Friday to Sunday Apr 14-16, 2023

The San Juan Star

They

My Family, Failed

Proposed Ceiba Spaceport Is Topic of Discussion at White House Meeting

Think Tank: Fiscal Board Projects Deficit in 2027

Instead of 2044, But Doesn’t Connect the Dots

GOOD MORNING

The San Juan Daily Star, the only paper with News Service in English in Puerto Rico, publishes 7 days a week, with a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday edition, along with a Weekend Edition to cover Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Analysis: Fiscal board projects deficit in 2027, 17 years sooner than previous projection

By THE STAR STAFF

Contrary to its original projections, the Financial Oversight and Management Board has projected a deficit by 2027 instead of 2044 despite the supposed benefits of fiscal and structural reforms, an Espacios Abiertos (Open Spaces) analysis revealed.

“In its fiscal plan last year (2022), the Board projected that the deficit would occur by the year 2044, that is, in two decades. Now, one year later and after approving the agreement with the bondholders, the Board in its new plan anticipates the deficit for 2027,” commented Daniel Santamaría Ots, research director and senior public policy analyst at Espacios Abiertos.

“Where are the data that support that projection? What did the Board discover that it is not telling us? What are the models used for this new deficit projection?” the economist asked.

INDEX

financial statements last March and it is still pending. The entity also found that for the first time since the first fiscal plan of 2017, the oversight board does not explicitly mention the potential savings that it previously projected for the next 30 years. This is where the consolidation of government agencies comes in, the elimination of appropriations from the General Fund to the municipalities, the cut to the UPR of almost half the appropriations of the General Fund (from $934 million in 2017 to $500 million currently), or the freezing of teacher pensions in the public education system.

The oversight board has been adjusting its projections downwards in each certified fiscal plan since 2018, Santamaría Ots said, increasingly reducing the prospects for economic recovery for Puerto Rico despite austerity measures.

“Clear accounts should be the norm for something as transcendent as what the Board is projecting in its 2023 fiscal plan,” the economist said when presenting an analysis and his findings during a roundtable held Thursday by Espacios Abiertos at the headquarters of the Luis Muñoz Marín Foundation.

Meanwhile, the austerity economy that the oversight board has imposed on Puerto Rico is not yielding the promised results, according to Martín Guzmán, a coauthor of the Puerto Rico debt sustainability analysis (2018) who was instrumental in the bankruptcy process.

According to the Espacios Abiertos analysis, the ninth certified fiscal plan published on April 3, in the context of the eight previous plans, reveals some contradictions in the practices and results observed:

• Government payroll spending has decreased by more than 50%, while spending on outside consultants over the past 15 years has increased by more than 125%.

• The institutional deterioration to provide public services to citizens without depending on expensive resources is observed with concern.

• For the first time, the oversight board does not explicitly mention in its projections the potential savings that the fiscal measures would have in the next 30 years, something that it had disclosed in the eight previous fiscal plans.

• The government should have released the 2021

The analysts exposed the changes of the different fiscal plans in terms of projected savings. They stressed that they have not found an answer in the latest plan on whether such savings are taking place or not, nor did they find a trace of data on which implemented measures are yielding, and what effects the variations and structural reforms are having on future government surpluses/deficits.

Regarding variations in the projected savings for the next 30 years of tax reforms, the board revised its projections downward in each subsequent fiscal plan as follows: in 2018 it projected savings for the economy of Puerto Rico for the next 30 years of $193.9 trillion; in 2019, projected savings dropped to $119.4 billion; in 2020 the board again cut its expectations to $85.4 billion; in 2021 they decreased slightly to $84.1 billion; and in 2022 projected savings were cut almost in half, limiting their impact to $49.7 billion. An explanation of the savings projections was missing from the 2023 fiscal plan and is absent from the entire plan.

Daniel Santamaría Ots, research director and senior public policy analyst at Espacios Abiertos

PREPA bondholders: Top fiscal board officials, consultants to depose as part of bankruptcy proceedings

By THE STAR STAFF

Although Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) bondholders are appealing a ruling that concluded their $8.4 billion bonded debt is an unsecured claim, they also announced the scheduling of six depositions in the utility’s Title III bankruptcy proceedings.

In a notice, the bondholders announced they would depose Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB) Chairman David Skeel on May 3 and the board’s executive director, Robert Mujica, on May 17.

They will also question oversight board consultants William Zarakas, from Brattle Group, on May 4; Ojas Shah, from McKinsey & Co., on May 11; David Brownstein, an official from Citi, on May 16; as well as Fernando Batlle, from Ankura, a financial advisor to PREPA.

The bondholders, meanwhile, announced an expedited appeal of last month’s ruling that found their bonded debt to be unsecured as part of their battle against

confirmation of the utility’s debt adjustment plan, which would restructure some $10 billion of debt.

On March 22, U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain ruled in the FOMB et al. v US Bank National Association et al., adversary proceeding that the PREPA bondholders had an unsecured claim that would be liquidated based on the value of future net revenues.

The ruling says the bondholders are only entitled to small amounts held in a few specific funds.

Bondholders argued that an expedited appellate review of Swain’s ruling would ensure that parties do not work on an unconfirmable debt adjustment plan.

“If the appeal begins now, then the court of appeals might rule in time to constructively inform the confirmation process one way or the other, or at least to minimize the time any confirmed plan remains in limbo after confirmation,” bondholders argued. “If it starts only months from now, then uncertainty will linger and delay PREPA’s reorganization in the meantime.”

The bondholders also argued that Swain’s ruling

presents a novel legal question involving the interpretation of the 1974 trust agreement that regulates the bonded debt and the scope of the security interests.

“An order should be certified when it decides a novel or unsettled question of law or involves a matter of public importance,” bondholders argued. “These are unsettled and important legal issues, which have clear implications for municipal revenue bonds across the country using similar indentures and security structures.”

PREPA retirees to fiscal board: Implement pension system proposal

By THE STAR STAFF

The Energy Alliance representing Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) retirees demanded that the Financial Oversight and Management Board implement the proposal submitted by the board of trustees of the PREPA Employee Retirement System that favors the permanence of their present and future pensions without increases in electricity service rates to cover the amount of debt caused by the inaction of the competent authorities.

Johnny Rodríguez Ortiz, president of PREPA’s Retirees Association, claimed that the oversight board, the PREPA governing board, U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia and Financial Advisory Authority and Fiscal Agency (AAFAF) Executive Director Omar Marrero Díaz, and the members of the island Legislature “have the key to solving the problem of the insolvency of our Retirement System, but they have preferred to apply band-aids and try to work the matter from month to month, lengthening the agony of all retirees, who depend on that check to survive, after years of service rendered to the government.”

Rodríguez Ortiz announced that PREPA retirees will continue to demonstrate every week in front of the oversight board’s offices in Hato Rey.

“We are going to plant a flag here until they solve the

problem, because we know that they have in their hands the proposal submitted by the Board of Trustees of the PREPA Employee Retirement System, which will allow them to save our defined benefit pensions, without putting their hand in the pocket of taxpayers, or PREPA subscribers,” he said during a demonstration held in front of the oversight board’s offices in Hato Rey.

Rodríguez Ortiz emphasized that the PREPA Retirement System belongs to all the men and women who provided energy for the island. Historically, he said, “hurricane after hurricane, they raised up the electrical system again and again until they were left devoid of vehicles, tools, equipment and materials to carry out the work, with the sole intention that PREPA would fail, to justify privatization and distribute federal funds among several companies” run by friends of high government officials because so far those companies have not executed projects, “but the money keeps disappearing.”

He stressed that retirees “do not want a two-month economic rescue, nor do we want more increases in rates for the consumer,” and stated categorically that “with the structured plan of our trustees, not a penny is increased to consumers in the electricity rate.”

He said they will continue to pressure the oversight board to respect the 1974 Trust Agreement between PREPA and the U.S. Bank National Association, a document containing

detailed provisions governing the issuance of bonds and the payment of debt service. In fact, under the Trust Agreement, PREPA bondholders are entitled to payment only of income deposited in favor of the Sinking Fund or Subordinate Funds, only after PREPA covers the payment of their current expenses, and that includes PREPA retirees’ pensions. Therefore, Rodríguez Ortiz said, PREPA’s bondholders accepted the inherent risk of loss by virtue of that credit priority at the time of purchasing the bonds.

As of February, PREPA owed the PREPA Employees Retirement System $938 million corresponding to the current payment of the fund. It is predicted that, due to the massive number of retirements and the resignations of many PREPA employees, the fiscal crisis of the retirement fund has worsened even more, shortening its life.

On Monday, the oversight board sent a letter to the governor rejecting House Bill 1486, which would give PREPA workers a cost of living adjustment.

Regarding the most recent letter sent to the governor requesting a meeting to discuss the issue of pensions, Rodríguez Ortiz said that “ironically it is for the first time, in three attempts, that they answer us to tell us that they would refer it to the competent authorities.”

“In other words, Pierluisi refused to give us an audience to hear our genuine proposals,” he said.

Financial Oversight and Management Board Chairman David Skeel

Pierluisi Isern brothers, cousins of the governor, plead guilty in yearslong scheme to steal federal program funds

By THE STAR STAFF

Walter Pierluisi Isern, Eduardo Pierluisi Isern, and American Management and Administration Corp. (AMAC) pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of theft of federal program funds concerning the misappropri ation of operational funds provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the admin istration of public housing projects.

A prepared statement issued Thursday said the de fendants, who are cousins of Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia, admitted to knowingly and intentionally stealing some $3.7 million from HUD federal assistance programs from 2014 to August 2022.

Given its fiduciary responsibility to manage millions in HUD funds and operate more than 5,000 housing units in 12 municipalities in Puerto Rico, the court prohibited AMAC from contracting with any company affiliated with AMAC or its officers. Walter Pierluisi Isern was the president of AMAC, and Eduardo Pierluisi Isern supervised the repair and mainte nance work at the public housing projects for AMAC during the duration of the fraudulent scheme.

The defendants admitted in their plea agreements that despite AMAC’s fiduciary obligations, Walter Pierluisi Isern and Eduardo Pierluisi Isern used their executive positions within AMAC to operate a fraudulent scheme designed to circumvent that prohibition. In furtherance of that scheme, they illegally caused the diversion of operational funds from the federal assistance programs to corporations and subcon tractors that they controlled to enrich themselves personally. The defendants further admitted that they caused AMAC to

submit false certifications to HUD, ensuring no conflict of interest existed between AMAC and the companies hired to provide operational services, in violation of federal law.

As detailed in the proceedings, Walter Pierluisi Isern created contracts for FiveStar Pest Control Inc. (FiveStar) and CoolBreeze Air Conditioning Inc. (CoolBreeze) to provide services to public housing projects under AMAC’s manage ment. He then caused multiple payments by FiveStar and

CoolBreeze to funnel money to Docu‑Wharehouse, Pier Property and XY Enterprises, subcontractors controlled and owned by Walter Pierluisi Isern. As a result, Walter Pierluisi Isern illegally obtained some $2 million in HUD funding for public housing projects’ operational expenses through the scheme.

The admissions included the recognition that Eduardo Pierluisi Isern caused checks from FiveStar and CoolBreeze to be issued to the names of others, which he then cashed and deposited into his personal bank account for his benefit. He illegally obtained some $363,202 in HUD funding for public housing projects’ operational expenses through the scheme. AMAC, through its executives and officials, admitted to illegally diverting a total of $3.7 million in HUD funding.

The defendants, who have agreed to pay back the $3.7 million, are scheduled to be sentenced on July 11 and face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The governor said this week that the conviction of his cousins would have no impact on his reelection campaign. On Thursday following the guilty pleas, he said of his cous ins’ actions, “what they have done tarnishes my last name.”

After his cousins Walter and Eduardo Pierluisi Isern pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges of federal program funds theft, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said the two men “failed my family, failed the people and now face severe penalties, loss of their freedom, payment of large fines; justice is being served as it should be.”

“What was demonstrated today is that in Puerto Rico there is no impunity, no matter who it is, if they fail the peo ple, if they commit an act of corruption, they will have to face the consequences,” Gov. Pierluisi said. “In this case we are talking about two of my cousins who failed my family, failed the people and now face severe penalties, loss of their freedom, payment of large fines; justice is being served as it should be. And obviously, I am saddened by this situation on a personal level, it bothers me enormously, because after all we are talking about the illegal appropriation of federal funds that were destined to administer public housing, and that touches me closely because my father was secretary of Housing for eight years and dedicated himself body and soul to caring for the residents of public housing, among other things.”

Over $24.4 million in recovery funds allocated to various towns, organizations

By THE STAR STAFF

Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón highlight ed on Thursday a new allocation of federal funds totaling more than $24.4 million to invest in improvements in health services and move forward with the reconstruction of the island due to the damages caused by hurricanes Maria and Fiona.

The various allocations come from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The resident commissioner rec ognized the work done by each of the recipients to gain access to the federal funds generated in Congress.

Under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Community Facilities Emergency Rural Health Care program, six entities will receive grants totaling $2,282,019.00 to expand access to COVID 19 testing and vaccinations, rural health care services, and food assistance.

The Municipality of Camuy will receive $392,042 for

the Municipal Office of Emergency Management to acquire essential equipment necessary to meet the increased healthcare needs in response to the COVID 19 pandemic and future health challenges. The project will benefit some 35,159 residents of the municipality’s rural communities.

The Municipality of Guaynabo, meanwhile will receive $365,366 to be prepared to face large scale emergency situations such as the COVID 19 pandemic and acquire equipment to better serve the community. Some 26,289 people will benefit from the municipality’s initiatives.

Also receiving grants for emergency response and health services needs will be the towns of Moca and Salinas, as well as the Castañer General Hospital in Lares, Good Samaritan Hospital in Aguadilla, Guara Bi Caney, and Salud Integral en la Montaña Inc., for renovations at its clinics in Barranquitas and Comerío.

To cover administrative expenses incurred in the wake of Hurricane Maria to respond to the emergency, FEMA will

receive $2,457,350.82, the Municipality of Yauco will receive $2,701,850.73 and the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources will receive $2,143,504.34.

Proposed Ceiba spaceport is topic of discussion at White House meeting

By THE STAR STAFF

Puerto Rico Ports Authority Executive Director Joel A. Pizá Batiz, who also is the president of the Aerospace and Aeronautical Industry Council of Puerto Rico, met at the White House this week with officials from the National Space Council to address the development of the aerospace industry on the island, including the proposal for a spaceport at the Ceiba airport.

“This meeting with the National Space Council of the White House is a significant one, as it provided us with the opportunity to directly present several issues related to the development of the spaceport at the Ceiba airport and update the planning process and the application for the license with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA),” Pizá Batiz said in a written statement. “We also discussed Governor [Pedro] Pierluisi’s public policy for the development of the aerospace industry on the island. In addition, it allowed us to know how we can request help from the federal government, agencies such as the Department of Defense and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to consider Puerto Rico in the field of aerospace in its future development and its projects.”

Pizá Batiz, who was accompanied at the meeting by Federal Affairs Administration Executive Director Luis Dávila Pernas and Economic Development and Commerce Secretary Manuel Cidre Miranda, said the National Space Council, authorized under Title V of Public Law 100-685,

Puerto Rico Ports Authority Executive Director Joel A. Pizá Batiz, who also is the president of the Aerospace and Aeronautical Industry Council of Puerto Rico, was accompanied at the White House meeting by Federal Affairs Administration Executive Director Luis Dávila Pernas and Economic Development and Commerce Secretary Manuel Cidre Miranda.

advises and assists the president of the United States in the development and implementation of national space policy and strategy. The council is composed of secretaries and senior officials of the executive branch under the leadership of its president, who is Vice President Kamala Harris. It is also supported by the User Advisory Group, a federal advisory committee of outside experts from industry, academia, and other non-federal organizations. Regarding the spaceport in Ceiba, which is a long-term project, Pizá Batiz noted that through this [proposal] “we seek to sow the seed of what will be a prosperous industry

for Ceiba and for all of Puerto Rico in a few years.”

“We are extremely satisfied with the progress of the work plan of this Council, considering that it is a novel issue for the government of Puerto Rico,” he said. “In just one year since the establishment of this Council, we have been able to build a strategic work structure in an area of such potential worldwide.”

Dávila Pernas added that “during recent years we have seen the importance of investing in our ports and aerospace industry.”

“Our strategic geographic location and strong ties to the federal government place Puerto Rico at the forefront of these industries, which in turn drive economic growth and create more employment opportunities on the island,” he said. “I am confident that our efforts together with the Puerto Rico Port Authority and its executive director, Joel Pizá, will bring results that will be of great benefit to future generations.”

Cidre Miranda said meanwhile that “for the economic development of Puerto Rico and in line with #PRopósito, the aerospace sector is one of the priority sectors with global opportunity.”

“Therefore, positioning Puerto Rico as an attractive destination for the aerospace industry is a priority,” he said. “‘Space Commerce’ and ‘Spaceports,’ among other initiatives, contribute significantly to positioning Puerto Rico. This sector already has six manufacturing and design operations in Puerto Rico with nearly 8,000 jobs with well-paying wages.”

Island groups sue FEMA, Homeland Security over fossil-fuel-based grid rebuild

By THE STAR STAFF

Conservation and community groups have sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency MA) and U.S. Department of Homeland Security over their plans to rebuild Puerto Rico’s centralized electrical grid back to the fossil fuel status quo instead of investing in the distributed renewable energy that Puerto Rico residents need, according to a statement.

“Fossil fuel power plants produce pollutants that poison our health and kill our neighbors, and other living beings that live nearby,” said Víctor Alvarado Guzmán of Comite Dialogo Ambiental. “The toxins produced by these facilities also harm the air, water, and land. That’s why the funds from agencies such as FEMA must be used toward renewable energy, especially rooftop solar.”

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia challenges FEMA’s failure to consider rooftop solar, storage and other forms of distributed renewable energy for projects intended to provide electricity to communities at risk from Puerto Rico’s hurricane-battered grid. It also says FEMA violated federal law by failing to consider the environmental harm from rebuilding and relocating Puerto Rico’s polluting fossil fuel infrastructure, including jeopardizing clean air and water, and endangered species.

Under the Stafford Act, infrastructure damaged in a di-

saster must be rebuilt to its original state using FEMA funds. However, another federal law, the National Environmental Policy Act, calls for agencies to take into account the environmental impact of their decisions.

“FEMA has no business committing billions of dollars to a dirty, unreliable, centralized fossil fuel-based grid that’s guaranteed to plunge families back into the dark the next time a climate-driven storm hits,” said Augusta Wilson, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Puerto Ricans have repeatedly demanded resilient rooftop solar and storage. They want to seize the opportunity to become a global example of what a safe, resilient energy system can look like. FEMA is recklessly ignoring Puerto Ricans and the climate emergency to enrich colonizing fossil fuel companies.”

“The direction promoted by FEMA and the state government to restore the outdated and polluting electrical infrastructure in Puerto Rico is contrary to the need to mitigate and adapt to climate change,” said Federico Cintrón Moscoso, program director of El Puente de Williamsburg’s Latino Climate Action Network in Puerto Rico. “It extends the life of fossil fuels and halts any progress toward renewable energy. It perpetuates inequality against environmental justice communities disproportionately impacted by climate change. There are other alternatives, and we demand a change of direction that promotes real solutions and climate justice.”

More than five years after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, causing thousands of deaths and decimating the archipelago’s already fragile electricity grid, FEMA is finally planning to spend disaster funds on permanent repairs to the grid. But the agency wants to invest at least $12 billion in projects that lock islanders into decades of fossil-fuel dependence, the groups said. FEMA’s projects conflict with Puerto Rico’s 2019 law setting a goal of 100% renewable energy by 2050. As well as other local energy laws, they noted.

“Puerto Rico needs local solutions to adopt renewable energy options that do not compromise food security,” said Carlos Alfredo Vivoni of Frente Unido Pro-Defensa del Valle de Lajas. “The local government seems committed to sponsoring utility-scale photovoltaic projects on protected farmland or in ecologically sensitive land. That needs to change. FEMA needs to ensure that rooftop solutions, with photovoltaic panels and batteries, are evaluated as the most resilient options because utility-scale projects have proven to be unreliable after hurricanes. We can adopt resilient renewable energy options and protect farmland at the same time.”

Fossil fuel infrastructure in Puerto Rico is disproportionately located in low-wealth communities where people live with the pollution it creates, including sulfur dioxides, lead, cancer-causing chemicals like benzene and formaldehyde, and coal ash, the groups said.

By MICHAEL WINES

There are 99 legislators in the Tennessee House of Representatives, the body that voted on April 6 to expel two of its Democratic members for leading an anti-gun protest in the chamber.

Sixty of them had no opponent in last November’s election.

Of the remaining House races, almost none were competitive. Not a single seat flipped from one party to the other.

“We’re just not in a normal political system,” said Kent Syler, a political science professor and expert on state politics at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. “In a normal two-party system, if one party goes too far, usually the other party stops them. They put the brakes on.”

In Tennessee, he said, “there’s nobody to put on the brakes.”

And not just in Tennessee.

Nationwide, candidates for roughly 4 of every 10 state legislative seats run unopposed in general elections.

And across the country, one-party control of state legislatures — compounded by hyperpartisan politics, widespread gerrymandering, an urban-rural divide and uncompetitive races — has made the dysfunction in Tennessee more the rule than the exception.

The lack of competition means incumbent lawmakers face few consequences for their conduct. And their legislative actions are driven in large part by the fraction of partisans who determine their fates in primary elections, the only political contests where they face serious opposition.

Those forces, intensified by the Supreme Court’s open door for gerrymandering and the geographic sorting of Democrats into urban areas and Republicans into rural ones, are buffeting legislatures run by both parties: Republicans have total control of legislatures in 28 states (including Nebraska, which is nominally nonpartisan) and Democrats in 18.

That control has enabled both parties to enact legislation advancing their policy agendas, as would be expected, especially at such a partisan moment. Both parties, to differing degrees, have abused their ability to gerrymander.

But it is Republican-run states, many experts say, that are taking extreme positions

on limiting voting and bending or breaking other democratic norms, as Tennessee did in expelling two lawmakers last week.

Before April 6, there had been only two expulsions from the Tennessee House since the Civil War.

Steven R. Levitsky, a Harvard University government professor and the author with Daniel Ziblatt of the book “How Democracies Die,” said one-party rule in Democratic states like Illinois has typically led to corruption and abuses of power.

But states controlled by Democrats, he said, have not tried to limit voting, restrict civil liberties or push back on democratic norms the way Republican-controlled states have in recent years.

“Only one party, I think, is flirting with authoritarianism right now,” Levitsky said.

Republican leaders in Tennessee said they had expelled the Democratic lawmakers not just for last week’s protests but also for a pattern of grandstanding and disruptions that they said was the real assault on the ability of the Legislature to function democratically.

“My people deserve to be heard as well, and you can’t have that with folks in the well with a bullhorn,” Rep. William Lamberth, a member of Republican leadership, said after the expulsions.

Since then, Reps. Justin Jones of Nashvi-

lle and Justin Pearson of Memphis have been reinstated by their local governing boards ahead of special elections later this year.

Victor Ashe, a Republican and former mayor of Knoxville who served in the legislature when Republicans were a minority in the 1980s, said the legislature had become more contentious and his party more extreme since then. In the heat of partisan combat, he said, “some people don’t think about ‘This is not democracy.’”

The expulsions come at a time when the legislatures in Tennessee and other states have pushed at the traditional limits of political power.

In Tennessee, which was previously known for its relatively moderate, pragmatic political culture, the legislature took aim at the state’s center of Democratic support: Republican lawmakers created a gerrymander last year that split Nashville’s Democratic-held congressional district, which has represented the city since Tennessee became a state, into three — extending well outside the city and into typically Republican areas. The Legislature unilaterally passed a law cutting the size of Nashville’s metropolitan council in half, to 20 members from 40, but a judicial panel temporarily suspended the action on Monday.

Elsewhere, Republican-led legislatures passed laws stripping power from incoming

Democratic governors after Roy Cooper was elected in North Carolina in 2016 and Tony Evers in Wisconsin in 2018.

In Missouri, the legislature is trying to take over the police department in St. Louis, one of several moves aimed at leaders of Democratic cities. Many of those actions explicitly revoke cities’ long-standing authority to enact local laws that might run counter to GOP legislation on priority issues like LGBTQ rights, law enforcement or guns.

Republican legislatures in Ohio, Arkansas, Florida and several other states are considering actions this year that would limit the ability of citizens to get ballot initiatives before voters, particularly on issues like abortion and gerrymandering. Enacting barriers to voting — broadly aimed at young voters and members of minority groups that lean Democratic — has become part of the standard Republican playbook.

Still, Ashe said Democrats couldn’t blame Republicans for their plight in red states, having lost the ability to compete for much of the Republican electorate during the Obama years and after.

“Democrats are also culpable,” Ashe said. “They haven’t been able to find good people to run.” Tennessee Republicans built their majority, he noted, by fielding candidates even in contests where they were doomed to lose.

Jim Cooper, Nashville’s longtime Democratic representative in Congress, said he agreed. “Local Democrats have done a terrible job in recent decades,” said Cooper, who represented Nashville for 20 years before retiring in January after the legislature gerrymandered his district. “We’re not good at fighting back. For example, we didn’t go out and recruit anti-Trump Republicans, because we liked having a small tent.”

That sorting into political tribes, where party loyalty is more important than local or state issues, has only cemented one-party control in state legislatures. In sharp contrast to past decades, “it’s pretty much what a voter thinks of the president that is going to dictate how a voter casts their ballot in a state legislative election,” said Steven Rogers, a Saint Louis University political scientist who has studied the issue. “What legislators do themselves doesn’t really matter that much anymore.”

If Tennessee’s legislature looks broken, it’s not alone.

A makeshift memorial to the victims of the Covenant School shooting in Nashville, Tenn, on April 7, 2023. The Tennessee House of Representatives voted to expel two of its members for leading an anti-firearms protest in the chamber.

Arizona House Republicans expel one of their own

By NEIL VIGDOR

Arizona’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives took the rare step earlier this week of expelling a GOP lawmaker who earlier this year had arranged testimony from a conspiracy theorist falsely accusing top state officials of bribery and other misconduct.

Rep. Liz Harris, an election denier who has expressed support for QAnon and has aligned herself with Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder who has pushed election conspiracy theories, was overwhelmingly removed from office by her colleagues.

The House voted 46-13 to banish her, easily surpassing the necessary two-thirds threshold. The action was taken after an ethics complaint was filed against Harris by a Democratic lawmaker. Twenty-nine Democrats joined 17 Republicans to vote for expulsion, while all 13 nay votes came from Republicans, including Harris. One Democrat did not vote.

Harris, from Chandler, became just one of a handful of Arizona lawmakers to be expelled. She did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

Lawmakers had accused Harris of making a mockery of Arizona’s Legislature by inviting Jacqueline Breger, a Scottsdale, Arizona, insurance agent and conspiracy theorist, to

testify during a February hearing about election oversight.

At that hearing, Breger falsely claimed that Katie Hobbs, a Democrat who was elected governor in November, and several other public officials and judges had accepted bribes from the Sinaloa drug cartel.

Critics described Breger’s more than 40-minute presentation as a publicity stunt and said that Harris knew ahead of time that it would be laden with wild and baseless

conspiracy theories. The swing state has been a hotbed of election denialism and unsuccessful Republican lawsuits contesting results, including a legal action by Kari Lake, who has refused to accept her November defeat in the governor’s race.

Election deniers have zeroed in on Arizona’s most populous county, Maricopa, where Election Day glitches last fall disrupted some ballot counting. An independent report released on Monday found that heavy paper and longer ballots contributed to those problems.

On Tuesday, the House Ethics Committee determined that Harris had violated legislative rules by inviting a witness to present false testimony. In addition to the bribery accusation, the witness also claimed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had control over state agencies.

The ethics panel stopped short of recommending a specific punishment for Harris by the House, in which fellow election deniers have wielded significant power and orchestrated a partisan review of the 2020 election results in Arizona.

Arizona was a key battleground in 2020, when it helped Joe Biden secure the presidency, and again in 2022, when Sen. Mark Kelly’s reelection helped Democrats gain outright control of the Senate.

Representative Liz Harris at the March for Life in Phoenix. Lawmakers had accused her of making a mockery of Arizona’s Legislature.

Trump sues Michael Cohen, the key witness against him

By MAGGIE HABERMAN, BEN PROTESS, WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM and JONAH E. BROMWICH

Donald Trump earlier this week filed a lawsuit against his former fixer, Michael Cohen, just weeks after being indicted in a case in which Cohen is expected to serve as a star witness.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida, accuses Cohen of revealing Trump’s confidences and “spreading falsehoods” about him. It directly references Cohen’s role in the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal case against Trump, which stems from a hush-money payment Cohen made on the former president’s behalf in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.

The case, while potentially far-fetched, suggests that Trump may be seeking to silence Cohen.

“It could be an attempt to pressure Michael Cohen not to testify, but that pressure is unlikely to work,” said Ellen C. Yaroshefsky, a professor specializing in legal ethics at Hofstra University’s law school.

She added that she did not think the lawsuit amounted to witness tampering under New York law, as it was not a direct attempt to interfere with Cohen’s testimony, and other legal experts concurred.

Yet in a statement Wednesday, Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, argued, “Mr. Trump appears once again to be using and abusing the judicial system as a form of harassment and intimidation.” He added that Trump was apparently “terrified by his looming legal perils and is attempting to send a message to other potential witnesses who are cooperating with prosecutors against him.”

Christopher Kise, a lawyer representing Trump in a civil case that was brought by the New York attorney general and that Cohen’s testimony helped initiate, lashed out at Cohen, suggesting that he had lied in the past to various officials.

“He’s lied to everyone he’s ever come in contact with,” Kise said. “So at some point someone needs to hold this serial liar accountable.”

Trump’s lawsuit, brought by Alejandro Brito, a lawyer in Coral Gables, Florida, seeks significant punitive damages against Cohen, but it seemed possible that the case would backfire. Last year, when the former president filed the lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has sued Trump and his family business, some members of his legal team objected. There was similar dissent among his lawyers over whether to sue Cohen, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Ultimately, Trump withdrew the suit against James, which came before U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks. Middlebrooks had previously fined Trump and one of his attorneys nearly $1 million for filing a frivolous

lawsuit against a number of political enemies, including Trump’s 2016 rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

But Trump, who has experienced decades of scrutiny from law enforcement and regulators, has a long habit of trying to use the court system for his own ends and has been furious with Cohen in recent weeks.

Cohen, who broke from Trump in 2018 while facing a federal investigation into his own role in the hush-money deal, testified twice in front of the grand jury that ultimately voted to indict the former president. Last week, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg unveiled 34 felony charges, which center on the $130,000 hush-money payment that Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Trump has been eager to file the suit for some time, according to a person familiar with his thinking, even as some members of his legal team have discouraged him from doing so.

Stephen Gillers, a professor emeritus at the New York University School of Law who specializes in legal ethics, said that he saw no problems with the appropriateness of the lawsuit on its face.

“The theory of the lawsuit is that Cohen, as Trump’s former lawyer, had fiduciary and professional obligations to Trump that he breached and caused damage to Trump,” Gillers said. “That theory, without the names of the parties, is quite plausible.”

Trump has been blaming Cohen for his legal issues not just with Bragg, but with James, whose office is set to question him under oath Thursday. In a recent interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump maintained that what Cohen had been saying about him was false and accused him of trying to “ingratiate” himself with Trump by taking ownership of the payment to Daniels in a letter to the Federal Election Commission in early 2018.

The lawsuit represents an escalation of the attacks on Cohen, whom Trump has also denounced as “a rat” and a liar.

It accuses Cohen of lying about the former president while also breaching attorney-client privilege — as well as a confidentiality clause he signed while working for Trump’s company.

Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations for arranging the hush money as well as a variety of other charges, including lying to Congress about a plan for a Trump property in Moscow. Those admissions are likely to be among the things that Trump’s lawyers will seize on when cross-examining Cohen at a trial.

Yet Bragg’s prosecutors could argue that Cohen told those lies and others for Trump, and not himself.

it could potentially be damaging for Trump, who in addition to facing a criminal trial in Manhattan is also under criminal investigation in Georgia and Washington, and for Cohen, who would be likely to be deposed.

Gobierno de Puerto Rico

AVISO

SOBRE INTENCIÓN DE OTORGAR UN PERMISO PARA OPERAR UNA INSTALACIÓN DE DESPERDICIOS SÓLIDOS NO PELIGROSOS

El Sr. José E. Díaz Díaz, representante autorizado según la solicitud de permiso radicada de la instalación Global Recycling Services, localizada en la PR 109 km. 22.2, Bo. Alto Sano San Sebastian Puerto Rico, ha sometido en el Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales una solicitud de permiso para operar una instalación para el procesamiento de desperdicios sólidos no peligrosos. Luego de realizada la evaluación de los documentos sometidos, este Departamento tiene la intención de emitir el permiso.

El Reglamento para el Manejo de los Desperdicios Sólidos No Peligrosos, Reglamento Núm. 5717 de 14 de noviembre de 1997, establece en el Capítulo IX el requisito de solicitar un permiso como condición previa a la operación de una instalación de desperdicios sólidos no peligrosos, el cual es aplicable a dueños u operadores. La Regla 649 del mencionado capítulo requiere la publicación de este Aviso y regula la celebración de Vistas Públicas, las cuales podrían ser efectuadas de considerarse necesarias por esta Junta, o por peticiones durante el período comprendido para comentarios.

Copia de la solicitud de permiso, al igual que el Borrador de Permiso y otros documentos relevantes al caso, están a la disposición del público para ser examinados en la Oficina Regional de Arecibo, localizada en la Avenida San Patricio Marginal PR- 2, Km. 80.6, Arecibo, PR; y en el Área Control Contaminación de Terrenos de la Oficina Central, ubicada en el Edificio de Agencias Ambientales, PR- 8838, Sector El Cinco, Río Piedras, PR 00928 de 8:00 A.M. a 4:30 P.M., de lunes a viernes.

Toda parte interesada en someter comentarios con respecto al borrador de permiso, deberá hacerlo por escrito dentro de 30 días a partir de la fecha de publicación de este Aviso. Deberá dirigir su comunicación al Sr. Moisés Soto, Director de la Oficina Regional de Arecibo, al correo electrónico, mosoto@ drna.pr.gov

Este anuncio se publica conforme a lo requerido por la Ley sobre Política Pública Ambiental, Ley 416 del 22 de septiembre de 2004, según enmendada. El costo del Aviso Ambiental es sufragado por la entidad peticionaria.

Donald Trump on Wednesday, April 12, 2023, filed a lawsuit against his former fixer, Michael Cohen, just weeks after being indicted in a case in which Cohen is expected to serve as a star witness.

It is not guaranteed that the case will proceed to the discovery phase, during which lawyers for Trump and Cohen would be required to exchange relevant case material and answer questions under oath. But if it does,

Anaís Rodríguez Vega Secretaria

Inflation cools notably, but it’s a long road back to normal

As financial markets settled after the data release, both stocks and bonds showed little change, suggesting investors viewed the numbers as being in line with the current outlook for the economy.

Yet the report also marked a less optimistic milestone: Inflation has been high in America for two full years, having first started to pick up in March 2021.

A jump in goods prices initially pushed inflation higher that year, although that has faded as supply chains have healed and product shortages have cleared. Likewise, a sharp run-up in food and fuel prices tied to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sharply sped up inflation but has now pulled back. Today, most of the nation’s inflation is coming from service costs, which include purchases like rent, hotel rooms, manicures, insurance and child care.

By JEANNA SMIALEK

Inflation moderated notably in March as a decline in gas prices helped to pave the way for the slowest pickup in prices in nearly two years, providing relief for many American consumers and some evidence that the Federal Reserve’s campaign to raise interest rates and cool the economy is beginning to work.

The consumer price index climbed 5% in the year through March, down from 6% in February. That marked the slowest pace of price increases since May 2021.

But the details of the report underlined that inflation retains concerning staying power under the surface: A socalled core index that aims to get a clearer sense of price trends by stripping out food and fuel costs, both of which can be volatile, picked up by 5.6% from a year earlier. That was up slightly from February’s 5.5% increase and marked the first acceleration in the yearly number since September.

Taken in total, the fresh inflation data suggested that price increases were meaningfully moderating, but that progress remained gradual. And that mixed signal comes during a challenging economic moment for the Fed. The central bank is the government’s main inflation fighter, and it has been trying to wrestle price increases back un-

der control for slightly more than a year, raising interest rates to nearly 5% from near zero as recently as March 2022 to slow the economy and weigh down costs.

Officials are now assessing how their policy changes are working, and they are trying to gauge whether they need to do more to ensure that price increases will come fully under control. Inflation has been decelerating after peaking at about 9% last summer, but the process has been slow. It remains a long way back to the 2% inflation that was normal before the onset of the pandemic in 2020. Uncertainty over how quickly and completely price increases will cool is being compounded by recent developments. A series of high-profile bank blowups last month could restrain the economy — perhaps even enough to plunge the economy into a mild recession later this year, based on Fed staff forecasts. Some Fed officials are urging caution in light of the turmoil, even as others warn that the central bank should keep its foot on the economic brake and remain focused on its fight against rising prices.

The new data probably “solidifies the case for the Fed to do another hike in May, and to proceed cautiously from here,” said Blerina Uruci, chief U.S. economist at T. Rowe Price. She said the fresh report offered good news, but “it will take time to bring inflation down.”

Fed officials’ inflation target of 2% is defined using a different index: the personal consumption expenditures measure, which uses some data from the consumer price measure but is calculated differently and released a few weeks later. That measure has also been sharply elevated, although it too is moderating.

The White House welcomed the latest inflation news Wednesday, emphasizing that slower price increases mean more “breathing room” for families.

“Today’s report shows continued progress in our fight against inflation,” President Joe Biden said in a written statement.

Given that, the Fed is closely watching the cost of services for a sense of whether price increases are poised to come down — and they cooled somewhat in March. One measure of services, excluding housing and fuel-related prices, produced by Bloomberg showed easing to 5.7% on an annual basis in March. That is a firm reading but less rapid than 6.1% in February.

“There are signs in the details to suggest we’re making some progress toward slowing inflation,” Uruci said. “It’s not where it needs to be, but it’s progress.”

In a development that caught the attention of many economists, rent of primary residence rose 0.5% from the prior month, down from 0.8% in the previous reading. Housing inflation broadly is expected to slow in 2023, and that appears to be beginning to take hold even earlier than many had expected.

“When you see shelter moderating as much as it did, that’s an unusual thing,” said Neil Dutta, head of economic research at Renaissance Macro. “The moderation in rental inflation has come a bit sooner than anticipated.”

But those hopeful signs do not necessarily mean that inflation will fade smoothly and rapidly. The sharp slowdown in the overall index last month may not continue, since a big chunk of that decline is owed to a drop in gas prices that is unlikely to be sustained. A real-time pump price tracker produced by AAA showed that unleaded gas prices had picked up since last month.

And the inflation report continued to show quick price increases in other categories, including new vehicles and airfares.

Given how stubborn price increases have been proving, some central bankers have suggested that they may need to raise interest rates further to fully bring inflation to heel.

The Fed’s latest estimates, released shortly after the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March, suggested that officials could lift rates another quarter-point this year, to just above 5%. The central bank will announce its next policy decision May 3.

Wall St Gains as Inflation, Jobless Claims Data Ease Rate Worries

U.S. stock indexes rose on Thursday as a moderation in producer price inflation and jump in weekly jobless claims brought relief to investors worried about how far the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates to tame surging prices.

A Labor Department report showed producer prices unexpectedly fell in March as the cost of gasoline declined, and there were signs that underlying producer inflation was subsiding.

Data also showed that the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits increased more than expected last week, a further sign that labor market conditions were loosening up.

“This is a good indication that inflation is easing and dropping rather sharply. Jobless claims were also favorable news for the Fed,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.

“Inflation both at the consumer and producer levels are going south, in the right direction ... even though elevated, it’s still good news and this is one big consideration in terms of the Fed ending its tightening cycle.”

The benchmark S&P 500 has traded in a tight range this month, having recovered from a selloff in March fueled by the recent banking crisis, as investors assessed the path for U.S. interest rates.

Wall Street closed lower on Wednesday after data showed consumer prices rose at a slower-than-expected pace in March, however, core prices remained sticky and supported the case for another 25-basis point rate hike by the Fed in May.

Investors mostly stuck to expectations of the 25-bps hike after Thursday’s data.

U.S. Treasury yields fell, boosting rate-sensitive growth stocks. Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc rose nearly 2%.

Economy-sensitive industrial, financial and energy sectors gave up some of their recent gains.

Minutes released on Wednesday from the Fed’s latest policy meeting indicated concerns of a recession following the banking sector stress and that several policymakers considered pausing rate hikes last month.

Big U.S. banks JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc and Wells Fargo & Co are scheduled to report quarterly results on Friday, and investors will watch them closely for details about the sector’s overall health.

Analysts expect S&P 500 companies to record a profit decline of 5.2% in the first quarter, as per Refinitiv IBES data, in what could be their worst showing since the third quarter of 2020.

Financial companies that are part of the S&P 500 are expected to report a profit growth of 4.3% in the first quarter.

At 9:43 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 18.09 points, or 0.05%, at 33,664.59, the S&P 500 was up 13.74 points, or 0.34%, at 4,105.69, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 106.53 points, or 0.89%, at

MOST ASSERTIVE STOCKS

PUERTO RICO STOCKS

12,035.87.

Harley-Davidson Inc dropped 3.1% after the motorcycle maker said Chief Financial Officer Gina Goetter was leaving the company at the end of April.

FBI arrests leader of online group where secrets appeared

By ARIC TOLER, MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ, HALEY WILLIS, RILEY MELLEN, CHRISTIAAN TRIEBERT, MALACHY BROWNE, THOMAS GIBBONS-NEFF and JULIAN E. BARNES

The leader of a small online gaming chat group where a trove of classified U.S. intelligence documents leaked over the past few months is a 21-year-old member of the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The New York Times.

The national guardsman, whose name is Jack Teixeira, oversaw a private online group called Thug Shaker Central, where about 20 to 30 people, mostly young men and teenagers, came together over a shared love of guns, racist online memes and video games.

On Thursday afternoon, about a half-dozen FBI agents pushed into a residence in North Dighton, Massachusetts. Attorney General Merrick Garland later said in a short statement that Teixeira had been arrested “without incident.”

Federal investigators had been searching for days for the person who leaked the top secret documents online.

Starting months ago, one of the users uploaded hundreds of pages of intelligence briefings into the small chat group, lecturing its members, who had bonded during the isolation of the pandemic, on the importance of staying abreast of world events.

The Times spoke with four members of the Thug Shaker Central chat group, one of whom said he has known the person who leaked for at least three years, had met him in person, and referred to him as the OG. The friends described him as older than most of the group members, who were in their teens, and the undisputed leader. One of the friends said the OG had access to intelligence documents through his job.

While the gaming friends would not identify the group’s leader by name, a trail of digital evidence compiled by the Times leads to Teixeira.

The Times has been able to link Teixeira to other members of the Thug Shaker Central group through his online gaming profile and other records. Details of the interior of Teixeira’s childhood home — posted on social media in family photographs — also match details on the margins of some of the photographs of the leaked secret documents.

The Times also has established, through social media posts and military records, that Teixeira is enlisted in the 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Massachusetts Air National

Guard. Posts on the unit’s official Facebook page congratulated Teixeira and colleagues for being promoted to Airman 1st Class in July 2022.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden said the United States was “getting close” to finding answers about the leak.

“There’s a full blown investigation going on, as you know, with the intelligence community and the Justice Department, and they’re getting close,” Biden told reporters on a visit to Dublin.

It was not immediately clear if a young Air National Guardsman in his position could have had access to such highly sensitive briefings. Officials within the U.S. government with security clearance often receive such documents through daily emails, one official told the Times, and those emails might then be automatically forwarded to other people.

Teixeira’s mother, Dawn, speaking outside her home in Massachusetts on Thursday, confirmed that her son was a member of the Air National Guard and said he had recently been working overnight shifts at a base on Cape Cod. In the past few days, he had changed his phone number, she said.

Later, someone who appeared to be Teixeira drove onto the property in a red pickup truck.

When Times reporters approached the house again, the truck was parked in the driveway. Teix-

eira’s mother and a man were standing outside in the driveway.

When asked if Teixeira was there and willing to speak, the man said: “He needs to get an attorney if things are flowing the way they are going right now. The Feds will be around soon, I’m sure.”

Members of Thug Shaker Central who spoke to the Times said that the documents they discussed online were meant to be purely informative. While many pertained to the war in Ukraine, the members said they took no side in the conflict.

The documents, they said, only started to get wider attention when one of the teenage members of the group took a few dozen of them and posted them to a public online forum. From there they were picked up by Russian-language Telegram channels and then the Times, which first reported on them.

The person who leaked, they said, was no whistleblower, and the secret documents were never meant to leave their small corner of the internet.

“This guy was a Christian, anti-war, just wanted to inform some of his friends about what’s going on,” said one of the person’s friends from the community, a 17-year-old recent high school graduate. “We have some people in our group who are in Ukraine. We like fighting games, we like war games.”

FBI law enforcement officers take position outside the home of Jack Teixeira, who investigators believe is linked to a trove of leaked classified U.S. intelligence documents, in North Dighton, Mass., Thursday, April 13, 2022.

New leaked documents show broad infighting among Russian officials

By ANTON TROIANOVSKI, ARIC TOLER, JULIAN E. BARNES, CHRISTIAAN TRIEBERT and MALACHY BROWNE

The depth of the infighting inside the Russian government appears broader and deeper than previously understood, judging from a newly discovered cache of classified intelligence documents that has been leaked online.

The additional documents, which did not surface in a 53-page set that came to wide public attention online last week, paint a picture of the Russian government feuding over the count of the dead and wounded in the Ukraine war, with the domestic intelligence agency accusing the military of obscuring the scale of casualties that Russia has suffered.

The new batch, which contains 27 pages, reinforces how deeply American spy agencies have penetrated nearly every aspect of the Russian intelligence apparatus and military command structure. It also shows that the breach of American intelligence agencies could contain far more material than previously understood.

In one document, American intelligence officials say that Russia’s main domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, or FSB, has “accused” the country’s Defense Ministry “of obfuscating Russian casualties in Ukraine.” The finding highlights “the continuing reluctance of military officials to convey bad news up the chain of command,” they say.

The entry, dated Feb. 28 in a document with a series of updates about the war in Ukraine and other global hot spots, appears to be based on electronic intercepts collected by American intelligence agencies.

Each disclosure of classified documents has the potential to reveal additional methods and means of intelligence gathering. The documents do not appear to contain much, if any, information from human sources, suggesting

the original leaker may not have had access to that more highly classified material. Instead, much of the material is labeled as coming from communications intercepts.

Taken together, the documents underscore several of the overarching reasons why, many analysts believe, President Vladimir Putin of Russia has failed to secure a military victory in Ukraine after more than 13 months of war.

Among them: infighting and finger-pointing among Russian agencies responsible for different aspects of the war, including the FSB and the Defense Ministry. The leaked entry about the casualty numbers provides little context for the intelligence officials’ finding, but it reports that the FSB is questioning the Defense Ministry’s own casualty count in discussions within the Russian government.

FSB officials, the document says, contend that the ministry’s toll did not include the dead and wounded among the Russian national guard, the Wagner mercenary force or fighters fielded by Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of the southern Russian republic of Chechnya. The sundry fighting forces that the Kremlin has deployed in Ukraine have sometimes acted at cross purposes, further complicating Russia’s military effort.

The FSB “calculated the actual number of Russians wounded and killed in action was closer to 110,000,” the document says.

The document does not specify the casualty figures that the Defense Ministry is circulating within the government. The last time that the ministry publicly disclosed a death toll was in September, when Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that 5,937 Russian troops had been killed since the war started.

American officials have previously estimated Russian losses at about 200,000 soldiers. Another leaked document reports the Russians had suffered 189,500-223,000 casualties as of February, including up to 43,000 killed in ac-

tion, compared with 124,500-131,000 Ukrainian casualties, with up to 17,500 killed in action.

The new documents also provide fresh details about a very public dispute in February in which Yevgeny Prigozhin, the business mogul who runs the Wagner force, accused Russian military officials of withholding urgently needed ammunition from his fighters. Putin attempted to resolve the dispute personally by calling Prigozhin and Shoigu into a meeting believed to have taken place on Feb. 22, one document reports.

“The meeting almost certainly concerned, at least in part, Prigozhin’s public accusations and resulting tension with Shoygu,” the document says, using an alternative transliteration of the minister’s name.

The new documents were shared in photos, and some are missing pages. Those shown in full include material from the National Security Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Pentagon’s Joint Staff intelligence directorate.

The material provided to The New York Times was posted on one of the Discord servers where the first set of Pentagon intelligence documents eventually appeared. U.S. officials have said those documents were authentic but cautioned that some had been altered. The documents may also contain outdated or inaccurate information.

The Times described the new batch of documents to multiple U.S. officials. While the officials did not dispute the information, they said they could not, and would not, independently verify the documents.

One slide that appears to have been produced by the military’s Joint Staff and dated Feb. 23 concludes that Russia has failed to disrupt the massive flow of Western arms and equipment into Ukraine since the start of the war, and asserts that the Kremlin’s battered

military will not be able to change that anytime soon.

“During the next 6 months, Russia’s economic challenges and degraded conventional capabilities very likely will further impede its efforts, creating a mostly permissive environment for continued lethal aid deliveries,” the document said.

The new material also includes a six-page document dated Feb. 23 from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence called “the Watch Report.”

Rather than finished intelligence conclusions, the Watch Report compiles various accounts that have come in to intelligence agencies in the hours before it is distributed, some of them from single sources, often without indepth context.

Government officials reading the Watch Report know that some of the materials will be proved correct, but other information, in time, will be shown to be incomplete, according to former officials.

For example, the Watch Report says Russian foreign intelligence “reported” that China had approved giving lethal aid to Russia, citing a communications intercept. It is not clear from the document if the Chinese had told the Russians they were sending the aid, or if the Russians were spying on the Chinese.

On March 3, a few days after the Watch Report document circulated within the U.S. government, NBC News reported, and the Times confirmed, that what the U.S. had learned about the plan to obtain lethal aid from China was “gleaned from Russian officials.”

But a senior administration official cautioned on Wednesday that weeks later, there is no indication that China has decided to give lethal aid to Russia, which suggests at the very least that Russian intelligence about Chinese intentions may be flawed.

Macron stands by comments on Taiwan, but says France backs status quo

By AURELIEN BREEDEN

President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that France’s position toward Taiwan remained unchanged, but he stood by comments he made on the island’s security that dismayed some allies after he returned from a trip to China and insisted that Europe could not be a “vassal” of the United States.

“France’s position and the European position on Taiwan is the same,” Macron said at a news conference in Amsterdam on the second day of a state visit to the Netherlands. “We are for the status quo. This policy is constant and hasn’t changed.”

But he also said that he refused to take part in a “verbal escalation” over the island — a position he said was shared by President Joe Biden, who he said had showed “a willingness to avoid any escalation despite the current tensions.”

Returning from a three-day tour in China, Macron drew sharp criticism from some Western allies and commentators after saying in an interview with Politico and Les Échos, a French newspaper, that it was not in Europe’s interest to “accelerate” on the issue of Taiwan, a self-governing island long claimed by China.

“The worse thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and take our cue from the U.S. agenda and a Chinese overreaction,” Macron said in the interview. He said European countries had to avoid becoming

vassals and being dragged into a growing confrontation between the United States and China.

Macron has made Europe’s “strategic autonomy” one of the main thrusts of his foreign policy, and he has repeatedly in-

sisted that Europe needs to work closely with the United States without being dependent on it.

“Being an ally does not mean being a vassal,” he said Wednesday.

While the insistence on European autonomy is not new, some have questioned the timing of Macron’s comments.

They came as the United States was providing the vast bulk of military support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, and hours before China began threatening military drills around Taiwan in response to a meeting in California days earlier of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

On Wednesday, Macron said he had coordinated with Biden before his visit to China. He said that France and the United States shared the same view of an “open Indo-Pacific region” and the same views on Taiwan, including a commitment to the “One China” policy — a view that mainland China and Taiwan make up a single nation — and to resolving tensions over the island peacefully.

“That’s what I said one to one to the president; that’s what I’ve said everywhere,” Macron added, referring to Xi Jinping, China’s top leader. “We haven’t changed.”

But Macron said that “just because you are allied and do things together doesn’t mean that you don’t have the right to think for yourself and are going to follow those who have the hardest positions in a country that you are allied with.”

President Emmanuel Macron of France speaking during his visit to China last week.

The world could move toward Russia and China

By ROSS DOUTHAT

Last fall, eight months into the new world disorder created by Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the University of Cambridge’s Bennett Institute for Public Policy produced a long report on trends in global public opinion before and after the outbreak of the war. Not surprisingly, the data showed that the conflict had shifted public sentiment in developed democracies in East Asia and Europe, as well as the United States, uniting their citizens against both Russia and China and shifting mass opinion in a more pro-American direction.

But outside this democratic bloc, the trends were very different. For a decade before the Ukraine war, public opinion across “a vast span of countries stretching from continental Eurasia to the north and west of Africa,” in the report’s words, had become more favorable to Russia even as Western public opinion became more hostile. Similarly, people in Europe, the Anglosphere and Pacific Rim democracies like Japan and South Korea all turned against China even before COVID-19, but China was regarded much more favorably across the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia.

Putin’s war in Ukraine shifted these trends only at the margins. Russia did become less popular in 2022, but overall, developing-world public opinion after the invasion was still slightly warmer to Russia than to the United States, and (for the first time) warmer to China

than to America, too. To the extent that the Ukraine conflict betokened a new geopolitical struggle between an American-led “maritime alliance of democracies,” as the report put it, and an alliance of authoritarian regimes anchored in Eurasia, the authoritarian alliance seemed to have surprisingly deep reservoirs of potential popular support.

This reading of the geopolitical landscape has found vindication in the months since. Outside the Anglosphere and Europe, the attempts to quarantine the Russian economy have found little sustained support, and the attempts at diplomatic isolation likewise.

Russian military forces are active across Africa. Moscow is finding willing energy buyers from South Asia to Latin America. Putin’s regime just convened a peace conference with Syria and Turkey and Iran, in the hopes of stabilizing its own position in Syria while sidelining the United States and its Kurdish allies. Leaked documents from U.S. intelligence indicate that President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt recently authorized secret arms sales to Russia, notwithstanding his country’s status as a U.S. ally and aid recipient.

Overall, according to a recent Economist Intelligence survey, outside of the Western alliance there has been a slow bleeding of support from Ukraine: The number of countries condemning the Russian invasion fell slightly in the past year, and the number of neutral and Russia-supporting countries rose. And Russia’s growing non-isolation is matched by increasing diplomatic and economic influence for its ally China, which is playing a crucial role as peacemaker and power broker in the Middle East — with, again, official U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia as its partners.

It’s not clear that the Biden administration has a grand strategy calibrated to this reality. While the White House has resisted some hawkish calls for escalating brinkmanship with Moscow, it has tended to accept the hawkish portrait of a geopolitical landscape increasingly divided between democracy and autocracy, liberalism and authoritarianism. (Witness, for instance, President Joe Biden’s recently convened Summit for Democracy, which deliberately excluded two NATO allies, Hungary and Turkey, because they’re considered worrisome examples of democratic backsliding.)

As Walter Russell Mead noted in The Wall Street Journal, this framing clearly describes international reality to some degree. It also fits with Biden’s domestic political message, which conflates an “international fight for liberal democracy” with an “internal struggle against the populist GOP.”

But as Mead went on to argue, this crusade-fordemocracy vision risks being strategically self-defeating. Abroad, you simply cannot build the alliances required to contain China or Russia if you can’t work with countries that don’t embrace Anglo-American liberalism or Eurocrat proceduralism. You need a way to deal constructively

not just with monarchies and military rulers but also with the political models variously described as populism or illiberal democracy or soft authoritarianism, with leaders in the style of Narendra Modi of India and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, if you don’t want the world to belong to the harder authoritarianism of Moscow or the technototalitarianism of Beijing.

Likewise at home, you cannot rally sustained bipartisan support for a pro-democracy grand strategy if you’re constantly linking this strategy to your conflict with your domestic political opponents. Or, for that matter, if you’re constantly linking it to values that are the province of only your own political coalition. A grand strategy that equates democracy simplistically with social liberalism or progressivism is never going to get sustained buy-in from Republicans, and it will always be hostage to the next election cycle.

This last point is crucial to understanding America’s global challenge as well. Some liberal hawks might like to believe that the challenge of illiberalism is primarily a challenge of regimes imposed on unwilling populations — that Middle Eastern, African and Central Asian elites are favorable to Russia and China because they want to imitate their ruthless mode of rule but that the inhabitants of these countries would be in the liberal camp if only the boot came off their neck.

The Bennett Institute report should cast doubt on that assumption. It doesn’t just show that non-Western mass opinion is favorable to China and Russia. It also offers evidence that a divergence in fundamental values, not just a difference in political leadership or perceived interests, is driving the split between developed democracies and the developing world.

Here the most striking chart appears deep in the report: It shows an index of socially liberal values (measuring secularism, individualism, progressive ideas about sex and drugs and personal freedom) worldwide across the past 30 years. What you see are high-income democracies becoming steadily more liberal since the fall of the Berlin Wall. But there is hardly any change in the values of the rest of the world, no sign that social liberalism is taking hold outside of countries where in 1990 it was powerful already.

This creates a challenge for anyone intent on organizing U.S. foreign policy around current progressive values. Maybe you can unite our closest allies, our liberal imperium’s rich and aging core, around that kind of ideological vision. But you run a real and growing risk of alienating everybody else.

Dr. Ricardo Angulo Publisher

POR CYBERNEWS

SAN JUAN – La organización ecologista Amigxs del M.A.R. advierten que la orden ejecutiva, promulgada por el gobernador Pedro Pierlusi, que declara un estado de emergencia ante los efectos de la erosión costanera, “es ambigua y no atiende los verdaderos problemas que aceleran la erosión costera”.

Aseguran que hace falta una ley para la zona costanera y el detente inmediato de nuevas construcciones.

La organización reconoce que, aunque la OE se presenta como una solución a la crisis en las costas, esta es “vaga”. Aseguran que genera muchas dudas sobre su posible ejecución e ignora la necesidad de transparencia y participación ciudadana directa. Amigxs del Mar también levanta la voz de alerta sobre la posibilidad de que los permisos, endosos, consultas o certificaciones que se relacionen a esta Orden Ejecutiva se tramiten de forma expedita y a espaldas del pueblo conforme a las disposiciones de la Ley Núm. 76- 2000, según enmendada, conocida como la “Ley de procedimiento para situaciones o eventos de emergencia”. Además, señalan que aceleraría la ejecución de obras de infraes-

tructura (muros y revestimientos) propuestas por el Cuerpo de Ingenieros para “mitigar” la erosión costera e inundaciones que han sido rechazadas por comunidades en las áreas impactadas y expertos en oceanografía de Puerto Rico.

“La Orden Ejecutiva ordena al Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales a deslindar los bienes de dominio público marítimo terrestres, ignorando el reclamo de organizaciones y expertos de que la definición actual de zona marítimo terrestre debe enmendarse y atemperarse a la realidad geográfica y a las proyecciones del aumento del nivel del mar, antes de tomar una acción de delimitación nacional”, expresó Carlos Rivera Chaves, analista de política pública de la organización.

Por su parte, Gabriela Vélez Agosto, codirectora de Amigxs del M.A.R. mencionó que “esta declaración de emergencia deja fuera la voz de las comunidades costeras que se han organizado a través de todo el país para reclamar acciones que les incluyan y validen sus experiencias. Es necesario que las comunidades sean partícipes de cualquier acción en torno a mitigación de zonas costeras, pues de lo contrario esto podría acelerar procesos de desplazamientos masivos y desencadenar un sin número de problemáticas que, en lugar de atender

Oficina Seguro Social de San Juan estará cerrada temporalmente

la emergencia, aumente la vulnerabilidad de estas comunidades”. POR CYBERNEWS

S AN JUAN – La oficina de Seguro Social de San Juan, en la Urbanización Caribe Suite 201, 1570

Ave Ponce de León, San Juan, deberá cerrar su ubicación actual a partir del viernes, 14 de abril a las 4:00 de la tarde, debido a problemas continuos relacionados con las instalaciones.

La agencia abrirá una nueva oficina en el área en el futuro.

Mientras tanto, las personas que necesiten realizar sus trámites de Seguro Social en persona pueden visitar una de las siguientes oficinas de Seguro Social:

Carolina, Centro Comercial Plaza Escorial, 5829 Avenida 65 de Infantería Suite 201, Carolina, 00987, Teléfono (833) 882-1202

San Patricio, San Patricio Plaza, Ébano Office Center, Segundo Piso, F5 Calle Ébano, Guaynabo, PR 00968, Teléfono: (866) 783-0627

El horario de las oficinas de Seguro Social es lunes a viernes, de 9:00 a.m. a 4:00 p.m. Los empleados de la oficina de San Juan estarán trabajando en las oficinas cercanas de Carolina y San Patricio hasta nuevo aviso.

La agencia exhorta a las personas que puedan, a utilizar sus servicios en internet en www.seguroso-

cial.gov, llamar por teléfono, y programar citas con anticipación cuando sea posible, en lugar de presentarse sin una cita. Las citas telefónicas pueden ahorrar a las personas un viaje a una oficina ocupada.

La mayoría de los servicios de Seguro Social están disponibles para el público a través del internet con una cuenta ‘my Social Security’, o por teléfono. Y la mayoría de los servicios de Seguro Social no requieren que el público se tome el tiempo de visitar una oficina. Las personas pueden crear su cuenta ‘my Social Security’, un servicio personalizado, en www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount. Si ya reciben beneficios de Seguro Social, pueden comenzar o actualizar su depósito directo, obtener remplazo de su SSA-1099, e imprimir o descargar una Carta de Verificación de Beneficios actual de su cuenta. Las personas que aún no reciben beneficios pueden usar su cuenta en línea para obtener una Declaración de Seguro Social personalizada, que proporciona información sobre sus ingresos de trabajo, así como estimados de sus beneficios futuros. El portal también incluye una calculadora de jubilación y enlaces a información sobre otros beneficios en línea.

Amigxs del M.A.R catalogan de “vaga“ y “ambigua“ la declaración de emergencia por erosión costera del gobernador

In her new show, Rita Indiana confronts all kinds of ghosts

By ISABELIA HERRERA

“In the time you dropped a chorus, I wrote five novels.”

It’s the kind of shot that only Rita Indiana could fire off in a song. The lyrics — which appear in “Como un dragón,” the lead single from the musician and writer’s last album, “Mandinga Times,” in 2020 — encapsulate the interdisciplinary abundance she has cultivated over the past 20 years. They also show off a slick-talking, Caribbean kind of realness, which lives in the characters that populate her world.

On a recent Friday afternoon, Indiana was running around at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, posing for photos and working on set decorations with an assistant. She and her wife, Puerto Rican filmmaker Noelia Quintero Herencia, were putting the final touches on a multimedia performance called “Tu nombre verdadero”

(“Your Real Name”), which debuts Friday at the Clemente’s Flamboyán Theater.

Indiana, who sports a huge tattoo of an American buffalo on her right hand, sighed as she paused to rest on a bench. Tufts of gray sprouted from her shaggy pixie cut.

“I’m a punk abuela,” she said, laughing.

Not quite your average grandma.

Over the past two decades, the 45-year-old Dominican artist has transformed into one of the Caribbean’s foremost cultural agitators. Indiana’s repertoire unsettles deeply entrenched cultural norms — she’s not afraid to write queer sex scenes in her award-winning books or condemn corrupt politicians in her genre-shattering songs. In 2010, she and her band Los Misterios released the blistering “El juidero,” a record about diasporic longing and Dominican identity that shredded up merengue, rock and Afro-Dominican folk styles.

Indiana’s early works were almost documentarian, exploring the everyday joys and contradictions of Caribbean life. In recent years, she has journeyed into freakier, more fantastical universes. For “Mandinga Times,” which was nominated for a Latin Grammy, she developed a demonic nonbinary alter ego meant to symbolize all kinds of marginalized bodies.

Her 2015 novel, “La mucama de Ominculé,” a dystopian tale set in Santo Domingo, follows a transgender protagonist who travels back in time via a divine sea anemone to save the world from nuclear catastrophe. Scholars praise Indiana’s constellatory style, particularly the way she integrates tropical futurism, queer poetics and the buoyancy of Dominican speech to imagine the liberatory possibilities of the present. The acclaim has made her a literary superstar; she is currently serving as the acting director of New York University’s Creative Writing in Spanish MFA program.

The theatricality of “Tu nombre verdadero” draws on Indiana’s teenage years in the independent Dominican theater group Teatro Guloya, where she studied alongside visionary actors Claudio Rivera and Viena González. Quintero Herencia has worked as a director, prop designer and set builder in most of Indiana’s films and music videos, and said the piece will feature dreamlike visual projections.

“Tu nombre verdadero” is the “inevitable fate of our practices,” Indiana added.

While conceptualizing the show, commissioned by the Americas Society, the couple navigated a wave of death, both personal and collective. They mourned the millions lost in the pandemic, as well as close friends, relatives and beloved musicians like Quintero Herencia’s mother, Dominican painter Jorge Pineda and merengue icon Johnny Ventura. In part, the performance is a way to guide “our ghosts” to a better place and process our memories of them, Indiana said.

The couple’s long-standing fascination with death and ancestral energies has surfaced in their previous work.

“I never separate my art from my spiritual world and the world of my ancestors,” Quintero Herencia said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a movie, a documentary or a drawing. There’s always a channel that I open that I know is connected to the ancestral world.”

Indiana, whose father died violently when she was around 12, explained that death has intrigued her for as long as she can remember. She often wonders how a body “that we love with, fight with, work with, understand with, cry with” suddenly becomes nothing.

It’s a subject that has also emerged from Caribbean colonial wounds. The island of Hispaniola, home to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, was the first New World colony settled by Spain in 1493. Indiana said the region is still confronting its sordid past — the massacre of native Taínos, the cruel violence of the Atlantic slave trade — and all the cultural knowledge and traditions that were annihilated in the process.

“Colonialism is a machine of death,” she said. “We are a part of that — of all that pain and that whole factory of bones.”

Indiana tapped a small crew of musicians for the show, including composer and frequent collaborator Luis Amed Irizarry, who arranged the songbook for piano and drums. Efraín Martínez, a drummer who has toured with merengue idol Olga Tañón and recorded with reggae group Cultura Profética, also joined the lineup.

She recalled the influence of her great-aunt Ivonne Haza, a decorated soprano, who was a vocal coach for some of the Dominican Republic’s most renowned singers, including Fernandito Villalona and Sonia Silvestre. Haza would give lessons at Indiana’s grandparents’ house, where Rita lived until she was 7.

“That was like the soundtrack to my

homework: four hours, five hours of that,” she explained, chuckling.

The songbook is impressionistic, sculpting Dominican gagá, Spanish copla, Cuban son and other genres into abstract shapes. There is even an experimental merengue, inspired by Danny Elfman’s Tim Burton scores, and an English-language satirical country number that addresses the brutality of Latin American dictatorships. Indiana burst into the chorus of the song, adopting a Southern twang: “He’s our strongman, he’s our puppet, he’s our pawn/ You should see how he trips/ Over our banana splits/ When we choose his killers from among his own.”

Rita Indiana in New York on April 2, 2023. “Tu nombre verdadero” (“Your Real Name”), which debuts Friday in New York, is a spiritual multimedia performance from the 45-year-old novelist and musician.

SOCIAL

April 14-16, 2023 18

A unique experience in flavors: Krug X Lemon

By JUDY GORDON-CONDE and JENNIFER CONDEPOWERS

Aspecial group of quality champagne lovers enjoyed an exquisite tasting menu recently at the exceptionally popular 1919 Restaurant in the luxurious Condado Vanderbilt Hotel, designed exclusively for the guests by Chef Juan José Cuevas with lemon as the main ingredient in every exceptional plate served, and with designer Krug X Lemon as the inspiration for the extraordinary dining experience.

Manuel Reman, the new president of Casa Krug in France, was the guest of honor greeting guests, and Chef Cuevas, the only ambassador of Krug in the Caribbean, explained the history of Casa Krug, which has produced the world-famous champagne with passion for over 180 years.

Delighted dinner guests dined on the most incredible delicacies combined in the most extraordinary tasting menu that received rave reviews and grand applause from the guests for Chef Cuevas and his team.

Amuse Bouche consisting of

potato emulsion, lemon gel, foie-chocolate, panna cotta buddha hand lemon, champagne, caviar, paired with Krug 2006; later Meyer Lemon tuna, Kaviari Oscietta grosgrain caviar scallop, carrot, celery, scallion, bottarga, Meyer Lemon cured ora King Salmon, cucumber and smoked caviar served with Krug Grande Cuvée 170 Edition; an exquisite surprise of Eureka Lemon; poached halibut, clams, shrimp, freekeh, nduja, paersan-preserved lemon jus, also with Krug Grande Cuvée 170 Edition, and a last main plate of candied lemons with lamb loin, caramelized ribs, peanut-candied lemons, parmesan churros, pomme puree-langres, truffle jus served with Krug Rosé 25 Edition and a flamboyant finale dessert of lemon cream, sable, lemonbutterscotch sauce with an incredible basil lemon sorbet, all bringing about a sensational end to an incredible dining experience.

The San Juan Daily Star

Hotel and Krug brand ambassador

From left, Arnaldi Carrasquillo, Louis Henrion, Sylvette Carrasquillo, Andrea García, Manuel Reman and Diego Adolfo Suárez

Luis Dana and Mellanie González

Juan José Cuevas, executive chef at 1919 Restaurant, Vanderbilt Hotel and Krug Champagne ambassador, applies the final touches to one of the dishes to be tasted.

Agnes Seda and Jorge Fernández

LEGAL NOTICE

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO

LIME HOMES LTD.

Plaintiff V. FLOR CHINEA TORRES

Defendant

Civil Núm.: 16-CV-2911. (ADC).

Re: FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE - IN REM. NOTICE OF SALE.

To: FLOR CHINEA TORRES, ANY OTHER PARTY WITH INTEREST OVER THE PROPERTY MENTIONED BELOW; GENERAL PUBLIC.

WHEREAS: Judgment was entered in favor of plaintiff to recover from defendants the sum of $107,789.22 in principal, interest rate of 6.5000% per annum since December 1, 2014. Such interest will continue to accrue until the debt is paid in full. An additional deferred balance of $6,969.73 does not accrue interest at this time. In addition, the Defendant(s) owes the Plaintiff late charges amounting to 5% of any and all monthly payments or installments in arrears over fifteen (15) days after the installment is due. The Defendant(s) also owe the Plaintiff all of the advances made pursuant to the provisions and/or dispositions of the Mortgage Note and the Mortgage Deed. The Defendant(s) also owes an amount equivalent to 10% of the original principal balance, or $10,835.00, as a liquidated amount to cover the costs, expenses, and attorney’s fees. The records of the case and of these proceedings may be examined by interested parties at the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Room 150, Federal Office Building, 150 Chardon Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. WHEREAS: Pursuant to the terms of the aforementioned Judgment, Order of Execution, and the Writ of Execution thereof, the undersigned Special Master was ordered to sell at public auction for U.S. currency in cash or certified check without appraisement or right of redemption to the highest bidder and at the office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Room 150 – Federal Office Building, 150 Carlos Chardón Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, to cover the sums adjudged to be paid to the plaintiff, the following property (as described in the Property Registry in Spanish language): Cond. Turabo Clusters, C-H302, Caguas, PR 00725. URBANA: Propie-

dad Horizontal: Apartamento residencial identificado con el número H-302, localizado en la tercera planta del Cluster C del Condominio Turabo Clusters, sito en la Avenida principal del barrio Cañabon de Caguas, Puerto Rico, el cual tiene una cabida superficial de 1,131.63 pies cuadrados, equivalentes a 105.13 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con el elemento exterior, el pasillo y las escaleras que dan acceso de entrada y salida al apartamento, al edificio, al condominio y vía pública, en treinta y un pies nueve pulgadas; por el SUR, con el elemento exterior, con treinta y un pies nueve pulgadas; por el ESTE, con el elemento exterior y la pared medianera del apartamento H-301, en cuarenta pies; y por el OESTE, con el elemento exterior, en cuarenta pies. La puerta principal de entrada a este apartamento se encuentra localizada en su colindancia

Norte. Consta este apartamento de sala-comedor, cocina, tres dormitorios, dos servicios sanitarios y balcón. A este apartamento le corresponde como elemento común limitado un espacio para estacionamiento que acomoda dos vehículos de motor. Este espacio para estacionamiento se identifica con la letra del Cluster, donde se encuentra sito el apartamento y el número de éste. Elementos comunes generales del condominio 0.4722%. The property is recorded at page 111 of Caguas, volume 1622, property number 53835 on Puerto Rico

Property Registry at Caguas, Section I. The mortgage is recorded at page 59 of volume 1690 of Caguas, 3rd inscription, property #53835 of the Property Registry of Property of Caguas.

Section I. The modification is recorded at page 59 overloaf of Caguas, volume 1690, property #53835, fourth inscription in the Property Registry of Caguas, Section I. WHEREAS: This property is subject to the following liens: Senior Liens: None. Junior Liens: None. Other Liens: None. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior and preferential liens to the one being foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax, liens, (express, tacit, implied or legal) shall continue in effect it being understood further that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. THEREFORE, the

FIRST PUBLIC SALE shall be held on the 16TH DAY OF MAY OF 2023, AT: 9:00 AM. The minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $108,350.00. In the event said first auction does not produce a bidder and the property is not adjudicated, a SECOND PUBLIC AUCTION shall be held on 23RD DAY OF MAY OF 2023, AT: 9:00 AM, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum $72,233.33, which is two-thirds of the amount of the minimum bid for the first public sale. If a second auction does not result in the adjudication and sale of the property, a THIRD PUBLIC AUCTION will be held on the 30TH DAY OF MAY OF 2023, AT: 9:00 AM, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $54,175.00, which is one-half of the minimum bid in the first public sale. Should there be no award or adjudication at the third public sale, the property may be awarded to the creditor for the entire amount of its debt if it is equal to or less than the amount of the minimum bid of the third public sale, crediting this amount to the amount owed if it is greater. The Special Master shall not accept in payment of the property to be sold anything but United States currency or certified checks, except in case the property is sold and adjudicated to the plaintiff, in which case the amount of the bid made by said plaintiff shall be credited and deducted from its credit; said plaintiff being bound to pay in cash or certified check only any excess of its bid over the secured indebtedness that remains unsatisfied. WHEREAS: Said sale to be made by the Special Master subject to confirmation by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico and the deed of conveyance and possession to the property will be executed and delivered only after such confirmation. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued cancelling all junior liens. For further particulars, reference is made to the judgment entered by the Court in this case, which can be examined in the Office of Clerk of the United States District Court, District of Puerto Rico. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 22nd day of March of 2023. PEDRO

A. VÉLEZ-BAERGA, SPECIAL MASTER, SPECIALMASTERPR@GMAIL.COM, 787-6728269.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE UTUADO

WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB, NOT INDIVIDUALLY BUT SOLELY AS TRUSTEE FOR FINANCE OF AMERICA STRUCTURED SECURITIES ACQUISITION TRUST

2018-HB1

Demandante Vs. MINERVA SANCHEZ VIRUET T/C/C MINERVA SANCHEZ; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA

Demandados

Civil Núm.: UT2022CV00217.

Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: LA PARTE DEMANDADA, AL (A LA) SECRETARIO(A) DE HACIENDA DE PUERTO RICO Y AL PÚBLICO

GENERAL:

Certifico y Hago Constar: Que en cumplimiento con el Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por el (la) Secretario(a) del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Utuado, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América y/o Giro Postal y Cheque Certificado, en mi oficina ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Utuado, el 4 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 2:00 DE LA TARDE, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: RÚSTICA: Parcela marcada con el número 16 en el plano de parcelación de la Comunidad Rural Vista Alegre, radicada en el Barrio Mameyes Arriba, del término municipal de Jayuya, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 451.37 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con la Calle 2; por el SUR, con la parcela 11; por el ESTE, con la parcela 17; y por el OESTE, con la parcela 15. Finca número 5780, inscrita al folio 243 del tomo 98 de Jayuya, Registro de la Propiedad de Utuado. La Hipoteca Revertida consta inscrita al folio 202 del tomo 171 de Jayuya, finca número 5780, Registro de la Propiedad de Utuado, inscripción 3ª. Propiedad localizada en: SOLAR #16 PR 141 KM 13.0, SECTOR VISTA ALE-

GRE, JAYUYA, PR 00664. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas anteriores o preferentes: Nombre del Titular: N/A. Suma de la Carga: N/A. Fecha de Vencimiento: N/A. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas posteriores a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: Nombre del Titular: Secretario de la Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano. Suma de la Carga: $75,000.00. Fecha de Vencimiento: 16 de abril de 2096. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad de la propiedad y que todas las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito ejecutante antes descritos, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes. El rematante acepta dichas cargas y gravámenes anteriores, y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se establece como tipo de mínima subasta la suma de $75,000.00, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la escritura de hipoteca. De ser necesaria una SEGUNDA SUBASTA por declararse desierta la primera, la misma se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Utuado, el 11 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 2:00 DE LA TARDE, y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $50,000.00, 2/3 partes del tipo mínima establecido originalmente. Si tampoco se produce remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se establece como mínima para la TERCERA SUBASTA, la suma de $37,500.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Utuado, el 18 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 2:00 DE LA TARDE. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para, con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante, el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor ascendente a la suma de $51,708.49 por concepto de principal, más la suma de $9,503.05 en intereses acumulados al 2 de septiembre de 2022 y los cuales continúan acumulándose a razón de 5.060% anual hasta su total y completo pago; más la sumas de $3,347.60 por concepto del seguro hipotecario; $3,450.00 por concepto de cargos por servicio; $1,599.86 por concepto de contribuciones; $841.68 por concepto de seguro; $1,075.00 por concepto de ta-

saciones; $280.00 por concepto de inspecciones; $1,642.50 por concepto de adelantos de honorarios de abogado; más la cantidad de 10% del pagare original en la suma de $7,500.00, por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. La venta en pública subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen posterior que afecte la mencionada finca, a cuyo efecto se notifica y se hace saber la fecha, hora y sitio de la PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA, si esto fuera necesario, a los efectos de que cualquier persona o personas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha subasta. Se notifica a todos los interesados que las actas y demás constancias del expediente de este caso están disponibles en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables para ser examinadas por los (las) interesados (as). Y para su publicación en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star, que es un diario de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, así como para su publicación en los sitios públicos de Puerto Rico. Expedido en Utuado, Puerto Rico, hoy 23 de marzo de 2023. ALG. JOSÉ

F. RIVERA PÉREZ, ALGUACIL REGIONAL. ALG. RICARDO DE ACEVEDO RIVERA, ALGUACIL PLACA #414.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN

REVERSE MORTGAGE

FUNDING LLC

Demandante Vs. SUCESIÓN ALFONSO

FLORES ORTIZ COMPUESTA POR

FRANCISCO GUTIÉRREZ

FLORES; JOHN ROE Y JANE ROE COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; SUCESIÓN DIGNA

MILAGROS HERNANDEZ

MARTINEZ COMPUESTA

FRANCISCO GUTIÉRREZ

FLORES; JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS;

ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES

Demandados

Civil Núm.: BY2022CV03695. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: LA PARTE DEMANDADA, AL (A LA) SECRETARIO(A) DE HACIENDA DE PUERTO RICO Y AL PÚBLICO

GENERAL:

Certifico y Hago Constar: Que en cumplimiento con el Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por el (la) Secretario(a) del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Bayamón, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América y/o Giro Postal y Cheque Certificado, en mi oficina ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, Cuarto Piso, Oficina de Alguaciles de Subastas, el 9 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS

9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación:

URBANA: Solar radicado en el Reparto León, situado en el barrio Quebrada Cruz del término municipal de Toa Alta, y contiene una casa residencial de concreto armado y bloques diseñada para una familia. Bloque y número del solar: B-4. Área del solar: 916.3945 mc. En lindes por el NORTE, en 22.4851 me con área dedicada a uso público rotulada letra “B”; por el ESTE, en 39.216 metros con el solar B-5; y por el OESTE, en 42.4113 metros con el solar B-3. Contiene una casa en concreto armado y bloques. Finca número 14,847, inscrita al folio 21 del tomo 303 de Toa Alta, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección III. La Hipoteca Revertida consta inscrita al folio 57 del tomo 544 de Toa Alta, finca número 14,847, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección III, inscripción 2ª. Propiedad localizada en:

URB. REPARTO LEON, B-4

CALLE 1, TOA ALTA, PUERTO RICO 00953-2310. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas anteriores o preferentes: Nombre del Titular: N/A. Suma de la Carga: N/A. Fecha de Vencimiento: N/A. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gra-

vada por las siguientes cargas posteriores a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: Nombre del Titular: Secretario de la Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano. Suma de la Carga: $175,500.00. Fecha de Vencimiento: 8 de agosto de 2092. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad de la propiedad y que todas las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito ejecutante antes descritos, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes. El rematante acepta dichas cargas y gravámenes anteriores, y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se establece como tipo de mínima subasta la suma de $175,500.00, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la escritura de hipoteca. De ser necesaria una SEGUNDA SUBASTA por declararse desierta la primera, la misma se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, Cuarto Piso, Oficina de Alguaciles de Subastas, el 16 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $117,000.00, 2/3 partes del tipo mínima establecido originalmente. Si tampoco se produce remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se establece como mínima para la TERCERA SUBASTA, la suma de $87,750.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, Cuarto Piso, Oficina de Alguaciles de Subastas, el 23 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para, con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante, el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor ascendente a la suma de $86,098.65 por concepto de principal, más la suma de $43,806.73 en intereses acumulados al 5 de octubre de 2022 y los cuales continúan acumulándose a razón de 5.060% anual hasta su total y completo pago; más la sumas de $13,161.75 en seguro hipotecario; $2,623.93 en seguro; $475.00 de tasaciones; $200.00 de inspecciones; $1,027.50 en honorarios de abogado; más la cantidad de 10% del pagare original en la suma de $17,550.00, para gastos, costas y honorarios de abogado, esta última habrá de devengar intereses al máximo del tipo legal fijado por la oficina del Comisionado de Instituciones Financieras aplicable a esta fe-

The San Juan Daily Star

cha, desde este mismo día hasta su total y completo saldo. La venta en pública subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen posterior que afecte la mencionada finca, a cuyo efecto se notifica y se hace saber la fecha, hora y sitio de la PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA, si esto fuera necesario, a los efectos de que cualquier persona o personas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha subasta. Se notifica a todos los interesados que las actas y demás constancias del expediente de este caso están disponibles en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables para ser examinadas por los (las) interesados (as). Y para su publicación en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star, que es un diario de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, así como para su publicación en los sitios públicos de Puerto Rico. Expedido en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy 24 de marzo de 2023. FRANCES TORRES CONTRERAS, ALGUACIL REGIONAL. MARIBEL LANZAR VELÁZQUEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #735.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL

GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE GURABO CASISTAS BLANCAS LLC

Demandante V.

GAMAL ABDEL RIVERA O’NEILL, MAYRA

LARACUENTE BERNAT, Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES POR ESTOS COMPUESTA

Demandados

Civil Núm.: GR2021CV00185.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA. El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas, hago saber a la parte demandada GAMAL ABDEL RIVERA O’NEILL, MAYRA LARACUENTE BERNAT, Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES POR ESTOS COMPUESTA, y al PÚBLICO EN GENERAL; que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el 16 de febrero de 2023, por la Secretaría del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta por el precio mínimo de $212,500.00 y al mejor postor, pagadero en efectivo, cheque de gerente o giro postal, a nom-

bre del alguacil del tribunal, la propiedad que se describe a continuación: APT. 3302 PASEO GALES, GURABO, PR 00778, y que se describe de la siguiente manera: URBANA: Edificio número 3. Propiedad Horizontal: Apartamento identificado con el número 3302 ubicado en el módulo 3 del edificio 3, en el primer piso del Condominio Paseo Gales, a su vez localizado en el barrio Rincón del término municipal de Gurabo, Puerto Rico. El apartamento consta de 2 plantas, con una cabida total de 1630.08 pies cuadrados, equivalentes a 151.50 metros cuadrados. Colinda su primera planta, por el NORTE, en una distancia de 22’ equivalentes a 6.70 metros con el patio posterior del apartamento que se le asignó su uso y disfrute; por el SUR, en una distancia de 22’ equivalentes a 6.70 metros con la escalera, el lobby y una pared que es un elemento exterior; por el ESTE, en una distancia de 38’10” equivalentes a 11.84 metros con el apartamento número 3301 y por el OESTE, en una distancia de 38’10” equivalentes a 11.84 metros lineales con una pared que es un elemento exterior. La primera planta consta de un área de 815.04 pies cuadrados equivalentes a 75.75 metros cuadrados y contiene foyer, sala, comedor, un linen closet, lavandería, cocina, balcón y una escalera. Colinda su segunda planta en las mismas distancias que su primera planta, por el NORTE, con una pared que es un elemento exterior; por el SUR, con la escalera y una pared que es un elemento exterior; por el ESTE, con el apartamento número 3201 y por el OESTE, con una pared que es un elemento exterior. La segunda planta tiene un área de 815.04 pies cuadrados equivalentes a 75.75 metros cuadrados y contiene un master bedroom con walk-in-closet, dos dormitorios adicionales y dos baños. Su puerta principal de acceso se encuentra en su colindancia Sur. Le corresponde una participación en los elementos comunes generales de .0102165%. También le ha sido asignado a este apartamento el uso y disfrute exclusivo de dos estacionamientos para vehículos de motor debidamente marcados e identificados con el número del apartamento en el área de estacionamiento del condominio. Finca 18342 inscrita al folio 123 del tomo 417 de Gurabo, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, sección II. La finca antes descrita se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: (i) Hipoteca en garantía de pagaré a favor de Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Puerto Rico, o a su orden, por la suma de $212,500.00 con intereses al 6.50% anual y vencimiento 1 de junio de

2036. Constituida por la Escritura 115 otorgada en San Juan el 16 de mayo de 2006 ante el notario Rosario González Sosa, e inscrita al folio 213 del tomo 473 de Gurabo, finca 18342, inscripción 2, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, sección II. La hipoteca objeto de esta ejecución es la que ha quedado descrita en el inciso (i). Será celebrada la subasta para con el importe de la misma satisfacer la sentencia dicta el 20 de abril de 2022, por la suma de $168,275.50 de principal, más interés que continuarán acumulándose desde el día 1 de septiembre de 2019 hasta el saldo total al 6.50% anual, $604.44 de cargos por demora, $21,250.00 de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, más cualquier otro desembolso que haya efectuado o efectúe la parte demandante durante la tramitación de este caso para otros adelantos de conformidad con el Contrato Hipotecario, incluyendo primas de seguro de hipoteca, prima de seguro de siniestro y cargos por demora. La PRIMERA SUBASTA será celebrada el día 2

DE MAYO DE 2023 A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina del Alguacil, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, Puerto Rico. Servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma la cantidad de $212,500.00, sin admitirse oferta inferior. De no haber remate ni adjudicación, celebraré SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 9 DE MAYO DE 2023

A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar, en la que servirá como tipo mínimo, dos terceras (2/3) partes del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $141,666.67. Si no hubiese remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, celebraré TERCERA SUBASTA el día 16 DE MAYO DE 2023 A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar en la que regirá como tipo mínimo, la mitad del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $106,250.00. El Alguacil que suscribe hizo constar que toda licitación deberá hacerse para pagar su importe en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América, de acuerdo con la Ley y de acuerdo con lo anunciado en este Aviso de Subasta. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables. Se entiende que todo licitador que comparezca a la subasta señalada en este caso acepta como bastante la titulación que da base a la misma. Se entiende que cualquier carga y/o gravamen anterior y/o preferente, si la hubiere al crédito que da base a esta ejecución continuará subsistente, entendiéndose, además, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mis-

mos, sin destinarse a su extinción cualquier parte del remanente del precio de licitación. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Vendida o adjudicada la finca o derecho hipotecado y consignado el precio correspondiente, en esa misma fecha o fecha posterior, el alguacil que celebró la subasta procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura pública de traspaso en representación del dueño o titular de los bienes hipotecados, ante el notario que elija el adjudicatario o comprador, quien deberá abonar el importe de tal escritura. El alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial al nuevo dueño, si así se lo solicita dentro del término de veinte (20) días a partir de la confirmación de la venta o adjudicación. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante u ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del deudor la ocupen. Y PARA CONOCIMIENTO DE LOS LICITADORES Y DEL PUBLICO EN GENERAL y para su publicación de acuerdo con la Ley, expido el presente Edicto bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal. En Caguas, Puerto Rico, hoy 17 de marzo de 2023. EDGARDO ALDEBOL MIRANDA, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE CAGUAS.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN.

MASSACHUSETTS

MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY Demandante VS ANGELA MARÍA

PIMENTEL DE LA ROSA, por sí y como miembro de la SUCESION DE

RAFAEL RIVERA

FIGUEREO t/c/c RAFAEL

RIVERA FIGUEROA compuesta por sus hijos

PABL0 RAFAEL RİVERA

PIMENTEL; RAFAEL

RIVERA PIMENTEL; BRENDALIZ RIVERA

PIMENTE; RICHARD

RIVERA DISLA y los herederos desconocidos denominados como FULANO DE TAL Y MENGANA MAS CUAL; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES RAFAEL RIVERA PIMENTEL; RAFAEL RIVERA PIMENTEL; BRENDALIZ RIVERA PIMENTE; RICHARD RIVERA DISLA Y los herederos desconocidos denominados como FULANO DE TAL Y MENGANA MAS CUAL: CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM) ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA, Demandados CIVIL NUM. SJ2021CV06459. SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA POR LA VIA ORDINARIA. EDICTODE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.

A: La Parte Demandada, al (a la) Secretario(a) de Hacienda de Puerto Rico y al Público General: Certifico y Hago Constar: Que en cumplimiento con el Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por el (la) Secretario(a) del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, en el caso de epígrafe procederá a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor en efectivo, cheque gerente, giro postal, cheque certificado en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América al nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, en mi oficina ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, el 25 de Abril de 2023, a las 11:30 de la mañana, todo derecho titulo, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación:

URBANA: Solar marcado con el número once del bloque AE del plano de inscripción de la Urbanización Extensión Country Club situado en el barrio Sabana Llana de la municipalidad de

Rlo Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 300.15 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en 13.05 metros con el solar 20; por el SUR, en 13.05 metros con la calle 58; por el ESTE, en 23.00 metros con el solar 10; y por el OESTE, en 23.00 metros con el solar 12. Consta inscrita al folio 241 del tomo 125 de Sabana Llana, finca número 5449, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección Quinta de San Juan.- Propiedad localizada en: 917 Urbanización Labrador Country Club, San Juan, PR 00924 tic/e Urbanización

Extensión Country Club, Solar #11 Bloque AE, Barrio Sabana Llana, San Juan, PR 00924. Según figuran en la certificación registra!, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está no gravada por las siguientes cargas anteriores o preferentes. Según figuran en la certificación registra!, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas posteriores a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: HIPOTECA en garantía de pagaré a favor del Secretary of Housing and Urban Development o a su orden por la suma principal de $3956.45 sin devengar intereses y vencimiento el 1 de enero del 2031.

Constituida por la Escritura #18 otorgada en San Juan el 30 de septiembre de 2004 ante el notario José Manuel Rosa Malavé. Inscrita el 28 de enero de 2009 al folio 1 del Tomo 1043 de Sabana Llana, inscripción

7ª. HIPOTECA en garantía de pagaré a favor del Secretary of Housing and Urban Development por la suma principal de $7,036.54 la cual no devenga intereses y vencimiento el 1 de octubre de 2045 según consta de la Escritura #760 otorgada en San Juan el 13 de noviembre de 2015 ante la notario Magda V. Alsina Figueroa. Inscrita el 27 de julio del 2020 al Tomo Digital Karibe de la finca 5449 de Sabana Llana, inscripción 9ª. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad de la propiedad y que todas las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito ejecutante antes descritos, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes. El rematante acepta dichas cargas y gravámenes anteriores, y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se establece como tipo mínimo de subasta la suma de $81,801.61, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la escritura de hipoteca. De ser necesaria una segunda subasta por declararse desierta la primera, la misma se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, el 2 de Mayo de 2023, a las 11:30 de la mañana, y se

establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $54,534.41, 2/3 partes del tipo mínimo establecido originalmente. Si tampoco se produce remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se establece como mínima para la tercera subasta, la suma de $40,900.80, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, el 9 de mayo de 2023, a las 11:30 de la mañana. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para, con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante, el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor ascendente a la suma de $75,951.65; intereses al 4.00%,. los cuales se acumulan mensualmente desde el 1ro. de agosto de 2019 hasta el saldo total de la deuda; $406.12 por concepto de cargos por demora, los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo de la deuda; $8,186.16 por concepto de honorarios de abogado; asf como cualquier otra suma que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca. La venta en pública subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen posterior que afecte la mencionada finca, a cuyo efecto se notifica y se hace saber la fecha, hora y sitio de la PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA, si esto fuera necesario, ~ los efectos de que cualquier persona o personas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha subasta. Se notifica a todos los interesados que las actas y demás constancias del expediente de este caso están disponibles en la Secretarla del Tribunal durante horas laborables para ser examinadas por los (las) interesados (as). Y para su publicación en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star, que es un diario de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, así como para su publicación en los sitios públicos de Puerto Rico. Expedido en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy dia 21 de marzo de 2023.

ERIK F. OSUNA ACEVEDO, Alguacil Auxiliar. ALGUACIL DE SUBASTAS, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN, SALA SUPERIOR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE PONCE GITSIT SOLUTIONS, LLC

Demandante Vs.

RIVERA Y ROSA MARÍA LEON ORTIZ T/C/C ROSA MARIA LEON, COMPUESTA POR SUS HIJOS VICTOR MANUEL PEREZ LEON, JOSE MANUEL PEREZ LEON, ELVIN PEREZ LEON Y BETZIA ESTER PEREZ LEON; FULANO DE TAL Y MENGANA DE TAL, COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS CON POSIBLE INTERÉS EN LAS SUCESIONES; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM), COMO PARTE CON POSIBLE INTERÉS

Demandados Civil Núm.: PO2021CV02313. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: LA PARTE DEMANDADA, AL (A LA) SECRETARIO(A) DE HACIENDA DE PUERTO RICO Y AL PÚBLICO

GENERAL:

Certifico y Hago Constar: Que en cumplimiento con el Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por el (la) Secretario( a) del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Ponce, en el caso de epígrafe procederá a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor en efectivo, cheque gerente, giro postal, cheque certificado en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América al nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, en mi oficina ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Ponce, el 16 DE MAYO DE 2023 A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: RÚSTICA: Parcela marcada con el número 148 en el plano de parcelación de la comunidad rural Las Ollas del barrio Descalabrado de Santa Isabel, con una cabida superficial de .0935 diezmilésimas de cuerda equivalentes a 367.43 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con calle; por el SUR, con parcela número 169; por el ESTE, con parcela número 149 y por el OESTE, con parcela número 147. Inscrita al folio 238 del tomo 130 de Santa Isabel, finca número 4833, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Guayama.

posesión judicial al nuevo dueño, si así se lo solicita dentro del término de veinte (20) días, de conformidad con las disposiciones de Ley. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante u ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del deudor la ocupen. Expedido en Fajardo, Puerto Rico, a 30 de marzo de 2023.

JORGE A. ORTIZ ESTRADA, ALGUACIL REGIONAL INTERINO #622. DENISE BRUNO ORTIZ, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR PLACA #266.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE BAYAMÓN BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. WILLIAM SÁNCHEZ

RUIZ, MERILYN MELÉNDEZ SERRANO

Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR

AMBOS, SECRETARIO

DEL DEPARTAMENTO DE DESARROLLO URBANO Y VIVIENDA DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, JOHN DOE

Demandadas

Civil Núm.: TA2023CV00141. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO POR LA VÍA JUDICIAL. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, S.S.

A: WILLIAM SÁNCHEZ RUIZ, MERILYN MELÉNDEZ SERRANO Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR

AMBOS COMO TENEDOR DESCONOCIDO DEL PAGARÉ a favor de Secretario Del Departamento Urbano y Vivienda de los Estado Unidos De América por la suma $5,697.16, sin intereses y con vencimiento el día 1 de octubre de 2019, constituida mediante la escritura 340 otorgada en San Juan el 29 de septiembre de 2003 ante el notario José V. Gorbea Varona, inscrita en la finca 19,906 de Toa Alta, Registro de la Propiedad

de Puerto Rico, Tercera Sección de Bayamón.

Por la presente se le emplaza y notifica que debe contestar la demanda incoada en su contra dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del presente edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio. Si usted deja de presentar y notificar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el Tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, o cualquier otro, si el Tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Los abogados de la parte demandante son:

ABOGADOS DE LA PARTE

DEMANDANTE:

Lcdo. Reggie Díaz Hernández RUA Núm.: 16,393

BERMUDEZ & DIAZ LLP

Suite 209

500 Calle De La Tanca San Juan, Puerto Rico 00901

Tel.: (787) 523-2670

Fax: (787) 523-2664

rdíaz@bdprlaw.com

Expido este edicto bajo mi firma y el sello de este Tribunal, hoy 5 de abril de 2023. LCDA.

LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL.

MARITZA BONILLA HERNÁNDEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAROLINA SALA SUPERIOR

AUDREY J. SYLVIA

CARRIÓN RODRÍGUEZ

T/C/C/ AUDREY J. SYLVIA

CARRIÓN T/C/C/ AUDREY

CARRIÓN, VIVIEN

CARRIÓN RODRÍGUEZ

T/C/C/ VIVIEN CARRIÓN, VÍCTOR GERARD

CARRIÓN RODRÍGUEZ

T/C/C VÍCTOR G.

CARRIÓN; MELODY ACOSTA, CARLOS

HERNÁN ACOSTA

JR., DENNIS ACOSTA

Y KRYSTAL LOUISE

ACOSTA, COMO

MIEMBROS DE LA

SUCESIÓN DE MELODY

NÚÑEZ RODRÍGUEZ

T/C/C/ MELODY ACOSTA

CARRIÓN T/C/C

MELODY ACOSTA T/C/C

MELODY CARRIÓN; Y

JENNIFER CARRIÓN, CHRISTOPHER CARRIÓN

Y AMANDA CARRIÓN, COMO MIEMBROS DE LA

SUCESIÓN DE CEFERINO

MARK CARRIÓN NÚÑEZ

T/C/C/ MARK CARRIÓN

NÚÑEZ T/C/C CEFERINO

MARK CARRIÓN

RODRÍGUEZ T/C/C

MARK CARRION T/C/C

CEFERINO M CARRIÓN

Demandantes Vs. ASHLEY CARRIÓN, COMO MIEMBRO DE LA SUCESIÓN DE CEFERINO

MARK CARRIÓN NÚÑEZ

T/C/C/ MARK CARRIÓN

NÚÑEZ T/C/C CEFERINO

MARK CARRIÓN

RODRÍGUEZ T/C/C

MARK CARRION T/C/C

CEFERINO M CARRIÓN

Demandada

Civil Núm.: CA2023CV00991.

Sobre: DIVISIÓN / LIQUIDACIÓN DE LA COMUNIDAD DE BIENES HEREDITARIOS. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO.

ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: ASHLEY CARRIÓN, COMO MIEMBRO DE LA SUCESIÓN DE CEFERINO

MARK CARRIÓN NÚÑEZ

T/C/C/ MARK CARRIÓN

NÚÑEZ T/C/C CEFERINO

MARK CARRIÓN

RODRÍGUEZ T/C/C

MARK CARRION T/C/C

CEFERINO M CARRIÓN.

DO BAJO MI FIRMA y el Sello del Tribunal, a tenor con la Orden del Tribunal, hoy día 04 de abril de 2023. LCDA. MARILYN APONTE RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA REIGONAL. KEILA GARCÍA SOLÍS, SUB-SECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE TOA BAJA CARLOS SANTANA NEGRÓN, MILDRED TORO MARTÍNEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandantes V. DORAL MORTGAGE CORPORATION, JOHN DOE

Demandadas

Civil Núm.: TB2023CV00092.

Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO POR LA VÍA JUDICIAL. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, S. S.

Tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, o cualquier otro, si el Tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Los abogados de la parte demandante son.

ABOGADOS DE LA PARTE

DEMANDANTE:

Lcdo. Reggie Díaz Hernández RUA Núm.: 16,393

BERMUDEZ & DIAZ LLP

Suite 209 500 Calle De La Tanca San Juan, Puerto Rico 00901

Tel.: (787) 523-2670

Fax: (787) 523-2664 rdíaz@bdprlaw.com

Expido este edicto bajo mi firma y el sello de este Tribunal, hoy 5 de abril de 2023. LCDA.

LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARITZA BONILLA HERNÁNDEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE PONCE REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC. Demandante Vs. ESPERANZA RODRIGUEZ REYES

T/C/C ESPERANZA RODRIGUEZ POR SI Y LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA; SUCESION RAUL SANTANA IRENE

Siendo usted la parte demandada arriba mencionada, Se le notifica a usted que se ha radicado mediante el sistema SUMAC una Demanda por la parte demandante solicitando una División / Liquidación de la Comunidad de Bienes Hereditarios. Se le emplaza y se le requiere que notifique a LCDA.

JESSICA MARTINEZ

BIRRIEL, P.O. Box 16593, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00908-6593, teléfono (787) 622-7777, email: jmartbirr@yahoo.com, con copia de su contestación a la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr, salvo que se representen por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Carolina. Si dejare de contestar podrá anotarse la rebeldía y dictarse contra usted sentencia en rebeldía concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, sin más citarle ni oírle. EXTENDI-

A: DORAL MORTGAGE CORPORATION Y JOHN DOE COMO TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARÉ a favor de Doral Mortgage Corporation, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $20,000.00, con intereses al 9.95% anual, vencedero el día 1 de septiembre de 2006, constituida mediante la escritura número 374, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 30 de agosto de 2000, ante el notario Cesar A. Vélez Miranda, e inscrita al folio 277 del tomo 236 de Toa Baja, finca número 14,272, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Tercera Sección de Bayamón, inscripción 5ta. Por la presente se le emplaza y notifica que debe contestar la demanda incoada en su contra dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del presente edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio. Si usted deja de presentar y notificar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el

T/C/C RAUL SANTANA COMPUESTA POR JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES

Demandados Civil Núm.: PO2021CV02609. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: LA PARTE DEMANDADA, AL (A LA) SECRETARIO(A) DE HACIENDA DE PUERTO RICO Y AL PÚBLICO

GENERAL:

Certifico y Hago Constar: Que en cumplimiento con el Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por el (la) Secretario(a) del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Ponce, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América y/o Giro Postal y Cheque Certificado, en mi oficina ubicada en el

Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Ponce, el 16 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 2:15 DE LA TARDE, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: RÚSTICA: Parcela marcada con el numero trescientos cincuenta y cinco A (355A) en el plano de parcelación de la COMUNIDAD RURAL PORTALA PASTILLO del Barrio Pastillo del término municipal de Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de CUATROCIENTOS SETENTA Y TRES PUNTO SETENTA Y TRES METROS CUADRADOS (473.73 m.c). En lindes por el NORTE, con parcela numero trescientos cincuenta y cinco (355) de la comunidad; por el SUR, con parcela número quinientos sesenta y seis (566) de la comunidad; por el ESTE, con Calle numero dieciséis (16) de la comunidad; y por el OESTE, con parcela número quinientos sesenta y nueve (569) de la comunidad. Inscrita al folio 41 del tomo 446 de Juana Diaz, finca 15,608, Registro de la Propiedad de Ponce, Sección I. La Hipoteca Revertida consta inscrita al folio 41 del tomo 446 de Juana Diaz, finca 15,608, Registro de la Propiedad de Ponce, Sección I, inscripción 5ª. Propiedad localizada en: COMUNIDAD PORTALA PASTILLO, 355-A CALLE 16, BO. PASTILLO, JUANA DIAZ, PUERTO RICO 00795. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas anteriores o preferentes: Nombre del Titular: N/A. Suma de la Carga: N/A. Fecha de Vencimiento: N/A. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas posteriores a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: Nombre del Titular: Secretario de la Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano. Suma de la Carga: $127,500.00. Fecha de Vencimiento: 18 de noviembre de 2098. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad de la propiedad y que todas las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito ejecutante antes descritos, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes. El rematante acepta dichas cargas y gravámenes anteriores, y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se establece como tipo de mínima subasta la suma de $127,500.00, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la escritura de hipoteca. De ser necesaria una SEGUNDA SUBASTA por declararse desierta la primera, la misma se celebrará en mi ofi-

cina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Ponce, el 23 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 2:15 DE LA TARDE, y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $85,000.00, 2/3 partes del tipo mínima establecido originalmente. Si tampoco se produce remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se establece como mínima para la TERCERA SUBASTA, la suma de $63,750.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Ponce, el 30 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 2:15 DE LA TARDE. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para, con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante, el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor ascendente a la suma de $60,079.09 por concepto de principal, más la suma de $30,430.31 en intereses acumulados al 1 de septiembre de 2022 y los cuales continúan acumulándose a razón de 5.060% anual hasta su total y completo pago; más la sumas de $9,217.37 en seguro hipotecario; $3,813.72 en seguro; $625.00 de tasaciones; $420.00 de inspecciones; $1,520.00 de adelantos pendientes más la cantidad de 10% del pagare original en la suma de $12,750.00, para gastos, costas y honorarios de abogado. La venta en pública subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen posterior que afecte la mencionada finca, a cuyo efecto se notifica y se hace saber la fecha, hora y sitio de la PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA, si esto fuera necesario, a los efectos de que cualquier persona o personas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha subasta. Se notifica a todos los interesados que las actas y demás constancias del expediente de este caso están disponibles en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables para ser examinadas por los (las) interesados (as). Y para su publicación en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star, que es un diario de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, así como para su publicación en los sitios públicos de Puerto Rico. Expedido en Ponce, Puerto Rico, hoy 31 de marzo de 2023. MANUEL

MALDONADO ORENGO, ALGUACIL REGIONAL. MANUEL MALDONADO, ALGUACIL PLACA #820.

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS SALA SUPERIOR BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Parte Demandante Vs. LA SUCESIÓN DE REYNALDO TORRES CINTRÓN T/C/C REINALDO TORRES CINTRÓN COMPUESTA POR LIZBETH CINTRÓN, FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS, ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA REPRESENTADO POR EL SECRETARIO DE LA VIVIENDA Y DESARROLLO URBANO (HUD)

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: CG2022CV00534. (705). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO, EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA ENMENDADO. El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente anuncia y hace constar que en cumplimiento de la Sentencia dictada el 4 de agosto de 2022 y notificada el 23 de diciembre de 2022, la Orden de Ejecución de Sentencia del 14 de febrero de 2023 y el Mandamiento de Ejecución del 16 de febrero de 2023 en el caso de epígrafe, procederé a vender el 2 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA en mi oficina, localizada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Centro Judicial de Caguas, Sala Superior, en la Carretera Número Uno (#1), Intersección con la Número 189, Kilómetro 0.4, Barrio Bairoa, (Entrada Norte Pueblo de Caguas), Caguas, Puerto Rico, al mejor postor en pago de contado y en moneda de los Estados Unidos de América todo título, derecho o interés de la parte demandada sobre la siguiente propiedad: URBANA: Solar marcado con el Número Treinta y uno (31) del Bloque “LL” de la Urbanización denominada Bonneville Heights, Sección Dos B del término Municipal de Caguas, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 315.075 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE: 12.603 metros, con la Calle Número Treinta y Dos (32); por el SUR: en 12.603 metros, con los Solares Números Cincuenta y siete (57) y Cincuenta y Ocho (58); por el ESTE: en 25.00 metros, con el Solar Número Treinta (30); por el OESTE: en 25.00 metros con el Solar Número Treinta y dos (32). Enclava una casa de hormigón armado compuesta

de sala, comedor, cocina, marquesina, balcón, tres dormitorios y un baño. Inscrita al folio 78 del tomo 815 de Caguas, Finca 26837, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección I. La escritura de hipoteca consta inscrita al folio 1 del tomo 1572 de Caguas, Finca Número 26837, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección I. Inscripción novena (9na). La escritura de modificación de hipoteca consta inscrita al tomo Karibe de Caguas, Finca 26837, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección I. Inscripción Duodécima (12ma). Dirección Física: Urb. Bonneville Valley, 24 Calle Corpus Christi (Solar 31 del Bloque LL), Caguas, PR 00727-4814. Número de Catastro: 46-225-053-92631-001. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta será de $98,201.00. De no haber adjudicación en la primera subasta se celebrará una SEGUNDA

SUBASTA, el día 9 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será de dos terceras partes del tipo mínimo fijado en la primera subasta, o sea, $65,467.33. De no haber adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 16 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será la mitad del precio pactado, o sea, $49,100.50. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el tribunal lo estima conveniente. Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta es mayor. Dicho remate se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer a la demandante el importe de la Sentencia por la suma de $91,144.00 de principal, más intereses sobre dicha suma al 4% anual desde el 1 de noviembre de 2020 hasta su completo pago, más $285.77 recargos acumulados, más la cantidad estipulada de $9,820.10 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, así como cualquier otra suma que contenga el contrato del préstamo. Surge del Estudio de Título Registral que sobre esta propiedad pesan los siguientes gravámenes posteriores a la hipoteca que por la presente se pretende ejecutar: a. Hipoteca: Constituída por persona jurídica no expresada, en garantía a un pagaré a favor de Secretary of Housing and Urban Development of the United States, o a su orden, por la suma de $9,738.00 sin intereses y vencedero el 1 de febrero de 2032, según consta de la escritura #47, otorgada en San Juan, el 29 de febrero de 2008, ante el notario Hi-

ram Rodríguez García, inscrita como asiento abreviado al folio 2541 del tomo 1793 de Caguas, finca #26837, Inscripción Décima (10ma). b. Aviso de Demanda: Pleito seguido por Banco Popular de Puerto Rico Vs. La Sucesión de Reynaldo Torres Cintrón también conocido como Reinaldo Torres Cintrón, compuesta por Lizbeth Cintrón, Fulano y Mengano de Tal, Estados Unidos de América, representado por el Secretario de la Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano (HUD), ante el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas, en el Caso Civil Número CG2022CV00534 sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca en la que se reclama el pago de hipoteca con un balance de $91,144.00 y otras cantidades, según Demanda de fecha 24 de febrero de 2022. Inscrita al Tomo Karibe de Caguas. Anotación B. Se notifica al acreedor posterior o a su sucesor o cesionario en derecho para que comparezca a proteger su derecho si así lo deseaba. Se les advierte a los interesados que todos los documentos relacionados con la presente acción de ejecución de hipoteca, así como los de Subasta, estarán disponibles para ser examinados, durante horas laborables, en el expediente del caso que obra en los archivos de la Secretaría del Tribunal, bajo el número de epígrafe y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general en Puerto Rico por espacio de dos semanas y por lo menos una vez por semana; y para su fijación en los sitios públicos requeridos por ley. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes; entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate y que la propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores tal como lo expresa la Ley Núm. 210-2015. Y para el conocimiento de los demandados, de los acreedores posteriores, de los licitadores, partes interesadas y público en general, EXPIDO para su publicación en los lugares públicos correspondientes, el presente

Aviso de Pública Subasta en Caguas, Puerto Rico, hoy 3 de abril de 2023. ÁNGEL GÓMEZ GÓMEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #593, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS, SALA SUPERIOR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR ORIENTAL BANK COMO AGENTE DE SERVICIO DE THE MONEY HOUSE, INC.

Demandante Vs. ROLANDO SUAREZ VAZQUEZ

Demandados

Civil Núm.: BY2023CV01276.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA (VÍA ORDINARIA). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A La Parte CoDemandada: ROLANDO SUÁREZ VÁZQUEZ, A SUS DIRECCIONES

CONOCIDAS: (A) PO BOX 6020 BAYAMON, PR 00960-5020; (B) URB. SIERRA LINDA F-4 CALLE 2 BAYAMON, PR 00957.

Por la presente se le(s) notifica que se ha radicado en la Secretaría de este Tribunal una Demanda en Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca en su contra, en la cual se alega entre otras cosas que la parte demandada adeuda a la parte demandante por concepto de hipoteca la suma $102,760.29 por concepto de principal, desde el 1ro de septiembre de 2022, más intereses al tipo pactado de 4.75% anual que continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación. Además, la parte demandada adeuda a la parte demandante los cargos por demora equivalentes a 4.00% de la suma de aquellos pagos con atrasos en exceso de 15 días calendarios de la fecha de vencimiento; los créditos accesorios y adelantos hechos en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca; y las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado equivalentes a $10,800.70. Además la parte demandada se comprometió a pagar una suma equivalente a $10,800.70 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca y una suma equivalente a $10,800.70 para cubrir intereses en adición a los garantizados por ley y cualquiera otros adelantos que se hagan en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca número 116, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 24 de julio de 2019, ante el notario Pedro J. Díaz García, de la finca número 11,925, inscrita al Folio 162 del Tomo 272 de Bayamón Sur, Registro de la Propiedad Bayamón, Sección Primera. Por razón de dicho incumplimiento, y al amparo del derecho que le confiere el Pagaré, el demandante ha declarado tales sumas vencidas, líquidas

y exigibles en su totalidad. Este Tribunal ha ordenado que se le(s) cite a usted(es) por edicto que se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general. Por tratarse de una obligación hipotecaria y pudiendo usted tener interés en este caso o quedar afectando por el remedio solicitado, se le emplaza por este edicto que se publicará una vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general de Puerto Rico. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https:// unired.ramajudicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal y notifique copia de la Contestación de la Demanda a las oficinas de CARDONA & MALDONADO LAW OFFICES, P.S.C. ATENCIÓN al Lcdo. Duncan Maldonado Ejarque, P.O. Box 366221, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-6221; Tel (787) 622-7000, Fax (787) 6257001, Abogado de la Parte Demandante. Dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto, apercibiéndole que de no hacerlo así dentro del término indicado, el Tribunal podrá anotar su Rebeldía y dictar Sentencia, concediéndose el remedio solicitado sin más citarle(s) ni oírle(s). EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y con el Sello del Tribunal. DADA hoy 11 de abril de 2023, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. VIVIAN J. SANABRIA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAMUY BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. ANGEL RODRIGUEZ

COLON, MARTA MARIA RAMOS SOTO Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR

AMBOS; UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Demandados

Civil Núm.: CICD2016-0009. (101). Sobre: IN REM, EJECUCIÓN DE GARANTÍAS. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS

UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: PUBLICO EN GENERAL.

El Alguacil del Tribunal que suscribe anuncia y hace cons-

tar: A. Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Camuy, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor de contado y en moneda de curso legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América y cuyo pago se efectuará en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, todo derecho, título o interés que tenga la Parte Demandada en el bien inmueble que se describe a continuación:

RÚSTICA: Solar cuatro (4) radicado en el Barrio Camuy Arriba del término Municipal de Camuy, Puerto Rico, con un área superficial del ochocientos veintisiete punto seis mil setecientos noventa y ocho metros cuadrados (827.6798 m.c.), en lindes por el NORTE, solar número tres segregado; por el SUR, remanente de la finca principal; por el ESTE, Carretera Municipal; y por el OESTE, con remanente de la finca principal. Dirección Física: 119 RD Camuy Arriba WD, Camuy, PR, 00627-0000. Finca 12,278, inscrita al folio 95 del tomo 233 de Camuy, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección Segunda de Arecibo. B. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado están de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables bajo el epígrafe de este caso. C. Que se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematente los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. D. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para satisfacer a la parte demandante el importe de la sentencia que ha obtenido ascendente a la suma de $154,698.32 por concepto de principal, más la cantidad de $6,429.11,más intereses a razón del seis punto cinco por ciento anual, desde el 1 de agosto de 2015 que se acumulan diariamente hasta su total y completo pago, más la suma de $2.58 en conexión con la cuenta de plica, más la suma de $17,030.00 por concepto de costas gastos y honorarios de abogados hipotecariamente asegurados. La PRIMERA SUBASTA se celebrará el día 3 DE MAYO DE 2023 A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en la Oficina del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Camuy, por el tipo mínimo de $170,300.00. De declararse desierta dicha

subasta se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 10 DE MAYO DE 2023 A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA en el mismo lugar antes mencionado. El precio para la segunda subasta lo será 2/3 partes del precio mínimo de la primera, o sea, $113,533.33. De declararse desierta dicha segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 17 DE MAYO DE 2023 A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA en el mismo lugar antes mencionado. El precio para la tercera subasta lo será 1/2 del precio mínimo de la primera, o sea, $85,150.00. Y PARA QUE ASÍ CONSTE, y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general y por un término de catorce (14) días en los sitios públicos conforme a la ley, expido la presente bajo mi firma y sello de este tribunal, hoy 13 de abril de 2023 en Camuy, Puerto Rico. LUIS E. ROMÁN CARRERO, ALGUACIL. WILFREDO OLMO SOLER, ALGUACIL REGIONAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE BAYAMONSUPERIOR.

CANTRES SANTOS, ANTONIO SUCN. vs ROMAN LOPEZ, ANDREA

CASO: DAC2018-0145. SOBRE: DOMINIO CONTRADICTORIO.

PERSONAS IGNORADAS Y DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS PARA LA PARTE DEMANDANTE, QUE PUEDAN TENER

ALGUN INTERES EN EL INMUEBLE QUE SE INTENTA

INSCRIBIR JOHN DOE Y JUANITA DOE, COMO POSEEDORES

Y DETENTADORES DEL INMUEBLE, DE NOMBRES

DESCONOCIDOS PARA LA PARTE DEMANDANTE

CEFERINA SANTANA

CANTRES, VIRGINIA

SANTANA CANTRES, ROBERTO ROSARIO

CANTRES CUYA

DIRECCl6N FISICA

Y POSTAL EN LOS

ESTADOS UNIDOS SE DESCONOCEN FELiCITA

MEDINA CANTRES, 1530

BRYANT AVE., APT. 3A, BRONX, NEW YORK 10460

NOTIFICACION DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. EL SECRETARIO(A) QUE SUSCRIBE LE NOTIFICAA US-

TED QUE EL 27 DE MARZO DE 2023 , ESTE TRIBUNAL HA DICTADO SENTENCIA, SENTENCIA PARCIAL 0 RESOLUCION EN ESTE CASO, QUE HA SIDO DEBIDAMENTE REGISTRADA Y ARCHIVADA EN AUTOS DONDE PODRA USTED ENTERARSE DETALLADAMENTE DE LOS TERMINOS DE LA MISMA. ESTA NOTIFICACION SE PUBLICARA UNA SOLA VEZ EN UN PERIODICO DE CIRCULACION GENERAL EN LA ISLA DE PUERTO RICO, DENTRO DE LOS 10 DIAS SIGUIENTES A SU NOTIFICACION. Y, SIEN DO 0 REPRESENTANDO USTED UNA PARTE EN EL PROCEDIMIENTO SUJETAA LOS TERMINOS DE LA SENTENCIA, SENTENCIA PARCIAL 0 RESOLUCION, DE LA CUAL PUEDE ESTABLECERSE RECURSO DE REVISION 0 APELACION DENTRO DEL TERMINO DE 30 DIAS CONTADOS A PARTIR DE LA PUBLICACION POR EDICTO DE ESTA NOTIFICACION, DIRIJO A USTED ESTA NOTIFICACION QUE SE CONSIDERARA HECHA EN LA FECHA DE LA PUBLICACION DE ESTE DICTO. COPIA DE ESTA NOTIFICACION HA SIDO ARCHIVADA EN LOS AUTOS DE ESTE CASO, CON FECHA DE 04 DE ABRIL DE 2023.

LIC. APONTE DEL VALLE, OSVALDO LCDOOSVALDOAPONTE @GMAIL.COM

LIC. DIAZ GONZALEZ, HECTOR R HECTORRAFAELDIAZGONZALEZ @GMAIL.COM EN BAYAMON, PUERTO RICO, A 04 DE ABRIL DE 2023.. LAURA SANTA SANCHEZ, SECRETARIA. POR: F/ ALBA BRITO BORGEN, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA DE CAGUAS

REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING, LLC

Demandante Vs. SUCESIÓN DE GLORIA ESTER ACEVEDO

MORALES COMPUESTA POR JOSE APONTE ACEVEDO T/C/C

JOSE CHEO APONTE, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE NOMBRES

DESCONOCIDOS, CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES

MUNICIPALES; Y A LOS

ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA

Demandados

Civil Núm.: CG2019CV04444. Sala: 802. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EDICTO DE SU-

Al: PÚBLICO EN GENERAL. A: SUCESIÓN DE GLORIA ESTER ACEVEDO MORALES COMPUESTA POR JOSE APONTE ACEVEDO T/C/C JOSE CHEO APONTE, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS, CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES MUNICIPALES; Y A LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA. Yo, ÁNGEL GÓMEZ GÓMEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #593, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, a los demandados, acreedores y al público en general con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, por la presente CERTIFICO, ANUNCIO y HAGO CONSTAR: Que el día 3 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas, Caguas, Puerto Rico, procederé a vender en Pública Subasta, al mejor postor, la propiedad inmueble que más adelante se describe y cuya venta en pública subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria mediante Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe, la cual se notificó y archivó en autos el día 29 de noviembre de 2022. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta a celebrarse, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA para la venta de la susodicha propiedad, el 10 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA; y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 17 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. Que en cumplimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que ha sido liberado por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas, en el caso de epígrafe con fecha de 3 de febrero de 2022, procederé a vender en pública subasta y al mejor postor, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar radicado en la Urbanización Reparto Caguax en el Barrio Tomás de Castro de Caguas, Puerto Rico, identificado en el plano de inscripción con el nú-

JOSEFA MENDIA, SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO 00919 y que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número doce (12) de la Manzana “J” para su proyecto de solares denominado “Teachers Association Cooperative Development” radicado en el Barrio Sabana Llana del término municipal de Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de trescientos treinta y ocho punto cero cero (338.00) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con la servidumbre de paso de la calle número trece (13) de la mencionada urbanización, distancia de trece punto cero cero (13.00) metros; por el SUR, con el solar J guión once (J-11), distancia de trece punto cero cero (13.00) metros; por el ESTE, con el solar J guión trece (J-13), distancia de veintiséis punto cero cero (26.00) metros; y por el OESTE, con el solar J guión nueve (J-9), distancia de veintiséis punto cero cero (26.00) metros. Según inscripción 2da., se expresa que enclava casa de una planta de concreto y bloques, techada de concreto, que mide veinticuatro pies (24’) de frente por treinta y nueve pies seis pulgadas (39’6”) de fondo y contiene balcón, sala-comedor, tres cuartos dormitorios, cocina, servicio sanitario y marquesina. La propiedad antes relacionada consta inscrita al Folio 91 del Tomo 164 de Sabana Llana, finca número 7,308, Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Quinta. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta del inmueble antes relacionado, será el dispuesto en la Escritura de Hipoteca, es decir la suma de $128,349.00. Si no hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta del inmueble mencionado, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 24 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA. En la segunda subasta que se celebre servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes (2/3) del precio pactado en la primera subasta, o sea la suma de $85,566.00. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 1 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA,. Para la tercera subasta servirá de tipo mínimo la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado para el caso de ejecución, o sea, la suma de $64,174.50. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura de hipoteca número 261 otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 25 de noviembre de 2014, ante el Notario David Cardona Dingui y consta inscrita al Tomo Karibe de Sabana Llana, finca número 7,308, inscripción 9na,

en el Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Quinta. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer al Demandante total o parcialmente según sea el caso el importe de la Sentencia que ha obtenido ascendente a la $108,264.58 por concepto de principal desde el 1ro de enero de 2022, más intereses al tipo pactado de 3.50% anual, los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación. Además, la parte demandada adeuda a la parte demandante los cargos por demora equivalentes a 4.00% de la suma de aquellos pagos con atrasos en exceso de 15 días calendarios de la fecha de vencimiento; los créditos accesorios y adelantos; las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado equivalentes a $12,834.90; la parte demandada se comprometió a pagar una suma equivalente a $12,834.90 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca y una suma equivalente a $12,834.90 para cubrir intereses en adición a los garantizados por ley; así como cualquier otra suma que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca. Dichas sumas están vencidas, son líquidas y exigibles. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al Procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la SECRETARIA DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN, SALA SUPERIOR durante las horas laborables. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación del inmueble y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio de remate. La propiedad no está sujeta a gravámenes anteriores y/o preferentes según surge de las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad en un estudio de título efectuado a la finca antes descrita. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores desconocidos, no inscritos o presentados que sus acreedores de cargos o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca del actor y a los dueños, poseedores, tenedores de o interesados en títulos transmisibles por endoso o al portador garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito del actor que se celebrarán las subastas en las fechas, horas y sitios señalados para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les conviniere o se les invita a satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, otros cargos y las costas y honorarios de abogado ase-

gurados quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. La propiedad objeto de ejecución y descrita anteriormente se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores una vez el Honorable Tribunal expida la correspondiente Orden de Confirmación de Venta Judicial. Y para conocimiento de licitadores del público en general se publicará este Edicto de acuerdo con la ley por espacio de dos semanas en tres sitios públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Este Edicto será publicado dos veces en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas. Expido el presente Edicto de subasta bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día 12 de abril de 2023. PEDRO HIEYE

GONZÁLEZ, ALGUACIL DE SUBASTAS, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN, SALA SUPERIOR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA

TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE HUMACAO

AMARILIS ENID

RIVERA ESTADES

Demandante V.

CARIBBEAN FINANCIAL SERVICES

CORPORATION D/B/A

EASY MONEY; FULANO, MENGANO Y SUTANO

Demandado(a)

Civil: HU2023CV00129. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN O RESTITUCIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: CARIBBEAN FINANCIAL SERVICES

CORPORATION D/B/A

EASY MONEY A SU DIRECCIÓN CONOCIDA: PO BOX 4999, SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO, 00936; FULANO, MENGANO Y SUTANO

A SUS DIRECCIONES DESCONOCIDAS. P/C

LCDO. IAN ALEJANDRO LEBRÓN WARD.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 29 de marzo de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola

vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 31 de marzo de 2023. En HUMACAO, Puerto Rico, el 31 de marzo de 2023.

IVELISSE C. FONSECA RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA. MICHELLE GUEVARA DE LEÓN, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN

CORAL CARABALLO SANTANA COMO MIEMBRO DE LA SUCESION DE MARILUZ SANTANA RAMOS Y JOSE LUIS CARABALLO RAMOS

Demandante Vs. ORIENTAL BANK DE PUERTO RICO COMO SUCESOR DE SCOTIABANK; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL

Demandado

Civil Núm.: BY2023CV01706.

Sobre: PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., EL PUEBLO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: FULANO Y SUTANO DE TAL, DEMANDADOS DESCONOCIDOS.

Por el presente edicto, que se publicará una sola vez, se le notifica que se ha presentado en este Honorable Tribunal una demanda alegándose Escritura Número doscientos setenta y seis (276) otorgada en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el día dos (2) de mayo de dos mil seis (2006), ante el Notario Público Ahmed R. Arroyo Romeu se constituyó hipoteca en garantía de Pagaré a favor a favor de R&G Premier Bank of Puerto Rico, o a su orden, por ciento treinta y seis mil ochocientos dólares ($136,800.00), con intereses al siete y tres cuartos por ciento (7 3/4%) anual, vence el primero (1ro) de mayo de dos mil treinta y seis (2036). Que dicho pagaré se ha extraviado y la parte demandante lo desea cancelar por haberse pagado la deuda

en su totalidad, por lo que si ustedes no hacen oposición a la demanda dentro del término de treinta (30) días, contados a partir de la publicación de este Edicto, la parte demandante podrá obtener Sentencia en Rebeldía declarando que la hipoteca que garantiza el mismo se ha extinguido y se ordenará su cancelación en el Registro de la Propiedad, sin más citarles ni oírles. Deberá radicar el original en la Secretaria del Tribunal y enviar copia por correo al abogado de la parte demandante. Se apercibe y advierte a ustedes como personas desconocidas que pueden ser tenedores o estar interesados en el pagaré extraviado, que de no contestar la Demanda radicando el original de la contestación ante la Secretaria del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón y notificar copia de la contestación de esta a la parte demandante por conducto de su abogado Lcdo. Reinaldo Conesa Reyna, Urbanización Sevilla Biltmore B-13 Guaynabo, Puerto Rico 00966, teléfono número 787-409-2610 dentro de los próximos treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación de este emplazamiento por edicto que será publicado una sola vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia, concediendo el remedio solicitado en la Demanda sin más citarle ni oírle. Extendido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal hoy 31 de marzo de 2023, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MIRCIENID GONZÁLEZ TORRES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE ARECIBO

MARÍA ESTHER

GONZÁLEZ ROSADO, ET ALS

Demandantes Vs. LYDIA RÍOS GONZÁLEZ ET ALS

Demandados Civil Núm.: AR2023CV00204. Sala: 401. Sobre: DIVISIÓN DE COMUNIDAD. EDICTO DE EMPLAZAMIENTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: SR. ANTONIO RIVERA GONZÁLEZ 115 WHISPER RIDGE LOOP, DAVEN PORT, FI 33897. SRA. CARMEN SUZETTE RIVERA GONZÁLEZ. 115 WHISPER RIDGE LOOP, DAVEN PORT, FI 33897.

SRA. ROSA VANESA RIVERA GONZÁLEZ. 115 WHISPER RIDGE LOOP, DAVEN PORT, FI 33897. SRA. JANET RIVERA GONZÁLEZ. PO BOX 1349, MOROVIS, PR 00687.

SR. ANTONIO RÍOS GONZÁLEZ, SE DESCONOCE SU PARADERO Y SU DIRECCIÓN.

SRA. CARMEN RÍOS GONZÁLEZ, SE DESCONOCE SU PARADERO Y DIRECCIÓN.

SR. WILFREDO RIVERA GONZÁLEZ, SE DESCONOCE SU PARADERO Y DIRECCIÓN.

SR. JOSÉ ADRIEL RIVERA GONZÁLEZ, SE DESCONOCE SU PARADERO Y DIRECCIÓN.

SR. HENRY RIVERA GONZÁLEZ, SE DESCONOCE SU PARADERO Y DIRECCIÓN. SR. RICARDO RIVERA GONZÁLEZ, SE DESCONOCE SU PARADERO Y DIRECCIÓN.

POR LA PRESENTE se les emplaza y requiere a ustedes, demandados en este caso, para que le notifiquen a la Lcda.

Bruseiny Seise Negrón, abogada de la parte demandante a su dirección postal: 1300 Carr. 2, Suite 10, Barceloneta, PR 00617-3335, teléfono: 787-4492700, correo electrónico lcdaseise@gmail.com, copia de su contestación a la demanda interpuesta contra ustedes en el caso de epígrafe dentro de los próximos treinta (30) días de haberse publicado este edicto. Ustedes deberán presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial. pr, salvo que se representen por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberán presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal. Si ustedes dejan de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el Tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el Tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. En Arecibo, Puerto Rico, hoy 05 de abril de 2023.

VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZÁ-

LEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. JACQUELYNE GONZÁLEZ QUINTANA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. SUCESIÓN DE REBECCA GAUTIER RODRÍGUEZ COMPUESTA POR:

YONAEL VEGA GAUTIER; YOVAN MENDEZ GAUTIER; FULANO Y MANGANO DE TAL COMO MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN; DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA DE PUERTO RICO; UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Demandados

Civil Núm.: CA2022CV00464. (403). Sobre: INTERPELACIÓN; COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE GARANTÍAS. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: PUBLICO EN GENERAL.

El Alguacil del Tribunal que suscribe anuncia y hace constar: A. Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaria del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Carolina, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor de contado y en moneda de curso legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América y cuyo pago se efectuará en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, todo derecho, título o interés que tenga la Parte Demandada en el bien inmueble que se describe a continuación: URBANA: PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL: Apartamento A-201 (A-doscientos uno). Apartamento residencial de forma irregular de un nivel, localizado en la segunda planta del Edificio uno (1) del Condominio Loma Alta Village. Los linderos de este apartamento son los siguientes: por el NOROESTE, con elemento exterior, en distancia de veintiocho (28) pies y nueve (9) pulgadas; por el SURESTE, con elemento exterior, en distancia de treinta y dos (32) pies y nueve (9) pulgadas; por el NORESTE, con elemento exterior, en distancia de cuarenta (40) pies y siete (7) pulgadas; por el SUROESTE, con el apartamento A-202 (dos-

cientos dos), en distancia de veintiocho (28) pies y cinco (5) pulgadas. La puerta de entrada está en el lindero Noroeste, colinda y tiene acceso directo al pasillo principal. Consta de tres habitaciones con su respectivo guarda ropa, sala-comedor, cocina-lavandería, área para desayunar, dos baños, pasillo y balcón. Los baños están equipados con bañera, lavamanos y servicio sanitario. El área total del apartamento es de mil ciento cuarenta y nueve punto cero nueve pies cuadrados (1,149.09), equivalentes a ciento seis punto setenta y seis metros cuadrados (106.76). Este apartamento tiene una participación de cero punto cinco seis seis cuatro por ciento (0.5664%) en los elementos comunes generales del proyecto. Le corresponde privativamente los estacionamientos identificados con los números sesenta y ocho (68) y sesenta y nueve (69). Inscrita al folio 58 del tomo 1463 de Carolina, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección Sección Segunda de Carolina, finca número 60,512. Direccion fisica: Apt. A-201, Cond. Loma Alta Village, Edificio 1, Carolina, Puerto Rico. B. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado están de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables bajo el epígrafe de este caso. C. Que se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematente los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. D. Que la propiedad se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes posteriores: 1. Condiciones restrictivas bajo el Programa Mi Nuevo Hogar: Para viabilizar la adquisición de esta propiedad, la Autoridad para el Financiamiento de la Vivienda de Puerto Rico, concedió la suma de $5,580.12 para sufragar gastos de cierre y/o para aplicar al pronto del pago y está sujeta a las siguientes condiciones restrictivas: La finca será residencia principal del comprador y no puede ser arrendada o destinada a otro uso que no sea el de su residencia principal y habitual y no podrá vender, donar, permutar o de otro modo transferir la propiedad sin el previo consentimiento de la Autoridad para el Financiamiento de la Vivienda de Puerto Rico, por el término de 10 años. 2. Hipoteca en garantía de un pagaré a favor del Secretario del Departamento de Desarrollo Urbano y

Michael Jordan was an activist after all

By HARVEY ARATON

On the first road trip of his NBA career, in the fall of 2001, Etan Thomas looked out the window of the Washington Wizards’ team bus and was stunned by the massing crowd around the hotel.

He asked Christian Laettner, the veteran forward: “Is this how the NBA is?”

Laettner laughed. “No, young fella,” he said. “This isn’t for us. They’re here for M.J.”

This was lesson No. 1 of Thomas’ twoyear tour with Michael Jordan, who had returned to the league from a three-season absence after his last dance with the Chicago Bulls. Along with him came the deluge of lights, cameras, action.

The young, inquisitive Thomas couldn’t help but wonder: What about the activism? Why wasn’t Jordan doing more with his spotlight?

“I was thinking that Michael didn’t lend his voice to causes where he could have helped,” Thomas said in a recent interview, 20 years removed from his time with the man on whose shoulders the sport dramatically rose in popularity worldwide.

Jordan played his final NBA game on April 16, 2003, scoring 15 points in a 20-point defeat in Philadelphia. That season, with him turning 40 in February and dealing with a knee that Thomas remembered could swell like a grapefruit, Jordan averaged a modest (for him) 20 points per game. He played 37 minutes a night and in all 82 games — part of a legacy that should admonish, if not embarrass, today’s load-managed NBA elite.

Jordan retired as a six-time champion with many believing, and now still insisting, there was no one ever greater. Such conviction has only been heightened by the widespread appeal of “The Last Dance,” a 10-part ESPN series about Jordan’s Bulls that was broadcast in 2020, and the current feature film “Air,” starring Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Viola Davis.

The flip side of Jordan mania was the derision directed at him for appearing not to use his enormous popularity and platform as a premier Black athlete for the benefit of social or political change. For all the interviews he did, what arguably remains the most memorable quotation attributed to him — “Republicans buy shoes, too” — ostensibly rationalized his unwillingness to endorse Harvey Gantt, an African American Democratic candidate in a 1990 North Carolina Senate race against Jesse Helms, a white conservative known for racist policies.

On a broader scale, it reflected the narra-

tive that followed Jordan into the 21st century: that he was a hard-core capitalist without a social conscience. Sam Smith, the author in whose 1995 book the quotation originally appeared, has many times called it an offhand remark during a casual conversation — more or less a joke — and said he regretted including it. In the ESPN series, Jordan said he made the comment “in jest.”

In recent tumultuous and polarizing years, Jordan has become more public with his philanthropy and occasional calls for racial justice. And given two decades to consider the precedents he set, the boardrooms he bounded into and how he ascended from transcendent player to principal owner of the Charlotte Hornets, the context has shifted enough to ask: Did he actually blaze a different or perhaps more impactful trail to meaningful societal change?

Thomas, who after his nine-season NBA career has been an activist, author and media personality, said his reconsideration of the 1990s Jordan narrative began before Jordan retired for good.

He recalled sitting in the Wizards’ training room one day with Jordan and a member of his entourage when Jordan asked him about a book he had noticed Thomas reading. Thomas recalled it was likely Eldridge Cleaver’s “Soul on Ice.”

“That got a conversation going and Michael’s guy started talking about the charitable things he did without publicity,” Thomas

said. “He mentioned an event at an all-white golf club, where of course they let Michael play, but there were no Black members, and how Michael threatened at the last minute to back out if they didn’t change their policy.”

Thomas added: “I told Michael, ‘That’s something people should know and then maybe they wouldn’t be saying the things they do about you.’ He just said, ‘I don’t do that.’ And his guy said, ‘See what I mean?’ After that, I could never hold him up as the antithesis of the activist athlete, the opposite of Muhammad Ali and Bill Russell. It’s not that simple.”

In “Air,” Davis, powerfully portraying Jordan’s mother, Deloris Jordan, dramatically foresees momentous change benefiting African American families of modest means after she had engineered a groundbreaking deal with Nike upon Jordan’s 1984 entry into the NBA.

A screenwriter’s indulgent license, perhaps, but who can argue that Jordan didn’t actually do a total rewrite of the script in the allocation of corporate revenues to athletes? Or that the Nike deal, which guaranteed him a cut of every sneaker sold, doesn’t make him the godfather of the name, image and likeness revenues flowing into the pockets of college athletes today?

For these reasons, Harry Edwards, the sociologist and civil rights activist, said on the “Bakari Sellers Podcast” in February 2021 that Jordan should not be scolded for his sole

focus on commercial brand-building across the 1980s and ’90s.

He called it “an era where the foundations of power were laid,” ultimately empowering Jordan’s superwealthy descendants to affect communities — for example, in LeBron James’ staunch commitment to public education in his hometown, Akron, Ohio.

Len Elmore, the former NBA center who retired from playing in 1984 to attend law school at Harvard, said he, like others who venerated Ali and 1960s activist icons, was once bewildered by Jordan’s reluctance to speak out on issues of equity. Those issues included sweatshop conditions abroad, where Jordan’s signature sneakers were produced to be sold at premium prices.

“Michael’s years didn’t have what the ’60s had — the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement,” said Elmore, a senior lecturer in Columbia University’s Sports Management Program. “There was more of a smoldering of race, but it wasn’t on fire.

He added: “I’m not defending Michael’s not taking a stand. But the reinterpretation of his legacy depends on what you saw then and what you see now.”

While Thomas wasn’t around the league during Jordan’s prime as a player and pitchman, his view of that era is based on interviews he has done for his books and his podcast, “The Rematch.” Those years, he learned, followed one strategic mandate: NBA Commissioner David Stern’s preoccupation with marketing.

“He was 100% clear in those days — everything was about growing the game, the bottom line,” Thomas said. “He was dead set against anything that might turn off the fan base. Even when I came in and made antiwar comments, David told me, ‘Be careful.’”

Stern, who died in 2020, straddled a fine line between his mostly progressive politics and fear of alienating consumers. Jordan followed along as a polished yet cautious spokesperson on controversies, such as the one that engulfed Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, who in 1996 was suspended by the league for refusing to stand for the national anthem for religious reasons.

Was this approach the reflection of a man intrinsically averse to risk? Did Jordan share the vision attributed to his mother in this year’s film? Was he unaware that he might have been famous and leveraged enough to have had it both ways — to both speak out about social causes and remain a potent pitchman?

Continues on page 28

Michael Jordan has long been one of the most famous athletes in the world, but many have wondered why he wasn’t more vocal about social justice during his playing days.

¡Buscamos Profesionales!

From page 27

James and other more outspoken contemporary stars have adopted that approach — “changed the narrative,” Thomas said — and with the apparent support of Stern’s successor, Adam Silver.

It’s doubtful that Jordan, in his day, could have built what he did while doubling as a crusader, said Sonny Vaccaro, who played a crucial role in corralling Jordan for Nike.

“The league had to grow first,” said Vaccaro, who is played in “Air” by Damon. “Look, Michael had his troubles — with the Republicans quote, the gambling, with some of his teammates. But he opened the door. He changed the world — only no one knew how much he was changing the world until the next century.”

He added: “LeBron can only be the way he is today because Michael made it OK for corporations to put their money, huge amounts of money, on athletes, especially Black athletes. Over time their power and voice has grown.”

Some would add, for better or worse, that the pendulum has swung too far in the players’ favor. It is not — or should not be — about what stars earn, given the staggering sums that franchise stakeholders have been reaping in recent sales. (Jordan will likely be no exception if he secures a deal he’s reportedly been negotiating to cash out of the $275 million he invested in his 2010 purchase of his team.)

But Jordan-inspired superstar leverage has led to an era of chronic and chaotic team-hopping that, for older fans and some news media members, seems antithetical to their relished Jordan era. For all the disdain he had for Jerry Krause, the Bulls’ general manager during their championship years, Jordan worked with the players provided to him, mercilessly pushed them to succeed and ultimately reaped the rewards.

To emphasize that point, Jordan’s process, said David Falk, his longtime agent, was purer.

“Michael was part of a generation that went to college for a few years, identified with a program like North Carolina, instead of switching AAU and high school teams whenever it suited you,” Falk said. “I asked Michael once if he ever thought about playing with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. He said: ‘Hell no. I wanted to kick their butt every night.’”

Jordan created his own controversies, mostly related to high-stakes golf, including the case of a $57,000 debt he paid by check to a man who was later convicted of money laundering. But even his legendary casino preoccupation seems more quaint now given professional sports’ unapologetic marriage to the online gaming industry.

Jordan, at 60, deserves to be viewed through the lens of an evolved narrative, given how high he has raised the bar for athletes outside the lines, a legacy that will resonate far into the future.

Twenty years after his last professional jump shot, he is arguably still the most leveraged player in sports. If he were so inclined, he might even have the muscle, upon walking away from basketball, to make a competitive run for the seat once held by Helms. His pitch, of course, was always bipartisan.

NBA PLAYOFFS

PLAY-IN TOURNAMENT

Friday’s Games Bulls at Heat, 7 p.m. ET (TNT) Thunder at Timberwolves, 9:30 p.m. ET (ESPN)

Wednesday’s Scores Bulls 109, Raptors 105 Thunder 123, Pelicans 118

Tuesday’s Scores Hawks 116, Heat 105 Lakers 108, Timberwolves 102 (OT)

Jordan’s profile helped increase the N.B.A.’s popularity.

Sudoku

How to Play:

Fill in the empty fields with the numbers from 1 through 9.

Sudoku Rules:

Every row must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Every column must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Every 3x3 square must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Crossword

Answers on page 30

Wordsearch

Aries (Mar 21-April 20)

Today’s Quarter Moon in a high-flying zone, could coincide with an important decision, Aries. It might mean letting go of a plan that is a struggle and not achieving much. And yet if you’ve seen it through this far, you may have quite an attachment to it that’s hard to break. A fresh perspective can help you out. And feedback could be an eye-opener as to how to proceed.

Taurus (April 21-May 21)

Feel driven to go after something without knowing why? Perhaps it’s time to question your motives. You may be enthusiastic now, but what does the future hold? It’s not too late to change tack, but equally you might decide to keep going. Today’s Quarter Moon could highlight any doubts that are causing you to falter. Believe you can, and you may surprise yourself, Taurus.

Gemini (May 22-June 21)

A project may have reached a stage where everyone needs to pull together. If there are hidden agendas or resentment, this is an opportunity to bring it out into the open. If you don’t, things may not reach a satisfactory conclusion. Encouraging discussion is a wise move, as once issues are resolved things can go from strength to strength. Be proactive, and success could be yours.

Cancer (June 22-July 23)

Be open to advice and guidance wherever it comes from, and the coming days could reveal valuable solutions and creative possibilities. A friend may be keen to cheer you on, and even if they do so in a nonchalant or jokey way, they can be a catalyst for a bold move. Plus, if you sense you might be good at something, try it and see. No need to wait for others to give the go ahead.

Leo (July 24-Aug 23)

Trips, journeys and social activities appear to be plentiful over coming days, as a desire for something different can take hold. You might be keen to move in other circles too, Leo. If you’re ready to explore fresh interests, doing so can boost your spirits and bring hope of happier times ahead. Are certain activities dragging you down? It may be time to jettison them.

Virgo (Aug 24-Sep 23)

Today’s Quarter Moon brings your courage into play, and may find you weighing up the pros and cons of a plan. With the Moon linking to Neptune, it can seem that a great idea is tantalizingly out of reach. This might not be the case at all, and with the right approach you could do well. Need someone to cheer you on? A friend’s words may be all it takes to help you make a start.

Libra (Sep 24-Oct 23)

It’s a day of important discussions that could culminate in good news, and a sense that much has been accomplished. The Quarter Moon also ties in with expansive Jupiter, which means that no matter how serious the discussion is to begin with, it will develop along positive lines. If you feel there’s no hope at the start, this could soon be proved wrong, as you’ll get exactly what you want.

Scorpio

(Oct

24-Nov 22)

The coming days are rich with potential, and can find you ready to explore ideas and opportunities that may have been showing up for some time. A decision could lead to dynamic action, and things can start to move from there. Don’t try too hard to make this a success, as it might restrict the flow of creativity and positive energy. Just relax and let it happen, Scorpio.

Sagittarius (Nov 23-Dec 21)

With a Quarter Moon in your cash zone, you may feel you should take a more responsible attitude towards your money. But if you’re hot on the trail of something, then impressing the right person might require you to invest in yourself. And yet if you can’t see eye-to-eye on even the basic points, then no amount of spending to look good will get results. Just be totally yourself.

Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 20)

Today’s Quarter Moon in your sign ties in with jubilant Jupiter, which suggests that something good is about to happen on the home front. If a plan has come to fruition and everything is finally slotting into place after a lot of hard work, perhaps it’s a good reason for a celebration. Need to take a bold step forward to finish something? Do it now, and success could be yours.

Aquarius (Jan 21-Feb 19)

Short journeys and new contacts can be helpful to you over the coming weeks, and you may learn something that could be turned to your advantage. But if you want to get a top tip or brilliant hack, be open to swapping it for one of your own secrets. Some interesting information is circling that might make quite a difference to you. And what you have to share is priceless too.

Pisces (Feb 20-Mar 20)

Even though you know you’re naturally talented at something, it’s possible you’ve held back while others pushed forward. Today’s Quarter Moon suggests it’s time to be more assertive, and to allow yourself a chance to showcase your skills. If you make such a decision soon and act on it, much good can come from it, including an opportunity to enhance your income, Pisces.

Speed Bump