Tourism leaders and owners of hostels, small inns, “paradores” (country inns) and bed & breakfasts are in support of a San Juan city ordinance calling for the registration and regulation of more than 4,600 short-term rental accommodations.
“We studied Ordinance Bill No. 26, and it is quite complete,” said Xavier A. Ramírez, president of the Puerto Rican Paradores and Small Inns Owners Association (ADPPHP by its Spanish initials). “Municipalities with high tourism activity know the vast majority of these accommodations are commercial enterprises with significant sales.”
He said booking platforms such as AirBnB and short-term rentals must comply with the exact requirements imposed on other businesses. For example, they must pay for permits, licenses, “patentes,” insurance and property tax, and comply with minimum safety standards.
The Municipal Code (Law 107-2020) empowers municipalities to take appropriate measures to regulate businesses within their city limits so they contribute equitably to maintain the infrastructure and public services for residents. The Bed & Breakfasts Association supported the San Juan municipal ordinance because it will complement current regulations while addressing the most critical problems created by short-term rentals. Studies show that the ‘Airbnb effect’ is similar to gentrification in that it increases the value of an area, forcing out indigenous residents due to economic reasons and contributing to a hike in housing prices.
“[The ordinance] will control the accelerated displacement of family homes in San Juan by estab-
lishing a mandatory registration, along with other requirements successfully implemented in the main U.S. cities,” said Eddie Ramírez, president of the Bed & Breakfasts Association.
Tomás Ramírez, treasurer of the ADPPHP, noted that: “Conservative estimates reflect that the shortterm rental inventory on the island ranges between 25,000 and 30,000 keys. About 85% are dedicated 100% of the time as short term rentals. Professional hosts manage over 70%, and many constitute illegal hotels.”
From 2019 to 2022, short-term rental revenues exceeded $1.4 billion, and the loss of taxes and regulatory fees exceeded $300 million. As a result, organizations have recommended the mandatory registration of short-term rentals with the Tourism Company and the municipalities where they are located to ensure they comply with quality, health and safety laws.
The tourism entrepreneurs recognize that shortterm rentals facilitate the dispersion of tourism to the 78 municipalities, and they are here to stay. However, they pointed out that over the past eight years, the island Legislature ignored the claims of the residential communities and recommendations to make shortterm rentals comply with the law.
Short-term rentals are marketed simultaneously through different mechanisms, including digital platforms such as Airbnb, Vrbo, and Join a Join. “Certainly, collaborative agreements with digital platforms have proven to be very important, but they exclude over 35% of rental income,” said Ramírez, the ADPPHP president. “Furthermore, throughout the United States, registration of these facilities ensures their compliance and allows municipalities to supervise them.”
This month, the Department of Public Safety (DSP by its Spanish initials) intends to start paying off a debt it has had for 18 years with some 402 civilian employees of the Puerto Rico Police Bureau.
This is possible because the Financial Oversight and Management Board approved an initial payment of $567,898, corresponding to a $100 salary raise granted to public employees in 2004. As a result, the DSP hopes to start paying off debt during the Jan. 30, 2023 pay cycle.
“With this payment, part of a million-dollar debt, we begin to do justice to these civil employees whose claim has not been addressed in 18 years,” DSP Secretary Alexis Torres said. “This government will pay the increase of $100 retroactively from July 1, 2022 onward.”
Organized Civil Employees (ECO) President Jorge Méndez Cotto said meanwhile that “this achievement is the product of efforts between the ECO and the DSP.”
“Although the payment is a step forward in the negotiations with the Board, there is still a long way to go to achieve the total debt payment,” he said. “However, we recognize that teamwork is paying
off in favor of the employees.”
Torres emphasized that the DSP continues in talks with the oversight board to obtain the total payment of the debt with these employees, which amounts to about $20 million and covers the period from 2004 to June 30, 2022.
“The dialogue is constant with the members of the board to end this situation that seems to us an injustice,” Torres said. “Since Governor [Pedro] Pierluisi took office, we have insisted that this money had to be allocated to meet the commitment made to these civilian employees of the Puerto Rico Police Bureau.”
Puerto Rico Police Commissioner Antonio López Figueroa said that “in the Puerto Rico Police Bureau, everyone has the same value and importance in providing security to our citizens.”
“Therefore, although this payment is the first step, we will not rest until we can pay off everything owed to my civilian employees since 2004,” he said.
It is not the first initiative on the part of the DSP to pay debts with its staff. At the beginning of the current fiscal year, the entity paid $16.5 million owed in overtime pay to 10,000 Police Bureau agents. The July outlay joined the $66 million paid in overtime in fiscal year 2021-2022.
Years after bond issuances that took Puerto Rico to bankruptcy court, the Financial Oversight and Management Board’s Special Claims Committee is still trying to identify the underwriters and financial professionals responsible for the fiscal debacle.
A filing in the Special Claims Committee et al v Barclays Capital et al case in U.S. District Court highlighted the problem.
On May 2, 2019, the Special Claims Committee and the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of the Debtors (except the Public Buildings Authority [PBA] and the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corp. [COFINA by its Spanish acronym]) sued some 19 banks and financial institutions for their role in contributing to Puerto Rico’s estimated $74 billion debt.
The adversary proceeding, which was amended in September of this year, alleges that underwriters and other financial professionals looked the other way when the Government Development Bank acted in breach of its duty as fiscal agent. The banks issued for their own profit and unjust enrichment portions of the commonwealth’s
$74 billion debt knowing the government could not afford it, the suit said.
This week, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith acknowledged it underwrote municipal bond issuances while doing business as Merrill Lynch & Co for some of the issuances and as BofA Merrill Lynch for others, according to a notice.
BofA Entities has asked Drivetrain, the Trustee for the Commonwealth Avoidance Action Trust, to remove Bank of America as a defendant and to replace it with BofA Securities, which is already named in the adversary proceeding, as the successor to Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith.
The Trustee requested that “the court enter an [...] permitting the removal of Bank of America as a defendant and the attribution of the allegations and counts against Bank of America to BofA Securities, which is already a defendant in this adversary proceeding.”
Meanwhile, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority mediation team extended the termination date for mediation to Jan. 31 from Dec. 31, 2022, according to a legal notice last week, even though there are no negotiations.
The team had the authority to extend the mediation by one month at its discretion, but further extensions will require a court order.
“While there are no active negotiations taking place at the present time in which the mediation team is involved, the mediation team believes it is in the best interests of all stakeholders for the mediation team to remain available to assist should such negotiations resume,” the notice said.
Disaster survivors who are repairing their homes after Hurricane Fiona can visit Walmart in Carolina, Manatí and Mayagüez, Home Depot in Bayamón and Ponce and National Lumber hardware stores in Cabo Rojo, Juana Díaz and San Lorenzo to talk with mitigation
Walmart Walmart Carolina
Highway PR-3, Parque Escorial
Barrio San Antón
Carolina, PR 00987
PRSL available: Jan. 3
Walmart Manatí
PR-2, Km 45.8
Plaza Monte Real Manatí, PR 00674
PRSL available: Jan. 2
Walmart Mayagüez
PR-2, Km 149.5
Western Plaza Mayagüez, PR 00682
PRSL available: Jan. 4
Home Depot
Home Depot Bayamón
Rexville Town Center PR-167 Ave. Las Cumbres Bayamón, PR 00060
PRSL available: Jan. 3
specialists from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) about their damage and discuss how to make homes stronger and safer during the rebuilding process, officials said last week.
FEMA mitigation specialists will share tips about rebuilding and protecting homes from future disaster-related damage, such as high winds and water. They will also pro-
Home Depot Ponce Ave. Baramaya 3305
Reyna del Sur Shopping Ponce, PR 00728
PRSL available: Jan. 5
National Lumber
National Lumber Cabo Rojo PR-100
Cabo Rojo, PR 00623
PRSL available: Jan. 4
National Lumber Juana Díaz
PR-149, Km 66.9
Barrio Lomas Juana Díaz, PR 00795
PRSL available: Jan. 5
National Lumber San Lorenzo PR-203
San Lorenzo Shopping Mall San Lorenzo, PR 00754
PRSL available: Jan. 2
vide information on topics such as selecting contractors, understanding flood insurance coverage and emergency preparedness. No appointment is needed.
FEMA mitigation specialists will be available at the following locations from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., starting today through Jan. 7. Puerto Rico Sign Language (PRSL) interpreters will also be available.
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced last week that it will waive the interest rate for the first year on new disaster loans and extend the initial payment deferment period automatically to 12 months.
“We must ensure that communities struck by disaster have the help they need to recover in the wake of natural disasters, and the Biden-Harris Administration is 100 percent focused on finding more ways to assist,” SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzmán said. “Our zero-interest disaster loan and payment deferral solutions add new tools to our toolbox to help small-business owners gain flexibility as they work to invest, reopen, and get back to business.” “Disaster-impacted residents in Puerto Rico and Florida, and others facing disaster can count on the SBA to help in any way it can in the days and months ahead,” she added.
New disaster loan borrowers will now have up to one year from the date of the note to begin making payments, instead of the standard five months. Interest on the loan will not begin to accrue until 12 months from the date of the initial loan disbursement. Previously, interest began to accrue on all disbursed loan funds including during the initial payment deferment period.
Last week’s announcement will benefit disaster survivors and help them to decrease the overall cost of recovery by setting the interest rate to 0% for the first 12 months and reducing the overall amount of accrued interest they must repay.
Eric Perlloni, the SBA’s public affairs specialist, said the benefit includes those in Puerto Rico affected by Hurricane Fiona.
“It is important to reiterate that resources are still available in Puerto Rico to those business owners who have experienced economic losses from Hurricane Fiona,” he said. “With loans at an interest rate as low as 3.040% and up to 30 years to pay it off, the SBA offers entrepreneurs the opportunity to finance their recovery by providing working capital for the basic needs of their businesses.”
“Applications will be accepted until June 21, 2023,” Perlloni added. “We keep encouraging anyone interested to contact our customer service lines or visit any of our seven Business Recovery Centers located in: Arecibo, Barranquitas, Caguas, Fajardo, Mayagüez, Ponce and Yabucoa, to complete their application.”
SBA disaster loans offer individuals and businesses direct access to affordable financial assistance to help fully repair or replace disaster-damaged property. By offering affordable loans with no interest and no payments for the first year, and low fixed-interest rates for the remaining 30-year term, SBA is maximizing disaster survivors’ likelihood of a successful recovery and minimizing further financial hardship.
The extended deferment to 12 months is automatic and
loan borrowers do not need to take any additional action. There is no prepayment penalty and borrowers can begin making loan payments during the deferment period if they choose.
The change is effective for all disaster loans approved in response to a disaster declared on or after Sept. 21, 2022, through Sept. 30, 2023. The effective date covers SBA disaster loans currently available for Hurricane Fiona and Hurricane Ian declared earlier this year. SBA does not have the authority to forgive interest that has already accrued on disbursed loan funds.
Borrowers who already received a loan for a disaster declared after the Sept. 21 effective date will also receive an automatic extension of their first payment due date to 12 months and 0% interest. The SBA will notify eligible borrowers of their loan modification and they will not need to submit a request to receive this automatic benefit.
As of Dec. 5, the SBA had approved $1.2 billion for residents and businesses impacted by hurricanes Fiona and Ian.
When George Piro learned that some of his former colleagues were spreading unfounded rumors about him, he was stunned.
Piro, 55, was a highly decorated agent in the FBI. During his 23-year career, he earned a national intelligence medal for the months he spent interrogating Saddam Hussein, supervised several high-profile shooting investigations and consistently earned reviews that were among the highest for agents who ran field offices.
Now, he stood accused of misconduct by a group of former agents who had been placed on leave and called themselves “the Suspendables.” In a letter sent last month to FBI Director Christopher Wray, the group surfaced persistent accusations against the bureau, saying it had discriminated against conservative-leaning agents. The group’s letter also falsely suggested that Piro, who once ran the FBI’s office in Miami, had played a suspicious role in the bureau’s search this summer of Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump’s private club and residence in Florida.
“These claims are absolutely false,” Piro said in an interview. “I dedicated my life to the country and the FBI. I am disappointed that former agents would spread lies about me.”
The attacks on Piro, and his angry rebuttal of them, are emblematic of a toxic dynamic that is increasingly central to Republican Party politics. Trump’s supporters — among them, Republicans poised to take over the House this month — have seized on the letter’s accusations and stepped up their assaults on the FBI, seeking to undermine the bureau just as it has assumed the lead in an array of investigations of Trump.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who will be the Judiciary Committee’s chair this month, has pledged to investigate what he describes as the politicization of the FBI as well as that of the Justice Department. In a taste of what is to come, the committee’s Republican staff released a 1,000-page report last month that asserted that the FBI hierarchy “spied on President Trump’s campaign and ridiculed conservative Americans” and that the “rot within the FBI festers in and proceeds from Washington.’’
Historically, the FBI’s most vocal critics have come from figures on the left, who have
accused it of using heavy-handed tactics in investigating groups like trade unionists or civil rights activists. Conservatives and Republicans have, at least by tradition, supported the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.
A majority of the attacks laid out in the Suspendables’ letter to Wray, who was appointed by Trump, echoed those by the Judiciary Committee. The panel’s report also condemned the bureau for using counterterrorism tactics to investigate conservative parents at school board meetings — an allegation that seemed to have come from a mischaracterization of the FBI’s plan to track threats of violence against school board officials.
The report further accused the agency of “helping Big Tech to censor Americans’ political speech” — a claim that misrepresented the way the FBI has sought for years to curb online disinformation, especially when it comes from foreign actors. Long before the House report or the letter to Wray were released, Trump and his allies in Congress and the news media were already targeting federal law enforcement officers and demonizing those who scrutinized the former president.
The attacks began in 2018, after federal agents searched the office of Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer, for
evidence of campaign finance violations. After the search, Rudy Giuliani, another lawyer close to Trump, went on the warpath. He declared that the FBI’s office in New York — with which he had worked closely as the U.S. attorney in Manhattan — had behaved like “storm troopers” in conducting the raid.
Since then, Trump and his supporters have gone after the bureau for its role in investigating his campaign’s ties to Russia; for purportedly failing to investigate issues surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop; and for using informants to infiltrate a group of militiamen charged in a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.
Some critics, including former agents, have attacked the FBI for pursuing those in the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, describing the criminal prosecution of the rioters as political persecution.
This drumbeat of vitriol has created a reflexive reaction against the FBI as nefarious and partisan among large swaths of the right, even as Trump has lost a measure of political support.
“The FBI is the largest criminal gang in the country,” right-wing commentator Dinesh D’Souza recently wrote on Twitter, adding, “It’s America’s version of the KGB or the Chinese state police.”
To be sure, the FBI has made several
grievous errors in recent years. It failed to follow up on a tip that might have prevented a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in 2018. It bungled an investigation in 2015 into claims that a doctor for USA Gymnastics had sexually abused young women.
In 2020, an FBI lawyer pleaded guilty to doctoring an email that was used in preparation to ask a court to renew an order to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser. Questions have also been raised about whether the bureau, which is in charge of preventing terrorism, could have done more to stop the Capitol attack with the use of secret informants it had within two of the far-right groups involved in the riot.
Some recent attacks on the FBI by right-wing officials and figures in the news media seem intended to make money. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., sells “Defund the FBI” baseball hats; Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump adviser, peddles T-shirts reading, “FBI: Fascist Bureau of Intimidation.”
The barrage of messaging comes as the bureau itself has faced violence.
In August, an Ohio man, enraged by the search of Mar-a-Lago, tried to break into the FBI’s field office near Cincinnati and was ultimately killed in a shootout with local police. Investigators later discovered social media posts he had written encouraging others to kill federal agents.
On Dec. 16, a Tennessee man who was facing charges of assaulting police during the Capitol attack was charged again with plotting to assassinate several of the federal agents who had investigated him. He was also accused of planning an attack on the FBI’s field office in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The FBI declined to comment on the attacks against Piro, but three former and current law enforcement officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said he was not under investigation when he retired from the bureau.
Piro said he was depressed by how some former agents had turned on the bureau.
“I am saddened by their behavior and their total disregard for those who are working for the FBI,” he said, “and those who came before them to make the FBI the premier law enforcement agency in the world.”
Christopher Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office building in Washington, Sept. 21, 2021. The San Juan Daily Star Monday, JanuaryNot long ago, Joe Mohler would have seemed an unlikely person to help bury the political legacy of Donald Trump.
Mohler, a 24-year-old Republican committeeman and law student in Lancaster Township, Pennsylvania, voted for Trump in 2016. He voted for him again in 2020 — but this time with some misgivings. And when Trump began spouting lies and conspiracy theories about his 2020 loss, Mohler, who grew up in a solidly conservative area of southeastern Pennsylvania, was troubled to hear many people he knew repeat them.
Last January, after county Republican leaders aligned with a group known for spreading misinformation about the 2020 election and COVID vaccines, Mohler spoke out against them — a move that he said cost him his post as chairman of the township GOP committee.
“I just realized how much of a sham the whole movement was,” he said. “The moment the veil is pulled from your face, you realize how ugly the face is that you are looking at.”
Mohler was part of a precariously narrow but consequential slice of the electorate that went against its own voting history this year in order to reject Republican candidates who sought control over elections, at least in part out of concern for the health of the political system and the future of democracy.
After deciding that preserving the integrity of elections was his single most important issue in 2022, he voted in November for the party’s nominee for Senate, Mehmet Oz, who hedged carefully on the question of who won the 2020 election but eventually said he would have voted to certify Joe Biden’s victory had he been in office. But in the governor’s race, Mohler decided he could not vote for Doug Mastriano, the Republican candidate, who as a state senator was central to efforts to overturn Pennsylvania’s 2020 election results.
Mastriano had pledged to decertify voting machines in counties where he suspected the results were fraudulent and to appoint as secretary of the commonwealth, the office overseeing elections in Pennsylvania, someone who shared his views.
“It was just so reprehensible,” Mohler said. “I didn’t want anybody like that in the governor’s office.”
The decisions of voters like Mohler, discernible in surveys and voiced in interviews,
away from Mastriano.
About one-third of Trump’s voters did not buy into Mastriano’s claims about the 2020 election, and Shapiro’s team found that voters with such misgivings were also receptive to appeals on other issues.
“Those voters had real sensitivity to not only Mastriano’s history and position on democracy issues, but also his positions on abortion, marriage equality, and climate change,” the Shapiro campaign wrote in a postelection memo.
The campaign’s strategy reflected an awareness that election denialism could be an indicator of other weaknesses as much as a weakness itself.
Pamella Secrest,
Springs, Nev. Dec. 19, 2022, who voted for the Republican candidate for governor but not for secretary of state. A precariously narrow but consequential slice of the electorate broke with its own voting history to reject openly extremist Republican candidates — at least partly out of concern for the health of the political system.
did not necessarily lay to rest concerns about the ability of the election system to withstand the new pressures unleashed upon it by Trump. But they did suggest a possible ceiling on the appeal of extreme partisanship — one that prevented, in this cycle, the worst fears for the health of democracy from being realized.
Mastriano lost by nearly 15 percentage points to the Democratic candidate, Josh Shapiro — part of a midterm election that saw voters reject every election denier running to oversee elections in a battleground state.
In Arizona, Michigan and Nevada, Republican primary voters nominated candidates campaigning on Trump’s election lies for secretary of state, the office that in 40 states oversees the election system. In all three, those candidates lost. The rout eased the immediate concern that strident partisans who embraced conspiracy theories about hacked voting machines, foreign meddling and smuggled ballots might soon be empowered to wreak havoc on election systems.
The election results suggest that a focus on Trump’s election lies did not merely galvanize Democrats but also alienated Republicans and independents. Final turnout figures show registered Republicans cast more ballots than registered Democrats in Arizona and Nevada, but election-denying candidates nevertheless lost important races in each of those states.
Republican candidates in statewide
contests who embraced Trump’s election lies also significantly underperformed compared with Republicans who did not. This was true even in districts that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2020, suggesting that the defection of ticket-splitters like Mohler likely played a role.
In a survey of voters in five battleground states conducted by the research firm Citizen Data for the advocacy group Protect Democracy, one-third of those who cast ballots for a mix of Democrats and Republicans in November cited a concern that GOP candidates held views or promoted policies “that are dangerous to democracy.”
And in a postelection survey conducted by Impact Research, a Democratic polling firm, 69% of independents and Republicans who voted for a Democrat for the House said that democracy was critical to their decision.
“That gives me some optimism that the general election voter wants a return to some normalcy and some stability,” said Ethan Demme, a former GOP chairman in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County, who formed a new third party in Pennsylvania after Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Democrats welcomed crossover voters with open arms. After all, they’d been looking for them.
In Pennsylvania’s governor’s race, Shapiro commissioned focus groups of Trump voters to glean insights into how to peel them
“This extreme conversation about voter fraud, it attracts an extreme flavor of people,” said Kristopher Dahir, a councilman and pastor in Sparks, Nevada, who ran as a Republican for secretary of state this year. After losing the primary to Jim Marchant, a prominent figure in the election denier movement, Dahir endorsed Marchant’s Democratic opponent, Cisco Aguilar, who won in November.
Mastriano was outspent by Shapiro 14-to1 on television and digital ads between Labor Day and Nov. 8, and lost by nearly 15 points.
The highest-profile races for secretary of state were similarly lopsided. National Democrats spent nearly $8 million on advertising in Nevada to promote Aguilar; Republicans spent nothing to help Marchant. In Arizona, Mark Finchem was buried by more than $14 million in ads run by Democratic groups.
A significant factor in the imbalance was Trump, who vocally promoted election denier candidates in Republican secretary of state primaries but put almost none of his money where his mouth was. Save America PAC, his leadership PAC, spent only $10,000 of its $100 million-plus war chest on secretary of state candidates who made it into the general election. A spinoff super PAC, MAGA, Inc., chose to spend money on races for Senate instead.
The narrowness of some of the election deniers’ losses, and the diversity of factors that likely played into them, have led some experts to caution that November’s results should not be mistaken for a wholesale rejection of antidemocratic politics.
“Anyone who believes that we’re out of the woods because a handful of election deniers lost close races in swing states is deluding themselves,” said Brian Klaas, a scholar on authoritarianism at University College London.
for clean energy projects to pay wages similar to union rates.
Celeste Drake, a senior White House labor adviser, said in a statement that Biden had made “lasting strides for workers and unions” and that many of his achievements were “passed on a razor’s edge of tight margins in Congress, often with Republican votes, where the president’s advocacy for unions as a means to rebuilding the middle class could have jeopardized everything.” (More than 70% of Americans approve of labor unions, according to a recent Gallup poll.)
The alternative view of Biden, put forth by many labor historians and activists, is that while the president has in fact been more obliging to unions and maintained better relationships with union leaders than his recent Democratic predecessors, the difference is one of degree rather than kind.
made clear that rail carriers were to blame for any disruption if they refused.
“Biden in this case revealed that I’m your friend, but I won’t risk anything for you,” said Joseph A. McCartin, a historian at Georgetown University who has written extensively about transportation labor disputes.
And if taking a more forceful stand on behalf of rail workers was high risk, McCartin said, it was also high reward: Because transportation infrastructure touches almost every part of the country, labor relations in that sector tend to reverberate widely.
“Everybody sees it, everybody watches, everybody’s affected,” he said. An open letter to Biden last month, signed by McCartin and more than 400 other scholars, said federal interventions in transportation labor disputes “can set the tone for entire eras.”
By NOAM SCHEIBERJoe Biden vowed to be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen.” And for the past two years, labor leaders have often lauded him for delivering on that promise.
They cite appointees who are sympathetic to unions and a variety of pro-labor measures, such as a pandemic relief bill that included tens of billions to shore up union pension funds.
But in recent weeks, after Biden helped impose a contract on railroad workers that four unions had rejected, partly over its lack of paid sick days, many labor activists and scholars have begun to ask: How supportive is the president, really?
To those reassessing Biden, the concern is that the president, by asking Congress to intervene and avert a strike, missed a rare opportunity to improve workers’ bargaining power in ways that could extend beyond the rail sector.
“Whether this group of workers has sick days or not on some level was not the issue,” said Kim Phillips-Fein, a historian at Columbia University who studies labor. “It was: What can people ask for and expect to win through collective action?”
That Biden did not take a stronger stand, she added, “suggested a political blindness
to what was really at stake.”
At heart, the railroad episode has stirred a debate over what it means to be a pro-labor president.
Defenders see Biden as unusually outspoken on behalf of workers’ rights. They cite his declaration during a unionization vote at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama that “there should be no intimidation, no coercion, no threats” — an unusual if carefully worded gesture of presidential solidarity — and his dismay that Kellogg planned to permanently replace striking workers.
“He has helped create a mood in the country as it relates to unions that has helped propel the extraordinary organizing going on,” said Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which organized the unsuccessful drive at the Alabama warehouse and is challenging the result. Appelbaum added that Biden’s announcement during the campaign was “beyond what we’d hoped for.”
The president’s backers also point to a raft of labor-friendly regulations and legislation. Biden issued an executive order requiring so-called project labor agreements on federal construction projects above $35 million — agreements with unions that set wages and work rules — and the major climate and health bill he signed created incentives
They say that like his predecessors, Biden effectively seeks to manage the longterm decline of labor in a relatively humane way — by making favorable appointments and enacting measures that help at the margins — but has yet to take the sorts of risks that would restore power to workers.
Biden has “gestured in interesting ways in certain moments,” said Gabriel Winant, a labor historian at the University of Chicago. “But it doesn’t seem like he has the stomach to see the gestures through.”
For those who subscribe to this view, the rail labor dispute was a telling encapsulation of Biden’s approach: an instance in which the administration worked closely with many leaders of the dozen unions representing rail workers but angered portions of the rank and file. Members of four unions voted down the deal that the administration had helped broker but were not allowed to strike for a better one.
Administration officials say that while Biden strongly supports the right to strike, the potential costs to the economy, which the industry said could be more than $2 billion per day, were simply too high to allow rail workers to walk off the job. They point out that a strike could have also posed health and safety risks — for example, by halting shipments of chemicals that ensure clean drinking water.
But to critics, these risks were in some sense the point: They provided workers with a rare moment of leverage. They say Biden could have simply refused to sign any legislation that didn’t include paid sick days, then
The letter cited the government’s move to grant rail workers an eight-hour workday to avoid a strike during World War I, which paved the way for similar gains by other workers in the 1930s. By contrast, the letter said, President Ronald Reagan’s firing of striking air traffic controllers in the early 1980s helped undermine the leverage of workers across the economy for decades.
The contention among critics is that by effectively depriving rail workers of the right to strike, Biden has made it more difficult for other workers to use that tool — and, ultimately, to reverse the movement’s longterm decline.
Those who support more populistminded policies say Biden has delivered in certain ways: enacting subsidies for domestic manufacturing and restrictions on trade with China and appointing regulators who have frequently gone to court to block large mergers.
“There obviously has been progress made,” said Oren Cass, a former Republican policy aide and the founder of American Compass, which seeks to make conservatism more supportive of workers.
Yet when it comes to labor, some say Biden has been less willing to rethink the reigning economic model.
“If Biden had intervened in a way that was more favorable and sympathetic to the rail workers, that would have been a sign of him really breaking with that model, and the model itself no longer seeming to fit the current moment,” said Phillips-Fein, the Columbia historian. “That it didn’t happen suggests the limits of his political imagination.”
Senior lawmakers said they would investigate the government’s purchase and use of powerful spyware made by two Israeli hacking firms, as Congress passed a measure in recent days to try to rein in the proliferation of the hacking tools.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, sent a letter before Christmas to the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration asking for detailed information about the agency’s use of Graphite, a spyware tool produced by Israeli company Paragon.
“Such use could have potential implications for U.S. national security, as well as run contrary to efforts to deter the broad proliferation of powerful surveillance capabilities to autocratic regimes and others who may misuse them,” Schiff wrote in the letter.
Graphite, like the better-known Israeli hacking tool Pegasus, can penetrate the mobile phones of its targets and extract messages, videos, photos and other content. The New York Times revealed last month that the DEA was using Graphite in its foreign operations. The agency has said it uses the tool legally and only outside the United States, but has not answered questions about whether American citizens can be targeted with the hacking tool.
Schiff asked DEA Administrator Anne Milgram to respond by Jan. 15 to questions submitted in a classified addendum to the drug agency.
By then, Republicans will have taken power in the House and Schiff will no longer be chair of the committee. But the committee’s efforts to curtail the spread of foreign spyware have been bipartisan, so the changeover is unlikely to affect its agenda on this issue.
Countries around the world have embraced commercial spyware for the new powers of surveillance it gives them. Israeli firm NSO held a near monopoly in the industry for nearly a decade — selling Pegasus to Mexico, Saudi Arabia, India and other nations — but new companies peddling other hacking tools have found success as demand has exploded.
A bill Congress passed last month includes provisions that give the director of national intelligence power to prohibit the intelligence community from purchasing foreign spyware, and requires the director of national intelligence to submit to Congress each year a “watchlist” identifying foreign spyware firms that present a risk to American intelligence agencies.
Separately, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is pressing the FBI for information about the bureau’s purchase and testing of NSO’s Pegasus spyware. The Israeli firm’s hacking tools have been used by autocratic and democratic governments to target journalists, dissidents and human rights workers.
The Times reported in November that internal FBI documents showed that the bureau’s criminal division
in 2021 drew up guidelines for using Pegasus in criminal investigations — before the FBI’s senior leadership decided against using the spyware in operations.
In a letter two weeks ago to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Wyden asked the bureau for information about why it chose not to deploy Pegasus, and whether the bureau’s lawyers made a determination that would preclude the FBI from using Pegasus or similar hacking tools.
“The American people have a right to know the scale of the FBI’s hacking activities and the rules that govern the use of this controversial surveillance technique,” Wyden wrote.
A government legal brief related to a Times Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the FBI stated that “just because the FBI ultimately decided not to deploy the tool in support of criminal investigations does not mean it would not test, evaluate and potentially deploy other similar tools for gaining access to encrypted communications used by criminals.”
The Biden administration late 2021 placed NSO and another Israeli hacking firm on a Commerce Department blacklist — prohibiting American companies from doing business with the two firms.
That move, as well as a decision by Israel’s Ministry of Defense to reduce the number of countries to which companies can potentially sell their hacking tools, has buffeted the Israeli hacking industry, drying up investment in companies amid fears that they, too, could land on the U.S. blacklist. One senior Israeli military official es-
timates that, soon, only six offensive tech firms will be left standing — down from the 18 firms that had been operating in Israel before the NSO blacklisting.
But now, Israel’s Defense Ministry appears to be considering easing restrictions on companies to try to keep the industry from collapsing, according to two Israeli military officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive decision-making.
When asked whether Israel had made a final decision about the easing of restrictions, a spokesperson for the Defense Ministry said that “the objective is to improve the monitoring of controlled cyber exports and to create more precise instructions for controlled cyber exporters, while reducing the risk of improper use of these systems and providing effective tools to ensure compliance with the purchaser’s license terms.”
The Israeli government requires all hacking firms in the country to obtain an export license to sell spyware tools to foreign governments. Some Israelis have tried to avoid these restrictions by moving their businesses outside Israel.
One of them, retired Israeli Gen. Tal Dilian, set up businesses in Greece and Cyprus, and his hacking tool — Predator — is at the center of a widening scandal involving allegations of spying by Greek government officials.
Israeli officials have publicly expressed frustration that they are powerless to regulate the business of Israelis operating outside the country. But after recent reports of Dilian’s growing hacking empire, the Israeli Defense Ministry convened a meeting to explore if any steps could be taken to better regulate the operations of Dilian and others who work outside Israel. Among the options explored was whether an investigation could be opened into Dilian or if other measures could be taken against Israeli hackers who use expertise they gained in the Israeli military to set up foreign companies beyond the government’s reach.
Ever since she was a 10th grader in Seattle, Annalice Ni wanted to develop software for a prominent tech company like Google. So she went to great lengths to meet the internship and other resume criteria that make students attractive hires to the biggest tech firms.
In high school, Ni took computer science courses, interned at Microsoft and volunteered as a coding teacher for younger students. She majored in computer science at the University of Washington, earning coveted software engineering internships at Facebook. After graduating from college this year, she moved to Silicon Valley to start her dream job as a software engineer at Meta, Facebook’s parent company.
Then in November, Meta laid off more than 11,000 employees — including Ni.
“I did feel very frustrated and disappointed and maybe a bit scared because all of a sudden, I didn’t know what to do,” Ni, 22, said of her unexpected career setback. “There’s not much I could have done, especially in college, more than I already did, better than I already did.”
Over the last decade, the prospect of six-figure starting salaries, perks like free food and the chance to work on apps used by billions led young people to stampede toward computer science — the study of computer programming and processes like algorithms — on college campuses across the United States. The number of undergraduates majoring in the subject more
than tripled from 2011 to 2021, to nearly 136,000 students, according to the Computing Research Association, which tracks computing degrees at about 200 universities.
Tech giants like Facebook, Google and Microsoft encouraged the computing education boom, promoting software jobs to students as a route to lucrative careers and the power to change the world.
But now, layoffs, hiring freezes and planned recruiting slowdowns at Meta, Twitter, Alphabet, Amazon, DoorDash, Lyft, Snap and Stripe are sending shock waves through a generation of computer and data science students who spent years honing themselves for careers at the largest tech companies. Tech executives have blamed a faltering global economy for the jobs slowdown.
The cutbacks have not only sent recent graduates scrambling to find new jobs but also created uncertainty for college students seeking high-paying summer internships at large consumer tech companies.
In the past, tech companies used their internship programs to recruit promising
job candidates, extending offers to many students to return as full-time employees after graduation. But this year, those opportunities are shrinking.
Amazon, for instance, hired about 18,000 interns this year, paying some computer science students nearly $30,000 for the summer, not including housing stipends. The company is now considering reducing the number of interns for 2023 by more than half, said a person with knowledge of the program who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Brad Glasser, an Amazon spokesperson, said the company was committed to its internship program and the realworld experience that it provided. A Meta spokesperson referred to a letter to employees from Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s chief executive, announcing the company’s layoffs.
Hiring plans are also changing at smaller tech firms. Roblox, the popular game platform, said it planned to hire 300 interns for next summer — almost twice as many as last year — and was expecting more than 50,000 applications for those spots.
Redfin, which employed 38 interns last summer, said it had canceled the program for this year.
There are still good jobs for computing students, and the field is growing. Between 2021 and 2031, employment for software developers and testers is expected to grow 25%, amounting to more than 411,000 new jobs, according to projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But many of those jobs are in areas like finance and the automotive industry.
“Students are still getting multiple job offers,” said Brent Winkelman, chief of staff for the computer science department at the University of Texas at Austin. “They just may not come from Meta, from Twitter or from Amazon. They’re going to come from places like GM, Toyota or Lockheed.”
College career centers have become sounding boards for anxious students on the cusp of entering the tech job market. In career counselors’ offices, the search for a Plan B has heightened.
Some students are applying to lesserknown tech companies. Others are seeking tech jobs outside the industry, with retailers like Walmart or with government agencies and nonprofits. Graduate school is also an option.
“This particular class has been a lot more savvy than previous classes,” said Hazel Raja, senior director of the career development office at Pomona College in Claremont, California. “Even those who have secured job offers, they’re still making sure they’re networking and staying engaged in campus recruiting opportunities.”
Helen Dong, 21, a senior majoring in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, interned at Meta twice, in 2021 and 2022. So she was surprised at the end of this summer, she said, when she did not receive a job offer from the company. Meta’s recent layoffs prompted her to apply for jobs outside tech, at automotive and financial companies. Last month, she posted videos on TikTok advising her peers to adjust their job expectations.
“I chose to major in computer science so that I could get a ton of offers after college and make bank,” Dong joked in one TikTok, as she sang along to “Reduce Your Expectations to 0.” In this job market, she wrote at the bottom of the video, “be grateful with 1 offer.”
The federal spending package unveiled last month includes new provisions that would alter how millions of Americans save for retirement, including older people who want to stash away extra money before they stop working and those struggling under the weight of student debt.
Many of the policy changes in the bill, which is expected to pass this week, will extend help to Americans who can afford to save or have access to workplace plans. But lower- and middle-income workers will receive a new benefit that amounts to a matching contribution — up to $1,000 per person — from the federal government. Another provision will make it easier for part-time workers to enroll in workplace retirement plans.
“It is really meaningful progress,” said Shai Akabas, director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “We can’t expect Congress to solve all of our nation’s retirement challenges in one piece of legislation, but this includes a host of provisions that will move the ball forward.”
The changes were included in a bipartisan bill, known as Secure 2.0, which was folded into the vast federal spending package that will keep the government running.
The retirement components build upon a series of changes made to the retirement system in 2019, which cleared the way for employers to add annuities to their 401(k) retirement plans and raised the age that retirees are required to begin pulling money from their retirement accounts.
Some retirement policy experts point out that the latest legislation does little to extend access to the tens of millions of Americans who are not covered by retirement plans at work, which, at least for now, is the foundation upon which the American retirement system is built. According to a recent study by AARP, nearly half of private sector employees from 18 to 64, or 57 million people, do not have the option to save for retirement at work. That’s about 48% of the total workforce, AARP said.
But there are helpful incremental changes, policy experts said, which are particularly noteworthy at a time when Congress is deadlocked on many other issues. In a nod to those struggling with student debt, workers making student loan payments would qualify for employer matching contributions, even if they weren’t making qualifying retirement plan contributions of their own.
“It is shameful that we have to give so much to high earners to get a few crumbs for lower earners,” said Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
Here’s a quick look at some of the changes. Many of them wouldn’t immediately take effect, but would be enacted in the coming years:
Employers can enroll their employees in workplace retirement plans if they choose to, which meaningfully bolsters both workers’ participation and savings rates.
But this bill would require employers — at least those starting new plans in 2025 and thereafter — to automatically enroll eligible employees in their 401(k) and 403(b) plans, setting aside at least 3%, but no more than 10%, of their paychecks. Contributions would be increased by 1 percentage point each year thereafter, until it reaches at least 10% (but not more than 15%).
Existing plans won’t need to follow the new rules. Small businesses with 10 or fewer workers, new businesses operating for less than three years, and church and governmental plans are
People sit at East River Park in New York, Nov. 11, 2021. Several provisions in the spending bill outline new ways employers can help workers save for retirement.
also exempt.
Employers will be permitted to automatically enroll workers into emergency savings accounts, which are linked to employees’ retirement accounts. They can enroll workers so that they set aside up to 3% of their salary, up to $2,500 (though employers can choose a smaller amount).
The coronavirus pandemic underscored the importance of emergency savings, the lack of which can force younger workers to pull money out of their 401(k) and related accounts through an existing provision known as a hardship withdrawal. They generally have to pay income tax and a 10% penalty when they do so.
Tax-wise, emergency savings accounts will work similarly to Roth accounts: Workers contribute to the accounts with money that has been taxed, and withdrawals are tax-free. Employers can match emergency savings contributions, like they do with retirement contributions, but those would be directed into the retirement side of the plan. Once the emergency account hits its ceiling, excess contributions are returned to the worker’s Roth retirement plan, if they have one, or stopped.
Employers could choose to provide workers with another emergency savings option: Employees could make one withdrawal, up to $1,000, annually from their 401(k) and IRAs for certain emergency expenses — and they wouldn’t owe the extra 10% percent penalty, which is typically levied on people taking early distributions, generally before age 59 1/2. The rule takes effect in 2024.
Workers could replenish their accounts within three years if they choose, but if they don’t put the money back then they’re cut off from any more emergency withdrawals for three years.
Some employers provide a matching contribution on the amount you save in your 401(k) or workplace retirement account — they might match every dollar you contribute, for example, up to 4% of your salary. But people with student loans may delay saving for retirement while they focus on whittling down their debt, which means they stand to lose years of free money from their employer.
Starting in 2024, student loan payments would count as retirement contributions in 401(k), 403(b) and SIMPLE IRAs for the purposes of qualifying for a matching contribution in a workplace retirement plan. The same goes for governmental employers who make matching contributions in 457(b) and related plans.
Saver’s match
Workers with low- to middle-incomes of up to $71,000 will receive a greater benefit — in the form of a matching contribution from the government — when they save inside an IRA and workplace retirement plan such as a 401(k).
In its current form, the so-called Saver’s Credit allows individuals to receive up to 50% of their retirement savings contribution, up to $2,000, in the form of a nonrefundable tax credit. That means they only receive the money back, up to $1,000, if they owe at least that much in taxes. If they don’t owe any taxes, they don’t receive the benefit.
But starting in 2027, instead of the nonrefundable tax credit — which is paid out in cash as part of a tax refund — taxpayers will receive what amounts to a federal matching contribution that must be deposited into their IRA or retirement plan. It cannot be withdrawn without penalty.
The match phases out based on your income: for taxpayers filing a joint tax return, it phases out between $41,000 and $71,000; for single taxpayers, it’s $20,500 to $35,500 and head of household, $30,750 to $53,250.
Legislation passed in 2019 requires employers with a 401(k) plan to permit longer-term part-time employees to participate, including those with one year of service (with 1,000 hours) or three consecutive years (with 500 hours of service).
Starting in 2025, the new bill would make part-time workers eligible to participate in employers’ 401(k) retirement plans sooner — now two years instead of three.
People ages 60 to 63 would be permitted to set aside extra funds for retirement. Under the current law, people who are 50 or older (at the end of the calendar year) are allowed to make catch-up contributions that exceed the retirement plan limits for everyone else. In 2023, that generally means they can set aside an extra $7,500 in most workplace retirement accounts.
Starting in 2025, the new rule would increase these limits to $10,000 or 50% more than the regular catch-up amount that year, whichever is greater, for people in that age group. (Increased amounts are indexed for inflation after 2025.)
Another change related to catch-up contributions will affect people earning more than $145,000 who use employer-provided retirement plans: Starting in 2024, they will be allowed to make catch-up contributions only to Roth accounts, or those that accept after-tax money (which is withdrawn tax-free). Everyone else — or workers earning $145,000 or less — may continue to choose between pretax accounts or Roths.
Catch-up contributions to IRAs — $1,000 more for people 50 and over — will be indexed to inflation beginning in 2024.
New rules would allow retirees to delay making withdrawals until they are 73, benefiting largely more affluent households who aren’t relying on the money and can afford to let it sit.
Under the current law, retirees are generally required to begin withdrawing money from their tax-advantaged retirement accounts by age 72 — before new rules were signed into law in 2019, the age had been 70 1/2. These rules help ensure individuals are spending the money down and not simply using the plans to shelter money for their heirs.
But starting this year, these so-called required minimum distributions must start in the year a person turns 73. It would rise to age 75 starting in 2033.
red for years on the United Nations’ lists of suppliers to Iran’s nuclear and missile programs. The company, which is owned by Iran’s military, has expanded its line of drones despite waves of sanctions.
The administration’s scramble to deal with the Iranian-supplied drones comes at a significant moment in the war, just as Ukraine is using its own drones to strike deep into Russia, including an attack last week on a base housing some of the country’s strategic bombers. And it comes as officials in Washington and London warn that Iran may be about to provide Russia with missiles, helping alleviate Moscow’s acute shortage.
Officials across the Western alliance say they are convinced that Iran and Russia, both isolated by U.S.-led sanctions, are building a new alliance of convenience. One senior military official said that partnership had deepened quickly, after Iran’s agreement to supply drones to the Russians last summer “bailed Putin out.”
sophisticated cyberattacks, using computer code that was later called “Stuxnet,” to attack Iran’s nuclear centrifuge facilities.
Since then, Israel has made little secret of its attempts to sabotage nuclear enrichment centers.
In a statement, Adrienne Watson, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, acknowledged the scope of the broad drive against Iran’s drone program.
“We are looking at ways to target Iranian UAV production through sanctions, export controls, and talking to private companies whose parts have been used in the production,’’ she said, using the acronym for unmanned aerial vehicles.
She added, “We are assessing further steps we can take in terms of export controls to restrict Iran’s access to technologies used in drones.”
The Biden administration has launched a broad effort to halt Iran’s ability to produce and deliver drones to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine, an endeavor that has echoes of the yearslong U.S. program to cut off Tehran’s access to nuclear technology.
In interviews in the United States, Europe and the Middle East, a range of intelligence, military and national security officials have described an expanding U.S. program that aims to choke off Iran’s ability to manufacture the drones, make it harder for the Russians to launch the unmanned “kamikaze” aircraft and — if all else fails — to provide the Ukrainians with the defenses necessary to shoot them out of the sky.
The breadth of the effort has become clearer in recent weeks. The administration has accelerated its moves to deprive Iran of the Western-made components needed to manufacture the drones being sold to Russia after it became apparent from examining the wreckage of intercepted drones that they are stuffed with made-in-America technology.
U.S. forces are helping Ukraine’s military to target the sites where the drones are being prepared for launch — a difficult task because the Russians are moving the launch sites around, from soccer fields to parking lots. And the Americans are rushing in new technologies designed to give early warning of approaching drone swarms, to improve Ukraine’s chances of bringing them down, with everything from gunfire to missiles.
But all three approaches have run into deep challenges, and the drive to cut off critical parts for the drones is already proving as difficult as the decades-old drive to deprive Iran of the components needed to build the delicate centrifuges it uses to enrich near-bomb-grade uranium. The Iranians, U.S. intelligence officials have said in recent weeks, are applying to the drone program their expertise about how to spread nuclear centrifuge manufacturing around the country and to find “dual use” technologies on the black market to sidestep export controls.
In fact, one of the Iranian companies named by Britain, France and Germany as a key manufacturer of one of the two types of drones being bought by the Russians, Qods Aviation, has appea-
The Biden administration, having abandoned hopes of reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran, has been adding new sanctions every few weeks.
In the effort to stop the drone attacks, Biden’s aides are also engaging an ally with a long history of undermining Iran’s nuclear program: Israel.
In a secure video meeting on Dec. 22 with Israel’s top national security, military and intelligence officials, Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, “discussed Iran’s growing military relationship with Russia, including the transfer of weapons the Kremlin is deploying against Ukraine, targeting its civilian infrastructure and Russia’s provision of military technology to Iran in return,” the White House said in a summary of the meeting. The statement did not offer details about how the two countries decided to address the issue.
But the fact that the administration chose to highlight the discussion, in a quarterly meeting normally focused on disrupting Iran’s nuclear capabilities, was notable. Israel and the United States have a long history of operating together in dealing with technological threats emanating from Tehran. Together they developed one of the world’s most famous and
Iran’s interest in drones dates back more than three decades, as the country looked for ways that it could monitor, and harass, ships in the Persian Gulf. The Mohajer I, a predecessor to one of the drones now being sold to the Russians, made its first flight in 1986.
Progress was slow, but may have been aided in 2011 when the Central Intelligence Agency took a stealthy, unarmed RQ-170 from the Pentagon’s fleet in Afghanistan and flew it over Iran, in what appeared to be an effort to map some of the hundreds of tunnels dug by the Iranians to hide elements of their nuclear program.
A malfunction led to the aircraft landing in the desert, and President Barack Obama briefly considered sending in a Navy SEAL team to blow it up before it fell into the hands of Iranian engineers, senior officials later reported. He decided not to take the risk, and within days the Iranians paraded the drone through the streets of Tehran, a propaganda victory.
But U.S. intelligence officials later concluded that the aircraft likely proved a bonanza for Iranian drone designers, who could reverse engineer the craft.
It was not until 2016 that Iran announced it was beginning to develop
A group of Iranians living in Ukraine protest Iran’s support of Russia at Maidan Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 28, 2022. As the war in Ukraine grinds on, some officials have become convinced that Iran and Russia are building a new alliance of convenience.announced it was beginning to develop attack drones, some in cooperation with Russia. Many of the first were placed in the hands of Iranian-backed militias, including Houthi rebels in Yemen, and they were used most effectively in 2019 in attacks on two Saudi oil processing facilities run by Saudi Aramco, the stateowned oil company.
U.S. officials said the experiences in Saudi Arabia, and the targeting of American forces in Syria and elsewhere, gave them an appreciation of Iranian drone capabilities, and the challenge of dealing with kamikaze raids in which a small explosive is secured in the drone’s nose. But the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine underscored that Iran knew how to mass produce the aircraft, a particular worry at a moment when there are discussions of opening an Iranian plant inside Russia.
The Iranian program has hardly been without its problems. Deliveries have come episodically, as Russia and Iran retrofitted the drones to operate in the cold of a Ukrainian winter. And Iran has run into supply chain issues, a problem the United States is seeking to worsen.
Nonetheless, despite years of sanctions on Iran’s defense sector, Iranian drones still are built largely with American and Western parts. When photographs began to circulate of circuit boards from downed drones, visibly packed
with chips from U.S. manufacturers, the White House ordered a crackdown, including calls to the firms whose products had been discovered. Almost all had the same reaction: These are unrestricted, “dual use” items whose circulation is almost impossible to stop.
The administration is trying anyway.
In September, the Biden administration tightened sanctions, specifically naming companies involved with building the aircraft for Russia. That was followed by further action in November against companies like Safiran Airport Services, a Tehran-based firm that it accused of shipping the drones on behalf of the Russian government.
In November, the Treasury Department sanctioned two companies based in the United Arab Emirates, a key U.S. ally, accusing them of collaborating with Safiran.
Michael Kofman, the director of Russian studies at CNA, a research institute in Arlington, Virginia, said that the sanctions were hardly an instant solution.
“Export controls are going to have an effect, but you have to be realistic about the timelines on which they will work,” Kofman said.
“Sanctions delay and make costly acquisition of components,” he said. “But determined countries will get their hands on tech for narrow defense applications, or adjust their weapon designs to what they can get, even if it’s less reliable.”
As the war grinds on, the United States, Britain, France and Germany are pressing the secretary-general of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, to launch a formal investigation into whether Russia and Iran are, together, violating the terms of a U.N. restriction on the export of sophisticated arms from Iran.
Guterres has made clear that his top priority is executing a deal with Russia over the export of Ukrainian grain, to alleviate shortages, and his aides say now is not the time to risk that agreement with an investigation whose conclusion seems predictable.
Tracking the drones
Iran appears to be flying drones to Russian forces on cargo aircraft, usually over routes that leave little opportunity to intercept them. That means attempting to attack them on the ground — no easy task.
Until a little more than a month ago, U.S. and British government officials say, the drones were largely based in Crimea. Then they disappeared for a number of days, reappearing in Russian-occupied areas of Zaporizhzhia province. The movements have been tracked by U.S. and Ukrainian officials, some sitting side by side in military intelligence centers. But the drones are highly mobile, with launch systems mounted on trucks, and the Russians know they are being hunted — so they move them to safer locations, which makes tracking and striking them a difficult proposition.
“The change of launch site is likely due to Russian concerns about the vulnerability of Crimea, while it is also convenient for resupply from the weapons’ likely arrival point in Russia, at
Astrakhan,” a British military assessment said last month.
There is growing evidence that the military relationship may be a twoway street. Britain has accused Russia of planning to give Iran advanced military components in exchange for hundreds of drones.
“Iran has become one of Russia’s top military backers,” Britain’s defense minister, Ben Wallace, told Parliament two weeks ago.
“In return for having supplied more than 300 kamikaze drones, Russia now intends to provide Iran with advanced military components, undermining both Middle East and international security — we must expose that deal,” Wallace said.
A number of American companies, including Edgesource Corp. and BlueHalo, both based in Virginia — have provided training or technology to help detect and defeat the Russian drones, U.S. officials said.
Edgesource has donated about $2 million in systems, including one called Windtalkers, to help Ukraine locate, identify and track incoming hostile drones more than 20 miles away, while at the same time identifying Ukraine’s own drones in the same air space, said Joseph Urbaniak, the company’s chief operating officer.
The United States has provided Ukraine with other technology to counter drones, most recently as part of a $275 million shipment of arms and equipment the Pentagon announced Dec. 9. But U.S. officials have declined to provide details on the specific assistance, citing operational security.
to New York to San Francisco, where critics have accused it of driving up housing costs.
Housing activists, wary of gentrification and a shortage of rental housing in the sprawling capital, have accused city leaders of spurring a modern day “colonization” that is pricing out many Mexicans.
Sergio González, a housing activist, said there would be a “big problem” if the city government did not regulate the housing market at a time when remote workers are leading to the “forced displacement of families.”
Amid the backlash, the mayor has acknowledged that American and European remote workers may be putting pressure on housing prices and has directed the city’s housing authority to study the effect of Airbnb.
“The digital nomads are arriving,” Sheinbaum told reporters in November. “Obviously, we don’t want this to mean gentrification or price increases.”
along the neighborhood’s famous network of ancient canals.
The experience has seen high demand, introducing tourists to the markets and customs of a part of the capital that’s not widely explored by outsiders. Lazcano Cruz said the visitors who have come through Airbnb have “a vision and a thirst to get to know the space in a different way.”
The increase in the number of foreigners living in Mexico City has coincided with a rise in rents. Average monthly rents citywide have jumped from $880 in January 2020 to $1,080 in November, according to data from Propiedades.com, a real estate website.
By DAVID SHORTELLKarina Franco’s ornate Art Deco building in the historic center of Mexico City has long been the heart of a downtown lifestyle, housing families of artists and activists and supporting an ecosystem of street vendors.
But as the pandemic upended office norms, a wave of remote workers from around the world descended on Mexico City, the country’s capital. The flow of foreigners has yet to slow down, causing housing costs to rise, displacing residents and upending the fabric of neighborhoods.
In August, Franco and the other tenants in her building were told by their landlord that their leases would not be renewed. Some units soon appeared on Airbnb — at rates more than four times the monthly rent — and new neighbors, mostly speaking English, now fill the hallways.
“It was very shocking at first,’’ said Franco, 47, a migrant rights worker who found a new apartment in a different part of the city. “Then I felt angry.’’
Since the pandemic, Mexico City has become a leading global hub for foreigners unshackled from their of fices by work-fromhome policies and drawn to the kind of comfort a salary paid in dollars or euros can afford.
Between January and October, more than 9,500 permits were issued to Americans allowing them to temporarily reside in Mexico City, according to federal immigration statistics, nearly double the 5,400 issued in the same period in 2019. Many more entered on tourist visas, which allow them to work from Mexico for up to six months as long as they are paid abroad.
The influx has been a boon for business owners in areas popular with foreigners and landlords taking advantage of record demand for long-term stays on platforms like Airbnb. It has also helped Mexicans with spare rooms to earn extra income amid soaring inflation.
But the surge has jolted the already tightening housing market, threatening to make large swaths of the city, where the average monthly salary is $220, unaffordable to many locals.
Mexico City’s leftist mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum, has sought to navigate the changing market by embracing the transplants and partnering with Airbnb on a campaign that promotes the city as a “capital for creative tourism” that encourages foreigners to spend money in less well-off neighborhoods.
But as the jump in American and European visitors fuels a rapid expansion of Airbnb, the mayor’s alliance with the rental giant has ignited an argument that’s enveloped the platform in other major cities, from London
According to Airbnb, between April and June of last year, the number of stays booked in Mexico City on the platform for longer than a month increased by 30% compared with the same period in 2019, making the city one of the more popular destinations worldwide among long-term renters.
In the Condesa and Roma neighborhoods, whose lush streetscapes and dynamic food scenes have long made them attractive to wealthier residents, co-working spaces offering free coffee and cubicles have proliferated.
English speakers pour out of cafes and, on Sundays, cantinas are packed with young people in sports jerseys, the televisions switched from soccer to American football.
The city’s campaign with Airbnb, which is scheduled to fully roll out on the platform’s website early this year, is meant to spread out the crowds. It will promote guided activities, designed with the help of UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural organization, in neighborhoods that do not typically receive a high number of visitors, according to the company and city of ficials. Airbnb will also provide information on moving to Mexico, including visa requirements.
Miroslava Miyarath Lazcano Cruz, who has offered tours through Airbnb since 2019, started a new tour on Airbnb in October of Xochimilco, the working-class neighborhood where she lives, that is serving as a model for the program.
The tour includes preparing tamales from handpicked ingredients and floating
The uptick has been higher in more upscale neighborhoods. In a slice of Condesa that borders Chapultepec Park, one of the city’s larger green spaces, monthly rents rose from $1,610 in January 2020 to $2,250 in November, driven mostly by the arrival of remote workers, said Leonardo González, an analyst at Propiedades.com.
Many are finding homes on a shortterm basis on Airbnb, which is squeezing the available stock of long-term rentals, housing experts said.
Cities around the world, including Barcelona, London and New York, where housing costs have increased sharply, have targeted Airbnb by imposing stricter rules for short-term rentals.
In Mexico, a spokesperson for Airbnb said the company was working with government of ficials “to be part of the solution to the challenges faced by communities in Mexico City.”
The company also stressed the financial benefits for people who rent out rooms on the platform: More than half of Airbnb hosts recently surveyed by the company in Mexico City said the extra earnings helped cover an increase in food costs driven by inflation.
For Leonor González, the income from an Airbnb she began renting in 2020 in a state that borders Mexico City allowed her to keep paying her employees during the pandemic when her business setting up convention spaces ground to a halt.
Later that year, she also listed a new apartment, a stylish loft in Mexico City, for $71 a night on Airbnb. It’s been booked almost nonstop, González said, usually by Americans working remotely for longer than a week.
“The truth is that there aren’t any locals renting here now,” she said of her Condesa neighborhood. “It’s just foreigners.”
By PAUL KRUGMAN
The average national price of regular gasoline this Christmas was almost 20 cents a gallon lower than it was a year earlier. Prices at the pump are still higher than they were during the pandemic slump, when economic shutdowns depressed world oil prices, but the affordability of fuel — as measured by the ratio of the average wage to gas prices — is most of the way back to pre-COVID levels.
Now, gas prices aren’t a good measure either of economic health or of successful economic policy — although if you listened to Republican ads during the midterms, you might have thought otherwise. But subsiding prices at the pump are only one of many indicators that the inflationary storm of 2021 to ’22 is letting up. Remember the supplychain crisis, with shipping rates soaring to many times their normal level? It’s over.
More broadly, recent reports on the inflation measures the Federal Reserve traditionally uses to guide its interest rate policy have been really, really good.
So is this going to be the winter of our diminishing discontent?
After the nasty shocks of the past two years, nobody wants to get too excited by positive news. Having greatly underestimated past inflation risks myself, I’m working hard on curbing my enthusiasm, and the Fed, which is worried
about its credibility, is even more inclined to look for clouds in the silver lining. And those clouds are there, as I’ll explain in a minute. It’s much too soon to declare all clear on the inflation front.
But there has been a big role reversal in the inflation debate. Last year optimists like me were trying to explain away the bad news. Now pessimists are trying to explain away the good news.
What’s really striking about the improvement in inflation numbers is that so far, at least, it hasn’t followed the pessimists’ script. Disinflation, many commentators insisted, would require a sustained period of high unemployment — say, at least a 5% unemployment rate for five years. And to be fair, this prediction could still be vindicated if recent progress against inflation turns out to be a false dawn. However, inflation has declined rapidly, even with unemployment still near record lows.
What explains falling inflation? It now looks as if much,
although not all, of the big inflation surge reflected one-time events associated with the pandemic and its aftermath — which was what Team Transitory (including me) claimed all along, except that transitory effects were both bigger and longer lasting than any of us imagined.
First came those supply-chain issues. As consumers, fearing risks of infection, avoided in-person services — such as dining out — and purchased physical goods instead, the world faced a sudden shortage of shipping containers, port capacity and more. Prices of many goods soared as the logistics of globalization proved less robust and flexible than we realized.
Then came a surge in demand for housing, probably caused largely by the pandemic-driven rise in remote work. The result was a spike in rental rates. Since of ficial statistics use market rents to estimate the overall cost of shelter, and shelter, in turn, is a large part of measured inflation, this sent inflation higher even as supply-chain problems eased.
But new data from the Cleveland Fed confirms what private firms have been telling us for several months: Rapid rent increases for new tenants have stopped, and rents may well be falling. Because most renters are on one-year leases, of ficial measures of housing costs — and overall inflation numbers that fail to account for the lag — don’t yet reflect this slowdown. But housing has gone from a major driver of inflation to a stabilizing force.
So why shouldn’t we be celebrating? You can pick over the entrails of the inflation numbers looking for bad omens, but I’m ever less convinced that anybody, myself included, understands inflation well enough to do this in a useful way. Basically, as you exclude more and more items from your measure in search of “underlying” inflation, what you’re left with becomes increasingly strange and unreliable.
Instead, my concern (and, I believe, the Fed’s) comes down to the fact that the job market still looks very hot, with wages rising too fast to be consistent with acceptably low inflation.
What I would point out, however, is that many workers’ salaries are like apartment rents, in the sense that they get reset only once a year, so of ficial numbers on wages will lag a cooling market, and there is some evidence that labor markets are, in fact, cooling. Of ficial reports in January — especially on job openings early in the month and on employment costs at the end — may (or may not) give us more clarity on whether this cooling is real or suf ficient.
Oh, and with visible inflation slowing, the risks of a wage-price spiral, which I never thought were very large, are receding even further.
So we’ve had some seriously encouraging inflation news. There are still reasons to worry, and the news isn’t solid enough to justify breaking out the Champagne. But given the season, I am going to indulge at least in a glass or two of eggnog.
BAYAMÓN – La Universidad de Puerto Rico en Bayamón (UPRB) anunció a fines de la semana pasada la celebración del Festival Pagán para las Tunas. El evento se realizará el 8 de enero de 2023, a las 2 p.m., en el Castillo San Cristóbal en el Viejo San Juan. La actividad, libre de costo, contará con la participación de la Tuna Vaquera, Tuna de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tuna Taínos, Tuna Chavalas de Puerto Rico, Tuna Alondras, Tuna Antillana y la Tuna Magisterio de la Luna.
“Desde la UPR Bayamón, invitamos al pueblo de Puerto Rico a participar de este evento familiar musical y cultural que es libre de costo, organizado por nuestra Tuna Vaquera en coordinación con el San Juan National Historic Park. Con este espectacular evento, continuamos las celebraciones de las festividades de la Navidad y el inicio de un nuevo año lleno de esperanza, alegría y nuevos proyectos”, expuso el Dr. Miguel Vélez Rubio, rector de la UPR en Bayamón.
El evento iniciará con un tradicional pasacalle desde el Museo de San Juan a las 2:00 pm en el que participarán las 7 Tunas haciendo de este uno muy colorido. De ahí continuará con la participación de todas en tarima en el patio interior del Castillo San Cristobal. Con este evento se demuestra que la cultura tuneril está viva en
Puerto Rico honrando la memoria de la Dra. Sonia Pagán quien estuvo al frente de la Tuna Vaquera por muchos años.
El sábado 14 de enero de 2023, desde las 8 a.m., la Universidad de Puerto Rico en Bayamón celebrará la 1ra Casa Abierta de Año Nuevo en el teatro de la institución.
“En este nuevo año hacemos un llamado a todos los soñadores y las soñadoras que desean iniciar estudios universitarios, transferirse de universidad,
retomar o continuar estudios o hacer un cambio en su carrera profesional a unirse a la “Fuerza vaquera en acción”. La UPR Bayamón tiene más de 50 años de tradición de excelencia académica y cientos de historias de éxito de estudiantes activos y egresados. Somos la única institución universitaria que tiene todos sus programas académicos susceptibles para acreditación ya 100% acreditados. La UPRB es una institución vanguardista, innovadora y emprendedora. Somos la mejor alternativa para hacer estudios universitarios. Para triunfar, como dice nuestra campaña, les invitamos a “Seguir la señal vaquera”, dijo el doctor Vélez Rubio, rector de la institución.
En la Casa Abierta participarán múltiples organizaciones estudiantiles y miembros de la facultad de los departamentos del recinto vaquero. La iniciativa también contará con orientaciones individualizadas por programas y recorridos por el campus. Los participantes del evento podrán conocer información sobre el proceso de admisión y las ayudas económicas que la Universidad de Puerto Rico en Bayamón tiene disponibles para ofrecerles. También podrás orientarte sobre los nuevos procesos de admisión no tradicional disponibles.
La Casa Abierta de la UPRB se extenderá hasta las 12 p.m. contando con el apoyo de oficiales de admisiones y de asistencia económica con quienes podrás llenar las solicitudes necesarias para iniciar tus estudios en agosto del 2023.
SAN JUAN – Un gran jurado federal a fines de la semana pasada emitió una acusación de tres cargos contra Aileene Mudafort Fernández y Mudafort Xtreme Sports & Motorsports Inc. por deshacerse de una pistola a un delincuente, ayudar e instigar en el tráfico de armas de fuego sin licencia y no mantener registros de armas de fuego.
“Los delitos violentos que involucran armas de fuego a menudo son cometidos por personas que no pueden obtener un arma de fuego legalmente, pero encuentran la manera. De acuerdo con las acusaciones, estos acusados se involucraron en el negocio de vender armas sin seguir las leyes de armas de fuego”, dijo
W. Stephen Muldrow, fiscal de los Estados Unidos para el Distrito de Puerto Rico en comunicación escrita.
“La fabricación y venta sin licencia con fines de lucro de armas de fuego de gran capacidad es una grave amenaza para la seguridad pública. Continuaremos investigando enérgicamente a los traficantes de armas y enjuiciando las violaciones de la ley”, añadió.
Según las acusaciones, desde al menos 2020, Mudafort Fernández y su tienda de armas ayudaron e instigaron a “R.R.M.” en el tráfico ilegal de armas. Además, Mudafort Fernández se deshizo de una pistola Taurus en 2019 a “P.C.T.”, sabiendo que era un delincuente. Mudafort Fernández y su arsenal tampoco cumplieron con los acuerdos de armas de fuego de acuerdo con la ley.
En una acusación separada, José Berrios Aquino, ar-
mero de Mudafort Xtreme Sports & Motorsports Inc., fue acusado de posesión de una ametralladora. Un armero de Mudafort Xtreme Sports & Motorsports Inc., José Berrios Aquino, fue acusado en una acusación separada de posesión de una pistola que había sido modificada para convertirse en una ametralladora. Según documentos públicos, el arma de Berrios Aquino había sido modificada con un gatillo de reinicio forzado Alamo-15, que modifica un arma para disparar automáticamente más de un tiro sin recarga manual mediante una sola función del gatillo.
Si es declarado culpable, cada acusado enfrenta una sentencia de hasta diez años de prisión. Una acusación solo contiene cargos y no es evidencia de culpabilidad.
Over decades of seasons spent trawling through museums and galleries I’ve seen, up close or in passing, countless works of contemporary art. A few have entered my bloodstream instantly and indelibly. One was a sculpture called “Por América (José Marti)” by the short-lived Cuban artist Juan Francisco Elso.
That was in 1993 when, in the wake of the Columbus Quincentenary year, a group exhibition of new Latin American art called “Ante America” (translated in its catalog as “Regarding America”) traveled from Bogotá, Colombia, to the Queens Museum in New York. With new work emphasizing African, Indigenous and diasporic sources, the show was designed as a definition-stretching, stereotype-shattering response to the Museum of Modern Art’s big, modernist-minded “Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century,” also on view that year.
The 1986 Elso sculpture was a centerpiece of the Queens show. A tribute to Marti, the 19th-century anti-colonialist Cuban hero and writer, who conceived of “America” as a yet-tobe-realized social utopia, transcultural and transhemispheric, the sculpture was composed of a single wood-carved, glasseyed male figure. Standing around 5 feet tall, he appeared to be caught, as if exhausted or stunned, in mid-stride.
His pale skin was smeared with brown mud. His torso and limbs were punctured by flower-shaped darts, which also pierced the ground at his feet. He carried, in his right hand, an upright machete, a potential weapon that, here, also suggested a torch and a martyr’s palm. (He died in 1895 in a battle for Cuban independence from Spain.)
Combining attributes of a Christian saint, African spirit-figure, political monument, and artist’s self-portrait, Elso’s image of Marti was of a ghost on the march, an embodiment of vulnerability as power. I’ve never forgotten my first sight of him almost 30 years ago, and now he’s back, power undiminished, this time at El Museo del Barrio in the survey “Juan Francisco Elso: Por América,” which, just under the wire, shoots straight to the top of my list of best exhibitions of 2022.
The show is a traditional career retrospective, in the sense that it gathers together what’s gatherable by the artist. But that isn’t much, only about 30 items, some in desperately fragile condition. Elso didn’t have time to produce a lot: He was only 32 when he died of cancer in 1988. Because he worked largely with ephemeral materials, much of what he did make hasn’t survived. And some late major pieces were unavailable. Because of continuing political hostilities with the United States, the Cuban government refused to loan works in the collection of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana, for fear they would not be returned.
To deal with these hurdles, the exhibition’s organizers — Olga Viso, a guest curator, collaborating with Susanna V. Temkin of El Museo — have framed their project as a “contextual survey,” one that sets an influential artist in his time and beyond it by placing him in the company of artists he knew and others, inside and outside of Cuba, who were, at that time
Juan Francisco Elso, “Por América (José Martí)”, 1986, at El Museo del Barrio in Manhattan on Dec. 19, 2022. “Combining attributes of a Christian saint, African spirit-figure, political monument, and artist’s self-portrait, Elso’s image of Marti was of a ghost on the march,” writes our critic.
or later, directly or indirectly inspired by his example.
Born in Havana in 1956, three years before the Castroled Revolution, Elso grew up in a Roman Catholic home. And this early soak in popular devotional imagery and ritual seems to have predisposed him to what became a deep and lasting attraction to the visual expression of varied spiritualities, from ancient Mayan religious sculpture to the ritual paraphernalia of Afro-Caribbean practices like Santeria, of which became an initiate. Many of his closest artist friends, among them José Bedia Valdés, Ricardo Brey, and Leandro Soto (1956-2022) — all represented in the show — shared his interest.
All were art students at a time when Soviet-style art education, based on 19th-century European academic traditions, was the only kind officially sanctioned. Focused on creating a new Cuban art, which incorporated Indigenous sources, references to Afro-Atlantic cultures, and influences from contemporary art happening elsewhere, Elso and his colleagues embraced maverick status and began to organize off-the-grid shows of their own.
Some of these were censored. One, called “Volumen Uno,” managed to open successfully in 1981 and gave its name to a vanguard movement in new Cuban art to which Elso belonged. Word of the show spread beyond the island. Cubanborn Ana Mendieta flew in from the United States to see it, as did New York sculptor Melvin Edwards, known for his abstract but trenchantly critical “Lynch Fragment Series.” Both artists had an impact on Elso, as he did on them, and their work appears in the introductory gallery of El Museo’s exhibition.
In 1986, he began spending much of his time in Mexico, where he immersed himself in the country’s archaeological history and its religious traditions, past and continuing, and where he met and married painter Magali Lara. Only after being diagnosed with cancer and in need of intensive medical
treatment did he return to Havana, where he died.
By that time, his reputation was circulating internationally. His inclusion in the 1986 Venice Biennale had attracted notice. “Por América (José Marti)” was created for Gerardo Mosquera’s second Havana Biennial — one of the first biennials anywhere to be truly global in scope — and was widely acknowledged to be a highlight of the show. However, it brought Elso unwelcome notoriety in Cuba, where government officials viewed his complex, culturally nuanced portrayal of Marti as ideologically off-script and outrageously disrespectful.
How radically resistant would Elso’s work feel in his homeland today? At present, censorship of art and artists is stricter than ever. In 2018, after a stretch of cultural relaxation popularly known as “Obamismo” — when then-President Barack Obama’s administration relaxed restrictions on travel to Cuba — the country’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, signed a law, Decree 349, banning any art that hasn’t been vetted by the government. Punishment of violators has so far been harsh. Protest, sometimes delivered through art, by a post-revolutionary generation of artists has been steady.
You’ll find some of that new art in an exhibition called “Sin Autorización: Contemporary Cuban Art” at Columbia University’s Wallach Art Gallery. The curators — Gwen A. Unger, a Ph.D. candidate in the school’s art history department, and Abel González Fernándezan M.A. candidate at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College — have chosen work that is, with a few exceptions, conceptually oriented in form and politically tightly coded in content. Most of it looks and feels nothing like what Elso and his Volumen Uno cohorts were doing. It appears to share little, if any interest in their ethnological and spiritual concerns, and bears little trace, at least that I can detect, of Marti-inspired utopianism, with its vision of some reach-for-the-stars “America” waiting out there.
But if seen together, the Wallach and El Museo exhibitions suggest a generational change in what “political” can mean in art, at least in Cuba. The lineup of artists Viso and Temkin have marshaled as context for Elso — Belkis Ayón and María Magdalena Campos-Pons of Cuba and Luis Camnitzer, Senga Nengudi, Lorraine O’Grady and Tiona Nekkia McClodden of the United States — make as stimulating a lineup of intellectual and spiritual renegades as any I’ve encountered this year.
And leading the group here is “Por América (José Marti).” Its meaning may have changed over the post-multicultural, decolonizing, repression-fighting, history-revising decades since the sight of it first hit me, like a needle in a vein. But it remains, as it did at that first look, a hauntingly enigmatic emblem of — what? aspiration? defeat? — and a luminous relic of a career cut short.
‘Juan Francisco Elso: Por América’
Through March 26, El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Ave., upper Manhattan, (212) 831-7272; elmuseo.org.
‘Sin Autorización: Contemporary Cuban Art’
Through Jan. 15, Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University; (212) 854-6800; wallach.columbia.edu.
The San Juan Daily Star Monday, January 2, 2023 17
and her at-times disagreeing parents through a succession of tough decisions on treatment, in which the answers about what’s best for Alex and what might prolong her survival are not always clear. Justin, at 19, has already been fighting leukemia for 10 years when the movie begins; over the course of the film, he reaches what appears to be the end, with at least one doctor pushing for a serious discussion about his death. But when Justin somehow survives after 24 hours of having what another doctor calls “blood pressures incompatible with life,” the parents’ decision on whether to press on for their professed fighter of a son only grows thornier.
Every moment in the movie is the stuff of life and death, and while “A Lion in the House” is almost always tough to watch, it is also impossible to shake.
‘Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?’ (2018)
Stream it on Fandor, Kanopy, Ovid, Projectr and Topic. Rent it on Amazon and Apple TV.
is much broader than Wilkerson’s family history and his sleuthing. Wilkerson meets with Edward Vaughn, a civil rights activist from the area who remembers a boycott of Branch’s grocery store after the killing and the woeful conditions at the hospital where Spann had been taken. Wilkerson weaves in an account of the rape of Recy Taylor — an assault that took place nearby in 1944 — and the work that Rosa Parks, roughly a decade before the Montgomery Bus Boycott, did to investigate it.
‘Flee’ (2021)
Stream it on Hulu.
By BEN KENIGSBERGThe proliferation of documentaries on streaming services makes it difficult to choose what to watch. Each month, we’ll choose three nonfiction films — classics, overlooked recent docs and more — that will reward your time.
‘A Lion in the House’ (2006) Stream it on Netflix.
When documentarian Julia Reichert (“American Factory”) died this month, her obituary in The New York Times called “A Lion in the House” her most personal film. Directed with her husband and filmmaking partner, Steven Bognar, the documentary began when, according to Bognar’s opening narration, they were invited by the head
oncologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to make a documentary about what a family goes through when a child has cancer. In the voice-over, Reichert notes that their own daughter had just finished treatment for cancer. After the movie was finished, Reichert received a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Made over six years, the documentary pivots around 5A, the cancer unit at the pediatric hospital. For nearly four hours of screen time, it immerses viewers in the lives of five patients who received their cancer diagnoses as children, and in the lives of their families and the many doctors, nurses and social workers charged with their care. While a film such as Frederick Wiseman’s extraordinary “Near Death” (1989) approached the subject of mortality with intimacy but a characteristic detachment, “A Lion in the House” is a case in which the filmmakers have a clear emotional investment in the material. Few documentaries look so unflinchingly yet so compassionately at the cruelty of relentless medical ordeals.
The patients vary in their circumstances and prognoses. They include Tim, a teenager with Hodgkin lymphoma, who initially resists his doctors’ efforts to have him gain weight and whose illness has severely limited his social life and his attendance at school. Alex, who has leukemia, is introduced when she is 7 and her cancer is in remission, but it returns, and Reichert and Bognar follow her
The protests following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin prompted experimental filmmaker Travis Wilkerson to investigate a troubling family story. He had been told S.E. Branch, his great-grandfather, who ran a grocery store in Dothan, Alabama, and was, from what we hear of him, a virulent racist, had killed a Black man, Bill Spann, in the 1940s and gotten away with it.
Wilkerson’s mother quickly sends him a newspaper item from 1946; it says that there was a charge against Branch for firstdegree murder in Spann’s killing. But that charge mysteriously disappeared, as tended to happen when white men committed violence against Black people in the Deep South, and Branch went on to live for decades. Wilkerson pores images of him in 8 mm home movies, one of which is labeled with the month of the murder. He even has a photo of the two of them together, the year Wilkerson was born and Branch died. As for Spann, there are few traces left of him or any descendants. “Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?” is partly the filmmaker’s effort to atone for that absence. To paraphrase his voice-over, this is the story of a murder victim buried in an unmarked grave — and of the killer’s great-grandson, who is filming that grave. “That’s a pretty precise expression of racism, no matter how you cut it,” Wilkerson narrates.
The scope of this chilling essay film
“Flee,” from director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, received Oscar nominations for both animated feature and documentary — an unusual combination. But animation really is the ideal form for this nonfiction account of one refugee’s flight from Afghanistan in the early 1990s. One of the themes that emerges is that living clandestinely requires continually being able to adapt one’s identity. In that way, the abstraction of animation — its distance from reality — reflects the material.
The central figure of “Flee” is called Amin in the film (at the start, the documentary notes that certain names and locations have been altered to protect the subjects). He knew Rasmussen from high school, but there is a lot that Rasmussen did not know about him. As Amin’s interlocutor throughout the feature, the director, interviewing him in Copenhagen, gets him to divulge things that he has largely kept to himself, for understandable reasons. Amin gives an account of a journey from Afghanistan that was anything but straightforward: He speaks of arriving in Moscow the year after the fall of the Soviet Union and an arduous effort to escape that eventually returned him to Russia, for a time.
You might be tempted to see Amin’s resilience as inspiring, but in “Flee,” he also considers the lingering effects his experiences on the run have had on his personality.
“When you flee as a child, it takes time to learn to trust people,” he says. “You’re constantly on your guard.” The sense given is that his defensive mode may have even caused friction in his present relationship. The film also deals with Amin’s coming to terms with being gay — he says there wasn’t even a word for it in Afghanistan — and his fears of his family’s reaction. But that outpouring — more of a blurting-out — makes for one of the film’s most unexpected and heartwarming sequences.
Tim Woods, left, with his mother, Marietha, in the documentary “A Lion in the House”With thousands stranded at airports late last month through a winter storm that carved a frigid path across the United States, their bags went on a journey of their own, creating another headache for weary travelers: Where was their stuff?
Frustrated passengers dealt with travel disruptions and delays in airports across the country last week, from Los Angeles to Denver and Chicago to New York, where many waited alongside their bags or found themselves separated from their luggage.
It’s too late for those holiday travelers to improve their situation, but planning ahead can help make finding wayward bags less of an ordeal.
Similar luggage chaos came in full view at the start of the summer travel season, when a baggage system malfunction at London’s Heathrow Airport was blamed for a meltdown in their handling. Other pileups of bags have been attributed to staffing shortages, weather problems and technological failure.
While the number of mishandled bags had been decreasing over the past decade, partly because of new technology, the last few years have changed that trajectory. The number of delayed or lost bags rose to 6 out of 1,000 bags last February, from 5 out of 1,000 in February 2020, according to the most recent report from the Department of Transportation.
The system is now operating beyond its capacity, said William McGee, the senior fellow for aviation at the American Economic Liberties Project, a nonpartisan organization that promotes equal access to economic markets. The summer’s baggage mess was “the worst summer meltdown for airline customer service in the 37 years I’ve spent working in, writing about and advocating about the airlines,” he said.
The lost luggage problems have been exacerbated by a reduction in airline investment in baggage handling during the pandemic, said Danny Cox, the vice president of guest experience at Breeze Airways, a new airline that launched last year. “The airlines have been in survival mode,” he said, “There hasn’t been an overabundance of funds to improve baggage systems.” Current staffing deficiencies have a ripple effect, he added.
“If you’re looking for a mechanic to fix something, you’re pulling from the same people who are servicing other ground operations.”
To better the odds that your luggage won’t get lost — and that you and your bag will be reunited if it does — follow these tips. Much of the trouble is beyond your control so a Zen mindset of patience can help as well.
Identify your luggage. The most important thing you can do to help the airline reunite you with lost luggage is to label its exterior with your initials and phone number, and put more complete contact information like a business card inside. Take photos of the luggage and note the brand name and dimensions. Keep your baggage claim check and know your ticket and flight number.
To reduce mishandling, tuck in loose straps that can get tangled with machinery or another bag and veer off course. Remove any bar code stickers or checked luggage tags from previous trips.
Luggage that may seem lost might have been taken accidentally by someone with a similar bag, especially if it’s a black, wheeled carry-on, the most common bag, said Kevin Larson, the Alaska Airlines manager of central baggage services. The luggage also may just be on another carousel. Larson advises passengers to put something unique, like a colorful ribbon, on the outside of their bag. A bright luggage tag, stickers or reflective tape also can make a suitcase stand out.
Act immediately. If your luggage does not arrive when you do, notify the airline before you leave the airport. Getting in touch by phone has been challenging through other luggage crises.
Pack smart. The Department of Transportation recommends passengers avoid packing items in their checked bags that are valuable, fragile, perishable or irreplaceable, and allows airlines to specify types of items they won’t cover if they are lost like cash, jewelry, computers, art objects, antiques and collectibles. Keep those with you or leave them at home. Put important medications in your carry-on.
Keep a virtual eye on it. Placing a small tracking device like a Tile or Apple AirTag inside your luggage lets you monitor the bag’s whereabouts via a phone app. “It’s about the same cost as checking one bag,” said Cox at Breeze Airways. Trackers are especially useful for discovering if someone mistakenly took your bag off the carousel instead of their own.
Some airlines, including United, American and Delta Air Lines, offer baggage tracking capabilities for passengers via the carrier’s website or mobile app.
Know the rules for compensation. The Department of Transportation lists the rules that airlines must follow when luggage is delayed or lost. The most that an airline can owe a passenger is $3,800 per bag. Flights with an international leg fall under different
rules and the most a passenger will receive is about $1,800.
Each airline has its own policies within the government’s rules, so passengers need to check their carrier’s website for details. United Airlines passengers, for example, need to have receipts for lost items if they claim the contents of their luggage are worth more than $1,500. United will consider the bag “lost” after five days, but other airlines may specify a longer time before declaring a bag “lost.”
Restock while a bag is missing. When luggage goes missing, airlines will reimburse passengers for toiletries, clothing and other incidental items that they buy to tide them over while the company tries to locate their bag. Airline websites can be vague about what will be covered and the United States government does not allow the airlines to impose a daily spending limit, so travelers may feel unsure about what’s allowed. Travelers should fill out a claim form available at the airline’s customer service desk or website and submit receipts for the items they buy. They should also have an explanation for anything unusual as to why the purchase was necessary.
Use protection. Premium credit cards may offer lost luggage coverage but can make passengers jump through some hoops to get it. More than 25 types of Chase credit cards offer up to $3,000 in compensation for lost luggage to make up the difference between the reimbursement from the airline and the value of the luggage and items in their luggage, according to Pablo Rodriguez, a spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase. Customers must furnish copies of receipts for each item valued at $25 or more that they are asking to replace, and the payout they receive could be lowered depending on the age of the items.
Travel insurance purchased separately can include compensation for lost or delayed luggage, but as always with travel insurance, read the fine print.
Don’t check the bag. The most obvious advice, but still the best way to make sure your bags aren’t lost by the airlines, is to travel with carry-on only. Pack ruthlessly — what do you really need? What can you buy at the destination? Can you wash out your socks in the sink? If you do check your luggage, try to book a nonstop flight. A transfer is one more chance for something to go wrong.
You didn’t make it to St. Louis, but your bags did. Here’s what to do.
backside, they discovered that some spikes along the animal’s hips were missing their tips and that the bony sheaths encasing these osteoderms had broken and healed into blunt points.
Because the damaged plates were clustered around Zuul’s hips, Arbour and her colleagues began to question whether they were defensive scars from a failed attack. Bipedal hunters like Gorgosaurus, a lanky cousin of the Tyrannosaurus rex, would have attacked Zuul from above instead of smashing into its flank. And few spots were as unappetizing as Zuul’s spike-covered haunches, which were within striking distance of its club.
Instead, Arbour and her team concluded that the placement of the battered plates, along with an absence of bite marks, were consistent with a crack from another Zuul’s tail club. Because the damaged osteoderms were at different stages of healing, it was likely that this ankylosaur took its fair share of thumpings 76 million years ago.
By JACK TAMISIEA
To ward off supersized predators, many herbivorous dinosaurs were biologically armed to the teeth. Some had skulls studded with horns, while others had tails bristling with spikes. But few matched the arsenal of ankylosaurs, a group of herbivores that peaked in diversity during the Cretaceous period. Most of the ankylosaur’s body was encased in bony plates that jutted out into jagged points, and some lugged around a sledgehammer-like tail club capable of delivering a bone-cracking blow.
Because of their seemingly indestructible nature, paleoartists and researchers alike have spent decades hypothetically pitting these plant-powered tanks against tyrannosaurs and other apex carnivores. However, predators may not have been the only creatures absorbing their batterings.
In a study published last month in the Royal Society Open Science, researchers analyzed the anatomy of one of the world’s most complete ankylosaur skeletons. They discovered several broken and healed armor plates concentrated around the creature’s hips that lacked any clear signs of disease or predation. Instead, the armor appeared to have been splintered by another ankylosaur’s club.
“The injuries are right where you’d expect two battling ankylosaurs would break things,” said Victoria Arbour, a paleontologist at the Royal BC Museum in British Columbia and an author of the study.
The exquisitely preserved ankylosaur skeleton, which sports a full suit of armor plates called osteoderms, was accidentally unearthed in 2014 by commercial fossil hunters excavating a nearby tyrannosaur in Montana’s Judith River Formation. When the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto acquired it, the bulk of the creature’s skeleton was still entombed in a 35,000-pound slab of sandstone, leaving just its skull and tail free.
Based on the ankylosaur’s skull and its club at the end of a thorny tail, it was clear the animal was a unique species. The dinosaur’s horn-encrusted head reminded Arbour, then a postdoctoral researcher at the Ontario museum, of the gnarly mug of Zuul, the terror dog from the film “Ghostbusters.” In 2017, she and her colleagues christened the new species Zuul crurivastator, or “Zuul, the destroyer of shins.”
The rest of Zuul’s body remained trapped in the stone for more than a year as fossil preparators painstakingly chipped away at the rock. They eventually uncovered fossilized skin dotted with osteoderms. As they worked their way toward Zuul’s
The authors proposed that the injuries occurred during combat between Zuul and its brawny brethren. Like today’s head-butting bighorn sheep or neck-swinging giraffes, competing ankylosaurs may have established dominance by landing armor-shattering body blows with their tail clubs.
The new evidence is essential for studying the behavior of these classic, yet enigmatic, dinosaurs. “Ankylosaurs left no living descendants, so we have no living analogues to learn what ancient ankylosaurs did,” said Jordan Mallon, a paleontologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, who was not involved in the study. “This is the first example where we’ve been able to marshal some evidence to support that these things were actually using their tail clubs to smash into one another in a ritualistic way.”
And this practice might have driven the evolution of gnarlier tail clubs, much like how modern elk employ their elaborate antlers not only to tussle with one another but also to impress prospective mates. “The reason that they have a tail club is probably not driven by predation, but more for intraspecific combat,” Arbour said. “It’s more sexual selection than natural selection.”
While these clubs may have evolved to help ankylosaurs bash each other, they were still capable of delivering a debilitating blow below a tyrannosaur’s knee. “The destroyer of shins is still quite apt,” Arbour said.
An artist’s rendering of Zuul crurivastator, whose name means “Zuul, destroyer of shins,” in battle.ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE PONCE
REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC.
Demandante Vs.
SUCESION NORBERTO FELIPE RODRIGUEZ
PAGAN COMPUESTA POR BRENDA
RODRIGUEZ, NORBERTO
RODRIGUEZ, JOHN DOE
Y JANE DOE COMO
POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; SUCESION EMILIA RAMONA RODRIGUEZ ANADON COMPUESTA POR, BRENDA
RODRIGUEZ, NORBERTO
RODRIGUEZ, JOHN DOE
Y JANE DOE COMO
POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE IMPUESTOS MUNICIPALES
Demandados
Civil Núm.: PO2019CV02570.
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.
Certifico y Hago Constar: Que en cumplimiento con el Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por el (la) Secretario(a) del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Ponce, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América y/o Giro Postal y Cheque Certificado, en mi oficina ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Ponce, el 22 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 1:45 DE LA
TARDE, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar marcado con el numero ciento cincuenta (150) de la manzana ocho (8) de la Urbanización
Perla
en el Barrio Canas del término municipal de Ponce, con un área superficial de TRESCIENTOS CINCUENTA PUNTO CERO CERO (350.00) METROS CUADRADOS. Colindando por el NORTE, en veinticinco punto cero cero (25.00) metros, con el solar número ciento cincuenta y uno (151) de la Urbanización; por el SUR, en veinticinco punto cero cero (25.00) metros, con el solar número ciento cuarenta y nueve (149) de la Urbanización; por el ESTE, en catorce punto cero cero (14.00) con la Calle “B” de la Urbanización; y por el OESTE, en catorce punto cero cero (14.00) con terrenos de la Escuela Vocacional de Ponce. Finca 17,451, antes 20066, inscrita al folio 112 del tomo 246 de Ponce, Registro de la Propiedad de Ponce, Sección II. La hipoteca objeto de esta ejecución se encuentra inscrita al folio 46 vto. del tomo 1183 de Ponce II, finca 17,451, Registro de la Propiedad de Ponce, Sección II, inscripción 14ª. Propiedad localizada en: URB. PERLA DEL SUR, 2633
CALLE LAS COROZAS, PONCE, PR 00717. 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: $186,000.00. Fecha de Vencimiento: A la presentación. 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 $186,000.00, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la escritura de hipoteca. De ser necesaria una SEGUNDA SUBASTA por declararse desierta la primera, la misma se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Ponce, el 1 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 1:45 DE LA TARDE, y se establece como mínima
para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $124,000.00, 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 $93,000.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Ponce, el 8 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 1:45 DE LA TARDE. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para, con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante, el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor ascendente a la suma de $82,481.80 por concepto de principal, más la suma de $38,892.18 en intereses acumulados al 31 de octubre de 2019 y los cuales continúan acumulándose a razón de 7.00% anual hasta su total y completo pago; más la sumas de $4,697.39 en seguro hipotecario; $3,600.00 en cargos por servicio; $370.00 en tasaciones; $140.00 en inspecciones de la propiedad; más la cantidad de 10% del pagare original en la suma de $18,600.00, 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 Ponce, Puerto Rico, hoy 30 de noviembre de 2022. Jorge M.Hernández Pagán, Alguacil Regional. Manuel Maldonado,
Alguacil Placa #820.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN
REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING, LLC
Demandante Vs. SUCESION LUIS DOMINGUEZ GUERRERO T/C/C LUIS DOMINGUEZGUERRERO T/C/C LUIS DOMINGUEZ COMPUESTA POR LUIS DOMINGUEZ BERRIOS; JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; OLGA MERCEDES BERRIOS MOLINARI T/C/C OLGA BERRIOS MOLINARI T/C/C OLGA BERRIOS DE DOMINGUEZ T/C/C OLGA M. BERRIOS MOLINARY T/C/C OLGA M. BERRIOS T/C/C OLGA M. BERRIOS MOLINARI POR SI Y
A LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES
Demandados Civil Núm.: BY2021CV03344.
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 Bayamón, 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 Bayamón, Cuarto Piso, Oficina de Alguaciles de Subastas, el 7 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le
corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: “URBANA: Parcela de terreno identificado como el solar número treinta y tres (33) del bloque “RB” de la Urbanización Marina Bahía, Barrio Palmas Cataño, con una cabida de quinientos noventa y ocho punto cuatrocientos noventa y tres (598.493) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el Norte, en treinta y cuatro punto veinte (34.20) metros, con los solares número cuarenta (40) y cuarenta y uno (41); por el Sur, en once punto setecientos veintiocho (11.728) metros y tres punto cincuenta y tres (3.53) metros, con Court número nueve (9) y el solar número treinta y dos (32); por el Este, en treinta y cinco punto cuarenta y cinco (35.45) metros, con los solares número trece (13) y veinte (20) y por el Oeste, en diecinueve punto veinte (19.20) metros con el solar número treinta y cuatro (34). Contiene una casa”. Finca número 6,778, inscrita al folio 185 del tomo 142 de Cataño, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección IV. La Hipoteca Revertida consta inscrita al Tomo Karibe, finca 6778 de Cataño, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección IV, inscripción 4ª. Propiedad localizada en: URB. MARINA BAHIA, RB-33 PLAZA 9, CATAÑO, PUERTO RICO 00962. 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: $349,500.00. Fecha de Vencimiento: 13 de julio de 2079. 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 $349,500.00, 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 Bayamón, Cuarto Piso, Oficina de Alguaciles de Subastas, el 14 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA, y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $233,000.00, 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 $174,750.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, Cuarto Piso, Oficina de Alguaciles de Subastas, el 21 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para, con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante, el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor ascendente a la suma de $165,821.34 por concepto de principal, más la suma de $51,939.51 en intereses acumulados al 29 de diciembre de 2021 y los cuales continúan acumulándose a razón de 3.974% anual hasta su total y completo pago; más la sumas de $15,017.21 en seguro hipotecario; $550.00 de tasaciones; $180.00 de inspecciones; $1,859.00 en preservación; $735.00 en honorarios de abogados; más la cantidad de 10% del pagare original en la suma de $34,950.00, 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 Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy 28 de noviembre de 2022. Frances Torres, Alguacil Regional. Edgardo Elías Vargas Santana, Alguacil Auxiliar Placa #193.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE FAJARDO
BAUTISTA REO PR CORP. Demandante V. LOS FAROS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION; LUIS MANUEL GÁRATE JORGE Y SU ESPOSA ANYLOLY FERNÁNDEZ PADIAL, POR SÍ Y COMO REPRESENTANTES Y CO-ADMINISTRADORES DE LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA ENTRE AMBOS; CARLOS PÉREZ ANDINO; ENRIQUE SANTIAGO RODRÍGUEZ
Demandados Civil Núm.: NICI2007-00491. (302). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. AVISO DE SUBASTA ENMENDADO. 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 25 de agosto de 2022, 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 nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, en moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, el día 8 de febrero de 2023, a la(s) 2:00 de la tarde para la Finca Número 32,562; para la Finca Número 25,343, a las 2:30 de la tarde; para la Finca Número 32,563, a las 3:00 de la tarde; y para la Finca Número 32,564, a las 3:30 de la tarde, en mi oficina localizada en el Tribunal de Fajardo todo título, derecho o interés que corres-
ponda a la parte demandada sobre los inmuebles que se describen a continuación: FINCA #32,562: (A) RÚSTICA: Parcela de terreno identificada en el plano de segregación bajo la letra “A” situada en el Barrio Mameyes del término municipal de Luquillo, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de CINCO PUNTO CERO CERO DOS DOS CUERDAS (5.0022 CDAS.), equivalentes a Diecinueve Mil Seiscientos Sesenta punto Seis Cinco Siete metros cuadrados (19,660.657 m.c.), colindando por el NORTE, en Doscientos Veintiuno punto Cinco Cinco cero metros (221.550 m.) con terrenos de la sucesión de Tomás Ramírez Morales; por el SUR, en Ciento Noventa y Siete punto Siete Siete Nueve metros (197.779 m.) con terrenos de Estrella, Úrsula y Ernesto Alonso; por el ESTE, en Ciento Veintiuno punto Siete Dos Ocho metros (121.728 m.) con parcelas de terreno identificadas en el plano de segregación bajo las letras “8’1 y “F”; y por el OESTE, en Setenta y Dos punto Ocho Tres Dos metros (72.832 m.) con terrenos de Estrella, Úrsula y Ernesto Alonso. **Enmendado a fines de corregir año de las fechas de subasta, donde por error involuntario se escribió 2022, cuando era 2023. Inscrita al tomo Karibe de Río Grande, finca número 32,562, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección III. Dirección Física: Solar A, PR-968, Km 0.3, Barrio Mameyes, Río Grande, Puerto Rico. La propiedad descrita anteriormente está afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: Afecta por su procedencia: Libre. Por sí: HIPOTECA en garantía de un pagaré a favor del Portador, oa su orden, por la suma de $5,476,000.00, respondiendo ésta por $144,098.00, con interés al 1% sobre el prime rate, y vencedero a la presentación, según consta de la escritura #16, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 5 de abril de 2005, ante el Notario Público Manuel Correa Calzada, inscrita al tomo Karibe de Río Grande, inscripción 4ta. Según pactado en la escritura número 16 sobre Hipoteca en Garantía de Pagaré, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 5 de abril de 2005, ante el Notario Público Manuel Correa Calzada, servirá de tipo mínimo para la primera subasta de la Finca Número 32,562 la suma de $144,098.00. De no adjudicarse la propiedad en la primera subasta, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA, en las mismas oficinas de este Alguacil, el día 15 de febrero de 2023, a la(s) 2:00 de la
del Sur, radicadosus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante, o de los acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, siempre que surjan de la certificación registral, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante: Autoridad para el Financiamiento de la Vivienda de Puerto Rico, a consentir y ratificar la modificación, mediante la escritura ntimero 236, otorgada en Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, el día 8 de octubre de 2019, ante la notario Tanyha V. Rodríguez
Vázquez, e inscrita al tomo Karibe de Bayamón Sur, finca ntimero 25,934, nota marginal de la inscripción 13.1. El producto de la subasta se destinará a satisfacer al demandante hasta donde alcance, la SENTENCIA dictada y notificada el 5 de abril de 2022, en el presente caso civil, a saber la suma de $178,660.14 por concepto de principal; generando intereses a razón de 4.125% desde el 1ro de julio de 2019; cargos por demora los cuales al igual que los intereses continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda reclamada en este pleito, y la suma de $17,866.14 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado; y demás créditos accesorios garantizados hipotecariamente. La adjudicación se hará al mejor postor, quien deberá consignar el importe de su oferta en el acto mismo de la adjudicación, en efectivo (moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América), giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del alguacil del Tribunal. La PRIMERA SUBASTA se llevará a efecto el día 13 DE FEBRERO DE 2023
A LAS 10:45 DE LA MAÑANA, en el cuarto piso, Oficina de Alguaciles de Subastas de Centro Judicial de Bayamón, Bayamón, Bayamón, Puerto Rico. Que el precio mínimo fijado para la PRIMERA SUBASTA es de $178,660.14. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una SEGUNDA SUBASTA la misma se llevará a efecto el día 27 DE FEBRERO DE 2023
A LAS 10:45 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo para la SEGUNDA SUBASTA será de $119,106.76, equivalentes a dos terceras (2/3) partes del
tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una TERCERA SUBASTA la misma se llevará a efecto el día 6 DE MARZO DE 2023 A LAS 10:45
DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo para la TERCERA SUBASTA será de $89,330.07, equivalentes a la mitad (1/2) del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el Tribunal lo estima conveniente; se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si esta es mayor, todo ello a tenor con lo dispone el Articulo 104 de la Ley Núm. 210 del 8 de diciembre de 2015 conocida como “Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmueble del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico”. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquiere libre de toda carga y gravamen que afecte la mencionada finca según el Artículo 102, inciso 6. Una vez confirmada la venta judicial por el Honorable Tribunal, se procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura de venta judicial y se pondrá al comprador en posesión física del inmueble de conformidad con las disposiciones de Ley. Para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda aquella persona o personas que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando, y para conocimiento de todos los licitadores y el público en general, el presente Edicto se publicará por espacio de dos (2) semanas consecutivas, con un intervalo de por lo menos siete días entre ambas publicaciones, en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico y se fijará además en tres (3) lugares públicos del Municipio en que ha de celebrarse dicha venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Se les informa, por último, que: a. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la secretaría del tribunal durante las horas laborables. b. Que se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes. Se entenderá, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate.
EXPIDO, el presente EDICTO, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy
día 16 de diciembre de 2022. MARIBEL LANZAR VELÁZQUEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #735, DIVISIÓN DE SUBASTAS, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE SAN JUAN ORIENTAL BANK
Demandante V. CARLOS ACOSTA CRESPO, JEYMY
Demandados Civil Núm.: SJ2019CV06160. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA (IN REM). 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 San Juan, hago saber a la parte demandada CARLOS ACOSTA CRESPO, JEYMY GONZÁLEZ PAZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES POR ESTOS COMPUESTA, y al PÚBLICO EN GENERAL; que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el 19 de julio de 2022, por la Secretaría del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta por el precio mínimo de $108,000.00 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: CALLE DIEPA #1327, URB. CAPARRA TERRACE, SAN JUAN, PR 00926, y que se describe de la siguiente manera: URBANA: Solar sito en el barrio Monacillos de Río Piedras, marcado con el número veintiocho B de la manzana AD de la urbanización Caparra Terrace, con un área superficial de doscientos cincuenta metros cuadrados, más o menos, el cual colinda por el NORTE, en diez metros con terrenos de Puerto Nuevo Development antes, hoy otros; por el SUR, en diez metros con la calle número ciento veintitrés de la urbanización; por el ESTE, en veinticinco metros con el solar número veintisiete de la manzana AD; y por el OESTE, en veinticinco metros con el solar número veintiocho ‘A’ de la manzana AD. Enclava una casa de concreto armado con techo de azotea y piso de losas del país, de una sola planta, que constituye una vivienda independiente de tres
dormitorios con sus closets, sala y comedor en una sola unidad, cocina con su closet, balcón y cuarto de baño. Existe una servidumbre por signo aparente establecida por la corporación vendedora en la pared que divide los apartamientos A y B, cuya pared continuará sirviendo a ambos apartamientos y pertenecerá en común proindiviso y en toda su actual extensión y espesor a los propietarios de ambos apartamientos. Finca 14305 inscrita al folio 196 del tomo 1064 de Monacillos, Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección III. La finca antes descrita se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: (i) Hipoteca: Afecta por sí, a Hipoteca a favor de DORAL BANK, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $108,000.00, con intereses a razón de 6.95 % anual, con vencimiento: 1 de marzo de 2036. Tasándose esta finca en la cantidad de $108,000.00. Garantizándose los siguientes créditos adicionales: tres sumas adicionales equivalentes al 10% del principal del pagaré, para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, intereses en adición a los garantizados por ley y para otros adelantos que puedan hacerse. El pagaré está autenticado bajo affidávit número 11,170. En virtud de la Escritura número 68 otorgada en San Juan, el 7 de febrero de 2006 ante el notario Miguel A. Hernández Sanabria, según la inscripción 7ª. (ii) Hipoteca: Afecta por sí, a Hipoteca a favor de DORAL BANK, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $27,000.00, con intereses a razón de 6.95% anual, con vencimiento: 1 de marzo de 2036. El pagaré está autenticado bajo affidávit número 11,172. Tasándose esta finca en la cantidad de $27,000.00. Garantizándose los siguientes créditos adicionales: tres sumas adicionales equivalentes al 10% del principal del pagaré, para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, intereses en adición a los garantizados por ley y para otros adelantos que puedan hacerse. En virtud de la Escritura número 69 otorgada en San Juan, el 7 de febrero de 2006 ante el notario Miguel A. Hernández Sanabria, según la inscripción 9ª. (iii) Anotación de Demanda: Es objeto de esta anotación, la hipoteca a favor de DORAL BANK, por la suma principal de $27,000.00, que resulta de la inscripción 9ª. Anotación de Demanda expedida en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, en el Caso Civil númeroSJ2018CV08431. Demandante: Banco Popular de PR VS. Demandados: Carlos Acosta
Crespo, Jeymy González Paz y La Sociedad Legal de Bienes Gananciales compuesta por ambos. Suma adeudada $22,491.35 y otras sumas que detalla el documento, o, en su defecto, que se ordene la ejecución de la hipoteca. Expedido el 1 de octubre de 2018, según la Anotación de Demanda con letra 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 dicta el 9 de mayo de 2022, mediante la cual se condenó a la parte demandada pagar a la parte demandante la suma de $89,969.42 de principal, $15,086.76 de interés que continuarán acumulándose a $17.1310 diariamente desde el 1 de octubre de 2019 hasta el saldo total, más cargos por demora mensuales, más las cantidades debidas de contribuciones e impuestos, primas de seguro contra riesgo y seguro de hipoteca hasta su completo pago, más la cantidad de $10,800.00 estipulados para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados en caso de reclamación judicial, cantidades todas garantizadas por la hipoteca.
La PRIMERA SUBASTA será celebrada el día 30 DE ENERO DE 2023 A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina del Alguacil, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, Puerto Rico. Servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma la cantidad de $108,000.00, sin admitirse oferta inferior. De no haber remate ni adjudicación, celebraré SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 6 DE FEBRERO DE 2023 A LAS 9:30 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, $72,000.00. Si no hubiese remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, celebraré TERCERA SUBASTA el día 13 DE FEBRERO DE 2023 A LAS 9:30 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, $54,000.00. 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 entien-
de 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 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 San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy 20 de diciembre de 2022. EDWIN E. LÓPEZ MULERO, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE SAN JUAN. ***
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN.
CIVIL NÚM.: SJ2022CV05892/ SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EDICTO ANUNCIANDO PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe, funcionario del Tribunal de la Sala Superior de San Juan, Puerto Rico, por la presente anuncia y hace saber al público en general que en cumplimiento con la Sentencia dictada en este caso con fecha 21 de octubre de 2022, y según Orden y Mandamiento del 8 de diciembre de 2022 librado por este honorable Tribunal, procederé a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor, y por dinero en efectivo, cheque certificado o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal con todo título derecho y/o interés de la parte demandada sobre la propiedad que se describe a continuación: URBANA: PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL: Apartment C, dash Thirty Seven (C-37), is located in the second floor of building number 3 which is located in the Southeastern corner of the property. It consists of an irregular rectangular shaped body, measuring approximately thirty six feet five and a half inches long by twenty four feet zero inches wide, that is, an area of eight hundred thirty three square feet thirteen hundredths of another (833.130 s/f), equivalent to seventy seven square meter forty hundredths of another (77.40 s/m). Bounding by the NORTH, with the party wall which separates it from apartment C-38 and with the interior wall which separates it from the stairways located on the section of the extreme North of the building, to which the entrance door of the apartment opens and which leads to the public way; on the SOUTH, with the party wall which separates it from apartment C-32 and with the exterior wall which separates it from the common yard on the Western side of the building; by the EAST, with the exterior wall which separates it from the common yard on the East side of the building; by the WEST, with the exterior
wall which separates it from the common yard on the West side of the building. This apartment consists of a combination living roomdining room, kitchen equipped with cabinets a built in general electric range, model JM-71 with counter and a 30 gallons capacity water heater, a bathroom, three bedrooms and anteroom. Con un porcentaje en los elementos común. FINCA NÚMERO: 21,930, inscrita al folio 109 del tomo 680 de Monacillos, sección III de San Juan. Dirección Física: COND. JARDINES DE ALTAMESA APTO. 37-C SAN JUAN, PR 00926. Se anuncia por medio de este edicto que la primera subasta habrá de celebrarse el día 31 de enero de 2023, a las 10:00 de la mañana, en mi oficina sita en el edificio que ocupa el Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala Superior de San Juan. Siendo ésta la primera subasta que se celebrará en este caso, será el precio mínimo aceptable como oferta en la Primera Subasta, eso es el tipo mínimo pactado en la Escritura de Hipoteca para la propiedad, la suma de $78,997.82. De no haber remanente o adjudicación en esta primera subasta por dicha suma mínima, se celebrará una segunda subasta el día 7 de febrero de 2023, a las 10:00 de la mañana, en el mismo lugar antes señalado en la cual el precio mínimo serán dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo pactado en la escritura de hipoteca, la suma de $52,665.21. De no haber remanente o adjudicación en esta segunda subasta por el tipo mínimo indicado en el párrafo anterior, se celebrará una tercera subasta en el mismo lugar antes señalado el día 14 de febrero de 2023, a las 10:00 de la mañana, en la cual el tipo mínimo aceptable como oferta será la mitad (1/2) del precio mínimo pactado en la escritura de hipoteca, la suma de $39,498.91. Si se declare desierta la tercera subasta se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo mínimo de la tercera subasta, si el tribunal lo estima conveniente. Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta es mayor. Con el importe de esta venta se habrá de satisfacer el balance de la sentencia dictada en este caso el cual consiste en el pago de $76,068.63 de principal, más intereses convenidos al 4.0000% anual más recargos hasta su pago, más el pago de lo pactado en la sentencia para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados. Se dispone que una vez celebrada la subasta y vendido el inmueble relacionado, el alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial a los nuevos dueños den-
tro del término de veinte (20) días a partir de la celebración de la Subasta. 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 demandado/ deudor la ocupen. El Alguacil de este Tribunal efectuará el lanzamiento de los ocupantes de ser necesario. Por la presente, también se notifica e informa a Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal, personas desconocidas que puedan tener derechos en la propiedad o título objeto de este edicto. La Venta en Pública Subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga y 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 eso fuera necesario, a los efectos de cualquier persona o personas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha Subasta. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes. Se entenderá que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento del caso de epígrafe están disponibles en la Secretaría de este Tribunal durante horas laborables y para la concurrencia de los licitadores expido el presente Edicto que se publicará en un periódico de circulación diaria en toda la Isla de Puerto Rico por espacio dos (2) semanas y por lo menos una vez por semana y se fijará, además, en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Alcaldía y la Colecturía de Rentas Internas del Municipio donde se celebrará la Subasta y en la Colecturía más cercana del lugar de la residencia de la parte demandada. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente que firmo y sello, hoy día 27 de diciembre de 2022. ERIK F
OSUNA ACEVEDO, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR. PEDRO HIEYE GONZALEZ, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE RÍO GRANDE EN FAJARDO
REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC
Demandante Vs. MARINO QUINTANA HERNANDEZ T/C/C MARINO QUINTANA; ANA CARDET MUÑOZ DE QUINTANA T/C/C ANA C. MUÑOZ DE QUINTANA T/C/C ANA CARDET MUÑOZ BARAHONA T/C/C ANA CARDE MUÑOZ BARAHONA T/C/C ANA CARDE MUÑOZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA
Demandados Civil Núm.: RG2021CV00201.
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 Fajardo, 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 Fajardo, el 8 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 3:00 DE LA TARDE, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar radicado en el Barrio Pueblo del término municipal de Río Grande; Puerto Rico, marcado con el número 11 del bloque “AQ” del plano de inscripción de la Urbanización Jardines de Río Grande, con una cabida superficial de 434.00 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en 31.00 metros con el solar 10 del bloque “AQ”; por el SUR, en 31.00 metros con el solar 12 del bloque “AQ”; por el ESTE, en 14.00 metros con los solares 4 y 5 del bloque “AQ”; y por el OESTE, en 14.00 metros con la Calle 36. Enclava una casa de una sola planta, de concreto reforzado y bloques de concreto, para fines residenciales. Finca número 5,597, inscrita al folio 207 del tomo 110 de Rio Grande, Registro de la
Propiedad de Carolina, Sección III. La Hipoteca Revertida consta inscrita al folio 3325 del tomo 560 de Rio Grande, finca 5,597, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección III, inscripción 7ª. Propiedad localizada en: URB. JARDINES DE RIO GRANDE, AQ-11 CALLE 36, RIO GRANDE, PR 00745. 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: $241,500.00. Fecha de Vencimiento: 10 de octubre de 2090. 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 $161,000.00, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la escritura de hipoteca. De ser necesaria una SEGUNDA SUBASTA por declararse desierta la primera, la misma se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Fajardo, el 15 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 3:00 DE LA TARDE, y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $107,333.33, 2/3 partes del tipo mínima establecido originalmente. Si tampoco se produce remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se establece como mínima para la TERCERA SUBASTA, la suma de $80,500.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Fajardo, el 23 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 3:00 DE LA TARDE. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para, con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante, el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor ascendente a la suma de $136,363.22 por concepto de principal, más la suma de $21,091.63 en intereses acumulados al 30 de junio de 2021 y los cuales continúan acumulándose a razón de 4.00% anual hasta su total y completo pago; más la sumas de $5,436.56 en seguro hipo-
tecario; $5,110.00 en tarifas de servicios; $1,025.00 de tasaciones; $140.00 de inspecciones; $1,214.40 en preservación; $1,205.00 de adelantos pendientes; más la cantidad de 10% del pagare original en la suma de $16,100.00, 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 Fajardo, Puerto Rico, hoy 3 de noviembre de 2022. HÉCTOR L. OLMO ROMERO, ALGUACIL REGIONAL INTERINO. MILDRED I. TORO COLÓN, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR PLACA #197.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE FAJARDO GITSIT SOLUTIONS, LLC Demandante Vs. PEDRO CORREA GUTIERREZ, LUZ MARIA ORTIZ VELAZQUEZ Y SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS Demandados Civil Núm.: CA2019CV03402.
Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
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 Fajardo, en el caso de epígrafe procederá a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor en efectivo, cheque gerente, giro postal, cheque certificado en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América al nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, en mi oficina ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Fajardo, el 12 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 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: RUSTICA: Parcela marcada con el número once (11) en el plano del Barrio Mameyes II del término municipal de Rio Grande, con una cabida superficial de cero cuerdas con ochocientos nueve diezmilésimas de otra, equivalentes a 318.16 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con la parcela número 10 de la comunidad; por el SUR, con la Calle Número 1 de la comunidad; por el ESTE, con la parcela número 13 de la comunidad y por el OESTE, con la parcela número 9 de la comunidad. Inscrita al folio doscientos veinte uno (221) del tomo ciento treinta y siete (137) de Rio Grande, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, sección III, finca número seis mil novecientos sesenta y uno (6961). Propiedad localizada en: Palmer Community Lote 11 Calle B , Rio Grande, PR 00729. 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: N/A. Suma de la Carga: N/A. Fecha de Vencimiento: N/A. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad de la propiedad y que todas las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito ejecutante antes descritos, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes. El rematante acepta dichas cargas y gravámenes anteriores, y queda subrogado en la
responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se establece como tipo mínimo de subasta la suma de $83,500.00, 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 Fajardo, el 19 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $55,666.66, 2/3 partes del tipo mínimo establecido originalmente. Si tampoco se produce remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se establece como mínima para la TERCERA SUBASTA, la suma de $41,750.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Fajardo, el 26 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 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 $75,598.51, de primer principal y la suma de $7,269.73 de balance deferido, más los intereses sobre la suma $75,598.51 al 3.096% anual desde el día 4 de julio de 2017 hasta su total pago; más la suma garantizada hipotecariamente $8,350.00 por concepto de honorarios de abogado y costas autorizadas por el Tribunal, más las cantidades que se adeudan mensualmente por concepto de seguro hipotecario, cargos por demora, y otros adeudados que se hagan en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca. La venta en pública subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen posterior que afecte la mencionada finca, a cuyo efecto se notifica y se hace saber la fecha, hora y sitio de la PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA, si esto fuera necesario, a los efectos de que cualquier persona o personas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha subasta. Se notifica a todos los interesados que las actas y demás constancias del expediente de este caso están disponibles en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables para ser examinadas por los (las) interesados (as). Y para su publicación en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star, que es un diario de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, así como para su publicación en los si-
tios públicos de Puerto Rico. Expedido en Fajardo, Puerto Rico, hoy día 01 de diciembre de 2022. SANDRALIZ MARTÍNEZ TORRES, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR #737, ALGUACIL DE SUBASTAS, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE FAJARDO, SALA SUPERIOR. JORGE A. ORTIZ ESTRADA, ALGUACIL REGIONAL INTERINO #622.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE ARECIBO
Demandante, Vs. HEIDY M. FERRELL
Demandada Caso Núm.: AR2022CV00921.
Salón Núm.: 402. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
A: HEIDY M. FERRELL SÁNCHEZ- 236 RES LAS
MESETAS ARECIBO, PR 00612-2945.
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.
2022. En Arecibo, Puerto Rico, el 8 de diciembre de 2022. VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. VIVIAN Y. MELÉNDEZ RIVERA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE CAGUAS
Demandados Civil Núm.: CG2022CV04112.
Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ HIPOTECARIO EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO.
LA PARTE
El sistema SUMAC notificará copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. Kevin Sánchez Campanero cuyas direcciones son: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 009368518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección kevin.sanchez@ orf-law.com, y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO FMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Arecibo, Puerto Rico, hoy día 7 de diciembre de
A: M&T BANK. M&T BANK LEGAL DOCUMENT PROCESSING, P.O. BOX 844, BUFFALO, NY 14240-0844. En este caso la parte demandante ha radicado Demanda para que se decrete judicialmente el saldo del siguiente pagaré: Sun West Mortgage Company lnc., o a su orden, por $273,946.00, con intereses al 3.25% anual, vence el 1ro de febrero del 2043, según consta de la escritura #27, otorgada en Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, el día 24 de enero del 2013, ante el Notario Público Lizbeth Avilés Vega, inscrito al folio #159vto. del tomo #1770 de Caguas, finca #55927, inscripción 7ma y está garantizado por hipoteca sobre la propiedad sita en Urbanización Hacienda San Jose AS 107 Vía del Guayabal, Caguas, PR 00726, que se describe como sigue: URBANA: Parcela de terreno identificada como solar 107 del Bloque AS de la Urbanización Asomante, radicada en el Barrio Cañabón del término municipal de Caguas, Puerto Rico, con una cabida de 475.000 metros cuadrados y en lindes por el NORTE, en 25.00 metros, con Solar número 106; por el SUR, en 25.00 metros, con solar número 108; por el ESTE, en 19.00 metros, con Calle Vía Guayabal (calle número 1); y por el OESTE, en 19.00 metros, con Solares número 120 y 121. Enclava una casa. Inscrita al Sistema al Sistema Karibe de Caguas, finca #55927, inscripción 8va., Registro de la Propiedad Sección Primera de Caguas. La parte demandante alega que dicho Pagaré se ha extraviado, según más detalladamente consta en la Demanda radicada que puede examinarse en la
Secretaría de este Tribunal. Por tratarse de unas obligaciones hipotecarias, y pudiendo usted tener interés en este caso o quedar afectado por el remedio solicitado, se les emplaza por este Edicto que se publicará en un (1) periódico de circulación general una (1) sola vez y que si no comparecen a contestar dicha Demanda radicando el original de la misma a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual pueden acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se representen por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberán presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaria del Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico. Sala de Utuado, con copia al abogado de la parte demandante, Lcdo. Jorge García Rondón, de PMB 538, 267 Sierra Morena, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00926 dentro del término de treinta (30) días contados a partir de la publicación del Edicto, se les anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia en su contra concediendo el remedio solicitado en la Demanda sin más citarles ni oírles.
EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto por Orden del Tribunal, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en Caguas, Puerto Rico, hoy 15 de diciembre de 2022.
LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA. VILMA OYOLA RIVERA, SUB-SECRETARIA.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE CAGUAS NATHAN MONTICCIOLO Y LINDA BASTONE Demandante Vs. SUN WEST MORTGAGE
Demandados
Civil Núm.: CG2022CV04112.
Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ HIPOTECARIO EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO.
A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE
DESCONOCIDAS CON POSIBLE INTERÉS).
En este caso la parte demandante ha radicado Demanda para que se decrete judicialmente el saldo del siguiente pagaré: Sun West Mortgage Company lnc., o a su orden, por $273,946.00, con intereses al 3.25% anual, vence el 1ro de febrero del 2043, según consta de la escritura #27, otorgada en Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, el día 24 de enero del 2013, ante el
Notario Público Lizbeth Avilés Vega, inscrito al folio #159vto. del tomo #1770 de Caguas, finca #55927, inscripción 7ma y está garantizado por hipoteca sobre la propiedad sita en Urbanización Hacienda San Jose AS 107 Vía del Guayabal, Caguas, PR 00726, que se describe como sigue: URBANA: Parcela de terreno identificada como solar 107 del Bloque AS de la Urbanización Asomante, radicada en el Barrio Cañabón del término municipal de Caguas, Puerto Rico, con una cabida de 475.000 metros cuadrados y en lindes por el NORTE, en 25.00 metros, con Solar número 106; por el SUR, en 25.00 metros, con solar número 108; por el ESTE, en 19.00 metros, con Calle Vía Guayabal (calle número 1); y por el OESTE, en 19.00 metros, con Solares número 120 y 121. Enclava una casa. Inscrita al Sistema al Sistema Karibe de Caguas, finca #55927, inscripción 8va., Registro de la Propiedad Sección Primera de Caguas. La parte demandante alega que dicho Pagaré se ha extraviado, según más detalladamente consta en la Demanda radicada que puede examinarse en la Secretaría de este Tribunal. Por tratarse de unas obligaciones hipotecarias, y pudiendo usted tener interés en este caso o quedar afectado por el remedio solicitado, se les emplaza por este Edicto que se publicará en un (1) periódico de circulación general una (1) sola vez y que si no comparecen a contestar dicha Demanda radicando el original de la misma a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual pueden acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se representen por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberán presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaria del Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico. Sala de Utuado, con copia al abogado de la parte demandante, Lcdo. Jorge García Rondón, de PMB 538, 267 Sierra Morena, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00926 dentro del término de treinta (30) días contados a partir de la publicación del Edicto, se les anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia en su contra concediendo el remedio solicitado en la Demanda sin más citarles ni oírles. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto por Orden del Tribunal, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en Caguas, Puerto Rico, hoy 15 de diciembre de 2022. Lisilda Martínez Agosto, Secretaria. Vilma Oyola Rivera, Sub-Secretaria.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-
NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE TOA ALTA ORIENTAL BANK Demandante V. DENISSE MARCANO FERNANDEZ Demandada Civil Núm.: TA2022CV01042.
Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
MARCANO FERNANDEZ.
POR MEDIO del presente edicto se le notifica de la radicación de una demanda en cobro de dinero por la vía ordinaria en la que se alega que usted adeuda a la parte demandante, Oriental Bank, ciertas sumas de dinero, y las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado de este litigio. El demandante, Oriental Bank, ha solicitado que se dicte sentencia en contra suya y que se le ordene pagar las cantidades reclamadas en la demanda.
POR EL PRESENTE EDICTO se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva a la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días de haber sido diligenciado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día del diligenciamiento. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://www.poderjudicial. pr/index/php/tribunal-electronico/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del Tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra, y conceder el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente, sin más citarle ni oírle. El abogado de la parte demandante es: Jaime Ruiz Saldaña, RUA número 11673; Dirección: PO Box 366276, San Juan, PR 00936-6276; Teléfono: (787) 759-6897; Correo electrónico: legal@jrslawpr. com. Se le advierte que dentro de los diez (10) días siguientes a la publicación del presente edicto, se le estará enviando a usted por correo certificado con acuse de recibo, una copia del emplazamiento y de la demanda presentada al lugar de su última dirección conocida: Carr. 863 Calle Monte Hiedra, Parcela 160D Barrio Pájaro, Toa Baja, PR 00951; PO Box 2400 PMB 226, Toa Baja, PR 009512400. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma
y el sello del Tribunal en Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, hoy día 19 de diciembre de 2022. LCDA.
LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARITZA BONILLA HERNÁNDEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA
BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Demandante V. SUCN.
Demandados
Civil Núm.: FCD2016-0118. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS E.E. U.U., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. Yo, SAMUEL GONZÁLEZ ISAAC, Alguacil del Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala de Carolina, al público HAGO SABER: Que en cumplimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que se me libró con fecha de 16 de junio de 2022 por la Secretaria de este Tribunal, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor con dinero en efectivo, cheque de gerente o letra bancaria con similar garantía, todo título, derecho o interés de la parte demandada de epígrafe sobre la siguiente propiedad perteneciente a la parte demandada, la cual se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número A-diez (A-10) en el Plano de Inscripción de la Urbanización Villa Cooperativa en el Barrio Hoyo Mulas del Municipio de Carolina, Puerto Rico, con las siguientes cabidas y colindancias: doscientos cuarenta y cinco metros cuadrados con ventiseis céntimas de metro cuadrado (245.26 m/c). Por el NORTE, con la Urbanización Villa Carolina, en una distancia de nueve punto doscientos catorce metros (9.214 m.); por el SUR, con la Calle uno de esta misma Urbanización, en una distancia de veintiséis punto veintitrés metros (26.23 m.); y por el OESTE, con el solar A nueve (A-9), en una distancia de veintiséis punto sesenta y siete metros (27.67 m.). Enclava en este solar una estructura dedicada a vivienda construida de hormigón armado y bloques. Consta inscrita al folio 127 del tomo 985 de Carolina Norte, finca número 41,342, del Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección II de Carolina. La finca 41,342 está gravada con la siguiente hipoteca cuya eje-
cución se solicita en la subasta objeto de este edicto: Hipoteca en garantía de un pagaré a favor de Popular Mortgage, Inc., o a su orden, por la suma principal de $130,000.00, con intereses al 7% anual, vencedero a la Presentación, constituida mediante la escritura número 118, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 18 de abril de 2008, ante el notario Raúl Rivera Burgos, e inscrita al folio 218 del tomo 1434 de Carolina Norte, finca número 41,342, inscripción 4ta. La propiedad está afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: A. Hipoteca en garantía de un pagaré a favor de Secretario del Departamento de Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $195,000.00, con intereses al 7% anual, vencedero a la Presentación, constituida mediante la escritura número 119, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 18 de abril de 2008, ante el notario Raúl Rivera Burgos, e inscrita al folio 169 del tomo 1435 de Carolina Norte, finca número 41,342, inscripción 5ta. La venta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer a Banco Popular de Puerto Rico por la hipoteca de $130,000.00, total o parcialmente. La venta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer a Banco Popular de Puerto Rico total o parcialmente el importe de la Sentencia emitida el 11 de octubre de 2015. El importe de la Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe asciende a las siguientes cantidades: $134,687.84 desde 1 de diciembre de 2015. Dicha cantidad continuará acumulándose a razón del 7% hasta el completo pago de la deuda. La demandada adeuda, además, una cantidad equivalente a $13,000.00 por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, $13,000.00 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca y $13,000.00 para cubrir intereses adicionales a los garantizados por ley, según pactado. El precio mínimo de licitación con relación a la antes descrita propiedad y la fecha y hora de cada subasta es como sigue:
PRIMERA SUBASTA: Se celebrará el día 1 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA. TIPO MÍNIMO: $130,000.00, suma pactada entre los contratantes en la escritura de constitución de hipoteca. Si no se produce remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta se celebrará la SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 8 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA. TIPO MÍNIMO: $86,666.67 dos terceras (2/3) partes del precio pactado entre los contratantes en la escritura de constitución de hipo-
teca. Si tampoco se produce remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 15 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA.
TIPO MÍNIMO: $65,000.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado entre los contratantes en la escritura de constitución de hipoteca. Las subastas de dicha propiedad se llevarán a efecto en mi oficina situada en el local que ocupa este Tribunal en el Centro Judicial de Carolina, advirtiéndose que el que obtuviere la buena pro de dicha propiedad consignará en el acto del remate el importe de su oferta en moneda legal, en adición a los gastos de la subasta, siendo éste el mejor postor. En cualquier momento luego de haberse comenzado el acto de la subasta, el Alguacil podrá requerir de los licitadores que le evidencien la capacidad de pago de sus posturas. Del producto obtenido en dicha venta, el Alguacil pagará en primer término los gastos del Alguacil, en segundo término las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado hasta la suma convenida, en tercer término los intereses devengados hasta la fecha de la subasta, en cuarto término las sumas establecidas en la Sentencia para el pago de recargos por demora, contribuciones, seguros y en quinto término la suma principal adeudada conforme con la sentencia dictada. Disponiéndose que si quedara algún remanente luego de pagarse las sumas mencionadas, el mismo deberá ser depositado en la Secretaría del Tribunal para ser entregado a la parte demandada, previa solicitud y orden del Tribunal. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante el título del inmueble y las cargas o gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito del ejecutante, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistiendo, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda responsable de los mismos sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se le apercibe a los tenedores de gravámenes posteriores al que se ejecuta que, para proteger cualesquiera derechos que tengan sobre el inmueble, deberán comparecer a la subasta, pues de no hacerlo así y de no igualar el precio de venta del gravamen hipotecario que se ejecuta, el Tribunal ordenará la cancelación de todos los gravámenes posteriores. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquiere libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Si se declara desierta la tercera subasta se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo mínimo de la tercera subasta, si el Tribunal lo estima conveniente. Se abo-
nará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta es mayor. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento del caso de epígrafe están disponibles en la Secretaría del Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala Superior de Carolina durante horas laborables. Para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda persona que tenga interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando, si alguna, y para la concurrencia de licitadores y para el público en general el presente edicto se publicará en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico una vez por semana por un término de dos (2) semanas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre cada publicación. Se fijará además, en tres (3) lugares públicos del Municipio donde ha de celebrarse la subasta, estos lugares serán la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía de dicho Municipio. Se notificará a la parte demandada copia del edicto de subasta mediante correo certificado con acuse de recibo a su dirección que obra en autos. Una vez efectuada la correspondiente venta judicial, otorgaré la escritura del traspaso al licitador victorioso, quien podrá ser la parte demandante, cuya oferta podrá aplicarse a la extinción parcial o total de la obligación reconocida por la Sentencia. Colocaré al licitador victorioso en posesión física de la Propiedad mediante el lanzamiento de los ocupantes en el término legal de veinte (20) días desde la fecha de la venta en pública subasta y para ello procederé a romper candados de ser necesario. 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 o ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del deudor la ocupen. El Registrador de la Propiedad cancelará, libre de derechos, todo gravamen posterior a la fecha en que se otorgó la hipoteca que ha sido ejecutada mediante esta acción, y procederá a la inscripción de la venta a favor del comprador en subasta libre de todo gravamen posterior a la fecha en que se otorgó la hipoteca que ha sido ejecutada mediante esta acción. Expido el presente edicto bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Carolina. En Carolina, Puerto Rico, a 7 de noviembre de 2023. SAMUEL GONZÁLEZ ISAAC, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA
U.S. BANK TRUST NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE OF CVI
CGS MORTGAGE LOAN TRUST I Demandante V. JORGE LUIS BAUZO MORALES, ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO
Demandados Civil Núm.: CA2022CV03318. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, S.S.
A: JORGE LUIS BAUZO MORALES.
Queden emplazados y notificados que en este Tribunal se ha radicado Demanda sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca en su contra. Por la presente se le emplaza y notifica que debe contestar la demanda dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del presente edicto y deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), el cual podrá acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar Sentencia en Rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su discreción, lo entiende procedente. Los abogados de la parte demandante son:
Lcdo. Andrés Sáez Marrero T.S.P.R. Núm. 18074
TROMBERG, MORRIS & POULIN, LLC 1515 South Federal Highway, Suite 100 Boca Raton, FL 33432 Tel. 877-338-4101 / Fax: 561-338-4077 prservice@tmppllc.com / asaez@tmppllc.com Expido este edicto bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, hoy 16 de diciembre de 2022. Lcda. Marilyn Aponte Rodríguez, Secretaria Regional. Maricruz Aponte Alicea, Secretaria Auxiliar.
COMPANY INC.; M&T BANK; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES CON INTERÉS
As the best players in tennis regather in Melbourne, Australia, this month for the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, reigning women’s champion Ashleigh Barty will be back among them — but not to defend her title.
In one of the most surprising developments in sports in 2022, Barty retired in March at age 25, on top of the women’s rankings and on top of her sun-drenched part of the world after becoming the first Australian in 44 years to win the Australian Open singles title.
Her early exit from the tour was all the more striking in a season when Roger Federer retired at age 41 and Serena Williams, now also 41, played what could be her final tournament at the U.S. Open.
The leading players of the 21st century have set new bench marks for enduring excellence, staying in the game long past the ages when previous champions let go. Barty bucked the trend.
Any regrets nine months later?
“To be honest, I think what has surprised me most is how comfortable I’ve been,” Barty said by telephone from Brisbane, Australia, last week. “I think there was probably a normal fear or uncertainty in not knowing what my life would look like after tennis after being so focused.”
Barty had grown accustomed to the “very structured life” of the tennis circuit.
“I was a bit unsure how I would deal with that because I am a person who likes to be organized,” she said. “There was probably a little bit of fear in that, but overall, that hasn’t been an issue, a concern or a worry. What’s been most surprising in a good way is that I’ve slipped quite seamlessly into this life that’s just like everyone else, which is kind of always what I wanted.”
Barty, a self-described “homebody,” married her long-term partner, Garry Kissick, in July, and she has spent considerable time with friends and family since her retirement. But her life is still not quite like everyone else’s.
She earned nearly $24 million in prize money and millions more in endorsements and has been able to pay off the mortgage on her parents’ homes to express her gratitude for the sacrifices they made to help her become a tennis champion. After retirement, Barty, an excellent recreational golfer, was invited to play a round on the Old Course at St. Andrews, and she extended her stay there to follow her fellow Queenslander Cameron Smith as he won the
British Open.
Barty, a multisport talent, has ruled out becoming a professional golfer or returning to professional cricket, which she played briefly when she took her first indefinite break from tennis at age 17, because of the mental strain and loneliness of life on tour. She returned to the game 17 months later in 2016 with a new coach, Craig Tyzzer, and went on to win three major singles titles, including Wimbledon in 2021. She spent 121 weeks at No. 1.
She was entrenched in the top spot when she retired, and though Iga Swiatek, an explosive talent from Poland, quickly took over at No. 1 and dominated the season, it was hard not to wonder how Barty’s presence would have changed the equation.
“It was a bit of a strange one, I suppose,” Barty said. “But I think that was probably what was least important to me: where I was sitting in the rankings. That was hard for a lot of people to understand.”
How best to sum up why she did retire?
“I achieved my dreams,” she said. “Everyone has different dreams and different ways of defining success. But for me, I knew that I gave everything I could, and I was fortunate to live out my ultimate childhood dream, and now it
was time for me to explore what else was out there and not be, I suppose, greedy in a sense of keep playing tennis because that’s what I was expected to do, and then you blink, and maybe the other things have passed you by.”
After retirement, Barty worked on a series of children’s books and her autobiography, “My Dream Time,” which has been published in Australia and will be released in the United States on Jan. 10.
She said the process of writing her memoir was “therapeutic.”
“A way to close a chapter on some really tough moments and then to revisit and recelebrate some of the most amazing moments,” she said. “So it was certainly a big year in that sense. There was a lot happening off the court, and I’m pretty tired at the end of the year now, and it’s scary to think that typically, I’d be in the middle of a tennis preseason getting ready for an Australian summer that’s just around the corner.”
Barty will spend the holidays with her family and then make appearances for her sponsors at the Australian Open, which begins Jan. 16.
She is preparing to start her own foundation in 2023 with a focus on helping Australian youth and an emphasis on sports and education. She also has announced plans to join with Tyzzer and Jason Stoltenberg, another of her former coaches, to start an elite tennis academy in Australia. She is eager to mentor teenagers in particular but not to coach on tour.
Tennis has had no shortage of comebacks: Margaret Court, Bjorn Borg, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin all returned to the tour after early retirement, and Court and Clijsters returned and won majors. But though retiring at 25 gives Barty plenty of years to reconsider, she sounds unlikely to do so, even after her comment in March that the door to a comeback “is closed, but it’s not padlocked.”
“The more time I’ve had to sit and think and absorb this year, I think it is never in the sense of me competing professionally again,”
said. “But I’ll never not be involved in the sport. So I think that’s where I’ll always get my tennis fix, that taste of the sport that gave me so much.”
she Ashleigh Barty in action against Daria Gavrilova at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Feb. 11, 2021. Barty retired from the sport at age 25 while ranked No. 1, but she says she has “slipped quite seamlessly into this life that’s just like everyone else.”in making a race happen. On-track drivers get the most publicity, but it has to be much more than that.”
Another obstacle facing women who want to race, Wolff said, is the lack of defined pipelines for them. Breaking into higher levels of racing is difficult, often carrying a steep financial cost, and there are few dedicated programs designed to encourage and support girls. That is partly what inspired Wolff in 2016 to establish Dare to be Different, a nonprofit organization that promotes motorsports to girls.
“It becomes something of a numbers game,” said Wolff, who estimated that the total number of young women participating in any form of racing remains exceedingly small. “If only 5% of all global racing license holders are women, you’re not likely to get one breaking into the highest levels. You need to get more young women entering the sport for the best to rise to the top.”
developmental racing series that could lead to further promotion through NASCAR’s pipeline.
“We’re certainly keeping an eye on the development of the young women we have in that program, and we feel great about the crop of talent we have in that pipeline,” Thompson said. “We’re just waiting for the day when we can change this conversation and be talking about their success.”
Other motorsports series have recently unveiled similar diversity pipelines. In 2020, IndyCar introduced “Race for Equality and Change,” which supports grassroots youth motorsports programs. And last month, F1 launched a subsidized racing series specifically for young women that officials say will work in conjunction with the W Series to add more women to the F1 pipeline.
By GREGORY LEPORATIIt has been 14 years since Danica Patrick became the first woman to win a topclass race in a major motorsports series. At the time, pundits predicted her victory in IndyCar would usher in a new era of female racers.
But today’s landscape shows a more complicated picture.
For every success, there have been even more setbacks. There currently are no women driving full time in Formula One, IndyCar or NASCAR — and, historically, very few have ever competed, even though these series are not exclusive to men. The Indianapolis 500 had featured at least one woman in its field for 20 straight races starting in 2000, but none participated in two of the past three seasons. And the W Series, a women’s racing league that runs as part of Formula One Grand Prix weekends, canceled its 2022 season prematurely because of funding problems.
“It was probably a bit naïve to think that one woman’s success could make an immediate impact,” said Beth Paretta, an automotive entrepreneur and longtime advocate for women in motorsports. “Sure, it was great to see a feel-good story like Danica’s, but something needed to be done back then to sustain that momentum — and we still don’t truly have that.”
Paretta, 48, has made it her mission to correct that. In 2021, her IndyCar team,
Paretta Autosport, became the first mostly female team to compete in the Indy 500, featuring a female driver, Swiss racer Simona de Silvestro, and an all-woman pit crew. The team has since competed in a handful of other IndyCar races, though it is not a full-time participant within the series.
Paretta said her goal runs deeper than just promoting talented female drivers. Racing is still a male-dominated sport, she said, from the administrative roles within teams to the race strategists. “You can often count the number of women in the paddock on one hand,” she added.
Her hope is to shine a spotlight on women working in all facets of racing to inspire the next generation.
“Typically, for women in racing, we’re not used to pointing out that we’re women,” Paretta said. “In fact, we kind of hope you don’t notice — we just want to do our jobs and get on with it. So accentuating women in motorsports is an uncomfortable adjustment for us, but we’ve come to realize that we have to do this if we want our kids, and our kids’ kids, to normalize this.”
Susie Wolff, a British former race car driver who has worked in various roles within motorsports, agrees that increasing gender diversity in racing behind the scenes is essential to ultimately producing more female racers.
“It’s not just about putting a girl in the car,” Wolff said. “There are generally 20 or 30 drivers on track, but thousands involved
Those types of pipelines, though, can take time to produce results. NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, for example, was created in 2004 with the aim of improving racial and gender diversity among drivers and pit crew members. The initiative provides structured training programs, complete with on-track experience, to its participants in the hopes of elevating them through NASCAR’s ranks. But it has only recently begun to see its efforts reflected on the sport’s highest level.
The program’s notable graduates include Kyle Larson, an Asian American driver who won the Cup Series championship in 2021; Bubba Wallace, who last year became the first Black driver to win a toplevel race since 1963; and Daniel Suárez, who this year became the first Mexicanborn driver to win a Cup Series race.
“I’d say it’s been a coming-out party, of sorts, for that program,” said Brandon Thompson, NASCAR’s vice president of diversity and inclusion. “But a lot of people tend to forget that those seeds were planted way back when we started this effort 20 years ago. It takes time to build that foundation.”
Although Drive for Diversity has yet to promote a female driver to the Cup Series, it has graduated a few women to pit crews. Last month, four women who aspire to drive in the series participated in its most recent racing combine, where participants — many of them teenagers — audition their skills in the hopes of being selected for a
For drivers like Chloe Chambers, 18, who participated in the W Series this year, these are all positive steps toward getting women more vital experience.
“In racing, the biggest disadvantages come from funding rather than physical ability based on gender,” Chambers said. “Statistically, women have gotten less funding and less time behind the wheel of a race car. So things like F1 Academy are all great steps to hopefully get women more experience.”
Chambers, who was born in China and raised in New York, said her goal was to reach Formula Three, a feeder series for Formula One. Doing so has historically been difficult for women; for example, Jamie Chadwick, a 24-year-old British racer who won the W Series championship the past three seasons, has never landed a seat in F3.
In spite of the challenges, Chambers believes she can break through once she gains enough experience.
“In the future, I’m hopeful there will be women on the Formula One pipeline,” she said. “That’s the goal of every driver, but for women, it’s that much harder.”
As for Paretta, she currently is looking to secure sponsors to run her team full time in IndyCar next season. And while the progress for women in racing has not come as quickly as she may have hoped after Patrick’s groundbreaking win, she is optimistic that the future can be bright.
“We’re closer than we’ve ever been,” she said. “We just need to keep talking about it.”
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
Today you may be overcome by a current of humanist thought, Aries. Your consciousness is traveling, and you probably couldn’t care less about the details of the events going on around you. You’re freethinking, which is inspired by your spirit of fairness. You may even be in a situation where you have to act as a kind of “enlightened” referee, which you will only be too happy to do!
Today is a good day to clarify your life, Taurus. You may have understood lately that it’s useless to undertake anything new when you’re confused. You’ve figured out that all it takes to get out of that state is to take care of yourself, eat better, get more sleep, or take a vacation. Your mind will be sufficiently rested today to deal with all the problems that come your way.
You tend to want to explain everything that goes on around you, Gemini. You rationalize everything in an instant, and group all your experiences into great theories. But you’ve been very quiet for quite some time now. It’s as if something is keeping you from speaking. Today you will get a few words in, so don’t worry.
As a Cancer, you don’t really like to talk about things. Talking just isn’t one of your specialties. Everyone has his/her own role, and yours is to take action and create, not talk about doing it. However, the planetary positions today might make you utter a few very deep words. Come on! Tell us a little something about how you feel deep inside!
Scientists seem to live in a world apart from the rest of us, Leo, and from the events in everyday life, because they’re so absorbed in other realities. This is a lot like your universe. If you were a scientist, you might do what they sometimes do - make parallels, like those learned men who apply their scientific reasoning to events in the world by analogy. Tell us your theories!
Today you may get the opportunity to feel proud of yourself. But don’t let things get too out of hand. It isn’t often that you allow yourself this little bit of narcissism. Everything you say will be pertinent, and people will let you know. For once, the stars are giving you the opportunity to cater to your own ego, so take advantage of it!
Today you may be overcome by a current of humanist thought, Libra. Your consciousness is traveling, and you probably couldn’t care less about the details of the events going on around you. You’re freethinking, which is inspired by your spirit of fairness. You may even be in a situation where you have to act as a kind of “enlightened” referee, which you will only be too happy to do!
Today is a good day to clarify your life, Scorpio. You may have understood lately that it’s useless to undertake anything new when you’re confused. You’ve figured out that all it takes to get out of that state is to take care of yourself, eat better, get more sleep, or take a vacation. Your mind will be sufficiently rested today to deal with all the problems that come your way.
Are you going to be available to other people today? Someone in your entourage may need to confide in you. If the superficiality of the exchange bothers you, you will understand what the atmosphere of today is all about! Yes, you’re available, but not for just anything. You’re in no mood to waste time at the moment.
You may come in contact with someone today with whom you enjoy a highly emotional exchange. You may even fall in love! Be very attentive to your moods and everything going on inside you, Capricorn. They will be particularly strong, and they will help you understand what is changing in you. Just be careful to distinguish your feelings from those of your (future?) partner.
It’s possible that you’re having some ups and downs in your love life at the moment. Someone may be asking you to play another role than you’re used to playing in your relationship. Today, Aquarius, you should take the time to think about these pressures on you. You’re going to need the answers to these questions over the next few months.
Today you may get the opportunity to feel proud of yourself. But don’t let things get too out of hand. It isn’t often that you allow yourself this little bit of narcissism. Everything you say will be pertinent, and people will let you know. For once, the stars are giving you the opportunity to cater to your own ego, so take advantage of it!
