Wednesday Jan 12, 2022

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

San Juan The

50¢

Judge Seeks Changes to Gov’t Debt Plan

by Friday, But Is Confirming It & Sustaining PROMESA P4

Biden Infrastructure Package Provides for EV Charging Stations in Puerto Rico P6

DAILY

Star

UN Seeks Huge Aid Increase to Avert Afghanistan ‘Catastrophe’ P13

129 Years At His Sentencing for the Murder of Arellys Mercado Ríos, Medina Cardona Offers Victim’s Family Condolences But No Apology P5

NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL P 16

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Wednesday, January 12, 2022

The San Juan Daily Star

GOOD MORNING

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January 12, 2022

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.

NPP House caucus asks Senate to consider Supreme Court nomination

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he New Progressive Party (NPP) caucus in the island House of Representatives, led by its spokesman, Carlos “Johnny” Méndez Núñez, approved on Tuesday a resolution aimed at asking the Senate to evaluate on its merits the appointment of Judge Roberto Rodríguez Casillas as an associate justice of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court.

“The NPP caucus endorsed yesterday, Monday, a request from the colleague and former speaker of the House, José Aponte, to ask the Senate to evaluate the nomination of Judge Rodríguez Casillas to occupy the seat of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court,” Méndez Núñez said in a written statement. “The least the Senate, which has dragged its feet on confirming many of the governor’s nominees, could do is provide this nominee with a fair and open process. That is what we ask for, public hearings and a serious evaluation.”

On Sunday, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia announced the nomination of Rodríguez Casillas, who currently holds a position on the Court of Appeals, to fill the vacancy of associate justice of the highest judicial forum on the island.

Senate President José Luis Dalmau, who is also president of the Popular Democratic Party, refused to take up the nomination, saying it was “not a priority” for the Senate.

Carlos “Johnny” Méndez Núñez “The Puerto Rico Constitution in its Article 5, Section 8, establishes that it is the governor who determines, by the nomination of people, to fill vacancies in positions such as that of the Supreme Court,” Aponte said. “Nowhere in the Constitution is it established that the Senate determines when a vacancy is filled. It is only up to the senators to provide advice and consent once the nominees are evaluated on their merits.”

“What should happen is that the process takes place in the Senate, to which the nominee himself has stated that he is available to undergo his evaluation,” the former House speaker added. “Failure to do this represents wanting to take control of what the Constitution does not confer on you. It is an overreach of power.”

NPP offers details on vote for Guaynabo mayor

By THE STAR STAFF

N

ew Progressive Party (NPP) Secretary General Carmelo Ríos Santiago, along with the party’s electoral commissioner,Vanessa Santo Domingo, announced on Tuesday the details of the voting in Saturday’s special election for the mayor of Guaynabo.

“This process has been open and transparent for all participants and that is what we have wanted from the first moment,” Ríos Santiago said in a written statement. “To that end, we have set up some 26 voting centers throughout Guaynabo in order to encourage the participation of our affiliated voters.”

The officials said that some 26 voting centers -- 48 schools, including two added by hand -- have been set up throughout all areas of the municipality. In addition, several schools will handle votes added by hand. The centers will be open from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. The special election begins on Friday, when inmates vote.

Ríos Santiago added that for an additional measure of transparency, the electoral officials who work the event will not be from the Senate District of Bayamón.

The NPP general secretary announced that it is possible that the results of the event will be known by 5:30-7 p.m. Saturday.

New Progressive Party Secretary General Carmelo Ríos Santiago, left, and the party’s electoral commissioner, Vanessa Santo Domingo

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Wednesday, January 12, 2022

The San Juan Daily Star

Judge seeks changes to gov’t debt plan by Friday, but is confirming it and sustaining PROMESA

By THE STAR STAFF

W

hile Judge LauraTaylor Swain, who is presiding over Puerto Rico’s Title III bankruptcy cases, gave the government until Friday to submit to the court revisions to the Eighth Amended Title III Joint Plan of Adjustment, she also prepared documents this week approving the debt deal, whose main effect will be the preemption of numerous local laws that go against the plan.

The judge, in findings of fact and conclusions submitted as attachments to the order requiring the Jan. 14 submission, also states that the federal Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) is constitutional, declining to wait for federal officials to submit writings defending the constitutionality of the law.

PROMESA is the law that established the Financial Oversight and Management Board and created the bankruptcy process for Puerto Rico.

“For the reasons explained in the following Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, the Court finds that, with the incorporation of certain specified revisions, the Plan proposed by the Oversight Board meets the confirmation requirements of PROMESA and does not violate the Constitution,” the judge said. “The Court has also determined that PROMESA itself does not violate the Constitution. In moving forward following confirmation, the Court urges the people of Puerto Rico to use their resources and voices well, and urges those who govern and those who oversee Puerto Rico to listen to those voices, to make wise choices and explain them well, and to lead Puerto Rico to a better, brighter, and more vibrant future of growth and economic stability.”

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U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain Nonetheless, she asked the government to revise the plan by Friday with respect to eminent domain and inverse condemnation claims, revisions that must be made so that claimants are not paid as unsecured creditors but instead the courts must determine the just compensation for the claims. The proposed plan would restructure some $33 billion in government debt.

“For the following reasons, the Plan is hereby confirmed and any remaining objections are overruled except to the extent expressly stated herein,” Swain said. “For the avoidance of doubt, to the extent that a particular objection or issue is not specifically addressed in these Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, it has been considered thoroughly and is overruled. The overruled objections, and the Oversight Board’s positions as to the proper scope of preemption and the proper treatment of Eminent Domain/Inverse Condemnation Claims are preserved for appeal.”

In her order, the judge said the confirmation order is final and intended to be binding on all parties in interest, and shall not be subject to collateral attack or other challenge in any other court or other forum, except as permitted under applicable law.

“Confirmation of the Plan constitutes a judicial determination, pursuant to section 4 of PROMESA, that all laws, rules, and regulations giving rise to obligations of the Debtors discharged by the Plan and this Confirmation Order pursuant to PROMESA are preempted by PROMESA and such discharge shall prevail over any general or specific provisions of territory laws, rules, and regulations,” Swain said.

With respect to preemption of local laws by PROMESA, the judge said all laws or such portions thereof of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, other than budgets certified by the oversight board, inconsistent with PROMESA, have been preempted.

Such preempted laws include, without limitation, laws enacted prior to June 30, 2016 that provide for transfers or other appropriations after the enactment of PROMESA, including transfers from the commonwealth or one of its instrumentalities to any agency or instrumentality, whether to enable such agency or instrumentality to pay or satisfy indebtedness or for any other purpose.

Such laws shall not be enforceable to the extent they are inconsistent with the plan’s discharge of the debtors’ obligations.

“All laws enacted from and after the commencement of the Title III Cases to the extent they are inconsistent with the transactions contemplated by the Plan are also unenforceable,” Swain said.

The plan also makes changes to pensions. By reason of the plan’s provisions freezing defined benefit accruals and future costs of living adjustments, the judge said that upon the plan’s effective date, PROMESA preempts Acts 91-2004, establishing the Teachers Retirement System (TRS), and 12-1954, establishing the judiciary retirement system (JRS), providing for the future accrual of defined benefits and future cost of living adjustments.

“Absent preemption, the amount of Commonwealth revenues that would need to be spent on TRS and JRS pension benefits in fiscal year 2022 is $984 million,” Swain said. “Absent preemption, these inconsistent statutes would undermine the restructuring contemplated by the Plan. Enabling legislation is not required to establish the freeze of defined benefits or the elimination of COLAs [cost of living adjustments]. Obligations arising from Commonwealth statutes, including statutes providing employees the right to accrue pension or other retirement benefits, give rise to claims which can be impaired and discharged pursuant to the Plan.”

She maintained a separate classification for pensioners. “Active and retired employees holding pension Claims comprise Classes 51A-51L. The services that are and have been performed by these current and retired employees are integral to the basic provision of governmental services to the Commonwealth’s residents and the Government could not function without them,” the judge said. “Moreover, the best interests of the Commonwealth and all of its stakeholders are served by ensuring that pensioners receive monthly benefits to maintain the ability to support themselves without requiring additional future support from the Commonwealth.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

5

Medina Cardona sentenced to 129 years for murder of Arellys Mercado Ríos

By THE STAR STAFF

F

ajardo Court Judge Gema González Rodríguez on Tuesday sentenced Jensen Medina Cardona to serve 129 years in prison for the August 2019 murder of Arellys Mercado Ríos in Villa Marina in Fajardo.

Prior to his sentencing, Medina Cardona spoke out for the first time since the judicial process began.

“I hadn’t done it before, because I hadn’t had the opportunity. Arellys’ mother is not here, but I want to offer my deepest condolences and forgiveness in the name of God to the family and her brother,” he told the court. “It was a tough process, I have kept my sanity, I have had faith, for my parents, for my children that we must move forward and we are here leading the way.You have my file, my whole life is there. I have been a young, hard-working entrepreneur and what can I tell you, my resume is there.

I had never had problems with the law.”

“What I can say is that there are cases in which situations happen that one has to confront them and make decisions,” Medina Cardona said in the courtroom of Judge González Rodríguez. “In this case, I was in a very difficult situation where my life was also in danger and at some point the statements will be made. But there is a process that has to be followed and respected.”

Following Medina Cardona’s statement in court, the mother of the victim,

Arellys Mercado Ríos Nitza Rios, said “I don’t have any reason not to accept his remarks, although I did not hear him say he was sorry.”

“But I can’t accept his remarks to the effect that his life was in danger because my daughter was unarmed,” she added. “[On the day of the incident] they had come from a ride. He should have been a gentleman and instead thanked my daughter for keeping his cellphone safe.”

The judge sentenced him to 99 years for the crime of murder in the first degree, 10 years for the possession and use and illegal possession of firearms plus an additional 10 years for aggravating circumstances, and five years for

aiming and shooting with an additional five years for aggravating circumstances, for a total of 129 years that will be completed consecutively. The sentence includes the time that he has already served in preventive detention.

Medina Cardona was found guilty of the murder on Oct. 28, two years, two months and 10 days since the crime occurred, and police and legal proceedings played out.

Medina Cardona’s defense anticipated that they would appeal the sentence.

“The process is not over yet. This is simply part of the process,” attorney Jorge Gordon Menéndez said as he left the Fajardo court. “We already have the errors identified.”

Yamil Juarbe, the prosecutor, responded to the press that “we are prepared and ready.”

“Already the secretary of Justice, through the solicitor general, has appointed staff from the solicitor general’s office to answer each of the proposals that they can do well, which I do not know what they will be because in practically two years and two months they have all done them,” Juarbe said. “But we are ready and prepared to defend this conviction.”

Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Domingo Emanuelli Hernández, established in a written statement that: “We are satisfied with the sentence issued by the honorable Judge Gema González Rodríguez to Jensen Medina Cardona be-

cause it is fair in view of the facts proven by the prosecutor’s office in court,” he said. “The murder of Arellys was a vile and despicable act that deserved the maximum penalty. We hope that this sentence will also serve as a deterrent for others who do not think about the consequences of their actions and have no respect for life. Know that the prosecutors of the Puerto Rico Department of Justice will not rest until justice is done to the victims. Our complete solidarity is with Arellys’ family, especially with her mother, Nitza Ríos, who has taught many of us a lesson with her mettle, strength and forgiveness. Once again, I thank the team of prosecutors from the Department of Justice, Diannette Aymat Frías, Yamil Juarbe Molina, Eduardo Beale Targa and Jaime Perea Mercado, not only for their work but for their sensitivity and empathy. No process is easy, as proving a case beyond a reasonable doubt requires arduous preparation, something that is often misunderstood in the public forum. But defending crime victims and getting justice done is always worth it.”

The murder of Mercado Ríos occurred during a confusing discussion over a cell phone on the night of Sunday, Aug. 18, 2019 around 9:43 p.m. in the Villa Marina Yacht Harbor dock area, on Villa Marina Boulevard in Fajardo.

The 34-year-old, who worked as a sales manager for a company that owns several funeral homes, died instantly after being shot in the neck at the Villa Marina facilities.

Volleyball coach accused of mistreatment of minors

By THE STAR STAFF

T

he San Juan Criminal Investigations Corps’ Division of Sexual Crimes and Child Abuse arrested Juan Ramón Hernández Lozano, 55, a resident of Carolina, on Monday afternoon on charges of mistreatment of a minor while exercising his functions as a girls’ volleyball coach at a school in the San Juan area.

According to the police investigation, on July 21, 2020, Hernández Lozano

sent messages to a 15-year-old, whom he trained, in which he made reference to obscene behavior.

The case was consulted with prosecutor Irisel Collazo of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office, who gave instructions to file charges for child abuse (Article 59) under Law 246.

The accused was brought before Judge Glen Velázquez, who determined probable cause by setting a bond of $30,000, which Hernández Lozano posted, and issued a protection order.

The preliminary hearing was scheduled for Jan. 25.

Agent Aidalis Plaza, from the San Juan Area Specialized Division for Sexual Crimes, investigated.

It should be noted that months after the aforementioned events, in the Caguas area, Hernández Lozano was subjected to similar charges for allegedly committing lewd acts and mistreatment of minors against two other adolescents, aged 15 and 16, for which he has been under electronic supervision since last year.

Juan Ramón Hernández Lozano

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Wednesday, January 12, 2022

The San Juan Daily Star

Biden infrastructure package provides for EV charging stations in PR

By THE STAR STAFF

P

resident Joe Biden’s infrastructure package will provide funds to Puerto Rico to build the charging stations for electric vehicles, Highways and Transportation Authority (ACT by its Spanish acronym) Executive Director Edwin González Montalvo said Tuesday.

González Montalvo said federal officials are waiting for the guidelines for the use of the funds, which he said will be provided early this year, to prepare and determine which points on the island are going to be included under the initiative.

“The Highways and Transportation Authority is going to benefit from an increase in funds within the allocation of [President] Biden made in the infrastructure package for the next five years, in which there will be an increase in funds for roads and bridges,” the ACT chief said. “And there is an allocation of funds to create the infrastructure for electric cars, and it is something that we will be working on once the guidelines are provided …, to prepare ourselves to see where on the island that infrastructure for the electric cars is going to be included.”

In October, the STAR reported that Tesla Inc. Senior Pol-

Highways and Transportation Authority Executive Director Edwin González Montalvo icy Advisor Bill Ehrlich had advised the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB) on how to improve electric car penetration in Puerto Rico as part of a probe launched by the energy regulator.

Creating an electric car infrastructure could mean additional income for the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.

Ehrlich addressed matters related to utility ownership, billing for charging services, government-supplied land for electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure development, and zoning considerations for EV charging infrastructure. “Puerto Rico’s EV master plan should include measures that ensure continued flexibility and that enable a variety of technologies and stakeholders to participate in the growth of EVs and EV charging infrastructure,” Erlich said in written remarks.

“The EV and EV charging industries are still at a nascent stage and rapidly evolving.”

Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy through the development of all-electric vehicles and clean energy products including photovoltaic solar and battery storage. Tesla is a U.S.-based manufacturer whose vehicle lineup includes the Model S sedan, Model X crossover vehicle, Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover vehicle. The vehicles have all-electric range of up to 405 miles per charge, and industry leading performance and safety ratings.

There are currently two Tesla charging locations in Puerto Rico, one site in Guaynabo and another in Aguadilla.

Child, work tax credits have potential to transform island poverty rate

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

M

ore than 304,000 could benefit this year from the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and 466,000 families from the Credit for Work, which together represent a profound impact on their pockets and on their economic mobility and an injection into the Puerto Rican economy of up to $2.56 billion, the Institute for Youth Development (and the non-profit Open Spaces) said in report issued Tuesday.

Economist María Enchautegui, director of research at the Youth Development Institute, said the economic injection of the CTC, or Child Dependent Credit, could reach $1.76 billion if 100% of eligible people claim it, or $1.4 billion if 80% request it. The work credit would represent another $800 million in disbursements in 2022, said economist Daniel Santamaría Ots, senior analyst of public policy at Open Spaces.

With the CTC, families could get $3,600 for children from 0 to 5 years old or $3,000 for children from 6 to 17 years old. Meanwhile, people who work and have incomes of less than $ 44,000 per year may be eligible to receive up to $6,500 for the work credit, after the redesign of that incentive as of the current tax cycle.

Both credits have the ability to improve the economic conditions of families living below poverty levels, the

Daniel Santamaría Ots, senior analyst of public policy at Open Spaces economists said during a round table.

“The CTC is going to have a momentous effect on low-income families in Puerto Rico,” Enchautegui said.

“These benefits can transform the quality of life of children and young people. In addition, it presents a great opportunity to maximize the potential of childhood in Puerto Rico.”

Enchautegui estimated that 304,000 families are eligible in Puerto Rico for the CTC, which represents 565,000 minors between the ages of 0 to 17 years. The

average income of families living below the poverty level and accessing the credit would increase by 53%.

If married couples with minor dependents and incomes below $150,000 and single-parent families with incomes less than $75,000 are taken into account, at the municipal level the five-year estimates reveal that: • In 34 municipalities, more than 99% of families with children and young people qualify.

• The municipalities with the highest number of minors are Arecibo, Bayamón, Caguas, Carolina, Guaynabo, Ponce, San Juan, Toa Alta and Toa Baja.

Santamaría Ots noted that 466,000 families are eligible for the work credit, the maximum limit of which was increased from $2,000 to $6,500 as of this year.

The amount varies according to income, number of children and if the person is married or single. According to the experience in the United States, the work credit, in addition to improving the economic security of the people who access it, encourages work and increases the formal workforce. For every $1 invested in credit, there is a return of $1.50 to $2 for the economy. A recently published study by Open Spaces using 2019 payroll data estimates that some 124,925 people could cross the poverty line if they receive the work credit. This number can increase considerably if one considers the people that the credit encourages to file a return and move from the informal to the formal economy.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

7

Insurers will have to cover 8 at-home virus tests per month

By NOAH WEILAND and SARAH KLIFF

P

rivate insurers will soon have to cover the cost of eight at-home coronavirus tests per member per month, the Biden administration said earlier this week.

People will be able to get the tests at their health plan’s “preferred” pharmacies and other retailers with no out-of-pocket costs, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

They can also buy the tests elsewhere and file claims for reimbursement, just as they often do for medical care.

“Today’s action further removes financial barriers and expands access to COVID-19 tests for millions of people,” Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the Biden administration’s Medicare and Medicaid chief, said in a statement about the new guidelines.

Roughly 150 million Americans, or about 45% of the population, are privately insured, mostly through their employers. Each enrolled dependent of the primary insurance holder counts as a member.

At out-of-network facilities, insurers’ responsibility would be capped at $12 per test, meaning people could be responsible for any additional costs.

But if a health plan does not establish a network of “preferred” retailers where patients can get tests covered upfront, it will be responsible for whatever claims its patients submit for their eight monthly rapid tests, with no limit on the price.

Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms, said the policy could save families hundreds of dollars a month.

“I would love to see a more comprehensive national testing policy where these tests are free for everybody, regardless of insurance status,” she said. “Will it help everybody? No. It is definitely not the ideal way to lower barriers to COVID testing. But it is helpful.”

Rapid at-home tests are typically sold in packs of two, ranging in cost from about $14 to $34. That can be prohibi-

Rapid tests for COVID-19 at Miami International Airport in Miami on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022. Private insurers will soon have to cover the cost of eight at-home coronavirus tests per member per month, the Biden administration said Monday, Jan. 10, 2022. tively expensive, especially when tests are purchased in bulk.

The new Biden policy will not apply retroactively to at-home tests that Americans have already purchased.

Tests ordered or administered by health providers will continue to be covered by insurance without any copayment or deductible under a law requiring insurers to fully cover tests at doctor’s offices, public sites and other facilities.

The administration is working on other efforts to get coronavirus tests to people regardless of their insurance status, including a plan to deliver 500 million free rapid tests to the homes of Americans who order them, starting later this month.

That plan, along with the new rules for insurers announced Monday, is part of a broader effort by the Biden administration in recent weeks to catch up to skyrocketing demand for rapid tests, as virus cases have exploded around the nation with the arrival of the highly contagious omicron variant.

The administration has also announced plans to make tens of millions of free tests available for uninsured Americans at health clinics and other sites in underserved communities. And it has

recently opened federally run test sites in hard-hit regions of the country.

Matt Eyles, president of health insurer trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans, said in a statement that insurance companies would “work as quickly as possible to implement this guidance.”

“While there will likely be some hiccups in early days, we will work with the administration to swiftly address issues as they arise,” he said.

Supplies of the tests at pharmacies and grocery stores all but dried up last month as omicron descended, and manufacturers are racing to restock shelves, a scramble that has prompted some experts to criticize the administration for being caught flat-footed.

The low availability could hinder the rollout of the reimbursement policy, said Lindsey Dawson, a policy analyst at the Kaiser Family Foundation who has researched the availability of rapid tests.

“If reimbursement exists but there aren’t tests to purchase,” she said, “that doesn’t help an individual consumer.”

She added, “The policy could certainly drive demand and could exacerbate the problem.”

Dawson said prices have begun

climbing at some major retailers, such as Walmart. That could mean significant upfront costs for families who have to file claims for reimbursement, she said.

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers wrote to President Joe Biden on Sunday pressing him to expand access to rapid tests, including by manufacturing enough for every American to take at least one a week. They also warned that insurance reimbursement can be time-consuming and could discourage people who are less well off from buying tests.

When Biden announced the reimbursement plan in early December, he drew skepticism from some public health experts who wondered why the United States was not buying tests in bulk and offering them at little to no cost, as European countries have done.

At the time, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, dismissed the idea of a sprawling program to provide free tests to Americans.

But as the administration faced intensifying criticism, Biden announced that his administration would offer 500 million free at-home tests for the nation’s 330 million residents, available to order through a website that is supposed to debut this month.

There will also be a hotline that people can call if they do not have access to a computer or prefer to order tests by phone, a White House official said.

The administration is racing to sign a series of test contracts with companies already in possession of tests or with manufacturers; the first two were announced Friday.

More agreements will be announced in the coming days, officials said.

Biden administration officials have said they are being careful not to appropriate tests that are already set to be delivered to retailers like CVS and Walgreens.

It remains unclear how many tests each household will be able to order as part of the program and what brands will be offered through it. The FDA has authorized more than a dozen at-home antigen tests, including some under a new accelerated review program the federal government announced last year.

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Wednesday, January 12, 2022

The San Juan Daily Star

A family of 5 tried to flee the 19th floor. Smoke overwhelmed them.

Cleaning crews and recovery workers near the scene of a fire that took place on Sunday at a high-rise apartment building in the Bronx, on Monday, Jan. 10, 2022.

By KAREN ZRAICK and CHELSIA ROSE MARCIUS

T

he Dukuray family had followed the same path as many of their neighbors, leaving the small West African nation of Gambia over a decade ago to join a tight-knit immigrant enclave in the Bronx.

Haja, a mother of three, worked as a home health aide, while her husband, Hajie, took shifts at a fried chicken shop, intending to save and send money back to their homeland, said a relative, Hawa Dukuray. The couple’s children were all born in the United States: Mustapha, who was just two weeks shy of his 13th birthday; Mariam, 11, and Fatoumata, who had just turned 5.

The family settled in a 19th-floor apartment on East

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181st Street, a towering building filled with other West Africans and near the mosques where many of them worship. During Ramadan nights, the family would gather at the apartment to cook Gambian-style chicken and jollof rice.

They were home Sunday morning when a malfunctioning space heater in a third-floor apartment sparked a blaze that filled the building with smoke — and prevented their escape.

Hawa Dukuray, 21, would hear later that her relatives had tried to descend from their top-floor apartment as the suffocating plumes rose, blackening the hallways as desperate residents sought to flee. They must have assumed, she reasoned, that it would be safer to get out of the building using the only method available: the internal staircases. The building did not have outdoor fire escapes.

They never made it, part of a death toll that stood at 17 — nine adults and eight children — and that officials warned could rise. Fifteen people remained in critical condition Monday evening.

“I’m heartbroken,” said Dukuray, crying.

City officials said that the deaths had largely been caused by the smoke, which spread throughout the building after the door to the apartment where the fire started was left open. Another door, leaving from the 15th floor to a staircase, was also open, Fire Department Commis-

sioner Daniel Nigro said at a news conference outside the building Monday.

The doors are supposed to close by themselves, and the investigation was continuing into what might have happened. Nigro said that trying to flee from a high floor during a fire was itself risky.

“We do recommend in high-rise fireproof buildings that people should shelter in place, and it’s safer to be in your apartment than to venture out and try to get down the stairs and sometimes into a much more dangerous situation,” Nigro said.

Mayor Eric Adams and other officials said they would focus on reminding the public to close doors when fires break out, to contain deadly smoke.

Authorities had not yet officially released the names of any of the victims. The medical examiner’s office was still working to identify victims and to notify next of kin Monday, and the identifications were being conducted by video because of concern over the continuing coronavirus pandemic.

“We are working with great care and sensitivity to identify the victims, determine causes and manners of death, and help the grieving families expedite arrangements for their loved ones in accordance with beliefs and customs,” Dr. Jason Graham, acting chief medical examiner, said in a statement.

At Masjid-Ur-Rahmah, a storefront mosque near the building that serves a largely Gambian population, the imam, Musa Kabba, said that 10 to 12 of his members were missing. He expressed concern that the pace of the identification efforts was interfering with the Muslim obligation to bury the dead as quickly as possible.

The Gambian ambassador, Dawda Docka Fadera, traveled from Washington, D.C., and appeared at the news conference with the mayor and other officials. He said that the majority of the victims were from his country, which has a population of fewer than 2 million people, and that the tragedy had reverberated there.

“We are all related, everybody knows everybody,” he said. “Our country is currently in a state of shock.”

The three Dukuray children were pronounced dead at hospitals Sunday, and their parents were still missing as of Monday afternoon, leading relatives to believe that they too had perished in the worst fire in the city in decades, Hawa Dukuray said in an interview.

She said she wished she could tell them not to leave their apartment but said that she would have done the same in their shoes.

On Sunday, Hassane Badr, 28, who is originally from Mali, said that two of his siblings were also among the children who died in the fire, and that a 25-year-old cousin remained missing. As he waited for news about two other siblings, who had been injured, he said he was in shock.

“To be honest, I’m not believing it right now,” he said.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

9

Chicago schools will reopen as teachers and the city reach a deal over virus safeguards

By MITCH SMITH

C

hicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration on Monday announced a deal with the Chicago Teachers Union that would return students to classrooms today after a dispute over coronavirus safeguards canceled a week of classes in the country’s third-largest school district.

“No one is more frustrated than I am,” Lightfoot said after the deal was reached. She added: “I’m glad that we’re hopefully putting this behind us and looking forward. But there does come a point when enough is enough.”

The deal, which city officials said included provisions for additional testing and metrics that would close schools with major virus outbreaks, was approved by the union’s House of Delegates on Monday night and was expected to be voted on later in the week by rank-and-file teachers.

Teachers were expected to return to school buildings Tuesday, with students joining them the next day. Leaders of the union described the agreement as imperfect and were highly critical of Lightfoot, but they said the deal was needed given the conditions teachers are facing in the pandemic.

“This agreement is the only modicum of safety that is available for anyone that steps foot in the Chicago Public Schools, especially in the places in the city where testing is low and where vaccination rates are low,” said Stacy Davis Gates, union vice president.

School leaders across the country have scrambled to adjust to the highly infectious omicron variant, which has pushed the country’s daily case totals to record levels and led to record hospitalizations. Most school districts have forged ahead with in-person instruction, as the Biden administration has urged, sometimes quarantining individual students or classrooms as outbreaks emerge. Some large districts, including in Milwaukee and Cleveland, have moved class online.

But the debate in Chicago proved uniquely bitter and unpredictable, with hundreds of thousands of children pulled out of class two days after winter break when teachers voted to stop reporting to their classrooms. Rather than teach online, as the union proposed, the school district canceled classes altogether.

Chicago Public Schools leaders have insisted that

virus precautions were in place and that pausing in-person instruction would unfairly burden parents and harm students’ academic and social progress. Union members said that the schools were not safe, that more testing was needed and that classes should be temporarily moved online.

The Chicago area, like much of the country, is averaging far more new cases each day than at any previous point in the pandemic. The omicron variant is believed to cause less-severe illness than prior forms of the virus, with vaccinated people unlikely to face severe outcomes. Still, coronavirus hospitalizations in Illinois have exceeded their peak levels from last winter and continue to rise sharply.

Relations between the Chicago Teachers Union and City Hall have been extraordinarily tense for a decade, stretching across the tenures of Lightfoot and her

predecessor, Rahm Emanuel. In 2019, months before the pandemic, teachers went on strike for 11 days and extracted concessions from Lightfoot on pay, class sizes and support staff. A year ago, when schools first returned to in-person instruction, the city and union engaged in weeks of tense negotiations.

Members of Lightfoot’s administration have defended the school system’s efforts to make classrooms safe and have emphasized that children rarely face severe outcomes from COVID-19. But their efforts to reassure parents and teachers have sometimes faltered. The district instituted an optional testing plan over winter break, but most of the 150,000 or so mail-in PCR tests given to students were never returned; of the ones that were, a majority produced invalid results.

Students at Mt. Greenwood Elementary School in Chicago returned on Monday, when the school had enough staff to defy the union’s directive to teachers to stay home amid negotiations over safety protocols.

10

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Manatí native Albors tapped to lead ACACIA Network

By THE STAR STAFF

A

CACIA Network Board of Directors Chairwoman Carmen J. Villa-Lugo announced earlier this week the appointment of Lymaris Albors as the new executive director (CEO) of the group, becoming the first Puerto Rican woman to lead the largest community organization in New York State and the second largest in the United States.

The Manatí-born Albors will manage an organization that has a $500

million budget and over $900 million in assets. The appointment comes after the announcement of the retirement of Raúl Russi, who held the position for two decades.

“Lymaris Albors, a native of Manatí, Puerto Rico, becomes the highest-ranking executive in our organization, after serving as Director of Operations (COO) and Executive Vice President in recent years,” Villa-Lugo said, adding that Russi “will remain as president of ACACIA Network, concentrating on expanding ACACIA’s

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ACACIA Network CEO Lymaris Albors portfolio of affordable housing and other key strategic initiatives.”

The announcement coincided with Russi’s 20th anniversary in the organization. He first joined in 2001 as CEO of Basics Inc., and subsequently spearheaded the affiliation with Promesa Inc. in 2009, leading to the creation of ACACIA Network.

During his tenure, Russi grew the organization from an annual operating budget of less than $5 million. ACACIA Network comprises more than 100 affiliates and related entities in six states and Puerto Rico.

“The promotion of Lymaris Albors to the position of CEO is a very important step in ensuring the sustainability of the ACACIA Network

mission,” the group said in a statement. “The Board of Directors has recognized that she is an extremely well qualified Latino visionary and is knowledgeable about the organization.”

“She has worked tirelessly to restructure this entity in order to provide the staff with the opportunity to shine and with excellent results. Her commitment to our mission, our history, and our communities is evidenced by the success of the many projects she has started and completed during her years with us,” the group said. “We have witnessed her growth and development, and we are excited to have her lead ACACIA as our Chief Executive Officer.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

11 Stocks

Wall St bounces as tech stocks rise after Powell’s testimony U .S. stocks rose Tuesday afternoon, led by a rebound in shares of technology companies, as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated the central bank’s efforts to corral inflation.

Stocks opened lower and dipped further as senators peppered Mr. Powell with questions during his reconfirmation hearing for a second term as Fed chair. Indexes later recovered.

The S&P 500 added 0.6%, on pace to snap a five-day losing streak, while the Nasdaq Composite added 1.2%, building on Monday’s midday turnaround. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.3%.

During the hearing, Mr. Powell said the central bank plans to move as aggressively as needed to cool inflation. “If we have to raise interest rates more over time, we will,” he told lawmakers.

The bank has made no decisions about shrinking its balance sheet, he added, saying also that “it’s a long road to normal” for monetary policy.

Stocks have been volatile as the prospect of imminent and faster-than-expected interest-rate rises has convulsed financial markets this month. For Mr. Powell’s part, he played up the central bank’s role in taming inflation, while reiterating that that interest rates are likely to remain at historically low levels. He added that he was optimistic that supply-chain bottlenecks would ease this year to help bring down inflation.

Still, investors remained jittery as stock indexes stayed volatile.

“There is more of a risk now that rate rises are going to coincide with falling growth, and that is obviously a bad combination,” said Altaf Kassam, head of investment strategy for State Street Global Advisors in Europe.

During the hearing, investors bought the dip on tech and other growth stocks. The tech and communication services sectors of the S&P 500 both rose recently about 1%, after trading in the red earlier in the session, while consumer discretionary stocks also added 1%.

Amazon.com rose 2.4%. Facebook parent Meta Platforms and Apple added more than 1%.

Energy stocks added nearly 3%, coinciding with a rise in oil prices.

Other stocks making big individual moves included Illumina, which added 12% after posting earnings late Monday that beat analysts’ expectations. Shares of Rivian Automotive added 4.5%, recouping some of the more-than-5% drop Monday when The Wall Street Journal reported that the electric-truck maker’s chief operating officer had departed.

Albertsons fell over 5%, despite the grocery chain reporting higher quarterly sales.

More defensive corners of the stock market fell, including utilities, consumer staples and real-estate firms.

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Wednesday, January 12, 2022

The San Juan Daily Star

Haitian prime minister had close links with murder suspect

A banner depicts Haiti’s assassinated president, Jovenel Moise, near his home in Port-au-Prince, Sept. 10, 2021. New evidence suggests that Prime Minister Ariel Henry had a close relationship with a prime suspect in the assassination, and that it continued even after the murder.

By ANATOLY KURMANAEV

A

fter Haiti’s president was assassinated and the country slid into turmoil, Ariel Henry became head of the government, responsible for bringing the killers to justice and helping the country heal.

But new evidence suggests that Henry maintained communications with a prime suspect in the case — and that the two stayed in close contact even after the murder.The assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July plunged an already troubled nation further into disarray, with many of its public institutions in tatters, a capital under siege by gangs, a collapsing economy and the few elected leaders left in the country sparring for control of the government.

Henry’s ascension to prime minister promised to smooth some of the rifts, earning pledges of support from overseas and potentially paving the way toward elections. He pledged to bring the assassins to justice, curb the violence and usher in a period of political unity.

But the investigation into the assassination stalled, and concerns about Henry’s commitment to solving the murder emerged soon after. They center on his connection to Joseph Felix Badio, a former justice ministry official wanted by Haitian

authorities on suspicion of organizing the attack that killed Moïse.

Phone records seen by The New York Times, as well as interviews with Haitian officials and a principal suspect in the crime, reveal potentially incriminating details about the two men’s relationship.

Among them: Badio spoke to Henry before the killing and afterward, including in two calls for a total of seven minutes the morning after the assassination.

Then, when Badio was wanted by police, he visited Henry, according to two Haitian officials with knowledge of the investigation.

Four months after the assassination, the officials said, Badio went to Henry’s official residence twice — both times at night — and was able to walk in unimpeded by the prime minister’s security guards, despite being on the run from police.

It is unclear whether Henry, who is now the country’s prime minister, did anything to help the suspects, most of whom were eventually captured or killed by police. A spokesperson for Henry said that, despite the phone records, he did not speak to Badio after the assassination and that he has no relationship with the suspect. Badio was unreachable for comment.

But Haiti’s former chief prosecutor, who was removed from his post by Henry,

has called on the prime minister to answer questions in the case. And now, one of the main suspects in the investigation has offered extensive details about what he called the trusting relationship Badio had with Henry.

In an extensive interview with The New York Times in an empty construction site while he was on the run from authorities, Rodolphe Jaar, a Haitian businessman and former drug trafficker, admitted helping finance and plan the plot.

Shortly before the assassination, Jaar said, Badio told him that Henry would serve as a useful ally after the president was overthrown.

“He is my good friend; I have full control of him,” Jaar recounted Badio telling him when Henry, a 72-year-old neurosurgeon, was named prime minister.

After the assassination, Jaar said he and Badio stayed in contact with one another while dodging authorities and that the two even shared a safe house several days after the murder.

In the hours after the killing, when police officers trapped the Colombian mercenaries accused of carrying out the assault, Jaar said Badio had sought help from Henry to escape. According to Jaar, Henry responded that “he would make some calls,” though his claims could not be independently verified.

Three Haitian officials involved in the investigation have confirmed that Henry was in touch with Badio on multiple occasions. The officials, who were not authorized to discuss the case publicly, argued that Henry would be a formal suspect in the investigation if he were not leading the government.

Jaar claimed that he thought the goal of the plot had been to depose, not kill, the president, and that he has been caught in a larger political game that he still does not fully comprehend. He was detained in the Dominican Republic on Friday after six months on the run, according to a senior security official in the country.

According to Jaar, the plotters intended to swear in a former Supreme Court judge, Windelle Coq-Thélot, as the new president. His account suggests that they expected support from key elements of the Haitian state, including the security

forces, in their coup attempt.

But whatever plan there may have been to capture, not kill, the president was scuttled when gunmen burst into his home and assassinated him in his bedroom. How and why the plan switched — from forcing the president to step down to assassinating him — Jaar contended that he did not know.

Henry’s phone calls with Badio were first revealed in September by a top Haitian prosecutor at the time, Bedford Claude, who called on the prime minister to explain them in court.

But Henry moved swiftly against the officials who tried to investigate his links to Badio. And the extent of the contacts between the two men — including the assertion by officials that Badio went to the prime minister’s residence while on the run from authorities — had not been previously made public.

After Claude called Henry for questioning, his supervisor, the minister of justice, Rockfeller Vincent, said he received a call from the prime minister, who asked him to fire the prosecutor. Vincent said he refused. Days after, Henry fired them both.

“I believe he provides one of the key elements in the assassination,” said Claude, referring to Henry.

Henry’s spokesman said the officials were fired for violating the law in order to advance their political agendas, including breaking a ban on summoning senior officials to court.

In an interview a month after the murder, Henry said his main goal was to hold new elections and then step down.

He has not set the date for the vote.

Jaar also implicated another senior member of Henry’s government: the police chief, Frantz Elbé. During a meeting to discuss the plot, Jaar said, Badio called Elbé, a senior police adviser at the time, and asked him to help procure weapons for the coup. Elbé told Badio that he did not have the guns but also did not try to stop the coup from happening, Jaar recounted, without providing independent evidence.

Henry promoted Elbé in October to lead the Haitian National Police. Elbé did not respond to requests for comment.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

13

UN seeks huge aid increase to prevent ‘catastrophe’ in Afghanistan

By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE

T

he United Nations made what it described Tuesday as its biggest appeal ever for a single country, asking international donors to give more than $5 billion to Afghanistan to fend off a humanitarian disaster.

Five months after the Taliban seized power, a severe drought and the cumulative toll of decades of war have left more than half the country’s population needing humanitarian aid and plunged three-quarters of its 40 million people into acute poverty, the U.N. said.

“A full-blown humanitarian catastrophe looms,” Martin Griffiths, the U.N.’s emergency aid coordinator, said in a statement. “My message is urgent: Don’t shut the door on the people of Afghanistan.”

Without international aid, 1 million Afghan children face acute hunger and another 8 million people face “a march to starvation, and ultimately even possible famine,” Griffiths told reporters.

The appeal included $4.4 billion for humanitarian relief within Afghanistan, half of it for food in a country where more than 700,000 people were forced from their homes by fighting last year, adding to the nearly 3 million people already displaced by war.

The U.N. sought another $623 million

to cope with around 2.5 million refugees in neighboring countries, mainly Iran and Pakistan.

Iran has said that about a half-million Afghans had fled there since the Taliban takeover. Filippo Grandi, the head of the U.N. refugee agency, did not confirm that figure, but underscored the danger of further huge flows of refugees if the international community failed to stabilize conditions in Afghanistan.

The United Nations raised hundreds of millions of dollars for Afghanistan in September after the Taliban takeover. The new appeal will test donors’ willingness to support a country that has carried out summary executions, severely curtailed the rights of women and suppressed independent media outlets.

Griffiths stressed the aid would support “direct delivery” assistance to humanitarian agencies and pledged that the money would not leak to Taliban-controlled agencies.

The environment for international aid agencies is more favorable than in 2021, he said. The end of the fighting has improved security on the ground, and a decision by the U.N. Security Council last month to exempt humanitarian aid from financial sanctions facilitated aid deliveries and security on the ground.

“The plan can work — the capacity

A child suffering from severe malnutrition at the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, in October. of the agencies to make it happen is there,” Griffiths said. “The money needed is needed fast.”

But humanitarian aid was only “a stopgap measure,” Griffiths said, adding that far-reaching efforts are needed to revive the banking system, restore businesses and stabilize an economy that has collapsed under international sanctions and the freezing of Afghanistan’s international reserves.

Tuesday’s appeal was for three times

the amount of assistance the U.N. requested in 2021, Griffiths noted. But if the international donors do not respond and address Afghanistan’s economic crisis now, he added, the U.N. would be forced to request substantially more aid in a year.

“These appeals can provide some kind of hope that that region will no longer have the blight that it’s been suffering for 40 years, 40 years of insecurity,” Griffiths said.

“It’s got to stop.”

Suu Kyi gets 4 years for waving to cars and having walkie-talkies

By RICHARD C. PADDOCK

M

yanmar’s ousted civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was convicted earlier this week and sentenced to four years in prison for possessing walkie-talkies in her home and for violating COVID-19 protocols.

Altogether, Suu Kyi, 76, has been sentenced to a total of six years in prison, with many more charges pending against her.

Monday’s guilty verdict on three counts comes on top of her Dec. 5 conviction on charges of inciting public unrest and a separate count of breaching COVID-19 protocols. Initially sentenced to four years on those charges, that sentence

was cut in half by the army commander in chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of the Feb. 1 coup that forced her from office.

As the first anniversary of the coup approaches, the court found Suu Kyi guilty of violating Myanmar’s import-export law and its telecommunications law by possessing the communication devices. Her defenders have said the walkie-talkies belonged to her security detail, and that the charges were bogus and politically motivated.

She was sentenced to two years on the COVID protocol, two years on the charge of importing the walkie-talkies, and to one year for violating the telecommunications law. The sentences connected to the walk-

ie-talkie charges are to run concurrently.

Suu Kyi has been held incommunicado in a house in Naypyitaw, the capital of Myanmar. Amnesty International called the walkie-talkie charges trumped up, saying “they suggest the military is desperate for a pretext to embark on a witch-hunt and intimidate anyone who challenges them.”

The charge of importing the devices — the first of many charges brought against her — was filed Feb. 3, two days after the coup, and the court proceedings have lasted nearly a year.

The guilty verdict for violating COVID protocols stemmed from an episode during the 2020 election campaign when she walked through a crowd of support-

ers while wearing a face shield but no face mask. Earlier reports indicated that the conviction was based on the same incident as an earlier conviction in which she stood outside, in a face mask and face shield, waving to supporters in vehicles.

Suu Kyi faces at least seven more charges — including five counts of corruption — with a potential maximum sentence of 89 years if she were to be found guilty on all remaining charges.

Human Rights Watch said the military regime was making itself appear ridiculous by accumulating convictions on flimsy, politically motivated charges.

Continues on page 14

14 From page 13 “The Myanmar junta’s courtroom circus of secret proceedings on bogus charges is all about steadily piling up more convictions against Aung San Suu Kyi so that she will remain in prison indefinitely,” said Phil Robertson, the group’s deputy Asia director.

Suu Kyi was the Nobel Peace Laureate in 1991 and led her party, the National League for Democracy, to landslide victories three times between 1990 and 2020, but the military allowed her to form a government only once, in 2016.

She spent a total of 15 years under house arrest between 1989 and 2010. She later damaged her reputation as an international icon of democracy by not speaking out against the military’s brutal ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, which drove more than 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in 2015. She was sentenced in Myanmar on Monday to four years in prison for possessing walkie-talkies in her home and for violating COVID-19 protocols.

Since the coup, Suu Kyi and the ousted president, Win Myint, have been held under house arrest in undisclosed locations near

the capital, Naypyidaw. Win Myint was also convicted Dec. 5 of violating COVID-19 protocols and sentenced to four years. The coup leader also cut his sentence in half.

Suu Kyi’s trials are being held in a house in Naypyidaw that was converted into a courtroom. No members of the public are allowed to attend, and her lawyers are forbidden from speaking about the case.

On Dec. 30, a police court sentenced Cherry Htet, 30, a police lieutenant and former bodyguard to Suu Kyi, to three years in prison for violating rules on police conduct by posting messages on Facebook that the court deemed inflammatory.

In one post, she said simply, “We miss you Amay,” using the Burmese word for mother. The former bodyguard was also accused of communicating with the National Unity Government, the shadow government

formed after the coup by ousted elected officials and other opponents of the military.

Monday’s conviction of Suu Kyi came as the military continued its effort to suppress pro-democracy protests, combat a budding resistance movement and battle ethnic groups seeking autonomy. Soldiers and the police have killed at least 1,447 civilians since the coup and detained nearly 8,500, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights group.

The Tatmadaw, as the Myanmar military is known, was accused of committing one of its largest massacres on Christmas Eve when soldiers killed at least 35 fleeing villagers and burned their bodies. Save the Children, one of the groups that condemned the massacre, said two of its staff members were among those killed as they returned home for the Christmas holiday.

Russia positioning helicopters, in possible sign of Ukraine plans

By JULIAN E. BARNES, MICHAEL CROWLEY and ERIC SCHMITT

T

he number of Russian troops at Ukraine’s border has remained steady in recent weeks, despite U.S. intelligence predictions of a surge, but U.S. officials say that President Vladimir Putin has begun taking steps to move military helicopters into place, a possible sign that planning for an attack continues.

U.S. officials had expected additional Russian troops to stream toward the Ukrainian border in December and early January, building toward a force of 175,000.

While troop movements have slowed, there are still 100,000 military personnel near the border and now the Russians have positioned additional attack aircraft there, U.S. officials said. Attack and transport helicopters, along with ground attack fighter jets, would be a critical Russian advantage, should Putin decide to invade Ukraine.

U.S. officials say the Russian president’s window for an invasion is limited, dictated by temperatures that will freeze the ground — allowing for the easy movement of heavy vehicles and equipment — before a spring thaw, which could begin by March, creates a muddy quagmire.

But a relatively mild winter has slowed the ground’s freezing, and Putin’s deadline for committing his forces has slipped further toward the spring, officials say. The hard winter freeze that typically comes to Ukraine by January has not happened in many areas of the country. As long as the ground remains muddy, senior administration officials said,

Putin might be forced to push back a ground offensive until February at the earliest.

To get a better sense of possible conditions this year, the Biden administration has enlisted meteorologists to look more closely at the likely weather in Ukraine in the coming weeks, according to a U.S. official.

The officials interviewed for this article requested anonymity to discuss sensitive and classified assessments of Russian military movements, along with American efforts to learn about those deployments.

The United States has been regularly flying Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint electroniceavesdropping planes over Ukraine since Dec. 27. The planes allow U.S. intelligence operatives to listen to Russian ground commanders’ communications. The Air Force is also flying E-8 JSTARS ground-surveillance planes to track the Russian troop buildup and the movements of the forces.

The United States is particularly interested in indications that Russia may deploy any of its tactical nuclear weapons to the border, a move that Russian officials have suggested could be an option.

The intelligence agencies have told administration officials that while the Russians have continued planning an invasion, they do not believe Putin has decided whether to begin an incursion. For their part, Russian officials reiterated on Monday that they do not plan to invade Ukraine.

A fierce diplomatic push to give Putin face-saving alternatives to military action began this week in Geneva, where Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman led a U.S. delegation for talks with her Russian counterpart,

Sergei A. Ryabkov, and other Russian officials.

But Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters at the State Department on Friday that “actual progress is going to be very difficult to make, if not impossible, in an environment of escalation by Russia.” And after eight hours of meetings with the Russians, Sherman told reporters that such de-escalation had not occurred and that the talks had amounted merely to “a discussion, a better understanding of each other and each other’s priorities.”

Putin has made several demands, including that NATO formally pledge never to admit Ukraine and Georgia as members, that U.S. and NATO officials call nonstarters. Instead, the United States is dangling more modest offers, like assurances that U.S. missiles will not be placed in Ukrainian territory — something Washington has never seriously contemplated.

Despite publicly expressing uncertainty about Putin’s intentions, U.S. officials have assessed that there is little likelihood that he will back down from what they have described as maximalist positions. The Biden administration has promised allies that it will not make any offers to Russia that they do not support, taking off the table any sort of unilateral troop withdrawal from Eastern Europe or pledge not to further integrate Ukraine with the rest of Europe.

Putin has massed his forces along Russia’s border with eastern Ukraine, where for nearly eight years he has supported a pro-Russian insurgency in the Donbas region that has left up to 14,000 people dead.

In addition to building up aviation assets, the Russian government has ordered in more

units specializing in logistics. While aviation assets would be critical to protecting ground troops during the invasion, the logistics units would be needed to support the ground forces in the event Putin orders his forces across the border.

Pentagon officials have warned their Russian counterparts that they need to de-escalate the situation, because an invasion would not end well for Moscow. Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke bluntly to Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s chief of the general staff, on Dec. 22. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin followed that with more diplomatic comments to Russia’s defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, on Thursday.

On Monday, Milley spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart, Lt. Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, about the Russian troop presence and the security situation.

There is still no consensus within the administration, much less the alliance, on how or when to support an insurgency in Ukraine should Russia conduct a full-scale invasion, expand its presence in the Donbas region or some other scenario, according to a senior administration official. Officials in the Biden administration are intensely debating what the available options might be depending on which situations play out.

Russian troops near Ukraine in December.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

15

Randi Weingarten still wants schools open

By MICHELLE GOLDBERG

L

ast month, I wrote about Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. I argued that while many people blamed her for school closures, she’d actually labored to keep schools open. A common criticism of the article was that Weingarten was just trying, with my help, to salvage her reputation as evidence of the harms of interrupted schooling mounted.

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton tweeted that Weingarten was on a “rehabilitation tour.” Fox News’ website ran a story headlined, “New York Times column blasted for portraying Randi Weingarten as champion of keeping schools open.” This month, when some schools closed in response to omicron and the Chicago Teachers Union staged a walkout, one open schools advocate tweeted sarcastically that my Weingarten piece “has aged beautifully, I think we can all agree.”

Maybe I’m just defensive, but I think it’s aged OK. It seems clear to me, as I’ve watched how public schools are responding to omicron, that Weingarten, along with some other union leaders, are trying to avoid shutdowns, even at the risk of infuriating some of their members. The

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vast majority of the country’s schools, after all, are open, even though there’s probably a better case for shutting down now than there has been at any point since the spring of 2020. Where schools have closed, it’s mostly been for logistical reasons — there are simply too many staffers out sick.

“Last year at this time, you had 40% of the schools opened during that surge,” Weingarten told me on Sunday. “This year at this time you have 96%.”

Chicago, Weingarten insists, is an anomaly. The city “looms very large, as it always does, but it is one district in which there was a teacher-union-called job action,” she said. “There are plenty of places where teachers are concerned and where there’s groups within school districts that are calling for sickouts. But in terms of my union, there’s no organized effort to do that. In fact it’s quite the opposite.”

A number of teachers aren’t happy about this; some feel unsafe in classrooms and abandoned by their leadership. On Monday evening, a left-wing caucus of the United Federation of Teachers, the New York City union that Weingarten once headed, was planning to protest outside union headquarters to demand, among other things, that schools go remote until Jan. 18.

Weingarten, who recently had COVID herself, sees the anxiety among her members. If you asked them, she said, whether they’d like to “be remote for a few days as this passed,” she thinks “overwhelmingly they would say yes.”

So why won’t she demand remote school on their behalf? “Kids, our society, our communities need very much to do whatever we can to create normalcy,” she said, adding, “Whether it’s kids learning, whether it’s isolation issues, whether it’s the economy,” too much depends on functioning schools.

My guess is that if we hadn’t had extended school closures last year, there might be more appetite for a brief closure now, especially given hope that omicron could soon peak. After all, most schools may be open, but illness is making it hard for many to function.

The education website Chalkbeat reported on disruptions in New York City, including a high school in Brooklyn where hundreds of students had to sit in the auditorium because around 50 teachers were out sick and there’s a substitute shortage. In Miami, The Washington Post reported, coaches and administrative staff have filled in for absent teachers. While there are lots of parents who adamantly oppose school closures, others are afraid to send their kids to class: In Rochester, New York, last Monday, 40% of students were absent.

Yet given how damaging last year’s shutdowns

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, visits a school in Cincinnati, Dec. 9, 2021. “This is the hardest situation that she’s ever faced as a union leader,” Weingarten told The New York Times opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg. “Lots of teachers are frightened and exhausted.” were — to learning, to mental health and to the future of public education itself — there’s enormous resistance to returning to virtual classes. Democrats fear it would stoke political backlash. And a vocal group of parents won’t stand for it, because they don’t trust that shortterm closures wouldn’t drag on indefinitely.

There will be more closures over the coming weeks, but, outside of Chicago, Weingarten thinks, they will mostly affect individual schools. She analogizes the situation to that of the airline industry. Flights are being canceled when there are not enough people to staff them, not because of disputes over whether it’s safe to fly at all.

“Assume for a second there was not this toxic environment,” said Weingarten. “I think what you’d actually see is a lot of people feeling pretty good that schools are being opened, and that the communities are coming together to do what we used to say we should do, which is: schools should be first priority.”

This is the hardest situation that she’s ever faced as a union leader, Weingarten told me. Lots of teachers are frightened and exhausted. The story, for now, is that most of those who can are still showing up.

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Wednesday, January 12, 2022

The San Juan Daily Star

353 agentes están contagiados con COVID-19 afirma comisionado de la Policía POR CYBERNEWS

C

AROLINA – El comisionado del Negociado de la Policía de Puerto Rico, coronel Antonio López Figueroa afirmó el martes que unos 353 agentes de la Uniformada están contagiados con COVID-19.

“Tenemos 353 policías positivos a COVID en estos momentos. La Policía tiene protocolos relacionado a eso. Estamos dando mascarillas, estamos dando (hand)

sanitizer, se está vacunando a todo el personal”, dijo López Figueroa a preguntas de la prensa.

Sobre la vacunación de los uniformados, López Figueroa sostuvo que el 98 por ciento están vacunados.

“Tenemos un 98 por ciento del personal vacunado, y estamos haciendo todo lo posible para que nuestros policías no se contagien. Le pedimos, no solo a mis policías, sino a todo Puerto Rico a que se cuiden”, dijo.

20 muertes, 7,538 casos y 38.7 la tasa de positividad por COVID-19 según informe del DS POR CYBERNEWS

S

AN JUAN – El informe de COVID-19 del Departamento de Salud (DS) reportó el martes sobre 2,239 casos positivos confirmados, 5,299 casos probables y veinte muertes.

Las personas fallecidas son: Una mujer de 92 años de la región de Arecibo; un hombre de 69 años y dos mujeres de 51 y 81 años de la región de Bayamón; dos hombres de 77 y 78 años y cinco mujeres, de 32, 62, 84, 91 y 96 años, respectivamente de la región de Caguas; una mujer de 89 años de la región de Fajardo; una mujer de 85 años

de la región de Mayagüez; cinco hombres de 51, 76, 79, 90 y 91 años y una mujer de 90 años de la región Metropolitana.

El monitoreo cubre el periodo del 26 de diciembre al 9 de enero de 2022.

La tasa de positividad subió a 38.7 por ciento.

Hay 717 adultos hospitalizados y de ellos, 104 están en intensivo. Mientras, 87 menores están hospitalizados y 5 están en intensivo; 69 adultos están en ventiladores y un menor.

Con una dosis hay al menos dos millones, 793 mil, 185 personas. Con las dosis completadas hay dos millones, 493 mil, 268 personas.

El total de muertes atribuidas es de 3,393.

Posponen concierto de Luis Fonsi para mayo POR CYBERNEWS

S

AN JUAN – El cantante y compositor puertorriqueño Luis Fonsi anunció el martes, nuevas fechas para sus conciertos en Puerto Rico ante el repunte de los casos positivos de COVID-19.

La función pautada para el sábado, 12 de febrero de 2022 será reprogramada para el sábado, 28 de mayo. Asimismo, la segunda función pautada para el domingo, 13 de febrero de 2022 será igualmente reprogramada para el viernes, 27 de mayo. Los boletos comprados para las funciones originalmente pautadas serán válidos para las nuevas fechas.

“Ante el alza en casos de COVID en Puerto Rico y por la seguridad de todos, hemos tomado la difícil de-

cisión de posponer el concierto. Es algo que no hubiésemos querido tener que hacer, pero es lo correcto en este momento,” indicó en comunicación escrita Tony Mojena, productor del evento con relación a la razón para el cambio de fecha del concierto.

Por su parte, ante el anuncio el artista comentó “tengo mucha ilusión de presentarme en mi Isla y estar con mi gente, pero en este momento lo más importante es que todos estemos bien de salud y seguros”.

Aunque los boletos comprados para las funciones originales son válidos para las nuevas fechas, aquellas personas que interesen solicitar o reclamar a Ticketera la devolución de su dinero, podrán hacerlo a partir del día de hoy, 12 de enero de 2022 hasta el 1 de febrero de 2022.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

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‘The Tender Bar’: A tale of drinking that ducks alcoholism

By CHRIS VOGNAR

T

here’s a moment near the end of J.R. Moehringer’s 2005 memoir, “The Tender Bar,” when the author realizes he’s circling the drain. The owner of his favorite bar, Steve, has died an alcoholic’s death, overserving himself, falling, hitting his head and lapsing into a coma. Seeking solace, the young Moehringer, fresh out of Yale University, turns to his most seductive companion: booze.

“I no longer made any pretense of drinking to bond with the men, or to blunt the cares of the day, or to participate in male rituals,” Moehringer writes. “I drank to get drunk. I drank because I couldn’t think what else to do. I drank the way Steve drank at the end, to achieve oblivion.”

“The Tender Bar,” which has been adapted as an Amazon Prime movie, directed by George Clooney, isn’t strictly about alcoholism. It’s about community, family and the void left by an absent (alcoholic) father. But Moehringer’s words would make for a standard drunkalogue at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, of which I’ve attended many. “Oblivion” is a popular word there, and a popular destination among alcoholics. This is one of the smartest things about Moehringer’s memoir: It deftly captures that moment when the party comes to an end, when it’s just not fun anymore and it’s time to sink or swim.

(Moehringer quit drinking when he was 25.)

But that moment never comes in the movie, mostly because J.R., played by Tye Sheridan, drinks without consequences, as does everyone else at the New York watering hole where his bartender uncle, Charlie (Ben Affleck), dispenses words of wisdom with his dry martinis. The closest the movie comes to acknowledging alcoholism is when J.R.’s ne’er-do-well father (Max Martini) enters the picture. A classic deadbeat dad, he disappears for years at a time, shows up to announce his sobriety, but explains that he can actually have the occasional cocktail because he’s not really an alcoholic. Then he beats up his girlfriend.

He’s the movie’s designated alcoholic and also its villain.

“He’s somebody who’s making a big deal of his sobriety, and it’s like, ‘I’ve decided I can allow myself a cocktail,’” “Tender Bar” screenwriter William Monahan said by phone. “Then that cocktail is like 10 million of them, resulting in domestic violence.”

Aside from J.R.’s dad, however, no one in the movie seems to have a drinking problem, despite spending all of their free time at a bar.

“George Clooney didn’t hammer on it,” Monahan said. “But the J.R. character does definitely have a point where he realizes he’s got to straighten up.”

Well, yes and no. In the movie, J.R. comes to Charlie concerned that he’ll end up like his old man. Charlie’s advice: Cut back on the drinking. And that’s that. We don’t see J.R. slam cocktails at Penn Station and pick up a few

Budweiser tallboys for the ride to the bar, as he does in the book. Instead, his uncle tells him to cool it a little. Does he heed this advice? We never really find out.

Moehringer, who has gone on to write novels (“Sutton”) and other books (“Open,” with Andre Agassi), sees drinking as an inherently difficult subject to depict in film.

“It’s woven so tightly into the social fabric, and it’s such a central part of many rites and rituals, holidays and special occasions,” he told me via email. “Alcohol can be wonderful, enriching, spirit-enhancing, so it’s hard to think — unpleasant to think — that it can also be dangerous, and sometimes deadly. It doesn’t seem fair, this thing that makes us feel so good can also make us feel so bad. The paradox makes it hard to discuss.”

Yet that paradox has also provided the backbone for enough movies to make the cinema of alcoholism its own genre. Many of these films speak eloquently and thoughtfully to essential traits of the disease, from self-loathing to fundamental dishonesty to ravenous craving.

Some of these movies are quite recent. For instance, “Flight,” the 2012 film starring Denzel Washington as an alcoholic pilot who pulls off a daredevil landing while under the influence, is about the ease with which alcoholics lie to themselves and everyone else. Others belong to classic Hollywood. “The Lost Weekend” (1945) tells the terrifying story of a hopeless drunk futilely fighting

the all-consuming obsession with drinking that defines alcoholism. These are brave films that cut to the quick of alcoholism’s cost.

Some of these themes emerge in Moehringer’s book, which takes care to spotlight the good, the bad and the ugly parts of life on a bar stool, even if it isn’t specifically about alcoholism. But the movie doesn’t even bother to separate one of Moehringer’s barflies from another. They are, for the most part, mere faces in the crowd, even when they speak a line here and there. The book makes clear that Moehringer loved these guys. On the screen they barely even exist.

This is unfortunate. The people in a bar give the place character, even when they make you want to turn away, like the regular in the book who chokes J.R. half to death just because he’s sick of hearing him talk. Tender bars have blowhards who need to tell you about all the cool stuff they plan to do, and drunks who delight in telling you how drunk you are. Bars have personalities. Those personalities don’t have to be tragic, but sometimes, say in Steve’s case, they are.

“The Tender Bar” is a warm, fuzzy little movie, a first sip of a light beer. But for a film with the word “bar” in its title, it contains remarkably little insight about alcohol, where it’s consumed and what it does.

It is quite tender. But it could use a little toughness.

Ben Affleck, left, and Tye Sheridan in “The Tender Bar.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Stream these 11 great performances by Sidney Poitier

By NOEL MURRAY

S

idney Poitier has died at age 94. A perennial Oscar nominee in the 1960s, Poitier became a movie star at a time when Hollywood tended to relegate Black actors to roles as servants, appearing for just a scene or two, often as comic relief. But he was rarely a supporting player, even at the start of his career. He took leads, specializing in a specific type: the educated, well-mannered, middle-class professional who had assimilated into the parts of white society willing to accept him.

Throughout his first two decades in show business, Poitier’s films often promoted powerful messages about the ignorance of bigotry.

His charisma and grace made him popular with white and Black audiences alike, and played no small part in easing some of the racial tensions in America — just by giving controversial issues an amiable advocate.

These 11 Poitier movies span the ’50s to the ’90s, when he semiretired. They offer a good overview of not just the scope of his career, but of how the country changed during his 50-plus years in show business.

‘No Way Out’ (1950 ) After a relatively short stint as a New York stage actor, Poitier made an auspicious bigscreen debut in 1950 with writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s unusual hybrid of social drama and film noir. As a doctor struggling against the ingrained racism of his patients — including a career criminal played by Richard Widmark — Poitier allowed audiences to see what even accomplished Black Americans were facing every day, and how that kind of abuse could rattle a person’s psyche.

Stream it on The Criterion Channel; rent or buy it on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu or YouTube.

‘Edge of the City’ (1957) In Poitier’s best 1950s film, he plays a longshoreman who becomes fast friends with a co-worker (played by John Cassavetes) who’s secretly AWOL from the military. Though one’s an upstanding citizen and the other’s a deserter, they are treated differently by their cruel boss (Jack Warden), who doesn’t like seeing any of his people getting chummy — especially not when one’s white and one’s Black. Less preachy than many of Poitier’s pictures from this era, “Edge of the City” has a bracing naturalism, born of its roots in the adventurous, progressive New York theater and television scenes.

Rent or buy it on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu or YouTube.

‘A Raisin in the Sun’ (1961) In a sublime bit of cultural kismet, play-

wright Lorraine Hansberry’s masterpiece arrived when Poitier was the right age to tackle one of theater’s great characters: the pragmatic, prickly Walter Younger. Unlike the softer-edged, friendlier men Poitier had been portraying up to then, Walter doesn’t have much faith in the great dream of integration. He argues with his more idealistic family members about whether they should use a financial windfall to move into a white neighborhood, and his cynicism brings to light arguments that were being had

by Black families everywhere in the ’50s and ’60s — except on the big screen.

Rent or buy it on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu or YouTube.

‘A Patch of Blue’ (1965) Poitier won a best actor Oscar for “Lilies of the Field” (1963), which would become the first of a short string of films (including “To Sir, With Love” from 1967 and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”) in which he played handy, disarming individuals, helping white people improve their attitudes. Most of these movies are more interesting now for how they reveal the subtle racism of well-meaning left-leaning filmmakers, but “A Patch of Blue” is a refreshing exception, and the first movie to watch from this batch. As a kindly soul who helps a poor, abused blind teenager stand up for herself, Poitier is saintly but grounded. And writerdirector Guy Green’s adaptation of an Elizabeth Kata novel is unusually wise about how sometimes class matters as much as race in America.

Rent or buy it on Amazon Prime, Google Play, Vudu or YouTube.

‘In the Heat of the Night’ (1967) In between his social-issue films, Poitier made plenty of genre pictures where race was a key element of the plot (as in the two-fisted 1958 adventure “The Defiant Ones,” and the 1966 Western “Duel at Diablo”). The most popular of these is the best picture-winning “In the Heat of the Night,” in which the actor plays a

brilliant Philadelphia homicide detective, Virgil Tibbs, who is drafted to help a small-town Mississippi police department crack a difficult case.

Refusing to defer to his virulently prejudiced hosts, Tibbs carries himself as a truly free man, in ways that audiences back in 1967 found thrilling. He’d go on to play the character twice more: in “They Call Me Mister Tibbs!” (1970) and “The Organization” (1971).

Rent or buy it on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu or YouTube.

‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ (1967) The critical reputation of this Oscar-winning blockbuster hit has diminished in recent years. It’s been held up as an example of Hollywood’s heavy-handed social messaging — rather than as a groundbreaking interrogation of some purportedly open-minded white and Black families’ conflicted feelings about interracial marriage. Nevertheless, Poitier gave one of his most memorable performances in the film, using his charisma and wit to peck away at the underlying prejudices of the older generation, represented here primarily by characters played by the venerable movie stars Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. The points that directorproducer Stanley Kramer and screenwriter William Rose are making may be blunt, but Poitier delivers them in electrifying fashion.

Rent or buy it on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu or YouTube.

‘Buck and the Preacher’ (1972) After acting in films almost nonstop throughout the ’50s and ’60s, Poitier slowed his output from the mid-’70s onward, in part because he began working more behind the camera. He made his directorial debut in 1972 with this offbeat Western, which arrived toward the start of the blaxploitation era, when the movie industry began to realize the commercial potential of films about self-actualized Black protagonists. Joined by Harry Belafonte and Ruby Dee, a frequent co-star, Poitier cast himself in “Buck and the Preacher” as a skilled scout having lightly comic adventures on the frontier.

While attuned to 19th-century racial strife, this film is more an amiable entertainment than a hard-hitting commentary. As such, it has held up better than some of the star’s more incendiary projects.

Rent or buy it on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu or YouTube.

‘Uptown Saturday Night’ (1974) Many of the Black-themed films that filled American theaters in the ’70s were raunchy and R-rated, but Poitier had hits in that era with three PG caper comedies, which he directed and starred in alongside Bill Cosby and a host of A-list African American entertainers. The

first in this loose trilogy was “Uptown Saturday Night,” with Poitier and Cosby playing buddies who go on an all-night odyssey through their neighborhood — encountering colorful characters played by the likes of Belafonte, Flip Wilson and Richard Pryor — while searching for a stolen lottery ticket.

Rent or buy it on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu or YouTube.

‘The Wilby Conspiracy’ (1975) One of Poitier’s first feature films was a 1951 adaptation of Alan Paton’s bestseller, “Cry, the Beloved Country,” an unusually forwardthinking exposé of the horrors of South African apartheid. Poitier returned to that theme 24 years later with “The Wilby Conspiracy,” a chase thriller in which he plays a revolutionary on the run from the authorities with a sympathetic white buddy (played by Michael Caine).

Though essentially an action picture, the movie does a fine job of making injustice come alive.

Poitier and Caine would later team up again for the 1997 TV movie “Mandela and de Klerk,” dramatizing apartheid’s last days.

Stream it on Tubi; rent or buy it on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play or YouTube.

‘Sneakers’ (1992) Poitier made some baffling professional choices during the ’80s and ’90s, when he rarely acted, and directed more than his share of duds. But it’s hard to fault him for joining Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, David Strathairn and River Phoenix for the ensemble adventure-comedy “Sneakers.” As a former CIA agent aiding a team of well-meaning super-hackers, Poitier makes good use of his iconic screen presence, representing one of the last sparks of ’60s idealism in an increasingly synthetic age.

Rent or buy it on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu or YouTube.

‘The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn’ (1999) One of Poitier’s last screen performances was in this 1999 TV movie, in which he plays an intensely private, self-sufficient, elderly Georgian whose mental competency is questioned when he refuses to sell his land. Noah Dearborn is the kind of character Poitier played throughout his career — skilled, stubborn and deeply decent — but it says something about how the culture changed during his lifetime that his race is no longer the defining element in his story. That’s a direct consequence of how Poitier spent his career defying stereotypes and fighting to bring layered Black individuals to the screen.

Stream it on IMDbtv; rent or buy it on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu or YouTube.

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Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Glowing

FASHION when growing

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

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The San Juan Daily Star

Demi Moore by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair

Gigi Hadid by @luigiandiongo

Ashley Graham by @luigiandiongo

Paula Echevarría

by Javier Biosca for Instyle Spain

Ciara by Dani Brubaker for Harpers Bazaar

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Wednesday, January 12, 2022

The San Juan Daily Star

Is it possible to exercise too much?

By CHRISTIE ASCHWANDEN

Q

: I hike 7 miles per day, spend five to six hours per week in vigorous fitness exercise and about four hours per week performing heavy resistance training. Is it possible to exercise too much? And how much is too much?

A: You’ve probably been told countless times that exercise is good for your health and fitness, and it’s tempting to assume that more is automatically better. But as with so many other good things in life, there comes a point of diminishing returns, and it’s possible to overdo it.

Exactly what constitutes too much physical activity, however, will depend on your individual situation.

The first thing to ask yourself if you’re wondering whether you’ve exercised too much is: “Why are you exercising?” said Dr. Benjamin Levine, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at Texas Health Dallas.

If your goal is to improve your health and reduce your risk of a range of conditions from diabetes to heart disease to cancer, then 2 1/2 to three hours of moderate to vigorous exercise per week gets you the vast majority of benefits, Levine said. “Once you get past five hours per week or so, you’re not exercising for health, you’re exercising for performance.”

And when you’re exercising for performance — whether it’s to get stronger in the gym, run a marathon or improve your tennis game — it’s possible to stress your body beyond what it can bounce back from, said Kristen Dieffenbach, an exercise scientist and director of the Center for Applied Coaching and Sport Sciences at West Virginia University. For athletes, the purpose of training is to induce a so-called training response, she said. You work out, and your body responds by getting fitter, stronger and faster. These improvements don’t happen during the workout itself but occur during the recovery period.

That’s when your body repairs the damage brought on by hard exercise, like microtears in your muscle fibers, and makes adaptations, like increasing the energy-producing mitochondria in your cells.

As long as your body is able to keep up with this repair work, your workouts will continue to aid your performance, Dieffenbach said. But when the stress from your workouts builds up beyond your capacity to recover, you have entered the zone of too much, known in the sporting community as overtraining.

What makes things tricky is that the line between training hard and overtraining is fuzzy. There’s no formula or number that can tell you what’s too much, Dieffenbach said. Instead, what matters is how your body responds to the exercise you’re doing. Dieffenbach sug-

gested thinking of exercise and the physical and emotional resources it requires as calling upon money in a bank. You have only so much in your budget, and if you try to overspend, you’re going to end up worn down or injured, and probably cranky.

Over time, your exercise budget can change. As you age, your body requires more time for recovery, so you may need to factor in more rest between hard workouts. It’s also constrained by the other things going on in your life. Spending long hours at work or traveling, or dealing with stressful situations at home, can gobble up some of your energetic budget and diminish your capacity for recovering from exercise, Dieffenbach said.

One 2016 study of 101 college football players, for instance, found that their risk of injury nearly doubled during times of academic stress (like during midterms and finals weeks).

The most reliable signs that you’re exercising too much come from your subjective feelings of well-being, Dieffenbach said. If you’re suddenly tired all the time, or workouts that used to seem easy feel hard, or your performance has dropped unexpectedly (like your running times get slower without explanation, or your daily walk is taking longer than usual), it might be time to ramp down and rest, Dieffenbach said. Other classic signs of

overtraining include trouble sleeping, feeling run-down and not being able to shake minor colds and other respiratory infections. “Sometimes you have to back off to move forward,” Dieffenbach said.

If you find that you’re having to force yourself to do workouts you used to enjoy, or are feeling guilty about not exercising enough, those are other signs that you’ve overdone it. This is especially true if the feelings linger for more than a few days, Dieffenbach said. (Of course, these may also be signs of other health issues, like depression, so it’s important to keep that in mind, too.)

On the other hand, if you’re finding that your love of exercise is becoming more of an unhealthy obsession, that’s something to pay attention to as well, said Szabó Attila, a health psychologist who studies exercise addiction at Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary.

An exercise addiction can occur when someone feels compelled to do physical activity, even if they are in pain or injured. There isn’t one specific number of hours of exercise per week that would correlate with an exercise addiction, one of Attila’s studies from 2019 found, but “it becomes problematic when it harms other aspects of life,” he said. If you’ve put exercise before your relationships, work and everything else, Attila said, that’s a sign that it’s become too much.

One of Attila’s colleagues, Mark Griffiths, a psychologist at Nottingham Trent University in Britain, has developed six criteria for health providers to use when screening patients for exercise addiction: 1. Exercise is the most important thing in my life.

2. Conflicts have arisen between me and my family and/or my partner about the amount of exercise I do.

3. I use exercise as a way of changing my mood (e.g. to get a buzz, to escape, etc.).

4. Over time I have increased the amount of exercise I do in a day.

5. If I have to miss an exercise session I feel moody and irritable.

6. If I cut down the amount of exercise I do, and then start again, I always end up exercising as often as I did before.

To classify as an addiction, a person would need to meet all six criteria, and that’s rare, Griffiths said. But a lot of people exhibit problematic exercise that doesn’t quite reach the level of an addiction, he added. For instance, those who goes to work and function normally, but then come home and neglect their family so that they can go to the gym and workout — that’s still a problem.

Which brings us to the ultimate answer to our question: Yes, it’s possible to exercise too much. And you’ll know you’re doing it when it’s breaking down your body, making you sick or injured, or adversely affecting the rest of your life. When it stops making you feel good and enriching your life, it’s time to cut back.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

21

A naturalist stumbled on an ichthyosaur skeleton, the largest in UK history

By NEIL VIGDOR

A

t the bottom of a lagoon at a nature reserve in England, a secret lay dormant for millenniums, hidden by mud, water and ice.

Only recently had the fossilized remains been found, a throwback to when dinosaurs ruled the Earth and gigantic marine reptiles, colloquially referred to as “sea dragons,” marauded the oceans.

This was not just any old find: The remains of the sea creature, an ichthyosaur, were the largest ever discovered of that type in Britain, those involved in a now-complete excavation project announced on Monday. They said it was also one of the largest and most complete skeletons of an ichthyosaur (pronounced IK-thee-uh-sor) found anywhere in the world.

The skeleton is from the early Jurassic Period about 180 million years ago and measures about 10 meters (more than 30 feet), they said. It might never have been unearthed if the lagoon hadn’t been drained as part of a landscaping project.

The fossil was found in 2021 at the Rutland Water Nature Reserve in England’s East Midlands, a landlocked reservoir about 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of London that is known for attracting water fowl and other birds.

Joe Davis, a conservation team leader at Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, said on Monday that he first encountered the fossil last February as he plodded through the mud in his waders with a colleague.

“We sort of looked at it and scratched our heads,” Davis recounted in an interview. “I realized it might be something from the dinosaur era. We could see these ridges and bumps. That’s when alarm bells started to ring.”

Davis, 48, took photographs of the fossil and contacted the Rutland County Council, which connected him with a geology curator at the University of Leicester, who referred him to Dean R. Lomax, a paleontologist specializing in the study of ichthyosaurs.

“I immediately recognized them as ichthyosaur vertebrae,” Lomax, the head of the excavation project, said on Monday. “He had found this so serendipitously.”

Ichthyosaurs, fish-shaped marine reptiles that resemble whales and dolphins, first appeared about 250 million years ago, according to Lomax, who said that they were apex predators that likely feasted on other ichthyosaurs, fish, another reptile known as a plesiosaur and ammonites, a kind of mollusk. They disappeared about 90 million years ago and over-

lapped with dinosaurs, he said.

“They had these big eyes, big teeth,” he said. “A lot of people tend to go back to the old days and call them sea dragons.”

From the photos, Lomax said, he could not tell whether the specimen was an entire skeleton or just fragments like many of those that had been discovered over the centuries in England. He needed to see it for himself.

So about two weeks later, he said, he led a oneday, mini-excavation to the nature reserve with four paleontologists.

“We were all blown away by it,” said Lomax, 32, a visiting scientist at the University of Manchester.

But the conditions at the nature reserve didn’t lend themselves to a full-scale excavation. The lagoon was frozen and would eventually need to be refilled with water so as not to disturb the natural habitat, according to Lomax, who said that the paleontologists covered the skeleton with plastic sheets and mud until they could return.

“As an expert, I was itching to get there and excavate it,” he said. “We had a bunch of migratory birds there as well. We had to wait for them to leave.”

In August, a team of experts that included Lomax returned to the site for several weeks to excavate the skeleton, taking daily tests for the coronavirus and signing nondisclosure agreements saying that they would keep the discovery a secret.

“The skull weighs over a ton,” said Davis, who made the initial discovery and whose son kidded that the skeleton was from the “Joe-rassic” era.

To protect the skeleton as it was hoisted from the ground, it was wrapped in plaster, which Davis and Lomax likened to molding a cast for broken bones.

Lomax lay down on the ground next to the excavated skeleton to show its size.

Davis said it was fortunate that the skeleton was not damaged when the lagoon was initially excavated 12 years earlier.

“They must have been inches away when they originally constructed the lagoon,” he said.

It could take 18 to 24 months to preserve the skeleton and remove the rock from the bones, according to Lomax, who said those involved in the project hoped to display the specimen in the Rutland area. Skeletal remains of ichthyosaurs have more typically been found along the Jurassic Coast in southern England, he said.

After the skeleton was removed from the ground, it was taken by trucks to the laboratory of Nigel Larkin, the project’s co-leader, which Lomax said was about a 2.5-hour drive from Rutland. The main body section was too large to fit inside a truck, so it was loaded onto a trailer — not that other drivers would have noticed. It was wrapped.

Said Lomax, “It would have given people a good scare.”

Paleontologists working on the ichthyosaur skeleton found at Rutland Water, England, in August 2021.

22 LEGAL NOTICE IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO

ROOSEVELT CAYMAN ASSET COMPANY II Plaintiff V.

FREDDY CABALLERO DEL AGUILA

Defendant Civil No.: 16-01118 (FAB). IN REM - FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE. NOTICE OF SALE.

To: FREDDY CABALLERO DEL AGUILA, GENERAL PUBLIC, AND ALL PARTIES THAT MAY HAVE AN INTEREST IN THE PROPERTY.

WHEREAS Judgment in favor of Plaintiff was entered for the principal sum of $180,521.94, accrued annual interests of 7.95%, and deferred balance of $31,947.85 for a total of $212,469.79 from the September 1, 2014 until full payment, plus mortgage and risk insurance premiums, late fees and any other amount expressly agreed-upon in the mortgage deed, from the date stated above until full payment thereof, plus 10% for attorneys’ fees and legal costs in the amount of $18,622.49. Such interests continue to accrue until the debt is paid in full. WHEREAS, pursuant to said judgment, the undersigned SPECIAL MASTER, Joel Ronda Feliciano, was ordered to sell at public auction for US currency in cash or certified check, without appraisal or right to redemption to the highest bidder. The public sale shall be held at the office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Federal Building Office 150, 1st. floor, 150 Carlos Chardón Avenue, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00918 and at the office E Street, Lot 3, Section 4, Los Frailes Industrial Park, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico 00969 (18,3699028-66.1126971).

The public sale will be of the following property: “URBANA: Solar número cuatrocientos veintiséis, parcela de terreno sita en la manzana N en el plano de la Urbanización del Reparto Baldrich del barrio Hato Rey del término municipal de Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, marcado con el número cuatrocientos veintiséis de la manzana N del citado piano de dicha urbanización, con un área superficial de cuatrocientos cincuenta y nueve punto ochenta metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en treinta y cinco punto diez metros, con la calle Coll y Taste (antes Rafael) de dicha urbanización; por el OESTE, en veinticinco punto setenta metros, con el solar nú-

@

mero cuatrocientos veinticinco de la urbanización Baldrich; por el SUR, es el apex de un triángulo formado por las líneas Sur y ESTE qua colinda en cuarenta y tres punto ochenta metros, con terrenos del municipio de Rio Piedras.” Recorded at page 222 of volume 506 of Rio Piedras Norte, property number 12,647, Registry of the Property of Puerto Rico, Section II of San Juan. The mortgage foreclosed as part of the instant proceeding is recorded at page number 222 of volume number 506 of Rio Piedras Norte, in the Registry of Property of San Juan, Second Section, property number 12,647. The property described above is encumbered by the following junior lien: mortgage in the amount of $34,500.00 in favor of Doral Bank, or to its order, bearing annual interest equal to 9.95% and due on December 1, 2025, pursuant to deed number 552, executed in San Juan, Puerto Rico on November 17, 2005, before Victor R. Nuñez Arco, recorded at page 97 of volume 1527 of the Registry. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with the holders thereof. It is understood that the potential bidders acquire the property subject to any and all the senior liens that encumber the property. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title that prior and preferential liens to the one being foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax liens (express, tacit, implied or legal) shall continue in effect it being understood further that the successful bidder accepts then and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and the bid price shall not be applied toward the cancellation of the senior liens. WHEREFORE, the FIRST PUBLIC SALE will be held on FEBRUARY 28TH, 2022 AT 1:30PM and the minimum bidding amount that will be accepted is the sum of $186,224.95. In the event said first auction does not produce a bidder and the property is not adjudicated, a SECOND PUBLIC AUCTION shall be held on MARCH 7TH, 2022 AT 1:30PM and the minimum bidding amount that will be accepted is the sum of $124,149.96. If said second auction does not result in the adjudication and sale of the property, a THIRD PUBLIC AUCTION shall be held on MARCH 14TH, 2022 AT 1:30PM and the minimum bidding amount that will be accepted is the sum of $93,112.47. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued canceling all junior liens.

For further particulars, reference is made to the judgment entered by the Court in this

case, which can be examined in the aforementioned office of the Clerk of the United States District Court. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 15th day of December, 2021. Joel Ronda Feliciano, Special Master, Email: rondajoel@me.com, Tel: 787-565-0415.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN

PR RECOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT REO, LLC Demandante V.

BRYAN RESTAURANT CORPORATION, ZAIDYLENE CECILE BRYAN PALAU T/C/C ZAIDYLENE BRYAN PALAU Y ZAIDYLENE BRYAN; ZAIDA PALAU SOLTERO

Demandados Civil Núm.: Civil: KCD20160373. Sala: 603. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO, INCUMPLIMEINTO DE CONTRATO, EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA Y EJECUCIÓN DE GRAVAMEN MOBILIARIO. AVISO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PUEBLO DE PUERTO RICO, S.S. YO, el(la) Alguacil que suscribe, por la presente anuncia y hace constar, que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia, expedido el 5 de octubre de 2021 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 1 DE FEBRERO DE 2022, A LA(S) 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en mi oficina localizada en el Tribunal de Caguas, todo título, derecho o interés que corresponda a la parte demandada sobre el inmueble que se describe a continuación: RÚSTICA: Parcela de terreno radicada en el Barrio Sonadora del término municipal de Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, identificada con el número catorce (#14) en el plano de inscripción del caso número ochenta y tres guión cuarenta y cinco guión E guión quinientos cuarenta y cinco guión KPL (#83-45-E545-KPL), de la Administración de Reglamentos y Permisos, con una cabida superficial de uno punto dos mil quinientos noventa y cuatro diezmilésimas

staredictos@thesanjuandailystar.com

(1.2594) cuerda. En lindes por el NORTE, con camino asfaltado; por el SUR y por el OESTE, con el solar identificado con el número trece (#13) del mismo plano de inscripción y por el ESTE, con el solar identificado con el número quince (#15) del mismo plano de inscripción, y por el SURESTE, con franja verde, que a su vez colinda con terrenos de Juan Rosa.

DATOS DE INSCRIPCIÓN: Consta inscrita al folio ciento noventa y siete (197) del tomo número doscientos once (211) de Aguas Buenas, finca número nueve mil novecientos veintinueve (9,929), inscripción segunda (2a), Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección Segunda (II) de Caguas.

Dirección Física: Carr. 792, Km. 3.5 Interior, Barrio Sonadora, Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico.

La propiedad descrita anteriormente está afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: Afecta por su procedencia: Servidumbre a favor del Departamento de Recursos Naturales; y Condiciones restrictivas de edificación y uso y limitaciones en equidad.

HIPOTECA: En garantía de un pagaré a favor de EL BANCO DE DESARROLLO ECONÓMICO PARA PUERTO RICO, o a su orden, por la suma de $62,300.00, con interés al 2% sobre prime rate, y vencedero a la presentación, según consta de la escritura #25, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 5 de noviembre de 2014, ante la Notario Público Ruth E. Aquino García, inscrita al tomo Karibe de Aguas Buenas, finca # 9929, inscripción 4ta. ANOTACIÓN DE DEMANDA: Es objeto de esta anotación la Hipoteca a favor de El Banco de Desarrollo Económico para Puerto Rico, por la suma de $62,300.00 que surge de la inscripción #4ta.

DEMANDANTE: EL BANCO DE DESARROLLO ECONÓMICO PARA PUERTO RICO; DEMANDADOS: BRYAN RESTAURANT, ZAIDYLENE CECILE BRYAN PALAU, ZAIDA PALAU; Cantidad adeudada $305,752.32, por concepto de principal más intereses, según Demanda Expedida por el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, en el caso civil #KCD2016-0373, el día 25 de febrero de 2016, inscrita al tomo Karibe, Anotación A de fecha de 13 de septiembre de 2016. Conforme lo estipulado en la Hipoteca, en caso de ejecución, la Propiedad anteriormente descrita responde por la suma $62,300.00, cuyo valor servirá como tipo mínimo en la primera subasta en caso de ejecución. De no adjudicarse la propiedad en la primera subasta, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA, en las mismas oficinas de este Alguacil, el día 8 DE FEBRERO

(787) 743-3346

Wednesday, January 12, 2022 DE 2022, A LA(S) 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA. El tipo mínimo para la segunda subasta será dos terceras partes (2/3) del tipo mínimo de la primera subasta, o sea, $41,533.33. De no adjudicarse la propiedad en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA en las mismas oficinas de este Alguacil, el día 15 DE FEBRERO DE 2022, A LA(S) 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA. El tipo mínimo para la tercera subasta será la mitad (1/2) del tipo mínimo que se pactara para la primera subasta, o sea, $31,150.00. Esta subasta se hará para satisfacer a la parte demandante, hasta donde alcance, el importe adeudado a PR RECOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT REO, LLC, ascendente la suma de total de $331,753.07, que se divide de la siguiente manera: $275,899.89 de principal, $25,182.83 en intereses devengados que continuarán aumentando mes tras mes a razón de $60.60 per diem, desde el 3 de agosto de 2016, hasta su total y completo pago; mas $670.35 por concepto de cargos por mora; más la suma de $30,000.00 por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado expresamente 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 su-

brogación. 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 Caguas, Puerto Rico, a 9 de diciembre de 2021. ÁNGEL GÓMEZ GÓMEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #593, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE CAGUAS.

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

HIBISCUSPR 402, LLC Demandante V.

MANUEL ESTRADA QUILES; ALEJANDRO ESTRADA MAISONET SU ESPOSA DIANNE QUILES LUGO Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS Y LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA

Demandados Civil Núm.: NSCI2015-00313.

Sala: 302. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA IN REM. AVISO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PUEBLO DE PUERTO RICO, S.S. YO, el(la) Alguacil que suscribe, por la presente anuncia y hace constar, que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia In Rem, expedido el 8 de septiembre de 2021 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 3 DE FEBRERO DE 2022, A LA(S) 2:00 DE LA TARDE, en mi oficina localizada en el Tribunal de Fajardo, todo título, derecho o interés que corresponda a la parte demandada sobre el inmueble que se describe a continuación: RÚSTICA: Solar #20 de la Urbanización Quintas de Carabalí localizado en el Barrio Mameyes, Luquillo Puerto Rico. Dicho solar tiene un área superficial de 2009.97 mc. En lindes por el NORTE en una distancia de 55.13 mc con la calle #6 existente de la Urba-

The San Juan Daily Star nización Quintas de Carabalí; por el SUR en una distancia de 59.25 metros con el solar 19 de la referida Urbanización; por el ESTE, en una distancia de 34.06 metros con terrenos de Hacienda Carabalí Inc., y por el OESTE en una distancia de 30.09 con la calle #2 existente de la Urbanización Quintas de Carabalí. Finca número 13828, inscrita al tomo KARIBE de Luquillo, Registro de la Propiedad de Propiedad de Fajardo.

Dirección Física: Solar #20, Quintas de Carabalí, Luquillo, Puerto Rico. La propiedad descrita anteriormente está afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: Por su procedencia está afecta a la Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica. Por sí: CONDICIONES RESTRICTIVAS: Las siguientes condiciones afectarán esta finca a perpetuidad: 1- El predio no podrá ser objeto de ulteriores segregaciones o subdivisiones. 2- Sobre el predio se construirá una sola y principal estructura para fines residenciales exclusivamente.

3- Sobre el predio se podrán construir hasta un máximo de 3 jaulas para caballos y otro tipo de animal doméstico. Las mismas se construirán de cemento y/o bloque para uso exclusivo del propietario del predio. 4Sobre el predio no se desarrollará actividad comercial de clase alguna. 5- La verja que se construya para deslindar el predio será de cemento y madera o de tubo plástico y en ninguna circunstancia de alambre eslabonado tipo “cyclone fence”, según consta de la escritura número 5, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 13 de febrero de 1992, ante el Notario Público José Francois Soto, inscrito al tomo Karibe de Luquillo, finca 13829, inscripción 1ra. HIPOTECA: En garantía de un pagaré a favor de FIRST BANK PUERTO RICO, o a su orden, por la suma de $136,000.00, con interés al 9/4% (SIC), y vencedero 1 de agosto de 2016, según consta de la escritura #371, otorgada en San Juan, Puertto Rico, el día 20 de julio de 2006, ante el Notario Público Carlos Omar González Dávila, inscrita al tomo KARIBE de Luquillo, finca #13828, inscripción 4ta. HIPOTECA: En garantía de un pagaré a favor del PORTADOR, o a su orden, por la suma de $100,000.00, con interés al 8%, y vencedero a la presentación, según consta de la escritura #10, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 25 de octubre de 2006, ante el Notario Público George Mottley Flores, inscrita al tomo KARIBE de Luquillo, finca #13828, inscripción 5ta. EMBARGO ESTATAL: Contra ALEJANDRO ESTRADA MAISONET (1944) y DIANNE QUILES LUGO (8503) seguido por el Departamento

de Hacienda (Ley 210); Caso # CAR-20-0140; de fecha 21 de agosto de 2019, presentado el 22 de agosto de 2019, al asiento 2019-008091-EST y anotado el 14 de noviembre de 2019 al Sistema de Embargos Karibe. Servirá como tipo mínimo para la primera subasta de la Propiedad antes descrita la suma de $136,000.00 conforme a lo estipulado en la Escritura de Hipoteca #371, otorgada el 20 de junio de 2006 ante el Notario Público Carlos Omar González Dávila. De no adjudicarse la propiedad en la primera subasta, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA, en las mismas oficinas de este Alguacil, el día 10 DE FEBRERO DE 2022, A LA(S) 2:00 DE LA TARDE. El tipo mínimo para la segunda subasta será dos terceras partes (2/3) del tipo mínimo de la primera subasta, o sea, $90,666.67. De no adjudicarse la propiedad en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA en las mismas oficinas de este Alguacil, el día 17 DE FEBRERO DE 2022, A LA(S) 2:00 DE LA TARDE. El tipo mínimo para la tercera subasta será la mitad (1/2) del tipo mínimo que se pactara para la primera subasta, o sea, $68,000.00. Esta subasta se hará para satisfacer a la parte demandante, hasta donde alcance, el importe adeudado a HIBISCUSPR 402, LLC, ascendente al 8 de abril de 2016, a una cantidad no menor de $164,236.47, la cual se desglosa de la siguiente manera: a) $114,560.86 por concepto de principal; más; b) $31,864.63 por concepto de intereses acumulados, los cuales incrementan diariamente a razón de $31.03 hasta su total y completo pago; más; c) $3,710.98 por concepto de cargos por demora, los cuales se acumulan hasta su total y completo pago; más; d) $157.06 por concepto de desembolso de la cuenta plica; más; e) $500.00 por concepto de otros gastos y cargos; más; f) $13,600.00 por concepto de costas, desembolsos y honorarios de abogado, según pactados en el Pagaré Hipotecario. 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

The San Juan Daily Star 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 Fajardo, Puerto Rico, a 27 de septiembre de 2021. SHIRLEY SÁNCHEZ MARTÍNEZ, ALGUACIL REGIONAL #161. SANDRA LIZ MARTÍNEZ TORRES, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR #737, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE FAJARDO.

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Demandante Vs.

RAÚL DOMINGUEZ PINO, MARÍA E. LOZANO RODRÍGUEZ T/C/C MARÍA ELENA LOZANO RODRÍGUEZ (DEUDORES HIPOTECARIOS) Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS; RAMÓN ANTONIO RODRÍGUEZ RIVERA, HERME LUZ RUIZ MALDONADO Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS (TITULARES REGISTRALES)

Demandados Civil Núm.: JCD2016-0957.

(406). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA (VÍA ORDINARIA).

EDICTO DE SUBASTA. El Al-

guacil 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 PONCE, 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 3 DE FEBRERO DE 2022, A LAS 2:15 DE LA TARDE, en su oficina sita en el local que ocupa en el edificio del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE PONCE, SALA SUPERIOR, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble de su propiedad que ubica en: 4323 (D-20) CALLE GIMNASIA, VILLA DELICIAS, PONCE, PR 00731y que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar número 20 de la manzana D de la Urbanización Villa Delicias, localizada en el Barrio Magueyes del término municipal de Ponce, Puerto Rico, con un área de 401.71 metros cuadrados. Colinda por el NORTE, en una distancia de 17.00 metros, con la calle número 3 de la Urbanización; por el SUR, en una distancia de 17.00 metros, con el solar número 10 de la manzana D; por el ESTE, en una distancia de 23.63 metros, con servidumbre de servicios públicos; y por el OESTE, en una distancia de 23.63 metros, con el solar número 19 de la manzana D. Enclava una estructura de hormigón y bloques de hormigón para uso residencial. La propiedad antes relacionada consta inscrita al Folio 187 del Tomo 1,095 de Ponce, finca número 5,813, Registro de la Propiedad de Ponce, Sección Segunda.

El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta del inmueble antes relacionado, será el dispuesto en la Escritura de Hipoteca, es decir la suma de $82,300.00.

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 10 DE FEBRERO DE 2022, A LAS 2:15 DE LA TARDE. 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 $54,866.67.

Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 17 DE FEBRERO DE 2022, A LAS 2:15 DE LA TARDE. 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 $41,150.00. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe

Wednesday, January 12, 2022 fue constituida mediante la escritura de hipoteca número 333 otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 4 de septiembre de 2001, ante el Notario Milagros Mejías Pérez, y consta inscrita al folio 90 del tomo 1031 de Ponce, finca número 5,813, en el Registro de la Propiedad de Ponce, Sección Segunda, inscripción Décimo Segunda (12da). Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer al Demandante total o parcialmente según sea el caso el importe de la Sentencia que ha obtenido contra la parte co-demandada Raúl Dominguez Pino y María E. Lozano Rodríguez t/c/c María Elena Lozano Rodríguez, ascendente a la suma de $59,267.56 por concepto de principal, más intereses al tipo pactado de 6.00% anual desde el 1ro de julio de 2016. Dichos intereses continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación.

Además, la parte co-demandada Raúl Dominguez Pino y María E. Lozano Rodríguez t/c/c María Elena Lozano Rodríguez, adeuda a la parte demandante los cargos por demora equivalentes a 5.00% de la suma de aquellos pagos con atrasos en exceso de 15 días calendarios de la fecha de vencimiento; los créditos accesorios y adelantos hechos en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca; y las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado equivalentes a $8,230.00. Además, la parte co-demandada Raúl Dominguez Pino y María E. Lozano Rodríguez t/c/c María Elena Lozano Rodríguez, se comprometió a pagar una suma equivalente a $100.00 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca y una suma equivalente a $100.00 para cubrir intereses en adición a los garantizados por ley. 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 PONCE, 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 Ponce, Puerto Rico, hoy día 30 de diciembre de 2021. JUAN ROLANDO CRUZ ROMÁN, ALGUACIL #965, ALGUACIL DE SUBASTAS, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE PONCE, SALA SUPERIOR. ***

LEGAL NOTICE

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

MIGDALIA MEDINA TORRADO Y FRANCISCO JOSÉ MOLANO MATALLANA Y SU SOCIEDAD DE GANANCIALES Demandantes Vs.

RG PREMIER BANK OF P.R. Y JOHN DOE COMO CUALQUIER TENEDOR DESCONOCIDO

Demandados Civil Núm.: GB2021CV00862.

Sobre: PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, S.S.

A: JOHN DOE como

cualquier tenedor desconocido del pagaré extraviado.

Por la presente se le notifica que la parte demandante ha radicado una Demanda que podrán examinar en la Secretaría de éste Tribunal, alegando el extravío del Pagaré a favor de RG PREMIER BANK OF P.R, o a su orden por la suma de Ciento Veinticuatro Mil Cien Dólares ($124,100.00) con intereses al Seis punto Cinco por ciento (6.5%) anual, que vencía el primero (1) de febrero del dos mil veintinueve (2029), según consta de la Escritura Ochenta y Siete (87) otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico el día 1 de febrero del mil novecientos noventa y nueve (1999) ante la Notario Público Sandra de L. Tous Chevres. Consta inscrita al folio Ochenta (80) del tomo Mil Ciento Treinta y Cuatro (1134), Registro de la Propiedad de Guaynabo. Inscripción segunda. La descripción registra! de la propiedad gravada es la siguiente: URBANA: PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL. Apartamiento número ciento cuarenta y cinco (145) Apartamiento residencia de forma irregular localizado en la primera y segunda planta del ala Sur del edificio principal del CONDOMINIO PLAZA ESMERALDA, situada en el Barrio Frailes del término municipal de Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. El área aproximada es de Mil Seiscientos Ochenta y Ocho punto Veinticuatro pies cuadrados (1,688.24 pc) equivalentes a Ciento Cincuenta y Seis punto Ochenta y Cuatro (156.84 mc). Son sus linderos los siguientes: en la primera planta por el Norte, en un máximo de 21’ 6” con el apartamiento número 144; por el Sur, con un máximo de 21’ 6” con área común exterior; por el Este, en un máximo de 37’ 7” con área común exterior; y por el Oeste, en un máximo de 37’ 7” con el apartamiento 146 y área común exterior. En la segunda planta, el apartamiento colinda por el Norte en un máximo de 21’ 3” con el apartamiento número 144; por el Sur, en un máximo de 21’ 3” con área común exterior, por el Este, en un máximo de 37’ 7” con área común exterior, y por el Oeste en un máximo de 37’ 7” con el apartamiento número 146 y con área común exterior. La puerta de entrada de este apartamiento está en su lindero Oeste. Consta de sala, comedor, cocina, balcón, 3 dormitorios, 2 1/2 baños. El apartamiento tiene el derecho al uso exclusivo de un patio trasero que es un elemento común limitado. Consta inscrita como finca Treinta y Nueve Mil Ochocientos (39,800), al folio Ochenta (80) del tomo Mil Ciento Treinta y Cuatro (1,134) de Guaynabo, Sección Sexta del Registro de la Propiedad.

Catastro: 114-003-907-14-045.

Dirección física: Condominio Plaza Esmeralda, Apartamien-

23

to 145, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico 00969. Vista la Moción presentada por la demandante solicitando el emplazamiento por edictos de la parte demandada, John Doe como cualquier otro tenedor desconocido, el Tribunal lo declara Con Lugar y dispone que el emplazamiento se haga por medio de edicto en un diario de circulación general de Puerto Rico, una sola vez, para que tales demandados presenten cualquier oposición a la demanda, dentro del término de treinta (30) días después de la publicación del mismo. Deberán presentar su alegación responsiva a través del sistema unificado de manejo y administración de casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder usando la dirección electrónica: https:// unired.ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaria del Tribunal, debiendo enviar copia del escrito a la Lcda. María Jiménez Vargas, abogada de la demandante, al PO Box 10231, San Juan, P. R. 00922, Tels.

787-783-3784 / 787-781-3585.

Se le apercibe que de así no hacerlo se dictará sentencia en rebeldía. Se exime a la demandante del envío por correo certificado de la demanda a los demandados, por desconocerse su dirección. EXTENDIDO BAJO mi firma y sello del Tribunal de Bayamón, Puerto Rico hoy 17 de diciembre de 2021.

LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MAIRENI TRINTA, SUBSECRETARIA. ***

LEGAL NOTICE

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

CRUCITA FONT DE POR SI Y EN REPRESENTACION DE LA SUCESION DE FRANCISCO FONT CHAMBER

codemandados JOHN PUERTO RICO. A: ANA DELIA SANTIAGO DOE y JANE DOE y a ORTIZ, POR SÍ Y COMO las partes interesadas MIEMBRO DE LA que no han podido ser SUCESIÓN DE ÁNGEL emplazadas Joaquín SAMUEL ARANA Monzón Báez, Antonio Francisco Monzón Báez, ARANA, EN DIRECCIÓN DESCONOCIDA. Víctor Monzón Báez, LA PRESENTE, se le noCarmen Nereida Monzón POR tifica que se ha presentado una Báez, Sonia Iris Monzón demanda contra usted ante el Báez, Lydia María Monzón Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Báez, Josefina Monzón Sala Superior de San Juan.

Rodríguez y Angel Luis Se le emplaza y requiere que debe comparecer en autos con Monzón Rodríguez. su contestación a la demanda

(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 27 de diciembre de 2021, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 27 de diciembre de 2021. En SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, el 27 de diciembre de 2021. GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, Secretaria. F/JANE VILLEGAS, Secretaria Auxiliar.

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

Demandante v.

ABDIEL HORACIO DE JOSEFA MARTÍNEZ ACOSTA VÉLEZ, ZENIA CENTENO T/C/C JOSEFA ENID ARROYO WEBER RIVAS Y LA SUCESION Y OTROS DE JOSEFA MARTÍNEZ Demandantes V. CENTENO T/C/C JOSEFA SUCESIÓN DE FELIPE RIVAS COMPUESTA ARANA ROMÁN, POR LA SUCESIÓN DE SUCESIÓN DE SOCORRO JOAQUIN MONZÓN ARANA ARANA Y OTROS Demandados RIVAS Y LA SUCESIÓN Civil Núm.: LU2019CV00224.

DE JOSE RAMON SOBRE: EXPEDIENTE MONZÓN MARTINEZ, ETC (306).

DE DOMINIO CONTRADICTO-

Demandado(a) Civil Núm. SJ2020CV04232.

SALA 906. Sobre: RENAUDACION DE TRACTO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: Josefa Martínez Centeno T/C/C Josefa Rivas a los

dentro de los (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto, enviando copia de la misma al abogado de la parte demandante: LCDO. RAFAEL PAGÁN COLÓN, R.U.A. 18691, P.O. Box 367869 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-7869, (787) 344-1139, rafael.pagancolon@ capr.org. Se le apercibe que, de no comparecer en el término indicado, el caso seguirá su trámite y se dictará la sentencia que corresponda sin más citarle ni oírle. En Fajardo, Puerto Rico a 30 de diciembre de 2021.

POR: GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. REILYN GARCÍA ROSADO, SUB SECRETARIA AUXILIAR I DEL TRIBUNAL.

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

REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC. Demandante Vs.

SUCESION CARLOS RAUL TORRES HERNANDEZ T/C/C CARLOS TORRES HERNANDEZ COMPUESTA POR JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; RAMONA SEPULVEDA TORRES POR SI Y EN LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

Demandados Civil Núm.: PO2020CV01813.

Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO RIO; REANUDAR TRACTO AL DE PUERTO RICO, SS. AMPARO DEL ARTÍCULO 182 A: LA PARTE DE LA LEY DEL REGISTRO DEMANDADA, AL (A DE LA PROPIEDAD INMOBILIARIA DE PUERTO RICO; LA) SECRETARIO(A) DE USUCAPIÓN. EMPLAZAMIENHACIENDA DE PUERTO TO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS RICO Y AL PÚBLICO UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, PREGENERAL: SIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE Certifico y Hago Constar: Que

24 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 3 DE FEBRERO DE 2022, A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número siete (7) del Bloque WW en el plano de inscripción de la Urbanización Jardines del Caribe, segunda etapa, radicada en los Barrios Canas, Quebrada Limón y Pastillo del término municipal de Ponce, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de TRESCIENTOS NOVENTA Y SIETE PUNTO TRESCIENTOS SETENTA Y UNO METROS CUADRADOS (397.371 M/C), en lindes por el NORTE, con doce punto quinientos metros (12.500 m.), con arco de cinco punto cuatrocientos noventa y ocho metros (5.498 m/), con calle cincuenta y uno (51); por el SUR, en dieciséis metros (16.00 m.), con el solar uno (1) del Bloque WW; por el ESTE, en veintiuno punto quinientos metros (21.500 m.), con la Calle cuarenta y nueve (49) y por el OESTE, en veinticinco metros (25.00 m.) con el solar seis (6) del Bloque WW. Enclava una casa de concreto armado para ser utilizado como residencia familiar. Inscrita al folio 1 del tomo 1414 hoy 589, finca 20,202, Registro de la Propiedad de Ponce, Sección II. Propiedad localizada en: URB. JARDINES DEL CARIBE, WW-7 CALLE 51, PONCE, PUERTO RICO 00728. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas anteriores o preferentes: Nombre del Titular: N/A. Suma de la Carga: N/A. Fecha de Vencimiento: N/A. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas posteriores a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: Nombre del Titular: Secretario de la Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano. Suma de la Carga: $175,500.00. Fecha de Vencimiento: 1 de octubre de 2083. 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 anterio-

res, y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se establece como tipo de mínima subasta la suma de $175,500.00, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la escritura de hipoteca. De ser necesaria una SEGUNDA SUBASTA por declararse desierta la primera, la misma se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Ponce, el 10 DE FEBRERO DE 2022, A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA, y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $117,000.00, 2/3 partes del tipo mínima establecido originalmente. Si tampoco se produce remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se establece como mínima para la TERCERA SUBASTA, la suma de $87,750.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Ponce, el 17 DE FEBRERO DE 2022, A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para, con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante, el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor ascendente a la suma de $102,015.35 por concepto de principal, más la suma de $13,491.41 en intereses acumulados al 31 de enero de 2021 y los cuales continúan acumulándose a razón de 3.501% anual hasta su total y completo pago; más la sumas de $3,744.41 en seguro hipotecario; $4,795.00 en cargos por servicio; $477.00 en seguro de la propiedad; $400.00 de tasaciones; $260.00 de inspecciones; $1,983.30 en adelantos de gastos y de honorarios de abogado; más la cantidad de 10% del pagare original en la suma de $17,550.00, para gastos, costas y honorarios de abogado, esta última habrá de devengar intereses al máximo del tipo legal fijado por la oficina del Comisionado de Instituciones Financieras aplicable a esta fecha, desde este mismo día hasta su total y completo saldo. La venta en pública subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen posterior que afecte la mencionada finca, a cuyo efecto se notifica y se hace saber la fecha, hora y sitio de la PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA, si esto fuera necesario, a los efectos de que cualquier persona o personas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha subasta.

Se notifica a todos los interesados que las actas y demás constancias del expediente de este caso están disponibles en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables para ser examinadas por los (las) interesados (as). Y para su publicación en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star, que es un diario de circulación general en la

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

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 10 de enero de 2022. JORGE M. HERNÁNDEZ PAGÁN, ALGUACIL REGIONAL. MANUEL MALDONADO, ALGUACIL PLACA #820.

LEGAL NOTICE

RITZA LEBRÓN ROSADO, SE- Civil Núm.: PO2021CV02968.

CRETARIA AUXILIAR. Sobre: ACCIÓN RESCISORIA. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS LEGAL NOTICE DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO TE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDE PUERTO RICO TRIBU- DOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASONAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN SE- A: VANESSA SANTIAGO BASTIAN.

ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC., COMO AGENTE DE ACE ONE FUNDING, LLC. DEMANDANTE VS.

ANISAL AQUINO BELTRAN

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUDEMANDADA NAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INS- CASO NÚM.: SS2021CV00257.

TANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICMAYAGÜEZ TO.

AMERICAS LEADING FINANCE, LLC Demandante V.

MIRIAM MORALES MONTALVO, LUIS CASTILLO BONILLA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandado(a) Civil Núm.: MZ2021CV00393.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA Y EJECUCIÓN DE GRAVAMEN MOBILIARIO (REPOSESIÓN DE VEHíCULO). NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: MIRIAM MORALES MONTALVO, LUIS CASTILLO BONILLA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES 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 22 de diciembre de 2021, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 4 de enero de 2022. En Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, el 4 de enero de 2022.

LCDA. NORMA G. SANTANA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIA. MA-

A: ANISAL AQUINO BEL TRAN • PO BOX 7004, SAN SEBASTIAN P.R. 00685

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

Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia al abogado de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. Kenmuel J. Ruiz López cuya dirección es: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección kenmuel.riuz@orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@orflaw.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en San Sebastián , Puerto Rico, hoy día 05 de octubre de 2021. En San Sebastián, Puerto Rico, el 05 de octubre de 2021. SARAI REYES PEREZ, Secretaria. CARMEN M. RODRIGUEZ ACEVEDO, Secretaria Auxiliar.

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

AGUSTINA ECHEVARRIA MALAVE Demandante Vs.

VANESSA SANTIAGO ECHEVARRIA Demandada

ECHEVARRIA.

POR LA PRESENTE se le notifica que debe comparecer, si así lo cree conveniente, y presentar oposición a la Demanda, exponiendo lo que a sus derechos convenga, dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación de este edicto. De no hacerlo se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia en su contra concediendo el remedio solicitado en la demanda sin más citarle ni oírle. Debe notificar con copia de sus alegaciones a la representante legal de la parte demandante: LCDA. LIONY ADRIAN ENCHAUTEGUI Urbanización Las Delicias 2090 calle Juan Ortiz de la Renta Ponce, Puerto Rico 00728-3827 (787) 428-5313 expedientesadrian@gmail.com EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y Sellos de Tribunal en Ponce, Puerto Rico. A 30 de diciembre de 2021. LUZ MAYRA CARABALLO GARCÍA, SECRETARIA DEL TRIBUNAL.

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

ORIENTAL BANK Demandante V.

ANGEL LUIS SANTIAGO DÁVILA; JENNIFER VALENTÍN SANTIAGO

Demandados Civil Núm.: BY2020CV03985.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA. El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Bayamón, hago saber a la parte demandada ANGEL LUIS SANTIAGO DÁVILA, JENNIFER VALENTÍN SANTIAGO y al PÚBLICO EN GENERAL; que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el 22 de noviembre de 2021, por la Secretaría del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta por el precio mínimo de $77,500.00 y al mejor postor, pagadero en efectivo, cheque de gerente o giro postal, a nombre del alguacil del tribunal, la propiedad que se describe a continuación: 214 4ST. SAN CARLOS, BO. HIGUILLAR, DORADO, PR 00646, y que se describe de la siguiente manera: RÚSTICA: Parcela marcada con el número 214 del proyecto UM-7-5 denominado Urbanización San Carlos, radicada en

el Barrio Higuillar del término municipal de Dorado, Puerto Rico, con cabida de 264.00 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con la calle número 4 de la comunidad; por el SUR, con el solar número 224 de la comunidad; por el ESTE, con el solar número 213 de la comunidad; y por el OESTE, con el solar número 215 de la comunidad. Finca 10096 inscrita al folio 31 del tomo 220 de Dorado, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección IV. Catastro #037-074-282-08-000.

La finca antes descrita se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: (i) HIPOTECA en garantía de un pagaré a favor de Oriental Bank and Trust, o a su orden, por la suma de $77,500.00, con intereses al 7.25% anuales y vencimiento 1 de febrero de 2037. Constituida mediante la escritura 60 otorgada en San Juan el 31 de enero de 2007 ante el notario Javier A. Rivera Meléndez. Inscrita el 2 de marzo de 2007 al folio 159 del tomo 256 de Dorado, finca 1009, inscripción 3ª, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección IV. (ii) HIPOTECA en garantía de un pagaré a favor de Autoridad para el Financiamiento de la Vivienda de Puerto Rico, o a su orden, por la suma de $2,700.00, sin intereses anuales y vencimiento 31 de enero de 2013. Constituida mediante la escritura 61 otorgada en San Juan el 31 de enero de 2007 ante el notario Javier A. Rivera Meléndez. Inscrita el 2 de marzo de 2007 al folio 159 del tomo 256 de Dorado, finca 1009, inscripción 4ª, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección IV. Condiciones de la Hipoteca: Sujeta a las disposiciones del Programa gubernamental denominado “La Llave para tu Hogar”; no pudiendo ser transferida ni gravada por un término de 8 años, a partir de la concesión del subsidio, sin el previo consentimiento de la Autoridad so pena de la restitución del subsidio concedido.

La hipoteca objeto de esta ejecución es la que ha quedado descrita en el inciso (i). Será celebrada la subasta para con el importe de la misma satisfacer la sentencia dicta el 10 de julio de 2021, mediante la cual se condenó a la parte demandada pagar a la parte demandante la suma de $61,898.28 de principal, más interés que continuarán acumulándose hasta el saldo total al 7.25% anual, $434.68 de cargos por demora, $1,252.18 de otros gastos, $7,750.00 de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, más cualquier otro desembolso que haya efectuado o efectúe la parte demandante durante la tramitación de este caso para otros adelantos de conformidad con el Contrato Hipotecario, incluyendo primas de seguro de hipoteca, prima de seguro de siniestro y cargos por demora.

La PRIMERA SUBASTA será celebrada el día 3 DE FEBRE-

RO DE 2022 A LAS 11:15 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina del Alguacil, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, Puerto Rico. Servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma la cantidad de $77,500.00, sin admitirse oferta inferior. De no haber remate ni adjudicación, celebraré SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 10 DE FEBRERO DE 2022 A LAS 11:15 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar, en la que servirá como tipo mínimo, dos terceras (2/3) partes del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $51,666.67. Si no hubiese remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, celebraré TERCERA SUBASTA el día 17 DE FEBRERO DE 2022 A LAS 11:15 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar en la que regirá como tipo mínimo, la mitad del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $38,750.00. El Alguacil que suscribe hizo constar que toda licitación deberá hacerse para pagar su importe en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América, de acuerdo con la Ley y de acuerdo con lo anunciado en este Aviso de Subasta. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables. Se entiende que todo licitador que comparezca a la subasta señalada en este caso acepta como bastante la titulación que da base a la misma. Se entiende que cualquier carga y/o gravamen anterior y/o preferente, si la hubiere al crédito que da base a esta ejecución continuará subsistente, entendiéndose, además, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción cualquier parte del remanente del precio de licitación. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante.

Vendida o adjudicada la finca o derecho hipotecado y consignado el precio correspondiente, en esa misma fecha o fecha posterior, el alguacil que celebró la subasta procederá a otorgar la correspondiente es-

critura pública de traspaso en representación del dueño o titular de los bienes hipotecados, ante el notario que elija el adjudicatario o comprador, quien deberá abonar el importe de tal escritura. El alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial al nuevo dueño, si así se lo solicita dentro del término de veinte (20) días a partir de la confirmación de la venta o adjudicación. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante u ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del deudor la ocupen. Y PARA CONOCIMIENTO DE LOS LICITADORES Y DEL PUBLICO EN GENERAL y para su publicación de acuerdo con la Ley, expido el presente Edicto bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy 06 de diciembre de 2021. JOSÉ F. MARRERO ROBLES, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR PLACA #131, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE BAYAMÓN.

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

ORIENTAL BANK

Parte Demandante V.

RICARDO TRILLA RAMOS

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: CA2019CV02335.

Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA. El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Carolina, hago saber a la parte demandada RICARDO TRILLA RAMOS, y al PÚBLICO EN GENERAL; que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el 22 de febrero de 2021, por la Secretaría del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta por el precio mínimo de $76,000.00 y al mejor postor, pagadero en efectivo, cheque de gerente o giro postal, a nombre del alguacil del tribunal, la propiedad que se describe a continuación: URBANA: PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL: Apartment number A dash Twenty One (A-21) of Condominium Carolina Court.

Irregular shaped apartment with a total surface area of six hundred eighty four point thirty five (684.35) square feet, equivalent to sixty three point sixty (63.60) square meters. This is a single level apartment located on the second floor of building ‘A’ of the Regime. Its main entrance is located inside the communal lobby area which faces the East side of the building

The San Juan Daily Star and faces a staircases area. Its boundaries are: on the NORTH, by nine feet five inches (9’5’) with a common wall that separates it from Apartment A dash twenty two (A-22) and by sixteen feet one inch (16’1’) with a communal wall that separates it from the communal lobby and staircase area; on the SOUTH, by thirty two feet two inches (32’2’) with a common interior wall that separates it from apartment A dash sixteen (A16); on the EAST, by twenty one feet seven and a half inches (21’7½’) with a communal wall that separates it from the exterior communal grounds and, on a separate alignment, by five feet ten inches (5’10’) with the communal lobby and staircase area; and on the WEST, on two separate alignments, by sixteen feet ten inches (16’10’) and by ten feet seven and a half inches (10’7½’) with a communal wall that separates it from the exterior on the building. This apartment contains an entrance from the communal lobby and staircase and a living dining, kitchen, laundry area, two bedrooms, closets, one bathroom and a interior corridor. Parking space A dash twenty one (A-21) has been assigned for the exclusive use of this dwelling unit.

The percentage of the communal assets and for the responsibilities or liabilities which corresponds to this dwelling unit is one point twenty four percent (1.24%). Inscrita al folio 31 del tomo 871 de Carolina, finca 39721, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección I. La finca antes descrita se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: (i) Hipoteca a favor de Doral Bank, o a su orden, por la suma de $76,000.00, con intereses al 6 3/4% anual, vencedero el 1 de marzo de 2036, según la escritura 59, otorgada en San Juan, el 14 de febrero de 2006, ante el notario Félix Javier Santiago García, inscrita al folio 34 del tomo 968 de Carolina, finca 39721, inscripción 7, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección I. (ii) Hipoteca a favor de Doral Bank, o a su orden, por la suma de $19,000.00, con intereses al 6 3/4% anual, vencedero el 1 de marzo de 2036, según la escritura 60, otorgada en San Juan, el 14 de febrero de 2006, ante el notario Félix Javier Santiago García, inscrita al folio 34 del tomo 968 de Carolina, finca 39721, inscripción 8, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección I. (iii) Aviso de demanda con fecha 22 de junio de 2019 seguida en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Carolina, en el caso civil número CA2019CV02335, sobre ejecución de hipoteca; Scotiabank de Puerto Rico, demandante v.

Ricardo Trilla Ramos, demandado. Por la misma se reclama el pago de $76,000.00, más otras sumas, correspondiente a la hipoteca de la inscripción 7ª.

Anotada el 11 de octubre de

2019 al Tomo Karibe, finca 39721 de Carolina Norte, anotación “A”. La hipoteca objeto de esta ejecución es la que ha quedado descrita en el inciso (i). Será celebrada la subasta para con el importe de la misma satisfacer la sentencia dictada el 1 de octubre de 2020, este Honorable Tribunal dictó Sentencia, mediante la cual se condena a la parte demandada, a pagar a la parte demandante la suma $59,824.25 de principal con intereses al 6 3/4% anual desde el día 1 de enero de 2019 hasta su completo pago, cargos por demoras , más las cantidades debidas de contribuciones e impuestos, primas de seguro contra riesgo y seguro de hipoteca hasta su completo pago, más la cantidad estipulada de $7,600.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. La PRIMERA SUBASTA será celebrada el día 8 DE FEBRERO DE 2022 A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina del Alguacil, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Carolina, Puerto Rico. Servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma la cantidad de $76,000.00, sin admitirse oferta inferior. De no haber remate ni adjudicación, celebraré SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 15 DE FEBRERO DE 2022 A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar, en la que servirá como tipo mínimo, dos terceras (2/3) partes del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $50,666.67. Si no hubiese remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, celebraré TERCERA SUBASTA el día 23 DE FEBRERO DE 2022 A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar en la que regirá como tipo mínimo, la mitad del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $38,000.00. El Alguacil que suscribe hizo constar que toda licitación deberá hacerse para pagar su importe en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América, de acuerdo con la Ley y de acuerdo con lo anunciado en este Aviso de Subasta. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables.

Se entiende que todo licitador que comparezca a la subasta señalada en este caso acepta como bastante la titulación que da base a la misma. Se entiende que cualquier carga y/o gravamen anterior y/o preferente, si la hubiere al crédito que da base a esta ejecución continuará subsistente, entendiéndose, además, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción cualquier parte del remanente del precio de licitación.

La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre

Wednesday, January 12, 2022 los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Vendida o adjudicada la finca o derecho hipotecado y consignado el precio correspondiente, en esa misma fecha o fecha posterior, el alguacil que celebró la subasta procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura pública de traspaso en representación del dueño o titular de los bienes hipotecados, ante el notario que elija el adjudicatario o comprador, quien deberá abonar el importe de tal escritura.

El alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial al nuevo dueño, si así se lo solicita dentro del término de veinte (20) días a partir de la confirmación de la venta o adjudicación. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante u ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del deudor la ocupen. Y PARA CONOCIMIENTO DE LOS LICITADORES Y DEL PUBLICO EN GENERAL y para su publicación de acuerdo con la Ley, expido el presente Edicto bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal. En Carolina, Puerto Rico, hoy 1 de diciembre de 2021. BETTY NAVARRO ALGARÍN, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE CAROLINA.

LEGAL NOT ICE

A: RAFAEL TORRES COLON. 247 B.E. CAMDEM, WYOMING, DE 19934 O SEA, LA PARTE ARRIBA MENCIONADA.

POR LA PRESENTE, se le emplaza para que presente al Tribunal su alegación responsiva a la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal, notificando copia de la misma al (a la) abogada de la parte demandante o a ésta, de no tener representación legal.

LCDA. MARGARITA GÓMEZ VÁZQUEZ Número del Tribunal Supremo: 8,806 VRB. FOREST VIEW I-2 BAJOS CALLE ESPAÑA BAYAMÓN, P.R. 00956 TEL. (787) 740-7190 EMAIL: licmargaritagomez@gmail.com Se le apercibe que si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el Tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el Tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. NOTIFÍQUESE. Dada en Arecibo, Puerto Rico, a 15 de diciembre de 2021. VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. BRUNILDA HERNÁNDEZ MÉNDEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

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

MONEY HOUSE, INC. Demandante Vs.

FULANO DE TAL Y MENGANO DE TAL

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUDemandados NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE ARECI- Civil Núm.: CA2021CV03290.

Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE BO SUCESION DE RAFAEL PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. TORRES TRINIDAD ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉREPRESENTADO POR RICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESERNESTO TORRES ROSARIO, IVÁN RAFAEL TADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

TORRES ROSARIO Y VILMA RAFAELA ROSARIO FLORES Demandante Vs.

RAFAEL TORRES COLON

Demandados Caso Núm.: AR2021CV01775.

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

A: FULANO DE TAL Y MENGANO DE TAL.

Quedan ustedes notificados que el demandante de epígrafe ha presentado en este Tribunal una Demanda contra ustedes como codemandados, en la que se solicita la cancelación judicial de un Pagaré Extraviado a favor de The Money House, Inc., o a su orden, por la suma principal de $4,310.00, sin intereses y con fecha de vencimiento el día 19 de julio

de 2009, suscrito el día 19 de enero de 2009. Para garantizar el referido Pagaré, el mismo día y ante el Notario Raúl Rivera Burgos, se otorgó la Escritura #16, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, mediante la cual se constituyó Hipoteca sobre la siguiente propiedad: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número treinta (30) del Bloque “B” (30-B) del plano de la Urbanización Rolling Hills, situada en el barrio Martín González del término municipal de Carolina, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de TRESCIENTOS CUARENTA Y TRES PUNTO VEINTICINCO METROS CUADRADOS (343.25 mc). En lindes por el NORTE, en doce punto cincuenta y cuatro metros (12.54 m) con una alameda; por el SUR, en catorce punto cero dos metros (14.02 m) con la calle número dos (2); por el ESTE, en veinticinco punto cero cero metros (25.00 m) con el solar veintinueve del Bloque “B” (29-B) y por el OESTE, en veinticinco punto cero cero metros (25.00 m) con el solar treinta y uno del Bloque “B” (31-B). Consta inscrita al folio cincuenta y uno (51) del tomo trescientos noventa y siete (397) de Carolina finca número quince mil seiscientos cuarenta y tres (15,643), Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección Segunda (II) de Carolina.

Se le emplaza y se le notifica que debe contestar la demanda dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del presente edicto. Deberá presentar la contestación a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https:// unired.ramajudicial.pr/sumac, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentarla ante el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Carolina, con copia de al abogada de la parte demandante a al siguiente dirección: Lcda. Magaly Rodríguez Batista PO Box 9024082 San Juan, PR 00902 4082 Tels: (787) 504-4801 Fax: 1 (888) 224-3201 Se le apercibe que, de no contestar la demanda en el término aquí establecido, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado, sin más citarle ni oírle.

Expido este edicto bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, hoy 07 de diciembre de 2021. Lcda.

Marilyn Aponte Rodríguez, Secretaria Regional. Keila G., Secretaria De Servicios A Sala.

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

DAVID ANTONIO ACEVEDO GARCÍA

EX-PARTE

25

taria Regional. Verónica Rivera lle número 10, en 20.00 metros Rodríguez, Secretaria Auxiliar y por el Oeste, con el solar número 21, en una distancia Civil Núm.: BY2021CV05350. Del Tribunal I. de 20.00 metros. Dicho solar Sobre: EXPEDIENTE DOLEGAL NOTICE enclava una casa para resiMINIO. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO dencia de una sola familia. InsPRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTA- DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU- crita al folio 202 del tomo 173 DOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LI- NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA de Guaynabo, finca 12,241, BRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO SALA SUPERIOR DE GUAY- Registro de la Propiedad de NABO Guaynabo. La hipoteca objeto RICO, SS. FINANCE OF AMERICA de esta ejecución se encuentra A: PERSONAS inscrita al folio 217 del tomo REVERSE LLC. IGNORADAS, Natalio 1495 de Guaynabo, Registro Demandante Vs. Garcia, Alberto García, de la Propiedad de Guaynabo, William García, Dionicio SUCESION CONCEPCIÓN Inscripción 9ª. Propiedad locaGONZALEZ CASTRO lizada en: URB. TORRIMAR, García, Pablo García, 13-12 CALLE SANTANDER, T/C/C CONCEPCION Medardo Garcia, Medardo GUAYNABO, PR 00966. SeGONZALEZ CASTRO Jr. García, Teófila García, gún figuran en la certificación T/C/C CONCEPCION Benito García, Miguel registral, la propiedad objeto SABINES T/C/C de ejecución está gravada por García, Calletano García, CONCEPCION M. las siguientes cargas anterioJuanita Garcia, David GONZALEZ COMPUESTA res o preferentes: Nombre del García, Pedro García, Titular: N/A. Suma de la Carga: POR ROLANDO L. Rafael García, Luz María N/A. Fecha de Vencimiento: SABINES GONZALEZ, N/A. Según figuran en la certiGarcía, Sofía García y RAMON JOSE SABINES ficación registral, la propiedad Ramón García.

GONZALEZ, JOHN DOE objeto de ejecución está graPor la presente se le notifica vada por las siguientes cargas Y JANE DOE COMO a usted que se ha presentado ante este Tribunal el expedien- POSIBLES HEREDEROS posteriores a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: Nombre del te arriba mencionado, con el fin DESCONOCIDOS; Titular: Secretario de la Viviende justificar e inscribir a favor ESTADOS UNIDOS DE da y Desarrollo Urbano. Suma de la Promovente, el dominio de la Carga: $503,250.00. FeAMERICA; CENTRO que tiene sobre la siguiente fincha de Vencimiento: 29 de sepca: “RUSTICA”: Predio ele teDE RECAUDACION tiembre de 2070. Se entenderá rreno radicado en el barrio CeDE IMPUESTOS que todo licitador acepta como dro Abajo del término municipal MUNICIPALES (CRIM) bastante la titularidad de la prode Naranjito, Puerto Rico, con Demandados piedad y que todas las cargas una cabida de SETECIENTOS Civil Núm.: GB2019CV00592. y gravámenes anteriores y los VEINTIOCHO PUNTO QUISobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPO- preferentes al crédito ejecutanNIENTOS SETENTA Y CINTECA. EDICTO DE SUBAS- te antes descritos, si los hubieCO METROS CUADRADOS TA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE re, continuarán subsistentes.

(728.575 m.c.), equivalentes AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE El rematante acepta dichas a CERO PUNTO MIL OCHODE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, cargas y gravámenes anterioCIENTOS CINCUENTA Y CUAEL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIA- res, y queda subrogado en la TRO CUERDA (0.1854 CDA.), DO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. responsabilidad de los mismos, en lindes por el NORTE, con sin destinarse a su extinción el A: LA PARTE Sucesión Juana Santiago; por precio del remate. Se establece DEMANDADA, AL (A el SUR, con camino municipal; por el ESTE, con Sucesión Jua- LA) SECRETARIO(A) DE como tipo de mínima subasta la suma de $503,250.00, según na Santiago, y por el OESTE, HACIENDA DE PUERTO acordado entre las partes en el con Sucesión Juana Santiago.

RICO Y AL PÚBLICO precio pactado en la escritura La parte Peticionaria que adquide hipoteca. De ser necesaria GENERAL: rió la propiedad de manos de Matilde García Garcia y Geor- Certifico y Hago Constar: Que una SEGUNDA SUBASTA por gino Acevedo Rodríguez, esto en cumplimiento con el Manda- declararse desierta la primera, por medio de escritura número miento de Ejecución de Senten- la misma se celebrará en mi doce (12), otorgada en Naranji- cia que me ha sido dirigido por oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal to, Puerto Rico, el día primero el (la) Secretario(a) del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de de abril de 2019, ante el Notario de Primera Instancia, Sala Su- Guaynabo, el 15 DE FEBRERO Jorge Manuel Díaz Rodríguez. perior de Guaynabo, en el caso DE 2022, A LAS 2:00 DE LA Es abogado de la parte Peti- de epígrafe, venderé en pública TARDE, y se establece como cionaria: LIC. JORGE. M. DIAZ subasta y al mejor postor, por mínima para dicha segunda suRODRIGUEZ, PO BOX 852, separado, de contado y por basta la suma de $335,500.00, NARANJITO, P.R. 00719-0852, moneda de curso legal de los 2/3 partes del tipo mínima TELEFONO: (787) 869-4042, Estados Unidos de América y/o establecido originalmente. Si jorgemdiazrodriguez@gmail. Giro Postal y Cheque Certifica- tampoco se produce remate ni com. Este Tribunal ordenó que do, en mi oficina ubicada en el adjudicación en la segunda suse publique la pretensión por Tribunal de Primera Instancia, basta, se establece como mínitres veces durante el término Sala de Guaynabo, el 8 DE FE- ma para la TERCERA SUBASde veinte días en un periódico BRERO DE 2022, A LAS 2:00 TA, la suma de $251,625.00, la de circulación general diaria, DE LA TARDE, todo derecho mitad (1/2) del precio pactado para que los que tengan algún título, participación o interés y dicha subasta se celebrará derecho real sobre el inmueble que le corresponda a la parte en mi oficina, ubicada en el descrito, las personas ignora- demandada o cualquiera de Tribunal de Primera Instancia, das a quienes pueda perjudicar ellos en el inmueble hipotecado Sala de Guaynabo, el 22 DE la inscripción, y en general, a objeto de ejecución que se des- FEBRERO DE 2022, A LAS todos los que desearen oponer- cribe a continuación: URBANA: 2:00 DE LA TARDE. Dicha suse, entre ellos los colindantes Solar número 12 de la Manzana basta se llevará a cabo para, y dueños anteriores, puedan “13” Urbanización Torrimar, Ba- con su producto satisfacer a la efectuarlo dentro del término de rrio Pueblo Viejo de Guaynabo, parte demandante, el importe veinte días a partir de la última compuesto de 600.00 metros de la Sentencia dictada a su publicación del presente edic- cuadrados. En lindes por el favor ascendente a la suma to. Por tanto, libro la presente Norte, con el solar número 13, de $253,637.84 por concepto en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy en 30.00 metros por el Sur, con de principal, más la suma de día 03 de enero de 2022. Lcda. el solar número 11, en 30.00 $105,300.79 en intereses acuLaura I. Santa Sánchez, Secre- metros; por el Este, con la Ca- mulados al 31 de octubre de 2019 y los cuales continúan

Peticionario

26 acumulándose a razón de 5.060% anual hasta su total y completo pago; más la sumas de $32,723.08 en seguro hipotecario; $500.00 en tasaciones; $180.00 en inspecciones; más la cantidad de 10% del pagare original en la suma de $50,325.00, para gastos, costas y honorarios de abogado, esta última habrá de devengar intereses al máximo del tipo legal fijado por la oficina del Comisionado de Instituciones Financieras aplicable a esta fecha, desde este mismo día hasta su total y completo saldo. La venta en pública subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen posterior que afecte la mencionada finca, a cuyo efecto se notifica y se hace saber la fecha, hora y sitio de la PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA, si esto fuera necesario, a los efectos de que cualquier persona o personas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha subasta.

Se notifica a todos los interesados que las actas y demás constancias del expediente de este caso están disponibles en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables para ser examinadas por los (las) interesados (as). Y para su publicación en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star, que es un diario de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, así como para su publicación en los sitios públicos de Puerto Rico. Expedido en Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, hoy 23 de noviembre de 2021.

Jorge Campusano De La Rosa, Alguacil Regional. Yamixa E. Ramos Ceballos, Alguacil Placa #783.

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

REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC. Demandante Vs.

JOSE T. RODRIGUEZ FUENTES T/C/C JOSE TOMAS RODRIGUEZ FUENTES T/C/C JOSE T. RODRIGUEZ T/C/C JOSE RODRIGUEZ FUENTES POR SI Y EN LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTARIA; SUCESION VIRGENMINA CINTRON BERRIOS T/C/C VIRGEMINA CINTRON BERRIOS T/C/C VIRGERMINA CINTRON BERRIOS T/C/C VIRGENMINA CINTRON COMPUESTA POR JOSE ENRIQUE RODRIGUEZ CINTRON, MARIBEL RODRIGUEZ

CINTRON; JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

Demandados Civil Núm.: SJ2020CV05405.

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

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

Certifico y Hago Constar: Que en cumplimiento con el Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por el (la) Secretario(a) del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, 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 San Juan, el 3 DE FEBRERO DE 2022, A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar marcado con el numero veintitrés (23) del bloque “E” de la Urbanización Colinas de Montecarlo, localizado en el Barrio Sabana Llana del municipio de San Juan, Puerto Rico, con un área superficial de Cuatrocientos veinticinco punto setenta y ocho metros cuadrados (425.78 m.c.). En lindes por el Norte, con la Calle número treinta y nueve (39), en una longitud de dieciséis punto cincuenta metros (16.50 m.); por el Sur, con el solar número tres (3), en una longitud de trece punto ochenta metros (13.80 m.); por el Este, con el solar numero dos (2), en una longitud de veintiocho punto cero cero metros (28.00 m.); y por el Oeste, con el solar número veintidós (22), en una longitud de veintiocho punto cero cero metros (28.00 m.).

Contiene este solar una casa de hormigón reforzado y bloques de concreto, dedicada a vivienda. Inscrita al folio 43 del tomo 488 de Sabana Llana, finca 19,623, Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección V. Propiedad localizada en: URB. COLINAS DE MONTECARLO, E-23 CALLE #39, SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO 00924. Según figuran en la certificación re-

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

gistral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas anteriores o preferentes: Nombre del Titular: N/A. Suma de la Carga: N/A. Fecha de Vencimiento: N/A. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas posteriores a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: Nombre del Titular: Secretario de la Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano. Suma de la Carga: $279,690.00.

Fecha de Vencimiento: 25 de agosto de 2086. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad de la propiedad y que todas las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito ejecutante antes descritos, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes.

El rematante acepta dichas cargas y gravámenes anteriores, y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se establece como tipo de mínima subasta la suma de $186,460.00, 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 San Juan, el 10 DE FEBRERO DE 2022, A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA, y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $124,306.67, 2/3 partes del tipo mínima establecido originalmente. Si tampoco se produce remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se establece como mínima para la TERCERA SUBASTA, la suma de $93,230.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, el 17 DE FEBRERO DE 2022, A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para, con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante, el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor ascendente a la suma de $174,935.77 por concepto de principal; $20,097.32 en intereses acumulados al 30 de noviembre de 2020; $5,755.96 en seguro hipotecario; $4,865.00 en cargos por servicio; $746.00 en seguro; $425.00 en tasaciones; $160.00 en inspecciones; $1,025.00 de adelantos de costas y honorarios para un total de $208,010.05; más la cantidad de 10% del pagare original para gastos, costas y honorarios de abogado. La venta en pública subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen posterior que afecte la mencionada finca, a cuyo efecto se notifica y se hace saber la fecha, hora y sitio de la PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA, si esto fuera necesario, a los efectos de que cualquier persona o

personas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha subasta. Se notifica a todos los interesados que las actas y demás constancias del expediente de este caso están disponibles en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables para ser examinadas por los (las) interesados (as). Y para su publicación en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star, que es un diario de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, así como para su publicación en los sitios públicos de Puerto Rico. Expedido en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy 20 de diciembre de 2021. Edwin E. López Mulero, Alguacil Auxiliar.

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

ISRAEL GONZALEZ PEÑA Parte Demandante Vs.

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: CG2021CV03205.

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

A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE.

POR LA PRESENTE se le notifica a usted, que se ha radicado en esta secretaria la Demanda de epígrafe. En dicha Demanda se reclama que usted es el posible tenedor de un pagaré hipotecario extraviado constituido mediante la Escritura Número Quinientos Treinta y Seis (536) otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 22 de noviembre de dos mil cuatro (2004) ante el Notario Público Félix Joel Zambrana Ortiz; por la suma principal de CIENTO NOVENTA Y SEIS MIL DOLARES ($196,000.00) con intereses al siete y tres cuartos (7 3/4%) por ciento anual y vencedero el 1 de diciembre de dos mil diecinueve (2019) a favor de Sana Mortgage Corporation; sobre el inmueble que se describe a continuación: RUSTICA: Parcela de terreno marcada con el número Tres (3) radicada en el Barrio Caimito del término municipal de Juncos, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de dos punto uno siete uno siete uno cuerdas (2.17171), equivalentes a ocho mil quinientos treinta y cuatro punto sesenta y tres (8,534.63) metros cuadrados; en lindes por el Norte, con faja de terreno dedicada a uso público que forma parte de la carretera número treinta y uno

(31) de Naguabo, por el Sur, con la Sucesión Piñero; por el Este, con los solares número Uno (1) y número Dos (2) del plano de inscripción; por el Oeste, con el solar número Cuatro (4) del plano de inscripción.

Inscrita al folio 173 del tomo 381 de Juncos, finca 7,285.

Catastro 228-041-235-02-000.

Se le emplaza y requiere que presente su alegación responsiva a la DEMANDA dentro de los treinta (30) días de haber sido diligenciado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día del diligenciamiento. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaria del tribunal, con copia a con copia a la Lcda. Sary Magdalena Brea Falcón, a A23 Jardines de Humacao, Humacao, P.R. 00791, con teléfono 787-4075832, 787-719-5585, Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente.

Se expidió bajo mi firma y sello de este Honorable Tribunal, en Caguas, Puerto Rico, a 30 de diciembre de 2021. Lisilda Martínez Agosto, Secretaria. Carmen L. Soto Planas, Secretaria De Servicios A Sala.

LEGAL NOTICE ¯ ¯-¯- - - -ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA REGIÓN JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS/

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Parte Demandante Vs.

CITIFINANCIAL SERVICES OF PUERTO RICO, INC. COMO SUCESOR EN INTERES DE CARIBBEAN FINANCIAL SERVICES CORP. H/N/C EASY MONEY, JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE

Parte Demandada CASO NÚM. CG2021CV01988.

SOBRE: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE o sea, las personas ignoradas que puedan ser tenedores del pagaré

extraviado.

Por la presente se les notifica que se ha presentada ante este tribunal una Demanda, en el caso de epígrafe, en la cual se solicita la cancelación de un pagaré favor a CARIBBEAN FINANCIAL SERVICES CORP., h/n/c EASY MONEY, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $158,900.00, con intereses al 7.95% anual, vencedero el 1ro. de agoto de 2018, otorgado en Caguas, el día 17 de julio de 2003, ante el notario público Héctor E. Pabón Vega, testimonio 5770, garantizado con hipoteca inscrita al folio 96 del tomo 1731 de Caguas, finca 31919, inscripción 9na. y última y que grava la propiedad que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar núm. 18 de la manzana DF, radicado en la Urbanización Residencial Bairoa, situada en el Barrio Bairoa del término municipal de Caguas, con una cabida superficial de 378.59 metros cuadrados, en lindes por el NORTE, con el solar núm.

1, distancia de 19.126 metros, por el SUR, con la calle núm. núm. 15, distancia de 13.947 metros, y 2.583 metros en arco, por el ESTE, con el solar #17, distancia de 21.00 metros y por el OESTE, con la calle España, distancia de 17.9 12 metros y 2.583 metros en arco. Se le advierte que este edicto se publicará en un periódico de circulación general una sola vez y que si no comparece a contestar dicha Demanda dentro del término de treinta (30) días, contados a partir de la publicación de este edicto, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su discreción, lo entiende procedente. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), el cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio. El abogado de la parte demandante es: Lcdo.

Raúl Rivera Burgos, RUA 8879, Estancias de San Fernando, Calle 4, Núm. A-35, Carolina, P.R. 00985, Tel. (787) 2387665, Email: raulrblaw@gmail. com. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal de Caguas, Puerto Rico, hoy 24 de septiembre de 2021. LISILDA MARTINEZ AGOSTO, Sec Regional Interina. ENEIDA ARROYO VELEZ, Secretaria.

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Parte Demandante Vs.

SUCESIÓN DE

FRANCISCA RIVERA RIVERA T/C/C FRANCISCA RIVERA COMPUESTA POR FULANO DE TAL, POSIBLE HEREDERO DESCONOCIDO; SUCESIÓN DE LUIS MARTÍNEZ RIVERA COMPUESTA POR MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLE HEREDERO DESCONOCIDO; SUCESIÓN DE RAFAEL MARTÍNEZ RIVERA T/C/C RAFAEL MARTÍNEZ COMPUESTA POR ESTHER RIVERA APONTE, DEBORAH, RAQUEL, ORLANDO, RAFAEL Y FRANCES, TODOS DE APELLIDO MARTÍNEZ Y PERENCEJO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: BY2020CV00029.

(702). Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA “IN REM”. EMPLAZAMIENTO Y REQUERIMIENTO DE INTERPELACIÓN POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS E.E.U.U., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: DEBORAH, RAQUEL, ORLANDO, RAFAEL Y FRANCES, TODOS DE APELLIDO MARTÍNEZ, COMO PARTE DE LA SUCESIÓN DE RAFAEL MARTÍNEZ RIVERA T/C/C RAFAEL MARTÍNEZ, A SU ÚLTIMA DIRECCIÓN CONOCIDA: URB. SIERRA BAYAMÓN, 57-29 CALLE 45, BAYAMÓN, PR 00961-4420.

PERENCEJO DE TAL, POSIBLE HEREDERO DESCONOCIDO DE RAFAEL MARTÍNEZ RIVERA T/C/C RAFAEL MARTÍNEZ.

Queda usted notificado que en este Tribunal se ha radicado Demanda sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria “In Rem” por lo que el inmueble objeto del presente pleito, responde por la totalidad de la deuda ascendente a la suma de $75,706.06 de principal, más intereses sobre dicha suma al 2.5% anual desde el 1 de junio de 2019 hasta su completo pago, más recargos acumulados, más la cantidad estipulada de $7,200.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, así como cualquier otra suma que contenga el contrato de préstamo. La propiedad que garantiza hipotecariamente el préstamo

es la siguiente: URBANA: Parcela de terreno radicado en la Urbanización Sierra Bayamón, localizada en el Barrio Hato Tejas de Bayamón, marcado con el #29 del Bloque 57, con área de 175.00 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con servidumbre de paso en 7.00 metros; por el SUR, con la calle #45, en igual medida; por el ESTE, con el solar #30 en 25.00 metros; y por el OESTE, con el solar #28 en igual medida. Contiene una casa de concreto para una familia. Inscrita al folio 81 del tomo 96 de Bayamón Norte, Finca 4037.

Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección III. La hipoteca consta inscrita al folio 210 del tomo 260 de Bayamón Norte, Finca 4037. Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección III. Inscripción 6ta. La modificación de hipoteca consta inscrita al tomo Karibe de Bayamón Norte, Finca 4037. Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección III. Inscripción 8va. La demandante es la tenedora por endoso, por valor recibido y de buena fe del referido pagaré objeto de la presente acción.

Se interpela a los demandados para que acepten o renuncien a la herencia de la causante dentro de los 30 días subsiguientes a la fecha que fuesen emplazados o requeridos que contesten, para darle cumplimiento al Artículo 1578 del nuevo Código Civil de Puerto Rico, 31 L.P.R.A. § 11021, entendiéndose que, si no se expresan dentro de dicho término, aceptan el caudal relicto; la renuncia se hará por instrumento público o por escrito judicial. La parte demandada deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal. Se le advierte que si no contesta la Demanda, radicando el original de la contestación en este Tribunal y enviando copia de la contestación a la abogada de la Parte Demandante, Lcda.

Belma Alonso García, cuya dirección es: P.O. Box 3922, Guaynabo, PR 00970-3922, teléfono: (787)789-1826, correo electrónico: oficinabelmaalonso@gmail.com, dentro del término de treinta (30) días de la publicación de este edicto, excluyéndose el día de la publicación, se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará Sentencia en su contra, concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, hoy, 27 de diciembre de 2021, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico. Lcda. Laura I. Santa Sánchez, Secretaria Regional. Mircienid González Torres, Secretaria Auxiliar.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

27

Novak Djokovic’s fight to play tennis could be just starting

By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY

N

ovak Djokovic has fought through adversity of his own and others’ making for as long as he has been playing tennis.

He beat extraordinary odds to become a champion, emerging from the former Yugoslavia despite economic hardship and a conflict that turned Serbia, his homeland, into an international pariah and made it difficult for him to travel and train. Once on tour, he had to contend with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, well on their way to becoming two of the game’s greatest players. Djokovic caught up to them and now holds a career edge in both rivalries. He has also been ranked No. 1 for 356 weeks, a record.

Djokovic, stubborn and resilient, has had tougher fights in his career than the one he has faced this month with the Australian government over his visa. But this battle, which continues, is unlike any other he has encountered. It could do him lasting damage despite his surprise victory in Australia on Monday, when a federal court overturned the revocation of his visa on procedural grounds. The ruling still does not guarantee he will not be deported by Australian immigration authorities before the Australian Open, which begins next Monday.

Djokovic’s five-day detention, ended by the court ruling, was a blink of the eye compared with the detentions of some long-standing asylum-seekers with whom he shared his Melbourne hotel. Djokovic, unlike some of his fellow lodgers, was also free to leave the country at any time.

But the experience had to be draining, and it came after a phenomenal but emotionally taxing season in which he came within one match of achieving a Grand Slam before losing the U.S. Open final to Daniil Medvedev. He was also beaten at the Olympics and the ATP Finals by Alexander Zverev.

Based on transcripts provided to the federal court, he landed in Melbourne near midnight last Wednesday with the seeming belief that all his papers were in order, including his medical exemption from vaccination. He soon learned otherwise.

Although it is highly unlikely that Djokovic, an outspoken skeptic of vaccines, will find himself sequestered again

Novak Djokovic stood stoic on a billboard in Belgrade, Serbia, as he fought with the Australian government over his visa. in any other country over visa issues, the trouble in Melbourne presages some of the headwinds he could face in the months ahead if he continues to attempt to travel the world without being vaccinated for COVID-19.

Governments are running out of forbearance in instituting or debating vaccine mandates, and some tennis officials are running out of patience, too. And the pace and direction of the coronavirus pandemic and its variants are unknown.

The next major events on tour after the Australian Open are the Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells, California, and Miami, which both start in March.

But the United States now requires that visitors be fully vaccinated to travel to the country by plane unless they are U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents or traveling on a U.S. immigrant visa. Only limited exceptions apply, and it is unclear whether Djokovic would qualify for one or would even want to try to qualify for one after the Australian imbroglio.

The French Open, which is the next Grand Slam tournament of the season after the Australian Open, begins in May and appears less problematic. The French sports minister, Roxana Maracineanu, told French national radio last week that she expected Djokovic would be allowed to enter the country and compete if unvaccinated because of the health protocols that are planned for major international

sporting events in France.

But in the same interview, Maracineanu emphasized that any athlete, French or foreign, who was a resident in France would be required to show proof of vaccination to have access to sports training facilities. That is a sign of which way the mistral is blowing. Some professional leagues have left loopholes in place, but gaps are also closing for the unvaccinated.

Djokovic, who has long held nontraditional views on science and taken unorthodox approaches to his health, finds himself in the distinct minority with more than 90% of the top 100 players on the ATP Tour now vaccinated. If the ATP has made no official statements of public support for Djokovic during his detention, that might not be because Djokovic is now leading a new player group that has been critical of the ATP but because the ATP has pushed increasingly hard for its members to be vaccinated.

In 2022, the tour will not require vaccinated players to take more than an initial test once they arrive at a tournament unless they develop symptoms. Unvaccinated players and team members will have to be tested regularly, and the tour will no longer cover the cost of follow-up testing for the unvaccinated.

That will pose no hardship to Djokovic, who has earned about $154 million in career prize money and hundreds of mil-

lions more off court. But the tour rules do emphasize that Djokovic and the few remaining unvaccinated players are outliers.

The Australian authorities have hardly wrapped themselves in glory during L’Affaire Djokovic. There were mixed signals, conflicting memos and other miscommunication between state and federal officials and Tennis Australia, which runs the Australian Open.

If there had been a united, coherent effort that sent a clear message about the grounds for medical exemptions from vaccination, Djokovic’s overnight interrogation and visa cancellation could have been avoided.

He most likely would not have risked going to Australia if he had understood that the federal government did not consider a recent case of COVID to be grounds for an exemption. But while Djokovic won in court Monday, he has undoubtedly lost support in some chambers of the court of public opinion, although he has become a martyr for the anti-vaccine movement and among his countrymen.

He is not a drama magnet by chance.

There has been too much of it through the years for it to be a coincidence. He could have avoided this one altogether by choosing to be vaccinated but amplified it by his willful refusal for months to clarify his Australian Open plans.

It has been his signature Slam, the place where he has won nine of his 20 Grand Slam singles titles. Djokovic believed that a positive test for COVID gave him grounds for a medical exemption from vaccination, and the opportunity to try to win the Australian Open a 10th time.

What is troubling is that although he submitted a document to the court confirming that positive Dec. 16 result, he, rather than isolating, took part in public events, some while unmasked and some involving children, in the days that immediately followed.

That needs explaining whether he stays for the Australian Open or goes. But then, he is hardly the only one in this sorry, messy affair with explaining to do.

Whether Djokovic stays or leaves, wins or loses, the uncertainty will not end in Melbourne. He faces a season full of tough choices as he tries to navigate an increasingly vaccinated world and workplace.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Georgia wins national title, conquering a drought and a rival

By BILLY WITZ and A.J. MAST

I

f this is a new era of college football, with its sandlot schemes, pyrotechnic offensives and analytics dictating that fourth down is not for punts or field goals, the sport was dragged back to an earlier time on Monday night.

Back to football’s prehistoric age, when championships were won with chin-strap busting defenses, offenses content to collect 3 yards with their cloud of dust, and coaches who cherished a reliable kicker.

Georgia vanquished its old nemesis before a supportive capacity crowd on Monday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, rallying past Alabama, 33-18, in a bare-knuckler-turned-white-knuckler of a football game that wasn’t secure until Kelee Ringo returned an interception 79 yards for a touchdown in the final minute.

It was Georgia’s first title since the 1980 season and its first win over the Crimson Tide since 2007, a string of defeats that included a gut-wrenching loss in the 2017 season’s title game.

“I can tell you what, there’s going to be some property torn up in Indianapolis tonight,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said on the field afterward, a nod to the touchdown call by Larry Munson, the former Georgia broadcaster who died in 2011, after the miraculous Buck Belue-to-Lindsay Scott touchdown pass against Florida that kept Georgia’s unbeaten season alive 41 years ago.

If Monday night was celebrated in some quarters as a moment of Southeastern Conference supremacy — Georgia became the conference’s third different team to win in the last three seasons — the field-goal fest may well have been another reason for those outside the South to begin clicking off their TV sets well before the confetti landed.

This season’s semifinals were the second- and third-lowest rated broadcasts in the playoff’s eight seasons and if it is due in part to SEC fatigue, there may be more of the same to come. Earlier Monday, the College Football Playoff management committee once again failed to come to an agreement that would expand the field and perhaps spice up the tournament.

But if you were an old-school purist, who appreciated battles in the trenches and didn’t mind seeing quarterbacks getting dirtied, this was your game. The teams combined for seven sacks, 14 tackles be-

Jamaree Salyer and Stetson Bennett celebrate Georgia’s win against Alabama. hind the line of scrimmage and umpteen jarring hits.

Neither team breached the end zone until Georgia’s Zamir White bulled in from 1 yard out with just over a minute remaining in the third quarter, giving the Bulldogs their first lead, 13-9.

That score seemed to open up the game.

Alabama kicker Will Reichard booted his fourth field goal, a 21-yarder early in the fourth quarter, and then linebacker Christian Harris turned in what looked like a game-turning play, drilling quarterback Stetson Bennett IV deep in Georgia territory. The ball squirted from Bennett’s hand as he threw and was ruled a fumble that bounced into the hands of safety Brian Branch as his foot was millimeters from the out-of-bounds line at the Georgia 16.

Five plays later, Alabama — aided by a pass interference penalty, one of 10 infractions against Georgia — regained the lead, 18-13, when Bryce Young sidearmed a 3-yard touchdown pass to tight end Cameron Latu and Alabama failed a 2-point attempt.

Bennett, a flip-phone-wielding former walk-on with a patrician name and a pedestrian game, redeemed himself by fir-

ing a 40-yard touchdown pass to Adonai Mitchell, who made a leaping catch in the end zone to put the Bulldogs ahead, 1918, with 8 minutes 9 seconds remaining.

He added another when freshman Brock Bowers turned a short reception into a 15-yard touchdown that put Georgia ahead by 26-18 with 3:33 remaining.

“I wasn’t going to be the reason why we lost that game,” said Bennett, who now has a football origin story that approaches his grandfather, who hitchhiked to South Carolina in the late 1950s after Stetson University dropped football and promptly became the Gamecocks’ starting quarterback.

Ringo sealed the victory when he picked off an errant pass deep in his own territory and zigzagged his way through Alabama tacklers, being shadowed by Smart along the sideline, and bounded into the end zone.

His jaunt was confirmation that Georgia would land a long-coveted title.

But the game ended fittingly enough on linebacker Nolan Smith’s sack of Young.

The Bulldogs, from September through November, were the class of college football with a throwback team: a

bruising, debilitating defense and a steady offense directed ably enough by Bennett.

Georgia shackled Clemson early and then ran roughshod through the SEC until its aura was punctured by a familiar boogeyman: Alabama, which scorched them, 41-24, in the SEC championship game.

Saban had lost only once to a former assistant — five of whom are now coaching in the SEC. None, though, have been closer to him or endured as many crushing defeats against Saban as Smart. He spent 11 seasons in three places — Louisiana State, the Miami Dolphins and Alabama — working under Saban. And those defeats included two in SEC championship games and another in the 2017 season’s national championship game, with Georgia blowing double-digit leads.

That title game was the most excruciating: Alabama freshman quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who had come off the bench at halftime, hit a streaking DeVonta Smith down the sideline on second-and-26 for a walk-off, overtime touchdown.

The Bulldogs, who had not beaten Alabama since 2007, had spent the last 10 days answering questions about their record against the Crimson Tide. “It’s the truth,” senior left tackle Jamaree Salyer said. “You can’t really run from the truth.”

Georgia began the night as if it was spooked simply by the sight of the Tide.

Bennett was sacked on his first snap and dropped the ball while scrambling on the second (he recovered it). The Bulldogs failed to get the next snap off before the play clock expired — the first of seven penalties in the first half. The team that mowed down Michigan from the opening snap of the semifinal netted 1 yard on its first two drives, which seemed to be a good indication of why Smart deferred when he won the coin toss.

As much as Alabama is a regular presence in the playoff, missing it only once, it is remarkable how close they were to winning their seventh title since 2009.

But for the starburst performance in the SEC championship game, this was not the same Crimson Tide team that stormed through last season with a cavalcade of offensive stars — from running back Najee Harris to quarterback Mac Jones and a star-studded receiving corps led by Smith, the Heisman Trophy winner — that operated behind the country’s best offensive line.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

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

(Mar 21-April 20)

As Mars your ruler angles towards aquatic Neptune, it may be hard to get down to the important things, and easier to surf the net, watch TV or binge on movies and boxsets. Energy levels might not be up to your usual high, so do what you can. Your mind could turn to spiritual matters though, so reading an inspirational book or trying meditation or yoga may help you calm down.

Taurus

(April 21-May 21)

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

Your friends may want you to come on board with their plan, and have many reasons why it might be good for you. If it’s something minor, then no worries, but for any major schemes that involve time and money, make sure you know what’s in it for you first, Taurus. That way you’ll avoid disappointment.

Besides, a restless lunar tie could inspire you to follow your own star.

Need advice? If you know just the person, then ask, Gemini. The coming days could see you becoming muddled if you try to deal with too many options at once. Keep things simple and ask for help if needed, and you can accomplish much, leaving you more time to indulge your hobbies. Plus, you might feel discouraged if something isn’t working out. Just give it time.

Cancer

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Wednesday, January 12, 2022

(June 22-July 23)

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

You could be too willing for your own good, with the current stellar map inspiring you to pour energy into something that might be a lost cause. Before you sacrifice your time and energy, think carefully about what motivates you to do it, and what you’ll get out of it. If neither are satisfactory, then don’t bother, Libra. There are better ways to spend the day than this.

Scorpio

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

Even experts have their weaknesses, and it’s no shame to admit that there are some things you can’t do as well as others. If you’ve been given a job that you’re not very good at, delegate so you can put your attention on those things that you excel at, and have a reputation for, Scorpio. On the plus side, you may be getting closer to someone who is proving to be fabulous company.

Sagittarius

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

Whatever you do or say will affect others, especially with stirring Mars in your sign increasing courage and inspiring you to explore new options. Your presence could be inspirational to some who see you as an avid adventurer who knows no fear. Yet there might be something you are afraid of that you’re not letting on. Get a handle on this Archer, and you’ll be unstoppable.

Feeling a lack of motivation? This may be down to an awkward tie involving feisty Mars and ethereal Neptune, that could seem to sap vitality. Yet this aspect can boost the imagination and assist your creative potential. If you feel inspired in this way, you might want to dip into an art project or other similar activity. It may help to pare down your schedule as far as you can.

Made a mistake? Don’t be too harsh on yourself. Instead, accept it and move on. If you let this take up too much bandwidth in your head, you’ll end up feeling more discouraged than you should be. By the weekend, you may find out it was unavoidable anyway.

Perhaps the best thing you can do is indulge activities you love, that will relax you and put you in a better mood.

Leo

Aquarius

(July 24-Aug 23)

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

A romance or other relationship could go through an awkward phase. You may have doubts about someone you were thrilled with just recently. The deflating Mars/Neptune link can find you focusing on their faults and flaws, as you perceive them. It’s possible your ideas about them are distorted though. Over the weekend, you’ll have a truer picture of what makes them tick.

A team project could be a lot of fun if you invite friends on board. And if it involves a new experience, you’ll be delighted. Something you’re involved with might pave the way for a meeting of minds, or a new interest that expands your range of leisure and social options. There may be something you need to do that you’re dreading though. Get it out of the way quickly.

Virgo

Pisces

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

While your family may not be supportive of a brilliant idea of yours, your friends might be. If you’re determined to pull it off, you’ll need to liaise with them to get things moving. Loved ones can only change their mind once you have made a success of it. Plus, the Taurus Moon and its merger with Uranus, could prompt a spontaneous decision to do something wild and exciting.

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

You may be your own worst critic, and this could spoil your confidence over coming days. Even if you’re presented with a brilliant opportunity, you might not take it because of the nagging voice in your head talking you down. Don’t listen, Pisces.

From today, make a decision to keep moving out of your comfort zone and trying new things, and soon you’ll be flying high.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

31

CARTOONS

Herman

Speed Bump

Frank & Ernest

BC

Scary Gary

Wizard of Id

For Better or for Worse

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Ziggy

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Wednesday, January 12, 2022

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