Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Saher Alghorra/The New York Times
San Juan Daily Star, the only paper with News Service in English in Puerto Rico, publishes 7 days a week, with
Housing remains unaffordable for a great many in Puerto Rico GOOD MORNING
By THE STAR STAFF
The Housing Affordability Index, prepared by Estudios Técnicos Inc. (ETI), continues to highlight the challenges consumers face when trying to acquire housing, even though there was a moderate decrease in average prices during the first quarter of 2025.
Leslie Adames, director of economic analysis and policy at ETI, noted that the index rose from 53% in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 56% in the first quarter of 2025. However, he noted that the slight improvement does not signify a real enhancement in the affordability issues plaguing the island’s housing market. The index remains significantly below the pre-pandemic historical average of 84%, indicating that much work still needs to be done. Despite lower prices, housing remains out of reach for a large portion of the population.
The Housing Affordability Index measures a typical family’s ability to qualify for a mortgage loan with a 20% down payment. A value of 100% indicates that a family has enough income to secure financing at the average home price. Values below this threshold indicate challenges in accessing financing.
According to figures from the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions, the average price of new homes fell by 19%, from $353,681 in the first quarter of 2024 to $286,234 in the same period of 2025. For existing homes, the decrease was a mere 3%, dropping from $215,973 to $209,284.
Conversely, financing pressures persist as 30-year mortgage rates have not significantly declined. In the first quarter of 2025, the average rate was 6.82%, which is very close to the 6.73% recorded at the end of 2024 and the 6.75% noted in the first quarter of 2024.
2,467 units were sold during this timeframe, representing 236 more sales than in the first quarter of 2024. The growth was concentrated in the new unit segment, where sales surged by 431 units, from 148 in 2024 to 579 in 2025. In contrast, sales of existing units decreased by 195, from 2,083 to 1,888 during the same period.
“The reduction in housing prices and public policies aimed at incentivizing home purchases are necessary conditions, but they are not yet sufficient to address the ongoing issues of housing affordability,” Adames stated.
He pointed out that multiple challenges continue to affect real estate market dynamics, including:
* High construction costs, exacerbated by rising material prices and federal tariffs on aluminum and steel.
* Labor shortages, worsened by immigration policy restrictions, with no immediate solutions in sight.
* High financing costs, as mortgage rates are influenced by long-term interest rates, which in turn are affected by the bond market and factors beyond our control, including the complicated fiscal situation of the U.S. government, declining savings levels due to demographic changes, and inflationary expectations.
“None of these factors indicate a return to normal in the short term,” Adames said. “The situation is further complicated by internal consumer issues, as household budgets are strained and personal debt continues to rise, limiting the ability to qualify for housing.”
“To illustrate the impact on consumers, someone with an average annual income of $32,091 (roughly $2,674 per month) would face monthly payments of about $1,490 for a new home (56% of their income) or $1,090 for a used home (41% of their income),” Adames said. “Both scenarios exceed the recommended threshold of 30-35% of income for a mortgage. These calculations, which only include principal and interest, underscore the magnitude of the problem: housing costs remain out of reach for most potential buyers.”
It is important to note, however, that home sales saw an increase during the first quarter of 2025, showing a positive trend compared to the same period in the previous four years. According to the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions (OCIF by its acronym in Spanish),
Task force proposes charging for license plates, digital stickers for off-road vehicles
By THE STAR STAFF
The Multisectoral Task Force on Off-Road Motor Vehicles presented a plan to Gov. Jennifer González Colón on Tuesday that requires registration, payment for license plates, and obtaining digital stickers for those vehicles, with clear circulation rules.
“What was initially perceived as an isolated recreational activity has transformed into a large-scale phenomenon,” the report reads. “It has now become a daily means of transportation with direct implications for road health and safety, natural resource management, infrastructure, municipal governance, and state tax policy.”
The plan creates a unified registration system with a digital sticker and special code; a conditional circulation endorsement for travel only on designated routes; and a Registry of Authorized Dealers to control sales, transfers and tax compliance. It also proposes an amnesty of up to 180 days for owners to register their vehicles without penalties and pay the license
plate and sticker fees.
“This joint effort between agencies and the private sector seeks to reduce risks and save lives on the roads,” said José González Mercado, the executive director of the Traffic Safety Commission (CST by its initials in Spanish), in a written statement.
The recommendations define restricted and controlled-access zones -- freeways, expressways, and restricted-access roads -- and mandate that any rural tourist route be endorsed by the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources and the Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTOP). The plan includes a mass-education campaign, technologically enabled inspection operations, and the creation of insurance to protect citizens in the event of accidents involving off-road vehicles.
To implement the measures, the report proposes an interagency initiative coordinated by the CST and an integrated database between the Treasury Department and DTOP that automatically validates registration, license plate payment, and tax obligations. It also suggests amending Law 22-2000
“What was initially perceived as an isolated recreational activity has transformed into a large-scale phenomenon,” reads a report submitted to Gov. Jennifer González Colón by the Multisectoral Task Force on Off-Road Motor Vehicles.
to classify offroad vehicles and establish operating, licensing and registration requirements.
EPA proposes removing Corozal well from National Priorities List
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in 2010 the Puerto Rico Health Department detected volatile organic compounds, including tetrachloroethylene, in the aquifer supplying the Santana community well in Corozal. (atsdr.cdc.gov)
By THE STAR STAFF
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed on Tuesday removing the Corozal Well site from the National Priorities List after meeting groundwater cleanup goals and ensuring long-term protections were in place, according to the agency.
“This proposal shows how the Superfund program achieves results,” EPA Regional Administrator Michael Martucci said in a written statement. “Our work with Puerto Rico ensured that the community of Corozal has clean water and demonstrates the long-term success of the cleanup.”
According to the agency, in 2010 the island Health Department detected volatile organic compounds, including tetrachloroethylene, in the aquifer supplying the Santana community well. The well was closed, and in 2011, a
granular activated carbon filtration system was installed. In 2012, the site was added to the National Priorities List. The concentration of tetrachloroethylene in the raw water extracted from the Santana well has decreased since 2011 and is now below the maximum contaminant level. The agency stated that, with the remediation goals met, no additional actions are required under federal Superfund law.
The proposal was published in the Federal Register and will be open to public comment for 30 days. Public comment will be available online, by mail, or in person at public meetings to be announced by the agency.
The Corozal Well site comprises an area of contaminated groundwater with no identified sources in the Palos Blancos neighborhood, on the border of Corozal and Naranjito. The aquifer impacted the Santana Community well, the only source of drinking water for more than 200 people in that rural area.
Workshop for teachers on identifying dyslexia to be offered
By THE STAR STAFF
As part of the strategies the Department of Education is implementing to improve reading and academic achievement among students, Education Secretary Eliezer Ramos Parés announced this week that teachers will be offered training to help detect dyslexia in students at an early stage.
“We are focusing our efforts on breaking down language and learning barriers and offering more and greater resources,” Ramos Parés said. “A few days ago, we announced that we have achieved an improvement in reading among primary
school students, and today we are reporting on this workshop aimed at early detection of dyslexia to provide students with tools and support their development. This training will provide teachers with the necessary tools to transform the challenges of dyslexia into learning opportunities, ensuring that every student can achieve their academic goals with success and confidence.”
The workshop titled “When Learning Hurts: Specific Learning Disabilities” will be held this Friday from 1 p.m. to 2:30 pm, virtually via the Microsoft Teams platform. Interested teachers can register at: https://tinyurl.com/48jkjp4y. Participation in the workshop can be arranged at: https://tinyurl.com/4djyack4.
Education Secretary Eliezer Ramos Parés
Governor: New NFE contract is a good deal that will save PR $16 billion
By THE STAR STAFF
Gov. Jenniffer González Colón says a new natural gas supply contract with New Fortress Energy (NFE) is expected to save Puerto Rico $16 billion.
She made the announcement Tuesday alongside Energy Czar and Public-Private Partnerships Authority (P3A) Executive Director Josué Colón Ortiz, and La Fortaleza Chief of Staff Francisco Domenech, who is also the executive director of the Puerto Rico Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority (AAFAF by its initials in Spanish).
The information comes amid reports that NFE is undergoing financial restructuring.
Submitted for approval to the Financial Oversight and Management Board, the agreement includes historic protections for the people of Puerto Rico that feature significant savings and the elimination of the exclusivity clause regarding the use of the NFE terminal in San Juan Bay, the governor said.
“With the protection of the people’s interests as our guiding principle, we are pleased to announce today that, after exhaustive negotiations, we have substantially modified
the agreement with NFE,” the governor stated. “This provides significant savings for the treasury and enhanced protections for the people. Our goal has always been to secure the best deal for Puerto Rico.”
The original proposed NFE contract, dated June 28 of this year, featured a 15-year extension with exclusivity provisions and an estimated total cost of $20.1 billion.
Following negotiations led by La Fortaleza and the P3A, a new draft agreement was reached last Friday that reduces the total estimated cost to some $4 billion and shortens the term to seven years with an option for three additional years. It also eliminates exclusivity clauses, achieves competitive pricing, adjusts minimum purchase quantities to levels certified by power plant operator Genera PR and validated by the P3A technical team, and includes a tolling agreement that allows the government to use the natural gas terminal in San Juan if NFE is unable to supply fuel.
The negotiated agreement is expected to result in $16 billion in savings compared to the original contract. The pricing formula for temporary units has been reduced, with the “Adder” decreasing from $10.29 to $7.95,
Energy Czar and Public-Private Partnerships
Authority Executive Director Josué Colón
Ortiz
while the pricing formula for San Juan units 5 and 6 remains unchanged at $6.50, preserving the lower prices established in the previous contract signed in 2019. The price for temporary units has been further lowered to $7.75.
The agreed-upon prices are projected to yield annual savings exceeding $50 million, which translates into estimated savings of over $350 million throughout the contract’s duration.
The contract also contains what officials said are more conservative and realistic consumption volumes: annual contracted quantities have been reduced from 100 million to
75 million MMBtu. Additionally, the “Take or Pay” option has decreased from 70 million MMBtu to 40 million MMBtu, in accordance with current service demand certified by system operators.
Puerto Rico will retain the flexibility to diversify its natural gas suppliers. If NFE fails to deliver for any reason, the terminal is permitted to use another supplier under the new contract.
In the event of a default, NFE will bear 100% of the costs associated with alternative fuel if it cannot supply natural gas. A tolling agreement will allow access to infrastructure for 50 cents per MMBtu if NFE is unable to deliver the natural gas.
“This agreement contributes to Puerto Rico’s energy transition process by reducing dependence on more polluting fossil fuels like Bunker C and diesel,” the energy czar said. “Natural gas, as a transition fuel, not only represents substantial savings compared to Bunker C and diesel but also improves the efficiency of electricity generation, reduces emissions, and lowers maintenance and operating costs. This aligns with our goals of creating a more sustainable energy future and enhancing the resilience of the electrical system.”
4 farmers’ markets get federal support for locally grown products
By THE STAR STAFF
Four farmers’ markets in northwest Puerto Rico are receiving federal support through a new initiative aimed at expanding access to locally grown fresh produce while creating new economic opportunities for agricultural producers.
The program, called Mercados Noroeste (Northwest Markets), is administered by the Hispanic-American Institute (HAI) and operates farmers’ markets in Aguadilla, Quebradillas, Isabela and Hatillo, serving some 47 farmers and value-added producers. The initiative is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS).
“This program allows us to enhance our efforts in building food infrastructure for communities in the northwest municipalities by increasing direct farm-to-consumer sales points,” said Carlos M. Axtmayer Fernández, the program coordinator at the HAI. “Given the current situation, it is imperative to support our agricultural entrepreneurs and promote their products.”
The program provides support for coordination, operations, marketing and equipment at four farmers’ markets in the northwest region. They are:
* Aguadilla Farmers Market: A weekly market supported through a partnership with a local nonprofit organization.
* Mercadito 00678: A monthly market held on the fourth Sunday of the month in the San José neighborhood
of Quebradillas.
* Mercado Agrocosteño: A monthly market held on the first Sunday of the month in Isabela, coordinated by Conservación Costera PR.
* Mercadillo: A market held every second Saturday in Hatillo, coordinated by the Museo del Reciclaje.
“Thanks to the support of Mercados Noroeste, the Mercadillo has become a gathering place for the community, where knowledge is exchanged about the importance of agriculture, environmental conservation, and solid waste reduction practices,” said Dariana Ojeda of the Museo del Reciclaje. “At the Mercadillo, we aim to promote the circular economy within the community.”
Julitza Nieves, a representative of the Aguadilla Farmers Market, highlighted the program’s impact on professionalization efforts.
“The impact we’ve had through our collaboration with Mercados Noroeste is evident in our improved promotion focused on producers, the necessary equipment to meet their needs, and the professionalization of our team with uniforms,” she said.
The initiative includes discussions with farmers on maximizing their harvests through value-added products and offers a series of free virtual workshops on food safety and good agricultural practices. Participating farmers are also eligible for individualized technical assistance and equipment to enhance product processing. Registration for the workshops is available on the program’s website
at MercadosNoroeste.com.
The Hispanic-American Institute, established in 1997, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes the social, educational, and economic development of Hispanic communities in the continental United States, Puerto Rico and Latin America.
Mercado Agrocosteño in Isabela is one of four farmers’ markets in northwest Puerto Rico receiving federal support through a new initiative, Mercados Noroeste, aimed at expanding access to locally grown fresh produce while creating new economic opportunities for agricultural producers. (Facebook via Coco Puerto Rico)
The San Juan Daily Star Wednesday, September 17, 2025 5
White House plans broad crackdown on liberal groups
By KATIE ROGERS and ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS
President Donald Trump and his top advisers threatened earlier this week to unleash the power of the federal government to punish what they alleged was a left-wing network that funds and incites violence, seizing on Charlie Kirk’s killing to make broad and unsubstantiated claims about their political opponents.
Investigators were still working to identify a motive in the death of Kirk, a prominent conservative activist who was shot last week in Utah. The Republican governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, has said that the suspect had a “leftist ideology” and that he acted alone.
But Trump and his top allies suggested that the suspect was part of a coordinated movement that was fomenting violence against conservatives, without presenting evidence that such a network existed. America has seen a wave of violence across the political spectrum, targeting Democrats and Republicans.
Trump, who has downplayed violence from right-wing or other supporters, said that he would like to designate a range of groups, including the loosely affiliated group of far-left antifascism activists, known as “antifa,” as domestic terrorists and bring racketeering cases against people funding protests.
to the activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination by threatening to bring the weight of the federal government down on what they alleged was a left-wing network that funds and incites violence, seizing on the killing to make broad and unsubstantiated claims about their political opponents.
(Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times)
“We have some pretty radical groups and they got away with murder,” Trump said, without naming additional groups. He added that he was talking to the attorney general, Pam Bondi, about bringing charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act against “some of the people that you’ve been reading about that have been putting up millions and millions of dollars for agitation.”
He did not specify who or what he was talking about.
It was unclear by Monday evening how these plans would unfold, or how the White House could legally formalize such an effort without curbing First Amendment rights. Democrats have warned that the Trump White House could be using Kirk’s killing as a pretense to go after political dissent, not just hate speech or violence.
“Pay attention. Something dark might be coming,” Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut wrote on social media Sunday. “The murder of Charlie Kirk could have united Americans to confront political violence. Instead, Trump and his anti-democratic radicals look to be readying a campaign to destroy dissent.”
Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, said Monday that while the killing of Kirk was “heinous,” so were the killings of Melissa Hortman, a Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota, and her husband, who were on a hit list of dozens of left-wing figures; the hammer assault on the husband of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi; and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.
“He cannot be allowed to use the horrible murder of Charlie Kirk as pretext to go after peaceful political opposition,” Casar said in a statement.
Two senior administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal planning, said
that Cabinet secretaries and federal department heads were working to identify organizations that funded or supported violence against conservatives.
The goal, they said, was to categorize as domestic terrorism left-wing activity that they said led to violence, a continuation of existing efforts by federal agencies to try to punish liberal groups they have accused of funding or otherwise supporting violent protests. One tactic has been to target the tax-exempt status of nonprofits that are critical of Trump or conservatives.
An administration official said officials would be investigating people behind the recent burning of Teslas in apparent protest of Elon Musk and assaults against immigration agents, and would be looking to draw links between those episodes and organized liberal groups.
Several other officials, from Vice President JD Vance on down, made it clear Monday that they believed that political violence was a liberal problem and not a conservative one. They used Kirk’s podcast, with Vance as guest host, to announce that they would be cracking down on what they called leftist nongovernmental organizations, and that they would use every available lever of the federal government to do so.
“With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, eliminate and destroy this network and make America safe again for the American people,” said Stephen Miller, the president’s top policy adviser.
Vance said the administration would not go after “constitutionally protected speech” but rather what he described as a network of nonprofit nongovernmental organizations that “foments, facilitates and engages in violence.”
In the wake of Kirk’s killing, Trump immediately blamed
the “radical left” for much of the political violence in the country, and appeared to excuse violence on the right by saying that it was driven by people who “don’t want to see crime.”
While the administration has called attention to recent violent attacks targeting Republicans or perpetrated by those who have displayed leftist ideology, national security officials have said political violence is broadly a problem in America.
In 2025, a threat assessment issued by the Department of Homeland Security said extremists were “motivated by various ideologies,” including “a combination of racial, religious, gender or anti-government grievances; conspiracy theories; and personalized factors.”
Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary of homeland security in the Obama administration, said such violent acts went beyond political affiliation of any party.
“These guys have no affiliation,” Kayyem said. “They are, you know, a combination of dystopia, irony and violence.”
Almost immediately after the shooting of Kirk, several Republican lawmakers started calling for action against the left.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who before she was elected to office had repeatedly suggested support for executing top Democratic politicians, said on social media Monday that “millions on the left celebrated and made clear they want all of us dead” after Kirk’s death. Calling for a “peaceful national divorce,” she added that America was “no longer safe for any of us.”
And Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who has drifted further to the right during her time in Washington, pressed the Education Department in a letter on Friday to withhold federal funding from any school that did not “take immediate administrative action” against employees who had celebrated or made light of Kirk’s death.
In her letter, Mace — who is running in a contested primary for South Carolina governor — decried a rise in political violence in the country but cited only examples in which Republican figures were targeted.
“We don’t fund hate,” Mace said in a social media post Monday in which she shared her letter. “We fire it.”
Andeno Co
Tasa mínima, promedio ponderado, y máxima para préstamos personales pequeños otorgados para la semana que terminó el sábado, 13 de septiembre de 2025
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, Sept. 5, 2025. Trump administration officials on Monday, Sept. 15, responded
Kirk killing suspect faces aggravated murder charges and death penalty
By ANNA GRIFFIN, JACK HEALY, NICHOLAS BOGEL-BURROUGHS and JACEY FORTIN
Prosecutors on Tuesday unveiled a tranche of evidence against the 22-year-old man from southern Utah that they accused of killing right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk — and much of it comes from the suspect’s own words in exchanges with friends and family.
In announcing aggravated murder charges against the man, Tyler Robinson, and saying they would seek the death penalty, prosecutors said that the suspect had texted his partner, writing, “I had enough of his hatred,” referring to Kirk, and had planned the shooting days in advance.
Robinson is scheduled to make his first court appearance at 3 p.m. Mountain time, and will be appointed a lawyer if he does not already have representation.
Here’s what we’re covering:
— Parents’ role: Robinson’s parents recognized him in an image of the shooting suspect shared by law enforcement,
Reporters outside the Fourth Judicial District Courthouse in Provo, Utah, on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. Prosecutors on Tuesday unveiled a tranche of evidence against the 22-yearold man from southern Utah that they accused of killing the right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk — and much of it comes from the suspect’s own words in exchanges with friends and family. (Loren Elliott/The New York Times)
according to the charging documents, and called their son, convincing him to return home to southwestern Utah and eventually to turn himself in, about 33 hours after the shooting on Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University. His mother told police that her son’s political views had moved to the left over the past year, specifically focusing on gay and transgender rights, prosecutors said. — Written note: Robinson texted his partner after the shooting and told him to look under a keyboard in their shared apartment, according to the charges. There, his partner found a note that said, “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and
I’m going to take it.” This appears to be the note referenced by FBI Director Kash Patel, who has faced scrutiny over his leadership of the agency and the shooting investigation.
— National fallout: Trump administration officials have threatened to crack down on what they say is a left-wing network that funds and incites violence against conservatives — without presenting evidence that such a network exists. Officials in Utah have said they believe that Robinson acted alone and expect no additional charges.I was telling the world what the FBI was doing.”
People visit a makeshift memorial for Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot last week, on the campus at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (Loren Elliott/The New York Times)
Roosevelt Roads: What is the plan, Puerto Rico? COMMUNITY
By BOB GEVINSKI Special to The STAR
Military ships are offshore again. Exercises are underway in Ceiba and Arroyo. Local news is buzzing about whether the U.S. military is “back for good.” Reporters insist people are scared by the sight of soldiers. But when “Jugando Pelota Dura” asked Puerto Ricans directly, an overwhelming majority said they welcomed the military’s presence. They see value in a force confronting nefarious actors in the Caribbean, and they anticipate an immediate economic lift from an influx of personnel and activity.
Perhaps those in favor understand the economic asset that existed when the military controlled Roosevelt Roads? Roughly $400 million was spent annually in Puerto Rico when Roosevelt Roads was an operational military base. That money is now being spent in Florida, captured by politicians there who saw the opportunity to have that money spent in their districts. What Puerto Rico saw as a burden, they saw as an opportunity.
And yet, two decades later, our media want us to cower at the idea of the military returning? To act as if this presence is something sinister, while most countries see military infrastructure as an economic asset? Even stranger, the media only seem to care about Roosevelt Roads when the military is in town. Attention flares up with exercises and maneuvers, then disappears once the uniforms are gone. There is endless
PO BOX 6537 Caguas PR 00726
Telephones: (787) 743-3346 • (787) 743-6537 (787) 743-5606 • Fax (787) 743-5100
Dr. Ricardo Angulo
Founder
Manuel Sierra General Manager
María de L. Márquez
Business Director
R. Mariani Circulation Director
Lisette Martínez
PERSPECTIVES
energy to complain about what people don’t want, but almost no debate about what they do want. Do we even know what should or could happen in Ceiba? Which brings us back, again, to the unavoidable question: What is the plan?
When the U.S. handed over the Naval Station at Roosevelt Roads to Puerto Rico in 2004, it transferred more than 8,000 acres, thousands of housing units, an airstrip, schools, utilities, and a world-class hospital. Panama had just completed a similar, if not more daunting, handover of the Canal Zone in 1999. There, 370,000 acres and 7,000 buildings were quickly marketed, auctioned, or repurposed into residential, commercial, and tourism-oriented developments after the transfer. Panama transformed the Canal Zone into a broad economic engine through strategic redevelopment -- turning assets into tax revenue, free trade zones, tourism hubs, and shipping-related services. That multi-sector integration fueled national growth and resilience.
reward friends and allies. The public has been told private hands cannot be trusted, even as government neglect proves it cannot handle the responsibility.
Panama had a plan. Puerto Rico had politicians. And 20 years later, we are left with cobwebs.
Roosevelt Roads is not just abandoned land. It is a metaphor for what happens when leaders refuse to steward opportunity. Nefarious actors thrive in vacuums, while legitimate investment never takes root. To imagine Puerto Rico immune to this pattern is to ignore reality.
In Puerto Rico, the government clutched Roosevelt Roads as if only it could manage such a prize, but control calcified into paralysis. What could have been preserved as a functioning community was left to rot. Copper wiring, windows, toilets, and fixtures were stripped and sold on the black market. Water lines, electrical grids, and sewer systems collapsed into uselessness. The hospital, once one of the Caribbean’s finest, now stands so degraded it can only be demolished. Puerto Rico was handed a turnkey municipality: houses and apartments, a fire station, church, bowling alley, airport, marina, ballfields, restaurants, hospitals, and more. It was a ready-made municipality, transferred intact. Instead of unleashing that inheritance to spark new sectors and jobs, it was left to languish.
Panama turned its transfer into a springboard. Puerto Rico turned Roosevelt Roads into a liability.
Why? Because we’ve been conditioned by the media and politicians to believe only the government can handle projects of this scale. Politicians encourage that belief because it gives them power, and with power comes the chance to
Instead of asking how to finally restore Roosevelt Roads, our media avoid the question and rehash the past. They fixate on whether the military is “back,” when the truth is that the U.S. military never fully left. There is still an Army base in San Juan, 21,000 working military personnel in Puerto Rico, another 75,000 retired living here, and training continues across the island much as it does in the states. The fixation on fear is easier than confronting the failure of leadership.
But the real story is not the military’s return. The real story is 20 years of wasted potential. Roosevelt Roads could be a hub of commerce, education and jobs. It could be a magnet for innovation.
Instead, it is a cautionary tale, a reminder that assets left in government hands without vision become ruins. Panama and Florida chose prosperity, while Puerto Rico chose something else.
The question lingers, as relevant today as it was in 2004: What is the plan, Puerto Rico? Will the media stay focused on Roosevelt Roads when the last ship sails away and the last soldier leaves? Or will we return to silence, until the next exercise comes along?
Without a plan, we already know the answer: more abandonment, shadows, and decline. And that is no plan at all.
Bob Gevinski is a resident of both San Juan and Vieques. He served on the boards of the Vieques Conservation & Historical Trust and the Puerto Rico Hotel & Tourism Association, and is currently the founder of Paraiso Realty.
Roughly $400 million was spent annually in Puerto Rico when Roosevelt Roads was an operational military base. (rooseveltroads.pr.gov)
Aibonito celebra el 2do Aniversario del Reloj de Puerto Rico con música, cultura y tradiciones
POR EL STAR STAFF
AIBONITO
– El próximo sábado, 4 de octubre de 2025, el pueblo de Aibonito se vestirá de fiesta para conmemorar el 2do Aniversario del Reloj de Puerto Rico, una de las atracciones más emblemáticas de la zona central de la Isla. La celebración, que se llevará a cabo de 9:00 a.m. a 6:00 p.m. en las inmediaciones del Reloj Floral, reunirá lo mejor de la cultura puertorriqueña con música típica, kioskos de comida criolla, artesanías, plantas ornamentales, sorpresas y un ambiente familiar que promete encantar tanto a residentes como visitantes.
En la tarima principal, los asistentes podrán disfrutar de la presentación especial de El Grupo Trova Campesina, integrado por Juradito en el Cuatro, Orlandito García y Marcelino Ortiz, quienes ofrecerán lo mejor de la tradición jíbara. Además, el evento contará con la participación del invitado especial Luis Daniel Colón, El Eterno Niño Trovador, reco-
nocido por su estilo único y carisma en la trova puertorriqueña.
Como parte del festejo, se celebrará el Gran Concurso de Trovadores, donde talentos locales e invitados demostrarán sus habilidades en el arte de la improvisación, reforzando el compromiso de Aibonito con la preservación de la música típica y el folclor de Puerto Rico.
“El Reloj de Puerto Rico se ha convertido en un símbolo de identidad y un atractivo turístico que representa la belleza y el ingenio de nuestro pueblo. Este aniversario no solo celebra su existencia, sino que también fortalece la unión comunitaria y promueve nuestras tradiciones culturales”, expresó el doctor Eduardo Ibarra, presidente del Comité Organizador.
La actividad es libre de costo y abierta al público. Se exhorta a las familias puertorriqueñas a visitar Aibonito y ser parte de esta celebración que combina historia, cultura y entretenimiento.
Cámara de Representantes exige respuestas a Luma, Genera, COR3 y AEE sobre falta de agilidad en uso de fondos federales
POR EL STAR STAFF
SAN JUAN – El presidente de la Comisión de Gobierno de la Cámara de Representantes, Víctor Parés, anunció la celebración de una vista pública el próximo lunes, 22 de septiembre para investigar la lentitud en la obligación de fondos federales para la reconstrucción de la red eléctrica, devastada tras el paso del huracán María el 20 de septiembre
de 2017.
Entre los citados se encuentra el Zar de Energía, el ingeniero Josué Colón, la directora ejecutiva de la Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica, la ingeniera Mary Carmen Zapata, al igual que ejecutivos de Luma Energy, LLC. y Genera Puerto Rico.
También participará Eduardo Soria, director ejecutivo de la Oficina Central de Recuperación, Reconstrucción y Resiliencia de Puerto Rico, mejor conocida como COR3.
“Han transcurrido 8 años después de la devastación de la red eléctrica por el paso del huracán María y levantarnos hoy con la noticia que todavía los operadores privados de la red de transmisión y distribución, así como la generación, no han obligado sobre 11,000 millones en fondos federales para la reconstrucción de estas estructuras es una ofensa al Pueblo. Esta vista pública está dirigida a conocer la realidad, donde se ha fallado, dónde está el embudo con el objetivo de eliminarlo ya”, comentó Parés.
De acuerdo a datos disponibles, todavía no se han obligado para proyectos unos $11,802 millones en fondos federales destinados a la rehabilitación del sistema eléctrico. De
estos, $9,085 corresponden a proyectos bajo Luma Energy, operador privado encargado de la red de transmisión y distribución.
“Este es un asunto que hemos trabajado desde hace algún tiempo, el porqué Luma todavía no logra alcanzar ni el 40 por ciento en proyectos obligados. De verdad que es preocupante esto, más ante el constante pedido de aumento de fondos que la gerencia de Luma realiza ante el gobierno y el Negociado de Energía de Puerto Rico. El lunes nos tendrán que brindar datos específicos”, aseguró el Representante.
La vista pública se celebra bajo el amparo de la Resolución de la Cámara 42 la cual viabiliza a la Comisión de Gobierno investigar, entre otros asuntos, la la evaluación de las propuestas y formulación de la política energética de la Isla, especialmente aquella dirigida a la reducción de la dependencia en los combustibles de fuentes fósiles y el fomento en la creación y uso de combustible orgánico, el uso de tecnología de fuentes renovables, y la autosuficiencia energética; así como todo asunto concerniente a la Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica.
Cataño invita a inscribirse en la Carrera de los Trineos de Santa
declaraciones escritas.
– El alcalde de Cataño, Julio Alicea Vasallo, exhortó el martes a comunidades, empresas y agencias a inscribirse en la segunda Carrera de los Trineos de Santa, pautada para el 23 de noviembre de 2025 en el Frente Marítimo.
“Respaldar esta carrera significa algo más que asistir; es preparar un trineo, inscribirse y ser parte de un movimiento que salva vidas y lleva esperanza”, dijo Alicea Vasallo en
La actividad, organizada por Therapy and Family Counseling, promueve la salud mental, la prevención del suicidio y la concienciación sobre el espectro autista. El Municipio destacó el apoyo del Senado de Puerto Rico, donde senadores subrayaron la importancia del tema y la necesidad de ampliar los espacios de prevención.
La actriz y productora Sonia Valentín será la madrina oficial. “Tener a Sonia como madrina refuerza el mensaje de que la salud mental es tarea de todos”, añadió el primer
ejecutivo municipal. La vicealcaldesa María de los Ángeles Pérez indicó que el Frente Marítimo “será el escenario ideal para iniciar la temporada navideña y seguir proyectando a Cataño como destino turístico y cultural”.
Los organizadores adelantaron que la jornada incluirá música en vivo, personajes navideños, estaciones para niños y oferta gastronómica en un ambiente familiar frente a la bahía. En la edición anterior participaron más de 30 equipos. Para información e inscripciones: 787-525-9412 y lacarreradesanta@gmail.com.
The San Juan Daily Star Wednesday, September 17, 2025 9
Robert Redford, screen idol turned director and activist, dies at 89
By BROOKS BARNES
Robert Redford, the big-screen charmer turned Oscar-winning director whose hit movies often helped America make sense of itself and who, off screen, evangelized for environmental causes and fostered the Sundance-centered independent film movement, died early Tuesday morning at his home in Utah. He was 89.
His death, in the mountains outside Provo, was announced in a statement by Cindi Berger, the chief executive of the publicity firm Rogers & Cowan PMK. She said he had died in his sleep but did not provide a specific cause.
With a distaste for Hollywood’s dumbit-down approach to moviemaking, Redford typically demanded that his films carry cultural weight, in many cases making serious topics like grief and political corruption resonate with audiences, in no small part because of his immense star power.
As an actor, his biggest films included “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969), with its loving look at rogues in a dying West, and “All the President’s Men” (1976), about the journalistic pursuit of President Richard M. Nixon in the Watergate era. In “Three Days of the Condor” (1975) he was an introverted CIA codebreaker caught in a murderous cat-andmouse game. “The Sting” (1973), about Depression-era grifters, gave Redford his first and only Oscar nomination as an actor.
Redford was one of Hollywood’s preferred leads for decades, whether in comedies, dramas or thrillers; studios often sold him as a sex symbol. His body of work as a romantic leading man owed a great deal to the commanding actresses who were paired with him — Jane Fonda in “Barefoot in the Park” (1967), Barbra Streisand in “The Way We Were” (1973), Meryl Streep in “Out of Africa” (1985).
“Redford has never been so radiantly glamorous,” critic Pauline Kael wrote in The New Yorker, “as when we saw him through Barbra Streisand’s infatuated eyes.”
He branched into directing in his 40s and won an Academy Award for his first effort, “Ordinary People” (1980), about an upper-middleclass family’s disintegration after a son’s death. “Ordinary People” won three other Oscars, including for best picture.
His next film as a director, “The Milagro Beanfield War” (1988), a comedic drama about a New Mexican farmer denied water rights by uncaring developers, was a flop. But Redford stubbornly refused to pursue less esoteric ma-
Robert Redford, in Provo, Utah on Sept. 23, 2013. Redford, the big-screen charmer turned Oscar-winning director whose hit movies often helped America make sense of itself and who, off screen, evangelized for environmental causes and fostered the Sundance-centered independent film movement, died at his home in Utah early on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. He was 89. (Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times)
terial. Instead, he directed and produced “A River Runs Through It” (1992), a spare period drama about Montana fly fishermen pondering existential questions, and “Quiz Show” (1994), about a notorious 1950s television scandal. “Quiz Show” was nominated for four Oscars, including best picture and best director.
Perhaps Redford’s greatest cultural impact was as a make-it-up-as-he-went independent film impresario. In 1981, he founded the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to cultivating fresh cinematic voices. He took over a struggling film festival in Utah in 1984 and renamed it after the institute a few years later.
The Sundance Film Festival, in Park City, became a global showcase and freewheeling marketplace for American films made outside the Hollywood system. With heat generated by the discovery of talents like Steven Soderbergh, who unveiled his “Sex, Lies and Videotape” at the festival in 1989, Sundance became synonymous with the creative cutting edge.
Preferring life on his secluded Utah ranch, Redford created the image of a reluctant star. His Hollywood career, he insisted with characteristic orneriness, was incidental to his real concerns, one of which was the environment. In many ways, he created the actor-asenvironmentalist archetype that stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo would adopt.
Redford did not like to be called an activist, a label he found too severe. But an activist
he was.
In 1970, he successfully campaigned against a six-lane highway that was proposed in a Utah canyon (where one year he received eight tickets for speeding, rounding the curves in a Porsche Carrera). In 1975, he was hanged in effigy over his resistance, also successful, to a proposed coal-fired power plant in southern Utah; the area later became a national monument. A sign on the hanging dummy said: “I’m a Star. I Made My Money.”
For three decades, Redford was a trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council. From time to time, people with similar priorities encouraged him to run for office. He brushed such chatter aside, having become disillusioned with politics in the late 1970s, when he was elected commissioner of the Provo Canyon sewer district. He had sought the office.
“I was born with a hard eye,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014. “The way I saw things, I would see what was wrong. I could see what could be better. I developed kind of a dark view of life, looking at my own country.”
A California youth
Charles Robert Redford Jr. was born on Aug. 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California. His parents, Charles Redford and Martha Hart, married three months later. (Early in his career, 20th Century Fox publicists officially placed Redford’s birth in 1937, a falsehood that was often repeated over the years.)
After working as a milkman, Redford’s father became an accountant and was eventually employed by Standard Oil of California. His mother died in 1955, when Redford was 18; the cause was a blood disorder associated with the birth of twin girls, who had lived only a short while, leaving Redford an only child.
Later in life, Redford, in dozens of interviews, told and retold the story of his California youth. It was an oral history in which the details sometimes shifted. He liked to cast himself in memory as a juvenile delinquent, sometimes mentioning gang fights, other times hubcap stealing and nights spent in jail. “There was great fear I was going to end up a bum,” he told TV Guide in 2002.
Little was ever mentioned of early show business connections that suggested the possibility of a screen future, although he spoke about getting laughed off the Warner Bros. lot at age 15 when asking for stunt work.
In fact, at schools in west Los Angeles, he kept company with children of screenwriter Robert Rossen (“The Hustler”), actor Zachary Scott (“Mildred Pierce”) and Metro-Goldwyn-
Mayer president Dore Schary. In 1959, Schary produced a Broadway play, “The Highest Tree,” in which Redford had one of his first stage roles. He had made his Broadway debut earlier that year in “Tall Story,” in which he had a one-line part. His most successful Broadway appearance was in the Neil Simon hit comedy about newlyweds, “Barefoot in the Park,” in 1963, directed by Mike Nichols and co-starring Elizabeth Ashley.
After high school, Redford attended the University of Colorado on a baseball scholarship, but he soon dropped out, having chafed at too much “bureaucracy,” as he put it. For more than a year he bounced around Europe, where he studied art at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, aspired to paint, and — working through what he later described as profound depression — sold sidewalk sketches for pocket cash.
Back in Los Angeles, he did oil-field work and met several Mormon students who were sent to proselytize after their first year at Brigham Young University in Utah. He dated one of them, Lola Van Wagenen, and married her in 1958.
The couple would become rooted in Utah. “It’s not trying to pretend to be something it’s not,” he told Rocky Mountain magazine in 1978, comparing Utah with Los Angeles, which he called phony and superficial. “It doesn’t invite you in and then kick you in the shins.”
Box-office gold
Redford enjoyed being a sex symbol, except when he didn’t. “This glamour image can be a real handicap,” he complained in a 1974 profile in The New York Times.
Nonetheless, it was his broad grin, tousled reddish-blond hair and all-American look (“WASP jock” in his own words) that first won the audience to his side. “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” was a well-reviewed picture, but it succeeded at the box office in large part because Redford was paired with another matinee idol, Paul Newman. They repeated the trick in 1973 for the same director, George Roy Hill, with “The Sting.”
Reviewing “The Sting” for the Times, Vincent Canby described the film as “Mr. Newman and Mr. Redford, dressed in best, fit-to-kill, snap-brim hat, thirties splendor, looking like a couple of guys in old Arrow shirt ads.”
His other acting successes included “Jeremiah Johnson” (1972), about a legend-in-hisown-time mountain man, and “The Natural” (1984), the quintessentially American story of a man who gets a second chance at his dream baseball career.
Stocks
Wall St ends lower as investors turn cautious ahead of Fed rate decision
Wall Street’s three main stock indexes ended lower in choppy trading on Tuesday as caution set in ahead of an anticipated interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve.
Investors are largely still pricing in a 25 basis-point cut from the U.S. central bank at the conclusion of its twoday meeting on Wednesday, to offset the deterioration in the U.S. labor market, evidenced by numerous recent economic indicators.
Data on Tuesday showed that U.S. retail sales increased more than expected in August, but that did little to change rate cut expectations.
“Any kind of resilient economic data will only reaffirm the hawks on the FOMC ... and could give a little bit of fuel for (Fed Chair Jerome) Powell to come out as slightly more hawkish than the market is hoping for,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird Private Wealth Management.
Investors also brushed off news that the U.S. Senate confirmed White House economic adviser Stephen Miran to the Fed Board and an appeals court rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 125.55 points, or 0.27%, to 45,757.90, the S&P 500 lost 8.52 points, or 0.13%, to 6,606.76 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 14.79 points, or 0.07%, to 22,333.96.
Six of the 11 S&P 500 subsectors ended lower. The utilities and real estate sectors fell 1.81% and 0.66%, respectively.
The CBOE Volatility Index climbed to its highest level in more than a week to 16.04 points.
UnitedHealth Group shares fell 2.3% and Nvidia shares dropped 1.6%, weighing on the Dow. Nvidia shares fell after Reuters reported weak demand in China for its new AI chip.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed at all-time highs on Monday after hitting intraday records in multiple sessions. The three main indexes had gained so far in September - a month traditionally deemed bad for U.S. equities.
Webtoon Entertainment soared 39% after a deal with Disney to create a new digital comics platform to feature content from Disney’s portfolio, including the Marvel and “Star Wars” franchises.
Oracle rose 1.5% after Trump said that the U.S. and
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China have a deal that will keep the short-video app TikTok operating in the U.S. and multiple news outlets, citing sources, said Oracle is part of the investor consortium.
On the Nasdaq, advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.01to-1 ratio. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.07-to-1 ratio on the NYSE.
The S&P 500 posted 15 new 52-week highs and 13 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 89 new highs and 58 new lows. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 17.11 billion shares, compared with the 16.31 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.
The San Juan Daily Star
Gaza City panics as Israel launches ground operation
By LIAM STACK, ABU BAKR BASHIR and AMEERA HAROUDA
Palestinians in Gaza City, the Gaza Strip, described scenes of panic Tuesday as Israel launched a new ground operation, sending in troops and tanks while pounding the area with heavy airstrikes.
The city streets were filled with people who could not find anywhere to shelter, witnesses told The New York Times. Others sought safety in buildings that were filled with smoke from nearby Israeli strikes or fires.
Nesreen Joudeh, 40, said in a telephone interview that she was sheltering with her husband and four children in an apartment whose heavily cracked walls seemed to be crumbling around them. She said she was afraid they would all soon die.
“With every single strike, pieces of concrete fall on our heads and I scream all the time,” Joudeh said.
Montaser Bahja, a former schoolteacher, said he was hiding from the Israeli assault in an apartment near the Mediterranean coast. He said an intense bombardment began overnight, and the strikes were making the ground shake beneath his building.
“We are all terrified,” he said. “Death would be more merciful than what we’re living through.”
Last week, the Israeli military ordered the population of Gaza City to evacuate in advance of its assault. It instructed Palestinians to go to what it described as a humanitarian zone in Khan Younis and Muwasi in the south of the territory, where it said aid would be provided.
By Tuesday, the Israeli military said roughly 500,000 people remained in Gaza City after 350,000 had heeded evacuation orders and fled, compounding a humanitarian disaster in the territory where most people have been displaced multiple times and hunger is rampant after nearly two years of war.
Gaza’s health officials said ambulance and emergency workers were unable to reach some of the injured people stranded on streets or trapped under rubble from Israeli strikes.
As the ground operation began, the Israeli military told anyone who remained in
Gaza City to leave as quickly as possible. But many said they simply could not afford to do so.
“I don’t have anywhere to go in southern Gaza, no house, no tent, no car in which to travel,” Bahja said. “They’re not fighting Hamas. They’re fighting all of us civilians.”
Yasmine Ahmed, who was a midwife at Shifa Hospital, an early focus of Israel’s military during the war, said her young children had “begged” her to let them all flee the city. But she could not bring herself to do it, she said, fearing “death could catch us on the road or wherever we end up.”
On Tuesday, she was hiding with her husband and their five children in a partly collapsed house that shook violently as strikes hit nearby. As she spoke on the phone with a reporter, the sound of explosions and ambulance sirens could be heard in the background.
“We live in constant terror,” she said.
Israel has said it is targeting Gaza City because it is one of the last remaining strongholds of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that led the October 2023 attack on Israel, which ignited the war in Gaza.
“These are by far the worst days of the war,” said Hassan Younes, who used to work in a chicken shop at a local market, who was also staying on the city’s west side with his two children and wife, who is six months pregnant.
He said they did not flee the city because they could not afford it, but also because they worried that leaving the city and staying in the south might be dangerous for his wife’s pregnancy.
Younes said his sister had gone south and told him that it was crowded and unsanitary there.
“Drinking water is very dirty here in Gaza City,”
Younes said, “but it is even worse in the south.”
Joudeh, who was sheltering in the west of the city, said her family could not afford to pay for transportation out because the cost reached about $1,000 or more in recent days. They cannot leave on foot, she added, because her husband has diabetes and high blood pressure. One of her sons was also injured while trying to get flour at an aid distribution site, she said.
She said she felt as if her family, and her city, were at the end of their rope.
“They broke us,” she said, referring to Israel. “What else will they do to us?”
Even if her family does survive the offensive, she said, she is worried about how to feed them. She added she had only 4 pounds of flour and a few canned goods left at home, and feared there may not be an opportunity to get more aid anytime soon.
“If we get surrounded by the army, we will have to survive on this,” she said. But if the army were to advance toward her neighborhood, she said, “that is the end for us.”
Others echoed that fear.
“I don’t have money for transportation and a shelter in the south but if I do not flee, the army will murder me,” Mohammed Al Saptie, 34, said in a telephone interview. He, his wife and their children fled their neighborhood in southern Gaza City a few weeks ago amid an Israeli assault and have been sheltering at his brother-in-law’s home in the western part of the city.
Al Saptie said that he will flee to another neighborhood within the city if the Israeli troops move in. Airstrikes have terrified him, he said, but not as much as soldiers operating on the ground. “What matters is the presence of the army,” he said, calling the bombardment of residential buildings “a temporary horror.”
Palestinians, many on foot, cross the Wadi Gaza Bridge as they flee Gaza City on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (Saher Alghorra/The New York Times)
US strikes a second Venezuela boat, killing 3, Trump says
By ERIC SCHMITT, HELENE COOPER and CHARLIE SAVAGE
The U.S. military struck a boat for the second time this month, President Donald
Trump said earlier this week, as his administration continued its deadly campaign against Venezuelan drug cartels that it has accused of bringing fentanyl into the United States.
The strike occurred in international waters and killed three people, Trump said in a social media post.
“This morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a SECOND Kinetic Strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Trump wrote, referring to the U.S. military’s Southern Command.
Trump claimed that the boat was heading to the United States and linked it to “drug trafficking cartels” that he said posed a threat to the country. The president said the people killed were “positively identified,” but he did not identify a specific organization with which they were alleged to be associated.
Trump also posted a 27-second video on social media that edited together several clips of aerial surveillance. It showed a speedboat bobbing in the water, before a fiery explosion engulfed the vessel. It was unclear what was on the boat.
The Pentagon on Monday offered no other details on the strike, referring to Trump’s social media post, although a Defense Department official separately said it was a Special Operations strike.
Legal specialists condemned the U.S. military action as illegal, as they had a similar first American attack on another vessel Sept. 2.
“Trump is normalizing what I consider to be an unlawful strike,” said Rear Adm. Donald J. Guter, a retired top judge advocate general for the Navy from 2000 to 2002.
Earlier on Monday, before Trump announced the new strike, Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, condemned the Sept. 2 attack as a
“heinous crime” and “a military attack on civilians who were not at war and were not militarily threatening any country.” He said if the United States believed that the boat’s passengers were drug traffickers they should have been arrested, and accused the administration of trying to start a war.
Trump in July signed a still-secret order directing the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American criminal gangs and drug cartels. His administration also began stepping up rhetorical attacks on Maduro. And in August, the U.S. Navy sent a heavy amount of firepower into the southern Caribbean Sea.
On Sept. 2, in what appeared to be the first act carrying out Trump’s directive, the United States conducted a deadly military strike on a boat that had left Venezuelan waters. Announcing the strike, Trump said that the boat was carrying drugs for a gang and that 11 people were killed.
The U.S. military has not said what it has been using to attack the boats. The U.S. Navy has eight warships in the Caribbean, and the Pentagon has ordered armed MQ-9 Reaper drones and F-35 fighter jets, among other aircraft, to Puerto Rico. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made an unannounced visit to Puerto Rico last week.
Congressional Democrats on Monday assailed Trump’s order.
“President Trump’s actions are an outrageous violation of the law and a dangerous assault on our Constitution,” said Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. “No president can secretly wage war or carry out unjustified killings — that is authoritarianism, not democracy.”
The Trump administration has not offered a detailed legal theory about why it is lawful — and not murder or a war crime — to summarily kill people who are suspected of a crime when the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard could instead have interdicted their boats and potentially arrested them for prosecution, as they have long done in the Caribbean.
But it has gestured at the outlines of a theory by arguing that drug smuggling amounts to an imminent threat at a time when some 100,000 Americans die each year from drug overdoses and saying that Trump has directed strikes at such vessels as a matter of national self-defense.
The White House also asserted that the first strike was consistent with the laws of armed conflict.
Specialists in the laws about use of force have strongly rejected that idea, noting that the crime of drug smuggling has never been seen as equivalent to an imminent armed attack that can
trigger a right to use lethal force in self-defense, and that Congress has not authorized any armed conflict with drug cartels.
“The administration has not even seriously tried to present a legal argument to justify the premeditated killing of the people aboard these two vessels,” said Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer and specialist in the laws of armed conflict who has written critically about Trump’s earlier strike. “The U.S. president does not have a license to kill suspected drug smugglers on that basis alone.”
Top Trump administration officials — including Hegseth and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser — said after the first attack that there would be more. But amid the wave of criticism that Trump and Hegseth had given an illegal order, it had not been clear that would happen.
On Saturday, Venezuela’s government said that the U.S. Navy had, a day earlier, interdicted a fishing boat and detained nine fishermen for eight hours before letting them go. A Defense Department official later confirmed the basics of that incident, adding that Coast Guard law enforcement officials had boarded the boat.
Despite Venezuela’s complaints, the incident looked like a return to the normal means that the U.S. government has used in dealing with suspected drug smugglers. The suspicions that the vessel was carrying drugs apparently proved unfounded, so the Navy and the Coast Guard let the people go without killing anyone.
The Trump administration has deemed several Latin American criminal gangs and drug cartels to be “terrorist” organizations — a move that broke new ground since they are motivated by illicit profit rather than ideological goals. On that contested basis, he and his aides have taken to referring to suspected drug smugglers as “narcoterrorists.”
In an interview with Newsmax released Monday, Trump’s top counterterrorism adviser, Sebastian Gorka, said that obtaining congressional authorization to use armed force against drug cartels was not possible because they are not nation-states. He did not explain why Congress was able to do that when it authorized armed force against al-Qaida after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Gorka, echoing comments by Rubio, also pointed to the fact that the Trump administration had designated several groups as “foreign terrorist organizations” or FTOs.
As a matter of legal reality, the laws that enable the executive branch to designate foreign groups as “terrorists” authorize economic sanctions, like freezing assets. They do not convey legal authority to use wartime force — killing suspected associates of such groups as if they
were wartime combatants on a battlefield — against them.
The second strike came after The New York Times reported that the boat destroyed Sept. 2 had altered its course and appeared to have turned around before the attack started because the people onboard had apparently spotted a military aircraft stalking it, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
A 29-second video Trump released in announcing the Sept. 2 attack showed a speedboat in the water from different vantage points, with several people onboard before a fiery explosion engulfed the vessel. But the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the clip had not shown the whole story, including the boat turning around and the repeated strikes on it even after it was disabled.
Legal specialists such as Guter have said the apparent turning around of the boat further undermined the case using lethal force against it as self-defense.
Defense Department officials briefed some staff members and lawmakers with the Senate and House Armed Services committees last week. Several of the officials said that the administration did not offer evidence of legal justification, other than Trump’s assertion of “selfdefense” for the first deadly strike.
Mary Ellen O’Connell, a University of Notre Dame professor of international law, said the new strike “appears as problematic as the first” and questioned whether Trump really knew who and what were on the boat, and where it was going.
“International lawyers uniformly found his first such attack on Sept. 2 unlawful,” she said. “All of the criticism and warning of blowback has had no impact. People are dead again in killings that violate the law.”
President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Monday, Sept. 15, 2025.
The San Juan Daily Star
Wednesday, September 17, 2025 13
White House readies appeal after second loss in bid to fire Fed governor
By TONY ROMM
The White House indicated on Tuesday that it would not back down in its fight to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve, after an appeals court rejected a lastminute attempt to remove her before a meeting to set interest rates.
An administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Justice Department would challenge the ruling soon at the Supreme Court, but the timing remained uncertain. The Fed’s two-day meeting begins Tuesday. On Monday evening, a panel of judges blocked President Donald Trump from proceeding with his plans to fire Cook over allegations that she engaged in mortgage fraud. The decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the ruling of a lower-court judge, who temporarily prevented Cook’s ouster while the two sides warred over whether Trump had the legal authority to remove the Fed governor.
The president and his top aides claim that Cook falsified records and wrongly designated multiple homes as her primary residence to obtain favorable loan terms in 2021, before she joined the Fed. But recently revealed documents have cast doubt on those assertions. They suggest that Cook was forthright about one of the residences, a condominium in Atlanta, which she designated as a vacation property, according to records viewed by The New York Times.
If the White House had prevailed this week, it would have prevented Cook from participating in the Fed’s meeting and casting a vote on interest rates. Trump has demanded lower borrowing costs and attacked the Fed for keeping those rates steady, even though the central bank has done so out of concern that the president’s policies could cause inflation.
The Fed gathering arrives at an awkward, potentially perilous moment for the central bank, when Trump is broadly seeking to reconfigure its ranks with loyalists, posing new threats to its political independence.
Around the time that the appeals court ruled, the Sena-
President Donald Trump speaks during an event in Washington, Sept. 8, 2025. The Federal Reserve’s cautious approach to defending itself against President Trump is drawing scrutiny as the institution’s independence comes under threat.
(Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times)
te confirmed Stephen Miran, one of the president’s top advisers, to become a new Fed governor. Miran has said he plans to take a leave of absence from his perch as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers to serve at the central bank, before ultimately returning to the president’s service.
New crypto super PAC garners $100 million to help push industry agenda
By THEODORE SCHLEIFER, DAVID YAFFE-BELLANY and SHANE GOLDMACHER
Cryptocurrency companies, including some tied to the Trump administration, are funneling $100 million into a new political effort to support pro-crypto candidates.
A new super PAC called the Fellowship PAC said earlier this week that it would spend more than $100 million on the effort. It was the latest move from the digital-assets industry to overwhelm its political opponents and elect legislators that would force through the industry’s interests in Washington.
The political action committee, notably, appears more aligned with the Republican Party and President Donald Trump than Fairshake, which is the dominant pro-crypto super PAC. The treasurer of the Fellowship PAC is an executive at Cantor Fitzgerald, the Wall Street firm that was formerly run by Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, according to the PAC’s paperwork.
The new PAC posted a news release announcing its creation and $100 million-plus budget, but did not respond to a request for further comment. The group, which has not publicly reported any contributions, hailed Trump for putting “America on the path to become the global crypto capital.” It filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission last month.
According to two people with knowledge of the matter, the group’s backers are expected to include the firm Tether, which is the world’s largest issuer of stablecoins, a cryptocurrency that is designed to maintain a constant value of $1. Tether, a foreign company, recently established a U.S. entity that could fund the super PAC.
discussion with Paolo Ardoino, the chief executive of Tether, at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas, May 29, 2025. Tether, the world’s largest issuer of stablecoins, is expected to back a new super PAC called the Fellowship PAC that plans to spend more than $100 million to elect legislators who will force through crypto’s interests in Washington. (Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times)
Tether has faced accusations that it lied about its finances and allowed crime to flourish on its platform. But the company has recently worked to cultivate ties with the Trump administration, including by hiring Bo Hines, who was Trump’s cryptocurrency adviser until last month. Tether has also worked closely with Cantor Fitzgerald, which is now run by Lutnick’s sons.
Tether did not have a comment. Cantor Fitzgerald declined to comment, and Fairshake did not respond to a request for comment.
Crypto super PACs played a significant role in the 2024
congressional elections by spending on pro-crypto candidates, some of whom were elected to Congress. Fairshake, the industry’s largest vehicle for spending money, has already banked another nearly $120 million in advance of the 2026 midterm elections, backed by crypto firms such as Coinbase and investors including Andreessen Horowitz.
Fairshake has positioned itself as bipartisan, spending in both the Democratic and Republican primaries and on members of both parties in general elections. That has at times frustrated those who want to see the pro-crypto group be more explicitly aligned with one party.
The introduction of a second, well-funded super PAC could potentially splinter the cryptocurrency industry politically. In its announcement, Fellowship repeatedly took pains to differentiate itself from the industry’s past political work.
“Unlike past political efforts, the Fellowship PAC’s mission is defined by transparency and trust, ensuring political action directly supports the broader ecosystem rather than narrow or individual interests,” the group said in its statement.
Brandon Lutnick, right, the chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, in a
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO
DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
SALA SUPERIOR DE FAJARDO.
JAVIER M
AIEJANDRO RIVERA
Peticionario
Ex-Parte
CASO: FA2025CV00626.
SALA: 306. Sobre: Expediente de Dominio. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA
EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS
ESTADOS UNIDOS ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.
A Sucesión Jimenez y cualquier persona que pudiese tener interés y toda persona que pueda perjudicar la inscripción solicitada, a las personas ignoradas y a los tengan en una finca descrita mas adelante cualquier derecho real, a los organismos públicos afectados, y en general, a todo aquietamiento que desee oponerse a la Petición
POR LA PRESENTE se le notifica que se ha radicado una petición sobre expediente de Dominio ante el Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico Sala Superior de Fajardo bajo el numero del epígrafe que pueda afectar sus derechos. El abogado de la parte peticionaria es: Lcdo. Edmundo Ayala Oquendo PO Box 1105 Fajardo 00738, teléfono 787-603-4277 Edmundoayala129@gmail.com
A través de la petición el peticionario de epígrafe solicita a este Tribunal que declare a su favor la Petición sobre Expediente de Dominio sobre el predio de terreno objeto de esta para ser reconocido como adquirido y ocupado por el peticionario. Esta notificación se hace a tenor con lo provista por el Articulo 185 de la ley 210 del 8 de diciembre de 2015 (30 LPRA 6221). La descripción original y actual de la finca objeto de la presente Petición sobre Expediente de Dominio es la siguiente: RUSTICA: Solar G-36, calle colirubia en el Barrio Pueblo comunidad maternillo del Municipio de Fajardo, Puerto Rico, compuesta de CERO PUNTO DIECISIETE (0.17) CUERDAS, equivalentes a u área de Seiscientos sesenta y nueve con tres mil seiscientos cuatro (669.3604) metros cuadrados, en lindes por el NORTE, con una distancia de Veinte Uno con Siete Mil Ciento Setenta (21.7170) metros, con Sucesión Jiménez; por el SUR, con dos dis-
tancia total de Veinte Siete con Cinco Mil Trescientos Ocho (27.5308) metros, con Calle Colirubia; por el ESTE, con dos distancia total de Veinte Tres con Seis Mil Seiscientos Cuarenta y Siete (23.6647) metros, con Mil Doscientos Cuarenta y Seis (31.326) metros, con Solar G-35). La descrita propiedad no esta inscrita en el registro de la propiedad su numero de catas es 150040-175-20 t un tiene un valor aproximado de $30,000.00 dólares. Este Tribunal ordeno que se publique este edicto en un periódico de circulación general para que aquellos que deseen oponerse así lo hagan ante el Tribunal notificando al abogado del peticionario referido en es Edicto. Los interesados contaran con el termino improrrogable de 20 veinte días a partir de la (3) tercera publicación de este edicto para comparecer ante el tribunal para alegar lo que en derecho proceda. Se le advierte que de no comparecer al Tribunal para expresarse, el Tribunal podrá dar curso a los remedios solicitados por el Peticionario. En Fajardo, Puerto Rico hoy 3 de julio de 2025. WANDA I SEGUI REYES, Secretaria General. Lydia E Rivera Miranda, Sec Auxiliar Trib.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE CAGUAS BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Demandante V. CARLOS JOSE RIVERA QUIÑONES T/C/C CARLOS RIVERA QUIÑONES
Demandados Civil Núm.: CG2024CV04231. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO, EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. AVISO DE SUBASTA. El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas, Caguas, Puerto Rico, hago saber, a la parte demandada y al PÚBLICO EN GENERAL: Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el día 21 de julio de 2025, por la Secretaría del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor la propiedad que ubica y se describe a continuación: Propiedad Horizontal: Condominio Puerta Del Parque de Caguas, Puerto Rico. Apartamento: B 704. Cabida: 171.93
metros cuadrados. URBAN:
HORIZONTAL PROPERTY:
Apartment number B 704 which consist of the following:
Residential apartment of irregular shape located on the Seventh (7th) floor of building “B” of the Condominium Puerta Del Parque in Hacienda San José Community, in the Cañabón Ward of the Municipality of Caguas, Puerto Rico, with an approximate area of one thousand eight hundred fifty square feet and sixty-eight hundredth of another (1,850.68 sq.ft.) equal to one hundred seventyone square meters and ninetythree hundredth of another (171.93 sq.mts.). Its boundaries are as follow: NORTH, in a distance of fifty-five feet eight inches (55 ft. 8 in.), with a common exterior area; SOUTH, in a distance of fifty-five feet eight inches (55 ft. 8 in.), with a median wall that separates it from Apartment number B 703 and a common area; EAST, in a distance of forty feet four inches (40 ft. 4 in.), with a median wall that separates it from Apartment number B 701 and a common area; WEST, in a distance of forty feet four inches (40 ft. 4 in.), with a common exterior area. Garage number B 704: Garage of irregular shape that includes three (3) parking spaces located on the Ground floor of building “B” with an approximate area of six hundred sixty-two square feet and eighty-three hundredth of another (662.83 sq. ft.) equal to sixty-one square meters and fifty-eight hundredth of another (61.58 sq. mts.). Its boundaries are as follow: NORTH, in a distance of twenty feet six inches (20 ft. 6 in.), with a common exterior area; SOUTH, in a distance of twenty feet six inches (20 ft. 6 in.), with a median wall that separates it from garage for Apartment number B 504 and a common area; EAST, in a distance of forty-one feet zero inches (41ft. 0 in.), with a median wall that separates it from garage for Apartment number B 604; WEST, in a distance of forty-one feet zero inches (41 ft. 0 in.), with a median wall that separates it from garage for Apartment number B 504 and a common exterior area. This apartment consists of a covered balcony, foyer, living/dining room, kitchen, laundry area, one (1) master bathroom, one (1) bathroom, one (1) master bedroom, walkin closet, two (2) bedrooms with closets and garage. The total unit area is 2,513.51 square feet equivalent to 233.51 square meters. The entrance door of this apartment is located on its East side and opens to the elevator lobby of
the seventh floor, which leads to the outside of the building. The garage door is located on its West side and opens to the outside. The garage also has a door on its South side that opens to the corridor leading to the elevator lobby of the ground floor of the building. This apartment has a participation of zero point nine thousand seven hundred forty-eight ten-thousandths percent (1.3497%) in the general common elements of the condominium. Inscrita en la finca número 65,706, inscrita al tomo Karibe de Caguas, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección I de Caguas. Además, el Alguacil que suscribe, hago saber a todos 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 surjan 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: Embargo Federal contra Carlos Rivera & Sonia Saavedra, seguro social xxx-xx-0609, por la suma de $61,208.75, notificación número 209885416, Certificación de fecha 21 de abril de 2016, presentado y anotado el día 5 de mayo de 2016, al Asiento 2016-004589FED del Sistema Karibe. Refiling: 7 de enero de 2025. Embargo Federal contra Carlos Rivera & Sonia Saavedra, seguro social xxx-xx-0609, por la suma de $32,201.63, notificación número 397100919, Certificación de fecha 10 de diciembre de 2019, presentado y anotado el día 3 de enero de 2020, al Asiento 2019-012163FED del Sistema Karibe. Refiling: 28 de diciembre de 2026. El producto de la subasta se destinará a satisfacer al demandante hasta donde alcance, la SENTENCIA dictada a su favor el día dictada en este caso, el 29 de mayo de 2025 en el presente caso civil, a saber la suma de $316,415.67 por concepto de principal; generando intereses a razón de 5.00% desde el 1ro de mayo de 2024; cargos por demora los cuales al igual que los inte-
reses continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda reclamada en este pleito, y la suma de $31,722.75 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado; y demás créditos accesorios garantizados hipotecariamente. La adjudicación se hará al mejor postor, quien deberá consignar el importe de su oferta en el acto mismo de la adjudicación, en efectivo (moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América), giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del alguacil del Tribunal. La PRIMERA SUBASTA se llevará a efecto el día 24 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2025 A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en el Centro Judicial de Caguas, Caguas, Puerto Rico. Que el precio mínimo fijado para la PRIMERA SUBASTA es de $317,227.54. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una SEGUNDA SUBASTA la misma se llevará a efecto el día 1 DE OCTUBRE DE 2025 A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo para la SEGUNDA SUBASTA será de $211,485.02, equivalentes a dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una TERCERA SUBASTA la misma se llevará a efecto el día 8 DE OCTUBRE DE 2025 A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo para la TERCERA SUBASTA será de $158,613.77, equivalentes a la mitad (1/2) del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual omenor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el Tribunal lo estima conveniente; se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si esta es mayor, todo ello a tenor con lo dispone el Articulo 104 de la Ley Núm. 210 del 8 de diciembre de 2015 conocida como “Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmueble del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico”. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquiere libre de toda carga y gravamen que afecte la mencionada finca según el Artículo 102, inciso 6. Una vez confirmada la venta judicial por el Honorable Tribunal, se procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura de venta judicial y se pondrá al comprador en posesión física del inmueble de conformidad con las disposiciones de Ley. Para conocimiento de la parte
demandada y de toda aquella persona o personas que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando, y para conocimiento de todos los licitadores y el público en general, el presente Edicto se publicará por espacio de dos (2) semanas consecutivas, con un intervalo de por lo menos siete días entre ambas publicaciones, en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico y se fijará además en tres (3) lugares públicos del Municipio en que ha de celebrarse dicha venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Se les informa, por último, que: a. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la secretaría del tribunal durante las horas laborables. b. 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 del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes. Se entenderá, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. EXPIDO, el presente EDICTO, en Caguas, Puerto Rico, hoy día 4 de agosto de 2025. EDGARDO ALDEBOL MIRANDA, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR, ALGUACIL, DIVISIÓN DE SUBASTAS, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS.
LEGAL NOTICE
M&T
482967
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN SALA SUPERIOR INVERSIONES LA CIMA LLC
Demandante V. LA SUCESIÓN DE AMALIA CARBONELL RODRÍGUEZ T/C/C AMALIA CARBONELL DE JÍMENEZ T/C/C AMALIA RODRÍGUEZ MILLAN TCC AMALIA RODRIGUEZ COMPUESTA POR Y FULANO Y FULANA DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA
Demandados Civil Núm.: SJ2025CV01409. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA 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 quién pagará de contado y en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, giro postal o por cheque de gerente a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia el día 8 DE OCTUBRE DE 2025, A LAS 11:00 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 192 C/Los Picachos, La Cumbre Dev., San Juan PR 00926 y que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar marcado con el # 192 en el plano de inscripción de la Urbanización La Cumbre, radicado en el Barrio Monacillos de Río Piedras, del término municipal de la Capital de Puerto Rico, con un área superficial de 325.00 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en 25.00 metros, con el solar # 191 del bloque LC-12 del mencionado plano; por el SUR, en 25.00 metros, con el solar # 193 del bloque LC-12 del mencionado plano; por el ESTE, en 13.00 metros, con la calle denominada Los Picachos Street del mencionado plano; y por el OESTE, en 13.00 metros, con un sendero público que lo separa de terrenos dedicados a uso público de la Urbanización. En dicho solar enclava una edificación para usos residenciales. La propiedad antes relacionada consta inscrita en el Folio 106 del Tomo 54 de Monacillo Este y el cinco, finca número 1709, en el Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Quinta. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta del inmueble antes relacionado, será el dispuesto en la Escritura de Hipoteca, es decir la suma de $261,000.00. 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 16 DE OCTUBRE DE 2025, A LAS 11:00 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 $174,000.00. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 23 DE OCTUBRE DE 2025, A LAS 11:00 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 $130,500.00. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura número 119, otorgada el día 22 de septiembre de 2010, ante el Notario Claribel Toro Hernández y consta inscrita en el Folio 178 del Tomo 306 de Monacillo Este 5, finca número 1709, en el Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Quinta, inscripción novena. 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 $314,960.48 más intereses al tipo pactado de 5.560% anual desde el 6 de febrero de 2022. Dichos intereses continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación. Los cargos por servicio y las primas de seguro continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación. Además, la parte demandada adeuda los créditos accesorios y adelantos hechos en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca; y las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado equivalentes a $26,100.00. 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 titularidad del inmueble y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes. Se entenderá 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 está sujeta a los siguientes gravámenes anteriores y/o preferentes según las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad. HIPOTECA en garantía de un pagaré a favor de DORAL MORTGAGE CORPORATION oa su orden por la suma principal de $20,000.00 con intereses al 9.5% anual y vencedero el 1 de septiembre de 2014 según escritura número 374
BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS
Demandados
Civil Núm.: BY2024CV06109.
Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA (IN REM). EDICTO ANUNCIANDO PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe, funcionario del Tribunal de la Sala Superior de Bayamón, Puerto Rico, por la presente anuncia y hace saber al público en general que en cumplimiento con la Sentencia dictada en este caso con fecha 23 de mayo de 2025, y según Orden y Mandamiento del 8 de agosto de 2025 librado por este honorable Tribunal, procederé a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor, y por dinero en efectivo, cheque certificado o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal con todo título derecho y/o interés de la parte demandada sobre la propiedad que se describe a continuación: RÚSTICA: Solar número 3. Predio de terreno radicado en el Barrio Palos Blancos, del término municipal de Corozal, Puerto Rico, con una cabida de 1,911.8303 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con el solar número 2 a segregarse en 67.260 metros lineales; por el SUR, con solar número 4 a segregarse en 51.292 metros lineales; por el ESTE, con carretera dedicada a uso público en 21.181 metros lineales; y por el OESTE, con solar dedicado a uso público: a ser cedido al Departamento de Recursos Naturales, en varias alineaciones que suman 50.012 metros lineales. Finca Número 16,987, inscrita al folio 4 del tomo 321 de Corozal. Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección I de Barranquitas. Dirección Física: BARRIO PALOS BLANCOS, SOLAR #3, COROZAL PR 00783. Se anuncia por medio de este edicto que la PRIMERA SUBASTA habrá de celebrarse el día 7 DE OCTUBRE DE 2025, A LAS 10:15 DE LA MAÑANA, en mi oficina sita en el edificio que ocupa el Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala Superior de Bayamón. Siendo ésta la primera subasta que se celebrará en este caso, será el precio mínimo aceptable como oferta en la Primera Subasta, eso es el tipo mínimo pactado en la Escritura de Hipoteca para la propiedad, la suma de $93,050.00. De no haber remanente o adjudicación en esta primera subasta por dicha suma mínima, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 14 DE OCTUBRE DE 2025, A LAS 10:15 DE LA MAÑANA en el mismo lugar antes señalado en la cual el precio mínimo serán dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo pactado en la escritura de hipoteca, la suma de $60,233.33. De no haber
remanente o adjudicación en esta segunda subasta por el tipo mínimo indicado en el párrafo anterior, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA en el mismo lugar antes señalado el día 21 DE OCTUBRE DE 2025, A LAS 10:15 DE LA MAÑANA, en la cual el tipo mínimo aceptable como oferta será la mitad (1/2) del precio mínimo pactado en la escritura de hipoteca, la suma de $46,525.00. Si se declare desierta la tercera subasta se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo mínimo de la tercera subasta, si el tribunal lo estima conveniente. Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta es mayor. El Honorable Tribunal dictó Sentencia In Rem, declarando Con Lugar la demanda al incumplir la parte demandada con los términos del contrato hipotecario y ordenando la venta en pública subasta del inmueble antes descrito. A tenor con la Regla 51.3 (b) de Procedimiento Civil y el Artículo 99 de la Ley 210-2015, conocida como “Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmobiliaria del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico”, el tribunal ordenó que el Alguacil de este Tribunal luego de haberse efectuado la correspondiente publicación de edictos en un periódico de circulación general, proceda a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor la propiedad descrita en las Determinaciones de Hechos de la Sentencia y que del producto de dicha venta, proceda a pagar en primer término los gastos del Alguacil, en segundo término las costas y honorarios de abogados según concedidos en esta sentencia, en tercer término los intereses acumulados por esta sentencia, en cuarto término los recargos acumulados, en quinto cualquier suma antes indicada como sobregiro en la cuenta de reserva y en sexto término hasta la suma de $87,305.57, para cubrir el principal pendiente de pago más los intereses acumulados hasta el día de la Venta Judicial, disponiéndose que si quedare algún remanente luego de pagarse las sumas antes mencionadas el mismo deberá ser depositado en la Secretaría del Tribunal para ser entregado a los demandados previa solicitud y orden del Tribunal. Se dispone que una vez celebrada la subasta y vendido el inmueble relacionado, el alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial a los nuevos dueños dentro del término de veinte (20) días a partir de la celebración de la Subasta. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo
o lanzamiento del ocupante u ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del demandado/deudor la ocupen. El Alguacil de este Tribunal efectuará el lanzamiento de los ocupantes de ser necesario. Si la subasta es adjudicada a un tercero y luego se deja sin efecto, el tercero a favor de quién se adjudicó la subasta solo tendrá derecho a la devolución del monto consignado más no tendrá derecho a entablar recurso o reclamo adicional alguno (judicial o extrajudicial) contra el demandante y/o el acreedor y/o inversionista, dueño pagaré y/o su abogado. Si se anula la venta, el comprador tendrá derecho a la devolución del depósito de la venta judicial menos los honorarios y costos incurridos en el proceso de venta judicial. No tendrá ningún otro recurso contra el acreedor hipotecario ejecutante ni la representación legal de éste. Por la presente, también se notifica e informa a Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal, personas desconocidas que puedan tener derechos en la propiedad o título objeto de este edicto. La Venta en Pública Subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga y 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 eso fuera necesario, a los efectos de cualquier persona o personas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha Subasta. 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 del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes. Se entenderá que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento del caso de epígrafe están disponibles en la Secretaría de este Tribunal durante horas laborables y para la concurrencia de los licitadores expido el presente Edicto que se publicará en un periódico de circulación diaria en toda la Isla de Puerto Rico por espacio dos (2) semanas y por lo menos una vez por semana y se fijará, además, en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Alcaldía y la Colecturía de Rentas Internas del Municipio donde se celebrará la Subasta y en la Colecturía más cercana del lugar de la residencia de la parte demandada. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente que firmo y sello, hoy día 27 de agosto de 2025.
EDGARDO ELÍAS VARGAS
SANTANA, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR PLACA #193, SALA SU-
PERIOR DE BAYAMÓN. LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN
PR CONSULTANTS LLC. SERIES 11
Demandante V. K-RECHU, INC.; ET AL.
Demandado
Civil Núm.: SJ2024CV09898. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA. A: LOS CODEMANDADOS DE EPIGRAFE Y AL PÚBLICO EN GENERAL:
El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente anuncia y hace constar que en cumplimiento de una Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe el 23 de abril de 2025, notificada el 25 de abril de 2025, publicada el 30 de abril de 2025, una Orden de Ejecución de Embargo emitida el 1 de agosto de 2025 y Mandamiento emitido el 26 de agosto de 2025, que le ha sido dirigido por la Secretaria del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, procederá a vender en 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, dinero en efectivo, cheque de gerente o cheque certificado a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal, o letra bancaria, con similar garantía de todo título, derecho o interés de los demandados de epígrafe sobre el inmueble que adelante se describe. Se anuncia por la presente que la subasta habrá de celebrarse el día 6 DE OCTUBRE DE 2025; A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en mi oficina localizada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, sobre el inmueble que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Propiedad Horizontal: Office space #220. Office space on the second floor of Cento I Building, Hato Rey, San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is an rectangular shaped area located in the second floor of the building with a total floor area of 1378 square feet, equivalent to 128.07 square meters, bounded on the NORTH, by the interior wall that separates it from office 219, on a distance of 34’ 5”; on the SOUTH, by the wall that separates it from office 221, and the common stairs, on a distance of 34’ 5”; on the EAST, by the interior wall that separates it from the common limited corridor, on a distance of 39’ 10”; on the WEST, by the exterior wall that separates it from the common limited service corridor, on a distance of 36’ 0” and on a distance of 3’ 10” by the yard facing Ana Roque Street. The unit has its main access door on its Eastern boundary. Correspon-
diéndole a este local un porcentaje en dichos elementos comunes de 0.357%. FINCA NÚMERO: 27,020, inscrita al folio 162 del tomo 901 de Rio Piedras Norte, Registro de la Propiedad, Sede Metropolitana, sección segunda de San Juan. Dirección física: Cond El Centro I, Suite 220, #500 Ave. Muñoz Rivera, San Juan PR 00918. La subasta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer al demandante, total o parcialmente, según sea el caso, de la referida sentencia que fue dictada por la suma de $43,476.12, por concepto de cuotas de mantenimiento vencidas y no pagadas de la Propiedad, más intereses, penalidades y recargos que se continúen acumulando, más la suma de $3,500.00 por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado; por una suma total de $46,976.12. Esta subasta no tiene fijación de tipo mínimo por tratarse de una ejecución de sentencia por embargo. Y PARA CONOCIMIENTO DE LAS PARTES INTERESADAS y del público en general, se advierte que los autos de este caso y demás instancias están disponibles para ser inspeccionadas en la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de San Juan, durante las horas laborables. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad del inmueble y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito del ejecutante, incluyendo el gravamen por las contribuciones sobre la propiedad inmueble adeudadas, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda responsable 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. En testimonio de lo cual, expido el presente aviso, el cual firmo y sello, hoy 28 de agosto de 2025, en San Juan, Puerto Rico. MARÍA DE LOURDES LÓPEZ MOREIRA, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE SAN JUAN. ****
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
CENTRO JUDICIAL DE ARECIBO SALA SUPERIOR DE ARECIBO
CLARIBEL
BARRETO REYES
Demandante V. EXPARTE
Demandado(a)
Caso Núm.: AR2025CV00007. (Salón: 404 - CIVIL SUPERIOR). Sobre: PROCEDIMIENTO ESPECIAL EXPEDITO DE EXPEDIENTE DE DOMINIO, REANUDACIÓN DE TRACTO Y USUCAPIÓN
(LEY NÚM. 118-2022). NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. CAROLINA J. GARRIGA CESANI - CGARRIGA@ TITLESECURITYGROUP.COM. A: LAS PERSONAS IGNORADAS Y DESCONOCIDAS A QUIENES PUDIERA AFECTAR LA INSCRIPCIÓN DEL DOMINIO A FAVOR DE LA PARTE PETICIONARIA EN EL REGISTRO DE LA PROPIEDAD DE LA FINCA QUE MÁS ADELANTE SE DESCRIBE Y A TODA PERSONA EN GENERAL QUE CON DERECHO PARA ELLO DESEE OPONERSE A ESTE EXPEDIENTE. (Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 08 de septiembre 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 08 de septiembre de 2025. En Arecibo, Puerto Rico, el 08 de septiembre de 2025. VIVÍAN Y. FRESSE GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA. PILAR H. MERCADO GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE MAYAGÜEZ SALA SUPERIOR DE MAYAGÜEZ
LUIS ALBERTO BRAVO COLON
Demandante V. BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Y OTROS
Demandado(a) Caso Núm.: MZ2025CV00748. (Salón: 306). Sobre: CANCELACIÓN O RESTITUCIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.
CÁNDIDA R. RENTAS ANCIANICRANCIANI@GMAIL.COM. A: JOHN DOE, RICHARD ROE. (Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 05 de septiembre 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 08 de septiembre de 2025. En Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, el 08 de septiembre de 2025. NORMA G. SANTANA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIA. YAHAIRA TORRES MATÍAS, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN
BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Demandante V. VIGERMINA NEGRÓN RIVERA Demandada Civil Núm.: BY2025CV03795. Sobre: INCUMPLIMIENTO DE CONTRATO; COBRO DE DINERO Y REPOSESIÓN DE VEHÍCULO DE MOTOR (10 L.P.R.A. § 2423). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. A: VIGERMINA NEGRÓN RIVERA.
Por la presente se le notifica que ha sido presentada en este Tribunal una Demanda en su contra en el pleito de epígrafe. El abogado de la parte demandante es el Lcdo. Jean Paul Juliá Díaz, Rivera-Munich & Hernández Law Offices, P.S.C.; P.O. Box 364908, San Juan, PR 00936-4908; Tel. (787) 622-2323 / Fax (787) 622-2320. Se le advierte que este Edicto se publicará en un (1) periódico de circulación
general una (1) sola vez y que si no comparece a contestar dicha Demanda radicando el original de la misma 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 se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal Superior, Sala de Bayamón, con copia al abogado de la parte demandante, dentro del término de treinta (30) días contados a partir de la publicación del Edicto, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia en su contra concediendo el remedio solicitado en la Demanda sin más citarle ni oírle. En un término de diez (10) días a partir de la publicación de este Edicto, la parte demandante le notificará por correo certificado con acuse de recibo copias del Emplazamiento por Edicto y de la Demanda a su última dirección conocida: Urb. Vista Bella, Q34 Calle Laredo, Bayamón, Puerto Rico 00956. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, Bayamón, Puerto Rico, a 11 de septiembre de 2025. ALICIA AYALA SANJURJO, SECRETARIA. MARILYN COLÓN CARRASQUILLO, SUB-SECRETARIA.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE MAYAGÜEZ BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Demandante Vs. ROLANDO DE JESÚS TAMAYO RAMÍREZ, EDERLINA CÁMARA TORRELLAS Y LA SOCIEDAD DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS Demandados Civil Núm.: MZ2024CV01709. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO; EJECUCIÓN DE PRENDA Y/O GRAVAMEN MOBILIARIO & EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PR, SS. AVISO DE VENTA EN PÚBLICA SUBASTA. Yo, CALIXTO RIVERA GHIGLIOTTY, ALGUACIL CONFIDENCIAL PLACA #283, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Mayagüez, a la parte demandada y al público en general les notifico que, cumpliendo con un Mandamiento que se ha librado en el presente caso por el Secretario del Tribunal de epígrafe con fecha 16 de junio de 2025 y para satisfacer la Sentencia dictada en el caso de autos
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. DAVID JOHN HOLLOWAY Y OTROS
Demandado(a)
Caso Núm.: VB2025CV00031. (Salón: 201 CD, CM, TR Y CR). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO - ORDINARIO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO ENMENDADA. GETZEMARIE LUGO RODRÍGUEZGLUGO@MPMLAWPR.COM.
LUIS C. MARINI BIAGGILMARINI@MPMLAWPR.COM.
A: DAVID PAUL WITTLETON57 ALLANDER DR., ROCHESTER NY 14624-2052. (Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 02 de mayo 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 11 de septiembre de 2025. Notas de la Secretaría: ENMENDADA A LOS FINES EXPEDIR NOTIFICACION DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO AL CO-DEMANDADO DAVID APAUL WITTLETON. En Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, el 11 de septiembre 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
SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN.
MONSERRATE SIMONET & GIERBOLINI, LLC
DEMANDANTE V.
RACHELLE HARRIS
DEMANDADA CIVIL NÚM: SJ2025CV07174.
SALON 1003. SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. S.S. A: RACHELLE HARRIS DIRECCIÓN: 10637 Casa
Blanca St. Las Vegas, NV 89141
Por la presente se les notifica que se ha presentado en este Tribunal la Demanda de epígrafe. Se le emplaza y requiere para que notifique a: Lcdo. Miguel J. Simonet García; MONSERRATE, SIMONET & GIERBOLINI, 101 Ave. San Patricio, Suite 1120, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico 00968; Tel: (787) 6205300, abogados de la parte demandante, con copia de la contestación a la Demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este edicto, que se publicará una (1) vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general. Se le apercibe que si no contesta la Demanda radicando el original de la misma a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramaudicial.pr, salvo que se represente Por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del Tribunal Superior dentro del término antes indicado, y notificando con copia a la parte demandante, se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará Sentencia en su contra concediendo el remedio solicitado a favor de la parte demandante sin más citarle ni oírle. EXTENDIDO BAJO Ml FIRMA y el Sello del Tribunal, en San Juan, Puerto RIco, hoy dla 22 de agosto de 2025. GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. CARMEN MOLINA GARICIA, SUB-SECRETARIO(A).
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS SALA SUPERIOR BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Demandante Vs. LA SUCESION DE GLADYS HUGHES
CALVO T/C/C GLADYS
GONZALEZ COMPUESTA POR IDALIA GONZALEZ HUGHES; FULANO Y FULANA DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES
(CRIM)
Demandados Civil Núm.: CG2025CV02709. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA (VÍA ORDINARIA). SALA: 803. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO Y MANDAMIENTO DE INTERPELACIÓN. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.
A La Parte CoDemandada: FULANO Y FULANA DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE GLADYS HUGHES CALVO T/C/C GLADYS GONZÁLEZ, A LAS SIGUIENTES DIRECCIONES: (A) PO BOX 681 GURABO, PR 00778-0681; (B) #159 CALLE SINFORIANO CARRION GURABO TOWN GURABO, PR 00778.
Por la presente se le(s) notifica que se ha radicado en la Secretaría de este Tribunal una Demanda Enmendada en Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la vía ordinaria en contra de La Sucesión de Gladys Hughes Calvo t/c/c Gladys González, en la cual se alega que adeuda a la parte demandante por concepto de hipoteca la suma de $53,023.85 por concepto de principal, desde el 1ro de marzo de 2025, más intereses al tipo pactado de 5.00% anual que continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación. Además la parte demandada adeuda a la parte demandante los cargos por demora equivalentes a 4.00% de la suma de aquellos pagos con atrasos en exceso de 15 días calendarios de la fecha de vencimiento; los créditos accesorios y adelantos hechos en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca; y las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado equivalentes a $7,346.30 para cubrir intereses en adición a los garantizados por ley y cualquiera otros adelantos que se hagan en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca número 288, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 13 de diciembre de 2008, ante la notario Lizbet Avilés Vega, modificada por la escritura número 97, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 30 de junio de 2011, ante el Notario Reggie Díaz Hernández, de la finca número 3,323, inscrita al Folio 225 del Tomo 94 de Gurabo, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección Segunda. Por razón de dicho incumplimiento, y al amparo del derecho que le confiere el Pagaré, el demandante ha declarado tales sumas vencidas, líquidas y exigibles en su totalidad. Este Tribunal ha
ordenado que se le(s) cite a usted(es) por edicto que se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general. Quedan emplazados y notificados de que en este Tribunal se ha radicado una demanda enmendada en su contra. Se les ordena a que dentro del término de treinta (30) días, a partir de la notificación de la presente Orden, acepten o repudien la participación que les corresponda en la herencia de Gladys Hughes Calvo t/c/c Gladys González. Los co-demandados miembros de la Sucesión de Gladys Hughes Calvo t/c/c Gladys González se incluyen en la demanda ya que como herederos responden por las cargas de la herencia según lo dispuesto en Nuestro Ordenamiento Jurídico. Se les apercibe y notifica que, de no expresarse dentro de ese término de 30 días en torno a su aceptación o repudiación de herencia, la herencia se tendrá por aceptada. También se les apercibe que luego del transcurso del término de 30 días antes señalado contados a partir de la fecha de la notificación de la presente Orden, se presumirá que han aceptado la herencia del causante y, por consiguiente, responden por las cargas de dicha herencia conforme el Artículo 1578 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. 2785. Se ordena a la parte demandante a que, se incluye a los herederos conocidos y herederos desconocidos de Gladys Hughes Calvo t/c/c Gladys González denominados Fulano y Fulana de Tal como posibles herederos desconocidos de la Sucesión de Gladys Hughes Calvo t/c/c Gladys González, proceda a notificar la presente Orden mediante publicación de un edicto a esos efectos una sola vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general de la Isla de Puerto Rico. Se le(s) emplaza y requiere que dentro de los sesenta (60) días siguientes a la publicación de este edicto excluyendo el día de la publicación de este edicto conteste(n) la demanda radicando el original de la contestación en este Tribunal y enviando copia de la Contestación de la Demanda a las oficinas de CARDONA & MALDONADO LAW OFFICES, P.S.C. ATENCIÓN al Lcdo. Duncan Maldonado Ejarque, P.O. Box 366221, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-6221; Tel (787) 622-7000, Fax (787) 6257001, Abogado de la Parte Demandante. 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:// unired.ramajudicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación
responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Se le(s) advierte que si dejare(n) de contestar la Demanda en el período de tiempo antes mencionado, podrá dictarse contra usted(es) Sentencia en Rebeldía, concediéndose el remedio solicitado sin más citarle(s) ni oírle(s). EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y con el Sello del Tribunal. DADA hoy 12 de septiembre de 2025, en Caguas, Puerto Rico. IRASEMIS DÍAZ SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA. SANDRA J. TRINIDAD CAÑUELAS, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA
NOHELY CARABALLO RIVERA
Demandante V. JOESHLY CORREA DELGADO
Demandada Civil Núm.: CA2025RF00351. Sala: 405. Sobre: FILIACIÓN, RECONOCIMIENTO E IMPUGNACIÓN FILIATORIA (ACCIÓN MIXTA). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. A: SR. JOESHLY CORREA DELGADO - MEDIANÍA ALTA VILLA SANTOS, CALLE CORDERO CASA #111, LOÍZA, PUERTO RICO 00772.
Se le notifica por este medio que, en el caso de epígrafe, la parte demandante ha radicado una demanda Filiación, Reconocimiento e lmpugnación Filiatoria (Acción Mixta) en su contra. POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza, se le notifica que una demanda ha sido presentada en su contra y se le requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto, radicando el original de su contestación ante el Tribunal correspondiente y notificando con copia de la misma a la parte demandante a la dirección antes indicada. 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://unired.ramajudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaria 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,
así el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Lcda. Johanna Gilot Oppenheimer cuya direccón es la siguiente: 623 Ave. Ponce de León Executive Building, Suite 1100-A San Juan, P.R. 00917 Tel.: (787) 448-7980 Correo electrónico: johanagilotlaw@gmail.com
Se le apercibe que, de no hacerlo, se podrá dictar Sentencia en rebeldía concediendo el remedio solicitado en la demanda, sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA Y SELLO DEL TRIBUNAL, en Carolina, Puerto Rico, hoy día 3 de septiembre de 2025. LCDA. KANELLY ZAYAS ROBLES, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. SONIA ORTIZ RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN RITA MARÍA EMANUELLI FERNANDEZ, EJECUTORA UNIVERSA HERRERA ABOLAFIO, COMP POR SUS HEREDEROS JUAN PABLO, ROBERT WILLIAM Y RAFAEL JOSÉ, TODOS DE APELLIDO HERRERA SANTIAGO
Demandante V. RG MORTGAGE CORPORATION Y OTROS
Demandado(a) Caso Núm.: SJ2025CV02977. (Salón: 901 CIVIL). Sobre: CANCELACIÓN O RESTITUCIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO ENMENDADA. GLADYS I. IZQUIERDO GARCÍAIZQLAW@YAHOO.COM. A: RG MORTGAGE CORPORATION, ZUTANO DE TAL Y FULANO DE TAL, POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DE UN PAGARE EXTRAVIADO. (Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)
EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 30 de junio 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 Resolu-
ción, 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 08 de septiembre de 2025. Notas de la Secretaría: SE ENMIENDA POR ORDEN DEL TRIBUNAL. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 08 de septiembre de 2025. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA. VIRGEN Y. DEL VALLE DÍAZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAROLINA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA ANA VERONICA DELGADO PEDROZO
Demandante V. JOSE ALBERTO DELGADO UZCATEGUI
Demandado(a)
Caso Núm.: TJ2025RF00071. (Salón: 405). Sobre: DIVORCIO - RUPTURA IRREPARABLE. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. SARA I. PAGÁN RODRÍGUEZSARAPAGANLAW@GMAIL.COM.
A: JOSE ALBERTO DELGADO UZCATEGUI. (Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 05 de septiembre 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 09 de septiembre de 2025. En Carolina, Puerto Rico, el 09 de septiembre de 2025. KANELLY ZAYAS ROBLES, SECRETARIA. AMELIA Z. GARCÍA BRIONES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
SALA DE VEGA BAJA. ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC
COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC
PARTE DEMANDANTE VS. JEAN C YON MEJIAS; FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS
PARTE DEMANDADA
CIVIL NÚM. VB2025CV00315.
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: JEAN C YON MEJIAS; FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS - URB HACIENDA MONTE VERDE B10 CALLE PARAGUAY, VEGA BAJA PR 006935817 / 742 REFLECTIONS LN PLEASANT VIEW TN 37146-1707
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/tribunalelectronico, 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 Colon cuya dirección es: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección gabriel.ramos@orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@ orf-law.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en VEGA BAJA, Puerto Rico, hoy día 25 de junio de 2025. ALICIA AYALA SANJURJO, Secretaria. MARITZA ROSARIO ROSARIO, Secretario(a) 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
Football is coming to Saudi Arabia, where soccer is king
By KEN BELSON
The NFL is looking for new markets; Saudi Arabia is looking for new sports. So next year, some of the NFL’s biggest stars will play in Saudi Arabia, a country where football means soccer.
On March 21, Fanatics, which runs the league’s online merchandise shop, will produce a flag football event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that will feature former stars such as Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski as well as a host of current players. The event is a foothold for Fanatics: The Saudi sovereign wealth fund invested in the online licensed sports goods retailer in 2017, as did the Qatari sovereign wealth fund in 2022. Fanatics also sells sports memorabilia, and customers from the Middle East have been among its biggest buyers in recent years.
The NFL will not produce the event, but team owners are allowing some of their players to participate. Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey, among others, have agreed to take part.
Several NFL owners are also expected to attend the threeteam, round-robin tournament, at which Fanatics is planning a halftime show. The teams will be led by three of the league’s best-known head coaches: Pete Carroll of the Las Vegas Raiders, Sean Payton of the Denver Broncos and Kyle Shanahan of the 49ers.
“It is just a great opportunity to expand the game globally,” said Brady, who is helping produce the event. “Sometimes, you have to get outside your comfort zone to create awareness. Soccer has done a great job of that, and we want to help” do that with football.
The event is the NFL’s first step toward potentially entering the Saudi market. The league has been expanding around the world at an increasing pace. It has been playing regular season games in North and South America and in Western Europe, and it is evaluating new markets such as the United Arab Emirates, Japan and other countries with little connection to football. It
will not play a regular season game in these places unless football is played locally — it is a niche sport in Saudi Arabia — and there are significant commercial opportunities like media and sponsorship deals.
“We’re not going to go into a market unless we’re really committed for the long haul in terms of year-round engagement,” said Peter O’Reilly, the executive vice president at the NFL in charge of international expansion.
This season, the NFL will play seven regular games overseas. There was one last week in Sao Paulo. One game each in Dublin, Berlin and Madrid will be played for the first time, and three in London, which has hosted games for nearly two decades. Commissioner Roger Goodell has said the league intends to play as many as 16 international games in the coming years.
The NFL has been using flag football to generate broader interest in the game at home, particularly among women. The league has been encouraging states to make flag football an official high school sport. The National Collegiate Athletic Association is likely to vote on whether to certify it as an “emerging sport.” The NFL lobbied the International Olympic Committee to include flag football in the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028.
The league also wants to create professional flag football leagues for men and women and is interviewing two potential operators to run a league with six to eight teams, said Troy Vincent, the executive vice president of football operations. The owners may invest in individual franchises or the NFL may form “some kind of limited partnership” in the league, he said.
The NFL has also used flag football to teach the game to boys and girls overseas. Vincent wants the league to team up with current and former players like Kelvin Beachum and Larry Fitzgerald, who are forming their own business partnerships in the Middle East.
Soccer is by far the most popular sport in Saudi Arabia. But the government has been trying to diversify its economy by hosting boxing, soccer and tennis matches, as well as the
world’s richest horse race, the Saudi Cup, which offers a $20 million purse. The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, is the main backer of LIV Golf, a rival golf tour to the PGA.
“We are pleased to be playing our part in supporting flag football’s continued growth,” Turki al-Sheikh, who leads the Saudi government’s pro sports ventures, said in a statement. The tournament will be played during the Riyadh Season of sports and entertainment events, which runs roughly from October through March.
The five-on-five flag football tournament will be at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh and shown by Fox Sports, and comedian Kevin Hart will host the broadcast.
PR falls in 5 sets to Mexico in NORCECA Final Six opener
By THE STAR STAFF
Puerto Rico opened its campaign at the NORCECA (North, Central America, and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation) Women’s Final Six with a hard-fought, five-set battle against host Mexico in Guadalajara on Monday night, ultimately falling short in the decisive frame.
After dropping the first two sets, Team Puerto Rico mounted a fierce comeback in the third. Mexico surged ahead 18-12 with a back-row attack from Samantha Briccio, but the Boricuas responded with an 11-5 run, capitalizing on two attack
errors by Melanie Parra to tie the set at 23. A misfire from Sofía Maldonado Díaz and a clutch kill from Valeria Vázquez on the left wing sealed the set 25-23 for Puerto Rico.
Fueled by momentum, the Boricuas forced a fifth set, reaching set point at 24-20 thanks to a cross-court strike from Decelise Champion and another finish from Vázquez on the outside. However, Mexico took the court switch at 8-6 in the final set and held the lead to close out the match.
Puerto Rico’s offensive standouts included Vázquez, Champion, and Diana Reyes, each contributing 13 points. The team outperformed Mexico in blocks (14-11), though the hosts led in aces (7-3). Mexico’s top scorer was Maldonado Díaz, who racked up 23 points.
Puerto Rico was to return to action Tuesday night against the Dominican Republic in a high-stakes Caribbean showdown.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady celebrates his team’s victory over the Kansas City Chiefs at Super Bowl LV in Tampa on Feb. 7, 2021. The now-retired quarterback is helping Fanatics produce a flag football event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)
Neira Ortiz and Team Puerto Rico rallied back from a two-sets-to-none deficit to force a fifth set against Mexico on Monday night, but ultimately fell to the hosts in their opener at the NORCECA Women’s Final Six in Guadalajara.
Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 21
