Wednesday Dec 1, 2021

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

San Juan The

50¢

Ex-House Speaker Misla Aldarondo, Who Spent Over a Decade in Jail, Dies P6

Cataño Mayor Resigns Under Pressure P6

DAILY

Star

Barbados Hails Rihanna as ‘National Hero’ as It Becomes a Republic P13

Protecting the Protectors Governor Submits Budget Request for Health Coverage for Retired Police

NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL P 16

P4

2

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

The San Juan Daily Star

GOOD MORNING

3

December 1, 2021

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.

Officials provide updates on island security plan

Today’s

Weather

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

Day

Night

High

Low

85ºF

G

77ºF

Precip 38%

Precip 49%

Scattered Thunderstorm Scattered Thunderstorm Wind: Humidity: UV Index: Sunrise: Sunset:

From ENE 13 mph 72% 6 of 10 6:39 AM Local Time 6:46 PM Local Time

INDEX Local 3 Mainland 7 Business 10 International 12 Viewpoint 15 Noticias en Español 16 Entertainment 17 Health 19

Science Kitchen Legals Sports Games Horoscope Cartoons

20 21 22 27 29 30 31

San JuanDAILY Star The

PO BOX 6537 CAGUAS PR 00726

sanjuanweeklypr@gmail.com (787) 743-5606

FAX

(787) 743-3346 • (787) 743-6537 (787) 743-5100

ov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia met Tuesday with the island’s security officials, who updated him on the main elements of the government’s Comprehensive Security Plan.

Guided by the identification, analysis, response and evaluation model (SARA by its Spanish acronym), a strategy implemented by the Puerto Rico Police Bureau (PRPB) seeks to identify the particular problems that affect each community and seeks sustainable solutions that prevent and address the origins of crime in each area.

“The two pillars of the Comprehensive Security Plan that we have implemented since the beginning of our administration are guided by the SARA model, which allows early identification of the root of a problem in a particular community and provides the solution to prevent crime or address its origins,” the governor said at a press conference. “The fight against crime is a joint effort of all sectors. With this strategy we seek to give tools to the communities themselves so that they can join the security plan.”

Pierluisi said the results obtained with the Comprehensive Security Plan include: 1,210 weapons seized, 92,833 units of ammunition seized, 1,088 vehicles seized, 17,964.2 kilos of cocaine seized, 4,855 arrests made, 314 identified gunmen who were arrested, 92 most wanted individuals arrested, in 900 arrests in the 100X35 Plan.

There are currently 9,768 fewer Type I crimes compared to 2019. It should be noted that in 2020 there were curfews and lockdowns. Type 1 crimes, which include murders, robberies, burglaries, aggravated assaults and car theft, among others, directly impact citizens. In terms of murders compared to 2019, on this same date there were exactly the same number, 568.

The Comprehensive Security Plan has two components that frame its efforts: (1) law and order and (2) community interaction.

The SARA model is defined by its four phases: (1) the identification of the problems, (2) the analysis of the data and information collected, (3) the response in the development and implementation of strategies and (4) the effective evaluation of the results of the applied strategies.

The objective of this model is to proactively address the specific needs of each community, using the role of the community police as a facilitator to empower citizens.

The governor noted that not all communities have the same crime problems and that the incidental factors are not necessarily similar, which is why the police adopted the SARA model as a strategy of the Comprehensive Security Plan. For example, while in one community the lack of a functioning lighting system may represent a risk of crime development, in another it may be the abandonment of facilities that influence users of controlled substances to stay in the area.

Through programs led by the PRPB’s Community Relations division, the SARA model has already begun to be implemented in 12 municipalities such as Bayamón, Caguas, Carolina, Mayagüez, Ponce, San Juan, Fajardo, Humacao, Culebra, Vieques, Ponce and Gurabo.

Pierluisi also stressed that, in addition to the Comprehensive Security Plan and its components, his administration has more comprehensive strategies to attack crime at its roots. Here he highlighted the war against poverty, improvements to the educational system, access to childcare and extended hours, as well as the economic development that impacts all areas related to quality of life.

Public Safety (DSP) Secretary Alexis Torres said the DSP will continue efforts to strengthen relations between the PRPB and other entities that work with security on the island, and gave assurances that all the resources of the DSP, the Firefighters Bureau, the Bureau of Emergency Management and Disaster Administration, 911 and Medical Emergencies, will work in an integrated way with the police.

“We are all committed and we are going to support the Police especially during this festive season,” Torres said. “We have already demonstrated this on other occasions. Our emphasis is that citizens feel safe and be, as far as they can, collaborators with the security component in Puerto Rico.”

Police Commissioner Antonio López Figueroa, meanwhile, pointed out that the SARA model, supported and directed by the Police Reform Office, is an essential strategy of the Comprehensive Security Plan. Along with this model, he said the Plan includes a series of provisions and strategies that are key to solving more crimes.

Over 80 percent of homicides are linked to drug trafficking, López Figueroa noted. Therefore, under the law and order component, the PRPB’s operations were restructured in order to create two new divisions for operations against crime: the Auxiliary Superintendency of Special Operations and the Auxiliary Superintendency of Criminal Investigations.

4

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Holder of $30 million property claim disputes fiscal board findings

By THE STAR STAFF

S

ucesión Pastor Mandry Mercado, the holder of an inverse condemnation claim for $30 million filed against the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico for the taking of its property, objected Tuesday to the facts and conclusions of law filed by the Financial Oversight and Management Board in favor of the plan of debt adjustment.

On Nov. 28, the oversight board filed its proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law in favor of the debt deal that would restructure some $33 billion in debt following confirmation hearings that concluded recently.

Sucesión Pastor Mandry Mercado said the findings of fact and conclusions of law don’t address inverse condemnation proceedings, limiting themselves to direct condemnation proceedings.

“There is no factual dispute between the Commonwealth and Sucesión Pastor Mandry

U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain Mercado. Their controversy is a matter of law,” the document said. “The Commonwealth contends that the just compensation clause

of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America is trumped

by Article I, Section 8 Clause 4 of the Constitution, which grants powers to Congress to issue uniform bankruptcy laws, and under the Commonwealth’s plan of adjustment, the claim can be treated as a general unsecured claim subject to discharge.”

Judge Laura Taylor Swain appeared last week not to be inclined to discharge the government from paying certain eminent domain claims such as the one filed by Sucesion Pastor Mandry Mercado.

To begin with, the Sucesion says the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act, commonly known as PROMESA, is not a uniform bankruptcy law, but rather legislation enacted by Congress for the purpose of attending to Puerto Rico’s financial crisis, which specifically states that it doesn’t abrogate any federal legislation such as the Takings Clause, which bans the taking

of property without just compensation.

“In order not to be repetitious, Sucesión Pastor Mandry Mercado adopts by reference herein the arguments establishing that the Claim is not dischargeable under the Plan and must be fully compensated,” the document reads.

Also in the bankruptcy case, Swain denied a request filed by several University of Puerto Rico (UPR) professors who wanted a delay in the approval of the debt deal because of the budget cuts to UPR. Swain said UPR is not a Title III debtor.

The professors stated that the “many attempts to present [their] concerns in the November 9th hearings through the court’s public website were unsuccessful.”

The judge said members of the public may submit correspondence in connection with the debt deal proceedings at any time by emailing the correspondence to SwainDPRCorresp@nysd.uscourts.gov.

Governor submits request for health coverage for retired police

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

G

ov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia announced on Tuesday that funds had been identified and the budget request was submitted to the Financial Oversight and Management Board to finance the Vital Plan for all retired police officers, particularly those who suffered a reduction in their pension upon retirement after the reform of the Government Pension System in 2013.

“It is my commitment that there are no police officers without a medical plan, after they have given service to our people.

Likewise, I reiterate my commitment that we are designing a process to improve the retirement of our police officers, as well as to encourage those who still have several years of additional work to have access to Social Security, to ensure that everyone has a dignified retirement,” the governor said at a press conference. “I will not rest until I ensure that we achieve this without the [Debt] Adjustment Plan or the Board being able to affect it.

That is what Puerto Rican police officers can count on.”

Pierluisi noted that police officers are public servants who are protected under Law 447 and Law 1 for a defined pension, which were frozen in 2013.

The initiative is estimated to have a fiscal impact of about $17 million per year and has the potential to help more than 1,200 retired police officers and more than 5,000 who would retire in the next few years.

A Christmas plan has also been devised, and the health plan is to be given to retired police officers who qualify for the Vital Plan. The island government will pay the cost of their premiums annually, beginning in January.

WE BUY OR RENT IN 24HRS

787-349-1000

SALES • RENTALS • VACATIONS RESIDENTIAL • COMMERCIAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (SOME RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY).

The initiative has the potential to help more than 1,200 retired police officers and more than 5,000 who would retire in the next few years.

FREE CONSULTS REALTOR

Ray A. Ruiz Licensed Real Estate Broker • Lic.19004 rruizrealestate1@gmail.com

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

5

Energy regulator to intervene in PREPA-PUMA fuel transfer dispute

By THE STAR STAFF

T

he Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB) will intervene in the dispute between PUMA Energy Caribe LLC and the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) regarding the operation of certain pipes and valves used for the transfer of fuel from the area known as Cataño Oil Dock to units 5 and 6 of the Central San Juan power generation plant.

Last week, PREPA successfully sued PUMA for stopping the flow of No. 2 fuel to units 5 and 6 at Central San Juan. PUMA charged that PREPA was interfering with its property.

PREB Chairman Edison Avilés Deliz said in a statement Monday that the regulatory

agency unanimously appointed Gerardo A. Flores García as the examining officer in charge of conducting the investigation. The examining officer will have a term of 60 days, starting today, to carry out the investigation and submit to the PREB a report with its findings and recommendations.

As part of the investigation, the PREB summoned the parties to a hearing on Dec. 10 at 10 a.m. In addition to the representatives of PUMA and PREPA, the representatives of the companies BEST Petroleum Corp. and Novum Energy Trading Inc. were also summoned.

“In light of the events that occurred on November 26, which required the intervention of the judicial branch, and ensuring the best public interest and to ensure the execution of

Puerto Rico Energy Bureau Chairman Edison Avilés Deliz the Energy Transformation of the island, it is our responsibility, as established in Law 57-

2014, as amended, to investigate “any natural or legal person whose actions affect the provision of electric power services, including any person or entity that uses its control over said services to affect the provision of the same,” Avilés Deliz said.

According to the PREB’s order and resolution, from the information publicly aired on the dispute, there is the possibility that there were commissions of acts, actions or omissions of various persons and/or legal entities that could or could have the effect of influencing the provision of electric power services on the island. Likewise, they could affect compliance with the legal regulations administered by the PREB for the execution of public energy policy.

Specialized units for Domestic Violence, Sexual Crimes and Child Abuse launch

By THE STAR STAFF

G

ov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia and Justice Secretary Domingo Emanuelli Hernández on Tuesday inaugurated new specialized units for Domestic Violence, Sexual Crimes and Child Abuse.

“I have always said that the success of a society is measured according to how it treats its most vulnerable or needy citizens,” the governor said at a press conference. “These initiatives are part of our commitment that we are going to ensure that we are prepared and have the resources to serve victims of gender violence, sexual crimes and child abuse in a sensitive and effective way.”

Pierluisi said the initiative’s development began, more than two decades ago, during his tenure as Justice secretary.

Last August, he approved an allocation of $3.8 million to hire the personnel required to expand specialized units.

Previously, there were four units in the judicial districts of San Juan, Carolina, Bayamón and Ponce. Now, nine are being added in Aibonito, Aguadilla, Arecibo, Caguas, Fajardo, Guayama, Humacao, Mayagüez and Utuado.

In under two months, the Justice Department recruited 48 attorneys with special prosecutor appointments, as well as the required support staff -- 19 investigative officers, 16 administrative assistants and 21 legal investigation transcriptionists -- for a total of 104 employees.

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi

Senate VP defends transfer of neighborhood from Utuado to Jayuya

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

T Senate Vice President Marially González Huertas

he Tetuán 3 neighborhood of Utuado could pass to the municipality of Jayuya after the filing of a bill by Senate Vice President Marially González Huertas, who denied any conflict of interest despite the fact that she is the daughter of Jayuya Mayor Jorge González Otero.

“Senate Bill 418 is a bill by petition,” the senator said.

“It is not that it comes from the mind or creativity of the senator who in this case represents Utuado; this movement began in 1988 with people of different ideologies.”

“I received a letter with more than 80 signatures, I approached the mayor of Jayuya and the mayor of Utuado asked if I am the daughter of the mayor of Jayuya, and I

carry it with pride,” González Huertas added.

She said the residents of Tetuán 3 seek services in Jayuya.

“Yesterday it was corroborated, the chairwoman of the [Municipal and Housing Affairs] committee, Migdalia González [Arroyo], certified that all services are received in Jayuya,” González Huertas said.

She noted that in the Tetuán 3 neighborhood “there are still dirt roads and it’s shameful.”

“There are sectors that do not have potable water,” she said. “I don’t think that the basis of this [complaint] is valid just because I am the daughter of the mayor of Jayuya. Please!”

“There is no conflict,” González Huertas said. “I am the senator for the district of Ponce.”

6

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Misla Aldarondo, an ex-House speaker who spent a dozen years in prison, dies

By THE STAR STAFF

F

ormer Speaker of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives Edison Misla Aldarondo died Tuesday after suffering two heart attacks.

Misla Aldarondo was a representative for the New Progressive Party (NPP) until 2001, when he resigned on charges of extortion and money laundering.

“A few minutes ago we learned of the death of the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Edison Misla Aldarondo. We regret the physical departure of one of the most fiery politicians of his time,” said NPP Rep. Carlos “Johnny” Méndez Núñez, who also served as House speaker. “On behalf of all the members of the NPP delegation in the House, we would like to express our deepest condolences to the Edison Misla family. Likewise, we extend our feelings of solidarity to all his friends and relatives in these difficult times.”

“Our prayers are with his children, Edison Reynaldo, Yamil and Omar, throughout this process,” he added. “We are sure that the Lord will give them the peace and tranquility they need.”

According to a biography in criminallaws.

Edison Misla Aldarondo com, Misla Aldarondo served as a member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives from 1977 until the scandals and legal problems that led to his resignation in 2002. The primary legal scandal surrounding Misla Aldarondo had its origins in the mid-1990s, when Puerto Rico began the process of privatizing its formerly state-operated hospitals. This process was overseen by two government entities, the Puerto Rico Department of Health (PRDH) and the Government Development Bank (GDB).

Misla Aldarondo was involved in influence peddling related to Dr. Alejandro Otero López Hospital (HAOL) in Manatí, which at that time

was managed by the Caribbean Hospital Organization (CHC). HAOL received anesthesiology from Caribbean Anesthesia Services (CAS), which wished to purchase the hospital.

To effect this, the co-owners of CAS hired consultant José Iván Ramos Cubano to assist in the transaction. Cubano first arranged for a meeting with the head of the legal department of PRDH and bribed him to allow CAS to purchase CHC’s management contract, a necessary preliminary step to acquiring the hospital as a whole. Once that was done, Cubano approached Misla Aldarondo, a close friend of the president of the GDB, Marcos Rodríguez Ema. Misla Aldarondo allegedly accepted a bribe to arrange meetings between the anesthesiology company and the GDB. In 1997, a law firm reviewing the potential hospital buyers warned that CAS should not be allowed to complete the transaction because it owed a substantive debt to the PRDH. But Rodríguez Ema overruled that recommendation and arranged for CAS to purchase the hospital for $14 million. Rodríguez Ema also created an agreement to allow CAS to repay its debt to PRDH at a later date. Following the successful transaction, Misla Aldarondo received payments totaling

$147,000 from the hospital’s new owners.

A 2001 investigation by the Puerto Rico Department of Justice led authorities to Cubano, who agreed to cooperate. In October 2001, Cubano recorded conversations he had with Misla Aldarondo. In the recordings, Misla Aldarondo openly discussed his illegal actions and outlined plans to create a false story concerning the payments he had received.

In 2004, he was found guilty of 15 charges of corruption in relation to the fraudulent sale of the hospital, and was sentenced to nine years in jail, for a total of 22 years in prison.

In addition to his involvement in corrupt privatization practices, in 2002 Misla Aldarondo was charged with rape of a minor. According to witnesses, Misla Aldarondo had taken advantage of a friend of his stepdaughter by giving both girls alcohol and prescription medication. During the hearings, it emerged that Misla Aldarondo had also molested his stepdaughter periodically over the course of eight years. Following his incarceration, Misla Aldarondo negotiated with the prosecution to plead guilty to attempted rape rather than rape, for which he was sentenced to an additional 13 years in prison.

He was paroled in 2015.

Cataño mayor Delgado resigns

By THE STAR STAFF

F

élix “El Cano” Delgado confirmed on Tuesday his resignation as mayor of Cataño, and apologized to the residents of the municipality.

According to press reports, Delgado was under investigation by and is cooperating with federal law enforcement authorities.

“Cataño a thousand apologies, for all this bad time.

Thank you for the privilege you gave me to be your mayor for five years and forgive me for not being able to meet all of your expectations,” Delgado said in a written statement

through his social networks. “Every day of my life I will try to be a better person to help those in need. To all those who in some way I offended, a thousand apologies. Many times power blinds and I’m sure it happened to me.”

“To my family, thank you for being the support and giving me the strength to continue life and make me understand that life is not a position but family and true friends, to you too my apologies, I love you with all my soul and I will work all the days to give back all the time that is taken away. Thanks again, Cataño,” he said.

At press time, the Municipal Legislature of Cataño was holding an extraordinary session where they are preparing

Félix Delgado’s. to pass judgment on the consideration of the appointment of Gabriel Sicardó Ocasio as deputy mayor of Cataño. Sicardó Ocasio serves as secretary of public affairs.

General Psychiatric Hospital opens new areas

By THE STAR STAFF

C

General Psychiatric Hospital in San Juan

arlos Rodríguez Mateo, who heads the Mental Health and Anti-Addiction Services Administration, announced on Tuesday the inauguration of a barbershop and a dental clinic at the General Psychiatric Hospital in San Juan as a result of a new alliance with the Ladies Civic Club of Puerto Rico.

“We remain focused on obtaining new alliances like these that represent improvements for our hospitals and

have an impact on a greater diversity of services for our patients,” Rodríguez Mateo said in a written statement.

“The renovation of these two areas allows promoting the well being of patients and that is our mission. We thank the Ladies Civic Club of Puerto Rico, who adopted this project and maintain a commitment to the hospital.”

The General Psychiatric Hospital, whose staff can be reached via its PAS Line at 1-800-981-0023, has the capacity to provide inpatient services to about 200 patients requiring acute and subacute care.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

7

With scant information on omicron, Biden turned to travel ban to buy time

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and SHERYL STOLBERG

B

y the time President Joe Biden was briefed on the emergence of a fast-moving new COVID variant on the morning after Thanksgiving, he had a choice to make — and little information to base it on.

In a secure conference call from a vacation compound overlooking Nantucket Harbor in Massachusetts, the president listened as his health advisers told him that the highly mutated virus was far more concerning than other variants they had seen in recent months. It spread twice as fast as the dominant delta variant and had the potential to evade treatments and vaccines.

Banning travel from southern Africa, where the variant was discovered last week, would not stop the coronavirus from finding its way to the United States, the officials told Biden, even though Britain and several other countries had announced similar restrictions. But the measures might slow the spread.

During the 30-minute briefing, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president’s top medical adviser for the coronavirus, and other health officials acknowledged how little they knew about the threat, according to White House officials and others familiar with the discussion. But they concluded that even a potentially marginal benefit from a travel ban was worth the criticism that it was likely to generate from the affected countries, the officials said. Better to be criticized for something you do rather than for something you don’t do.

A few hours later, as Biden ate lunch with his extended family at the Nantucket Tap Room, the White House issued a statement in his name announcing a ban on travel from eight countries in southern Africa, prompting outrage among leaders in that region — and from global health experts who questioned the benefits of the move, saying it was tantamount to punishing South Africa for being transparent about the virus.

“Here’s what it does: It gives us time. Gives us time to take more actions to move quicker,” Biden said at the White House on Monday morning as he called the new variant, named omicron, “a cause for concern, not a cause for panic.”

The sudden arrival of omicron represented a jarring, here-we-go-again moment for a weary and politically divided country after nearly two years of battling the pandemic. It also underscored the difficult position the president is in as he seeks to respond aggressively to yet another public health threat.

The scramble among White House and public health officials Thursday night and Friday morning was a reminder that the United States remains vulnerable to a virus that is still spreading unchecked through largely unvaccinated parts of the world — a problem that is well beyond the control of any global leader. And it once again highlighted the political dangers for Biden and his party if a new wave of infections derails the country’s economic recovery and return to some semblance of normalcy.

The president Monday sought to reassure the public, ruling out a return to the kinds of nationwide “shutdowns and lockdowns” that ground economic and social life to a halt last year. Instead, he said, the administration would combat the new variant “with more widespread vaccinations, boosters, testing and more.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention altered its guidance and urged all adults to get a booster shot when they are eligible.

Biden’s call for more vaccinations came as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday altered its guidance and urged all adults to get a booster shot when they are eligible, six months after their initial Pfizer or Moderna doses or two months after their initial Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The agency had previously urged eligible people over 50 and those living in long-term care facilities to get a booster shot but stopped short of saying that everyone should do so.

In addition, Pfizer and BioNTech will ask federal regulators this week to authorize their booster shot for 16- and 17-yearolds, according to people familiar with the companies’ plan.

Scientists were working to make sure current tests could accurately detect the new variant, officials said; the administration was working with manufacturers to modify their vaccines and booster shots, should that prove necessary, Biden said.

White House officials said that the president would outline a detailed strategy for fighting the coronavirus this winter when he visits the National Institutes of Health on Thursday.

In his remarks Monday, Biden promised that he was “sparing no effort, removing all roadblocks to keep the American people safe.”

That pledge came as some Republicans seized on the existence of another variant to attack the president. The Republican National Committee issued a statement saying that “Biden failed to shut down the virus as he promised.” Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas, who served as former President Donald Trump’s White House physician, suggested that omicron was created by liberals eager to impose further COVID restrictions.

White House officials dismissed the political criticism.

Natalie Quillian, the deputy COVID-19 response coordinator, said the potential dangers from the new variant were serious enough to prompt a flurry of meetings among officials from multiple agencies, calls with pharmaceutical companies and urgent messages to health officials in other countries.

“There was a sense of concern, a sense that this felt different from other variants,” Quillian said. “This had enough of the markers to differentiate itself in the level of concern we

felt. We sort of kicked into action Thursday night and Friday.”

The new variant upended the Thanksgiving holiday for administration officials and top scientists, who had scattered across the country for celebrations.

The variant was identified by South African scientists Thursday afternoon, as many U.S. officials were sitting down to dinner. Shortly before midnight, Dr. David A. Kessler, chief science officer for the government’s coronavirus response, reached out to a South African partnership, which sent back a genomic sequencing report on the variant.

Fauci and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, were in contact with their counterparts in South Africa late on Thanksgiving Day. Jeff Zients, the president’s COVID-19 response coordinator, and others spent most of the night making calls.

By Friday morning, it appeared that Zients was leaning toward travel restrictions, according to one person familiar with the deliberations. At 10:30 a.m., Zients, Fauci and other top scientists were briefed by the South Africans, including Dr. Tulio de Oliveira, a geneticist who helped identify the omicron variant.

After Biden made the decision to impose the travel ban, State Department officials told diplomats in the affected countries, and administration officials began calling airlines to inform them of the change. From the beginning of the discussion late Thursday, it took about eight hours to issue the presidential directive.

“Even if we bought ourselves a little bit of time to understand this more, that was valuable,” Quillian said. “And this is an action that’s not permanent.”

For now, the travel restrictions are the president’s primary response.

But several public health experts expressed outrage at the bans, saying they punished South Africa for doing what the United States expected of other nations: tracking the coronavirus, identifying worrisome variants and making the information public.

“Travel restrictions are exactly the wrong incentive to give to countries when you want them to share data,” said Gregg Gonsalves, an activist and associate professor of epidemiology at Yale University. “You want them to be on the lookout for new variants, and you shut your borders?”

Oliveira warned on Twitter on Monday that because planes were no longer flying to South Africa, his lab might run out of some of the chemical components known as reagents that are needed to test for the variant.

“It will be ‘evil’ if we cannot answer the questions that the world needs about #Omicron due to the travel ban!” he wrote.

The new variant has again raised criticism that the Biden administration is not doing enough to vaccinate the rest of the world, though that effort is complicated by vaccine hesitancy in other nations.

South Africa has fully vaccinated only 24% of its population, according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford. It has a better vaccination rate than most countries on the continent but has asked vaccine makers to stop sending doses because of trouble getting shots into arms, in part because of distribution bottlenecks and hesitancy.

8

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Judge temporarily blocks vaccine mandate for health workers in 10 states

By GIULIA HEYWARD

A

federal judge earlier this week temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for health care workers in the 10 states that had filed a lawsuit against the government this month.

The mandate requires all 17 million health care workers in Medicare- and Medicaid-certified medical facilities, which receive government funding, to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by Jan. 4.

The injunction, issued by Judge Matthew Schelp of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, prevents the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from enforcing the mandate while the case is in court.

The judge said in his ruling that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of the case in part because Congress had not granted the agency authority to issue a vaccine mandate.

“CMS seeks to overtake an area of traditional state authority by imposing an

unprecedented demand to federally dictate the private medical decisions of millions of Americans,” wrote Schelp, who was nominated by President Donald Trump.

“Such action challenges traditional notions of federalism.”

The lawsuit was filed by the states of Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. It said that by prompting health care workers to leave their jobs if they did not want to get vaccinated, the mandate could “exacerbate an alarming shortage of health care workers, particularly in rural communities, that has already reached a boiling point.”

Schelp’s ruling is the second setback this month for the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates.

A three-judge panel in New Orleans affirmed a federal appeals court’s decision to temporarily block a requirement that companies with at least 100 employees test their unvaccinated workers weekly beginning in January. The judges said the mere existence of the regulation had

resulted in “untold economic upheaval in recent months.”

“The public interest is also served by maintaining our constitutional structure

and maintaining the liberty of individuals to make intensely personal decisions according to their own convictions,” wrote Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt, a Trump appointee.

A registered nurse led a rally outside MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center in August to protest coronavirus vaccine mandates.

Years of delays, billions in overruns: The dismal history of big infrastructure

By RALPH VARTABEDIAN

A

s Honolulu sprawled into new suburbs west of Pearl Harbor over the past two decades, city planners proposed an ambitious rail transit line that would sweep riders 20 miles into downtown. The $4 billion estimate in 2006 was hardly cheap, amounting to $200 million per mile.

The cost escalation since then has been an engineering marvel all its own. Concerns over Native Hawaiian burial grounds stalled early construction, then problems with welding and cracks in the tracks appeared. Earlier this year, engineers realized that in some sections, the wheels were a half-inch narrower than the rails. Order new wheels? Tear up the tracks?

The launch dates slipped forward and the cost estimates crept upward — at latest count, $11.4 billion, with a target completion date of 2031.

Honolulu’s tribulations are far from a lone cautionary tale. To the contrary, they signal the kind of cost overruns, engineering challenges and political obstacles that have made it all but impossible to complete a major, multibillion-dollar infrastructure project in the United

States on budget and on schedule over the past decade.

As the nation sets out on a national spending spree fueled by the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill signed by President Joe Biden last month, the job ahead carries enormous risks that the projects will face the same kind of cost, schedule and technical problems that have hobbled ambitious efforts from New York to Seattle, delaying benefits to the public and driving up the price tag that taxpayers ultimately will bear.

American cities and states were long renowned for some of the greatest bridges, water systems and freeways in the world, but challenges have grown more potent. Agencies have less internal technical talent. Legal challenges have grown stronger under state and federal environmental laws. And spending on infrastructure as a fraction of the economy has shrunk, giving local agencies less experience in modern practices.

The $1.2 trillion package has bold goals, directing the majority of $500 billion to highways, $39 billion to urban transit, $65 billion to broadband projects and $73 billion to electrical grids, among other items. The nation’s busiest passenger rail line, Amtrak’s Boston-toWashington corridor, would get the biggest slice of a $66

billion rail package. The infrastructure spending plan is unlikely to rescue some existing infrastructure projects that are bogged down with problems.

And even with the new infusion of money, analysts say it will be tough to ramp up infrastructure progress as swiftly as envisioned in the current timetable.

The construction industry is facing sharply growing costs for steel products, up by 142% in the last 12 months, and other key materials. Shortages of skilled labor are worsening, exacerbated by COVID-19-induced retirements.

“A lot of people would like to see the money quickly spent,” said Anirban Basu, chief economist of Associated Builders and Contractors, a construction industry trade group. “They are going to look at the costs they are facing and extend out the projects because of constraints.”

Bent Flyvbjerg, a professor at the University of Oxford who has studied scores of projects around the world, found that 92% of them overran their original cost and schedule estimates, often by large margins — in part, he said, because cost estimates are “systematically and significantly deceptive.”

“A lot of projects are not delivering what they promised to deliver,” he said.

The San Juan Daily Star In Baltimore last month, Biden lamented that U.S. infrastructure was once rated the world’s best and now, “You know what we rank in infrastructure? Thirteenth in the world.”

In some cases, U.S. construction costs are higher than those in Western Europe and democratic nations in Asia, according to an upcoming University of California, Berkeley, analysis, said Ethan Elkind, a law professor and director of the school’s climate program.

“It is a lot harder to build projects here, and we are not as skilled at doing it,” he said.

When California voters approved a bond in 2008 for a high-speed rail system from Los Angeles to San Francisco, the project was supposed to cost $33 billion and be completed by 2020. The job is now projected to finish in 2033 for $100 billion, though those estimates are dated and there is an $80 billion funding gap.

The ambitious project, the nation’s most serious effort to build a full-scale bullet train, has encountered serious delays because of land acquisition issues, environmental litigation, permit setbacks, employee turnover and significant design changes. The problems have triggered political infighting even with the Democratic supermajority in California.

Lengthy delays have also affected New York’s East Side Access extension of the Long Island Rail Road, which is supposed to cut up to 40 minutes off commuter time on the last segment, from Queens to Grand Central Terminal, with up to 24 trains per hour at peak times.

Conceived more than a half century ago, with a construction contract awarded in 2006, that project was supposed to be completed by 2011. Early estimates put the cost at $2.2 billion, then $4.3 billion in 2006 and $6.4 billion in 2008. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority now envisions completion in December 2022 at a cost of $11.1 billion. Design changes, underground tunneling problems and coordination with other agencies were some of the factors in the delays and cost increases.

One of the nation’s most important environmental infrastructure projects, and perhaps the most technically difficult one, has been underway in central Washington state for decades at the former Hanford nuclear weapons site. Since 2013, major construction has been stopped at two partially built plants to treat and vitrify 56 million gallons of radioactive sludge.

When an independent review in 2015 found 362 significant design problems, the Department of Energy announced a 17-year delay and estimated the system would become fully operational in 2036.

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

The problems included the failure to anticipate the potential for an earthquake to damage equipment and the possibility that the chemical processes to separate high-level radioactive materials could cause explosive hydrogen gas to form.

The delays have pushed the Department of Energy to adopt an alternative that would start treating low-level waste by the end of 2023, Washington state officials said. The last cost estimate for the plant was $17 billion, up from $12.3 billion in 2013 and about $4 billion 20 years ago.

The rail project in Hawaii was intended to relieve congestion on a par with Los Angeles along the urban band from East Kapolei to the core of Honolulu.

The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation believes it can address the latest track problems by welding certain sections of track and later replacing wheels to match the track size, said a spokesperson, Harry Cho. The setbacks that resulted in delays — archaeological surveys, labor costs, utility relocations and land acquisition — are the kind of challenges that plague nearly all major infrastructure projects; the common mistake is in not planning and budgeting for them, said Joseph Schofer, a Northwestern University civil engineer and originator of the “Infrastructure Show” podcast.

“You can’t say these were an accident,” he said of most cost overruns. “We could do better. We haven’t gotten honest estimates in a lot of cases.”

Schofer said many projects are justified by estimating that future benefits will exceed costs, but when the costs go up astronomically, no one recalculates the ratio.

In a candid admission of how the political world operates, Willie Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco, once dismissed cost overruns on a transportation hub intended for the bullet train.

“In the world of civic projects, the first budget is really just a down payment,” he wrote in a guest newspaper column in 2013.

“If people knew the real cost from the start, nothing would ever be approved. The idea is to get going. Start digging a hole and make it so big there’s no alternative to coming up with the money to fill it in.”

U.S. Department of Transportation officials declined to comment for this article, but Biden administration officials have said the new infrastructure package will redress decades of neglect and will boost the efficiency of the U.S. economy, address climate change and provide immediate jobs in construction.

“We’re going to reduce congestion,” Biden said. “We’re going to address repair

and maintenance backlogs, deploy stateof-the-art technologies and make our ports cleaner and more efficient.”

Flyvbjerg said infrastructure keeps getting more expensive at a time when many products, such as televisions, refrigerators and computers, get cheaper or better each year.

“Big infrastructure is becoming cost prohibitive,” he said, a problem he blames on institutional sclerosis at government agencies that keep repeating mistakes and choose infrastructure projects that are unlikely to succeed.

The mistakes, he said, include a lack of transparency to the public, flawed contracts that put government agencies at the mercy of contractors and a failure to attract enough private investment to bear some of the project’s risk.

The new infrastructure law, he said, does little to change the outlook.

Ronald N. Tutor, CEO of Tutor Perini, a California firm that is building some of the nation’s largest projects, said the industry has done a good job of advancing and completing projects that by their nature are complex and unpredictable.

“All the major projects have cost and schedule issues,” he acknowledged. “The truth is these are very high-risk and difficult projects. Conditions change. It is impossible to estimate it accurately. That is naive.”

The infrastructure law takes some initial steps at reforms, including codifying a Trump executive order to name a lead federal agency for each project, reducing the number of chefs in the kitchen, said Diana Furchtgott-Roth, who formerly oversaw

9

Department of Transportation research and technology and now is a George Washington University adjunct professor.

A key factor is the amount of time federal agencies spend to review environmental reports and issue records of decision, she said. In many cases, she said, projects are put on hold for years, while agencies review voluminous documents.

Biden also named a task force to carry out the infrastructure program with an aim to “invest public dollars efficiently, avoid waste and focus on measurable outcomes for the American people.”

The environmental review process has become so complex, in part to defend against inevitable lawsuits, that neither state agencies nor federal departments can write and review the documents without teams of outside consultants.

Most of the spending under the $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan has been previously authorized, but the law includes $550 billion of new money to be spent in as little as five years.

Federal, state and local agencies were working their way through $270 billion a year in authorized spending in 2019, before the pandemic hit. An attempt to bump that up by an additional $100 billion annually, as envisioned, represents a 37% jump that may not be possible to achieve, industry analysts warn.

“It is a very big bump,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist at Associated General Contractors of America, which represents major infrastructure builders. “My guess is that we are not going to see $550 billion spent in the first five years.”

A train tunnel under construction in New York, May 27, 2021. The nation’s most ambitious engineering projects are mired in postponements and skyrocketing costs. Delivering $1.2 trillion in new infrastructure will be tough.

10

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

The San Juan Daily Star

White House says stores will be stocked for holidays

President Joe Biden, center, hosts a meeting in the library of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House grounds in Washington, Monday, Nov. 29, 2021, with CEOs in a variety of sectors to discuss the holiday shopping season.

By JIM TANKERSLEY and ANA SWANSON

P

resident Joe Biden told executives from some of the nation’s largest retailers earlier this week that his administration was committed to partnering with them to untangle supply chains and ensure that American consumers can find everything they want this holiday season, as a surge in shopping tests an already strained global delivery system.

Biden had planned to speak following his supply-chain meeting with top executives from large grocers, like Food Lion and Kroger, and a range of retailers, like Best Buy and Etsy. But administration officials abruptly canceled his White House remarks less than a half-hour before Biden had been scheduled to speak, saying the president wanted to spend more time in conversation with the executives. His remarks were reschedu-

led for Wednesday.

The meeting was part of a larger effort by the president to show he is doing everything he can to combat inflation and ensure a more normal holiday shopping season as COVID-19 continues to persist. Biden has made a push to unclog ports, address trucker shortages and take other steps to alleviate the pressure created by consumers looking to buy couches, cars and electronics instead of eating out or going to theme parks.

But the White House has limited reach to affect a supply chain that is controlled by private companies and shaped by larger forces, like the pandemic and consumer demand.

Still, top officials tried to reassure a nervous public Monday that consumers would be able to purchase what they want.

“There are going to be toys on your shelves,” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters after noting that Black

Friday sales were up by nearly one-third this year in preliminary estimates. “There is going to be food in your grocery stores.”

Shipping costs have begun to recede slightly from stratospheric highs as West Coast ports work to reduce congestion.

Officials announced new measures Monday to incentivize night and weekend container pickup at ports, and they highlighted data showing a continued decline in the backlogs of unloaded containers.

But many trade experts say the supply chain crisis is far from over. Extraordinarily high demand in the United States for products made in Asian factories, combined with a shortage of truckers and warehouse workers, means supply chain issues are likely to be long-lived.

Phil Levy, the chief economist at Flexport, a freight forwarder, said that the organization’s data “does not show things getting much better. Not yet.”

He said the dramatic increase in demand in the United States for goods had created a backlog of orders that will take months to fulfill. Congestion could even persist through next year, he said, unless an early end to the pandemic or a market crash suddenly encourages Americans to curtail their spending.

While companies of all sizes continue to face shipping delays and elevated transportation costs, most major retailers have said they expect their shelves to be fully stocked during the holidays. Companies have gone to extraordinary measures to procure goods in time for the holidays, including chartering their own vessels and shipping products by air instead of by sea.

In a letter sent to Biden on Monday, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, which represents major retailers like Best Buy, CVS, Food Lion and Walmart, urged the administration to “facilitate a few additional short-term steps” to keep goods moving through ports, like improving restrictive appointment systems for truckers and requiring ports and ocean carriers to accept the return of empty containers, as well as making longer term investments in port infrastructure.

Judah Levine, the head of research at Freightos, an online freight marketplace, said that the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach had started to show signs of easing congestion and had been using “sweeper” ships to help reposition empty containers around the port.

Cargo prices from Asia to the United States have also receded in the past few weeks, according to Freightos, but those prices are still nearly quadruple what they were at the same time last year.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, November 30, 2021

11 Stocks

Tech rally lifts Wall Street from Omicron-driven rout

L

ongs in technology stocks pushed Wall Street higher on Monday after an Omicron-related decline, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged behind its peers as major banks slumped and investors expected more information on a new alternative to the coronavirus.

The S&P tech sub-index (.SPLRCT) jumped 2.1%, indicating that investors likely prefer pandemic-resistant technology stocks amid growing concerns over Omicron.

Gains in Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) also pushed the discretionary consumer S&P segment (.SPLRCD) up 1.7%, as investors view Friday’s losses as a signal to search for deals in tech names high value.

“People are looking at it as a small sell-off on Friday and an opportunity to get into some hard-hit market areas,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth Management.

Wall Street indexes fell between 2.0% and 3.5% on Friday after news of the Omicron variable. Investors are now awaiting an update from President Joe Biden on the virus and the country’s response, scheduled for later today.

Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) trimmed early gains and traded 0.1% lower after the social media company said CEO Jack Dorsey will step down and be succeeded by Chief Technology Officer Parag Agrawal. The move ends Dorsey’s tenure as CEO of two major technology companies, the second being digital payments company Square Inc (SQ.N).

Square shares fell 0.4 percent.

The Dow Jones (.DJI) was significantly behind its peers, with major bank stocks the heaviest weighted after Treasury yields plunged from today’s highs.

Investors have been considering a possible delay in the Federal Reserve’s plans to raise interest rates, in light of the new virus variable. said Thomas Hayes, managing director of Great Hill Capital LLC, New York.

Merck & Co Inc (MRK.N) stock fell 4.5% and was also among the biggest decliners on the Dow Jones Index. The stock extended losses Friday after updated data from a study of the experimental COVID-19 pill showed less effectiveness in reducing hospitalization and mortality risks than previously reported.

At 11:37 AM ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 136.63 points, or 0.39%, at 35.035.97 and the S&P 500 (.SPX) rose 50.66 points, or 1.10%, to 4,645.28 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) rose to 232.46 points, or 1.50%, to 15,724.11 points.

Among other stocks, casino operators Wynn Resorts (WYNN.O) and MGM Resorts International (MGM.N) fell 3.8% and 1.8%, respectively, tracking losses at their Macau units, which were rocked by arrests over alleged cross-border links. Gambling and money laundering.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) is up 2.5% after a report that electric car maker Tesla is starting to use a new AMD chip in Model Y cars in China.

Tesla shares rose 4.6% after a report that CEO Elon Musk urged employees to reduce the cost of car delivery.

MOST ASSERTIVE STOCKS

PUERTO RICO STOCKS

COMMODITIES

CURRENCY

LOCAL PERSONAL LOAN RATES Bank

LOCAL MORTGAGE RATES Bank

FHA 30-YR POINTS CONV 30-YR POINTS

BPPR Scotia CooPACA Money House First Mort Oriental

3.00% 0.00 3.50% 0.00 3.50% 2.00 3.75% 2.00 3.50% 0.00 3.50% 0.00

3.50% 000 4.00% 0.00 3.75% 2.00 3.75% 2.00 5.50% 0.00 3.75% 5.50

PERS.

CREDIT CARD

AUTO

BPPR --.-- 17.95 4.95 Scotia 4.99 14.99 4.99 CooPACA

6.95 9.95

2.95

Reliable

--.-- --.--

4.40

First Mort 7.99 --.-- --.-Oriental 4.99 11.95 4.99

12

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

The San Juan Daily Star

Fragmented reactions hinder global fight against omicron variant

By JASON HOROWITZ

I

n a wrenchingly familiar cycle of tracking first cases, pointing fingers and banning travel, nations worldwide reacted Monday to the omicron variant of the coronavirus in the piecemeal fashion that has defined — and hobbled — the pandemic response all along.

As here-we-go-again fear and resignation gripped much of the world, the World Health Organization warned that the risk posed by the heavily mutated variant was “very high.” But operating once again in a vacuum of evidence, governments chose approaches that differed between continents, between neighboring countries, and even between cities within those countries.

Little is known about omicron beyond its large number of mutations; it will be weeks, at least, before scientists can say with confidence whether it is more contagious — early evidence suggests it is — whether it causes more serious illness, and how it responds to vaccines.

In China, which had been increasingly alone in sealing itself off as it sought to eradicate the virus, a newspaper controlled by the Communist Party gloated about democracies that are now following suit as Japan, Australia and other countries gave up flirting with a return to normalcy and slammed their borders shut to the world. The West, it said, had hoarded vaccines at the expense of poorer regions, and was now paying a price for its selfishness.

In the United States, federal officials called Monday on vaccinated people to get booster shots. President Joe Biden sought to reassure Americans, saying that the new variant is “a cause for concern, not a cause for panic” and that his administration is already working with vaccine manufacturers to modify vaccines, should that prove necessary.

“We’re throwing everything we have at this virus, tracking it from every angle,” the president said in an appearance at the White House.

In southern Africa, where scientists first identified omicron amid a largely unvaccinated population, leaders deplored the travel bans as ruinous and counterproductive to tracking the virus, saying they could discourage transparency about outbreaks.

African officials also noted that because of the inequity in distribution of vaccines, the continent faces this latest variant with little to no protection.

But with vaccine deliveries to Africa becoming more reliable, some states looked to a vaccine mandate to curb the spread of the coronavirus. On Sunday, Ghana’s government announced that government employees, health care workers and staff and students at most schools must be vaccinated by Jan. 22.

Europe which has acted in unusual concert in barring travel from southern Africa, is speeding up booster shots in the hope that they will work against omicron, and adjusting or reconsidering a hodgepodge of social-distancing measures, even in restriction-resistant countries such as Britain.

“The lack of a consistent and coherent global approach has resulted in a splintered and disjointed response, breeding misunderstanding, misinformation and mistrust,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization director.

The WHO convened a three-day special session to discuss a treaty that would ensure prompt sharing of data and technology and equitable access to vaccines. The European Union has

A ticket counter at the O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on Monday. pushed for the agreement to be legally binding, but the United States has balked.

The very proposal underlined that two years into a devastating pandemic that has killed millions, devastated national economies and robbed many of the world’s children of nearly two years of formative experiences, there is still no global plan for getting out of it.

As the largely vaccinated West clings to initial reports that omicron may cause milder illness and may be susceptible to vaccines, entire swaths of Africa remain essentially unvaccinated.

Some nations, like South Africa, have sufficient doses but have struggled to distribute them. Others lack the freezers, logistical infrastructure and medical personnel to inoculate their populations.

That has given the virus plenty of time and bodies in which to multiply and mutate.

The travel bans are intended to buy time as scientists determine whether the mutations in the new variant will allow it to dodge existing vaccines. But they also seemed to suggest that core lessons from the early phase of the pandemic must be learned again: An infection discovered somewhere is likely everywhere — or may be soon enough — and a single case detected means many more undetected.

On Monday, Portugal reported 13 omicron cases — all tied to a single soccer team — and Scotland reported six, while the numbers in South Africa continued to soar.

Experts warned that the variant will reach every part of the world, if it hasn’t already.

The leaders of the world’s top powers insisted that they understood this, but their assurances also had a strong whiff of geopolitics.

President Xi Jinping of China offered 1 billion doses of COVID vaccine to Africa, on top of nearly 200 million that Beijing has already shipped to the continent, during an address to a conference in Senegal by video link.

The Global Times, a Chinese tabloid controlled by the Communist Party, boasted of China’s success in thwarting virus transmission, and said the West was now paying the price for its selfish policies. “Western countries control most of the resources needed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic,” it read. “But they

have failed to curb the spread of the virus and have exposed more and more developing countries to the virus.”

Biden said the United States had sent more free vaccines abroad than all other countries in the world combined. “Now we need the rest of the world to step up as well,” he said.

European health ministers seemed to agree.

“The identification of the omicron variant in the southern part of Africa confirms the urgency to do more to vaccinate the population of the most fragile countries,” Italy’s health minister, Roberto Speranza, said at a virtual meeting of health ministers representing seven of the world’s wealthiest large democracies.

He called on those countries to help administer vaccines.

“It is not enough to donate doses,” Speranza said.

Within a few days of seeing evidence of a new variant, South African scientists, who run the continent’s most advanced genomic sequencing labs, had identified it. Last Wednesday, they made their findings public.

After other parts of the world, including the United States and the European Union, responded with travel bans on southern Africa, South African officials protested that their country was being punished for its speed and transparency.

Responses to the coronavirus have been as varied as the nations that are threatened by it.

Israel, the first nation to block travel in response to omicron, granted its intelligence service temporary permission to monitor the phone data of people with confirmed cases of the variant.

In Italy, which has kept infections low with some of the most stringent rules in Europe, the country’s conference of mayors urged the government to impose a national outdoor mask mandate from Dec. 6 until Jan. 15, as crowds gather to shop for and celebrate Christmas.

Even Britain, which has taken a lax approach to mask wearing and other social-distancing measures, has stepped up its response in the face of omicron. The country introduced new mask mandates and new travel restrictions and appeared to soften its opposition to vaccine passports and requiring masks in restaurants. And Britain’s vaccine advisory board announced Monday that it is suggesting an expansion of the country’s booster program.

In contrast to Europe’s patchwork of regulations, China has had a more consistent and plainer policy: It is essentially sealed off as it pursues a “zero COVID” strategy.

China has steadfastly kept a high wall against visitors from the rest of the world. Foreign residents and visa holders are allowed in only under limited circumstances, leading to concerns by some within the business world that COVID restrictions were leaving the country increasingly isolated.

Visitors must submit to two-week quarantines upon arrival and face potential limits on their movement after that. Movements are tracked via monitoring smartphone apps, which display color codes that can signal whether a person has traveled from or through an area with recent infections, triggering instructions to remain in one place.

In other parts of Asia, people are less focused on eradicating the virus than just surviving it.

“This news is terrifying,” said Gurinder Singh, 57, in New Delhi, who worried about his shop going under. “If this virus spreads in India, the government will shut the country again, and we will be forced to beg.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

13

Barbados, formally casting off the queen, becomes a republic

By LIVIA ALBECK-RIPKA

I

n the early hours of Tuesday, at a ceremony attended by hundreds of masked officials, a prince and at least one pop star, the Caribbean island of Barbados became a republic, cutting ties with Queen Elizabeth II and casting off the last major vestige of its colonial past.

The nation swore in its first president, Sandra Mason, a former governor general who had been appointed by the queen. A 21-gun salute rang out as the national anthem played. The red, yellow and navy blue royal flag was lowered — exactly 55 years after the country gained independence from Britain.

“Today, debate and discourse have become action,” Mason, 72, told the onlookers gathered in the capital, Bridgetown. “Today, we set our compass to a new direction.”

Mason received a majority vote in Parliament in October to take on the role. In a speech afterward, Prime Minister Mia Mottley said: “We believe that the time has come for us to claim our full destiny. It is a woman of the soil to whom this honor is being given.”

The island nation, a democracy of about 300,000 people, announced in September that it would remove Queen Elizabeth as head of state, the latest Caribbean island to do so. It joined Guyana, which gained independence in 1966 and became a republic in 1970; Trinidad and Tobago, which beSandra Mason was sworn in as Barbados’s new head of state at Heroes Square in Bridgetown on Tuesday. came independent in 1962 and a republic in 1976; and Dominica, which gained full independence as Charles, Elizabeth’s eldest son and heir. He received your heritage.” a republic in 1978.

Also among the crowd was the global pop star Australia, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand and the Order of Freedom of Barbados.

In a speech, Charles delivered a message from Rihanna. During the ceremony, the singer, who was Papua New Guinea are among the nations that still call the queen their head of state. Barbados will re- his mother, conveying the “warmest good wishes.” born Robyn Rihanna Fenty in Barbados, was demain part of the Commonwealth, a voluntary as- He also congratulated Barbadians and said, “From clared a national hero.

She received the honor, Mottley said, for comsociation of 54 countries with roots in the British the darkest days of our past, and the appalling atrocity of slavery, which forever stains our history, the manding “the imagination of the world” with her Empire.

On Tuesday, thousands celebrated across Bar- people of this island forged their path with extraor- excellence, creativity, discipline and, “above all dinary fortitude.” else, her extraordinary commitment to the land of bados as nearly 400 years of British rule ended.

“Tonight you write the next chapter of your na- her birth.”

In the audience to witness the uncoupling in “May you continue to shine like a diamond,” Bridgetown was a representative of Britain: Prince tion’s story,” he added. “You are the guardians of Mottley added.

Loyalty Finance LLC Préstamos Personales Pequeños

otorgados para la semana que terminó el sábado, 27 de noviembre de 2021 Tasa Mínima (%)

Promedio Ponderado (%)

Tasa Máxima (%)

90%

90%

90%

14

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

The San Juan Daily Star

Honduras election front-runner vows new era but is tied to past

People are seen crossing back and forth between Mexico, left, and the U.S., near the Del Rio International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas on Sept. 16, 2021.

By ANATOLY KURMANAEV and JOAN SUAZO

T

he Honduras opposition candidate, Xiomara Castro, inched closer to an astounding presidential victory earlier this week, promising a new era of democratic inclusion in a nation where despair has driven hundreds of thousands to the U.S. border seeking refuge in recent years.

Castro, 62, held a 20 percentage-point lead over the candidate of the incumbent National Party with 51% of the ballot boxes counted. The results of the Sunday vote appeared to show a stunning repudiation of the National Party’s 12-year rule, which was shaped by pervasive corruption, dismantling of democratic institutions and accusations of links with drug cartels.

Thousands of Hondurans poured into the streets to celebrate what they believed was Castro’s insurmountable lead, shooting fireworks and singing “JOH, JOH, and away you go,” a reference to the initials of the deeply unpopular outgoing President Juan Orlando Hernández.

Many voiced hopes that Castro, should she prevail, would be able to cure the chronic ills that have mired the country in poverty and desperation for decades — widespread graft, violence, organized crime and mass migration.

They also remained wary of the National Party possibly trying to commit electoral fraud in the results that remained uncounted, given that the party’s leaders may face corruption or even drug trafficking charges after leaving office.

“We will recover Honduras, because we are now governed by criminals,” said Mariela Sandres, a student, who celebrated outside Castro’s campaign headquarters Sunday night.

The National Party refused to concede defeat, asserting that it will win once all the votes are counted. But in a positive signal for Castro, the president of Honduras’ business chamber congratulated her on her apparent victory, offering to work with her on rebuilding the country’s economy.

Castro in some ways represents a break with Honduras’ traditional politics. Her commanding lead, in what has been a largely peaceful election so far, also appeared to present a democratic reprieve from a wave of authoritarianism sweeping Central America.

If the current returns stand, she will become the first female president in a deeply conservative nation, and its first leader to be democratically elected on a socialist platform.

She has promised to rebuild the country’s weakened democracy and bring in all sectors of Honduran society to overhaul a state that has served the interests of a small group of elites since it was a Spanish colony centuries ago. In a speech Sunday night, Castro told supporters that she would immediately begin talks with political allies and opponents alike to form a government of national unity.

“Never again will the power be abused in this country,” she said.

Castro said she would consider legalizing abortion in limited cases and would bring back international corruption investigators who were forced out by Hernández after they started examining suspected graft in his inner circle.

Yet, Castro is also deeply tied to Honduras’ political establishment. And her ability to meet campaign promises is likely to be severely challenged by opposition from the more conserva-

tive sectors in congress and within her own political coalition.

At her election rallies, Castro capitalized on Hondurans’ widespread repudiation of Hernández’s rule. But she has been vague about what her own government would do, beyond showering Hondurans with new subsidies and repealing the most unpopular measures of the current government.

During the closing campaign rally in the business capital of San Pedro Sula, she struggled to remember what those measures were. “What’s that other law?” she asked the crowd, as she attempted to list Hernández’s policies that she would overturn.

Castro’s candidacy has been shaped by her marriage to Mel Zelaya, a wealthy Honduran landowner and former president who was deposed in a military coup in 2009, after having tried to emulate the policies of Venezuela’s president at the time, Hugo Chávez.

Zelaya, who remains a polarizing figure in Honduras, is the founder and the head of Castro’s political party and has served as her campaign manager. Should her victory be confirmed, he is widely expected to play a prominent role in the administration led by Castro, who had been living mostly outside Honduras since the coup.

The prospect of a shadow government led by Zelaya could create tensions with Castro’s more conservative supporters, who voted for her to break with Hernández but are wary that Honduras could renew its alliance with Venezuela and Cuba.

Castro’s ambitious socialist proposals could also complicate relations with the United States, which many in Honduras blame for supporting the controversial elections that brought the National Party to power after the coup.

In her campaign program, Castro called for creation of a Constituent Assembly that would rewrite Honduras’ Constitution. Zelaya’s effort as president to draft a new constitution was a main reason for the coup from the conservative military and business elites, who feared a leftist power grab in a country that has been deeply allied with the United States.

She has sought to assuage the elites’ fears by courting businessmen, bringing in technocratic advisers, allying herself to center-right parties and meeting with the United States diplomats.

Castro has also significantly scaled back her progressive social agenda to dampen conservative attacks. After initially supporting abortion ban exemptions, as well as sex and race education in schools, she recently said these policies should be put to public debate, and began to emphasize her Catholic upbringing.

Castro’s promises to reduce inequality and cut the cost of living will be complicated by the heavy debt burden left to her

by Hernández’s outgoing government. And her plans to root out corruption could be compromised by accusations of graft made against the family of Zelaya, and the former president’s personal ties to discredited political elites.

The prospects for change in Castro’s administration will depend heavily on her coalition’s strength in the new congress.

The electoral council is yet to announce any results from congressional races.

“It’s going to be highly difficult to govern without a majority in congress,” said Pedro Barquero, the campaign chief for the Savior of Honduras Party, which is allied to Castro.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

15

What ‘my body, my choice’ means to the right H

By MICHELLE GOLDBERG ere’s a bit of evidence that we live in a simulation controlled by someone with a perverse sense of humor: At the very moment that Roe v. Wade could be overturned, the American right has become obsessed with bodily autonomy and has adopted the slogan “My body, my choice” about COVID vaccines and mask mandates.

Feminists have always known that if men — or at any rate cis men — could get pregnant, abortion would be a nonissue.

The furious conservative reaction to COVID mitigation measures demonstrates this more than any hypothetical ever could.

Many on the right, we can now see, believe it’s tyranny to be told to put something they don’t want on or in their bodies in order to save lives.

There is, to be fair, at least one prominent illiberal conservative, Harvard’s Adrian Vermeule, who has defended vaccine mandates, writing, “Even our physical liberties are rightly ordered to the common good of the community when necessary.”

More typical on the right, however, is a paranoid sense that the vaccines are tied up with occult forces of social control.

In “Why I Didn’t Get the COVID Vaccine,” an essay in the Catholic anti-abortion journal First Things, theologian Peter Leithart quotes a book called “The Great COVID Panic”: “A very effective way to dominate people is to convince them they are sinful unless they obey.” He invokes totalitarian “biopolitical regimes” that seek to exercise power over the body: “Once upon

PO BOX 6537 Caguas PR 00726 Telephones: (787) 743-3346 • (787) 743-6537 (787) 743-5606 • Fax (787) 743-5100

Dr. Ricardo Angulo Publisher Manuel Sierra

Ray Ruiz

General Manager

Legal Notice Director

María de L. Márquez

Sharon Ramírez

Business Director

Legal Notices Graphics Manager

R. Mariani

Aaron Christiana

Circulation Director

Editor

Lisette Martínez

María Rivera

Advertising Agency Director

Graphic Artist Manager

a time, the ruler bore a sword; now, a syringe,” he writes.

Of course, many American women will soon be faced with an infinitely more invasive form of biopolitical control, courtesy of First Things’ allies. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case dealing with Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks. It’s possible that the justices could gut Roe without overturning it outright, but after they let Texas’ abortion bounty law stand, at least for the time being, I’m expecting the worst. If Roe is tossed out, most abortions will instantly become illegal in at least 12 states, and they will be severely restricted in others.

We are seeing a preview of what this world will look like in Texas, whose six-week abortion ban remains in effect. There are no exceptions for rape and incest. Women with wanted pregnancies that go tragically wrong have to either cross state lines for treatment or wait until their lives are in immediate danger. “Many doctors say they are unable to discuss the procedure as an option until the patient’s condition deteriorates and her life is at risk,” The New York Times reports.

It’s striking, the gap between the bodily impositions people on the right will accept in their own lives and those they would impose on others. When it comes to themselves, many conservatives find any encroachment on their physical sovereignty intolerable, and arguments about the common good irrelevant. Yet their movement is dragging us into a future where many women will be stripped of self-determination the moment they get pregnant. Choices, it seems, aren’t for everybody.

As feminist Ellen Willis once put it, the central question in the abortion debate is not whether a fetus is a person, but whether a woman is. People, in our society, generally do not have their bodies appropriated by the state. It’s unimaginable

that they would be forced to, say, donate blood. As we’ve seen, even mask and vaccine requirements elicit mass umbrage. Americans tend to believe that their bodies are inviolate.

“You can’t make a case against abortion by applying a general principle about everybody’s human rights; you have to show exactly the opposite — that the relationship between fetus and pregnant woman is an exception, one that justifies depriving women of their right to bodily integrity,” Willis wrote in 1985. To ban abortion is to say that pregnant women are not entitled to the authority over their physical selves that other adults expect and demand.

Mississippi’s attorney general, Lynn Fitch, who will defend her state’s ban before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, has also filed three lawsuits against President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates. On Nov. 12, a federal appeals court stayed one of them, the mandate dealing with companies that have more than 100 employees. Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt, a Trump appointee, wrote that the public interest is “served by maintaining our constitutional structure and maintaining the liberty of individuals to make intensely personal decisions according to their own convictions — even, or perhaps particularly, when those decisions frustrate government officials.”

Engelhardt, a former member of Louisiana Lawyers for Life, obviously doesn’t believe that all individuals should have the liberty to make “intensely personal decisions according to their own convictions.” But that doesn’t mean he’s a hypocrite.

He simply appears to believe, as much of the modern right does, that there are some people who should be subject to total physical coercion, and some who should be subject to none at all.

16

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

The San Juan Daily Star

Culebra lanza programa Basura Cero, un plan integral para el manejo de los desperdicios sólidos en la isla El esfuerzo se da en colaboración con la empresa de manufactura de dispositivos médicos más grande en Puerto Rico, Medtronic POR EL STAR STAFF

C

ULEBRA -- El alcalde del Municipio de Culebra, Edilberto Romero, anunció el martes el programa Basura Cero, un plan integral para el manejo de desperdicios sólidos, no peligrosos de la isla municipio. El programa quedó inaugurado en su primera etapa con el apoyo y colaboración de la empresa Medtronic, quien estará auspiciando una veintena de viajes lo que permitirá la remoción de toneladas de escombros que yacen en el vertedero municipal.

El Programa Basura Cero del Municipio de Culebra, tiene como objetivo principal el implantar de forma definitiva y permanente su Política Pública de Reducción, Reúso, Reciclaje y Composta de los residuos sólidos no peligrosos generados en la Isla Municipio. A través de la iniciativa de Basura Cero el Municipio proyecta concienciar y responsabilizar a los diversos sectores sobre su compromiso, como generadores, de disponer apropiadamente de los desperdicios sólidos. También actualizar Plan de Cierre del vertedero municipal de Culebra.

“Basura Cero es un proyecto de vanguardia considerando; la capacidad limitada del vertedero y su proximidad al cese de sus operaciones, la escasez de recursos económicos para sufragar los costos de transporte y disposición de sus desperdicios en la Isla Grande, y la necesidad de conservar los recursos naturales de Culebra disminuyendo el impacto de la disposición de estos residuos en otros terrenos. Se estima que en Culebra se generan unas 15,000 y² de desperdicios sólidos no peligrosos cada año. De éstas, aproximadamente 6,500 y² son desperdicios domésticos, 7,700 y² son escombros y 800 y² son recuperadas y desviadas para su reúso y/o reciclaje”, explicó el primer ejecutivo de la isla municipio, Edilberto Romero.

En los diez meses que lleva la administración municipal, se han removido de la Isla; 4,300 neumáticos, aproximadamente 5,000 galones de aceites usados, 77,000 libras de metales ferrosos y electrodomésticos, 83,000 libras de escombros. Estos materiales han sido transportados a facilidades autorizadas para el manejo de este.

Por su parte el Director de Finanzas y Filantropía de Medtronic Puerto Rico, Anthony Ruiz, explicó que la empresa en su compromiso social y con el ambiente apoyará la iniciativa a través de auspiciar veinte viajes en el que se sacarán más 10 mil yardas de escombros.

“La totalidad de estos viajes suman más

de 27 mil dólares. Por más de 45 años en la isla, hemos estado en la isla, no solo aportando al desarrollo económico, sino también el social a través de iniciativas como estas, entre otras relacionadas a las áreas de salud y educación. Nos unimos en esta cruzada para hacer de nuestra isla una más resiliente, y a su vez contribuir con acciones que promuevan la conservación del ambiente”.

El Presidente de CONWASTE, Carlos Contreras indicó que en esta primera etapa ya se han realizado 14 viajes, lo que ha redundado en el recogido de 77,000 libras de metales y 84,000 libras de escombros.

Como parte de Basura Cero se reactivará el Programa de Reciclaje a nivel residencial y comercial que incluye: · Reactivar el Programa de Reciclaje exis tente del Municipio. · Desarrollar una campaña educativa dirigida a orientar a todos los sectores sobre el Programa de recuperación y desvío y sobre la disposición de aquellos residuos que no puedan ser recuperados. · Desviar material orgánico, material vegetativo y “sludge” (lodos) de la planta de tratamiento de agua para ser compostado. · Trasbordo de Escombros Voluminosos al Sistema de Relleno Sanitario ubicado en el Municipio de Fajardo. · Establecer un procedimiento participativo que integre a los diversos sectores de Culebra en la creación del Programa de Basura Cero. · Diseñar el establecimiento del Programa en fases con metas específicas de recuperación. · Identificar el potencial de desarrollo de empresas locales que contribuyan a la generación de empleos en la industria del reciclaje y desperdicios sólidos. · Establecer mecanismos de medición para evaluar la ejecución del Programa. · Establecer ordenanzas que atiendan el incumplimiento. · Documentar los costos operacionales del programa de recuperación y desvío de materiales reciclables, así como los costos de disposición de aquellos residuos sólidos que no puedan ser recuperados.

“La mayoría de los desperdicios sólidos recibidos en los vertederos del país tienen el potencial para ser utilizados como materia prima para el desarrollo de nuevos productos o pueden ser reusados para extender su vida útil. El desarrollo efectivo de estrategias de recuperación y desvío de materiales reciclables redunda en el fortalecimiento de la industria del reciclaje y manufactura local, creando nuevas empresas y generando oportunidades de empleo para nuestra población. El Municipio de Culebra ha tomado acción al promover iniciativas distintas que han sido probadas en otros países y ciudades con resultados contundentes”, destacó el secretario de recursos naturales, licenciado Rafael Machargo Maldonado.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

17

As ‘The Nutcracker’ returns, companies rethink depictions of Asians

In an undated image provided by Angela Sterling, Christian Poppe as the Green Tea Cricket, with Celena Fornell and Emerson Boll, in the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s “Nutcracker.”

By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ

A

new character is featured in the Land of Sweets in Pacific Northwest Ballet’s “The Nutcracker” this year: Green Tea Cricket, a springy, superherolike figure meant to counter stereotypes of Chinese culture.

Oklahoma’s Tulsa Ballet, hoping to dispel outdated portrayals of Asians, is infusing its production with elements of martial arts, choreographed by a Chinese-born dancer.

And Boston Ballet is staging a new spectacle: a pas de deux inspired by traditional Chinese ribbon dancing.

“The Nutcracker,” the classic holiday ballet, is back after the long pandemic shutdown. But many dance companies are reworking the show this year partly in response to a wave of anti-Asian hate that intensified during the pandemic, and a broader reckoning over racial discrimination.

“Everybody learned a lot this year, and I just want to make sure there’s absolutely nothing that could ever be considered as insulting to Chinese culture,” said Mikko Nissinen, artistic director of Boston Ballet, who choreographed the ribbon dance. “We look at everything

through the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion. That’s the way of the future.”

Artistic leaders are jettisoning elements such as bamboo hats and pointy finger movements, which are often on display during the so-called Tea scene in the second act, when dancers perform a short routine introducing tea from China.

(It’s one in a series of national dances, including Hot Chocolate from Spain and Coffee from Arabia.)

At least one company, Berlin State Ballet, has decided to forgo “Nutcracker” entirely this year amid growing concern about racist portrayals of Asians.

The company said in a statement last week that it was considering ways to “recontextualize” the ballet and would eventually bring it back.

The changes are the result of a yearslong effort by performers and activists to draw attention to Asian stereotypes in “Nutcracker.” Some renowned groups — including New York City Ballet and The Royal Ballet in London — several years ago made adjustments to the Tea scene, eliminating elements such as Fu Manchu-type mustaches for male dancers.

The sharp rise in reports of antiAsian hate crimes during the pandemic,

as well as a recent focus on the legacy of discrimination in dance, opera and classical music, have brought fresh urgency to the effort.

Performers and activists have called on cultural institutions to feature more prominently Asian singers, dancers, choreographers and composers. Some opera companies are reexamining staples of the repertoire such as “Madama Butterfly” and “Turandot,” which contain racist caricatures. Others, such as Boston Lyric Opera, are hosting public discussions of the works and their stereotypes.

“Folks are finally connecting the dots between the idea that what we put onstage actually has an impact on the people offstage,” said Phil Chan, an arts administrator and former dancer who has led the push to rethink “The Nutcracker.”

In 2018, Chan began circulating a pledge titled “Final Bow for Yellowface,” which calls for eliminating outdated and offensive stereotypes in ballet. He has gathered about 1,000 signatures from dancers, choreographers, educators and administrators.

The move to excise racist elements in dance has not been without controversy, especially in Europe.

The decision by Berlin State Ballet to skip “The Nutcracker” this year angered some cultural critics, who cited concerns about freedom of expression.

“People are not stupid,” Roger Köppel, a former editor of Die Welt, a German newspaper, said in an email.

“They can think for themselves and do not have to be shielded and protected from art that is declared politically incorrect by people who want to force their worldview on all of us.”

The stakes are high. For many ballet companies, “The Nutcracker” is the biggest show of the year — a financial lifeline that generates a large percentage of annual ticket sales.

Colorado Ballet staged “The Nutcracker” this month with new costumes, including in the Tea scene. The rainbow colors of a dragon that appears onstage were inspired by Asian street food.

Some companies are reworking the Tea scene entirely, believing more can be done to make it resonate with mo-

dern audiences.

Peter Boal, artistic director of Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, has been experimenting with ways to tone down Asian stereotypes in its productions of “The Nutcracker” since 2015. But as Boal saw the rise of anti-Asian hate this year, he set out to make further changes in time for opening night, which was Friday.

He had long wanted to add a cricket, a symbol of good luck in China, to “The Nutcracker.” He gained permission from the Balanchine Trust, which owns the rights to the version the company performs, just a few weeks ago. (The trust had found early sketches too buglike, Boal said.)

During the visit to the Land of Sweets, the cricket now emerges from a box rolled onstage and performs a series of acrobatic moves, much like the choreography in the original, in which a man dressed in stereotypical Chinese clothes came out of the box.

“The importance of change really came home this year,” Boal said, noting the spread of anti-Asian hate. He said he wanted a production that was “in line with our sensibilities today and our respect for other people and audience members and the community.”

Dancers and choreographers of Asian descent say the revisions to “The Nutcracker” are long overdue.

Ma Cong, resident choreographer of Tulsa Ballet, said he was confused when he first saw “The Nutcracker” productions featuring exaggerated makeup and stereotypical costumes. Ma, who grew up in China, recalled thinking, “That is not Chinese.”

On Dec. 10, Tulsa Ballet will premiere a production of “The Nutcracker” choreographed by Ma and Val Caniparoli. For the Tea scene, Ma is incorporating elements of tai chi and classical Chinese dance.

Ma said the rise in anti-Asian violence and the spread of terms such as “China virus” had emboldened him to bring more elements of Chinese culture to the production.

“It’s one simple word: respect,” he said. “It’s truly important to have respect for all cultures, and to be as authentic as possible.”

18

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

The San Juan Daily Star

‘Encanto’ reaches No. 1, but moviegoers are tough to lure back

The new Disney animated film “Encanto” took in $40.3 million in North America, much less than “Moana” did in 2016.

By BROOKS BARNES

H

ollywood has stopped running from the pandemic: For the first time since March 2020, movie theaters had a wide array of new films for exclusive screening over the holiday weekend.

And studios did not hedge their bets by offering simultaneous streaming options. To see the gloriously reviewed “Encanto,” the campy crime drama “House of Gucci” or the latest installment in the “Resident Evil” science-fiction action franchise, you had to leave the sofa, just like in the old days.

But some moviegoers are proving very difficult to lure back.

“Encanto,” an original Disney animated musical about a gifted family in Colombia, took in $40.3 million at 3,980 theaters in North America between Wednesday and Sunday. That total, which was enough for No. 1, equated to about 3.7 million patrons, or about 35% of the available seats, according to Steve Buck, the chief strategy officer for EntTelligence, a research firm. Ticket buyers gave the film an A grade in CinemaScore exit polls.

In wide release outside the United States, with the notable exceptions of China and Australia, “Encanto” collected an additional $29.3 million.

“It may take some time for people to discover ‘Encanto’ through word-of-mouth and reviews,” Disney said in a results email Sunday, referring to

audiences overseas, where the weekend was not a holiday.

News of the omicron variant may have dented European turnout, box office analysts said.

Disney, which spent roughly $175 million to make “Encanto,” not including tens of millions in marketing costs, had hoped that the family audience was finally ready to return to theaters on a vast scale. Children as young as 5 became eligible for coronavirus vaccinations in the United States on Nov. 2. For the first time this year, Disney did not send reporters a prerelease advisory about poor market conditions.

“This is a fair opening by pandemic standards, and a weak opening by Disney historical standards,” David A. Gross, who runs the film consultancy Franchise Entertainment Research, said in an email Sunday.

“Encanto” features songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose music helped Disney’s animated “Moana” sell $82.1 million in tickets during the five-day Thanksgiving period in 2016. In part because studios have routed animated films away from theaters and toward streaming services — Pixar’s “Luca” played exclusively on Disney+ in the United States over the summer — the genre accounts for one of the bigger pieces of the box office that has been lost during the pandemic. In 2019, animated wide releases collected $4.6 billion worldwide.

Gross estimated that animation will finish this year

with about $1.65 billion in ticket sales, a decline of about 64%.

Domestic ticket sales for “Encanto” nonetheless set a pandemic-era record for an animated film.

That glory is somewhat hollow, given that every other major animated film since March 2020 has been released simultaneously in theaters and on streaming services. (They have included “The Boss Baby: Family Business” from Universal and “Paw Patrol: The Movie” from Paramount.) “Encanto” is scheduled to arrive on Disney+ on Dec. 24.

The ultimate performance of “Encanto,” both in theaters and on Disney+, is likely to inform Disney’s release plans for animated films well into the coming year.

“Most of the franchises that we’ve had at the Walt Disney Company have been built through the theatrical exhibition channel of distribution,” Bob Chapek, Disney’s CEO, told analysts on an earningsrelated conference call Nov. 10. “At the same time, we’re watching very, very carefully different types of movies to see how the different components of the demographics of that market come back.”

“We’re still unsure in terms of how the marketplace is going to react when family films come back with a theatrical-first window,” he added.

For the holiday weekend in North America, “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” from Sony, was a strong second, collecting $35.3 million between Wednesday and Sunday, for a two-week domestic total of $87.8 million, according to Comscore, which compiles box office data. “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” released Nov. 19, siphoned some family business away from “Encanto,” box office analysts said.

“House of Gucci,” with Lady Gaga leading an ensemble cast, was a healthy third. It sold about $21.8 million in tickets over the five-day period.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which spent roughly $70 million to make the R-rated crime drama, not including robust marketing expenses, noted Sunday that only 34% of ticket buyers were 45 or older.

“As with families, older moviegoers have been reluctant to return to the movies, watching more entertainment at home,” Gross said. “The film would be opening 50% higher under normal circumstances, but this is very good.”

In a positive sign for prestige films — December is peak season, with Oscar hopefuls rolling out every weekend — Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza,” released by United Artists, sizzled in limited release. The R-rated period film, a blend of comedy, drama and romance, took in $335,000 at four theaters — two in New York and two in Los Angeles — for a per-theater average of $83,852. It was the best specialty-film debut in nearly two years.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

19

Will the vaccines stop omicron? Scientists are racing to find out.

By APOORVA MANDAVILLI

A

s nations severed air links from southern Africa amid fears of another global surge of the coronavirus, scientists scrambled Sunday to gather data on the new omicron variant, its capabilities and — perhaps most important — how effectively the current vaccines will protect against it.

The early findings are a mixed picture. The variant may be more transmissible and better able to evade the body’s immune responses, both to vaccination and to natural infection, than prior versions of the virus, experts said in interviews.

The vaccines may well continue to ward off severe illness and death, although booster doses may be needed to protect most people. Still, the makers of the two most effective vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, are preparing to reformulate their shots if necessary.

“We really need to be vigilant about this new variant and preparing for it,” said Jesse Bloom, an evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

“Probably in a few weeks, we’ll have a better sense of how much this variant is spreading and how necessary it might be to push forward with a variant vaccine,” Bloom said.

Even as scientists began vigorous scrutiny of the new variant, countries around the world curtailed travel to and from nations in southern Africa, where omicron was first identified.

Despite the restrictions, the virus has been found in a half-dozen European countries, including the United Kingdom, as well as Australia, Israel and Hong Kong.

Already, omicron accounts for most of the 2,300 new daily cases in the province of Gauteng, South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Sunday. Nationally, new infections have more than tripled in the past week, and test positivity has increased to 9% from 2%.

Scientists have reacted more quickly to omicron than to any other variant. In just 36 hours from the first signs of trouble in South Africa on Tuesday, researchers analyzed samples from 100 infected patients, collated the data and alerted the world, said Tulio de Oliveira, a geneticist at the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine in Durban.

Within an hour of the first alarm, scientists in South Africa also rushed to test coronavirus vaccines against the new variant. Now, dozens of teams worldwide — including researchers at Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna — have joined the chase.

They won’t know the results for two weeks, at the earliest. But the mutations that omicron carries suggest that the vaccines most likely will be less effective, to some unknown degree, than they were against any previous variant.

“Based on lots of work people have done on other variants and other mutations, we can be pretty confident these mutations are going to cause an appreciable drop in antibody neutralization,” Bloom said, referring to the body’s ability to attack an invading virus.

South African doctors are seeing an increase in reinfections in people who already had a bout of COVID-19, suggesting that the variant can overcome natural immunity, said Dr. Richard Lessells, an infectious diseases physician at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Omicron has about 50 mutations, including more than 30 in the spike, a viral protein on its surface that the vaccines

International travelers wait to take PCR tests upon arriving at the O.R. Tambo International airport in Johannesburg, Nov. 27, 2021. train the body to recognize and attack.

Some of these mutations have been seen before. Some were thought to have powered the beta variant’s ability to sidestep vaccines, while others most likely turbocharged delta’s extreme contagiousness.

“My best guess is that this combines both of those elements,” Penny Moore, a virus expert at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa, said of the new variant.

Moore’s team is perhaps the furthest along in testing how well the vaccines hold up against omicron. She and her colleagues are preparing to test blood from fully immunized people against a synthetic version of the omicron variant.

Creating such a “pseudovirus” — a viral stand-in that contains all of the mutations — takes time, but results may be available in about 10 days.

To more closely mimic what people are likely to encounter, another team led by Alex Sigal, a virus expert at the Africa Health Research Institute, is growing live Omicron, which will be tested against the blood of fully immunized people, as well as those who were previously infected.

Those results may take longer but should provide a fuller picture of the vaccines’ performance, Sigal said.

If the vaccines prove to be much less potent against omicron, they may need to be tweaked to enhance their effectiveness. Preparing for the worst, Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson are planning to test an artificial version of omicron against their vaccines.

The mRNA vaccines in particular — Moderna’s and Pfizer-BioNTech’s — were built with technology that should permit rapid modification. Pfizer’s scientists “can adapt the current vaccine within six weeks and ship initial batches within 100 days in the event of an escape variant” that eludes the immune system, said Jerica Pitts, a spokeswoman for Pfizer.

Moderna’s work began Tuesday, immediately after its scientists learned of omicron — the fastest the company has ever responded to a variant, said Dr. Stephen Hoge, Moderna’s president.

Even without data on omicron’s spread, it was obvious the variant would be a formidable threat to vaccines, he said.

“This thing is a Frankenstein mix of all of the greatest hits,” Hoge said, referring to the variant’s many concerning mutations. “It just triggered every one of our alarm bells.”

Moderna could update its current vaccine in about two months and have clinical results in about three months if necessary, he said.

Both companies also plan to test whether booster shots will bolster the immune system enough to fend off the new variant. Boosters of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been shown to raise antibody levels significantly.

But those antibodies may not be broadly effective against every iteration of the virus and may not be enough to neutralize omicron entirely, said Michel Nussenzweig, an immunologist at Rockefeller University in New York.

Nussenzweig and his colleagues are preparing to test omicron against the mRNA vaccines, as well as the vaccines made by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca. They hope to have results within a month.

Omicron-specific vaccines created in just weeks would be a miraculous feat. But the prospect of producing and distributing them raises daunting questions.

If new versions are required to protect people everywhere, companies should make them available to the African countries that most need them and can least afford them, de Oliveira said.

“South Africa at least has managed to procure their own vaccines,” he said. But poorer countries like Sudan, Mozambique, Eswatini and Lesotho will need low-cost options.

Pfizer did not respond to a question about low-cost vaccines for African nations. Hoge, of Moderna, said the company already had an agreement with the African Union to deliver 110 million doses at $3.50 per half dose of vaccine.

Researchers everywhere want to avoid drawing conclusions prematurely, a mistake they made when the beta variant surfaced. Preliminary tests of that variant took only one known mutation into account and underestimated its ability to evade the immune system, Moore recalled. (Fortunately, the variant also turned out to be less contagious.)

To get a full picture of the effectiveness of the vaccines against omicron, scientists must look not just at antibody levels but also at immune cells that can recognize and destroy infected cells. Immune cells called T cells are crucial for preventing an infection from progressing to serious illness and death.

Some of omicron’s mutations occur in parts of the virus targeted by T cells, meaning the variant may be more difficult for T cells to recognize.

Already, a computer simulation has predicted that those mutations may alter about six of the hundreds of regions that T cells can recognize, said Wendy Burgers, an immunologist at the University of Cape Town.

That may not seem like much. But people make varying sets of T cells, so depending on which targets the mutations knock out, some people may barely be affected by omicron — and others may be left vulnerable.

Burgers is hoping to obtain blood from 50 people infected with the variant to gauge how the mutations will play out across a population. Once the samples are in hand, results will be available after “probably a week of very late nights and analysis,” she said.

20

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Omicron carries scary mutations. That doesn’t mean they work well together.

By APOORVA MANDAVILLI

T

he omicron variant of the coronavirus has alarmed many scientists because of the sheer number of genetic mutations it carries — about 50 in all, including at least 26 that are unique to it. But more does not necessarily mean worse: Mutations sometimes work together to make a virus more fearsome, but they may also cancel one another out.

“In principle, mutations can also work against each other,” said Jesse Bloom, an evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. “However, in this case evolutionary selection is more likely to lead to the spread of a new variant with favorable than unfavorable combinations of mutations.”

Still, this phenomenon, called epistasis, is why scientists are reluctant to speculate on omicron’s attributes, even though individual mutations in the variant are associated with greater transmissibility or with an ability to dodge the body’s immune defenses.

“It is important to get a sense of the full virus,” said Penny Moore, a virus expert at the National Institute for Communi-

cable Diseases in South Africa.

Moore’s team is among dozens worldwide trying to understand whether current vaccines will work against omicron. The researchers are creating artificial versions of the virus that contain all of omicron’s mutations, rather than making judgments based on a subset of mutations.

It’s a lesson researchers learned last year, when the beta variant emerged in South Africa. They estimated that variant’s ability to evade immunity based on one particular mutation, E484K. But beta also had two other mutations that turned out to affect sensitivity to vaccines.

“The combination of those three mutations was more resistance than a virus that contained only E484K,” Moore said.

Studying the single mutation “turned out to be misleading.”

Omicron carries a mutation called N501Y, which is thought to allow the virus to bind to human cells more tightly. This mutation was also present in the alpha variant and was linked to its contagiousness.

“Nonetheless, it ended up being delta, which doesn’t have that particular mutation, that was more even more trans-

A technician works in a laboratory at the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine in Durban, South Africa. missible than alpha,” Bloom said. “That’s because delta had other mutations that enhance transmissibility.”

A variant’s contagiousness depends on how well the virus binds to receptors on human cells, but also on the stability of the virus, where in the airways it replicates and how much of it is exhaled.

Jane Goodall still has hope for humans

By TARA PARKER-POPE

A

s the bad news — the pandemic, climate change, racial injustice — feels overwhelming, it can be surprising to hear from an optimist. Jane Goodall may be best known for her work studying the chimpanzees of Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, but her efforts to promote conservation through the Jane Goodall Institute also have focused on people, mainly through antipoverty and youth education programs.

Her latest contribution toward helping humans avoid self-destruction is “The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times.” In her book, written with Douglas Abrams, Goodall outlines the four things that give her hope: human intellect, the resilience of nature, the power of young people and the “indomitable” human

spirit. But I haven’t spoiled the book for you. The reason to keep reading (or listening to Goodall narrate part of her audiobook, which I recommend) is that Goodall shares stories from her own life experiences and the people she has encountered to make her case for hope.

Recently I spoke speak with Goodall about why she remains an optimist, and what the rest of us can do to start feeling hopeful, too. Here’s part of our conversation.

Q: Why did you decide to write a book about hope?

A: You know, it’s really grim with climate change, loss of biodiversity, the pandemic, the autocratic regimes taking over in many parts of the world. And many people are losing hope. But if everybody loses hope, we’ve had it because, you know, without hope, we give up, become apa-

thetic and do nothing. But the key thing is that my definition of hope isn’t just sitting and saying, “Oh, I’m sure things will work out.” It’s like a very dark tunnel full of obstacles, but right at the end, there’s that little light gleaming. And in order to get to that little light, you’re just going to have to fight to get there. It wouldn’t just happen unless you make the effort.

Q: With so much bad going on, how can people stay hopeful?

A: We’re always told, “Think globally, but act locally.” But if you think globally, you’re sort of filled with doom and gloom. You don’t have the energy to act.

But think about where you are. Is there something you care about? Yeah. I care about the litter in the streets. OK, get together with your friends and start clearing up the litter and you’ll find that other people, once the litter is clear, they stop

Omicron has a cluster of mutations that are all linked to tighter binding to human cells. “But acting together, they might have a somewhat different effect,” Bloom said. For that reason, he added, he cannot predict how the variant will act in the body.

That will require laboratory studies, which are underway across the globe. littering. You’ll see that you made a difference, and you’ll feel more hope. That’s contagious. Other people will want to do more, and the more other people do and the more hope you get, the more it keeps you encouraged to go on and it sort of spirals up.

Every person matters. Every person has a role to play in this crazy life. Every person makes an impact on the planet every day, and we get to choose what sort of impact we make.

Q: Why are you still hopeful about human intellect?

A: It’s very peculiar that this most intellectual creature is destroying its only home. But finally, because we face a crisis, scientists are coming up with more and more and more innovative ways to tackle climate change, like renewable energy. Ordinary people are beginning to think with their brains about how they can leave a lighter ecological footprint, what they can do each day. So that’s my reason for thinking that human intellect is one thing that’s hopeful if we use it right.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

21

A one-pot matzo ball chicken stew, ready to comfort

By JOAN NATHAN

D

uring my long career writing about Jewish cooking, I’ve focused on finding lost recipes. But recently, a recipe found me.

Hanukkah begins on the evening of Nov. 28, after a long weekend of cooking and eating (and cleaning) for Thanksgiving. I’ll be with my adult children and grandchildren, and, of course, we will most likely have latkes and brisket. But even the most devoted latke lovers do not want to eat potato pancakes every night of the holiday, much less tidy up after preparing them. (I most certainly don’t like doing dishes.)

Still, the holiday calls for something festive and filling. So my ears perked up when, at the playground with my grandchildren, I heard a few mothers discussing recipes. One mentioned an easy chicken stew with dumplings that she had found online.

I was inspired! And immediately thought of a main course: matzo ball soup. During this season, I thought, when young parents are so stretched, why not make it an easy, hearty one-pot dinner? You could swap out the dumplings for matzo balls and fill the pot with plump pieces of chicken and delicious vegetables for a meal that’s equal parts soupy and stewy.

I made it within days, adding fresh ginger and nutmeg to the matzo balls, an old German Jewish tradition. Herbs like parsley or cilantro, also found in ancient Yemenite and Persian Jewish chicken soups, lend even more brightness to the broth.

The whole stew comes together in one pot and can be entirely made a day ahead. Thankfully, chicken soup and matzo balls, found in some form for thousands of years and beloved by both children and adults, improve on standing. All you have to do is warm this soupy stew up.

Chicken matzo ball stew

By Joan Nathan Yield: 6 servings Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes, plus 3 hours’ cooling For the Stew: 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 large onion, peeled and cut in large chunks 1 celery stalk, sliced in chunks 1 turnip or parsnip, scrubbed, halved if large, and cut in thick slices Salt

Chicken matzo ball stew in New York, Nov. 10, 2021. This light recipe is still filling and festive enough for Hanukkah, and it’s easy to clean up, too. Food styled by Simon Andrews.

1 cut-up chicken with bones (about 4 pounds) 2 carrots, peeled and cut in thick rounds 1 cup fresh or frozen peas 2 tablespoons chopped parsley or dill, for serving For the Matzo Balls: 4 large eggs, beaten 2 tablespoons schmaltz (from the stew) or vegetable oil 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons chicken stock or vegetable stock 1 cup matzo meal 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley, dill or cilantro Coarse kosher salt and black pepper 1. Start the stew: Set a large (5-quart) heavy pot over medium-high heat, add the oil and then the onion, celery and turnip, and season with salt.

Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the chicken and cover with 5 cups of water, or enough to almost cover the chicken. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to maintain a simmer, and simmer for about 30 minutes, skim-

ming any scum that rises. Cool, cover and refrigerate for at least a few hours, but ideally overnight.

Scrape off and reserve 2 tablespoons chicken fat from the surface of the soup for the matzo ball mix.

Freeze any remaining fat for another use. (You can substitute 2 tablespoons vegetable oil if you prefer.)

2. Meanwhile, make the matzo ball mix (at least 3 hours before serving): Stir together the eggs, schmaltz or oil, stock, matzo meal, nutmeg, ginger and parsley in a large bowl until well mixed. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of pepper.

Cover and refrigerate until chilled, about 3 hours, or overnight.

3. About 45 minutes before serving, finish the stew: Using your hands, break the chicken pieces into large-bite chunks, removing skin and bones as you go. Put the chicken back into the pot, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and add the carrots and peas. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

4. Add heavy spoonfuls of the matzo ball mix to the top of the soup. (You should have about 18 balls.) Cover and simmer until the matzo balls are cooked through, about 20 minutes. Serve topped with fresh dill or parsley.

22 LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAROLINA SALA SUPERIOR

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Parte Demandante Vs.

JOSÉ LUIS CORREDOR MIRANDA, ROSANED RODRÍGUEZ BÁEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: CA2019CV01136.

Sala: 409. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente anuncia y hace constar que en cumplimiento de la Sentencia en Rebeldía dictada el 17 de octubre de 2019, enmendada NUNC PRO TUNC el 12 de agosto de 2021, la Orden de Ejecución de Sentencia del 4 de octubre de 2021 y el Mandamiento de Ejecución del 6 de octubre de 2021 en el caso de epígrafe, procederé a vender el día 19 DE ENERO DE 2022, A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en mi oficina, localizada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Centro Judicial de Carolina, Sala Superior, en la Carretera Número Tres (3) Km. 11.7, Avenida 65 de Infantería, Intersección Carr. Núm. 853, Entrada Urb. Lomas de Carolina, Carolina, Puerto Rico, al mejor postor en pago de contado y en moneda de los Estados Unidos de América, cheque de gerente o giro postal, todo título, derecho o interés de la parte demandada sobre la siguiente propiedad: RÚSTICA: Predio de terreno identificado con el número 139 en el plano de inscripción de la Comunidad Reparto Miñi Miñi radicada en el Barrio Medianía Alta del término municipal de Loíza, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 341.46 metros cuadrados, equivalentes a 0.0869 cuerdas. En lindes por el NORTE, en 26.36 metros lineales con el solar número 138; por el SUR, en 26.17 metros lineales con el solar número 140; por el ESTE, en 13.00 metros lineales con servidumbre de uso público número tres (3); y por el OESTE, en 13.00 metros lineales con la Calle Número 7-A. Edificación: Enclava

@

una casa de concreto armado y bloques para una familia, que consta de tres (3) cuartos dormitorios, un (1) baño, sala, comedor y marquesina abierta, consiste de 927.00 pies cuadrados de construcción interior más 200.00 pies cuadrados de marquesina abierta, con un valor de $52,000.00, según escritura número 284, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 30 de noviembre de 1999, ante el Notario Rolando A. Silva. Inscrita al folio 191 vuelto del tomo 194 de Loíza, Finca Número 9374, Inscripción tercera. La propiedad consta inscrita al folio 191 del tomo 194 de Loíza, Finca Número 9374, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección III. La escritura de hipoteca consta inscrita al folio 191 vuelto del tomo 194 de Loíza, Finca Número 9374, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección III, Inscripción tercera. La primera escritura de modificación consta inscrita al folio 25 del tomo 227 de Loíza, Finca Número 9374, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección III, Inscripción cuarta. La segunda escritura de modificación consta inscrita al folio 13 vuelto del tomo 239 de Loíza, Finca Número 9374, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección III, Inscripción quinta. DIRECCIÓN FÍSICA: 139 VILLAS DE MIÑI MIÑI, LOÍZA, PR 00772. SUBASTAS: FECHAS: PRIMERA: 19 DE ENERO DE 2022 A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA. TIPO MÍNIMO: $57,600.00. SEGUNDA: 26 DE ENERO DE 2022 A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA. TIPO MÍNIMO: $38,400.00.

TERCERA: 2 DE FEBRERO DE 2022 A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA. TIPO MÍNIMO: $28,800.00. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta será de $57,600.00. De no haber adjudicación en la primera subasta se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA, el día 26 DE ENERO DE 2022, A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será de dos terceras partes del tipo mínimo fijado en la primera subasta, o sea, $38,400.00.

De no haber adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 2 DE FEBRERO DE 2022, A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será la mitad del precio pactado, o sea, $28,800.00. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el tribunal lo estima conveniente.

Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta es mayor. Dicho remate se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer a la demandante el importe de la Sentencia por la suma de $54,986.15 de principal, más intereses sobre dicha suma al 4% anual desde el 1 de julio de 2017 hasta su completo pago, más $189.47 de recargos acumulados, más la cantidad estipulada de $6,395.70 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, así como cualquier otra suma que contenga el contrato del préstamo. Surge del Estudio de Título Registral que sobre esta propiedad pesa el siguiente gravamen posterior a la hipoteca que por la presente se pretende ejecutar: Aviso de Demanda: Pleito seguido por Banco Popular de Puerto Rico Vs. José Luis Corredor Miranda y su esposa Rosaned Rodríguez Báez, ante el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Carolina, en el Caso Civil Número CA2019CV01136, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, en la que se reclama el pago de hipoteca de la inscripción tercera, por la suma de $63,967.00, con un balance de $54,986.15 y otras cantidades, según Demanda de fecha 4 de abril de 2019.

Anotada al Tomo Karibe de Loíza. Anotación A. Se notifica al acreedor posterior o a su sucesor o cesionario en derecho para que comparezca a proteger su derecho si así lo desea.

Se les advierte a los interesados que todos los documentos relacionados con la presente acción de ejecución de hipoteca, así como los de Subasta, estarán disponibles para ser examinados, durante horas laborables, en el expediente del caso que obra en los archivos de la Secretaría del Tribunal, bajo el número de epígrafe y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general en Puerto Rico por espacio de dos semanas y por lo menos una vez por semana; y para su fijación en los sitios públicos requeridos por ley. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes; entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate y que la propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores tal como lo expresa la Ley Núm.

210-2015. Y para el conocimiento de los demandados,

staredictos@thesanjuandailystar.com

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

The San Juan Daily Star

Demandante Vs. RUBIO; JOHN DOE que entienda tener algún JOSE V. VAZQUEZ SENTI Y JANE DOE COMO derecho legal sobre el Demandada POSIBLES HEREDEROS inmueble descrito en ésta Caso Núm.: CA2021CV01372.

DESCONOCIDOS; petición de DOMINIO y en Salón Núm.: 409. Sobre: COSUCESION VIRGINIA general a toda persona BRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZARUBIO DIAZ T/C/C MIENTO POR EDICTO. que desee oponerse.

Por la presente se le notifica VIRGINIA CONSUELO A: JOSE V. que comparezcan, si creyeren RUBIO, VIRGINIA VAZQUEZ SENTI. que les conviene, ante éste CONSUELO RUBIO URB. MANS DE VISTAMAR Honorable Tribunal dentro de DIAZ, VIRGINIA NIEVES, Treinta (30) días a partir de la 1308 CALLE MALLORCA VIRGINIA C. RUBIO CAROLINA, P.R. 00983. publicación de éste EDICTO y exponer lo que a sus derechos POR LA PRESENTE se le DIAZ Y COMO VIRGINIA convenga en el expediente emplaza y requiere para que CONSUELO COMPUESTA LEGAL NOTICE promovido por los peticiona- conteste la demanda dentro de POR ABELARDO NIEVES ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO rios para adquirir su domino los treinta (30) días siguientes RUBIO, JAVIER NIEVES DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU- sobre la siguiente finca: Solar a la publicación de este Edicto.

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA en Barrio Montellano de Cayey, Usted deberá presentar su ale- RUBIO, VIRGINIA NIEVES SALA SUPERIOR DE CA- compuesto de Ciento Veinti- gación responsiva a través del RUBIO; JOHN ROE GUAS. nueve punto Cero Cero Trein- Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Y JANE ROE COMO ta y Cuatro metros cuadrados Administración de Casos (SU- POSIBLES HEREDEROS SUCS. MARIANA DE JESUS LÓPEZ Y ULBANO (129.0034 me) equivalente MAC), la cual puede acceder DESCONOCIDOS; a Cero punto Cero Trescien- utilizando la siguiente direcRAMOS SUAREZ ESTADOS UNIDOS DE ción electrónica: https://unired. tos Cincuenta y Siete cuerda compuesta por: Sucn (0.0357 c.) Colindando por el ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se AMERICA; CENTRO Ulbano Ramos De Jesús Norte con terreno de José Ló- represente por derecho propio, DE RECAUDACION DE (Jorge Luis, Ángel Urbano oez en 11.328 m., antes Juan en cuyo caso deberá presentar INGRESOS MUNICIPALES y José Aníbal de apellidos Ortíz; por el Sur con terreno de su alegación responsiva en la Demandados Ramos Nazario), y Sucn. William J. Colon Aponte, en dis- secretaría del tribunal. Si usted Civil Núm.: SJ2021CV04317. de 10.843 metros, antes deja de presentar su alegación Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIIrma Ramos De Jesús tancia Nemensio Rivera, por el Este responsiva dentro del referido POTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO ( Irma, Carlos Manuel, en distancia de 11. 743 metros término, el tribunal podrá dic- POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIJosé Antonio, Ada Irma, pies con terreno de William Co- tar sentencia en rebeldía en DOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PREJenaro, Sonia Noemí, lon Cardona, antes Francisco su contra y conceder el reme- SIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS Fuentes; y por el Oeste con la dio solicitado en la demanda o UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE Elizabeth y Gladys, Calle Gregorio Ortíz en 11.555 cualquier otro sin más citarle ni ASOCIADO DE PUERTO todos de apellidos metros, antes Fernando Bauer- oírle, si el tribunal en el ejerciAponte Ramos) Sucn . meister. Dirección física: Calle cio de su sana discreción, lo RICO, SS. Norberto Ramos De Jesús Gregorio Ortiz, 563 Bo. Monte- entiende procedente. El siste- A: ABELARDO NIEVES compuesta por las dos llano, Cayey, P.R. 00736. Este ma SUMAC notificará copia al RUBIO, JAVIER NIEVES caso fue presentado a través abogado de la parte deman- RUBIO, VIRGINIA NIEVES sucs. mencionadas RUBIO; JOHN DOE del Sistema Unificado de Ma- dante, el Lcdo. Kenmuel J. Ruiz EX - PARTE nejo y Administración de Casos López cuya dirección es: P.O. Y JANE DOE COMO PETICIONARIOS CIVIL NUM: CG2021CV02576. (SUMAC). Deberá presentar Box 71418 San Juan, PuerPOSIBLES MIEMBROS SOBRE: EXPEDIENTE DE su alegación responsiva a la to Rico 00936-8518, teléfono DESCONOCIDOS DE LA (787) 993-3731 a la dirección DOMINIO PRESCRIPCION siguiente dirección electrónica: SUCESION SATURNINO ADQUISITIVA. EDICTOS. ES- https://unired.ramajudicial.pr, kenmuel.riuz@orf-law.com y a NIEVES ARVELO T/C/C la dirección notificaciones@orfsalvo que se represente por TADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA SATURNINO NIEVES; EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIA- derecho propio, en cuyo caso law.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO deberá presentar cualquier to MI FIRMA y el sello del TribuDO DE PUERTO RICO. S.S. ABELARDO NIEVES A: JOSÉ LÓPEZ, WILLIAM relacionado al caso en la se- nal, en Carolina, Puerto Rico, RUBIO, JAVIER NIEVES cretaria del tribunal; con cons- hoy día 28 de septiembre de J. COLON APONTE, RUBIO, VIRGINIA NIEVES tancia de haber servido copia 2021. En Carolina, Puerto Rico, SUCN. WILUAM COLON de la misma a la abogada de el 28 de septiembre de 2021.

RUBIO; JOHN ROE CARDONA, JOHN DOE, la parte demandante o a esta LCDA. MARILYN APONTE Y JANE ROE COMO AUTORIDAD DE ENERGÍA si hubiere comparecido por RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA POSIBLES MIEMBROS ELÉCTRICA, AUTORIDAD derecho propio. abogada de la REGIONAL. LYSHA M. CORDESCONOCIDOS DE peticionaria es la Lcda. María DERO DANOIS, SECRETARIA DE ACUEDUCTOS Y LA SUCESION VIRGINIA Vargas, dirección Box AUXILIAR. ALCANTARILLADOS, Jiménez RUBIO DIAZ T/C/C 10231, San Juan, P.R. 00922, LEGAL NOTICE DEPTO. DE RECURSOS Tels 787 781 3585 y 787 783 VIRGINIA CONSUELO NATURALES, MUNICIPIO 3784. En.Caguas, Puerto Rico, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO RUBIO, VIRGINIA a 4 de noviembre de 2021. Lisil- DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUDE CAYEY, DEPTO. CONSUELO RUBIO da Martinez Agosto, Secretario. NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA DIAZ, VIRGINIA NIEVES, OBRAS PUBLICAS SUPERIOR DE SAN MUNICIPAL, MUNICIPIO Glorissette Rivera Reyes, Sub- SALA VIRGINIA C. RUBIO JUAN Secretaria.

DE CAYEY Y DEPTO. DIAZ Y COMO VIRGINIA *** REVERSE MORTGAGE DE OBRAS PUBLICAS CONSUELO. LEGAL NOTICE FUNDING LLC. POR LA PRESENTE se le ESTATAL, los colindantes ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DemandanteVs. JOSÉ LÓPEZ, WILLIAM DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU- SUCESION SATURNINO emplaza para que presente al su alegación responJ. COLON APONTE Y NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA NIEVES ARVELO T/C/C Tribunal siva a la demanda dentro de SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROSUCN. WILLIAM COLON SATURNINO NIEVES los treinta (30) días a partir de CARDONA y cualquier LINA la publicación de este edicto.

COMPUESTA POR ISLAND PORTFOLIO Usted deberá presentar su aleotra persona ignorada ABELARDO NIEVES SERVICES, LLC., COMO responsiva a través del o desconocida a quien RUBIO, JAVIER NIEVES gación Sistema Unificado de Manejo y AGENTE DE ACE ONE pueda perjudicar la RUBIO, VIRGINIA NIEVES Administración de Casos (SUFUNDING, LLC. inscripción solicitada y/o de los acreedores posteriores, de los licitadores, partes interesadas y público en general, EXPIDO para su publicación en los lugares públicos correspondientes, el presente Aviso de Pública Subasta en Carolina, Puerto Rico, hoy 10 de noviembre de 2021. SAMUEL GONZÁLEZ ISAAC, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAROLINA, SALA SUPERIOR.

(787) 743-3346

MAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: http://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberé presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaria 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.

Greenspoon Marder, LLP Lcda. Frances L. Asencio-Guido R.U.A. 15,622 TRADE CENTRE SOUTH, SUITE 700 100 WEST CYPRESS CREEK ROAD FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 33309 Telephone: (954) 343 6273 Frances.Asencio@gmlaw.com Expedido bajo mi firma, y sello del Tribunal, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy 22 de noviembre de 2021. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. JESSICA SOTO PAGÁN, SECRETARIA DE SERVICIOS A SALA.

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Demandante Vs.

TOMAS RICARDO ORTIZ MATOS, SU ESPOSA SORAYA AIMEE DAMIANI VAZQUEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandados Civil Núm.: BY2019CV02953.

(505). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO (EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA). EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

Al: PÚBLICO EN GENERAL. A: TOMAS RICARDO ORTIZ MATOS, SU ESPOSA SORAYA AIMEE DAMIANI VAZQUEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS.

Yo, MARIBEL LANZAR VELÁZQUEZ, Alguacil de este Tribunal, a la parte demandada y a los acreedores y personas con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, HAGO SABER: Que el día 20 DE ENERO DE 2022 A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA en mi oficina, sita en

The San Juan Daily Star el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Bayamón, en la oficina del Alguacil de Subastas en el Cuarto Piso, Bayamón, Puerto Rico, venderé en Pública Subasta la propiedad inmueble que más adelante se describe y cuya venta en pública subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria al mejor postor quien hará el pago en dinero en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del o la Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal de Bayamón durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta a celebrarse, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA para la venta de la susodicha propiedad, el día 27 DE ENERO DE 2022, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 3 DE FEBRERO DE 2022, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: URBANA: Parcela de terreno identificada como el solar número Diecinueve (19) del Bloque “CD” de la URBANIZACIÓN CAMINO DEL MAR, radicada en el Barrio Sabana Seca del término municipal de Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de CUATROCIENTOS PUNTO CERO CERO (400.00) METROS CUADRADOS. En linderos: NORTE, en VEINTICINCO PUNTO CERO CERO (25.00) METROS, con el solar número Dieciocho (18); por el SUR, en VEINTICINCO PUNTO CERO CERO (25.00) METROS, con el solar número Veinte (20); por el ESTE, en DIECISÉIS PUNTO CERO CERO (16.00) METROS, con Calle número Nueve (9); y por el OESTE, en DIECISÉIS PUNTO CERO CERO (16.00) METROS, con “mitigation area”. Enclava una casa de concreto diseñada para una familia. La escritura de hipoteca se encuentra inscrita al folio 140 del tomo 629 de Toa Baja, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección Segunda, finca número 24,806, inscripción Quinta. La dirección física de la propiedad antes descrita es: Urbanización Camino del Mar, CD-19, Vía Cangrejos, Toa Baja, Puerto Rico. La subasta se llevará a efecto para satisfacer a la parte demandante la suma de $284,777.53 de principal, intereses ajustados cada doce meses a razón de 2.25% sobre la tasa de interés ajustados cada doce meses a razón de 2.25% sobre la tasa de interés vigente, cuya tasa de interés a esta fecha es del

4% anual, desde el día 1ro. de abril de 2018, hasta su completo pago, más la cantidad de $34,200.00 estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, más recargos acumulados, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta para el inmueble será de $342,000.00 y de ser necesaria una segunda subasta, la cantidad mínima será equivalente a 2/3 partes de aquella, o sea, la suma de $228,000.00 y de ser necesaria una tercera subasta, la cantidad mínima será la mitad del precio pactado, es decir, la suma de $171,000.00. Si se declara desierta la tercera subasta se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si esta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el Tribunal lo estima conveniente.

Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si esta es mayor. La propiedad se adjudicará al mejor postor, quien deberá satisfacer el importe de su oferta en moneda legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América en el momento de la adjudicación y que todo licitador acepta como suficiente la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes preferentes, si los hubiese, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser vendida en pública subasta se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Podrán concurrir como postores a todas las subastas los titulares de créditos hipotecarios vigentes y posteriores a la hipoteca que se cobra o ejecuta, si alguno o que figuren como tales en la certificación registral y que podrán utilizar el montante de sus créditos o parte de alguno en sus ofertas. Si la oferta aceptada es por cantidad mayor a la suma del crédito o créditos preferentes al suyo, al obtener la buena pro del remate, deberá satisfacer en el mismo acto, en efectivo o en cheque de gerente, la totalidad del crédito hipotecario que se ejecuta y la de cualesquiera otro créditos posteriores al que se ejecuta pero preferente al suyo. El exceso constituirá abono total o parcial en su propio crédito. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto para conocimiento y comparecencia de los licitadores, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, a 18 de noviembre de 2021. MARIBEL LANZAR VELÁZQUEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #735, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL, SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN.

Wednesday, December 1, 2021 LEGAL NOTICE

LEGAL NOTICE

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

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

Demandante Vs.

Parte Demandante Vs.

REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC.

SUCESION IRIS ROSA PAGAN TORRES T/C/C IRIS PAGAN TORRES COMPUESTA POR JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES

Demandados Civil Núm.: AR2021CV01184.

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

A: JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION IRIS ROSA PAGAN TORRES T/C/C IRIS PAGAN TORRES.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al Tribunal su alegación responsiva a la demanda dentro de los treinta (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: http://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberé presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaria 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.

Greenspoon Marder, LLP Lcda. Frances L. Asencio-Guido R.U.A. 15,622 TRADE CENTRE SOUTH, SUITE 700 100 WEST CYPRESS CREEK ROAD FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 33309 Telephone: (954) 343 6273 Frances.Asencio@gmlaw.com Expedido bajo mi firma, y sello del Tribunal, en Arecibo, Puerto Rico, hoy día 22 de noviembre de 2021. VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. ANABEL PÉREZ RÍOS, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.

FIRST BANK PUERTO RICO

SUCESION DE ALEJANDRINA MALDONADO MELENDEZ COMPUESTA POR CARMEN LYDIA RIVERA MALDONADO, JESUS DANIEL SANTOS RIVERA, CARMEN ALEXANDRA SANTOS RIVERA, ISMAEL GARCIA, MANUEL RAMOS ALVAREZ, DAVID RAMOS ALVAREZ JUAN CARLOS RAMOS ALVAREZ, GLORIMAR RAMOS ALVAREZ, JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS, ADMINISTRACION PARA EL SUSTENTO DE MENORES Y CENTRO DE RECAUDACION SOBRE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: GB2021CV00574.

Sala: 201. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA, EMPLAZAMIENTO Y NOTIFICACIÓN DE INTERPELACIÓN POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: JESUS DANIEL SANTOS RIVERA, CARMEN ALEXANDRA SANTOS RIVERA, ISMAEL GARCIA Y JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE ALEJANDRINA MALDONADO MELÉNDEZ.

POR LA PRESENTE se les emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto.

Usted deberá radicar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: http://unired.ramajudicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se presente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá radicar el original de su contestación ante el Tribunal correspondiente y notifique con copia a la abogada de la parte demandante, Lcda. Marjaliisa Colón Villanueva, al PO BOX 7970, Porree, P.R. 00732; Teléfono: 787-843-

4168. En dicha, demanda se tramita un procedimiento de cobro de dinero y ejecución de hipoteca bajo el número mencionado en el epígrafe. Se alega en dicho procedimiento que la parte Demandada incurrió en el incumplimiento del Contrato de Hipoteca, al no poder pagar las mensualidades vencidas correspondientes a los meses de agosto de 2019, hasta el presente, más los cargos por demora correspondientes.

Además, adeuda a la parte demandante las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado en que incurra el tenedor del pagaré en este litigio. De acuerdo con dicho Contrato de Garantía Hipotecaria la parte Demandante declaró vencida la totalidad de la deuda ascendente a la suma de $45,657.74 de balance principal, más los intereses sobre dicha suma al 7.00% anual, así como todos aquellos créditos y sumas que surjan de la faz de la obligación hipotecaria y de la hipoteca que la garantiza, incluyendo la suma estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. La parte Demandante presentó para su inscripción en el Registro de la Propiedad correspondiente, un AVISO DE PLEITO PENDIENTE (“Lis Pendens”) sobre la propiedad objeto de esta acción cuya propiedad es la siguiente: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número uno (1) de la manzana N, en el plano de la Urbanización de Terrenos proyecto PRHA guión once (PRHA-11) Zenón Díaz Valcárcel, preparado por la Autoridad sobre Hogares de Puerto Rico y aprobados por la Honorable Junta de Planificación de Puerto Rico, radicado en el Barrio Amelia Sabana del término municipal de Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de trescientos diecinueve punto cincuenta (319.50) metros cuadrados.

En lindes por el NORTE, con la calle número siete (7) del mismo plano, en una distancia de veinticuatro punto treinta y ocho (24.38) metros; por el SUR, con el solar N guión dos. (N-2) del referido plano, en una distancia veinticuatro punto treinta y ocho (24.38) metros; por el ESTE, con el solar N guión tres (N-3), en una distancia de trece punto once (13.11) metros; y por el OESTE, con la calle número seis (6) del referido proyecto, en una distancia de trece punto diez(13.10) metros. Enclava casa. Inscrita al folio uno (1) del tomo setenta y cinco (75) de Guaynabo, finca número tres mil trescientos cincuenta y cuatro (3,354). Registro de la Propiedad de Guaynabo SE LES APERCIBE que de no hacer sus alegaciones responsivas a la demanda dentro del término aquí dispuesto, se les anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia, concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, sin

23

más citarle ni oírle. Además, como miembro de la Sucesión de Alejandrina Maldonado Meléndez se ha presentado una solicitud de interpelación judicial para que sirva en el término de treinta (30) días aceptar o repudiar la herencia. Se le apercibe que si no compareciera usted a expresarse dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación de este edicto en torno a la aceptación o repudiación de la herencia, se presumirá que han aceptado la herencia del causante Alejandrina Maldonado Meléndez y por consiguiente, responderán por las cargas de dicha herencia conforme dispone el Art. 1587 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. 11041. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, hoy 16 de noviembre de 2021, en Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. LCDA. LAURA l. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MAIRENI TRINTA MALDONADO, SUB-SECRETARIA.

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

esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 23 de noviembre de 2021. En CAROLINA, Puerto Rico, el 23 de noviembre de 2021. LCDA MARILYN APONTE RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA. LILLIAM ORTIZ NIEVES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOT ICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE YAUCO EN SABANA GRANDE

AMERICAS LEADING FINANCE, LLC Parte Demandante Vs

JAIME F. RODRÍGUEZ JULIA, FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: YU2021CV00135.

Sala: 0001. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA Y EJECUCIÓN DE GRAVAMEN MOBILIARIO (REPOSESIÓN DE VEHÍCULO).

NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JAIME F. RODRÍGUEZ JULIA, FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES Demandante V. COMPUESTA POR DEICY MARIA GONZALEZ AMBOS P/C LIC. SANTANA T/C/C ALEJANDRO BELLVER Demandado(a) Civil: CA2021CV02110. Sala: ESPINOSA. BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

404. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO, EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: DEICY MARIA GONZALEZ SANTANA T/C/C DEICY M. GONZALEZ SANTANA.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 15 de noviembre de 2021, 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

El Secretario(a) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 17 de noviembre de 2021, 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 DIEZ DÍAS siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representado 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 TREINTA DÍAS contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 23 de noviembre de 2021. En Yauco, Puerto Rico, el 23 de noviembre de 2021. LUZ MAYRA CARABALLO GARCÍA, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. ADELAIDA LUGO PACHECO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE YAUCO EN SABANA GRANDE

AMERICAS LEADING FINANCE, LLC Parte Demandante Vs

JONATHAN MORALES PEREZ, FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: YU2021CV00138.

Sala: 0001. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA Y EJECUCIÓN DE GRAVAMEN MOBILIARIO (REPOSESIÓN DE VEHÍCULO).

NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JONATHAN MORALES PEREZ, FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS P/C LIC. GERARDO MANUEL ORTIZ TORRES.

El Secretario(a) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 17 de noviembre de 2021, 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 DIEZ DÍAS siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representado 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 TREINTA DÍAS contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 23 de noviembre de 2021. En Yauco, Puerto Rico, el 23 de noviembre de 2021. LUZ MAYRA CARABALLO GARCÍA, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. ADELAIDA LUGO PACHECO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.

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

KRICIA LOPEZ SOTO

24 Demandante V.

LIONEL SIMONETTI GARCIA

Demandado(a) Civil: BY2021RF00126. (3002).

Sobre: PRIVACIÓN DE PATRIA POTESTAD. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: LIONEL SIMONETTI GARCIA.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 10 de noviembre de 2021, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 10 de noviembre de 2021. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el 22 de noviembre de 2021. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA. NERI A. SANFELIZ RAMOS, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

deja indicada, con copia de su Contestación a la Demanda, copia de la cual le es servida en este caso, dentro de los TREINTA (30) días de haber sido diligenciado este Emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día del diligenciamiento. 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.ramaiudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Debe saber que en caso de no hacerlo así podrá dictarse Sentencia en Rebeldía en contra suya, concediendo el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el Tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el Sello del Tribunal, hoy día 23 de noviembre de 2021. Dominga Gómez Fuster, Secretaria Regional. Norte J Mercado Laboy, SubSecretaria.

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

PARTE DEMANDANTE VS.

LUIS ENRIQUE DÍAZ DEL VALLE y YAIMARIE SÁEZ RAMÍREZ

PARTE DEMANDADA CIVIL NÚM. CG2021CV02559.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO LEGAL NOTICE y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EMDE PUERTO RICO TRIBU- PLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE SALA DE HUMACAO. LOS E.E.U.U. EL ESTADO LIPALMAS DEL MAR BRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO HOMEOWNERS RICO.

ASSOCIATION, INC.

A LA PARTE DEMANDADA: LUIS PAULA ANN LÓPEZ, ENRIQUE DÍAZ DEL LOYDA I. RIVERA PÉREZ VALLE y YAIMARIE SÁEZ Parte Demandada RAMÍREZ a sus últimas CIVIL NUM: HU2021CV00975. direcciones conocidas: SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR URB. BAIROA PARK 2J51, EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS CALLE VIDAL Y RÍOS, DE AMÉRICA ELPRESICAGUAS PR 00727-1107; DENTE DE LOS EE.UU. EL 8547 SW 166TH PL, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO MIAMI, FL 33193-5791; DE P.R. SS. A: PAULA ANN LÓPEZ; LOEXTENSIÓN PRADERAS YDA I. RIVERA PÉREZ DE NAVARRO, GG-09 POR LA PRESENTE, se le CALLE 38, BO. NAVARRO, emplaza y requiere para que GURABO, PR 00778 y notifique a: URB PRADERAS DE GONZÁLEZ & MORALES LAW OFFICES, LLC NAVARRO, 458 CALLE FO BOX 10242 AVENTURINA, GURABO, HUMACAO, PR 00792 TELÉFONO: (787) 852-4422 PR 00778-9006.

Parte Demandante V.

FACSÍMIL: (787) 285-4425 Queda usted notificado que en Email: jrg@gonzalezmorales.com este Tribunal se ha radicado abogados de la parte demandemanda sobre ejecución de dante, cuya dirección es la que hipoteca por la vía ordinaria en

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

la que se alega usted le adeuda a la demandante las siguientes cantidades: $148,116.22 de principal, más intereses sobre dicha suma al 4.5% anual desde el 1 de julio de 2019 hasta su completo pago, más $988.20 de recargos acumulados, más la cantidad estipulada de $17,130.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, así como cualquier otra suma que contenga el contrato del préstamo. La propiedad que garantiza hipotecariamente el préstamo es la siguiente: URBANA: Urbanización Extensión Praderas de Navarro de Gurabo. Solar: GG-9. Cabida: 425.00 metros cuadrados. Linderos: NORTE, en distancia de 17.00 metros lineales, con la calle 38; por el SUR, en distancia de 17.00 metros lineales, con el solar #4 del mismo bloque; por el ESTE, en distancia de 25.00 metros lineales, con el solar #8 del mismo bloque; y por el OESTE, en distancia de 25.00 metros lineales, con el solar #10 del mismo bloque. Sobre dicho solar enclava una casa en concreto para fines residenciales. El expresado solar se halla afecto a la siguiente servidumbre: Servidumbre de Telecomunicaciones: Franja de terreno de 5’ de ancho que discurre a lo largo de su patio delantero con relación a la colindancia de la calle #38 de la urbanización. La propiedad y la escritura de hipoteca constan inscritas al tomo Karibe de Gurabo, Finca 19889. Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección II. La hipoteca es la inscripción segunda. La demandante es la tenedora por endoso, por valor recibido y de buena fe del referido pagaré objeto de la presente acción. La parte demandada 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, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal. Se le advierte que si no contesta la demanda, radicando el original de la contestación en este Tribunal y enviando copia de la contestación a la abogada de la Parte Demandante, Lcda.

Belma Alonso García, cuya dirección es: PO Box 3922, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico 009703922 Teléfono y Fax: (787) 789-1826 (787)708-0566 correo electrónico: oficinabelmaalonso@gmail.com, dentro del término de treinta (30) días de la publicación de este edicto, excluyéndose el día de la publicación, se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará Sentencia en su contra, concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, hoy

23 de noviembre de 2021, en Caguas, Puerto Rico. LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARTA E. DONATE RESTO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

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

FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO Demandante V.

JORGE ALEXIS ORTIZ CAMACHO Y MARIAM YENILLE MELENDEZ TORRES POR SÍ Y EN REPRESENTACIÓN DE LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandados Civil Núm.: CCD2013-0771.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO, EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. ANUNCIO DE SUBASTA. El suscribiente, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Arecibo, a los demandados de epígrafe y al público en general hace saber que los autos y documentos del caso de epígrafe estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables y que venderá en pública subasta al mejor postor, en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América en efectivo, cheque certificado, o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, en mi oficina en este Tribunal el derecho que tenga la parte demandada en el inmueble que se relaciona más adelante para pagar la SENTENCIA por $118,722.11, de balance principal, los intereses adeudados sobre dicho principal y computados al 6.00% anual hasta su total pago y completo pago; más el 5% computado sobre cada mensualidad; cargos por demora devengados, más la suma de $12,852.00 como cantidad estipulada para honorarios de abogado, pactada en la escritura de hipoteca; y cuales quiera otras sumas que por cualesquiera concepto legal se devenguen hasta el día de la subasta. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: RUSTICA: Solar marcado con el número Cuarenta del plano de Inscripción radicado en el Barrio Morovis Sur del término municipal de Morovis, con una cabida superficial de Mil trescientos metros cuadrados.

Colinda por el Norte, con solar Cuarenta y Uno; por el Sur, con solar Treinta y nueve; por el Este, con uso público; y por el Oeste, con propiedad de Blanca Gutiérrez. Inscrita al fo-

lio ciento cuarenta y tres (143) del tomo trescientos tres (303) de Morovis, finca número trece mil doscientos sesenta y nueve (13,269), Registro de la Propiedad de Manatí. Dirección Física: Comunidad Morovis Sur, Morovis, Puerto Rico 00687.

La PRIMERA SUBASTA se llevará a cabo el día 12 DE ENERO DE 2022 A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA, y servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma la suma de $128,500.00 sin admitirse oferta inferior. En el caso de que el inmueble a ser subastado no fuera adjudicado en la primera subasta, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 20 DE ENERO DE 2022 A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA y el precio mínimo para esta segunda subasta será el de dos terceras partes del precio mínimo establecido para la primera subasta, o a sea la suma de $85,666.66. Si tampoco hubiera remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 27 DE ENERO DE 2022 A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA y el tipo mínimo para esta tercera subasta será la mitad del precio establecido para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de $64,250.00. El mejor postor deberá pagar el importe de su oferta en efecto, cheque certificado o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se dará por terminado el procedimiento, pudiendo adjudicarse el inmueble al acreedor hipotecario dentro de los diez días siguientes a la fecha de la última subasta, si así lo estimase conveniente, por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada conforme a la sentencia, si ésta fuera igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta y abonándose dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta fuera mayor. Se avisa a cualquier licitador que la propiedad queda sujeta al gravamen del Estado Libre Asociado y CRIM sobre la propiedad inmueble por contribuciones adeudadas y que el pago de dichas contribuciones es la responsabilidad del licitador. Que se entenderá por todo licitador acepte como suficiente la titulación y que los cargos y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes en entendiéndose que el rematador los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse su extinción al precio rematante. Todos los nombres de los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante, o de los acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con

derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, siempre que surgen de la certificación registral, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Y para conocimiento de licitadores, del público en general y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria en Puerto Rico y en los sitios públicos de acuerdo a las disposiciones de la Regla 51.7 de las de Procedimiento Civil, así como para la publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria y en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas con antelación a la fecha de la primera subasta y por lo menos una vez por semana. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento indicado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables.

(Art. 102 (1) de la Ley núm.

210-2015). Expedido el presente en Arecibo, Puerto Rico a 23 de noviembre de 2021. ÁNGEL DE J. TORRES PÉREZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #770, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE ARECIBO.

DEL HOYO TORRES, POR SI Y EN LA CUOTA USUFRUCTUARIA VIUDAL DE LA SUCESION DE FRANCISCO AGOSTO BERRIOS, A LA SIGUIENTE DIRECCION: FISICA Y POSTAL: 322 DOVE ST., DUNKIRK NY 14048 Y 3360 SW 177TH LANE RD OCALA FL 34473-4565.

B: FULANO Y FULANA DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOSDE LA SUCESIQN DE FRANCISCO AGOSTO BERRIOS, A LA SIGUIENTE DIRECCION FISICA: J-35 CALLE 14 URB. PASEO DE LA CEIBA JUNCOS, P.R. 00777 Y POSTAL: 322 DOVE ST. DUNKIRK NY 14048 Y 3360 SW 177TH LANE RD OCALA, FL 34473-4565.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se les notifica la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 21 de septiembre, 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 LEGAL NOTICE de los 10 días siguientes a su ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO notificación. Y, siendo o repreDE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL sentando usted una parte en el GENERAL DE JUSTICIA SALA procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, SentenSUPERIOR DE CAGUAS cia Parcial o Resolución, de la E.M.I. EQUITY cual puede establecerse recurMORTGAGE, INC. so de revisión o apelación denDemandante Vs tro del término de 30 días conMARIA DEL CARMEN tados a partir de la publicación DEL HOYO TORRES por edicto de esta notificación, POR SI Y EN LA CUOTA dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la USUFRUCTUARIA VIUDAL DE LA SUCESION fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificaDE FRANCISCO AGOSTO ción ha sido archivada en los BERRIOS, LA SUCESION autos de este caso, con fecha DE FRANCISCO AGOSTO de 22 de noviembre de 2021.

BERRIOS COMPUESTA En Caguas, Puerto Rico, el 22 de noviembre de 2021. LIPOR FULANO Y MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, FULANA DE TAL COMO SILDA SECRETARIA. VIONNETTE POSIBLES HEREDEROS ESPINOSA CASTILLO, SEDESCONOCIDOS DE LA CRETARIA AUXILIAR.

SUCESION Y EL CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

Demandado(a) Civil Núm.: CG2021CV00962.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA (VÍA ORDINARIA). NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: MARIA DEL CARMEN

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS

E.M.I. EQUITY MORTGAGE INC. Demandante V.

ERIC ULDERICO LOZADA FIGUEROA Demandado(a)

Civil: CG2019CV03396 (701).

Sobre: EJECUCIÓN HIPOTECA “IN REM” (VÍA ORDINARIA). NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: ERIC ULDERICO LOZADA FIGUEROA.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 9 de NOVIEMBRE de 2021, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 23 de NOVIEMBRE de 2021. En CAGUAS, Puerto Rico, el 23 de NOVIEMBRE de 2021. LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA. YARITZA ROSARIO PLÁCERES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE ARECIBO SALA SUPERIOR

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Demandante Vs.

JACKELINE CANDELARIA CURBELO

Demandados Civil Núm.: AR2021CV01407.

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

A La Parte CoDemandada: JACKELINE CANDELARIA CURBELO, A SU ÚLTIMA DIRECCIÓN CONOCIDAS: FÍSICA: (A) F-3 VISTA DE CAMUY CAMUY, PR 00627; Y POSTAL: 2907 BUCKSKIN CT ORLANDO, FL 32822.

Por la presente se le(s) notifica que se ha radicado en la Secretaría de este Tribunal una

The San Juan Daily Star Demanda en Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca en su contra, en la cual se alega entre otras cosas que la parte demandada adeuda a la parte demandante por concepto de hipoteca la suma $83,702.63 por concepto de principal, desde el 1ro de febrero de 2020, más intereses al tipo pactado de 6.50% anual que continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación. Además la parte demandada adeuda a la parte demandante los cargos por demora equivalentes a 5.00% de la suma de aquellos pagos con atrasos en exceso de 15 días calendarios de la fecha de vencimiento; los créditos accesorios y adelantos hechos en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca; y las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado equivalentes a $8,526.00. Además la parte demandada se comprometió a pagar una suma equivalente a $100.00 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca y una suma equivalente a $100.00 para cubrir intereses en adición a los garantizados por ley y cualquiera otros adelantos que se hagan en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca número 409, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 24 de junio de 2004, ante el notario Héctor M. Lúgaro Figueroa, modificada mediante la escritura número 233, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 27 de mayo de 2011, ante el notario Antonio R. Pavía Vidal, de la finca número 14,380, inscrita al Folio 281 del Tomo 255 de Camuy, Registro de la Propiedad de Arecibo, Sección Segunda. Por razón de dicho incumplimiento, y al amparo del derecho que le confiere el Pagaré, el demandante ha declarado tales sumas vencidas, líquidas y exigibles en su totalidad. Este Tribunal ha ordenado que se le(s) cite a usted(es) por edicto que se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general. Por tratarse de una obligación hipotecaria y pudiendo usted tener interés en este caso o quedar afectando por el remedio solicitado, se le emplaza por este edicto que se publicará una vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general de Puerto Rico. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal y notifique copia de la Contestación de la Demanda a las oficinas de CARDONA & MALDONADO LAW OFFICES, P.S.C. ATENCIÓN al Lcdo. Duncan

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Maldonado Ejarque, P.O. Box 366221, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-6221; Tel (787) 622-7000, Fax (787) 625-7001, Abogado de la Parte Demandante. Dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto, apercibiéndole que de no hacerlo así dentro del término indicado, el Tribunal podrá anotar su Rebeldía y dictar Sentencia, concediéndose el remedio solicitado sin más citarle(s) ni oírle(s). EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y con el Sello del Tribunal. DADA hoy 22 de noviembre de 2021, en Arecibo, Puerto Rico. VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. ISAMAR RODRÍGUEZ GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA DEL TRIBUNAL II.

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO INC Demandante V.

REINALDO RAMOS RIVERA, AMERICAN AIRLINES FEDERAL CREDIT UNIOR, JOHN DOE

Demandado(a) Civil: AI2021CV00300. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO POR LA VÍA JUDICIAL. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JHON DOE COMO TENEDORES DESCONOCIDO DEL PAGARÉ. P/C LCDO REGGIE DIAZ HERNANDEZ, rdiaz@ bdslawpr.com.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 16 de noviembre de 2021, 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 archi-

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 LEGAL NOTICE partir de la publicación por edicESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO to de esta notificación, dirijo a DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL usted esta notificación que se GENERAL DE JUSTICIA SALA considerará hecha en la fecha SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS de la publicación de este edicBANCO POPULAR DE to. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos PUERTO RICO de este caso, con fecha de Demandante Vs 23 de noviembre de 2021. En SUCESION DE JOSE Caguas, Puerto Rico, el 23 de NERIS RODRIGUEZ noviembre de 2021. LISILDA COMPUESTA POR MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECREFULANO Y MENGANO TARIA. VIONNETTE ESPINOSA CASTILLO, SECRETARIA DE TAL, POSIBLES AUXILIAR. vada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 23 de noviembre de 2021. En COAMO, Puerto Rico, el 23 de noviembre de 2021. ELIZABETH GONZÁLEZ RIVERA, SECRETARIA. MARIELY LÓPEZ COLÓN, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS, FRANCISCO JOSE NERIS DIAZ POR SI Y COMO HEREDERO DE JOSE NERIS RODRIGUEZ, SU ESPOSA MARIELIS RAQUEL FONSECA GARCIA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandado(a) Civil Núm.: CG2019CV04044.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO, EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: FRANCISCO JOSE NERIS DIAZ POR SI Y COMO HEREDERO DE JOSE NERIS RODRIGUEZ, SU ESPOSA MARIELIS RAQUEL FONSECA GARCIA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS A SUS ULTIMAS DIRECCIONES CONOCIDAS EN: URB VILLAS DE CASTRO A3A CALLE 2, CAGUAS, PUERTO RICO 007254602, URB VILLAS DE CASTRO, F10 CALLE 4, CAGUAS, PUERTO RICO 00725-4615.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se les notifica la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 17 de noviembre de 2021, 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

LEGAL NOTICE M&T 42171 GB2019CV00018 ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE GUAYNABO

LIME HOMES, LTD Demandante V.

LA SUCESIÓN DE GLORIA BELEN AYALA CASTRO T/C/C GLORIA AYALA CASTRO COMPUESTA POR IVELISSE M. MULERO AYALA T/C/C IVELISSE MULERO AYALA; FULANA DE TAL Y FULANO DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS

Demandados Civil Núm.: GB2019CV00018.

Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente CERTIFICA, ANUNCIA y hace CONSTAR: Que en cumplimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que le ha sido dirigido al Alguacil que suscribe por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Guaynabo, en el caso de epígrafe procederá a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor quién pagará de contado y en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, giro postal o por cheque de gerente a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia el día 11 DE ENERO DE 2022, A LAS 11:20 DE LA MAÑANA en su oficina sita en el local que ocupa en el edificio del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Guaynabo, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble de su propiedad que ubica en Plaza Torrimar I, 110 Ave Los Filtros, Apt. E-103 Guaynabo, PR 00971 a/k/a

Condominio Plaza de Torrimar I, Apartamento E-103, Barrio Frailes Guaynabo PR 00959 y que se describe a continuación: URBANA: PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL: Apartamento E-103.

Apartamento residencial de dos niveles, de forma regular, localizado en los 2 pisos bajos del edificio marcado E construido de hormigón, bloques, acero estructural y materiales accesorios en el Condominio Plaza De Torrimar I, en el Barrio Frailes de Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, con un área de 1389.14 pies cuadrados, equivalentes a 129.11 metros cuadrados con las colindancias siguientes: Primer nivel, con un área de 687.87 pies cuadrados, equivalentes a 63.91 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en 33’ 4’, con el exterior; por el SUR, en 33’ 4’, con el apartamento numero 102; por el ESTE, en 23’ 3’, con el exterior y el apartamento numero 104; y por el OESTE, en 23’ 3’, con el exterior. Segundo Nivel: con un área de 701.87 pies cuadrados, equivalentes a 65.21 metros cuadrados, por el NORTE: en 35’4’’ con el exterior, por el SUR en 35’4’’ con el apartamento 102 y el exterior, por el ESTE en 23’3’’ con el exterior y el apartamento 104 y por el OESTE, en 23’3’’ con el exterior.

Este apartamento contiene en el primer nivel salón, sala y comedor, cocina, laundry, baño, closet y escalera que conduce al segundo nivel. En el segundo nivel contiene 3 habitaciones, 3 closets, baño y vestíbulo y los espacios de estacionamientos marcados con los números 86 y 87. La entrada principal está localizada en la fosa de la escalera que llega a los patios comunales de los edificios que conduce la vía pública. Este apartamento goza del uso exclusivo de un patio que es elemento común limitado el cual esta delimitado y marcado por los puntos y/o verjas según surge de los planos del proyecto.

Corresponde a este apartamento el 1.64% en los elementos comunes al inmueble y el 3.85% en los elementos comunes limitados. La propiedad antes relacionada consta inscrita en el folio 80 del tomo 1,098 de Guaynabo, finca número 38,720, en el Registro de la Propiedad de Guaynabo. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta del inmueble antes relacionado, será el dispuesto en la Escritura de Hipoteca, es decir la suma de $132,000.00. Si no hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta del inmueble mencionado, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el 18 DE ENERO DE 2022, A LAS 11:20 DE LA MAÑANA. En la segunda subasta que se celebre servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes (2/3) del precio pactado

25

en la primera subasta, o sea la suma de $88,000.00. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 25 DE ENERO DE 2022, A LAS 11:20 DE LA MAÑANA. Para la tercera subasta servirá de tipo mínimo la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado para el caso de ejecución, o sea, la suma de $66,000.00. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura número 41, otorgada el día 31 de marzo de 2003, ante el Notario Mireya Ocasio Garcia y consta inscrita como asiento abreviado en el tomo 1,201 de Guaynabo, finca número 38,720, en el Registro de la Propiedad de Guaynabo, inscripción octava. El 13 de diciembre de 2017 Gloria Belén Ayala Castro t/c/c Gloria Ayala Castro suscribió el documento titulado Deferral Agreement, en virtud del cual se difirió la cantidad de $3,957.05. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer al Demandante total o parcialmente según sea el caso el importe de la Sentencia que ha obtenido ascendente a la suma de $92,186.99 por concepto de principal, más intereses al tipo pactado de 6.000% anual desde el día 1 de diciembre de 2017. Dichos intereses continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación.

Además, se pagará la cantidad de $3,957.05 denominado como balance diferido que no genera intereses. Se pagarán también los cargos por demora equivalentes a 5.000% de la suma de aquellos pagos con atrasos en exceso de 15 días calendarios de la fecha vencimiento, la suma de $13,200.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, la suma de $13,200.00 para cubrir los intereses en adición a los garantizados por ley y la suma de $13,200.00 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca, más intereses según provisto por la regla 44.3 de las de Procedimiento Civil. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al Procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Guaynabo durante las horas laborables.

Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad del inmueble y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, 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 de remate. La propiedad no está sujeta a gravámenes

anteriores ni preferentes según las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad. Surge de un estudio de título que, sobre la finca descrita anteriormente, pesan los gravámenes posteriores a la hipoteca que se ejecuta mediante este procedimiento que se relacionan más adelante. A los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargos o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca del actor y a los dueños, poseedores, tenedores de, o interesados en títulos transmisibles por endoso, o al portador, garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito del actor por la presente se notifica, que se celebrarán las subastas en las fechas, horas y sitios señalados para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les conviniere o se les invita a satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, otros cargos y las costas y honorarios de abogado asegurados quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. PRESENTACION: Presentada el 27 de febrero de 2019, al asiento 2019-020076-GU01, Demanda de fecha 10 de enero de 2019, ante el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Guaynabo, en el caso civil número GB2019CV00018, seguido por DLJ Mortgage Capital Inc. vs.

Sucesion de Gloria Belen Ayala Castro t/c/c Gloria Ayala Castro compuesta por Ivelisse M. Mulero Ayala t/c/c Ivelisse Mulero Ayala, sobre ejecución de hipoteca, en la que se reclama el pago de hipoteca, con un balance de $96,144.04 y otras cantidades, o la venta en pública subasta de la propiedad.

Pendiente de anotación. Y para conocimiento de licitadores del público en general se publicará este Edicto de acuerdo con la ley por espacio de dos semanas en tres sitios públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como la alcaldía, el Tribunal y la colecturía. Este Edicto será publicado mediante edictos dos veces en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores sujeto a lo dispuesto en los Artículos 113 al 116 de la Ley 210 del 8 de diciembre de 2015, según aplique. Expido el presente Edicto de subasta bajo mi firma en Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, hoy día 7 de OCTUBRE de 2021.

FDO. YANIXA E. RAMOS CEBALLOS, ALGUACIL.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE MANATÍ

KAROD DEVELOPMENT CORP.; HELSON PACHECO SERRANT, VANESSA PÉREZ PACHECO Demandante V.

FULANO DE TAL & MENGANO MAS CUAL, MAS TODO POSIBLE TENEDOR DESCONOCIDO

Demandado(a) Civil: MT2021CV00413. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: FULANO DE TAL & MENGANO MAS CUAL, MAS TODO POSIBLE TENEDOR DESCONOCIDO.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 11 de noviembre de 2021, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 22 de noviembre de 2021. En Manatí, Puerto Rico, el 22 de noviembre de 2021. Vivian Y. Fresse González, Secretaria. Carmen J. Rosario Valentín, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE MANATI,

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Demandante vs.

YAHAIRA MALDONADO MARENGO

Demandada CIVIL NÚM: MT2021CV00382.

SOBRE: Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria “IN REM”.

EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

Al: Público en General

26 A: YAHAIRA MALDONADO MARENGO; ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO-DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA, por tener embargos anotados a su favor por las sumas de $27,246.61 y $15,235.83.

Yo, WILFREDO RODRIGUEZ CARRION, Alguacil de este Tribunal, a la parte demandada y a los acreedores y personas con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, HAGO SABER: Que el día 23 de febrero de 2022 a las 10:00 de la mañana, en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Manatí, Manatí, Puerto Rico, venderé en Pública Subasta la propiedad inmueble que más adelante se describe y cuya venta en pública subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria al mejor postor quien hará el pago en dinero en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del o la Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal de Manatí durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta a celebrarse, se celebrará una segunda subasta para la venta de la susodicha propiedad, el día 3 de marzo de 2022, a las 10:00 de la mañana y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una tercera subasta el día 10 de marzo de 2022, a las 10:00 de la mañana en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: URBANA: Solar radicado en la URBANIZACIÓN LAS PRADERAS, sita en el Barrio Florida Afuera del término municipal de Barceloneta, Puerto Rico, que se describe en el plano de inscripción de la Urbanización, con el número, área y colindancias que se relacionan a continuación: Bloque y Número: B-14. Área: TRESCIENTOS VEINTICINCO PUNTO CERO CERO (325.00) METROS CUADRADOS. En linderos: por el NORTE, en una distancia de trece punto cero cero (13.00) metros, con la Calle número 4 de la Urbanización; por el SUR, en una distancia de trece punto cero cero (13.00) metros, con el solar número 5 del Bloque “B”; por el ESTE, en una distancia de veinticinco punto cero cero (25.00) metros, con el solar número 15 del Bloque “B”; y por el OESTE, en una distancia de veinticinco punto cero cero (25.00) metros, con el solar número 13 del Bloque “B”.

Sobre el descrito solar enclava

una estructura de hormigón y bloques de hormigón dedicada a vivienda. La escritura de hipoteca se encuentra inscrita al folio 1ro del tomo 274 de Barceloneta, Registro de la Propiedad de Manatí, finca número 14,387, inscripción segunda. La dirección física de la propiedad antes descrita es: Urbanización Las Praderas, Calle 4, B-14, Barceloneta, Puerto Rico. La subasta se llevará a efecto para satisfacer a la parte demandante la suma de $81,739.97 de principal, intereses al 6.50% anual, desde el día 1ro. de julio de 2019, hasta su completo pago, más la cantidad de $11,340.00 estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, más recargos acumulados, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta para el inmueble será de $113,400.00 y de ser necesaria una segunda subasta, la cantidad mínima será equivalente a 2/3 partes de aquella, o sea, la suma de $75,600.00 y de ser necesaria una tercera subasta, la cantidad mínima será la mitad del precio pactado, es decir, la suma de $56,700.00. Si se declara desierta la tercera subasta se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si esta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el Tribunal lo estima conveniente.

Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si esta es mayor. La propiedad se adjudicará al mejor postor, quien deberá satisfacer el importe de su oferta en moneda legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América en el momento de la adjudicación y que todo licitador acepta como suficiente la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes preferentes, si los hubiese, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad hipotecada a ser vendida en pública Subasta se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes posteriores: Embargo Estatal, por la suma de $27,246.61, contra Yahaira Maldonado Marengo, seguro social número xxx-xx-6207, embargo número ARE-19-6207, Certificación de fecha 11 de abril de 2019, anotado el día 29 de abril de 2019, al Asiento 2019-003261-EST Del Sistema Karibe, Registro de Manatí. Embargo Estatal, por la suma de $15,235.83, contra Yahaira Maldonado Marengo, seguro social número xxx-xx-6207, embargo número ARE-19-6207 A, Certificación de fecha 11 de abril de 2019, anotado el día 24 de abril de 2019, al Asiento 2019-003265EST Del Sistema Karibe, Re-

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

gistro de Manatí. La propiedad a ser vendida en pública subasta se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Podrán concurrir como postores a todas las subastas los titulares de créditos hipotecarios vigentes y posteriores a la hipoteca que se cobra o ejecuta, si alguno o que figuren como tales en la certificación registral y que podrán utilizar el montante de sus créditos o parte de alguno en sus ofertas.

Si la oferta aceptada es por cantidad mayor a la suma del crédito o créditos preferentes al suyo, al obtener la buena pro del remate, deberá satisfacer en el mismo acto, en efectivo o en cheque de gerente, la totalidad del crédito hipotecario que se ejecuta y la de cualesquiera otro créditos posteriores al que se ejecuta pero preferente al suyo. El exceso constituirá abono total o parcial en su propio crédito. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto para conocimiento y comparecencia de los licitadores, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en Manatí, Puerto Rico, a 17 de noviembre de 2021. Wilfredo Rodriguez Carrion, Alguacil Confidencial # Placa 135, Alguacil Tribunal, Sala Superior De Manati.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR

ESTRELLA HOMES, LLC Demandante Vs.

JOSE RAFAEL RIOS RIOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA

Demandado(s) Civil Núm.: DCD2015-0822.

(501). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS E.E. U.U., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. Yo MARIBEL LANZAR VELÁZQUEZ, Alguacil del Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala de Bayamón, al Público HAGO SABER: Que en cumplimiento de la Sentencia por Estipulación dictada el 17 de enero de 2018, notificada el 19 de enero de 2018, de la cual surge que la parte demandada adeuda a la demandante la suma principal de $758,213.73, más intereses devengados a la tasa de 3.85% según pactados que al 1 de septiembre de 2015, ascienden a $38,921.60 y los que se continúen acumulando al tipo pactado hasta el pago total y completo de la obligación, la suma de $10,657.24 por concepto de cargos por demora, más la suma de $89,087.29 por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, se-

gún pactados y a tenor con el Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que se me libró con fecha de 17 de junio de 2019, por la Secretaría de este Honorable Tribunal de Bayamón, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor, la siguiente propiedad inmueble, la cual se describe a continuación: “URBANA”: Solar marcado con el número Trescientos Setenta y Tres (373) de la Urbanización Bello Horizonte Estates (La Villa de Torrimar), localizada en los Barrios Santa Rosa y Frailes de Guaynabo y Juan Sánchez de Bayamón, con una cabida superficial de QUINIENTOS SESENTA PUNTO OCHENTA Y SEIS METROS CUADRADOS (560.86 M.C.). En lindes por el NORTE, en una distancia de catorce punto veintidós metros (14.22 m.) y un arco de longitud de dos punto treinta metros (2.30 m.) que suman dieciséis punto cincuenta y dos metros (16.52) con la Calle Rey Jorge de la Urbanización; por el SUR, en una distancia de dieciséis punto cincuenta metros (16.50 m.) con los solares número trescientos sesenta y uno (361) y trescientos sesenta y dos (362); por el ESTE, en una distancia de treinta y cuatro metros (34.00 m) con el solar número trescientos setenta y dos (372); y por el OESTE, en una distancia de treinta y tres punto setenta y siete metros (33.77 m) con el solar número trescientos setenta y cuatro (374), todos estos solares pertenecientes al referido desarrollo urbano.

Contiene una casa de concreto diseñada para una sola familia.

Inscrita al folio 60 del tomo 897 de Guaynabo, Finca 32,995; Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Guaynabo. Por su procedencia esta afecta a: Servidumbre a favor de la Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica de Puerto Rico; Servidumbre a favor de la Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados de Puerto Rico, Servidumbre a favor, de la Autoridad de Fuentes Fluviales de Puerto Rico; Servidumbre a favor de la Autoridad de Comunicaciones de Puerto Rico; Servidumbre a favor del Municipio de Guaynabo; Servidumbre a favor del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico; Condiciones restrictivas de edificación y uso; Servidumbre a favor de la Central San José y Servidumbre a favor de la Puerto Rico Acueducto and Sewer Service. Con fecha del 26 de mayo de 2021, se autorizó por el tribunal la sustitución de la parte demandante a favor de Estrella Homes, LLC. Esta propiedad tiene el siguiente número de catastro en el Centro de Recaudación de Ingresos Municipales (CRIM): 16-114-001171-10-001. La dirección física del inmueble anteriormente descrito es: URBANIZACIÓN

BELLO HORIZONTE ESTATES, LA VILLA DE TORRIMAR, 373 CALLE REY JORGE, GUAYNABO PR 00968. Sobre la antes descrita propiedad se encuentran inscritos los siguientes gravámenes posteriores: “AVISO DE DEMANDA” de fecha 9 de mayo de 2011, expedida en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Bayamón; en el caso civil número DCD-11-1204, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, seguido por Oriental Bank and Trust y Banco Popular de Puerto, Rico, como Agente de Servicio, versus José Rafael Ríos Ríos, por la suma de $765,694.87, anotada, el día 21 de octubre de 2011, al folio 151 del tomo 1,438 de Guaynabo, finca número 32,995, anotación A. “DEMANDA” ‘del día 1 de abril de 2015, expedida en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, en el Caso Civil Número DCD-2015-0822, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, seguido por Oriental Bank versus José Rafael Ríos Ríos, por la suma de $758,213.73 más otras sumas anotado el día 20 de mayo de 2015 al folio 182 del tomo 1524 de Guaynabo, finca número 32,995, inscripción 14ta. Esta anotación de Demanda corresponde al caso de epígrafe.

“EMBARGO FEDERAL” contra un tal José R. Ríos, seguro social xxx-xx-2241, dirección Urbanización Villa Torrimar, Calle Rey Jorge número 373, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico 00969, por la suma de $25,840.29, notificación número 897106012, presentado el día 16 de octubre de 2012, anotado al folio 180, Asiento 3, del Libro de Embargos Federales Número 5. Se apercibe a los licitadores para que procedan con la inspección física del inmueble objeto de ejecución previo a la celebración de la subasta. El precio mínimo de licitación con relación a la antes descrita propiedad y la fecha y hora de cada subasta es como sigue: PRIMERA SUBASTA: Se celebrará el día 19 DE ENERO DE 2022, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA. PRECIO MÍNIMO: $890,872.97.

SEGUNDA SUBASTA: Se celebrará el día 26 DE ENERO DE 2022, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA. PRECIO MÍNIMO: $593,915.30. TERCERA SUBASTA: Se celebrará el día 2 DE FEBRERO DE 2022, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA. PRECIO MÍNIMO: $445,436.49. Las subastas de dicha propiedad se llevarán a efecto en mi oficina situada en la sala 503 5to piso ubicada en el Centro Judicial de Bayamón, advirtiéndose que el que obtuviere la buena pro de dicha propiedad consignará en el acto del remate el importe de su oferta en moneda legal, en adición a los gastos de la subasta, en cheque certificado, dinero en efectivo o giro postal

a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal, siendo éste el mejor postor.

En cualquier momento luego de haberse comenzado el acto de la subasta, el Alguacil podrá requerir de los licitadores que le evidencien la capacidad de pago de sus posturas. Del producto obtenido en dicha venta, el Alguacil pagará en primer término los gastos del Alguacil, en segundo término las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado hasta la suma convenida, en tercer término los intereses devengados hasta la fecha de la sentencia, en cuarto término las sumas establecidas en la Sentencia para el pago de recargos por demora, contribuciones, seguros y en quinto término la suma principal adeudada conforme con la sentencia dictada.

Disponiéndose que si quedara algún remanente luego de pagarse las sumas mencionadas, el mismo deberá ser depositado en la Secretaría del Tribunal para ser entregado a la parte demandada, previa solicitud y orden del Tribunal. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento del caso de epígrafe están disponibles en la Secretaría del Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala de Bayamón durante horas laborables. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes. 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.

Y PARA LA CONCURRENCIA, de los licitadores expido el presente Edicto que se publicará en el Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Colecturía de Bayamón, Alcaldía y Cuartel de la Policía del Municipio donde se celebrará la subasta por espacio de dos semanas y en un periódico de circulación general del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico por espacio de dos semanas y por lo menos una vez por semana. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, a 22 de noviembre de 2021. MARIBEL LANZAR VELÁZQUEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #735.

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Demandante V.

NITZA ESTHER CHICO DE LA PAZ, POR SI Y EN LA CUOTA USUFRUCUARIA

VIUDAL DE LA SUC.DE ANGEL APONTE QUILES COMPUESTA POR ANGEL IVAN APONTE RIVERA, ANGEL RICARDO APONTE GARCIA Y ERIKA DENISSE APONTE VÁZQUEZ DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA Y CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

Demandado(a) Civil: FA2019CV00008. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO, EJECUCIÓNN DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: NITZA ESTHER CHICO DE LA PAZ, POR SÍ Y EN LA CUOTA USUFRUCUARIA VIUDAL DE LA SUC.DE ANGEL APONTE QUILES COMPUESTA POR ANGEL IVAN APONTE RIVERA, ANGEL RICARDO APONTE GARCIA Y ERIKA DENISSE APONTE VÁZQUEZ· URB VALLE DEL NARANJO (NARANJO VALLEY) 12 CALLE 2 FAJARDO PR 00738-817 RAVENS CIRCLE APT 105 ALTAMONTE SPRINGS FL 32714-3930.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 22 de noviembre de 2021, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 22 de noviembre de 2021. En Fajardo, Puerto Rico, el 22 de noviembre de 2021. WANDA I. SEGUÍ REYES, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. KATHERINE ROBLES TORRES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOT ICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS

ORIENTAL BANK Demandante V.

SUCESIÓN JOSÉ MULLER ACEVEDO COMPUESTA POR RICHARD MULLER CARBALLO, ERIK MULLER Y FULANO Y FULANA DE TAL; SUCESIÓN GLADYS CARBALLO SANTIAGO COMPUESTA POR RICHARD MULLER CARBALLO, FULANA Y FULANO DE TAL

Demandado(a) Civil: CG2021CV00667. Sobre: INTERPELACIÓN, COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA (RESIDENCIAL).

NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: RICHARD MULLER CARBALLO, ERIK MULLER Y FULANO Y FULANA DE TAL COMO MIEMBROS DE LA SUCESIÓN JOSÉ MULLER ACEVEDO; Y RICHARD MULLER CARBALLO, FULANA Y FULANO DE TAL COMO MIEMBROS DE LA SUCESIÓN GLADYS CARBALLO SANTIAGO.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 18 de noviembre de 2021, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 23 de noviembre de 2021. En Caguas, Puerto Rico, el 23 de noviembre de 2021. Lisilda Martínez Agosto, Secretaria. Lili Rodríguez Rodríguez, Secretaria Auxiliar.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

27

Scherzer smashes salary record in deal with Mets

By JAMES WAGNER

A

fter the New York Mets’ billionaire owner, Steven A. Cohen, flexed some of his financial might over the weekend with three new additions, he made his splashiest move yet.

On Monday, the Mets and Max Scherzer, a three-time winner of the Cy Young Award, agreed to a record-setting deal that would pair him with a two-time winner of the Cy Young, Jacob deGrom, and that may usher in a new era for a franchise that has been disappointing in recent seasons.

Scherzer’s pact is worth $130 million over three years, according to two people familiar with the negotiations who were granted anonymity because the agreement was pending a physical examination. The average annual salary of $43.3 million will shatter the previous record set by Gerrit Cole, who signed a nine-year, $324 million contract with the New York Yankees

Max Scherzer before the 2020 season.

At the time of his deal, Cole was 29.

Scherzer, though, is 37.

Despite his age, Scherzer has maintained not only his mid-90s velocity but also his performance. With the Washing-

ton Nationals and the Los Angeles Dodgers during the 2021 season, he went 15-4 with a 2.46 earned run average and 236 strikeouts over 179 1/3 innings. In September, he became the 19th person to reach 3,000 career strikeouts.

His 0.864 walks and hits per inning pitched was the lowest mark in the majors, and he finished third in the NL’s Cy Young voting, behind the winner, Corbin Burnes of the Milwaukee Brewers, and Zack Wheeler of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Scherzer is one of the most accomplished active pitchers in the majors — and among the game’s highest-earning players of all time. Before his final season with the Detroit Tigers in 2014, Scherzer turned down a six-year, $144 million contract extension. He bet on himself and a year later signed a seven-year, $210 million deal with the Nationals. He proved worth it, winning his second and third Cy Young awards and helping lead the team to its first World Series title, in 2019.

After they fell out of contention this season, the Nationals traded Scherzer to Los Angeles based on his preference to be on the West Coast. But Scherzer wanted to go to a team that could win going forward and he saw an opportunity with the Mets, whose spring training facility in Port St. Lucie, Florida, is only a 40-minute drive from where he and his family live in Jupiter. His deal with the Mets also calls for an opt-out after the second year of the contract and a full no-trade clause.

Scherzer will join a franchise that has not reached the playoffs since 2016 and went 77-85 in 2021. Intent on turning the Mets around, Cohen, the richest owner in baseball with a reported net worth of $14.6 billion, used his wallet to attract talented players. Since hiring Billy Eppler as the new general manager, the Mets have committed a combined $124.5 million to outfielder Starling Marte, outfielder/first baseman Mark Canha and infielder Eduardo Escobar.

Tiger Woods rules out a full-time return to the PGA Tour

By BILL PENNINGTON

T

iger Woods hopes to play on the PGA Tour again, though never as a full-time player, something he called “an unfortunate reality” that he has accepted, according to a 30-minute video interview with Golf Digest posted online Monday.

“I think something that is realistic is playing the Tour one day — never full time, ever again — but pick and choose, just like Mr. Hogan did and you play around that,” said Woods, 45, referring to nine-time major champion Ben Hogan, who played sporadically, if effectively, after breaking multiple bones in a devastating 1949 car crash.

“You practice around that, and you gear yourself up for that. I think that’s how I’m going to have to play it from now on. It’s an unfortunate reality, but it’s my reality. And I understand it, and I accept it.”

On Feb. 23, Woods sustained open

fractures of both the tibia and the fibula in his right leg in a single-vehicle crash outside Los Angeles. The fractures were described as comminuted, which meant the bones were broken in several places.

After undergoing emergency surgery, he was hospitalized for three weeks. In that time, Woods said, he faced the possibility of having his right leg amputated.

The police determined that Woods was driving about 85 mph in a 45 mph zone on a winding road when he lost control of his SUV. He was not charged with any legal violation.

“There was a point in time when — I wouldn’t say it was 50-50 — but it was damn near there if I was going to walk out of that hospital with one leg,” Woods said in the video of a Zoom interview, which began with the smiling golfer striding toward the camera without a noticeable limp, inside his South Florida home.

Woods, who has had several back

operations, including a fusion in 2017, returned to professional golf and won the 2019 Masters, his 15th major championship, a comeback Woods referenced Monday.

“After my back fusion, I had to climb Mt. Everest one more time,” he said. “I had to do it, and I did. This time around, I don’t think I’ll have the body to climb Mt. Everest, and that’s OK. I can still participate in the game of golf. I can still, if my leg gets OK, I can still click off a tournament here or there. But as far as climbing the mountain again and getting all the way to the top, I don’t think that’s a realistic expectation of me.”

He added: “I don’t have to compete and play against the best players in the world to have a great life.”

On Monday, Woods described the stages of his rehabilitation over the past nine months. One of his first memories after the crash, he said, was of asking for a

golf club that he held in his hands while in the hospital. Later, he spent three months confined to a hospital bed, mostly at his home. Next, he was able to move around in a wheelchair, then on crutches and eventually in a walking boot.

“I’ve had some hard days and tough setbacks,” said Woods, who believed his recovery would be swifter. “But I keep progressing and I’m able to walk again.”

Woods last week posted a 3-second video of himself swinging a short iron on a practice range, but he cautioned that he was nowhere near ready to play competitive golf.

“I have so far to go,” Woods said. “I’m not even at the halfway point. I have so much more muscle development and nerve development that I have to do in my leg. At the same time, as you know, I’ve had five back operations, so I’m having to deal with that. As the leg gets stronger, sometimes the back may act up.”

28

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Lee Elder, who broke a golf color barrier, dies at 87

By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN

L

ee Elder, who became the first African American golfer to play in the Masters tournament, a signature moment in the breaking of racial barriers on the pro golf tour, has died. He was 87.

The death was announced by the PGA Tour. It did not specify when or where he died or give the cause.

When Elder teed off at Augusta National Golf Club in April 1975, he was 40 years old. Years earlier, in his prime, he played in the United Golfers Association tour, the sport’s version of baseball’s Negro leagues. The PGA of America, the national association of pro golfers, accepted only “members of the Caucasian race,” as its rules had spelled out, until 1961.

Elder was among the leading players on the UGA tour, which over the years also featured such outstanding golfers as Ted Rhodes, Charlie Sifford, who was the first Black player on the PGA Tour, and Pete Brown while offering comparatively meager purses.

Elder first played regularly on the PGA Tour in 1968, and that August he took Jack Nicklaus to a playoff at the American Golf Classic in Akron, Ohio, losing in sudden death.

The Masters, played annually at Augusta National, had no clause barring Black golfers, but unofficially it remained closed to them. With the rise of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, however, it came under pressure to integrate its ranks.

The tournament eased a bit in 1971 by announcing that any player who subsequently won a PGA Tour event would automatically qualify for it. Elder came close, finishing second in the Texas Open and losing a playoff to Lee Trevino in the Greater Hartford tournament in 1972.

But those performances did not persuade the Masters to bend its new rule and accord Elder a spot. Elder broke through after capturing the 1974 Monsanto Open at the Pensacola Country Club in Florida, where six years earlier he and other African American PGA Tour members playing there had been refused entrance to the clubhouse. They had to dress in a parking lot.

That victory finally brought the 1975

Lee Elder teed off in the first round of play at the Masters in Augusta, Ga., in 1975. He was the first Black golfer to compete in the tournament.

Masters invitation. In the run-up to the tournament Elder received death threats.

He rented two houses near the Augusta National course and moved between them as a security measure.

When he teed off for his first shot, a huge crowd lined the fairway. “I remember thinking, ‘How am I going to tee off without killing somebody,’” he told The New York Times in 2000, wryly reflecting on the pressure he faced.

His shot off the first tee was straight down the middle, but he ended up far back in the field in the first two rounds, shooting 74 and 78, and missed the cut to continue to play through the weekend by four strokes. He received a fine reception from the galleries, though.

“The display from the employees of Augusta National was especially moving,” Elder told Golf Digest in 2019. “Most of the staff was Black, and on Friday, they left their duties to line the 18th fairway as I walked toward the green. I couldn’t

hold back the tears. Of all the acknowledgments of what I had accomplished by getting there, this one meant the most.”

Elder played in the Masters six times, his top finish a tie for 17th place in 1979.

He won four PGA Tour events and finished second 10 times, playing regularly through 1989 and earning $1.02 million in purses. He also played for the U.S. team in the 1979 Ryder Cup. He joined the PGA Senior Tour, now the Champions Tour, in 1984 and won eight times, earning more than $1.6 million. He won four tournaments overseas.

Elder and his first wife, Rose Harper, created a foundation in 1974 to provide college scholarships for members of families with limited incomes. He promoted summer youth golf development programs and raised funds for the United Negro College Fund.

In 2019, Elder received the U.S. Golf Association’s highest honor, the Bob Jones Award, named for the co-founder of

the Masters and presented for outstanding sportsmanship.

Robert Lee Elder was born July 14, 1934, in Dallas, one of 10 children. His father, Charles, a coal truck driver, was killed during Army service in Germany in World War II when Lee was 9. His mother, Almeta, died three months later.

Elder caddied at an all-white club in the Dallas area, earning tips to help his family, then went to Los Angeles to live with an aunt. He worked as a caddie again and dropped out of high school to pursue a career in golf, at times touring the Southwest as a “hustler,” winning private bets against players who had no idea how good he was.

At 18, after playing against heavyweight champion Joe Louis, an avid golfer, Elder became a protégé of Rhodes, who was Louis’ golf instructor.

Following two years in the stateside Army, Elder joined the United Golfers Association tour in 1961. In one stretch of 22 consecutive tournaments, he won 18.

Elder’s survivors include his second wife, Sharon.

In 1997, he returned to Augusta National to watch Tiger Woods win the Masters by a record-setting 12 strokes, becoming the first African American golfer to win one of golf’s four major tournaments.

“Lee Elder came down; that meant a lot to me,” Woods said afterward. “He was the first. He was the one I looked up to. Charlie Sifford, all of them. Because of them, I was able to play here. I was able to play on the PGA Tour. When I turned pro at 20, I was able to live my dream because of those guys.”

On April 8 this year, Elder became the first Black player to take part in a decades-old Masters tradition, joining Nicklaus and Player as that year’s honorary starters, who strike the tournament’s ceremonial first shots. Though he brought his clubs with him, arthritis in his knees left him without enough stability to take a shot.

But he received a standing ovation.

The ceremony, he said, “was one of the most emotional experiences I have ever been involved in” and “something I will cherish for the rest of my life.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

29

Sudoku How to Play: Fill in the empty fields with the numbers from 1 through 9.

Sudoku Rules: Every row must contain the numbers from 1 through 9 Every column must contain the numbers from 1 through 9 Every 3x3 square must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Crossword

Answers on page 30

Wordsearch

GAMES

HOROSCOPE Aries

30

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

(Mar 21-April 20)

Exuberant energies are being held in check by the positive presence of Saturn, as it encourages you to be careful rather than too enthusiastic. While it’s fine to leave your comfort zone, it’s worth considering how things might pan out. Be prepared, is your best motto for now, Aries. You are being encouraged to be bold, but also to have a strategy that can ensure your success.

Libra

Should you tell someone how you feel about a key issue, or avoid it altogether? If you sense they won’t want to hear the truth, this could make things awkward. While it may be simpler to sidestep this matter, addressing it sensitively can bring you closer to this person. With the Moon in your sign making a caring link, barriers might melt, and trust may begin to develop.

Taurus

(April 21-May 21)

Scorpio

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

Let it out or hold it in? This is the dilemma you may be faced with, as potent energies in an intense zone encourage you to share something that might have been a weight on you for some time. Or a situation could be coming to a head, and perhaps it’s time to ask for help. Once you get talking a lot of things can quickly get sorted, so it’s worth reaching out for peace of mind.

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

An aspect between Mars and nebulous Neptune, could make you aware of the reasons why you would rather ignore something. Is it too much for you to tackle alone? Perhaps some help would make life easier. Don’t be too proud to ask, Scorpio. You can also pick up on others’ moods, which may influence your decisions. It might be a time to feel the fear and go ahead anyway.

Have you discussed doing something new that may be an enjoyable challenge? If so, the current line-up encourages you to get started on it. Rather than think about it, this is the time to make plans and take those first steps. If you can apply the same logic to your job, career or business, you could go far. Combining a tendency to dream with practical action is the best way ahead.

Sagittarius

Finding it hard to be your usual upbeat self? This is a temporary phase Archer, and could be down to Mars stirring up your psychological zone. Old programs from earlier years may be influencing you more than is helpful. This can be a good time to change them for more life-enhancing beliefs by gently pushing through barriers if possible, and doing your level best.

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

Cancer

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

(June 22-July 23)

The coming days could be pivotal to your plans, which may take several steps forward. When it comes to costing them out though, it’s wise to do a thorough job, as this will set you up to succeed. Finding someone’s company very enticing? If so, this phase looks set to last for a few days yet. Be aware that no matter how great it is to be with them, they are human too.

Destiny may play its hand, leading you to discover something that changes you in a powerful way. You gain the most benefit from personal reflection and meditation, and from following your instincts, rather than accepting others’ words as gospel. If you look for understanding elsewhere, it could mislead you.

Allow your intuition to be your guide at this crucial time, Capricorn.

Leo

Aquarius

(July 24-Aug 23)

New adventures can appeal, and as the days go by, you may feel a tug to take the initiative with an idea or dive into a new experience. But temper any excitement with some reflection, and perhaps get other opinions. Someone’s advice could save you a fortune and make the doing of this easier. Plus, a contemplative aspect encourages you to give some thought to your emotional needs too.

Virgo

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

This is a time of big dreams, that will certainly involve others. This is why it’s a good idea to set a framework, so that they know what’s happening and what to expect. Leave things open-ended, and there may be consequences later. Ready to make changes at home? If so, the coming days could find you eagerly embracing a fabulous opportunity that might alter things for the better.

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

While you may be impatient to get moving on something, timing can be everything, Aquarius. If you hurry a project or plan, you might get where you want to go, but at what cost? The outcome could be nothing like you are hoping for. Instead, be prepared to listen to your instincts, and allow the flow of synchronicity to guide your decisions, as this may make it everything you dream of.

Pisces

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

You may find yourself in the hotspot Pisces, and this is where you should be, as positive planets light up your sector of goals and ambitions. You might be giving much thought to what you really want. It’s time to put others’ expectations of you to one side, and think about what’s best for you. There’s a chance that it could be really quite different from previous ideas about your future.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

31

CARTOONS

Herman

Speed Bump

Frank & Ernest

BC

Scary Gary

Wizard of Id

For Better or for Worse

The San Juan Daily Star

Ziggy

32

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

The San Juan Daily Star