CLEVELAND, Ohio—Two-week long protests in Puerto Rico caused the island’s governor to resign Wednesday night.
- Cleveland community members unite around the situation in Puerto Rico
- Held two protest rallies to stand in solidarity and raise awareness
- Community organizer says there's more work to be done
“People are literally outside the Governor’s mansion telling him we want you to go and the guy didn’t want to resign,” said Selena Pagan, community organizer. “It wasn’t until like week two and people are pressuring him and he’s either going to resign or be impeached.”
Selena Pagan is a community organizer in the Cleveland area. She says the Clark Fulton neighborhood has the highest density of Latinos in the state.
She says community members came to her last week, asking what they could do to help the situation in Puerto Rico.
“It wasn’t until other people in the community came to me and were like, Selena are we gonna do something? Like what are we gonna do?... because we need to tell this community locally and the rest of the world that we’re here, we’re present and that we’re gonna be fighting for Puerto Rico and for changes in Puerto Rico,” said Pagan.
In response, they held two protest rallies—one each week—to stand in solidarity and raise awareness.
When the Puerto Rican governor announced his resignation via Facebook, Pagan says she cried.
“People say like what the heck are you gonna do all the way from Cleveland Ohio, like what can you possibly do? What is gathering 100 Puerto Rican’s gonna do?... but I think it’s deeper than that. I think it just shows that we have the opportunity to unite as people here locally, and that could change a lot of things,” said Pagan.
Pagan says this resignation is just the tip of the iceberg and that there is much more work to do.
“We need change. Things need to change. This is just one step... we wanna clean house,” said Pagan. “Because it’s not just getting rid of one politician… it’s a long pipeline of corrupt politicians.”
The governor’s resignation will go into effect on August 2.
