Friday to Sunday Dec 4-6, 2020

December 4-6, 2020

San Juan The

DAILY

Star 50¢

Binge Watching Netflix?

We’ve Got You Covered with Holiday Movies

P20

Blue Christmas

New Executive Order Goes into Effect Monday and Extends into Next Year; Curfew Starts at 9 p.m., Lockdown Sundays, Dry Law & More Restrictions Pierluisi, Appointed Health Chief & Businesses React to New Measures to Stop COVID-19 Spread

It’s Not Over: Trump Resists, Flirts with 2024 Candidacy P9-10

NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL P 19

P4-5

Pandemic Intensifies Island Recycling Crisis P6

2

December 4-6, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

GOOD MORNING

3

December 4-6, 2020

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.

Today’s

Pierluisi appoints a Health chief, several other agency heads

Weather

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

G Day

Night

High

Low

83ºF

73ºF

Precip 17%

Precip 23%

Partly Cloudy

Partly Cloudy

Wind: Humidity: UV Index: Sunrise: Sunset:

From ENE 14 mph 68% 7 of 10 6:42 AM Local Time 5:47 PM Local Time

INDEX Local 3 Mainland 7 Business 12 International 14 Viewpoint 18 Noticias en Español 19 Entertainment 20

Health Legals Sports Games Horoscope Cartoons

22 23 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

overnor-elect Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia announced new appointments Thursday for the departments of Health, Agriculture, Family and Housing, and the Public Housing Administration (PHA).

He also announced that Labor and Human Resources Secretary Carlos Rivera Santiago will continue in his position.

“I reiterate that I have taken this mandate from our people with a great sense of responsibility and the people I am choosing demonstrate this,” Pierluisi said at a press conference. “Just like the appointments I made yesterday, today I am accompanied by upright Puerto Ricans, capable and committed to the socio-economic development of our island.”

The first appointment was that of Dr. Carlos Mellado López as Health secretary. Mellado López, who has more than 20 years of experience in the health field, has held management positions in the public and private spheres.

He served as health and patient ombudsman in 2009 and has served as the medical director of several health care facilities. He has also volunteered for people affected by disasters through the Haiti Stand Up Foundation, which he created after the 2010 earthquake that struck the island of Hispaniola.

Mellado López currently works as associate medical director at the Carolina Doctor’s Center Hospital and directs the health system of the Municipality of Canóvanas. He is Pierluisi’s main adviser on health issues and currently directs the Scientific Coalition appointed by the governorelect to address the COVID-19 emergency.

Pierluisi also appointed Ramón González Beiró as Agriculture secretary. The nominee is an agribusinessman who has more than 30 years experience working the land full time, in the planting and cultivation of sugarcane, pigeon peas, vegetables and farinaceous crops, bananas being his main product. As a Puerto Rican agricultural leader, he has presided over the Pigeon Pea Producers Sector and the Farinaceous Producers Sector, and on two occasions -- between 2001 and 2005, and between 2007 and 2013 -- he served as president of the Puerto Rico Agriculture Association.

González Beiró studied accounting at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), Ponce Campus. He also studied English at Florida University and farm management at Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville, Fla. Meanwhile, the governor-elect announced the appointment of Carmen Ana González Magaz as Family secretary.

Currently serving as director of the island Education Department’s Office for Family and Community Integration, González Magaz has extensive experience working with women and children in situations of violence, and supporting the social-emotional development of children and young people. She began her public service in the Commission for Women’s Affairs and in 2001 she began work at the San Juan municipal Office for the Integral De-

velopment of Women, where she formed the Psychosocial Unit of the emblematic project La Casa Cuna de San Juan, contributing also in the creation of new families through adoption.

She also worked in the private sector, directing the Domestic Violence Program at Carlos Albizu University.

González Magaz has master’s and doctorate degrees from Carlos Albizu University, having done her internship and doctoral thesis in the area of gender violence.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

In the housing sector, Pierluisi appointed William Rodríguez Rodríguez as secretary of Housing and Alejandro Salgado Colón as public housing administrator. Rodríguez Rodríguez is a lawyer and notary with over 10 years of experience in government affairs and civil litigation. He has a juris doctor from Interamerican University of Puerto Rico and a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in management from UPR. Pierluisi said Rodríguez Rodríguez excelled in the Public Policy Division of the Department of Justice. As administrator, he achieved the re-engineering of processes within the PHA, along with their automation, resulting in greater efficiency in the disbursement of federal funds.

He was also in charge of restructuring the PHA’s debt, which meant the first bond issue since the enactment of the federal Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act of 2016, with a savings of $60 million.

Salgado Colón, meanwhile, worked in the PHA, and later was named legal adviser to the agency and worked for the Public Safety Committee of the Puerto Rico Senate.

He then served as an account manager with the United States Internal Revenue Service. Since 2017, he has again worked in the PHA, most recently as a legal adviser of the agency. Among other responsibilities, he has ensured compliance with the federal regulations applicable to the Public Housing and Vouchers for Free Selection of Housing (Section 8) programs of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In 2010, Salgado Colón participated in internships in the Office of the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and with the U.S. Senate Public Safety Committee. He is a summa cum laude graduate of Inter-American University School of Law, and has a bachelor’s degree from UPR in business administration with a concentration in finance.

4

December 4-6, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Governor issues month-long executive order to tackle COVID-19 pandemic Earlier curfew, dry law on weekends, and full lockdown on Sundays go into effect starting Monday

By PEDRO CORREA HENRY Twitter: @PCorreaHenry Special to The Star

“P

eople of Puerto Rico, characterized by showing affection and joy, we have to pause mainly to save our old people,” Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced said Thursday as she announced an executive order that will take effect starting Monday and conclude on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021, and which will include changes to the curfew hours, 24-hour lockdowns on Sundays and “dry law” measures during weekends to stem the sharp rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Puerto Rico.

The governor said several factors, including the exhaustion of first responders, claims from various mayors, and the behavior of “those who on the streets do not demonstrate [awareness of] the importance of what this pandemic represents” led to the stricter measures.

“What was stated before shows to the Puerto Rican people that there’s no other way to reach a consensus; if there’s no compliance or enforcement, we face a rise [in coronavirus infections] and we put our hospital institutions in peril,” Vázquez said. “What’s next is a full lockdown. It’s as simple as that.”

As for the changes in the new order, the governor said the curfew in Puerto Rico will be from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday through Saturday, although authorized establishments are ordered to close at 8:30 p.m., except pharmacies, which will remain open until 11 p.m. for medicine dispensing only, and restaurants, which can provide delivery services until 11 p.m.

Vázquez also warned megastores to take note and “respect the executive order.”

“We will know if they sell televisions, if they sell clothes, because it will be registered in SURI,” she stressed, using the Spanish acronym for the Internal Revenue Integrated System. “If we have evidence at SURI, that megastore will be closed. We don’t want any arguments later that there is unequal treatment.”

The governor ordered that on Sundays all citizens will remain in their place of residence or lodging for 24 hours, except for going to the stores and services authorized by the decree, such as pharmacies, supermarkets, gas stations and hardware stores. As for restaurants and fast-food enterprises, they will only serve via

drive-thru, carry-out, or curbside pick-up on this day.

As for the dry law, the governor said that “from Saturday at 5 a.m. until Monday at 5 a.m, there will be a ban on the sale, consumption, and distribution of alcoholic beverages,” restaurants included.

Vázquez also scolded mall administrators over Black Friday sales, where pictures posted on social media showed crowds of people in the establishments’ hallways, something she deemed unacceptable because “they weren’t enforcing capacity restrictions of one person per 75 square feet.”

“It shouldn’t have happened at any time,” she said as she announced that malls will remain as an authorized establishment, although she demanded that oversight agencies “keep an eye on the establishments to enforce the executive order.”

“Economic interests should not overcome people’s welfare,” she insisted.

As for requests made by the island’s mayors, the governor said that by the powers delegated to them under Law No. 107-2020, known as the Municipal Code of Puerto Rico, they are authorized to reinforce their inspection plans in their jurisdictions to ensure compliance with the executive order.

Meanwhile, Health Secretary Lorenzo González Feliciano said the new executive order “has some significant changes meant to provide breathing room for Puerto Rico’s public health system.”

“We have a health system, and I talk about people, not the structure, I talk about human beings, physicians, nurses, medical technicians, the same group of professionals that have served and given their lives since the pandemic began in March,” González Feliciano said, emphasizing that the efforts promoted in the new order come with the expectation of reducing the number of deaths due to the coronavirus.

He said the recent COVID-19 case numbers “still do not [reflect] cases from Thanksgiving or Black Friday.”

“We’re still facing the impact caused by the general elections; these [current] numbers can reach a more drastic level once those cases begin to emerge,” González Feliciano said.

Below the Star lists other measures issued in the new executive order: * Common areas and pools in condominiums will remain closed * Urbanization (community) gyms can be opened with appointment protocol or supervision * Private gyms remain open with a 30 percent occupancy restriction * Marinas will remain closed * Religious services will continue on Sundays with a 30 percent capacity limitation * Casinos and movie theaters remain open with a 30 percent capacity limitation * Use of boats is suspended, only individual water sports can operate * Hotel common areas must be supervised to remain open; hotel guests must stay inside their rooms after 9 p.m. * Restaurant bars remain closed * Roadside stands, snack bars, and bars remain closed * Citizens can attend beaches with face masks and physical distancing for exercise within the hours authorized in the order * Coolers and beach chairs are not permitted on beaches * No mass activities are allowed indoors or outdoors * Visits to senior centers or nursing homes are prohibited * Visits to correctional institutions are prohibited * Party buses are prohibited * Due to guideline changes from the Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention, negative PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests are not necessary for an employee to return to work if they comply with a 14-day quarantine after having a confirmed COVID-19 case.

The governor said the new order urges every authorized establishment to put up a poster that includes a COVID-19 hotline, which is (787) 522-6300, extensions: 6899, 6840, 6824, 6833, to “confidentially submit complaints and cooperate with the authorities to enforce the order.”

Judicial branch keeps operations in ‘Phase 2’ to prevent virus infections Earlier Thursday, the island judicial branch announced that operations will remain limited according to their reopening plan’s second phase.

Courts Administrative Director Sigfrido Steidel Figueroa said that in Phase 2, on-site activities will be limited and the branch will promote managing any affairs via videoconference. Likewise, hours of operation remain from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m, with up to 50 percent of personnel.

“The second operation phase of the Judicial Branch’s Reopening Plan is compatible with the amendments incorporated into the Executive Order that takes effect on Monday, December 7,” Steidel Figueroa said in a written statement. “However, we have reiterated to the Administrative Judges of the judicial regions the importance of continuing to be rigorous in observing hygiene and physical distancing measures.”

The administrative director also noted that since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the judicial branch put into effect rigorous measures of social distancing and public control, as well as numerous prevention measures such as the use of masks at all times, the continuous sanitization of work areas, and attending to various matters by e-mail and videoconferences.

Steidel Figueroa added that the judicial branch modified its partial closure plan to add Dec. 28-30, and Jan. 7-8, 2021.

“With this measure, court operations will be substantially reduced between December 21, 2020, and January 8, 2021, limiting the exposure of staff and citizens to possible infections during this critical period,” he said. “The evaluation of judicial work is continuous. We remain vigilant to the pandemic’s development and will continue to provide services on a limited basis without putting our staff and citizens at risk.”

The San Juan Daily Star

December 4-6, 2020

5

Businesses react to new, more restrictive executive order

By THE STAR STAFF

G

overnor-elect Pedro Pierluisi did not challenge the measures taken Thursday by Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced to curb the wave of coronavirus infections in Puerto Rico, but island business officials objected to the new restrictions that will go into effect Dec. 7.

“The governor has the right to exercise her position until January 2. I trust her leadership in this area with the work team that is assisting her,” Pierluisi said at a press conference. “What I see is that in the face of the rise in infections and the rise in the use of hospital rooms, and intensive care units, among others, the governor is being very cautious and her intention is to contain these increases.”

The Private Sector Coalition, an organization comprising over 30 island business groups, reiterated its concerns about the restrictions imposed on businesses under the new executive order designed to stem the alarming rise in COVID-19 cases.

Under the new executive order, an islandwide MondaySaturday nighttime curfew will begin at 9 p.m. starting Dec. 7. The current curfew starts at 10 p.m. All businesses will have to close Sunday as part of a lockdown that will last until Jan. 7. All of this is happening in the middle of the holiday season.

Meanwhile, consumption of alcohol will be restricted on weekends.

José Pérez, a manager at Bambú Burger, a restaurant in Carolina, said the restrictions do not really affect them because

they will still be able to do drive-thru, something they have already been doing, even on Sundays.

Over at Plaza Carolina, employees in different stores said the lockdown on Sundays will hurt sales. At financially ailing Sears, an employee noted that the flow of customers is down already, but on Sundays people like to visit the mall and buy.

“Definitely, the time restrictions will hurt,” the employee said on condition of anonymity because she is not allowed to speak for the retailer.

Regarding the impact on the economy, Pierluisi said “I anticipate that Congress will extend the CARES [Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security] Act.”

“We do not yet know at what time and at what level because the pandemic is affecting the entire nation,” he said.

A financial aid package proposed by the Senate will give $7 billion in financial assistance to all U.S. territories.

Carlos Mellado López, Pierluisi’s designated Health secretary, did not question the measures in the new executive order.

“All measures have to be based on scientific data. And one has to see the objective of the measures that are being taken,” he said. “I’m not questioning them, I respect them, and in fact, I don’t know what they are. When it starts in January everything has to be based on scientific data, number one. Number two, they have helped prevent crowds. For example, I know that the Department of Health has distributed 250 ventilators throughout Puerto Rico, and that these medications are accessible.”

“The other thing is to have the testing be organized,” Mellado López added. “We cannot misuse all the tests because we have resources that we have to optimize.”

The Health secretary-designate was also emphatic about reopening the schools in January.

“We have to open schools, but we have to be prepared,” he said.

“It is a matter of organizing ourselves, it is a matter of this Christmas sacrificing a little and thinking that our goal is going to be that our children can, in one way or another, have some kind of face-to-face class in an organized, scientific way, protecting teachers, protecting children, protecting everyone,” Mellado López said.

UTIER asks Pierluisi to detail changes he will make to LUMA-PREPA deal

By THE STAR STAFF

E

lectrical Industry and Irrigation Workers Union (UTIER by its Spanish acronym) President Ángel Figueroa Jaramillo asked governor-elect Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia on Thursday to elaborate on the specific changes he will make to the contract signed in June between the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and LUMA Energy, the private operator of the utility’s transmission and distribution system.

“The governor-elect said on several occasions while he was campaigning that the contract with LUMA Energy must be modified to guarantee zero rate increases, respect the acquired rights of PREPA employees and their collective [bargaining] agreements, protect the retirement system of PREPA and avoid conflicts of interest in contracting with LUMA Energy subsidiaries,” Figueroa Jaramillo said. “We are asking him to say how he will make these changes and to reaffirm the position to make them.”

The union leader pointed out that under the 15-year contract, which is currently in a transition phase and will go into effect on May 1, LUMA Energy has very little risk. The private manager will own any capital improvements made to the system even though they will be paid for by PREPA through ordinary or federal funds. PREPA has no say in LUMA Energy’s contracting decisions as all contracts will be approved by the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau. The Puerto Rico Public-Private Partnership Authority, which has no expertise in energy topics, is the contract’s manager.

Figueroa Jaramillo stressed that “the UTIER has emphasized in all the forums available to it how disastrous this contract is for the country as it contemplates increases in rates and puts the job stability of PREPA employees at risk.”

“This contract awarded between PREPA, LUMA Energy and the Public-Private Partnerships Authority is radically void, as it is leonine, contrary to the law and public order,” he said.

The UTIER president said he sought a meeting with the governor-elect to discuss the details of the proposed changes

to LUMA’s contract and his plan to address the four core points of his position.

“We ask to meet with Mr. Pierluisi so that, contrary to what happened with Governor WandaVázquez, the comments that the UTIER, like other interested organizations, have made regarding the LUMA Energy contract are seriously considered,” Figueroa Jaramillo said. “We await the prompt response of the governor-elect on the selection of the date for the meeting.”

WE BUY OR RENT IN 24HRS

787-349-1000

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

FREE CONSULTS REALTOR

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

6

December 4-6, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Pandemic intensifies recycling crisis

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

T

he COVID-19 pandemic has created a new situation in relation to solid waste management and recycling, as Puerto Rico households have increased their generation of garbage by some 15 percent due to the closure forced by the quarantine.

“Faced with the collapse of the recycling industry, we have a situation that is going to get out of hand if immediate action is not taken,” said Villalba Mayor Luis Javier Hernández, first vice president of the Puerto Rico Mayors Association. “Our call to governor-elect Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia is to bring together the associated [Popular Democratic Party] and federated [New Progressive Party] mayors to discuss the issue of solid waste and recycling.”

The Municipal Code enacted by Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced on Aug. 14 provides that the management and disposal of waste and recycling will be carried out through the Solid Waste Reduction and Recycling Program to be developed by the island Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, as provided in Law 70-1992 of the Municipal Code. Law 70-1992 establishes, among other things, that the recycling rate in Puerto Rico must be 35 percent, a goal that has never been met.

Meanwhile, Coamo Mayor Juan Carlos García Padilla pointed out that in the particular case of recycling, “before we had access to the markets of countries such as China, Indonesia and others, but that has already been stopped and there is nowhere to send what is recycled.”

“Right now municipalities find it more expensive to recycle than to dispose of solid waste,” he said. “Glass is recycled in Puerto Rico and we add cardboard to that. We are ready to work together to address this issue, but leaving it for later is not an option.”

Loíza Mayor Julia Nazario Fuentes noted that “since the beginning of emergency management [measures] due to the pandemic, the population has been required to stay in their residences.”

“This has generated a significant increase in solid waste that must be collected by municipalities,” she said. “In Loíza’s case, this increase in waste has increased garbage disposal costs by more than $4,000 per month. To meet the increase, the municipality has been forced to increase the routes and even collect on weekends to be able to handle the demand, but given the fragile financial situation it is very difficult to allocate funds to purchase new collection equipment. Failure to address the situation immediately could produce a health crisis in the communities. Leaving it for later is not an alternative.”

The issue of recycling tires is another matter to be discussed, Morovis Mayor Carmen Maldonado González said.

“On March 15, the governor issued the executive order that made possible the closure of government agencies and private entities to combat COVID-19.

As a result of that order, the companies that collect, transport and export tires closed their operations,” she said. “Although they were later restarted, the issue of recycling continues and it is necessary for all of us to generate viable solutions.”

FEMA earmarks permanent work funds for all 78 island towns

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

T

he recovery of the island after the impact of Hurricane Maria has reached a milestone now that all 78 municipalities have funds earmarked for permanent work. This will allow for the reconstruction of 3,635 municipal projects such as roads and bridges, public buildings, and the rehabilitation of parks and recreational facilities in the communities, among other projects, according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) press release issued Thursday.

“Each one of these projects represents an opportunity to rebuild stronger and stimulate the economy,” said José Baquero Tirado, the federal disaster recovery coordinator for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“We remain focused on helping our municipalities and communities in their long-term recovery.”

Roads and bridges, one of the areas most affected by hurricanes Irma and Maria, account for the largest amount of approved funds. To date, FEMA has assigned

over $557 million to help fund more than 1,700 transportation infrastructure projects for municipal roads.

Also, recent grants include about $612,000 to the municipality of Juncos for repairs to the Community Center in the Lirios neighborhood that consists of three buildings. Juncos Mayor Alfredo “Papo” Alejandro Carrión said the center is a multipurpose space that serves several sectors of the municipality and is used as a shelter, if necessary.

“With this assignment we will begin to work on rehabilitating the structure so that it can once again serve our citizens and in times of emergency,” he said.

Likewise, the obligation covers repairs to the municipal landfill in the Gurabo Abajo neighborhood, which serves as a final disposal facility for seven other municipalities in the eastern area. Re-establishing various waste control and management measures at the site is imperative to protect the public health of the municipality’s residents.

Other areas that will be transformed as part of the recovery efforts are some 1,237 parks and recreational facilities, such as baseball stadiums, basketball courts and athletic tracks throughout Puerto Rico. This represents an injection of more than $383 million for projects that allow communities to carry out sports and community outreach events.

Among the communities that benefited from those funds is the Coto Sur neighborhood in Manatí’s Sabana Sector. The municipality was approved for nearly $551,000 for repairs to the infrastructure of a baseball park, a basketball court and a community center for the

benefit of 8,000 residents, the press release said. Of these funds, over $143,000 is destined for hazard mitigation measures to prevent similar damage that could pose a threat to the site in the future.

“This is very good news for all municipalities, particularly after so many challenges they continue to face in the wake of hurricanes Irma and Maria,” said Ottmar Chávez, executive director of the Central Office for Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience (COR3). “This comprehensive allocation will strengthen the health and infrastructure sectors, as well as the communities that have contributed so much to the municipalities. We thank FEMA for remaining committed to Puerto Rico.”

Meanwhile, over $188 million was approved for 640 projects to repair public buildings that provide essential services, such as hospitals, police stations and even buildings of historical value.

A grant of about $1.8 million to the island municipality of Vieques will help repair several public buildings, including the Office of Emergency Management, the Municipal Police, the Electronic Library and the Villa Borinquen community and recycling center. To make the structures more weather resistant, about $87,000 of the obligation was allocated for mitigation measures.

To date, FEMA has obligated nearly $19.4 billion for costs related to hurricanes Irma and Maria, including projects to help rebuild infrastructure throughout Puerto Rico. FEMA works with COR3 through the agency’s Public Assistance program to obligate recovery funds to private nonprofit organizations, municipalities and agencies of the Puerto Rico government.

The San Juan Daily Star

December 4-6, 2020

7

As hospitals fill, travel nurses race to virus hot spots

By JULIE BOSMAN and HILARY SWIFT

A

s the coronavirus cut a devastating path around the country, Laura Liffiton, 32, found herself racing along the same route.

She arrived in New York City in April, on one of the worst days of the pandemic, for a stint as a nurse in the overrun intensive-care unit of a crowded hospital. After her contract there ended, she flew in July to another hot spot with an urgent need for nurses: a hospital in Arizona where four of her patients died of the coronavirus on her first day. In October, Liffiton traveled on, to Green Bay, Wisconsin, just as the virus was surging uncontrollably throughout the Midwest.

“When the pandemic began, I thought, ‘I’m going to go help, I can do some good, I can make some good money,’” she said. But on the first day of treating coronavirus patients, Liffiton remembered, “I was like Dorothy landing in Oz. I was totally unprepared for the reality.”

As the coronavirus has spiked across the country, leaving more than 100,000 Americans hospitalized Wednesday — more than on any other day during the crisis — travel nurses, who work on temporary contracts for higher fees and move from city to city, have become more urgently needed than ever.

Federal officials suggested Wednesday that the picture may grow still worse in the months ahead. Dr. Robert R. Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned that the nation was facing a devastating winter, predicting that total deaths from COVID-19 could reach “close to 450,000” by February unless a large percentage of Americans follow precautions like mask-wearing.

“The reality is, December and January and February are going to be rough times,” Redfield said. “I actually believe they’re going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation.”

As hospitals fill with virus patients, the biggest need has been finding enough staff to tend to the critically ill. Demand for travel nurses has increased by more than 40% in the past month, according to Aya Healthcare, an agency based in California that dispatches them to hospitals. At least 25,000 nurses work in travel nursing, though the number fluctuates, and hospitals have depended on them for decades.

treated COVID-19 patients and even caught a mild case of the virus himself, working in El Centro, California, near the border with Mexico; Sacramento, California; and now Green Bay. Places to stay in northeastern Wisconsin were difficult to find. He settled for renting the basement in a house while the owner lives upstairs, negotiating for shared use of the kitchen so he would have more than a microwave to use for cooking.

Deaton, who is from Akron, Ohio, was attracted to travel nursing because it pays so well — he estimated that he makes four times what he would earn if he accepted a staff position somewhere. There is a range of pay for such work, but a weekly paycheck could be more than $5,000 during the pandemic, by some of the nurses’ estimates, in addition to benefits.

“I think this attracts a couple different Laura Liffiton, a traveling nurse, checks in with her children, who are at home in Arizona, personality types,” he said. “I travel for the from her hotel room in Green Bay, Wis., on Nov. 22, 2020. money. Some people travel to travel — they like being in other places, they want the locations of San Diego or Hawaii.”

It is a nomadic existence and, in a leave a place, the feelings stay.”

The dynamic between staff nurses and pandemic, a particularly high-risk one. The Morgan Fitzsimmons, a travel nurse nurses parachute into cities like New York, who is based in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, travel nurses can be complicated. Deaton said Phoenix, Los Angeles and Green Bay for has been treating coronavirus patients since that when he was in Sacramento, staff nurses weeks or months at a time, quickly learning a stint working in Syracuse, New York, in July. were given higher-quality equipment to use, the ways of a new hospital and trying to earn In Green Bay, where she is temporarily based, such as air-purifying respirators, that travel the trust of the existing staff. the weather has now turned cold and blustery. nurses had to repeatedly request.

“We’re here because they have a need,” At the end of their shifts, they return Some people are still gathering indoors, going he said of hospitals. “We’re not people that to their temporary homes: hotels, Airbnb to bars and to restaurants and weddings. apartments or rented houses. Their families “The hospital’s getting tight,” said Fitz- are going to be here later on.”

On Dec. 19, Liffiton’s contract in Green and friends are sometimes thousands of miles simmons, who is 26. “Half of your patients away, available only through phone calls or that you’re going to see in a day more than Bay will be finished, and she will head back FaceTime. likely have COVID or are getting tested for home to rest and spend time with her family.

A week after that, she is back to New Last week in Green Bay, where the COVID. They’re coming in and getting tested. surrounding county has averaged more than They go home and then they get sicker and York for a 13-week hospital assignment.

“It’s a little frustrating that I’m still going 150 cases a day since late September, a team they come back.” back,” she said. “So many of the people in of four travel nurses worked at Bellin Hospital, John Deaton, 27, has spent most of grappling with the unrelenting pressure of the his nursing career as a traveler, as they are New York are already doing such a good job of quarantining. And yet this is still a emergency room and a Thanksgiving holiday commonly called. far from home.

Throughout the pandemic, he has problem there.”

More than eight months into the pandemic, many travel nurses have done little else but treat COVID-19 patients.

Liffiton still shudders when recounting what she saw in New York in April: doctors and nurses who were overwhelmed, rows of intubated patients and little sense of when the devastation would end.

She still sleeps only about four hours a night, troubled by what she has seen throughout the pandemic.

“It’s hard,” she said. “Even after I

8

The San Juan Daily Star

December 4-6, 2020

After bar manager’s arrest, COVID culture wars escalate in Staten Island

The manager of Mac’s Public House, Danny Presti, center right, and the owner, Keith McAlarney, center left, stand behind a line of police officers while attending a protest at the bar on Staten Island in New York, Dec. 2, 2020.

By COREY KILGANON

W

hen Gov. Andrew Cuomo mandated a 10 p.m. curfew at bars, Mac’s Public House, a tavern on Staten Island, stayed open after hours.

When the state suspended the pub’s liquor license, the general manager announced a way to skirt the law: by serving food and alcohol for free — still indoors — in exchange for a contribution.

Keith McAlarney, the bar owner, ignored cease-and-desist notices and rapidly accruing fines, he said. McAlarney painted an orange rectangle out front and declared the bar an “autonomous zone.” He publicly taunted Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, whom he called “de Bozo,” to come down in person and take the license off the wall.

But this week, the city and the state struck back, making this tavern a flash point in the COVID-19 culture wars that have turned some business owners and party hosts into rebels against pandemic restrictions.

In New York City, Staten Island has been one of the centers of rebellion, even as authorities began constructing an emergency field hospital because of a soaring coronavirus infection rate in the borough. The ZIP code in the area where the bar is located has an 8.62 test positivity rate, the fourth highest among New York City ZIP codes in the past seven days.

Staten Island diverges from the city’s four other boroughs in its Republican political leanings and its support for President Donald Trump, and indeed in the desire of some of its residents over the years to secede from the city.

OnTuesday, deputies from the city’s Sheriff’s Office arrested Danny Presti, the bar manager, for obstructing governmental administration.They led him away in handcuffs as protesters and loyal customers heckled them. The bar’s liquor license has been suspended.State Sen. Andrew Lanza, a Republican who represents the area, showed up Tuesday night to support the bar and told The New York Post that he was surrounded and physically restrained by deputies when he tried to force his way in to assist Presti. Lanza did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

On Wednesday night, protesters gathered outside the bar, many holding American flags and shouting chants against Cuomo.

In an interview Wednesday, McAlarney said he felt he had to take a stand against a whiplash of restrictions that is hurting businesses like his. “I was trying to get their attention so that they would work with the industry instead of being lazy with their decisions and just closing things down,” he said from inside his bar as a phalanx of deputy sheriffs outside kept customers from entering.

Because patrons crowd together and talk loudly, health experts have said that they have often been major spreaders of the virus, which has killed more than 24,000 people in New York City.

McAlarney said he was not persuaded that restrictions on bars were effective in stopping the spread of the virus and questioned the government’s role in regulating gatherings. “If you feel that it’s not safe to go out, then choose to stay home,” he said.

Although many bar owners have bridled at the pandemic restrictions inhibiting their businesses, most have abided by them, often by accommodating drinkers legally outside, on sidewalks, parking lots and street spaces — and serving them food, at the state’s insistence.

But McAlarney, who said he sunk his life savings to open the bar a year ago, said he felt compelled to resist the city’s “bully tactics.”

The free drinks strategy was announced by

Presti on a YouTube video in which he explained from behind the bar that those customer donations would help pay the bar’s bills.

“It was never mandatory, only requested,” McAlarney said.

State officials said that even free service of alcohol without a state license is illegal.

The governor’s office criticized McAlarney for putting politics over pandemic safety.

“This owner is learning that actions have consequences,” said Jack Sterne, a spokesman for Cuomo. “Breaking the law and putting your neighbors’ lives at risk during a global pandemic to make a political statement is simply unacceptable.”

Regarding the bar declaring itself an autonomous zone, Mitch Schwartz, a mayoral spokesman, said, “COVID-19 doesn’t respect autonomous zones, and neither does the sheriff — there are consequences for endangering your neighbors in a pandemic.”

Presti’s arrest came shortly after several plainclothes deputies sat down inside Mac’s and ordered food and alcohol in exchange for a mandatory “donation” of $40. They observed other patrons were doing the same, said the city’s sheriff, Joseph Fucito.

Deputies then issued appearance tickets for multiple violations of city and state laws and ordered Presti to leave. When he refused, he was arrested, said Mark J. Fonte, a lawyer for the bar’s owners.

Fonte claimed that the city was making an example of the bar for its vocal resistance to “onerous restrictions that would put them out of business.”

He said that Mac’s was already struggling during the pandemic because restrictions only allowed the owners to seat customers at 25% normal capacity. Those limits apply to all indoor dining and drinking in New York City.

When the area was designated an orange zone, “it just crushed them, so they’re doing anything possible to try to survive,” Fonte said.

The San Juan Daily Star

December 4-6, 2020

9

Trump hints at another act in four years, just like Grover Cleveland

By PETER BAKER

O

n the day that President Grover Cleveland left the White House after losing his bid for reelection, his wife, Frances, told the staff to take care of the mansion. “I want to find everything just as it is now when we come back again,” she said. “We are coming back just four years from today.” And they did.

Nearly 128 years after the Clevelands’ triumphal comeback, President Donald Trump is signaling that he may try to become only the second president in American history to win another term after being defeated. Even as he insists that he did not lose the 2020 election, Trump has been laying plans to run again in 2024 with a kickoff as early as this month or possibly on his successor’s Inauguration Day. How serious he is remains to be seen. Many allies believe his talk of another run in 2024, when he will be 78 years old, is more about maintaining his relevance, enabling him to raise funds, soothing his wounded pride and trying to shed the label of loser. But even if it is only for show, Trump’s talk of a 2024 race has already frozen the Republican field and could delay the emergence of a new generation of leaders

A rainbow is seen above the White House in Washington, on Monday, Nov, 30, 2020. while keeping the party tethered to the politically polarizing Trump for months or years to come.

The outgoing president hinted at his ambitions to a crowd of Republican supporters at a White House Christmas party on Tuesday evening in his most overt semipublic comments since losing the Nov. 3 election that he refuses to

concede. “It’s been an amazing four years,” he told guests in remarks posted online by a member of the Republican National Committee. “We’re trying to do another four years.

Otherwise, I’ll see you in four years.”

If so, it would be only the latest effort by Trump to defy history and do what few if any have done before. At least a half-dozen former presidents have sought to come back in the past, but none other than Cleveland succeeded, in some cases tarnishing their reputations in the losing effort.

Typically, once voters reject a sitting president, they lose interest and move on to candidates perceived to have a greater chance of success. But Trump does not appear ready to voluntarily surrender the power and attention of the White House simply to retire to Mar-a-Lago to plan his presidential library.

He has already raised $170 million since Election Day, much of it for a new political organization that can be used to pay for his political activities going forward. He has talked about creating a news media platform that could take on Fox News on the right and keep him part of the national conversation. And he will retain his Twitter bullhorn with Continues on page 10

Compra uno y el otro es

Gratis

Compra un producto de la línea regular, Irwin Naturals y obtienes gratis un producto para el sistema inmunológico de Irwin Naturals. *Productos Irwin Naturals que se ofrecen gratis en esta oferta.

Oferta válida desde el 1 de diciembre de 2020 al 31 de enero de 2021.

No aplica con otras ofertas.

www.freshmartpr.com Aguadilla

Plaza Victoria

Caguas

Urb. Caguax

Carolina

Commercial Park

Condado

Ave. Ashford

Guaynabo

Garden Hills Plaza

Guaynabo Plazoleta 169

Hato Rey

201 Federico Costa

* Al comprar un producto regular de Irwin Naturals, obtienes gratis un producto del sistema inmune de la misma línea. Si compras un producto del sistema inmune, el segundo producto del mismo grupo de igual o menor valor es gratis.

10

December 4-6, 2020

From page 9 88.7 million followers allowing him to insert himself into any debate any time he likes, a powerful tool that no other defeated president has ever had.

The president’s flirtation with attempting a comeback has already complicated the plans for other Republicans who would like to step up, especially those who feel they owe some loyalty to him, like Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations.

Trump retains fervent support among many Republicans despite his loss. A poll by Politico and Morning Consult last week found that 53% said they would vote for him in a Republican primary in 2024, with Pence at a distant 12% and Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, at 8%. Haley and others drew 4% or less.

“He will be the prohibitive front-runner, especially if he can maintain media attention from Mar-a-Lago,” said Alex Conant, a Republican political consultant. “Nobody is going to want to be the first candidate to announce they’re running against him. Can you imagine the tweet storm that he’ll launch against his first competitor? Any candidate that visits an early state next year will be overwhelmed with questions about their loyalty to Trump.”

But that could fade with time. With Trump not yet out of the Oval Office and loudly making false claims that the election was somehow stolen from him, he still commands the stage. But some Republicans argue that ultimately he cannot sustain the loyalty he now enjoys within the party

given the stigma that comes with having lost the presidency and the exhaustion often expressed by many Republicans.

“It’s hard for a politician to dominate a party for each of the four years after he’s president,” said Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional scholar at the University of North Carolina who wrote about Cleveland and other one-term commanders-in-chief in “The Forgotten Presidents” and testified last year before the House in favor of Trump’s impeachment. “It’s happened a few times, but it’s rare.”

Moreover, Trump faces potentially serious challenges after leaving office that may make another run implausible even aside from advancing age. Among other things, he has to find a way to repay or restructure $421 million in debt and he may have legal troubles stemming from multiple investigations at the federal, state and local levels.

He has privately been discussing preemptively pardoning members of his family before leaving office, not usually a selling point for a future political campaign.

The White House declined to discuss the president’s thinking about 2024, citing his efforts to contest the 2020 results, which have been certified by all of the key battleground states and are on track to being settled by the Electoral College in less than two weeks.

“I’ve not heard any discussions of that,” Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, told reporters who asked about a 2024 campaign on Wednesday. “I’m aware of the reporting, but the president’s campaign is currently pursuing active litigation, and that is the focus, at least at the moment.”

Other presidents have sought to return to the White

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House in Washington, on Thanksgiving, Nov. 26, 2020. The president is eying a comeback in 2024 aimed at making him the only person other than Grover Cleveland to win another term after losing the White House.

The San Juan Daily Star House without success. Martin Van Buren, who lost his bid for reelection in 1840, unsuccessfully sought his party’s nomination in 1844 and then mounted a new campaign as a Free Soil candidate in 1848, but garnered only about 10% of the vote and won no states. Millard Fillmore, another 19th-century one-term president rejected by his own party, likewise tried the third-party route in staging a comeback campaign in 1856 as the nominee of the Know Nothings, winning 22% and just one state.

A couple of presidents who left office voluntarily after two terms nonetheless changed their minds and sought to come back four years later without success. Ulysses S. Grant allowed his supporters to promote him for the Republican nomination in 1880, only to see the bid fizzle at the convention, while Theodore Roosevelt bolted his party and ran as head of the new Progressive or Bull Moose Party in 1912, succeeding only in taking down his hand-picked Republican successor, William Howard Taft, and turning the White House over to the Democrats.

Herbert Hoover, after being turned out in 1932, held out hope that the Republicans would anoint him as their nominee again in 1936 and 1940 only to be spurned. More recent defeated one-term presidents like Jimmy Carter and George Bush entertained no such fantasies, although Gerald Ford did briefly consider becoming a vice presidential candidate four years after losing the White House.

Cleveland is the only defeated president who ever moved back into the White House. A fiscally conservative Democrat, he won his first term in 1884 — despite being accused of fathering a child out of wedlock — making him the nation’s 22nd president. He became the only bachelor president to marry while in the White House when he wed Frances Folsom, who at 21 was 27 years younger than him.

Even though he won the popular vote four years later, he lost the Electoral College to Benjamin Harrison, a Republican, over his support for lowering tariffs on foreign goods. Known for “an inherited strain of stubbornness that gleamed in his clear blue eyes before he was 5 years old,” as Allan Nevins put it in his Pulitzer-winning biography, Cleveland refused to fade away and beat Harrison in 1892, fulfilling Frances’ prediction and becoming the 24th president.

One important difference between Cleveland and Trump is that Cleveland won the popular vote in all three presidential elections he ran in, while Trump lost the popular vote in both 2016 and 2020. “Grover had the advantage of popular support that Trump lacks,” said Matthew Algeo, the author of “The President Is a Sick Man” about secret surgery Cleveland had while in office.

There is little reason to think that Trump knows much about this history or even cares. Holed up in the White House, he is bruised by his election defeat, lashing out those he blames, advancing fantasy conspiracy theories to explain it away and looking for a way to keep attention focused on himself.

The prospect of running again is one way to do it, whether he goes through with it or not. And when he unhappily and involuntarily strides out of the White House for the last time in the next seven weeks, he can tell the staff to keep everything as it is now because he plans to be back.

The San Juan Daily Star

December 4-6, 2020

11

Marc Benioff sets his sights on Microsoft

By DAVID STREITFELD

F

ive years ago, Marc Benioff negotiated to sell Salesforce, the software company he co-founded in 1999 and has run ever since, to Microsoft. If the deal had gone through, he would have been richly rewarded — but, in the end, just another employee of the tech colossus.

With Tuesday’s news that Salesforce was buying Slack for $27.7 billion, Benioff did something much more difficult. He is now set to directly compete against Microsoft, one of the world’s most valuable companies, in its own favored territory.

Microsoft has been slugging it out with Slack in the pandemic-fueled rush to enable remote collaboration through communications tools. The faster the nature of work transforms, the more valuable victory will become and the fiercer the competition.

Benioff, 56, does not appear to be fazed. Or maybe he is in denial. In a 30-minute interview after announcing the Slack deal and Salesforce’s earnings, he rejected all opportunities to talk about his history with Microsoft or even acknowledge its existence.

“What’s that company?” he said. “How do you spell it?”

Microsoft is sitting on a $137 billion cash hoard and has a well-honed competitive instinct. It gets 115 million users every day for its would-be Slack killer, the Teams chat platform, thanks to the ubiquity of Microsoft Office. Salesforce, which specializes in sales management software, had $9 billion in cash this summer.

Slack, for all its brand-name familiarity, had only about 12 million users before the pandemic. It has declined to update its numbers.

Salesforce and Slack might be the under-

Salesforce Tower in San Francisco on Dec. 17, 2017. Salesforce Chief Executive Marc Benioff’s planned acquisition of Slack will have him competing directly with the Goliath that is Microsoft. dogs here, if you can consider a $220 billion company an underdog. But they have a notso-secret weapon in Benioff. He learned some lessons in showmanship from his mentor, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, including how to turn news conferences into events and how to become the human embodiment of a company.

“You’ve got to give Benioff credit. He’s built one of the biggest software companies in the world,” said Mark Moerdler, a senior research analyst at Bernstein. “But this is not going to be easy.”

Before the coronavirus pandemic forced many to stay home, Salesforce was San Francisco’s largest private employer, eclipsing

the 168-year-old Wells Fargo. Its offices were in Salesforce Tower, a lipstick-shaped edifice that dominated the skyline and could be seen from around the bay.

Benioff, who has deep roots in the city, likewise dominated local discourse, challenging the other tech chiefs to step up. He and his wife, Lynne Benioff, contributed $100 million to a new children’s hospital. In 2018, the couple bought Time magazine for $190 million. Forbes pegs Benioff’s net worth at $9.4 billion.

The mogul might be getting weary of the attention. “Can’t you find a more interesting and better-looking protagonist?” he asked.

In the interview, Benioff could not be dis-

suaded or turned aside from his talking points: “Business is the greatest platform for change ...

The future of our industry is a work-from-anywhere environment ... I like to innovate, I like to create, I like to see things and make them happen ... I love that we take care of all stakeholders, not just shareholders.”

The question of whether Benioff can pull off his challenge to Microsoft is likely to become a long-term subject of fascination in Silicon Valley. Over the past two decades, Salesforce has acquired dozens of companies to extend its core products. The biggest acquisition before Slack was Tableau, a data visualization company, which Salesforce bought for $15.3 billion last year.

Initial reactions to the Slack purchase, which is a cash and stock deal, ranged from wildly enthusiastic to cautiously enthusiastic.

Slack is losing money, while Salesforce’s collaborative tools are weak.

“Marc has come full circle. From considering a sale to Microsoft, he is now becoming the next Microsoft,” said Venky Ganesan, a managing director at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures who specializes in software. Ganesan, who said he only knows Benioff as a business acquaintance, saluted his ability “to visualize a certain future and then make it happen.”

Daniel Newman, principal analyst at Futurum Research, has been critical of Salesforce in the past but said the Slack deal had a reasonable chance of success.

“You have a product in Slack that people love but which hasn’t been marketed well,” Newman said. “Salesforce and Benioff can give it faster growth and extract untapped potential.

Excuse the buzzword, but maybe this is really one of those synergy moments.”

12

The San Juan Daily Star

December 4-6, 2020

1 Percent of PPP borrowers in U.S. got more than one-quarter of the loan money

By STACY COWLEY and ELLA KOEZE

T

he Paycheck Protection Program was the centerpiece of the federal government’s relief efforts to keep millions of small businesses afloat during the coronavirus pandemic. But new data shows what many had suspected all along: The money was shared unevenly, with the biggest sums going to a sliver of the companies in need.

Detailed loan information released by the Small Business Administration late Tuesday showed that a mere 1% of the program’s 5.2 million borrowers — those seeking $1.4 million and above — received more than one-quarter of the $523 billion disbursed.

About 600 businesses — including powerful law firms like Boies Schiller Flexner, restaurants like the steakhouse chain started by Ted Turner, as well as the operator of New York’s biggest horse tracks — received the maximum loan amount of $10 million, according to the data. It was the first full accounting of how federal money was spent through the program. Aimed at small companies — generally those with 500 or fewer workers — the program provided forgivable loans to desperate business owners who were faced with widespread shutdowns.

But the program allowed businesses to take enough money to cover only a couple of months’ expenses, and it has come under criticism for its poorly defined rules and a hasty and haphazard rollout that allowed fraudsters to tap into the money, which will take years of litigation to sort out.

The newly released data also includes details of loans made under the Economic Injury Disaster Loan system, a long-standing SBA program that was vastly expanded to offer relief to businesses affected by the pandemic. Together, the two programs spread more than $700 billion to struggling companies in just a few months.

The loan data was released under an order by Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington, who rejected the SBA’s request to keep the information confidential. Previously released data on the paycheck program contained only ranges for larger loan amounts and no information about loans under $150,000.

Calling the program “vast in both size and sweep,” Boasberg wrote in a ruling last month that “the weighty public interest in disclosure easily overcomes the far narrower privacy interest of borrowers who collectively received billions of taxpayer dollars in loans.”

Outside a TGI Fridays in New York, Aug. 1, 2020. More than five million companies received loans under the federal government’s signature relief program for small businesses reeling from the pandemic, but a tiny fraction of those companies gobbled up vast sums of money, newly released data shows.

With virus case counts rising rapidly and public health experts predicting a dark winter ahead, small businesses remain fearful about their survival. Many have used up their allotted aid, which was intended to cover up to two months of payroll costs and a handful of other expenses. Many owners say they would immediately apply for additional funds if available, but the rules permit only a single loan, and there has been little movement toward breaking a monthslong stalemate in Washington over additional aid.

President-elect Joe Biden and his economic advisers have urged quick action on additional stimulus measures. A bipartisan group of lawmakers has proposed a stopgap plan to extend lapsed federal unemployment benefits until March — although at a lower rate — and provide $288 billion to help small businesses, restaurants and theaters. Top Democrats in Congress endorsed the proposal as the basis for further negotiations.

The companies that received the maximum $10 million PPP loan include dozens of restaurant chains such as Ted’s Montana Grill, which was started by Turner; TGI Fridays; P.F. Chang’s; Black Angus Steakhouse; and Legal Sea Foods. They took advantage of an exception the restaurant industry lobbied for to make chains eligible for the aid money.

The New York Racing Association, which operates Aqueduct Racetrack, Saratoga Race Course and Belmont Park, the home of the Belmont Stakes, also received the maximum loan.

Prominent law firms like Boies Schiller Flexner, the high-priced firm run by David Boies, and Kasowitz Benson Torres, founded and run by President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, also collected loans for $10 million. (It was previously known that both firms received large loans, but the exact amount had not been disclosed.)

Boeis Schiller did not respond to a message seeking comment; Kasowitz’s firm referred to a previous statement saying the loan helped it preserve hundreds of jobs.

Most of the program’s borrowers sought far less: Loans of $150,000 and under accounted for around 87% of the loans made through the program, which

ended in August, when its congressional authorization expired. But those loans made up less than 30% of the total handed out, about $146 billion.

The data shows how federal money flowed to tenants of Trump’s properties, like 40 Wall St., a commercial skyscraper in lower Manhattan. Nearly 100 businesses listing an address in that building collected loans totaling more than $34 million.

The largest loan in the building went to Atane Engineers, a contractor that changed its name in 2018 after a corruption scandal that culminated when two former top executives pleaded guilty to paying bribes for city infrastructure contracts. The company, which pays $2.5 million a year for its rent at 40 Wall St., received a $7.6 million loan, which it said supported 235 workers. The firm did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Lenders collected $18 billion in fees, according to a New York Times analysis of the SBA data. The largest payment went to JPMorgan Chase, which stands to collect just over $1 billion in fees on more than 280,000 loans worth a total of $29 billion. The runner-up is Bank of America, which will earn $947 million in fees on around 343,400 loans worth nearly $26 billion.

Both banks have pledged to donate any profits they earn from the program, but executives from each have told analysts that their expenses were so high that there may not be much, if any, left to give after the loans are settled.

“We have committed that net proceeds from the fees will be dedicated to supporting small businesses and the communities and nonprofits we serve,” Bill Halldin, a Bank of America spokesperson, said Wednesday. JPMorgan declined to comment.

The Paycheck Protection Program was hastily constructed in late March after Congress passed the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill. The Treasury Department, which called most of the shots on the program, released technical guidance to banks just hours before lending began in April, and the terms shifted many times before the program ended in August. The Treasury Department has issued dozens of changes and clarifications to its rules.

The San Juan Daily Star

December 4-6, 2020

13 Stocks

S&P 500, Nasdaq hit record highs as vaccine cheer overshadows grim data T he S&P 500 and the Nasdaq touched all-time highs on Thursday as investors looked past bleak economic data, while remaining focused on a COVID-19 vaccine, with the blue-chip Dow getting a boost from Boeing shares.

Boeing Co jumped about 7% after budget airline Ryanair ordered 75 additional 737 MAX jets with a list price of $9 billion, throwing a commercial lifeline to the embattled U.S. planemaker.

Tesla Inc’s 4% gain underpinned the Nasdaq after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to “buy” in the runup to the electric-car maker’s addition to the S&P 500.

Earlier in the day, data showed the number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits fell last week, but remained extraordinarily high at 712,000, while a separate survey showed U.S. services industry activity slowed to a six-month low in November.

“Markets are discounting the bad economic news and focusing on a vaccine implementation plan ... they are optimistic that a vaccine will bring a recovery in the second half of next year,” said Mike Cornacchioli, chief investment strategist at Clarfeld Citizens Private Wealth.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said there was some positive movement in congressional efforts to reach a compromise on a new coronavirus aid bill but gave no hints on when such a deal could be struck.

At 11:38 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 180.08 points, or 0.60% to 30,063.87, the S&P 500 gained 9.03 points, or 0.25% to 3,678.04 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 58.22 points, or 0.47% to 12,407.61.

Seven of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, with the energy sector leading gains.

The communication services index hit its highest since its creation in 2018.

Progress in developing a working COVID-19 vaccine before the end of the year has driven the Wall Street’s main indexes to record levels recently.

That also helped lift the S&P 1500 airlines index up 6%. Cruise operators Carnival Corp jumped 8% and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd surged 9%.

Cloud-security provider Zscaler Inc surged 25% as it reported better-than-expected first-quarter revenue and adjusted profit.

Waddell & Reed Financial surged 49%, extending gains from the previous session, after Australia’s Macquarie Group announced a deal to buy the wealth manager for $1.7 billion.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.9to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 2-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 28 new 52-week highs and no new low while the Nasdaq recorded 241 new highs and 10 new lows.

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

14

The San Juan Daily Star

December 4-6, 2020

Why the U.K. approved a vaccine first

By BENJAMIN MUELLER

T

he first rigorously tested coronavirus vaccine was given a green light for use Wednesday in Britain. Doses of the vaccine, made by the U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and a small German company, BioNTech, will be injected starting next week, the government said.

In leaping ahead of the United States to allow mass inoculations, Britain added to the pressure on U.S. drug regulators, who were summoned to the White House on Tuesday by President Donald Trump’s chief of staff to explain why they were not ready to do the same.

Why did Britain authorize a vaccine before the U.S.?

The two countries vet vaccines differently.

Rather than accepting the findings of vaccine makers, U.S. regulators painstakingly reanalyze raw data from the trials to

London’s Excel Center, an exhibition hall that became a hospital last spring, on Dec. 2, 2020. The facility is expected to be used as a vaccination center.

10 % De Descuento en toda

la merca

Nov-Dic

ncía

2020

validate the results, poring over what regulators have described as thousands of pages of documents. Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said Tuesday that the FDA “is one of the few regulatory agencies in the world that actually looks at the raw data.”

Regulators in Britain and elsewhere in Europe lean more heavily on companies’ own analyses. Instead of sifting through raw trial data and crunching the numbers themselves, regulatory agencies often will study a drugmaker’s reports and, unless there are anomalies, ground their decisions in company-provided documents.

Still, scientists and industry experts said the British regulators maintained high standards, often acting as a bellwether for other countries’ rulings. The regulators themselves said on Wednesday that experts had “unprecedented access” to raw trial data; tested vaccines for quality, batch by batch; and read more than 1,000 pages of documentation.

GUAYABERAS PARA BEBÉS, NIÑOS, DAMAS Y CABALLEROS. CHALECOS ANTI-BALAS Y ACCESORIOS. UNIFORMES TÁCTICOS, DE COCINA, SCRUBS Y DE TECNICOS DE EMERGENCIAS MÉDICAS. JACKETS – BOTAS TÁCTICAS – ACCESORIOS TÁCTICOS Y MÁS …!

CON LA COMPRA DE TRES ARTÍCULOS Ó MÁS Se le obsequiará un pantalón de vestir para caballeros con un valor de $39.95 Gris, blanco ó navy blue *Mientras duren

CUMPLIMOS CON TODAS LAS RECOMENDACIONES REPORTADAS POR EL CDC, ORDEN EJECUTIVA DEL GOBIERNO DE PUERTO RICO, OSHA Y LA ORGANIZACION MUNDIAL DE LA SALUD

Calle Padial #40, Caguas, P.R. 00725 (al Lado de Gatsby) • 787.258.1939 / 653.9886 www.e mpre sa sl a cuba nita.com • www.em presaslacubanitas h o p .c o m

HORARIO: LUNES A VIERNES 8:00AM A 4:00PM ABIERTO SÁBADOS 5 Y 12 DICIEMBRE 2020

The San Juan Daily Star American and British regulators also have different ways of soliciting outside views.

The FDA consults an independent panel of experts before it decides. In the case of Pfizer’s vaccine, that panel will meet on Dec. 10. British regulators seek opinions from a specialist committee, too, but that group has the flexibility to review data and meet as it needs to, allowing it to move more quickly. In all, the committee met for more than 40 hours about the Pfizer vaccine, its chair said on Wednesday.

Like American regulators, their British counterparts have been reviewing vaccine data as it arrived. And different teams worked in parallel, rather than waiting for other parts of the review to finish.

“If you’re climbing a mountain, you prepare and prepare,” Dr. June Raine, the chief executive of Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, said on Wednesday. “We started that in June.”

When early results arrived on Nov. 10, she said, “We were at base camp.”

And later, she said, “When we got the final analysis, we were ready for that last sprint.”

What about the rest of Europe?

Britain broke from the European Union’s regulatory orbit to approve a vaccine early, owing to emergency powers that the bloc gives countries in the case of a pandemic. Once Britain consummates its split from the European Union on Dec. 31, those powers to approve vaccines on its own will become permanent.

The countries that remain in the Eu-

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

ropean Union are waiting for its regulator, the European Medicines Agency, to authorize a vaccine. Like the FDA, the European regulator has scheduled a meeting during which it will consult outside experts and offer an opinion on the Pfizer vaccine.

That will happen Dec. 29.

The agency’s job is complicated by its obligation to solicit the views of all 27 EU countries. That process has been accelerated during the pandemic, but it will still take several days for countries to weigh in after the Dec. 29 meeting, which is likely to delay vaccinations until early January.

When will the first doses arrive in Britain?

Pfizer plans to ship 800,000 doses to Britain in the coming days. Starting Tuesday night, those doses were being prepared for shipping at a factory in Puurs, Belgium, BioNTech said.

The doses will be packaged in boxes of several thousand doses each, with dry ice keeping them at the South Pole-like temperatures they require, before they are put on trucks or planes and taken to Britain. They will arrive in government distribution warehouses by the weekend, Pfizer said Wednesday.

British hospitals have already begun emailing staff members to schedule vaccinations, with a London hospital system indicating that its first doses will be given at 7 a.m. Monday. Britain placed advance orders for 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine but most of those are expected to be administered next year. Each patient needs two, a month apart.

ain?

15

Who will be vaccinated first in Brit-

A government advisory body released its list of vaccine priority groups Wednesday. At the top of the list are nursing home residents and workers, followed by people older than 80 and health care and social workers.

In practice, though, government officials have indicated that frontline hospital workers may be quicker to receive vaccines because of the difficulties of storing and moving the Pfizer vaccine to nursing homes and other sites. It has to be stored at around minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 Fahrenheit) until days before injection.

Pfizer has said that the vaccine can survive for five days in a normal refrigerator. But Britain’s National Health Service still has to consider issues like staffing at non-hospital sites and transport difficulties within the country when deciding how to administer the vaccine.

The National Health Service has roughly 150,000 doctors and more than 330,000 nurses and midwives.

Does authorization in Britain affect other countries’ supply of the vaccine?

The British decision will not in itself bring vaccinations closer anywhere else.

But Pfizer executives said Wednesday that they had already heard from other countries that, in light of Britain’s go-ahead, were looking to accelerate their own approval processes.

U.S. regulators, despite months of pressure from Trump, have maintained that they will follow their plan and review Pfizer’s vaccine to the FDA’s standards.

The United States has preordered 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

Most of its supply will come from a separate factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Still, many questions remain about how vaccine makers like Pfizer will fulfill the orders of wealthier nations that have procured supplies in advance.

Britain’s ruling offered little relief to poorer countries that could not afford to buy supplies in advance and may struggle to pay for both the vaccines and the exceptional demands of distributing them.

AHORROS DE NAVIDAD $

desde

Mirage G-4 2020

133

mens.

(1)

24/30 (27) MPG

$ desde

Outlander Sport 2020

22,495

(2)

BF

La mejor garan a del mundo

35/41 (37) MPG

CAYEY AUTO MALL

(787)339-5104

Carr # 1, Km. 56.5, Bo. Montellano, Cayey (al lado de la rotonda)

A National Health Service poster at a bus stop in London, Dec. 1, 2020. Britain is prioritizing vaccinations in nursing homes and for medical workers.

1) Mitsubishi Mirage G-4 2020 Mod. ES. Código B02 . MSRP $16,169. Pronto 5,600 2) Mitsubishi Outlander Sport 2020 Mod. ES. Código B02. MSRP $24,450. Pronto $2,000. Bal a Fin $22,450. Clientes con 757 o más de empírica.

No incluye seguros, marbete, tablilla ni costos de originación. Sujeto a aprobación de crédito. Ciertas Restricciones aplican. Más detalles en el dealer. Válido hasta el 15 de diciembre de 2020.

16

December 4-6, 2020

Israel takes first step toward new election

By ISABEL KERSHNER

I

srael moved closer Wednesday to another early election, its fourth in two years, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s disenchanted coalition partners joined the opposition in a preliminary vote to bring down the unity government in which they serve.

The bill to disperse the 120-seat Knesset, or parliament, and head to new elections heralded a new period of political instability and upheaval even though the government did not immediately fall.

The motion passed 61-54 with five lawmakers absent, but it must now go to committee and pass three more readings before it becomes law.

In any case, if a state budget is not approved by Dec. 23, the Knesset will disperse automatically and elections will be set for late March. Netanyahu has so far refused to pass a budget for 2020 or to present one for 2021.

Billed as an emergency coalition, the government was ostensibly formed to fight the public health and economic crises posed by the coronavirus pandemic. Instead,

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, center, persuaded his rival Benny Gantz to join a unity government after three inconclusive elections.

it has largely been paralyzed amid infighting over the longdelayed approval of a state budget while appointments to key vacant positions in the government and public sector have been frozen.

“These last months have been difficult,” Yair Lapid, the leader of the opposition, said in a speech introducing the bill. “They haven’t only been difficult because of the health crisis. They haven’t only been difficult because of the economic disaster. They’ve been difficult because of the depth of the failure of this government.”

The government was sworn in just six months ago, after three inconclusive elections ended without any one candidate able to muster a parliamentary majority. In the end, Netanyahu of the conservative Likud party persuaded his main rival, Benny Gantz, a former army chief and the leader of the centrist Blue and White party, to join forces with him in a unity government.

Gantz, who broke an election promise by joining Netanyahu’s government and has since lost much of his public support, voted Wednesday to break it up.

Israel is just emerging from a second national lockdown, but with infections rising again, health experts were already warning of a third.

Israeli analysts have predicted for months that Netanyahu would back early elections rather than see Gantz take over as prime minister a year from now, as laid out in their coalition agreement. Few people, including Gantz, expected that to actually happen.

Likud lawmakers have openly declared that Gantz no longer commands enough public support to serve as prime minister.

With a trial on corruption charges expected to enter the evidentiary phase in February, Netanyahu is clinging to power so he can fight the case from the advantage of high office. A new election could strengthen his position.

Recent opinion polls put Likud firmly in the lead and indicate that Netanyahu could even put together a rightwing-religious coalition that could provide him with im-

munity from prosecution.

The opposition would be entering an election campaign weakened and splintered.

Gantz and Netanyahu have blamed each other for the coalition crisis.

“Netanyahu didn’t lie to me — he lied to all of you,” Gantz said in an angry televised address Tuesday night.

“He didn’t lead me astray; he led the entire nation astray.”

He added: “Netanyahu is on a path of personal survival. The only index for his decision-making is relevance to his ability to evade trial, which is just around the corner.”

In a video statement issued shortly before Gantz’s speech, Netanyahu said, “I’ve been saying for a long time, this is not the time for elections — this is the time for unity.” He accused Gantz of establishing “a government within the government.”

Despite his vote with the opposition to bring down the government, Gantz left the door open for a deal, saying the government would be saved if a budget were approved by the Dec. 23 deadline.

Some lawmakers said talks were underway to form an alternative government without elections, although the chances were slim that any other coalition could be established and command a majority in Parliament.

In the topsy-turvy world of Israeli politics, Netanyahu’s and Gantz’s votes on Wednesday were not necessarily indicative of their true positions.

Netanyahu is pushing for elections but voted against the bill to disperse the Parliament, wary of being blamed for the early vote, said Yohanan Plesner, the president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan research organization in Jerusalem. Gantz voted for it, though he is fearful of elections, Plesner added.

Gantz is “in a conflict of interest,” Plesner said, because he does not want to show more weakness by giving into Netanyahu. By voting against his own government, Plesner said, Gantz did “cross a threshold.”

The San Juan Daily Star

December 4-6, 2020

17

U.N. reclassifies cannabis as a less dangerous drug

Tending crops at a marijuana plantation in North Macedonia.

By ISABELLA KWAI

A

United Nations commission voted Wednesday to remove cannabis for medicinal purposes from a category of the world’s most dangerous drugs, a highly anticipated and long-delayed decision that could clear the way for an expansion of marijuana research and medical use.

The vote by the Commission for Narcotic Drugs, which is based in Vienna and includes 53 member states, considered a series of recommendations from the World Health Organization on reclassifying cannabis and its derivatives.

But attention centered on a key recommendation to remove cannabis from Schedule IV of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs — where it was listed alongside dangerous and highly addictive opioids like heroin.

Experts say that the vote will have no immediate impact on loosening international controls because governments will still have jurisdiction over how to classify cannabis. But many countries look to global conventions for guidance, and U.N. recognition is a symbolic win for advocates of drug policy change who say that international law is out of date.

“This is a huge, historic victory for us; we couldn’t hope for more,” said Kenzi RibouletZemouli, an independent researcher for drug policy who has closely monitored the vote and the position of member states.

He said that cannabis had been used throughout history for medicinal purposes and that the decision Wednesday reinstated that status.

The change will most likely bolster medical research and legalization efforts around the world.

The vote was a “big step forward,” rec-

ognizing the positive impact of cannabis on patients, said Dirk Heitepriem, a vice president at Canopy Growth, a Canadian cannabis company. “We hope this will empower more countries to create frameworks which allow patients in need to get access to treatment.”

Marijuana for medical use has exploded in recent years and products containing cannabis derivatives like cannabidiol or CBD, a nonintoxicating compound, have flooded the wellness industry. Cowen, an investment and financial services company, estimates that the CBD industry in the United States will be worth $16 billion by 2025.

Some research has suggested that CBD can protect the nervous system and provide relief from seizures, pain, anxiety and inflammation. The list of CBD-infused products — including creams, serums, soda water and juice — is also expanding rapidly.

The recommendations for changing the classification of marijuana were first made by the WHO in 2019. But they were politically divisive, which led to unusual delays in the U.N. commission’s vote.

The reclassification passed 27-25, with an abstention from Ukraine. The United States and European nations were among those who voted in favor, while the likes of China, Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and Russia were opposed.

China’s delegate said that, despite the U.N. move, the country would strictly control cannabis “to protect from the harm and abuse.”

Britain’s delegate said that the reclassification was “in line with the scientific evidence of its therapeutic benefits” but that the country still strongly supported international controls for cannabis, adding that marijuana presented “serious public health risks.”

The differing messages underline the complexities behind the decision.

“It’s been a diplomatic circus,” said Riboulet-Zemouli, who added that some countries initially opposed to the change, like France, had since switched their position.

Michael Krawitz, executive director for Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access, an advocacy group in the United States, said the change in international law would “help reduce the suffering millions of people” and could help mitigate reliance on opiates, noting that cannabis was an important medication that could provide unique pain relief.

Also on Wednesday, the commission rejected a proposal to include the cannabis derivative THC in the 1961 convention, which would have tightened some controls.

The overhaul of cannabis policy, particularly around legalization for medical use, has moved at a rapid pace over the past few years, said Jessica Steinberg, managing director at the Global C, an international cannabis consulting

group. Industry insiders have expressed hope that the vote will open the field for more research into the therapeutic benefits of the drug.

But the impact on the U.S. and European markets was driving the issue, Steinberg noted.

In the United States, where more states legalized the use of medical and recreational marijuana in the recent election, the market for both of those is expected to expand to more than $34 billion by 2025, according to Cowen.

Before the vote this week and other decriminalization efforts, share prices of some cannabis companies jumped.

But aside from the financial boon it could provide for U.S. and European marijuana markets, downgrading the dangers of cannabis may have the biggest impact on countries that have more conservative policies, such as many Caribbean and Asian nations.

“Something like this does not mean that legalization is just going to happen around the world,” Steinberg said. But “it could be a watershed moment.”

18

December 4-6, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL

Obama’s curious cautiousness

By CHARLES M. BLOW

B

arack Obama continues his rather strange mission to confront and correct young liberal activists. It is an odd post-presidential note: A man who is beloved and admired on the left is using his cultural currency as a corrective against those who are on a quest for change.

Wednesday morning on Peter Hamby’s Snapchat show, “Good Luck America,” Obama said this: “If you believe, as I do, that we should be able to reform the criminal justice system so that it’s not biased and treats everybody fairly, I guess you can use a snappy slogan like ‘Defund the police,’ but, you know, you lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you’re actually going to get the changes you want done.”

It was not the first time Obama had taken aim at these young activists. Last year he also took a swipe at wokeness and “call-out culture,” saying, among other things: “If all you’re doing is casting stones, you’re probably not going to get that far. That’s easy to do.”

That speech got him an amen from Ann Coulter, who tweeted: “Good for Obama. (Not sarcastic!)”

These chastisements by Obama delineate the diffe-

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

Elsa Velázquez

Circulation Director

Editor / Reporter

Lisette Martínez

María Rivera

Advertising Agency Director

Graphic Artist Manager

rence between the politician and the activist.

The politician may be popular, but the activist will rarely be. The politician can unify, but the activist often divides. The politician seeks to unify people around a set of beliefs. The activist seeks to right a wrong that has been held up by a set of beliefs. In short, the politician navigates the system, while the activist defies it.

The politician builds a coalition by using middling philosophy and policies that appeal to the most and offend the fewest. The activist is driven more by purpose, morality and righteousness.

There is a reason most of our greatest activists in America never became politicians: They would have had to compromise too much of themselves and their causes.

Of course, as a political matter, Obama is right in a way. He is looking at the path to legislative and public opinion success. To take that path, the power structure can’t be so much confronted as coaxed. Those who do not recognize your full humanity must be convinced rather than condemned.

But that all feels like cowardice and accommodation to the activists. They are right, after all. Policing needs to be restructured in this country. Part of the reason so many unarmed Black people are killed at the hands of the police is that policing itself has become sick and corrupt; it has become bloated and impervious to prosecution.

I believe that Obama recognizes this, too, to some degree. But to the politician, baby steps are still progress.

Winning the hearts and minds of the populace in that tradecraft, it is the way — the only way — they believe that progress is made.

Possibly.

But it is also true that it is often the presence of an extremist wing — I say extremist here only because that is the way the opposition sees strident activism — that makes successes of the moderate position possible.

Part of the reason the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. could be so successful was the existence of the more radical — and less widely acceptable — Malcolm X. Booker T. Washington was elevated because he was willing to forgo political power at a time when Black people outnumbered white people in some Southern states and were near a majority in others. The idea of Black political power and possibly even Black dominance had sent shock waves through the white South and animated white terror in the region.

This moment needs the radical young activists. It needs them to push far and hard. It needs them to confront the power structure, to stare it down, to demand its dismantling.

Obama is a good man and a great politician. History will always record him as such. But he is not an activist. He is not the person who can or will push for the immediate alleviation of oppression. That is just not who he is or how his power was derived. He is above all else a practical, left-of-center moderate.

His presence as president was his greatest symbol of change: a smart, competent Black man, devoid of personal scandal, who brought class and professionalism to the White House. He changed the idea of what was possible to America — including its children — and enshrined Black excellence at the highest level of government as just another normal thing.

That simple act, him doing his job well, was monumental in the quest for racial progress.

But none of that negates the legitimate cries of the activist that much more must be done, that Obama altered a racial image, for the better, but wasn’t able to alter the system of oppression. That was always too much of an expectation. No one can correct 400 years in eight.

But in their approach, the activists are right. I have no problem with “Defund the police.” I know that it means to reallocate funding so that social services and policing are properly weighted. If people are offended and “lost” because of that, they were actually lost before the phrase was uttered.

The San Juan Daily Star

December 4-6, 2020

19

Inicia proceso de transición en el DDEC Por THE STAR

E

l secretario del Departamento de Desarrollo Económico y Comercio (DDEC), Manuel Laboy Rivera, se reunió el jueves con el designado secretario del DDEC, Manuel Cidre Miranda para iniciar el proceso de transición de la agencia con la mayor apertura y agilidad.

“Estoy sumamente orgulloso del trabajo que por los pasados cuatro años hemos realizado en equipo.

Fue un tiempo de retos impensables, pero como equipo colaborando con otras agencias gubernamentales a nivel estatal y municipal, así como con organizaciones privadas, logramos afrontar cada situación. Como parte del trabajo, logramos implementar proyectos de política pública para mejorar y agilizar la manera de hacer negocios en Puerto Rico, siempre buscando el mejor beneficio para el pueblo. Algunos de nuestros logros son: el Código de Incentivos de Puerto Rico, la Reforma de Permisos, la creación de Invest Puerto Rico, la obtención de la dispensa de carga aérea y de pasajeros por parte del Departamento de Transportación de los Estados Unidos, el apoyo al talento cinematográfico local, el desarrollo de PROtech, la implementación de la Ley 141 de 2018 de Ejecución del Plan de Reorganización del Departamento de Desarrollo Económico

y Comercio, que permite ofrecer en un mismo lugar la ayuda necesaria para los emprendedores”, manifestó Laboy Rivera en comunicación escrita.

Bajo esta administración, se impulsaron proyectos puntuales en los antiguos terrenos de Roosevelt Roads en Ceiba, que serán de gran beneficio para el desarrollo económico en la región este de la Isla. Actualmente existen 15 proyectos en desarrollo para un total de $450 millones en inversión con el compromiso de crear 3,650 empleos.

El funcionario, mencionó que también se crearon programas enfocados en ayudar a los empresarios locales a través de los programas de Desarrollo Laboral, Desarrollo de la Juventud, Pymes Innovadoras, Programa de Hidropónico, Maletín Empresarial para la Mujer, entre otros que fueron clave para el desarrollo de múltiples sectores económicos.

“Aún con los retos que se han presentado durante este cuatrienio, logramos ayudar a establecer 286 de nuevos proyectos, obtener compromisos para la creación de 16,293 de nuevos empleos y compromisos de inversión en infraestructura, maquinaria y equipo, de más de 1,400 millones de dólares”, informó el secretario del DDEC, quien agradeció al equipo de trabajo del DDEC, porque en los momentos de mayor complejidad siempre dieron un paso al frente, colocando al

desarrollo económico de Puerto Rico como prioridad.

A partir de enero de 2021, el Departamento de Desarrollo Económico y Comercio, estará a cargo del empresario Manuel Cidre Miranda. Un experimentado empresario que conoce de primera mano las oportunidades, fortalezas y retos para emprender.

El también director ejecutivo de la Compañía de Fomento Industrial concluyó “confiamos que se dará continuidad a los proyectos, programas, leyes e iniciativas ya encaminadas. De esta manera, se continúa promoviendo un clima económico favorable, las empresas tendrán la oportunidad de prosperar junto a la clase trabajadora que emplean y el gobierno mejorará su rol como facilitador. A Cidre Miranda, le deseo el mayor de los éxitos y siempre podrá contar conmigo y con el equipo de primera de los empleados del DDEC”.

Alerta de fraude: Estafadores se hacen pasar por representantes de compañías de celulares Por THE STAR

E

l Servicio Secreto de los Estados Unidos informó el jueves, que ha recibido varias denuncias sobre individuos que se hacen pasar por representantes de servicio al cliente de compañías locales de celulares.

Estos individuos están llamando al público como parte de un esquema de fraude para recibir información personal y financiera, anunció el fiscal federal W. Stephen Muldrow. La Fiscalía Federal de los Estados Unidos para el Distrito de Puerto Rico exhorta al público a permanecer alerta y no proveer información personal o códigos de acceso en estas llamadas.

Las denuncias recibidas por el Servicio Secreto indican que estos estafadores se hacen pasar por empleados de la compañía de celulares e intentan obtener la información personal del receptor de la llamada ofreciéndoles un descuento a aquellos que se registren para pago automático a través de ATH Móvil. El cliente recibe una llamada en la que le indican

que el proveedor de servicios está actualizando la red de 3G a 5G y también le ofrecen un descuento en su factura si usan ATH Móvil. Luego, les dicen a los

clientes que para poder recibir el descuento tienen que confirmar la información de su cuenta.

Estando en la llamada, el estafador

envía un código de autentificación desde la página de internet de la compañía al cliente. Luego, el estafador le pide al cliente que confirme verbalmente el código diciendo que necesita confirmar la identidad del cliente antes de proceder a discutir la información de la cuenta.

Una vez que el cliente provee el código, el estafador obtiene acceso a la cuenta que tiene el cliente con la compañía. En este punto ya el estafador tiene control de la cuenta del cliente y fraudulentamente pide que el cliente provea su información de ATH Móvil. Luego le dicen a los clientes que deben apagar sus celulares para que se puedan completar los cambios en la cuenta. En este tiempo, los estafadores transfieren fondos a distintas cuentas de banco en Puerto Rico y fuera de la jurisdicción o hacen compras fraudulentas utilizando la información del cliente.

Muldrow exhortó a aquellos que reciban este tipo de llamadas a no proveer información personal o códigos de acceso en estas llamadas. El público puede reportar estas estafas al Servicio Secreto llamando al 787-277-1515.

20

December 4-6, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Netflix holiday movies: Ranked, listed and checked twice

By ELISABETH VICENTELLI

N

etflix can’t match Hallmark’s prodigious output when it comes to holiday movies, but then it doesn’t seem to try. Instead, the streaming platform offers a curated slate boasting, at least in theory, bigger budgets, splashier ambitions, and more diverse casts and stories.

But while Netflix showed some Christmas game the past two years, it engaged the autopilot for its 2020 batch. So much so that the low-budget indie pickup “A New York Christmas Wedding” — a flawed but endearingly scrappy lesbian rom-com — is a more compelling watch than most of the Netflix originals.

But ho-ho-ho we must, so below are the 2020 Netflix original holiday movies available at the time of writing, ranked from best to worst.

1. ‘Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey’ Netflix’s prestige entry in the holiday sweepstakes, “Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey” is not great, but it does feature a surprisingly prickly performance by Forest Whitaker, as well as musical numbers that are fairly decent, if often derivative (Madalen Mills’ anthemic “Square Root of Possible” sounds like an answer song to “Defying Gravity” from “Wicked”).

Whitaker’s Jeronicus is a gifted toymaker and inventor who sank into bitterness and rancor after his apprentice (Keegan-Michael Key) stole his blueprints and ruined his business. Since this is a holiday movie, there is zero suspense about the ending: it’s no spoiler to say that Jeronicus’ plucky, precocious granddaughter (Mills) will help restore justice along with Grandpa’s faith in family, humanity and the power of song and dance. The treacle can get thick — the movie glances in the direction of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” but lacks Roald Dahl’s wicked humor — but overall “Jingle Jangle” goes down fairly easily.

2. ‘The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two’ Everything that went right for “The Christmas Chronicles” a couple of years ago began and ended with the casting of Kurt Russell as a funky Santa Claus with Kenny Rogers grooming and a sexy red shearling coat. Goldie Hawn turned up for a cameo as Mrs. Claus, and the good news is that her role has been beefed up in this year’s sequel. The bad news is that “Part Two” is jacked up on

From left, Ria Calvin, Phylicia Rashad and Kenyah Sandy in “Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey.” holiday juice and everything has been beefed up — more special effects, more elves, more plot. With Chris Columbus (of “Home Alone” fame) now at the helm, “The Christmas Chronicles 2” pairs the original’s plucky, precocious heroine Kate (Darby Camp) with Jack (Jahzir Bruno), the scaredy-cat son of Kate’s mom’s new boyfriend, and sends them up to the North Pole. The kids, however, are merely pawns in a nasty game played by Belsnickel (Julian Dennison), a disgruntled former employee of the Clauses, who has turned the elves into destructive gremlins. Never mind that the movie can’t even be consistent about Santa’s powers: Once again it all boils down to Russell, and once again he delivers.

3. ‘Operation Christmas Drop’ “Operation Christmas Drop” earns bonus points simply by taking us away from the wintry Midwest that seems to be the default set for every other holiday flick. Here we are transported to Guam, where briskly efficient congressional aide Erica Miller (Kat Graham, of “The Vampire Diaries”) has been dispatched to investigate and possibly defund the local Air Force base. Obviously, this puts the base’s Christmas tradition of parachuting supplies to thousands of islanders at risk.

Erica’s local guide is the hunky Capt. Andrew Jantz (Alexander Ludwig), a freakishly nice guy who also happens to be single. The two meet semi-hostile but it doesn’t take long before the captain’s own Operation Charm

succeeds and Erica lets down her hair, both literally and figuratively. As far as eye candy and holiday spirit go, “Operation Christmas Drop” does the job, which is enough to put it on the podium in this annus horribilis of Netflix Christmas movies.

4. ‘Holidate’ Sloane (Emma Roberts) and Jackson (Luke Bracey, Australia’s latest export) are singles and adverse to complications. They decide to be each other’s date, no strings attached, for the holidays — all of them. Accordingly, “Holidate” takes us through St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Cinco de Mayo and so on. A tip to the creative team: there is this thing called a music montage, you see, and it would have allowed you to string some of those celebrations together in a five-minute sequence. The movie starts promisingly, cutting the usual saccharine with a sour-candy tang. But desperation eventually sets in — diarrhea gags are way past their expiration date by now — and “Holidate” limps to its predictable denouement. Too bad, because it could have been among the best seasonal rom-coms.

5. ‘The Princess Switch: Switched Again’ Two years ago, Vanessa Hudgens made her entry into the Netflix holiday landscape with “The Princess Switch,” a sugar-frosted fantasy that combined two surefire crowdpleasers: royalty and dessert. She actually embodied both by portraying Margaret,

Duchess of Montenaro, and Stacy, Baking Queen of Chicago. In the sequel, Stacy flies to Netflixworld Europe to attend Margaret’s coronation. Hudgens goes for a three-peat by also playing Margaret’s grifting cousin Fiona, and while she seems to have a bit more fun with Fiona than with her other two roles, one wishes she had gone all the way and channeled her performance from the decadent “Spring Breakers.” Paradoxically the movie doesn’t bother to make sense while holding on to the guardrails, and so it never fully exploits the situation’s comic potential. Maybe next time? Actually, forget I said that.

6. ‘Midnight at the Magnolia’ The cast of “Midnight at the Magnolia” may be the least diverse on this list, but the movie actually feels not so much white as beige, or whatever Pantone calls the color of blandness. Maggie (Natalie Hall) is dating a guy prone to wearing sweater vests, so you know that relationship is doomed — especially since astute viewers will have spotted the one true love standing right next to her: longtime best friend and confidant Jack (Evan Williams). After they are both dumped, Jack and Maggie pretend to be in love with each other for the sake of the radio show they cohost. Movies burdened with insipid leads often make up for them with amusing sidekicks; “Midnight at the Magnolia” does not even try.

Jack may refer to their “crazy families,” but the characters are all so aggressively innocuous, they make the models in an L.L. Bean catalog look like sociopathic hoodlums.

7. ‘Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square’ Christine Baranski livens up, as is her wont, mediocre lines in this Dolly Parton musical, with Jenifer Lewis providing a barnstorming assist. On its own, this casting would have been enough to lift “Christmas on the Square” a few spots in this ranking. But the movie’s overbearing sanctimoniousness gets in the way, fogging up any camp goggles you might attempt to watch it with. We are meant to root against Baranski, who is handing out eviction notices so that an idyllic — if you love the 1950s at their most oppressive — town square can be replaced with a mall.

But siding with this fantasy heartland’s good citizens against “the Wicked Witch of the Middle” is not easy when they gleefully sing “roast her, toast her, choke her” in church, as Pastor Christian (Josh Segarra) looks as if he’s about to get the pitchforks out of storage.

The San Juan Daily Star

December 4-6, 2020

21

Comfort viewing: 3 reasons I love ‘GLOW’

By SCARLETT HARRIS

A

fter renewing “GLOW” for a fourth and final season last year, Netflix walked back that decision last month by ending the series instead, citing production delays caused by the coronavirus.

I was immediately and immensely sad, not only that I no longer got to spend time with the scrappy women wrestlers at its center but also that their stories were never concluded. As a lifelong wrestling fan, culture writer and the editor of a forthcoming book about Jenji Kohan (one of the show’s executive producers and the creator of “Orange Is the New Black”), I was sorry to lose something that lay at the intersection of so many of my interests. Since its 2017 premiere, I loved how it gave the prestige TV treatment to a pro-wrestling subculture that is frequently dismissed, going all the way back to its carny roots.

I will miss the leotards and sequins.

But the resurging pandemic means there’s more time than usual for me to revisit the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. Here are three reasons I’ll be watching “GLOW” again.

1. ‘GLOW’ took wrestling seriously.

Professional wrestling has been depicted a handful of times in pop culture, but apart from the Darren Aronofsky film “The Wrestler” (2008), seldom have those portrayals taken its artistry and athleticism seriously. Even less frequently, if ever, have they been centered on women.

“GLOW” changed that. Inspired by the real-life 1980s women’s wrestling show, “Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling” — “GLOW” for short — the Netflix series followed failed actress Ruth (Alison Brie) and her marginally more successful best friend, Debbie (Betty Gilpin), a former soap star.

When Debbie finds out that Ruth has been sleeping with her husband, she confronts Ruth in a dilapidated ring during an audition for the show that will one day become “GLOW” The director, Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron), immediately sees dollar signs and invites them both to join with Debbie as “his star,” playing All-American wrestler Liberty Belle.

Throughout its three-season run, the women of “GLOW” dealt with subjects that are faced by everyday women but are rarely depicted in professional wrestling, including motherhood, friendship, queer

identity, ambition, reproductive rights, racism and eating disorders. Debbie’s reclamation of her body through wrestling, after childbirth and divorce, was a joy to watch.

So was her unlikely bond with Tammé (Kia Stevens), a single Black mom putting her son through an Ivy League college while playing a character called Welfare Queen.

In one standout Season 3 episode, the wrestlers take a break from their Las Vegas residency to connect with nature on a weekend camping trip. Around the campfire, Melrose (Jackie Tohn) and Jenny (Ellen Wong) discuss what it means to be the children of immigrants in America while Yolanda (Shakira Berrera) and Arthie (Sunita Mani) navigate their romantic relationship among the group of otherwise straight women. It had a level of empathy for the real-life women behind the wrestler caricatures that rarely comes through in the wrestling productions themselves.

Still, the wrestling was central, and it provided a fun entry point for people who had perhaps never seen it as anything more than a bunch of half-naked men fakepunching each other.

When Debbie attends a wrestling show in Season 1, we experience her aha! moment with her as she likens the theatrics in the ring to her experience in soap operas. Later in Season 1, during an extremely ’80s montage set to the Stan Bush song “Dare,” Debbie and Ruth must learn to trust each other in the ring as they practice their dangerous and athletically demanding moves until they get them right. Debbie fly-tackles Ruth off the ropes. Ruth slams Debbie’s face into the turnbuckle. Friends of mine who were never fans of wrestling have since come with me to wrestling shows, citing these scenes as their own eureka moments.

2. Betty Freaking Gilpin.

That’s it. That’s the entry.

Joking aside, even with such a strong ensemble cast, “GLOW” was ultimately a star vehicle for Gilpin, whose portrayal of a former soap actress turned wrestler turned promoter was exceptional. She had good company: Stevens, a real-life wrestler in both the WWE and AEW, was among my favorites; so were Mani, who seems to be everywhere right now, and the sorely underutilized Wong, who first captured my attention as a young Carrie Bradshaw’s best friend in “The Carrie Diaries.”

(After the show was canceled, it was

The Netflix series “GLOW,” starring Betty Gilpin, left, and Alison Brie, is at its core a love story about women, the writer argues. revealed that the principal cast’s women of color had asked the producers for more inclusivity, criticizing the show for sidelining their characters and making them feel “like checkboxes on a list”; Entertainment Weekly reported that there had been plans to address those concerns in Season 4.)

Then, of course, there was Brie, who was billed as the series lead and is similarly wonderful as the insecure yet plucky Ruth. But even though Gilpin’s three Emmy nominations were in the supporting actress category, she was always the crown jewel on the “GLOW” tiara for me.

Gilpin has expressed her sorrow at the cancellation, writing in Vanity Fair, “It was the best job I’ll ever have. Our business is a strange mix of attempting childhood dreams to a room full of asleep people and shirking dignity for awake tomato-throwers for rent. This was one of those extremely rare times where we got to do the dream for awake people.”

Hey, if this acting thing doesn’t take off, Gilpin will have a bright future as a writer.

But I would rather see a sprawling eight-season drama with her as the lead, on which she could really show off the acting chops I’m sure we got only a glimpse of on “GLOW.” 3. ‘GLOW’ was a love story about women.

“I was the one that got away,” Gilpin said about her character in a roundtable interview after the cancellation.

“From me,” Brie replied about hers.

Although Ruth and Debbie never quite make up — the fourth season was no doubt going to see a full-scale reconciliation — “GLOW” charts their journey back to each other as they try to bring their trust in the ring back into their personal relationship. Without wanting to spoil the final scene of Season 3, its riffs on rom-com conventions cemented for me the notion that “GLOW” was, at its core, a love story between Debbie and Ruth.

For as dissatisfying as that finale was as an ending to the entire series, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since I first saw it last year. It will forever keep bouncing around my head, keeping me guessing about the central “will they/won’t they” couple of the show. It seems Debbie is destined to remain the one that got away.

22

The San Juan Daily Star

December 4-6, 2020

The virus won’t stop evolving when the vaccine arrives

By JAMES GORMAN AND CARL ZIMMER

I

n a 1988 essay on pandemics, Joshua Lederberg, Nobel laureate and president of The Rockefeller University, reminded the medical community that when it comes to infectious disease, the laws of Darwin are as important as the vaccines of Pasteur.

As medicine battles bacteria and viruses, those organisms continue to undergo mutations and evolve new characteristics.

Lederberg advised vigilance: “We have no guarantee that the natural evolutionary competition of viruses with the human species will always find ourselves the winner.”

With the emergence of what seem so far to be safe and effective vaccine candidates, it appears that humanity may be the winner again this time around, albeit with a dreadful loss of life.

But vaccines will not put an end to the evolution of this coronavirus, as David A. Kennedy and Andrew F. Read of Penn State, specialists in viral resistance to vaccines, wrote in PLoS Biology recently. Instead, they could even drive new evolutionary change.

There is always the chance, though small, the authors write, that the virus could evolve resistance to a vaccine, what researchers call “viral escape.” They urge monitoring of vaccine effects and viral response, just in case.

“Nothing that we’re saying is suggesting that we slow down development of vaccines,” Kennedy said. An effective vaccine is of utmost importance, he said, “But let’s

A photo provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases shows a scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell heavily infected with coronavirus particles. make sure that it stays efficacious.”

Vaccine-makers could use the results of nasal swabs taken from volunteers during trials to look for any genetic changes in the virus.

Test results need not stop or slow down vaccine rollout, but if recipients of the vaccine had changes in the virus that those who received the placebo did not, that would indicate “the

potential for resistance to evolve,” something researchers ought to keep monitoring.

There are some reasons to be optimistic that the coronavirus will not become resistant to vaccines. Several years ago, Kennedy and Read presented an analysis of the difference between resistance to drugs and vaccines.

Neither bacteria nor viruses evolve resistance to vaccines as easily as they do to drugs, they wrote. Smallpox vaccine never lost its effectiveness, nor did the vaccines for measles or polio, despite years of use.

Antibiotics, on the other hand, can quickly become useless as bacteria and other pathogens like viruses and fungi evolve defenses. And resistance builds to other drugs as well.

The reasons have to do with the very basic principles of evolution and immunity. The two key differences are that vaccines generally act earlier than drugs, and that the natural immune response they promote is usually more varied, with more lines of attack. A drug may be narrowly targeted, sometimes attacking one metabolic pathway or biochemical process.

With most drugs, the virus or bacteria has already been reproducing in the patient’s body and if one variant is better at surviving the drug’s attack, it will continue to grow and perhaps be transmitted to another person. A

combination of drugs, as with HIV treatment, can be more effective because it unleashes a multipronged attack Vaccines, on the other hand, act early, before the virus begins to proliferate and perhaps change within a patient’s body. So there are no new variants, like those forged in the heat of a drug attack to grow and spread from the infected person.

Vaccines offer the body’s immune system a glimpse of the virus, and then the immune system builds a broad attack. For example, after a tetanus shot, a person’s immune system may produce 100 different antibodies.

Some vaccines, however, do drive viruses to evolve resistance, Kennedy and Read noted in their 2015 article. A vaccine stopped Marek’s disease, an illness in chickens that is important commercially. But the virus could still infect the chickens. It replicated and spread without causing disease and quickly became resistant.

In humans, a type of bacteria that causes pneumonia bacteria evolved resistance to a vaccine when the bacteria recombined in nature with existing strains that were naturally resistant. A vaccine for hepatitis B created antibodies targeting only one small part of one protein — a loop made by nine amino acids, which is tiny in protein terms. It did not create a broad attack. A pertussis vaccine also appeared to drive resistance. It worked to fend off the disease, but targeted only a few proteins and was not effective at stopping infection and transmission of the virus.

The coronavirus vaccines now in development use different ways to get the immune system to respond. Some coronavirus vaccines under development or in use in Russia and China use whole virus particles, inactivated or attenuated, to spark an immune system response.

Many other vaccine candidates, like the ones from Pfizer and Moderna, now nearing review by the Food and Drug Administration for first use as early as December, are meant to get the immune system to react to only a portion of the coronavirus, the so-called spike protein, which would seem to offer fewer targets.

But Kennedy said that was not necessarily a problem.

“A vaccine based on just the spike protein has the potential to generate a broad immune response,” he said, “because there are multiple sites on the spike protein where potent neutralizing antibodies can bind.”

The San Juan Daily Star tende ejecutar: HIPOTECA: Por $55,600.00, con intereses al ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO 7.95% anual, en garantía de un DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU- pagaré a favor de Doral Bank, o NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA a su orden, que vence el 1ro de SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN julio de 2035. Según escritura JUAN. #368, otorgada en San Juan, el 9 de junio de 2005, ante Eric CONDADO 3, LLC. Hernández Batalla, inscrita Demandante, v. al folio 5 del tomo 710 de Río CARLOS CORNIER Piedras Sur (ágora), inscripción LÓPEZ, ET AL 9na. La referida hipoteca grava Demandados el bien inmueble antes descrito.

CIVIL NÚM.: KCD2014-2291 Que según surge del estudio (503). SOBRE: COBRO DE de título, la propiedad se enDINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE cuentra afecta a los siguientes HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORgravámenes posteriores: HIPODINARIA. AVISO DE PÚBLICA TECA: Por $222,400.00, con inSUBASTA. tereses al 6.95% anual, en gaA: LOS CODEMANDADOS rantía de un pagaré a favor de DE EPIGRAFE Y AL Doral Bank, o a su orden, que PÚBLICO EN GENERAL: vence el 1ro de julio de 2020.

El Alguacil que suscribe por la Según escritura #367, otorgada presente anuncia y hace cons- en San Juan, el 9 de junio de tar que en cumplimiento de una 2005, ante Eric Hernández BaSentencia dictada en el caso talla, inscrita al folio 5 del tomo de epígrafe el día 6 de mayo de 710 de Río Piedras Sur (ágora), 2015, notificada el 8 de mayo de inscripción 10ma. AVISO DE 2015 y de un Mandamiento de DEMANDA: Dado en el Caso Ejecución emitido el día 10 de Civil #KCD2009-4351, Tribunal agosto de 2020, que le ha sido de Primera Instancia, Sala Sudirigido por la Secretaria del perior de San Juan, mediante Tribunal de Primera Instancia, la cual se solicita el pago de la Sala de San Juan, procederá a deuda garantizada con hipotevender en subasta, por separa- ca de la inscripción 9na, redudo, y al mejor postor con dinero cida a $53,781.76 de principal en efectivo, cheque de geren- adeudado y otras sumas que te o letra bancaria con similar se detallan en la demanda, o la garantía, todo título, derecho venta de esta finca en pública o interés de los demandados subasta. Anotado al folio 5 del de epígrafe sobre el inmueble tomo 710 de Río Piedras Sur, que adelante se describe. Se Anotación A, con fecha de 28 anuncia por la presente que la de enero de 2010. AVISO DE primera subasta habrá de ce- DEMANDA: Dictado en el Caso lebrarse el día 11 de enero de Civil KCD2014-2291(503), en 2021, a las 10:00 de la maña- el Tribunal de Primera Instanna, en mi oficina localizada en cia, Sala Superior de San Juan, el edificio que ocupa la Sala del seguido por Banco Popular de Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Puerto Rico (demandante) vs.

Sala Superior de San Juan, so- Los esposos Carlos Cornier Lóbre el inmueble que se describe pez y Evelyn Oquendo, también a continuación: URBANA: Solar conocida como Evelyn Oquenmarcado con el #26, en el blo- do Albarrán y la sociedad legal que C del plano de inscripción de gananciales compuesta de la Urbanización San Gerar- por ambos (demandados). Se do, radicada en el barrio Cupey, solicita el pago de la deuda sitio denominado Río Piedras, garantizada con la hipoteca del término municipal del Go- de la inscripción 9na. reducida bierno de la Capital de Puerto a $50,278.51, más intereses y Rico, con un área superficial de otras sumas, o la venta de esta 653.35 metros cuadrados. En finca en pública subasta. Anolindes por el Norte, en 27.28 tado al folio 67 del tomo 857 metros cuadrados con el solar de Río Piedras Sur (ágora), 25 del bloque C del menciona- Anotación B, con fecha de 25 do plano; por el Sur, en 40.14 de marzo de 2015. EMBARmetros cuadrados con la pro- GO JUDICIAL: Por $5,156.52, piedad del solar Luis Mogil; a favor de la Asociación de por el Este, en 21.47 metros Residentes San Gerardo, Inc. cuadrados con la carretera de (demandante) vs. Los esposos Cupey y por el Oeste, en 20.76 Carlos Cornier y Evelyn Oquenmetros cuadrados con el solar do, por si y en representación 18 del bloque C del menciona- de la sociedad legal de ganando plano. Finca número ciento ciales compuesta por ambos catorce (114), inscrita al folio (demandados), sobre cobro de veinticinco (25) del tomo cinco dinero. Anotado al folio 67 del (5) de Río Piedras Sur (Sección tomo 857 de Río Piedras Sur IV de San Juan). Dirección Fí- (ágora), Anotación C y última, sica: 26-C San Gerardo Santa con fecha de 25 de marzo de Agueda, San Juan PR 00986. 2015. La subasta se llevará El siguiente pagaré consta a cabo para con su producto inscrito en la propiedad antes satisfacer al demandante, tomencionada y es el que se pre- tal o parcialmente según sea

LEGAL NOTICE

@

Friday, December 4, 2020 el caso, las siguientes sumas actualizadas: $38,621.32 de principal, intereses acumulados al 4 de octubre de 2019 son de $2,530.95, más los intereses que se continúen acumulando a razón de $8.53 diarios, más una suma equivalente al diez por ciento (10%) del principal del pagaré, correspondiente a los gastos de honorarios de abogado, según pactados. Y PARA CONOCIMIENTO DE LAS PARTES INTERESADAS y del público en general, se advierte que los autos de este caso y demás instancias están disponibles para ser inspeccionadas en la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de San Juan, 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 al crédito del ejecutante, incluyendo el gravamen por las contribuciones sobre la propiedad inmueble adeudadas, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda responsable de los mismos sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate.

La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá Libre de Cargas y Gravámenes posteriores. Los tipos mínimos a utilizarse para la subasta son los siguientes: El inmueble antes descrito ha sido tasado en la suma de CINCUENTA Y CINCO MIL SEISCIENTOS DOLARES ($55,600.00) para que dicha suma sirva de tipo mínimo en la primera subasta a celebrarse. De no producirse remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta del antedicho inmueble, se celebrará una segunda subasta en el mismo lugar antes mencionado, el día 19 de enero de 2021, a las 10:00 de la mañana, sirviendo como tipo mínimo para dicha segunda subasta, una suma equivalente a las dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de TREINTA Y SIETE MIL SESENTA Y SEIS DOLARES CON SESENTA Y SIETE CENTAVOS ($37,066.67) para la finca antes descrita. De no producirse remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta del antedicho inmueble, se celebrará una tercera subasta en el mismo lugar antes mencionado, el día 26 de enero de 2021, a las 10:00 de la mañana, sirviendo como tipo mínimo para dicha tercera subasta, una suma equivalente a la mitad (1/2) del tipo mínimo fijado para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de VEINTISIETE MIL OCHOCIENTOS DOLARES ($27,800.00) para la finca antes descrita. En testimonio de

staredictos@thesanjuandailystar.com

lo cual, expido el presente aviso, el cual firmo y sello, hoy 10 de noviembre de 2020, en San Juan, Puerto Rico. EDWIN E. LOPEZ MULERO, ALGUACIL.

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

CITIMORTGAGE, INC. Demandante V.

MILITZA MARTINEZ MORALES

Demandados CIVIL NUM. JU2018CV00251.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA POR LA VIA ORDINARIA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.

A: La Parte Demandada, al (a la) Secretario(a) de Hacienda de Puerto Rico y al Público General:

Certifico y Hago Constar: Que en cumplimiento con el Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por el (la) Secretario(a) del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas , en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América y/o Giro Postal y Cheque Certificado , en mi oficina ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, el 13 de enero de 2021 a las 9:15 de la mañana, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar 12 del bloque “K”, Virginia Valley, localizada en el Barrio Ceiba Sur del Municipio de Juncos, tiene una cabida de 300. 6800 metros cuadrados.

En lindes por el NORTE , en una distancia de 24.26 metros lineales con el solar marcado número 13 del bloque K de dicha urbanización ; por el SUR, en una distancia de 23.85 metros lineales con el solar marcado número 11 del bloque K; por el ESTE, en una distancia de 12.50 metros lineales con la Calle Número 2; y por el OESTE, en una distancia de 12.50 metros lineales con la carretera municipal. En la parte Oeste colindando con la carretera municipal existe un talud que ocupa un área aproximada de 9. 31 metros cuadrados . Consta inscrita al folio 111 del tomo 314 de Juncos , finca número 11839, Registro de la Propiedad de

(787) 743-3346

23 Puerto Rico, Sección JI de Caguas. Propiedad localizada en: K-12 Calle Valle del Rio, Urb. Virginia, Juncos, PR 00777 Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas anteriores o preferentes: Nombre del Titular: N/A Suma de la Carga: NI A Fecha de Vencimiento: N/A Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas posteriores a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: l. Al asiento 2018-11831!CA02 se presentó el 27 de noviembre de 2018 Copia certificada de Demanda radicada el 31 de octubre de 2018 en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas en el caso civil número JU2018-CV00251 sobre cobro de dinero y ejecución de hipoteca; Citimortgage Inc., demandante v. Militza Martínez Morales, demandados. Por la misma se reclama el pago del préstamo Hipotecario garantizado con la Hipoteca por $100,000.00, de la inscripción 6ª antes relacionada, reducida a $79,703.51, más otras sumas, al momento de radicar la demanda.

Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad de la propiedad y que todas las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito ejecutante antes descritos, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes.

El rematante acepta dichas cargas y gravámenes anteriores, y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se establece como tipo mínimo de subasta la suma de $100,000.00, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la escritura de hipoteca. De ser necesaria una segunda subasta por declararse desierta la primera, la misma se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, el 20 de enero de 2021 a las 9:15 de la mañana, y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $66,666.67, dos tercera (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo establecido originalmente. Si tampoco se produce remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se establece como mínima para la tercera subasta, la suma de $50,000.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, el 27 de enero de 2021 a las 9:15 de la mañana. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para, con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante, el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor ascendente a la suma

de $79,703.51 de principal, intereses al tipo del 7.00000% anual según ajustado desde el día 1 de septiembre de 2017 hasta el pago de la deuda en su totalidad, más la suma de $10,000.00 por concepto de honorarios de abogado y costas autorizadas por el Tribunal, más las cantidades que se adeudan mensualmente por concepto de seguro hipotecario, cargos por demora, y otros adeudados que se hagan en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca. La venta en pública subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen posterior que afecte la mencionada finca, a cuyo efecto se notifica y se hace saber la fecha, hora y sitio de la PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA, si esto fuera necesario, a los efectos de que cualquier persona o personas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha subasta. Se notifica a todos los interesados que las actas y demás constancias del expediente de este caso están disponibles en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables para ser examinadas por los (las) interesados (as).

Y para su publicación en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star, que es un diario de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, así como para su publicación en los sitios públicos de Puerto Rico. Expedido en Caguas, Puerto Rico, hoy día 17 de noviembre de 2020.

CARLOS DELGADO CRUZ, Alguacil Regional, Placa 593. ***

LEGAL NOTICE

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

BOSCO CREDIT X, LLC, representado por su Agente de Servicios FRANKLIN CREDIT MANAGEMENT CORPORATION Demandante vs .

WILLIE ROSARIO ARROYO y su esposa MINERVA CRUZ TEJERA y la Sociedad Legal de Bienes Gananciales compuesta por ambos

Demandados CIVIL NÚM. SJ2019CV00154 (506). SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO (Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria). EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

Al: Público en General A: WILLIE ROSARIO

ARROYO y su esposa MINERVA CRUZ TEJERA y la Sociedad Legal de Bienes Gananciales compuesta por ambos;

Yo, PEDRO HIEYE GONZALEZ, Alguacil, 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 17 de diciembre de 2020, a las 9:00 de la mañana, en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, San Juan, 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 San Juan 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 14 de enero de 2021, a las 9:00 de la mañana, y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una tercera subasta el día 25 de enero de 2021, a las 9:00 de la mañana, en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: URBANA: PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL: Apartamento residencial con el número Mil Doscientos Cuatro (1204), localizado en el piso número Doce (12) del inmueble sometido al Régimen de Propiedad Horizontal denominado CONDOMINIO TORRE DEL CARDENAL que ubica en el Barrio Hato Rey del Municipio de San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Este apartamento tiene un área de construcción total (que incluye además el área de los estacionamientos que se describen abajo y del espacio de almacén también descrito abajo) de DOS MIL CIENTO CUARENTA PUNTO TREINTA Y DOS (2,140.32) PIES CUADRADOS, equivalentes a CIENTO NOVENTA Y OCHO PUNTO OCHENTA Y CUATRO (198.84) METROS CUADRADOS . Este apartamento tiene su puerta de entrada por el lindero Este, y por ella se sale al pasillo que conduce al área de ascensores y escaleras y de ahí se sale al exterior.

Este apartamento tiene un largo máximo de SESENTA PIES DIEZ PULGADAS (60’10”) y un

ancho máximo de CUARENTA Y UNO PIES OCHO PULGADAS (41 ‘8”). Linderos: por el NORTE, en CUARENTA Y CINCO PIES TRES PULGADAS (45 ‘3”), con el área común exterior; por el SUR, en SESENTA PIES DIEZ PULGADAS (60 ‘10”), con la pared medianera que lo separa del apartamento número Mil Doscientos Tres (1203); por el ESTE, en CINCUENTA Y CUATRO PIES OCHO PULGADAS (54’8”), con el pasillo que le da acceso y la pared medianera que lo separa del apartamento número Mil Doscientos Cinco (1205); y por el OESTE, en VEINTISIETE PIES ONCE PULGADAS (27’11 “), con el área común exterior. Este apartamento consta de tres (3) dormitorios, uno de ellos “master”, dos (2) baños, uno de ellos “master”, un (1) closet vestidor, tres (3) closets, un (1) pasillo, lavandería, cocina, sala/comedor y balcón. Los estacionamientos identificados con los números Doscientos Cincuenta y Seis (256) y Trescientos Cincuenta y Cuatro (354) en los planos del Condominio son áreas privadas asignadas a este apartamento.

El estacionamiento con el número Doscientos Cincuenta y Seis (256) tiene un área total de CIENTO CUARENTA Y SIETE PUNTO SETENTA Y NUEVE (147.79) PIES CUADRADOS, equivalentes a TRECE PUNTO SETENTA Y TRES (13 .73) METROS CUADRADOS, colindando por el NORTE, en OCHO PIES DOS Y CUARTO PULGADAS (8’2 - 1/4”), con área común ; por el SUR, en OCHO PIES DOS Y CUARTO PULGADAS (8’2-1/4”), con el estacionamiento número Doscientos Cuarenta y Uno (241 ); por el ESTE, en DIECIOCHO PIES CERO PULGADAS (18’0”), con el estacionamiento número Doscientos Cincuenta y SIETE (257); y por el OESTE, en DIECIOCHO PIES CERO PULGADAS (18’0 “), con el estacionamiento número Doscientos Cincuenta y Cinco (255). El estacionamiento con el número Trescientos Cincuenta y Cuatro (354) tiene un área total de CIENTO CUARENTA Y SIETE PUNTO SETENTA Y NUEVE (147.79) PIES CUADRADOS, equivalentes a TRECE PUNTO SETENTA Y TRES (13.73) METROS CUADRADOS, colindando por el NORTE, en OCHO PIES DOS Y CUARTO PULGADAS (8’2 - 1/4”), con área común ; por el SUR, en OCHO PIES DOS Y CUARTO PULGADAS (8’2-1/4 “), con el estacionamiento número Trescientos Treinta y Nueve (339); por el ESTE, en DIECIOCHO PIES CERO PULGADAS (18’0”), con el estacionamiento número Trescientos Cincuenta

24 y Cinco (355); y por el OESTE, en DIECIOCHO PIES CERO PULGADAS (18’0”), con el estacionamiento número Trescientos Cincuenta y Tres (353).

El espacio de almacén con el número Mil Doscientos Cuatro (1204) en los planos del Condominio es área privada asignada a este apartamento .

El espacio de almacén con el número Mil Doscientos Cuatro (1204) tiene un área total de VEINTIUNO PUNTO TREINTA Y OCHO (21.38) PIES CUADRADOS, equivalentes a UNO PUNTO NOVENTA Y NUEVE (1.99) METROS CUADRADOS, colindando por el NORTE, en CUATRO PIES NUEVE PULGADAS (4’9”), con el espacio de almacén número Mil Doscientos Tres (1203); por el SUR, en CUATRO PIES NUEVE PULGADAS (4’9”), con el espacio de almacén número Mil Doscientos Cinco (1205); por el ESTE, en CUATRO PIES SEIS PULGADAS (4’6”), con la pared que lo separa de la cisterna; y por el OESTE, en CUATRO PIES SEIS PULGADAS (4’6”), con área común. Este espacio de almacén tiene un alto de DOCE PIES OCHO PULGADAS (12’8”). Este apartamento le corresponde Punto Sesenta y Cinco Mil Cuatrocientos Sesenta y Cuatro por ciento (.65464 %) en los elementos comunes generales del Condominio. La escritura de hipoteca se encuentra inscrita al folio 31 vuelto del tomo 1594 de Río Piedras Norte, Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Segunda, finca número 42, 188, inscripción segunda.

-Modificada la hipoteca antes relacionada en cuanto al principal que será ahora por la suma de $341,746.38, vencedero el día 1 ro. de septiembre de 2044, con un pago final de $68 ,349.28, según escritura número 277, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 19 de septiembre de 2014, ante la Notario Público Ana E. Garbea Padró, inscrita al folio 119 del tomo 1623 de Río Piedras Norte, Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Segunda, finca número 42,188, inscripción 3ra. La dirección física de fa propiedad antes descrita es: Condominio Torre del Cardenal, Apartamento 1204 (204), San Juan, Puerto Rico. La Subasta se llevará a efecto para satisfacer a la parte demandante la suma de $260 ,830 .91 de principal, inte reses pactados y computados sobre esta suma al tipo de 5.25% anual, desde el 1 ro. de enero de 2018 y hasta su total y completo pago, contribuciones, recargos y primas de seguro adeudados y la suma de $35,500.00 por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta para el inmueble será de $341 ,746.38 y de ser necesaria una segun-

da subasta, la cantidad mínima será equivalente a 2/3 partes de aquella, o sea, la suma de $227,830.92 y de ser necesaria una tercera subasta, la cantidad mínima será la mitad del precio pactado, es decir, la suma de $170,873.19. 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 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 . EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto para conocimiento y comparecenc ia de los licitadores, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, a 18 de noviembre de 2020. EDWIN E. LOPEZ MULERO, ALGUACIL, DIVISIÓN DE EJECUCION DE SENTENCIAS, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN. *****

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

DLJ MORTGAGE CAPITAL, INC.

Parte Demandante Vs.

LA SUCESION DE CARMEN MARIA CANDELARION RAMOS también conocida como Carmen Candelario Ramos compuesta por John Doe y Richard Roe como miembros desconocidos; ADMINISTRACIÓN PARA EL SUSTENTO DE MENORES, Y CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN SOBRE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES

Parte Demandada CASO CIVIL NUM: MZ2020CV00044.

SOBRE: EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA POR LA VIA ORDINARIA Y COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO Y NOTIFICACION DE INTERPELACION POR EDICTO. Estados Unidos de América Presidente de los Estados Unidos de América Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico,

A: John Doe y Richard Roe como posibles herederos desconocidos de la Sucesión de CARMEN MARIA CANDELARION RAMOS también conocida como

The San Juan Daily Star

Friday, December 4, 2020 Carmen Candelario Ramos

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 los abogados de la parte demandante, Lcda.

Marjaliisa Colon Villanueva, al PO BOX 7970, Ponce, P.R. 00732; Teléfono: 787-8434168. 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 diciembre de 2016 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 $49,009.64, más intereses a razón del 7.18% 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 $5,500.00, pactado para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. La parte Demandante presentó para su inscripción en el Registro de la Propiedad correspondiente, un A VISO DE PLEITO PENDIENTE (“Lis Pendens”) sobre la propiedad objeto de esta acción cuya propiedad es la siguiente: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número 5 del bloque EJ en el plano de inscripción de la Urbanización Extensión San Antonio, situada en el Barrio Daguey del término Municipal de Añasco, con una cabida de TRESCIENTOS PUNTO QUINCE (300.15) METROS CUADRADOS. Colindando por el NORTE, en 13.05 metros con terrenos de Alfredo Ramírez de Arellano; por el SUR, en 13.05 con la Calle H; por el OESTE, en 23.00 metros con el solar número 4; y por el ESTE, en 23.00 metros con el solar número 6. Contiene una casa de una sola planta de bloques y concreto para fines residenciales. Inscrita al folio ochenta y tres (83) del tomo ochenta y ocho (88) de Añasco, finca numero dos mil ochocientos diecinueve (2,819). 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 más citarle ni oírle. Además, como miembro de la Sucesión de CARMEN MARIA CANDELARION RAMOS también conocida como Carmen Candelario Ramos, 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 tomo a la aceptación o repudiación de la herencia, se presumirá que han aceptado la herencia del causante CARMEN MARIA CANDELARION RAMOS también conocida como Carmen Candelario Ramos y por consiguiente, responderán por las cargas de dicha herencia conforme dispone el Art. 957 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. 82785. En Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, a 10 de agosto de 2020.

LCDA. NORMA G. SANTANA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. f/Raiselle Jorge Martinez, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal I.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOClADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA ·SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN.

ELSA BOUSON GARCIA Demandante Vs.

POPULAR MORTGAGE INC., FULANO DE TAL

Demandados CML NúM.: SJ2020CV04727.

SALA: 802. SOBRE: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.

A: FULANO DE TAL posible tenedor del pagaré extraviado objeto de la presente acción

Se le notifica que se ha presentado una Demanda en su contra en este caso. En la Demanda se solicita se decrete judicialmente la cancelación de un (1) pagaré hipotecario a favor de Popular Mortgage, Inc. o a su orden, por la suma de $340 ,000 .00, con interés a razón del 8.50% anual, vencedero el 28 de enero de 2022. Este pagaré fue suscrito el 25 de octubre de 1999 ante el Notario Público Pablo F. Jiménez Meléndez, y garantizado por una hipoteca constituida mediante la escritura núm. 501 de 25 de octubre de 1999, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, e inscrita en la finca núm. 18108 al folio 291 del tomo 996 de San-

turce Norte, inscripción 9na, del Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Primera, sobre la siguiente propiedad : URBANA: Propiedad Horizontal: CONDOMINIO CARIBE de Santurce Norte. Apartamento número Once C ( 11-C). Cabida Doscientos Veintiuno punto Cuarenta y Siete (221.47) metros cuadrados, localizado en el extremó Norte del edificio, piso número once ( 11) con frente a la Calle Conveniencia esquina Calle Washington. Consta de sala -comedor, cocina, laundry, cuatro (4) dormitorios, tres (3) cuartos de baño y balcón en la p$”te posterior hacia el patio del edificio. Tiene un área de dos mil trescientos ochenta y dos punto noventa y siete (2,382.97) pies cuadrados, equivalentes a doscientos veintiuno punto cuarenta y siete (221 .4 7) metros cuadrados, incluyendo el balcón que está localizado en la parte posterior del edificio y conecta con el vestibulo del servicio y que mide treinta y un pie con dos pulgadas (31 ‘2”) de largo por seis pies seis pulgadas (6’6 “) d e an cho por un lado y cinco p ies seis pulgadas (5’6”) de lar go por tres pies seis pulgadas (3’6”) de ancho por otro lado.

Su puerta principal de entrada queda en el vestibulo Norte con entrada hacia la sala mide cuarenta y cuatro pies siete pulgadas (44’7 “) por el Este con frente a la Calle Washington y cincuenta y nueve pies (59’), por el Norte con frente a la Calle Conveniencia. Colinda por el NORTE, con la Calle Conveniencia; al ESTE, con la Calle Washington ; al SUR, con pared interior medianera y patio del edificio; al OESTE, con marquesina y entrada al vesttbulo principal. PORCIENTO QUE REPRESENTA DEL CONJUNTO DEL INMUEBLE, Representa dos punto sesenta y cuatro (2.64) porciento. GARAJE, le corresponde espacio marcado como el Once C (11C). Inscrita al folio doscientos treinta y siete (237), del tomo cuatrocientos noventa y cuatro (494) de Santurce Norte, finca dieciocho mil ciento ocho (18,108), inscripción primera.

Este apartamento se separa de la finca número diecisiete mil quinientos ochenta y ocho (17588) inscrita al folio cuatro (4) del tomo cuatrocientos setenta y siete (4 77) de Santurce Norte. Catastro número: 040040-009-03-033. La parte demandante alega que el original del pagaré se extravió y la deuda evidenciada y garantizada por el mismo fue satisfecha, según consta más detalladamente en la Demanda presentada, la cual puede examinarse en la Secretaría de este Tribunal. Por la presente, se le emplaza y se le notifica que debe contestar la demanda dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del presente edicto. Deberá presentar la con-

testación 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 presentarla ante el Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de San Juan con copia a la representación legal de la parte demandante a la siguiente dirección: Lcdo. Carlos García Ceballos; Número RUA 16262; Apartado 427, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico 00681-0427; Tel 787-833-1595; Fax 787-834-2635; correo electrónico: lcdo-carlosgarcia@hotmail.com. Se le apercibe que, de no contestar la demanda dentro del término aquí establecido, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Trtbunal en San Juan, Puerto Rico, a 23 de septiembre de 2020.

GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. ADELLE RIVERA APONTE, SECRETARIA SERVICIO.

LEGAL NOTICE Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de CAGUAS.

ELECTROCABLES DEL CARIBE, CORP

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 2 de diciembre de 2020. En CAGUAS , Puerto Rico, el 2 de diciembre de 2020. CARMEN ANA PEREIRA ORTIZ, Secretaria. LILI RODRIGUEZ RODRIGUEZ, Secretario(a) Auxiliar.

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

PR RECOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT JV, LLC. Demandante Vs.

RICH ARTS CORP.; RICHARD RUPERTO AVILA, SUTANA DE TAL & LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS; ROSA M. AVILA QUIIÑONES, FULANO DE TAL & LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandados CIVIL NUM.: SJ2020CV04579.

SALA: 802. SOBRE: COBRO Demandante V. CONDADO ELECTRICAL DE DINERO ORDINARIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. & PLUMBING SUPPLIES, ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMElNC; et als RICA EL PRESIDENTE DE Demandado(a) LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL Civil: CG2020CV00287. Sobre: ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO COBRO DE DINERO POR LA DE PUERTO RICO. SS. VIA ORDINARIA E INCUMPLIA: SUTANA DE MIENTO DE CONTRATO. NOTAL, POR SI Y EN TIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA REPRESENTACION DE POR EDICTO.

MARÍA DOLORES CAMACHO por si y en representación legal de la Sociedad Legal de Bienes Gananciales compuesta con Rafael Fardas Rosario

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que 13 de noviembre de 2020 , 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

LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES QUE COMPONE JUNTO AL CODEMANDADO RICHARD RUPERTO AVILA

Por la presente, se le emplaza y se le notifica que debe contestar la demanda dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del presente edicto. Deberá presentar la contestación 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 presentarla ante el Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de San Juan con copia a la representación legal de la parte demandante a la siguiente dirección: Lcdo. José F. Aguilar Vélez; PO Box 71418, San Juan, PR 00936-8518; Tel. (787) 993-3731, Fax (787) 3024762; Correo electrónico: jose.

aguilar@orf-law.com. Se le apercibe que, de no contestar la demanda dentro del término aquí establecido, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy 23 de noviembre de 2020. GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. Elsie Pratts Melendez, Sec de Serv a Sala.

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

JORGE LUIS CARDONA VAZQUEZ Demandante vs.

POPULAR MORTGAGE, INC.; JOHN DOE & RICHARD ROE

Demandado CIVIL NÚM.: CA2020CV02383.

SOBRE: Cancelacion de Pagare Extraviado. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADOS DE PUERTO RICO. ss.

A: JOHN DOE & RICHARD ROE

Por la presente se emplaza y se les notifica que se ha presentado en la Secretaría de este Tribunal la demanda del caso de epígrafe solicitando la cancelación del Pagaré suscrito a favor de Popular Mortgage, Inc., o a su orden, por la suma principal de $127,500.00, con vencimiento el 01 de marzo de 2032, y habiéndose constituido por la escritura número 63 otorgada el 27 de febrero de 2002, ante el Notario Público Ciro C. Carrillo Rodriguez, inscrita al folio movil del tomo 910 de Carolina Norte, finca número 7303, inscripción 4ta. Representa a la parte demandante la abogada cuyo nombre, dirección y teléfono se consigna de inmediato: ENEL M. PEREZ MONTE RUA 9019 GA 24 Ave. Ramirez de Arrellano Gardens Hills, Guaynabo PR 00966 Tel/Fax.: (787) 998-7415 Lcdaenelperez@gmail.com Se le apercibe que si no comparecieran ustedes a contestar dicha demanda dentro del término de 30 días a partir de la publicación de este edicto se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oirle. 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, advirtiéndosele que de no hacerlo se le anotará la

The San Juan Daily Star rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle.

Dado en Carolina, a 24 de noviembre de 2020. Lcda. Marilyn Aponte Rodriguez, Sec Regional. Ida Fernandez Rodriguez, Sec Auxiliar del Tribunal.

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

FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO Demandante Vs.

FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION (FDIC) y BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO como sucesores en derecho de R-G PREMIER BANK OF PUERTO RICO; JOHN DOE y RICHARD ROE, como posibles tenedores del pagaré

Friday, December 4, 2020

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. Por la presente se les apercibe de que de no comparecer a formular alegaciones dentro de sesenta (60) días contados a partir de la fecha de la publicación de este Edicto, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia de acuerdo con lo solicitado en la demanda, sin más citarle ni oirle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, en Humacao, Puerto Rico hoy de de 2020. Dominga Gomez Fuster, Sec Regional. Marisol Davila Ortiz, Sec Auxiliar,

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

CONDADO 3, LLC Demandante, Vs.

CARLOS SERGIO

Demandados DIAZ FLORES; CIVIL NUM. HU2020CV00982.

SOBRE: CANCELACION DE GLORIA IVONNE HIPOTECA PRESENTADA MONGE CORTIJO Y LA POR PAGARÉ HIPOTECARIO SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZABIENES GANANCIALES MIENTO POR EDICTO. EN COMPUESTA POR LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE AMBOS DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS Demandada EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIA- CIVIL NÚM. KCD2014-0163.

DO DE P.R. SS. SALA NUM.: (908). SOBRE: SOLICITUD DE SENTENCIA A: FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE EN COBRO DE DINERO Y DE HIPOTECA CORPORATION (FDIC) EJECUCION BAJO LA REGLA 35.4 PRO1601 Bryant St. Dallas, CEDIMIENTO CIVIL. AVISO Texas 75201 DE VENTA EN PÚBLICA SUPor la presente se le notifica BASTA, que se ha radicado una DeA: CARLOS SERGIO manda donde se solicita se DIAZ FLORES; cancele el siguiente pagaré, el GLORIA IVONNE cual está extraviado, así como MONGE CORTIJO Y LA la hipoteca que garantiza su pago: a. Pagaré a favor de R & SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE G Premier Bank of Puerto Rico, BIENES GANANCIALES o a su orden, por la suma prinCOMPUESTA POR cipal de $65,600.00, con intereAMBOS: Y AL PUBLICO ses al 8-1/8% anual y con venEN GENERAL: cimiento el día 1ro. de octubre de 2016, según consta de la es- El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tricritura número 283 otorgada en bunal de Primera Instancia, esa misma fecha en Fajardo, Sala Superior, Centro Judicial Puerto Rico, ante el Notario Pú- de San Juan, San Juan, Puerto blico José Herminio Santiago, Rico, hago saber a la parte dela cual consta inscrita al folio mandada, y al PUBLICO EN 270 del tomo 191 de Naguabo, GENERAL: y a todos los Registro de la Propiedad de acreedores que tengan inscriPuerto Rico, Sección de Hu- tos o anotados sus derechos macao, finca 1,734. Por la pre- sobre los bienes hipotecados sente se les emplaza y requiere con posterioridad a la inscrippara que notifique a la Lcda. ción del crédito del ejecutante, Maritza Guzmán Matos, PMB o de los acreedores de cargas o 767, Avenida Luis Vigoreaux, derechos reales que los hubieGuaynabo, Puerto Rico 00966, sen pospuesto a la hipoteca teléfono (787) 758-3276, abo- ejecutada y las personas interegada de la parte demandante, sadas en, o con derecho a exicon copia de vuestra contesta- gir el cumplimiento de instrución a la demanda radicada en mentos negociables este caso contra ustedes, den- garantizados hipotecariamente tro de un término de sesenta con posterioridad al crédito eje(60) días contados a partir de cutado, siempre que surjan de la publicación de este Edicto. la certificación registral, para Deberá presentar su alegación que puedan concurrir a la suresponsiva a través del Sistema basta si les convenga o satisfa-

cer 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.

Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el día 9 de octubre de 2020, por la Secretaria del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor las propiedades que se describen a continuación: Propiedad A: #1101 Jesús T. Piñeiro, Monacillos Ward, San Juan, P.R. 00922: URBANA: Solar sito en el Barrio Monacillos de Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, marcado con el número tres (3) de la manzana JF de la Urbanización Puerto Nuevo, propiedad de la Everlasting Development Corporation, con un área superficial de doscientos noventa y uno punto treinta y siete (291.37) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, SUR, ESTE y OESTE con terrenos propiedad de la Everlasting Development Corporation y dando frente al Este, con la calle denominada calle número doce (12) y Central Avenue. Enclava una casa de concreto para fines residenciales. Consta inscrita al folio 55 del tomo 218 de Monacillos, finca número 8,094 de San Juan, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección Tercera de San Juan. Tipo mínimo para la Primera subasta suma la de $284,000.00. Tipo mínimo para la Segunda subasta suma la de $189,333.34.

Tipo mínimo para la Tercera subasta suma la de $142,000.00. Propiedad B: 1103 Jesús T. Piñeiro, Monacillos Ward, San Juan, P.R. 00922: URBANA: solar de forma rectangular que mide doce punto cero cero (12.00) metros de frente por veintiuno punto cero cero (21.00) metros de fondo, marcado con el número cuatro (4) de la Manzana JF de la Urbanización Puerto Nuevo, Propiedad de la Everlasting Development Corporation, que radica en el Barrio Monacillos de Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, con un área de doscientos cincuenta y dos punto cero cero (252.00) metros cuadrados, en lindes por el NORTE, SUR, ESTE y OESTE, con terrenos propiedad de la Everlasting Development Corporation y dando frente al Sur, con la calle denominada Central Avenue de la Urbanización.

Enclava una casa de concreto para fines residenciales. Consta inscrito al folio 28 del tomo 45 de Monacillos, Finca número 1,613 de San Juan, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico Sección Tercera de San Juan. Tipo mínimo para la Primera subasta suma la de $324,000.00. Tipo mínimo para la Segunda subasta suma la de $216,000.00.

Tipo mínimo para la Tercera subasta suma la de $162,000.00. El producto de la

subasta se destinará a satisfacer al demandante hasta donde alcance, la SENTENCIA dictada a su favor, el día 13 de agosto de 2014, en el presente caso civil, a saber: al 6 de enero de 2020 son las siguientes cantidades; Para el Pagare II and III: Préstamo 270130028; $543,839.97 de principal, $120, 683.45 de intereses acumulados a razón del 8.00% anual los cuales se continúan acumulándose hasta el total y completo pago del principal a razón de $120.85 diarios (“per diem”); $3,731.65 por cargos por atrasos, $248.00 de seguro (“FPI”); $106,590.56 de principal diferido, y $60,800.00 pactado por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado; Para el Pagare IV: Préstamo 270130029: $27,808.59 de principal , $12,888.33 de intereses acumulados a razón del 8.00% anual los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el total y completo pago del principal a razón de $6.18 diarios (“per diem”) y $151.37 por cargos por atrasos; Para el Pagare V: Préstamo 270130030: $6,262.39 de principal, $975.55 de intereses acumulados a razón de 8.00% anual los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el total y completo pago de principal a razón de $1.39 diarios (“per diem”). Los intereses se continúan acumulando, hasta el saldo total de la deuda, para cubrir el principal adeudado, disponiéndose que si quedare algún remanente luego de pagarse las sumas antes mencionadas el mismo deberá ser depositado en la Secretaría del Tribunal para ser entregado a los demandados previa solicitud y orden del Tribunal. La venta de las referidas propiedades se verificarán libres de toda carga o gravamen que afecte las mencionadas fincas. La adjudicación se hará al mejor postor, quien deberá consignar el importe de su oferta en el acto mismo de la adjudicación, en efectivo (moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América), giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del alguacil del Tribunal. La Primera Subasta habrá de celebrarse el día 19 DE ENERO DE 2021, para la Propiedad A, a las 9:30 am; para la Propiedad B a las 9:35 am, con sus respectivos tipos mínimos, en mi oficina sita en el edificio que ocupa el Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico de San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Siendo está la primera subasta que se celebrará en este caso, será el precio mínimo aceptable como oferta en la Primera Subasta, eso es el tipo mínimo pactado en las Escrituras de Hipotecas para las fincas de las propiedades con sus respectivos precios mínimo. De no haber remate o adjudicación en esta primera subasta por dichas suma mínima, se celebrará una Segunda Subasta que habrá de celebrarse el día 26

DE ENERO DE 2021, para la Propiedad A, a las 9:30 am; para la Propiedad B a las 9:35 am, en el mismo lugar antes señalado en la cual el precio mínimo será dos (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo pactado para la primera subasta. De no haber remate o adjudicación en esta segunda subasta por el tipo mínimo indicado en el párrafo anterior, se celebrará una Tercera Subasta en el mismo lugar antes señalado que habrá de celebrarse el día 2 DE FEBRERO DE 2021, para la Propiedad A, a las 9:30 am; para la Propiedad B, a las 9:35 am, en la cual los tipos mínimos aceptables como oferta será la mitad (1/2) del precio mínimo pactado para la primera subasta. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará las fincas 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 esta es mayor, todo ello a tenor con lo dispone el Articulo 104 de la Ley Núm. 210 del 8 de diciembre de 2015 conocida como “Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmueble del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico”.

Las propiedades a ser ejecutadas se adquieren libre de toda carga y gravamen que afecte las mencionadas fincas según el Artículo 102, inciso 6. Una vez confirmada la venta judicial por el Honorable Tribunal, se procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura de venta judicial y se pondrá al comprador en posesión física de los inmuebles de conformidad con las disposiciones de Ley. Para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda aquella persona o personas que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando, y para conocimiento de todos los licitadores y el público en general, el presente Edicto se publicará por espacio de dos (2) semanas consecutivas, con un intervalo de por lo menos siete días entre ambas publicaciones, en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico y se fijará además en tres (3) lugares públicos del Municipio en que ha de celebrarse dicha venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Se les informa, por último, que: a. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la secretaría del tribunal durante las horas laborables. b. Que se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes. Se entenderá, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabili-

25

dad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. EXPIDO, el presente EDICTO, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día 23 de noviembre de 2020. PEDRO HIEYE GONZALEZ, Alguacil, División de Subastas, Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan.

LEGAL NOT ICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE SAN JUAN.

Finance of America Reverse, LLC DEMANDANTE VS.

Sucesión de Cira Noemi Rodriguez Veve t/c/c Cira N. Rodriguez Veve t/c/c Cira Rodríguez Veve t/c/c Cira Noemi Rodríguez t/c/c Cira N. Rodríguez t/c/c Cira Rodríguez compuesta por Oiga Rodríguez Veve, Marina Rodríguez Veve, Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal como posibles herederos de nombres desconocidos, Centro de Recaudaciones Municipales; y a los Estados Unidos de América.

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: SJ2018CV03830.

SOBRE: Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria. EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

Al: Público en General A: SUCESIÓN DE CIRA NOEMI RODRIGUEZ VEVE T/C/C CIRA N. RODRIGUEZ VEVE T/C/C CIRA RODRIGUEZ VEVE TC/C/C CIRA NOEMI RODRIGUEZ T/C/C CIRA N. RODRIGUEZ T/C/C CIRA RODRIGUEZ COMPUESTA POR OLGA RODRIGUEZ VEVE, MARINA RODRIGUEZ VEVE, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS, CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES MUNICIPALES; Y A LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA

Yo, EDWIN E. LOPEZ MULERO, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, a los demandados, acreedores y al público en general con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, por la presente CERTIFICO, ANUNCIO y HAGO CONSTAR: Que el día 19 de enero de 2021, a las 11:30 de la mañana,

en mi oficina , sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico, procederé a vender en Pública Subasta, al mejor postor, la propiedad inmueble que más adelante se describe y cuya venta en pública subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria mediante Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe, la cual se notificó y archivó en autos el día 9 de octubre de 2019. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta a celebrarse, se celebrará una segunda subasta para la venta de la susodicha propiedad, el día 26 de enero de 2021, a las 11:30 de la mañana; y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una tercera subasta el día 2 de febrero de 2021, a las 11:30 de la mañana, en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. Que en cumplimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que ha sido liberado por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, en el caso de epígrafe con fecha de 26 de diciembre de 2019, procederé a vender en pública subasta y al mejor postor, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble de su propiedad ubicado en: 68 (48) Ponce St. Perez Morris, San Juan, PR 00917, y que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número 48 de la Urbanización Regional, que forma parte del plano aprobado en veintinueve de marzo de mil novecientos cincuenta, por la Junta de Planificación de Puerto Rico, Caso número cinco mil setecientos cincuenta y siete Lot y preparado por el Ingeniero Civil Juan G. Lube, licenciado número mil veintiocho, compuesto de cuatrocientos setenta y tres metros noventa y tres centímetros cuadrados.

Colindando por el NORTE, con la Calle Ponce, en quince metros sesenta y seis centímetros; por el SUR, con terrenos de El Pueblo de Puerto Rico, en catorce metros setenta y nueve centímetros; por el ESTE, con la Calle U.P.R., en treintiun metros setentiún centímetros; y por el OESTE, con el solar número cuarenta siete de Jorge Hess, en treintiún metros cincuenta y cuatro centímetros.

Finca número 11,736, inscrita al folio 203 del tomo 475 de Río Piedras, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección II de San Juan. La subasta se llevará a cabo para satisfacer, hasta donde alcance, el importe de las cantidades adeudadas a la parte demandante conforme a la sentencia dictada a su favor, a saber: $158,478.63, incluyendo intereses y otros gastos acumulados hasta el 30 de

junio de 2019, y los cuales continúan acumulándose a razón del 5.060% por ciento anual, hasta su completo pago; más la cantidad de $24,750.00, equivalente al 10% de la suma principal original pactada, estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado; más recargos acumulados hasta la fecha en que se pague la deuda; más cualquiera suma de dinero por concepto de contribuciones, primas de seguro hipotecario y riesgo, así como cualesquiera otras sumas pactadas en la escritura de hipoteca, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura número 34, otorgada el día 31 de enero de 2013, San Juan, Puerto Rico, ante el Notario Público Zoila Espinosa Vaquer y consta inscrita al folio 52 del tomo 1,599 de Rio Piedras Norte, Puerto Rico, finca número 11, 73 6, Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección II. La propiedad se encuentra afectada al siguiente gravamen posterior: Hipoteca en garantía de un pagaré a favor del Secretario de la Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $247,500.00, con intereses al 5.060% anual, vencedero el día 3 de agosto de 2089, constituida mediante la escritura número 3 5, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 31 de enero de 2013, ante la notario ZoilaEspinoza Vaquer, e inscrita al folio 92 del tomo 1,599 de Río Piedras Norte, finca número 11,736, inscripción 8va. Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta del inmueble antes descrito será la suma de $247,500.00 según se establece en la escritura de hipoteca antes relacionada. En caso de que el inmueble a ser subastado no fuera adjudicado en su primera subasta se ordena la celebración de una segunda subasta de dicho inmueble, en la cual, la cantidad mínima será una equivalente a 2/3 parte de aquella, o sea la suma de $165,000.00; desierta también la segunda subasta de dicho inmueble, se ordena la celebración de una tercera subasta en la cual, la cantidad mínima será la mitad del precio pactado para la primera subasta, es decir la suma de $123,750.00. 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, entiéndase efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, y que las cargas y gravámenes preferentes, si los hubiese, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin desti-

26 narse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad no está sujeta a gravámenes anteriores y/o preferentes según surge de las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad en un estudio de título efectuado a la finca antes descrita. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores 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 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. Una vez efectuada la venta de dicha propiedad , el Alguacil procederá a otorgar la escritura de traspaso al licitador victorioso en subasta, quien podrá ser la parte demandante, cuya oferta podrá aplicarse a la extinción parcial o total de la obligación reconocida por la sentencia dictada en este caso. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Si el producto de la venta fuere insuficiente para satisfacer la cantidad reclamada , se procederá a la ejecución de la sentencia en contra de la parte demandada por el remanente de las sumas no satisfechas, mediante embargo y venta en ejecución de cualesquiera otros bienes propiedad de la parte demandada en cantidad suficiente para dejar cubierta y totalmente satisfecha a la parte demandante cualquier deficiencia o parte insoluta de la sentencia dictada a su favor según dispuesto en la sentencia dictada en este caso.

Se dispone, conforme con la sentencia dictada en este caso que, una vez efectuada la subasta y vendido el bien inmueble, los adjudicatarios sean puestos en posesión del mismo dentro del término de veinte (20) días por el Alguacil de este Honorable Tribunal y los actuales poseedores lanzados del referido inmueble. De ser ello necesario, el Alguacil podrá diligenciar el Acta de Subasta que se expida en horas laborales, de día, los 5 días de la semana.

Y para la concurrencia de licitadores y para el público en general, se publicará este Edicto de acuerdo con la ley, mediante edicto, en un periódico de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, una vez por semana, por espa-

cio de dos (2) semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, y para su fijación en tres (3) lugares públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta , tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía, y se le notificará además a la parte demandada vía correo certificado con acuse de recibo a la última dirección conocida. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto de Subasta para conocimiento y comparecencia de los licitadores, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, a 30 de noviembre de 2020. EDWIN E. LOPEZ MULERO, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE SAN JUAN.

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

ORIENTAL BANK COMO AGENTE DE SERVICIOS DE THE MONEY HOUSE, INC. DEMANDANTE VS.

GLADYS RODRÍGUEZ RUIZ (TITULAR REGISTRAL); LA SUCESION DE DANIEL PÉREZ ROSARIO COMPUESTA POR FULANO Y FULANA DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION; DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA Y CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: ABCI201800755.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA (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 Embargo que le ha sido dirigido al Alguacil que suscribe por la Secretaría del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE AGUADA, SALA SUPERIOR, en el caso de epígrafe procederá a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor en efectivo, cheque certificado o giro postal en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal, el día 14 DE ENERO DE 2021, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en su oficina sita en el local que ocupa en el edificio del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE AGUADILLA, SALA SUPERIOR, SEGUNDO PISO, OFICINA REGIONAL, CALLE PRO-

The San Juan Daily Star

Friday, December 4, 2020

GRESO #70, AGUADILLA, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble de su propiedad que ubica en LOT 154 CALLE PRINCIPAL (#1) COMM. CALVACHE BARRIO CALVACHE RINCÓN, PR 00677 y que se describe a continuación: RUSTICA: Parcela marcada con el #154, en el plano de parcelación de la Comunidad Rural Calvache, localizada en el barrio Calvache del término municipal de Rincón, Puerto Rico, con una cabida de 0.1744 cuerda, equivalente a 685.33 metros cuadrados. En lindes: por el NORTE, con la parcela #153 de la comunidad; por el SUR, con la calle #3 de la comunidad; por el ESTE, con la calle #1 de la comunidad y por el OESTE, con la parcela #155 de la comunidad. ENCLAVA: Una casa en construcción. Se ha edificado una estructura, con un valor de $65,000.00, tipo residencial, dedicada a vivienda, construida en concreto y bloques de hormigón en altos.

La planta alta contiene sala, cocina, tres cuartos dormitorios y dos baños. En la parte de abajo hay una marquesina, un cuarto y un baño. La totalidad de la estructura consta de 1,212 pies cuadrados. Según escritura #3, otorgada en Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, el día 15 de marzo de 2017, ante el notario Marien Méndez Acevedo presentada al ASIENTO 2017030374-AG01 DEL SISTEMA KARIBE. El inmueble antes descrito consta inscrito al folio 208 del tomo 56 de Rincón, finca número 2,333, Registro de la Propiedad de Aguadilla.

El embargo a ejecutarse es por la suma de $195,345.70 y consta presentado al Asiento 2019-099465-AG01 del Sistema Karibe de Rincón, finca número 2,333, Registro de la Propiedad de Aguadilla. La hipoteca objeto del embargo a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura número 181 otorgada en Rincón, Puerto Rico, el día 15 de marzo de 2017, ante el Notario Alejandro J. Mues Arias y consta presentada al Asiento 2017-030375-AG01 del Sistema Karibe, Finca número 2,333, Registro de la Propiedad de Aguadilla. 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 contra la parte co-demandada La Sucesión de Daniel Pérez Rosario, ascendente a la suma de $148,907.29 por concepto de principal, desde el 1ro de noviembre de 2017, más intereses al tipo pactado de 5.00% anual que continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación. Además, la parte co-demandada La Sucesión de Daniel Pérez Rosario adeuda a la parte demandante los cargos por demora equivalentes a

4.00% de la suma de aquellos pagos con atrasos en exceso de 15 días calendarios de la fecha de vencimiento; los créditos accesorios y adelantos hechos en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca; y las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado equivalentes a $15,000.00. Además, la parte co-demandada La Sucesión de Daniel Pérez Rosario se comprometió a pagar una suma equivalente a $15,000.00 para cubrir intereses en adición a los garantizados por ley. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al Procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la SECRETARIA DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE AGUADA, SALA SUPERIOR durante las horas laborables. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación del inmueble y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio de remate. La propiedad no está sujeta a gravámenes anteriores y/o preferentes según las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores conocidos y desconocidos que tengan inscritos, no inscritos, presentados y/o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca del actor y a los dueños, poseedores, tenedores de o interesados en títulos transmisibles por endoso o al portador garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito del actor que se celebrarán las subastas en las fechas, horas y sitios señalados para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les conviniere o se les invita a satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, otros cargos y las costas y honorarios de abogado asegurados quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. La propiedad objeto de ejecución y descrita anteriormente se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores una vez el Honorable Tribunal expida la correspondiente Orden de Confirmación de Venta Judicial. Y para conocimiento de licitadores del público en general se publicará este Edicto de acuerdo con la ley por espacio de dos semanas en tres sitios públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Este Edicto será publicado dos veces en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos

El abogado de la parte demandante es: Jaime Ruiz Saldaña, RUA número 11673; Dirección: PMB 450, 400 Calle Calaf, San Juan, PR 00918-1314; Teléfono: (787) 759-6897; Correo electrónico: legal@jrslawpr. com. Se le advierte que dentro de los diez (10) días siguientes a la publicación del presente edicto, se le estará enviando a usted por correo certificado con acuse de recibo, una copia del LEGAL NOTICE emplazamiento y de la demanESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO da presentada al lugar de su DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUúltima dirección conocida: 4104 NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA Calle Gallardia, Ponce, PR SALA DE PONCE. 00728; PO Box 336562, Ponce, ORIENTAL BANK, PR 00733-6562; 11309 CoDemandante, V. conut Island Orive, Riverview, SUCESION DE CARLOS FL 33569. EXPEDIDO bajo mi L. RAMOS SANCHEZ, firma y el sello del Tribunal en COMPUESTA POR MARIA Ponce, Puerto Rico, hoy día 20 agosto de 2020. LUZ MALISS RAMOS DE JESUS de YRA CARABALLO GARCIA, Y GLORIMAR RAMOS DE Sec Regional. MADELINDE JESUS, MARTA PEREZ RIVERA MERCADO, Sec Aux del Tribunal I. NAVARRO semanas consecutivas. Expido el presente Edicto de subasta bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal en Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, hoy día 1 de diciembre de 2020. CARLOS RIVERA LOPEZ, ALGUACIL DE SUBASTAS, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE AGUADILLA, SALA SUPERIOR.

Demandados CIVIL NUM.: PO2019CV03775.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.

A: María Liss Ramos de Jesús y Glorimar Ramos de Jesús, por sí y como miembro de la Sucesión de Carlos L. Ramos Sánchez

POR MEDIO del presente edicto se le notifica de la radicación de una demanda en cobro de dinero por la vía ordinaria en la que se alega que usted adeuda a la parte demandante, Oriental Bank, ciertas sumas de dinero, y las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado de este litigio.

El demandante, Oriental Bank, ha solicitado que se dicte sentencia en contra suya y que se le ordene pagar las cantidades reclamadas en la demanda.

POR EL PRESENTE EDICTO se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva a la demanda 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.ramajudicial. pr/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del Tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra, y conceder el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC. PARTE DEMANDANTE Vs.

SUCESIÓN NÉLIDA LUZ CARDONA MUÑIZ T/C/C NÉLIDA L. CARDONA T/C/C NÉLIDA L. CARDONA MUÑIZ T/C/C NÉLIDA CARDONA COMPUESTA POR JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; SUCESIÓN FRANCISCO ANTONIO HERNÁNDEZ MATOS T/C/C FRANCISCO A. HERNÁNDEZ MATOS COMPUESTA POR ZORAIDA HERNÁNDEZ MATOS, ANA MARIA HERNÁNDEZ MATOS, CARMEN ELOIZA HERNÁNDEZ MATOS; JOHN ROE Y JANE ROE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES

PARTE DEMANDADA CIVIL NÚM.: SJ2020CV04414 (604). SOBRE: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU. ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R. SS.

ELOIZA HERNÁNDEZ MATOS; JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN NÉLIDA LUZ CARDONA MUÑIZ T/C/C NÉLIDA L. CARDONA T/C/C NÉLIDA L. CARDONA MUÑIZ T/C/C NÉLIDA CARDONA; JOHN ROE Y JANE ROE COMO POSIBLES MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN FRANCISCO ANTONIO HERNÁNDEZ MATOS T/C/C FRANCISCO A. HERNÁNDEZ MATOS

Quedan emplazados y notificados de que en este Tribunal se ha radicado una demanda de Ejecución de Hipoteca en su contra. Se le notifica que deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala de San Juan y enviando copia a la parte demandante: LCDA. FRANCES L. ASENCIO-GUIDO, TRADE CENTRE SOUTH, SUITE 700, 100 WEST CYPRESS CREEK ROAD, FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 33309, TELÉFONO: (954) 343 6273, CORREO ELECTRÓNICO: FRANCES. A S E N C I O @ G M L AW. C O M .

Se le apercibe y notifica que si no contesta la demanda radicada en su contra dentro del término de treinta (30) días de la publicación de esté edicto, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado en la demanda, sin más citárseles, ni oírseles. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, a 24 de noviembre de 2020. GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIO (A). LUZ EN FERNANDEZ DEL VALLE, Sec Serv a Sala.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPEOR DE SAN JUAN.

REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC. PARTE DEMANDANTE Vs.

JOSÉ T. RODRÍGUEZ FUENTES T/C/C JOSÉ TOMÁS RODRÍGUEZ FUENTES T/C/C JOSÉ T. RODRÍGUEZ T/C/C JOSÉ A: ZORAIDA HERNÁNDEZ RODRÍGUEZ FUENTES MATOS, ANA MARÍA POR SÍ Y EN LA CUOTA HERNÁNDEZ VIUDAL USUFRUCTARIA; MATOS, CARMEN SUCESIÓN VIRGENMINA

CINTRÓN BERRÍOS T/C/C VIRGEMINA CINTRÓN BERRÍOS T/C/C VIRGERMINA CINTRÓN BERRIOS T/C/C VIRGENMINA CINTRÍN COMPUESTA POR JOSÉ ENRIQUE RODRÍGUEZ CINTRÓN, MARIBEL RODRÍGUEZ CINTRÓN; JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

PARTE DEMANDADA CIVIL NÚM. SJ2020CV05405 (604). SOBRE: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU. ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R. SS.

A: JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN VIRGENMINA CINTRÓN BERRÍOS T/C/C VIRGEMINA CINTRÓN BERRÍOS T/C/C VIRGERMINA CINTRÓN BERRÍOS T/C/C VIRGENMINA CINTRÓN

Queda emplazado y notificado de que en este Tribunal se ha radicado una demanda de ejecución de hipoteca en su contra.

Se le notifica que deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https:// unired.ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala de San Juan y enviando copia a la parte demandante: Lcda. Frances L. Asencio- Guido, Greenspoon Marder, LLP, Trade Centre South, Suite 700, 100 West Cypress Creek Road, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309, Tel: (954) 343-6273, Fax: (954) 3436982, Correo electrónico: Frances.Asenciogmlaw.com.

Se le apercibe y notifica que si no contesta la demanda radicada en su contra dentro del término de treinta (30) días de la publicación de este edicto, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado en la demanda, sin más citárseles, ni oírseles. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, a 24 de noviembre de 2020. GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, Secretaria. LUZ ENID F XANDEZ DEL VALLE, Sec Serv a Sala.

The San Juan Daily Star

December 4-6, 2020

27

NFL Week 13 predictions: Our picks against the spread

By BENJAMIN HOFFMAN

T

hings got particularly messy for the NFL in Week 12, when the Denver Broncos were forced to play a game against the New Orleans Saints without a single established quarterback and the coronavirus-ravaged Baltimore Ravens needed to have their game postponed by six days, all the way to Wednesday. All 16 games managed to be played, but things were tenuous enough to make the rest of the season seem far more uncertain than it did a few weeks ago.

Perhaps Baltimore’s struggles to field a roster will lead to tougher NFL protocols to control the spread of the virus, but expect the league’s schedule going forward to be remarkably fluid, with changes possible at any point before game days. With that in mind, here is a look at Week 13, with all picks made against the spread.

All times are Eastern.

Last week’s record: 7-8-1 Overall record: 86-86-5 SUNDAY’S BEST GAMES Cleveland Browns at Tennessee Titans, 1 p.m. CBS Line: Titans -5.5 | Total: 54 There’s no such thing as a hollow win — they all count the same in the standings — but the Browns (8-3) have certainly not faced much premier competition in recent weeks, which included wins over Cincinnati, Houston, Philadelphia and Jacksonville. The Titans (8-3), to put it mildly, are a far bigger challenge.

To contain Tennessee, Cleveland will need to slow down running back Derrick Henry while making sure not to give quarterback Ryan Tannehill any time with which to work, as he is more than capable of stretching the field when the opportunity presents itself. The first part of that challenge might not be as difficult as it sounds, considering the Browns have the NFL’s ninth-ranked run defense.

But even with some recent improvement in the Browns’ secondary, it is hard to believe that Cleveland could simultaneously stack the box for Henry and adequately cover Tennessee’s receivers.

Tennessee has its own problems on defense, and the Titans will undoubtedly struggle to contain running backs Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt. But Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield has a tendency to be his own worst enemy, and

Nick Chubb is averaging an astounding 6.3 yards a carry this season as the main engine of Cleveland’s offense. His team faces its first real challenge in weeks in a road game against Tennessee. all it would take is a turnover or two to let this game get way out of hand. Pick: Titans -5.5 Los Angeles Rams at Arizona Cardinals, 4:05 p.m., Fox Line: Rams -3 | Total: 48.5 A few weeks ago, there was a tie at the top of the NFC West, but after both the Rams (7-4) and the Cardinals (6-5) lost last week, the division lead belongs exclusively to Seattle. With an expanded playoff field, both of these teams look as if they will qualify for the postseason anyway, but division bragging rights are a real thing, and that will add some spice to this game. Arizona has lost three of its past four games, and there has been some speculation that the league’s defenses are figuring out quarterback Kyler Murray. If Murray wants to quiet that talk, a win against Aaron Donald and the Rams would help. Pick: Cardinals +3 New England Patriots at Los Angeles Chargers, 4:25 p.m., CBS Line: Even | Total: 47 In a fairly ugly game at home, the Patriots (5-6) got 84 yards passing (and two interceptions) from Cam Newton and just 47 yards rushing from Damien

Harris, but thanks to some tremendous work from the team’s defense, and to the powerful leg of Nick Folk, New England was able to beat Arizona on Sunday. That gave the Patriots three wins in their past four games, but extending that run to four in five will be tough if the offense has a similarly quiet day, which will not work against the Chargers (3-8). Pick: Chargers Denver Broncos at Kansas City Chiefs, 8:20 p.m., NBC Line: Chiefs -14 | Total: 51 After struggling through a quarterback-less loss to New Orleans last week, the Broncos (4-7) will have Drew Lock, Blake Bortles and Brett Rypien all available for this game. Before they get too excited, the Broncos will need to remember that a full quarterback room did not make much of a dent the last time they played the Chiefs (10-1): Kansas City walked away with a 43-16 win in Denver on Oct. 25.

If the Chiefs really want to win by 27 points again, they probably will. But expecting even a 14-point margin of victory from a team that has won by an average of just three points in its past three games seems a bit unrealistic. Pick: Broncos +14

SUNDAY’S OTHER GAMES New York Giants at Seattle Seahawks, 4:05 p.m., Fox Line: Seahawks -10 | Total: 47 The Giants (4-7) have won three consecutive games, pulling into a tie with Washington at the top of the NFC East.

The Giants’ defense has been improving on a weekly basis — a process that started even before the win streak — and the offense was reducing its mistakes and clearly building some momentum under quarterback Daniel Jones. Much of the optimism over those improvements fell away last weekend when Jones injured a hamstring. The team managed a few field goals without him, but there is no question that a switch to Colt McCoy has made the already-remote chance of an upset of the Seahawks on the road (8-3) seem almost absurd.

Seattle fans lovingly mock the Seahawks’ tendency to keep games far closer than they need to be — eight of the team’s 11 games this season have been decided by a single score — but without Jones, the Giants will be hard-pressed to score. Pick: Seahawks -10 Philadelphia Eagles at Green Bay Packers, 4:25 p.m., CBS Line: Packers -8.5 | Total: 46.5 Carson Wentz got a little lucky on a Hail Mary near the end of Monday’s loss to Seattle: The ball was swatted toward the ground in the end zone, but tight end Richard Rodgers, who wasn’t even the targeted receiver, made a great play to scoop it up for a touchdown. That score, along with a 2-point conversion, gave the Eagles (3-7-1) a respectable six-point loss. Keeping things that close against the Packers (83) will be a much more difficult task. Pick: Packers -8.5 Indianapolis Colts at Houston Texans, 1 p.m., CBS Line: Colts -3 | Total: 51.5 With defensive tackle DeForest Buckner on the COVID-19 reserve list last weekend, the Colts (7-4) looked like a different team. Tennessee took full advantage, with running back Derrick Henry racking up three first-half touchdowns in a blowout win. Now the Colts will try to rebound against the Texans (4-7), and while Indianapolis may not have Buckner back, this game got a lot easier when Houston wide receiver Will Fuller V was suspended after testing positive for a performanceenhancing drug. Pick: Colts -3

Continues on page 28

28

The San Juan Daily Star

December 4-6, 2020

From page 27 Jacksonville Jaguars at Minnesota Vikings, 1 p.m., CBS Line: Vikings -10 | Total: 52 The Vikings (5-6) have improved drastically after a horrible start to the season, winning four of their past five games while looking much improved on defense — not all that impressive considering how bad they were in their first six games. The Jaguars (1-10) have lost nine straight, with an atrocious defense, and they plan to give journeyman quarterback Mike Glennon a second straight start. Double-digit point spreads are always risky, but this game certainly has the makings of a blowout. Also, it would be wise to make sure Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins, running back Dalvin Cook and wide receivers Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson are active in your fantasy football lineups. Pick: Vikings -10 Las Vegas Raiders at New York Jets, 1 p.m., CBS Line: Raiders -8 | Total: 47.5 The Raiders (6-5) didn’t just lose to Atlanta last weekend, they were humiliated. The game started slowly, seemed to go off the rails after a roughing-the-kicker penalty extended a drive that resulted in a touchdown and got continually worse until time ran out. Although it’s possible that Las Vegas has been a bit overestimated in recent weeks, all the optimism the Raiders built before their loss to the Falcons shouldn’t be erased. But given that running back Josh Jacobs might miss this game with an ankle injury, the Jets (0-11) could at least cover the spread.

Pick: Jets +8 New Orleans Saints at Atlanta Falcons, 1 p.m., Fox Line: Saints -3 | Total: 46 Because Taysom Hill will continue to start at quarterback in place of the injured Drew Brees, the Saints (9-2) will stick with a run-heavy approach. But the versatile Hill has demonstrated a strong connection with wide receiver Michael Thomas, and that could help should New Orleans need a big play at some point.

At their best — as they were last week — the Falcons (4-7) can certainly give a contender trouble, but it would be a lot easier to believe in them if wide receiver Julio Jones’ availability wasn’t questionable because of a lingering hamstring injury. Pick: Saints -3 Cincinnati Bengals at Miami Dolphins, 1 p.m., CBS Line: Dolphins -11.5 | Total: 42 After missing last weekend’s game against the Jets, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa practiced Wednesday, so

Austin Ekeler got right back to work in his first game since Week 4, leading the Chargers in rushing and receiving yards on Sunday against the Buffalo Bills. despite fears that he would miss multiple starts, he might play for the Dolphins (74). Getting playing time for Tagovailoa is a big part of Miami’s plans for the future, but the truth is that Ryan Fitzpatrick should give the team just as much a chance at winning this game. Cincinnati (2-8-1) was dealt a crushing blow two weeks ago with the season-ending injury to rookie quarterback Joe Burrow, and while keeping the score close against the Giants last weekend was a welcome surprise, the prospect of their doing something similar this weekend seems far-fetched. They can probably keep the game tighter than the 11.5 points that oddsmakers have predicted, but that doesn’t mean the Bengals have a chance to win. Pick: Bengals +11.5 Detroit Lions at Chicago Bears, 1 p.m., Fox Line: Bears -3 | Total: 44.5 The Bears (5-6) have lost five straight since their 5-1 start, and the Lions (4-7), after picking up their fourth loss in five games, fired their coach and their general manager last weekend. Even the team that wins probably won’t walk away with heads held too high, but Detroit’s interim coach, Darrell Bevell, has reportedly been pushing for the Lions to pick up their pace, which would be a wel-

come change from the team’s sluggish approach. Pick: Lions +3 MONDAY’S MATCHUPS Buffalo Bills at San Francisco 49ers, 8:15 p.m., ABC and ESPN Line: Bills -2.5 | Total: 48 The 49ers (5-6) got running back Raheem Mostert and cornerback Richard Sherman back from injuries last weekend and proceeded to give the Rams their first loss at SoFi Stadium. This matchup is even more difficult because San Francisco must get used to its temporary home at the Cardinals’ State Farm Stadium while hosting the Bills (8-3), a solid playoff contender that on a good day is extremely effective on both sides of the ball. Buffalo is favored for a reason, but the 49ers seemed to enjoy the role of spoiler last week, and they will undoubtedly be looking for a repeat. Pick: 49ers +2.5 Washington Football Team at Pittsburgh Steelers, 5 p.m.

Line: Steelers -9.5 | Total: 44.5 The Steelers (11-0) are the first team to get this far into a season without a loss since the 2015 Carolina Panthers, and they have had more than their share of hiccups along the way: Coronavirus outbreaks among both the Titans and the Ravens forced Pittsburgh to repeat-

edly juggle its schedule and play on odd amounts of rest. At some point, the various changes — and the fact that the Steelers will not get a genuine bye week this season — could catch up to them, and that may have been part of the reason for Pittsburgh’s somewhat sluggish 19-14 win over Baltimore at home Wednesday.

Does that create an opportunity for the Footballers (4-7)? Probably not.

Washington has steadily improved, and the team’s offense is clearly stronger with Alex Smith under center, but while that might lead to a closer game than oddsmakers are predicting, the result should still be a Pittsburgh victory. Pick: Footballers +9.5 TUESDAY’S MATCHUP Dallas Cowboys at Baltimore Ravens, 8:05 p.m., Fox and NFL Network Line: Ravens -7 | Total: Off There are so many unknowns in this game for the Ravens (6-5). Will quarterback Lamar Jackson return? What about running backs Mark Ingram and J.K. Dobbins? How serious are the offensive problems that the team was displaying even before the coronavirus took hold of its roster? Playing at home will certainly help, and the Cowboys (3-8) are not the toughest opponent. Baltimore’s roster uncertainty should make this a tossup, but from what we have seen of both teams, even the depleted Ravens roster that lost to Pittsburgh would be able to beat Dallas handily. Pick: Ravens -7 How Betting Lines Work A quick primer for those who are not familiar with betting lines: Favorites are listed next to a negative number that represents how many points they must win by to cover the spread. Titans -5.5, for example, means that Tennessee must beat Cleveland by at least 6 points for its backers to win their bet. Gamblers can also bet on the total score, or whether the teams’ combined score in the game is over or under a preselected number of points.

JOSÉ BURGOS Técnico Generadores Gas Propano

787•607•3343

The San Juan Daily Star

December 4-6, 2020

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

December 4-6, 2020

(Mar 21-April 20)

Although a fiery and dynamic focus can ramp up a desire to be more and do more, the Moon in sensitive Cancer could mean that you are held back by your feelings. An edgy lunar angle with Mars in your sign, might undermine your best intentions unless you override them and forge ahead regardless. When it comes to romance though, hidden depths may revitalize a key bond.

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

You may feel that what you are planning is a positive course of action, and yet close ones might not agree. While it’s best not to allow any criticism to affect your decision, it could be wise not to ignore good advice either. If you really feel that what you are considering can add more value to your life, then trust your instincts and think about making a move regardless of others.

Taurus

(April 21-May 21)

Scorpio

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

Sagittarius

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

You may be open to interactions that enhance your support network, and lead the way to new friendships and perhaps a collaboration. You might be especially sensitive to others’ vibes though, and this can alert you to those whose company is a pleasure and those who you might be better off avoiding.

This isn’t being mean, as you’ll save yourself from any future issues, Taurus.

As lovely Venus continues to sashay through your sector of routine, it’s an opportunity to reorganize your schedule so that you can give yourself a little more self-care. There are times when your mental determination could override your body’s need for rest or nurturing, and the coming weeks might be a chance to catch up in this regard, and be kinder to yourself all round.

Cancer

(June 22-July 23)

Feelings may override your best intentions, as the Moon in your sign can find you more defensive than usual, and perhaps less eager to handle conflict or resolve tricky situations. But you will be more inclined to focus on activities that bring pleasure and joy, or that enable you to make use of your creative skills. Sometimes you just need to unwind, and this could be one of those days.

Leo

(July 24-Aug 23)

The coming weeks can be a great time to display your creative talents, and perhaps to enhance your income. The Sun and Mercury in your leisure zone, could inspire you to harness your skills over this festive month, and perhaps offer unique items for sale, especially online. Thinking of making your own gifts?

This is the time to go ahead and showcase your fabulous abilities.

Virgo

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

Soulful conversations could take place that assure others of how much they mean to you. Even if you’ve had disagreements, the Moon’s links to Venus and Neptune can put these in perspective and help smooth over any difficulties. With plenty of action on the domestic front, you may feel in the mood for getting your place shipshape and making some festive arrangements.

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

Time is a resource that is often lacking, which is why you could be looking for a way to juggle your obligations. It can seem that there are not enough hours in the day to do all that you need to, which might leave you a tad overwhelmed. Bearing this in mind, you may need to be firm with others and arrange to chat or liaise with them another day, so you can focus on your own plans.

With a practical and intense focus on your money zone, it’s likely that you’ve given much thought to a decision or the solution to an issue. Therefore, it isn’t necessary to convince yourself you are doing the right thing. If it feels right, then you are likely on the right track. Going ahead now may be the best option, as conferring with others might only cause unnecessary confusion.

Taking the time to listen, can enhance your relationship with someone to the extent that they become much more helpful and supportive. The Moon in sensitive Cancer, might be a call to let others do the talking, especially someone who you may not have had a lot of time for lately. Their consideration could move you in a way you hadn’t expected, and this can have a real impact.

Aquarius

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

With Mars in your sector of talk and thought, this energizing influence can boost your spirits and inspire you to get serious about any creative ideas you’ve experimented with recently. This influence could unleash positive energy and enthusiasm, which might be beneficial for any new initiatives. Everything needs a time and a place though, so streamline your affairs accordingly.

Pisces

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

The Moon in Cancer aligns with Neptune, so you may be eager to give your imagination free reign.

You can do so on a practical level by creating something beautiful, or you might dream up a special surprise for your romantic partner. Either way, it could add something special to the day. Hopeful?

Fantasies may drift through your mind, fuelling a desire for connection Pisces.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

December 4-6, 2020

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

December 4-6, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star