Tuesday Dec 8, 2020

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

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SEC Chairman Had Expected to Finish SJ Scrutiny on Monday, Yet Can’t Say When the Capital Will Have a Certified Mayor Plus, Civil Organization Asks SEC Head for Transparency Amid Reported Irregularities

PREPA Submits 10-Year Work Plan to FEMA for Use of $10.5 Billion P6

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Better Follow the Executive Order: Police Double Down on Street Patrols

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Tuesday, December 8, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

GOOD MORNING

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December 8, 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.

Police start roadblocks to check compliance with COVID-19 executive order

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By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

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he Puerto Rico Police started to block roads Monday to monitor compliance with the latest executive order issued by Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced, which seeks to stop the rise in coronavirus infections on the island.

Puerto Rico Police Bureau Commissioner Henry Escalera Rivera “gave us the instructions to start with the blockades [on the roads] again,” said Lt. Elvin Zeno, director of the Traffic Bureau.

“We had stopped [the blockades] practically since February, because of COVID-19. We already started it up again. And since he [Escalera Rivera] gave us the instructions, we are going to comply with them,” Zeno said in a radio interview. “It will be every day, three blockades in different police areas. Today we have Aguadilla, Caguas and Carolina. On Tuesday we [continue] with Fajardo, Ponce and Utuado. And so on throughout the island.”

The revised curfew began at 9 p.m. Monday instead of 10 p.m., according to the latest executive order of the governor. It runs until 5 a.m.

The new executive order will apply until Thursday, Jan. 7.

The governor emphasized meanwhile that “Saturday is [under] a total dry law.”

“So on Saturday you can’t order [alcohol in a restaurant],” Vázquez said. “At the table it can be done during the week, but not on Saturday. Saturday is total, dry law. There is no sale of alcoholic beverages from 5 in the morning on Saturday to Sunday.”

“It was a very difficult decision,” the governor said, noting that she received many suggestions from the medical and economic sectors, which led her to order a dry law on the weekends, but allow the sale of food at establishments.

“We saw the consumption of alcoholic beverages, without masks [at any time], sharing at different businesses, particularly on weekends,” Vázquez said. “We are trying to control a little what was generating the crowding of people without masks, which was the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages.”

“If we see a response from our citizens, to [exercise self-]control in these areas where we have seen greater crowding, then we can work with this executive order and we can make it more flexible,” she said.

The governor added that the alarm linked to the curfew will again be sent through the emergency system that transmits text messages to cell phones, as was done for many months. The island Emergency Management and Disaster Administration Bureau (NMEAD by its Spanish acronym) has once again begun sending the cell phone alert to announce the curfew.

“We are in the midst of an unprecedented public health emergency and we have a responsibility to protect ourselves, our families, and especially the most vulnerable people, our elderly and children,” Vázquez said. “The executive order that went into force [Monday] seeks to stop the chain of infections and help us flatten the curve, but we need the cooperation of all citizens. This alarm seeks to awaken a sense of urgency among the people and remind them that at 9 p.m. no one should be on the streets, unless it is an emergency or is within the exceptions allowed.”

The procedure was consulted with and authorized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Communications Commission before making the determination to resume sending alerts. As done previously, the alert message will be sent using the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, said NMEAD Commissioner Nino Correa Filomeno.

“At the moment, the message will be sent three times a week at 8 p.m. and we want to call on citizens to stay in their homes, use a mask and maintain physical distance,” Correa Filomeno said.

“It is everyone’s responsibility to protect ourselves.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

SEC chairman has no due date for San Juan general vote count

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

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hirty-five days after the 2020 general elections, San Juan still has no certified mayor-elect.

State Elections Commission (SEC) Chairman Francisco Rosado Colomer said Monday that the capital city’s general vote count remains without a due date as early voting tallies from Precincts 1, 3, 4 and 5 remain imbalanced and Absentee and Early Voting Administrative Board (JAVAA by its Spanish initials) managers “are receiving some final adjustments before uploading [results]” on Precinct 2.

“I was expecting it to be today, but I have to wait for the electoral officials; it is the officials who pick the tallies up and balance it out,” Rosado Colomer said.

“Each party is supposed to appoint its officials, most of whom are volunteers except for the managers, because I can tell you that, of the five precincts in San Juan, only one was being worked on by the managers on Saturday, but volunteer party officials were [in charge of] the other four precincts.”

At Roberto Clemente Coliseum in Hato Rey, where electoral officers from all parties continued working on the general vote count, Rosado Colomer said the SEC has allocated nine new tables to continue working with early votes, and expected that, on Wednesday or Thursday, there would be nine more to speed up the general vote count. “[San Juan Precinct 2] had already finished; I don’t know why I am not clear as to why the second party manager met with the OSIPE [the Spanish acronym for the Information System and Electronic Processing Office] director to readjust the precinct,” Rosado Colomer

SEC Chairman Francisco Rosado Colomer said. “I was trying to see why they hadn’t finished work since this morning; the managers indicated that they were having too many interruptions.”

As for the tally imbalance, the SEC chairman said that if the numbers did not add up, “we have to balance them and find where the miscue happened.”

“I have not been told a reason for this. It is a tedious job because they have to take seven tallies, eight tallies, nine tallies, and they have to go through them candidacy by candidacy, taking them to a summary that includes full votes, mixed votes, and votes by candidacy,” Rosado Colomer said. “You have a San Juan District 1 representative, and you have full votes, mixed votes and votes by candidacy, you have nine tallies that you have to take there [to the Tally Control Unit], and you have to do the same for the district senators, the at-large senators, mayors, and municipal

legislators, and there tends to be a lot of error when you are tallying the numbers because the boxes are small.”

Meanwhile, he said that both OSIPE and the Electoral Operations Division were working on designing a new sheet to deal easily with the tallies.

As for the 6,229 envelopes that appeared on Friday in six sealed briefcases outside the Coliseum that each contained photocopies of various voters’ identifications, Rosado Colomer said he did not have an answer as to why no one had noticed that those envelopes were there, and confirmed that the matter is under investigation.

“There wasn’t a single ballot inside [any envelope],” he clarified. “The explanations for what happened vary [and could include] another failure by JAVAA to put them aside until someone had [brought them] in. We don’t know yet what happened to them; we are in the middle of the investigation.”

When a member of the press asked if there is a guarantee that the ballots of those voters have been handled correctly, Rosado Colomer responded that “it’s that or a federal crime.”

“All those envelopes were sent to the Commission, where the only ones who could have opened them were Commission personnel,” he said. “Otherwise, it would be a federal crime. That’s like receiving mail at home, and a third party opens it; we have no doubt that those envelopes were received here, handled by party officials, and the ballots that were inside those [envelopes] were accounted for.”

At press time, with 92.96 percent of polling stations reported, Citizen Victory Movement San Juan mayoral candidate Manuel Natal Albelo was in first place with 41,027 votes in the general vote count, while New Progressive Party mayoral candidate Miguel Romero trailed with 39,664 votes.

End of official scrutiny of election results not yet in sight

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

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oberto Iván Aponte Berríos, electoral commissioner of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), said Monday in a radio interview that he hopes the final results of the general elections will be announced before Dec. 24, but acknowledged that close contests may delay the process.

“I don’t dare to predict. The results of these elections, the scrutiny and recount have been atypical,” Aponte Berríos said. “I hope that before the 24th [of December] we will finish, but I don’t dare to forecast. This depends a lot on those close contests or if someone goes to court.”

Aponte Berríos said the closest contests are in the municipalities of San Juan, Aguadilla, Guánica and Culebra.

“On Friday, at a meeting in the afternoon at the [State Elections] Commission, I proposed that the nine [scrutiny] tables be used to conclude the work for San Juan,” he said, adding that his proposal was accepted by the other electoral commissioners. “So let’s hope that with that determination we will conclude and the [SEC] chairman [Francisco Rosado Colomer] will finally say who ends up winning that [mayoral] contest in San Juan.”

Aponte Berríos added that “San Juan is a great concern given the closeness of this contest, for the number

changes and for the accusations that have been made” regarding the possibility of fraud in the vote.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

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Civil coalition presses SEC for a ‘transparent electoral process’ amid general vote count irregularities

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

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s a result of the irregularities that have come to light in the State Elections Commission’s (SEC) general vote count at Roberto Clemente Coliseum, Citizens for ElectoralTransparency (CTE by its Spanish initials) and other collectives urged islanders on Monday to demand transparency and respect for their voting rights.

CTE spokesperson Mara Santori López said the collective is demanding that the SEC and the Puerto Rico Supreme Court enforce the Electoral Code to verify the legitimacy of every early vote cast from Unit 77, where mail-in, at-home and absentee votes from the general elections are located.

She also said both the organization and supporters have requested that the SEC make both the electoral process and the meetings with electoral commissioners public “as they authorized the American

Civil Liberties Union during a broadcast.”

“If it cannot be verified and is irremediably contaminated, the cancellation of Unit 77 must be requested,” the CTE spokesperson said.

“This is the only way to address the problem of irregularities, either to confirm or rule out suspected fraud.”

Regarding the irregularities, Santori López pointed out “more votes cast than authorized requests, ironed ballots that did not come out of early mail-in vote envelopes, tally imbalances and poor management of 184 ballot boxes, and the possible appearance of four more boxes.”

Likewise, she called out the New Progressive Party (NPP) for “wanting us to ignore the serious irregularities in the early votes cast in Unit 77, on which depends the final certification of various candidates, not only in San Juan, but other towns on the island.”

“The party that was only favored by 32 percent of the citizens’ votes seeks to hinder the scrutiny process to be carried out as the electoral law itself shows,” she said. “The NPP insists on the old trick of accusing the accuser

and hinders the transparency that the process should have and points [a finger] at the Citizens Victory Movement for the hindrance.”

Meanwhile, she told members of the press that the matter is “somewhat larger than the aspirations of all the candidates that depend on the general vote count, such as the mayoral candidates of San Juan, Guánica and Aguadilla, as well as the candidates for the Legislature.”

Meanwhile, Pentecostal minister Julio Álvarez said he came not as a religious figure, but more as a citizen to urge SEC Chairman Francisco Rosado Colomer to “apologize to Puerto Ricans with all due respect.”

“I represent anyone, Christian or not, who believes that the people deserve a clean electoral process,’’ Álvarez said. “Those who were in long lines for hours under the sun, exposing themselves to a virus infection, do not deserve that more than 30 days after the elections, ballot boxes keep appearing. That’s unacceptable and disappointing.” Álvarez called on the SEC to count every vote, yet to make sure that every vote was

legally cast. He added that “honesty should be a guiding principle of morality,” referring to the Nov. 3 general elections as “an untrustworthy process.”

“Everyone has been aware to some measure that this event has been filled with irregularities and lacks legitimacy,” he said.

Boricua Artists Meeting spokesperson Raquel González meanwhile expressed her concern “that democracy in Puerto Rico is being hijacked” as the recent Electoral Code was passed without general consensus and can lead to the violation of citizens’ right to privacy as “political parties go inside their houses to manage votes.”

“This brings our entire electoral system into question,” González said. “If our electoral system is brought into question and we don’t have a democratic and objective instance where we can all agree that a majority of the people are willing and have expressed [their will] in an equal manner whereby everyone has access to their rights, we’re bringing about civil violence, and that’s something we must be aware of.”

A woman (finally) to lead DTOP for first time in agency’s history

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

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overnor-elect Pedro Pierluisi made new appointments to his cabinet on Monday, designating Juan Carlos Blanco as executive director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and naming engineer Manuel Laboy Rivera as executive director of the Central Office for Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience (COR3 by its Spanish initials).

Also appointed was Eileen M. Vélez Vega as secretary of the Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTOP by its Spanish acronym). It was also announced that Rosana Aguilar Zapata will remain as executive director of the Highways and Transportation Authority (HTA), while Joel Pizá Batiz will continue as executive director of the Ports Authority.

The governor-elect said the appointments “represent the path for execution and results that I want to bring in this administration.”

“I continue to make these appointments after a conscientious and judicious process to ensure that I have people prepared and motivated to provide a government of excellence to our people,” Pierluisi said. “Today’s nominations are important to establish the priorities of our government, to ensure a sustainable infrastructure and to guarantee that we take advantage of all the federal funds that have been assigned to Puerto Rico for the reconstruction of our environment. I feel fortunate that my administration will have so many professionals trained and motivated to serve our people.”

In announcing the appointment of Blanco to head the OMB, Pierluisi said he is a law-

yer and business adviser with more than 20 years of experience in the private sector and in government. Blanco served as chief of staff during the administration of Gov. Luis Fortuño and has been part of the government platform teams in 2008, 2012 and 2020. In the private sector, he practiced at prestigious law firms in New York and Washington, D.C., advising clients on issues related to financing, investment funds and financial regulation.

He worked for several years in commercial banking in strategic planning, treasury and commercial credit.

Blanco completed his bachelor’s degree in economics with a dual concentration in finance and public administration at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he also obtained his Juris Doctor.

Laboy Rivera will be at COR3 as executive director. Pierluisi took the opportunity to highlight his work as Economic Development and Commerce secretary and predict his success in rebuilding and revitalizing Puerto Rico’s socio-economic development by directing COR3. As DDEC secretary he has had a special focus on technology, innovation, export in key sectors and multiple reforms to promote competitiveness and support the growth of the private sector.

Laboy Rivera has 23 years of work experience in manufacturing, chemical production, life sciences, construction, public utilities, export of services, renewable energy, infrastructure, technology and project management.

A member of the Engineers and Surveyors Association of Puerto Rico, he has a master’s degree in business administration from Ana G. Méndez University and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University

of Puerto Rico (UPR), Mayagüez Campus.

The governor-elect also introduced Vélez Vega as the appointed secretary of DTOP and thanked her for her availability to work for Puerto Rico. Vélez Vega is a member of the Engineers and Surveyors Association of Puerto Rico, of the American Association of Civil Engineers, of the Committee of the Transportation Research Board, and of the Society of Women Engineers’ board of directors. She has over 18 years of experience in the management, design and construction of airfield paving, as well as in project management, design and development of technical paving specifications.

Since 2006, Vélez Vega has worked for a prestigious design and planning firm based in North Carolina, and since her return to Puerto Rico in 2014, she has served as its vice president of business development on the island. Prior to that, she worked for four years for the United States Army Corps of Engineers as a civil engineer and as a NASA fellow at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.

VélezVega has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from UPR Mayagüez and a master’s degree from Mississippi State University.

In addition to her vast experience and passion, her accomplishments have been honored by multiple professional organizations and she has been recognized for her community work at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Working directly with the DTOP will be Aguilar Zapata, who remains the executive director of the HTA. She is a professional with over 17 years of experience in permitting, administration, project management, planning and construction.

A member of the Engineers and Surveyors

Association of Puerto Rico, Aguilar Zapata has worked in private companies and has been a public servant in various administrations, both in the state and local government, always in the area of transportation. As head of the HTA since 2019, she has managed the authority’s capital improvement program, thereby helping to boost the island construction industry and contributing to the economic development of Puerto Rico and to job creation. She managed to increase the obligation of federal funds for the benefit of the people of Puerto Rico by more than 40 percent.

Aguilar Zapata has a magna cum laude baccalaureate in civil engineering from UPR Mayagüez, and was an Eisenhower Fellowship recipient.

Pierluisi also presented Pizá Batiz, an attorney who will continue to be in charge at the Ports Authority.

Before taking the helm at Ports, Pizá Batiz served as general legal adviser and deputy secretary of the Ports Authority’s board of directors. Before that he was a legislative adviser to Sen. Miguel Romero Lugo and worked as a lawyer in his private practice in matters of labor law, contracts, appellate law and aviation law.

Pizá Batiz was a fellow at the Court of Appeals under Judge Gerardo Flores García, and at the Office of the Justice Secretary of Puerto Rico. He also served as a professor of aviation law at the Aeronautical School of the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico.

He obtained his Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from the UPR Law School, and holds a bachelor’s degree in political science with a concentration in biomedicine from InterAmerican University’s Metro Campus.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Pierluisi says P3 creation processes will be ‘transparent’

By THE STAR STAFF

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overnor-elect Pedro Pierluisi said Monday he will make the process leading to the creation of publicprivate partnerships (P3s) a transparent one.

“The people should be informed and the media should be informed throughout the entire process,” he said at a news conference to announce his latest cabinet appointments.

Right now, the process leading to a public-private partnership is a confidential one. The name of the private firm or entity involved in the public-private partnership is unveiled after the contract for such a partnership is signed. The public is excluded from the process.

Pierluisi said his government platform includes the creation of P3s for certain projects because they have yielded positive results.

He noted successes in the P3 projects for the management of Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, for the PR-22 and PR-5 expressways and the Teodoro Moscoso Bridge.

“You can see a difference between those roads and the rest,” he said.

Pierluisi plans to give a second look to the public-private partnership between LUMA Energy and the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority for the management of the

utility’s transmission and distribution system.

The contract has been criticized in part because it was approved behind closed doors.

“I support it but I want to make sure it

complies with the energy transformation law,” he said.

There is a P3 proposal to manage regional airports but Pierluisi said he does not want private operators to dilute the importance of those airports.

“I do not dismiss using P3s with a lot of judgment if they can prove that they can do the job more cost effectively than the public sector,” he said. “The important thing is for the process to be transparent and for each P3 to be cost effective.”

Pierluisi said his support for P3s is not meant to diminish public workers. He said he opposes the use of external firms to do jobs that can be done by public workers.

“It is just that in certain areas, the private sector can do the job more cost effectively,” he said.

Most of the current P3 projects will be completed by the Pierluisi administration.

The P3 Authority is working on a P3 project to rebuild piers around San Juan Bay and at least five proposals for public-private partnerships in the energy sector, including one to rebuild hydroelectric power plants and battery storage facilities.

PREPA submits plan to FEMA for use of funds

By THE STAR STAFF

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he Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) on Monday submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) the first of several plans detailing the use of about $10.5 billion to repair the island power grid.

The information was provided by PREPA spokeswoman Edith Seda, who said the report will not be made public just yet. The submitted a 10-year-plan, the Star has learned.

The island government in September received $12.8 billion in federal recovery and reconstruction funds, of which $10.5 billion was approved for infrastructure work at PREPA while about $2.2 billion is slated to go to the Education Department.

The money assigned to PREPA will help repair some 63 power generation structures, 339 power substations, 53 transmission centers, 12 mobile stations, more than 45,000 light poles, 18,000 transformers, over 3,000 miles of distribution lines

and 5,000 transmission poles, according to information provided at the time.

The funds were assigned under Section 428 of the Stafford Act, a law that constitutes the statutory authority for most federal disaster programs.

The repairs will cover 19 dams with hydroelectric power plants, including the dredging of 11 of those reservoirs and nine irrigation canals.

The FEMA funds will be used to bring PREPA’s electrical system up to standards capable of withstanding a Category 4 hurricane.

A statement from the White House at the time the assignment was made said the funds would allow PREPA to “repair and replace thousands of miles of transmission and distribution lines, electrical substations, power generation systems, office buildings, and make other grid improvements.”

In August, the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau approved PREPA’s Integrated Resource Plan, directing the procurement of at least

3.5 gigawatts (GW) of solar and 1.36 GW of battery storage by 2025. The decision also rejected PREPA’s plan for a new liquefied natural gas terminal and gas-fired generation, instead directing the utility to utilize an all-source procurement to speed development of carbon-free resources.

PREPA is in the midst of restructuring its debt following its declaration of

bankruptcy in 2017. The utility’s current balance sheet contains unsustainable debt that precludes the issuance of bonds to raise capital for infrastructure improvements.

In addition, the devastation of Hurricane Maria left unprecedented damages that require significant mitigation to protect Puerto Rico’s energy system from future natural disasters.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

7

Trump officials push ambitious vaccine timeline as California locks down

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR, APOORVA MANDAVILLI and JILL COWAN

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he Trump administration’s top health officials outlined an ambitious timetable Sunday for distributing the first coronavirus vaccinations to as many as 24 million people by mid-January, even as the accelerating toll of the pandemic filled more hospital beds across the United States and prompted new shutdown orders in much of California.

After criticism from President-elect Joe Biden that the administration had “no detailed” vaccine distribution plan, Moncef Slaoui, the chief science adviser of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s vaccine development program, said all residents of long-term care facilities and health workers could receive the first round of vaccinations by mid-January.

A vaccine manufactured by Pfizer could be available by the end of the week, after anticipated approval by the Food and Drug Administration, Slaoui said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, was just as optimistic.

“Really within days,” Azar said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“Within 24 hours of FDA green lighting with authorization, we’ll ship to all of the states and territories that we work with. And within hours, they can be vaccinating.”

But the hopeful comments were met with some skepticism as they played out against an increasingly desperate backdrop, with the virus surging across the country and packing hospitals to near capacity with critically ill patients. On Friday, more than 229,000 new cases were reported in the United States, a record, and several states hit new daily highs over the weekend. More than 101,000 COVID-19 patients are in hospitals now, double the number from just a month ago.

Health experts said the timeline sketched out by Slaoui and Azar was uncompromising and did not account for the possibility of delay during the many steps from vaccine manufacture to distribution at state and local levels, not to mention the hesitancy that many people might feel about taking a newly approved vaccine.

“To meet those kinds of aggressive timelines, all the stars would have to align,” said Dr. Peter J. Hotez, the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

Slaoui said his team charged with distributing the vaccine was scheduled Monday to brief advisers to Biden, who complained last week that there was “no detailed plan that we’ve seen, anyway, as to how you get the vaccine out of a container, into an injection syringe, into somebody’s arm.”

Azar disputed Biden’s remarks.

“With all respect, that’s just nonsense,” he said. “We have comprehensive plans from the CDC, working with 64 public health jurisdictions across the country, as our governors have laid out very detailed plans that we’ve worked with them on.”

At a rally in Georgia on Saturday night, President Donald Trump once again claimed that the country was “rounding the corner” in dealing with the pandemic, a statement at odds with scenes in communities across the country, where doctors and nurses are struggling to cope with more cases of the virus than ever before.

On Sunday afternoon, Trump announced on Twitter that his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who has led the president’s efforts to overturn the results of the election, had tested positive for the virus.

In California, under orders issued Thursday by Gov. Gavin Newsom, residents across the southern and central parts of the state were directed not to leave their homes for three weeks starting at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, joining parts of the San Francisco Bay Area in shuttering outdoor dining and bars, closing schools and roping off playgrounds.

Daily case reports have tripled in the last month in California, where more than 25,000 new infections were reported Saturday.

Los Angeles County, with more than 8,900 new cases, broke its record for the third straight day.

At the UC San Diego Medical Center, just six of 112 inten-

sive care beds were unoccupied Sunday, and doctors expressed concern that an extended crisis would put extreme pressure on nurses and doctors.

“It’s more about the duration,” said Dr. Chris Longhurst, the hospital’s associate chief medical officer. “If the surge were 48 hours, it would be all hands on deck and we’d all be there to take care of them, and then we could get through it. What you can’t manage is a sustained surge.”

Before Sunday, much of California was already under a curfew prohibiting residents from leaving their homes to do nonessential work or to gather from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. The governor’s order required regions in the state to be placed under new restrictions once their intensive care unit availability fell below 15%.

Continues on page 8

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Tuesday, December 8, 2020

From page 7 With capacity at 6.6% in the San Joaquin Valley and 10.3% in Southern California on Sunday, shops there must operate at limited capacity and private gatherings are prohibited. Any open businesses must require everyone inside to wear masks and distance themselves. Among the facilities that must close: hair salons and barbershops; museums, zoos and aquariums; indoor movie theaters; and wineries and breweries.

“I haven’t heard of anybody panicking,” said Rachel Heimann, 25, who lives in San Francisco. “We all want things to go back to normal, and we want people to stop getting sick. This is just a really concrete reminder that things are getting worse.”

California’s new measures are its strictest since the beginning of the pandemic, when it became the first state to issue a stay-at-home order, helping to control an early outbreak.

But many residents are weary after nine months of shifting rules about where they can go, whether they can eat indoors or outdoors and whether their children can go to school. In some cases, the restrictions run counter to moves in other places; New York City, for example, will reopen some public schools Monday, reflecting changing public health thinking about the importance of children being in the classroom.

So this time, California’s restrictions have been met with more skepticism and outright defiance in some areas, even though state and local health officials have described the spread of the virus as much more dangerous than in the spring.

Over the weekend, Los Angeles streets that had until recently been alive with diners sitting on sidewalks or in parking lots were quieter, but shoppers still streamed into grocery stores and clustered outside restaurants waiting for takeout.

Inside a dim post office in the Echo Park neighborhood, a queue of customers — spaced as best they could — snaked around the small, enclosed room lined with mailboxes.

Newsom has emphasized that California will withhold funding from counties that refuse to enforce the stay-at-home order. After some counties pushed back on prevention measures during a summer surge, an enforcement task force levied more than $2 million in fines against businesses, issued 179 citations and revoked three business licenses.

There is also resistance from government leaders, parents and public health experts to playground closings.

Being outside at playgrounds makes it harder for the virus to spread, and the risk of transmission through contaminated services is minimal — particularly when using hand sanitizer and masks and engaging in social distancing, said Joseph Allen, an associate professor of exposure assessment science at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“When you step back and look at this from a real exposure risk standpoint, these are the exact kind of activities we should be encouraging,” he said.

Ana Padilla, the executive director of the Community and Labor Center at the University of California, Merced, said in an email that the new order was likely to be effective at controlling the virus in communities where many middle-class workers work remotely and order takeout.

“It will do less for workers who have no choice but to work in low-wage, essential jobs, in which they frequently come into contact with others,” she said.

Delaware, Michigan, Oregon, Washington state and cities such as Philadelphia and Los Angeles have also reimposed

A walk-up only COVID-19 testing site at at Martin Luther King, Jr. Medical Campus in South Los Angeles, on Dec. 4, 2020. restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the virus.

In Washington, a bipartisan group of senators on Sunday urged passage of a $908 billion stimulus proposal to break the stalemate in Congress over delivering additional economic relief to Americans battered by shutdowns and restrictions like those in California and elsewhere.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., one of the lawmakers who drafted the plan, said on “State of the Union” that “it would be stupidity on steroids if Congress doesn’t act.” But he predicted a few more “days of drama” before the deal gained enough support to pass both chambers.

Intended as a stopgap measure to last until March, the plan would restore federal unemployment benefits that lapsed over the summer, but at half the rate, providing $300 a week for 18 weeks. It would give $160 billion to state, local and tribal governments facing fiscal ruin, a fraction of what Democrats had sought. Also included is $288 billion to help small businesses and a short-term federal liability shield from coronavirus-related lawsuits.

In Britain, 800,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine were being transported to government warehouses Sunday after the country’s regulators became the first in the world to authorize a fully tested vaccine last week. The country’s National Health Service was set to begin vaccinating doctors, nurses, pharmacists, nursing home workers and some people over 80 on Tuesday.

U.S. and European regulators have questioned Britain’s hasty authorization process, but British lawmakers have largely brushed off those concerns, forging ahead with an aggressive strategy of fast-track reviews that could result in a second vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, also being authorized for emergency use within weeks.

In the United States, an advisory committee to the FDA will meet Thursday to review safety and efficacy data on Pfizer’s vaccine. A second vaccine, made by Moderna, has also been submitted for emergency authorization. And two other candidates, made by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, are not far behind, if their development does not hit unexpected snags.

Operation Warp Speed’s timeline has shifted more than once already. The project was initially expected to produce 300 million doses by the end of the year. And Pfizer said this summer that it would have 100 million doses by year’s end. But the companies have hit manufacturing and supply chain problems.

The San Juan Daily Star Together, Pfizer and Moderna now might produce 45 million doses by January. The vaccines were not likely to be available to everyone until the end of the summer, experts said.

Slaoui acknowledged the possibility of delays. “This is not an engineering problem. These are biological problems.

They’re extremely complex,” he said. “There will be small glitches.”

Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University, expressed concern about a lack of clarity at the state level on how vaccines would be distributed to medical centers, nursing homes or pharmacies. And because fewer than half of several high-risk groups — Black people, firefighters, health care workers — have said they would take a vaccine, persuading them to do so will require careful planning and communication to build confidence.

“We have not been doing any of that,” Jha said, “and that’s not something you turn on overnight.”

A state-by-state look at where workers are and are not considered ‘essential’ for vaccine distribution.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

9

The suburbs helped elect Biden. Can they give Democrats the Senate, too?

By ASTEAD W. HERNDON

P

resident Donald Trump bet his reelection on a very specific vision of the American suburb: a 2020 edition of Mayfield from “Leave It to Beaver” in which residents are white, resent minorities, and prioritize their economic well-being over all other concerns.

The bet fell far short. Trump lost ground with suburban voters across the country.

And particularly in Georgia, where rapidly changing demographics have made it the most racially diverse political battleground in the country, his pitch has been at odds with reality.

From the inner suburbs surrounding Atlanta and extending to the traditionally conservative exurbs, Democrats benefited from two big changes: Black, Latino and Asian residents moving into formerly white communities and an increase in the number of white, college-educated moderates and conservatives who have soured on Trump.

Those factors helped President-elect Joe Biden become the first Democrat to win Georgia since 1992. And Senate runoff elections in January will test whether those Biden voters backed his agenda or simply sought to remove a uniquely divisive incumbent. Although Trump is not on the ballot next month, he is very much involved in the race, and he has not moderated his message despite his chastening at the ballot box. The hope is, to some degree, that the pitch that fell short with suburban voters last month will work when Democratic control of the Senate is at stake.

“Very simply, you will decide whether your children will grow up in a socialist country or whether they will grow up in a free country,” Trump told the crowd at a rally Saturday in Valdosta, Georgia. “And I will tell you this, socialist is just the beginning for these people. These people want to go further than socialism. They want to go into a communistic form of government.”

Trump was campaigning on behalf of Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who each have distinct political brands that could pose a challenge for Democrats.

It is a challenge Democrats are seeking to overcome, especially among suburban voters, by keeping Trump front and center.

Jon Ossoff, the Democratic candidate who finished about 2 percentage points be-

hind Perdue, which sent their race to a runoff, makes this case at almost every campaign stop: If the Senate stays in Republican hands, it will block the change Georgia voted for when it elected Biden.

Carolyn Bourdeaux is the only Democrat to flip a House district this year. She won in Atlanta’s northeast suburbs and, like Biden, embraced her background as an ideological moderate and bipartisan deal-maker.

“The Biden effect was probably splitticket voters,” she said.

Runoffs, she said, are about turnout, not party-crossing voters throwing a president out.

“You get your people to vote,” she said.

“So one of the things you need to have is a real, robust grassroots field operation.”

Bourdeaux’s win — and Biden’s — cracked a code for Democrats in the South, and highlights the changing nature of Atlanta’s suburban electorate, which has helped the party succeed. It was an effort ignited by neighborhood-level organizers, accelerated by an unpopular president, and carried over the finish line because of changes in Atlanta’s inner suburbs and throughout the state’s smaller cities, which showed significant swings toward Biden.

In Atlanta, long known colloquially as the “Black Mecca” for its concentration of Black wealth and political power, the proportion of white residents has steadily grown. In the suburbs, Black residents who have moved outward and a diverse collection of new arrivals have fueled Democratic change. That includes a growing Latino population, an influx of Asian Americans, and college-educated white voters who may have supported Trump in 2016 but turned against him.

In Henry County, about 30 miles southeast of Atlanta, Biden improved on his party’s performance in 2016 by nearly five times. Four years ago, Hillary Clinton bested Trump by 4 percentage points. In 2020, Biden won by more than 20 points.

Michael Burns, chair of the Henry County Democratic Party, said he expected some drop-off in interest from general election to runoff. Instead, he has been overwhelmed with investment from national groups and more local organizers than he knows what to do with.

For the runoff, “we’ve had to turn volunteers away,” Burns said.

This is part of a larger shift, said Robert Silverstein, a Democratic political strategist

Voters at Lucky Shoals Park in Gwinett County, Ga., on Nov. 3, 2020. Some Atlanta suburbs that used to be “blood red” went blue in November, but Democrats need strong turnout in January, not just disaffected Republicans seeking to give Trump one final defeat. who has worked on several Georgia races.

Some assume suburban voters are universally moderate and white, not members of the party’s diverse base or progressives. Silverstein said for Democrats to win the runoffs in January and keep winning in places like Georgia, they have to both energize and persuade.

He noted that in 1992, when Bill Clinton carried the state, more affluent suburbs in Atlanta were “blood red.” Today, he said, the coalitions are vastly different.

Still, the patchwork that made the 2020 Democratic coalition possible is nascent and fragile, and could be defeated by an energized Republican electorate. Both Democratic Senate candidates will have to improve on their showings in November, when the Rev. Raphael Warnock beat a split Republican field and Ossoff ran firmly behind Biden.

Republicans are confident their base will turn out and the prospect of the unified Democratic government under Biden will put off some conservatives fearful of fiscal and cultural change.

The locations of their campaign events are a tell of their priorities: Republicans have largely steered clear of the Atlanta metro region to focus on increasing turnout in more rural portions of the state. On Saturday, both candidates rallied with Trump in Valdosta. The city, which is near Florida and has a large military community, is geographically three

hours from Atlanta but even further in terms of pace and culture.

Some Georgia Republicans have privately expressed discomfort with Loeffler and Perdue, who have hewed closely to Trump and all but abandoned outreach to the moderate center in favor of an all-base turnout strategy.

Whit Ayres, a veteran Republican pollster in Georgia, said Republican erosion in the inner suburbs — and to a lesser degree the conservative exurbs — has blunted the advantage Republicans have enjoyed in runoff elections. While white evangelicals and religious conservatives remain a core of the Republican base, and make up a portion of the suburban electorate, some Republicans worry that such issue-driven voters may be put off by the senators’ willingness to dip into Trump-induced conspiracy theories and misinformation.

Ayres said both sides have hurdles to overcome before January. Republicans have a president who is sowing discord within their party, and Democrats need to mobilize communities that have typically sat out nonpresidential elections. They cannot, he said, count on the same coalition that turned out in November.

“Are these now permanent Democratic voters? No, not at all,” he said. “They’re in transition, and they were put off in large part by the conduct and behavior of the president.”

10

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Anti-vaccine scientist has been invited to testify before Senate committee

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

A

doctor who is skeptical of coronavirus vaccines and promotes the antimalaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment will be the lead witness at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing Tuesday, prompting criticism from Democrats who say Republicans should not give a platform to someone who spreads conspiracy theories.

Dr. Jane Orient is executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a group that opposes government involvement in medicine and views federal vaccine mandates as a violation of human rights.

“A public health threat is the rationale for the policy on mandatory vaccines. But how much of a threat is required to justify forcing people to accept government-imposed risks?” Orient wrote in a statement to the Senate last year, calling vaccine mandates “a serious intrusion into individual liberty, autonomy and parental decisions.”

In a phone interview Sunday, Orient, an internist who received her medical degree from Columbia University in New York, resisted being cast as an “anti-vaxxer” and said she would not get a coronavirus vaccine because she had an autoimmune condition. She added that she opposed the government’s push for all Americans to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, noting that both vaccine candidates — one made

by Pfizer and the other by Moderna — use a new scientific method.

Dr. Jane M. Orient is the executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a group that opposes government involvement in medicine.

“It seems to me reckless to be pushing people to take risks when you don’t know what the risks are,” Orient said. “People’s

rights should be respected. Where is ‘my body, my choice’ when it comes to this?”

Her selection as a witness as federal health officials are trying to promote a vaccine as a way to end a pandemic that has killed more than 281,000 Americans prompted harsh criticism from Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and the Senate minority leader.

“At such a crucial time, giving a platform to conspiracy theorists to spread myths and falsehoods about COVID vaccines is downright dangerous and one of the last things Senate Republicans should be doing right now,” Schumer said in a statement Sunday.

But at least two Republican House members — Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina — appeared to embrace Orient’s warnings against government mandates. They took to Twitter to express those views.

“Americans should have the freedom to take the COVID vaccine,” Duncan wrote Saturday. “Americans should also have the freedom to decline the vaccine.”

A spokesperson for the chair of the Senate committee, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., did not immediately return an email message asking why Orient had been invited to testify.

Federal health officials are trying to enlist lawmakers in a campaign to encourage Americans to accept the new vaccines.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee will meet Thursday to review data on the safety and efficacy of Pfizer’s vaccine candidate. If the agency grants the vaccine emergency authorization, rollout could begin shortly after.

In a private briefing with a bipartisan group of senators last month, Moncef Slaoui, chief scientific adviser to Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s vaccine development program, said that “it would help if senators got vaccinated,” according to a person familiar with the call.

Orient, who lives in Tucson, Arizona, said Sunday that she would appear remotely during the hearing on early at-home treatment for COVID-19. She said in the interview that doctors were too often sending patients home with instructions to simply rest and ride out the disease.

The association has also sued the government in an effort to force it to release hydroxychloroquine from the national stockpile for use as a COVID-19 treatment, although the scientific evidence indicates that the drug is ineffective against the coronavirus. The case is currently before a federal appeals court.

Orient said she intended to use her testimony to call for government guidelines informing doctors about hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for COVID-19 patients, even though the FDA revoked an emergency authorization allowing the drug to be distributed from the national stockpile and has warned that it could harm those patients.

Orient’s organization has urged people to be cautious about the vaccine in blog posts with titles like “Should We Line Up for a 90% Effective Vaccine?” In her interview, she raised particular concerns about vaccinations for young people “because the effect on fertility has not been determined.” There is no evidence that any of the leading coronavirus vaccines affect fertility.

Orient also took aim at Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease specialist, asking, “Why is he dictating care for 340 million Americans?”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

11

How Biden’s digital team tamed the MAGA Internet

By KEVIN ROOSE

I

n April, when Rob Flaherty, the digital director for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, told me that the former vice president’s team planned to use feel-good videos and inspirational memes to beat President Donald Trump in a “battle for the soul of the internet,” my first thought was, Good luck with that.

After all, we were talking about the internet, which doesn’t seem to reward anything uplifting or nuanced these days. In addition, Trump is a digital powerhouse, with an enormous and passionate following; a coalition of popular right-wing media outlets boosting his signal; and a flair for saying the kinds of outrageous, attention-grabbing things that are catnip to the algorithms of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. And after I wrote about Biden’s comparatively tiny internet presence last spring, I heard from legions of nervous Democratic strategists who worried that using “heal the nation” messaging against the MAGA meme army was like bringing a pinwheel to a prizefight.

But in the end, the bed-wetters were wrong. Biden won, and despite having many fewer followers and much less engagement on social media than Trump, his campaign raised record amounts of money and ultimately neutralized Trump’s vaunted “Death Star” — the name his erstwhile campaign manager, Brad Parscale, gave to the campaign’s digital operation.

Figuring out whether any particular online strategy decisively moved the needle for Biden is probably impossible. Offline factors, such as Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic and the economic devastation it has caused, undoubtedly played a major role. But since successful campaigns breed imitators, it’s worth looking under the hood of the Biden digital strategy to see what future campaigns might learn from it.

After the election, I spoke with Flaherty, along with more than a dozen other people who worked on the Biden digital team. They told me that while the internet alone didn’t get Biden elected, a few key decisions helped his chances.

Joe Biden talks with Brayden Harrington about stuttering, something they share, during a presidential primary campaign stop in Gilford, N.H., Feb. 10, 2020.

tors

1. Lean on Influencers and Valida-

In the early days of his campaign, Biden’s team envisioned setting up its own digital media empire. It posted videos to his official YouTube channel, conducted virtual forums and even set up a podcast hosted by Biden, “Here’s the Deal.” But those efforts were marred by technical glitches and lukewarm receptions, and they never came close to rivaling the reach of Trump’s social media machine.

So the campaign pivoted to a different strategy, which involved expanding Biden’s reach by working with social media influencers and “validators,” people who were trusted by the kinds of voters the campaign hoped to reach.

“We were not the biggest megaphone compared to Trump, so we had to help arm any who were,” said Andrew Bleeker, president of Bully Pulpit Interactive, a Democratic strategy firm that worked with the Biden campaign.

One validator at the top of the team’s list was Brené Brown, a research professor and popular author and podcast host who speaks and writes about

topics like courage and vulnerability.

Brown has a devoted following among suburban women — a critical demographic for Biden’s campaign — and when Biden appeared as a guest on her podcast to talk about his own stories of grief and empathy, the campaign viewed it as a coup.

Also high on the list was actor Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson, whose following skews center-right and male.

Johnson’s endorsement this fall of Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, created a so-called permission structure for his followers — including some who may have voted for Trump in 2016 — to support Biden, members of the campaign staff told me.

Celebrity endorsements aren’t a new campaign strategy. But Biden’s team also worked with lesser-known influencers, including YouTubers like Liza Koshy, and struck a partnership with a group of creators known as TikTok for Biden, which the campaign paid to promote pro-Biden content on the teen-dominated video app TikTok. Perhaps the campaign’s most unlikely validator was Fox News. Headlines from the outlet that reflected well

on Biden were relatively rare, but the campaign’s tests showed that they were more persuasive to on-the-fence voters than headlines from other outlets. So when they appeared — as they did in October when Fox News covered an endorsement that Biden received from more than 120 Republican former national security and military officials — the campaign paid to promote them on Facebook and other platforms.

“The headlines from the sources that were the most surprising were the ones that had the most impact,” said Rebecca Rinkevich, Biden’s digital rapid response director. “When people saw a Fox News headline endorsing Joe Biden, it made them stop scrolling and think.”

2. Tune Out Twitter and Focus on ‘Facebook Moms’ A frequent criticism of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign was that it was too focused on appealing to the elite, high-information crowd on Twitter instead of paying attention to the much larger group of voters who get their news and information on Facebook. In 2020, Biden’s digital team was committed to avoiding a repeat.

“The whole Biden campaign ethos was, ‘Twitter isn’t real life,’” Flaherty said. “There are risks of running a campaign that is too hyperaware of your own ideological corner.”

As it focused on Facebook, the Biden campaign paid extra attention to “Facebook moms” — women who spend a lot of time sharing cute and uplifting content, and who the campaign believed could be persuaded to vote for Biden with positive messages about his character. Its target audience, Flaherty said, was women “who would go out and share a video of troops coming home or who would follow The Dodo,” a website known for heartwarming animal videos.

One successful clip aimed at this group showed Biden giving his American flag lapel pin to a young boy at a campaign stop. Another video showed Biden, who has talked about overcoming a stutter in his youth, meeting Brayden Harrington, a 13-year-old boy with one. Both were viewed millions of times.

12

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Voters also responded positively to videos in which Biden showed his command of foreign policy. In January, after a U.S. drone strike killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the campaign posted a three-minute Facebook video of Biden explaining the situation.

Despite the snoozy title — “Joe Biden Discusses Donald Trump’s Recent Actions in the Middle East” — the video became one of the campaign’s earliest viral successes.

The campaign experimented with lighter fare, putting virtual Biden for President lawn signs in Animal Crossing, the hit Nintendo game, and setting up a custom “Build Back Better” map in Fortnite, the popular battle royale game, in hopes of reaching younger voters. Some of these efforts were more gimmicky than others. But they all reflected the campaign’s decision to take a pro-Biden message to as many corners of the internet as possible.

“Our goal was really to meet people where they were,” said Christian Tom, head of Biden’s digital partnerships team.

3. Build a Facebook Brain Trust One of the campaign’s goals, Biden staff members told me, was promoting content that increased “social trust” — in other words, avoiding the kind of energizing, divisive fare that Trump has used to great effect.

But Biden’s digital strategy wasn’t all puppies and rainbows. The campaign also joined ranks with a number of popular left-wing Facebook pages, many of which are known for putting out aggressive anti-Trump content.

They called this group the “Rebel Alliance,” a jokey nod to Parscale’s “Death Star,” and it eventually grew to include the proprietors of pages like Occupy Democrats, Call to Activism, The Other 98 Percent and Being Liberal. On the messaging app Signal, the page owners formed a group text that became a kind of rapid-response brain trust for the campaign.

“I had the freedom to go for the jugular,” said Rafael Rivero, a co-founder of Occupy Democrats and Ridin’ With Biden, another big pro-Biden Facebook page.

Rivero, who was paid by the Biden campaign as a consultant, told me that in addition to crossposting its content on Occupy Democrats, he often offered the campaign advice based on what was

performing well on his pages.

During the Republican National Convention, for example, Rivero noticed that a meme posted by Ridin’ With Biden about Trump’s comments on Medicare and Social Security was going viral. He notified the rest of the Rebel Alliance group and recommended that the campaign borrow the message for Biden’s official Twitter account.

“It was sort of a big, distributed message test,” Flaherty said of the Rebel Alliance. “If it was popping through Occupy or any of our other partners, we knew there was heat there.”

These left-wing pages gave the campaign a bigger Facebook audience than it could have reached on its own.

But they also allowed Biden to keep most of his messaging positive while still tapping into the anger and outrage that many Democratic voters felt.

4. Promote ‘Small-Batch Creators,’ Not Just Slick Commercials In its internal tests, the Biden campaign found that traditional political ads — professionally produced, slick-looking 30-second spots — were far less effective than impromptu, behind-the-scenes footage and ads that featured regular voters talking directly into their smartphones or webcams about why they were voting for Biden.

“All our testing showed that higher production value was not better,” said Nathaniel Lubin, a Biden campaign consultant. “The things that were realer, more grainy and cheaper to produce were more credible.”

So the campaign commissioned a series of simple, lo-fi ads targeted at key groups of voters, like a series of self-recorded videos by Biden supporters who didn’t vote in 2016, talking about their regrets.

In addition to hiring traditional Democratic ad firms, the campaign also teamed with what it called “smallbatch creators” — lesser-known producers and digital creators, some of whom had little experience making political ads. Among the small-batch creators it hired: Scotty Wagner, a former art school professor from California, who produced a video about young people who supported Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary sharing things they didn’t know about Biden, and Jawanza Tucker, a TikTok creator, who made a video styled after a TikTok meme about why he was

voting for Biden.

5. Fight Misinformation, but Pick Your Battles One of the biggest obstacles the Biden campaign faced was a tsunami of misinformation, much of it amplified by the Trump campaign and its rightwing media allies. There were baseless rumors about Biden’s health, unfounded questions about Harris’ citizenship and spurious claims about the business dealings of Biden’s son Hunter.

The campaign formed an inhouse effort to combat these rumors, known as the “Malarkey Factory.” But it picked its battles carefully, using data from voter testing to guide its responses.

When the Hunter Biden laptop story emerged, for example, some Democrats — worried that it would be 2020’s version of the Hillary Clinton email story — suggested that the Biden campaign should forcefully denounce it. But the campaign’s testing found that most voters in its key groups couldn’t follow the complexities of the allegations and that it wasn’t changing their opinion of Joe Biden.

“We had running surveys so we could see in real-time how people were responding,” said Caitlin Mitchell, a digital adviser for the Biden campaign. “The two big metrics were, are you aware of this? And many people had heard of it. The secondary category was, are you concerned by it? And the clear answer was no.”

The campaign still responded to the reports, and Biden defended his son on the debate stage. But it stopped short of mounting a full-throated countermessaging campaign.

When it did respond to misinformation, the Biden team tried to address the root of the narrative. After right-wing influencers posted compilation videos of Biden stumbling over his words and appearing forgetful, the campaign surveyed voters to try to figure out whether the attempt to paint him as mentally unfit was resonating.

It discovered that the real concern for many people wasn’t Biden’s age or his health, per se, but whether he was an easily manipulated tool of the radical left.

The Biden team identified the voters who were most likely to see those clips and ran a targeted digital ad campaign showing them videos of Biden speaking lucidly at debates and public events.

Flaherty, the campaign digital director, said the campaign’s focus on empathy had informed how it treated misinformation: not as a cynical Trump ploy that was swallowed by credulous dupes but as something that required listening to voters to understand their concerns and worries before fighting back. Ultimately, he said, the campaign’s entire digital strategy — the Malarkey Factory, the TikTok creators and Facebook moms, the Fortnite signs and small-batch creators — was about trying to reach a kinder, gentler version of the internet that it still believed existed.

“It was about, how do we throw the incentives of the internet for a bit of a loop?” he said. “We made a decision early that we were going to be authentically Joe Biden online, even when people were saying that was a trap.”

The Biden campaign paid to place lawn signs in the Animal Crossing video game.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

13 Stocks

After blazing energy rally, investors check the fuel gauge

I

nvestors are gauging how far a rally in beaten-down energy shares could run, as an expected recovery for the coronavirushit economy clashes with skepticism about the long-term prospects of fossil fuels.

Energy shares overall soared nearly 27% in November, leading the charge among sectors expected to benefit from the broad economic revival promised by encouraging developments for several vaccines against COVID-19.

The longer term outlook for the sector, however, remains uncertain, as companies throughout the oil and gas supply chain face challenges from the increasing use of “green” energy sources such as wind and solar. Another concern is resistance among fund managers to investing in fossil fuel companies over environmental concerns.

“It’s always hard to be extremely bullish on a sector that is likely in secular decline, and the traditional fossil fuel sector is very likely in secular decline,” said Doug Cohen, a portfolio manager at Fiduciary Trust International.

Coronavirus-related developments will continue to draw investor attention next week, as a U.S. health advisory panel meets Thursday to discuss whether to recommend emergency use authorization of a vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc with German partner BioNTech SE. The energy sector remains down 37% this year, even as a 13.5% rise has sent the S&P 500 to fresh records. Declining oil prices have seen energy stocks underperform the broad market since the Great Recession, and the market value of energy companies has shrunk to 2.4% of the S&P 500, down from over 15% in 2008, according to Refinitiv Datastream.

November rattled that trend, as the release of positive data from three separate coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna Inc and AstraZeneca Plc sparked massive rallies in the shares of companies across the sector.

Shares of oil majors Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp rose 17% and 25%, respectively, while Occidental Petroleum Corp soared over 72% and Devon Energy Corp surged nearly 57%.

“The notion of a vaccine being sometime around the corner gives some hope that oil demand may recover,” said Stewart Glickman, energy equity analyst at CFRA Research, adding that energy shares will stay sensitive to news about vaccines or coronavirus cases in the near-term.

Hopes of an economic rebound have drawn plenty of attention to the battered sector. Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Barclays in November all upgraded their ratings on the energy sector to market-weight or neutral.

The sector is “the poster child for deep value,” Savita Subramanian, BofA Global Research’s head of U.S. equity and quantitative strategy, said during the firm’s 2021 outlook event.

The firm last month lifted its rating on the sector from underweight to overweight.

The relatively high dividends of many energy stocks also could draw investors, said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth Management. Exxon’s dividend yield is 9%, Chevron’s is about 6% compared to a 2% yield for the overall S&P 500.

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Tuesday, December 8, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

China peddles falsehoods to obscure origin of COVID pandemic

Cuts of raw meat for sale at a market in Langfang, China, Jan. 23, 2020. Facing global anger over their initial mishandling of the outbreak, the Chinese authorities are now trying to rewrite the narrative of the pandemic by pushing theories that the virus originated outside China.

By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ

T

he mild-mannered German scientist never anticipated becoming a Chinese propaganda star.

But Alexander Kekulé, director of the Institute for Biosecurity Research in Halle, Germany, has been all over the state-run media in China in recent days. News outlets have taken Kekulé’s research out of context to suggest that Italy, not China, is where the coronavirus pandemic began.

Photos of him have appeared on Chinese news sites under headlines reading, “China is innocent!”

Kekulé, who has repeatedly said that he believes the virus first emerged in China, was startled.

“This is pure propaganda,” he said in an interview.

Facing global anger over their initial mishandling of the outbreak, Chinese authorities are now trying to rewrite the narrative of the pandemic by pushing theories that the virus originated outside China.

In recent days, Chinese officials have said that packaged food from overseas might have initially brought the virus to China. Scientists have released a paper positing that the pandemic could have started in India. The state news media has published false stories misrepresenting foreign experts,

including Kekulé and officials at the World Health Organization, as having said the coronavirus came from elsewhere.

The campaign seems to reflect anxiety within the ruling Communist Party about the continuing damage to China’s international reputation brought by the pandemic. Western officials have criticized Beijing for trying to conceal the outbreak when it first erupted.

The party also appears eager to muddy the waters as the WHO begins an investigation into the question of how the virus jumped from animals to humans, a critical inquiry that experts say is the best hope to avoid another pandemic. China, which has greatly expanded its influence in the WHO in recent years, has tightly controlled the effort by designating Chinese scientists to lead key parts of the investigation.

By spreading theories that foreigners are responsible for the pandemic, the party is deploying a well-worn playbook.

The Chinese government is rarely willing to publicly address its own shortcomings, often preferring to redirect attention elsewhere and rally the country against a common enemy.

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has led a vigorous effort this year to play down his government’s early failures in the crisis, instead arguing that the party’s success in containing the

virus shows the superiority of its authoritarian system.

The latest propaganda push gives Xi a fresh chance to stoke nationalist sentiment and distract from festering problems, including a lingering wealth gap. The government seems wary of inviting renewed scrutiny of its actions as the pandemic began to unfold, analysts say.

Xi most likely sees the party’s missteps as a vulnerability and is eager to avoid potential challenges to his authority at home, said Erin Baggott Carter, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Southern California.

“If Xi is able to escape blame for the coronavirus, that reduces one major source of discontent with his rule,” she said.

In some ways, China’s strategy resembles efforts by U.S. lawmakers to distract from missteps in that country by spreading fringe theories, including the unsubstantiated notion that the Chinese government manufactured the virus as a biological weapon.

For months, Chinese officials openly spread conspiracy theories of their own, implying at one point that the U.S. military could have brought the virus to the city of Wuhan.

Experts and officials are now going further, trying to give falsehoods about the origins of the virus the veneer of scientific fact.

A recent paper by a group of scientists affiliated with the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences indicated that the virus could have broken out in India before spreading to China.

“Wuhan is not the place where human-to-human SARS-CoV-2 transmission first happened,” said the paper, which appeared last month on SSRN, an online scholarly repository.

The paper, which was not peer-reviewed, had been submitted to The Lancet, a medical journal, for publication.

After drawing wide attention in the Chinese news media and in overseas outlets, the 22-page article vanished from online sites. A spokesperson for The Lancet said it had been removed from SSRN at the request of the paper’s authors.

The scientists did not respond to requests for comment.

The article was the latest in a series of comments and articles by Chinese scientists arguing that the virus had first surfaced in Italy, Spain or elsewhere before spreading to China.

While recent studies have indicated that the coronavirus may have infected people in the United States and elsewhere earlier than previously thought, researchers still believe the most likely explanation is that it started circulating in China.

Edward Holmes, a professor at the University of Sydney who has studied the coronavirus, said the idea that the virus originated outside China seemed to be gaining traction for political purposes.

“It lacks scientific credibility and will only further fuel the conspiracy theories,” he said.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

15

Bergamo’s pandemic survivors carry scars unseen and incalculable

By JASON HOROWITZ

E

very Monday night in the northern Italian town that had perhaps the highest coronavirus death rate in all of Europe, a psychologist specializing in post-traumatic stress leads group therapy sessions in the local church.

“She has treated survivors of war,” the Rev. Matteo Cella, the parish priest of the town, Nembro, in Bergamo province, said of the psychologist. “She says the dynamic is the same.”

First the virus exploded in Bergamo.

Then came the shell shock. The province that first gave the West a preview of the horrors to come — oxygen-starved grandparents, teeming hospitals and convoys of coffins rolling down sealed-off streets — now serves as a disturbing postcard from the post-traumatic aftermath.

In small towns where many know one another, there is apprehension about other people, but also survivor’s guilt, anger, second thoughts about fateful decisions and nightmares about dying wishes unfulfilled. There is a pervasive anxiety that, with the virus surging anew, Bergamo’s enormous sacrifice will soon recede into history, that its towns will be forgotten battlefields from the great first wave, that its dead will become engraved names on another rusted plaque.

And most of all there is a collective grappling to understand how the virus has changed people. Not just their antibodies, but their selves.

“It has closed me more,” Monia Cagnoni, 41, who lost her mother to the virus and then developed pneumonia, said as she sat apart from her father and sister on the stairs of their family home. “I want to be more alone.”

Her sister, Cinzia, 44, who prepared coffee and cake in the kitchen, had the opposite impulse.

“I need people more than ever,” she said.

“I don’t like to be alone.”

Bergamo, like everywhere, now confronts a second wave of the virus. But its sacrifice has left it better prepared than most places, as the widespread infection rate of the first wave has conferred a measure of immunity for many, doctors say. And its medical staff, by now drilled in the virus’ awful protocols, are taking in patients from outside the province to alleviate the burdens on overwhelmed hospitals nearby.

But even as contagion still threatens them from without, the wounds of the first wave gnaw at them from within.

Talking about these things does not come

easily to people in Italy’s industrial heartland, jammed with metal-mechanic and textile factories, paper mills, billowing smokestacks and gaping warehouses. They prefer to talk about how much they work. Almost apologetically they reveal that they are hurting.

In the town of Osio Sopra, Sara Cagliani, 30, cannot get over her failure to fulfill her father’s dying wish.

A sign on her home’s gate reads, “Here lives an Alpine soldier.” When the coronavirus crisis began, her father, Alberto Cagliani, 67, offered his help, telling his daughter, “‘Remember, I’m an Alpine soldier, and we show up in an emergency.’”

After retiring as a truck driver, he had volunteered for a funeral home, driving around the province, retrieving the bodies of men killed in auto accidents and dressing them in suits given by their families. In February, he volunteered again, but this time the body count was overwhelming.

He became taciturn and stopped coming home to eat. “A slaughter without end,” he told his daughter. On March 13, after tending to another victim, he felt a pain in his right shoulder that spread to his lower back. His voice weakened. The sound of the television bothered him. On March 21, his wife saw him touching the bathroom towels just to see if he could feel them. His fingertips had gone numb.

His legs followed. He died of COVID the next day with water in his lungs.

His last wish was to be buried in his Alpine soldier’s uniform, and his daughter sought to honor that, sending the green jacket and pants to the funeral home. The morticians sent them back, explaining that the fear of contagion made dressing bodies impossible.

“To put him in a sack, this is my greatest regret,” Cagliani said through tears, adding that she had started seeing a psychologist and that the tragedy had changed many in her closeknit town.

“People are scared to see one another,” she said. “There is a lack of affection, of touching and holding.”

Others are haunted by the horrible choices the virus forced them to make.

In mid-March, Laura Soliveri began taking care of her mother who had developed COVID symptoms in the Bergamo town of Brignano Gera d’Adda. The doctors told her they did not have masks and would not come to check on her. Her brother, a pharmacist, warned her not to allow their mother to be taken by an ambulance or be brought to a hospital, because

the family would never see her again.

Soliveri, a 58-year-old grade-school teacher, scoured the area for available oxygen tanks to slake her gasping mother’s thirst for air. Finally they found her one. Her mother improved.

Then Soliveri’s husband, Gianni Pala, got the virus, too.

She and her family scrambled to find more oxygen, this time for him. They could not take it away from her mother. His condition deteriorated and he required hospitalization. He died, age 64, on April 5. Her mother, 85, survived.

“My mother had the oxygen, but we couldn’t take it from her to give to him,” said Soliveri, who has also started seeing a therapist and taking antidepressants and fiddling with her husband’s wedding ring, which she now wears on her middle finger. “I would have done it.”

The virus has tested some people’s faith — Soliveri has said she had lost her ability to pray — and fortified it in others.

Over the summer, Raffaella Mezzetti, 48, a volunteer for the Catholic charity Caritas, said the church had become a balm for the traumatized. But she said she still got chills when she heard the jingles of the ads that were on TV at the time. The sirens of ambulances, which she said were maybe bringing women to the hospital to give birth, made her nervous. “It sticks with you,” she said.

The medical crisis delayed Giovanni Cagnoni from getting his stomach pains checked out. When doctors properly examined him, they discovered he had a rare cancer,

liposarcoma, concentrated around his kidneys.

By the time he got a surgery date, in August, it had metastasized and was no longer operable.

“The hospitals weren’t taking anyone,” he said in his home in Gazzaniga, where he sat in front of a fire with his two daughters.

The Cagnoni family had already been through an inferno, the minutiae of which the 76-year-old former military police commander punctiliously noted in a green notebook titled “Chronicle of COVID-19.”

On March 8, his wife, Maddalena Peracchi, felt a chill on a walk. Over the next 11 days, he registered her fevers (99.32, 97.7, 100.4), and then on March 19 her condition plummeted and a team of ambulance workers in hazmat suits entered their home and took her away.

On March 20, her brother called to encourage them “and died that evening.”

On March 29, Cagnoni noted “Daylight Saving Time” and that doctors had called to tell him his wife’s time had all but expired.

March 30 was “interminable,” he wrote, and he received no news. On March 31, he called the hospital and learned his wife had died the night before.

“They forgot to call us,” the blue script reads. On April 11, as his daughter Monia recovered from the virus, Cagnoni’s diary noted his first stomachache.

So many families had lost relatives that when Bergamo came out of the monthslong lockdown in the summer, many people discovered that their friends and neighbors had vanished. But there beaten and torn.

Memorial candles in November in the cemetery of Alzano Lombardo, one of the Bergamo towns that was at the center of Italy’s coronavirus crisis in March.

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Tuesday, December 8, 2020

As pandemic threatens Britain’s mental health, these ‘fishermen’ fight back

By MEGAN SPECIA

T

he group of seven volunteers in high-visibility vests, equipped with GPS trackers and radios, gathered in the parking lot of a nature preserve on the outskirts of town.

“We’ll take the red route,” Rick Roberts said, shining his flashlight over a map of the woodland, as his breath formed a cloud in the cold, late-November air.

The group fanned out on the trails in teams for the next hour, the beams of their high-power flashlights crisscrossing through the trees outside Gainsborough, a once bustling market town nestled along the winding River Trent in Lincolnshire, in the East Midlands of England. They were there as part of Night Watch, a suicide-prevention initiative started just a few weeks earlier to monitor known suicide hot spots in the area, and they were looking for people in crisis.

This night was a good one: They found no one.

But the past few weeks have been busy for the Bearded Fishermen, the mental health charity behind the patrol project, and its co-founders, Roberts and Mick Leyland. With England just emerging from a second lockdown, they have seen a measurable uptick in calls for support and an increasing need for their crisis services as the community grapples with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The cold and wet weather, long nights, it does affect a lot of people,” Leyland said. “And being on lockdown as well, it’s even worse.” In one recent week alone, they had responded to

Workers and volunteers at the Bearded Fishermen charity in Gainsborough, England, Nov. 26, 2020. The Bearded Fishermen has begun a nightly suicide-prevention patrol around the town, looking for people in crisis.

a number of crisis calls, including some from people threatening to take their own lives.

With the coronavirus pandemic devastating Britain and two national lockdowns leaving many feeling isolated, experts say there are rising concerns about the mental health and wellbeing of people across the country. Research has shown a rise in reports of loneliness — a particular concern for young people — difficulties for those with preexisting mental health issues and an increase in reports of suicidal ideation.

Though there is no recorded uptick in the national suicide rate yet, the risk of suicide among middle-age men remains concerning in Britain, where for decades the group has made up the highest number of suicide deaths.

The impact of the pandemic and its knock-on effects — lockdowns, an economic downturn and social isolation — on mental health have been well documented around the world.

And in Britain, which is simultaneously grappling with the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in Europe and a deep recession, health experts worry that the effect could be felt for years to come.

Some neighborhoods in Gainsborough are considered the most deprived in Lincolnshire.

David, 22, who asked that his last name be omitted to protect his privacy, lives in the town and has struggled with depression and alcohol abuse for years.

“I was brought up by my granddad, so I was brought up to think, it doesn’t matter what’s going on, you have to just be strong,” he said. For David, the lockdown has posed new challenges. With his living situation growing more unstable and job opportunities dwindling, the stresses have added up.

“The pandemic has definitely made things a little bit more difficult, because there’s not as many services to access support from face-to-face,” he said, adding that the lack of human connection had been hard. He said that the Bearded Fishermen’s support provided a lifeline, but some days were better than others.

In some ways, Leyland said, the town feels “forgotten,” often overlooked in funding, even as “ homeless, jobless and lowincome residents see their mental health adversely affected by the pandemic.

“There are a lot of people here who have been out of work for a while, who desperately want work,” Leyland said. “They get to that point where they think, ‘I’m better off not being here.’”

Leyland and Roberts officially registered the Bearded Fishermen charity — its name is a nod to their shared love of fishing and to the bushy facial hair they both sport — as the pandemic

was just beginning in March. When England entered a second national lockdown, they began the Night Watch patrols.

The pair’s own mental health struggles and path to solace serve as powerful testimony. Both have survived suicide attempts. After being homeless for a time, Roberts moved to Gainsborough, and the two became friends during weekly fishing outings with a group of other men.

“We both suffer from depression and anxiety, and so fishing was a release for us,” Roberts said. “We used to sit there just chatting about things that we won’t chat to anyone else about.”

They thought others, particularly men who struggle to open up, could benefit from similar support. Late last year, they began a weekly community group, where men could “hash out their problems” over cups of tea at a local community center, Leyland said.

When the pandemic made gatherings impossible, they moved their meetings online. Then they set up the call center this summer, providing phone support 24/7.

The situation in the Gainsborough area reflects the larger mental health strain across Britain. A report published by the British Journal of Psychiatry in October found an increase in reports of suicidal ideation during the pandemic. Young people, individuals from more socially disadvantaged backgrounds and those with preexisting mental health problems reported worsening conditions during the first national lockdown in the spring.

Mette Isaksen, a senior researcher and evidence manager at Samaritans, a British mental health charity that was a partner in the research, said that while the study revealed worrying trends, it did not necessarily mean suicides would rise.

“It’s just so important that people know they can get help,” she said. “Suicide is not inevitable.”

The Mental Health Foundation, which has been carrying out a nationwide study of the pandemic’s effect on mental health in Britain, found that reports of loneliness spiked during the first lockdown. The research also noted that, while some negative emotions reported early on — like anxiety, stress and panic — had dropped, feelings of loneliness and isolation had persisted.

Dr. Antonis Kousoulis, the foundation’s research director for England and Wales, said certain groups were of particular concern, including young people, who reported feelings of hopelessness at a markedly higher rate than the rest of population.

Many with preexisting mental health issues have also seen their conditions worsen, he added.

“We are seeing that we are all in the same storm, but we are not all in the same boat,” Kousoulis said of the findings.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

17

The EU’s deadly second wave is already worse than the first

By JOSH HOLDER, MATINA STEVIS-GRIDNEFF and ALLISON McCANN

T

he European Union’s second wave of the coronavirus is proving to be more deadly than the first, after average daily deaths set a record on Nov. 24, exceeding 4,000 for the first time since April.

Nine months into the pandemic, the EU’s second wave is on a trajectory similar to the virus’s first assault.

The data, which includes the 27 European Union member states as well as the United Kingdom, is a stark indicator of the challenges facing EU leaders, with many under pressure to ease coronavirus restrictions over the Christmas period.

In the first three months of the second wave, 16 EU countries have already surpassed the number of deaths they recorded in the first wave, from February to September.

Some EU countries that avoided major outbreaks in the spring have been badly hit by the second wave.

The Czech Republic, which suffered fewer than 500 deaths in the outbreak’s first wave, has recorded nearly 8,000 deaths since Sept. 1.

Croatia scrambled to revive its tourism sector, which makes up around one-fifth of its economy, by opening its borders July 1 to tourists from all countries.

Those countries are now facing a surge of deaths in the second wave that already total eight times their first wave toll.

Italy is once again struggling to keep its coronavirus outbreak under control, with its second-wave death toll on course to match the early months of the pandemic.

Daily deaths surged past 800 on Nov. 24 for the first time since March.

Other EU countries, however, have managed to keep the virus at bay. Ireland has recorded fewer than 300 deaths since Sept. 1, just 15% of its first wave total, after a second lockdown that its prime minister, Michael Martin, described as “probably Europe’s strictest regime.”

Many EU countries have again instituted tough restrictions and lockdowns. Germany has extended its measures, including limiting restaurants to offering only takeout and private gatherings to five people, until at least Dec. 20. Greece has extended its lockdown, which allows residents to leave home only for essential shopping, exercise and work.

The second coronavirus wave now hitting Europe is deadlier than the first, pushing reluctant governments back into lockdowns and inflicting new scars on the European economy.

Romania’s leader is tested by a close election

By KIT GILLET

A

mid record low turnout, voters in Romania on Sunday dealt a setback to the country’s prime minister, Ludovic Orban, in a surprisingly tight race that threatened his grip on power.

Orban claimed victory Sunday evening, even though his center-left National Liberal Party was running a close second to its main rival, the Social Democratic Party, in early results.

Orban’s party is expecting that an alliance with a smaller party will help keep it in power. Orban has pledged to continue efforts to modernize the country, one of the European Union’s poorest member states, while also keeping Romania on a pro-European path.

But a strong showing by the Social Democratic Party, which has been accused of a host of political scandals in recent years, and the potential arrival in Parliament of a new nationalist party soured the mood for many Romanians.

They had been hoping for a clearer sign that the country was putting the past behind it.

The elections were never likely to give a strong majority to any single party.

But the outcome appears to allow a working coalition between two center-right parties: Orban’s National Liberal Party and an alliance known as USR-PLUS, which appeared set to come in a strong third. Still, they will most likely need

to bring in additional coalition partners to stay in power.

Hours before polls closed, Orban urged Romanians to go out to vote.

“Four years ago, low turnout led to a Parliament lacking legitimacy, a Parliament which undermined the rule of law and democratic institutions,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

But his appeals appeared to fall flat. Turnout was less than 32% of eligible voters, the lowest in the country since the fall of communism more than three decades ago.

Four years ago, after the Social Democrats took office, Romania was convulsed by a series of political scandals.

Vast protests erupted in February 2017 over an emergency decree that effectively decriminalized low-level corruption, and demonstrators denounced long-standing graft in the country. The firing of Laura Codruta Kovesi, the head of Romania’s anti-corruption agency, spurred more protests a year later.

For a while, it had looked as if Romania was following the path of Poland and Hungary and pursuing a more illiberal form of democracy. But in 2019, the Social Democrats’ powerful leader, Liviu Dragnea, was jailed for abuse of office, and the government was toppled after a no-confidence vote in October that year.

In November 2019, President Klaus Iohannis, previously the leader of the National Liberal Party, won a handy victory in his reelection campaign, a further repudiation

of the deposed Social Democrats.

In the months leading up to the current election, polls had tightened, with the National Liberal Party experiencing a fall in support amid criticism of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Romania, which has imposed relatively strict lockdown measures, has registered more than 500,000 confirmed cases of the virus, with more than 12,000 deaths.

Sorin Ionita, a political analyst at the Bucharest-based research group Expert Forum, said that the Social Democrats’ approach under Dragnea had an obvious impact on last year’s presidential election but that “low turnout and the party getting rid of the toxic team around Dragnea” gave the party a stronger public image.

In a statement after polls had closed, Orban said that his party considered itself to be “both the moral winner and the winner at the end of the counting process,” and that it would be able to quickly form a parliamentary majority.

Romania has experienced a conveyor belt of governments and Cabinets in recent years, with five prime ministers in five years. Orban’s minority administration lost a noconfidence vote this year, but ultimately remained in power to avoid political uncertainty in the face of the pandemic.

While the closeness of the election could have an impact on the next government, experts predict that the race might be quickly forgotten.

“Once they are in and form a coalition, it will be very stable for the next four years,” said Ionita.

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Tuesday, December 8, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL

How black people in the U.S. learned not to trust

By CHARLES M. BLOW

I

t would appear that the people in American hit hardest by COVID-19 — Black people — are also the group most leery about the prospects of a vaccine.

As a Pew Research report published last week pointed out: “Black Americans are especially likely to say they know someone who has been hospitalized or died as a result of having the coronavirus: 71% say this, compared with smaller shares of Hispanic (61%), White (49%) and Asian-American (48 %) adults.”

But that same report contained the following: “Black Americans continue to stand out as less inclined to get vaccinated than other racial and ethnic groups: 42% would do so, compared with 63% of Hispanic and 61% of white adults.”

The unfortunate American fact is that Black people in this country have been well-trained, over centuries, to distrust both the government and the medical establishment on the issue of health care.

In the mid-1800s a man in Alabama named James Marion Sims gained national renown as a doctor after

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performing medical experiments on enslaved women, who by definition of their position in society could not provide informed consent.

He performed scores of experimental operations on one woman alone, an enslaved woman named Anarcha, before perfecting his technique.

Not only that, he operated on these women without anesthesia, in part because he didn’t believe that Black women experienced pain in the same way that white women did, a dangerous and false sensibility whose remnants linger to this day.

When he finally got his experiments to be successful, he began to use them on white women, but he would begin to use anesthesia for those women.

As medical writer Durrenda Ojanuga wrote in the Journal of Medical Ethics in 1993: “Many white women came to Sims for treatment of vesicovaginal fistula after the successful operation on Anarcha. However, none of them, due to the pain, were able to endure a single operation.”

Sims would go on to become known as the Father of Gynecology, even though, as one researcher put it: “Sims failed utterly to recognize his patients as autonomous persons and his own personal drive for success cannot be minimized, especially as a balance to the enormous amount of praise accorded Sims for his work and for subsequent applications of the technique developed in Montgomery and elsewhere.”

After the Civil War and the freeing of the enslaved, the limited and fragile infrastructure for Black people in this country collapsed and an epidemic of disease flourished.

Many formerly enslaved people were estranged from the small gardens they used to grow things for

home remedies. The larger plantation that had sick houses saw operations cease.

White doctors refused to see Black people and white hospitals refused to admit them. Furthermore, federal, state and local governments squabbled over whose responsibility it was to provide health care for the newly freed men and women, with no entity truly wanting to assume that responsibility.

Because of all of this, Jim Downs, a professor at Gettysburg College, estimates that at least one-quarter of all former slaves got sick or died between 1862 and 1870.

For nearly half of the 20th century, women — often Black — were forcibly sterilized, often without their knowledge. As The Intercept reported in September, “Between 1930 to 1970, 65% of the 7,600-plus sterilizations ordered by the state of North Carolina were carried out on Black women.”

As Ms. Magazine pointed out in 2011: “Some women were sterilized during cesarean sections and never told; others were threatened with termination of welfare benefits or denial of medical care if they didn’t ‘consent’ to the procedure; others received unnecessary hysterectomies at teaching hospitals as practice for medical residents. In the South it was such a widespread practice that it had a euphemism: a ‘Mississippi appendectomy.’ ” Even famed Mississippi civil rights heroine Fannie Lou Hamer was a victim of forced sterilization. As PBS has pointed out, “Hamer’s own pregnancies had all failed, and she was sterilized without her knowledge or consent in 1961. She was given a hysterectomy while in the hospital for minor surgery.” Hamer would later say, “(In) the North Sunflower County Hospital, I would say about 6 out of the 10 Negro women that go to the hospital are sterilized with the tubes tied.”

Furthermore, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains: “In 1932, the Public Health Service, working with the Tuskegee Institute, began a study to record the natural history of syphilis in hopes of justifying treatment programs for blacks. It was called the ‘Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.’ ” Hundreds of Black men were told they were being treated for syphilis, but they were not. They were being observed to see how the disease would progress. The men suffered under this experiment for 40 years.

I hope that America can overcome Black people’s trepidations about this vaccine, but it is impossible to say that that trepidation doesn’t have historical merit.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

19

Departamento de Agricultura listo para iniciar el proceso de transición Por THE STAR

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l secretario del Departamento de Agricultura, Carlos Flores Ortega, sostuvo hoy la primera reunión con el secretario designado, Ramón González Beiró, para iniciar un proceso de transición de forma ordenada.

“Conforme a las instrucciones de la administración saliente y entrante hoy iniciamos un proceso de transición abierto al diálogo, aprovechando el escenario para presentar los logros alcanzados bajo mi liderato y las iniciativas que requieran continuidad con el fin de fortalecer la industria agrícola de la Isla”, expresó Flores Ortega.

Pese a que Puerto Rico ha enfrentado durante los pasados años varios eventos atmosféricos y vive una pandemia mundial, se logró el 72 por ciento del Plan Agrícola establecido en el 2017 y una rápida recuperación en la actividad agrícola tras el paso de los huracanes Irma y María con un valor alcanzado de $732.5 millones en el Ingreso Bruto Agrícola (IBA) representando un aumento de $38.2 millones en comparación con el año anterior.

Precisamente el Plan Agrícola estaba compuesto por 38 iniciativas medulares 17 han sido desarrolladas al 100 por ciento, mientras que 11 están sobre 50 por ciento de ejecución y unas 10 se lograron llevar de 0 a 40 por ciento para un 72 por ciento de cumplimiento total.

Mientras González Beiró, expresó, “agradezco la apertura y la disposición del secretario Flores Ortega y a todo el equipo del Departamento de Agricultura. Vamos a darle continuidad a los proyectos encaminados por la administración y crearemos nuevas

iniciativas que beneficien a nuestros agricultores. La prioridad será garantizar la seguridad alimentaria de nuestra Isla, explorar y viabilizar la exportación de productos agrícolas”.

Entre tanto, Flores Ortega destacó que gracias al esfuerzo y trabajo en conjunto con el personal del DA lograron implementar proyectos de política pública para mejorar y agilizar los trabajos agrícolas y su comercialización, siempre buscando el mejor beneficio para los agricultores.

El titular detalló que dentro de los logros destacan; la iniciativa Come Bien, Come Saludable, transformación de Mercados Institucionales y Mercados Familiares impactando los 78 municipios y durante la pandemia bajo la modalidad del servicarro. Además, maximizar la inyección de fondos federales a sobre $450 millones, reducción de $50 millones dirigidos a gastos administrativos, se integró la tecnología a través de la Oficina Sistemas de Información para facilitar los procesos a los agricultores y digitalizar el Departamento, se descentraliza la sede principal, estableciendo las Súper Regiones Agrícolas, junto al Departamento de Desarrollo Económico y Comercio (DDEC) se creó el Proyecto AgroSolar y junto al Departamento de Educación (DE) se firmó un acuerdo

para utilizar escuelas en desuso que fuesen dirigidas para realizar actividades agrícolas.

De igual forma, destacó, la creación del Programa Pequeños Rumiantes y el Agromóvil para brindar servicios a agricultores afectados por los temblores y la pandemia en el área sur oeste.

Flores Ortega mencionó que los principales productos en el área de cultivos que experimentaron crecimiento fueron los plátanos, guineos, vegetales, ornamentales, hortalizas principalmente tomates y frutales como el mango para exportación. Mientras que las empresas de café, cítricas y pesca aún se encuentran en su etapa de recuperación debido al tiempo que toma su crecimiento o la construcción de facilidades para su óptima operación.

Asimismo, en el área de los pecuarios principalmente se experimentó una fuerte recuperación y crecimiento en la producción de leche, carne de pollo, carne de cerdo y huevos ascendente a $321.1 millones o un 41.4 por ciento del total agrícola.

Bajo está administración, agregó, la creación de la Oficina para el Licenciamiento e Inspección del Cáñamo (OLIC) y luego de la aprobación del Departamento de Agricultura Federal (USDA), Puerto Rico cuenta con 65 licencias de cultivo y 13 licencias de manufactura con miras a cultivar y sembrar 10 mil cuerdas.

“Estoy satisfecho con lo que hemos realizado, sin embargo, consciente de que queda mucho por hacer confío en que González Beiró, continuará con los planes establecidos que requieran seguimiento.

La agricultura es la fuente de riqueza de los países y debemos fomentar el consumo de los productos locales”, puntualizó el secretario.

Gracias, pero no gracias, dice gobernador electo sobre pagar sueldos ajustados a jefes de agencias Por THE STAR

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l gobernador electo, Pedro Rafael Pierluisi Urrutia insistió el lunes que los nominados a dirigir agencias o corporaciones públicas no tendrán compensaciones especiales.

“Lo que yo he dicho públicamente anteriormente, ahora lo estoy poniendo en práctica. No van a haber funcionarios ejerciendo cargos en el gabinete o dirigiendo agencias del gobierno por vía de contratos con unas compensaciones que se apartan de lo que ley dispone que deben ganar o devengar los funcionarios en esos cargos”, dijo Pierluisi en conferencia de prensa.

“El que viene a mí a decirme que me estoy ganando equis cantidad de dinero en la empresa privada y a menos que me equipares esa cantidad o algo parecido, yo les digo: gracias, pero no gracias. Y así ha sido, pero no voy a dar nombres ni apellidos. Al

gobierno no se viene a ganar dinero, se viene a dar un servicio y conlleva un sacrificio”, añadió.

Pierluisi Urrutia expresó que tampoco cree en darle a una persona la dirección de múltiples agencias.

“Podrá haber alguna excepción, pero esto de que haya una persona con tres cargos en mi libro gerencial eso no va. El que mucho abarca, poco aprieta. Yo quiero que hagan el cargo que les asignó con excelencia. Si después les tengo que dar a gerenciar un proyecto o los tengo que ascender a otra posición lo voy a hacer. Pero no van a ver una persona en múltiples cargos porque no creo en eso”, sostuvo.

Las expresiones del gobernador electo se dieron durante el anuncio de los nombramientos de Juan Carlos Blanco Urrutia para la Oficina de Gerencia y Presupuesto (OGP); el actual secretario del Departamento de Desarrollo Económico y Comercio,

Manuel Laboy Rivera para la Oficina Central de Reconstrucción y Resiliencia (COR3) y la ingeniera Eileen Vélez Vega como secretaria del Departamento de Transportación y Obras Públicas (DTOP).

En sus posiciones dejó a Rosana Aguilar Zapata como directora de la Autoridad de Carreteras y Transportación y Joel Pizá Batis director de la Autoridad de los Puertos.

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Best movies of 2020

Luca Marinelli in Pietro Marcello’s “Martin Eden,” an adaptation of the Jack London novel.

By MANOHLA DARGIS and A.O. SCOTT MANOHLA DARGIS I Watched Until My Eyes Bled t was a year of watching obsessively yet indiscriminately, a year of small and smaller screens. On one lost day not long ago, I spent a horrifying (embarrassing!) 11 hours, 15 minutes on my phone.

I read the news, doomscrolled Twitter, did puzzles, checked my email and kept scrolling. It’s no wonder that my eyes had begun to regularly ache and sometimes sting, prompting me to worry that I needed a new prescription for my glasses. I didn’t. I just needed to stop watching, but I couldn’t put down my phone, which tethered me to the larger world that I greatly missed.

The point of a top 10 list is to share our preferred movies. But in thinking about my favorites of the year and all the many new and old titles I’ve seen, I also thought a lot about how I watched movies and, well, just watched. A big-screen fundamentalist, I love going out to the movies, to firstand second-run cinemas as well as to art houses, museums and cinémathèques. I know which theater and studio in Los Angeles (where I live) has the biggest screen, the best sound, sightlines and seats — me, I like to sit in the middle of the theater, perfectly centered.

I

When movie theaters closed in Los Angeles in March, I cried. (They’re still closed.) The tears of critics are tiny, but moviegoing is who I am. I grew up in New York in the 1970s watching as many films as I could, including on TV. But going to the movies was one of my first adventures in sovereignty, one of the first ways that I experienced navigating ordinary life without parental supervision. Moviegoing was my thing, a way of seeing and of being. Up until March, it was also instrumental to how I understand time, its shape, texture and demands: moviegoing dictated what I did day and night, including the many hours I clocked driving to and from screenings.

Like a lot of people, I have felt unmoored this year partly because of how I now experience time. I’ve long worked from home, but to review movies, I go to theaters. So I found it challenging learning to watch the movies I was reviewing at home, how to respect the focus they required and deserved, how to sit — and keep sitting — on the sofa and not hit the pause button, not check Twitter. It didn’t help that we have a lot of windows, which made it impossible to replicate a dark screening room, even with the shades drawn. So, staying classy, I hung sheets over the shades and even taped Trader Joe’s shopping bags over one small window, which was as ridiculous as it sounds.

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

I finally figured out how to really watch the movies I was reviewing at home when I categorically separated them from the other images I was soaking up, the stream of faces, shapes and moments that also defined my year: Sarah Cooper’s devastating Trump performances; Doggface skateboarding to Fleetwood Mac; Scottish sports announcer Andrew Cotter and his dogs, Olive and Mabel; the sometimes shocking science videos demonstrating how far sneezes and coughs can travel (27 feet!); and the friends and strangers whose lives I’ve watched as they made bread, settled into new homes, marched for Black lives and, at times, mourned the deaths of loved ones.

Every so often, someone asks what I think will happen to movies. I haven’t a clue, beyond my conviction that good, bad and indifferent ones will continue to be produced, distributed and exhibited. How and what we watch, though, is much less certain. What we do know is that the American movie industry has weathered — and profited from — a succession of cataclysmic crises, from its monopolistic foundation to the coming of sound, the end of the old studio system, and the introduction of television and home video. The advent of streaming has added another chapter in a history that will continue to morph and outlive any one company or crisis. Time will tell, and so will we.

1. ‘Martin Eden’ (Pietro Marcello) In this brilliant take on the Jack London novel of the same title, Luca Marinelli plays an autodidact who abandons the

Spike Lee captured a performance of David Byrne’s Broadway show “American Utopia.”

The San Juan Daily Star working class to embrace a soul-and-worlddestroying bootstraps ideology. (Watch on Kino Marquee) 2. ‘City Hall’ (Frederick Wiseman) Wiseman, one of America’s greatest, most generous chroniclers, brings you into Boston’s City Hall, where men and women help make a city — and democracy — work. (Watch through virtual cinemas) 3. ‘Gunda’ (Victor Kossakovsky) A sow gives birth to a charmingly rambunctious litter and a one-legged chicken roams blissfully free in this intimate, exquisitely beautiful look at animal life from the ground up. (Watch through virtual cinemas) 4. ‘David Byrne’s American Utopia’ (Spike Lee) Given how great it looks, how superbly it moves, how glorious it sounds and how high it sends me, it should be titled “Spike and David Are Here to Take You Away From 2020.” (Watch on HBO Max) 5. ‘Bacurau’ (Juliano Dornelles and Kleber Mendonça Filho) This exhilarating genre-buster mixes high and low to upend the classic story of the town forced to battle outside evil.

Funny, weird, bloody and deeply political.

(Watch on streaming platforms) 6. ‘First Cow’ (Kelly Reichardt) A tender story of male friendship and a rebuke to rugged individualism, Reichardt’s drama offers an alternative to the triumphalism of most frontier stories. And the cow is lovely. (Watch on streaming platforms) 7. ‘Never Rarely Sometimes Always’ (Eliza Hittman) You can feel the rage wafting off the screen in this drama about a teenager’s difficult quest to obtain an abortion. Scene by scene, you can also see the terrific filmmaking. (Watch on streaming platforms) 8. ‘Collective’ (Alexander Nanau) This gripping and at times shocking documentary tracks the aftermath of a catastrophic fire in Bucharest, Romania, that killed scores of people, brought down the government and inspired heroic journalism. (Watch on streaming platforms) 9. ‘The Forty-Year-Old Version’ (Radha Blank) There’s Woody Allen’s New York, Spike Lee’s and now Blank’s. As a floundering playwright in the midst of a crisis, Blank stakes a claim on the romance of artistic struggle, making it her own with wit, rap, an open heart and a burst of glorious color.

(Watch on Netflix)

The San Juan Daily Star 10. ‘Beanpole’ (Kantemir Balagov) This tragic, painful, dazzlingly directed drama takes place in the Soviet Union right after the Second World War. Balagov is a heartbreaker and a major talent.

(Watch on streaming platforms) Garrett Bradley’s “Time” would be in my top 10, but it was a coproduction of The New York Times, so I can’t include it because it’s a conflict of interest. But you should watch it.

A.O. SCOTT Moviefilms for Make Benefit a Weary and Anxious World It’s been a year of deprivation and abundance. The press screenings and catch-up trips to local theaters that have punctuated my weeks for more than two decades vanished, and my internet connection turned into a 24-hour cinémathèque. I missed going to the movies a lot, but I didn’t much miss the Hollywood fare that has dominated screens in the past few years. The ascendance of streaming makes me uneasy — because of the passivity it engenders in the audience and the aesthetic compromises it renders all but irresistible — but for now I’m grateful to have seen so many good films. I’ve needed them more than ever.

1. ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’ (Jason Woliner) Would I call this the best movie of 2020, from the standpoint of cinematic art? Look, I don’t know. It’s been a weird year. But I would insist that this sequel to a cringey, pranky, 14-year-old classic is undeniably the most 2020 movie of all time.

This is partly because Sacha Baron Cohen and his collaborators — including Maria Bakalova, the phenomenal Bulgarian actress who plays Borat’s daughter, Tutar — worked through the first months of the pandemic and the start of the presidential campaign, giving their antics a presenttense flavor that went beyond mere relevance.

But this new Borat adventure also captured the feeling of its moment with dismaying accuracy. Once again, Cohen’s friendly, idiotic alter ego arrived on our shores from Kazakhstan to show Americans as we really are. Which is appallingly bigoted, ignorant and paranoid, but also disarmingly polite and kind to strangers.

There is something touching about the part of the movie in which Borat quarantines with a pair of QAnon believers who later help him find Tutar at an anti-mask MAGA rally. And a welcome dose of noncomedic

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

humanity arrives in the person of Jeanise Jones, who patiently tries to free Tutar’s mind from its patriarchal prison.

(Watch on Amazon) 2. ‘City Hall’ (Frederick Wiseman); ‘Collective’ (Alexander Nanau) Hatred of government and contempt for journalism are staples of the modern anti-democratic mindset, and these documentaries offer powerful counterarguments. Wiseman’s long, contemplative look at the workings of Boston’s municipal administration becomes a symphony of process, a demonstration of how democracy abides in the absence of drama. Nanau’s hair-raising chronicle of lethal official corruption in Romania is, by contrast, intensely dramatic — an exposé of horrific governmental dysfunction and heroic efforts to combat it that will make your heart race and your blood boil. Together, these films suggest that patience and rage are vital and complementary civic virtues. (Watch “City Hall” through virtual cinemas; watch “Collective” on streaming platforms) 3. ‘First Cow’ (Kelly Reichardt) Reichardt’s latest quasi-Western is a quiet study of friendship and a biting critique of global capitalism — as manifested in 19th-century Oregon Territory. Orion Lee and John Magaro are wonderful as a pair of misfits whose snack-cake startup falls afoul of supply-chain problems, questionable business practices and ruthless human greed. (Watch on streaming platforms) 4. ‘Martin Eden’ (Pietro Marcello) Jack London’s autobiographical novel, published in 1909, has long been more popular in Europe than in the land of London’s birth, and Marcello’s wild screen version is both an earnest love letter and a brazen act of cultural and imaginative appropriation. Martin (the insanely hot Luca Marinelli) has been transplanted to Naples and given pretty much the whole 20th century as the backdrop for his ardor and ambition. Literature, politics, class struggle, sex — it’s all here in a seething, perpetually surprising epic that obliterates the distinction between realism and fantasy. (Watch on Kino Marquee) 5. ‘The Forty-Year-Old Version’ (Radha Blank) Blank is a wonderful character — insecure, funny, decent, vain. Blank, who plays her, is a terrific performer, supplying compassion and also the unflinching candor that is a necessary ingredient in any kind of memoir. Best of all, Blank, making

21

her feature debut, is a brilliant filmmaker, with an eye for the absurdities of New York theater and for the glorious theater of the city itself. (Watch on Netflix) 6. ‘Palm Springs’ (Max Barbakow) Cristin Milioti and Andy Samberg meet not-very-cute at the start of this variation on the themes of “Groundhog Day” and search for love and meaning in a world of diminished expectation and endless repetition. The filmmakers (Barbakow directed; Andy Siara wrote the screenplay) didn’t set out to make a quarantine love story, but something about the way the central pair does battle with boredom, anxiety and the temptations of cynicism made this a balm and a bright spot in a dreadful, seemingly interminable year. (Watch on Hulu) 7. ‘Bacurau’ (Juliano Dornelles and Kleber Mendonça Filho) Udo Kier and Sônia Braga! Science fiction and Western! “Bacurau,” named for a fictional town in the Brazilian backlands, is a rollicking, violent adventure whose defiance of genre and narrative convention stands for a more general — and more pointed — form of defiance: against the arrogance of power; against the legacies of colonial cruelty and slavery that still afflict modern Brazil; against the authoritarian impulse to erase history, suppress joy and ignore urgent messages from the future.

Which is what this movie, above all, seems to be. (Watch on streaming platforms) 8. ‘David Byrne’s American Utopia’ (Spike Lee); ‘Lovers Rock’ (Steve McQueen) What do you miss more, live perfor-

mances or house parties? These films, driven by music and the movement of bodies in enclosed space, are full of joy and desire even as they recognize how hard life can be. “Lovers Rock,” the shortest, sweetest chapter in McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology, unfolds in a single night in London in the early 1980s. “American Utopia,” directed by Lee, captures a performance of Byrne’s omnibus 2019 show at the Hudson Theatre in New York. In both cases, the medium is the message and the pleasure is the politics. (Watch “American Utopia” on HBO Max; watch “Lovers Rock” on Amazon) 9. ‘Dick Johnson Is Dead’ (Kirsten Johnson) Johnson’s movie is a documentary that walks up to the very edge of knowable reality, contemplating the mysteries of death, memory and human consciousness. It’s also an imaginative collaboration between the filmmaker and her father, a retired psychiatrist with dementia, who together act out scenarios of paternal demise. The result is funny and shocking, ghoulish and surpassingly humane. (Watch on Netflix) 10. ‘Soul’ (Pete Docter) The message of the latest Pixar feature — a lyrical, metaphysical tale of a jazz pianist’s adventures in the afterlife — is that it’s good to be alive. The movie was originally slated for release in the spring, so the filmmakers could not have imagined just how timely, and how welcome, that message would feel. (Watch on Disney+ starting Dec. 25)

Clockwise from top left, scenes from “Martin Eden,” “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” “The Forty-Year-Old Version,” “Palm Springs” and “Beanpole.”

22 adquirieron el lote que desean inscribir mediante este procediESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE miento , en dos predios con caPUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE bidas originales de 1,147.62 M.C PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE y 796.02 M.C y que ·1os PeticioCAROLINA. narios poseyeron como si fuera EVA ILIA PÉREZ CRESPO, un solo predio desde sus respectivas compras, efectuadas por WILFRED APONTE escrituras números diecisiete PÉREZ Y LIAM MAGALY las (17) del 17 de abril de 1979, APONTE PÉREZ ante Amílcar Soto Santiago y PETICIONARIOS doce (12) del 17 de octubre de EX PARTE 1985, ante el mismo Notario. Ni CIVIL NÚM. CA2020CV0060. los referidos dos lotes, ni la proSOBRE: EXPEDIENTE DE piedad formada por los mismos DOMINIO. EDICTO. ESTADOS y que los Peticionarios desean UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRE- inscribir ahora como un solo SIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. EL predio, están afectos a cargas ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE o gravámenes de clase alguna.

PR. Este Tribunal ordenó que se publique la pretensión por tres (3) A: Gladys Casillas Nieves e Isabel Nieves veces durante el término de veinte (20) días en un periódico de Rodríguez, miembros de circulación general diaria, para la Sucesión de Eliseo que todas las personas arriba mencionadas y todas aquellas Casillas, inmediato desconocidas a quienes pueda anterior dueño del la inscripción o depredio abajo descrito, perjudicar seen oponerse, puedan así haambas con dirección en cerlo dentro del término de vein12944 Little Elliot Dr., te (20) días a partir de la última Hagerstown, Maryland publicación del presente edicto.

Por tanto firmo expido la presen21742; a todo el que te en Carolina, Puerto Rico, a 14 tenga algún interés de Septiembre de 2020. Lcda. propietario, o derecho Marilyn Aponte Rodriguez, Sereal sobre el inmueble cretaría Regional. Rosa M. Viera descrito en la Petición Velazquez, Subsecretaria.

LEGAL NOTICE

de Dominio del caso de epígrafe, a las personas ignoradas a quienes pueda perjudicar la inscripción del mismo, y, en general, a toda persona que desee oponerse.

POR LA PRESENTE: se les notifica que los peticionarios de epígrafe, han presentado una Petición para que se declare a favor de ellos, el dominio que tienen sobre la siguiente propiedad: “RÚSTICA: Predio de terreno denominado Parcela Uno (1) en el plano de inscripción localizado en el barrio Cedros de Carolina, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de mil seiscientos sesenta punto cuatro mil doscientos dieciocho metros cuadrados (1,660.4218.MC), equivalentes a punto cuatro mil doscientos veinticinco diezmilésimas de cuerda (.4225 Cda.) y en lindes: por el Norte con terrenos de la Sucesión de Agustín Rodríguez; ahora, Eleuterio Álamo Resto; por el Sur, con Parcela marcada Dos del mismo Plano, ahora Luis Cruz; por el Este, con quebrada y área a dedicarse a uso público y por el Oeste, con camino de uso público.” Dicho “lote es parte de la finca número 43,955, inscrita al folio 259 del tomo 1047, finca número de la Sección II de Carolina, propiedad de Eliseo Casill. as Pérez de quien la copeticionaria Eva l. Crespo Pérez y su esposo Wilfredo Aponte Aponte

@

LEGAL NOTICE

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

LIME RESIDENTIAL, LTD Demandante

SUCESION DE FRANCISCA ROCHE COLON, COMPUESTA POR SUS HEREDEROS LUIS, MIGUEL, EVELYN, IRMA, JUDITH, LYDIA IVETTE, JUANA Y RAFAEL TODOS DE APELLIDOS OLMOROCHE; DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA; Y CENTRO RECAUDACION INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

Demandados CIVIL NUM. JCD2009-1736 (G028). 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 Ponce, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América y/o Giro Postal y Cheque Certificado, en mi oficina ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Ponce, el 21 de enero de 2021, a las 1:30 de la tarde, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: RÚSTICA: Parcela marcada con el número 63 de la Comunidad Rural Coto Laurel, radicada en el Barrio Coto Laurel del término municipal de Ponce, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 289.64 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con Carretera Estatal Número 14; por el SUR, con la parcela número 103 de la comunidad; por el ESTE, con la Calle número 4 de la comunidad; y por el OESTE, con la parcela número 64 de la comunidad. Sobre dicho solar enclava una casa de cuatro cuartos dormitorios, una cocina, balcón, marquesina y uno y medio baños. En su inscripción 2nda se dice que enclava la siguiente casa: Casa de hormigón reforzado y bloques de concreto destinado a vivienda, consistente de seis cuartos dormitorios, una cocina, sala, comedor, balcón, marquesina y un y medio baños. Finca 46995 inscrita al folio 272 del tomo 1542 de Ponce, Sección Primera, Registro de la Propiedad de Ponce. Propiedad localizada en: Comunidad Coto Laurel, 63 Calle B, Ponce, PR 00780 Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas anteriores o preferentes: Nombre de!

Titular: N/A Suma de !a Carga: N/A Fecha de Vencimiento: N/A Según figuran en la certificación registra!, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas posteriores a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: a. AVISO DE DEMANDA con fecha 24 de diciembre de 2009 radicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Ponce, en el caso civil número JCD2009-1736 sobre cobro de dinero y ejecución de hipoteca; Citimortgage, Inc., demandante y. Sucesión de Francisca Roche Colón compuesta por sus herederos Luis, Miguel, Evelyn, Irma, Judith, Lydia Ivette, Juana y Rafael todos de apellido Olmo Roche; Departamento de Hacienda y Centro de Recaudación de Ingresos Municipales (CRIM), demandados. Por la misma se reclama el pago de $24,048.71, garantizado con la Hipoteca re-

staredictos@thesanjuandailystar.com

lacionada en la inscripción 6’.

Anotada el 6 de mayo de 2010 al folio 129 del tomo 2098 de Ponce, finca 46995, anotación “A”.

Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad de la propiedad y que todas las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito ejecutante antes descritos, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes. El rematante acepta dichas cargas y gravámenes anteriores, y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se establece como tipo mínimo de subasta la suma de $27,500.00, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la escritura de hipoteca.

De ser necesaria una segunda subasta por declararse desierta la primera, la misma se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Ponce, el 28 de enero de 2021, a las 1:30 de la tarde, , y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $18,333.33, dos terceras (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 $13,750.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Ponce, el 4 de febrero de 2021, a las 1:30 de la tarde. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para, con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante, el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor ascendente a la suma de $24,048.71 de principal, intereses al tipo del 8.00000% anual según ajustado desde el día 1 de junio de 2009 hasta el pago de la deuda en su totalidad, más la suma de $2,750.00 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 de! 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

(787) 743-3346

Tuesday, December 8, 2020 en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star, que es un diario de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, así como para su publicación en los sitios públicos de Puerto Rico. Expedido en Ponce, Puerto Rico, hoy día 10 de noviembre de 2020. JORGE M. HERNANDEZ PAGAN, Alguacil Regional.

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

BOSCO IX OVERSEAS, LLC BY FRANKLIN CREDIT MANAGEMENT CORPORATION AS SERVICER Demandante v.

IVÁN ENRIQUE FERMAINT CARABALLO t/c/c IVÁN E. FERMAINT CARABALLO, XIOMARA IVETTE COLÓN DÍAZ t/c/c XIOMARA I. COLÓN DÍAZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandados CIVIL NÚM. CA2019CV02704.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA.

A: LOS CODEMANDADOS DE EPIGRAFE Y AL PÚBLICO EN GENERAL:

El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente anuncia y hace constar que en cumplimiento de una Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe 18 de diciembre de 2019, notificada el 22 de enero de 2020 y publicada el 24 de enero de 2020 y de un Mandamiento de Ejecución emitido el día 19 de junio de 2020, que ha sido dirigido por la Secretaria del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Carolina, procederá a vender en subasta, por separado, y al mejor postor con dinero en efectivo, cheque de gerente o letra bancaria con similar garantía, todo título, derecho o interés de los demandados de epígrafe sobre el inmueble que adelante se describe. Se anuncia por la presente que la primera subasta habrá de celebrarse el día 13 de enero de 2021 a las 10:30 de la mañana, en mi oficina localizada en el edificio que ocupa la Sala del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Carolina, sobre el inmueble que se describe a continuación: RUSTICA: Parcela marcada con el #316, en el plano de parcelación de la Comunidad Rural Ramón T. Colón, del barrio Quebrada Negrito del término municipal de Trujillo

Alto, con una cabida superficial de 0.0992 cuerda, equivalente a 389.83 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con la calle 10 de la comunidad; por el Sur, con las parcelas 327 y 328 de la comunidad; por el ESTE, con la parcela 315 de la comunidad y por el OESTE, con la parcela 31 7 de la comunidad. FINCA: Número 14471 inscrita al folio 225 del tomo 285 de Trujillo Alto, Registro de la Propiedad, Sección IV de San Juan. Dirección fisica: Parcel 316 10th St. Ramon T. Colon, Trujillo Alto PR 00976. El siguiente pagaré consta inscrito en la propiedad antes mencionada y es el que se pretende ejecutar: HIPOTECA: Por $86,700.00, con intereses al 6.00% anual, en garantía de un pagaré a favor de R&G Premier Bank of Puerto Rico, que vence el 1ro de marzo de 2040. Según escritura #176, otorgada en San Juan, el 25 de febrero de 2010, ante Nancy Berríos Díaz, inscrita en virtud de la ley 216 del 201 O para agilizar el Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, al tomo Karibe de la Sección IV de San Juan, finca #14471 de Trujillo Alto, inscripción l 7ma., con fecha de 13 de marzo de 2018. La subasta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer al demandante, total o parcialmente según sea el caso, de la referida sentencia que fue dictada por las siguientes sumas: $77,586.17 de principal, más intereses al tipo convenido al 6.000% anual, más recargos por todo pago en atraso, más la cantidad de $8,670.00 como cantidad estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, así como cualquier otra suma que contenga el contrato de préstamo. 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 Carolina, 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 OCHENTA Y SEIS SETECIENTOS DÓLARES ($86,700.00) para que dicha

The San Juan Daily Star 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 21 de enero de 2021 a las 10:30 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 CINCUENTA Y SIETE MIL OCHOCIENTOS DÓLARES ($57 ,800.00) 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 28 de enero de 2021 a las 10:30 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 CUARENTA Y TRES MIL TRESCIENTOS CINCUENTA DÓLARES ($43,350.00) para la finca antes descrita. En testimonio de lo cual, expido el presente aviso, el cual firmo y sello, hoy 24 de noviembre de 2020, en Carolina, Puerto Rico. Samuel Gonzalez Isaac, Alguacil.

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

E.M.I. EQUITY MORTGAGE, INC DEMANDANTE VS.

MELVIN JAVIER ROQUE MARTÍNEZ

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: CG2019CV02472.

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 CAGUAS, 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 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en su oficina sita en el local que ocupa en el edificio del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS, SALA SUPERIOR, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble de su propiedad que ubi-

ca en B-11 CALLE NEPTUNO & APOLO URB. COLINAS DEL ESTE JUNCOS, PR 00777-4400 y que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar #11 del bloque B de la Urbanización Colinas del Este, radicado en el Barrio Ceiba del Municipio de Juncos, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 326.09 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en 16.79 metros, con la calle #2; por el SUR, en 15.08 metros, con el lote #22; por el ESTE, en 18.55 metros, con la calle #3; y por el OESTE, en 22.00 metros, con el lote #10. Afecta a servidumbre de 5’ de ancho a favor de Puerto Rico Telephone Company a lo largo de sus colindancias Norte y Este. ENCLAVA: Una casa de hormigón, bloques y otros materiales dedicada a vivienda. El inmueble antes descrito consta inscrito al Folio 221 del Tomo 339 de Juncos, finca número 12802, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas Sección Segunda. El embargo a ejecutarse es por la suma de $147,709.36 y consta presentado al Asiento 2020-004793-CA02 del Sistema Karibe de Juncos, finca número 12802, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas Sección Segunda.

La hipoteca objeto del embargo a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura número 219 otorgada en Caguas, Puerto Rico, el día 5 de mayo de 2011, ante el Notario Reinaldo Segurola Pérez, la cual consta inscrita al Folio 221 del Tomo 339 de Juncos, finca número 12802, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas Sección Segunda, inscripción séptima (7ma). Dicha hipoteca fue modificada en cuanto a su principal que será de $127,628.64; en cuanto a su interés que será de 4.00% anual; en cuanto a su pago mensual de principal e interés será por la cantidad de $663.50, en cuanto a su vencimiento que será el primero (1ro) de junio de 2041; en cuanto al tipo mínimo en caso de ejecución de hipoteca será de $127,628.64; y en caso de reclamación judicial la cantidad líquida y estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado será de $12,762.86, según consta de la escritura de modificación de hipoteca número 504, otorgada el día 15 de septiembre de 2015, en San Juan, Puerto Rico ante la Notario Público Jaime E. Dávila Santini y consta presentada al Asiento 975 del Diario 684, finca número 12,802, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección Segunda. 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 demandada, ascendente a la suma principal de $117,730.90 por concepto de principal, desde el 1ro de febrero de 2019,

The San Juan Daily Star más intereses al tipo pactado de 4.00% anual que continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación. Además, la parte demandada adeuda a la parte demandante los cargos por demora equivalentes a 4.00% de la suma de aquellos pagos con atrasos en exceso de 15 días calendarios de la fecha de vencimiento; los créditos accesorios y adelantos hechos en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca; y las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado equivalentes a $12,762.86.

Además, la parte demandada se comprometió a pagar una suma equivalente a $12,792.60 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca y una suma equivalente a $12,792.60 para cubrir intereses en adición a los garantizados por ley. Por razón de dicho incumplimiento, y al amparo del derecho que le confiere el Pagaré, el demandante ha declarado tales sumas vencidas, líquidas y exigibles en su totalidad. 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 CAGUAS, 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 está sujeta a los siguientes gravámenes anteriores y/o preferentes según las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad. Aviso de Demanda de fecha (no expresa), expedido en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, en el caso civil número ECI-2014-0906, seguido por EMI Equity Mortgage, Inc., contra Melvin Javier Roque Martinez, soltero, por la suma de $121,790.92, anotado el día 17 de septiembre de 2015, al folio 60 del tomo 448 de Juncos, finca número 12,802, anotación A y última. AL ASIENTO 975 DEL DIARIO 685, se presentó el día 24 de noviembre de 2015, Orden de fecha 21 de octubre de 2015 y Mandamiento de fecha 5 de noviembre de 2015, expedidos en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, en el caso civil número ECI-2014-0906, mediante la cual se cancela Aviso de Demanda por la suma de $121,790.92 de la anotación A. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores desconocidos, no inscritos o presentados que 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 en-

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

doso 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 semanas consecutivas. Expido el presente Edicto de subasta bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal en Caguas, Puerto Rico, hoy día 23 de noviembre de 2020. EDGARDO ALDEBOL MIRANDA, Alguacil, Placa 282, Alguacil de Subastas, Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Centro Judicial de Caguas, Sala Superior.

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

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

HÉCTOR LUIS BRUGUERAS VEGA (DEUDOR HIPOTECARIO Y TITULAR REGISTRAL) HÉCTOR LUIS BRUGUERAS MARCELINO (TITULAR REGISTRAL)

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: CG2019CV02018.

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 Sentencia que le ha sido dirigido al Alguacil que suscribe por la Secretaría del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS, SALA SUPERIOR , en el caso de epígrafe procederá a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor en efectivo, cheque certificado en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América el 19 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 CAGUAS, SALA SUPERIOR, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble de su propiedad que ubica en: E-29 CALLE 2 URB. VILLA NUEVA CAGUAS, PR 00725 y que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar 29 del bloque E de la Urbanización Villa Nueva, situada en el barrio Turabo de Caguas, Puerto Rico, con un área de 357.60 metros cuadrados; colinda por el NORTE, en 14.90 metros con la calle #2; por el SUR, en 14.90 metros, con los solares 19 y 39; por el ESTE, en 24.00 metros, con el solar 28; por el OESTE, en 24.00 metros, con el solar 30. ENCLAVA: Casa de concreto reforzado y bloques de concreto con fines residenciales. La propiedad antes relacionada consta inscrita al Folio 82 del Tomo 1,704 de Caguas, finca número 16,046, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección Primera (1ra).

El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta del inmueble antes relacionado, será el dispuesto en la Escritura de Hipoteca, es decir la suma de $96,143.00. Si no hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta del inmueble mencionado, se celebrará una segunda subasta en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 26 DE ENERO DE 2021, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA. En la segunda subasta que se celebre servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes (2/3) del precio pactado en la primera subasta, o sea la suma de $64,095.33.

Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta se celebrará una tercera subasta en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 2 DE FEBRERO DE 2021, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA. Para la tercera subasta servirá de tipo mínimo la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado para el caso de ejecución, o sea, la suma de $48,071.50. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura número 107 otorgada en Caguas, Puerto Rico, el día 9 de marzo de 2017, ante el Notario Magaly Rodríguez Batista y consta inscrita Tomo Karibe de Caguas, finca número 16,046, inscripción vigésimo primera (21ra), Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección Primera (1ra). 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 codemandada Héctor Luis Brugueras Vega ascendente a la suma de $94,405.22 por concepto de principal, desde el 1ro de julio de 2018 más intereses al tipo pactado de 4.¾% anual. Dichos interese continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación.

Además, la parte co-demandada Héctor Luis Brugueras Vega 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 $9,614.30. Además, la parte co-demandada Héctor Luis Brugueras Vega se comprometió a pagar una suma equivalente a $9,614.30 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca y una suma equivalente a $9,614.30 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 CAGUAS, 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 desconocidos, no inscritos o presentados que 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. La propiedad objeto de ejecución y descrita anteriormente se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores una vez el Honorable Tribunal expida la correspondiente Orden de Confirmación de Venta Judicial. Y para conocimiento de licitadores del público en general se publicará este Edicto de acuerdo con la ley por espacio de dos semanas en tres sitios públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Este Edicto será publicado dos veces en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas. Expido el presente

Edicto de subasta bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal en Caguas, Puerto Rico, hoy día 23 de noviembre de 2020. EDGARDO ALDEBOL MIRANDA, PLACA 282, ALGUACIL DE SUBASTAS, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS, SALA SUPERIOR.

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

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

LA SUCESIÓN DE LUIS ANGEL RODRIGUEZ SANTANA COMPUESTA POR EILEEN RODRIGUEZ MARRERO Y LUIS ANGEL RODRIGUEZ MARRERO; FULANO Y FULANA DE TAL COMO POSIBLES MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN Y EL CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: CG2019CV03781.

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 Sentencia que le ha sido dirigido al Alguacil que suscribe por la Secretaría del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS, SALA SUPERIOR, en el caso de epígrafe procederá a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor en efectivo, cheque certificado en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América el día 19 DE ENERO DE 2021, A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA, en su oficina sita en el local que ocupa en el edificio del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS. SALA SUPERIOR, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble de su propiedad que ubica en ES-27 CALLE 25 URB. MIRADOR DE BAIROA CAGUAS, PR 00725 y que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar radicado en la Urbanización El Mirador de Bairoa, situado en el Barrio Bairoa de Caguas, marcado con el #27 de la manzana 2-S(Solar 27-28 según Escritura de Hipoteca), con un área de 371.80 metros cuadrados, en lindes por el NORTE, con los solares #38 y 39, distancia de 14.30 metros; por el SUR, con la calle #25, distancia de 14.30 metros; por el ESTE, con el solar #28, distancia de 26.00 metros; y por el OESTE, con el solar #26, distancia de

23

26.00 metros. ENCLAVA: Una vivienda de concreto para una sola familia. Consta inscrita al Folio 130 del Tomo 1048 de Caguas, finca número 35720, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas Sección Primera. La propiedad antes relacionada consta inscrita en el Folio 130 del Tomo 1048 de Caguas, finca número 35,720, en el Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección Primera. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta del inmueble antes relacionado, será el dispuesto en la Escritura de Hipoteca, es decir la suma de $108,109.00. Si no hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta del inmueble mencionado, se celebrará una segunda subasta en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 26 DE ENERO DE 2021, A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA. En la segunda subasta que se celebre servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes (2/3) del precio pactado en la primera subasta, o sea la suma de $72,072.66. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta se celebrará una tercera subasta en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 2 DE FEBRERO DE 2021, A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA. Para la tercera subasta servirá de tipo mínimo la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado para el caso de ejecución, o sea, la suma de $54,054.50. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura número 434 otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 25 de mayo de 2017, ante el Notario Alejandro J. Mues Arias, y consta inscrita al Tomo Karibe de la Sección Primera de Caguas, finca número 35,720, en el Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección Primera, inscripción Sexta (6ta). Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer al Demandante total o parcialmente según sea el caso el importe de la Sentencia que ha obtenido ascendente a la suma de $104,980.39 por concepto de principal, desde el 1ro de junio de 2019, más intereses al tipo pactado de 5.00% anual que continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación. Además, La Sucesión de Luis Ángel Rodríguez Santana adeuda a la parte demandante los cargos por demora equivalentes a 4.00% de la suma de aquellos pagos con atrasos en exceso de 15 días calendarios de la fecha de vencimiento; los créditos accesorios y adelantos hechos en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca; y las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado equivalentes a $10,810.90. Además, La Sucesión de Luis Ángel Rodríguez Santana se comprometió a pagar una suma equivalente a $10,810.90 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca y una suma equivalente a $10,810.90 para cubrir intereses en adición a los garantizados por ley. Por razón de dicho incumplimiento, y al amparo del derecho que le confiere el Pagaré, el

demandante ha declarado tales sumas vencidas, líquidas y exigibles en su totalidad. 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 CAGUAS, SALA SUPERIOR durante las horas laborables. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación del inmueble y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio de remate. La propiedad no está sujeta a gravámenes anteriores y/o preferentes según surge de las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad en un estudio de título efectuado a la finca antes descrita. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores desconocidos, no inscritos o presentados que sus 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. La propiedad objeto de ejecución y descrita anteriormente se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores una vez el Honorable Tribunal expida la correspondiente Orden de Confirmación de Venta Judicial. Y para conocimiento de licitadores del público en general se publicará este Edicto de acuerdo con la ley por espacio de dos semanas en tres sitios públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Este Edicto será publicado dos veces en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas. Expido el presente Edicto de subasta bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal en Caguas, Puerto Rico, hoy día 23 de noviembre de 2020. EDGARDO ALDEBOL MIRANDA, PLACA 282, ALGUACIL DE SUBASTAS, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS, SALA SUPERIOR.

SUPERIOR.

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

DANMARIS CRUZ GUZMÁN

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: BY2018CV03242.

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 Sentencia que le ha sido dirigido al Alguacil que suscribe por la Secretaría del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMON, SALA SUPERIOR, , en el caso de epígrafe procederá a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor en efectivo, cheque certificado en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América el día 19 DE ENERO DE 2021, A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en su oficina sita en el local que ocupa en el edificio del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA DE BAYAMON, SALA SUPERIOR, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble de su propiedad que ubica en: C-2183 CALLE PASEO ARPA URB. LEVITTOWN TOA BAJA, PR 00949 y que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar #2183 del bloque “C” de la Urbanización Levittown, en el barrio Sabana Seca de Toa Baja, compuesto de 310.50 metros cuadrados, en lindes por el NORTE, en 23.00 metros con el solar #2184; por el SUR, en 23.00 metros con el solar #2182; por el ESTE, en 13.50 metros con un paseo público y por el OESTE, en 13.50 metros con el Paseo Arpa (Calle #313, según plano). La propiedad antes relacionada consta inscrita al Folio 67 del Tomo 64 de Toa Baja, finca número 4,887, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección Segunda (2da). El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta del inmueble antes relacionado, será el dispuesto en la Escritura de Hipoteca, es decir la suma de $123,717.00. Si no hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta del inmueble mencionado, se celebrará una segunda subasta en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 26 DE ENERO DE 2021, A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA. En la segunda subasta que se celebre servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes (2/3) del precio pactado en la primera subasta, o sea la suma de $82,478.00. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta se celebrará una tercera subasta en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 2 DE FEBRELEGAL NOT ICE RO DE 2021, A LAS 11:00 DE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE LA MAÑANA. Para la tercera PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE subasta servirá de tipo mínimo PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO la mitad (1/2) del precio pactaJUDICIAL DE BAYAMON SALA

24 do para el caso de ejecución, o sea, la suma de $61,858.50. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura de hipoteca número 38 otorgada en Carolina, Puerto Rico, el día 28 de febrero de 2017, ante el Notario Carlos Martínez Olmo y consta inscrita al tomo Karibe de Toa Baja, finca número 4,887, inscripción Octava (8va). 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 demandada ascendente a la suma de $121,644.71 por concepto de principal, desde el 1ro de mayo de 2018, más intereses al tipo pactado de 4.75% anual que continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación.

Además, la parte demandada adeuda a la parte demandante los cargos por demora equivalentes a 4.00% de la suma de aquellos pagos con atrasos en exceso de 15 días calendarios de la fecha de vencimiento; los créditos accesorios y adelantos hechos en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca; y las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado equivalentes a $12,371.70. Además, la parte demandada se comprometió a pagar una suma equivalente a $12,371.70 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca y una suma equivalente a $12,371.70 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 BAYAMON, SALA SUPERIOR durante las horas laborables. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación del inmueble y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio de remate. La propiedad no está sujeta a gravámenes anteriores y/o preferentes según surge de las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad en un estudio de título efectuado a la finca antes descrita. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores 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 semanas consecutivas. Expido el presente Edicto de subasta bajo mi firma en el Tribunal en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy día 23 de noviembre de 2020. Firma Ilegible, ALGUACIL DE SUBASTAS. TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMON, SALA SUPERIOR.

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

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

GEOVANNIE RIVERA RAMOS Y JENNIFER BÁEZ BURGOS

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: BY2019CV02068.

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 Sentencia que le ha sido dirigido al Alguacil que suscribe por la Secretaría del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMON, SALA SUPERIOR, , en el caso de epígrafe procederá a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor en efectivo, cheque certificado en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América el día 19 DE ENERO DE 2021, A LAS 11:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en su oficina sita en el local que ocupa en el edificio del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA DE BAYAMON, SALA SUPERIOR, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble de su propiedad que ubica en: D-5 CALLE 2 URB. VICTORIA HEIGHTS, BAYAMON, PR 00959 y que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar #20 del bloque “Z”, ra-

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

dicado en la Urbanización Reparto Valencia, situada en el barrio Hato Tejas de Bayamón, con un área de 364.00 metros cuadrados; en lindes: por el NORTE, en 14.00 metros con la calle 1; por el SUR, en 14.00 metros con la Avenida Orquídea; por el ESTE, en 26.00 metros con el solar #21 y por el OESTE, en 26.00 metros con el solar #19. ENCLAVA: Una casa de concreto reforzado destinada a vivienda. La propiedad antes relacionada consta inscrita al Folio 21 del Tomo 1133 de Bayamón Sur, finca número 50,341, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección Primera (1ra).

El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta del inmueble antes relacionado, será el dispuesto en la Escritura de Hipoteca, es decir la suma de $110,953.00. Si no hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta del inmueble mencionado, se celebrará una segunda subasta en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 26 DE ENERO DE 2021, A LAS 11:30 DE LA MAÑANA. En la segunda subasta que se celebre servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes (2/3) del precio pactado en la primera subasta, o sea la suma de $73,968.66. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta se celebrará una tercera subasta en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 2 DE FEBRERO DE 2021, A LAS 11:30 DE LA MAÑANA. Para la tercera subasta servirá de tipo mínimo la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado para el caso de ejecución, o sea, la suma de $55,476.50. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura de hipoteca número 42, otorgada en Ponce, Puerto Rico, el día 29 de junio de 2016, ante la Notario Alfredo A. Infante Gutiérrez y consta inscrita al tomo Karibe de Bayamón Sur, finca número 50,341, en el Registro de a Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección Primera (1ra), inscripción Sexta (6ta). 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 demandada ascendente a la suma de $107,151.50 por concepto de principal, desde el 1ro de noviembre de 2018, más intereses al tipo pactado de 5.00% anual.

Dichos intereses continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación. Además, la parte demandada adeuda a la parte demandante los cargos por demora equivalentes a 4.00% de la suma de aquellos pagos con atrasos en exceso de 15 días calendarios de la fecha de vencimiento; los créditos accesorios y adelantos hechos en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca; y las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado equivalentes a $11,095.30.

Además, la parte demandada se comprometió a pagar una suma equivalente a $11,095.30 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca y una suma equiva-

lente a $11,095.30 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 BAYAMON, SALA SUPERIOR durante las horas laborables. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación del inmueble y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio de remate. La propiedad no está sujeta a gravámenes anteriores y/o preferentes según surge de las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad en un estudio de título efectuado a la finca antes descrita. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores 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 semanas consecutivas. Expido el presente Edicto de subasta bajo mi firma en el Tribunal en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy día 23 de noviembre de 2020. Firma Ilegible, ALGUACIL DE SUBASTAS, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMON, SALA SUPERIOR. ****

SUPERIOR DE FAJARDO.

COOPERATIVA DE AHORRO Y CREDITO DE MEDICOS Y OTROS PROFESIONALES DE LA SALUD (MEDICOOP) Demandante vs.

SUCESION DE NEIDA PRISCILA BORGES RIVERA también conocida como PRISCILA BORGES compuesta por HECTOR MANUEL FERNANDEZ SOTO también conocido como HECTOR M. FERNANDEZ por sí y en cuanto a la cuota viudal usufructuaria; FULANO DE TAL y ZUTANO DE TAL como posibles herederos desconocidos; CENTRO RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES “CRIM” Demandados CIVIL NÚM: LU2019CV00028.

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

EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

Al: Público en General A: SUCESION DE NEIDA PRISCILA BORGES RIVERA también conocida como PRISCILA BORGES compuesta por HECTOR MANUEL FERNANDEZ SOTO también conocido como HECTOR M. FERNANDEZ, por sí y en cuanto a la cuota viudal usufructuaria; FULANO DE TAL y ZUTANO DE TAL como posibles herederos desconocidos

Yo, Sandraliz Martínez Torres, Alguacil Auxiliar #737, 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 13 de enero de 2021, a las 11:00 de la mañana en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Fajardo, Fajardo, 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 Fajardo durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta a celebrarse, se celebrará una LEGAL NOTICE segunda subasta para la venta ESTADO LIBR.E ASOCIADO de la susodicha propiedad, el día DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNÁL 21 de enero de 2021, a las 11:00 DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA de la mañana y en caso de no

producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una tercera subasta el día 28 de enero de 2021, a las 11:00 de la mañana en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL: Residential Apartment market two dash “DI” (2-DI) in the second floor of Sandy Hills Building One (1) Condominium, at Matienzo Cintrón Street and between Esperanza and Del Carmen Streets, Luquillo, Puerto Rico, measuring approximated twenty eights feet ten inches (28’1 O”) long, equivalent to EIGHT METERS WITH SEVENTY NINE HUNDREDTH (8.79m), twenty five feet with four inches (25’4”) wide, equivalent to SEVEN METERS WITH SEVENTY TWO HUNDREDTH (7.72m), with a superficial area of SIX HUNDRED SEVENTY TWO SQUARE FEET WITH ELEVEN HUNDREDTH (672.11 sf), equivalent to sixty two square meters with forty four hundredth (62.44sm), bounding: on the NORTH: with apartment two dash “CI” (2-CI); on the SOUTH: with apartment two dash “El” (2EI); on the EAST: with exterior elements of the building and with the lot on which the building is erected; and on the WEST: with common corridor . The apartment consists of living-dining room, kitchen , bathroom, on bedroom, bedroom closet and a balcony on its East side . The apartment has a main door connecting with the common corridor on the floor from where access may be gained to the exterior of the building and to the public street by the elevator and stairway. The apartment is equipped with a stainless- steel sink, water heater anda stove-oven. This apartment has parking space number sixty seven (67) of level minus two (2) of the parking building, which is an uncovered parking space .

Le corresponde un participación en los elementos comunes de cero punto dos seis tres dos por ciento (0.2632%). La escritura de hipoteca se encuentra inscrita al folio 65 del tomo 135 de Luquillo, Registro de la Propiedad de Fajardo, finca número 7,568. La dirección física de la propiedad antes descrita es : Condominio Sandy Hills, Apt. 2 D-1, Luquillo, Puerto Rico. La Subasta se llevará a efecto para satisfacer a la parte demandante la suma de $69,658.41 de principal, intereses al 6.375% anual, desde el día 1ro. de junio de 2018, hasta su completo pago, más la cantidad de $9,200.00 estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado más recargos acumulados ; todas estas sumas están vencidas y son líquidas y exigibles. Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta para el inmueble será de $92,000.00 y de ser necesaria una segunda subasta, la cantidad mínima será equivalente a 2/3 partes de aquella, o sea, la suma de $61,333.34 y de ser necesaria una tercera subasta, la cantidad mínima será la mitad

del precio pactado, es decir, la suma de $46,000.00. De declararse desierta la tercera subasta se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si esta es igual o meno r que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el Tribunal lo estima conveniente. Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si esta es mayor. La propiedad se adjudicará al mejor postor, quien deberá satisfacer el importe de su oferta en moneda legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América en el momento de la adjudicación y que las cargas y gravámenes preferentes, si los hubiese, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate.

La propiedad a ser vendida en pública subasta se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Podrán concurrir como postores a todas las subastas los titulares de créditos hipotecarios vigentes y posteriores a la hipoteca que se cobra o ejecuta, si alguno o que figuren como tales en la certificación registra! y que podrán utilizar el montante de sus créditos o parte de alguno en sus ofertas. Si la oferta aceptada es por cantidad mayor a la suma del crédito o créditos preferentes al suyo, al obtener la buena pro del remate, deberá satisfacer en el mismo acto, en efectivo o en cheque de gerente, la totalidad del crédito hipotecario que se ejecuta y la de cualesquiera otro créditos posteriores al que se ejecuta pero preferente al suyo.

El exceso constituirá abono total o parcial en su propio crédito.

EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto para conocimiento y comparecencia de los licitadores, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en Fajardo, Puerto Rico, a 13 de noviembre de 2020. SHIRLEY SANCHEZ MARTINEZ, Alguacil Regional #161. Sandraliz Martinez Torres, Alguacil Auxliar #161. ******

LEGAL NOTICE

Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de SAN JUAN.

AMERICAS LEADING FINANCE LLC. Demandante v.

RICARDO REYES GARCÍA, SU ESPOSA EVELYN PAGÁN GUERRERO Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANACIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

EDICTO.

A: RICARDO REYES GARCÍA, SU ESPOSA EVELYN PAGÁN GUERRERO Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANACIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 30 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 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 30 de noviembre de 2020. En SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico , el 30 de noviembre de 2020. GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, Secretario(a). F/ JOHANNA RODRIGUEZ BENITEZ, Secretario(a) Auxiliar.

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

AMERICAS LEADING FINANCE LLC Demandante v.

ORLANDO HERRERA CRUZ, SU ESPOSA FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandado(a) Civil: Núm. BY2020CV01846.

SALA 502. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA Y EJECUCIÓN DE GRAVAMEN MOBILIARIO (REPOSESIÓN DE VEHÍCULO).

NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: Orlando Herrera Cruz, su esposa, Fulana de Tal y la Sociedad Legal de Gananciales compuesta por ambos.

Demandado(a) Civil Núm.

SJ2020CV01925.

SALA 603. Sobre: COBRO DE (Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) DINERO POR LA VIA ORDINAEL SECRETARIO(A) que suscriRIA Y EJECUCIÓN DE GRAbe le notifica a usted que el 30 VAMEN MOVILIARIO. NOTIFIde noviembre de 2020 , este TriCACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR

The San Juan Daily Star bunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 30 de noviembre de 2020. En BAYAMON, Puerto Rico , el 30 de noviembre de 2020. LCDA LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, Secretario(a). VERONICA RIVERA RODRIGUEZ, Secretario(a) Auxiliar.

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

DLJ MORTGAGE CAPITAL

Parte Demandante Vs.

LA SUCESIÓN DE ROGELIO GONZÁLEZ PÉREZ COMPUESTA POR FULANO DE TAL Y FULANA DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES

Parte Demandada CIVIL NÚM: SJ2019CV00288 (604). SOBRE: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA (IN REM). NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: LA SUCESIÓN DE ROGELIO GONZÁLEZ PÉREZ COMPUESTA POR FULANO DE TAL Y FULANA DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS

LA SECRETARIA que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 25 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 procedi-

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

miento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 60 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 24 de noviembre de 2020.

En San Juan, Puerto Rico, de 24 de noviembre de 2020. Griselda Rodríguez Collado, Regional. f/ Marily López Martínez, Secretaria del Tribunal Confidencial I.

LEGAL NOTICE

RIVERA Y YOLANDA CARRASQUILLO ROSA Demandante v.

ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA POR CONDUCTO DE LA ADMINISTRACION DE HOGARES DE AGRICULTORES (USDA), JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE

Demandado(a) Civil: Núm. CA2020CV01060 (406). Sobre: CANCELACION DE PAGARE EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE

Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto (Nombre de las partes a las que se le Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE notifican la sentencia por edicto) JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscriInstancia Sala Superior de Mabe le notifica a usted que el 30 yaguez. de septiembre de 2020 , este TriDLJ MORTGAGE bunal ha dictado Sentencia, SenCAPITAL INC tencia Parcial o Resolución en Demandante v. este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en MARTA IRIS autos donde podrá usted enteSOLER RODRIGUEZ rarse detalladamente de los térDemandado(a) minos de la misma. Esta notifiCivil: Núm. MZ2019CV00475. cación se publicará una sola vez Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y en un periódico de circulación EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, POR LA VIA ORDINARIA. NOdentro de los 10 días siguientes TIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA a su notificación. Y, siendo o POR EDICTO. representando usted una parte A: MARTA IRIS en el procedimiento sujeta a los SOLER RODRIGUEZ términos de la Sentencia, Sen(Nombre de las partes a las que se le tencia Parcial o Resolución, de la notifican la sentencia por edicto) cual puede establecerse recurso EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscride revisión o apelación dentro be le notifica a usted que el 23 del término de 30 días contados de noviembre de 2020 , este Tria partir de la publicación por bunal ha dictado Sentencia, Senedicto de esta notificación, dirijo tencia Parcial o Resolución en a usted esta notificación que se este caso, que ha sido debidaconsiderará hecha en la fecha mente registrada y archivada en de la publicación de este edicautos donde podrá usted enteto. Copia de esta notificación ha rarse detalladamente de los térsido archivada en los autos de minos de la misma. Esta notifieste caso, con fecha de 1 de cación se publicará una sola vez octubre de 2020. En Carolina, en un periódico de circulación Puerto Rico, el 1 de octubre de general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, 2020. MARILYN APONTE ROdentro de los 10 días siguientes DRIGUEZ, Secretario(a). JANa su notificación. Y, siendo o reNETTE RAMIREZ BERNARD, presentando usted una parte en Secretario(a) Auxiliar. el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia LEGAL NOTICE Parcial o Resolución, de la cual Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto puede establecerse recurso de Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE revisión o apelación dentro del JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera término de 30 días contados a Instancia Sala Superior de CApartir de la publicación por edicto GUAS. de esta notificación, dirijo a usted MTGLQ INVESTORS LP esta notificación que se consiDemandante v. derará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Co- LUIS PIZARRO MORALES Demandado(a) pia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este Civil: Núm. CG2018CV01561. caso, con fecha de 1 de diciem- Sobre: EJECUCION DE HIPObre de 2020. En Mayaguez, TECA IN REM. NOTIFICACIÓN Puerto Rico, el 1 de diciembre de DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. 2020. LCDA NORMA G SANTANA IRIZARRY, Secretario(a). F/ BETSY SANTIAGO GONZALEZ, Secretario(a) Auxiliar.

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

VICTOR RIVERA

A: LUIS PIZARRO MORALES

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 10 de junio de 2019 , este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse

detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 2 de diciembre de 2020. En CAGUAS, Puerto Rico, el 2 de diciembre de 2020.

CARMEN ANA PEREIRA ORTIZ, Secretario(a).

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

URIEL RIVERA FONTANET Demandante Vs.

VANESSA MARTÍNEZ ARVELO

sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy 16 de noviembre de 2020. LCDA. LAURA l. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, Secretaria Regional.

YANIRA GARCIA COSME, Sec Auxiliar del Tribunal.

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Y SUN WEST MORTGAGE COMPANY INC COMO AGENTES DE SERVICIO Demandante v.

SUCESION DE ROSA COSME MARRERO COMPUESTA POR FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERES EN DICHA SUCESION; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA

Demandado(a) Civil: Núm. BY2020CV02183.

Demandado Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y Civil Núm.: BY2020RF01589 EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA. (4002). Sobre: DIVORCIO (RUP- NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENTURA IRREPARABLE). EM- CIA POR EDICTO. PLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. A: SUCESION DE ROSA ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICOSME MARRERO CA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS COMPUESTA POR ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO FULANO DE TAL RICO. Y SUTANA DE TAL

A LA PARTE DEMANDADA: VANESSA MARTÍNEZ ARVELO 300 ADISON WAY PETERSBURG VIRGINIA E.U.A.

Por la presente se le notifica que ha sido presentada en este Tribunal una Demanda en su contra. Se le emplaza y requiere para que, dentro del término de treinta (30) días contados a partir de la publicación del edicto, presente a este Tribunal su alegación responsiva a dicha demanda, radicando el original de la misma en este Tribunal, a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial.pr, y enviando copia de su alegación responsiva a la Leda. Yadira Adorno Delgado, 1605 Ponce de León Ave. Suite 600, San Juan, P.R. 00909.

Tel. (787) 725-1116. Email: yad@ adornolawoffice.com; salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría de este Tribunal.

De no hacerlo, se le anotará la Rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia en su contra concediendo el remedio solicitado en la Demanda

COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERES EN DICHA SUCESION

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 30 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 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 1 de diciembre de 2020. En BAYAMON, Puerto Rico, el 1 de diciembre de 2020. LCDA. LAURA

25

I SANTA SANCHEZ, Secretaria. four (404); by the SOUTH, with LUREIMY ALICEA GONZALEZ, the common corridor; and by the EAST, with apartment four Sec Auxiliar. hundred six (406). It consists of a LEGAL NOTICE living-dining area, two bedrooms ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE with closets, one bathroom, with PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE toilet, wash basin and shower PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA stall on interiors hall with linen SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN. closet, storage closet and hot BOSCO IX OVERSEAS, water heater and a kitchen with sink, electric range with oven LLC, BY FRANKLIN and refrigerator. Le corresponde CREDIT MANAGEMENT un porcentaje en los elemenCORPORATION AS tos comunes de punto cuatro siete dos cuatro cero porciento SERVICE (.47240%). Finca 23,462. Por Demandante v.

SAM MARTIN PADILLA su procedencia está afecta a: Condición de cesión de terrenos PÉREZ, DEBORAH para la prolongación de la Calle ROBLES ROBLES Y LA Modesto. Por sí está: a) Hipoteca SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE en garantía de un pagaré a favor BIENES GANANCIALES, de R-G Premier Bank of Puerto Rico, o a su orden, por la suma COMPUESTA POR principal de $72,030.00, con inteAMBOS reses al 7 ¼ % anual, vencedero Demandado el día 1 de agosto de 2036, consCIVIL NÚM: SJ2019CV10162. tituida mediante la escritura núSOBRE: EJECUCIÓN DE GA- mero 191, otorgada en San Juan, RANTÍAS (IN REM). ESTADOS Puerto Rico, el día 3 de agosto UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRE- de 2006, ante el notario Heberto SIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS J. De Vizcarrondo Armstrong, e UNIDOS ESTADO LIBRE ASO- inscrita al folio 110 del tomo 1017 CIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS. de Sabana Llana, finca número EDICTO DE SUBASTA. Yo Pe- 23,462, inscripción 12ma. b) dro Hieye González, Alguacil del Imposición de Condiciones ResTribunal de Primera Instancia, trictivas bajo el Programa ProSala Superior de San Juan, al tegiendo tu Hogar a favor de la público en general. CERTIFICO Autoridad para el Financiamiento Y HAGO SABER. Que en cum- de la Vivienda de Puerto Rico, plimiento de un Mandamiento de por el término de 5 años, por Ejecución de Sentencia fechado haberle concedido a los titulares el 7 de octubre de 2020, que la suma de $72,030.00, sin inme ha sido dirigido por la Se- tereses, vencedero el día 25 de cretaría del Tribunal de Primera septiembre de 2016, mediante Instancia, Sala Superior de San escritura número 1071, otorgada Juan, en el caso arriba indicado, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día venderé en la fecha o fechas 25 de octubre de 2011, ante el que más adelante se indican, en notario Hector Luis Torres Dávila, pública subasta al mejor postor, inscrito al folio 110 del tomo 1017 en moneda legal de los Estados de Sabana Llana, finca número Unidos de América, en efectivo, 23,462, inscripción 13ra. c) Emcheque certificado o giro pos- bargo a favor del Estado Libre tal, en mi oficina sita en el local Asociado de Puerto Rico (Ley que ocupa en el Centro Judicial 210), por la suma de $745.96, en de San Juan, Puerto Rico, todo contra de Sam Padilla Pérez, sederecho, título e interés que ten- guro social número xxx-xx-2848, ga la parte demandada, en el Villa Fontana 40510, Vía 51, Cainmueble que se describe a con- rolina, Puerto Rico, 00983-4805 tinuación, propiedad de la parte del día 10 de octubre de 2018, demandada, Sam Martin Padilla Núm. CAR-2019-363, anotado Pérez, Deborah Robles Robles el 22 de octubre de 2018 Asieny la Sociedad Legal de Bienes to 2018-008909-EST, Sistema Gananciales. Dirección Física: Karibe. d) Aviso de Demanda Apt. 405, Condominio Santa de fecha 25 de septiembre de María II, San Juan, Puerto Rico 2019, expedido en el Tribunal 00924. Finca 23,462, inscrita al de Primera Instancia, Sala de folio 57 del tomo 574 de Sabana San Juan, en el Caso Civil núLlana, Registro de la Propiedad mero SJ2019CV10162, seguido de Puerto Rico, Sección V de por Bosco IX Overseas, LLC San Juan. URBANA: PROPIE- by Franklin Credit Management DAD HORIZONTAL: Residential Corporation as Servicer versus Apartment four hundred five Sam Martin Padilla Pérez, Debo(405) located at Condominium rah Robles Robles y la Sociedad Santa María Two (II) in Sabana Legal de Bienes Gananciales, Llana Ward of the Municipality of compuesta por ambos, por la San Juan, Puerto Rico, which is suma de $61,223.58, más interegular in shape, with a superfi- reses y otras sumas adicionales, cial de area of six hundred thir- anotado el día 8 de octubre de ty five (635) square feet (gross) 2019, al tomo Karibe de Sabana measuring twenty-seven feet Llana, finca número 23,462, Anoten inches (27’10”) in length at tación “A”. El precio mínimo de its Northern and Southern wall, este remate con relación a la Finby twenty-three feet one inch ca 23,462 antes descrita y la fe(23’1”), in width at its Western cha de cada subasta serán la siand Eastern wall. Its boundaries guiente: Primera Subasta: 13 de are the following: by the NORTH, enero de 2021, Hora: 11:00am, with the exterior; by the WEST, Precio Mínimo: $72,030.00, Hiwith apartment four hundred poteca: Escritura Número 191,

sobre Hipoteca, otorgada el 3 de agosto de 2006, ante el Notario Heberto J. de Vizcarrondo Armstrong. Segunda Subasta: 21 de enero de 2021, Hora: 11:00am, Precio Mínimo: $48,020.00. Tercera Subasta: 28 de enero de 2021, Hora: 11:00am, Precio Minimo: $36,015.00. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación que se transmite y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y las preferentes, si las hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante las acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de las mismas, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate.

Conforme a la Sentencia dictada el día 11 de agosto de 2020 y archivada en los autos el 12 de agosto de 2020, la anterior venta se hará para satisfacer las sumas adeudadas por concepto del préstamo garantizado por la hipoteca antes mencionada y las sumas que se mencionan a continuación: La suma principal de $61,223.58, más intereses a razón de 7.25%, desde el 1 de abril de 2017, que se acumulan diariamente hasta su total y completo pago, más la suma de $5,347.22 por cargos por mora, más la suma de $693.02 en conexión con la cuenta de reserva, más la suma de $7,203.00 por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado hipotecariamente asegurados. Se notifica por la presente a los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los inmuebles a ser subastados con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen del ejecutante descrito anteriormente, o acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubieren pospuesto al gravamen del actor y a los dueños, poseedores, tenedores de o interesados en títulos transmisibles por endoso o al portador garantizado hipotecariamente con posterioridad al gravamen del actor para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si así lo interesan o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogado, quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Y, para conocimiento de licitadores, del público en general, y para su publicación de acuerdo con la ley en un periódico de circulación general de la isla de Puerto Rico y en tres sitios públicos del Municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía y vía correo certificado con acuse de recibo a la última dirección conocida de la parte demandada, expido el presente edicto bajo mi firma y el sello de este Tribunal en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día 23 de noviembre de 2020. PEDRO

26 HIEYE GONZALEZ, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN.

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

ACM CCSC OB VII REO PR CORP.; Demandante v.

CENTRO OFTALMOLÓGICO DR. VÁZQUEZ DÍAZ, CSP.

Demandados CIVIL NÚM. PO2019cv01268 (406). SOBRE: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA “IN REM”. AVISO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PUEBLO DE PUERTO RICO. SS. YO, el(la) Alguacil que suscribe, por la presente anuncia y hace constar, que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento Enmendado de Ejecución de Sentencia, expedido el 29 de enero de 2020 por la Secretaría de este Tribunal, procederé a vender en pública subasta y al mejor postor, quien pagará el importe de la venta en dinero efectivo o en cheque certificado o de gerente, a la orden del Alguacil suscribiente, en moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, el día 19 de enero de 2021, a las 11:30 a.m., en mi oficina localizada en el Tribunal de Ponce, todo título, derecho o interés que corresponda a la parte demandada sobre el inmueble que se describe a continuación: PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL: OFICINA #303. Oficina en el tercer piso del Edificio A PorrataPila, en el Barrio Urbano Cuarto de Ponce, con un área superficial aproximada de 1121.25 pies cuadrados, equivalentes a 104.168 metros cuadrados. Colinda por el Norte, en una alineación de 28’9”, con la oficina #305; por el Sur, en una alineación de 28’9”, con la oficina #301; por el Este, en una alineación de 39’, con el espacio aéreo sobre el área que separa el edificio del Hospital Doctor Pila y por el Oeste, en una alineación de 39’, con el pasillo de uso común por donde tiene dos puertas desde donde tiene acceso al exterior a través del vestíbulo y de las escaleras exteriores en las extremos Norte y Sur del edificio. Está dividida en una sala de espera, dos salas para examen con su lavatorio, una oficina, un pasillo interior con fregadero y gabinetes, un closet y un medio baño. Las paredes interiores son de “gypsum board” sencillo con aislación de sonido y de “gypsum board” doble con aislación de sonido en el caso de las paredes que separan la oficina de las áreas colindantes y del pasillo común. Tiene en su interior dos pozos de aproximadamente dos y medio pies cuadrados cada uno, en el área del baño y del closet respectivamente, para la ubicación de las

tuberías del aire acondicionado, eléctricas, de abasto de aire fresco y sanitarias y las troncales de teléfono. Tiene instalados, plafón acústico, lámparas, piso de losetas de vinil, calentador de agua de 10 galones y una unidad de aire acondicionado de 5 toneladas en la azotea del edificio.

Corresponde a esta oficina un estacionamiento identificado con el número de la oficina y una participación en los elementos comunes del edificio de 2.8745%.

Finca #59,727, Registro de la Propiedad de Ponce, Sección I. Dirección Física: Edificio A Porrata-Pila, Oficina 303, Ponce, Puerto Rico. La propiedad descrita anteriormente está afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: Afecta por su procedencia a Servidumbre a favor de equidad a favor de la Fundación Doctor Manuel de la Pila Iglesias, Inc. para el uso en común del área de estacionamiento de visitantes existentes o que se construya en el futuro sobre esta finca como estacionamiento para los visitantes del inmueble y Municipio de Ponce.

Por sí afecta a: HIPOTECA: En garantía de un pagaré a favor de Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Puerto Rico, o a su orden, por la suma de $157,500.00, con interés al 3% sobre el prime rate o 5.50% la cual sea mayor, y vencedero a la presentación, según consta de la escritura número 25 y 28 (de acta aclaratoria), otorgada en Ponce, Puerto Rico, el día 14 de marzo de 2012 y 21 de marzo de 2012, ante el Notario Público Adrián J. Hilera Torres, inscrita al folio 145 del tomo 2115 de Ponce, inscripción 7ma. MODIFICACIÓN DE HIPOTECA: Es objeto de esta modificación la Hipoteca a favor de Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Puerto Rico, o a su orden, por la suma de $157,500.00; comparece titular y Oriental Bank, como tenedor del pagaré. ANOTACIÓN DE DEMANDA: Es objeto de esta anotación la Hipoteca a favor de Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Puerto Rico, por la suma de $157,500.00 que surge de la inscripción séptima y fue modificado en la inscripción 8va. DEMANDANTE: ORIENTAL BANK; DEMANDADO: Centro Oftalmológico Dr. Vázquez Díaz CSP., cantidad adeudada $119,735.35, por concepto de principal más intereses, según demanda expedida por el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Ponce, en el caso Civil Núm. PO2019CV01268, el día 20 de noviembre de 2019, inscrito al tomo KARIBE, Anotación A, de fecha del 25 de noviembre de 2018. Servirá de tipo mínimo para la Primera Subasta la suma de $157,500.00, según la escritura de Hipoteca en Garantía de Pagaré número 25, otorgada en Ponce, Puerto Rico, el 14 de marzo de 2012 ante el Notario Público Adrián J. Hilera Torres. De no adjudicarse la propiedad en la primera subasta, se celebrará una segunda subasta, en las mismas oficinas de este Alguacil, el día 26 de enero de 2021, a las 11:30 a.m.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

El tipo mínimo para la segunda subasta será dos terceras partes (2/3) del tipo mínimo de la primera subasta, o sea, $105,000.00.

De no adjudicarse la propiedad en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una tercera subasta en las mismas oficinas de este Alguacil, el día 2 de febrero de 2021, a las 11:30 a.m. El tipo mínimo para la tercera subasta será la mitad (1/2) del tipo mínimo que se pactara para la primera subasta, o sea, $78,750.00. Esta subasta se hará para satisfacer a la parte demandante, hasta donde alcance, el importe adeudado a ACM CCSC OB VII REO PR CORP, ascendente a la suma de $123,255.46; de los cuales $106,912.85 corresponden a principal; $13,013.67 de intereses acumulados y que continuarán acumulándose a razón de 24.5008615 diarios; $1,452.02 de cargos por demoras; $1,207.50 de seguros de inundación; $669.42 de intereses diferidos; más cualquiera otros anticipos o sumas adicionales por concepto de costas y honorarios de abogados según pactados. La venta en pública subasta de la propiedad descrita anteriormente se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen posterior que afecte dicha propiedad.

Se entiende que cualquier carga y/o gravamen anterior y/o preferente, si lo hubiera, al crédito que da base a esta ejecución, continuará subsistente, entendiéndose además, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría de este Tribunal durante horas laborables.

El Alguacil procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura de venta judicial y se pondrá al comprador en posesión física del inmueble, de conformidad con las disposiciones de Ley. POR LA PRESENTE, se les notifica a los titulares de créditos y/o cargas registrales posteriores, si alguno, que se celebrará la SUBASTA en la fecha, hora y sitio anteriormente señalados, y se les invita a que concurran a dicha subasta, si les conviniere, o se les invita a satisfacer, antes del remate, el importe del crédito, sus intereses, otros cargos y las costas y honorarios de abogado asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del Acreedor ejecutante, siempre y cuando reúnan los requisitos y cualificaciones de Ley para que se pueda efectuar tal subrogación. Y PARA SU PUBLICACIÓN en el tablón de edictos de este Tribunal y en tres (3) lugares públicos del Municipio donde se celebrará la subasta señalada. Además, en un periódico de circulación general en dos (2) ocasiones y mediante correo certificado a la última dirección conocida de la parte demandada. EXPEDIDO el presente EDICTO DE SUBASTA en Ponce, Puerto Rico, a 24

de noviembre de 2020. Jorge M. Hernández Pagán, Alguacil Regional, ALGUACIL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE PONCE.

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

ORIENTAL BANK Demandante v.

LUZ ENEIDA PÉREZ GARCÍA T/C/C LUZ ENEIDA PEÑA GARCÍA

Demandado CIVIL NÚM: CA2019CV02058.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE GARANTÍAS. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. Yo Manuel Villafañe Blanco, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Carolina, al público en general.

CERTIFICO Y HAGO SABER: Que en cumplimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia fechado el 30 de diciembre de 2019, que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Carolina, en el caso arriba indicado, venderé en la fecha o fechas que más adelante se indican, en pública subasta al mejor postor, en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América, en efectivo, cheque certificado o giro postal, en mi oficina sita en el local que ocupa en el Centro Judicial de Carolina, Puerto Rico, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada, en el inmueble que se describe a continuación, propiedad de la parte demandada, Luz Eneida Pérez García t/c/c Luz Eneida Peña García. Dirección Física: Lot-9, Rd 853, Km 2.8, Trujillo Bajo, Carolina, Puerto Rico 00985.

Finca 36,483, al folio 99 del tomo 906 de Carolina, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección II de Carolina. RÚSTICA: Parcela de terreno con una cabida superficial de mil sesenta y nueve punto cincuenta y siete (1,069.57) metros cuadrados, radicada en el Barrio Trujillo Bajo del término municipal de Carolina, Puerto Rico, marcada con el número nueve (9) en el Plano de Inscripción levantado por el Ingeniero Civil Lucilo R. de Urrutia López, el veinticinco (25) de marzo de mil novecientos setenta y cinco (1975) y con las siguientes medidas y colindancias, por el NORTE, en treinta y seis punto cincuenta y cuatro (36.54) metros con la Parcela diez (10); por el SUR, en cuarenta y nueve punto cuarenta y cuatro (49.44) metros con la Parcela ocho (8); por el ESTE, en dos alineaciones distintas que suman veintidós punto veintidós (22.22) metros con Parcela cuatro (4); y por el OESTE, en dos alineaciones distintas que suman veintiocho punto treinta y cuatro (28.34) metros con la Parcela A. Enclava

una estructura de concreto armado y otros materiales, destinada a vivienda con cinco (5) cuartos dormitorios, tres (3) baños, sala, comedor y demás facilidades, con un valor de Sesenta Mil Dólares ($60,000.00) mediante la escritura número trece (13), otorgada en Carolina, el veintisiete (27) de abril de mil novecientos ochenta y ocho (1988), ante el notario José Raúl Rosario, e inscrito al folio noventa nueve (99) del tomo novecientos seis (906) de Carolina, finca número treinta y seis mil cuatrocientos ochenta y tres (36,483), inscripción tercera (3ra.). Finca 36,483. Por su procedencia está: Libre de Cargas. Por sí está afecta a: a. Hipoteca en garantía de un pagaré a favor de RG Premier Bank of Puerto Rico, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $101,000.00, con intereses al 7% anual, vencedero el día 1 marzo de 2037, constituida mediante la escritura número 53, otorgada en Carolina, Puerto Rico, el día 28 de febrero de 2007, ante el notario Ángel A. Colón Vázquez, e inscrita al folio 132 del tomo 1403 de Carolina, finca número 36,483, inscripción 8va. b. Aviso de Demanda de fecha 11 de junio de 2019, expedido en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Carolina, en el Caso Civil número CA2019CV02058, seguido por Scotiabank de Puerto Rico, contra Luz Eneida Pérez García también conocida como Luz Eneida Peña García, por la suma de $85,486.32, más intereses y otras sumas, anotado el día 8 de agosto de 2018, al tomo Karibe de Carolina, finca número 36,483, Anotación “A”.

El precio mínimo de este remate con relación a la Finca 36,483 antes descrita y la fecha de cada subasta serán la siguiente: Primera Subasta: 12 de enero de 2021, Hora: 11:45 am, Precio Mínimo: $101,000.00, Hipoteca: Escritura Número 53 sobre Primera Hipoteca, otorgada el día 28 de febrero de 2007, ante el notario Angel A. Colón Vázquez.

Segunda Subasta: 19 de enero de 2021, Hora: 11:45 am, Precio Minimo: $67,333.33. Tercera Subasta: 26 de enero de 2021, Hora: 11:45 am, Precio Mínimo: $50,500.00. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación que se transmite y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y las preferentes, si las hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante las acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de las mismas, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate.

Conforme a la Sentencia dictada el día 25 de septiembre de 2019 y archivada en los autos el 1 de octubre de 2019, la anterior venta se hará para satisfacer las sumas adeudadas por concepto del préstamo garantizado por la

hipoteca antes mencionada y las sumas que se mencionan a continuación: La suma principal de $85,486.32, más intereses a razón de 7%, desde el 1 de octubre de 2017, que se acumulan diariamente hasta su total y completo pago, más la suma de $604.80 por cargos por mora, más la suma de $436.55 en conexión con la cuenta de reserva, más la suma de $10,100.00 por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado hipotecariamente asegurados. Se notifica por la presente a los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los inmuebles a ser subastados con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen del ejecutante descrito anteriormente, o acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubieren pospuesto al gravamen del actor y a los dueños, poseedores, tenedores de o interesados en títulos transmisibles por endoso o al portador garantizado hipotecariamente con posterioridad al gravamen del actor para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si así lo interesan o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogado, quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante.

La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Y, para conocimiento de licitadores, del público en general, y para su publicación de acuerdo con la ley en un periódico de circulación general de la isla de Puerto Rico y en tres sitios públicos del Municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía y vía correo certificado con acuse de recibo a la última dirección conocida de la parte demandada, expido el presente edicto bajo mi firma y el sello de este Tribunal en Carolina, Puerto Rico, hoy día 1 de diciembre de 2020. Manuel Villafañe Blanco, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA.

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

FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO Parte Demandante Vs. IDAH MARGARITA SANTIAGO RIVERA t/c/c IDAH M. SANTIAGO RIVERA

Parte Demandada CASO CIVIL NUM: GM2019CV00415.

SOBRE: EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA POR LA VIA ORDINARIA Y COBRO DE DINERO. ANUNCIO DE SUBASTA. El suscribiente, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Ponce, Piso 1, Oficina de Subasta; a los demandados de epígrafe y al público en general hace saber que los autos y documen-

tos del caso de epígrafe estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables y que venderá en pública subasta al mejor postor, en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América en efectivo, cheque certificado, o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, en mi oficina en este Tribunal el derecho que tenga la parte demandada en el inmueble que se relaciona más adelante para pagar la SENTENCIA por $92,824.31, de balance principal, los intereses adeudados sobre dicho principal y computados al 5.00% anual hasta su total pago y completo pago; más el 5% computado sobre cada mensualidad; cargos por demora devengados, más la suma de $10,194.70 como cantidad estipulada para honorarios de abogado, pactada en la escritura de hipoteca; y cuales quiera otras sumas que por cualesquiera concepto legal se devenguen hasta el día de la subasta. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: URBANA: Parcela marcada con el número veintiuno uno (21) en el plano de parcelación de la Comunidad rural Jauca III del barrio Juaca del término municipal de Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de cero punto novecientos ochenta y uno (0.981) cuerdas, equivalente a trescientos ochenta y cinco punto cincuenta y tres metros cuadrados (385.53 M/C).

En lindes por el NORTE, con la calle número cinco (5) de la comunidad; por el SUR, con la Autopista Puerto rico cincuenta y dos (52); por el ESTE, con la parcela número veinte (20); y por el OESTE, con la parcela número veintidós (22) de la comunidad.

Inscrita al folio veintiuno (21) del tomo ciento setenta y cinco (175) de Santa Isabel, finca número cuatro mil cuatrocientos treinta y seis (4,436). Registro de la Propiedad de Guayama. Dirección Física: 6 St Portal de la Reina, Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico 00757.

La primera subasta se llevará a cabo el día 13 de enero de 2021 a las 9:30 de la mañana, y servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma la suma de $101,947.00 sin admitirse oferta inferior. En el caso de que el inmueble a ser subastado no fuera adjudicado en la primera subasta, se celebrará una segunda subasta el día _20 de enero de 2021 a las 9:30 de la mañana y el precio mínimo para esta segunda subasta será el de dos terceras partes del precio mínimo establecido para la primera subasta, o a sea la suma de $67,964.66. Si tampoco hubiera remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una tercera subasta el día _27 de enero de 2021 a las _9:30 de la mañana y el tipo mínimo para esta tercera subasta será la mitad del precio establecido para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de $50,973.50. El mejor postor deberá pagar el importe de su oferta en efecto, cheque certificado o giro postal a nom-

bre del Alguacil del Tribunal. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se dará por terminado el procedimiento, pudiendo adjudicarse el inmueble al acreedor hipotecario dentro de los diez días siguientes a la fecha de la última subasta, si así lo estimase conveniente, por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada conforme a la sentencia, si ésta fuera igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta y abonándose dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta fuera mayor. Se avisa a cualquier licitador que la propiedad queda sujeta al gravamen del Estado Libre Asociado y CRIM sobre la propiedad inmueble por contribuciones adeudadas y que el pago de dichas contribuciones es la responsabilidad del licitador. Que se entenderá por todo licitador acepte como suficiente la titulación y que los cargos y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes en entendiéndose que el rematador los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse su extinción al precio rematante.

Todos los nombres de los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante, o de los acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, siempre que surgen de la certificación registral, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Y para conocimiento de licitadores, del público en general y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria en Puerto Rico y en los sitios públicos de acuerdo a las disposiciones de la Regla 51.7 de las de Procedimiento Civil, así como para la publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria y en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas con antelación a la fecha de la primera subasta y por lo menos una vez por semana. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento indicado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables. (Art. 102 (1) de la Ley núm. 210-2015). Expedido el presente en Ponce, Puerto Rico a 30 de noviembre de 2020. JORGE M. HERNANDEZ PAGAN, ALGUACIL REGIONAL, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE PONCE.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

27

What we learned from Week 13 of the NFL season

By BENJAMIN HOFFMAN

D

espite starting a backup quarterback, the New York Giants stunned the Seahawks in Seattle. The Indianapolis Colts held on for a crucial win over the Houston Texans, the Cleveland Browns hung on for a win over the Tennessee Titans and the New Orleans Saints won yet again. But none of Sunday’s games could match the excitement of a wild matchup between the Las Vegas Raiders and the New York Jets in which Gang Green managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Here’s what we learned: — You don’t get to 0-16 by making good decisions. After a fairly thrilling back-and-forth swing in a game that was expected to be a blowout victory for Las Vegas, the Jets appeared to have the game won. They were leading the Raiders 28-24 with just 19 seconds remaining and, thanks to that 4-point lead, Las Vegas would need a 46-yard touchdown to win. There has rarely been a more obvious situation for an extreme prevent defense, but the Jets haven’t gone winless this far without a fair amount of questionable decisions.

With Las Vegas throwing deep, the Jets put only three players in coverage — with one defender inexplicably left as a spy in case quarterback Derek Carr tried to run. Cornerback Lamar Jackson tried to stick with rookie wide receiver Henry Ruggs III in man coverage, got beat badly with a double move, and let the outrageously fast Ruggs run right past him for what ended up being a 46-yard touchdown pass and a 31-28 win for the Raiders.

The Jets became just the 12th team to start a season 0-12 and are well on their way to joining the 1960 Dallas Cowboys (0-11-1), the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-14), the 2008 Detroit Lions (0-16) and the 2017 Cleveland Browns (0-16) as the only NFL teams since 1944 to go winless for an entire season not shortened by a strike. To avoid that fate, the Jets will need a win against one of four fairly good teams: the Seattle Seahawks, the Los Angeles Rams, the Browns and the New England Patriots.

— The Seahawks should be incredibly concerned. The Giants deserve plenty of credit for beating the Seahawks, who were favored by double digits at home. But while the win could very likely be what propels the Giants to a division title in the NFC East, the implications may be just as great for the Seahawks, who view themselves as Super Bowl contenders but couldn’t handle a team starting backups at quarterback (Colt McCoy) and running back (Wayne Gallman). Thanks to the Los Angeles Rams’ 38-28 win over Arizona, Seattle is once again tied for the division lead in the NFC West. And while games against the Jets and Washington in the next two weeks seem extremely winnable, the Seahawks will face fairly stiff challenges from the Rams and the San Francisco 49ers in the final two weeks of the season that could decide who wins the ultracompetitive division.

— Nothing erases a mistake quite like a safety. The Colts were clinging to a 4-point lead over the Texans in the fourth quarter when they turned the ball over on downs at Houston’s 5-yard line. The game seemed to be slipping away from Indianapolis, but DeForest Buckner of the Colts sacked Houston’s Deshaun Watson for a 1-yard loss and two plays later, linebacker Justin Houston burst into the backfield to sack Watson for a safety. That increased the Colts’ lead to 6 points and gave the Colts the ball back. Indianapolis held on for a 26-20 victory.

The Minnesota Vikings, meanwhile, were leading the Jacksonville Jaguars 19-16 in the fourth quarter when quarterback Kirk Cousins fumbled at Jacksonville’s 4-yard line. On the third play of Jacksonville’s ensuing drive, Minnesota defensive ends Ifeadi Odenigbo and Jordan Brailford wrapped up Mike Glennon for a safety that extended the Vikings’ lead to 5 points. Minnesota needed overtime to hang on for a 2724 victory, but they never would have made it that far without the safety.

— The Saints barely miss a beat without Drew Brees. There is no question that New Orleans has a more prolific offense with Brees under center, but the team has become far less de-

Needing a touchdown to win in the game’s final seconds, Henry Ruggs of the Raiders ran right past Lamar Jackson of the Jets for a 46-yard score and a shocking Las Vegas victory. pendent on the future Hall of Famer over the past two seasons. From 2006, his first year with the Saints, to 2018, Brees missed just three starts and the Saints lost all three games. Over the past two seasons, Brees has missed eight starts — and counting — and New Orleans is 8-0 in those games.

Teddy Bridgewater went 5-0 as a fill-in last year and Taysom Hill, who threw for 232 yards and ran for 83 in a 21-16 win over Atlanta on Sunday, is 3-0 this season.

— A new coach can be a wonderful thing. In their first game under interim head coach Darrell Bevell, the Detroit Lions faced the fairly stout Chicago Bears defense and came away with a 34-30 win on the road that included a season-best 460 yards of total offense.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford threw for 402 yards and three touchdowns, and in the final two minutes led his fourth game-winning drive of the season and the 38th of his career. The win gave Detroit some revenge for an epic collapse against Chicago in Week 1, but the Lions are likely to get a much stiffer test from Green Bay next week.

— The Patriots can beat you in multiple ways. New England has won

four of five after romping to a 45-0 win over the Los Angeles Chargers (3-9).

In doing so, the Patriots proved how many different things they can do well.

Cam Newton rushed for 48 yards and two touchdowns; he and backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham each threw a touchdown pass and New England got two touchdowns in the second quarter from its special teams units — Gunner Olszewski scored on a 70-yard punt return and Devin McCourty recovered a blocked field goal and returned it 44 yards for another score.

Sunday’s top performers Top Passer: Baker Mayfield The only quarterback to have four touchdown passes in a second half this season? Cleveland’s Baker Mayfield against Cincinnati in Week 7. The only quarterback to have four touchdown passes in a first half this season?

Mayfield against Tennessee on Sunday.

There are plenty of nits to pick in a performance that produced just three points in the second half, but the truth is that Mayfield did so much in the first half of the Browns’ win that nothing in the second half ultimately mattered.

Continues on page 28

28

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

From page 27 Top Runner: Aaron Jones Wayne Gallman of the Giants led the NFL in rushing Sunday, but Green Bay’s Aaron Jones edged him narrowly for the best performance of the day by running for 130 yards, 77 of which came on a touchdown run in the game’s final minutes that sealed a victory over Philadelphia. Jones was nearly brought down 7 yards into the carry, shed another would-be tackler 10 yards later, hit the brakes and let a defender fly right past him with 25 yards left to go, and then cut toward the middle of the field at the last second, leaving cornerback Avonte Maddox no chance of bringing him down on his way into the end zone.

Top Receiver: Darren Waller The list of tight ends to have a game with 200 or more receiving yards since 1950: Jackie Smith (1963), Pete Retzlaff (1965), Rich Caster (1972), Shannon Sharpe (2002), George Kittle (2018) and Darren Waller (Sunday). Two of those players (Smith and Sharpe) are Hall of Famers and a third (Kittle) is arguably the most complete tight end in the league. Not bad company for the Raiders’ Waller, who is up to 742 yards receiving for the year and has a chance at topping 1,000 yards for a second consecutive season.

—Chiefs 22, Broncos 16: Denver gave Kansas City more of a scare than most people predicted, but when the Chiefs needed to wrap up their 11th win of the season, they got a 20-yard go-ahead touchdown from Patrick Mahomes to Travis Kelce, a 48-yard insurance field goal from Harrison Butker and a game-sealing interception from Tyrann Mathieu. So, it was a Chiefs game.

Browns 41, Titans 35: A marquee matchup of two of the NFL’s best running backs largely fizzled, with Nick Chubb outgaining Derrick Henry 80 to 60 in rushing yards. But this game was hardly lacking excitement thanks to Cleveland’s Baker Mayfield and Tennessee’s Ryan Tannehill combining for 723 yards passing and seven touchdowns. No matter what happens over the final four games of the regular season, the Browns will finish with a winning record for the first time since 2007.

Saints 21, Falcons 16: In the fourth quarter of a fairly close game, the New Orleans defense saw its streak of

Justin Houston of the Colts sacked Houston’s Deshaun Watson for a safety in the fourth quarter of a 26-20 Indianapolis win. holding opponents without a touchdown end at 14 quarters. But on Atlanta’s next drive, the Saints forced a turnover on downs to hang on for the win.

Colts 26, Texans 20: Houston trailed by just 6 points with less than two minutes left, and had driven the ball to the Colts’ 2-yard line. But Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, who had been under fairly intense pressure for much of the game, fumbled a low snap and Anthony Walker of the Colts recovered to preserve a win for Indianapolis.

Giants 17, Seahawks 12: Colt McCoy got his first win as a starting quarterback since Week 8 of the 2014 season. Since McCoy’s last victory, Seattle’s Russell Wilson has won 66 games.

Raiders 31, Jets 28: The Raiders and Jets certainly have their fair share of memorable finishes. There was the infamous “Heidi” game in 1968, in which NBC cut away from the game

to show a movie, missing two late touchdowns and a surprising victory by the Oakland Raiders. And 50 years to the day before Sunday’s shocking ending, the Raiders beat the Jets, 1413, thanks to Daryle Lamonica’s 33yard touchdown pass to Warren Wells in the game’s final second.

Packers 30, Eagles 16: Philadelphia kept the game surprisingly close thanks to a solid second half, but Green Bay slammed the door shut — emphatically — with Aaron Jones’ 77yard touchdown run in the final three minutes.

Patriots 45, Chargers 0: Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert has had a solid rookie season, but there was no doubt that he was part of the problem for Los Angeles in the worst shutout in franchise history. He completed just 26 of 53 passes for 209 yards, and was intercepted twice.

Rams 38, Cardinals 28: Kyler Murray threw three touchdown passes, but he also lost a fumble and threw a

pick-6. The loss dropped Arizona to 6-6, which is two full games behind Seattle and the Los Angeles Rams for the lead in the NFC West.

Vikings 27, Jaguars 24 (OT): Minnesota’s Dan Bailey missed a 51-yard field goal attempt with 13 seconds remaining in regulation, but when he got another shot in overtime — this time from just 23 yards — he came through with a game-winning kick.

Lions 34, Bears 30: After a 5-1 start, Chicago has lost six consecutive games and this one stung more than most as Mitchell Trubisky and the Bears were leading Detroit by 10 early in the fourth quarter before collapsing against a division rival.

Dolphins 19, Bengals 7: Tua Tagovailoa returned from a thumb injury and threw for a career-high 296 yards, but the most exciting part of this underwhelming game was the tension between the teams that resulted in five ejections and a benches-clearing argument.

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Tuesday, December 8, 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

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

(Mar 21-April 20)

Today’s Quarter Moon in Virgo, suggests you may be at the point of completion regards a plan. Although there might still be issues to finalize, being ready to discuss such matters with those involved could help things reach a successful conclusion, as long as you stay within your remit and don’t get carried away.

Still, an imaginative twist can add a touch of sparkle, if needed.

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

As ethereal Neptune in your sector of relating is involved in an edgy lunar phase, your feelings for someone could go through a shift. You may begin to understand what motivates them, and this can be a turning point in your relationship. If in a moment of clarity, you feel moved to hold a discussion, it might prove very healing Virgo, and knowing what you want could be crucial.

Taurus

(April 21-May 21)

Scorpio

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

Sagittarius

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

As today’s lunar phase aligns with ethereal Neptune, you may be more sensitive to others’ feelings, and this is likely to continue. You might be able to use this to your advantage though, especially if you need to impress a certain person. Insights into their nature and personality, as well as their core needs, could help you make sterling progress over coming days, Gemini.

Whatever is happening on the surface, there seems to be a lot going on at a deeper level that could influence your decisions. Rather than basing the outcome on logical thinking, you might prefer results that feel good and that uplift you emotionally.

Freedom can also be a factor, as any decisions that tie you down may not feel as wholesome as those that liberate you, Archer.

Cancer

(June 22-July 23)

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

Hoping to bring something to a conclusion, Taurus?

If so, the coming days can be crucial to sorting out final details. The more you are willing to liaise with those involved, the easier it will be. With hazy Neptune in the picture, avoid discussing matters with others who might interfere or muddy the waters.

Clarity is of the essence, if you are keen to make a success of this.

With a Quarter Moon in your sector of talk and thought, you can feel an urgency to get moving on a creative idea that could have spiritual meaning for you. Indeed, other factors suggest this may be a great time to go ahead. You’ll have the enthusiasm and inspiration to do well, and to make a good job of it. In addition, something deep within you might feel nurtured by your decision.

Leo

(July 24-Aug 23)

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

Today’s Quarter Moon can see you weighing up a situation, and wondering whether you should discuss it with a friend. There may be many reasons why you don’t want to talk about it. It could touch on issues that you feel uncomfortable with, and that you might be embarrassed to admit to. Even so, discussion can be a big release for you Scorpio, and may bring healing in its wake.

You may be faced with a choice about whether to step out into the unknown, or take on a challenge and try something completely different. You might be eager for new adventures, but it also helps to clear the decks and tie up any loose ends first. Research new possibilities and take steps regarding any that interest you. Letting go of what no longer serves is important, though.

Aquarius

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

If anything has troubled you over the past week or so, it may be time to move on and focus on other things. This could relate to a small spat, or a desire to impress someone who seems rather too aloof. A powerful lunar phase suggests that if you are open and honest about your intentions and plans, this can inspire them to be more forthcoming, with things shifting to the positive.

The desire to share your thoughts and let others know what you are doing, can conflict with the urge to stay quiet until you are sure of progress. It’s possible you may have a few reservations, and there is no harm in keeping certain private matters to yourself. Nevertheless, it could be beneficial to discuss one important issue Aquarius, and get the support you so richly deserve.

Virgo

Pisces

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

As ethereal Neptune in your sector of relating is involved in an edgy lunar phase, your feelings for someone could go through a shift. You may begin to understand what motivates them, and this can be a turning point in your relationship. If in a moment of clarity, you feel moved to hold a discussion, it might prove very healing Virgo, and knowing what you want could be crucial.

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

You may hope someone will co-operate with you regarding a key issue, but this is not a given Pisces, unless you can convince them otherwise. If getting their consent is necessary to moving ahead with a goal or project, then the coming days could see it hanging in the balance. If you are really keen though, then taking those first small steps might be enough to set things in motion.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

31

CARTOONS

Herman

Speed Bump

Frank & Ernest

BC

Scary Gary

Wizard of Id

For Better or for Worse

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Ziggy

32

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

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