Weekend Highlights

The events which took place this past weekend left much of the island abuzz, and even caught the headlines of some of the mainland U.S' media outlets. Late Saturday morning, law enforcement authorities arrested one of the Caribbean's most wanted and notorious drug traffickers, José Figueroa Agosto (alias "Junior Cápsula"). He had been on the run for the past eleven years, when he managed to escape from a Puerto Rican prison by presenting a fraudulent release order. His capture has been hailed as a major victory by both Federal and local law enforcement authorities, as this so-called "Pablo Escobar of the Caribbean" is allegedly responsible for transporting huge amounts of cocaine from South America to North America, as well as Europe. Mr. Figueroa was also the target of Dominican law enforcement authorities, as he had for many years operated his drug empire form the Dominican Republic since fleeing Puerto Rico.

Another event which was the subject of much local media attention, and also dominated my Twitter feed, was the postponement of the opening ceremony of the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games in Mayaguez. Strong winds sent tents, lighting poles and the stage flying on Saturday afternoon, hours before the opening ceremony was scheduled to begin. Some images showed cars had been smashed by fallen poles. Several people were injured but there no were serious fatalities reported. According to some, the stage was also shoddily set-up and it simply couldn't withstand the strong wind gusts. Luckily, the maintenance crew made a last minute scramble to undo the damage left behind. The opening ceremony successfully took place yesterday, Sunday, instead.

Finally, yesterday afternoon, thousands of people took to the streets of Hato Rey to protest against what many consider to be the "abuse of power" by the local police at the state capitol on June 30th. At the march, which was given the title: "Alto a la represión y la violación de derechos humanos" (translation: "Stop the Repression and the Violation of Human Rights") most called for the resignation of Police Superintendent, José Figueroa Sancha. Also demonstrated by during yesterday's march was the growing discontent over the way Gov. Luis Fortuño is doing his job. Thankfully, the march occurred without any major incidents.