Ten Years After Pulse, Survivors Are Still Waiting for Accountability

BOSTON — Ten years ago today, a gunman walked into Pulse Nightclub in Orlando and killed 49 people and injured 58 others on Latin Night. The majority of those killed were Latino, mostly Puerto Rican, and Black. Some of those affected were undocumented immigrants too frightened to seek help.

About three weeks ago, I received an email from Jeff Xavier, a Pulse survivor who sustained multiple gunshot wounds that night, bled out on the bathroom floor for more than three hours, and has undergone 12 surgeries. He lost six friends. He reached out to The Latino Newsletter and me because he and other survivors want accountability — and because, a decade later, they say they still don’t have it.

Xavier’s email was gut-wrenching. I had been following his story, and he asked me to share more about what he and other survivors are saying. In the email, Xavier laid out five things he says he and other survivors are demanding 10 years later. This is what he shared verbatim:

Xavier then connected me with Zachary Blair of Victims First, who has been documenting what survivors and families describe as ongoing failures surrounding Pulse. When I asked Blair what the public should be aware of 10 years later, he mentioned three issues.

“The City is building a memorial tourist attraction with a visitor's center, in an effort to control the narrative and museumify a mass shooting,” Blair wrote. “The memorial committee is not even supportive of the planned museum, but has very little power or input and has functioned more as a publicity stunt. Mothers of victims also had their applications to join the committee rejected by the City. People with zero connection to the 49 were placed on it in their place. We are seeing the ramifications of that now in the problematic design decisions.”

According to Blair, Pulse was permitted only as a restaurant with a martini bar — not a nightclub — but the City never enforced that permit even after telling the owners in writing. The shooter, Blair noted, found Pulse by Googling “downtown orlando nightclubs.” He also says the onePULSE Foundation's executives, including Barbara Poma, pocketed millions without breaking ground on a single promised project, while the City paid $2 million in taxpayer dollars — twice the market value — for the Pulse property.

Blair also said the City tried to cover up the blocked exit that prevented Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo’s escape, a photo of which took nine years of records requests to obtain. He says the three-hour police response was the longest of any mass shooting in U.S. history, there was no independent commission or grand jury, and the City still will not acknowledge the permit violation despite its own Police Department confirming it in an involuntary manslaughter investigation into the Pomas.

Xavier told me he is working on a book about the tragedy and his life. In the meantime, he and other survivors are asking anyone willing to help amplify their story to follow @NoPulseMuseum on Instagram and visit Pulse Families for a full accountability timeline.

The Latino Newsletter is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and we turned 2 years old in May! Help us with our birthday campaign by giving here.

¡Eso, Nuria! Nuria Net, co-host of our upcoming American Colony podcast, was featured in a recent Eurowaves profile about her incredible work.

AOC and Velázquez Weigh in on Status Bill: In case you missed it, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) issued a pretty clear statement about yet another Puerto Rico status bill that this time was introduced this week by Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernández Rivera. Here is the full statement against Hernández Rivera’s “Puerto Rico Democratic Self-Determination Act.”

“During the last three Congresses, we have led serious legislative efforts to forge a path towards real self-determination for Puerto Ricans, underscoring that non-territorial, non-colonial options are the only options viable for true decolonization. Throughout the process of crafting legislation, we engaged in a series of meetings, hearings, and dialogues with Puerto Rican experts, academics, and stakeholders, the Diaspora, and Congress.

“Yesterday, the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico co-opted our legislation and introduced a bill that includes an option to maintain the current status of the island as a colony. Over the last three congresses, more and more members have come to acknowledge that the current colonial condition of Puerto Rico is a moral stain on our nation’s history that must be addressed. Our country cannot claim to be a bastion of democracy as we continue to hold colonies in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

“The Resident Commissioner's bill denies the colonial character of the Commonwealth, erases historical realities, subverts Democratic consensus, and ignores Supreme Court decisions like United States v. Vaello-Madero, which reaffirmed that Puerto Rico remains subject to Congress's plenary powers. We stand together in opposing this legislation and will continue to fight for a serious decolonization process for Puerto Ricans. This is too vital an issue to be sullied by individual political aspirations.”

Welcome to the colony.

Julio Ricardo Varela is the founder of The Latino Newsletter. He is also its current part-time publisher and executive director. He edited and published this edition.

Consider donating to The Latino Newsletter. Any contribution, no matter how small, helps keep this newsletter free and accessible to all. ¡Gracias mil!