SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Jenniffer González Colón was sworn in as Puerto Rico’s new governor Thursday as the island prepared for a normally exuberant ceremony overshadowed by widespread anger over a power outage that occurred days ago had hit US territory.
González, a Republican who supports President-elect Donald Trump and whose pro-state New Progressive Party secured a historic third consecutive term after winning the election on November 5, has vowed to stabilize the Caribbean island’s crumbling power grid.
Before beginning a ceremony in front of Puerto Rico’s seaside Capitol to celebrate her swearing-in, González attended mass with her family and supporters.
“What better way than to first thank God and ask God to give me the wisdom, the strength and the tools to fulfill everything I promised the people of Puerto Rico,” she told reporters.
A lone protester, her face covered, interrupted mass at the Parroquia Santa Teresita in San Juan. She screamed, “Jenniffer, we came for you. Puerto is without electricity.”
Meanwhile, a growing number of protesters gathered at the Capitol ahead of Gonzalez’s arrival.
González has promised to appoint an energy “czar” to look into possible contract breaches while another operator is found to potentially replace Luma Energy, a private company that oversees the transmission and distribution of electricity in Puerto Rico.
However, no contract can be terminated without prior approval from Puerto Rico’s Energy Office and a federal regulatory agency that oversees the island’s finances.
Outages were still being reported Thursday as crews tried to stabilize the power grid after the outage early Tuesday left 1.3 million customers in the shadowy as Puerto Ricans prepared for New Year’s Eve.
According to Luma, while 98.9% of all 1.47 million customers had power restored, more than 600,000 were temporarily without power on New Year’s Day when part of the system collapsed again.
“The stability of the system is fragile,” Luma said delayed Wednesday, warning of more outages on Thursday amid ongoing power shortages. “We know and understand how frustrating it is for our customers to be without service for extended periods of time.”
To ensure that Thursday’s swearing-in ceremony ran smoothly, emergency power generators were installed as well-known musicians were scheduled to perform.
The expected exuberance was characteristic of González, a 48-year-old lawyer and new mother of twins, who showed up to her party’s convention before the election wearing a Wonder Woman tiara and cuffs. She also made headlines after leaving a party conference of her party in an SUV earlier this year.
González, of the pro-government New Progressive Party, defeated former Gov. Pedro Pierluisi in his party’s primary election in June.
She was Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress at the time and ran on Pierluisi’s candidacy four years ago.
After beating him, she won the November 5 general election with more than 526,000 votes, or 41%. She was followed by Juan Dalmau, who represented the Puerto Rico Independence Party and the Citizens’ Victory Movement.
It was the first time that the Popular Democratic Party, which supports the island’s territorial status quo and is one of Puerto Rico’s two main parties, finished third in a gubernatorial race.
While González’s immediate challenge is Puerto Rico’s breakable power grid, she also inherits a delicate economy that has been slowly recovering since the U.S. territory’s government said in 2015 that it was unable to cover its national debt of more than $70 billion to be settled in US dollars.
In 2017, the company filed the largest U.S. municipal bankruptcy in history.
All but one government agency has since restructured its debt, with Puerto Rico’s Electricity Authority still struggling to do so. It holds more than $9 billion in debt, the most of any government agency.
Experts warn that the island will continue to struggle to attract investors until debt is restructured and the power grid is strengthened.
González must also work with a federal oversight board that the U.S. Congress created in 2016 to monitor Puerto Rico’s finances and oversee the ongoing reconstruction after Hurricane María struck the island as a powerful Category 4 storm in September 2017, disrupting the power grid paralyzed.
She is also under pressure to create affordable housing, reduce utility bills and the overall cost of living, curb violent crime, boost Puerto Rico’s economy as the island has been locked out of capital markets since 2015, and a limping health care system like thousands of doctors improve flow to the US mainland.
Like other pro-statehood governors, González has said she would push for Puerto Rico to become the 51st state, but such a change would require approval from the U.S. Congress and the U.S. president.
In a non-binding referendum during the Nov. 5 election, the seventh of its kind, voters were asked to choose one of three options: statehood, independence and independence with free association, with issues including foreign policy, U.S. citizenship and exploit of the U.S -Dollars were dealt would be negotiated.
With a turnout of 63%, statehood received more than 615,000 votes or 59%, while independence came second for the first time with more than 309,000 votes or 29%. Independence with free association received more than 128,000 votes, or 12%.
