facts and international trade rules, and described the episode as “bullying.”

The tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China come in addition to a raft of other tariff proposals Trump has made this year. The administration is set to introduce tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum on March 12, and has suggested that it will introduce a variety of others, including on foreign cars, in April. Trump has also opened trade investigations that could result in tariffs on copper and timber.

Andeno Co

Tasa mínima, promedio ponderado, y máxima para préstamos personales pequeños otorgados para la semana que terminó el sábado, 1 de marzo de 2025

A ship carrying containers at the Port of Los Angeles,

14, 2025. As of 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, the Trump administration added a 25% tariff on all imports from Canada and Mexico. (Mark Abramson/The New York Times)

Stocks

S&P 500 and Dow end lower dragged down by trade tensions

The benchmark S&P 500 and Dow finished lower on Tuesday as trade tensions escalated following U.S. President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.

The 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, along with doubled duties on Chinese goods, took effect on Tuesday. China and Canada retaliated while Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum vowed to respond likewise, without giving details.

“Equity valuations have been very elevated and there’s been yellow flags all over the horizon given moves to cut government spending,” said Ben McMillan, chief investment officer at IDX Insights in Tampa, Florida. “Now on top of that, we have all this rhetoric around tariffs.”

Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase & Co fell, sending the bigger banks index lower.

The CBOE market volatility index rose 0.70% to its highest since December 20.

“The fear here is that it’s going to slow (economic) growth,” said Adam Sarhan, CEO of 50 Park Investments in New York. “And when you have a slowdown in economic conditions, it’s a situation where banks specifically make less money because fewer goods and services are traveling through the economy.”

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 71.04 points, or 1.21%, to end at 5,778.68 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 67.12 points, or 0.37%, to 18,283.07. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 673.34 points, or 1.56%, to 42,517.90.

Car makers Ford and General Motors, which have vast supply chains across North America, fell. The domestically focused Russell 2000 index dropped.

Wall Street is really concerned, McMillan said. “The likelihood of tariffs will lead to higher prices and therefore lower spending.”

Target fell after the retailer forecast full-year comparable sales below estimates.

Best Buy slumped after the electronics retailer issued a downbeat forecast, while Walgreens jumped as a report hinted that the pharmacy chain is closing in on a takeprivate deal by Sycamore Partners.

We’ve revamped Morning Bid U.S. to offer you more in-depth markets analysis and commentary. Mike Dolan will help you make sense of the key trends shaping markets each day. For more expert analysis, look out for Reuters’ new markets and finance commentary vertical, coming this spring.

Already-nervy markets were greeted on Tuesday with a full-blown trade war and major diplomatic row, as fears of a first-quarter economic downturn erased hopes that the U.S. economy will sail through the disruption unscathed.

U.S. tariff hikes against Canada, Mexico and China are set to go ahead and have already been met with retaliatory measures from Beijing.

Wall Street smells trouble. The S&P500 recorded its deepest loss of the year on Monday, notably on a day

MOST ASSERTIVE STOCKS

when Germany’s defence-spurred DAX index clocked its biggest daily gain in more than two years.

In fact, all three major U.S. stock indexes are back in the red for the year, as Treasury yields hit near 5-month lows, the dollar recoiled and high yield corporate credit spreads have widened the most since October.

Three Federal Reserve interest rate cuts this year are once again being priced into money markets, one more than the Fed has indicated.

Given all this, today I’m taking a deeper look at how Donald Trump’s administration seems to have undermined domestic confidence - and the economic outlook

PUERTO RICO STOCKS

COMMODITIES

CURRENCY

HOLDINGS SUMMARY

- with policy uncertainty as much as any direct impact from new measures.

Today’s Market Minute

Low US policy visibility equals big economic trouble

Markets spent so much time figuring out the direction of Trump’s economic policies, they might have missed the risk that no one ever really knows what’s next.

Designed in part to keep rival negotiators guessing and calculated to wring concessions, the new Trump Administration’s deliberate ambiguity on trade tariff policies or geopolitical alliances may take its toll if domestic business doesn’t know what exactly they’re planning for.

The San Juan Daily Star

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, March 5, 2025 9

Argentines in Rome pray for a pope who’s one of their own

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

On Sunday evening, Mariarosa

Cavañas lit a candle in front of a small chapel in the Church of Santa Maria Addolorata — the national church of Argentina in Rome — where a photo of Pope Francis was affixed on a dais next to a prayer for his good health. On the back wall of the chapel sat a small statue of Our Lady of Lujàn, the patron saint of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, and a prayer entrusting Francis to her care.

“I hope he gets better,” said Cavañas, an Argentine who works as a nurse auxiliary in Rome. She was among the dozens of faithful who had flocked to the church for a Mass that brings Rome’s Argentine community together on the first Sunday of every month. This Sunday, their ailing compatriot Francis was very much on everyone’s mind and in their prayers.

Francis has been in a Rome hospital with pneumonia and other infections since Feb. 14. On Tuesday evening, the Vatican said that Francis’ condition was stable after suffering two acute respiratory episodes the previous day.

“I am very sad, and I’ve been praying for him,” said Marcela Perez, who works for a institute that houses six nuns in Rome. “All of Argentina is praying for the pope.”

Millions around the world have been offering prayers for Francis since he entered the hospital. But members of the Argentine community that meets at the church of Santa Maria Addolorata, built a century ago by Argentine bishops, said they felt particularly close to him.

About 1,200 Argentines live in Rome, according to the Rome-based IDOS study and research center, which tracks immigration in Italy. Aptly, the church is in Piazza Buenos Aires, which borders some of Rome’s most well-heeled neighborhoods.

Dozens of get-well wishes were scribbled — nearly all in Spanish — in a guest book in the chapel. The Rev. Fernando Laguna, the church’s rector, said it would be delivered to Francis at the Policlinico Agostino Gemelli where he is being treated. Before he became Francis, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio used to occasionally say Mass at the church, recalled Mary Cuartas,

Mariarosa Cavanas lights a candle in front of a small chapel in Santa Maria Addolorata, in Rome, March 2, 2025. Argentines in Rome pray for a Pope who’s one of their own and, though ex-patriot community is small, it shares a special bond with Francis, who has been in the hospital since Feb. 14. (Elisabetta Povoledo/The New York Times)

a retired dentist.

“We always pray for the pope,” said Laguna, but the prayers have “intensified” since Francis was admitted to the hospital. In front of the main altar, next to a statue of Our Lady of Lujàn, was another photo of Francis with the entreaty “For the Health of the Holy Father.”

Francis remains closely attached to his native country. He is a fan of San Lorenzo, a Buenos Aires soccer team — though he hasn’t seen a game on television for decades, having vowed to never again watch television after being “deeply offended” by a “sordid scene” he saw on-screen in 1990, he said in his autobiography, “Hope.”

But he added that he was kept informed about the team thanks to a “Swiss guardsman who leaves the results and league tables on my desk.” In “Hope,” which was published in January, Francis recounts that he has kept in touch with several of his childhood friends, who often visit him if they pass through Rome.

“There’s always a lot of Argentines around,” said Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s foreign minister. “He sometimes assumes a personal responsibility,” remaining in touch with Argentine clerics and nuns in far-flung places.

On a physically grueling 11-day trip to the Asia-Pacific region in September, Fran-

cis flew 600 miles to Vanimo, a remote outpost of Papua New Guinea, to spend an afternoon with a group of missionaries from Argentina and local Catholics. The priests served him mate, a traditional herbal drink that is common in South America.

Since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip, Francis has been in almost nightly contact with a parish led by an Argentine priest in the enclave, although the calls became less frequent after he entered the hospital.

Francis also hasn’t lost his taste for Argentine food.

Angel Moavro, one of the owners of Baires, an Argentine restaurant in downtown Rome, said Francis’ compatriots often came to buy homemade desserts to bring to the pope, including alfajores, a popular sandwich cookie, churros — “which are Spanish, but we eat them a lot in Argentina,” Moavro said — and budin de pan, a bread pudding.

Since his hospitalization began, Francis’ normally outspoken voice had all but disappeared, save for short messages via Angelus prayers on Sundays, and it was sorely missed, said Moavro. “We really need him these days” to help mediate, he said, referring to the explosive confrontation at the White House between President Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelen-

skyy of Ukraine.

“Certainly, once he’s back, he’s going to have to take more care of himself,” he said.

Cuartas said she could hardly wait until Francis returned to Casa Santa Marta, the guesthouse inside the Vatican where the pope has chosen to live. But then, she added, “he has to go visit Argentina.”

A visit, or rather lack there of, to his homeland has become a sore point for many Argentines.

John Paul II went to Poland, his native home, eight times during his papacy. Benedict XVI went to Germany, where he was born, three times. But in the 12 years of his papacy, Francis has not set foot in Argentina.

“A trip to Argentina is a pending subject,” said Elisabetta Piqué, an Argentine journalist and biographer of Francis. She said she believed Francis had always felt that a trip home might be politically manipulated by whichever leader happened to be in charge at the time. “So he’s kept putting it off, and obviously, this has created a lot of frustration in Argentina,” she said.

Another biographer, Austen Ivereigh, said Francis had told him that he wanted to go to Argentina only “if the visit would be a source of unity and healing in a very fractured and divided society” and that it remained unclear whether that would be the case. “Argentina is famous for its polarized culture,” he said.

“It’s always been complex” to plan a trip to Argentina, Ivereigh said, adding that Francis also believed that other countries had needed a papal visit more than his native country.

After Mass on Sunday, as they do each month, the dozens of Argentine expats gathered in the church hall to eat empanadas made by volunteers.

Federico Gatti, who works in risk assessment for a U.S. import-export company, said the Argentine community in Rome saw Francis as one of their own. “For us, it’s as though our grandfather is ill, we want him to get better,” he said. “So one prays, hopes he will get better, in the hope that he will regain his forces and the support of all the church on this path.”

Wednesday, March 5, 2025 10

The San Juan Daily Star

Zelenskyy offers terms to stop fighting, assuring US that Ukraine wants peace

By MARC SANTORA

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine on Tuesday offered a course of action that he said could end the war, while trying to assure the Trump administration that his government was dedicated to peace.

“Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be,” Zelenskyy wrote on the social platform X. “It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right.”

He was referring to an explosive meeting at the White House last week in which President Donald Trump berated Zelenskyy and called him ungrateful. Trump followed up on Monday by announcing that he was pausing all U.S. military aid to Ukraine.

The Ukrainian leader said he was ready to release Russian prisoners of war, stop long-range drone and missile strikes aimed at Russian targets, and declare a truce at sea immediately — moves that he said would help establish a pathway to peace.

Only, however, “if Russia will do the same,” he added.

Zelenskyy’s proposal seemed clearly designed to shift the burden for ending the war onto Russia, which launched its invasion three years ago. The White House has claimed that the Ukrainian leader is the main obstacle to peace.

In his post, Zelenskyy offered effusive praise for U.S. support, noting specifically “the moment when things changed when President Trump provided Ukraine with Javelins.”

“We are grateful for this,” he wrote. “Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer,” he added. “My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.”

There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin to Zelenskyy’s proposal. Despite the ferocity of the fighting, President Vladimir Putin of Russia has shown a willingness to do side deals with Ukraine. The two countries have conducted numerous prisoner-of-war exchanges, and Russia and Ukraine had been set to participate in talks in Qatar last August about halting strikes on each other’s ener-

gy infrastructure. Moscow pulled out of the meeting after Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.

In recent weeks, however, Putin has offered no hint of being willing to de-escalate the war before winning major concessions from the West and Ukraine — like ruling out Ukrainian NATO membership, reducing the alliance’s footprint in Europe, limiting the size of Ukraine’s military, and giving Russia influence over Ukraine’s domestic politics.

“There is no evidence that Russia would be prepared to accept a deal, and what that would be,” said Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director general of the Royal United Services Institute, a research group in London. He said the decision by the United States to pause military aid would only encourage Putin to ask for more — including Ukrainian demilitarization and neutrality.

Zelenskyy sought to strike a careful balance in his statement. Aware of Trump’s stated desire to get a quick deal, he said Ukraine was “ready to work fast to end the war.”

At the same time, he suggested a staged process, similar to an idea raised by the French government, that could start immediately.

“We are ready to work fast to end the war, and the first stages could be the release of prisoners and truce in the sky — ban on missiles, long-ranged drones, bombs on energy and other civilian infrastructure — and truce in the sea immediately, if Russia will do the same,” he wrote. “Then we want to move very fast through all next stages and to work with the US to agree a strong final deal.”

His statement came as leaders in Ukraine assessed the political and military impact of the Trump administration’s

decision to suspend aid, with military officials weighing how long Ukraine’s own stockpiles would last before the situation led to critical gaps on the front.

An emergency meeting in the Ukrainian parliament was convened Tuesday to assess the impact of the latest pressure from the Trump administration while soldiers in the trenches woke up to the news that an already grueling war could become even more challenging, and brutal.

Zelenskyy did not comment directly on the aid suspension but he convened senior civilian and military leaders to discuss “special issues concerning our national resilience.”

European leaders — who will convene in Brussels on Thursday to discuss support for Ukraine and the urgent need for Europe to build up its own military capabilities — were quick to rush to Ukraine’s defense Tuesday morning.

Ursula von der Leyen, who heads the executive arm of the 27-nation European Union, said: “This is Europe’s moment and we must live up to it.”

Appearing in Brussels, she proposed a new program that would make loans valued at 150 billion euros ($158 billion) to member states to fund defense investment.

A former official in the Biden administration said Ukraine had enough key munitions to last into the summer because of the surge in deliveries the U.S. made before President Joe Biden left office — shipments that included artillery rounds, rockets and armored vehicles to Ukraine. The official insisted on anonymity to discuss private arrangements.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, said the country had weathered suspensions of U.S. military aid in the past and that Ukraine was engaging in a comprehensive audit of it stockpiles, “examining what we have, what can be produced through partnerships, and what can be replaced.”

Despite the increasing tension with the Trump administration, Ukraine did not give up hope that the relationship between Ukraine and the U.S. could be salvaged.

The Ukrainian parliament issued a statement directed at Trump, offering effusive praise and gratitude while imploring his administration to not abandon their country as it fights for its survival as an independent nation.

“We are convinced that the security and stable development of our nation are ensured by the unwavering support of the United States and reflect the values that have been the foundation of America’s historic success, inspiring millions of Ukrainians,” the lawmakers wrote.

Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said his government would do everything to maintain diplomatic ties with Washington and was prepared to sign an agreement granting the U.S. extraordinary access to Ukraine’s natural resources.

“This agreement has been approved by the government of Ukraine,” he said at a news conference. “We are ready to begin this cooperation at any moment.”

Members of Ukraine’s 38th Separate Marine Brigade in the Pokrovsk region, Ukraine, Nov. 16, 2024. A day after President Trump ordered the suspension of American military assistance, Ukrainian diplomats and politicians scrambled on Tuesday to find a way to salvage their alliance with Washington while the war weary nation prepared for the possibility that it will have to fight on without support from the United States.

Trump and Vance are stripping away foreign policy illusions

By ROSS DOUTHAT

Donald Trump, Henry Kissinger remarked in 2018, “may be one of those figures in history who appears from time to time to mark the end of an era and to force it to give up its old pretenses.”

That general first-term comment might as well be marching orders for Trump’s second-term foreign policy. From policy and speeches to Friday’s blowup in the Oval Office with the president of Ukraine, everything Trump is doing and saying, and everything his vice president is saying and doing, is ruthlessly stripping away pretenses around the United States, its alliances and the situation in the world.

A pretense: The United States is capable of playing the hegemonic role it played 20 years ago, fully supporting democratic allies in every region, standing ready to fight wars across multiple theaters, refusing any compromise with authoritarianism. The reality: America is overstretched, a more multipolar world requires making deals with unpleasant regimes, and we need to recalibrate and retrench in ways that will require much more of our allies.

A pretense: Our European allies are strong nations and equal partners in protecting the security of the world. The reality: Europe has been badly misgoverned by its establishment, once-lionized figures like Angela Merkel above all. Its economic position is parlous, its demographic situation is miserable and its military capacities have atrophied, and most of the chest-thumping about a revival of European power is empty talk and fantasy politics.

A pretense: With enough military aid and moral support, the Ukrainians can roll back the Russians, secure their prewar borders and eventually join NATO. The reality: The war is stalemated, there is no path to Ukrainian victory short of a direct American intervention, some kind of negotiated settlement is inevitable, and NATO membership was never realistically in the cards.

Many of these realities have been understood by American policymakers in both parties for some time. It’s why Barack Obama sought a “pivot to Asia” and proceeded cautiously when Vladimir Putin seized Crimea. It’s why Joe Biden pulled out of Afghanistan. And it’s why the Biden team supported Ukraine but with limits, and why it was clashing with Volodymyr Zelenskyy behind the scenes even in the first year of war.

President Donald Trump, center, meets with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, left, as Vice President JD Vance looks on in the Oval Office on Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)

ring parties hostile to your policies (as may happen in our northern neighbor if Trump’s war of words with Justin Trudeau saves the Liberal Party in the next election), and generally draping power politics in the garments of idealism.

Most of the foreign policy team around Trump, so far as I can tell, imagines itself doing what realist Republican presidents like Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon have done in the past — matching means and ends, accepting lesser evils to avoid greater ones, and delivering necessary shock therapy for a system of alliances that needs it.

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And there is value in speaking more openly about uncomfortable realities. People need to know that the world is not what it was in 2000 or 2012. They need to understand the kind of issues that JD Vance raised in his controversial speech in Munich criticizing Europe’s failed approach to immigration, its traducements of free speech, its deficit of democratic legitimacy.

They need to understand that the armistice that the Trump administration seems to want to negotiate with Russia may not look all that different from the endgame that would have developed under a Democratic president.

And they need to grasp why, exactly, Vance snapped at Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on Friday after the Ukrainian president began lecturing his hosts on why it’s impossible to negotiate with Putin — because the world is what it is, and right now negotiating with untrustworthy rivals is a necessity that can’t be wished away.

However: Pretense in foreign policy is not always the same thing as self-deception. It’s also just a form of politesse, of circling uncomfortable subjects and making countries that are in your debt or whom you need to strong-arm feel like they’re friends and not just subjects. It’s a way to give foreign leaders space to do what you want while also handling their own domestic audiences, making sure that you aren’t accidentally empowe -

But those realist presidents were also extremely fluent in the language of diplomacy — they could wax idealistic when the situation called for it, speak smoothly even when they were acting ruthlessly, and settle allies down as well as trigger them.

Trump doesn’t speak diplomatically and never will. But his first-term foreign policy succeeded with the president playing the heavy while his appointees offered normalcy, and his second term to date needs more of that balance — someone to twist arms and someone to smooth feathers, someone to speak frankly and someone to keep the frankest truth-telling off-camera.

And someone — and this applies to the administration’s domestic policy as well — to make sure that when you’re doing shock therapy, there’s a quick way to turn the electricity back down.

Mayoristas de Máquinas de Juegos de Azar proponen mayor aportación al retiro de la Policía

POR CYBERNEWS

SAN JUAN – Los Dueños Mayoristas de Máquinas de Juegos de Azar, licenciados por la Comisión de Juegos de Puerto Rico, solicitaron el martes ajustes en la distribución de ingresos para aumentar la aportación al retiro de la Policía y mejorar la fiscalización de la industria.

“El mismo gobierno, en voz de la primera mandataria, ha manifestado recientemente su preocupación sobre este tema, lo que se esté recaudando y cómo se maneja. Estamos seguros de que abogará porque sea una cantidad razonable y digna, como merece nuestra fuerza de ley y orden”, expresó Jaime Alex Irizarry, portavoz del grupo y exdirector de Juegos de Azar de la Compañía de Turismo de Puerto Rico, en declaraciones escritas.

Los mayoristas plantearon que el sistema actual de recaudación ha sido inefectivo para erradicar la operación de máquinas ilegales y garantizar el financiamiento adecuado al retiro de los policías. Propusieron la reasig-

nación del 85 por ciento de los ingresos gubernamentales generados por la industria al retiro de la Policía, el 10 por ciento a la Comisión de Juegos para fiscalización y un 5 por ciento a la Administración de Servicios de Salud Mental y Contra la Adicción (AMSCA) para programas contra la ludopatía.

La propuesta:

1. Reasignación del 22.5% de la parte que va a los ingresos gubernamentales. En lugar de 55%, destinar 85% al retiro de la Policía 10% a la Comisión de Juegos para fiscalización y erradicación de la ilegalidad (con estos recursos, la Comisión no tendría que afectar los ingresos de los Casinos que ya aportan el 52% de impuestos al Gobierno), 5% a AMSCA para programas contra la ludopatía

2. Ajustes en ingresos por licencias. Licencias de $400: aumentar la aportación al retiro de $50 a $300. Licencias de $1,500: aumentar la aportación al retiro de $450 a $1,000.

3. Distribución de ingresos por multas: 50% al retiro

Procuraduría de las Mujeres invita a participar en evento

POR CYBERNEWS

SAN JUAN – Como parte de las iniciativas programadas para conmemorar el Día Internacional de la Mujer, la Oficina de la Procuradora de las Mujeres (OPM) celebrará este viernes, 7 de marzo de 2025, la actividad titulada “Mujeres que Inspiran, Somos Más”, según anunció la procuradora interina, licenciada Madeline Bermúdez Sanabria.

de la Policía, 50% al Fondo General.

4. Eliminación del requisito de $12 millones exigidos por la Junta Fiscal al Fondo General, permitiendo el flujo inmediato de ingresos al retiro sin necesidad de subsidios gubernamentales.

“Mujeres que Inspiran, Somos Más”

“Esta actividad refuerza nuestro compromiso en la OPM con la educación y la prevención de la violencia contra las mujeres, promoviendo su empoderamiento y bienestar. Es fundamental que las mujeres tengan acceso a herramientas y espacios que fortalezcan su desarrollo personal y profesional. Queremos que sepan que no están solas y que desde nuestra oficina seguimos trabajando para garantizar sus derechos y su seguridad”, destacó Bermúdez Sanabria en declaraciones escritas.

El evento, que se llevará a cabo en el Jardín Botánico de Caguas de 9:00 de la mañana a 2:00 de la tarde, tiene como objetivo visibilizar y reconocer la fortaleza de las mujeres puertorriqueñas en distintos ámbitos, resaltando sus logros y reflexionando sobre los desafíos que han enfrentado y superado a lo largo de sus trayectorias.

También, se realizarán dos paneles en los que seis mujeres emprendedoras de distintos sectores compartirán sus historias, desafíos y éxitos. Sus testimonios servirán de inspiración para que mujeres confíen en su potencial y sigan luchando por la igualdad y el progreso.

Este evento se realizará en cumplimiento con los deberes delegados a la OPM por la Ley Núm. 20-2001 y la Ley 102 del 2 de junio de 1976, que establece el 8 de marzo como el Día Internacional de la Mujer en Puerto Rico.

Hallan paquete con dos osamentas en oficina de FedEx en Aguadilla

5. Incorporación de otras actividades bajo la misma normativa: Aplicar el 22.5% de contribución gubernamental a las máquinas del Hipódromo Camarero y Light & Wonder y todo lo contenido bajo la ley 11. POR CYBERNEWS

AGUADILLA

– La Policía informó el martes sobre el hallazgo de un paquete con dos osamentas que sería enviado al estado de Florida a través de una oficina de FedEx, ubicada en el edificio 404 de la calle Hangar en Aguadilla.

Según el informe preliminar, dos individuos llegaron a la oficina de envíos, donde uno de ellos compró cinta

adhesiva y una bolita plástica, tomó una caja y salió al estacionamiento. Posteriormente, ambos reingresaron y declararon que el paquete contenía uniformes de karate. Sin embargo, una empleada sospechó del envío al percibir un fuerte olor a perfume. Al pasar la caja por el escáner de rayos X, el personal de seguridad detectó dos cráneos y otros huesos empacados individualmente en fundas plásticas, por lo que alertaron a las autoridades. El agente Edictor Martínez Pérez, bajo la supervisión

del teniente Orlando Adames Cardona, encargado del Cuerpo de Investigaciones Criminales (CIC) de Aguadilla, investigó el caso junto al fiscal José Rivera Loperena. La evidencia fue enviada al Instituto de Ciencias Forenses para su análisis.

Se exhorta a la ciudadanía a brindar información llamando al 787-343-2020 o a través de X (anteriormente Twitter) en @PRPDNoticias y en Facebook www.facebook.com/prpdgov.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, March 5, 2025 13

The fairy tale night of Sean Baker, director of dreams gone awry

By ALISSA WILKINSON

Sean Baker came equipped with extra speeches, and that was wise: On the night of the Oscars, he wound up onstage four times to receive four statues.

That’s not just unusual. It’s almost unheard-of.

Baker’s film “Anora,” about a sex worker in New York City’s Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn who marries the son of a Russian oligarch and then watches it all go sideways, earned five Oscars overall on Sunday. One went to its ingénue star, Mikey Madison, and four to Baker: best director, best original screenplay, best editing and best picture.

By taking home four Oscars on a single night, Baker joins just one other luminary: none other than Walt Disney, who pulled off the same trick in 1954. That year, Disney won best documentary feature (“The Living Desert”), best documentary short subject (“The Alaskan Eskimo”), best cartoon short subject (“Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom”) and best two-reel short subject (“Bear Country”).

But even Disney didn’t pull off Baker’s feat: earning four Oscars on one night for the same movie. Doing so requires wearing a lot of hats, and Baker, who started his career in ultra-lowbudget independent films, has a deep hat rack.

Movies are a collaborative art, and even the most hands-on filmmakers work with a team of artists and craftspeople. But writing, directing, editing and producing a film leaves a distinctive personal mark. Disney, who was

people who live on the margins of society, especially but not exclusively sex workers.

His 2015 film “Tangerine,” shot entirely on iPhones, is a zingy, zany comedy about transgender sex workers who go on a wild chase on Christmas Eve, shot mostly in seedier parts of Los Angeles. “The Florida Project,” Baker’s moving 2017 drama that landed Willem Dafoe an Oscar nomination, centers on a little girl named Moonee who lives with her single mother in a budget motel just outside Orlando, Florida. Her mother can’t make ends meet, and eventually begins soliciting sex work online. The star of “Red Rocket,” Baker’s 2021 film, is a middle-aged porn star who’s down on his luck.

ce, who sweeps her into a fantasy world. That’s the first act of the film; the second is a screwball comedy, and in the third we realize at one pivotal moment that our plucky heroine is not going to win the day. It’s devastating, and it’s exactly in keeping with the kind of tales Baker likes to tell. He dips into classic Hollywood genres but reimagines them for the world his characters inhabit. They live in worlds laced with neon and sunshine and last-ditch attempts to stay positive, where the promised reward is always just out of reach.

York Times)

heavily involved with his studio’s projects, certainly did so. Similarly, “Anora” audiences who know Baker’s work probably spotted his fingerprints from the moment the film starts. (And not just because Baker emulates John Carpenter, Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick and Wes Anderson by sticking with one typeface for the titles of all his films — Aguafina Script Pro, if you were wondering.)

One of Baker’s hallmarks, the one people most often associate with him, is a focus on

But it would be a mistake to imagine that Baker’s movies focus narrowly on sex work. Those are his characters, but the stories have a wider lens. He’s interested in the American dream, in the idea that if you just work hard enough, you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps and make something of your life. Every one of his films features characters who’ve tried that and found it lacking. In his films, the American dream is a fairy tale — a beautiful story we repeat to one another that for many goes sour.

That’s the story of “Anora,” in which the titular enterprising young woman, played by Madison, seems to be alone in the world. She has family somewhere, but we get the clear sense that she’s been making it on her own for a long time. Her job at a high-end Midtown Manhattan strip club pays well enough, but more important, it’s where she meets her prin-

That’s a repeated theme across Baker’s films, and “The Florida Project” makes it almost literal. The characters live in the Magic Castle, a euphemistic name for a place that’s populated mostly by people who are barely holding their lives together. All that Moonee can access, despite her mother’s devoted attempts to raise them out of poverty, are cheap imitations of the glittery world just beyond her home. Their motel is, tantalizingly, just a stone’s throw from Walt Disney World.

When fairy tales don’t pan out the way movies have promised, we feel cheated. Disney, and the world he created, is as responsible as anyone for creating those expectations, for giving generations of viewers the idea that Prince Charming is coming or that the evil villain will be vanquished by true love.

Baker’s take on those stories, which are full of love for his characters and his audience, turns that pattern inside out. His extraordinary Oscar night has a strange kind of resonance. It’s the sort only Hollywood can dream up.

After scandals, ‘Emilia Pérez,’ nominated for 13 Oscars, won 2

By NICOLE SPERLING and MATT STEVENS

J

ust six weeks ago “Emilia Pérez” got 13 Oscar nominations, more than any other film this year. Its lead actress, Karla Sofía Gascón, made history by becoming the first openly trans actor to be nominated and the film, a musical about a Mexican cartel boss, was seen as a real contender to win the Academy Award for best picture.

It did not work out that way.

Collapsing under the weight of awardseason scandal after derogatory comments resurfaced that Gascón had posted years ago on social media, “Emilia Pérez” wound up winning just two Oscars: for best supporting actress and best original song (“El Mal”).

Its travails became a punchline during the opening monologue from the evening’s host, Conan O’Brien. “Little fact for you: ‘Anora’ uses the F-word 479 times,” he said. “That’s three more than the record set by Karla Sofia Gascón’s publicist.”

And even when its winners were supposed to be getting feted, they faced some of the only pointed questions of the night. Inside the press room, Cristina Ibañez, a journalist for a Mexican publication, confronted Zoe Saldaña, who won for best supporting actress, telling her bluntly that “Emilia Pérez” was “really hurtful for us Mexicans.” (The film, by French writer-director Jacques Audiard, drew criticism in Mexico for its depiction of the country and the fact that few Mexicans were involved in the production.)

“First of all, I am very, very sorry that you and so many Mexicans felt offended,” Saldaña said. “That was never our intention. We came from a place of love, and I will stand by that.”

“I’m also always open to sit down with all of my Mexican brothers and sisters and with love and respect, have a great conversation on how ‘Emilia’ could have been done better,” she added later.

All told, it was a tough night for Netflix, Hollywood’s dominant streamer.

The company proudly displays the Oscars it has won in a glass case in the lobby of its headquarters. Yet nowhere among that gleaming gold is a statuette for best picture. Despite spending lavishly on its campaigns, it’s the one

prize that has eluded the studio, much to the delight of its less successful competitors and to filmmakers who still chafe at Netflix’s resistance to theatrical releases. “Emilia Pérez” had been seen as a strong contender to win for best international feature this year, and some had thought it might finally win Netflix that best picture trophy.

Then, in January, journalist Sarah Hagi resurfaced comments Gascón had posted on social media in which she denigrated Muslims, George Floyd and even the Oscars.

On Sunday night Brazil’s “I’m Still Here” won the international feature award over “Emilia Pérez.” And aside from its two wins for “Emilia Pérez,” Netflix claimed only one other trophy, in the documentary short film category.

The filmmaker Sean Baker onstage during the 97th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday night, March 2, 2025. Baker’s four Oscars for “Anora” are validation of his sensitive portrayals of people on the margins who always seem to come up short. (Philip Cheung/The New

March 5, 2025 14

Rising temperatures are scrambling the base of the ocean food web

By DELGER ERDENESANAA

Humans are living in a plankton world. These minuscule organisms are spread across the oceans, covering nearly three-quarters of the planet, and are among the most abundant forms of life on Earth.

But a warming world is throwing plankton into disarray and threatening the entire marine food chain that is built on them.

A year ago, NASA launched a satellite that provided the most detailed view yet of the diversity and distribution of phytoplankton. Its insights should help scientists understand the changing dynamics of life in the ocean.

“Do you like breathing? Do you like eating? If your answer is yes for either of them, then you care about phytoplankton,” said Jeremy Werdell, the lead scientist for the satellite program, called PACE, which stands for “Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem.”

Historically, research from ships has captured limited snapshots in time, offering only glimpses of the ever-changing oceans. The advent of satellites gave a fuller picture, but one still limited, like looking through glasses with a green filter.

“You know it’s a garden, you know it’s pretty, you know it’s plants, but you don’t know which plants,” explained Ivona Cetinic, a NASA oceanographer. The PACE satellite effectively removes the filter and finally reveals all the colors of the garden, she said. “It’s like seeing all the flowers of the ocean.”

These flowers are phytoplankton, tiny aquatic algae and bacteria that photosynthesize to live directly off energy from the sun. They are eaten by zooplankton, the smallest animals of the ocean, which, in turn, feed fish and larger creatures.

Phytoplankton form the foundation of the marine food chain, and climate change is shaking that foundation.

Phytoplankton in the open ocean appear to be dwindling. In the early 2000s, scientists detected that enormous zones of ocean with fewer nutrients and sparser phytoplankton, known as ocean deserts, are expanding. At the same time, coastal phytoplankton blooms, especially at higher latitudes, have grown and become more frequent, according to a 2023 study. Warmer sea surface temperatures are stimulating their growth, the researchers found. These blooms are also happening earlier in the year, disrupting coastal fisheries and people’s livelihoods.

And while marine life depends on phytoplankton, sometimes it can create harmful

blooms. Understanding what kinds of phytoplankton are where can help coastal residents protect themselves.

Some phytoplankton blooms grow so big, so quickly, that when they eventually decay, they deplete oxygen in the surrounding water, creating “dead zones” where nothing else can live. And some phytoplankton produce toxins that can sicken and kill fish, birds, and mammals, including humans.

Researchers estimate, conservatively, that harmful blooms cost the U.S. economy about $50 million each year through damage to public health, fisheries and coastal recreation.

In the winter of 2021, millions of pounds of oysters on the coast of Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana suddenly died, striking a major economic blow to local fishermen. Subsequent investigation revealed that toxic phytoplankton had bloomed following a storm, according to Bingqing Liu, an oceanographer and assistant professor at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.

Liu is part of the PACE “early adopter” group, working on incorporating the satellite’s data into a model that can simulate future scenarios. If people can see toxic blooms coming, they can try to mitigate economic and environmental losses, she said.

Digging deeper

While satellites help some oceanographers zoom out to get the biggest possible picture, other researchers are zooming in, collecting plankton from the ocean and studying them under microscopes. These scientists aren’t just looking at the garden Cetinic described, but stepping into it, examining both plants and animals. And they are digging around, looking beneath the surface where satellites can’t see.

Across the North Atlantic in winter, the ocean’s garden conceals a curious phenomenon. Stretching from the United States and Canada all the way to Europe, quadrillions of tiny creatures are asleep, suspended in the ocean’s twilight zone. They are Calanus finmarchicus, a type of zooplankton, animals that drift in the ocean’s currents and tides.

In the North Atlantic, Calanus funnel energy from the sun and phytoplankton into larger animals like fish, whales and birds.

You can think of Calanus as “little batteries that are floating in the ocean,” said Jeffrey Runge, a zooplankton ecologist who recently retired as a professor from the University of Maine.

Calanus hibernate through winter, hiding from predators in the dim light of deeper waters. But in November in the Gulf of Maine, as the days shortened, the temperature dropped, and the

In a photo provided by PACE/NASA, a true-color image taken by the PACE satellite shows a spring algae bloom along the East Coast of North America in April 2024. Scientists are gaining new insights into how plankton supports life on Earth — just as climate change is changing everything. (PACE/ NASA via The New York Times)

winds and waves rose, David Fields, a zooplankton ecologist at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, was out hunting these tiny creatures.

Back at the lab, after dark, scientists peered at captured Calanus finmarchicus under a microscope. The specimens had big oil sacs, full of the calorie-rich lipids that fish and right whales seek out. In experimental studies, Fields and his colleagues have found that as the temperature rises, Calanus get smaller and have less fat relative to their body size.

Fields calls the layer of sleeping Calanus the ocean’s fat layer, a valuable resource for other life. “That’s the whole reason the Gulf of Maine runs the way it does, because of that beautiful fat layer,” he said.

One of the people on the November plankton hunting trip in Maine was Amy Wyeth, a zooplankton ecologist starting a new plankton sampling and habitat monitoring program for the Maine Department of Marine Resources. The goal, she said, is to eventually give the state “a little more predictive power,” to forecast the movements of right whales and help Maine’s lobster fishery avoid entanglements with whales.

North Atlantic right whales are an endangered species, with only about 370 individuals left. They eat Calanus finmarchicus, sometimes

consuming hundreds of millions of the tiny creatures every day.

The Gulf of Maine is historically a rich summer feeding ground for right whales. But in 2010, a marine heat wave began forming in this normally cold ecosystem. It started in the deep waters, where warm and cold ocean currents shifted. Then, in 2012, New England experienced unusually warm air temperatures as well.

Suddenly, there were fewer of the larger, lipid-rich adult Calanus around in the late summer and fall.

Ever since, right whales have been swimming farther north in search of more and fatter Calanus. They’ve gone to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, where busy commercial fisheries and large high-speed ships weren’t ready for them. Many whales were struck by ships or entangled in fishing gear.

“One can make the link between relentless CO2 increase and what’s happening to the right whales right now. And what’s happening to Calanus,” Runge said. “It’s one of these really complex mechanisms of how CO2 increase and warming, the resulting warming, is affecting the ecosystems of the world.”

A fuller picture

In January, a group of European researchers called for continued support for longterm plankton monitoring programs. Since the 1930s, scientists have given commercial ships devices called continuous plankton recorders to tow and automatically collect plankton on long nets that roll up like scrolls. These methods, and many routes, have stayed consistent for decades, allowing researchers to see changes in plankton populations over time.

In the United States, NOAA has conducted plankton surveys similar to Fields’ since the 1960s, helping fisheries managers track the health of the ecosystems their industry depends on. The latest State of the Ecosystem Report for New England, produced by NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, documented a recordhigh phytoplankton bloom in 2023 and also found that zooplankton in parts of the Northeast continental shelf are diversifying, a potential sign of ecosystem restructuring, according to the report. In particular, smaller, more gelatinous and less energy-rich species are increasing.

Scientists emphasize the need to keep long-running data sets going. “Monitoring really isn’t sexy science,” said Michael Parsons, a biological oceanographer at Florida Gulf Coast University. “It’s hard to keep consistent funding in place to routinely be out there collecting samples and looking at what’s there.”

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA DE HUMACAO. LIME HOMES, LTD. Parte Demandante Vs. LA SUCESION DE BLANCA IRIS MORALES MATOS, compuesta por Andrés Colón Morales; John Doe y Richard Roe como miembros Desconocidos; ADMINISTRACION Para el Sustento de menores, y Centro de Recaudación de Ingresos Municipales Parte Demandada

CIVIL NUM. HU2020CV00102.

SOBRE: EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA POR LA VIA ORDINARIA Y COBRO DE DINERO.

EDICTO DE SUBASTA. El suscribiente, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Humacao, a los demandados de epígrafe y al público en general hace saber que los autos y documentos del caso de epígrafe estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables y que venderá en pública subasta al mejor postor, en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América en efectivo, cheque certificado, o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, en mi oficina en el Centro Judicial de Humacao, Humacao, Puerto Rico, el derecho que tenga la parte demandada en el inmueble que se relaciona más adelante para pagar la SENTENCIA por $27,043.04, de balance principal, los intereses adeudados sobre dicho principal y computados al 7.49520% anual desde el 25 de enero de 2015, hasta su total pago y completo pago; cargos por demora devengados desde el primero de octubre de 2015 hasta su total pago, más la suma de $4,000.00 estipulada para honorarios de abogado, pactada en la escritura de hipoteca; y cuales quiera otras sumas que por cualesquiera concepto legal se devenguen hasta el día de la subasta. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: RUSTICA: Parcela marcada con el numero trescientos treinta y ocho (338), en el plano de parcelación de la Comunidad Rural Peña Pobre, del barrio Pobre del término municipal de Naguabo, con una cabida superficial de cero cuerdas con ochocientos noventa diezmilésimas de otra (0.890), equivalentes a trecientos cuarenta y nueve punto noventa y nueve

(349.99) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el Norte, con la parcela número trescientos treinta y siete (337) de la comunidad; por Sur, con la parcela número trescientos treinta y nueve (339) de la comunidad; por el Este, con la parcela número trescientos treinta y tres (333) de la comunidad; y por el Oeste, con la calle F de la comunidad. Enclava una casa. Inscrita al folio diez (10) del tomo ciento cuarenta y ocho (148) de Naguabo, finca número ocho mil trecientos sesenta y ocho (8,368). Registro de la Propiedad de Humacao. Dirección Física: Lot 338 Carr 31 KM 125 P, Com. Peña Pobre, Naguabo, PR 00718. La primera subasta se llevará a cabo el día 18 de marzo de 2025, a las 10:30 de la mañana, y servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma la suma de $40,000.00 sin admitirse oferta inferior. En el caso de que el inmueble a ser subastado no fuera adjudicado en la primera subasta, se celebrará una segunda subasta el día 25 de marzo de 2025, a las 10:30 de la mañana, y el precio mínimo para esta segunda subasta será el de dos terceras partes del precio mínimo establecido para la primera subasta, o a sea la suma de $26,666.57. Si tampoco hubiera remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una tercera subasta el día 1 de abril de 2025, a las 10:30 de la mañana, y el tipo mínimo para esta tercera subasta será la mitad del precio establecido para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de $20,000.00. El mejor postor deberá pagar el importe de su oferta en efecto, cheque certificado o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se dará por terminado el procedimiento, pudiendo adjudicarse el inmueble al acreedor hipotecario dentro de los diez días siguientes a la fecha de la última subasta, si así lo estimase conveniente, por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada conforme a la sentencia, si ésta fuera igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta y abonándose dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta fuera mayor. Se avisa a cualquier licitador que la propiedad queda sujeta al gravamen del Estado Libre Asociado y CRIM sobre la propiedad inmueble por contribuciones adeudadas y que el pago de dichas contribuciones es la responsabilidad del licitador. Que se entenderá por todo licitador acepte como suficiente la titulación y que los cargos y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes en entendiéndose

que el rematador los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse su extinción al precio rematante. Todos los nombres de los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante, o de los acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, siempre que surgen de la certificación registral, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Y para conocimiento de licitadores, del público en general y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria en Puerto Rico y en los sitios públicos de acuerdo a las disposiciones de la Regla 51.7 de las de Procedimiento Civil, así como para la publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria y en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas con antelación a la fecha de la primera subasta y por lo menos una vez por semana. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento indicado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables. (Art. 102 (1) de la Ley núm. 210-2015). Expedido el presente en Humacao, Puerto Rico, a 3 de febrero de 2025. ALEJANDRO L URBINA ROQUE, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE HUMACAO.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE CAGUAS.

FIRSTBANK

PUERTO RICO

Parte Demandante Vs MARIA DE LOURDES

GUEVAREZ ROMERO

Parte Demandada

CIVIL NUM. CG2018CV03285.

SOBRE: EJECUCION DE HI-

POTECA POR LA VIA ORDINARIA Y COBRO DE DINERO.

EDICTO DE SUBASTA. El suscribiente, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto

Rico, Sala de Caguas, a los demandados de epígrafe y al público en general hace saber que los autos y documentos del caso de epígrafe estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables y que venderá en pública subasta al mejor postor, en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América en efectivo, cheque certificado, o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, en mi oficina en este Tribunal el derecho que tenga la parte demandada en el inmueble que se relaciona más adelante para pagar la SENTENCIA por $113,646.90, de balance principal, los intereses vencidos sobre el principal computados al 6% anual desde el día primero de junio de 2017, hasta su total pago; más el 4% computado sobre cada mensualidad de principal e interés por la suma de $868.39 por concepto de cargos por demora desde el primero de julio de 2017, a razón de $34.74 mensuales hasta su total pago; más la suma de $14,484.00 garantizada de la hipoteca para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado del acreedor demandante, más cualesquiera otras sumas que por cualesquier concepto legal se devenguen hasta el total y completo pago de esta sentencia hasta el día de la subasta. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número dos (2) del bloque H en el plano de inscripción de la Urbanización Haciendas De Florida II, radicada en el barrio Florida del término municipal de San Lorenzo, con una cabida superficial de SETECIENTOS CUARENTA PUNTO QUINIENTOS CUARENTA Y NUEVE (740.549) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con terrenos del Señor Rivera, en una distancia de veintiocho punto setenta y cinco (28.75) metros lineales; por el SUR, con calle siete (7), en una distancia de ocho punto noventa y dos (8.92) y tres punto treinta y tres (3.33) metros lineales; por el ESTE, con el solar tres guion H (3-H), en una distancia de treinta y cinco punto treinta y dos (35.32) metros lineales; y por el OESTE, con solar uno guion H (1-H), en una distancia de cuarenta y uno punto cuarenta y seis (41.46) metros lineales. Enclava edificación. Talud: Este solar tiene un talud a todo lo largo de sus colindancia Norte. Se halla afecto a servidumbre a favor de la Puerto Rico Telephone Company de uno punto cincuenta y dos (1.52) metros de ancho a todo lo largo de su colindancia Sur. Inscrita al tomo

Karibe, finca número veintidos mil quinientos treinta y cinco (22535), Registro de Caguas II. Dirección física: H-2 Hacienda de Florida II, San Lorenzo, P.R. 00754. La primera subasta se llevará a cabo el día 18 de marzo de 2025, a las 10:30 de la mañana, y servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma la suma de $144,840.00 sin admitirse oferta inferior. En el caso de que el inmueble a ser subastado no fuera adjudicado en la primera subasta, se celebrará una segunda subasta el día 25 de marzo de 2025, a las 10:30 de la mañana y el precio mínimo para esta segunda subasta será el de dos terceras partes del precio mínimo establecido para la primera subasta, o a sea la suma de $96,560.00. Si tampoco hubiera remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una tercera subasta el día 1 de abril de 2025, a las 10:30 de la mañana y el tipo mínimo para esta tercera subasta será la mitad del precio establecido para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de $72,420.00. El mejor postor deberá pagar el importe de su oferta en efecto, cheque certificado o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se dará por terminado el procedimiento, pudiendo adjudicarse el inmueble al acreedor hipotecario dentro de los diez días siguientes a la fecha de la última subasta, si así lo estimase conveniente, por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada conforme a la sentencia, si ésta fuera igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta y abonándose dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta fuera mayor. Se avisa a cualquier licitador que la propiedad queda sujeta al gravamen del Estado Libre Asociado y CRIM sobre la propiedad inmueble por contribuciones adeudadas y que el pago de dichas contribuciones es la responsabilidad del licitador. Que se entenderá por todo licitador acepte como suficiente la titulación y que los cargos y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes en entendiéndose que el rematador los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse su extinción al precio rematante. Todos los nombres de los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante, o de los acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con de-

recho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, siempre que surgen de la certificación registral, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Y para conocimiento de licitadores, del público en general y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria en Puerto Rico y en los sitios públicos de acuerdo a las disposiciones de la Regla 51.7 de las de Procedimiento Civil, así como para la publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria y en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas con antelación a la fecha de la primera subasta y por lo menos una vez por semana. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento indicado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables. (Art. 102 (1) de la Ley núm. 210-2015). Expedido el presente en Caguas, Puerto Rico a 14 de febrero de 2025. IRMA D CCARMONA CLAUDIO, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE CAGUAS. ***

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE PONCE SALA SUPERIOR JOSEPH WILLIAM MELÉNDEZ REYES Y NELLY DAVIDSON CERRATO

Demandantes Vs. SANTIAGO TORRES RIVERA

Demandado Civil Núm.: JCD2015-1013. (406). Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. A: PÚBLICO EN GENERAL - BARRIO CAMARONES ABAJO, PARCELAS TOA VACA, CARRETERA 150 KM 16.4 (HATILLO BAKERY), VILLALBA, PUERTO

RICO.

El Alguacil del Tribunal que suscribe anuncia y hace constar: A. Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera lnstancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Ponce, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor de contado y en moneda de curso legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América, cheque certificado o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal, todo derecho, título o interés que tenga la Parte Demandada en el bien inmueble que se describe a continuación: RÚSTICA: Parcela de terreno radicada en el Barrio Camarones del término municipal de Villalba, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de NOVECIENTOS SESENTA METROS CUADRADOS (960.00 m.c.).

Son sus lindes por el NORTE, en treinta y dos metros, con terrenos de la finca principal de la cual se segrega; por el SUR, en treinta y dos metros con la Carretera Estatal número ciento cincuenta; por el ESTE, en treinta metros con la Quebrada Camarones y por el OESTE, en treinta metros con terrenos de la finca principal de la cual se segrega. En dicha parcela de terreno enclava una estructura de cemento, bloques y techada de zinc, de cuarenta pies de frente por sesenta pies de fondo, dedicada a negocio. Consta inscrita al folio 53 del tomo 170 de Villalba, finca número 1,919, Registro de la Propiedad, Sección Primera de Ponce. B. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado están de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables bajo el epígrafe de este caso. C. Que se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. D. Que el licitador y/o mejor postor pagará el importe de su oferta en efectivo, cheque certificado o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal. E. Que la Propiedad se encuentra afecta a una hipoteca en garantía de un pagaré a favor del portador, o a su orden, par la suma de $100,000 .00, con intereses a razón del 8% anual, garantizándose los siguientes créditos adicionales:

una suma de $5,000.00 para costas y gastos y honorarios de abogado; tasándose esta finca en la cantidad de $100,000.00; con vencimiento a la presentación, suscrito mediante affidávit número 29847, según consta de la escritura número 41 otorgada en Villalba, Puerto Rico, el 12 de mayo de 2010 ante el Notario Alberto Negrón Negrón. F. Dicha subasta se celebrará para, con el importe de la misma, satisfacer a la parte demandante la Sentencia dictada el 22 de abril de 2022, ascendente a la suma de $180,807.07 de principal, intereses, honorarios de abogado e intereses legales de dicha Sentencia al 7.75% según establecido par el Comisionado de lnstituciones Financieras. La PRIMERA SUBASTA se celebrará el día el día PRIMERO (1ERO) DE ABRIL DE DOS MIL VEINTICINCO (2025), A LAS ONCE DE LA MAÑANA (11:00 A.M.), en la Oficina del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera lnstancia de Ponce, par el tipo minima de CIENTO SETENTA Y SIETE MIL SETENTA Y CINCO DÓLARES CON CINCUENTA Y CUATRO CENTAVOS ($177,075.54). De declararse desierta dicha subasta, se celebrara una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día OCHO (8) DE ABRIL DE DOS MIL VEINTICINCO (2025), A LAS ONCE Y MEDIA DE LA MAÑANA (11:30 A.M.), en el mismo lugar antes mencionado, por dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo de la primera, o sea, CIENTO DIEZ Y OCHO MIL CINCUENTA DÓLARES CON TREINTA Y SEIS CENTAVOS ($118,050.36). De declarar se desierta dicha segunda subasta, se celebrara una TERCERA SUBASTA el día QUINCE (15) DE ABRIL DE DOS MIL VEINTICINCO (2025), A LAS ONCE Y MEDIA DE LA MAÑANA (11:30 A.M.), en el mismo lugar antes mencionado, por la mitad (1/2) del tipo mínimo de la primera subasta, o sea, OCHENTA Y OCHO MIL QUINIENTOS TREINTA Y SIETE DÓLARES CON SETENTA Y SIETE CENTAVOS ($88,537.77). Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se dará por terminado el proceso y se podrá adjudicar el inmueble descrito a la parte demandante dentro de las diez (10) días siguientes, si así lo estimare conveniente, por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada siesta fuere igual o menor que el monto del tercer precio mínima fijado y abonándose dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta fuere mayor. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento judicial incoado

estarán disponibles al público en la Secretaría de este Tribunal durante horas laborables.

Y PARA QUE ASÍ CONSTE, con el fin de dar conocimiento a las licitadores y al pueblo en general, y para su publicación conforme a Derecho par espacio de dos (2) semanas en tres (3) sitios públicos del municipio y para ser publicado dos (2) veces en un periódico de circulación general en Puerto Rico por un término de dos (2) semanas consecutivas, con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, expido la presente bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, hoy 20 de febrero de 2025, en Ponce, Puerto Rico. MANUEL MALDONADO, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE PONCE.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN

WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB, NOT INDIVIDUALLY BUT SOLELY AS TRUSTEE FOR FINANCE OF AMERICA STRUCTURED SECURITIES

ACQUISITION TRUST

2018-HB1

Demandante Vs. SUCESION EUSEBIO BRACERO VELEZ

COMPUESTA POR SU VIUDA CARMEN DELIA MARRERO SALAS; JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES Demandados

Civil Núm.: BY2024CV00252. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: LA PARTE

DEMANDADA, AL (A LA) SECRETARIO(A) DE HACIENDA DE PUERTO RICO Y AL PÚBLICO

GENERAL:

Certifico y Hago Constar: Que en cumplimiento con el Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por el (la) Secretario(a) del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Bayamón, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América y/o

Giro Postal y Cheque Certificado, en mi oficina ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, Cuarto Piso, Oficina de Alguaciles de Subastas, el 24 DE MARZO DE 2025, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: “URBANA: Solar número 3 del bloque “DE” en la Urbanización Levittown, en el Barrio Sábana Seca de Toa Baja, con un área de 343.804 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, 14.948 metros con “Passive and Active Park; por el SUR, 14.948 metros con el lago Carite (según plano Calle 557); por el ESTE, en 23.00 metros con el solar número 2; y por el OESTE, en 23.00 metros con el solar número 4. Contiene una casa de cemento diseñada para una familia.” Inscrita al folio 41 del tomo 167 de Toa Baja, finca 9906, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección II. La Hipoteca Revertida consta inscrita al folio 107 del tomo 558 de Toa Baja, finca 9906, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección II, inscripción 11ª. Propiedad localizada en URB. LEVITTOWN, DE-3 CALLE LAGO CARITE, TOA BAJA, PR 00949. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas anteriores o preferentes: Nombre del Titular: N/A. Suma de la Carga: N/A. Fecha de Vencimiento: N/A. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas posteriores a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: Nombre del Titular: Secretario de la Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano. Suma de la Carga: $246,000.00. Fecha de Vencimiento: 1 de octubre de 2097. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad de la propiedad y que todas las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito ejecutante antes descritos, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes. El rematante acepta dichas cargas y gravámenes anteriores, y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se establece como tipo de mínima subasta la suma de $246,000.00, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la escritura de hipoteca. De ser necesaria una SEGUNDA SUBASTA por declararse desierta la primera, la misma se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, Cuarto Piso, Oficina de Alguaciles de Subastas, el 31 DE MARZO DE 2025, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA,

y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $164,000.00, 2/3 partes del tipo mínima establecido originalmente. Si tampoco se produce remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se establece como mínima para la TERCERA SUBASTA, la suma de $123,000.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, Cuarto Piso, Oficina de Alguaciles de Subastas, el 7 DE ABRIL DE 2025, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para, con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante, el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor ascendente a la suma de $97,573.99 por concepto de principal, más la suma de $90,211.82 en intereses acumulados al 10 de abril de 2024 y los cuales continúan acumulándose a razón de 5.060% anual hasta su total y completo pago; $25,565.48 de seguro hipotecario (MIP); $5,782.00 de contribuciones; $3,613.84 de seguros; $1,350.00 de tasaciones; $240.00 de inspecciones; $1,770.00 de adelantos de honorarios de abogado; más la cantidad de 10% del pagare original en la suma de $24,600.00, para gastos, costas y honorarios de abogado. A tenor con la Regla 44.3 de Procedimiento Civil se condena a la parte demandada a pagar intereses aplicables sobre el importe de la presente sentencia incluyendo costas y honorarios de abogado, desde esta fecha y hasta que sea satisfecha. La venta en pública subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen posterior que afecte la mencionada finca, a cuyo efecto se notifica y se hace saber la fecha, hora y sitio de la PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA, si esto fuera necesario, a los efectos de que cualquier persona o personas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha subasta. Se notifica a todos los interesados que las actas y demás constancias del expediente de este caso están disponibles en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables para ser examinadas por los (las) interesados (as). Y para su publicación en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star, que es un diario de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, así como para su publicación en los sitios públicos de Puerto Rico. Expedido en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy 05 de febrero de 2025. Frances Torres Contreras, Alguacil Regional. Edgardo Elías Vargas Santana, Alguacil Auxiliar Placa #193.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN

LEON AARON

HARRISON MELENDEZ

Demandantes Vs. BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO, COMO SUCESOR EN INTERÉS DE PREFERED MORTGAGE CORPORATION; JOHN DOE & RICHARD ROE Demandado

Civil Núm.: BY2025CV00684. Sala: 502. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADOS DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: JOHN DOE & RICHARD ROE.

Por la presente se emplaza y se les notifica que se ha presentado en la Secretaría de este Tribunal la demanda del caso de epígrafe solicitando la cancelación del Pagaré suscrito a favor de Prefered Mortgage Corporation, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $100,251.00, con vencimiento el 01 de septiembre de 2040, y habiéndose constituido por la escritura número 991 otorgada en San Juan, el 31 de agosto de 2010, ante la Notario Público Lesbia Hernandez Miranda, inscrita al folio 182vto del tomo 1883 de Bayamón Sur, sección Bayamón I, finca número 34269, inscripción 14a. Representa a la parte demandante la abogada cuyo nombre, dirección y teléfono se consigna de inmediato: ENEL M. PEREZ MONTE RUA 9019

Reina Isabel 175, La Villa de Torrimar

Guaynabo PR 00969 Tel.: (787) 646-9168

Lcdaenelperez@gmail.com

Se le apercibe que si no comparecieran ustedes a contestar dicha demanda dentro del término de 30 días a partir de la publicación de este edicto se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. La parte demandada deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://poderjudicial.pr/ index.php/tribunal-electronico, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal, advirtiéndosele que de no hacerlo se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle.

Dado en Bayamón, a 25 de febrero de 2025. ALICIA AYALA SANJURJO, SECRETARIA INTERINA. MILITZA MERCADO RIVERA SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I. LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN

IRMA IVELISSE

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ Demandantes Vs. BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO, COMO SUCESOR EN INTERÉS DE DORAL BANK, SUCESOR EN INTERÉS DE FIRST FINANCIAL CARIBBEAN CORPORATION H/N/C H.F. MORTGAGE BANKERS; JOHN DOE & RICHARD ROE

Demandado Civil Núm.: SJ2025CV00562. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADOS DE PUERTO RICO, SS. A: JOHN DOE & RICHARD ROE.

Por la presente se emplaza y se les notifica que se ha presentado en la Secretaría de este Tribunal la demanda del caso de epígrafe solicitando la cancelación del Pagaré suscrito a favor de First Financial Caribbean Corporation h/n/c H.F. Mortgage Bankers, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $148,000.00, con vencimiento el 01 de abril de 2008, y habiéndose constituido por la escritura número 288 otorgada en San Juan, el 23 de marzo de 1993, ante la Notario Público Luis A. Archilla Diaz, inscrita al folio 10 del tomo 243 de Monacillos Este y el Cinco, Registro San Juan V, finca número 6540, inscripción 7ma. Representa a la parte demandante la abogada cuyo nombre, dirección y teléfono se consigna de inmediato: ENEL M. PEREZ MONTE RUA 9019

Reina Isabel 175, La Villa de Torrimar

Guaynabo PR 00969

Cel.: (787) 646-9168

Lcdaenelperez@gmail.com

Se le apercibe que si no comparecieran ustedes a contestar dicha demanda dentro del término de 30 días a partir de la publicación de este edicto se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. La parte demandada deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección elec-

trónica: https://poderjudicial.pr/ index.php/tribunal-electronico, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal, advirtiéndosele que de no hacerlo se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. Dado en San Juan, a 6 de febrero de 2025. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MICHELLE RIVERA RÍOS, SECRETARIA DE SERVICIOS A SALA.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE TOA ALTA FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO

Demandante Vs. SUCESION DE JUAN G. ORTIZ RIOS Y OTROS

Demandados Civil Núm.: CZ2018CV00027. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA Y COBRO DE DINERO (VÍA ORDINARIA). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU., ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. A: CARLOS JAVIER ORTIZ SÁNCHEZ, JUAN ELI ORTIZ ORTIZ, JUAN ARTURO ORTIZ BENCOSME, ELIBEL ORTIZ BERRÍOS, EN LA CUOTA USUFRUCTUARIA, JOHN DOE Y MARY DOE. Se le notifica que se ha presentado ante este Tribunal, un procedimiento de ejecución de hipoteca bajo el número mencionado en el epígrafe. Se alega en dicho procedimiento que la parte Demandada incurrió en el incumplimiento del Contrato de Hipoteca, al no poder pagar las mensualidades vencidas correspondientes a los meses de junio de 2017 hasta el presente, más los cargos por demora correspondientes. Además, adeuda a la parte demandante las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado en que incurra el tenedor del pagaré en este litigio. De acuerdo con dicho Contrato de Garantía Hipotecaria la parte Demandante declaró vencida la totalidad de la deuda ascendente a de principal de QUINCE MIL SEISCIENTOS CINCUENTA Y CUATRO DOLARES CON CINCUENTA Y SEIS CENTAVOS ($15,654.56), más intereses a razón del NUEVE Y MEDIO PORCIENTO (9 ½ %) anual desde junio de 2017, hasta el presente y los que se continúen acumulando hasta su total y completo pago, así como todos aquellos créditos y sumas que

surjan de la faz de la anterior obligación y de la hipoteca que la garantiza, incluyendo la suma de CUATRO MIL DOLARES ($4,000.00) para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, condenándola, además, al pago de cualquier adelanto que haya hecho la parte Demandante, más la cantidad de CUATRO MIL QUINIENTOS TREINTA Y TRES DOLARES CON VEINTISIETE CENTAVOS ($4,533.27) DE “PIGGY BACK” suma la cual no acumula intereses. La parte Demandante presentará para su inscripción en el Registro de la Propiedad correspondiente, un AVISO DE PLEITO PENDIENTE (“Lis Pendens”) sobre la propiedad objeto de esta acción cuya propiedad es la siguiente: RÚSTICA: Solar marcado con el número noventa y seis (96) en el Plano de Inscripción de la Comunidad Rural Antonio Berio del Barrio Palmarito del municipio de Corozal, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de punto novecientos cincuenta y cuatro (.954) cuerda, equivalente a trescientos setenta y cinco punto cero cero metros cuadrados (375.00 m/c). En lindes por el NORTE, con la parcela número noventa y cinco (95); por el SUR, con parcela número noventa y siete (97); por el ESTE, con parcela número ciento nueve (109); y por el OESTE, con Calle número seis (6) Número “6,977”, inscrita al folio “243” del tomo “129” de Corozal. Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Barranquitas. Deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en (30) días, a través del Sistema Unificado De Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr. Salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del Tribunal. POR LO ANTERIORMENTE INDICADO, se le emplaza y requiere que, dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este EDICTO, notifique su Contestación a la Demanda a: LCDO. F. DAVID GODREAU; GODREAU & GONZALEZ, P.O. Box 9024176, San Juan, P.R. 00902-4176, Tel. (787) 726-0077; apercibiéndole que, de no contestar la Demanda, radicando el original en la Corte ante el Tribunal correspondiente, con copia a la parte Demandante, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia, concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal hoy, día 25 de febrero de 2025. ALICIA

AYALA SANJURJO, SECRETARIA. NERI A. SANFELIZ RAMOS, SUB-SECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

UNITED STATES DISTRICT

COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICUL TURE (Farm Service Agency)

Plaintiff v. JOSE ANTONIO CARRASQUILLO RODRIGUEZ T/C/C JOSE A. CARRASQUILLO RODRIGUEZ, JACQUELINE ORTIZ MORALES AND THE CONJUGAL PARTNERSHIP CONSTITUTED BETWEEN THEM; JOHN DOE and RICHARD ROE AS POSSIBLE UNKNOWN HOLDERS OF THE LOST MORTGAGE NOTES

Defendants

CIVIL NO. 24-01526 (ADC). Re: Cancellation of Mortgage Notes. SUMMONS BY PUBLICATION.

TO: JOHN DOE AND JANE DOE, AS POSSIBLE UNKNOWN HOLDERS OF THE LOST MORTGAGE NOTES

- Urb. Los Angeles, Calle C-F-1, Yabucoa, PR 00767. Pursuant to the Order for Service by· Publication entered on 02/20/2025, by the United States District Court, you are hereby SUMMONED to appear, plead or answer the Complaint filed herein no later than thirty (30) days after publication óf this Summons by serving the original plea or answer in the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, and serving a copy to counsel for plaintiff: Attorney Juan C. Fortuño Fas, at PO Box 3908, Guaynabo, PR 00970, telephone number 787-751-5290, email address: dcfilings@fortunolaw. com. This Summons shall be published by edict only once in a newspaper of general circulation in the island of Puerto Rico. Within ten (10) days following publication of this Summons, a copy of this Summons and the Complaint will be sent to defendant party JOHN DOE AND JANE DOE, AS POSSIBLE UNKNOWN HOLDERS OF THE LOST MORTGAGE NOTES, by certified mail/return receipt requested, addressed to their last known address. Should you fail to appear, plead or answer to the Complaint as ordered by the Court and noticed by this Summons, the Court will enter default against you, as such, proceed to hear and adjudicate this cause against you based on the relief demanded in the Complaint. BY ORDER OF THE COURT, summons is issued pursuant to Fe. R. Civil P. 4(e) and Rule 4.6 of the Rules of Civil Procedure for the Commonwealth of Puer-

la siguiente dirección electrónica: http://unired.ramajudicial.pr/ sumac/, salvo que se presente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá radicar el original de su contestación ante el Tribunal correspondiente y notifique con copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, Lcda. Marjaliisa Colón Villanueva, al PO BOX 7970, Ponce, P.R. 00732-7970; Teléfono: 787843-41668. En dicha demanda se tramita un procedimiento de cobro de dinero y ejecución de hipoteca bajo el número mencionado en el epígrafe. Se alega en dicho procedimiento que la parte Demandada incurrió en el incumplimiento del Contrato de Hipoteca, al no poder pagar las mensualidades vencidas correspondientes a los meses de octubre de 2015, hasta el presente, más los cargos por demora computados al 5%. Además, adeuda a la parte demandante las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado en que incurra el tenedor del pagaré en este litigio. De acuerdo con dicho Contrato de Garantía Hipotecaria la parte Demandante declaró vencida la totalidad de la deuda ascendente de la primera hipoteca a la suma de $96,154.82, más intereses sobre dicha suma a razón del 7.25% anual, y la segunda hipoteca a la suma de $24,383.72, más intereses sobre dicha suma a razón del 7.25% anual, así como todos aquellos créditos y sumas que surjan de la faz de la obligación hipotecaria y de la hipoteca que la garantiza, incluyendo lo pactado para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. La parte Demandante presentó para su inscripción en el Registro de la Propiedad correspondiente, un AVISO DE PLEITO PENDIENTE (“Lis Pendens”) sobre la propiedad objeto de esta acción cuya propiedad es la siguiente: URBANA: Solar identificado con el número dos (2) en el plano de inscripción de la urbanización Las Flores, sito en el barrio Tijeras de! Municipio de Juana Díaz, Puerto Rico, con una cabida de trescientos cincuenta y uno punto tres mil sesenta y siete (351.3367) metros cuadraos en lindes por el NORTE, en catorce punto ciento doce (14.112) metros, con la calle número dos 920 de la urbanización Las Flores; por el SUR, en catorce punto ciento cincuenta y cuatro (14.154) metros, con el solar número once (11); por el ESTE, en veinticuatro punto ochocientos cincuenta y seis (24.856) metros, con el solar número tres (3); y por el OESTE, en veinticuatro punto ochocientos sesenta y dos (24.862) metros, con el solar número uno (1). lnscrita al folio veinticinco (25) de! tomo quinientos cuatro (504) de Juana Díaz, Registro de la Propiedad de Ponce sección Primera (1ra). SE LES APERCIBE que,

de no hacer sus alegaciones responsiva a la demanda dentro del término aquí dispuesto, se les anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia, concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal en Ponce, Puerto Rico. A 7 de febrero de 2025. CARMEN G. TIRÚ

QUIÑONES, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARIELY FÉLIX RIVERA, SUB-SECRETARIA. LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE HUMACAO.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE RURAL DEVELOPMENT A/C/C LA ADMINISTRACION DE HOGARES DE AGRICULTORES

DEMANDANTE vs. CARLOS ANTONIO GONZÁLEZ RIVERA Y SU ESPOSA IRIS

RIVERA BURGOS Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS DEMANDADOS

CIVIL NÚM.: HU2024CV01699

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R. SS. A: CARLOS ANTONIO GONZÁLEZ RIVERA, SU ESPOSA IRIS

RIVERA BURGOS Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA ENTRE AMBOS - MAMBICHE BLANCO WARD, HUMACAO PR 00791. - HC-03 BOX 65021, HUMACAO PR 00791. POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los treinta (30) días de haber sido diligenciado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día del diligenciamiento. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://www. poderjudicial.pr/index.php/ tribunal-electronico/, salvo que el caso sea de un expediente fisico o que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del tribunal y notificar copia de la misma al (a la) abogado(a) de

la parte demandante o a ésta, de no tener representación legal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Además, se le apercibe que, en los casos al amparo de la Ley Núm. 57-2023, titulada Ley para la Prevención del Maltrato, Preservación de la Unidad Familiar y para la Seguridad, Bienestar y Protección de los Menores, entre los remedios que el Tribunal podrá conceder se incluyen la ubicación permanente de un (una) menor fuera del hogar, el inciso de procesos para la privación de patria potestad, y cualquiera otra medida en el mejor interés del (de la) menor. (Artículo 33, incisos by f de la Ley Núm. 57-2023). Se le advierte de su derecho a comparecer acompañado(a) de abogado(a) en los casos que proceda. Se le advierte de su derecho a comparecer acompañado(a) de abogado(a) en los casos que proceda. Representa a la parte demandante, la representación legal cuyo nombre, dirección y teléfono se consigna de inmediato: BUFETE FORTUÑO & FORTUÑO FAS, C.S.P. LCDO. JUAN C. FORTUÑO FAS

RUANUM.: 11416

PO BOX 3908, GUAYNABO, PR 00970 TEL: 787- 751-5290, FAX: 787-751-6155

E-MAIL:

ejecuciones@fortuno-law.com

Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, hoy 27 de FEBRERO de 2025. EVELYN FELIX VAZQUEZ, Secretaria. Karilin Morales Figueroa, Sub-Secretaria.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE HUMACAO

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Parte Demandante Vs. ADMINISTRACIÓN DE LOS SISTEMAS DE RETIRO DE LOS EMPLEADOS DEL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO T/C/C ADMINISTRACIÓN DE LOS SISTEMAS DE RETIRO DE LOS EMPLEADOS DEL GOBIERNO Y LA JUDICATURA T/C/C JUNTA DE RETIRO DEL GOBIERNO DE PUERTO RICO (RETIRO); R.F. MORTGAGE

AND INVESTMENT CORPORATION; MIGUEL ÁNGEL ROLDÁN ORTIZ; DORCA MARTÍNEZ MELÉNDEZ,; FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARÉ

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: HU2025CV00042. (206). Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO POR LA VÍA JUDICIAL. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS E.E.U.U., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. A: MIGUEL ÁNGEL ROLDÁN ORTIZ a las siguientes direcciones: COMUNIDAD RURAL RIO BLANCO, 39 CALLE 9, NAGUABO, PR 00918, 40 COND CAGUAS TOWER APT 1904, CAGUAS, PR 00725-5649, PO BOX 227, RIO BLANCO, PR 00744-0227, PO BOX 686, RIO BLANCO, PR 00744-0686; FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARÉ.

Queda usted notificado que en este Tribunal se ha radicado demanda sobre cancelación de pagaré extraviado por la vía judicial El 10 de septiembre de 1992, Dorca Martínez Meléndez y Miguel Ángel Roldán Ortiz (en aquél entonces casados entre sí), constituyeron una hipoteca en San Juan, Puerto Rico, conforme a la Escritura núm. 75, autorizada por el notario Pedro J. Rodríguez Samalot en garantía de un pagaré suscrito bajo el testimonio núm. 2588 a favor del Sistema de Retiro de los Empleados del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico y sus instrumentalidades, por la suma de $40,500.00, con intereses 8 1/8% anual y vencimiento en treinta (30) años, sobre la siguiente propiedad: RÚSTICA: Parcela marcada con el número treinta y nueve (39) en el Plano de Parcelación de la Comunidad Rural Río Blanco del Barrio Río Blanco del término municipal de Naguabo, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de cero (0) cuerdas con dos mil quinientos noventa y cuatro diezmilésimas de otra, equivalente a mil diecinueve punto sesenta y dos (1019.62) metros cuadrados. En lindes, por el NORTE, con la parcela número cuarenta (40) de la Comunidad; por el SUR, con la calle número nueve (9) de la Comunidad; por el ESTE, con la parcela número cuarenta y uno (41) de la Comunidad; y por el OESTE, con la parcela número treinta y siete (37) de

la Comunidad. Inscrita al folio 125 del tomo 140 de Naguabo, Finca 7925. Registro de la Propiedad de Humacao. La escritura de hipoteca consta inscrita al folio 126 del tomo 140 de Naguabo, Finca 7925. Registro de la Propiedad de Humacao. Inscripción cuarta. La parte demandada deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal. Se le advierte que, si no contesta la demanda, radicando el original de la contestación en este Tribunal y enviando copia de la contestación a la abogada de la parte demandante, Lcda. Belma Alonso García, cuya dirección es: PO Box 3922, Guaynabo, PR 00970-3922, Teléfono y Fax: (787) 789-1826, correo electrónico: oficinabelmaalonso@gmail.com, dentro del término de treinta (30) días de la publicación de este edicto, excluyéndose el día de la publicación, se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará Sentencia en su contra, concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, hoy 12 de febrero de 2025, en Humacao, Puerto Rico. EVELYN FÉLIX VÁZQUEZ, SECRETARIA. DALISSA REYES DE LEÓN, SUBSECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE TOA BAJA

VAPR FEDERAL CREDIT UNION

Demandante Vs. BETZAIDA RODRIGUEZ CORREA

Demandada Civil Núm.: TB2025CV00012. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: BETZAIDA RODRIGUEZ CORREA. POR EL PRESENTE EDICTO, se le notifica que se ha radicado en esta Secretaría por la parte demandante, Demanda sobre Cobro de Dinero, en la que se alega adeuda la suma de $22,288.68 de principal, más $392.12 de intereses al 9.95% anual acumulados, más cargos por demora $44.25, al 12 de diciembre de 2024, y de esa fecha en adelante acumula intereses a razón de $6.76

diarios, hasta su completo pago, más un 30% del principal del Pagaré estipulado para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado y recargos acumulados todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los treinta (30) días de haber sido publicado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día de la publicación. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección: https://www.poderjudicial.pr/index.php/tribunalelectronico/, salvo que el caso sea un expediente físico o que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del Tribunal y notificar copia de la misma al (a la) abogado(a) de la parte demandante o a ésta, de no tener representación legal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Además, se le apercibe que, en los casos al amparo de la Ley Núm. 57-2023, titulada Ley para la Prevención del Maltrato, Preservación de la Unidad Familiar y para la Seguridad, Bienestar y Protección de los Menores, entre los remedies que el Tribunal podrá conceder se incluyen la ubicación permanente de un (una) menor fuera de su hogar, el inicio de procesos para la privación de patria potestad, y cualquier otra medida en el mejor interés del (de la) menor. (Artículo 33, incisos b y f de la Ley Núm. 57-2023). Se le advierte que de no comparecer en autos dentro del término de las treinta (30) días siguientes a partir de la publicación de este Edicto, se le anotará la Rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado, sin más citarle ni oírle, debiendo radicar el original de su contestación en este Tribunal, enviando copia a la abogada de la parte demandante: Lcda. Adela Surillo Gutiérrez, Bufete Collazo & Surillo, LLC, P.O. Box 11550, San Juan, PR 00922-1550; Teléfono: (787) 625-9999. Para publicarse conforme a la Orden dictada por el Tribunal en un periódico de circulación general. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto que firmo y sello en Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, hoy 11 de febrero de 2025. alicia ayala sanjurjo, secretaria. m. bonilla, secretaria auxiliar. LEGAL NOTICE

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE MAYAGUEZ.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE RURAL DEVELOPMENT A/C/C LA ADMINISTRACION DE HOGARES DE AGRICULTORES DEMANDANTE vs. SUCESIÓN DE ANA MARÍA SÁNCHEZ TEJEDA T/C/C ANA M. SÁNCHEZ TEJEDA COMPUESTA POR FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS

DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERÉS EN DICHA SUCESIÓN DEMANDADA CIVIL NÚM.: MZ2024CV02086. SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R. SS. A: LA SUCESIÓN DE ANA MARÍA SÁNCHEZ TEJEDA T/C/C ANA M. SÁNCHEZ TEJEDA COMPUESTA POR FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERÉS -URB. ESTANCIAS DEL CAFETAL, E-12, MARICAO PR 00606. -PO BOX 343, MARICAO PR 00606-0343 POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los treinta (30) días de haber sido diligenciado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día del diligenciamiento. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://www. poderjudicial.pr/index.php/ tribunalelectronico/, salvo que el caso sea de un expediente fisico o que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del tribunal y notificar copia de la misma al (a la) abogado(a) de la parte demandante o a ésta, de no tener representación legal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Además, se le apercibe

que, en los casos al amparo de la Ley Núm. 57-2023, titulada Ley para la Prevención del Maltrato, Preservación de la Unidad Familiar y para la Seguridad, Bienestar y Protección de los Menores, entre los remedios que el Tribunal podrá conceder se incluyen la ubicación permanente de un (una) menor fuera del hogar, el inciso de procesos para la privación de patria potestad, y cualquiera otra medida en el mejor interés del (de la) menor. (Artículo 33, incisos by f de la Ley Núm. 57-2023). Se le advierte de su derecho a comparecer acompañado(a) de abogado(a) en los casos que proceda. Se le advierte de su derecho a comparecer acompañado(a) de abogado(a) en los casos que proceda. De ser el demandado un heredero de una sucesión, se les apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados que de no expresarse dentro de ese término de treinta (30) días, en tomo a su aceptación o repudiación de herencia, la herencia se tendrá por aceptada. También se les apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados que luego del transcurso del término de treinta (30) días antes señalado, contados a partir de la fecha de publicación de este edicto, se presumirá que han aceptado la herencia del(los) causante(s) y, por consiguiente, responden por las cargas de dicha herencia conforme dispone el Artículo 1,578 del Nuevo Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 11,021. Representa a la parte demandante, la representación legal cuyo nombre, dirección y teléfono se consigna de inmediato: BUFETE FORTUÑO & FORTUÑO FAS, C.S.P. LCDO. JUAN C. FORTUÑO FAS RUA NUM.: 11416 PO BOX 3908, GUAYNABO, PR 00970 TEL: 787- 751-5290, FAX: 787-751-6155 E-MAIL: ejecuciones@fortuno-law.com Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, hoy 28 de febrero de 2025. Lcda. Norma G. Santana lrizarry, Secretaria. Evejyn Gonzalez Hernandez, Sub-Secretano (a).

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR DE GUAYNABO BANK OF AMERICA, N.A. Demandante V. JUAN Y JUANA DEL PUEBLO Demandado(a) Caso Núm.: GB2025CV00008. (Salón: 202). Sobre: CANCELACIÓN O RESTITUCIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. ZILMARIE DELGADO PIERASZILMARIED@HOTMAIL.COM. A: JUAN DEL PUEBLO

Y JUANA DEL PUEBLO COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES Y CUALESQUIER PERSONA DESCONOCIDA CON POSIBLE INTERÉS EN LA OBLIGACIÓN CUYA CANCELACIÓN POR DECRETO JUDICIAL SE SOLICITA. (Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 20 de febrero de 2025, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 24 de febrero de 2025. En Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, el 24 de febrero de 2025. ALICIA AYALA SANJURJO, SECRETARIA. SARA ROSA VILLEGAS, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS

ORIENTAL BANK

Demandante V. MANUEL

LOPEZ BELTRAN

Demandado(a)

Caso Núm.: CG2024CV02739. (Salón: 801). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO - ORDINARIO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

JAIME RUIZ SALDAÑALEGAL@JRSLAWPR.COM. A: MANUEL

LOPEZ BELTRAN. (Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 19 de febrero de 2025, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una

sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 21 de febrero de 2025. En Caguas, Puerto Rico, el 21 de febrero de 2025. Irasemis Díaz Sánchez, Secretaria. Sandra Trinidad Cañuelas, Secretaria Auxiliar Del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR DE VEGA BAJA

HACIENDA DEL MAR OWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC.

Demandante V. JOHN HOWARD BURRUS Y OTROS

Demandado(a)

Caso Núm.: VB2024CV00632. (Salón: 201 CD, CM, TR Y CR). Sobre: COBRO DE DINEROORDINARIO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO ENMENDADA.

JESSICA D. MARTÍNEZ BIRRIELJMARTBIRR@YAHOO.COM.

A: JOHN HOWARD BURRUS, MYRA KAY BURRUS Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES, COMPUESTA POR AMBOS. (Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 21 de febrero de 2025, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se

considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 24 de febrero de 2025. Notas de la Secretaría: ENMENDADA

A LOS FINES DE CORREGIR NOMBRE DEL DEMANDADO. En Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, el 24 de febrero de 2025. ALICIA AYALA SANJURJO, SECRETARIA. MARITZA ROSARIO

ROSARIO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL. LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN SALA SUPERIOR BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante Vs. LUIS MANUEL ROVIRA BURSET; CARLOS ROVIRA BURSET, IDALIA JOSEFINA CALIMANO GUARDIOLA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandados Civil Núm.: SJ2024CV00574.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA (VÍA ORDINARIA). EDICTO DE SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente CERTIFICA, ANUNCIA y hace CONSTAR: Que en cumplimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que le ha sido dirigido al Alguacil que suscribe por la Secretaría del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN, SALA SUPERIOR, en el caso de epígrafe procederá a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor en efectivo, cheque certificado en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América el 25 DE MARZO DE 2025, A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA en su oficina sita en el local que ocupa en el edificio del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN, SALA SUPERIOR, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble de su propiedad que ubica en: COND. LA GIRALDA #119 CALLE COLOMER APT. 1-B SAN JUAN, PR 009072774 y que se describe a continuación: URBANA: PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL: Apartamento residencial número

1-B de forma rectangular localizado en la primera planta del edificio conocido como Condominio La Giralda, en el Sector Norte de Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico, con un área total privada de 1,144 pies cuadrados, equivalentes a ciento seis metros cuadrados (106.00).

Colinda: por el NORTE, en una distancia de trece pies seis

pulgadas con la escalera que le sirve de acceso y en otra distancia de treinta pies seis pulgadas con la pared que lo separa del apartamento número uno-A (1-A); por el SUR, en una distancia de cuarenta y tres pies seis pulgadas con la pared que lo separa del apartamento número 1-C; por el ESTE, en una distancia de 24 pies 9 pulgadas con el patio posterior del edificio, y por el OESTE, su frente, en una distancia de veinticuatro pies nueve pulgadas con la Calle Colomer. Consta este apartamento de tres habitaciones, dos baños, sala, comedor, cocina y balcón. A este apartamento le corresponde el área de estacionamiento marcado con el número uno - B (1B) e igualmente le corresponde en los elementos comunes del Condominio una participación de seis punto treinta y dos por ciento (6.32%). La propiedad antes relacionada consta inscrita al Folio 130 del Tomo 603 de Santurce Norte, bajo la finca número 21,574, en el Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Primera. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta del inmueble antes relacionado, será el dispuesto en la Escritura de Hipoteca, es decir la suma de $92,321.66. Si no hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta del inmueble mencionado, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 1 DE ABRIL DE 2025, A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA. En la segunda subasta que se celebre servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes (2/3) del precio pactado en la primera subasta, o sea la suma de $61,547.77. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el 8 DE ABRIL DE 2025, A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA. Para la tercera subasta servirá de tipo mínimo la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado para el caso de ejecución, o sea, la suma de $46,160.83. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura de hipoteca 245 otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 12 de julio de 2006, ante el Notario Manuel E. Maldonado Pérez, inscrita al folio 18 del tomo 1136 de Santurce Norte, inscripción Sexta (6ta), modificada en cuanto a su principal que será de $92,321.66, en cuanto al interés que será de 2.875%, en cuanto a su pago mensual de principal e interés será por la cantidad de $310.82; en cuanto a su vencimiento que será el primero (1ro) de julio de 2061, y en cuanto a su tipo mínimo en caso de ejecución que será de $92,321.66, según consta de la escritura de modificación de hipoteca número 378, otorgada el día 19 de julio de 2021, en

San Juan, Puerto Rico ante el Notario Público Ricardo Rangel Rivera, la cual está inscrita al Tomo Karibe de Santurce Norte, inscripción Séptima (7ma), ambas escrituras se encuentran bajo la finca 21,574, en el Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Primera. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer al Demandante total o parcialmente según sea el caso el importe de la Sentencia que ha obtenido ascendente a la suma de $89,600.69 por concepto de principal, desde el 1ro de agosto de 2023, más intereses al tipo pactado de 2.875% anual que continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación. Además, la parte demandada adeuda a la parte demandante las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado equivalentes a $9,430.00. Además, la parte demandada se comprometió a pagar una suma equivalente a $9,430.00 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca y una suma equivalente a $9,430.00 para cubrir intereses en adición a lo garantizados por ley. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al Procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la SECRETARIA DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN, SALA SUPERIOR durante las horas laborables. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación del inmueble y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio de remate. La propiedad no está sujeta a gravámenes anteriores y/o preferentes según las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores conocidos y desconocidos que tengan inscritos, no inscritos, presentados y/o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca del actor y a los dueños, poseedores, tenedores de o interesados en títulos transmisibles por endoso o al portador garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito del actor que se celebrarán las subastas en las fechas, horas y sitios señalados para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les conviniere o se les invita a satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, otros cargos y las costas y honorarios de abogado asegurados quedando subrogados en los derechos

del acreedor ejecutante. La propiedad objeto de ejecución y descrita anteriormente se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores una vez el Honorable Tribunal expida la correspondiente Orden de Confirmación de Venta Judicial. Y para conocimiento de licitadores del público en general se publicará este Edicto de acuerdo con la ley por espacio de dos semanas en tres sitios públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Este Edicto será publicado dos veces en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas. Expido el presente Edicto de subasta bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día 24 de febrero de 2025. Irma D. Carmona Claudio, Alguacil De Subastas, Tribunal De Primera Instancia, Centro Judicial De San Juan, Sala Superior. LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE RÍO GRANDE EN FAJARDO ISLAND PORTFOLIO

SERVICES, LLC

COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC

Parte Demandante Vs. RAMON A. CIRINO SALGADO

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: RG2024CV00459. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. A: RAMON A. CIRINO

SALGADO - URB RIO GRANDE ESTATES O-1 CALLE 20A, RIO GRANDE PR 00745; HC 4 BOX 12624, RIO GRANDE PR 00745.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https:/// www.poderjudicial.pr/index. php/tribunal-electronico, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en re-

The San Juan

beldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia al abogado de la parte demandante, Osvaldo L. Rodríguez Fernández cuya dirección es: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law. com. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en RIO GRANDE EN FAJARDO, Puerto Rico, hoy día 20 de diciembre de 2024. WANDA I. SEGUÍ REYES, SECRETARIA. LYDIA E. RIVERA MIRANDA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE MANATÍ ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC

Parte Demandante Vs. BRENDA L. SANTANA VIDOT

Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: BC2024CV00063. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. A: BRENDA L. SANTANA VIDOTCARR 140 KM 67.5 BZN 561 CEBORUCO, BARCELONETA PR 00617.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https:/// www.poderjudicial.pr/index. php/tribunal-electronico, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia al abogado de la parte demandante, Natalie Bonaparte Servera cuya dirección es: P.O.

Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección natalie.bonaparte@orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@ orf-law.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en MANATI, Puerto Rico, hoy día 26 de diciembre de 2024. VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA. CARMEN J. ROSARIO VALENTÍN, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE CABO ROJO ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC COMO AGENTE DE ACE ONE FUNDING, LLC Parte Demandante Vs. MARIA V. MONTES LUGO Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: CB2023CV00825. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. A: MARIA V. MONTES LUGO - BO PLAN BONITO CARR 102 KM 2.7 INT, CABO ROJO PR 00623; HC 2 BOX 26814, CABO ROJO PR 00623-9298. POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https:/// www.poderjudicial.pr/index. php/tribunal-electronico, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia al abogado de la parte demandante, Gabriel Ramos Colón cuya dirección es: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en CABO ROJO, Puerto Rico, hoy día 27 de diciembre de 2024. Lcda. Norma G. Santana Irizarry, Secretaria. María M. Avilés Bonilla, Secretaria Auxiliar.

Sudoku

How to Play:

Fill in the empty fields with the numbers from 1 through 9.

Sudoku Rules:

Every row must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Every column must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Every 3x3 square must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Crossword

Wordsearch

Pares

Pesky

Phase

Poses Prays

Psychoanalysts

Quash

Ranks Revel

Scamper

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Always willing to help, Altuve tackles a new challenge: Left field

By CHANDLER ROME / THE ATHLETIC

At a new position, José Altuve of the Houston Astros can always find one familiar face. He has a constant companion during this outfield crash course, the man who held up a stop sign during Altuve’s first major league home run.

Fourteen seasons later, Dave Clark is still trying to temper some of Altuve’s aggression.

“He’s like a kid in a candy store right now,” Clark said. “This is a challenge for him, and he’s going to go out and give it the best effort he possibly can.

“Sometimes we just have to slow him down a little bit because he wants to do too much too soon.”

Clark and Altuve were almost inseparable across the first week of full-squad workouts, which doubled as a second phase of Altuve’s outfield introduction. Astros manager Joe Espada asked Clark to shadow Altuve throughout all his defensive work and team with outfield coach Jason Bell to help Altuve learn left field.

“He’s created the environment for instruction because he has spent a lot of time asking us questions,” Bell said. “Almost any time we’re out there, there’s a bunch of questions that come up, so it makes it a lot easier as a coach. He’s providing the things that he wants to learn about, so we can help him feel comfortable.”

Altuve made his spring training debut, and his debut in left field, in last Friday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals. But through his six innings in the field, there were no balls hit his way.

Bell is in his second season on Houston’s major league staff but his first as the club’s outfield coach. He has held almost

The Houston Astros’ José Altuve celebrates teammate Yordan Alvarez’s towering three-run homer to center to put the Astros up 3-1 in the sixth inning of Game 6 of the World Series, at Minute Maid Park in Houston on Nov. 5, 2022. Ahead of his 15th season with the Astros, Altuve’s transition to left field is underway. (Annie Mulligan/The New York Times)

every position in player development across his eight-year stint with the Astros, a club that became the focus of a lengthy master’s thesis Bell wrote in 2013 while at the University of Central Missouri.

Clark carries a more traditional baseball background, playing for six teams across a 13-year major league career before starting to coach. All of Clark’s 352 defensive starts came in the corner outfield, making him a perfect complement to Bell and a sounding board for Altuve.

“Anytime you get a guy who is changing positions, for a coach, it’s challenging,” said Clark, the team’s first-base coach. “But it’s a really good challenge because if you can make him serviceable or better, you’ve done a pretty good job.”

Bell spent most of his winter in Puerto Rico as the bench coach for Senadores de San Juan. Upon returning to Houston in January, team officials informed him of the plan to play Altuve in left field.

“I saw it as an opportunity, too,” Bell said. “As a coach we like to be challenged and see what we can help provide to make the players better. I looked at it that way personally.”

Immediately, Bell and Espada initiated the first phase of Altuve’s transition to left field. The trio worked for two weeks at Daikin Park, teaching Altuve the intricacies of the ballpark’s complicated configuration, complete with crevices, curves and the Crawford Boxes. One day, the club kept the stadium’s roof open to practice in sunlight.

Altuve had never played in the outfield before, but he has spent 14 seasons in the ballpark and bore witness to countless fly balls clanking off the 19-foot-tall left-field wall. Having that general idea helped, Bell said, but it still can’t equip every outfielder for what may ensue.

“You can’t even really prepare, you just have to react,” Bell said. “It was just getting him comfortable to what that’s like when you’re actually the left fielder versus all the balls he’s seen off the wall over the years from the second-base point of view.”

Now in West Palm Beach, Florida, the two coaches are concentrating on Altuve’s first-step quickness and the angles he will take to various batted balls. Line drives from left-handed hitters are a primary emphasis, according to Clark, who reminds Altuve that they always drift toward the

foul line.

“My biggest thing with him is not to give up on those balls,” Clark said. “You’re going to have to go after those balls because if you drift a little bit, they’re just going to keep moving away from you. He’s starting to understand that because he’s out there getting work in.”

Bell is often with Altuve during batting practice, when he will treat anything hit in his direction as a chance to improve his initial reads and quickness. Altuve still does the small, pre-pitch hop he showed at second base, which helps his reaction times. Altuve’s elite athleticism makes things easier.

An emphasis for Bell is to turn Altuve’s “biggest strength” — his speed — into a refined tool. The two men are working on Altuve’s acceleration to specific spots while locating the baseball.

Altuve’s throwing arm is his most obvious weakness. Only one infielder had a weaker arm than he did last season. Houston can mask that deficiency by putting its cutoff man deeper into left field, but Bell and Clark believe that Altuve will be capable of accurate throws. Both emphasized keeping throws low and creating more carry.

“Even if the actual velocity isn’t high, we can at least get carry out of it, which will play better and be more accurate,” Bell said.

Though both coaches are encouraged by Altuve’s progress, more Grapefruit League games will give a far better barometer of his readiness.

“He’s a very cerebral kid,” said Clark, whose initial stint on Houston’s coaching staff coincided with Altuve’s first three major league seasons. “The way I describe José is he’s a ballplayer. There’s nothing on the field that he can’t do. He’s always willing to learn.”

Altuve is two months from turning 35, but perhaps learning more now than at any point in his prolific career, a fact that isn’t lost on the two men delivering the lessons.

“He asks a lot of questions and he really, really cares about doing his best out there and making sure when he’s out there, he’s ready,” Bell said.

“I do think that he finds enjoyment out of it. It’s a new challenge and, as we know, José lives up to challenges.”

The San Juan Daily Star

March 5, 2025 23

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 21