Monday Mar 13, 2023

The San Juan Daily Star, the only paper with News Service in English in Puerto Rico, publishes 7 days a week, with a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday edition, along with a Weekend Edition to cover Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Marella Discovery’s arrival in PR has estimated impact of $915,000

By THE STAR STAFF

The Marella Discovery cruise ship’s arrival in San Juan over the weekend was to have an estimated economic impact of $915,000 in the local economy, based on five transit visits scheduled for this fiscal year, Puerto Rico Tourism Company Executive Director Carlos Mercado Santiago said.

“The Tourism Company continues to strengthen the relations of the government of Puerto Rico with the cruise lines, as part of Governor Pedro Pierluisi’s plan to position tourism as a key tool for the economic development of the island,” Mercado Santiago said, adding that, “there are many efforts that the CTPR is leading to diversify the destination’s offer and make Puerto Rico even more attractive to the cruise market.”

“Each vessel that includes one of our ports on its itinerary promotes the creation of new excursions and tourist products while generating greater commercial activity around the island,” he said.

Puerto Rico Ports Authority Executive Director Joel A. Pizá Batiz said “the initial visit of the Marella Discovery, one of the largest ships in the Marella Cruises fleet, is an additional economic impulse for many sectors, such as: tourism, businesses, transporters

and suppliers, as well as for cultural and entertainment activities on the island.”

“We hope this will be replicated during future visits so that we continue to promote the cruise ship and tourism industries in Puerto Rico,” he said.

Upon her arrival on the island Saturday, government representatives and tourism industry officials welcomed the ship’s crew and passengers. Tourism Company Deputy Executive Director Marga López and Ports Authority Deputy Executive Director Christian Trinidad presented Capt. Christopher Douglass with commemorative plaques from his first trip to Puerto Rico.

The Marella Cruises line has a strong presence in the United Kingdom as its base market. The Marella Discovery set sail last Thursday from Bridgetown, Barbados on her seven-day Eastern Caribbean itinerary. In addition to her visit to the port of San Juan, the vessel, with a maximum capacity for 2,435 passengers and 735 crew members, will visit the islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix, Antigua and Bequia before returning to her home port in Barbados. The cruise has a wide range of activities that make it attractive to all types of travelers: two swimming pools, seven restaurants, an open-air cinema, a mini golf course, a climbing wall and musical productions.

The Marella Discovery is scheduled to return to Puerto Rico on March 26.

Dalmau Santiago proposes stronger legislative oversight of federal reconstruction funds

By THE STAR STAFF

Given what he characterized as the slowness of the commonwealth government in using over $70 billion in federal funds for the reconstruction of Puerto Rico, Senate President José Luis Dalmau Santiago introduced legislation for government agencies to render accounts to the Legislature every 90 days, which the upper chamber leader assured would guarantee effective control and comprehensive transparency in the use of such resources.

The senator stressed that to ensure that the legislative branch has all the pertinent information to exercise its responsibility to control and expedite the use of funds, the agencies would provide the Legislature, every 90 days, with an updated report on the amount and origin of federal funds, an itinerary for the delivery of those resources, as well as the amount and source of the state contribution that is required.

In addition, they must present a description of the initiative, public work, or project to be developed with the specific economic resources with details about the objectives of the proposed development and all its costs; the itinerary of execution and completion of the initiative, work or project, including estimates of dates of the different stages of the process such as evaluation of proposals, award of contract or bidding. The agencies should also provide information on the start of the service, work or project and its com-

pletion date; detail of the process through which the initiative, work or project was granted or awarded and identification of the person, entity or contractor in charge of executing the work and the metrics adopted to measure compliance with the execution itinerary, among other details.

“More than five years have passed since Hurricane Maria in 2017 and more than three years since the strong earthquakes that

severely impacted the southern sector of our country. These events brought million-dollar allocations of resources for the reconstruction of the country’s infrastructure, for the rehabilitation of the energy network and its transition to renewable sources, for the construction of new homes, among other purposes,” Dalmau Santiago said. “A recent estimate from the firm Estudios Técnicos revealed that Congress had allocated over $74.2 billion for

the structural reconstruction of Puerto Rico, through various federal programs.”

The Senate president emphasized that, despite this substantial amount of federal resources, the island government needs to be faster in implementing an aggressive development plan for works and projects that boost the local economy.

“We remember the visit in March 2022 of HUD [Housing and Urban Development] secretary Marcia Fudge, who demanded greater agility from the government of Pierluisi in the processing and execution of housing projects and works,” Dalmau Santiago said. “We also remember the visit of President Biden, after Hurricane Fiona, where he appointed the secretary of Energy as a close supervisor of the effort to rebuild the country’s energy network, given the extreme slowness of the government in this effort. FEMA officials have criticized the delay in developing the works required to meet the needs of Puerto Ricans.”

Dalmau Santiago said Puerto Rico residents can count on a better quality of life if the corresponding entities’ billion-dollar allocations of federal funds are used with agility, responsibility, honesty, and the most excellent transparency.

“To ensure the security and fiscal health of constituents, it is necessary to monitor the process from its allocation by the federal government until the completion of the initiative, work or project for which said funds were allocated,” he said.

Tired of waiting for LUMA, Hormigueros mayor takes streetlight restoration into his own hands

By THE STAR STAFF

Hormigueros Mayor Pedro García Figueroa announced over the weekend that he established Executive Order No. 16 series 2022-2023, which declares a state of emergency in the Municipality of Hormigueros to address the lack of lighting on the roads.

“For more than a year the Municipality of Hormigueros has requested in multiple meetings that LUMA Energy LLC address the problem of poor lighting on municipal roads, secondary and tertiary state highways, and on the PR-2 state highway in the jurisdiction of Hormigueros,” the mayor said in a written statement. “LUMA has not addressed this serious problem that results in a lack of safety for citizens, as well as puts the lives of all drivers at risk by not having good visibility

on the roads.”

“Citizens as well as emergency management personnel have made multiple calls and negotiations with LUMA officials without any result,” García Figueroa added.

The second section of the executive order directs the Hormigueros Office of Municipal Emergency Management & Disaster Management and Department of Public Works to activate all necessary resources of the municipality to help repair and illuminate all roads and communities in the jurisdiction of the Municipality of Hormigueros in cases where LUMA does not promptly begin repairing all public lighting. All the efforts and works that the municipality will carry out to restore lighting on the roads and communities of Hormigueros will be carried out under the direction and instructions of the mayor or his authorized representatives, and after

five days of having notified LUMA that the work of repair, reconstruction, restoration or normalization of the lighting of all roads and communities in the jurisdiction of Hormigueros will begin.

It also authorizes the purchase of materials, the contracting of private services and lease and/or purchase of equipment, as well as the hiring of the necessary personnel to address the emergency and to be able to reestablish lighting service on the roads and in communities in the jurisdiction of Hormigueros. The town’s finance director is authorized to identify the funds necessary to fulfill the purposes of the emergency and to make the necessary transfers of accounts and items to fulfill the same purposes.

Likewise, the executive order specifies that the personnel of the municipality or those hired to carry out the work must be trained

and experienced. At all times they must follow all safety protocols established for such work and any other necessary procedures and safety measures that are required.

Senate President José Luis Dalmau Santiago

Hormigueros Mayor Pedro García Figueroa

Judge grants administrative expense claim for PREPA payments to Genera

By THE STAR STAFF

U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain, who is overseeing the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s (PREPA) bankruptcy case, has granted an “administrative expense claim” for the compensation paid to Genera PR, the private operator of the utility’s power plants.

The decision comes in anticipation of the effective date of the transition of PREPA employees who receive and accept employment offers from Genera PR.

An administrative expense claim is one incurred with bankruptcy court approval for the actual and necessary costs of preserving the estate, after the filing of an order for relief. After the payment of secured claims, administrative claims are entitled to the highest priority in distribution of the assets of the estate.

The court had previously also authorized an administrative expense status to LUMA Energy, the private operator of PREPA’s transmission and distribution system.

In authorizing the petition last week, Swain said in an order that the mobilization obligations, to the extent incurred and payable under the generation contract during

the mobilization period, meet all applicable requirements to be allowed and paid as administrative expenses under the Bankruptcy Code and therefore are accorded payment priority.

She also noted that the Financial Oversight and Management Board consented to the allowance of the mobilization

obligations as administrative expense claims and that PREPA provided adequate and appropriate notice of the motion.

It is unclear whether the priority status of the claim will have an impact on the debt adjustment plan.

The oversight board is currently in the process of developing and approving a revised fiscal year (FY) 2023 budget for PREPA.

The revisions to the FY 2023 certified budget for PREPA are solely and exclusively to enable and allow for payment of up to $15 million for the mobilization service fee under the Genera PR contract, and up to $27.3 million in estimated costs for the implementation of the voluntary transition program for PREPA employees transitioning to Genera PR.

The budget process begins today, March 13, when Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia submits a proposed revised FY 2023 budget for PREPA and will end on March 24, when the oversight board expects to certify the revised FY 2023 budget for PREPA.

Back on Jan. 25, the Puerto Rico Public-Private Partnership Authority announced the signing of the management contract with Genera PR, a subsidiary of New Fortress Energy, to operate PREPA’s legacy power plants.

Three hikers rescued in Guánica Dry Forest over the weekend

By THE STAR STAFF

Three people who became disoriented in Guánica’s Dry Forest were rescued on Saturday by employees of the southwestern town’s Municipal Office of Emergency Management (OMME by its Spanish acronym), said the

office’s director, Carlos Pratdesaba.

“The two adults and a child were lost during an excursion and got separated from the group that accompanied them.

The search began immediately after the emergency call by people on the Lluveras Trail,” Pratdesaba said in a written statement. “We appreciate the work of rescuers such as Ru-

decindo Cruz, Luis Tirado, José Santiago, Francisco Caraballo and Miguel Alicea, all under the command of experienced OMME rescuers.”

“For us the conservation of our natural resources is of great importance and we urge all visitors to duly follow the recommendations of guides and experts in the area,” the OMME director added.

Since 1919 the Guánica Dry Forest has been officially protected at the state and federal level. In 1981, the United Nations (UN) recognized its ecological value and designated it as the second International Biospheric Reserve in Puerto Rico. The first was the Caribbean National Forest (El Yunque). The state forest has the global distinction of being the subtropical forest that is probably the best preserved and least altered by man.

U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain

Isabela mayor invites public to the town’s annual kite festival

By THE STAR STAFF

The 13th edition of the traditional Kite Festival will be held on Sunday, April 2 at Middles Beach in Isabela starting at 11 a.m.

“This is a family event that brings great memories to many people from Isabela and nearby towns, because the fun of flying kites has no age or condition; the only requirement is to come and have fun,” Isabela Mayor Miguel “Ricky” Méndez Pérez said.

signaling device. The movements and colors of the kites indicated a series of secret messages to various military detachments.

The festival, which is sponsored by La Casa de la Cultura Isabelina, among others, will feature special competitions such as the Chiringa Artist, Flying Skill (for children from 4 to 12 years old), as well as the Smallest Chiringa, Largest Chiringa, Most Original Chiringa and the Chiringa sin Rabo. Additional information is available by calling 787-224-0021 and 787-372-1848 during business hours.

On the day of the festival there will also be kiosks with traditional food and drinks, and inflatables for the enjoyment of children, as well as an artistic show.

The event will feature various competitions, including handmade kites, where participants apply their creativity and use of materials to send their ideas aloft in style.

The event will feature various competitions, including handmade kites, where participants shine in their creativity and use of materials to send their ideas aloft in style. The kites are a source of fun for children worldwide, and in each country it has its name, be it kite, flask, snake, piscucha, milocha, barrilete, pandorga, volantín, chichigua, chiringa, kite of wind or parrot. The good thing, the mayor noted, is that everywhere it is practiced the same since it was invented in ancient China around 1,200 BC, but not for fun, but as a military

“We are giving notice in advance, since April 2 is Palm Sunday, which is commemorated in many religious groups, and we are going to start at 11 a.m., so that there is time to attend both events,” the mayor said. “We are waiting for you all.”

PDP governing board endorses party president’s efforts to have PR included in SNAP

By THE STAR STAFF

The Popular Democratic Party (PDP) governing board has unanimously approved a motion expressing the group’s institutional support of efforts from PDP President José Luis Dalmau Santiago to include Puerto Rico in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The island’s inclusion in SNAP would increase aid funds to 800,000 families representing 1.2 million Puerto Rico residents. Similarly, the governing body of the PDP in its meeting Saturday expressed its support for Dalmau Santiago’s efforts to achieve parity in health funds and a new federal tax incentive for local manufacturing representing about 75,000 direct jobs.

“The Popular Democratic Party will continue its effort to ensure Puerto Rico’s inclusion in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which would increase additional food funds for the low-income population, promote job opportunities, and make eligibility requirements more flexible,” Dalmau Santiago said.

Meanwhile, the governing board also approved the final part of the party’s reorganization that makes it possible that, as of next Saturday, the PDP will have a president or presidential delegate in 93% of the municipalities, which translates to 72 of the 78 municipalities. The presidents of the remaining six municipalities and the vice presidency of the Mayagüez municipal committee will be selected by vote after Sunday, May 7.

In the case of San Juan, of the five existing precincts, in two of them the new presidents who did not have contenders will be certified, and in precincts 1, 2 and 3 they will be selected by open vote on May 7.

Finally, the governing board unanimously approved a motion rejecting the bill authored by several New Progressive Party legislators that would impose prison sentences on women who terminate a pregnancy.

The PDP also expressed solidarity and collective prayer for the health of the former representative and moderator of the Jugando Pelota Dura program, Ferdinand Pérez Román, who announced last week that he has a cancerous tumor.

The island’s inclusion in SNAP would increase aid funds to 800,000 families representing 1.2 million Puerto Rico residents.

Drunken man accused of assaulting woman following car accident

By THE STAR STAFF

An inebriated man was accused of assaulting a woman after a car accident in the town of Salinas late Saturday.

According to the complainant, after the traffic accident, the driver of the other vehicle assaulted her, striking different parts of her body.

The subject underwent a breathalyzer test with a result

of .12% alcohol level.

Prosecutor Marcos Algarín summoned the parties for a March 27 court hearing in Salinas.

Also over the weekend, a man was booked into prison for failing to post bail on murder and Weapons Law charges for an incident reported in Juana Díaz.

According to the police report, Miguel Ángel Alvarado Ortiz, 37, allegedly killed his brother-in-law, Ángel Luis Rosa González, 28, on 8th Street in the Piedra Aguzá

neighborhood of Juana Díaz.

Alvarado Ortiz, who has a record of controlled substances offenses, was brought before Judge Adria Cruz Cruz, who found cause for all three charges. The judge imposed bail of $1.529 million, which the accused did not provide. He was admitted to the Sgt. Pedro Rodríguez Mateo correctional complex in Ponce.

A preliminary hearing was scheduled for March 2023 in Ponce Superior Court.

Biden moves to recapture the centrist identity that has long defined him

By PETER BAKER

In his announcement video kicking off his presidential campaign in the spring of 2019, Joe Biden never mentioned the word “deficit.” Nor did the word escape his lips when he accepted the Democratic Party nomination a year later. Nor did it appear once in the party platform he approved.

But as he unveiled a budget proposal last Thursday, Biden made curbing the budget gap one of his centerpiece promises. The budget plan, the White House said in a statement, would strengthen the country by “reducing the deficit by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade.”

The newfound attention to the nation’s fiscal health comes as Biden for the first time faces a Republican-controlled House bent on forcing him to pare spending, and shortly before he is expected to announce a campaign for a second term. After two years championing some of his party’s top progressive priorities, the president lately is speaking more to the concerns of the political middle, seeking to recapture the more centrist identity that long defined him.

Not only is he increasingly focused on deficit reduction, Biden last week abandoned fellow Democrats by rejecting a new District of Columbia measure reducing mandatory minimum sentences for some violent offenses, rather than be tagged as soft on crime. And more and more, his administration is turning toward tougher policies to stem a near-recordhigh tide of unauthorized immigration, including possibly reviving the practice of detaining migrant families who cross the southwestern border illegally.

“It’s a good day to be a moderate Democrat,” said Matt Bennett, head of Third Way, a centrist Democratic advocacy group. “We’re back, better than ever.” The White House, he said, understands the need to avoid allowing Republicans to outflank Democrats. “They get the necessity of keeping the high ground on culture war issues like crime and immigration.”

That does not mean Biden has suddenly found common cause with Republicans by any means. After signing

legislation adding nearly $5 trillion to the deficit in the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Biden proposed erasing some of that red ink by raising taxes on the wealthy and on corporations, not through deep cuts in spending.

Moreover, in a speech in Philadelphia mapping out his budget plan, Biden focused on liberal goals such as restoring a poverty-reducing child tax credit, shoring up the long-term solvency of Medicare and providing paid family and medical leave for all workers.

And Republicans were hardly willing to accept that Biden was moving to the center. Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his House leadership denounced the budget plan for “doubling down on the same far-left spending policies that have led to record inflation and our current debt crisis.” Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chair, said, “Biden’s reckless budget proves how out of touch his administration is with reality.”

Not that Republicans showed much interest in controlling the deficit while President Donald Trump signed laws adding nearly $7 trillion to the debt in his four-year term. But their ascendance

in the House, and Democratic concerns about ceding swing voters next year, have shifted the debate in Washington and Biden appears intent on owning the center as much as he can.

Biden was never a favorite of the progressive left during his 36 years in the Senate and eight years as vice president, but he shifted around the political spectrum over the years to wherever he found his party’s center of gravity at the moment. He was a vocal champion of tough-on-crime legislation in the 1990s and a leader of the get-out-of-Iraq-andAfghanistan camp in the 2000s.

During the 2020 Democratic primary campaign, he overcame liberal rivals like Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and positioned himself as a sensible centrist in the fall campaign when he defeated Trump. After taking office, however, he adopted some of the more expansive policy goals of the progressive wing. He cast himself as a new-generation Franklin D. Roosevelt pressing for a modern-day New Deal, with large-scale spending on climate change, social welfare programs and student debt relief that will add trillions of dollars to the national debt in years to come.

But Democrats have grown increasingly wary of hot-button issues such as crime and immigration even before Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago lost reelection last week amid a voter backlash to homicides, carjackings and shoplifting. Crime ranks second among issues cited by voters as their top concern behind the economy in the latest Reuters-Ipsos poll, and immigration is fourth.

In his speech on Thursday, the president boasted about “the Biden crime bill” from the 1990s, from which he had sought to distance himself not that long ago because of criticism that it led to mass incarceration of Black Americans.

And he tried to turn the issue around on Republicans by accusing them of wanting to “defund the FBI” following Trump’s jeremiads against the agency for executing a search warrant on his Florida home to retrieve classified documents he was not entitled to keep. As he has consistently, Biden rejected liberal calls to defund the police. “I don’t want to defund them,” Biden said. “They need more help.”

The budget plan released on Thursday, of course, will never be enacted as written with Republicans in charge of the House. Instead, it is only a starting point in negotiations with Republicans and a “messaging document,” in Washington parlance, to showcase what the president wants the public to see as his priorities.

White House officials argued that McCarthy’s Republicans have talked a lot about cutting the deficit but have yet to produce a plan for how they would do it without raising taxes or cutting Social Security, Medicare or military spending, as they have vowed.

The White House eagerly distributed poll findings indicating that various individual policies embraced by Biden have strong public support while asserting that Republicans would actually add to the deficit with their plans to cut taxes and rescind legislation that included health care savings passed last year.

“That’s what we’re going to talk about over the coming months,” said Shalanda Young, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. “And we’re happy to have that debate.”

President Joe Biden walks from Marine One at the White House in Washington after speaking about his 2024 proposed budget in Philadelphia on Thursday, March 9, 2023.

Inside Ron DeSantis’ politicized removal of an elected prosecutor

By ALEXANDRA BERZON and KEN BENSINGER

When Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida announced last summer that he had taken the extraordinary step of removing a local prosecutor from his job, he cast his decision as a bold move to protect Floridians.

The prosecutor, Andrew H. Warren, a twice-elected state attorney for Hillsborough County and a Democrat, had signed a public pledge not to prosecute those who seek or provide abortions. Moreover, he was among a group of progressive prosecutors around the country who, in DeSantis’ words, think “they get to pick and choose which laws that they are enforcing.”

Those left-leaning prosecutors, he said, had “undermined public safety” and been “devastating to the rule of law.”

Left unsaid, however, was that DeSantis and his advisers had failed to find a connection between Warren’s policies and public safety in his community.

In fact, just the day before, the governor had removed from a draft of an executive order any mention of crime statistics justifying Warren’s suspension, after DeSantis’ lawyers lamented that they could find nothing in them to support the idea that Warren’s policies had done harm, according to internal documents and testimony.

As he travels the country promoting a new book and his expected presidential campaign, DeSantis repeatedly points to his ouster of Warren as an example of the way he has transformed Florida — and could transform the nation. He casts Warren as a rogue ideologue whose refusal to enforce the law demanded action.

Two weeks after his removal, Warren sued the governor in federal court seeking his reinstatement. The lawsuit, which Warren appealed after it was dismissed in January, produced a significant quantity of discovery, which The NewYork Times reviewed in detail.

Months before suspending Warren, DeSantis had ordered his staff to find progressive prosecutors who were letting criminals walk free. Under oath, his aides later acknowledged that they had deliberately avoided investigating Warren too closely, so that they would not tip him off and prompt him to reverse his policies. When contrary information did materialize, DeSantis and his lawyers dismissed or ignored it, the records show.

Only after Warren was removed did the governor’s aides seek records from Warren’s office that might help justify DeSantis’ action.

Although DeSantis’ move was cheered in the conservative news media as a victory in his war on “wokeness,” a federal judge ruled in January that the governor had violated Warren’s First Amendment rights and the Florida Constitution in a rush to judgment. “The actual facts,” Judge Robert L. Hinkle wrote, “did not matter. All that was needed was a pretext.” DeSantis’ office, the judge said, had conducted a “one-sided inquiry” meant to target Warren. (The judge said he did not have the authority to reinstate Warren, who is appealing in state and federal court.)

Warren said he believed that DeSantis had disregarded the will of the voters in his county for political gain.

“He’s willing to abuse his power to attack his political enemies,” Warren said.

DeSantis, who declined to be interviewed, insists in his new book, “The Courage to Be Free,” that his action was justified by Warren’s public statements. He argues that prosecutors who want “to ‘reform’ the criminal justice system” should quit and run for the Legislature.

Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at an event in Doral, Fla., on March 1, 2023. The Florida governor accused a Democratic prosecutor of undermining public safety but a close examination of the episode reveals just how fueled it was by DeSantis’s political aims.

Midway through a meeting with his closest advisers in December 2021, DeSantis asked a pointed question: Did they know of any prosecutors in the state who weren’t enforcing the law?

A top DeSantis aide, Larry Keefe, set out to answer the governor’s question. He began by asking Florida sheriffs whether they knew of any progressive prosecutors. Several mentioned the state attorney from Hillsborough County. Communicating over encrypted text messages and personal email, Keefe assembled a dossier on Warren’s policies and charging decisions.

Warren was the only prosecutor he scrutinized, Keefe said later in a deposition: “All roads led to Mr. Warren.”

Warren, 46, was elected in 2016 promising to create a new unit to search for wrongful convictions, focus resources on prosecuting violent offenders, reduce prosecutions for first-time misdemeanors and curb the number of children charged as adults.

After DeSantis took office in 2019, Warren became a frequent critic. When the governor barred local governments from enacting their own COVID-19 restrictions, Warren called the order “weak and spineless.” In 2021, he sought to organize opposition to a DeSantis-backed law that restricted political protests. In January 2022, Warren instituted a policy that made prosecutions of pedestrians and bicyclists for resisting arrest an exception rather than the rule, responding to studies that show the charge disproportionately affected Black people.

Florida’s Constitution allows governors to suspend local officeholders for reasons including “malfeasance” or “neglect of duty” until the Legislature votes on whether to permanently remove or reinstate them. DeSantis was the first Florida governor in many decades known to have suspended an elected prosecutor over a policy difference.

For months, Keefe’s dossier on Warren failed to cross the threshold to take action against him, DeSantis’ lawyers later testified. Then, in June, after the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to an abortion, an advocacy group released a statement signed by Warren and 91 other prosecutors around the country. In it, they vowed to “exercise our well-settled discretion and refrain from prosecuting those who seek, provide or support abortions.”

Ryan Newman, the governor’s general counsel, and Ray Treadwell, Newman’s deputy, testified that the pledge was the evidence they needed. Warren had said he would not enforce abortion laws, and could therefore be considered negligent and incompetent.

The lawyers discussed asking Warren to clarify whether his pledge would apply to existing abortion restrictions. But they decided not to, one later testified, because they worried that this would have “tipped him off” and given Warren a chance to walk it back, short-circuiting their effort to remove him.

On July 26, Newman, Keefe and James Uthmeier, the governor’s chief of staff, met with DeSantis to present their plan, according to sworn deposition testimony.

The governor was initially skeptical, transcripts show. He questioned whether Warren could be removed based on his signed pledge alone, lacking evidence that he had declined to prosecute an abortion-related crime.

Newman argued that DeSantis should act while Warren’s refusal to prosecute was still hypothetical: It could be both impractical and unwise to wait to challenge Warren over a specific decision, Newman explained under oath at trial.

DeSantis was convinced. He asked for additional information about Warren’s record but gave a green light to charge ahead.

In December, during a trial over Warren’s removal, Hinkle, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, said the evidence suggested that the goal of the governor’s review of Warren’s record was really “to amass information that could help bring down Mr. Warren, not to find out how Mr. Warren actually runs the office.”

The day before he was suspended, Warren and his staff were putting the finishing touches on a major announcement set for the next day: indictments in two decades-old rape and murder cases.

Aides to DeSantis were planning a starkly different event, the legal records show.

Keefe was sending over talking points for Susan Lopez, a state judge who had agreed to replace Warren.

“Love it!” Lopez texted Keefe. “Sounds like me!”

A few minutes before 10 a.m. Aug. 4, Warren received an email notifying him that he had been suspended. He rushed to his office, but Keefe soon arrived with an armed sheriff’s deputy and ordered him to leave, according to testimony from Keefe.

With Warren out, the governor’s office stepped in. Keefe and Taryn Fenske, the governor’s communications chief, had already discussed in text messages what Lopez’s first steps should be, planning for the new state attorney to issue a memo rescinding Warren’s prosecution policies.

A memo that Lopez sent out days later mirrored that plan, saying, “The Legislature makes the law and we, as prosecutors, enforce it.” (She testified that she did not recall consulting with anyone other than her chief of staff.)

As the controversy continued to generate headlines and Warren publicly blasted his dismissal, the Hillsborough County state attorney’s office received a curious piece of correspondence from the governor’s office, documents from a public records request show.

It was from Treadwell, the governor’s deputy general counsel, making his first request for information from the prosecutor’s office that might reveal whether Warren had done anything wrong.

As the rains ease in California, many see the damage rise

By VIVIANA HINOJOS, ADEEL HASSAN and VIK JOLLY

Cassandra Honeyman spent Saturday helping salvage what she could from her aunt’s home. Ruined furniture sat on the back patio, and mud covered the interior of the one-story country house in Springville, a rural community of 1,100 in the Sierra Nevada foothills that is surrounded by green mountains and the Tule River in the San Joaquin Valley.

Thankfully, said Honeyman, who lives nearby, most of the pictures in the house were protected; they were placed in totes on top of a bed before the flood arrived. But not much else was saved. She was grateful that her aunt and other relatives who lived in Springville were safe. But, exhausted and shaken, Honeyman acknowledged that uncertain days lay ahead.

“This house is completely totaled,” she said.

The storm system carrying streams of moisture through the skies over California weakened Saturday, bringing lighter rain. But in areas such as Springville in the San Joaquin Valley, and in towns on the Central Coast, residents and officials were only beginning to deal with the impact of flooded rivers and creeks, while other parts of the state that saw a respite braced for yet another storm next week.

Springville residents were evacuated Friday, and some, including Honeyman, returned Saturday to assess the damage. In coastal Monterey County, between San Francisco and Los Angeles, more than 1,500 people were ordered to evacuate early Saturday from Pajaro, a small agricultural community of 1,700, after the Pajaro River’s levee was breached by flooding about midnight.

Luis Alejo, chair of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, said on Twitter that “the worst case scenario has arrived,” noting that the damage would take months to repair.

Emergency crews rescued more than 50 people near the river Friday night and Saturday, with support from soldiers from the California National Guard.

The destruction reached as far south as Ventura County, just northwest of Los Angeles, where flooding closed off the Pacific Coast Highway.

Flash flood warnings were in effect Saturday for other parts of Monterey County, as well as sections of Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, Tulare and Sonoma counties. But raging wa-

ters were already deluging some highways, farmland and rural communities.

More than 37,000 homes and businesses in the state were without power Saturday afternoon, with more than 28,000 of those in Monterey County, according to PowerOutage.us.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared 34 of California’s 58 counties to be in states of emergency. Since the storm system moved in Thursday afternoon, 8 to 9 inches of rain have fallen in the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the National Weather Service said.

In parts of the state that escaped the brunt of the storm, some residents were still trying to get back to their normal lives.

In San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles, where many residents in the mountains had been trapped in their homes for more than a week by snowdrifts up to 12 feet high, some people went about their business Saturday as officials reported that all countymaintained roads — totaling 516 miles — had been serviced, with crews working on creating second lanes.

A public information officer for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said that no new deaths had been reported and that no coroner’s findings had been released. The San Bernardino Sheriff’s Office said Thursday that there have been 13 deaths during the

storm, but it had determined so far that only one was directly linked to it.

About 3,000 students of the Rim of the World Unified School District, which serves 17 communities in the San Bernardino Mountains, have not been in class for two weeks because of the weather, but the district superintendent, Kimberly Fricker, said Saturday that she was hopeful that they would be able to return by Thursday or Friday.

Before then, however, more waves of precipitation are on the way. Another atmospheric river — a storm named for its long, narrow shape and the immense amount of water it carries — is forecast for Monday afternoon and is expected to last about 24 hours, leaving inadequate time for the ground and the river system to sponge up all the water before getting soaked again. The storm will bring more heavy rain, with heavy snow likely in the Sierra Nevada. Meteorologists say this will be the 11th atmospheric river in California this winter.

“It’s not a reprieve,” Jerald Meadows, meteorologist in charge of the San Joaquin Valley Office of the National Weather Service, said of the interim. “It could give a false sense of security.”

Still, many residents are determined to recover. Honeyman, who has lived in Springville for 30 years, said her aunt, who declined to be interviewed, and her family would be staying at an Airbnb until they could begin to rebuild. And, despite the destruction she witnessed, she said leaving Springville was not a consideration.

“I grew up here, I moved here in first grade,” she said. “This is home, and I love living the country life up here. Unfortunately, this is stuff that happens when you live in a rural area.”

Everyone made it out alive, and no one was hurt, she added.

“Everything else can be replaced,” she said.

An uprooted tree damaged a home in Monterey, Calif., on Friday, March 10, 2023. While the storm slowed on Saturday, flooded rivers forced some residents to evacuate, while others surveyed the destruction that was left behind.

Missing from Biden’s budget: His plan for Social Security

By JIM TANKERSLEY

President Joe Biden campaigned for the White House on a plan to shore up Social Security’s finances over the coming decades and increase benefits for the lowest-earning retirees, all by raising taxes on people earning more than $400,000 a year.

An independent analysis estimated that the idea would have lifted 360,000 older adults out of poverty immediately.

That proposal has vanished from Biden’s governing agenda, even though the program has become a focal point in a brewing battle over raising the nation’s debt limit. The president has spent months warning that Republican lawmakers plan to gut Social Security and has positioned himself as the program’s champion who will protect benefits for generations of retirees.

The budget Biden proposed Thursday detailed trillions of dollars in new federal spending programs, offset by tax increases on high earners and corporations. The White House billed one of those tax increases as a way to extend the solvency of another popular program for retirees, Medicare, by 25 years, when combined with new efforts to save the government money on prescription drug costs.

Yet just like Biden’s previous budgets, his latest proposal made no mention of any tax or spending increases linked to Social Security, which is set to exhaust its trust fund in just over a decade. At that point, the government will need to borrow additional money or reduce benefits for retirees.

Biden’s 2020 campaign plan ap -

pears to be a casualty of messaging and policy considerations, including an unwillingness by administration officials to muddle what they see as a winning argument that casts the president as the protector of a cherished program and congressional Republicans as its foil.

That position is based in part on history: Presidents and candidates for the White House have struggled for decades to sell voters and lawmakers on plans to change the program.

But some of Biden’s advisers also see a limit to the amount of tax increases that the public is willing to digest. The budget he released Thursday, for the 2024 fiscal year, includes about $5 trillion in plans to raise taxes on corporations and high earners, largely to help pay for big new federal programs for child care, prekindergarten, paid leave and other priorities that he failed to get passed while Democrats controlled Congress. By piling another tax on top of that, Biden would risk sharply raising the top marginal tax rate for high earners.

Perhaps as a result, Biden and his aides have shifted from saying his latest budget would show his commitment to strengthening the program to saying it would simply protect it.

“You’ll see that my budget will invest in America, lower costs, protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare,” Biden said last month in Maryland.

On Thursday, when the president formally unveiled the budget in Philadelphia, his message focused purely on protection.

“I guarantee you I will protect Social Security and Medicare without any change,” Biden said.

The president proposed a raft of changes to Social Security during the 2020 campaign, aimed at enhancing and stabilizing the program. The 12.4% payroll tax that helps fund the program applies to income up to about $160,000 a year. Biden proposed to lift that cap for incomes above $400,000 a year, effectively forcing high earners to pay significantly more in payroll taxes.

His plan directed some of those new revenues toward extending the life of Social Security’s main trust fund, which is projected to be depleted in 2034. It put the rest of the revenues toward expanding benefits for certain retirees, like lower-income workers, widows and widowers. Researchers at the Urban Institute estimated that those increased benefits would pull 360,000 seniors out of pover-

ty right away and 2 million out of poverty in 2065.

“The Biden Plan will protect Social Security for the millions of Americans who depend on the program,” Biden’s campaign team wrote on his campaign website.

The plan was a response to a broader challenge that economists and budget experts across the partisan spectrum have increasingly sought to highlight: the growing struggle faced by a wide swath of American workers in affording a stable and secure retirement.

Publicly, administration officials say they are protecting the program simply by not cutting it.

“I would love to be in the part of the debate where we can have serious discussions about proposals,” Shalanda D. Young, the White House budget director, told reporters Thursday. “The No. 1 threat to Social Security and benefits for folks like my 94-year-old grandmother is those on the other side of the aisle who said they want to cut benefits. That’s why this budget takes the position that that is not on the table.”

Budget hawks attacked Biden for failing to go further. They said his inaction left the program vulnerable to an across-the-board benefit cut of as much as 20% if the trust fund runs out of money in 2034 as currently forecast.

“By failing to suggest increases in Social Security revenues or adjustments and reforms to future benefits in his budget, the president is implicitly endorsing the 20% benefit cut plan while claiming to be the protector of the program and attacking those who suggest we make changes,” said Maya MacGuineas, the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget in Washington.

Republicans criticized Biden’s budget, saying it spends and taxes too much. They have refused to lift the nation’s statutory borrowing limit unless the president agrees to steep cuts in federal spending. But they were largely silent on his lack of a Social Security plan, with good reason: Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California and other Republican leaders, under withering attacks from the president, have vowed not to touch the program as part of budget talks.

The New York Stock Exchange, on May 12, 2021. President Biden campaigned for the White House on a plan to shore up Social Security’s finances over the coming decades and increase benefits for the lowest-earning retirees, all by raising taxes on people earning more than $400,000 a year.

More retiree health plans move away from traditional Medicare

By MARK MILLER

Bob Bentkowski, a retired New York City firefighter, has a rare, painful disease that caused his kidneys to swell almost to the size of basketballs. He needed a transplant, and in the fall of 2021, he found a donor after waiting for years — but he was unsure whether Medicare would cover his surgery.

New York City has long provided its retired employees with comprehensive health benefits that pay for most of their Medicare costs. But with his transplant approaching, the city, and a coalition of its labor unions, had thrown Bentkowski a curveball. Aiming to save $600 million annually, they were negotiating to shift 250,000 retirees out of traditional fee-for-service Medicare into a privately operated Medicare Advantage plan.

“I was panicking about what might happen if I moved over to this new plan, since I was only a month away from the surgery,” Bentkowski said. But after hours on the phone with the insurance company, he was told that it couldn’t give him an answer until he enrolled. “They just give you the runaround. How am I going to join the plan when I don’t know what it will cover?”

Ultimately, Bentkowski’s surgery was covered under traditional Medicare. The city’s plans for Medicare Advantage became bogged down in litigation and political battles, with the opposition led by a group of New York City retirees who organized to fight not only the city but their own unions. Their battle has continued into this year, with a group representing city workers voting Thursday to approve the latest Advantage proposal.

The fight in New York City is a highly visible example of a nationwide shift in the way some retirees receive health insurance benefits from former employers, both in the public and private sector. It pits the drive to control health care costs against retired workers’ pocketbook and health concerns.

Many employers have dropped these benefits over the past several decades, and those that still offer them are shifting retirees into Medicare Advantage plans at a rapid pace.

Half of large employers offering benefits to Medicare-age retirees have contracts with Medicare Advantage plans, nearly double the share in 2017, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. And roughly 44% don’t give retirees a choice to use traditional Medicare within their programs. Most cited lower cost as the key reason.

The growth is part of a bigger story about Medicare Advantage expansion. Advantage is an alternative to traditional Medicare offered by insurance companies, and it uses managedcare techniques to control costs. Nearly half of Medicare beneficiaries were enrolled in Advantage plans last year, more than double the rate in 2007. And enrollment is projected to cross the 50% threshold as soon as this year, according to the foundation.

Retirees who are shifted into Medicare Advantage plans may not fully understand the major differences from traditional Medicare. These include the requirement to use physicians and hospitals in their plan’s narrower network, and reduced access to care in some instances. A federal investigation concluded last year that tens of thousands of people in Medicare Advantage plans were denied necessary care that should be covered.

The shift will also mean higher costs for taxpayers and all Medicare beneficiaries, some experts say. Payments by the federal government to Advantage plans average 102% of its spending on the fee-for-service traditional program, and that contributes to higher overall Medicare spending. This occurs in part because a bonus system awards extra dollars to plans that achieve high quality ratings from Medicare.

Advantage plans have also been found to submit to Medicare inflated bills that over-diagnose their patients. According to federal audits, the practice of “upcoding” crossed the line into fraud. Excess payments totaled $12 billion in 2020, according to the independent Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress.

The higher costs add financial pressure to Medicare’s hospital insurance (Part A) trust fund, as well as the taxpayers, beneficiaries and state-run Medicaid programs that fund the Part B program. The Part A trust fund is forecast to run dry in 2028, leaving revenue sufficient to meet 90% of the program’s obligations.

“On the one hand, Medicare Advantage allows employers to continue to offer retiree health benefits and potentially broaden benefits, and may lower their financial liability for retiree health,” said Tricia Neuman, senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation. “It also has the possibility of increasing Medicare spending.”

Insurers argue that Medicare Advantage group plans are simply one choice available to retirees. “Medicare rules require that retirees always have the option to opt out of enrollment in a group Medicare Advantage plan in favor of other forms of coverage that may be available,” said Heather Soule, a spokesperson for UnitedHealthcare, one of the largest providers of Advantage plans.

But for many retirees, joining an Advantage plan can be a difficult decision to reverse. Traditional Medicare should be paired with supplemental coverage — often a Medigap policy — to protect against potentially high out-of-pocket costs. But the best time to buy a Medigap policy is during the six months after you sign up for Part B (outpatient services), when insurers cannot

reject you, or charge a higher premium, because of preexisting conditions. After that time, you can be rejected or charged more in most states.

What’s more, when employers make this transition, retirees often face a choice: Join an Advantage plan or lose the benefit.

“It really takes away choice,” said Marilyn Moon, an economist and a former trustee of both Social Security and Medicare. “The whole idea of Medicare Advantage was supposed to be to give people more choice, not less.”

Seeking cost savings

Medicare Advantage offers employers an opportunity to reduce costs substantially. They and unions traditionally have provided a retiree health benefit that fills the gaps in traditional Medicare by paying for deductibles and co-pays, and by providing other benefits. When an employer contracts with a Medicare Advantage insurer, retirees get all of their benefits, including their Medicare-covered benefits, from this Medicare Advantage plan.

IBM introduced two new Medicare Advantage plans this year for its large retired workforce, replacing a plan that paid for supplemental Medigap coverage along with prescription drugs, dental and vision.

IBM retirees were given the option to stick with the old benefit — but they would lose access to balances in their health reimbursement arrangements, an employer-funded plan that reimburses certain medical expenses and insurance premiums. In most cases, employers retain the right to change this type of benefit, says Trevis Parson, chief actuary for individual marketplace business at the benefits consulting firm Willis Towers Watson.

“Most plan sponsors include language in their plan documents explicitly reserving rights to amend the plan,” he said. Some retirees were outraged by that tactic, and by the announcement of the planned transition with relatively short notice in September.

“They sprung it on us — either take Medicare Advantage or forfeit your balance,” said Steve Bergeron, who retired from IBM in 2009 after 29 years.

In a statement, IBM said that for 2023, two Medicare Advantage PPO options have “enhanced design elements above and beyond what participants were previously able to obtain with individual policies.”

Like many group plans, the new IBM offering features copays and annual deductibles much lower than those found in individual plans, and wider networks of providers. But it’s not clear how long those features will remain.

“There’s no guarantee of anything from IBM,” Bergeron said. “What if these terms were just to get people to sign up?”

Neuman of Kaiser Family Foundation shares that concern. “The question is, what happens over the longer term for retirees, perhaps five or 10 years from now, when the circumstances may change and it may be more difficult to maintain the favorable terms of a negotiated contract?” she asked.

Bergeron has been organizing retirees on social media to fight the change and with an online petition calling on IBM to drop the plan. He has also tried to recruit lawyers to sue the company, but most have advised that the case is not strong, since the retiree benefit is discretionary.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on Social Security and healthcare costs at University of Tampa, Fla. on Feb. 9, 2023.

Silicon Valley Bank collapse sets off blame game in tech industry

advance agendas. As Silicon Valley Bank imploded, crypto advocates blamed the structures of the traditional finance system for sowing instability. Some venture investors blamed the social media panic that touched off the bank run. Others blamed the government for its economic policies, or the bank itself for poor management and worse communication.

The debate is unfolding after a tumultuous year for tech companies in which the crypto industry entered a monthslong meltdown and some of the largest Silicon Valley firms conducted mass layoffs.

“People are just traumatized. They’re financially shellshocked,” said Sam Kazemian, founder of the crypto project Frax. “As soon as you see something, you wonder if there’s fire over there because it smells like smoke. And then you treat it like everything is burning and get out while you still can.”

llion reserves remained at Silicon Valley Bank. “Wires initiated on Thursday to remove balances were not yet processed,” Circle said in a statement on Twitter.

Unlike other volatile cryptocurrencies, stablecoins are supposed to stay pegged at a price of $1. The uncertainty around Circle caused the price of its popular stablecoin, USDC, to plummet below $1 during trading Friday and Saturday, raising fears of another crypto industry meltdown. On Friday evening, the giant crypto exchange Coinbase halted conversions between USDC and U.S. dollars, citing the volatility in the market.

By DAVID YAFFE-BELLANY, ERIN GRIFFITH and MIKE ISAAC

For once, the crisis didn’t seem to revolve around a cryptocurrency company.

The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday set off panic across the technology industry. But crypto executives and investors — who have endured a year of nearly constant upheaval — seized on the moment to preach and scold.

Centralized banking was to blame, the crypto advocates said. Their vision of an alternate financial system, unmoored from big banks and other gatekeepers, was better. They

argued that government regulators that recently cracked down on crypto firms had sown the seeds of the bank’s implosion.

“Fiat is fragile,” wrote bitcoin advocate Erik Voorhees, using a common shorthand for traditional currencies.

“We’re seeing glitches in the machine,” said Mo Shaikh, CEO of crypto company Aptos Labs. “This is an opportunity to take a breath and consider the practicalities of decentralization.”

But the tone quickly shifted as a major crypto company revealed late Friday that it had billions of dollars trapped in Silicon Valley Bank. A so-called stablecoin designed to maintain a constant value of $1 suddenly dipped in price, sending shudders through the market.

And the finger-pointing went in both directions. Some tech investors argued that the crypto world’s procession of bad actors and overnight collapses had conditioned people to panic at the first sign of trouble, setting the stage for the crisis at Silicon Valley Bank. In November, FTX, the crypto exchange run by Sam Bankman-Fried, went out of business after the crypto equivalent of a bank run exposed an enormous hole in its accounts.

“That’s the pattern recognition too many have,” said Joe Marchese, an investor at the venture capital firm Human Ventures.

The blame game is a sign of factionalism in the tech industry, where hot startups and trends come and go and crises can be used to

Silicon Valley Bank started wobbling Wednesday, when it revealed that it had lost nearly $2 billion and announced it would sell off assets to meet demand for withdrawals. The news set off fear in the tech industry as startups rushed to get their money out.

As often happens in bank runs, those concerns became a self-fulfilling prophecy. On Friday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced that it was taking control of Silicon Valley Bank, marking the largest bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis. Tech companies with money deposited in the bank scrambled to pay employees and vendors.

Silicon Valley Bank was in “sound financial condition prior to March 9,” according to an order from California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. It became insolvent after investors and depositors caused a run on its holdings, the order said.

Silicon Valley Bank appears to have had a relatively small footprint in the crypto industry. Historically, many large banks have resisted working with crypto companies, given the legal uncertainty surrounding much of the business.

“A lot of crypto startups had a very hard time onboarding onto Silicon Valley Bank,” said Haseeb Qureshi, a crypto investor at venture capital firm Dragonfly. “So our exposure is a lot less than we anticipated.”

There was at least one notable exception. Circle, a company that issues stablecoins, a linchpin in crypto trading, keeps a portion of its cash reserves at Silicon Valley Bank, according to its financial statements.

After a day of frantic speculation about the extent of Circle’s exposure, the company revealed late Friday that $3.3 billion of its $40 bi-

As the crisis brewed, though, crypto advocates treated the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank as a chance to press arguments they have been making since the 2008 banking crisis. That upheaval showed financial systems were too centralized, they said, which helped inspire the creation of bitcoin.

“Centralized entities are more opaque,” said Brad Nickel, who hosts the crypto podcast “Mission:DeFi.” “If cryptocurrency were powering the financial rails of our world, then a lot of things might not happen or would be a lot less severe.”

But the run on Silicon Valley also followed a playbook that was reminiscent of crises that erupted last year in the crypto industry, culminating in the implosion of FTX.

Critics of the crypto industry argued that a crypto-centric version of Silicon Valley Bank’s failure would have ended worse for everyone.

“If this was an unregulated crypto bank, then the money could just disappear,” Marchese said. The fact that the FDIC stepped in to handle the situation in an orderly fashion showed “the system is working,” he said.

In the coming days, the FDIC will refund the bank’s depositors up to $250,000 while overseeing a process to recover the lost funds. “There’s no crypto regulator insuring accounts for $250,000,” said Danny Moses, an investor at Moses Ventures who is known for his role in predicting the 2008 crisis in “The Big Short.”

Other analysts argued that Silicon Valley Bank had worsened the crisis by announcing its financial losses shortly after Silvergate Capital, a bank with close ties to the crypto industry, started winding down its operations this past week. They pointed out that the manner of Silicon Valley Bank’s communication helped cause the panic that fueled the run.

“SVB’s rollout, for whatever reason, was poorly timed,” said Adam Sterling, assistant dean at Berkeley Law. “Everyone was already fidgety after Silvergate’s collapse.”

One of the most prominent lenders in the world of technology start-ups, struggling under the weight of ill-fated decisions and panicked customers, collapsed on Friday, forcing the federal government to step in.

Wall St sinks on jitters about banks after mixed jobs report

Wall Street’s indexes ended down more than 1% on Friday after investors ran for the exits as they feared for the health of U.S. banks after the failure of a high-profile lender to the technology sector, overshadowing the February jobs report.

California banking regulators said they closed SVB Financial Group to protect deposits in what was the largest bank failure since the financial crisis. A capital crisis at SVB had already put pressure on bank stocks globally.

SVB had tried but failed to shore up its balance sheet through a stock sale proposed late on Wednesday. The same day, crypto-lender Silvergate Capital said it would have to wind down after huge losses from the FTX cryptocurrency exchange collapse.

“There’s concern cracks may be appearing in the financial system as a result of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hikes,” said Carol Schleif, chief investment officer, BMO family office in Minneapolis. “The fear is whether it’s broader than one industry’s bank and one segment of the economy.”

While many investors looked through their bank holdings for signs of risk, Schleif said much of the weakness in regional bank stocks stemmed from a “proverbial shoot first ask questions later situation.”

The KBW regional banking index ended the session down 2.4% while the S&P 500 financials index lost 1.8%.

Schleif and other investors said they hoped regulations added to the U.S. banking system since the 2008 financial crisis would prevent a similar catastrophe.

But still “people are very nervous because they don’t want a repeat,” she said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 345.22 points, or 1.07%, to 31,909.64, the S&P 500 lost 56.73 points, or 1.45%, to 3,861.59 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 199.47 points, or 1.76%, to 11,138.89.

All 11 S&P 500 industry sectors lost ground. Real estate, down 3.3%, led declines while consumer staples the top performer, fell just 0.5%.

For the week, the S&P lost 4.6% in its biggest weekly percentage decline since September but was clinging to a tiny year-to-date gain of 0.6%. The Dow fell 4.4% for the week and was down more than 3% year-to-date while the Nasdaq declined 4.7% this week but was up more than 6% for 2023.

The Cboe Volatility Index, an options-based indicator that reflects demand for protection against stock market declines, closed at a 3-month high, up 2.19 points at 24.9 after touching a roughly five-month high during the session.

Investors had expected to end the week with most of their focus on economic data rather than banks.

Before the market opened, the closely monitored nonfarm payrolls report showed the U.S. economy added more jobs than expected in February while average hourly earn-

MOST ASSERTIVE STOCKS

PUERTO RICO STOCKS

ings rose at a slower 0.2% last month after versus 0.3% in January while unemployment rose to 3.6%.

The data had eased some concerns that the Fed could raise rates by 50 basis points at its March meeting after hawkish remarks from Fed Chair Powell this week.

But investors were more focused on uncertainties around the bank system, said John Praveen, managing director & Co-CIO at Paleo Leon in Princeton, New Jersey.

COMMODITIES

CURRENCY

“Whatever positive vibes came out of the labor market report were upstaged by negative vibes from the SVB situation,” Praveen said.

The S&P 500’s bank subsector closed down 0.5% with a boost from JPMorgan Chase, which closed up 2.5% and Wells Fargo , which closed up 0.6% while the rest of the index lost ground.

The biggest decliners were Silvergate cryto-bank peer Signature Bank, which tumbled 22.9% and regional bank First Republic, which finished down 14.8%.

In individual stocks, Gap Inc lost 6.3% after the apparel retailer posted a bigger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss and forecast full-year sales below Wall Street estimates.

Ukraine steps up calls for evacuation of northeast town under relentless Russian shelling

By MATTHEW MPOKE BIGG, CARLOTTA GALL and OLEKSANDR CHUBKO

Months after Russian soldiers were driven out of Kupiansk, Ukrainian authorities are stepping up efforts to evacuate civilians from the town in the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine amid relentless Russian shelling. Ukrainian troops routed Russian forces from much of the Kharkiv region when they mounted a rapid counteroffensive in September that ended months of occupation and helped shift the momentum of the conflict in Ukraine’s favor.

But since then, Moscow’s forces have made it impossible for Ukraine to restore everyday life in the reclaimed areas. Russian troops have continued to pound parts of the region close to front lines, including Kupiansk, with artillery.

Aside from the impact on civilians, the attacks prevent Ukraine from redeploying troops stationed in those areas to other parts of the battlefield, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a research organization based in Washington.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that its forces had hit Ukrainian military positions around Kupiansk, and local Ukrainian officials on Sunday said there had been shelling in the area.

Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the Ukrainian regional military administration, had said Saturday that Kupiansk was experiencing the “hottest” fighting in the region and urged any remaining residents to leave.

“Enemy forces are relentlessly trying to attack the positions of our forces. That’s why we announced mandatory evacuation,” Syniehubov said on national television, adding that local authori-

ties and volunteer groups were trying to move people to safer locations elsewhere in the region.

The streets of Kupiansk were largely deserted Friday when a reporting team from The New York Times visited, and the damage from recent Russian artillery strikes was visible. Some buildings that had been intact when Ukrainian forces recaptured the town in September were now scarred by explosions. Houses and shops were boarded up, and a few people were getting onto a bus to Kharkiv.

A kiosk on the main street was reduced to a mangled piece of metal, and the ground in front of the hospital was strewn with rubble and shattered windows. A huge hole gaped wide in a building that had been used as a temporary headquarters by the city’s mayor. Two deep craters in front indicated the building had been struck by missiles. Next door, a heavily sandbagged building that had been used as a temporary police station was abandoned.

Many Ukrainians who live close to the country’s front lines have fled fighting but others have defied evacuation calls from offi-

cials despite the danger. In many places, those who have chosen to remain are elderly and in poor health. Others have said they were worried about economic insecurity if they were to relocate.

The heaviest fighting in recent weeks has been near the city of Bakhmut, which is around 80 miles southeast of Kupiansk. But Ukrainian authorities have for days been reporting intensified shelling in the Kharkiv region, as well as farther south.

In an overnight address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine named the Kharkiv region as one of several places experiencing “brutal” attacks “every day, every night.”

“In less than 2 1/2 months, over 40 enemy missiles have already struck Kharkiv,” he said, speaking of the city of Kharkiv, the regional capital, which Russian forces tried and failed to capture near the start of their full-scale invasion of the country last year.

Zelenskyy said Russia was using all sorts of weapons — “missiles and artillery, drones and mortars” — with a singular goal: “To destroy life and leave nothing human.”

He also called out the cities of the Donbas region, which he said “Russia simply wants to burn.”

The focal point of Moscow’s push to capture the entire Donbas region of east-

ern Ukraine has been around the embattled city of Bakhmut, where Russian forces have in recent weeks eked out advances. Oleksiy Danilov, the head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said on national television Saturday that fighting was continuing on the outskirts of the city as well as on some of its streets.

On the eastern front, Russia continued attacking positions near Bakhmut and other parts of eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military said in its morning update Sunday. Shelling near the town of Avdiivka had killed three civilians in recent days, according to Vitaliy Barabash, the head of the town’s military administration. He said on television that villages were “being erased” by Russian fire.

Elsewhere, Russian attacks in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region killed at least three civilians and wounded three others Saturday, according to Ukrainian officials. Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the regional military administration, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that Russia had fired 156 shells over the past day on the region. Russian strikes on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia also damaged an industrial facility and gas line.

“Russian shelling took the lives of people in Kherson who simply went to a store to buy groceries,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address. “In Zaporizhzhia, a Russian missile hit the city’s life support facility,” he added, without providing details.

Ukrainian officials and military analysts have suggested that the Zaporizhzhia region could be the focus of a long-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive in the coming weeks as part of an attempt by Ukraine’s forces to advance on the Russian-held port city of Melitopol.

Anticipating such a move, “Russian forces continue to establish fortifications in Zaporizhzhia,” according to the Institute for the Study of War, which it said was likely an attempt to better secure highways leading into Tokmak, a logistics hub near Melitopol.

Capturing territory around Melitopol could allow Ukrainian forces to sever a Russian line of control that extends from the Crimean Peninsula to the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian soldiers outside Toretsk, in the Donetsk province of eastern Ukraine on Saturday, March 11, 2023. Attacks on the town of Kupiansk, in the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine, continued on Sunday.

With fingerprints, DNA and photos, Turkey seeks families of the missing

By BEN HUBBARD and SAFAK TIMUR

When a powerful earthquake struck southern Turkey last month, a lawyer concluded that her relatives had been buried in the rubble of their collapsed apartment.

Three days later, rescue workers recovered the bodies of her mother and brother, she said, but days, then weeks, then a month passed with no sign of her father. His disappearance plunged her into a terrifying mystery faced by families across the quake zone whose loved ones are still missing.

“I can’t find my father anywhere in the world — not under the rubble, not in the hospitals, not anywhere,” said the lawyer, Mervat Nasri, who is from Syria.

Five weeks after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake and a powerful aftershock struck southern Turkey, killing 47,000 people, many others remain unaccounted for, adding ambiguity to the complete toll and leaving families in an agonizing limbo. More than 6,000 people were also killed across the border in northern Syria.

Turkish authorities have provided scant information about how many people are missing, making the scope unclear. One indication is the number of unidentified bodies buried in cemeteries. Ahmet Hilal, a professor of forensic medicine at Cukurova University in Adana, said his research in the afflicted area found that there were currently about 1,470.

Recent interviews with experts, survivors and officials involved in the recovery efforts indicated chaos in the disaster’s first days, with injured people dispatched to faraway hospitals where they may have died without their relatives’ knowledge, and unidentified bodies hastily buried because rescue workers had no place to store them.

In the weeks since, Turkish authorities have begun using fingerprints, DNA tests and photographs to try to link unidentified bodies with their next of kin.

One branch of that effort is in a rocky lot in Narlica, a town in Hatay province, one of the areas most heavily damaged by the quake. On a recent day, police officers and prosecutors worked in metal shipping containers, which have been used as quakeproof shelters. A stream of families came by, hoping to find traces of missing loved ones.

Police recorded the names of missing relatives and checked a database to see if they had been found elsewhere. Families that found matches received death certificates, photographs taken before their relatives were buried, and the cemetery names

and grave numbers where they had been laid to rest.

Those whose relatives’ names were not in the system watched a large screen as the police scrolled through hundreds of photographs of unidentified bodies, many of them disfigured, hoping to see a face they recognized.

Some families came away with nothing. They gave blood for DNA tests that would be cross-checked with samples taken from unidentified bodies before burial.

Other families received painful confirmations of loss.

“He was like a mountain, my son,” cried Makbule Karadeniz, 62, after recognizing her dead son Sait, 35, in the photographs.

The quake Feb. 6 destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings across southern Turkey, ruining some hospitals, overwhelming others and creating chaos that made it easy for relatives to lose one another.

After the quake, Sakine Nur Gul, 27, navigated a blizzard and roads clogged with emergency vehicles to reach her family’s building in the city of Antakya, finally arriving 19 hours after it had collapsed, she said.

Assuming her relatives were entombed inside, she waited by the rubble as rescue workers dug for bodies and survivors, she said. But when they reached the basement

on the sixth day, they had not found her relatives.

So she began a painful, weekslong odyssey to find her mother, father and brother, who were among 28 people missing from the same building.

Thinking they could have been pulled out alive soon after the quake, she visited hospitals and graveyards throughout the area and gave blood in the hope that her DNA would lead to a match.

Early on, she said, she found sprawling expanses of new, numbered graves but no one to explain who was buried where, she said. Some hospitals refused to show her photographs of unidentified patients in their intensive care units, citing privacy concerns.

As the search dragged on, the birthdays of her missing brother and father passed, she said. Nine days after the quake, her father’s bank sent his last automatic mortgage payment for the family’s now nonexistent

apartment.

She has struggled to maintain hope that they are still alive, while feeling unable to grieve until she is sure they are dead.

“How long are we going to have to wait?” she said.

Previous earthquakes in Turkey left many people unaccounted for. More than 18,000 people were killed in a quake near Istanbul in 1999. To this day, 5,840 are officially still missing, most believed to have been interred without being identified. They are not included in the death toll.

After last month’s quake, around 5,000 unidentified people were buried across the quake zone, said Hilal, the professor of forensic medicine. But in the weeks since, he said, that number has gone down to around 1,470 because many of the buried bodies have been identified through DNA matches and other methods.

People could have disappeared in different ways, Hilal said. Overwhelmed rescue workers buried bodies before they were identified, although in most cases, they collected photographs, fingerprints or blood. Others could have been charred by fires in the rubble, making identification difficult, he said.

In the end, Hilal said he expected the number of missing people to be lower than in 1999, when the state could not match DNA and did not have fingerprints for as many Turkish citizens and residents.

But for many families, the uncertainty continues.

Sakine Nur Gul, who is searching for several missing members of her family, in Ceyhan, Turkey, March 3, 2023.

Chinese-brokered deal upends Middle East diplomacy and challenges US

By PETER BAKER

Finally, there is a peace deal of sorts in the Middle East. Not between Israel and the Arabs, but between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which have been at each other’s throats for decades. And brokered not by the United States but by China.

This is among the topsiest and turviest of developments anyone could have imagined, a shift that left heads spinning in capitals around the globe. Alliances and rivalries that have governed diplomacy for generations have, for the moment at least, been upended.

The Americans, who have been the central actors in the Middle East for the past threequarters of a century, almost always the ones in the room where it happened, now find themselves on the sidelines during a moment of significant change. The Chinese, who for years played only a secondary role in the region, have suddenly transformed themselves into the new power player. And the Israelis, who have been courting the Saudis against their mutual adversaries in Iran, now wonder where it leaves them.

“There is no way around it — this is a big deal,” said Amy Hawthorne, deputy director for research at the Project on Middle East Democracy, a nonprofit group in Washington. “Yes, the United States could not have brokered such a deal right now with Iran specifically, since we have no relations. But in a larger sense, China’s prestigious accomplishment vaults it into a new league diplomatically and outshines anything the U.S. has been able to achieve in the region since Biden came to office.”

President Joe Biden’s White House has publicly welcomed the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran and expressed no overt concern about Beijing’s part in bringing the two back together. Privately, Biden’s aides suggested too much was being made of the breakthrough, scoffing at suggestions that it indicated any erosion in U.S. influence in the region.

And it remained unclear, independent analysts said, how far the rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran would actually go. After decades of sometimes violent competition for leadership in the Middle East and the broader Islamic world, the decision to reopen embassies that were closed in 2016 represents only a first step.

It does not mean that the Sunnis of Saudi Arabia and the Shiites of Iran have put aside all of their deep and visceral differences. Indeed, it is conceivable that this new agreement to exchange ambassadors may not even be carried out in the end, given that it was put on a cautious two-month timetable to work out details.

The key to the agreement, according to what the Saudis told the Americans, was a commitment by Iran to stop further attacks on Saudi Arabia and curtail support for militant groups that have targeted the kingdom. Iran and Saudi Arabia have effectively fought a devastating proxy war in Yemen, where Houthi rebels aligned with Tehran battled Saudi forces for eight years. A truce negotiated with the support of the United Nations and the Biden administration last year largely halted hostilities.

The U.N. estimated early last year that more than 377,000 people had died during the war from violence, starvation or disease. At the same time, the Houthis have fired hundreds of missiles and armed drones at Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia had sought a suspension of hostilities with Iran for years, first through talks held in Baghdad that eventually went nowhere. Biden administration officials said the Saudis briefed them about the discussions in Beijing, but the Americans expressed skepticism that Iran will live up to its new commitments.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia who had strong ties with President Donald Trump and has helped secure $2 billion in financing for the investment firm set up by Jared Kushner, the former president’s son-in-law, has been playing an intricate diplomatic game since Biden came to office.

Biden once vowed to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” state for orchestrating the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi columnist for The Washington Post living in the United States. But he reluctantly agreed to visit the kingdom last year as he was seeking to lower gas prices that had been elevated in part

by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In trying to smooth over relations with the Saudis, Biden endured blistering criticism for a much-publicized fist bump with the crown prince, who was determined by the CIA to be responsible for Khashoggi’s murder and dismemberment.

But Biden and his team were infuriated when, in their view, the Saudis later breached the unannounced agreement reached during that visit and curbed oil production last fall to keep the price of gas elevated. In that instance, the U.S. officials believed Crown Prince Mohammed was siding with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Biden threatened unspecified “consequences,” only to back off without imposing any.

Daniel C. Kurtzer, a former ambassador to Israel and Egypt now at Princeton University, said the shifting dynamics represented by the Chinese-brokered pact still pose a challenge to the Biden administration when it would prefer to focus elsewhere.

“It’s a sign of Chinese agility to take advantage of some anger directed at the United States by Saudi Arabia and a little bit of a vacuum there,” he said. “And it’s a reflection of the fact that the Saudis and Iranians have been talking for some time. And it’s an unfortunate indictment of U.S. policy.”

While its diplomatic efforts helped calm hostilities in Yemen, the Biden administration has failed to revive a nuclear agreement with Iran negotiated in 2015 by President Barack Obama and later abandoned by Trump. Two years of diplomacy have stalled, and the U.N. watchdog agency says Iran now has enough highly enriched uranium to build several nuclear weapons if it chooses to, although it has not perfected a warhead yet.

Hampered by U.S. sanctions, Iran has moved to deepen its relations with Russia and now China. Tehran has provided badly needed drones for Russia to use in its war in Ukraine, making it a more critical partner for Putin’s Moscow than ever before.

In turning to Beijing to mediate with the Saudis, Iran is elevating China in the region and seeking to escape the isolation imposed by Washington. And Israel finds its hopes for an antiIranian coalition with Saudi Arabia evidently dashed.

Biden administration officials say Iran is under real pressure and suffering from deep economic distress because of U.S. sanctions. But that does not mean China, one of the signatories to the original nuclear deal, wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon, either. If Beijing has new sway in Tehran, U.S. officials hope perhaps it could use it to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Nonetheless, it is disconcerting for many veteran U.S. policymakers to see China playing such an outsize role in a region after years of making inroads.

“This is the latest reminder that the competition is on a global stage,” said Mara Rudman, executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress and a former Middle East envoy under Obama. “It is by no means limited to the Indo-Pacific, just as it is not limited to solely to economics, or security, or diplomatic engagement.”

A photograph released by Chinese state media showing officials Wang Yi, center, China’s top foreign policy official, with Ali Shamkhani, right, the secretary of Iran’s security council, and Musaad bin Mohammed Al Aiban, Saudi Arabia’s minister of state, in Beijing, on Friday.

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Criminals in Mexico violated their unwritten rule: Leave Americans alone

By MARIA ABI-HABIB and NATALIE KITROEFF

The five men were left prostrate on the sidewalk outside their black pickup truck, their shirts pulled over their heads, bare torsos pressed against the ground, their bound hands spread before them almost in supplication.

The handwritten letter on the truck’s windshield read like a formal, albeit chilling and remarkable apology: the Gulf Cartel Scorpion Group was very sorry that their members accidentally shot and killed two Americans and a Mexican bystander while kidnapping two more U.S. citizens.

The men were being offered up to the authorities, the letter said, to make amends for disturbing the peace. On Friday, Mexican prosecutors charged the five men in connection with the abduction and killings.

While Mexican drug cartels thrive in a vacuum of law and order that persists inside Mexico, there is an unspoken rule that many members of organized criminal groups are careful not to cross: do not touch Americans.

The United States takes attacks on its citizens seriously, and the response to such violence, on both sides of the border, can be ruinous for a Mexican criminal group.

“When American citizens are targeted, it brings pressure from the U.S. government, they get their security agencies involved and then start putting pressure on Mexico to act,” said Cecilia Farfán Méndez, a Mexico security researcher at the University of California, San Diego.

“The worst thing for the cartels is that they have to dedicate resources to countering Mexican authorities that mostly leave them alone,’’ she added. “It’s not good for business.”

Cartels can often outgun Mexican authorities or simply buy their cooperation, but they know that prodding the U.S. government into action can hinder their ability to operate. And in recent years, organized crime has come to rely on the Mexican government’s inability to effectively control it.

Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, came to office promising a new approach to quell violence: avoiding direct confrontation with criminal groups, in favor of addressing the root causes of criminality like corruption and poverty.

But his strategy, which he branded with the slogan “hugs, not bullets,” has done little to tame extraordinary levels of violence or diminish the ever-expanding power of cartels that traffic drugs and migrants across the U.S. border and terrorize Mexicans at home.

In many communities, Mexicans live in fear of criminal groups that commit daily acts of violence that by and large attract little attention outside the country. And while cartels avoid deliberately targeting Americans, their business model rests on shipping narcotics north that have helped fuel an epidemic of drug deaths in the United States.

The Biden administration has been reluctant to openly criticize López Obrador, including over security problems in Mexico, wary of threatening his cooperation on migration.

But the attack on four Americans last week became an international scandal, increasing pressure on the U.S. government to do more to combat crime south of the border, and eliciting calls from Republican lawmakers to authorize U.S. military force to confront the cartels.

The calls prompted an outcry in Mexico, with officials demanding that the U.S. government respect their sovereignty, but also forcing the Mexican government to respond. This week, hundreds of additional Mexican security forces were deployed

to Matamoros, the border city where the attack on the four Americans unfolded.

That kind of outsize attention is precisely what criminal groups want to avoid, and they have largely left American citizens alone ever since the 1985 abduction, torture and brutal slaying of Enrique Camarena, a DEA agent, who had disrupted cartel operations at the time and drew their bloody ire.

Camarena’s mutilated body was found wrapped in plastic bags on a ranch in western Mexico, his hands and feet bound and his face unrecognizable after multiple blows with a blunt object.

In its quest for justice, the DEA launched Operation Legend, one of the largest homicide investigations undertaken by the agency, which revealed that Mexican authorities had covered up Camarena’s murder and destroyed valuable evidence. The operation led to the arrest of cartel members and forced others into hiding.

The message was clear: going after American law enforcement agents would have far-reaching consequences for criminals and their accomplices in the Mexican government.

Cartels eventually learned that even mistakenly killing U.S. citizens could be costly.

In 2019, an organized crime group opened fire on Americans and Mexicans who were driving through the northern state of Sonora, killing three women and six children, part of a Mormon group that lived in Mexico. Some of the victims were burned alive in their cars, about 70 miles south of the U.S. border.

In the aftermath, several people were arrested, including a Mexican police chief believed to be protecting local criminal groups. The Mexican government claimed the deadly attack could have been a case of mistaken identity and related to a conflict between two criminal groups vying for control.

This week, Mexican authorities were said to be considering a similar explanation for the kidnapping and slaying of the Americans in Matamoros, investigating whether it was another case of mistaken identity.

Those who live in Matamoros, which is part of the state of Tamaulipas and sits across the Rio Grande from the southernmost tip of Texas, endure the daily eruption of violence that consumes life here, ever since criminal organizations began consolidating control of the city.

What happened to the Americans is what they confront every day, Matamoros residents said, while dropping their children off at school, buying groceries or driving to work.

But what made this case different, they said in sorrow and anger, was the immense attention and pursuit of justice it received because of the victims’ nationalities.

“Who is talking about the woman who died here? No one,” said Alberto Salinas, referring to the Mexican who was shot and killed during the attack. Salinas owns a home next to the scene where the attack occurred, but was elsewhere at the time.

Tamaulipas is generally dominated by the Gulf cartel,

one of the oldest criminal organizations in Mexico, but is carved up among different factions of criminal groups. Even if the factions all belong to the same overarching group, they are not always allied.

Local leaders are generally vigilant about who might be encroaching onto their territory. The Scorpions group, which claimed to have written the letter, originated as a special force that guarded a previous Gulf cartel leader, said Jesús Pérez Caballero, a security expert and professor at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Matamoros.

While Mexicans have often found letters from cartels accompanying corpses, the note left behind this week was rarer because the five men who were found with it were left alive.

Criminal organizations do police their own members, experts said, particularly if they draw too much attention to the groups’ activities.

Leaving the men alive could have been aimed at ensuring that they would give statements to investigators supporting the narrative that the cartel did not order the assault. Lower level members of such groups sometimes do act on their own, though it’s unclear if that’s what actually happened in this case.

“Many times the hit men try to show their merit to people with more power, and they go it alone and if it works out, it works out,” Pérez Caballero said. “And if it goes wrong, well, it goes wrong.”

Soldiers on patrol at the Forensic Medical Service after two Americans were killed and two were kidnapped, in Matamoros, Mexico, March 8, 2023.

March 13, 2023 18

The self-destructive effects of progressive sadness

the years, mostly because, during the Barack Obama years, for example, liberals didn’t seem sad. Massive crowds of young Democrats were chanting “Yes We Can!” at Obama campaign rallies built around hope and change. Audiences thrilled to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton,” an optimistic, celebratory and multiracial account of America’s founding. There was an assumption of confidence — America is moving forward, the arc of history bends toward justice.

Gradually, that atmosphere changed. First, smartphones and social media emerged and had a negative effect on the nation’s psyche, especially among the young. Then the election of Donald Trump darkened the national mood, on right and left.

Young liberals were hit especially hard. A 2021 study by Catherine Gimbrone, Lisa M. Bates, Seth J. Prins and Katherine M. Keyes looked at the emotional states of 12th grade students between 2005 and 2018. Liberal girls experienced a surge in depressive symptoms. Liberal boys weren’t far behind. Conservative boys and girls also suffered from higher rates of depressive symptoms, but not nearly as much as liberals. Sadness was linked to ideology.

over the top, vitriolic terms. That contributes to the fierce volleys of cancellation and denunciation we’ve seen over the past few years. For example, Damon Linker recently wrote an opinion piece for the Times arguing that Ron DeSantis is bad, but not as terrible as Trump. The furies descended on him online. The gist was that it is shameful to merely say DeSantis is bad — you need to say he is a fascist, pure evil! If you aren’t speaking in the language of maximalist exorcism, you’re betraying the cause.

This rhetorical style is also self-destructive. When maximalist denunciation is the go-to device, then nobody knows who’s going to be denounced next. Everybody finds himself living in a climate of fear, and every emotionally healthy person is writing and talking from a defensive crouch.

I say that liberal sadness was maladaptive because the mindset didn’t increase people’s sense of agency; it decreased it. Trying to pass legislation grounds your thought in reality and can lead to real change. But when you treat politics as an emotional display, you end up making yourself and everybody else feel afflicted and powerless.

By DAVID BROOKS

One well-established finding of social science research is that conservatives report being happier than liberals. Over the years, researchers have come up with a bunch of theories to explain this phenomenon.

The first explanation is that conservatives are more likely to take part in activities linked to personal happiness — such as being married and actively participating in a religious community. The second explanation is that of course conservatives are happier; they are by definition more satisfied with the established order of things.

The third explanation, related to the second, is that on personality tests liberals tend to score higher on openness to experience but also higher on neuroticism. People who score high on neuroticism are vigilant against potential harms, but they also have to live with a lot of negative emotions — such as sadness and anxiety.

I’ve paid only casual attention to these debates over

Lord knows the right has gone off on its own jarring psychological journey of late, but many on the left began to suffer from what you might call maladaptive sadness. This mindset had three main features.

First, a catastrophizing mentality. For many, America’s problems came to seem endemic: The American dream is a sham, climate change is unstoppable, systemic racism is eternal. Making catastrophic pronouncements became a way to display that you were woke to the brutalities of American life. The problem, Matthew Yglesias recently wrote on his Substack, is that catastrophizing doesn’t usually help you solve problems. People who provide therapy to depressive people try to break the cycle of catastrophic thinking so they can more calmly locate and deal with the problems they actually have control over.

Second, extreme sensitivity to harm. This was the sense many people had that they were constantly being assaulted by offensive and unsafe speech, the concerns that led to safe spaces, trigger warnings, cancellations, etc. But, as Jill Filipovic argued recently on her own Substack: “I am increasingly convinced that there are tremendously negative long-term consequences, especially to young people, coming from this reliance on the language of harm and accusations that things one finds offensive are ‘deeply problematic’ or even violent. Just about everything researchers understand about resilience and mental well-being suggests that people who feel like they are the chief architects of their own life” are “vastly better off than people whose default position is victimization, hurt and a sense that life simply happens to them.”

Third, a culture of denunciation. When people feel emotionally unsafe, they’re going to lash out — often in

I share the widespread sense that the “woke” era is winding down. Things are calming down. I hope people are coming to the same corny conclusion I have: If you want healthy politics, encourage people to have confidence in their ability to make a difference — don’t undermine that confidence.

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POR EL STAR STAFF

SAN JUAN – La organización sin fines de lucro, True Self Foundation, celebró el sábado, una actividad para reconocer el trabajo realizado por un grupo de jóvenes entre las edades de 14 a 21 años, que fueron partícipe de la segunda edición del 4Respect Camp, una iniciativa enfocada en desarrollar destrezas de liderazgo, emprendimiento y resiliencia en jóvenes LGBTQIA+.

Durante la actividad, celebrada en la Fundación del Banco Popular, los jóvenes presentaron múltiples proyectos educativos y de emprendimiento social dirigidos a temas de salud mental, diversidad de orientación sexual y de género, educación sexual y comunicación.

“Luego de asistir a múltiples talleres durante cinco semanas, este grupo maravilloso de jóvenes, de la mano de diversos mentores, tuvieron la tarea de crear proyectos que lograran plasmar iniciativas y espacios donde la comunidad LGBT+ se sintiera segura. Los resultados fueron increíbles y sin dudas, nos motivan a continuar gestionando nuevas iniciativas de convivencia que resulten en bienestar para nuestro colectivo”, señaló el psicólogo y director ejecutivo de True Self Foundation, Miguel Vázquez Rivera.

En forma de panel, los diversos proyectos recibieron el insumo de expertes en gestión cultural, comunicación, arte urbano y justicia social. El panel estuvo compuesto por la artista urbana Young Miko; le directore del Programa de Puerto Rico de Open Society Foundations, Karina Claudio Betancourt; le dueñetrabajadore en la cooperativa transfeminista Espicy Nipples, Dania “Betún” Warhol; y la museóloga y gestora cultural, Windy M. Cosme Rosario.

El primer grupo de jóvenes presentó una propuesta en formato “podcast” titulada Gender Bending, que buscó plasmar una conversación sobre asuntos de la juventud LGBT+ en Puerto Rico. Entre las experiencias narradas por tres jóvenes de experiencia trans y uno de género no binario, se destacaron vivencias de rechazo familiar por revelar su identidad de género, la obligación de utilizar uniformes escolares que les incomodaban, el uso de baños públicos y otros retos que enfrenta esta población en la isla.

“Este campamento ha sido de mucha sanación. Ha sido una experiencia llena de amor que ha despertado en mí una pasión y deseo por servir a mi comunidad… En esta experiencia he construido un amor inigualable hacia mi lucha personal y colectiva. Mis compañeres me dan esperanza de seguir hacia adelante”, soltó uno de los jóvenes durante la presentación.

Al mismo tiempo, otro de los jóvenes creadores de Gender Bending tomó el micrófono para destacar que para él “lo más emocionante de transicionar es saber que las personas te comienzan a tratar como realmente quieres y sientes. Los jóvenes trans somos parte de la sociedad y reclamamos con nuestra existencia más espacios seguros”.

El campamento fue subvencionado por la Fundación del Banco Popular.

Gobernador anuncia préstamo millonario a INDULAC

SAN JUAN – El gobernador Pedro Pierluisi, junto al secretario de Departamento de la Vivienda, William Rodríguez Rodríguez, anunció a fines de la semana pasada, la inversión de 11.8 millones de dólares que hará la Industria Lechera de Puerto Rico Inc. (INDULAC) para poner en marcha su Proyecto de Mejoras y Resiliencia de Capital con la asistencia del Programa de Cartera de Inversión en Desarrollo Económico (IPG, por sus siglas en inglés) del Departamento de la Vivienda.

“Esta iniciativa tiene como objetivo renovar y modernizar la planta procesadora, mejorando su capacidad de procesar y fabricar productos lácteos para los residentes y consumidores de Puerto Rico. Por medio de los fondos del Programa IPG estamos proveyendo la oportunidad de financiamiento a entidades que con sus proyectos a gran escala propician la revitalización de Puerto Rico por medio de actividad comercial e industrial, de creación de empleos y de crecimiento económico en la Isla”, dijo el gobernador en conferencia de prensa.

“La industria lechera en Puerto Rico tiene un efecto multiplicador que abarca servicios en múltiples sectores de la economía que generan más de 16 mil empleos directos e indirectos. Nuevamente, estamos invirtiendo los fondos federales que tenemos de forma estratégica

poniendo los mejores intereses de Puerto Rico por encima de todo. Esto es un gran proyecto que va a beneficiar a nuestro pueblo. Yo siempre voy a apostar al potencial de nuestra agricultura, incluyendo el sector de la leche en Puerto Rico y estoy comprometido a trabajar para que este crezca, progrese y cuente con un lugar importante en nuestra economía”, añadió el gobernador.

De los 11.8 millones de dólares, el préstamo otorgado a INDULAC bajo el IPG será de 4.7 millones de dólares y ayudará para que la empresa renueve y modernice la planta procesadora de leche mejorando su capacidad de procesar y proveer productos lácteos producidos localmente. Además, se viabilizará la compra e instalación de equipo incluyendo una máquina Tetra, paletizadora, separadora, pasteurizadora y línea de vapor.

Por su parte, el secretario de Vivienda aseguró que la industria lechera “es una de las propulsoras claves de la economía local por lo que cada centavo en su expansión se traducirá en rendimiento sostenido para el pueblo con la capacidad de crear nuevos espacios de trabajo. Los fondos de recuperación están para atender diversas necesidades, y hoy estamos invirtiendo en la expansión de la economía de nuestra Isla”.

Los nuevos equipos tendrán la capacidad de procesar otros productos con mayor viscosidad limitando la dependencia de las exportaciones mientras aumenta

la producción local. Además, esta nueva tecnología reducirá el 30 por ciento de consumo de energía y agua, mientras que reduce un 20 por ciento de desechos y aumentará la calidad del empaque para ofrecer una mayor variedad de tamaños de productos a los consumidores.

True Self Foundation celebra segunda edición de campamento educativo dirigido a jóvenes LGBTQIA+

‘Stonewalling’ review: A young woman’s exchange value

buyers shop for prospective donors with desirable qualities. “Is your nose real,” one client asks a donor, tapping a manicured finger on the young woman’s face. You half-expect the client to check her teeth. Lynn only avoids this degradation because after the agency checks her out, the broker tells her that she’s pregnant.

The eerie banality of this scene, with its insistent calm and lack of histrionics, is a great, destabilizing shock, and it’s characteristic of a movie that understands it doesn’t need to embellish the obvious (and expects that you don’t need explanations). Here and throughout the movie, the filmmakers keep Lynn at both a visual and emotional distance, placing her in wide shots and keeping a lid on the character’s expressions. This gives you space to think, not just react, and to discover her at your own pace, to come to her, as it were. It also means that you can observe the larger world that surrounds her, with its people, tumult and loneliness.

By MANOHLA DARGIS

Few movies capture the surreal comedy and engulfing horror of the money-driven world as piercingly as “Stonewalling.” A cool, quietly brilliant heartbreaker, it tracks a 20-year-old Chinese woman facing a series of seemingly impossible hurdles. She’s trying to learn English, struggling to make money and straining to please her boyfriend, who treats her like a rehab job with him playing the role of the project manager. It’s 2019 when the story opens, and she’s just trying to get by; it’s early 2020 when it ends, and everyone is

wearing masks.

Lynn (Yao Honggui) and her boyfriend, Zhang (Liu Long), are shacked up in a hotel in the city of Changsha in Hunan province. The two seem fairly settled in their relationship or at least committed; happy would be a stretch. They’re learning English at a school where Lynn is a faltering beginner, and she’s also studying to become a flight attendant. There’s talk that they might live abroad, but right now they’re making ends meet as gig workers. He DJs and models clothes for a suit company, posing in videos that are posted online; she models for a jewelry store, standing outside it with a smile and in a princess get-up, tiara and all.

Lynn’s life takes a stark turn after she follows a tip from one of the store’s workers about another job, a seemingly friendly gesture that sends her down a twisting, progressively strange path. The filmmakers Huang Ji (who’s from China) and Otsuka Ryuji (Japan) — a wife-and-husband team who live in Japan — fluidly roll out the story piecemeal with scenes of everyday life and using realistic dialogue to fill in the blanks. But they also hold information back. You’re usually alongside Lynn and know what she knows, what’s happening and why, though sometimes you’re ahead of her; on occasion you’re both in the dark.

The jewelry-store worker puts Lynn on to a sketchy agency that arranges human egg donations. “I have quick job,” she tells Lynn, “20,000 yuan a pop” (just under $3,000). Despite understandable concerns about her health, Lynn pursues the job and enters a mercenary world in which wealthy

Much of “Stonewalling” takes place after Lynn leaves her boyfriend, who wants her to have an abortion, and moves into her parents’ home, a cramped, cluttered space upstairs from their small clinic, where her mother works as a gynecologist and her father dispenses traditional medicine. (The two are played with potent naturalism by Huang Ji’s own parents, Huang Xiaoxiong and Xiao Zilong, who have a clinic in real life.) It’s there that Lynn carries the pregnancy to term, though not because she’s ready to be a mother. Rather, after trying and failing at different hustles, and like so many others in this movie — who sell suits and snake oil, human ova and baby formula — she now has something of exchange value.

Children haunt this movie. With her tiny frame and gullibility, and with her retreat back to her parents’ home, Lynn herself scarcely seems like an adult. While her lack of self-awareness can be charming (or at least easy to sentimentalize), it is also worrisome. “Stonewalling” isn’t a thriller — among other things, its pulse is too unhurried — but as the story develops, Lynn’s drift, her failures, naiveté and foolish choices become a source of mounting, then churning tension. Time and again, she seems more childlike than adult, never more so than when the movie cuts from her lying in bed to a room filled with sleeping kindergartners.

“Stonewalling” is a tough-minded movie (it’s the third the filmmakers have made with Yao), but its heaviness never feels punishing because of the filmmakers’ analytic compassion. They don’t force the tears; they open a world that is at once strange and as familiar as your own in which everything has been reduced to its market value. This idea is thrown into bracing relief with a brief, startling shot of an enormous granite sculpture of the young Mao Zedong looking into the distance. The filmmakers don’t linger over the image; they don’t need to. They have already met its gaze with their own and with the open, anguished, indelibly haunting face of a young woman staring into a very different future.

Stonewalling

Not rated. In Mandarin, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 28 minutes. In theaters.

Huang Xiaoxiong, left, and Yao Honggui in “Stonewalling,” which takes place in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province.

The San Juan Daily Star Monday, March 13, 2023 20

36 hours in Miami

dens. Sit at the tables close to the entrance, which overlook the twinkling Miami skyline, a stunning view that you can get here without all the expensive drink minimums and dress codes at the bars across the way.

10 p.m. | Twirl to the salsa

Sway your hips and spin in circles to the live salsa music at Ball & Chain (free entry), a Miami dance club with a storied history nearly 90 years in the making (jazz musicians like Billie Holiday, Count Basie and Chet Baker have performed here). The line outside moves quickly around this time, but the party really picks up at 11 p.m. Inside, there’s a DJ playing modern Latino hits by Bad Bunny and Pitbull as people drink mojitos ($15), confetti is shot from canisters and smoke sinks to the dance floor from machines rigged in the ceiling. A dancer and percussionist use the free-standing bar as their stage while people form a conga line around them.

Saturday

10 a.m. | Eat flaky pastelitos

A signature Cuban breakfast in this area is a decadent one. At Breadman Miami, it means boxes of flaky pastelitos (filled with guava and cheese, or meat); croquettes (or croquetas around here) with a gooey filling of ham, or sweet corn and cheese; toasted Cuban bread; and cafe con leche. The bakery is one of hundreds of examples of a diverse baking culture influenced by Latin America and the Caribbean. Hand-held pastries here start at $1.25 each. The shop’s owner was born and raised in Hialeah, where many Cubans live. If you didn’t try the ropa vieja, a stewed beef dish, at Doce Provisions, try it in an empanada here. It is more of a grab-and-go spot, but there’s some seating inside.

11 a.m. | Shop the arts district

By CHRISTINA MORALES

The pandemic’s onset roused people to flock to Miami and Miami Beach for the sand, low taxes, limited public health restrictions and year-round warm weather. That resettling brought a business boom to the area, which included a flurry of restaurant openings and new public art displays. But some locals attribute rising rents to this new migration, and describe sudden changes to the cultural fabric as a “New Yorkification” of South Florida. This guide is designed to give you the best of the area’s new and old, with a focus on its Latin American and Caribbean cultures. Here you’ll find a salsa club in Little Havana, interactive art in Allapattah, a rooftop bar with striking views, and a remarkable meshing of Cuban and American cuisine that defines how this area eats.

ITINERARY

Friday

3 p.m. | Lie on the sand

South Beach, in Miami Beach, can feel tacky and chaotic. A better place to swim in the warm, turquoise ocean and sunbathe is at Surfside Beach in Surfside. There are miles of bike and running paths along the town’s beaches. Parking is much easier here, too, with lots across the street, including one on 95th Street ($4 an hour). The area is one of the most walkable in Miami-Dade County, attracting a tight-knit, religious

Jewish community, whose members relax on the beach with their families, attend synagogue and walk to nearby kosher restaurants. The residents of this pristine place are still shocked by a deadly apartment building collapse in 2021.

7 p.m. | Taste Latin America

The Little Havana neighborhood of Miami has been the heart of the Cuban exile community since the 1960s. Its demographics have changed, but the area is still the hub for Cuban culture, food and political protests. The Cuban American restaurant Doce Provisions is a testament to those born in Miami who hold on to their Latino roots. Start with the lechon asado buns, roast pork in a soft bao bun ($10.50); then move on to the fresh Florida mahi-mahi with a creamy coconut sauce ($25). Another option a short drive away is El Carajo, a tiny Spanish tapas restaurant named after a crude phrase in the same language. Located in a gas station convenience store, the restaurant has an expansive stock of wines instead of long shelves filled with chips and candy.

8.30 p.m.

| Sip drinks with a view

On the rooftop of a boutique hotel called Life House in Little Havana, bartenders at Terras serve drinks in which tropical fruits are the star, like the sandia fresca with vodka and watermelon, and another drink made with the creamy pink mamey fruit and rum (both $14). Herbs, fruit and spices for the drinks are pulled from the bar’s rooftop and courtyard gar-

Wynwood was once Miami’s garment district, then became home to many of the city’s Puerto Ricans. In the late 1970s, the area was gripped by drugs, violence and poverty. In the early 2000s, galleries opened up in its rundown buildings, revitalizing the area into a walkable contemporary arts district with walls of street art, galleries and dozens of boutiques. Make a stop at Wynwood Kollective, a co-op boutique that sells products from artists and designers in South Florida. If you’re looking for a more relaxing shopping experience, try the Upper Buena Vista mall, a green, bohemian oasis less than 2 miles northeast of Wynwood. Look for Clara 8A, a store that sells colorful outfits made by Clara Ochoa, a Colombian artist.

Continues on page 22

The San Juan Daily Star Monday, March 13, 2023 21

The strand of Art Deco hotels in Miami Beach on Feb. 12, 2023. The pandemic’s onset roused people to flock to Miami and Miami Beach for the sand, low taxes, limited public health restrictions and year-round warm weather.

An ample supplies of chairs and umbrellas on the beach in Bal Harbour, Fla., adjacent to the town of Surfside, on Feb. 10, 2023.

From page 21

2

p.m.

| Get playful with art

The Rubell Museum ($15 admission), which moved to the Allapattah neighborhood of Miami from Wynwood in 2019, houses the Rubell family’s private collection of contemporary art. The collection of 7,400 works includes household names including Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Yayoi Kusama (entry to Kusama’s installations is an extra $10). The museum’s fine-dining Basque restaurant, Leku, is worth a stop. Across the street in a gray warehouse is Superblue Miami ($39 admission), an immersive art experience that opened in 2021. One interactive exhibit called “Pulse Topology,” by MexicanCanadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, projects your heartbeat through a stream of light from 3,000 light bulbs. An additional $12 offers access to “Massless Clouds Between Sculpture and Life,” a sculpture work where people walk through and play with clouds made from soap bubbles.

7 p.m.

| Pick a Caribbean cuisine

After 38 years in Wynwood, the original Jamaican restaurant Clive’s Cafe closed in 2013 when the area was redeveloped. Later that year, Clive’s reopened about 2 miles away in Little Haiti. The no-frills restaurant is known for dishes like curry goat ($12.50), jerk chicken ($11.99) and oxtail ($25). For a different take on the Caribbean, chef Niven Patel runs Mamey Miami, a restaurant in Coral Gables inspired by his travels throughout Asia, Polynesia and the Caribbean, as well as his Indian background. From the Key West shrimp tacos, which have shells made with malanga, a Caribbean root vegetable ($16); to the Jamaican short rib empanadas ($14); to a ceviche made with the creamiest coconut leche de tigre ($18), these are some of the most flavorful bites in Miami.

9 p.m. | Wind down with books

Since 1982, Books & Books has filled a gap in South Florida for an independent bookstore, eventually opening up locations throughout the county. In its flagship location in Coral Gables, in a 1927 building on the city’s list of historic places,

you can grab a glass of wine on the patio or sit in the cafe with a dirty chai ($5) and a pile of books until 11 p.m. There are abundant titles here reflective of the regional culture with a large selection in Spanish, as well as books by local authors, on Florida history and immigrant communities, and cookbooks that represent the area’s wide range of cuisines.

Sunday

11 a.m. | Have a final Cuban bite

From a tiny space in Little Havana, Sanguich makes the city’s best Cuban sandwiches, for which practically each ingredient, including the roasted pork, brined ham, pickles, bread and mustard, is made in-house. The restaurant, which has limited indoor seating, serves the tastiest versions of the classics like the Cubano ($12.49), the pan con lechon with glistening shredded pork ($10.99) and the media noche, similar to a Cubano but on a sweet bread ($10.29). You can even order off the “secret menu”: Ask for the sweet and salty Elena Ruz sandwich (named after the Cuban socialite who invented it), made with sweet media noche bread, guava marmalade, cream cheese, turkey and bacon ($11.50).

Noon | See alligators at home

Can you really see Miami and the Everglades National Park all in one weekend? From Little Havana, it takes only 35 to 45 minutes at this time of day to reach the edge of the Florida swamp, where you can hop on a short boat tour and see alligators at home in the 1.5-million-acre wetlands, which are shrinking and facing an existential crisis. Coopertown: the Original Airboat Tour has been taking visitors out on the water for more than 60 years. During the 40-minute tour ($25.95), the guide will make occasional stops to talk about the park, warn people not to touch the sawgrass (you can get a gnarly cut), or point out alligators and great blue herons by the water. Bring a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen.

KEY STOPS

Ball & Chain is a lively salsa club in Miami dating from the 1930s with bands and D.J.s.

The Rubell Museum in Miami showcases an extensive

collection of contemporary art, featuring the works of artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Yayoi Kusama and Nick Cave.

Surfside Beach, in Surfside, is north of all the fuss in Miami Beach, with quiet paths along the shoreline for running and biking.

Coopertown: the Original Airboat Tour offers thrilling and educational rides through Everglades National Park.

WHERE TO EAT

Breadman Miami serves flaky Cuban pastries made with classic fillings like guava and cream cheese, alongside more unexpected takes like pizza or Nutella.

Sanguich specializes in Cuban sandwiches and makes nearly every ingredient in-house.

Mamey Miami is a restaurant in Coral Gables with food influenced by the chef’s travels in Asia, Polynesia and the Caribbean.

Clive’s Cafe in Little Haiti serves Jamaican food like curry goat and jerk chicken.

Doce Provisions is a Cuban American restaurant with distinctive dishes in Little Havana.

WHERE TO STAY

If the beach is your top priority, the Grand Beach Hotel in Surfside has direct access. Several pools and hot tubs also have views of the Atlantic Ocean. Doubles start at around $400 a night.

The THesis Hotel Miami in Coral Gables offers some distance from the crowds in South Beach and downtown without being too far away. The hotel has a rooftop pool and an idyllic terrace. Doubles start at about $260.

The Freehand Miami Hotel in Miami Beach is less than a mile from the South Beach nightlife. The hotel’s private quad rooms, with four bunk beds, start at around $170 per room. Doubles start from $140.

If you’re looking for a short-term rental, consider Miami’s oldest neighborhood, Coconut Grove. Nearby attractions include the Matheson Hammock Park, where you can take in a sunset; the lush, 83-acre Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden; and the extravagant Vizcaya mansion and its gardens.

A salsa band performs at Ball & Chain, a Miami dance club with a storied history, on Feb. 10, 2023.

An airboat tour of Everglades National Park in Florida on Feb. 11, 2023. The 1.5-million-acre wetlands are shrinking and facing an existential crisis.

Could the next blockbuster drug be lab-rat free?

By EMILY ANTHES

In 1937, a U.S. drug company introduced a new elixir to treat strep throat — and unwittingly set off a public health disaster. The product, which had not been tested in humans or animals, contained a solvent that turned out to be toxic. More than 100 people died.

The following year, Congress passed the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Safety Act, requiring pharmaceutical companies to submit safety data to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before selling new medications, helping to usher in an era of animal toxicity testing.

Now, a new chapter in drug development may be beginning. The FDA Modernization Act 2.0, signed into law late last year, allows drugmakers to collect initial safety and efficacy data using high-tech new tools, such as bioengineered organs, organs on chips and even computer models, instead of live animals. Congress also allocated $5 million to the FDA to accelerate the development of alternatives to animal testing.

Other agencies and countries are making similar shifts. In 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would reduce, and eventually aim to eliminate, testing on mammals. In 2021, the European Parliament called for a plan to phase out animal testing.

These moves have been driven by a confluence of factors, including evolving views of animals and a desire to make drug development cheaper and faster, experts said. But what is finally making them feasible is the development of sophisticated alternatives to animal testing.

It is still early for these technologies, many of which need to be refined, standardized and validated before they can be used routinely in drug development. And even advocates for these alternatives acknowledge that animal testing is not likely to disappear anytime soon.

But momentum is building for non-animal approaches, which could ultimately help speed drug development, improve patient outcomes and reduce the burdens borne by lab animals, experts said.

“Animals are simply a surrogate for predicting what’s going to happen in a human,” said Nicole Kleinstreuer, director of the National Toxicology Program Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods.

“If we can get to a place where we actually have a fully human-relevant model,” she added, “then we don’t need the black box of animals anymore.”

Animal attitudes

Animal rights groups have been lobbying for a reduction in animal testing for decades, and they have found an increasingly receptive public. In a 2022 Gallup poll, 43% of Americans said that medical testing on animals was “morally wrong,” up from 26% in 2001.

Reducing animal testing “matters to so many people for so many different reasons,” said Elizabeth Baker, the director of research policy at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit group that advocates for alternatives to animal

testing. “Animal ethics is actually quite a big driver.”

But it is not the only one. Animal testing is also time-consuming, expensive and vulnerable to shortages. Drug development, in particular, is rife with failures, and many medications that appear promising in animals do not pan out in humans. “We’re not 70-kilogram rats,” said Dr. Thomas Hartung, who directs the Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing.

Moreover, some cutting-edge new treatments are based on biological products, such as antibodies or fragments of DNA, which may have targets that are specific to humans.

“There’s a lot of pressure, not just for ethical reasons, but also for these economical reasons and for really closing safety gaps, to adapt to things which are more modern and human relevant,” Hartung said.

(Hartung is the named inventor on a Johns Hopkins University patent on the production of brain organoids. He receives royalty shares from, and consults for, the company that has licensed the technology.)

Brave new biology

In recent years, scientists have developed more sophisticated ways to replicate human physiology in the laboratory.

They have learned how to coax human stem cells to assemble themselves into a small, three-dimensional clump, known as an organoid, that displays some of the same basic traits as a specific human organ, such as a brain, a lung or a kidney.

Scientists can use these mini-organs to study the underpinnings of disease or to test treatments, even on individual patients. In a 2016 study, researchers made mini-guts from cell samples from patients with cystic fibrosis and then used the organoids to predict which patients would respond to new drugs.

Scientists are also using 3D printers to produce organoids at scale and to print strips of other kinds of human tissue, such as skin.

Another approach relies on “organs on a chip.” These devices, which are roughly the size of AA batteries, contain tiny channels that can be lined with different kinds of human cells.

Researchers can pump drugs through the channels to simulate how they might travel through a particular part of the body. Compound computations

Not all the new tools require real cells. There are also computational models that can predict whether a compound with certain chemical characteristics is likely to be toxic, how much of it will reach different organs and how quickly it will be metabolized.

The models can be adjusted to represent different types of patients. For instance, a drug developer could test whether a medication that works in young adults would be safe and effective in older adults, who often have reduced kidney function.

“If you can identify the problems as early as possible using a computational model that saves you going down the wrong route with these chemicals,” said Judith Madden, an expert on “in silico,” or computer-based, chemical testing at Liverpool John Moores University. (Madden is also the editor-in-chief of the journal Alternatives to Laboratory Animals.)

Some of the approaches have been around for years, but advances in computing technology and artificial intelligence are making them increasingly powerful and sophisticated, Madden said.

Virtual cells have also shown promise. For instance, researchers can model individual human heart cells using “a set of equations that describe everything that’s going on in the cell,” said Elisa Passini, the program manager for drug development at the National Center for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research, or NC3Rs, in Britain.

Reduce or replace

Many potential animal alternatives will require more investment and development before they can be used widely, experts said. They also have limitations of their own. Computer models, for instance, are only as good as the data they are built on, and more data is available on certain types of compounds, cells and outcomes than others.

For now, these alternative methods are better at predicting relatively simple, short-term outcomes, such as acute toxicity, than complicated, long-term ones, such as whether a chemical might increase the risk of cancer when used over months or years, scientists said.

And experts disagreed on the extent to which these alternative approaches might replace animal models. “We’re absolutely working toward a future where we want to be able to fully replace them,” Kleinstreuer said, although she acknowledged that it might take decades, “if not centuries.”

But others said that these technologies should be viewed as a supplement to, rather than a replacement for, animal testing. Drugs that prove promising in organoids or computer models should still be tested in animals, said Matthew Bailey, president of the National Association for Biomedical Research, a nonprofit group that advocates for the responsible use of animals in research.

“Researchers still need to be able to see everything that happens in a complex mammalian organism before being allowed to move to the human clinical trials,” he said.

A chimpanzee who had spent most of his life in biomedical research is prepared to retire to a chimpanzee sanctuary in northern Georgia, May 17, 2017. Alternatives to animal testing are gaining momentum.

The San Juan Daily Star Monday,

LEGAL NOTICE

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO MTGLQ INVESTORS LP

Plaintiff V. EDRIC ENRIQUE VIVONI RIVERA; ET AL Defendants

Civil Action Num.: 19-CV01599. (JAG). Matter: COLLECTION OF MONIES AND FORECLOSURE. NOTICE OF SALE.

To: EDRIC ENRIQUE VIVONI RIVERA and the GENERAL PUBLIC:

WHEREAS: On March 2, 2022

Default Judgment was entered and grated on same day in favor of Plaintiff to recover from defendants the principal amount of $77,007.64 plus interest at a rate of 3.375% per annum since January 1st, 2018, which continue to accrue until the debt is paid in full; a deferred principal balance of $55,200.67, which does not accrue interest; late charges on the amount of 5.00% of each and any monthly installment not received by the note holder within 15 days after the installment was due, all advances made under the mortgage note including but not limited to insurance premiums, taxes and inspections as well as 10% of the original principal amount $26,200.00 to cover, costs, expenses, and attorney’s fees guaranteed under the mortgage obligations. The records of the case and of these proceedings may be examined by interested parties at the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Room 150 Federal Office Building, 150 Chardon Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.

WHEREAS: Pursuant to the terms of the aforementioned Judgment, Order of Execution, and the Writ of Execution thereof, the undersigned Special Master was ordered to sell at public auction for U.S. currency in cash or certified check without appraisement or right of redemption to the highest bidder and at the office of the Clerk of the Court, Room 150 – Federal Office Building, 150 Carlos Chardón Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, to cover the sums adjudged to be paid to the plaintiff, the following property described in Spanish: RUSTICA: Parcela de terreno en el Barrio Caimito Alto del término municipal de San Juan, Puerto Rico, con un área superficial de cinco mil ciento cuarenta y dos metros cuadrados con tres mil trescientos setenta y una diez milésimas de otro (5,142.3371 m.c.), equivalentes a una cuerda con tres mil ochenta

y cuatro diez milésimas de cuerda (1.2084 cdas) (así surge) identificada en el Plano de Inscripción con el número dos (2). En lindes por el NORTE, en tres alineaciones que suman ochenta y cuatro metros lineales con mil quinientos siete diez milésimas de otro (84.1507 ml) con la faja de uso público del Plano de Inscripción; por el SUR, en seis (6) alineaciones que suman treinta y cinco metros lineales con cuatro mil cuatro setecientos treinta y cuatro diez milésimas de otro (34.4734 ml) con el solar número uno (1) del Plano de Inscripción; por el ESTE, en cuatro (4) alineaciones que suman ochenta y siete metros lineales con cuatrocientos treinta y una diez milésimas de otro (87.0431 ml) con la faja de uso público del Plano de Inscripción; por el OESTE, en cuatro (4) alineaciones que suman ochenta y siete metros lineales con tres mil setecientos quince (87.3715 ml) con terrenos de Tomas Guzmán. Contiene una estructura para fines residenciales. The property is recorded at Page 189 of Volume 807 of Rio Piedras Sur, Property Registry of Puerto Rico, and lot number 22,359, Section IV of San Juan. Property address: PR 1 KM 27.4, Caimito Alto Ward, San Juan, P.R. 00926. The deed of mortgage is recorded at Page number 190 of Volume number 807 of Rio Piedras Sur, lot number 22,359, 4th inscription in the Property Registry of San Juan, Fourth Section. The deed of modification # 27 is recorded at Page 490 of volume 807 of Rio Piedras Sur, 6th inscription. WHEREAS: This property is subject to the following liens: Senior Liens: NONE. Junior Liens: NONE. Other Liens: NONE. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior and preferential liens to the one being foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax, liens, (express, tacit, implied or legal) shall continue in effect it being understood further that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. THEREFORE, the FIRST PUBLIC SALE shall be held on the 4TH DAY OF APRIL OF 2023, AT: 9:00 AM. The minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $262,000.00. In the event said first auction does not produce a bidder and the property is not adju-

dicated, a SECOND PUBLIC AUCTION shall be held on the 11TH DAY OF APRIL OF 2023, AT: 9:00 AM, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum $174,666.67, which is two-thirds of the amount of the minimum bid for the first public sale. If a second auction does not result in the adjudication and sale of the property, a THIRD PUBLIC AUCTION will be held on the 18TH DAY OF APRIL OF 2023, AT: 9:00 AM, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $131,000.00, which is one-half of the minimum bid in the first public sale. Should there be no award or adjudication at the third public sale, the property may be awarded to the creditor for the entire amount of its debt if it is equal to or less than the amount of the minimum bid of the third public sale, crediting this amount to the amount owed if it is greater. The undersigned Special Master shall not accept in payment of the property to be sold anything but United States currency (cash), or certified checks, except in case the property is sold and adjudicated to the plaintiff, in which case the amount of the bid made by said plaintiff shall be credited and deducted from its credit; said plaintiff being bound to pay in cash or certified check only any excess of its bid over the secured indebtedness that remains unsatisfied. WHEREAS: Said sale to be made by the undersigned Special Master subject to confirmation by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico and the deed of conveyance and possession to the property will be executed and delivered only after such confirmation. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued cancelling all junior liens. For further particulars, reference is made to the judgment entered by the Court in this case, which can be examined in the Office of Clerk of the United States District Court, District of Puerto Rico. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 10th day of February of 2023. PEDRO A. VÉLEZ BAERGA, SPECIAL MASTER, 787-672-8269.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYA-

MÓN REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC.

Demandante Vs. RAMONITA SOLLA

SERRANO T/C/C

RAMONITA SOLLA

SERRAN T/C/C

RAMONITA SOLLASERRANO T/C/C

RAMONITA SOLLA; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA

Demandados

Civil Núm.: BY2021CV01094.

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 18 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 10:45 DE LA MAÑANA, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar radicado en la Urbanización Sierra Bayamón, situada en el Barrio Hato Tejas de Bayamón, Puerto Rico, que se describe como sigue: Solar numero veinticinco (25) de la Manzana sesenta y tres (63), con un área de ciento setenta y cinco punto cero cero (175.00 m/c) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con la calle cincuenta y cuatro (54), distancia de siete punto cero cero (7.00) metros; por el SUR, con el solar numero treinta y tres (33), distancia de siete punto cero cero (7.00) metros; por el ESTE, con el solar numero veintiséis (26) distancia de veinticinco punto cero cero (25.00) metros; y por el OESTE, con el solar numero veinticuatro (24), distancia de veinticinco punto cero cero (25.00) metros. Enclava una casa. Finca número 3,001 inscrita al folio 1 del tomo 65 de Bayamón Norte, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección III. La Hipoteca Revertida consta inscrita al Tomo Karibe

de Bayamón Norte, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección III, inscripción 8ª. Propiedad localizada en: URB. SIERRA BAYAMON, 63-25 CALLE 54, BAYAMON, PR 00961. 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: $129,000.00.

Fecha de Vencimiento: 1 de mayo de 2092. 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 $129,000.00, 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 Bayamón, Cuarto Piso, Oficina de Alguaciles de Subastas, el 25 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 10:45 DE LA MAÑANA, y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $86,000.00, 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 $64,500.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, Cuarto Piso, Oficina de Alguaciles de Subastas, el 2 de mayo de 2023, a las 10:45 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 $48,602.21 por concepto de principal, más la suma de $10,520.62 en intereses acumulados al 30 de junio de 2021 y los cuales continúan acumulándose a

razón de 4.475% anual hasta su total y completo pago; más la sumas de $5,036.87 en seguro hipotecario; $334.00 en seguro; $1,360.00 de tasaciones; $520.00 de inspecciones; $5,820.30 en honorarios de abogado; más la cantidad de 10% del pagare original en la suma de $12,900.00, 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 17 de febrero de 2023. FRÁNCES TORRES CONTRERAS, ALGUACIL REGIONAL. MARIBEL LANZAR VELÁZQUEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #735.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

REVERSE MORTGAGE

FUNDING LLC.

Demandante Vs.

SUCESION BALBINO

ANTONIO COLON

MARTINEZ T/C/C

BALBINO A. COLON

MARTINEZ T/C/C

BALBINO COLON

MARTINEZ COMPUESTA

POR NESTOR COLON

MORALES, IVAN COLON

MORALES, RUBEN

COLON MORALES; JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO

The San Juan Daily Star

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; SUCESION FELIPA

NERI MORALES PAGAN

T/C/C NERY MORALES

PAGAN T/C/C NERY MORALES DE COLON

T/C/C NERY MORALES

COLON COMPUESTA

POR NESTOR COLON MORALES, IVAN COLON MORALES, RUBEN

COLON MORALES; JOHN ROE Y JANE ROE COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

Demandados

Civil Núm.: SJ2019CV08341.

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

A: LA PARTE

DEMANDADA, AL (A

LA) SECRETARIO(A) DE HACIENDA DE PUERTO RICO Y AL PÚBLICO

GENERAL:

Certifico y Hago Constar: Que en cumplimiento con el Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por el (la) Secretario(a) del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América y/o Giro Postal y Cheque Certificado, en mi oficina ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, el 4 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar marcado con el numero dieciséis (16) del Bloque “H” en el plano de inscripción de la Urbanización University Gardens, en el Barrio Hato Rey Sur, del término municipal de San Juan, Puerto Rico, con un área superficial de cuatrocientos sesenta y siete punto cincuenta y dos (467.52 m.c.) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el Norte, en veintidós punto quinientos (22.500 m.) metros, con el solar número diecisiete (17) del bloque “H”; por el Sur, en veintidós

punto quinientos (22.500 m.) metros, con el solar número quince del bloque “H”; por el Este, en veinte punto cero cero (20.00 m.) metros, con la calle número ocho (8) hoy denominada Harvard; y por el Oeste, en veintiuno punto quinientos cincuenta y tres (21.553 m.) metros, con los solares numero dos (2) y tres (3) del bloque “H”. Enclava una casa. Inscrita al folio 154 del tomo 859 de Rio Piedras Norte, finca 19,100, Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección II. La Hipoteca Revertida consta inscrita al folio 127 del tomo 1571 de Rio Piedras Norte, finca 19,100, Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección II, inscripción 14ª. Propiedad localizada en: URB. UNIVERSITY GARDENS, 903 CALLE HARVARD, SAN JUAN, PR 00927. 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: $459,000.00. Fecha de Vencimiento: 26 de mayo de 2076. 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 $306,000.00, 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 San Juan, el 12 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de 204,000.00, 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 $153,000.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubi-

Monday, March 13, 2023 24

mínimo serán dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo pactado en la escritura de hipoteca, la suma de $51,400.00. 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 2 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 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 $38,550.00. 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. El Honorable Tribunal dictó Sentencia In Rem, declarando Con Lugar la demanda al incumplir la parte demandada con los términos del contrato hipotecario y ordenando la venta en pública subasta del inmueble antes descrito. A tenor con la Regla 51.3

(b) de Procedimiento Civil y el Artículo 99 de la Ley 210-2015, conocida como “Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmobiliaria del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico”, el tribunal ordenó que el Alguacil de este Tribunal luego de haberse efectuado la correspondiente publicación de edictos en un periódico de circulación general, proceda a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor la propiedad descrita en las Determinaciones de Hechos de la Sentencia y que del producto de dicha venta, proceda a pagar en primer término los gastos del Alguacil, en segundo término las costas y honorarios de abogados según concedidos en esta sentencia, en tercer término los intereses acumulados por esta sentencia, en cuarto término los recargos acumulados, en quinto cualquier suma antes indicada como sobregiro en la cuenta de reserva y en sexto término hasta la suma de $71,036.73, para cubrir el principal pendiente de pago más los intereses acumulados hasta el día de la Venta Judicial, disponiéndose que si quedare algún remanente luego de pagarse las sumas antes mencionadas el mismo deberá ser depositado en la Secretaría del Tribunal para ser entregado a los demandados previa solicitud y orden del Tribunal. Se dispone que una vez celebrada la subasta y vendido el inmueble relacionado, el alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial a los nuevos dueños dentro del término de veinte (20) días a partir de la celebración de la Subasta. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá or-

denar, 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 7 de marzo de 2023.

PEDRO HIEYE GONZÁLEZ, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN. EDWIN E. LÓPEZ MULERO, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V.

SUCESIÓN DE JOSÉ MIGUEL ANDINO SANTANA, COMPUESTA

POR: ANCELIS ANDINO

CRESPO; JOSE M. ANDI1O RIVERA; CHRISTIAN EFRAIN ANDINO RIVERA; FULANO Y MENGANO

TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS

DE LA SUCESIOÑ;

DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA DE PUERTO RICO

Demandado(a)

Civil: MT2021CV00715. Sobre: INTERPELACION; COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE GARANTIAS. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: SUCESIÓN DE JOSÉ MIGUEL ANIINO

SANTANA, COMPUESTA

POR: ANACELIS ANDINO CRESPO; JOSE M. ANDINO RIVERA; CHRISTIAN EF’RAIN ANDINO RIVERA; FULANO Y MENGANO

TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION

(Nombre de Ias partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que 7 de marzo de 2023 este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando used una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 9 de marzo de 2023.

En VEGA BAJA, Puerto Rico, el 9 de marzo de 2023. LCDA

LAURA I. SANTA SANCH, Secretaria. MARITZA ROSARIO ROSARIO, Secretario(a) Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

WILMINGTON SAVINGS

FUND SOCIETY, FSB, NOT INDIVIDUALLY BUT SOLELY AS TRUSTEE FOR FINANCE OF

AMERICA STRUCTURES SECURITIES ACQUISITION TRUST

2018-HB1

Parte Demandante VS. SUCN. DE ZORAIDA SOTO VÁZQUEZ

T/C/C ZORAIDA SOTO COMPUESTA POR GILBERTO APONTE, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL; SUCESIÓN DE GILBERTO APONTE COMPUESTA POR FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES MUNICIPALES; Y LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA

Parte Demandada

CIVIL NÚM: SJ2021CV06746 (604). SOBRE: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA IN REM. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: SUCN. DE ZORAIDA SOTO VÁZQUEZ

T/C/C ZORAIDA SOTO COMPUESTA POR GILBERTO APONTE, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL; SUCESIÓN DE GILBERTO APONTE COMPUESTA POR FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL

LA SECRETARIA que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 6 de marzo de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 60 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 9 de marzo de 2023. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 9 de marzo de 2023. Griselda Rodríguez Collado, Secretaria Regional. f/Elsa Magaly Candelario Cabrera, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal I.

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE SAN LORENZO. WILMINGTON SAVINGS

FUND SOCIETY, FSB, not individually but solely as trustee for FINANCE OF AMERICA STRUCTURED SECURITIES

ACQUISITION TRUST

2019-HB1

DEMANDANTE VS. Regina Claudio Vázquez t/c/c Regina ClaudioVázquez; y los Estados Unidos de América

DEMANDADOS

CIVIL NÚM.: SL2022CV00116.

SOBRE: Ejecución de Hipoteca In Rem. EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

Al: Público en General

A: REGINA CLAUDIO

VÁZQUEZ T/C/C REGINA CLAUDIO-VÁZQUEZ; Y LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA

Yo, Angel Gomez Gomez, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Lorenzo, a los demandados, acreedores y al público en general con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, por la presente CERTIFICO, ANUNCIO y HAGO CONSTAR: Que el día 12 de abril de 2023, a las 9:00 de la mañana en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas, Caguas, Puerto Rico, procederé a vender en Pública Subasta, al mejor postor, la propiedad inmueble que más adelante se describe y cuya venta en pública subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria mediante Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe, la cual se notificó y archivó en autos el día 23 de agosto de 2022. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta a celebrarse, se celebrará una segunda subasta para la venta de la susodicha propiedad, el 19 de abril de 2023, a las 9:00 de la mañana; y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una tercera subasta el día 26 de abril de 2023, a las 9:00 de la mañana en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. Que en cumplimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que ha sido liberado por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Lorenzo, en el caso de epígrafe con fecha de 20 de enero de 2023, procederé a vender en pública subasta y al mejor postor, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble que se describe a

continuación: RÚSTICA: Parcela marcada con el número 323 en el Plano de Parcelación de la Comunidad Rural Florida del Barrio Florida de San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 371.27 metros cuadrados; en lindes por el NORTE, con la parcela número 322 de la Comunidad; por el SUR, con la parcela número 324 de la Comunidad; por el ESTE, con área remanente; y por el OESTE, con calle de la Comunidad. Finca número 14,235, inscrita al folio 283 del tomo 281 de San Lorenzo. Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección II de Caguas. Dirección de la Propiedad: Lot 323 11St. Florida Ward, San Lorenzo PR 00754. La subasta se llevará a cabo para satisfacer, hasta donde alcance, el importe de las cantidades adeudadas a la parte demandante conforme a la sentencia dictada a su favor, a saber: de $$48,793.00 de principal, intereses al 2.684% anual, los cuales continúan acumulándose, así como la cantidad líquida estipulada en los documentos del préstamo para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado en caso de reclamación judicial y que correspondan a intereses y cargos por demora posterior a dicha fecha, y la suma equivalente al 10% de la suma principal original pactada, estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado; más recargos acumulados hasta la fecha en que se pague la deuda; más cualquiera suma de dinero por concepto de contribuciones, primas de seguro hipotecario y riesgo, así como cualesquiera otras sumas pactadas en la escritura de hipoteca, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura número 195 otorgada el día 30 de agosto de 2013, Caguas, Puerto Rico, ante el Notario Público Fernando Rabell Echegaray y consta inscrita al folio 161 del tomo 4111 de San Lorenzo, finca número 14,235, Registro de la Propiedad de San Lorenzo, Sección II de Caguas. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargos o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca del actor y a los dueños, poseedores, tenedores de o interesados en títulos transmisibles por endoso o al portador garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito del actor que se celebrarán las subastas en las fechas, horas y sitios señalados para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les conviniere o se les invita a satisfacer antes del

remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, otros cargos y las costas y honorarios de abogado asegurados quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Entiéndase: Hipoteca Revertida en garantía de un pagaré a favor del Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $120,000.00, con intereses al 2.684% anual, vencedero el 7 de septiembre de 2097, constituida mediante la escritura número 196, otorgada en Caguas, Puerto Rico, el día 30 de agosto de 2013, ante el notario Fernando Rabell Echegaray, e inscrita al folio 162 del tomo 411 de San Lorenzo, finca número 14,235, inscripción 10ma., y última Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta del inmueble antes descrito será la suma de $120,000.00 según se establece en la escritura de hipoteca antes relacionada. En caso de que el inmueble a ser subastado no fuera adjudicado en su primera subasta se ordena la celebración de una segunda subasta de dicho inmueble, en la cual, la cantidad mínima será una equivalente a 2/3 parte de aquella, o sea la suma de $80,000.00; desierta también la segunda subasta de dicho inmueble, se ordena la celebración de una tercera subasta en la cual, la cantidad mínima será la mitad del precio pactado para la primera subasta, es decir la suma de $60,000.00. La propiedad se adjudicará al mejor postor, quien deberá satisfacer el importe de su oferta en moneda legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América en el momento de la adjudicación, entiéndase efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, y que las cargas y gravámenes preferentes, si los hubiese, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad no está sujeta a gravámenes anteriores y/o preferentes según surge de las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad en un estudio de título efectuado a la finca antes descrita. Una vez efectuada la venta de dicha propiedad, el Alguacil procederá a otorgar la escritura de traspaso al licitador victorioso en subasta, quien podrá ser la parte demandante, cuya oferta podrá aplicarse a la extinción parcial o total de la obligación reconocida por la sentencia dictada en este caso. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Si el producto de la venta fuere insuficiente

para satisfacer la cantidad reclamada, se procederá a la ejecución de la sentencia en contra de la parte demandada por el remanente de las sumas no satisfechas, mediante embargo y venta en ejecución de cualesquiera otros bienes propiedad de la parte demandada en cantidad suficiente para dejar cubierta y totalmente satisfecha a la parte demandante cualquier deficiencia o parte insoluta de la sentencia dictada a su favor según dispuesto en la sentencia dictada en este caso. Se dispone, conforme con la sentencia dictada en este caso que, una vez efectuada la subasta y vendido el bien inmueble, los adjudicatarios sean puestos en posesión del mismo dentro del término de veinte (20) días por el Alguacil de este Honorable Tribunal y los actuales poseedores lanzados del referido inmueble. Y para la concurrencia de licitadores y para el público en general, se publicará este Edicto de acuerdo con la ley, mediante edicto, en un periódico de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, una vez por semana, por espacio de dos (2) semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, y para su fijación en tres (3) lugares públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía, y se le notificará además a la parte demandada vía correo certificado con acuse de recibo a la última dirección conocida. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto de Subasta para conocimiento y comparecencia de los licitadores, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico, a 28 de febrero de 2023. Angel Gomez Gomez, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE CAGUAS.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

Finance of America

Reverse, LLC,

DEMANDANTE VS. Sucesión de Iván Lozada Rivera t/c/c Iván Lozada compuesta por Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal, como posibles herederos de nombres desconocidos; Centro de Recaudaciones de Impuestos Municipales; y los Estados Unidos de América

DEMANDADOS

CIVIL NÚM.: CG2022CV01577.

SOBRE: Ejecución de Hipoteca

DE SUBASTA.

Al: Público en General A: SUCESIÓN DE IVÁN LOZADA RIVERA

T/C/C IVÁN LOZADA COMPUESTA POR FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL,

COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES DE IMPUESTOS MUNICIPALES; Y LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA

Yo, Angel Gomez Gomez, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, a los demandados, acreedores y al público en general con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, por la presente

CERTIFICO, ANUNCIO y

HAGO CONSTAR: Que el día 12 de abril de 2023, a las 10:15 am en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas, Caguas, Puerto Rico, procederé a vender en Pública Subasta, al mejor postor, la propiedad inmueble que más adelante se describe y cuya venta en pública subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria mediante Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe, la cual se notificó y archivó en autos el día 23 de enero de 2023. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta a celebrarse, se celebrará una segunda subasta para la venta de la susodicha propiedad, el día 19 de abril de 2023, a las 10:15 am; y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una tercera subasta el día 26 de abril de 2023, a las 10:15 am en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. Que en cumplimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que ha sido liberado por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas, en el caso de epígrafe con fecha de 7 de marzo de 2023, procederé a vender en pública subasta y al mejor postor, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble que se describe a continuación: RÚSTICA: Predio de terreno con una cabida superficial de 700.00 metros cuadrados, identificado en el plano de Lotificación con el número 2 que radica en el Barrio Cañabon de Caguas, Puerto Rico, en lindes por el NORTE, con el lote número 1 del mismo plano; por el SUR, con el lote número 4 del mismo plano; por el ESTE,

con servidumbre de paso; y por el OESTE, con el lote número 3 del mismo plano. Edificación con un valor de $14,000.00, según consta de la escritura número 33, otorgada en Caguas, Puerto Rico, el dia 8 de julio de 1981, ante el notario Hugo Rubén Félix, e inscrita al folio 60 del tomo 1,145 de Caguas, finca número 39,582, inscripción 1ra. Finca número 39,582, inscrita al folio 60 del tomo

1,145 de Caguas. Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección I de Caguas. Dirección de la Propiedad: SR #784 KM

1.2 Canabon Ward Caguas PR 00725. La subasta se llevará a cabo para satisfacer, hasta donde alcance, el importe de las cantidades adeudadas a la parte demandante conforme a la sentencia dictada a su favor, a saber: de $80,040.11, la cual no incluye los intereses acumulados, y los cuales continúan acumulándose, así como la cantidad líquida estipulada en los documentos del préstamo para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado en caso de reclamación judicial y que correspondan a intereses y cargos por demora posterior a dicha fecha, y la suma equivalente al 10% de la suma principal original pactada, estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado; más recargos acumulados hasta la fecha en que se pague la deuda; más cualquiera suma de dinero por concepto de contribuciones, primas de seguro hipotecario y riesgo, así como cualesquiera otras sumas pactadas en la escritura de hipoteca, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura número 665 otorgada el día 31 de octubre de 2013, San Juan, Puerto Rico, ante el Notario Público Lizbeth Aviles Vega y consta inscrita al tomo Karibe de Caguas, finca número 39,582, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección I de Caguas. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargos o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca del actor y a los dueños, poseedores, tenedores de o interesados en títulos transmisibles por endoso o al portador garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito del actor que se celebrarán las subastas en las fechas, horas y sitios señalados para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les conviniere o se les invita a satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, otros cargos y las costas y honorarios de abogado asegurados quedando

subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Entiéndase: Hipoteca en garantía de un pagaré a favor de Secretario de la Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $202,500.00, con intereses al 3.669% anual, vencedero el 12 de mayo de 2098, constituida mediante la escritura número 666, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 31 de octubre de 2013, ante la notario Lizbeth Avilés Vega, e inscrita al tomo Karibe de Caguas, finca número 39,582, inscripción 9na. Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta del inmueble antes descrito será la suma de $202,500.00 según se establece en la escritura de hipoteca antes relacionada. En caso de que el inmueble a ser subastado no fuera adjudicado en su primera subasta se ordena la celebración de una segunda subasta de dicho inmueble, en la cual, la cantidad mínima será una equivalente a 2/3 parte de aquella, o sea la suma de $135,000.00; desierta también la segunda subasta de dicho inmueble, se ordena la celebración de una tercera subasta en la cual, la cantidad mínima será la mitad del precio pactado para la primera subasta, es decir la suma de $101,250.00. La propiedad se adjudicará al mejor postor, quien deberá satisfacer el importe de su oferta en moneda legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América en el momento de la adjudicación, entiéndase efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, y que las cargas y gravámenes preferentes, si los hubiese, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad no está sujeta a gravámenes anteriores y/o preferentes según surge de las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad en un estudio de título efectuado a la finca antes descrita. Una vez efectuada la venta de dicha propiedad, el Alguacil procederá a otorgar la escritura de traspaso al licitador victorioso en subasta, quien podrá ser la parte demandante, cuya oferta podrá aplicarse a la extinción parcial o total de la obligación reconocida por la sentencia dictada en este caso. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Si el producto de la venta fuere insuficiente para satisfacer la cantidad reclamada, se procederá a la ejecución de la sentencia en contra de la parte demandada por el remanente de las sumas no satisfechas, mediante embargo

y venta en ejecución de cualesquiera otros bienes propiedad de la parte demandada en cantidad suficiente para dejar cubierta y totalmente satisfecha a la parte demandante cualquier deficiencia o parte insoluta de la sentencia dictada a su favor según dispuesto en la sentencia dictada en este caso. Se dispone, conforme con la sentencia dictada en este caso que, una vez efectuada la subasta y vendido el bien inmueble, los adjudicatarios sean puestos en posesión del mismo dentro del término de veinte (20) días por el Alguacil de este Honorable Tribunal y los actuales poseedores lanzados del referido inmueble. Y para la concurrencia de licitadores y para el público en general, se publicará este Edicto de acuerdo con la ley, mediante edicto, en un periódico de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, una vez por semana, por espacio de dos (2) semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, y para su fijación en tres (3) lugares públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía, y se le notificará además a la parte demandada vía correo certificado con acuse de recibo a la última dirección conocida. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto de Subasta para conocimiento y comparecencia de los licitadores, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en Caguas, Puerto Rico, a 9 de marzo de 2023. Angel Gomez Gomez, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE CAGUAS.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

LEGACY MORTGAGE

ASSET TRUST 2019-PR1

Demandante Vs. YAMIL MARREROVIERA, LA SUCESION DE VICTOR MARREROPENA COMPUESTA POR MENOR M.E.V.M.P.

TAMBIÉN CONOCIDA COMO M.M.P. TAMBIÉN CONOCIDA COMO V.M.P.; DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

Demandados Civil Núm. SJ2022CV00773. (604). 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: YAMIL MARREROVIERA, LA SUCESION DE VICTOR MARREROPENA COMPUESTA POR MENOR M.E.V.M.P. TAMBIÉN CONOCIDA COMO M.M.P. TAMBIÉN CONOCIDA COMO V.M.P. 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 17 de octubre de 2022. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. WANDA MALAVÉ MARTÍ, SECRETARIA DE SERVICIOS A SALA.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA SALA SUPERIOR DE ARECIBO

WILLIAN SANTIAGO

SERRANO

Demandante V. EX PARTE

Demandado(a)

Civil Núm.: FL2021CV00054. Sala: 402. Sobre: EXPEDIENTE DE DOMINIO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: AL DUEÑO ANTERIOR, BENITO MENDOZA,

O LA SUCESION DE BENITO MENDOZA, A LA COLINDANTE, ISABEL PERALES, O LA SUCESION DE ISABEL PEREALES, A TODO AQUEL QUE TENGA

ALGUN DERECHO REAL O INTERES SOBRE EL INMUEBLE DESCRITO EN LA PETICION DE DOMINIO QUE MUESTRA EL EPIGRAFE; A LAS PERSONAS IGNORADAS A QUIENES PUEDA

PERJUDICAR LA INSCRIPCION, A LOS ANTERIORES DUEÑOS Y SUS SUCESORES Y EN GENERAL A TODA PERSONA QUE

QUIERA OPONERSE A LA PRETENSION DEL PROMOVENTE Y EN GENERAL, A TODA PERSONA QUE DESEE

OPONERSE.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 26 de enero de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 1 de marzo de 2023. En ARECIBO, Puerto Rico, el 1 de marzo de 2023. VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. ALEXANDRA ÁLVAREZ NATAL, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN

ORIENTAL BANK

Parte Demandante V.

SUCESIÓN DE JOSÉ IVÁN

CARRASCO SERRANO COMPUESTA POR LIN

CARRASCO SALAZAR, MARIA IVONNE CARRASCO SALAZAR, JOSE CARRASCO SALAZAR, MELANIE CARRASCO SANTO, FULANA Y FULANO DE TAL

Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: SJ2021CV06945. 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 de SAN JUAN, hago saber a la parte demandada, SUCESIÓN DE JOSE IVÁN CARRASCO SERRANO compuesta por LIN CARRASCO SALAZAR, MARIA IVONNE CARRASCO SALAZAR, JOSE CARRASCO SALAZAR, MELANIE CARRASCO SANTO, FULANO Y FULANA DE TAL y al PÚBLICO EN GENERAL; que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el 5 de octubre de 2022, por la Secretaría del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor pagadero en efectivo, cheque de gerente o giro postal, a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal, la siguiente propiedad con dirección física: Alturas de Borinquen Gardens II-3 Court 4, San Juan, PR00926 y que se describe como sigue: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número #3 del bloque II de la Urbanización Extensión Borinquen Gardens en el Barrio Caimito de San Juan, con un área de 432.00 metros cuadrados, en lindes por el NORTE y SUR en 16.00 metros respectivamente, con Court número #4 y el solar 7 del Bloque II; por el ESTE, y OESTE en 27.00 metros respectivamente, con solares número 4 y 2 del bloque II. Enclava una casa de concreto, diseñada para una familia. Finca 5503 inscrita al folio 151 del tomo 161 de Rio Piedras Sur, Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección IV. La finca antes descrita se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: (i) HIPOTECA constituida por Jose Iván Carrasco Serrano, soltero, en garantía de un pagaré aff#. 6315 a favor de Oriental Bank & Trust, o a su orden, por la suma de $301,800.00, con intereses al 3.5% anual y vencimiento 1 de octubre de 2042, según escritura 472 otorgada en San Juan el 29 de septiembre de 2012 ante el notario Javier A. Rivera Meléndez. Inscrita al folio 221 del tomo 656 de Rio Piedras Sur, finca 5503, inscripción

9ª. (ii) Demanda radicada en el Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala de San Juan, en el

caso civil #SJ2019CV11418 sobre Ejecución de Hipoteca, seguido por Scotiabank de PR versus Jose Iván Carrasco Serrano, donde se solicita el pago de la deuda garantizada con la hipoteca relacionada en la inscripción 9na., reducida a $259,617.11, anotado en el Sistema Karibe de Rio Piedras Sur, el 30 de abril de 2020, anotación A última. (iii) Embargo Estatal: a favor del Estado Libre Asociado de PR (Ley #12), para responder de la suma de $49,178.40 por concepto de Contribuciones Sobre Ingresos, como propiedad de Jose Carrasco Serrano, según Certificación del 9 de marzo de 2010, anotado al folio 12 del Libro #1 de Embargos del ELA, del 24 de marzo de 2010. La hipoteca objeto de esta ejecución es la que ha quedado descrita en el inciso (i). Será celebrada la subasta para con el importe de la misma satisfacer la sentencia dictada el 5 de julio de 2022, mediante la cual se condenó a la parte demandada pagar a la parte demandante la cantidad ascendiente a $259,671.11, más $21,941.66 por intereses acumulados que continuarán acumulándose al 3.5% anual, hasta el saldo total de la deuda, más $1,804.88 de otros cargos; más la suma de $30,180.00 por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, según pactado, más cualquier otro desembolso que haya efectuado o efectúe la parte demandante durante la tramitación de este caso para otros adelantos de conformidad con el Contrato Hipotecario. La PRIMERA SUBASTA será celebrada el día 17 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico. Servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma, la cantidad de $301,800.00 sin admitirse oferta inferior. De no haber remate ni adjudicación, celebraré SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 24 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar, en la que servirá como tipo mínimo, dos terceras (2/3) partes del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $201,200.00. Si no hubiese remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, celebraré TERCERA SUBASTA el día 1 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar en la que regirá como tipo mínimo, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $150,900.00. El Alguacil que suscribe hizo constar que toda licitación deberá hacerse para pagar su importe en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América, de acuerdo con la Ley y de acuerdo con lo anunciado en este Aviso de Subasta. Los autos y todos los documentos

correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables.

Se entiende que todo licitador que comparezca a la subasta señalada en este caso acepta como bastante la titulación que da base a la misma. Se entiende que cualquier carga y/o gravamen anterior y/o preferente, si la hubiere al crédito que da base a esta ejecución continuará subsistente, entendiéndose, además, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de estos, sin destinarse a su extinción cualquier parte del remanente del precio de licitación. La propiedad para ejecutar será adquirida 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 7 de marzo de 2023.

EDWIN E. LÓPEZ MULERO, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE SAN JUAN.

LEGAL NOT ICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE TOA ALTA. ESTRELLA HOMES III, LLC

Demandante VS ENRIQUE GARCÍA VÉLEZ Y LA SUCESIÓN DE LIDUVINA VÉLEZ AYALA

COMPUESTA POR: ÁNGEL ROSARIO VÉLEZ, GERARDO ROSARIO VÉLEZ Y REBECCA

GARCÍA VÉLEZ, JOHN DOE, MARY DOE (POSIBLE HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS), DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA Y CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (“CRIM”)

Demandados

CIVIL NÚM. BY2019CV02942. SOBRE: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA Y COBRO DE DINERO (VÍA ORDINARIA).

EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA

EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.

A: ENRIQUE GARCÍA

VÉLEZ Y LA SUCESIÓN DE LIDUVINA VÉLEZ

AYALA COMPUESTA

POR: ÁNGEL ROSARIO VÉLEZ, GERARDO ROSARIO VÉLEZ Y REBECCA GARCÍA

VÉLEZ, JOHN DOE, MARY DOE (POSIBLE HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS), DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA Y CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (“CRIM”); AL PUBLICO EN GENERAL HAGO SABER Y AL ACREEDOR DEL SIGUIENTE GRAVAMEN

POSTERIOR:

El Alguacil que suscribe, anuncia y hace constar que en cumplimiento de Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, SALA DE TOA ALTA, procederé a vender en pública subasta y al mejor postor, de contado y por moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América. Todo pago recibido por el (la) Alguacil por concepto de subastas será en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del (de la) Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia. Todo derecho, título, participación e interés que le corresponda a la parte deman-

dada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: RUSTICA: Parcela marcada con el número ochocientos treinta y cinco (835) en el plano de parcelación de la comunidad rural Sabana Seca del Barrio Sabana Seca del término municipal de Toa Baja, Puerto Rico con una cabida superficial de cero cuerdas con setecientos veinte y tres diezmilésimas de otra equivalentes a doscientos ochenta y cuatro punto cero cinco metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con la calle sesenta y cinco de la comunidad; por el SUR, con la parcela ochocientos doce de la comunidad; por el ESTE, con la parcela ochocientos treinta y cuatro de la comunidad; por el OESTE, con la parcela ochocientos treinta y seis de la comunidad. Número “17,884”, inscrita al folio “127” del tomo “300” de Toa Baja. Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección II de Bayamón.

Dirección: 835 Francia ST., Toa Baja, Puerto Rico 00949. En relación a la finca a subastarse se establece como tipo mínimo de licitación en la Primera Subasta la suma de $20,000.00 según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la Escritura de Primera Hipoteca #9 otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 24 de mayo de 2005, ante el notario Marta I Ojeda Rodriguez, e inscrita al folio “91” del tomo “614” de Toa Baja, finca número “17,884” inscripción 4ta. La PRIMERA SUBASTA se llevará a cabo el día 12 ABRIL DE 2023 A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en mis oficinas sitas en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, SALA SUPERIOR DE TOA ALTA. En relación a la propiedad a subastarse, la cantidad mínima de licitación en la Primera Subasta será la suma de $20,000.00. Si la primera subasta del inmueble no produjere remate, ni adjudicación, se celebrará una SEGUNDA

SUBASTA el día 19 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo sitio y servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes del precio pactada para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de $13,333.33.

Si la segunda subasta no produjere remate, ni adjudicación, se celebrará una TERCERA

SUBASTA el día 26 DE ABRIL DE 2023, a las 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar y regirá como tipo de la tercera subasta la mitad del precio pactado para la primera, o sea, la suma de $10,000.00. Dicha

Subasta se llevará a cabo, para con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor, a saber: Dicha venta se llevará a efecto, para con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante el importe de su Sentencia,

a saber: la suma principal de SEIS MIL CIENTO OCHENTA

Y DOS DOLARES CON NOVENTA Y SIETE CENTAVOS

($6,182.97), más intereses convenidos al 10.63% anual, pactando el pago de una suma igual al 10% de la obligación principal para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado desde el 1 de noviembre de 2017, hasta el presente y los que se continúen acumulando hasta su total y completo pago y aquellas otras sumas que surjan de la faz de la anterior obligación y de la hipoteca que la garantiza, más una suma estipulada para costas, gastos y honoraros de abogados de DOS MIL DOLARES ($2,000.00) más la cantidad de SEISCIENTOS

SESENTA Y OCHO DOLARES CON SIETE CENTAVOS ($668.07) de “Piggy back”, suma la cual no acumula intereses condenándola además, a cualquier otra suma que resulte por cualesquiera otros adelantos que se hayan hecho la demandante, en virtud de las disposiciones de la Escritura de Hipoteca y del Pagaré Hipotecario. Para más información, a las personas interesadas se les notifica que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal, durante las horas laborables. Este EDICTO DE SUBASTA, se publicará en los lugares públicos correspondientes y en un periódico de circulación general en la jurisdicción de Puerto Rico. 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 continuaran 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. Se procederá a otorgar la correspondiente Escritura de Venta Judicial y el Alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial al nuevo dueño, si así se lo solicita dentro del término de veinte (20) días, de conformidad con las disposiciones de Ley. 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. Se informa que la propiedad objeto de ejecución se adquiere libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Expedido en TOA ALTA, Puerto Rico, a 23 de diciembre de 2022. Rosemarie Melendez Perez, ALGUACIL.

LEGAL NOTICE

IN THE UNITED STATES DIS-

TRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO. WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIET, FSB, D/B/A CHRISTIANA TRUST, AS INDENTURE TRUSTEE, FOR THE CSMC 2015-PR 1 TRUST, MORTGAGE-BACKED NOTES, SERIES 2015-PR 1 Plaintiff, vs. JULIO ANGEL RIVERA CAMACHO A/K/A JULIO A. RIVERA CAMACHO AND ROSA ANGELICA AVILA BENITEZ A/K/A ROSA AVILA BENITEZ Defendants

Civil No. 15-cv-3123 (PAD).

MATTER: COLLECTION OF MONIES. NOTICE OF SALE. TO: JULIO ANGEL RIVERA CAMACHO A/K/A JULIO A. RIVERA CAMACHO AND ROSA ANGELICA AVILA BENITEZ A/K/A ROSA AVILA BENITEZ; AND TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC:

WHEREAS: On February 22, 2019, Default Judgment in Collection of Monies was entered and granted in favor of Plaintiff to recover from defendants the following sums: The principal sum of $122,303.96, itemized as follows: the principal sum of $31,499.58, as a noninterest-bearing principal, and the interest-bearing principal sum of $90,804.38, plus interest at a rate of 6.00% per annum since March 2, 2016. The interest continues to accrue until the debt is paid in full. In addition, Defendants were ordered to pay plaintiff accrued late charges and any other advance, charge, fee or disbursements made by plaintiff on behalf of defendants, in accordance with the mortgage deed, plus costs, charges and disbursements, expenses, and attorney’s fees equivalent to 10% of the original amount of the Mortgage Note. That on January 31, 2023 the Court entered order granting execution of the attachment affecting the property, with writ of execution of attachment issued on February 1, 2023. The order of attachment shall cover the amount of the Default Judgment above cited and awarded to Plaintiff. The records of the case and of these proceedings may be examined by interested parties at the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Room 150 Federal Office Building, 150 Chardon Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. WHEREAS: Pursuant to the terms of the aforementioned Judgment, Order of Execution, and the Writ of Execution thereof, the undersigned Special Master was ordered to sell at public auction for U.S.

currency in cash or certified check without appraisement or right of redemption to the highest bidder and at the office of the Clerk of the Court, Room 150— Federal Office Building, 150 Carlos Chard6n Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, to cover the sums adjudged to be paid to the plaintiff, the following property described in Spanish:

URBANA: Solar nümero siete (7) del Bloque G de la Urbanizaciön Vistas de Naguabo, radicado en el Barrio Rio del Municipio de Naguabo, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de cuatrocientos sesenta y nueve punto ochenta y dos (469.82) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en una distancia de treinta y dos punto once (32.11) metros lineales, con el Lote nümero seis (6) del Bloque G; por el SUR, en una distancia de treinta y tres punto cero Cinco (33.05) metros lineales, con el Lote nümero ocho (8) del Bloque G; por el ESTE, en una distancia de catorce punto cuarenta y Cinco (14.45) metros lineales, con la Sucesi6n Juan R. Garzot; y por el OESTE, en una distancia de catorce punto cuarenta y dos (14.42) metros lineales, con la Calle veintisiete (27). Enclava una casa para fines residenciales. The encumbered property # 12,712 is recorded at mobile volume 226 of Naguabo. Property Registry of Puerto Rico, Humacao Section. The garnishment lien (embargo) is duly recorded at volume KARIBE of Naguabo, property # 12,712, Annotation B and last. Property address: G7 27 ST., VISTAS DE NAGUABO, NAGUABO, PUERTO RICO 00718. WHEREAS: This property is subject to the following liens described in Spanish: Senior Liens: NONE. Junior Liens: NONE. The Order of Attachment was duly recorded at the Property Registry of Puerto Rico, Humacao Section, and described in the Spanish Language as follows: Embargo seguido por Wilmington Savings Fund Society Christiana Trust como Administrador de CSMC 2015-PRI Trust Mortgage Backed Notes, Series 2015PRI, contra Julio Angel Rivera Camacho, Et Al., por la suma de $122,303.96, en la Corte de Distrito de los Estados Unidos de América para el Distrito de Puerto Rico, segün Mandamiento del 9 de febrero de 2021, anotado el dia 24 de agosto de 2021, e inscrito al tomo Karibe de Naguabo, finca nümero 12,712, Anotaci6n B y ültima. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior and preferential liens to the one being foreclosed/sold upon, including but not limited to any

property tax, liens, (express, tacit, implied or legal) shall continue in effect it being understood further that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. Because this is a case of money collection, it does not have a minimum rate or bid. The sale will take place to satisfy the amounts owed per the Default Judgment entered on February 22, 2019. The AUCTION will take place on the 1 I th day of April of 2023, at 9:05am, at the office of the Clerk of the Court, Room 150— Federal Office Building, 150 Carlos Chard6n Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, whose sale at public auction was ordered by the Order of Execution of Judgment dated January 31, 2023. The undersigned Special Master shall not accept in payment of the property to be sold anything but United States currency (cash), or certified checks, except in case the property is sold and adjudicated to the plaintiff, in which case the amount of the bid made by said plaintiff shall be credited and deducted from its credit; said plaintiff being bound to pay in cash or certified check only any excess of its bid over the secured indebtedness that remains unsatisfied. WHEREAS: Said sale to be made by the undersigned Special Master subject to confirmation by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico and the deed of conveyance and possession to the property will be executed and delivered only after such confirmation. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued cancelling all junior liens. For further particulars, reference is made to the judgment entered by the Court in this case, which can be examined in the Office of Clerk of the United States District Court, District of Puerto Rico. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, day ofMarch of 2023. By: Pedro A. Vélez Baer, Special Master. 787-672-8269.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE AIBONITO

REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING, LLC

Demandante Vs. SUCESIÓN DE FERDINANDO

SANTIAGO TORRES, T/C/C FERDINANDO

SANTIAGO COMPUESTA

POR MIGUEL SANTIAGO

RIVERA, GLORIA

DÁVILA, VÍCTOR

SANTIAGO TORRES, JR., CARMEN MILAGROS

SANTIAGO, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO MIEMBROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES; Y LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA Demandados Civil Núm.: AI2022CV00165. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA IN REM. EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

Al: PÚBLICO EN GENERAL. A: SUCESIÓN DE FERDINANDO SANTIAGO TORRES, T/C/C FERDINANDO SANTIAGO COMPUESTA POR MIGUEL SANTIAGO RIVERA, GLORIA DÁVILA, VÍCTOR SANTIAGO TORRES, JR., CARMEN MILAGROS SANTIAGO, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO MIEMBROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES; Y LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA.

Yo, PEDRO A. MERCADO RIVERA, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Aibonito, a los demandados, acreedores y al público en general con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, por la presente CERTIFICO, ANUNCIO y HAGO CONSTAR: Que el día 12 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Aibonito, Aibonito, Puerto Rico, procederé a vender en Pública Subasta, al mejor postor, la propiedad inmueble que más adelante se describe y cuya venta en pública subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria mediante Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe, la cual se notificó y archivó en autos el día 1 de noviembre de 2022. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta a celebrarse, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA para la venta de la susodicha propiedad, el 19 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA, y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se

Andrés y Andrea Gabriela de apellidos Rivera López y Delfín Alberto Rivera Vega, Fulano y Mengano de Tal, Departamento de Hacienda por conducto de la División de Caudales Relictos y el Centro de Recaudaciones de Ingresos Municipales (CRIM), ante el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Fajardo, en el Caso Civil Número FA2021CV01061, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, en la que se reclama el pago de hipoteca, con un balance de $70,511.78 y otras cantidades, según Demanda de fecha 23 de diciembre de 2021. Anotada al Tomo Karibe de Río Grande. Anotación A.

b. Embargo Estatal: Anotado sobre esta finca, como perteneciente a Delfín Rivera Vega, por la suma de $261,920.27 a favor del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, según certificación de fecha 15 de marzo de 2017.

Anotada el 14 de septiembre de 2017 al Asiento 2017-002440EST del Libro de Embargos

Estatales Karibe. c. Embargo

Estatal: Anotado sobre esta finca, como perteneciente a Delfín A. Rivera Vega, por la suma de $153,547.61, a favor del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, según certificación de fecha 11 de mayo de 2017.

Anotada el 19 de mayo de 2017 al Asiento 2017-004385-EST del Libro de Embargos Estatales Karibe. d. Embargo Estatal: Anotado sobre esta finca, como perteneciente a Delfín Rivera Vega, por la suma de $52,872.11 a favor del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, según certificación de fecha 2 de junio de 2010, presentado el 2 de junio de 2010, al Folio 24, Número de Orden 93 del Libro de Embargos Estatales Número 1 (Ley #12). Nota: Anotado bajo Canóvanas no bajo Río Grande. La propiedad para ejecutar se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Se les advierte a los interesados que todos los documentos relacionados con la presente acción de ejecución de hipoteca, así como los de Subasta, estarán disponibles para ser examinados, durante horas laborables, en el expediente del caso que obra en los archivos de la Secretaría del Tribunal, bajo el número de epígrafe y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general en Puerto Rico por espacio de dos semanas y por lo menos una vez por semana; y para su fijación en los sitios públicos requeridos por ley. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes; entendiéndose que el remanente los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de estos,

sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Y para el conocimiento de los demandados, de los acreedores posteriores, de los licitadores, partes interesadas y público en general EXPIDO para su publicación en los lugares públicos correspondientes, el presente Aviso de Pública Subasta en Fajardo, Puerto Rico, hoy 11 de enero de 2023. DENISE BRUNO ORTIZ, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR, PLACA #266, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE FAJARDO, SALA SUPERIOR. JORGE A. ORTIZ ESTRADA, ALGUACIL REGIONAL INTERINO, PLACA #622.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAMUY BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Parte Demandante Vs. FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION (FDIC) COMO SÍNDICO DE RG MORTGAGE CORPORATION; ORIENTAL BANK COMO SUCESOR EN DERECHO DE RG PREMIER BANK OF PUERTO RICO, BRAULIO MANUEL VÉLEZ ACEVEDO, NEREIDA RAMOS DÍAZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS, FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARÉ Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: CM2022CV00691. (101). Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO POR LA VÍA JUDICIAL. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS E.E.U.U., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: BRAULIO MANUEL VÉLEZ ACEVEDO Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA CON NEREIDA RAMOS

DÍAZ a las siguientes

direcciones: 2 RD KM

90.2, PUENTE WD, CAMUY, PR 00627, CARR

119 INTERIOR, KM 0.4

(CALLE H), BO. PUENTE

ZARZA, CAMUY, PR 00627 Y HC 4 BOX 17663, CAMUY, PR 00627-9520.

FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES

TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARÉ.

Queda usted notificado que en este Tribunal se ha radicado demanda sobre cancelación de pagaré extraviado por la vía judicial. El 7 de diciembre de 2005, Braulio Manuel Vélez Acevedo y su esposa Nereida Ramos Díaz constituyeron una hipoteca en Hatillo, Puerto Rico, conforme a la Escritura núm. 1535 autorizada por la notario Georgette M. Rodríguez Figueroa en garantía de un pagaré suscrito bajo testimonio número 9306 por la suma de $152,000.00, a favor de RG Premier Bank of Puerto Rico o a su orden, devengando intereses al 7% anual y vencedero el 1ro de septiembre de 2036, sobre la siguiente propiedad:

RÚSTICA: Finca radicada en el barrio Puente del término municipal de Camuy, Puerto Rico, con una cabida de 798.597 metros cuadrados, equivalentes a 0.2032 cuerdas. En lindes: al NORTE, con remanente de la finca; al SUR, con solar segregado en el caso 03L18-01106, al ESTE, con José Rivera y al OESTE, con uso público. Inscrita al folio 169 del tomo 375 de Camuy, Finca 19263, Registro de la Propiedad de Arecibo, Sección II. La escritura de hipoteca consta inscrita al folio 169 del tomo 375 de Camuy, Finca 19263, Registro de la Propiedad de Arecibo, Sección II. Inscripción tercera. La parte demandada deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal. Se le advierte que, si no contesta la demanda, radicando el original de la contestación en este Tribunal y enviando copia de la contestación a la abogada de la parte demandante, Lcda. Belma Alonso García, cuya dirección es: PO Box 3922, Guaynabo, PR 00970-3922, Teléfono y Fax: (787) 789-1826, correo electrónico: oficinabelmaalonso@gmail.com, dentro del término de treinta (30) días de la publicación de este edicto, excluyéndose el día de la publicación, se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará Sentencia en su contra, concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, hoy 16 de febrero de 2023, en Camuy, Puerto Rico. VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. SUHAIL SERRANO MOYA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE BAYAMÓN LEGACY MORTGAGE ASSET TRUST 2019-PR1

Parte Demandante Vs. JUAN ROSADO AMARO, SIOMARA PEREZ DIAZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS; ELIMANUEL HERNANDEZ BARBOSA Y SU ESPOSA VANESSA MARI NEGRON UMPIERRE Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Parte Demandada

Caso Civil Núm.: BY2023CV00606. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA Y COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: JUAN ROSADO AMARO Y SIOMARA PÉREZ DÍAZ POR SI Y EN REPRESENTACIÓN DE LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS.

POR LA PRESENTE se les emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá radicar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: http://unired.ramajudicial.pr/ sumac/, salvo que se presente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá radicar el original de su contestación ante el Tribunal correspondiente y notifique con copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, Lcda. Marjaliisa Colon Villanueva, al PO BOX 7970, Ponce, P.R. 00732-7970; Teléfono: 787843-41668. En dicha demanda se tramita un procedimiento de cobro de dinero y ejecución de hipoteca bajo el número mencionado en el epígrafe. Se alega en dicho procedimiento que la parte Demandada incurrió en el incumplimiento del Contrato de Hipoteca, al no poder pagar las mensualidades vencidas correspondientes a los meses de june de 2022, hasta el presente, más los cargos por demora correspondientes. Además, adeuda a la parte de-

mandante las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado en que incurra el tenedor del pagaré en este litigio. De acuerdo con dicho Contrato de Garantía Hipotecaria la parte Demandante declaró vencida la totalidad de la deuda ascendente a la suma de $235,287.58 de balance principal, el cual se compone de un primer principal por la suma de $234,061.57 y un principal diferido por la suma de $1,226.01, más intereses a razón del 3.625% anual desde el primero de mayo de 2022, así como todos aquellos créditos y sumas que surjan de la faz de la obligación hipotecaria y de la hipoteca que la garantiza, incluyendo $22,410.00, pactado para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. La parte Demandante presentó para su inscripción en el Registro de la Propiedad correspondiente, un AVISO DE PLEITO PENDIENTE (“Lis Pendens”) sobre la propiedad objeto de esta acción cuya propiedad es la siguiente: URBANA: Solar radicado en la Urbanización “Brisas de Montecasino” en el Barrio Candelaria del municipio de Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, que se describe en el plano de inscripción de la Urbanización con el número ocho (8) del Bloque letra “C”, con un área superficial de trescientos treinta punto ochenta y siete (330.87) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el Norte, con el solar letra y número (C-7), distancia de veintitrés punto cero cero (23.00) metros; por el Sur, con la calle número 6, en dos alineaciones, en una distancia de diecinueve punto cincuenta (19.50) metros y otra de dos punto setecientos cuarenta y nueve metros; por el Este, con el solar letra y numero (C-1), en una distancia de catorce punto cincuenta metros; y por el Oeste, con la calle número ocho (8), en dos alineaciones, en una distancia de once punto cero cero (11.00) metros y otra de dos punto setecientos cuarenta y nueve (2.749) metros. Enclava Casa. Inscrita al folio setenta y seis (76) del tomo quinientos treinta y uno (531) de Toa Baja, finca número veintiocho mil setecientos sesenta y seis (28,766), Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección ll. SE LES APERCmE que de no hacer sus alegaciones responsivas a la demanda dentro del término aquí dispuesto, se les anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia, concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal en Bayamón, Puerto Rico. A 6 día de marzo de 2023. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. VIVIAN J. SANABRIA, SUB-SECRETARIA.

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC

Demandante V. BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO; JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARE EXTRAVIADO

Demandado(a)

Civil Núm.: SJ2022CV09331.

Sala: 903. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES TENEDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. (Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 1 de marzo de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 6 de marzo de 2023. En SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, el 6 de marzo de 2023. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA. MILDRED J. FRANCO REVENTOS, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN GERMÁN

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. MICHAEL HENRIQUEZ

TORO, FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR

AMBOS

Demandado(a)

Civil: LJ2019CV00145. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: MICHAEL HENRIQUEZ

TORO, FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR

AMBOS.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 16 de febrero de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 6 de marzo de 2023. En San Germán, Puerto Rico, el 6 de marzo de 2023. NORMA SANTANA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIA. MILITZA LORENZO VEGA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC, COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC

Demandante V. YANIEL FEBLES SAAVEDRA

Demandado (a)

Civil Núm.: TB2022CV00360. Salón: 703. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: YANIEL FEBLES SAAVEDRA. (Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 3 de marzo de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución

en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 3 de marzo de 2023. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el 7 de marzo de 2023. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA. LUREIMY ALINEA GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA SALA

SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA LEGACY MORTGAGE ASSET TRUST 2019-PR1 Demandante V. NANCY CRUZ ANDINO Y OTROS

Demandado(a)

Civil: CN2022CV00245. Sala: 409. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: FULANO DE TAL, FULANA DE TAL, ZUTANO DE TAL, ZUTANA DE TAL, HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS A,B Y C DE LA SUCESION DE GASPAR BULTRON RIVERA; FULANO DE TAL, FULANA DE TAL, ZUTANO DE TAL, ZUTANA DE TAL, HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS A, B Y C DE LA SUCESION DE JONATHAN HOMAR BULTRON FIGUEROA; NADYA MARIE BULTRON CRUZ Y AZARYA BULTRON CRUZ HEREDERAS CONOCIDAS DE LA SUCESION DE GASPAR BULTRON RIVERA. (Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 8 de marzo de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución

en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 8 de marzo de 2023. En CAROLINA, Puerto Rico, el 8 de marzo de 2023.

LCDA. MARILYN APONTE RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA.

MARICRUZ APONTE ALICEA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN

CASCADE FUNDING

MORTGAGE TRUST AB1

Demandante Vs. JOSE FRANCISCO MILLS

MARTINEZ T/C/C

JOSE F. MILLS MARTINEZ

T/C/C JOSE F. MILLS-

MARTINEZ T/C/C JOSE

F. MILLS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA

Demandados

Civil Núm.: SJ2022CV00557.

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.

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: Family

(.8100%) in the common elements and twenty five percent (25%) in the common limited. This family unit contains the following rooms and subdivision a porch living-dining room, foyer coat closet, linen closet, utility closet, kitchen, pantry, secondary bash, hall bedroom, one

(1) master bathroom, master bedroom, closet, utility closet a master bedroom & bedroom, two (2) linen closet and two

(2) bedroom. Finca número

18,212, inscrita al folio 56 del tomo 499 de Santurce Norte, Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección I. La Hipoteca Revertida consta inscrita al folio 57 del tomo 1,141 de Santurce Norte, finca número

18,212, Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección I, inscripción 9ª. Propiedad localizada en: 212 CALLE DIEZ DE ANDINO, COND. BALDORIOTY PLAZA APT 404, SAN JUAN PUERTO RICO 00912.

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:

75062 (PERSONAS DESCONOCIDAS CON POSIBLE INTERES).

A:

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

GENERAL:

Certifico y Hago Constar: Que en cumplimiento con el Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por el (la) Secretario(a) del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América y/o Giro Postal y Cheque Certificado, en mi oficina ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, el 15 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, todo derecho título,

unit number four hundred four (404) of Baldorioty Plaza Condominium number two hundred twelve (212) of south Marginal Street Baldorioty de Castro Avenue, corner of Diez de Andino Street, Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico, which family unit is located in the Fourth Floor with its balcony facing Diez de Andino Street. It is an irregular rectangular shaped apartment measuring thirty seven feet two inches (37’2”), equivalent to eleven point thirty (11.30) meters long by thirty seven feet two inches (37’2”), equivalent to eleven point thirty (11.30) meters width making a total area of one thousand sixty nine point zero one (1069.010) square feet, equivalent to one hundred eight point sixty four (108.64) square meters, as specialty shown in exhibit B dash four hundred four (B-404) of the deed. Its boundaries are as follows: North, thirty seven feet two inches (37’2”), equivalent to eleven point thirty (11.30) meters with exterior and interior common elements of the building such as concrete bearing walls and interior proper elements of the apartment such as block, partition walls separating it from apartment four hundred three (403) and entrance doorway separating it from and leading to restricted common hallway; South, thirty seven feet two inches (37’2”), equivalent to eleven point thirty (11.30) meters with interior and exterior common elements of the building such as concrete bearing walls window and exterior proper elements of the apartment such as block partition walls and balcony concrete railing separating it from the exterior; facing parking ramp entrance, East, thirty seven feet two inches (37’2”)equivalent to eleven point thirty (11.30) meters with exterior common elements of the building such as window walls and exterior proper elements of the building such as block partition wall and balcony concrete railing separating in front the exterior, Diez de Andino Street, West, thirty seven feet two inches (37’2”), equivalent to eleven point thirty one (11.31) meters with exterior common elements of the building such as concrete bearing walls and windows and exterior proper elements of the apartment such as block partition walls separating it from the exterior parking area. The main entrance door is on the South side and communicates with the restricted common hallways if the fourth floor. This unit has a percentage of point eight thousand one hundred percent

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: $234,000.00. Fecha de Vencimiento: 13 de marzo de 2096. 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 $234,000.00, 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 San Juan, el 23 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $156,000.00, 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 $117,000.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubi-

cada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, el 30 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para, con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante, el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor ascendente a la suma de $85,273.06 de principal, más los intereses a razón de 5.560% anual hasta su total y completo pago, contribuciones, recargos y primas de seguro adeudados y los cuales continuarán en aumento hasta el saldo total de la deuda, más la cantidad estipulada de $23,400.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados. La venta en pública subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen posterior que afecte la mencionada finca, a cuyo efecto se notifica y se hace saber la fecha, hora y sitio de la PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA, si esto fuera necesario, a los efectos de que cualquier persona o personas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha subasta. Se notifica a todos los interesados que las actas y demás constancias del expediente de este caso están disponibles en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables para ser examinadas por los (las) interesados (as). Y para su publicación en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star, que es un diario de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, así como para su publicación en los sitios públicos de Puerto Rico. Expedido en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy 8 de febrero de 2023. EDWIN

E. LÓPEZ MULERO, ALGUACIL PLACA #368.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE VEGA BAJA FIRSTBANK

PUERTO RICO

Demandante Vs. LITTON LOAN SERVICING LP; PREFERRED MORTGAGE CORPORATION; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES CON INTERES

Demandados

Civil Núm.: VB2023CV00022.

Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ HIPOTECARIO EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO.

A: LITTON LOAN SERVICING LP. 250 E JOHN CARPENTER FWY IRVING TEXAS

En este caso Ia parte demandante ha radicado Demanda pare que se decrete judicialmente el saldo de un pagaré a favor de Preferred Mortgage Corp., o a su orden, por la suma principal de $48,889.00, con intereses al 8 1/2 % anual, vencedero el día 1 de junio de 2021, constituida mediante Ia escritura número 287, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 6 de mayo de 1991, ante el notario José E. Valcourt Cruz testimonio número 815, e inscrita al folio 170 vuelto del tomo 319 de Vega Baja, finca número 25,655, inscripción 2da, Registro de Ia Propiedad Sección Cuarta de Bayamón, y este garantizado por hipoteca sobre la propiedad sita en 145 Colirrubia Villa de los Pescadores Vega Baja, PR 00693 que se describe como sigue: Urbana: URBANIZACION VILLAS DE LOS PESCADORES de Vega Baja. Solar: 4-C. Cabida: 430.16 Metros Cuadrados. Linderos: Norte, con el Solar #7, en distancia de 13.87 metros lineales. Sur, con la Calle #2, en distancia de 23.90 metros lineales. Este, con el Solar #3, en distancia de 25.00 metros lineales. Oeste, con el Solar #5, en distancia de 25.45 metros lineales. Radicada en el Barrio Yeguada. Enclava una estructura residencial de una plants construida de hormigón reforzado y bloques de hormigón. Dicha unidad consiste en 3 dormitorios, sala, comedor, cocina, baño y marquesina. Inscrita al folio 170 del tomo 319 de Vega Baja, finca 25,655, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección Cuarta. La parte demandante alega que dicho Pagare se ha extraviado, según más detalladamente consta en la Demanda radicada que puede examinarse en la Secretaría de este Tribunal. Por tratarse de una obligación hipotecaria, 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 Ia 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 Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, hoy 24 de enero de 2023. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARITZA ROSARIO ROSARIO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS SALA SUPERIOR. BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V.

EDWIN RODRÍGUEZ COLÓN

Demandado

CIVIL NÚM. : ECD2012-0632 (401). SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. AVISO DE VENTA EN PÚBLICA SUBASTA. Yo, Alejandro Urbina Roque, Alguacil de la División de Subastas del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, a la demandada y al público en general, les notifico que, cumpliendo con un Mandamiento que se ha librado en el presente caso, por el Secretario del Tribunal, con fecha 18 de julio de 2022 y para satisfacer la Sentencia por la cantidad de $118,382.08 de principal; dictada en el caso de epígrafe el 24 de mayo de 2013, notificada y archivada en autos el 29 de mayo de 2013; procederé a vender en pública subasta, al mejor postor en pago de contado y en moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, todo derecho, título e interés que haya tenido, tenga o pueda tener la deudora demandada en cuanto a la propiedad localizada en el: Municipio de Caguas, Puerto Rico, el bien inmueble que se describe a continuación: E-10 Terrazas de Borinquen, Caguas, PR 00725. URBANA: Solar marcado con el número diez del Bloque E (E-10) de la Urbanización Terrazas de Borinquén, localizada en el Barrio Borinquén, del término municipal de Caguas, Puerto Rico, con cabida superficial de trescientos cuatro punto veinticinco (304.25) metros cuadrados. Colinda por el Norte, con carretera municipal, en una distancia de doce punto dieciocho (12.18) metros lineales; por el Sur, con la Calle Palmita de San Juan, en una distancia de doce (12.00) metros lineales; por el Este, con el lote núme-

ro Once del Bloque E (E-11), en una distancia de veinticuatro punto setenta y un (24.71) metros lineales; y por el Oeste, con el lote número Nueve del Bloque E (E-9), en una distancia de veintiséis punto sesenta y dos (26.62) metros lineales.

Contiene una casa de concreto diseñada para una sola familia. A lo largo de la colindancia Sur del solar y dentro del mismo, existe un conducto soterrado para alambrado telefónico que discurre por una faja de terreno de uno punto cinco dos (1.52) metros de ancho, sobre la cual está prohibido todo tipo de construcción o limitación a su acceso y a la cual todo propietario u ocupante del presente inmueble está comprometido y obligado a dar acceso para obras de mantenimiento y/o reparación de dicho conducto para alambrado telefónico.

Finca #62845 de Caguas, inscrita al Tomo Karibe, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección I. Con el importe de dicha venta se habrá de satisfacer a la parte demandante las cantidades adeudadas, según la Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe, por el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, cuyas cantidades ascienden a $118,382.08 de principal, 5.50% de intereses, los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda; $123.24 de gastos por mora, los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la deuda; $14.80 de otros gastos, más costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados razonables y acostumbrados en 10% del principal del Pagaré. El tipo mínimo para la subasta será la suma de tasación pactada, la cual es $135,654.00 para la propiedad descrita. Si no produjere remate o adjudicación la primera subasta, se procederá a una segunda subasta y servirá de tipo mínimo la cantidad de $90,436.00. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en esta segunda subasta, se procederá a una tercera subasta, en ésta el tipo mínimo será la cantidad de $67,827.00. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta se dará por terminado el procedimiento, pudiendo adjudicarse a opción del demandante. Para el lote descrito, la primera subasta se llevará a cabo el día 29 de marzo de 2023, a las 9:45 de la mañana. De no comparecer postor alguno se llevará a efecto una segunda subasta el día 5 de abril de 2023, a las 9:45 de la mañana. De no comparecer postor alguno se llevará a cabo una tercera subasta el día 12 de abril de 2023, a las 9:45 de la mañana. La subasta o subastas antes indicadas se llevarán a efecto en mi oficina, localizada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Su-

perior de Caguas. De Estudio de Título realizado, no surgen gravámenes preferentes, surge el siguiente gravamen posterior: Sentencia dictada el 15 de marzo de 2013, en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, en el Caso Civil Núm. EACI-2013-00219, seguido por Asociación de Residentes de Terrazas de Borinquen versus Edwin Rodríguez Ríos, por $2,194.71, anotada al Folio 92 del Libro #3 de Sentencias, el 26 de septiembre de 2013. Se le advierte a los licitadores que la adjudicación se hará al mejor postor, quien deberá consignar el importe de su oferta en el mismo acto de la adjudicación en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica, giro postal o cheque de gerente a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal y para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda(s) aquella(s) persona(s) que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando, y para conocimiento de los licitadores y el público en general y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general, una vez por semana durante el término de dos (2) semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, y para su fijación en tres (3) lugares públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como, la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía y se le notificará además a la parte demandada vía correo certificado con acuse de recibo a la última dirección conocida. Se les advierte a todos los interesados que todos los documentos relacionados con la presente acción de ejecución de hipoteca, así como la de la subasta, estarán disponibles para ser examinados en la Secretaría del Tribunal. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere al crédito de ejecutante, continuarán subsiguientes entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores, previa orden judicial dirigida al Registrador de la Propiedad de la sección correspondiente para la cancelación de aquellos posteriores. Y para conocimiento de la demandada, de los acreedores posteriores, de los licitadores, partes interesadas y público en general, expido el presente Aviso para su publicación en los lugares públicos correspondientes. Librado en Caguas, Puerto Rico, a 7 de febrero de 2023. Alejandro Urbina Roque, ALGUACIL.

Who built the Dominican Republic’s dream team? Their 42-year-old DH

By JAMES WAGNER

The Dominican Republic’s team in the 2023 World Baseball Classic is a veritable dream team of stars.

Julio Rodríguez, 22, the 2022 American League Rookie of the Year, is the center fielder. Jeremy Peña, 25, the Most Valuable Player of the 2022 AL Championship Series and the World Series, is starting at shortstop. Sandy Alcántara, 27, the 2022 National League Cy Young Award winner, took the 5-1 loss against Venezuela on Saturday in the Dominicans’ opening game. Twelve of the country’s 16 position players are former All-Stars, including the six-timer Manny Machado.

The general manager responsible for assembling a team that is one of the tournament’s favorites? Nelson Cruz, 42, the team’s designated hitter, who also happens to have 459 career home runs in the majors.

“It’s a little different,” Dominican Manager Rodney Linares said in Spanish. “With a general manager, you basically just pick up the phone and call him. They don’t say, ‘I was hitting.’ But at least our general manager hits balls out. The others don’t.”

Many decades ago in Major League Baseball, player-managers were fairly common. Not anymore. But a player filling the role of the executive in charge of roster decisions appears to be unique to Cruz, and for good reason. Could you imagine having to release, demote or trade your teammates — or yourself?

Thankfully for Cruz, the WBC is a quadrennial two-week tournament that has returned for the first time since 2017 after pandemic delays. And he doesn’t have to worry about overseeing a farm system or staffing a scouting department. But Cruz, whose full-time gig is the San Diego Padres’ designated hitter, has learned that juggling administrative and playing duties is time consuming.

“A lot of text messages, calls, emails and talking with people overall,” Cruz said recently in Spanish while sitting outside the Padres’ spring training facility in Peoria, Arizona. “It takes a lot of time. Outside of my job, too. But all that sacrifice is worth it because you’re doing it for your country.”

Case in point: On Wednesday morning, when Padres general manager A.J. Preller needed to detail the conditions under which the star outfielder Juan Soto could play for the Dominican team given a recent minor calf injury — Soto arrived late and

has rules in place for how often he can play in the outfield — Preller got on the phone with Linares and Cruz, both of whom are bilingual.

A few hours later, Cruz took batting practice in North Port, Florida ahead of a WBC tuneup game against the Atlanta Braves. Cruz, who is playing in his fourth WBC, entered as a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning and homered.

“I was telling him, ‘Dude, how do you do all of this?’” said Machado, 30, another member of the Padres. A general manager, he said, also has to concern himself with the coaching staff and the federation. Machado added: “There’s a lot that goes into it beyond putting players out there. I think the players was probably the easiest part because there was a lot of people committed.”

To replace Moisés Alou — the Dominican GM during the previous two tournaments, including the gold medal-winning 2013 team — the Dominican baseball federation sought someone with a similar profile. Alou was a longtime MLB player and multi-time All-Star who was well regarded by his peers. (Unlike Cruz, he waited until after he retired to become an executive.)

“We have a lot of players with a lot of talent but they’re younger, and we needed someone who could connect with them, was respected by them and that they felt comfortable playing for him,” said Juan Núñez, the federation’s president.

The federation saw that in Cruz. The Padres will be his eighth MLB club in his 19th season. He has experienced the highs of baseball (seven All-Star selections, MVP of the 2011 ALCS, $139 million in career earnings) and lows (a 50-game suspension in 2013 for performance-enhancing drugs). Players and officials said they respected Cruz for his accomplishments, his charitable efforts in the Dominican Republic and his leadership in the clubhouse.

“Nelson Cruz is like a dad to the players,” Núñez said.

But when the federation first asked Cruz about the role in 2020, he declined because he said the timing wasn’t right for him. After the pandemic delayed what was supposed to be the 2021 WBC, Núñez called again. This time, after consulting with his family, Cruz said yes.

“Even this year, I didn’t know if I was ready,” he said. “I’d never done this before. But, well, you learn by walking and I had a good operations group behind me.”

Cruz said he regularly met with the

federation’s brain trust to make decisions collectively. He used his iPad to sketch out depth charts, similar to the ones MLB executives have on whiteboards in their offices, while also studying advanced statistics.

Most of the time, Cruz said, the requests for players went through MLB and the players’ union, which jointly run the WBC. But sometimes he reached out directly to his general manager peers at MLB clubs. And since he knows so many players, he contacted them personally, too — sometimes even after permissions were denied.

Asked what he learned in his new role, Cruz said, “You see the game from a different perspective since you’re on the other side, the part the player doesn’t see.”

Núñez commended Cruz for learning fast and for always having a backup option when a player dropped out. “He told me,” Núñez said, “‘Brother, I thought this was easier but I’m realizing that this is harder than playing. You have to work.’ But he really does have the ability.”

Cruz and Soto have previously referred to the Dominican squad as a version of the Dream Team, the nickname for the 1992 United States men’s gold medal-winning Olympic basketball team. That team featured 11 future Hall of Famers, from Michael Jordan to Larry Bird. While the name might be a bit of hyperbole — this Dominican squad may end up producing only a few Hall of Famers — the underlying point was valid.

“On paper, it looks like a dominant team,” Cruz said of the Dominican squad, which will look to get on track against Nicaragua today at noon. “The depth that we have, I think there hasn’t been a team with so much talent, and the desire to participate.”

WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC

SUNDAY’S SCORES

Japan 7, Australia 1

Italy 7, Netherlands 1

Israel 3, Nicaragua 1

Great Britain at Canada

Venezuela at Puerto Rico

Mexico at USA

Australia at Czech Republic

SATURDAY’S SCORES

Japan 10, Czech Republic 2

Chinese Taipei 9, Netherlands 5

Puerto Rico 9, Nicaragua 1

Colombia 5, Mexico 4

Venezuela 5, Dominican Republic 1

USA 6, Great Britain 2

Korea 7, Czech Republic 3

Cuba 7, Chinese Taipei 1

FRIDAY’S SCORES

Japan 13, Korea 4

Chinese Taipei 11, Italy 7

Australia 12, China 2

Panama 2, Italy 0

THURSDAY’S SCORES

Italy 6, Cuba 3

Japan 8, China 1

Czech Republic 8, China 5

Cuba 13, Panama 4

TODAY’S GAMES (all times Eastern)

Korea at China (6 a.m., FS2)

Dominican Republic at Nicaragua (Noon, FS2)

Colombia at Great Britain (3 p.m., FS2)

Israel at Puerto Rico (7 p.m., FS1)

Canada at USA (10 p.m., FS1)

Francisco Lindor went 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored in Puerto Rico’s 9-1 win over Nicaragua on Saturday in World Baseball Classic pool play.

Nelson Cruz, left, and Dominican Republic manager Rodney Linares

Ja Morant’s impact can be bigger than basketball

By KURT STREETER

Mary Wainwright does not know Ja Morant, but she prays for him, worries about him and wishes she could sit down with the troubled young NBA star to help “set him straight.”

Wainwright, a 64-year-old grandmother, is a community stalwart in Smokey City, a gunfire-strafed neighborhood in north Memphis, Tennessee. It is a short jog from FedExForum, the arena where Morant has worked magic during his four remarkable NBA seasons starring at point guard for the Grizzlies.

Over that stretch, Morant has risen to the upper reaches of the NBA firmament with little turbulence — until recently.

With his team battling for playoff position, Morant, 23, has been exiled for troubling off-court behavior that crested two weeks ago with the emergence of a video posted to social media that showed him brandishing what appeared to be a handgun at a Colorado strip club.

When will he return? The Grizzlies said he could be back on the court against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday, though NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, rightfully protective of his league’s image, may have other plans.

Among the clutch of young stars touted as future faces of the league, few, if any, have Morant’s daring on-court vibe — the jigsaw dribbling past stunned defenders; the shimmying, vaulting, dreads-flying dunks. The way he plays and his cocksure, beat-all-odds manner have led to a budding popularity in all corners of society.

That is why Morant’s situation is so important to think of in ways that go beyond hot takes about games missed or how his team will now fare in the playoffs. Gun violence touches every part of American society. But it has an outsize impact in Black and brown communities where Morant’s influence runs deepest.

And that is also why I reached out to Wainwright, a Black citizen deeply rooted in her community.

“Now you got young kids out there who are stirring up trouble, and they see him flashing a gun, and that just does more to convince them doing that is cool,” said Wainwright, who goes to church daily, keeps a watchful eye on the goings-on in Smokey City and attends two or three Grizzlies games a year, mainly to cheer Morant.

“We’ve just been through so much in this city,” she said, referring to the way violence continues to poison the streets and to the January killing of Tyre Nichols by a group of Memphis police officers. “Ja and the Grizzlies have been something good to hold onto. But now this … ” Her voice trailed off.

In case you haven’t been paying close attention, the Colorado contretemps was the latest misstep to tarnish Morant’s reputation over the last several months.

A heated February game between the Grizzlies and the Pacers was marred by verbal confrontations between some of Indiana’s players and Morant’s father and friend. After, an allegation arose that someone in Morant’s vehicle trained a red laser, potentially from a gun, toward the Pacers’ bus.

The Washington Post detailed reports of a run-in with

a security guard at a Memphis mall and of a fight with a teenager during a pickup game at Morant’s home. The fight ended, the teen told police, with Morant leaving and coming back with a gun. Morant denied the accusation and told police that the boy shouted the following threat as he fled: “I’m going to come back and light this place up like fireworks.”

None of this is good, of course — not the message conveyed, normalizing aggression with guns; not the optics for Morant, his team and the NBA.

“I’m going to take some time away to get help and work on learning better methods of dealing with stress and my overall well-being,” Morant said in a written apology last week.

Thinking about this column, I shuddered, recalling the way violence has left scars on my extended family. I recalled my years as a city reporter gumshoeing some of the most distressed communities in America. I have witnessed more than my share of bullet-riddled bodies and interviewed more than my share of families shortly after a loved one had been murdered. I watched the San Quentin execution of a man who shot and killed a housewife and a store owner.

Anyone brazenly flashing a gun angers me in a very personal way.

Searching for nuance about Morant, I reached a remarkable Memphis pastor, the Rev. Earle Fisher, of Abyssinian Baptist Church. We spoke of how some have branded Morant in the most unsparing terms possible. In some corners, he is now called a thug — and worse.

“For so many observers, it’s all one-dimensional,” Fisher said. “You are either a thug or an athlete, performing at the highest levels, with no bad days or mistakes.

“Fans celebrate Ja for that brashness on court, that chutzpah, that edge,” he added. “But the idea that some -

how this 23-year-old with millions of dollars is supposed to polish that edge in a short span of time and present himself, always, as some distinguished gentleman who never shows signs of his age, how does that make sense?”

It cannot be overlooked that to be young, Black and famous these days is to be ever aware of danger. There have been plenty of recent stories about young athletes being robbed at gunpoint. Former Celtics star Paul Pierce recently admitted he’d carried a gun, as is his right, because he felt he needed the protection after nearly being stabbed to death in a Boston nightclub.

Over the past few years, bright young rappers have been felled by bullets, including Young Dolph, who was shot to death at a cookie bakery 4 miles from the FedExForum last year.

To Morant, acting rough, tough and brazen may not have been just a form of pressure release, but a form of preemptive “don’t mess with me” self-defense.

I am not seeking to absolve Morant, but it is important to show a bit of the complexity of the situation he finds himself in, and the impact his choices can have on people who look like him.

Last week, I spoke with Mike Cummings, a former gang member better known in Watts, California, as Big Mike and now heralded for his work to bring peace to his community. Big Mike gave it to me straight.

“What Ja did in Colorado makes my job much more difficult,” he said. “A lot of these young people I’m trying to reach, they see Ja, and they say, ‘See, Mike? He still got the ’hood in him, and he made it as a pro ballplayer. Mike, see? I don’t have to change. Why can’t I keep my gun?’”

I hope Morant reads that quote, just as I hope we extend him grace, and just as I pray he comes to grips with the fact that what he says and does carries deep weight, however heavy and burdensome.

With the Grizzlies battling for playoff position, Ja Morant, 23, has been exiled from basketball for troubling off-court behavior.

Jonatan Ramos Director Funerario “Tus

Bud Grant, longtime Minnesota Vikings coach, dies at 95

By KEN BELSON

Bud Grant, the stoic, strait-laced Hall of Fame coach who led the Minnesota Vikings for 18 years, building a team that went to four Super Bowls and was one of best of the 1970s, died Saturday at his home in Bloomington, Minnesota. He was 95.

The Vikings announced Grant’s death.

A genial man in private, Grant often appeared silent and aloof at work. Wiry and svelte, with a prematurely gray flattop haircut, he had the air of an ascetic field general in an era when many coaches were known for their hard-driving and often histrionic personalities.

In 1967, after a successful 10-year run coaching in Canada, Grant took over a forlorn franchise that had limped through its first six seasons of existence. He quickly built it into a winner that, along with the Dallas Cowboys and the Los Angeles Rams, dominated the NFC through most of the 1970s.

He had a regular-season record of 158-96-5, for a .621 winning percentage, the second-most victories for a Vikings coach. His Vikings won 11 division titles and made it to four Super Bowls, but they never won; they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in 1970, the Miami Dolphins in 1974, the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1975 and the Oakland Raiders in 1977.

His teams were led by the celebrated defensive line known as the Purple People Eaters, headed by Alan Page and Carl Eller, and by an offense that included quarterback Fran Tarkenton and running back Chuck Foreman. He was named NFL coach of the year in 1969 and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1994. He won 10 or more games seven times between the 1969 and 1976 seasons.

Grant was popular with his players because, unlike his contemporaries, he rarely yelled. “They start getting screamed at when they’re in Little League,” he said of his team. “The ones who make it this far are pretty good at turning it off.”

At the time, the Vikings played outdoors in Bloomington, south of Minneapolis, and Grant used the winter weather to help create a home-field advantage. He had his team practice and play games there without gloves or sideline heaters. The players were not thrilled, but they understood his thinking.

And he often kept practices light so his players could save their physical and mental energy for games. Other coaches held two and sometimes three practices a day during training camp; Grant brought his team together a week later than most, and the players rarely scrimmaged. If an older player looked tired, he might get a day off.

Grant’s laissez-faire attitude extended to the regular season. He left the office in time to get home for dinner, anathema in a league filled with workaholic taskmasters. An avid hunter and fisher from childhood, he would get up at 4 a.m., be in a duck blind 20 minutes later, stay until 7:30 or 7:45 a.m., then go to his office.

“A good coach needs a patient wife, a loyal dog and a great quarterback, but not necessarily in that or-

der,” Grant wrote in The New York Times in 1984. “I happen to have been blessed with all three, and when I did happen to have any extra time I didn’t spend it with the quarterback.”

Some players, however, saw Grant as standoffish and cold. He had a reputation for telling players only what he thought they needed to know, and he didn’t think they needed to know much. Some of them, for instance, learned that they were starting on a Sunday not from Grant but from reporters.

“Bud was a coach that would not get too close to the players, but he was a player’s coach,” Paul Krause, a longtime Vikings safety, wrote in the Times in 1990. “We loved to play for Bud because he knew when to work us hard, but let us have fun at the same time. The current players are missing out on such experiences with their coaches and teammates, because big money has made it a bitter business.”

Unlike the best-known coaches of his era, including Don Shula, Tom Landry and Chuck Noll, Grant left quietly. He retired after the 1983 season at 56, seemingly eager to find out what life was like beyond football.

“I’ve spent every August since 1951 in training camp,” he said. “August is a blank. I have absolutely no idea of what people do in August, but I’m going to find out.”

But after his successor, Les Steckel, led the team to a disastrous 3-13 finish the next year, the team’s longtime owner, Max Winter, coaxed Grant into returning, offering him a lifetime contract and control over the

football operations. Grant said he came back not because he missed coaching or needed the money, but because he wanted to repair the Vikings’ image, which he had helped build over two decades.

After finishing with a 7-9 record in 1985, he retired a second time. He finished his career eighth in total coaching victories.

Despite retiring with the dubious distinction of having lost four Super Bowls, Grant said he had no regrets. “I’m not sure it bothers me as much as it might bother some other people,” he said.

Harry Peter Grant Jr. was born May 20, 1927, in Superior, Wisconsin, the oldest of six children. His father, a firefighter, practiced with the Duluth Eskimos, an early NFL team. His mother, Bernice Evelyn (Kielly) Grant, a homemaker, called her son Buddy Boy to distinguish him from her husband. Over time, the nickname was shortened to Bud.

After contracting polio as a boy, Grant strengthened his legs by shooting baskets and catching passes. By seventh grade, he was organizing football games between neighborhoods; in high school, he was a football, basketball and baseball star. Between high school and college, he served in the Navy. At the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, he played football for Paul Brown and basketball for Weeb Ewbank, both of whom went on to coach in the NFL.

At the University of Minnesota, Grant was a twotime all-Big Ten receiver in football, a two-year baseball star and a three-year basketball regular. He never finished his degree, opting instead for a career in sports.

Although a first-round draft choice of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1950, Grant delayed his NFL debut to play for the Minneapolis Lakers of the NBA midway through his senior year in college. He played two seasons as a backup and was part of a title-winning team his rookie year.

In 1951, he joined the Eagles. At 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, Grant played defensive end as a rookie and became a receiver his second season; he caught 56 passes in 1952, the second-most in the league.

After a contract dispute, Grant joined the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League, becoming the first professional player to play out his option and leave for another team. A receiver and cornerback with the Blue Bombers, he led the Western Conference in pass receptions in three of his four seasons with the team. In one playoff game, he intercepted a record five passes.

At 29, Grant was named Winnipeg’s head coach, and in 10 seasons (1957-66) he compiled a 102-56-2 regular-season record and won four Grey Cup championship games. He was voted CFL coach of the year in 1965 and was elected to the CFL Hall of Fame in 1983.

Grant’s wife, Pat, died in 2009. He is survived by their two daughters, Kathy Fritz and Laurie Tangert, and three sons, Harry (known as Peter), Mike and Dan. Another son, Bruce, died in 2018. He is also survived by a brother, Jack; 20 grandchildren; and 21 great-grandchildren.

Bud Grant, who became head coach of the Minnesota Vikings in 1967, behind quarterback Tommy Kramer in 1978.

Sudoku

How to Play:

Fill in the empty fields with the numbers from 1 through 9.

Sudoku Rules:

Every row must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Every column must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Every 3x3 square must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Aries (Mar 21-April 20)

Get ready to try something different, Aries. An idea could save you money or make you money. Wondering about a useful skill? It may be time to put it to work. You’ll have plenty of bright ideas today, but might need a push to get going. As the Sun continues in Pisces, there’s still time to clean the slate for when it enters your sign in about nine days. Then it’s all systems go!

Taurus (April 21-May 21)

You may be drawn to anything that enhances your perspective on life. The coming days can be exciting, perhaps because an encounter leaves you feeling liberated. There might be one person you feel at ease with almost right away because they don’t judge you, and this is why they could be great to be around. You may find yourself confiding in them, even if you’ve only just met.

Gemini (May 22-June 21)

You may know more than you think, as you’ll find out over the coming days. It’s amazing how much knowledge is stored in your subconscious mind that stays underground. A bright and insightful Mercury aspect could relay vital information, just when you need it most. A phone number, password, name or address could flash into awareness, helping to save the day.

Cancer (June 22-July 23)

A call out-of-the-blue from someone you haven’t seen or heard from in a while, could be a surprise. You’ll be even more intrigued if they have a suggestion to make. They may ask something of you that is quite unbelievable. And it might be because you’re the only one who can do it. You might have doubts, but they believe in your totally. Prove them right, Cancer!

Leo (July 24-Aug 23)

Be the change you want to see in the world, Leo. Ideas that have been gathering steam are ready to burst into the open, and the Mercury/Uranus aspect can help you deliver them in a way that breaks with tradition and makes everyone take notice. What would you like to see happen? Be the leader and others will follow. Don’t wait! Take the initiative, and you’re well on your way.

Virgo (Aug 24-Sep 23)

Following someone’s advice could be so good for you today, especially if it encourages you to do things you’ve never done before. New to an experience? That’s great Virgo! Dive right in and see where it takes you. You’ll also benefit from digging a little deeper and considering how you feel about a situation. If you’re hanging on too tightly, it may be time to let it all go.

Libra (Sep 24-Oct 23)

You can’t be the only person who has a particular issue. And yet it might feel like it. If you’re willing to reach out and talk this over, you won’t feel so alone. Sharing your experiences could bring insights and solutions that make a world of difference. And friendships that result from this can be a source of comfort and support for a long time to come. Dare to reach out!

Scorpio (Oct 24-Nov 22)

Looking for stimulation? You need a chance to explore and see what you come up with. The newer and more original it is, the better, Scorpio. And if you pair up with someone for an outing, you’ll have a great time and enjoy experiences that you’ll want to repeat in the future. Encounters can be enlightening, and you’ll come away with ideas you’ll be keen to explore.

Sagittarius (Nov 23-Dec 21)

There’s so much adventure to be had, and this is the time to go in search of it. While you could be fretting about other issues, it would be a waste of energy when you have so much going for you. What makes you happy? Follow the trail and see where it leads. Whether it’s a place, a person or new knowledge, there’s much to thrill you. This isn’t a day to stay in, but to get out and live.

Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 20)

Opportunities, as well as romance, can show up in the strangest of circumstances. And trying something different may have a very positive influence on your life. Seeds could be planted that will blossom over coming weeks and months. A new hobby might put you in touch with friends who are on your wavelength, you may meet that special person or discover your passion.

Aquarius (Jan 21-Feb 19)

To shine at your brightest, you may need to let go of something that is causing you angst. It might be something that runs along in the background, that you have become so used to you don’t usually notice it. Now and again though, you’ll be very aware of it. And like today, it may be to the fore. Take action, or refuse to let it bother you. Either way, you’ll feel so much happier.

Pisces (Feb 20-Mar 20)

Have a brilliant idea, but doubt that anyone will listen? Go ahead anyway! This is the right moment to bring an element of surprise into a conversation, and for being open to some honest feedback. You may find others less judgemental than you thought. Subjecting your imaginative musings to others’ practical scrutiny, could result in useful conversations that get you excited.