In partnership with

Opinion for The Latino Newsletter

Editor’s Note: For The Latino Newsletter’s new San Juan bureau plans, we welcome Susan Ramirez de Arellano as our Puerto Rico columnist.

SAN JUAN — In a match worthy of the Thrilla in Manila, Puerto Rican pro-statehood Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) Governor Jenniffer González-Colón capitulated to the machinations of PNP Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz and withdrew the nomination of close ally Verónica Ferraiuoli as Secretary of State, claiming she asked for the nomination to be rescinded and defiantly insisting it was not a defeat at the hands of her party’s leaders.

It was. 

“Defeat? Who was the one who said, ‘What defeat?’ [Ex-PNP governor] Carlos Romero Barceló. Defeats happen in the electoral field,” González-Colón said during a press conference at La Fortaleza. “I have had God’s privilege and the privilege of the Puerto Rican people’s favor so that I have emerged victorious in every battle I have faced.”

With the Ferraiuoli news, Rivera Schatz, a veteran PNP politician known locally as El Tiburón (the shark), dealt González-Colón, a staunch United States President Donald Trump supporter, a political anchor punch that split open the power struggle brewing inside the PNP. 

After his win, Rivera Schatz said people were using the Ferraiuoli issue to make it seem like “there is a political war, but there is none.” Puerto Rico’s Senate just did its job, validating its commitment to maintaining “high standards of compliance, transparency, and public responsibility,” he said.  

Yet anyone who has been paying attention knows this is payback for González-Colón’s betrayal of the PNP cupula when she went against incumbent PNP governor Pedro Pierluisi during the party primaries to win La Fortaleza in 2024.

The Ferraiuoli Loss

A politician and lawyer, Ferraiuoli was designated by González-Colón to be the Secretary of State (and acting governor in González-Colón’s absence) at the beginning of the year. She and her husband, Francisco J. Domenech, who serves as González-Colón’s Chief of Staff, was to become the administration’s praetorian guard, occupying the two most powerful positions besides the governor. 

Ferraiuoli’s nomination ran into problems when it became public that she had not filed her taxes for 2021, 2022, and 2023, as well as her close connections with her husband's former political consulting firm, Politank. 

It didn’t help that in 2018, she accused Domenech, who was González-Colón's campaign manager in the 2024 elections, of a consistent pattern of domestic violence. For Schatz, however, what seemed to matter most was a “concentration of power” in the hands of the couple—a little too much “House of Cards” for his palate. 

Ferraiuoli will remain as director of the Puerto Rico Convention Center—not a bad gig at $168,000 a year. The governor also didn’t rule out using Ferraiuoli’s services in other areas or even assigning her to another post in the future. The acting Secretary of State, designated by the governor last week, is Narel Waleska Colón, wife of the PNP Bayamón mayor Ramón Luis Rivera Cruz.  

What’s Next

The Ferraiuoli exit is the latest in a series of setbacks for González-Colón. The first 100 days have not been stellar, beset by island-wide blackouts, problematic nominations, her constant travels since assuming office, and her inability to honor her central campaign promise to get rid of Luma, the Canadian-American private company that manages the electrical grid. She also has a podcast that claims not to be “political.”

Then there is the issue of Trump, who has already cut tens of millions of dollars in federal funds, mostly in education, health, and the reconstruction of the electrical grid. He promises to cut more. This is after Luma warned of a constant string of blackouts this summer as hurricane season approaches.   

The most recent massive blackout —the Santo Apagón— which left 1.4 million Puerto Ricans without electricity and over 400,000 without water during Holy Week, eroded what little public trust Puerto Ricans had in González-Colón. Chants of “Jenniffer Renuncia,” a repeat of the summer of 2019 when mass protests ousted then-PNP Governor Ricardo Rosselló, are making the rounds.

González-Colón has already announced she will seek re-election in 2028, but seeing that she won in 2024 by a mere 39%, and the Alianza candidate, Juan Dalmau, fronting an anti-colonial coalition between the Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana (MVC) and the Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño (PIP) did the unthinkable and came in second with 33%, I wouldn’t be counting on a victory just yet. 

During the Santo Apagón, so many images lit the screens of soon-to-die phones: nasty traffic jams, lines at gas stations, and scared train passengers walking down an overpass. Bad Bunny posted the question we were all asking ourselves: ¿Cuándo vamos a hacer algo? When are we going to do something? 

But one image told the real, tragic story: a grainy photo of a woman sitting on a fold-out chair in an empty supermarket, a respiratory device attached to her face, plugged into the only outlet she was lucky enough to find. That woman symbolizes Puerto Rico, a U.S. colony on life support with a governor who can't find the light switch.

About the Author

A former News Director for Univision Puerto Rico and conflict correspondent, Susanne Ramirez de Arellano is now a cultural critic and writer based in Old San Juan.

We want to keep The Latino Newsletter accessible without paywalls. To help, you can donate here. Any amount (one-time or monthly) will keep us going.

All your work, all in one place

Stop losing track of your articles scattered across the internet.

Authory automatically gathers everything you’ve published in one place, making it easy to search, find, and share your work.

Need to show a potential client your articles matching their requirements best? They’re just a click away.

Thousands of writers are streamlining their careers with a portfolio that’s organized, discoverable, and ready to impress. Authory really makes it that simple.

Get started with your free portfolio today

What We’re Reading

The Latino Tonys: The 2025 Tony Award nominations are in, and Latino talent is front and center. Buena Vista Social Club leads with 10 nominations, including Best Musical, Best Book (Marco Ramirez), and Best Featured Actress (Natalie Venetia Belcon). Real Women Have Curves: The Musical earned two nods: Best Original Score (Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez) and Best Featured Actress (Justina Machado).

Judge Blocks Alien Enemies Act: From the Associated Press, “U.S. District Court Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. is the first judge to rule that the Alien Enemies Act cannot be used against people who, the Republican administration claims, are gang members invading the United States.”

The Latino Newsletter welcomes opinion pieces in English and/or Spanish from community voices. Submission guidelines are here. The views expressed by outside opinion contributors do not necessarily reflect the editorial views of this outlet or its employees.