Wednesday Apr 24, 2024

Advocates Fear Consequences for Island Homeless if Supreme Court Upholds Local Laws in Oregon P2

Conditional Leave

Under Scrutiny After Released Convict Kills Ex-Partner

Governor: Southern Aquifer Monitoring Needed, But Toxicity Levels Do Not Exceed EPA Standards

Photo by UNSPLASH

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. Wind:

By THE STAR STAFF

It would be devastating for Puerto Rico if municipalities imitated the city of Grants Pass in Oregon and decided to make sleeping in public spaces a crime, the spokeswoman for a local homeless advocacy group said Tuesday.

The legality of a series of municipal ordinances in Grants Pass is before the U.S. Supreme Court, and a final decision, which would set a precedent for homeless policy throughout the country, should be made this summer (see related story on page 6).

“If we are saying that you have no place to spend the night and they are going to turn the inability to buy or rent a house into a crime, you are making it more difficult for a person to be placed in housing since a person with a criminal history is not eligible for public housing unless several years have passed since the sentence,” said Belinda Hill, executive director of Solo por Hoy, an organization that addresses homelessness in Puerto Rico. “This would have devastating consequences for homeless people.”

Hill said a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the ordinances would pave the way for other cities to do what Grants Pass did. Those municipal laws say, among other things, that if a person takes shelter or wraps themselves in a blanket, it is because they are trying to spend the night in a public place, which, if validated by the Supreme Court, would already be a crime that could land them in jail.

California Governor Gavin Newsom joined the lawsuit filed in 2018 by three homeless residents of Grants Pass as a friend of the court to argue that the government must have a comprehensive plan to close city homeless encampments. This would mean that funds and housing units would be available to move homeless people into housing.

“In Puerto Rico, right now, even having the resources of housing vouchers, we cannot locate many homeless people because there is a lack of affordable housing, at the cost of the amount of money available with the vouchers,” said Hill, who serves as president of the Continuum of Care (CoC-PR502), which brings together organizations and agencies that provide services to people experiencing homelessness. “Developers need to create strategies to build affordable housing, not only for high-value houses, as is happening due to high construction costs. Right now, no one is interested in rehabilitating buildings that could become affordable housing options with a voucher.

“Before imposing a criminal penalty on individuals who are at their most vulnerable, there should be a comprehensive program between the government, the private sector, and nonprofit organizations that solve the housing inventory problem. Homeless encampments can be sensitively closed by rehabilitating vacant buildings or structures into affordable housing. In reality, this is going

to cost much less than criminalizing homeless people, putting them in jail just for committing the crime of not being able to afford a house.”

There are some 5,000 homeless people in Puerto Rico. In the most recent count, about 52% of homeless people were found to be homeless for the first time for economic reasons.

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, in December 2023 there were 256,000 homeless people in the United States, where homelessness increased 12% between 2022 and 2023.

In a hearing Monday on the Grants Pass case before the Supreme Court, Puerto Rican Justice Sonia Sotomayor stated about the Oregon ordinance that “the true objective of that law is to make homeless people leave the city.”

She said she has learned that conservative judges favor maintaining the Grants Pass local bans on the grounds of public health and safety in common park spaces and sidewalks. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, meanwhile, stated her opposition to the bans: “It is cruel and unusual to punish people for acts that constitute basic human needs such as sleep.”

Today’s Weather INDEX Advocates fear dire consequences for island homeless if Supreme Court upholds local laws in Oregon

The group of homeless people who challenged the ordinances say they are unconstitutional because they are on the streets involuntarily, since there are no beds available in shelters. They claimed the city cannot punish them without first offering them a place to sleep.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor sits for a group photo at the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, April 23, 2021. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times)

Conditional leave scrutinized after released convict kills ex-partner

By THE STAR STAFF

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia said Tuesday that an investigation must be conducted into what happened in the case of 52-year-old convicted murderer Hermes Ávila Vázquez, who was freed into the community due to provisions for conditional leave under Law 25, and killed his ex-partner, Ivette Joan Meléndez Vega, 56, last Sunday in Manatí.

“Well, that case is very particular. The matter has to be investigated to the fullest,” the governor said in response to questions from the press. “There was definitely something wrong with the system. That much is clear. From what I see in the reports themselves, apparently this person even deceived the very doctors who were evaluating him. So certainly that person has to be immediately readmitted to the correctional system of Puerto Rico, because he came out under the diagnosis that he was paraplegic, that he could not move, that he was totally paralyzed, when we see that he had no such limitation. So there has been a great deception here, not to say a great fraud. The authorities have to take action on this

matter and remove this person from the free community immediately.”

The governor left the investigation of what happened in the hands of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Ana Escobar Pabón.

“She manages the correctional system very well; she has a clear command of all the details of it,” Pierluisi said. “I am sure that she is going to take action on the matter … and if precautionary measures have to be taken to prevent it from happening again, she will take them. I recognize that this is a particular area of expertise. We are talking about a particular law. From the information that reaches me, it is not a large number of cases that are covered by this law, but the secretary who has the details, let her speak precisely. What I’m going to do is, of course, supervise her, be aware … that she’s doing what she has to do, because there was certainly a failure here. There’s no doubt about that. And what we have to see is why, so that it doesn’t happen again.”

Ávila Vázquez, who was serving a sentence for first-degree murder in 2005, received an extended pass in April 2023 on the grounds that his health conditions did not allow him to function as a normal person. When he was arrested by authorities, he was observed walking without difficulty.

Women’s advocate, Psychology Assn. join forces against gender violence

By THE STAR STAFF

The Office of the Women’s Advocate (OPM by its Spanish initials) and the Psychology Association of Puerto Rico (APPR) have signed a collaborative agreement to work together on activities such as workshops, educational panel discussions, and symposia or conferences aimed at professionals, the community, schools and other entities to raise awareness about gender violence.

Likewise, during the international campaign 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, from Nov. 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, to Dec. 10, Human Rights Day, the organizations will carry out a range of activities and information capsules on issues related to domestic violence, which will be transmitted through their digital platforms.

“Tolerating gender-based violence contributes to the disintegration of the family, to the promotion of criminality and to the weakening of the values of human coexistence,” said Madeline

Bermúdez Sanabria, the acting women’s advocate. “That is why this agreement between OPM and APPR is so important, in order to provide all women victims with an accessible and supportive resource. We also intend for this union to serve as a working model for other government agencies, municipalities and private entities that are committed to developing actions aimed at solving the problems faced by women in our society. The main objective of the OPM is to ensure that women enjoy a better quality of life.”

APPR President Ángel R. Comas Nazario noted that the mission of the association’s Violence Prevention Committee “is to dialogue and critically reflect on issues related to violence in Puerto Rico and its prevention, to examine and rethink the dimensions of violence from a transdisciplinary approach responding to the current situation in our country, educate on alternatives for the understanding, management and prevention of violence, and collaborate with groups and individuals in activities to promote nonviolence strategies.”

Victims of gender-based violence or those who know

someone who is going through such a situation can contact OPM’s confidential, around-the-clock support line to receive free guidance by calling 787-722-2977.

Lawmakers urge US Senate to approve bill that contemplates TikTok ban

By THE STAR STAFF

Rep. José Aponte Hernández, along with at-large Rep. José “Quiquito” Meléndez Ortiz, asked the U.S. Senate on Tuesday to approve the legislation that orders the Chinese company ByteDance to cede its control over the TikTok video application within a period of one year or the U.S. government will ban its use permanently.

“This is a matter of national security,” Aponte said. “Last Saturday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved, among the security measures such as the $61 billion for Ukraine, a bill that establishes that if ByteDance does not sell TikTok in 12

months, then the federal government will ban its use throughout the United States, including Puerto Rico. That measure, with support from both Republicans and Democrats, will be evaluated for approval today [Tuesday]. Our call to the senators is to vote in favor of this bill, thus sending a clear message about the importance of this issue.”

Meléndez added that “I’ve always pushed for the banning of this app because of our children’s exposure to adult content, as TikTok doesn’t have the best filters to protect children.”

“Now comes the matter of national security, because the Chinese communist government can use ByteDance’s data to surveil U.S. citizens and even influence people with material

about communism, for example,” he said. “In 2017, communist China passed legislation that forces companies, such as ByteDance, which owns TikTok, to exchange data with the Chinese government on intelligence matters, including user information and content. The Puerto Rican government’s cyber infrastructure, which has suffered a series of attacks as in other jurisdictions, could also be at the mercy of this law from communist China, which is expanding in the Caribbean.”

TikTok currently has an estimated 170 million users nationwide, including in Puerto Rico.

President Joe Biden has already indicated that he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk.

Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary

Ana Escobar Pabón

Acting Women’s Advocate Madeline Bermúdez Sanabria

Governor: Southern Aquifer water quality monitoring should continue, but toxicity levels do not exceed EPA standards

By THE STAR STAFF

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia said on Tuesday that it is necessary to continue monitoring the water quality of the Southern Aquifer, which, according to the Chemists Association of Puerto Rico (CQPR by its Spanish initials), contains toxic substances that may be related to the activity of Applied Energy Services-Puerto Rico’s (AES-PR) coal-powered plant in Guayama.

“I welcome the fact that these studies are carried out, that the aquifer water quality in that area is monitored,” the governor said in response to questions from the press. Of course, I realized from the study that the toxic substances they found do not exceed the parameters established by the federal environmental agency, the EPA. But the important thing is to continue doing the studies and monitoring because obviously if they exceed those levels, we must take action immediately.”

The AES plant has an expiration date

because, by law, by the end of 2027, the coal generation that occurs in that plant

must cease, Pierluisi said. At the request of the communities in

the southern region of Puerto Rico, the CQPR studied the drinking water supplying homes in Guayama and Salinas. The study revealed the presence of heavy, toxic, and carcinogenic metals in the drinking water of the areas affected by the dumping of coal ash on lands in the Southern Aquifer zone. However, the levels are below the maximum limits established by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Since it started burning coal in 2002, critics have said, the AES-PR coal plant in Guayama has failed to contain its coal ash, contaminating the air, soil and water.

The study found some 16 metals in waters tested in houses in Guayama and Salinas between March 2021 and August 2023. They included arsenic, copper, lead and uranium, which the critics say are associated with the ash produced by AES-PR.

AES-PR indicated that the EPA’s sampling plan, which ended in September 2023 with the sampling of 30 wells, showed that “there were no exceedances of drinking water standards.”

Pro-statehood lawyer: Effort to repeal ‘Insular Cases’ may be misdirected

By THE STAR STAFF

Asenior official from the administration of the U.S. Virgin Islands government and Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón have joined a mostly Democratic group of U.S. lawmakers in launching a renewed push for the U.S. Justice Department to condemn U.S. Supreme Court rulings from a century ago that paved the way for people living in U.S. territories to essentially be treated as second-class citizens.

However, pro-statehood lawyer Gregorio Igartúa said their efforts may be misdirected because it is Congress and not the U.S. Justice Department that has the power to regulate the political relationship with the territories according to the U.S. Constitution.

“The initiative is good but it is Congress that has the power to regulate the territories and not the courts, which have usurped the powers of Congress,” Igartúa told the STAR earlier this week. “It is Congress that should approve a resolution stating that they will not validate those rulings.”

Igartúa was talking about the Insular Cases, a series of Supreme Court rulings decided from 1901 to 1905 that allowed the United States to treat residents living in the U.S. territories differently. The court devised the doctrine of “territorial incorporation,” according to which two types of territories exist: an incorporated territory, in which the U.S. Constitution fully applies, and which is destined for statehood, and an unincor-

porated territory, in which only “fundamental” constitutional guarantees apply and which is not bound for statehood.

Igartúa is part of a group of pro-statehood supporters lobbying Congress to declare Puerto Rico an incorporated territory. He said González Colón and Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia should launch an initiative in Congress asking lawmakers to disapprove the Insular Cases because Congress is the entity that regulates the territories.

Teri Helenese, director of state and federal relations for the U.S. Virgin Islands government, criticized the “undemocratic colonial framework” established by the Insular Cases, which deemed the “half-civilized,” “savage,” “alien races” living in Puerto Rico, Guam, and other so-called “unincorporated” U.S. territories were not entitled to the same constitutional rights and democratic participation because they were “unfit” and could not understand “Anglo-Saxon principles.”

Highlighting the national contradictions present in the Insular Cases, Helenese underscored how they directly oppose the principles of democracy, self-determination, decolonization and equality that U.S. international law commitments profess to uphold.

The Supreme Court has had several chances to overturn the Insular Cases and they have chosen not to do so, even though at least two of the justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch, have written against them.

If the cases were to be repealed, Puerto Rico would no

longer be an unincorporated territory and would be an incorporated territory in transit to statehood.

As previously reported by the STAR, among the 43 lawmakers who have signed the letter to the federal Justice Department are Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.

The AES-PR coal plant in Guayama

Teri Helenese, director of state and federal relations for the U.S. Virgin Islands government

Universities struggle as pro-Palestinian demonstrations grow

By ALAN BLINDER

At New York University, police swept in to arrest protesting students Monday night, ending a standoff with the school’s administration.

At Yale University, police placed protesters’ wrists into zip ties Monday morning and escorted them onto campus shuttles to receive summonses for trespassing.

Columbia University kept its classroom doors closed Monday, moving lectures online and urging students to stay home.

Harvard Yard was shut to the public. Nearby, at campuses including Tufts and Emerson, administrators weighed how to handle encampments that looked much like the one that police dismantled at Columbia last week — which protesters quickly resurrected. On the West Coast, a new encampment bubbled at the University of California, Berkeley.

Less than a week after the arrests of more than 100 protesters at Columbia, administrators at some of the country’s most influential universities were struggling, and largely failing, to calm campuses torn by the conflict in the Gaza Strip and Israel.

During the turmoil Monday, which coincided with the start of Passover, protesters called on their universities to become less financially tied to Israel and its arms suppliers. Many Jewish students agonized anew over some protests and chants that veered into antisemitism, and feared again for their safety. Some faculty members denounced clampdowns on peaceful protests and warned that academia’s mission to promote open debate felt imperiled. Alumni and donors raged.

And from Congress, there were calls for the resignation of Columbia’s president from some of the same lawmakers Nemat Shafik tried to pacify last week with words and tactics that inflamed her own campus.

The menu of options for administrators handling protests seems to be quickly dwindling. It is all but certain that the demonstrations, in some form or another, will last on some campuses until the end of the academic year, and even then, graduation ceremonies may be bitterly contested gatherings.

For now, with the most significant protests confined to a handful of campuses, administrators’ approaches sometimes seem to shift from hour to hour.

“I know that there is much debate about whether or not we should use the police on campus, and I am happy to engage in those discussions,” Shafik said in a message to students and employees early Monday, four days after officers dressed in riot gear helped clear part of Columbia’s campus.

“But I do know that better adherence to our rules and effective enforcement mechanisms would obviate the need for relying on anyone else to keep our community safe,” she added. “We should be able to do this ourselves.”

Protesters have demonstrated with varying intensity since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. But this particular round of unrest began to gather greater force last Wednesday, after Columbia students erected an encampment, just as Shafik was preparing to testify before Congress.

At that hearing in Washington, before a Republican-led House committee, she vowed to punish unauthorized protests on the private university’s campus more aggressively, and the

next day, she asked the New York Police Department to clear the encampment. In addition to the more than 100 people arrested, Columbia suspended many students. Many Columbia professors, students and alumni voiced fears that the university was stamping out free debate, a cornerstone of the American college experience.

The harsher approach helped lead to more protests outside Columbia’s gates, where Jewish students reported being targeted with antisemitic jeers and described feeling unsafe as they traveled to and from their campus.

The spiraling uproar in upper Manhattan helped fuel protests on some other campuses.

“We’re all a united front,” said Malak Afaneh, a law student protesting at University of California, Berkeley. “This was inspired by the students at Columbia who, in my opinion, are the heart of the student movement whose bravery and solidarity with Palestine really inspired us all.”

The events at Columbia also rippled to Yale, where students gathered at Beinecke Plaza in New Haven, Connecticut, for days to demand that the university divest from arms manufacturers.

Yale President Peter Salovey said Monday that university leaders had spent “many hours” in talks with protesters, with an offer that included an audience with the trustee who oversees Yale’s Corporation Committee on Investor Responsibility. But university officials had decided late Sunday that the talks were proving unsuccessful and, Salovey said, they were troubled by reports “that the campus environment had become increasingly difficult.”

Authorities arrested 60 people Monday morning, including 47 students, Salovey said. The university said the decision to make arrests was made with “the safety and security of the entire Yale community in mind and to allow access to university facilities by all members of our community.”

In the hours after the arrests, though, hundreds of protesters blocked a crucial intersection in New Haven.

“We demand that Yale divests!” went one chant.

“Free Palestine!” went another.

The scene was less contentious in Massachusetts, where Harvard officials had moved to limit the possibility of protests by closing Harvard Yard, the 25-acre core of the campus in Cambridge, through Friday. Students were warned that they could face university discipline if they, for instance, erected unauthorized tents or blocked building entrances.

On Monday, Harvard’s Palestine Solidarity Committee said on social media that the university had suspended it. National Students for Justice in Palestine, a loose confederation of campus groups, said it believed the decision was “clearly intended to prevent students from replicating the solidarity encampments” emerging across the United States. Harvard said in a statement that it was “committed to applying all policies in a content-neutral manner.”

Elsewhere in the Boston area, protesters had set up encampments at Emerson College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tufts University. But those protests, for now, appeared more modest than the ones at Yale and in New York, where demonstrators constructed an encampment outside NYU’s Stern School of Business.

NYU officials tolerated the demonstration for hours but signaled Monday night that their patience was wearing thin. Police officers gathered near the protest site as demonstrators ignored a 4 p.m. deadline to vacate it. As nightfall approached, sirens blared and officers, donning helmets and bearing zip ties, mustered. Prisoner transport vans waited nearby.

“Students, students, hold your ground!” protesters roared. “NYU, back down!”

Soon enough, police officers marched on the demonstration.

People gather as Columbia University faculty speak against the university’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian students at Columbia University in New York on Monday, April 22, 2024. (Bing Guan/The New York Times)

Supreme Court seems poised to allow local laws that penalize homelessness

By ABBIE VANSICKLE

Amajority of the Supreme Court appeared inclined Monday to uphold a series of local ordinances that allowed a small Oregon city to ban homeless people from sleeping or camping in public spaces.

The justices seemed split along ideological lines in the case, which has sweeping implications for how the country deals with a growing homelessness crisis.

In a lengthy and, at times, fiery argument that lasted almost 2 1/2 hours, questioning from the justices reflected the complexity of the homelessness debate. They weighed the status of poverty and the civil rights of homeless people against the ability of cities to clear public spaces such as parks and sidewalks to address concerns about health and safety. They wrestled with what lines could be drawn to regulate homelessness — and, crucially, who should make those rules.

The conservative majority appeared sympathetic to arguments by the city of Grants Pass, Oregon, that homelessness is a complicated issue best handled by local lawmakers and communities, not judges. The liberal justices strongly resisted that notion.

Chief Justice John Roberts calmly cut to the central point that seemed to resonate with the conservative wing: “Why would you think that these nine people are the best people to judge and weigh those policy judgments?”

In impassioned questioning, the liberal justices pushed back sharply on the city’s argument that homelessness was not a status protected under the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

“Could you criminalize the status of homelessness?,” Justice Elena Kagan asked the city’s lawyer, Theane Evangelis.

“Well, I don’t think that homelessness is a status like drug addiction,” Evangelis responded.

“Homelessness is a status,” Kagan replied. “It’s the status of not having a home.”

The issue of how far local governments can go to regulate homelessness has given rise to unusual alliances across the political spectrum, with some leaders of left-leaning cities and states joining with conservative groups to urge the justices to clarify the extent of their legal authority in clearing encampments that have proliferated across the West in recent years.

Many leaders of Western states and cities have contended that decisions by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees nine Western states, have been interpreted in ways that

have limited the flexibility of governments to tackle the problem.

The case stems from a series of local ordinances in Grants Pass, a town of about 40,000 in southern Oregon. City officials stepped up enforcement of local laws in 2013 after residents began to complain about people sleeping, urinating and defecating outside.

Three homeless residents of Grants Pass challenged those ordinances in 2018, arguing that the city had violated the Eighth Amendment.

Grants Pass contended that the Eighth Amendment was the wrong framework because it is typically aimed at punishments, not at laws. It added that a Supreme Court ruling striking down its ordinances would set a troubling precedent that would tie the hands of local governments around the country and fuel sprawling encampments.

The case is among the last to be argued this term, which means that it is unlikely to be decided before late June or perhaps in early July, since the Supreme Court now has a backlog of pending decisions in major cases.

As arguments were underway, about 100 demonstrators protested outside the court, chanting “SCOTUS, now’s the time, homelessness is not a crime!” and holding signs that read “Hous-

ing Justice” and “Housing is a human right.”

Kelsi Corkran, the lawyer representing the homeless plaintiffs, asserted that the use of the Eighth Amendment in the case was appropriate and therefore an issue the court was suited to address. “I don’t think there’s any question that being poor is a status,” she said. “It’s a status that can change over time and at that point you wouldn’t be part of the class, but I don’t think it changes the fact that it is a status.”

In heated questioning with the lawyer for the city, Kagan pointed to the city’s ordinances that allow authorities to ticket people for sleeping with bedding in public, asking whether cities could outlaw other basic human needs such as breathing.

“Sleeping is a biological necessity,” Kagan said. “It’s sort of like breathing. I mean, you could say breathing is conduct, too. But, presumably, you would not think that it’s OK to criminalize breathing in public, and for a homeless person who has no place to go, sleeping in public is kind of like breathing in public.”

Evangelis said she did not think that such laws would violate the Eighth Amendment and, bringing the discussion back to Grants Pass and its ordinances, added that the city was arguing that states and local governments should drive policymaking.

“We think that it is harmful for people to be living in public spaces, on streets and in parks,” Evangelis said. “Whatever bedding materials, when humans are living in those conditions, we think that that’s not compassionate and that there’s no dignity in that.”

That elicited sharp commentary from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who said: “Where do we put them if every city, every village, every town lacks compassion and passes a law identical to this? Where are they supposed to sleep? Are they supposed to kill themselves not sleeping?”

Several conservative justices seemed skeptical of the practicalities of following the rule laid out by the lower appeals court. The appeals court had determined that a city could not penalize people for being involuntarily homeless if the city did not have enough shelter beds for its homeless population. The justices seemed particularly concerned with how to decide whether a city had enough shelter beds and who would be responsible for sorting out such complex issues day to day.

“I think one of the questions is: Who takes care of it on the ground?,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked a lawyer for the federal government, Edwin Kneedler. “Is it going to be federal judges? Or is it the local jurisdictions with — working with the nonprofits and religious organizations?”

A community officer visits a homeless encampment in Grants Pass, Ore., on March 18, 2024. The Supreme Court considered on Monday, April 22, 2024, how far cities and states can go to police homelessness, in a case that could have profound implications for how the country addresses an escalating crisis. (Mason Trinca/ The New York Times)

Fund offering ‘venture capital’ exposure sends investors on meme-like ride

Anew fund that allows shareholders access to privately owned technology companies has sent investors on a wild ride in recent weeks while eliciting criticism from the likes of Morningstar and competitor ARK Investment Management.

Shares of Destiny Tech100 are up some 200% since its March 27 launch, following a tumultuous three-week run that has seen it rise by as much as 1,172% from its debut price of $8.25. The fund’s shares closed Monday down 13.1% at $24.68.

The fund owns stakes in about 25 private technology and growth companies, including SpaceX, OpenAI, Instacart and online payments processor Stripe. It plans to update its holdings on a quarterly basis, and creator Sohail Prasad said last month that he would like it to eventually hold 100 companies.

It currently has a market capitalization of $276.46 million. Last week, it filed with the SEC for a secondary stock sale of up to $1 billion in new shares.

Though it’s not the first fund of its kind, Destiny Tech100 appears to have caught the fancy of the meme stock crowd, which has helped fuel furious swings in shares of everything from GameStop to more recent offerings such as Trump Media & Technology Group.

Prasad founded DestinyTech 100 in late 2021, with the goal of giving wider access to a diversified pool of pre-IPO companies that are usually reserved for highnet worth investors.

“These are companies that people know and love and often use in their daily lives, but can’t invest in unless they’re wealthy,” he said.

He sold 200,000 shares of the fund on April 16 at a price of $24.65, a day it traded at about $43 a share and the same day the fund filed for a secondary offering. Prasad still owns 1.08 million shares, according to the SEC filing. Shares of the fund hit a 52-week high of $105 on April 8.

Other funds have offered similar products - including ARK Investment Management, the firm headed by Cathie Wood. The ARK Venture Fund debuted in September 2022 but has been slow to attract investors, resulting in them paying higher ownership costs than originally estimated.

A year ago, ARK offered waivers and reimbursements of those fees, capping them at 2.9%. That fund now has total assets of $53.7 million.

Destiny Tech100 levies an estimated fee of 4.98%, according to its SEC filing.

Speaking to Reuters following an event in London, Wood said the rival fund’s structure and fees mean investors face “a much higher price point” in exchange for daily liquidity. In a note to investors, ARK last week

MOST ASSERTIVE STOCKS

argued its approach to pre-IPO investing is better than Destiny Tech 100’s, saying it offers a share price closer to the net asset value of the shares and shareholders can redeem up to 5% of the fund’s total assets quarterly.

“We believe liquidity matters most,” Prasad told Reuters in e-mailed response to the ARK critique, adding “we made it simple” by allowing investors to buy and sell shares of DXYZ via their existing brokerage platforms.

Prasad added that he appreciates that ARK’s comments have helped educate investors about the concept.

“There’s a lot of structural change occurring in the

private markets and it is great to see another forwardthinking firm try to drive innovation and progress.”

Israel will expand civilian ‘safe zone’ if it invades crowded city in Gaza, official says

By ADAM RASGON

An Israeli military official has said that if an invasion were to begin in Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip where 1 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, an Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone” along the coast would be expanded to take in more civilians.

The comments are among the first indications of the Israeli military’s plans for civilians in case of a major ground maneuver in Rafah, which the Biden administration has urged Israel to forgo because of the risks it would pose to displaced Palestinians.

Palestinians who have sought shelter in Rafah have been bracing for an Israeli incursion for months, huddling in crowded tents, schools and apartments. Many have followed Israeli calls to evacuate only to encounter bombardment in those places, too.

Israeli officials have repeatedly said that the army will enter Rafah to fight Hamas battalions there, bucking international pressure to back off any operation.

In the case of an invasion, Israel would tell Palestinians to go to the enlarged “humanitarian zone,” a narrow strip of beachside land known as Muwasi, and other unidentified areas in Gaza, said the military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, on Monday evening.

It was unclear how much Israel would expand Muwasi, but the area is already packed with people. Satellite imagery from Pla-

net Labs revealed a significant increase in the number of people there over the last few months: An aerial image from Sunday shows tent encampments occupying land that had been empty in mid-January.

Sandra Rasheed, director of the Jerusalem office of Anera, a relief group, said Israel hadn’t told it of an imminent operation in Rafah, but the organization had found a shelter for its staff members and their families to relocate to in Muwasi. United Nations officials also said they hadn’t been informed by Israel of an impending invasion.

The western edge of Rafah’s built-up area is near Muwasi’s southern border and around 2 1/2 miles from its center.

Israel’s military first said Gaza’s residents should move to Muwasi in mid-October. It reiterated that demand in December when it issued evacuation orders for the nearby city of Khan Younis and told residents to head to Muwasi and some areas in Rafah.

Satellite imagery also appeared to show a new cluster of hundreds of tents being built west of Khan Younis. Imagery taken Thursday showed more than 100 tents in the area, while imagery captured Sunday showed more than 400 in the complex.

Israel has come under increasing international pressure to allow more aid to enter Gaza. The official did not say how much more aid would be brought to Muwasi. Mohammed al-Hassi, 48, a medic sheltering in Muwasi, said the area was overflowing with displaced people and worried another influx would make conditions worse.

“There aren’t enough bathrooms, there isn’t enough clean water, and there isn’t enough space,” he said. “The existing infrastructure can barely handle the number of people already here.”

Rafah is on the border with Egypt, but with Egypt allowing hardly any Palestinians from Gaza to enter, there are few clear options for moving large numbers of civilians out of the city. Earlier this month, Jamie McGoldrick, then a senior U.N. humanitarian official in Jerusalem, said that an Israeli invasion of Rafah could force hundreds of thousands of people to try to flee for points north, a risky journey across bombed-out roads littered with unexploded ordnance.

The Biden administration has repeatedly urged Israel to hold off on a major military assault on Rafah, including in a virtual meeting last week. During that meeting, the American side evaluated options for the attack presented by Israel but was not convinced that those

plans met President Joe Biden’s insistence that any operation be calibrated to minimize civilian casualties, according to a White House statement.

Israel has frequently encouraged Palestinians to seek shelter in Muwasi, but the area has been struck by the Israeli army several times, according to Palestinians in the area. Israel has accused militants of firing rockets from Muwasi.

“There’s no safe place,” al-Hassi said. “I’m someone with no hostility toward Israel or anyone in the world, but I can’t guarantee that the building, the land or the car I’m next to won’t be targeted.”

In Rafah, Rajab al-Sindawi, a secondhand clothing salesperson who fled there from Gaza City in the north, said he was feeling anxious as he, his wife and seven children squeezed into a small tent on a sidewalk.

“The people are all waiting to hear how they will move us,” he said.

By AMY CHANG CHIEN and YAN ZHUANG

Taiwan was shaken by a series of earthquakes on Monday and early Tuesday, the strongest with a magnitude of 6.3, partially toppling four buildings and keeping frightened residents up overnight. The tremors were aftershocks from the magnitude 7.4 quake that killed 17 people three weeks ago, authorities said.

Tasa mínima, promedio ponderado, y máxima para préstamos personales pequeños otorgados para la semana que terminó el sábado, 20 de abril de 2024

Tasa

The tremors began just after 5 p.m. Monday with a 5.5 magnitude quake in Hualien County on Taiwan’s east coast, according to Wu Chien-fu, director of the Taiwanese Central Weather Administration’s Seismological Center. It was followed by a series of smaller tremors some minutes later in the same area.

Four buildings Hualien County partially collapsed, some residents were evacuated, and schools and offices in the county were ordered to close Tuesday because of the threat of continuing tremors, according to local news outlets. No injuries or deaths had been reported by Tuesday morning.

Wu said at a news conference Monday night that the quakes were aftershocks from the deadly April 3 quake,

which was the strongest to hit Taiwan in 25 years. The epicenter of that earthquake was also in the Hualien County area.

Strong aftershocks from deadly quake rattle Taiwan Andeno Co

By Tuesday morning, more than 180 shocks had been recorded in the previous 24 hours, according to the Central Weather Administration. The strongest were at 2:26 a.m., at magnitude 6, off Taiwan’s eastern coast, and 2:32 a.m., at magnitude 6.3, about 10 miles from Hualien County. The latest big tremor came about 8 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Central Weather Administration.

Chen Mei-hui, 58, a retired salesperson who lives in Hualien, said the tremors had put her in a “very torturous mood.”

“I have been unable to sleep well since the earthquake this month,” she said Tuesday morning. “We can only pray that our house is strong enough to get us through this difficult time.”

In satellite images provided by Planet Labs, an image from April 21 shows tent encampments occupying land that had been empty in mid-January in a beachside area known as Al-Mawasi in the Gaza Strip. (Planet Labs via The New York Times)

‘Golden Visa’ programs, once a boon, lose their luster

By LIZ ALDERMAN

When Ana Jimena Barba, a young doctor, began working at a hospital in Madrid last year, she moved in with her parents a half-hour outside the city until she could save enough to buy her own home. But when she started looking at houses in the same village, almost everything was priced at more than 500,000 euros.

The amount — nearly 20 times more than the average annual salary in Spain — happens to correspond to the cost of the country’s “golden visa,” a program that offers residency to wealthy foreigners who buy real estate there. After a decade, the program has reeled in billions of euros in investments, but it has also helped fuel a wrenching housing crisis for its own citizens.

“There’s nothing I can afford,” said Barba, an allergist who has been working 100 hours overtime every month to save up a nest egg. “If foreigners inflate the prices for those of us who live here, it’s an injustice,” she said.

Faced with growing pressure to address its housing crunch, Spain said this month that it would scrap its golden visas, the latest in a wider withdrawal from the program by governments around Europe.

A half-dozen eurozone countries offered the visas at the height of Europe’s debt crisis in 2012 to help plug gaping budget deficits. Countries that needed international bailouts — Spain, Ireland, Portugal and Greece among them — were especially desperate for cash to repay creditors and saw a path to bring in investors while reviving their moribund real estate markets.

Countries reaped a windfall: Spain alone has issued 14,576 visas linked to wealthy buyers making real estate investments of more than 500,000 euros (about $533,000). But the prices that they can afford are squeezing people such as Barba out of a market that had already been highly inflated by the rise of Airbnb and the draw of Wall Street investors.

“Access to housing needs to be a right instead of a speculative business,” Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister, said in a speech this month as he announced the end of the country’s golden visa program. “Major cities are facing highly stressed markets, and it’s almost impossible to find decent housing for those who already live, work and pay their taxes.”

The visas make it easy for people outside the European Union to buy the right to temporary residency, sometimes without having

for decades, but the rise of Airbnb and other short-term rental providers has accelerated the affordability crisis. That was especially the case in countries affected by Europe’s debt crisis, where property owners discovered they could make more by renting to tourists than to locals whose finances had been squeezed by austerity programs.

Golden visa programs compounded the strain. In Greece, which initially granted foreigners a five-year residency visa if they invested 250,000 euros, many apartment and home listings around Athens and on breezy Greek islands suddenly shot up from bargain-basement prices to 250,000 euros, well out of reach for most Greeks.

Barba has been saving money for the past three years for a down payment on a home. She rented a room in a shared apartment in Barcelona when she began training as an allergist at a downtown hospital. But her monthly income was consumed by basic living expenses including food, rent and transport.

to live in the country. Investors from China, Russia and the Middle East flocked to buy real estate through them.

In recent years, British nationals have followed suit in the wake of Brexit, snapping up homes in Greece, Portugal and Spain, joined by an increasing number of Americans looking to enjoy a lifestyle they can’t afford in major U.S. cities.

But golden visa programs are now being phased out or shut down around Europe as governments seek to undo the damage to the housing market. And after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, EU officials urged governments to end them, warning they could be used for money laundering, tax evasion and even organized crime.

Portugal, which has reaped more than 5.8 billion euros in investment from the visas, modified its program in October to remove real estate as an investment to reduce speculative buying and cool an overheated housing market. An influx of foreigners has displaced thousands of low-income Portuguese citizens from homes in cities such as Lisbon.

Greece, one of the last countries in Europe to offer a golden visa, is raising its foreign investment threshold to 800,000 euros from 500,000 euros in the Athens area and on popular islands including Mykonos and Santorini. The country’s prime minister, Kyria-

kos Mitsotakis, acknowledged severe housing shortages and pressure on rental markets, especially around Athens, but he said the government still wanted to draw investors. Greece raised 4.3 billion euros in investment from the visas from 2021 to 2023 alone.

A report released by the Institute of Labor Economics in March said the visa programs had helped spur economic development in countries offering them. But governments need to strike “a delicate balance between reaping economic benefits and safeguarding against potential risks,” including money laundering and rampant gentrification, the report said.

The pullback is coming as a broader housing crisis grips Europe, after years in which its real estate markets have undergone a profound metamorphosis that has increasingly pushed out modest-income workers, including doctors, teachers and police officers.

Gentrification has spread throughout European cities

To save more, she transferred to the hospital in Madrid and now lives with her parents rent-free outside the city, working overtime to bump up her salary to 1,900 euros. But with homes even in her parents’ village priced at a half-million euros, she feels hopeless.

“It would take years to save up enough to put down a deposit on a home,” Barba said. “Buying a home is just a dream.”

People walking down a main street in the Salamanca neighborhood of Madrid, Spain on April 18, 2024. The golden visa program brought Spain billions of euros in investments. But property prices paid by rich foreigners are well beyond the earning power of locals. (Emilio Parra Doiztua/The New York Times)

How to be pro-Palestinian, pro-Israeli and pro-Iranian

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Iran’s missile and drone attack on Israel on April 13 was a game-changing escalation that requires some gamechanging rethinking on the part of Israel and its most important ally, the United States. I call it “the three-state solution.”

It begins with the recognition that there is probably zero hope for any resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the Israel-Iran conflict without leadership change in Tehran, Jerusalem and Ramallah.

Starting with Tehran: I don’t favor any Western attempt to topple the Islamic Republic of Iran from outside, but I pray that one day the Iranian people will do so from inside.

“This region won’t see any meaningful peace or stability so long as this current government is in power in Tehran,” explained Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Because Iran’s vast resources and training are funding the 5% of fanatics who are making life hell for the 95% of Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, Yemenis and Iraqis who just want to live in peace. To paraphrase Shimon Peres about prospects for change in Iran, the good news is there is light at the end of that tunnel. The bad news is that today there is no tunnel.”

Given how many times Iranians have challenged their theocratic regime only to be crushed by its iron fist, it’s clear that there is a will. We just have to hope they find a way one day soon.

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Because Iran and Israel once were natural allies — the two major non-Arab powers in the Middle East. That changed with the Islamic Revolution in 1979. It put in place in Tehran a regime that prioritized spreading its Islamic ideology — and the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel — over the welfare of Iranians. If Iran were just a normal state prioritizing the advance of its own people over the destruction of another, it would be a huge change for the region.

It was good to see that the Tehran regime did not get much of a popularity boost in the region from firing over 300 drones and missiles at Israel on Saturday — almost all of which were intercepted or crashed before doing any damage. In fact, social media accounts in the Arab world have been rife with jokes ridiculing the Iranian regime for basically being 0-for-300, and suggesting that the only people who died did so from laughter.

When I say we need regime change in Ramallah, I am referring to the corrupt and inept Palestinian Authority, led by the 88-year-old Mahmoud Abbas. Why is the Palestinian Authority so important? Because it still embraces living in peace with Israel and the Oslo framework meant to lead to two states for two Indigenous peoples. That is what makes a strong Palestinian Authority the keystone of any Israeli-Palestinian peace and of sustainable Arab-Israeli-Western alliance to deter or confront Iran.

So if you want to be pro-Palestinian today — as well as pro-Israel, pro-U.S.-Saudi-Israel agreement, pro-Abraham Accords, or anti-Iranian regime — the single most meaningful thing you can push for, demonstrate for or volunteer to contribute to is the transformation of the Palestinian Authority into a professionally led, noncorrupt, accountable-to-donors, effective governing institution.

That kind of Palestinian Authority can be a partner for a two-state solution with Israel and replace Israeli forces, along with friendly Arab armies, and govern the Gaza Strip in place of the pro-Iranian, Israel-hating Hamas — if it can be dismantled.

Countries like the United Arab Emirates are ready to come in and advise, train and fund a transforming Palestinian Authority, and even stand alongside it in Gaza with armed forces, but that is not going to happen until Abbas retires. The authority needs a proven, noncorrupt institution builder in the mold of former Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, the best Palestinian leadership role model ever.

Which leads to why we need leadership change in Israel today, too. No one has done more to frustrate and prevent the emergence of an effective Palestinian Authority than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who spent years making sure that Hamas had enough resources from Qatar to stay in power in Gaza, and prevent any unified Palestinian decision-making body — while, at the same time, denigrating the Palestinian Authority for every fault it had. Netanyahu never praised the authority for sticking to nonviolence (unlike Hamas) and for the way its security services helped Israel keep the West Bank from exploding despite the huge expansion of Israeli settlements. Netanyahu’s approach was shameful and, we now see, not in Israel’s interest.

Israel’s popularity has been eroding across the Western

world since Oct. 7 — not to mention the Arab Muslim world. The support Israel garnered last weekend against Iran is not sustainable, unless Israel evinces a changed attitude toward the Palestinian Authority and plans a way out of Gaza.

But let’s fantasize in a different direction for a moment. Imagine if Israel tomorrow announced a freeze on new settlements, a willingness to transfer more governing and security responsibilities to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza — as soon as it has built the capacity — and a willingness to invite in the U.S., the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to help bring the Palestinian Authority up to that level and fund its institutions, what would immediately happen?

Both Iran and Hamas would be deflated — more than any Israeli missile strike could accomplish.

“Oh my God,” Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Hamas would say, “that is a disaster. It means we cannot continue to easily delegitimize Israel in the West. It means conditions have been created for the U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian-Saudi security treaty. And it means the Arab governments will be able to much more comfortably and openly collaborate with Israel against Iran and its proxies. That is a disaster.”

It would also mean that Iran would no longer be able to pose as the great defender of the Palestinian cause — a pose that simply disguises its venomous desire to destroy the Jewish state and deflects attention from its crushing of its own people, particularly women and girls, and their democratic aspirations.

At the same time, in America and Western capitals, collaboration with Israel would no longer be so politically toxic. And in Russia and China, their collaboration with Iran would look as cynical as it is — pro-Hamas, not pro-Palestinian.

Yes, I can assure you: Nothing could be more to Israel’s strategic benefit.

But it cannot and will not happen as long as Netanyahu is in power.

We are in a chaotic moment in the Middle East right now. All I know for certain is that an effective, credible, legitimate Palestinian Authority is the keystone for every decent outcome — a sustainable two-state solution, a sustainable Arab-Israeli alliance against Iran, a sustainable U.S. and NATO Middle East policy to protect a democratic Israel from theocratic Tehran and a sustainable removal of the “Palestine card” from Iran’s hands.

But it will take leadership transformations in Tehran, Ramallah and Jerusalem (and not Washington) to happen.

Demonstrators show their support for Iran’s attack on Israel in Palestine Square in Tehran, Iran, Monday, April 15, 2024. (Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times)

Tribunal Supremo de Puerto Rico paraliza proceso judicial contra Mariana Nogales, Rita Molinelli Freytes y Ocean Front Villas, Corp.

POR CYBERNEWS

SAN JUAN – El Tribunal Supremo de Puerto Rico paralizó el lunes, los procedimientos judiciales en el caso contra la representante del Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana (MVC), Mariana Nogales Molinelli, Rita Molinelli Freytes y Ocean Front Villas, Corp.

“Atendida la Petición de Certiorari y la Moción en auxilio de jurisdicción presentada por el Pueblo de Puerto Rico, por conducto del Panel sobre el Fiscal Especial Independiente, se provee ha lugar a ambas.

En consecuencia, se decreta la paralización de los procedimientos ante el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Centro Judicial de San Juan en los casos criminales El Pueblo de Puerto Rico y. Mariana Nogales Molinelli y otros, Crim. núm. K M12023-121, K M12023-122, K M12023-130, K M12023-131 y K N12023-132. Expida el Secretario Mandamiento de Certiorari dirigido al Tribunal de Apelaciones, Panel VI, para que a la brevedad posible remite a la Secretaría de este Tribu-

nal los autos originales o una copia en el caso núm. KLCE202400070, El Pueblo de Puerto Rico y. Mariana Nogales Molinelli, Rita Molinelli Freytes, Ocean Front Villas Corp.; a que se refiere la petición presentada en este caso”, reza la Resolución emitida por el Tribunal Supremo.

Por su parte, en una opinión disidente, el juez asociado Ángel Colón Pérez dijo: “La invitación que nos realiza el PFEI para que, desde este estrado apelativo de última instancia, se cree derecho a su medida, que le permita intentar probar, nuevamente, lo que ya,- según lo sentenciaron los foros a quo en más de una ocasión-, resultó ser improbable, es rechazada por el juez que suscribe. Esto es un Tribunal General de Justicia, no una sastrería”.

“El Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana y sus militantes permanecerán vigilantes y en apoyo a nuestra compañera, tenemos la seguridad de que volverá a salir airosa, tanto en el plano judicial como en el electoral, pues el pueblo mira atentamente este uso indebido de la enti-

dades públicas por parte del bipartidismo para permanecer en el poder. Seguiremos de pie, dando la batalla y logrando el cambio que el país exige. Finalmente, nos unimos a las palabras del Juez Colón en su opinión disidente: esto debe ser un Tribunal General de Justicia, no una sastrería”, dijo por su parte, el coordinador del MVC, Manuel Natal Albelo en declaraciones escritas.

Documento: 4-23-24 TSPR Mariana Nogales – FEI

Gobernador ordena se agilice proceso de disponer de escuelas en desuso que en algunos casos se usan como vivienda

SAN JUAN – El gobernador Pedro Rafael Pierluisi Urrutia dijo el martes que dio instrucciones a las entidades encargadas de la venta o arrendamiento de escuelas en desuso, que algunas de ellas se han convertido en hogares. “Bueno, recientemente yo impartí directrices a tanto CEDBI (Comité de Evaluación y Disposición de Propiedades Inmuebles), que es la entidad que tiene el gobierno para la disposición de propiedades públicas, como la Autoridad de Edificios Públicos y el Departamento de Educación, de agilizar, acelerar el proceso de reutilización de planteles escolares que están en desuso”, dijo el gobernador en conferencia de prensa.

“Es que esto es lo importante, porque obviamente de lo que estamos hablando es de planteles en desuso, que personas, pues básicamente se han adentrado a los mismos y algunos los están utilizando como si fuera una vivienda cuando no lo son. Y lo importante es que, nuevamente, tratemos de que no haya planteles en desuso, que todos estén siendo utilizados para fines públicos, fines loables”, añadió.

Según reportes de prensa, en los municipios de Maricao, Adjuntas, Lares, Yauco y Peñuelas hay personas que viven en escuelas abandonadas. El secretario del Departamento de la Vivienda, William Rodríguez Rodríguez sostuvo que le han ofrecido a estas personas alternativas, pero las han rechazado.

“Nosotros hicimos un esfuerzo interagencial. Ahí estuvo el Departamento de la Vivienda, estuvo la Administración de Vivienda Pública, estuvo AMSCA y el Departamento de la Familia. Se visitó cada uno de los

planteles y se le hicieron ofrecimientos de vivienda pública, Sección 8, entre otras ayudas a cada una de las familias que estaban en cada uno de estos planteles. Y todos fueron rechazados. Hay expedientes, se levantaron. Hay información obviamente que es confidencial, que no podemos compartir, pero hay un expediente para cada una de las familias con su composición familiar, el ofrecimiento y el rechazo de cada una de las familias. Nosotros vamos a volver a visitar, y es la instrucción, del señor gobernador junto con todas las agencias para hacer el ofrecimiento nuevamente de vivienda adecuada, digna y sanitaria, que es la que merecen todas estas familias. Lo rechazaron en el pasado. No sabemos si ahora puedan aceptarlo. Y siempre vamos a estar disponibles para ofrecerles nuevamente una vivienda segura”, expuso el secretario.

El gobernador insistió en que las escuelas en desuso no son viviendas.

“La realidad es que los planteles no son viviendas, no

deben ser utilizados para propósitos de vivienda. Ese no es su fin. Pueden ser utilizados para diversos propósitos. Pudieran ser refugios, por ejemplo, pero tiene que haber una entidad que los está administrando. Pudieran ser, se pueden utilizar para múltiples propósitos. Así que la instrucción que yo lo que di recientemente no tiene nada que ver con el reportaje, que es que le recabé a las entidades que están en ese plantel, que tienen que ver con los planteles, edificios públicos, educación, esta entidad CEDBI, que quiero que se agilice esto. Reconozco que el Departamento de Educación ha mantenido planteles a su disposición precisamente para si en el contexto este de reconstrucción de planteles, reparación de planteles que está en curso, se necesita un plantel, volver a abrir un plantel para utilizarlo, pues yo puedo entender que por vía de excepción algunos de esos planteles se mantengan disponibles para usos del Departamento de Educación. Pero la gran mayoría hay que disponer de ellos”, expresó el gobernador.

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For her Met Opera debut, Lileana Blain-Cruz directs ‘El Niño’

By JOSHUA BARONE

When Peter Gelb, the Metropolitan Opera’s general manager, asked director Lileana Blain-Cruz what she wanted to stage, she didn’t need any time to think about her answer: “El Niño.”

A couple of years ago, she had already been hired to direct Missy Mazzoli’s “Lincoln in the Bardo,” an adaptation of the George Saunders novel that will premiere in the 2026-27 season, but Gelb was curious about what else she might be interested in.

Long a fan of John Adams and his collaborations with director-librettist Peter Sellars, Blain-Cruz particularly loved their 2000 oratorio “El Niño,” a blending of the Nativity story with ancient and modern texts, like poetry by Rosario Castellanos and Gabriela Mistral.

“It makes you weep, and you don’t expect it,” Blain-Cruz said of the piece. “It shook me and stayed in my imagination for a while after I heard it, but I didn’t know when I would have a chance to make it happen onstage myself.”

Performers during a rehearsal of Lileana Blain-Cruz’s production of “El Nino,” a blending of the Nativity story with ancient and modern texts in which multiple eras coexist, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, April 12, 2024. In her Met debut, Blain-Cruz promises to push divinity and spirit to the seats in the back. (Lila Barth/ The New York Times)

Gelb quickly said yes. Now, Blain-Cruz’s production of “El Niño” will premiere at the Met on Tuesday, bringing with it the return of brilliant mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges and the long-awaited house debuts of Julia Bullock, Davóne Tines and conductor Marin Alsop.

Blain-Cruz is bold in choosing an oratorio for her first project at the Met. Abstract, loosely narrated and written more for concert halls than opera houses, oratorios are more difficult than opera to stage persuasively, which in itself is immensely difficult.

But, she said, the nature of oratorios suits her style. Gelb agrees, having been impressed by her take on Thornton Wilder’s “The Skin of Our Teeth” at Lincoln Center Theater in 2022.

“I was bowled over by her visual sensibility and her storytelling,” Gelb said. Visual is one way to describe her approach to “El Niño,” a supernova of color, movement and oscillations between the intimate and divinely grand.

“There’s never been a director like her to work at the Met,” Gelb added. “She’s kind of this irrepressible force of nature who seems to be just like filled with adrenaline at every mo -

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ment. At the end of rehearsals, she unfailingly does a dance up and down the aisle. But the fact that she’s extroverted is the icing on the cake because she’s meticulous, and on top of everything.”

Between recent rehearsals, BlainCruz discussed how she’s settling into the Met and how oratorios can both challenge and liberate a director. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Q: What was the pitch for your concept with this production?

A: John and Peter built this in Los Angeles, and they were interested in migrant stories. The migrant story of Mary and Joseph is interesting, but my sense of the journey is that we’re watching two different Marys travel through two different forms of migration: Julia on land, and J’Nai on the water. And their journeys kind of collide when we get into the second act.

staging an oratorio versus a more straightforward drama?

A: In a straightforward drama like “Faust,” you have characters, and they are saying what they’re saying as they’re saying it. There’s a linearity inside the piece. But an oratorio like this has an abstraction of time, and that’s what I have the most fun playing with. You can have multiple times coexisting, and that’s freeing. You can have the scene and also be talking about the scene while living inside the scene. That kind of double awareness, and relationship between character and time, is thrilling.

Q: One of the hardest challenges of this piece, especially compared with something like a play, is moving dozens of bodies in a way that makes sense both dramatically and logistically.

A: The trickiness is how to do it in a limited amount of time. If I had a year, this would be easy breezy. With our rehearsal time, how do you distill what’s most essential with why they’re present in that moment and infuse them with the why so they can be alive in that moment?

The mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, right, performs with Dymon Samara, a dancer in the company, during a rehearsal of Lileana Blain-Cruz’s production of “El Nino,” a blending of the Nativity story with ancient and modern texts in which multiple eras coexist, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, April 12, 2024. (Lila Barth/The New York Times)

But “el niño” also means so much. It can be about weather systems; there’s so much about climate here that asks us to reconcile with earth and nature. So as I was thinking about witnesses and narration, I thought about the earth as a witness. This is a story that traverses time, and what exists in all time? Nature.

Q: How would you describe the differences between

Q: It probably helps that you are also working with Julia, Davóne and J’Nai, who are such strong theatrical talents.

A: They are so lived inside their roles that they’re doing this incredible job grounding the reality that we’re existing in. John Adams has said that the tricky thing is to maintain the intimacy. They can sustain the emotional journey and shifts and nuances that are happening in each moment, and that’s what keeps the humanity inside the characters.

Q: Has John Adams been involved?

A: He’s coming to the opening. We’ve talked, and he’s been so generous. He told me that we’re just filled with so much news and information of the ways in which people in the world hate each other. But there is also love, creativity and creation, and that felt reassuring to hear. In the midst of it all, there is grace. He talked about when he and Peter were doing this, and working with 16-year-olds in California — 16 and pregnant, and the world thinks you’re doing everything wrong. And to be able to hold a child and do that with love and grace is so profound and incredible.

That humility, I think, is also a part of this production. My family is from Haiti and Puerto Rico, and when I saw Haitians at the border being attacked by men on horses — the rage that I felt about not being able to uplift them as people who had sacrificed their entire lives and took this incredible journey. We get to do the flip of that on this stage. We get to say, “No, these people are magnificent.”

Should we change species to save them?

By EMILY ANTHES

For tens of millions of years, Australia has been a playground for evolution, and the land Down Under lays claim to some of the most remarkable creatures on Earth.

It is the birthplace of songbirds, the land of egg-laying mammals and the world capital of pouch-bearing marsupials, a group that encompasses far more than just koalas and kangaroos. (Behold the bilby and the bettong!) Nearly half of the continent’s birds and roughly 90% of its mammals, reptiles and frogs are found nowhere else on the planet.

Australia has also become a case study in what happens when people push biodiversity to the brink. Habitat degradation, invasive species, infectious diseases and climate change have put many native animals in jeopardy and given Australia one of the worst rates of species loss in the world.

In some cases, scientists say, the threats are so intractable that the only way to protect Australia’s unique animals is to change them. Using a variety of techniques, including crossbreeding and gene editing, scientists are altering the genomes of vulnerable animals, hoping to arm them with the traits they need to survive.

“We’re looking at how we can assist evolution,” said Anthony Waddle, a conservation biologist at Macquarie University in Sydney.

It is an audacious concept, one that challenges a fundamental conservation impulse to preserve wild creatures as they are. But in this human-dominated age — in which Australia is simply at the leading edge of a global biodiversity crisis — the traditional conservation playbook may no longer be enough, some scientists said.

“We’re searching for solutions in an altered world,” said Dan Harley, a senior ecologist at Zoos Victoria. “We need to take risks. We need to be bolder.”

The extinction vortex

The helmeted honeyeater is a bird that demands to be noticed, with a patch of electric-yellow feathers on its forehead and a habit of squawking loudly as it zips through the dense swamp forests of the state of Victoria. But over the last few centuries, humans and wildfires damaged or destroyed these forests, and by 1989, just 50 helmeted honeyeaters remained, clinging to a tiny sliver of swamp at the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve.

Intensive local conservation efforts, including a captive breeding program at Healesville Sanctuary, a Zoos Victoria park, helped the birds hang on. But there was very little genetic diversity among the remaining birds — a problem common in endangered animal populations — and breeding inevitably meant inbreeding. “They have very few options for making good mating decisions,” said Paul Sunnucks, a wildlife geneticist at Monash University in Melbourne.

In any small, closed breeding pool, harmful genetic mutations can build up over time, damaging animals’ health and reproductive success, and inbreeding exacerbates the problem. The helmeted honeyeater was an especially extreme case. The most inbred birds left one-tenth as many offspring as the least inbred ones, and the females had life spans that were half as

long, Sunnucks and his colleagues found.

Without some kind of intervention, the helmeted honeyeater could be pulled into an “extinction vortex,” said Alexandra Pavlova, an evolutionary ecologist at Monash. “It became clear that something new needs to be done.”

A decade ago, Pavlova, Sunnucks and several other experts suggested an intervention known as genetic rescue, proposing to add some Gippsland yellow-tufted honeyeaters and their fresh DNA to the breeding pool.

Crossing the two types of honeyeaters risked muddying what made each subspecies unique and creating hybrids that were not well suited for either niche. Moving animals between populations can also spread disease, create new invasive populations or destabilize ecosystems in unpredictable ways.

Genetic rescue is also a form of active human meddling that violates what some scholars refer to as conservation’s “ethos of restraint” and has sometimes been critiqued as a form of playing God.

“There was a lot of angst among government agencies around doing it,” said Andrew Weeks, an ecological geneticist at the University of Melbourne who began a genetic rescue of the endangered mountain pygmy opossum in 2010. “It was only really the idea that the population was about to go extinct that I guess gave government agencies the nudge.”

Sunnucks and his colleagues made the same calculation, arguing that the risks associated with genetic rescue were small — before the birds’ habitats were carved up and degraded, the two subspecies did occasionally interbreed in the wild — and paled in comparison with the risks of doing nothing.

And so, since 2017, Gippsland birds have been part of the helmeted honeyeater breeding program at Healesville Sanctuary. In captivity there have been real benefits, with many mixed pairs producing more independent chicks per nest than pairs composed of two helmeted honeyeaters. Dozens of hybrid honeyeaters have now been released into the wild. They seem to be faring well, but it is too soon to say whether they have a fitness advantage.

Targeting threats

For the northern quoll, a small marsupial predator, the existential threat arrived nearly a century ago, when the invasive, poisonous cane toad landed in eastern Australia. Since then, the toxic toads have marched steadily westward — and wiped out entire populations of quolls, which eat the alien amphibians.

But some of the surviving quoll populations in eastern Australia seem to have evolved a distaste for toads. When scientists crossed toad-averse quolls with toad-naive quolls, the hybrid offspring also turned up their tiny pink noses at the toxic amphibians.

What if scientists moved some toad-avoidant quolls to the west, allowing them to spread their discriminating genes before the cane toads arrived? “You’re essentially using natural selection and evolution to achieve your goals, which means that the problem gets solved quite thoroughly and permanently,” said Ben Phillips, a population biologist at Curtin University in Perth who led the research.

A field test, however, demonstrated how unpredictable

A

Queensland, Australia, on Nov. 3, 2023. Should we change species to save them? When traditional conservation fails, science is using “assisted evolution” to give vulnerable wildlife a chance. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)

nature can be. In 2017, Phillips and his colleagues released a mixed population of northern quolls on a tiny, toad-infested island. Some quolls did interbreed, and there was preliminary evidence of natural selection for “toad-smart” genes.

But the population was not yet fully adapted to toads, and some quolls ate the amphibians and died, Phillips said. A large wildfire also broke out on the island. Then, a cyclone hit. “All of these things conspired to send our experimental population extinct,” Phillips said. The scientists did not have enough funding to try again, but “all the science lined up,” he added.

Unintended consequences

Still, no matter how sophisticated the technology becomes, organisms and ecosystems will remain complex. Genetic interventions are “likely to have some unintended impacts,” said Tiffany Kosch, a conservation geneticist at the University of Melbourne who is also hoping to create chytridresistant frogs. A genetic variant that helps frogs survive chytrid might make them more susceptible to another health problem, she said.

There are plenty of cautionary tales, efforts to reengineer nature that have backfired spectacularly. The toxic cane toads, in fact, were set loose in Australia deliberately, in what would turn out to be a deeply misguided attempt to control pest beetles.

Chris Lean, a philosopher of biology at Macquarie University, said he believed in the fundamental conservation goal of “preserving the world as it is for its heritage value, for its ability to tell the story of life on Earth.” Still, he said he supported the cautious, limited use of new genomic tools, which may require us to reconsider some long-standing environmental values.

In some ways, assisted evolution is an argument — or, perhaps, an acknowledgment — that there is no stepping back, no future in which humans do not profoundly shape the lives and fates of wild creatures.

To Harley, it has become clear that preventing more extinctions will require human intervention, innovation and effort. “Let’s lean into that, not be daunted by it,” he said. “My view is that 50 years from now, biologists and wildlife managers will look back at us and say, ‘Why didn’t they take the steps and the opportunities when they had the chance?’”

koala and joey at the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital in

Bird flu is infecting more mammals. What does that mean for us?

By APOORVA MANDAVILLI and EMILY ANTHES

In her three decades of working with elephant seals, Dr. Marcela Uhart had never seen anything like the scene on the beaches of Argentina’s Valdés Peninsula last October.

It was peak breeding season; the beach should have been teeming with harems of fertile females and enormous males battling one another for dominance. Instead, it was “just carcass upon carcass upon carcass,” recalled Uhart, who directs the Latin American wildlife health program at the University of California, Davis.

H5N1, one of the many viruses that cause bird flu, had already killed at least 24,000 South American sea lions along the continent’s coasts in less than a year. Now it had come for elephant seals.

Pups of all ages, from newborns to the fully weaned, lay dead or dying at the hightide line. Sick pups lay listless, foam oozing from their mouths and noses.

Uhart called it “an image from hell.”

In the weeks that followed, she and a colleague — protected head to toe with gloves, gowns and masks, and periodically dousing themselves with bleach — carefully documented the devastation. Team members stood atop the nearby cliffs, assessing the toll with drones.

What they found was staggering: The virus had killed an estimated 17,400 seal pups, more than 95% of the colony’s young animals.

The catastrophe was the latest in a bird flu epidemic that has whipped around the world since 2020, prompting authorities on multiple continents to kill poultry and other birds by the millions. In the United States alone, more than 90 million birds have been culled in a futile attempt to deter the virus.

There has been no stopping H5N1. Avian flu viruses tend to be picky about their hosts, typically sticking to one kind of wild bird. But this one has rapidly infiltrated an astonishingly wide array of birds and animals, from squirrels and skunks to bottlenose dolphins, polar bears and, most recently, dairy cows.

“In my flu career, we have not seen a virus that expands its host range quite like this,” said Troy Sutton, a virologist who studies avian and human influenza viruses at Penn State University.

The blow to sea mammals, and to dairy and poultry industries, is worrying enough. But a bigger concern, experts said, is what these

Resting elephant seals of the Piedras Blancas colony near San Simeon, Calif., on Sept. 12, 2018. Elephant seals breed in large, crowded colonies, and they sneeze all day, dispersing large droplets of mucus each time they do so. (Drew Kelly/The New York Times)

developments portend: The virus is adapting to mammals, edging closer to spreading among people.

A human pandemic is by no means inevitable. So far at least, the changes in the virus do not signal that H5N1 can cause a pandemic, Sutton said.

Still, he said, “We really don’t know how to interpret this or what it means.”

Marine mortalities

A highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 was identified in 1996 in domestic waterfowl in China. The next year, 18 people in Hong Kong became infected with the virus, and six died. The virus then went silent, but it resurfaced in Hong Kong in 2003. Since then, it has caused dozens of outbreaks in poultry and affected more than 800 people who were in close contact with the birds.

All the while, it continued to evolve.

The version of H5N1 currently racing across the world emerged in Europe in 2020 and spread quickly to Africa and Asia. It killed scores of farmed birds, but unlike its predecessors it also spread widely among wild birds and into many other animals.

Most infections of mammals were probably “dead-end” cases: a fox, perhaps, that ate an infected bird and died without passing on the virus. But a few larger outbreaks suggested that H5N1 was capable of more.

The first clue came in the summer of 2022, when the virus killed hundreds of seals

in New England and Quebec. A few months later, it infiltrated a mink farm in Spain.

In the mink, at least, the most likely explanation was that H5N1 had adapted to spread among the animals. The scale of the outbreaks in sea mammals in South America underscored that probability.

“Even intuitively, I would think that mammal-to-mammal transmission is very likely,” said Malik Peiris, a virologist and expert in bird flu at the University of Hong Kong.

After it was first detected in South America, in birds in Colombia in October 2022, the virus swept down the Pacific coast to Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of the continent, and up the Atlantic coast.

Along the way, it killed hundreds of thousands of seabirds, and tens of thousands of sea lions, in Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. The sea lions behaved erratically, experiencing convulsions and paralysis; pregnant females miscarried their fetuses.

“What happened when the virus moved to South America we had never seen before,” Uhart said.

Exactly how and when the virus jumped to marine mammals is unclear, but the sea lions most likely came into close contact with infected birds or contaminated droppings. (Although fish make up the bulk of sea lions’ diet, they do sometimes eat birds.)

“This could suggest that the infection source was not the infected birds,” said Dr. Pablo Plaza, a wildlife veterinarian at the National University of Comahue and National Scientific and Technical Research Council in Argentina.

It is not hard to imagine how the virus might disperse in these animals: Elephant seals and sea lions both breed in colonies, crowding together on beaches where they fight, mate and bark at one another. Elephant seals sneeze all day, dispersing large droplets of mucus each time they do.

It is difficult to prove exactly how and when the virus moved from one species to another. But genetic analysis supports the theory the marine mammals acquired their infections from one another, not birds. Samples of virus isolated from sea lions in Peru and Chile and from the elephant seals in Argentina all share about 15 mutations not seen in the birds; the same mutations were also present in a Chilean man who was infected last year.

Still, even if the virus jumps to people, “we may not see the level of mortality that we’re really concerned about,” said Seema Lakdawala, a virologist at Emory University. “Preexisting immunity to seasonal flu strains will provide some protection from severe disease.”

What happens next

The U.S. is prepared for an influenza pandemic, with some stockpiled vaccines and antivirals, but its efforts at monitoring the virus may not pick it up quickly enough to deploy those tools.

It took several weeks before farmers, and then officials, knew that H5N1 was circulating in dairy cows.

The dairy farm outbreak has resulted in only one mild human infection, but farms are fertile ground for the virus to jump species — from cat to cow to pig and human, in any order.

Many scientists worry in particular about pigs, which are susceptible to both human and avian flu strains, providing the perfect mixing bowl for viruses to swap genes. Pigs are slaughtered when very young, and newer generations, with no prior exposure to flu, are particularly vulnerable to infections.

So far, H5N1 does not seem adept at infecting pigs, but that could change as it acquires new mutations.

At some point, it’s likely the virus evolved to spread directly among the marine mammals: In Argentina, the sea lion deaths did not coincide with the mass mortality of wild birds.

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Demandado

Civil Núm.: TA2022CV00930. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. AVISO DE VENTA EN PÚBLICA SUBASTA. Yo, EDUARDO RODRÍGUEZ RIVERA, Alguacil de la División de Subastas del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Toa Alta, a la demandada y al público en general, les notifico que, cumpliendo con un Mandamiento que se ha librado en el presente caso, por el Secretario del Tribunal, con fecha 17 de enero de 2024 y para satisfacer la Sentencia por la cantidad de $22,820.52 de principal; dictada en el caso de epígrafe el 14 de noviembre de 2023, notificada por edicto y archivada el 15 de noviembre de 2023, y publicada mediante edicto el día 24 de noviembre de 2023 en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star y notificada por correo certificado ese 28 de noviembre de 2028, procederé a vender en pública subasta, al mejor postor en pago de contado y en moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, todo derecho, título e interés que haya tenido, tenga o pueda tener la deudora demandada en cuanto a la propiedad localizada en el Municipio de Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, los bienes inmuebles se describen a continuación: URBANA: Solar número treinta y nueve (39) de

la manzana “F”, radicado en la Urbanización El Plantío localizado en el barrio Candelaria del municipio de Toa Baja, compuesto de 150.00 metros cuadrados. En lindes al Norte, con el solar cuarenta (40), distancia de 24.00 metros; al Sur, con solar treinta y ocho (38), distancia de 24.00 metros; al Este, con la calle principal, distancia de 6.25 metros y al Oeste, con la calle veintiuno (21), distancia de 6.25 metros. Enclava una casa para fines residenciales.

Finca #15562-Bis, inscrita al Folio 141 del Tomo 256 de Toa Baja, del Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección II de Bayamón. Con el importe de dicha venta se habrá de satisfacer a la parte demandante las cantidades adeudadas, según la Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe, por el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Toa Alta, cuyas cantidades ascienden a $22,820.52 de principal, a razón de 7.5% de intereses los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda; más costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. El tipo mínimo para la subasta será la suma de tasación pactada, la cual es $71,400.00 para la propiedad descrita. Si no produjere remate o adjudicación la primera subasta, se procederá a una segunda subasta y servirá de tipo mínimo la cantidad de $47,600.00. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en esta segunda subasta, se procederá a una tercera subasta, en ésta el tipo mínimo será la cantidad de $35,700.00. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta se dará por terminado el procedimiento, pudiendo adjudicarse a opción del demandante. Para el lote descrito, la PRIMERA SUBASTA se llevará a cabo el día 8 DE MAYO DE 2024, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA. De no comparecer postor alguno se llevará a efecto una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 15 DE MAYO DE 2024, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA. De no comparecer postor alguno se llevará a cabo una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 22 DE MAYO DE 2024, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA. La subasta o subastas antes indicadas se llevarán a efecto en mi oficina, localizada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Toa Alta. Del Estudio de Título realizado el 7 de febrero de 2024, surge el siguiente gravamen posterior: Embargo a favor del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico para responder por la suma de $28,940.37 en concepto de Contribución sobre Ingresos como propiedad de los esposos Américo Ramos Pérez y Ana Lugo González,

según Certificación del 21 de mayo de 1997 expedida por el Departamento de Hacienda, anotado al tomo 527 de hoja móvil de Toa Baja el 7 de mayo de 2003 anotación “B”. Se le advierte a los licitadores que la adjudicación se hará al mejor postor, quien deberá consignar el importe de su oferta en el mismo acto de la adjudicación en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica, giro postal o cheque de gerente a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal y para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda(s) aquella(s) persona(s) que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando, y para conocimiento de los licitadores y el público en general y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general, una vez por semana durante el término de dos (2) semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, y para su fijación en tres (3) lugares públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como, la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía y se le notificará además a la parte demandada vía correo certificado con acuse de recibo a la última dirección conocida. Se les advierte a todos los interesados que todos los documentos relacionados con la presente acción de ejecución de hipoteca, así como la de la subasta, estarán disponibles para ser examinados en la Secretaría del Tribunal. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere al crédito de ejecutante, continuarán subsiguientes entendiéndose que el rematante 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, previa orden judicial dirigida al Registrador de la Propiedad de la sección correspondiente para la cancelación de aquellos posteriores. Y para conocimiento de la demandada, de los acreedores posteriores, de los licitadores, partes interesadas y público en general, expido el presente Aviso para su publicación en los lugares públicos correspondientes. Librado en Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, a 20 de febrero de 2024. EDUARDO RODRÍGUEZ RIVERA, ALGUACIL.

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SUCESION DE PORFIRIO

QUIÑONES NERIZ T/C/C PORFIRIO QUIÑONES NERIS T/C/C PORFIRIO QUIÑONES NERYS Y LA SUCESION DE CRUCITA

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AMBAS COMPUESTAS POR FULANO DE TAL, FULANA DE TAL, SUTANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE AMBAS SUCESIONES; SECRETARIO DEL DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA DEL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO; SECRETARIO DEL DEPARTAMENTO DE JUSTICIA DEL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO

Demandados

Civil Núm.: TA2023CV00046. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria. AVISO DE VENTA EN PÚBLICA SUBASTA. Yo, EDUARDO RODRÍGUEZ

RIVERA, Alguacil de la División de Subastas del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Toa Alta, a la demandada y al público en general, les notifico que, cumpliendo con un Mandamiento que se ha librado en el presente caso, por el Secretario del Tribunal, con fecha 9 de enero de 2024 y para satisfacer la Sentencia por la cantidad de $14,614.73 de principal; dictada en el caso de epígrafe el 14 de noviembre de 2023, notificada por edicto y archivada ese mismo 15 de noviembre de 2023, y publicada mediante edicto el día 22 de noviembre de 2023 en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star y notificada por correo certificado ese mismo dia, procederé a vender en pública subasta, al mejor postor en pago de contado y en moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, todo derecho, título e interés que haya tenido, tenga o pueda tener la deudora demandada en cuanto a la propiedad localizada en el Municipio de Dorado, Puerto Rico, los bienes inmuebles se describen a continuación: “URBANA: Solar radicado en la calle Cementerio de Dorado, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 74.74 metros

cuadrados. En Lindes al Norte, en 12.71 metros con el solar ocupado por Manuel Nevárez; al Sur, en 12.10 metros con solar ocupado por Eustaquio Rodríguez; al Este, en 6.76 metros con solar ocupado por Porfirio Quiñones y por Oeste, en 5.92 metros con la calle Cementerio. Finca #1552, inscrita al folio 31 del tomo 41 de Dorado. Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón IV. Con el importe de dicha venta se habrá de satisfacer a la parte demandante las cantidades adeudadas, según la Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe, por el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Toa Alta, cuyas cantidades ascienden a $14,614.73 de principal, a razón de 7.125% de intereses los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda;; más costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. El tipo mínimo para la subasta será la suma de tasación pactada, la cual es $37,600.00 para la propiedad descrita. Si no produjere remate o adjudicación la primera subasta, se procederá a una segunda subasta y servirá de tipo mínimo la cantidad de $25,066.66. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en esta segunda subasta, se procederá a una tercera subasta, en ésta el tipo mínimo será la cantidad de $18,800.00. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta se dará por terminado el procedimiento, pudiendo adjudicarse a opción del demandante. Para el lote descrito, la PRIMERA SUBASTA se llevará a cabo el día 8 DE MAYO DE 2024, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA. De no comparecer postor alguno se llevará a efecto una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 15 DE MAYO DE 2024, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA. De no comparecer postor alguno se llevará a cabo una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 22 DE MAYO DE 2024, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA. La subasta o subastas antes indicadas se llevarán a efecto en mi oficina, localizada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Toa Alta. Del Estudio de Título realizado el 5 de febrero de 2024, surge el siguiente gravamen posterior: Hipoteca constituída en garantía de un pagaré bajo aff. #5435 a favor del Associates International Holdings Corporation, o a su orden, por $10,299.99, al 12.68% anual, vencedero el 24 de agosto de 2015, según Esc. #188 en Dorado el 19 de agosto de 2005 ante Rafael Antonio Vélez Pérez, inscrito al tomo Karibe, finca #1552 de Dorado inscripción 7ma, Se le advierte a los licitadores que la adjudicación se hará al mejor postor, quien deberá consignar

el importe de su oferta en el mismo acto de la adjudicación en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica, giro postal o cheque de gerente a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal y para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda(s) aquella(s) persona(s) que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando, y para conocimiento de los licitadores y el público en general y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general, una vez por semana durante el término de dos (2) semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, y para su fijación en tres (3) lugares públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como, la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía y se le notificará además a la parte demandada vía correo certificado con acuse de recibo a la última dirección conocida. Se les advierte a todos los interesados que todos los documentos relacionados con la presente acción de ejecución de hipoteca, así como la de la subasta, estarán disponibles para ser examinados en la Secretaría del Tribunal. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere al crédito de ejecutante, continuarán subsiguientes entendiéndose que el rematante 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, previa orden judicial dirigida al Registrador de la Propiedad de la sección correspondiente para la cancelación de aquellos posteriores. Y para conocimiento de la demandada, de los acreedores posteriores, de los licitadores, partes interesadas y público en general, expido el presente Aviso para su publicación en los lugares públicos correspondientes. Librado en Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, a 20 de febrero de 2024. EDUARDO RODRÍGUEZ RIVERA, ALGUACIL.

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ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE MAYAGÜEZ BOSCO CREDIT X, LLC, BY FRANKLIN CREDIT MANAGEMENT CORPORATION AS SERVICER Demandante Vs.

SUCESION DE MILAGROS RUIZ RUIZ, ET ALS.

Demandados

Civil Núm.: I1CI201800481. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y 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 Mayaguez, 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 Mayagüez, el 9 DE MAYO DE 2024, A LAS 11:00 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 marcado con el número 36 de la Urbanización Mínima 37, el Maní de Mayagüez, con una cabida superficial de 296.66 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, distancia de 12.00 metros con Calle “A”; por el SUR, distancia de 12.00 metros con el solar número 44; por el ESTE, en una distancia de 24.68 metros con solar número 35; y por el OESTE, en una distancia de 24.73 metros con solar número 37. Enclava una casa en hormigón reforzado y bloques, consta de sala-comedor, cocina, tres cuartos dormitorios, baño y marquesina. Consta inscrita al folio 33 vuelto del tomo 751 de Mayagüez, finca número 21,274, Registro de la Propiedad de Mayagüez. La hipoteca objeto de esta ejecución se encuentra inscrita al folio 168 del tomo 1518 de Mayagüez, finca número 21,274, Registro de la Propiedad de Mayagüez, inscripción 7ª. Propiedad localizada en: URB.

LAS MINIMAS, #36 CALLE A, MAYAGUEZ, PR 00682. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas anterio-

res 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: N/A. Suma de la Carga: N/A. Fecha de Vencimiento: N/A. 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 $50,000.00, 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 Mayagüez, el 16 DE MAYO DE 2024, A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA, y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $33,333.33, 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 $25,000.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Mayagüez, el 23 DE MAYO DE 2024, A LAS 11:00 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 principal $43,357.85, más intereses a razón de 5.625% anual, desde el 1 de junio de 2017, que se acumulan diariamente hasta su total y completo pago, más otros gastos y la suma de $5,000.00 por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado hipotecariamente asegurados, esta última habrá de devengar intereses al máximo del tipo legal fijado por la oficina del Comisionado de Instituciones Financieras aplicable a esta fecha, 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

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE VIEQUES CTK, LLC

Peticionario EXPARTE

Civil Núm.: VQ2024CV00021. Sobre: EXPEDIENTE DE DOMINIO. CITACIÓN MEDIANTE

EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. Por el presente edicto se notifica al colindante Richard Denicola como parte con interés, cuyo paradero actual se desconoce, a pesar de las di-

com, pcanellas@ferraiuoli. com, cfontanet@ferraiuoli.com respectivamente, dentro del término antes expresado, el peticionario podrá obtener que se le apruebe el expediente de dominio, si está justificado el mismo, y se ordene inscribir a su nombre en el Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Vieques, el dominio de la finca antes descrita, sin más citarle ni orle. EXPIDO ESTE

EDICTO BAJO MI FIRMA Y EL SELLO DE ESTE TRIBUNAL. En Vieques, Puerto Rico, a 5 de abril de 2024. WANDA I.

SEGUÍ REYES, SECRETARIA

GENERAL. OLGA N. MORALES TORRES, SECRETARIA

AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE VIEQUES

CTK, LLC

Peticionario

EXPARTE

Civil Núm.: VQ2024CV00021.

Sobre: EXPEDIENTE DE DOMINIO. CITACIÓN MEDIANTE

EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. Por el presente edicto se notifica al colindante Armando Álvarez Pérez como parte con interés, cuyo paradero actual se desconoce, a pesar de las diversas gestiones efectuadas, o están fuera de la jurisdicción, y a otras personas desconocidas, ignoradas, ausentes de la jurisdicción, y/o cuyo paradero se desconoce, y/o a quienes pueda perjudicar la inscripción de dominio solicitada del inmueble, que más adelante se describe, para que en el plazo improrrogable de veinte (20) días, contados a partir de la fecha de la última publicación del edicto, excluyendo el día de la publicación, comparezcan a alegar su derecho, si alguno tuvieren, ante este Tribunal, en el expediente promovido por la parte peticionaria, para adquirir su dominio sobre la siguiente propiedad: “RÚSTICA: Parcela de terreno localizada en el Barrio Destino, Sector Monte Carmelo de Vieques, Puerto Rico, de aproximadamente uno punto nueve mil ciento cuarenta y siete (1.9147) cuerdas, equivalente a siete mil quinientos veinte y cinco punto cinco mil novecientos treinta y siete (7525.5937) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en dos alineaciones que suman 69.9350 metros lineales con el solar número 37; por el SUR, en tres alineaciones que suman 32.5798 metros lineales con la Calle Loma Linda; por el ESTE, en tres alineaciones que suman 119.0324 metros lineales con el solar numero 18; y por el

OESTE, en seis alineaciones que suman 173.7239 metros lineales con los solares 15, 16 y 38.” El inmueble antes descrito no consta inscrito en el Registro de la Propiedad. Se dispone además que, por estar dirigido el Emplazamiento por Edicto a una parte con nombre desconocido, este Tribunal exime al peticionario CTK, LLC de cumplir con el requisito de la Regla 4.6 de Procedimiento Civil, 32 LPRA Ap. V, R. 4.6, de notificar copia del Emplazamiento por Edicto y la Petición dentro de los diez (10) días siguientes a la publicación del edicto. Se les advierte, que de no comparecer, dentro del término antes expresado, presentando el original de su comparecencia, en este Tribunal, a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://tribunalelectronico.ramajudicial.pr/sumac2018/signin.html, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su comparecencia en la Secretaría del Tribunal, y notificando copia de ello, a los representantes legales del peticionario: Lcda. Elizabeth Villagrasa Flores, Lcda. Patricia Cañellas Hernández, y Lcda. Claudia Fontanet - Rodríguez cuya dirección es: P.O. Box 195168, San Juan, Puerto Rico 009195168; con teléfono número (787) 766-7000; correo electrónico evillagrasa@ferraiuoli. com, pcanellas@ferraiuoli. com, cfontanet@ferraiuoli.com respectivamente, dentro del término antes expresado, el peticionario podrá obtener que se le apruebe el expediente de dominio, si está justificado el mismo, y se ordene inscribir a su nombre en el Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Vieques, el dominio de la finca antes descrita, sin más citarle ni orle. EXPIDO ESTE EDICTO BAJO MI FIRMA Y EL SELLO DE ESTE TRIBUNAL.

En Vieques, Puerto Rico, a 5 de abril de 2024. WANDA I. SEGUÍ REYES, SECRETARIA GENERAL. OLGA N. MORALES TORRES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA DE PONCE

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V.

SOL MARIA CORTES

SOTOMAYOR, SUCESIÓN DE CONCEPCIÓN

CARTAGENA ORTIZ

COMPUESTA POR

SOL MARIA CORTES

SOTOMAYOR, CARMEN

IVETTE CARTAGENA

CORTES, NILDA MARIA CARTAGENA CORTES

E IDALY CARTAGENA

CORTES, DORAL BANK, JOHN DOE

Demandadas

Civil Núm.: PO2024CV00308.

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: SOL MARIA CORTES

SOTOMAYOR, SUCESIÓN DE CONCEPCIÓN

CARTAGENA ORTIZ

COMPUESTA POR

SOL MARIA CORTES

SOTOMAYOR, CARMEN

LYDIA CARTAGENA

CORTES, LILIAM IVETTE CARTAGENA

CORTES, NILDA MARIA CARTAGENA CORTES

E IDALY CARTAGENA

CORTES - PO BOX 7943, PONCE, PR 00732. 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 Diaz Hernández

RUA Núm.: 16,393

BERMÚDEZ & DÍAZ LLP

500 Calle De La Tanca Suite 209

San Juan, Puerto Rico 00901

Tel.: (787) 523-2670 / Fax: (787) 523-2664 rdiaz@bdprlaw.com

Expido este edicto bajo mi firma y el sello de este Tribunal, hoy 5 de abril de 2024. CARMEN G. TIRÚ QUIÑONES, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. JOAN M. ROSARIO ALBINO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

CABO ROJO VIDA SALADA LIC Demandante Vs. ALEXANDER RIVERA PEREZ, SU ESPOSA JANDE DOE Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES Demandados GIOVANNI CARRASQUILLO CRUZ, SU ESPOSA FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES

Parte con Interés

Civil Núm.: MZ2024CV00086.

Sobre: SOBRE DESAHUCIO Y COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLA-

ZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ES-

TADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRI-

CA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS

EE.UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE

ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS.

A: Alexander Rivera Pérez casado de Jane Doe y la Sociedad Legal de Gananciales compuesta por ambos.

Dirección: Alturas de Río Grande, U-1111 Calle 21, Río Grande PR 00745.

Jane Doe casada con Alexander Rivera Pérez y la Sociedad Legal de gananciales compuesta por ambos. Dirección: Alturas de Río Grande, U-1111 Calle 21, Río Grande, PR 00745.

Giovanni Carrasquillo Cruz, casado con Fulana de tal y la sociedad legal de gananciales compuesta por ambos.

Dirección postal: HC 22 Box 8500, Juncos, PR 00777.

Fulana de tal casada con Giovanni Carrasquillo Cruz, y la sociedad legal de gananciales compuesta por ambos.

Dirección postal: HC 22 Box 8500, Juncos, PR 00777.

salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja 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. Dentro de los Diez (10) días siguientes a la publicación del Edicto, se les dirigirá a los demandados, por correo certificado con acuse de recibo una copia del emplazamiento y la Demanda al lugar de su dirección conocida a: Alexander Rivera Pérez, a su esposa Jane Doe y la Sociedad Legal de Gananciales compuesta por ambos; Dirección: Alturas de Río Grande, U-1111 Calle 21, Río Grande PR 00745. Giovanni Carrasquillo Cruz, a su esposa Fulana de Tal, y la sociedad legal de gananciales compuesta por ambos; Dirección postal: HC 22 Box 8500, Juncos, BR 00777 Expedido bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal. En Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, a 2 de abril de 2024. LCDA. NORMA

SANTANA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARÍA M. AVILÉS BONILLA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR I.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB, D/B/A CHRISTIANA TRUST, AS INDENTURE TRUSTEE, FOR THE CSMC 2015-PR1 TRUST, MORTGAGE-BACKED NOTES, SERIES 2015-PR1

Parte Demandante Vs. ELVIN MOJICA DEL TORO, SU ESPOSA

ESTHER MARTÍNEZ

MARTÍNEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES

versas gestiones efectuadas, o están fuera de la jurisdicción, y a otras personas desconocidas, ignoradas, ausentes de la jurisdicción, y/o cuyo paradero se desconoce, y/o a quienes pueda perjudicar la inscripción de dominio solicitada del inmueble, que más adelante se describe, para que en el plazo improrrogable de veinte (20) días, contados a partir de la fecha de la última publicación del edicto, excluyendo el día de la publicación, comparezcan a alegar su derecho, si alguno tuvieren, ante este Tribunal, en el expediente promovido por la parte peticionaria, para adquirir su dominio sobre la siguiente propiedad: “RÚSTICA: Parcela de terreno localizada en el Barrio Destino, Sector Monte Carmelo de Vieques, Puerto Rico, de aproximadamente uno punto nueve mil ciento cuarenta y siete (1.9147) cuerdas, equivalente a siete mil quinientos veinte y cinco punto cinco mil novecientos treinta y siete (7525.5937) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en dos alineaciones que suman 69.9350 metros lineales con el solar número 37; por el SUR, en tres alineaciones que suman 32.5798 metros lineales con la Calle Loma Linda; por el ESTE, en tres alineaciones que suman 119.0324 metros lineales con el solar numero 18; y por el OESTE, en seis alineaciones que suman 173.7239 metros lineales con los solares 15, 16 y 38.” El inmueble antes descrito no consta inscrito en el Registro de la Propiedad. Se dispone además que, por estar dirigido el Emplazamiento por Edicto a una parte con nombre desconocido, este Tribunal exime al peticionario CTK, LLC de cumplir con el requisito de la Regla 4.6 de Procedimiento Civil, 32 LPRA Ap. V, R. 4.6, de notificar copia del Emplazamiento por Edicto y la Petición dentro de los diez (10) días siguientes a la publicación del edicto. Se les advierte, que de no comparecer, dentro del término antes expresado, presentando el original de su comparecencia, en este Tribunal, a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://tribunalelectronico.ramajudicial.pr/sumac2018/signin.html, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su comparecencia en la Secretaría del Tribunal, y notificando copia de ello, a los representantes legales del peticionario: Lcda. Elizabeth Villagrasa Flores, Lcda. Patricia Cañellas Hernández, y Lcda. Claudia Fontanet - Rodríguez cuya dirección es: P.O. Box 195168, San Juan, Puerto Rico 009195168; con teléfono número (787) 766-7000; correo electrónico evillagrasa@ferraiuoli.

BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS:

KEILA ARACELIS

MOJICA MARTÍNEZ: ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS

CORPORATION, O A SU ORDEN: Y AL PÚBLICO EN GENERAL:

El Alguacil que suscribe, certifica y hace constar que en cumplimiento de Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas, procederé a vender en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América. Todo pago recibido por el (la) Alguacil por concepto de subastas será en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del (de la) Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia. Todo derecho, título, participación e interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: RUSTICA: Predio de terreno compuesto de un cuadro de terreno, equivalente a 1,000.00 metros cuadrados, sito en el Barrio Lirios de Juncos. En lindes por el NORTE, con la finca principal de donde se segrega; por el SUR, con la finca principal de donde se segrega; por el ESTE, con la finca principal de donde se segrega; y por el OESTE, con Juan Roldan y Juana Castro, antes, hoy camino público que los separa de Juan Roldán y Juana Castro. Consta inscrita al folio 294 del tomo 171 de Juncos, finca número 6,558. Registro de la Propiedad, Sección II de Caguas. La propiedad objeto de ejecución está localizada en la siguiente dirección: Bo. Lirios, Carr. 929 Km 2.3, Juncos, P.R. 00777. Según figura en el Estudio de título, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada al siguiente Gravamen posterior a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: A. Hipoteca en garantía de un pagaré a favor de Association International Holdings Corporation, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $20,799.00, con intereses al 13.70% anual, vencedero el día 19 de marzo de 2018, constituida mediante la escritura número 107, otorgada en Caguas, Puerto Rico, el día 14 de marzo de 2003, ante el notario Melyssa M. Vázquez Hernández, e inscrita al folio 109 del tomo 346 de Juncos, finca número 6,558, inscripción 8va. Se le notifica a los acreedores posteriores anteriormente identificados para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate no consta inscrito en el Registro de la Propiedad. Se dispone además que, por estar dirigido el Emplazamiento por Edicto a una parte con nombre desconocido, este Tribunal exime al peticionario CTK, LLC de cumplir con el requisito de la Regla 4.6 de Procedimiento Civil, 32 LPRA Ap. V, R. 4.6, de notificar copia del Emplazamiento por Edicto y la Petición dentro de los diez (10) días siguientes a la publicación del edicto. Se les advierte, que de no comparecer, dentro del término antes expresado, presentando el original de su comparecencia, en este Tribunal, a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://tribunalelectronico.ramajudicial.pr/sumac2018/signin.html, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su comparecencia en la Secretaría del Tribunal, y notificando copia de ello, a los representantes legales del peticionario: Lcda. Elizabeth Villagrasa Flores, Lcda. Patricia Cañellas Hernández, y Lcda. Claudia Fontanet - Rodríguez cuya dirección es: P.O. Box 195168, San Juan, Puerto Rico 009195168; con teléfono número (787) 766-7000; correo electrónico evillagrasa@ferraiuoli. com, pcanellas@ferraiuoli. com, cfontanet@ferraiuoli.com respectivamente, dentro del término antes expresado, el peticionario podrá obtener que se le apruebe el expediente de dominio, si está justificado el mismo, y se ordene inscribir a su nombre en el Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Vieques, el dominio de la finca antes descrita, sin más citarle ni orle. EXPIDO ESTE EDICTO BAJO MI FIRMA Y EL SELLO DE ESTE TRIBUNAL. En Vieques, Puerto Rico, a 5 de abril de 2024. WANDA I. SEGUÍ REYES, SECRETARIA GENERAL. OLGA N. MORALES TORRES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LYDIA CARTAGENA CORTES, LILIAM

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

Por la presente se notifica que la parte demandante, Vida Salada, LLC., ha presentado ante este Tribunal una Demanda sobre desahucio y cobro de dinero por $6,550.00 hasta enero de 2024, la cual aumenta mensualmente a razón de $275.00, más $3,500.00 por concepto de gatos, costas y honorarios contractuales. Detalle de la demanda surge en el expediente en el caso de epígrafe. Se le advierte que 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,

COMPUESTA POR AMBOS; KEILA ARACELIS MOJICA

MARTÍNEZ

Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: CG2019CV03011. Salón Núm.: (703). Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA Y COBRO DE DINERO. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE

ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS.

A: ELVIN MOJICA DEL TORO SU ESPOSA ESTHER MARTÍNEZ

MARTÍNEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE

el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Se informa que la propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravamen posterior, una vez sea otorgada la escritura de venta judicial y obtenida la Orden y Mandamiento de cancelación de gravamen posterior. (Art. 51, Ley 210-2015). En relación a la finca a subastarse, se establece como tipo mínimo de licitación en la Primera Subasta la suma de $67,000.00, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la Escritura de Hipoteca #71, otorgada en Caguas, Puerto Rico, el día 22 de junio de 2001, ante el notario Pedro R. López De Victoria Gómez, e inscrita al folio 297vto. del tomo 171 de Juncos, finca número 6,558, inscripción 7ma. La PRIMERA SUBASTA, se llevará a cabo el día 14 DE MAYO DE 2024 A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA, en mis oficinas sitas en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas, el tipo mínimo para la primera subasta es la suma de $67,000.00. Si la primera subasta del inmueble no produjere remate, ni adjudicación, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 21 DE MAYO DE 2024 A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo sitio y servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes del precio pactada para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de $44,666.66. Si la segunda subasta no produjere remate, ni adjudicación, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 29 DE MAYO DE 2024 A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar y regirá como tipo mínimo de la tercera subasta la mitad del precio pactado para la primera, o sea, la suma de $33,500.00. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo, para con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor, a saber: Suma Principal de $72,713.92, con intereses a 7.625% anual, desde el 1ro de octubre de 2019, hasta el presente y los que se continúen acumulando hasta su total y completo pago, más los cargos por demora que se corresponden a los plazos atrasados desde la fecha anteriormente indicada a razón de la tasa pactada de 5% de cualquier pago que éste en mora por más de quince (15) días desde la fecha de su vencimiento, más una suma equivalente a $6,700.00, por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, más cualquier otra suma que resulte por cualesquiera otros adelantos que se hayan hecho la demandante, en virtud de las disposiciones de la escritura de hipoteca y del Pagaré hipotecario. Para más información, a las personas interesadas

de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://tribunalelectronico.ramajudicial. pr/sumac2018/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. El abogado de la parte demandante es: LCDO. GUILLERMO SAN ANTONIO ACHA, PO BOX 363505 SAN JUAN, PR 009363505, TEL: 787-963-0222, CORREO ELECTRÓNICO gsanlaw@gmail.com / gsa@ gsalawpr.com. Se le advierte que este edicto se publicará en un (1) periódico de circulación general una (1) sola vez y que si no comparece a contestar dicha Demanda, dentro del término de diez (10) días - reducido por el Tribunal en virtud de la Regla 68.2 de Procedimiento Civil - contados a partir de la publicación del edicto, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia en su contra concediendo el remedio solicitado en la Demanda sin más citarle ni oírle, disponiéndose además, que en el término de diez (10) días siguientes a la publicación de este edicto se le dirigirá por correo certificado con acuse de recibo copia de la demanda y sus anejos, la Orden autorizando el emplazamiento por edicto y la NOTIFICACIÓN DE ORDEN Y CITACIÓN PARA VISTA DE INJUNCTION a su última dirección postal conocida. Por otro lado, evaluada la demanda presentada en este caso, el Tribunal señala una vista para dilucidar si procede o no la concesión del remedio de injunction estatuario solicitado por la parte peticionaria para el día 14 DE MAYO DE 2024, A LAS 1:30 DE LA TARDE, en el Salón de Sesiones 907 del Centro Judicial de San Juan. De existir hechos en controversia, las partes deberán comparecer preparadas para la celebración de una vista evidenciaria en esa misma fecha en la cual se dilucidará si se expide el remedio solicitado, de este Tribunal así entenderlo de conformidad con el derecho aplicable. Se le advierte a la parte peticionada que tiene derecho a confrontar las alegaciones y la prueba en su contra y a estar representada por abogado (a), quien podrá asumir su representación legal de conformidad con las instrucciones impartidas en la Orden y Citación. La parte peticionaria notificará esta ORDEN Y CITACIÓN, junto con la demanda y sus anejos a la parte demandada de conformidad con la Regla 4.6 de las de Procedimiento Civil, supra. Para ello, la publicación del edicto deberá efectuarse en o antes del 30 de abril de 2024. La parte demandante deberá acreditar al Tribunal el diligenciamiento de estos documentos previo a la celebración de la referida vista, The

se les notifica que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal, durante las horas laborables.

Este EDICTO DE SUBASTA, se publicará en los lugares públicos correspondientes y en un periódico de circulación general en la jurisdicción de Puerto Rico. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los referentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes. Se entenderá que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se procederá a otorgar la correspondiente

Escritura de Venta Judicial y el Alguacil pondrá en 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 Caguas, Puerto Rico, a 12 de abril de 2024. ÁNGEL GÓMEZ GÓMEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #593.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante Vs. JOEL DÍAZ SANABRIA, SU ESPOSA LOURDES VANESSA VÁZQUEZ SANTIAGO Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES

COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandados

Civil Núm.: CG2024CV00703.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTE-

CA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR

EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS.

A: JOEL DÍAZ SANABRIA, SU ESPOSA LOURDES VANESSA VÁZQUEZ SANTIAGO Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS - URB. PASEO DE LA CEIBA, F-24

CALLE 5, JUNCOS, PR 00777. DIRECCIÓN

POSTAL: URB. PASEO DE LA CEIBA 364 CALLE LAUREL JUNCOS, PR 00777 Y A LOURDES VANESSA VÁZQUEZ

SANTIAGO A: URB. BORINQUÉN GARDENS

GG-3 CALLE MAGNOLIA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los 30 días a partir de 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 represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja 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. Representa a la parte demandante, la representación legal cuyo nombre, dirección y teléfono se consigna de inmediato:

BUFETE FORTUÑO & FORTUNO FAS, C.S.P.

LCDO. JUAN C. FORTUÑO FAS RÚA NÚM.: 11416

PO BOX 3908, GUAYNABO, PR 00970

TEL: 787-751-5290, FAX: 787-751-6155

E-MAIL: ejecuciones@fortuno-law.com En Caguas, Puerto Rico, a 17 de abril de 2024. LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA. ENEIDA ARROYO VÉLEZ, SUB-SECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA

TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE HUMACAO SALA DE RELACIONES DE FAMILIA Y ASUNTOS DE MENORES.

YESENIA MARIA

TEJEDA TEJEDA

Demandante V GERMAN ANTONIO

ALVAREZ FELICIANO

Demandado

CIVIL NÚM. : HU2024RF00184.

SOBRE: CUSTODIA Y PATRIA POTESTAD. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS

UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A la parte demandada:

GERMAN ANTONIO

ALVAREZ FELICIANO

A su última dirección conocida: CALLE

DURAZNO 712 CAPARRA

TERRACE SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO

Por la presente se le notifica que se ha radicado Demanda de custodia y patria potestad en su contra. Este Tribunal ha ordenado que se le cite a usted por edicto que se publicará una (1) sola vez en un periódico de circulación general. Se le emplaza y requiere que notifique copia de la Contestación a la Demanda radicada, dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto, excluyendo el día de la publicación de este edicto para que conteste la demanda. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio y no radica por SUMAC, debe enviar copia de la Contestación a la Demanda a las oficinas de LCDA. YAMILA

RODRIGUEZ MALDONADO, P.O. BOX 11249 SAN JUAN PR 00922, yamilarmlaw@gmail. com, tel.:(787) 412-4143, abogado de la parte demandante. Se le apercibe a los efectos de que si no contesta la demanda radicando el original de la contestación ante el Tribunal correspondiente, con copia a la parte demandante, se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará Sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA Y SELLO DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE MENORES DE HUMACAO, PUERTO RICO, hoy 16 de abril de 2024. EVELYN FÉLIX VÁZQUEZ, SECRETARIA. DENISE LOPEZ DIAZ, SUB-SECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS YOLANDA

RODRIGUEZ RAMOS

T/C/C YOLANDA VEGA

Demandante V. JOSE ENRIQUE

RODRIGUEZ PEDROZA

Demandado(a)

Caso Núm.: CG2022CV00243. (Salón: 701). Sobre: DIVISIÓN O LIQUIDACIÓN DE LA COMUNIDAD DE BIENES HEREDITARIOS Y OTROS. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

ILEANA M. RIVERA TORRES

- LCDA.RIVERATORRES@ OFICINALEGALRIVERATORRES. COM.

A: SR. JOSÉ ENRIQUE

RODRÍGUEZ PEDROZACAYEY EN RESIDENCIAL

EL TORITO CALLE 5 F70,

CAYEY, PR 00737.

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

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 26 de febrero de 2024, 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 16 de abril de 2024. En Caguas, Puerto Rico, el 16 de abril de 2024.

LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA. YAMAIRA RÍOS

CARRASCO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE SAN JUAN COLEGIO DE CONTADORES PÚBLICOS

AUTORIZADOS, REPRESENTADO POR EL CPA YOEL Y. SEPÚLVEDA MERCADO, EN SU CARÁCTER DE DIRECTOR EJECUTIVO DEL COLEGIO DE CONTADORES PÚBLICOS

AUTORIZADOS DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante Vs. CARLOS I. PABÓN; CIP DATA PROCESSING

Demandados

Civil Núm.: SJ2024CV01611. Sobre: INJUNCTION. NOTIFICACIÓN DE ORDEN Y CITACIÓN PARA VISTA DE INJUNCTION POR EDICTO.

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

A: CARLOS I. PABÓN; CIP DATA PROCESSING. Por la presente se le notifica que ha sido presentada en este Tribunal una Demanda sobre injunction estatutario en su contra. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en el término de diez (10) días a través del Sistema Unificado

de la misma manera permitida para el diligenciamiento y enmienda al emplazamiento bajo las Reglas 4.7 y 4.8, so pena de archivo sin perjuicio. Por último, se apercibe a la parte demandada que de no comparecer a la vista señalada sin excusa previa, y de no haber presentado oportunamente una moción escrita para exponer cualquier situación meritoria en relación con la presente Orden y Citación, este Tribunal considerará su incomparecencia como su aceptación de los hechos alegados en la demanda y al remedio solicitado, pudiendo dictar la sentencia o resolución que corresponda, lo que podría incluir una orden de injunction, sin más citarle ni oírle, si esta procediera conforme a derecho. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy 3 de abril de 2024. GRISELDA RO-

DRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. IDALISSE SÁEZ ORTIZ, SECRETARIA DE SERVICIOS A SALA.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS

ORIENTAL BANK

Demandante V. JESSIE G.

GUTIERREZ CORDERO

Demandado(a)

Caso Núm.: CY2022CV00358. (Salón: 802). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO - ORDINARIO.

NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

JAIME RUIZ SALDAÑALEGAL@JRSLAWPR.COM.

A: JESSIE G.

GUTIERREZ CORDERO. (Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 12 de abril de 2024, 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 15 de abril de 2024. En Caguas, Puerto Rico, el 15 de abril de 2024. LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA. JESSENIA PEDRAZA ANDINO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

Demandante V. HECTOR PIÑOL Y OTROS Demandado(a) Caso Núm.: BY2022CV01508. (Salón: 501). Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA: PROPIEDAD RESIDENCIAL. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO ENMENDADA. BELMA ALONSO GARCÍAOFICINABELMAALONSO@GMAIL. COM. A: HECTOR PIÑOL, COMO HEREDERO DE HECTOR CALIXTO PIÑOL GONZALEZ, MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLE HEREDERO DESCONOCIDO DE HECTOR CALIXTO PIÑOL GONZALEZ Y PERENCEJO DE TAL, POSIBLE HEREDERO DESCONOCIDO DE OLGA EMELIA BALLESTER CABRERA T/C/C OLGA EMILIA BALLESTER CABRERA. (Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 04 de abril de 2024, 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 16 de abril de 2024. Notas de la Secretaría: SE ENMIENDA

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Cangrejeras win their first women’s volleyball title in a sweep

By THE STAR STAFF

The Santurce Cangrejeras franchise debuted last year in the Women’s Superior Volleyball League (LVSF) of the Puerto Rican Volleyball Federation (FPV), and although it reached the final, it had to settle for runner-up behind the reigning monarchs, the Pinkin of Corozal.

Santurce returned this year with a team full of local and international talent with the mission of winning the title that eluded them in 2023, and they achieved that goal on Monday night in Manatí.

The Cangrejeras (Crabbers) joined the Chicas of San Juan as the two teams from the capital city to win championships in the LVSF. The Chicas did it in the 1992 season.

Santurce swept this year’s final series four games (4-0) over the Atenienses (Athenians)

of Manatí. Monday night’s victory, at Juan Aubín Cruz Abreu Coliseum in Manatí, concluded with set scores of 25-22, 22-25, 25-22 and 25-17.

McKenzie Adams from the mainland U.S. was the top scorer for the Cangrejeras with 18 points, 13 in attacks, three in blocks and two direct services, with 17 digs and seven assists; Yeliz Basa of Turkey had 17 points, 15 in attacks and two in blocks, and eight digs; Czech Helena Havelkova finished with 15 points, 12 in attacks and three in blocks, with 12 digs and 22 assists; Puerto Rican Neira Ortiz contributed eight points, five in attacks, three in blocks and one ace; and naturalized Venezuelan Shirley Florián scored eight points, all in attacks.

The libero and captain of the Cangrejeras, Debora Seilhammer, was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the 2024 final series. She compiled 35 digs and 11 assists on Monday night.

For Manatí, Zoe Weatherington notched 18 points, 15 in attacks, two in blocks and one ace, with 15 digs; Karla Santos scored 17 points, all in attacks, with 18 digs and 22 assists; María Schlegel finished with 12 points, 11 in attacks and one block, with 20 digs and 13 assists; and Claudia Dillon had 10 points, five in attacks, three in blocks and two direct aces.

FINAL SERIES

April 14: Manatí (1-3) Santurce

(Special for FPV Ricardo Rosado)

The Cangrejeras’ setter, Carli Lloyd, had 27 assists, 15 digs, and five points, two on attacks, two on blocks and one ace.

April 17: Santurce (3-2) Manatí

April 20: Manatí (0-3) Santurce

April 22: Santurce (3-1) Manatí

Amid an alarming surge in femicides, women marathon runners will run to support victims of gender violence

By THE STAR STAFF

They are women who got tired of hearing about the atrocious femicides in Puerto Rico and that is why they will take to the streets for three days to run against gender violence.

In the “Kilometers of Change” (Kilómetros de Cambio) event, 27 women marathoners will run a relay race through 45 municipalities from May 17 to May 19 to raise funds for shelters for survivors of domestic violence and their children.

Like the 27 marathon runners, the general public can join the initiative and register, with a donation, to carry out a virtual race on social networks. Those who wish to register can do so at micarrerapr.com. Donations by ATH Móvil are also welcomed in the name and to the account of Kilómetros de Cambio. Likewise, financial support is being sought from companies that contribute to the cause of ending gender violence.

“We can no longer tolerate violence destroying the lives of our women, causing immense pain to their children and families,” said Deborah Maldonado, a triathlete and marathoner who founded Kilometers

of Change to support the Network of Gender Violence Shelters Network. “When we run, we move toward a tomorrow without fear. We run strongly because we take steps to represent women who need to escape from a painful reality of violence and so many other women who are no longer here.

All of the funds raised will be distributed to the network’s shelters: Hogar Ruth, Casa Bondad, Casa Protegida Julia de Burgos, La Casa de Todos, Hogar Nueva Mujer, Hogar La Piedad, and Capromuni I and II.

“It is time to stop gender violence with so many alarming cases like those in recent days,” said Lisdel Flores, director of Hogar Ruth. “One way is to provide a safe space for women who are in imminent danger in their homes. In shelters we save the lives of women and their children. There we receive them when they arrive, often severely beaten and also with scars on their souls. I have seen how, by escaping from their attackers, they are reborn with the opportunity of a better future for themselves and their children. This Kilometers of Change race is a race for hope for so many women who deserve to live without fear.”

A large number of mayors, as well as

private companies, are already supporting Kilometers of Change. The 27 marathoners will start from Central Park in San Juan on a coastal route around Puerto Rico and will finish three days later at the starting point with a festive welcome event.

Coach Freddy Rodríguez, who directs one of the largest running groups in Puerto Rico, the Freddy Runners -- and is also the founder of the Sabrina 16 miles and one of the strong pillars of Raymond Arrieta’s Da Vida walk -- is the co-founder of Kilometers of Change. Among the marathoners who will participate in the race are: television presenter Alexandra Fuentes; Omayra Borges, one of the founders of Run Like a Lola, which sponsored the “Lola’s Challenge” race; television journalist Layza Torres; Meli Ríos, a swimmer and triathlete; Yolanda Mercado, a retired elite marathoner; Carla Coira, a major marathoner and triathlete of Abbot Majors Marathon; and Patsy Ramírez, a marathoner, triathlete and ultramarathoner.

Some of the marathon runners, such as Lina García, who is a triathlete, have expressed their personal commitment to the race. “I will run because I still remember with tears how, 38 years ago, a woman ran

out of her house at dawn, she grabbed me, put me in the car and told me ‘we have to go,’” García said. “I will run because I was able to end a relationship in which I was a victim of violence. I will run because today I dared to tell my story, something that I carried deep inside.”

Those who wish to donate to the cause can also donate to Banco Popular account 66-1062633.

In the “Kilometers of Change” (Kilómetros de Cambio) event next month, 27 women marathoners will run a relay race through 45 municipalities to raise funds for shelters for survivors of domestic violence and their children.

The Cangrejeras of Santurce joined the Chicas of San Juan as the two teams from the capital city to win championships in the Women’s Superior Volleyball League.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 21