Tuesday Mar 21, 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.

Contractor says he paid kickbacks to ex-Guaynabo mayor

By THE STAR STAFF

Businessman Oscar Santamaría Torres acknowledged on Monday that he paid kickbacks to former Guaynabo Mayor Ángel Pérez Otero to obtain and maintain his waste disposal contracts with the city.

Santamaría made the admission during the continuation of the trial against Pérez Otero in U.S. District Court amid accusations of corruption.

“I’m here because I made illegal payments to the former mayor of Guaynabo in exchange for contracts and benefits,” he said during prosecutors’ questioning.

The prosecution has presented to the jury videos and photos in which Santamaría allegedly appears to be discussing the payment of bribes to Pérez Otero or simply handing over the money.

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hicle, Santamaría was shown appearing to give another $5,000 in cash to Pérez Otero.

The former mayor’s defense is that the payments were not bribes but rather payments for campaign debts.

“There is nothing new here,” Pérez Otero said as he left the court at noon. “It’s all [what] has come out in the press.”

On at least one occasion, the digital evidence shows Santamaría saying that they had him “hanged” in the Finance office of the Municipality of Guaynabo, that they had “caught” almost 600 (he does not specify if it is $600,000) and warns the then-mayor about amounts in the invoices for work performed.

Santamaría, who bribed the mayors of Aguas Buenas, Trujillo Alto, Naguabo and Cataño, first recorded Pérez Otero on May 19, 2021 after he met with federal prosecutors who had notified him that he was under investigation. FBI investigators arranged a video showing Santamaría allegedly giving Pérez Otero an envelope with $5,000 in cash, making the delivery under the table at a cafeteria.

Santamaría indicated that he gave monthly bribes to the former mayor to maintain contracts for his Island Builders company. Supposedly, Pérez Otero intervened illegally to expedite those payments to the company.

In another video encounter, this time inside a ve-

“I would receive better payment treatment when I had problems with the bills; I would talk to Ángel, and he would talk to the right people so they would pay me,” Santamaría said, according to press coverage of the trial in federal court.

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia said in a press conference Monday that he is optimistic that the most recent cases of corruption have come to light publicly, including the case against Pérez Otero.

“Here, what is positive within the negative or the controversy is that all this is coming to light,” the governor said. “I hope this serves as a deterrent for other mayors so they do not fall into this type of conduct. In the same way, that it serves as a deterrent so that contractors that have [contracts with] the government, both at the central and municipal levels, do not fall into this type of scheme, which is illegal.”

Bill filed to make school nurses permanent employees

By THE STAR STAFF

At-large Rep. José Enrique “Quiquito”

Meléndez Ortiz and Rep. Jesús Santa Rodríguez have filed a bill that grants the designation of regular career employee to school nurses with more than six months of work to their credit.

House Bill 1657, submitted at the request of a private citizen, Abdiel Onil Rodríguez Rodríguez, also establishes a monthly salary of $3,000 for the aforementioned workers.

“This is a bill, submitted through the citizen petition mechanism, which we evaluate and believe to be meritorious, which provides wage justice and job security to

school nurses,” Meléndez Ortiz said. “I hope that this measure, filed on March 9, 2023, will be evaluated on its merits and the need to retain these professionals who provide a vital service for the academic development of our students.”

The legislation amends the Puerto Rico Education Reform Act in order to grant the status of regular employee in the career service to those who, as of June 30, 2023, have worked as school nurses for a period not less than six months. In addition, it establishes that the base salary of school nurses in the public education system will begin at $3,000 per month.

The Department of Education has a school nursing program that positively im-

pacts students, their caregivers, school staff and the entire community in general through the services it provides. Its functions include: studying the health problems of the student, offering recommendations for the management of health conditions of students during school hours, developing educational projects in partnership with public and private agencies, and addressing health situations that mean risk of infection and transmission of diseases among the school population.

The program also helps students educationally through the programming of instructional talks aimed at the prevention of diseases, and the promotion and maintenance of health for students and parents.

By THE STAR STAFF

Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón has joined Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) in introducing bipartisan legislation that modernizes the outdated National Weather Service (NWS) communications system that disseminates critical and sensitive information to broadcasters, emergency managers and the general public during severe weather events.

As part of the modernization of the Integrated Outreach Program, the NWS has identified several critical systematic

upgrades to its emergency communications operation, including the need to replace the NWSChat instant messaging program.

“In Iowa, we know that severe weather can happen at any time,” Feenstra. “From straights (long-lasting windstorms) and tornadoes to blizzards and flooding, it is vital that the National Weather Service has a functional and reliable emergency communications system that keeps people informed and out of harm’s way during severe storms.”

“For decades, the highly outdated NWSChat has failed our stations, emergency responders and the general public,” the lawmaker added. “This must change.”

González Colón added that “having accurate weather information is vital for residents and first responders to prepare for an upcoming weather disturbance and react immediately to conditions that can change rapidly during the event.”

“The National Weather Service must communicate through a proven, well-supported platform that can be trusted at critical times,” she said.

Specifically, the National Weather Service’s Communications Improvement Act would direct the NWS director to review and select a business alternative to NWSChat that prioritizes reliability and safety.

Resident commissioner cosponsors bill to modernize NWS communications system AES Puerto Rico, PRIDCO report losses

By THE STAR STAFF

The Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO) and AES Puerto Rico, an energy supplier, have reported losses to the market.

AES Puerto Rico recorded an operating loss of $460.1 million at the close of fiscal year (FY) 2021 on June 30, 2021. Ernst & Young conducted the audit and classified the firm as a going concern because of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s (PREPA) bankruptcy, which has impacted the partnership, and the island’s ban on coal ash deposits. AES Puerto Rico operates a 454.3-megawatt coal-fired power facility that sells electricity to PREPA.

The operating loss at the close of FY21 was 1,343% deeper than the estimated $37 million active income posted at the end of FY20, the audited financial statement filed on March 16 notes. The revenue loss is due to a 200.9% increase in total costs and expenses, which rose to $762.9 million in FY21 from $253.5 million in FY20. The report notes that the amount in revenues was $302.8 million in FY21, or 4% higher than the $290.5 million recorded in FY20.

On March 9, Moody’s Investor Service, as reported by the STAR, downgraded AES Puerto Rico’s senior secured bonds because of the increased likelihood the energy provider may not be able to meet the June 1 debt service payment.

Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the bonds to

Caa2 from Caa1.

Meanwhile, PRIDCO reported that it only leased 15.9 million square feet of industrial space at the close of FY21, or 45.1% of its 23 million square feet.The information comes from an Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA) filing released on March 17. Of the total 23 million square feet of industrial space owned by PRIDCO, it had 3.2 million square feet leased under restrictive conditions. In comparison, 3.9 million square feet were vacant, according to the report. PRIDCO had about 189 industrial parks as of June 2021.Of the total vacant space, 2 million square feet was available for lease and 1.9 million square feet was reserved for prospective tenants for future negotiations, according to the document.

PRIDCO’s top industrial tenant is Microsoft, which pays annual rent of $5.8 million for 98,302 square feet in three different leases. The report said other tenants include Coopervision, Eaton Corp., Honeywell, Baxter International and the island Department of Economic Development and Commerce. PRIDCO had a total debt of $709.9 million at the close of FY21, the report said.

A bill filed in the island House of Representatives would grant regular career employee status to eligible school nurses and establish a monthly salary of $3,000.

Special independent prosecutor to look into possible misuse of funds by ex-Education chief, subordinates

By THE STAR STAFF

The Office of the Special Independent Prosecutor Panel (OPFEI by its Spanish initials) has agreed to investigate former Education Secretary Eligio Hernández Pérez for allegedly misusing public funds, the agency announced Monday.

The OPFEI’s decision followed a complaint from a letter sent by the Financial Oversight and Management Board to Justice Secretary Domingo Emanuelli Hernández.

Besides Hernández Pérez, who was Education secretary from June 2019 to December 2020, the OPFEI agreed to investigate three other former Education Department officials: Osvaldo Guzmán López, a former assistant secretary of administration; Carlos M. Malavé Irizarry, a former assistant secretary of the Office of Auxiliary Services; and Evelyn Rodríguez Carde, a former finance director.

The OPFEI will determine if crimes were committed when the then-officials authorized payments for leased

Justice

premises whose contracts were not current. After receiving the letter from the oversight board, Emanuelli

recommended the appointment of a special independent prosecutor after investigating the allegations.

The Special Independent Prosecutor Panel appointed Manuel E. Núñez Corrada as the special independent prosecutor and Emilio E. Arill García as a delegated prosecutor.

From the Preliminary Investigation Report by the Division of Public Integrity and Comptroller Affairs (DIPAC by its Spanish acronym), the oversight board’s legal adviser, Jaime A. El Koury, sent the findings to the Justice chief to evaluate various Education contracts.

The board claimed that Education illegally disbursed a considerable amount of public funds, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars, for rental payments on properties whose contracts were not current.

Once the DIPAC finished its investigation, it concluded that the evidence collected tended to demonstrate that the Education officials could have violated Articles 262 and 264 of the Penal Code.

The OPFEI evaluated the DIPAC report with the compiled evidence and granted the prosecutors a term of 90 days to delve deeper into the inquiry.

chief recommends special independent prosecutor in case of alleged corruption in Ponce

By THE STAR STAFF

Justice Secretary Domingo Emanuelli Hernández recommended Monday that the Office of the Special Independent Prosecutor Panel (OPFEI by its Spanish initials) appoint a special independent prosecutor (FEI) to investigate Ponce Mayor Luis Manuel Irizarry Pabón for allegedly soliciting money contributions from trust employees in violation of various legal provisions.

Emanuelli Hernández accepted the recommendation of the Justice Department’s Division of Public Integrity and Comptroller

Affairs (DIPAC by its Spanish initials) and sent the OPFEI the case file and the report on the preliminary investigation by the DIPAC and the Bureau of Special investigations.

“At the Department of Justice, we continue to combat public corruption that affects both government operations and citizens,” the Justice secretary said in a written statement. “Anyone who steals from the people or violates their trust will be held accountable.”

According to the report on the preliminary investigation, the evidence collected showed that the Ponce mayor, through

intimidation, managed to get his subordinates to provide financial contributions and make payments on a personal loan whose purpose was to partially cover the expenses of his political campaign. Likewise, the evidence established that, prior to assuming the position of mayor, Irizarry Pabón received illegal donations that he did not report in the quarterly reports he filed with the Office of the Elections Comptroller, among others.

The Justice Department’s preliminary investigation began with a communication received from the Puerto Rico Comptroller’s Office, which was referred to the Justice secretary.

Man charged in new fraud scheme through Instagram

By THE STAR STAFF

The Department of Justice and the Puerto Rico Police Bureau on Monday revealed a new fraud scheme executed through the social network Instagram, using the photo deposit mechanism, which has caused millions of dollars in losses to banking institutions on the island.

“The scheme consists of a person contacting users through said social network, by direct message, offering them from $1,000 to $1,500 in exchange for providing their bank account number and credentials of the application of the banking institution to deposit an amount of money. Once the user facilitates access, the person makes the photo deposit of a check in their

account,” said Rodney Ríos Medina, director of the Justice Department’s Economic Crimes Division. “Subsequently, the owner of the account withdraws the money before the institution detects the fraud and restricts transactions.”

The alleged perpetrator in the case is Ángel J. Morales Medina, who was charged with aggravated illegal appropriation, fraud and possession and transfer of forged documents under Puerto Rico’s Criminal Code.

Morales Medina executed the scheme and deposited a check belonging to the commercial account of an insurance company, illegally appropriating an amount exceeding $7,600, according to an investigation by agent Abraham Lebrón Hernández of the Police Bureau’s Division of Banking Theft and Fraud

Investigations, Financial and Cooperative Institutions, along with prosecutor Jahnny Rodríguez Malavé of the Economic Crimes Division.

After evaluating the evidence presented by prosecutors Yolanda Rodríguez Torres and Elimaris Rivera Martínez, San Juan Superior Court Judge Brenda Sala Rivera determined cause for arrest and imposed a bail on the accused of $30,000. Morales Medina faces a sentence of eight years in prison. The preliminary hearing was scheduled for March 30.

Police Lt. José Ayala reminded citizens that “sharing passwords to access their bank accounts, as well as any personal information, including social security and account number, increases your risk of becoming a victim of fraud.”

Former Education Secretary Eligio Hernández Pérez

Cruz Miguel Ortiz Cuadra, face of Puerto Rican culinary history, dies at 67

By CHRISTINA MORALES

Cruz Miguel Ortiz Cuadra, a food historian who as Puerto Rico’s leading gastronomy expert sought to define the island’s cuisine and educate the world about it, died March 8 in San Juan. He was 67.

His brother Carlos Ortiz Cuadra confirmed the death, in a hospital. He said that Ortiz Cuadra had recently had a heart attack, and that he had lung cancer last year, which had been in remission.

Ortiz Cuadra first became interested in food history as a student at Ruskin College in Oxford, England, said Crystal Díaz, a graduate student of his at the University of Puerto Rico. Passing by a food symposium, he decided to attend on a whim. Experts were talking about the roots of certain foods and their traditions, a kind of discourse he had never heard in Puerto Rico.

When he returned to the island to complete his doctorate in history at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan, he decided to write his dissertation on the basic ingredients of the territory’s gastronomy.

That report ended up as the basis for one of the island’s most important books on its gastronomy: “Eating Puerto Rico: A History of Food, Culture and Identity,” published in Spanish in 2006 and in English in 2013. That book, which supplied the political and economic context to the production and consumption of particular foods, became one of the primary resources on the roots of Puerto Rican food.

“At the time, anything about food was women’s work,” Díaz said, adding that people didn’t understand “the value that food history can have on our society.”

Through his books, podcasts, speaking engagements and university teaching, Ortiz Cuadra became the face of the island’s food history.

His last book was “From Oller’s Plantains to Food Trucks: Food, Eating, and Puerto Rican Cuisine in Essays and Recipes,” published in Spanish in 2020.

He helped spearhead a successful project to have roast pork declared a part of the island’s gastronomic heritage, Díaz said, creating the first and only certificate program in Puerto Rican gastronomic patrimony, which was supported by the Center of Advanced Studies of Puerto

Rico.

Ortiz Cuadra’s research often uncovered little-known facts that led to the reassessment of culinary assumptions. For example, Díaz said, in his latest research he discovered that the island’s Spanish colonizers didn’t make a distinction between bananas and plantains — which means that it is actually unknown which arrived in the Americas first.

Ortiz Cuadra grew up with an early appreciation for food, his brother Carlos said. When their mother cooked, she called her children over so that they could learn her recipes for classic Puerto Rican dishes like arroz con pollo.

“It was something that gave him that interest for his future,” Carlos Ortiz Cuadra said.

Family activities were centered on food, especially Ortiz Cuadra’s cooking, his brother said. His cooking was very similar to their mother’s, but he also had an interest in Spanish cuisine.

“When he invited us to his house, it was an invitation to eat well,” Carlos Ortiz Cuadra said.

Cruz Miguel Ortiz Cuadra was born June 9, 1955, in Fort Benning, Georgia, where his father, Humberto Ortiz Gordils, was in the Army. The family returned to Puerto Rico in 1957, and Ortiz Gordils later became a lawyer. His mother, Providencia Cuadra Garcia, was a homemaker.

He is survived by his wife, Anita González; three brothers, Carlos, Humberto and Geraldo; and two sisters, Vanessa and María Carolina Ortiz Cuadra.

Ortiz Cuadra taught humanities, with a focus on food, at the University of Puerto Rico and had recently retired. He mentored students and chefs and was known for making his food research accessible to anyone who asked.

He also wrote about the island’s culinary history for 80 Grados, an online publication, where he recently used the Spanish cliche “as simple as rice and

beans” as a jumping-off point to discuss the history of the dish and explain why making it properly can actually be complicated.

He once wrote a piece on the history of food trucks in Puerto Rico, explaining how self-proclaimed “foodies” and readily available online culinary history contributed to their growth on the island. His books and research have been used to find solutions to Puerto Rico’s food insecurity, which stems from the island’s reliance on imported products. He worked on a project to help identify native and naturalized ingredients in order to preserve and propagate them. Chefs use his work on Puerto Rican ingredients to curate their menus and to have their staffs explain the dishes.

He not only taught the Puerto Rican culinary history certification program, he also helped his former students create projects that would help lead the island to food independence. And he had strong relationships with restaurateurs, chefs, mom-and-pop shops, farmers and home cooks.

“There was not another scholar or mentor who did that kind of educational, more pedagogical work,” said Mónica Ocasio Vega, a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin who adopted him as a mentor.

As a chef, María Mercedes Grubb, a restaurant consultant and a former owner of the Gallo Negro restaurant in San Juan, was always curious about the history of the food she ate. Ortiz Cuadra, she said, “seemed to be the only person who had those answers.”

Grubb said that Ortiz Cuadra’s work was a reminder for her to reconnect with her roots and to ask questions of her family, like how her mother in the Dominican Republic cooked without an oven, or how she stored food without a refrigerator. Her knowledge, stemming from his research, allowed her to learn how to make a dish and then gave her the confidence to put her own spin on it.

He was, she said, Puerto Rico’s living version of Larousse Gastronomique, the culinary encyclopedia.

“I didn’t know anybody who had that amount of wealth of knowledge about the history of our food,” Grubb said. She was, she said, recently left wondering, “What didn’t we get from him, and who’s going to carry that torch?”

Cruz Miguel Ortíz Cuadra in 2018. He sought to define Puerto Rican cuisine and educate the world about it. (Photo by Rafael Ruiz Mederos/The New York Times)

Out of power, Trump still exerts it

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

Since Donald Trump left office, Democrats and a smaller number of Republicans have vowed to ensure that he never recaptures the White House, where he would regain enormous power over the nation and around the globe.

Yet, in his insistence on forging ahead with a campaign while facing multiple criminal investigations, his dismissiveness toward supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression and his continued provocations on social media and in campaign speeches, Trump has shown that he does not need control over the levers of government to have an effect on the country — and, in the minds of many, to do damage.

To those who believed that the secret to banishing Trump was to deprive him of attention — that ignoring him would make him go away — he has shown that to be wishful thinking.

To fully understand that, one need look no further than the events of Saturday. The day began with a 7:26 a.m. post by Trump on his social media site, Truth Social, declaring that he would be arrested Tuesday, even though the timing remains uncertain, and calling on people to “protest” and “take our nation back.”

The effect was like that of a starter’s gun: It prompted Republican leaders to rush to Trump’s side and to attack the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, who has indicated he is likely to bring charges against Trump in connection with 2016 hush money payments to a porn star who said she’d had an affair with him.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Trump ally, wrote on Twitter that Bragg’s investigation was an “abuse of power” and that he would direct congressional committees to investigate whether any federal money was involved — a thinly veiled threat at a key moment before Bragg makes his plans clear.

A crush of other Republicans denounced the expected charges as politically motivated. They included one declared presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, and one potential candidate who has not yet formally entered the primary field, former Vice President Mike Pence.

It was lost on no one that the investigations Trump is facing include a Justice Department probe of his efforts to stay in power in the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters, several of whom have told prosecutors that they felt summoned to Washington by a tweet from Trump the previous month.

Authorities in New York City were already preparing for possible unrest in response to an indictment before Trump’s Saturday morning call to action. And while some Republicans did not echo his call for protests while defending him, relatively few publicly objected to them. McCarthy on Sunday seemed to split the difference, saying he did not believe people should protest an indictment and did not think Trump really believed they should, either, according to NBC News.

“There is a lot of power in the presidency, which is dangerous in the hands of a self-interested demagogue,” said David Axelrod, a veteran Democratic strategist and former adviser to President Barack Obama. “But as we’ve seen, there are also some institutional constraints. Without those, there are no guardrails around

Trump. And the more embattled he feels, the more inclined he’ll be to inflame mob action.”

Already, Trump’s hold on the party has far outlasted his time in office. While the 2022 midterms revealed his weaknesses in picking candidates who could win a general election and his failure to focus on issues appealing to a broader group of voters, he nonetheless has continued to bend the GOP to his will.

Not being the incumbent means Trump lacks the ultimate platform from which to summon his followers, as well as the trappings of power that so appealed to some of those who most vocally

support him.

But Trump’s strength as president never derived entirely from the office itself. He had spent decades building a fan base across the country and portraying himself as synonymous with success in business, though that image was as much artifice as fact.

For years, Trump moved in some of New York’s power circles even as other elites shunned him. He has decadeslong ties, for example, to New York law enforcement officials whose agencies would play a role in providing security during an eventual indictment, arrest or arraignment.

Dennis Quirk, the head of the court officers association, once advised Trump on construction of the Wollman Rink, the ice skating rink in Central Park whose renovation was crucial to Trump’s selling of himself as an innovator.

Trump was endorsed by the nation’s largest police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, in 2020. And his long-serving personal aide, Keith Schiller, was a New York City police detective.

Among those assailing the Manhattan district attorney Saturday was Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, who took part in efforts to keep Trump in power after the 2020 election and has known him since Trump was mainly a New York real estate developer.

“At some point, local, state, and federal law enforcement officers need to stand up and walk out, if they’re forced to engage in illegal political persecutions!” Kerik wrote on Twitter. “You cannot break the law to enforce it, and that is exactly what @ManhattanDA is doing.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks during a Friends of Ireland caucus St. Patrick’s Day luncheon at the Capitol in Washington on Friday, March 17, 2023. McCarthy said he would seek an investigation of whether the Manhattan district attorney used any federal money in the Trump inquiry.

COVID politics leave a Florida public hospital shaken

By PATRICIA MAZZEI

The turmoil at Sarasota Memorial, one of Florida’s largest public hospitals, began last year after three candidates running on a platform of “health freedom” won seats on the nine-member board that oversees the hospital. Board meetings, once sleepy, started drawing hundreds of angry people who, like the new members, denounced the hospital’s treatment protocols for COVID-19.

An internal review last month found that Sarasota Memorial did far better than some of its competitors in saving COVID patients’ lives. But that did little to quell detractors, whose campaign against the hospital has not relented. By then, the hospital had become the latest public institution under siege by an increasingly large and vocal right-wing contingent in one of Florida’s most affluent counties, where a backlash to pandemic policies has started reshaping local government.

Some members of the Sarasota County Public Hospital Board and medical staff at Sarasota Memorial are bewildered and taken aback by critics’ continued preoccupation with COVID policy — chiefly the avoidance of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, drugs found to be ineffective or even harmful as COVID treatments.

“Most hospitals around the country are over COVID,” said Dr. James V. Fiorica, the hospital’s chief medical officer. “We’ve proven ourselves. Why aren’t we moving on?”

People who are part of the “health freedom” movement object to the fact that Sarasota Memorial closely followed guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, which do not recommend using ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine in treating COVID patients. Sarasota Memorial did allow those drugs as treatments, the review said, but only with a staff physician’s order and, eventually, a waiver.

Board meetings in recent months have drawn speakers who lost loved ones to COVID, though some appear not to live in the Sarasota area or to have had relatives treated for COVID at Sarasota Memorial, according to the hospital.

Harsh and misleading comments about the hospital and its doctors — including that a cardiovascular surgeon would not operate on patients who had not received the coronavirus vaccine — have been uttered in public forums or posted on review websites like Google, Yelp and Healthgrades. Michael Flynn,

former President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, who is now a Sarasota resident with a devoted following, attended the hospital board’s February meeting and wrote on Twitter that it “may be time to privatize this hospital.”

A Facebook group called Sarasota Memorial Hospital –Transparency Project has said that the hospital should no longer be protected by a legal immunity shield that limits malpractice payouts to $200,000 to $300,000 per incident at Florida public hospitals.

The furor culminated last month in a disinformation-fueled campaign of insulting voicemail and emails to the hospital staff. “Traitorous,” one woman said in her expletive-laden message reviewed by The New York Times. “You’re going to be punished,” a man warned. When commenters on the Telegram app appeared to threaten the lives of two Sarasota Memorial doctors, using their names, the hospital called the police.

Although the abusive calls and emails have dwindled over recent weeks, the pressure campaign against the hospital has not let up. Before the next board meeting on Monday, several rightwing groups have planned a news conference to further criticize the “egregious recklessness” of the hospital’s COVID treatment protocols and to demand outside investigations, including by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis, a Republican and likely presidential candidate, has built his political persona in large part around being an early skeptic of federal COVID policies, promoting “medical freedom.”

At an event on Thursday, to mark three years since the first pandemic closures of schools and other institutions, he checked off the ways in which his administration had resisted extended lockdowns and mask and vaccine mandates.

“They were wrong about almost everything,” he said of public health experts during an event in Winter Haven, in Central Florida. He did not refer to Sarasota or its hospital.

Not long ago, Sarasota County, home to the artsy city of Sarasota on Florida’s Gulf Coast, looked like one of several sub-

urban pockets of the state that were politically conservative but trending more liberal. Tramm Hudson, a longtime Republican who has been on the county hospital board since 2015 and is now its chair, said Sarasota residents used to be largely “Teddy Roosevelt Republicans” who prioritized small government and environmental conservation.

“It was really because of the Midwestern influence of people coming down I-75,” moving to Sarasota from places like Illinois and Michigan, he said. “And today it’s an entirely different Republican Party.”

Victor Rohe, one of the board members elected on the “health freedom” slate last year, said that he did not support privatizing the hospital; its status as a public hospital with an elected board allows outsiders to “peek” at how it handled COVID, he said, which would not be possible with private hospitals that do not have to answer to open records laws or candidates like himself winning board seats to direct policy.

Rohe said that he and the other new board members do not want to force doctors to prescribe treatments they “do not believe in” or that go against their medical judgment. But, he added, “We feel that a person’s health decisions should be made by that person in consultation with their physician. We don’t feel that it should be made one-size-fits-all, made in Washington, or by some insurance company.”

Rohe, a former New York City police officer who has lived in Sarasota for 26 years, said he was recruited to run the day before the qualifying deadline by a friend — a Sarasota resident, conservative activist and former physician who was admitted to Sarasota Memorial for COVID treatment in 2021. Afterward, the friend produced a widely shared video in which he characterized he and the other patient in his room, who the friend said eventually died, as prisoners at the hospital receiving poor care.

“If it wasn’t for that incident, we would not be on the board,” Rohe said.

He said the hospital had dismissed concerns about its COVID protocols from ordinary taxpayers who did not feel like Sarasota Memorial, a 901-bed facility, was catering to their needs.

“Nobody wants to talk about that,” Rohe said. “So the people who elected us, they’re saying, ‘Hey, listen, we want to see evidence. We want to know facts. We’re not interested in PR. We’re not interested in so much credentials or what the government wants.’”

The hospital’s internal COVID review, which took more than 70 people and 850 hours to compile and compared data such as patient outcomes with that from some 1,300 other hospitals across the country, found fewer deaths and shorter stays for Sarasota Memorial COVID patients.

“The numbers speak for themselves,” Hudson, the board chair, said.

Still, Rohe and another new board member voted not to accept the report — the other members did — and questioned its validity. “What they tried to do is cherry-pick statistics to show what a great hospital this is,”

Rohe said.

Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Fla. on Thursday, March 17, 2023. Staff members of Sarasota Memorial Hospital are bewildered by critics waging a campaign against federal guidelines on COVID treatment.

Calle Barbosa #182 (frente al Cuartel de la Policia Estatal), Las Piedras PR

Lab leak or not? How politics shaped the battle over COVID’s origin

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and BENJAMIN MUELLER

In the spring of 2021, with studies of the coronavirus pandemic’s origins going nowhere and the issue embroiled in bitter partisan politics, David Relman, a microbiologist at Stanford, quietly made a request of his congresswoman.

He told his representative, Anna Eshoo, that he was organizing a letter from leading scientists calling for an open and independent investigation into the origins of COVID-19 — including into whether it had come from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. He wanted to know if she would publicly endorse the idea.

The outreach worked. As soon as the letter appeared online in the prestigious journal Science, Eshoo became one of the first Democrats in Congress to call for an investigation into the origins of COVID.

It was the prelude to a political sea change on the issue: Within weeks, President Joe Biden ordered a top-to-bottom intelligence review of how the pandemic began, which has since come to mixed conclusions.

The story of the hunt for COVID’s origin is partly about the stonewalling by China that has left scientists with incomplete evidence, all of it about a virus that is constantly changing. For all the data suggesting that the virus may have jumped into people from wild animals at a Chinese market, conclusive proof remains out of reach, as it does for the competing hypothesis that the virus leaked from a lab.

But the story is also about politics and how both Democrats and Republicans have filtered the available evidence through their partisan lenses.

Some Republicans grew fixated on idea of a lab leak after former President Donald Trump raised it in the early months of the pandemic despite scant evidence supporting it. That turned the theory toxic for many Democrats, who viewed it as an effort by Trump to distract from his administration’s failings in containing the spread of the virus.

The intense political debate, now in its fourth year, has at times turned scientists into lobbyists, competing for policymakers’ time and favor. Relman is just one of several researchers and like-minded thinkers who has successfully worked the corridors of power in Washington to force journalists, policymakers and skeptical Democrats to take the lab leak idea seriously.

But the political momentum has not always aligned with the evidence. Even as the

idea of an accidental lab leak has now gained standing in Washington, findings reported last week bolstered the market theory. Mining a trove of genetic data taken from swabs at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan in early 2020, virus experts said they found samples containing genetic material from both the coronavirus and illegally traded raccoon dogs. The finding, while hardly conclusive, pointed to an infected animal.

The new data from the market suggests that China is holding onto clues that could reshape the debate. But for now, at least, the idea of a lab leak seems to have prevailed in the court of public opinion: Two recent polls show that roughly two-thirds of Americans believe that COVID probably started in a lab.

‘Conspiracy theories’

In January 2020, as the virus began circulating in Wuhan, Matthew Pottinger, a deputy national security adviser to Trump who had worked as a reporter in China, developed suspicions about the Wuhan Institute of Virology, known for its advanced research on bat coronaviruses.

Pottinger quietly made a formal request asking intelligence officials to investigate the new outbreak.

In Washington’s polarized ecosystem, the notion that the virus could have come from the Wuhan lab was seeping into public debate. On Capitol Hill, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., raised the idea in a Senate hearing and on Twitter.

Around that same time, according to emails disclosed later, some American virus experts privately told health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, then the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, that the virus could have been engineered in a lab, but required more study.

When they examined data, including on

naturally occurring viruses that shared critical features with the new virus, they concluded the opposite. In a study, they wrote that the virus was “not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.”

The study also said the virus was unlikely to have evolved in the course of certain laboratory experiments. (It did not look closely at whether a scientist collecting or isolating a natural virus could have accidentally released it, a hypothesis for which there remains no direct evidence.)

Those findings reinforced the view from a February 2020 letter in The Lancet in which scientists, worried that lab leak fears threatened data sharing from China, condemned “conspiracy theories” about

a lab-related origin.

Prominent scientists may have been publicly aligned, but the president did not share their view. At the end of April 2020, Trump announced that he had seen intelligence that supported a lab leak but was “not allowed” to share it. Pottinger said that he did not recall briefing Trump on the origins question, and that he did not see the president’s comment coming. Democrats showed little inclination to investigate the pandemic’s origins. Like the president’s references to the “China virus,” his suggestion of a lab leak sounded to them like xenophobia and risked fueling anti-Asian sentiment. They trusted Fauci, who had said that the evidence strongly suggested that the virus had not been manipulated. (He has since said

Jamie Metzl, a biosecurity and technology expert at The Atlantic Council, appears before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in Washington, March 8, 2023.

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he is open to the idea of a lab accident.) Eshoo said his comments made her doubt those espousing a lab leak theory.

“It seemed to me that Dr. Fauci, whatever he knew, did not lead him to believe what they were believing,” Eshoo said.

Changing Democrats’ minds

When Biden won the 2020 election, some experts who called for a fuller investigation of the lab leak hypothesis saw an opportunity to persuade Democrats to give the idea a closer look.

In December 2020, Jamie Metzl, a biosecurity and technology expert at the Atlantic Council who had worked in the Clinton administration, arranged a private telephone call with Jake Sullivan, the incoming national security adviser. Metzl made the case, he said, “that a research-related origin was a very real possibility.”

Metzl joined a small group, organized by French and Belgian scientists, who had said the lab leak hypothesis could not be ruled out. The scientists, he said, were having trouble getting letters published in science journals. With Metzl’s help, the group published its views in news outlets around the world.

Around the same time, in March 2021, some virus experts became frustrated by a much-anticipated report on the pandemic’s origins by the World Health Organization and China.

The report did not trace COVID cases as far back as experts wanted. And it ranked the idea of the virus being carried to Wuhan on frozen food packages — an improbable scenario, but one that China favored because it could push blame beyond the country’s borders — as more likely than a laboratory incident.

There was still no evidence of a lab leak, but so much remained unknown — and China seemed so determined to stand in the way of answers — that more scientists began urging

a closer look.

Relman of Stanford organized the letter to Science with other prominent colleagues, including Alina Chan, a scientific adviser at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Jesse Bloom, a virus expert at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle.

In August, Metzl helped plan a private bipartisan briefing for senators about the lab leak hypothesis, at which Relman and Bloom spoke.

“I left the meeting with a much more open mind,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

Market clues

As backers of the lab leak idea made their case in Congress, Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona, set out to test those claims. Having once investigated — and helped to discredit — a theory that AIDS came from contaminated polio vaccines, he believed a lab leak was possible and so he signed the Science letter.

He first nudged the scientific journal Nature, he said, to request that researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology make available genetic sequences of previous coronaviruses they had reported in the journal. They did, and shortly thereafter, in May 2021, posted a study describing those viruses, none of which was closely enough related to the pandemic virus that genetic tinkering could have produced it.

Next, Worobey analyzed the earliest known COVID patients, finding that a disproportionate number had worked at or visited the market.

Meanwhile, evidence emerged that live mammals known to spread coronaviruses — including raccoon dogs, furry mammals related to foxes — were being sold at the Huanan market before the pandemic. And in September 2021, a report of coronaviruses recently discovered in Laotian bats showed that naturally occurring viruses were capable of latching onto human cells.

New information about the work of the Wuhan Institute of Virology was also intensifying concerns about a lab leak, even as hard evidence of such an incident remained elusive.

To some scientists, the institute’s efforts to study never-before-seen coronaviruses raised questions about what else it might have collected. Those questions turned more pointed with news in the fall of 2021 that EcoHealth Alliance, a research organization, had sought Defense Department funding in 2018 to partner with the virology institute on experiments that would have genetically altered coronaviruses.

The proposal was not funded. But the concerns fueled Republican attacks on Fauci for his institute’s funding of other EcoHealth projects and drew attention to the lab leak theory.

Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University who had publicly argued that a lab leak should be considered, said he helped Congressional aides vet questions that Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., wanted to ask Fauci at upcoming hearings. And Relman said that he tried to help Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who were examining the research, find common ground with Democrats.

Congressional inquiries gained steam even as Worobey’s research leaned toward a market origin. In February 2022, he and others reported that the clustering of early COVID cases around the Huanan market could not be explained purely by chance. A second study by the team, looking at the genetic diversity of viruses collected early in the outbreak, also pointed to the market.

The studies, published in Science, persuaded many virus experts that the notoriously risky wild animal trade had, as on previous occasions in China, ignited a deadly outbreak.

But some scientists and lawmakers were unconvinced. In the Senate, aides were many months into a bipartisan investigation of the origins of the pandemic, including the lab leak idea. The resulting report — in a sign of

enduring partisan divisions, it was endorsed only by Republicans — said that safety risks at the Wuhan Institute of Virology made a lab leak likely. But it presented no direct evidence to suggest it had actually occurred.

Weeks after the report’s release, Republicans won control of the House.

‘Toxic’ politics

This month, the new House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic convened its first hearing to examine the pandemic’s origins. The market theory was barely discussed.

Some scientists saw the hearing as onesided and rife with scientific inaccuracies. Ebright, though, saw an opportunity. With House Republicans leading COVID hearings and Democrats holding the Senate by only a slim majority, he hopes to mobilize the public to push for bipartisan Senate hearings on COVID origins.

“The political balance is on the knife’s edge,” he said. “A very small amount of advocacy could have significant impact.”

Other scientists, though, said that the campaign by lab leak proponents, far from creating a more open discussion, had given rise to such vitriolic attacks that many researchers are reluctant to speak publicly about the issue.

The latest raccoon dog data, which virus experts said added to compelling evidence for a market origin, created fresh pressure on China to share information that may link COVID’s origin to wild animals. But others said the new findings related to the market, like previous ones, contained holes.

“I worry a lot about our jumping on tidbits that are incomplete and cannot be verified,” Relman said.

After three years of divisive politics, Eshoo said she would like the COVID origins inquiry to be taken out of Congress’ hands and turned over to an independent panel.

“If you take partisan politics and you mix that with science,” she said, “it’s a toxic combination.”

UBS agrees to buy rival Credit Suisse

By MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED, MAUREEN FARRELL and ANDREW ROSS SORKIN

Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, agreed over the weekend to buy its beleaguered and longtime rival Credit Suisse for about $3.2 billion, the most drastic bid yet to arrest the financial panic that has swept the globe over the past week.

The deal, hastily brokered over the course of a few days by the Swiss government, signifies the stunning fall of a 166-yearold institution that was once an emblem of Swiss pride. It is perhaps the most sweeping shake-up of the global banking sector since the 2008 financial crisis, when onetime financial giants were acquired by rivals to avoid catastrophic meltdowns.

Created in 1856 to finance Switzerland’s rail network, Credit Suisse ascended to the top echelons of finance, at times standing toe to toe with American titans such as JPMorgan Chase.

But the bank, which is based in Zurich, was also tarred by decades of scandals, management upheavals and failed attempts at reform that damaged its reputation, attracted lawsuits and left it reeling from losses. The recent rout in banking stocks, spurred by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank this month, brought its long-standing vulnerabilities into sharp relief and hastened its demise — highlighting just how panicked investors are.

“This is a historic day in Switzerland, but frankly, a day we hoped would not come,” Colm Kelleher, UBS’ chair, told analysts on Sunday.

Swiss government leaders and regulators said Sunday that the deal was the most effective way of reassuring investors about the health of the country’s financial sector and the possibility of its troubles spilling across its borders.

UBS’ takeover of Credit Suisse “has laid the foundation for greater stability both in Switzerland and internationally,” Karin Keller-Sutter, a member of the Swiss Federal Council, said at a news conference.

“We welcome the announcements by the Swiss authorities today to support financial stability,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in a joint statement.

Under the terms of the deal, UBS will pay 0.76 of one of its shares for each share of Credit Suisse, valuing it at about 3 billion Swiss francs, or $3.2 billion — a small fraction of its market value as of Friday.

To provide financial support to UBS to carry out the deal, Swiss National Bank agreed to lend up to 100 billion Swiss francs. And Finma, the Swiss financial regulator, undertook several extraordinary steps to help UBS quickly digest its chief competitor, including wiping out $17 billion worth of Credit Suisse’s bonds and eliminating the need for UBS shareholders to vote on the deal.

So hastily assembled was the deal that UBS told analysts that they had not had time to fully model all of the

financial impacts of buying Credit Suisse.

As Credit Suisse’s stock and bonds faltered over the past week, analysts and investors increasingly speculated that the Swiss government would force the firm to merge with UBS to avoid chaos. Indeed, several times Sunday, UBS executives emphasized that the negotiations had been initiated by Swiss regulators.

In the past week, as depositors withdrew billions of dollars of their money, and other financial institutions unwound deals with the bank, it became apparent to regulators that Credit Suisse might not be able to open for business absent a takeover by the government or UBS, one person familiar with the negotiations said.

Until the last minute, both sides were unsure that they would be able to pull off a deal because they were far apart on its terms. On Saturday night, UBS offered to buy Credit Suisse for roughly $1 billion, but the bank’s board rebuffed that proposal, according to the person familiar with the negotiations. Credit Suisse had argued that its real estate holdings alone were worth around that amount, another person familiar with the negotiations said.

Still, UBS was the only viable suitor, as the Swiss government was prepared to offer special protective terms only to a Swiss institution, according to one of the people familiar with the deal.

Credit Suisse had been struggling to turn itself around in recent months, but two events last week contributed to its downfall. The bank disclosed Tuesday that there were “material weaknesses” in its financial reporting. And it was swept up in the broad and intensifying panic around the health of banks. As shares in lenders worldwide tumbled after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, markets grew especially wary of Credit Suisse.

Prices for Credit Suisse shares and bonds dropped sharply all week, as did the cost of insuring its debt against default, despite efforts by Swiss regulators to shore up inves-

tor confidence. On Thursday, Credit Suisse said it would tap a $54 billion lifeline from the Swiss central bank in hopes of staving off a disaster. And yet by Wednesday, the Swiss government had reached out to UBS, asking the bank to consider buying Credit Suisse.

Credit Suisse had been several months into an ambitious turnaround effort meant to shrink the firm, including by spinning out much of its investment bank and cutting thousands of jobs and other costs.

As part of the deal, UBS will essentially wind down Credit Suisse’s investment bank, with the combined firm’s operations in that area set to eventually account for no more than one-quarter of its assets.

The disassembling of Credit Suisse is the latest consequence of Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse. Despite being a relatively midsize lender that operated mostly in the United States, SVB’s swift fall reawakened in investors and depositors a fear of potential risks lurking at other institutions, particularly as central banks raise rates to combat rising inflation.

Shares in banking stocks around the world fell sharply last week, wiping out nearly a half-trillion dollars in market value. Regulators and major lenders have taken extraordinary steps to avert greater catastrophe, including the largest U.S. banks’ leading a $30 billion rescue of the midsize First Republic Bank.

By the time Credit Suisse announced its turnaround initiative in October, investors and analysts were skeptical that — even under a new CEO, its third in three years, and with $4 billion in new capital led by state-owned Saudi National Bank — the bank could succeed.

But a prolonged drip of bad news followed, including the revelation that Credit Suisse had lost $147 billion worth of customer deposits in the last three months of 2022.

Then the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, 5,800 miles away, set off a shock wave in the global banking sector.

Further stoking concern were ill-timed developments for Credit Suisse. On Tuesday, it disclosed that it had found “material weaknesses” related to its financial reporting, though the firm said it stood by its accounting.

On Wednesday, the chair of Saudi National Bank, Ammar al-Khudairy, said that his bank would not invest more money in the Swiss lender. Al-Khudairy later clarified that the move was due to regulatory reasons, but investors remained spooked: If Credit Suisse tried to raise additional capital, it could not count on its biggest shareholder to participate.

By Thursday morning, Swiss regulators had publicly certified the strength of Credit Suisse’s balance sheet, while the bank said it would make use of the Swiss central bank’s lifeline. But its stock and bond prices continued to decline, while the cost of buying insurance contracts against the firm’s default rose to alarmingly high levels.

By Friday, analysts said the continued erosion of confidence in the firm, despite the relative stability of its balance sheet, would force it to take more drastic action.

The headquarters of Credit Suisse in Zurich on March 16, 2023. The Swiss government is close to announcing a deal for UBS to buy Credit Suisse, its smaller rival, for about $1 billion.

Leader of international seabed mining agency admonished by diplomats

applications.

“This goes beyond what should be a decision of the secretariat,” Gina Guillén Grillo, Costa Rica’s representative to the seabed authority, said during a March 8 meeting. “The council is formed from member states, and we are the ones in charge and the secretary-general has administrative functions.”

The council represents 167 nations that have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, as well as observer nations like the United States that have not ratified the law but still participate in the debate.

Lodge has held a variety of posts at the International Seabed Authority since 1996. He is serving his second four-year secretary-general term, which ends in 2024. He was elected to the post by the members of the authority.

The Metals Co. effectively controls three of 30 “exploratory” contracts the seabed authority has approved, any one of which can be shifted to “exploitation” mode, which means industrial mining. China controls five of those contracts — more than any other nation — with others sponsored by Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Poland, Russia, Singapore and several other island nations. But the Metals Co. has been the most aggressive by far in moving to begin mining.

Some members of the authority maintain that the agency is under no obligation to approve an application from the Metals Co. and Nauru until the regulations are complete.

By ERIC LIPTON

Michael Lodge, the head of the United Nations-affiliated agency with jurisdiction over international ocean waters, has pushed diplomats to accelerate the start of industrial-scale mining at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, members of the International Seabed Authority’s governing council said in interviews.

The criticism of Lodge, who has served as secretary-general of the authority since 2016, comes as the diplomats struggle to decide how to respond when the authority receives an application for commercial seabed mining in international waters, which is expected to happen later this year.

It would be the first such request fielded by the 28-year-old authority, and the first time in history that an entity sought permission to mine the bottom of an ocean at an industrial scale. The authority is still writing regulations that would govern the process.

Diplomats from Germany, Costa Rica and elsewhere say that they believe Lodge, who is supposed to be a neutral facilitator, has stepped out of line by resisting efforts by some council members that could slow approval of the first mining proposal.

Lodge called the complaints “a bold and unsubstantiated allegation, without facts or evidence,” in a letter he sent on Friday to the German government.

The dispute is not simply a bureaucratic squabble among diplomats; it is an expression of larger tensions over who controls the agency and how quickly it should open one of the last

remaining untouched spots in the world to the metals extraction industry.

The Metals Co., a publicly traded Canadian startup that is being sponsored by the Pacific nation of Nauru, wants to submerge an unmanned, bulldozer-shaped vehicle approximately 2.5 miles to the ocean floor, where it would suck up rocks embedded with cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese. Those metals are key ingredients in electric vehicle batteries.

The Metals Co. expects to extract 1.3 million tons of the wet rocks starting as soon as next year, before expanding to 12 million tons a year, collecting a total of about 240 million tons over two decades and generating an estimated $30 billion in earnings. It has an agreement with a Japanese company that will, at least initially, extract the metals from the rocks.

Lodge, a British lawyer, has in the past mocked concerns about potential environmental harm, arguing that ocean mining is no more damaging than the same activity performed for centuries on land.

“They see an opportunity to exert power over governments and potentially shut down a new ocean activity before it begins,” Lodge said about environmental groups during a 2021 interview with The New York Times. “Turtles with straws up their noses and dolphins are very, very easy to get public sympathy.”

More recently, Lodge has challenged some of the 36 members who serve on the International Seabed Authority’s governing council, several diplomats said in interviews, after they questioned how quickly the agency would finalize mining regulations or suggested changes in how the agency would handle mining

In a statement to the Times, Lodge’s office said that he places “high importance on the preservation and protection of the marine environment,” and that he is working “to ensure that decision making processes around economic activity in the deep seabed is based on best available scientific knowledge.”

But a growing number of nations — including Germany, Costa Rica, Chile, New Zealand, Spain, the Netherlands, France and several Pacific Island nations — have said in recent months that they do not believe enough data has yet been assembled to evaluate the impact mining would have on aquatic life. As a result, they have called for a “precautionary pause” or a formal moratorium on any mining in international waters.

The debate has intensified over the last year because the Metals Co. has made clear that it intends to request approval this year to start mining as soon as 2024.

Nauru, the tiny Pacific nation that is sponsoring the Metals Co., invoked a legal provision in 2021 that it believes requires the International Seabed Authority to accept a commercial mining application by this July. The authority, according to Nauru and the Metals Co., would then be obligated to review the application and allow mining to start, even if the environmental rules had not been finalized.

“The council ‘shall nonetheless consider and provisionally approve’ a plan of work for exploitation,” Nauru wrote in a memo to the authority this month.

The Metals Co. has lined up a former offshore oil-drilling ship to serve as the platform to manage the ocean mining, and it has built an underwater collector vehicle, which it tested late last year, that can lift 3,200 tons of polymetallic rocks from the Pacific Ocean floor.

“There can be no exploitation of the deep seabed without agreeing on a set of rules and regulations that ensure high environmental standards and a sound scientific knowledge,” Hugo Verbist, the Belgian representative on the seabed authority’s council, said on Thursday as the authority began debating how to move ahead.

The Times reported last year that, according to documents dating back more than a decade, the International Seabed Authority shared internal data with a Metals Co. executive that helped the company pick one of the most valuable locations in the Pacific to start its mining efforts. A lawyer for Lodge said no rules were broken with any data sharing.

At the March 8 meeting where diplomats assembled virtually to discuss how to handle a mining application if it is received this year, some delegates suggested revisions to the permitting process that would strengthen the council’s ability to block the start of mining. Lodge warned the delegates not to change established procedures.

“It would be dangerous to disturb this balance,” Lodge said, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. “We should let the system work as it is intended to do.”

Lodge said he did not intend to challenge any delegation’s proposals. But his remarks were interpreted that way by a number of nations, including Germany, France and Costa Rica.

“It is crucial that the secretariat of the authority respect fully its duty of neutrality,” Olivier Poivre d’Arvor, the French ambassador for oceans, said in a statement to the Times when asked about Lodge’s remarks.

The Metals Co., in a three-page statement to the Times, said it agreed with Lodge. “The secretary general is working to ensure the I.S.A. and its member states comply with their legal obligations,” the company said.

Polymetallic nodules collected by the Metals Company from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean, displayed in a ship in San Diego, Calif., on June 8, 2021.

Bank Stocks Gain as Markets Digest Credit Suisse Rescue

Bank stocks rallied on Monday and a cross-asset scramble for safety abated, as investors heaved a tentative sigh of relief that a historic weekend rescue of financial heavyweight Credit Suisse is containing the banking crisis for now.

Sunday saw the most dramatic state intervention since the 2008 global financial crisis, with UBS buying Credit Suisse for 3 billion francs ($3.2 billion) in a takeover backstopped by unlimited funding pledges from the world’s top central banks.

The speedy orchestration of Credit Suisse’s takeover was received by investors as an acceptable measure to stem contagion, but fears that other struggling banks might teeter next kept markets on edge.

“While the Credit Suisse rescue might draw a line under that particular institution’s problems, it is clear that confidence in the financial sector overall is still extremely fragile,” said Vicky Redwood, a senior economic adviser at Capital Economics.

Indeed, shares of First Republic Bank, the lender drawing the most concern from U.S. investors right now, bucked gains on Wall Street and cratered 47.1%, after S&P Global downgraded its credit ratings deeper into junk on Sunday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.2%, the rose 0.9%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.4%.

The KBW Bank Index, a proxy for banks, jumped 0.8%.

The latest banking crisis started after two U.S. lenders, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, collapsed this month, while First Republic Bank has so far failed to shore up investor confidence despite having received emergency support.

Losses in European bank shares also recovered, climbing 1.3% after initially dropping 6%, as investors digested the support efforts and the pace at which they had come. Credit Suisse’s own shares slumped 55.7% and those of its acquirer UBS jumped 1.3% after tumbling nearly 13% earlier in the session. [.EU]

The broader European STOXX 600 index also managed to make it into positive territory to be up 0.98%.

“Credit Suisse is our Lehman moment in Europe, but we recognise that and we are not going to make the same mistake,” Close Brothers Asset Management Chief Investment Officer Robert Alster said of the speedy action by authorities over the weekend.

He said the European Central Bank, Bank of England and others would be well aware “of the next gazelles in the chain that the lions will be hunting” - meaning other large banks with investment banking arms such as Deutsche Bank, BNP in France or Barclays in the UK - and will step in with support if needed.

“There is a lot of firepower from the authorities to counter what is the steadily eroding loss of confidence,” Alster said.

Gains in stocks were accompanied by higher Treasury yields, as bond investors weighed the chances of whether the Federal Reserve will skip raising interest rates when it meets this week given the upheaval among banks.

MOST ASSERTIVE STOCKS

PUERTO RICO STOCKS

Fed funds futures show a 26.9% probability of the Fed holding its overnight rate at a current 4.5%-4.75% when policymakers conclude a two-day meeting on Wednesday, CME’s FedWatch Tool shows.

The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes rose to 3.4866% compared with its U.S. close of 3.397% on Friday. The two-year yield, which rises with traders’ expectations of higher Fed fund rates, touched 3.9700% compared with Fri-

COMMODITIES

CURRENCY

day’s close of 3.846%. [USD/]

Yields on triple A-rated German Bunds, which fall as bond prices rise, had hit their lowest since mid-December at 1.951% in the early panic but had shuffled back above 2% as markets began to relax a little.

Risk aversion had also seen the spread between riskier Italian debt and German debt widen out to over 200 basis points again, but that gap - which reflects how much more Rome has to pay to borrow than Berlin - also improved.

[GVD/EUR]

“There was nothing great that could come out of this, but it is probably the best of a bad list of outcomes,” said AXA Chief Economist Gilles Moec, who had been surprised by the initial rout.

Macron’s retirement overhaul becomes law of the land

By ROGER COHEN

The French National Assembly rejected a no-confidence motion against the government of President Emmanuel Macron, ensuring that a fiercely contested bill raising the retirement age to 64 from 62 becomes the law of the land.

The motion received 278 votes, nine short of the 287 needed to pass. The close result reflected widespread anger at the overhaul to the pension law, at Macron for his apparent aloofness and at the way the measure was rammed through Parliament last week without a full vote on the bill itself. France’s upper house of Parliament, the Senate, passed the pension bill this month.

A second no-confidence motion, filed by the far-right National Rally, failed Monday as well, with only 94 lawmakers voting in favor.

The change, which Macron has sought since the beginning of his first term in 2017, has provoked two months of demonstrations, intermittent strikes and occasional violence. It has split France, with polls consistently showing two-thirds of the population opposing the overhaul.

In the end, there were just enough votes from the center-right Republicans, who last year proposed raising the retirement age even higher, to 65, to salvage the law and the government led by Élisabeth Borne, the prime minister. The government would have fallen had the censure motion been upheld, obliging Macron either to name a new government or dissolve the National Assembly, or lower house, and call elections.

But information later published by the National Assembly shows that 19 lawmakers from the Republican party voted in favor of the no-confidence motion, far more than expected.

The protests and anger across France seem unlikely to abate in the weeks ahead.

They appear certain to mark Macron’s second term, just as the Yellow Vest protest movement marked his first. Behind both movements lurks a resentment of the president’s perceived elitism, compounding anger at the specific measures that sparked the protests.

Before the vote, Charles de Courson, an independent lawmaker belonging to the group that filed the no-confidence motion, told Borne, “You failed to unite, you failed to convince.”

Such was the resistance to the proposed change that rather than putting the pension overhaul to a vote in the National Assembly, as he had insisted he would do, Macron opted for a measure, known as the 49.3 after the

relevant article of the Constitution, that allows certain bills to be passed without a vote but that exposes the government to censure motions such as the one on Monday.

This is the 11th time in less than a year that the government has resorted to the 49.3, leading to a growing feeling that democratic process is being circumvented, even if the measure is legal under the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, fashioned to create the all-powerful presidency sought by Charles de Gaulle.

Macron’s decision redoubled anger across the country and reinforced an impression of top-down rule. He declined to meet with labor union leaders in recent weeks, leaving them incensed.

Before the vote, Marine Le Pen, the leader of the extreme right National Rally party and a fierce critic of raising the retirement age, told the television network BFMTV, “For months now, the government has been playing with matches in a gas station.” After the vote, Le Pen told reporters that with only nine votes short, the government had “dodged a bullet.”

Speaking at the National Assembly, she said that Macron should still dismiss his prime minister. “Politically, the president of the Republic cannot act as though nothing had happened,” Le Pen said.

The logic of the retirement age change, at a time when people are living longer and most European states have raised retirement to 65 or older, was unpersuasive to many French people fiercely attached to the country’s cherished work-life balance.

They could not see the urgency of the measure at a time of rising inflation and multiple economic pressures stemming from the war in Ukraine. The pension system is not on the brink of bankruptcy, even if its finances over the medium term look parlous.

Many people in France perceived the imposition of a longer working life, albeit still shorter than that of their neighbors, as an attack on the social solidarity at the heart of the French model and a maneuver by the rich to move France closer to the unbridled capitalism they associate with the United States.

But another, quieter France saw things differently. Aurore Bergé, the leader of Macron’s Renaissance party, told the National Assembly that Macron’s pension overhaul “required courage,” because asking the French to work longer is “always harder” than making promises “with money that we don’t have.”

Macron was adamant. He argued that retirement at 62 was untenable as life spans lengthen. The math, over the longer term at least, simply did not add up as the ratio of active workers to the retirees they are supporting through payroll taxes keeps dropping.

“If we do not solve the problem of our retirees, we cannot invest in all the rest,” Macron said last year. “It’s nothing less than a choice of the society we want.”

However, the government’s arithmetic is fiercely contested by labor leaders who argue that there are other solutions, including taxing the country’s millionaires and their dividends.

Now Macron, who cannot stand for reelection in 2027, believes he has laid the foundation for the huge investments in defense, green energy, schools and technology essential to France’s future. But with more than four years of his term remaining, he faces a country more hostile to his rule than ever before.

French television showed images of overturned trash cans and small fires in the Odéon neighborhood of central Paris, between the Latin Quarter and the upscale Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood

Why China and Russia are closer than ever

By NICOLE HONG

Xi Jinping, China’s leader, is meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia in Moscow this week in the most high-profile visit by any world leader to Russia since before the pandemic.

Coming more than a year after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the meeting will be watched closely by Western officials for any indications of how far China may be willing to go to act as a mediator in the conflict. Chinese officials have framed the meeting partly as a mission to promote constructive talks between Russia and Ukraine, even though U.S. officials have been skeptical of Xi’s recent efforts to become a global peacemaker.

Here are five things to know about the relationship between China and Russia: Are China and Russia allies?

China and Russia are not formal allies, meaning they have not committed to defend each other with military support. But the two countries are close strategic partners, a relationship that deepened during the war in Ukraine as Russia became increasingly isolated from many other countries.

Chinese officials have said the current relationship is at a “historic high.”

The partnership is fueled by a shared goal of trying to weaken U.S. power and influence.

The relationship between China and Russia has not always been so warm. The two sides were fierce adversaries in the 1960s and clashed in 1969 over disputed territory along their border, raising fears at the time of a nuclear showdown between the two countries.

The two countries have also been competing for influence in Central Asia, a region the Kremlin has long seen as its turf but is becoming increasingly important to China’s geopolitical and economic ambitions. China is building more railroads, highways and energy pipelines in former Soviet republics such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which still rely on Russia as a crucial security partner.

How close are Xi and Putin?

Right before the start of the Ukraine war in February 2022, Xi and Putin declared publicly that their countries’ relationship had “no limits.”

Xi has often described Putin as his

best friend. During an economic forum in Russia in 2018, the two fried Russian pancakes and took vodka shots together. For Xi’s 66th birthday in 2019, Putin presented him with a cake and a giant box of ice cream.

In an article published in a Chinese newspaper Sunday, Putin said the two enjoyed the “warmest relationship,” noting that they have met about 40 times in recent years and always found time to talk at “no -tie” events.

What is the economic relationship between Russia and China?

Economic ties between China and Russia have strengthened significantly since Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014, when it annexed Crimea. At the time, China helped Russia evade the sanctions imposed by the Obama administration that were supposed to cut off Russia’s access to global markets.

In the wake of harsher sanctions against Russia following the start of the Ukraine war last year, China has helped to supply many of the products that Russia previously purchased from Western-allied countries, including computer chips,

smartphones and raw materials needed for military equipment.

Total trade between Russia and China surged last year.

What does Putin want from China?

Putin needs China to help bolster his economy, which has been battered by Western sanctions. For the Russian leader, China has increasingly become a lifeline for investment and trade. After Western countries restricted their purchases of Russian crude oil and natural gas last year, China helped offset the decline by buying more energy from Russia.

At the start of the Ukraine war, Russia asked China for military equipment and economic assistance, according to U.S. officials. U.S. officials have recently said that China is considering giving weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine, a claim that China has denied.

China has refrained from con-

demning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, even though China’s foreign policy is rooted around the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity. Although China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in the Ukraine war, it has endorsed Russian narratives, blaming the U.S. and NATO for starting the conflict.

But China has also hesitated to put its full backing behind Russia. The turmoil and instability stemming from the war could threaten China’s growth and complicate its efforts to strengthen its economic ties around the world.

Last September, after Putin and Xi met in person, Putin acknowledged that China had expressed “questions and concerns” about the war in Ukraine.

What does Xi want from Russia?

Xi wants Putin to join him as a likeminded ally in confronting U.S. and Western dominance.

In an article published in a Russian newspaper Monday before the visit, Xi said China and Russia needed to cooperate to overcome challenges to their security, including “damaging acts of hegemony, domination and bullying.”

Xi has pursued a harder stance against what he calls a U.S. effort to contain China’s rise, portraying China as a nation besieged — much as Putin has done in speeches to Russians. Xi has urged Chinese industries to reduce their reliance on Western technology and hailed China’s growth as proof that it does not need to adopt Western political values.

China has been buying more advanced weapons from Russia to modernize its military, and the two nations have increased their joint military exercises. Last year, as President Joe Biden was visiting Tokyo, China and Russia sent bombers over the seas in northeast Asia as a show of force.

Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday.

In the US-led Iraq War, Iran was the big winner

By VIVIAN YEE and ALISSA J. RUBIN

If visitors to Baghdad knew nothing of Iraqi politics, they could be forgiven for thinking that the trim-bearded, greenuniformed man whose larger-than-life photo is everywhere in the Iraqi capital was Iraq’s president.

Along the boulevard that tracks the Tigris River and inside the Green Zone, the seat of Iraq’s government, the likeness of Gen. Qasem Soleimani towers above roundabouts and stands astride medians. The last person to be so glorified was Saddam Hussein, the dictator deposed and killed in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that began almost exactly 20 years ago.

But Soleimani was Iranian, not Iraqi.

The commander of the Quds Force, the external arm of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, he achieved near-mythic status in Iraq as an influential force who helped bind Iraq and Iran together after the invasion. It was thanks in large part to Soleimani, whom the United States assassinated in Iraq in 2020, that Iran came to extend its influence into almost every aspect of Iraqi security and politics.

That, in turn, gave Iran outsize influence over the region and beyond. Iran’s rise exposed the unintended consequences of Washington’s strategy in Iraq, analysts and former U.S. officials say, and damaged the United States’ relationship with its regional allies.

The invasion “was the original sin,” said Emile Hokayem, a senior fellow for Middle East security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a British think tank. “It helped Iran bolster its position by being a predator in Iraq. It’s where Iran perfected the use of violence and militias to obtain its goals. It eroded the U.S.’ image. It led to fragmentation in the region.”

The U.S. State Department declined to comment on the impact of the war in Iraq.

“On Iraq specifically, our focus is on

the 20 years ahead; less about looking backward,” the department said in an email response to questions. “Our partnership today has evolved far beyond security, to a 360-degree relationship that delivers results for the Iraqi people.”

All of that was enabled by the political changes that the U.S. invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003, set in motion. Later on, the 2014 takeover of a large area of northern Iraq by the Islamic State terrorist group prompted Iraq to turn to Iran as well as the United States for help, cementing Iran’s grip.

As destabilizing as the Iranian involvement has been for many Iraqis, it has been at least as unsettling for much of the rest of the region.

Iraq and Iran are the two largest Middle Eastern countries with a Shiite Muslim majority, and Shiites emerged from the Iraq War empowered across the region — often unnerving their ancient sectarian rivals, the Sunni Muslims, who dominate most other Arab countries.

Under the Iraqi dictatorship, the Sunni minority had formed the base of Saddam’s power; once he was killed, Iran set up loyal militias inside Iraq. It also went on to dismay Saudi Arabia and the other Persian Gulf mo-

narchies and Israel by supporting proxies and partners, such as the Houthi militia in Yemen, that brought violence right to their doorsteps.

Before 2003, it would have been hard to imagine Saudi Arabia, a pillar of the United States’ Middle East policy for decades and a leading Sunni power, showing open anger toward American leaders over their conduct in the region. But the Saudi king at the time did just that in a January 2006 meeting with the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, telling him that the way Washington saw things going in Baghdad reflected “wishful thinking,” according to a State Department cable released by WikiLeaks in 2010.

By the time of that meeting, Iraqis had approved a new constitution and held parliamentary elections that swept Shiite parties to power, and Sunni-Shiite sectarian tensions had escalated.

Saudi King Abdullah told the ambassador that before Saddam’s ouster, his kingdom — Iran’s longtime rival for influence in the Middle East — could count on Iraq as another Sunni power keeping Iran in check.

Now, he said, Iraq had been handed to Iran like “a gift on a golden platter.”

When the United States toppled Saddam, it neutralized Iran’s foremost enemy without Iran having to lift a finger. Afterward, the Americans diminished Sunni power in Iraq by dismantling the country’s army and purging the Sunni-dominated governing elite.

Iran saw opportunity.

“What they were looking for and have been looking for isn’t Iranian control,” Ryan Crocker, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, said of Iran. “It’s Iraqi instability.”

After the 2003 invasion, Iranians streamed into Baghdad and Iraq’s Shiite-dominated south: construction engineers to rebuild Iraqi cities, political consultants to train Shiite activists before the Iraqi elections, media professionals to establish Shiite-owned television channels.

Iranian pilgrims who had been barred in the Saddam era from visiting Iraq’s Shiite shrines now hurried across the border to the Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, where Iranian companies invested in acres of hotels and restaurants for the millions of worshippers, many of them Iranian, who visit the shrines each year.

A good number of the Iraqi leaders who emerged after 2003 also had ties to Iran. The Shiite and Kurdish opposition politicians who

had taken refuge there years before returned to Iraq after the invasion. Some of Iraq’s largest Shiite parties had backing and technical support from Iran, putting politicians from those parties in Iran’s debt when they won seats.

The Americans “somehow didn’t make the connection with Iran explicitly and understand that it’s not the Shiites you are giving the upper hand to, it’s the Shiites backed by Iran,” Marwan Muasher, who was then Jordan’s foreign minister, said last week.

These days, no Iraqi prime minister can take office without at least the tacit approval of both the United States and Iran, an arrangement that often produces prime ministers torn between Washington and Tehran. Iraqis with connections to Iran hold posts throughout the government.

The cost of Iranian influence to Iraqi development and stability has been high.

Cut off from the world economy by sanctions, Iran has found an economic lifeline in Iraq, which buys at least $7 billion in Iranian exports a year while selling only about $250 million of goods in return. The fine print on many medicines shows that they are Iranian made, and large quantities of Iranian construction materials come stacked on truck convoys across the border every day.

Many Iraqi farmers and businesspeople complain that Iran has suffocated Iraqi manufacturing and farming by dumping large quantities of produce and cheap goods in Iraq.

Although Shiites in Iraq’s political elite tolerated Iran’s activities and respected Soleimani, resentment of Iran among other Iraqis helped set off mass anti-government demonstrations in 2019 in which protesters demanded an end to Iran’s interference in Iraqi affairs.

Beyond Iraq, Iran has used every conflict in the region to extend its reach.

It inserted fighters into Syria after the 2011 Arab Spring revolt, aiming to prop up Syrian President Bashar Assad. It supported the Houthis in Yemen’s civil war against a Saudi-led coalition, establishing Iranian influence on the southern Saudi border. And it further cemented its position in Iraq and Syria by recruiting and training Shiite fighters against the Islamic State group.

“Every opportunity that there was in the region, the dominoes fell in Iran’s favor,” said Vali Nasr, a professor of international affairs and Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University. Exploiting Iraq’s weakness, he added, gradually turned into “a powerful foreign policy tool for Iran on the regional level.”

Dalia Mazin Sedeeq Al-Hatim and Hussain Sarmad Kadhim Al-Bayati at their wedding reception in Baghdad, Feb. 18, 2023.

A ‘new Cold War’ looms in Africa as US pushes against Russian gains

By DECLAN WALSH

Fueled by guns, gold and social media, the rivalry between Russia and the West in Africa is rapidly escalating. The latest flashpoint is Chad, a sprawling desert nation at the crossroads of the continent, now a plum target for Russia’s expanding effort.

The United States recently warned Chad’s president that Russian mercenaries were plotting to kill him and three senior aides and that Moscow was backing Chadian rebels massing in the neighboring Central African Republic. At the same time, Moscow is courting sympathizers inside Chad’s ruling elite, including Cabinet ministers and a half brother of the president.

The decision by the U.S. government to share sensitive intelligence with the head of an African state — a disclosure it then leaked — reveals one way in which the Biden administration is moving more assertively in Africa and using new tactics to stymie Russian gains on the continent.

The United States is taking a page from its playbook in Ukraine, where it has used classified information to expose Russian military plans and preempt what it says are Chinese plans to supply Russia with new weapons.

In Africa, the more forceful American approach aims partly to shore up the crumbling position of France, which in recent years has ceded ground to Russia in former colonies such as Mali and the Central African Republic. Now, the Russians are looking to topple more French dominoes in central and western Africa, and the United States is responding.

A U.S. official, who like others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters of national security, said the assassination plot in Chad represented “a new chapter” in efforts by Wagner, a Kremlin-backed private military force, to advance Russian interests in Africa.

Until now, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who leads Wagner, has established footholds in vulnerable African countries by sending his fighters to prop up tottering authoritarian rulers, usually in exchange for payment, or licenses to mine diamonds or gold.

The plot in Chad suggests that he is ready to topple leaders who stand in his way. That change has prompted the United States to adopt more forward-leaning measures, such as those used in Ukraine, that are intended “to slow, to curb, constrain and reverse” Prigozhin’s expansion in Africa, the official

said.

“Where Wagner has been present, bad things have inevitably followed,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on a visit to Niger on Thursday.

The visit, during which Blinken pledged $150 million in aid to the Sahel region, was the fourth to Africa by a senior U.S. figure this year. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, ambassador to the United Nations, and first lady Jill Biden preceded him. Vice President Kamala Harris will begin a trip to Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia this month, and President Joe Biden has promised to visit Africa later this year.

To many in Africa and beyond, the heightening great-power rivalry smacks of the Cold War, when the United States and the Soviet Union backed rival African leaders, including dictators. It’s a comparison the Biden administration desperately wants to avoid, because its strategy in Africa, announced by Blinken to fanfare in South Africa last year, presents African countries as valued partners, not pawns in a global rivalry.

For their part, African leaders have made it clear that they do not want to be forced to choose sides.

“Africa has suffered enough from the burden of history,” Macky Sall, chair of the African Union, told the U.N. General Assembly in September. “It does not want to be the breeding ground of a new Cold War.”

Russian ties to Africa stretch back to the Soviet era, when Moscow backed sympathetic governments and independence movements, and have endured in recent years as Russia became the continent’s largest arms supplier.

But its latest drive for influence started in

earnest about five years ago, when Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenaries — many Russian but also Syrian, Serbian and Lebanese — began to appear in some of the continent’s most turbulent corners.

In response to questions, Prigozhin said in a statement, “We have nothing to do with either the Chadian rebels or Mr. Hemeti,” a nickname for the deputy leader of Sudan, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, who also wields influence in Chad.

The Russian effort spans the continent but has had the greatest impact in the Sahel, the semiarid region bordering the Sahara. Wagner fighters are battling Islamist rebels in Mali, are bodyguards to the Central African Republic’s president and mine gold in several countries, including Sudan. Social media campaigns seek to burnish the image of Russian President Vladimir Putin or to tap into wellsprings of anti-French resentment.

Larger by area than Britain, France and

Germany combined, Chad has been a key French ally for decades, used by the French military for training and as a hub of operations. In the 1980s, the CIA supported its brutal leader, Hissène Habré, who was later convicted as a war criminal.

Chad’s current leader, Mahamat Idriss Déby, came to power in 2021 after his father, Chad’s autocratic leader of three decades, was killed in battle with rebels. Déby has stayed close to France, but the alliance has been frayed by a brutal crackdown on democracy protesters in October that left 128 people dead, according to Chad’s national human rights body.

On a recent tour of four African countries, French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged the rising wave of antiFrench sentiment and promised a new era of partnership.

For some Africans, the show of humility has come too late. “The people of Chad do not want the French,” said Hallowak Haoua, 29, a street vendor in the Chadian capital, Ndjamena. “At least the Russians want to help us. With the French, it’s just for their own interests.”

Others worry that a return to Cold War-style confrontation could doom their democratic aspirations. The United States should not cozy up to authoritarians such as Chad’s president to prevent him from tumbling into the Russian orbit, said Succès Masra, the main opposition leader.

“It would be a big mistake for President Biden to side with Déby,” said Masra, speaking by phone from the United States, where he fled after the massacre of protesters in October. He added, “In the long run, the best way for the United States to protect its interests in Chad is to bet on democracy.”

French Foreign Legion soldiers with a counterterrorism operation known as Operation Barkhane in northeastern Mali in February 2020.

He’s the world’s most popular leader. Beware.

index.

“It’s very scary what’s happening,” said Bunker Roy, founder of Barefoot College, one of India’s most celebrated rural development initiatives. “I think we’re going into authoritarianism.”

India used to be a correspondent’s dream, echoing with the sound and fury of strongly held opinions. But today people often clam up when I ask about Modi. Reporters Without Borders now ranks India a dismal 150th in press freedom among 180 countries worldwide.

use of gas cylinders for cooking, rather than burning sticks and cow dung, which smoke up kitchens to dangerous levels. This hugely affects impoverished women, for some 600,000 Indians die annually from this indoor air pollution.

Construction of ports and roads has improved, and Modi has pushed a digital identification and payment system that brings villagers into the banking system. Modi isn’t the primary reason for this technological marvel, but he presided over its expansion.

By NICHOLAS KRISTOF

All over the Indian capital these days loom posters of Narendra Modi, presenting him as the great modernizing prime minister pulling India forward. But those posters also hint at the opposite: an emerging personality cult and an authoritarian streak that is dragging India backward.

In immediate political terms, the personality cult perhaps succeeds. With approval ratings at home of about 78%, Modi is far and away the most popular major leader in the world today, according to Morning Consult.

With the opposition in disarray, Modi is expected to win a third term as prime minister in next year’s elections.

While Modi polls extremely well, many worldly Indians are aghast that he has made India less secular and tolerant, creating what some argue is a Jim Crow Hindu nationalism that marginalizes religious minorities, particularly Muslims. And it’s not just marginalization: Muslims are periodically accused of slaughtering cows, which are sacred to Hindus, and lynched. In a typical case this month, a mob in Bihar state accused a Muslim of carrying beef and beat him to death. Modi has presided over a crackdown on news organizations, and Indians have been repeatedly arrested for their tweets. Sweden’s V-Dem Institute, in a new report, listed India not as a democracy but as an “electoral autocracy” ranking 108th among 179 countries in its electoral democracy

“We work under a cloud of fear,” Anuradha Bhasin, editor of The Kashmir Times, wrote in a brave essay in The New York Times this month.

One lesson of Asia is that economies can thrive under authoritarianism — see the history of South Korea, Taiwan and China — but that religious extremism is more perilous because it can gain momentum, create fissures and suck oxygen from education and economic management. Pakistan went through its own drift to religious zealotry and offers a cautionary tale.

Pakistan was founded by a not particularly observant Muslim, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who drank alcohol and appointed a member of the (now persecuted) Ahmadi religious minority to be the country’s first foreign minister. But then, in 1977, Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq seized power and engineered a wave of conservative Muslim nationalism that still tears Pakistan apart.

That would be my nightmare for India, because the fires of religious extremism and grievance are easier to ignite than extinguish. But I honestly don’t think India will tumble that far. I agree with Urmi Basu, a civil society leader from Kolkata, that Indian democracy will get through this, just as it survived a retreat from democracy under Indira Gandhi. India still has a federal system that gives power to the states, and that constrains Modi.

To my eye, Modi’s extraordinary popularity rests not just on demagogy but also on real accomplishments (plus, he’s very good at claiming credit for accomplishments that are less real).

Let’s talk toilets. Millions of Indians still practice open defecation, which spreads disease and parasites. A national survey in 2020-21 was released this month and found that 21% of rural households still had no access to any toilet — but that’s a significant improvement from almost 60% having no access in 2012. Modi has championed an end to open defecation, which may seem undignified for a politician, but it saves lives.

Modi has also promoted the

“Even his detractors admit he is very good at economic development and infrastructure projects,” said Alyssa Ayres, an India scholar and dean at George Washington University. Ayres said that during Modi’s first years as prime minister, he was less polarizing and leaned in on development.

More recently, the authoritarian streak has become more prominent.

Modi is now to all of India what he was for many years as the boss of the state of Gujarat. There, he was a pro-business leader who oversaw strong economic growth, but his record was badly damaged by a pogrom against Muslims on his watch in 2002; there is disagreement about his degree of complicity, but he certainly mismanaged it. He also undermined pillars of civil society like the Self-Employed Women’s Association.

Looking ahead, what I fear is that the authoritarian, Hindu nationalist Modi is eclipsing the economy-boosting, toiletbuilding Modi. To imagine a worst case, just look next door at the sad shambles of today’s Pakistan.

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EL STAR STAFF

SAN JUAN – La Presidenta del Centro Unido de Detallistas, Lourdes M. Aponte Rodríguez, exigió a la Junta de Planificación que tome acción inmediata y defina el rumbo correcto a seguir en la otorgación de permisos, tanto para el sector de la construcción, como para la otorgación de permisos a negocios en la isla, ante la anulación por el Tribunal Supremo del Reglamento Conjunto 2020.

ʺEstamos cansados de que a los pequeños y medianos empresarios se les continúe atropellando y discriminando. Hoy no hay con certeza un Reglamento que nos guíe en la otorgación de permisos para poder funcionar un negocio. Esto vuelve a trastocar nuevamente nuestra ya lacerada economíaʺ, expresó la presidenta del CUD.

Explicó que la Junta de Planificación lleva tres intentos fallidos, porque se continúan cometiendo los mismos errores, utilizando un reglamento nulo, comprometiendo a diversos sectores como: inversionistas, comunidades, fondos federales, entre otros.

Según la institución, han sido muchas las reuniones y participación en vistas públicas donde el CUD se ha expresado. La objeción al reglamento ha sido una desconsideración al sector empresarial. El nuevo reglamento 2020, es prác -

ticamente una copia del anterior obviando gran parte de las preocupaciones del CUD. Estos reglamentos impiden el desarrollo y el progreso de las PYMES, que son el motor económico que mueve a un país.

ʺEl Reglamento tiene serios problemas y la Junta de Planificación ha insistido en incumplir con la sentencia del tribunal, nos encontramos ante una mezcla de procesos, el cual lo único que ha ocasionado es que el sistema sea uno muy frágil y difícil de implementarʺ, indicó la líder del CUD.

Dijo que la exposición de motivos de la Ley 19, supra, de forma clara y constante enfatiza el objetivo de minimizar costo, simplificar y agilizar procesos, a los fines de fomentar y fortalecer el desarrollo económico del país. Estos objetivos no son emulados o alcanzados por el reglamento 2020.

También el lunes, la Comisión de Desarrollo Económico, Servicios Esenciales y Asuntos del Consumidor que preside la senadora, Gretchen Hau, llevó a cabo una vista pública para conocer qué planes tienen las agencias para la expedición de permisos a raíz de la decisión del Tribunal Supremo sobre el Reglamento Conjunto del 2020.

Durante la audiencia, el presidente de la Junta de Planificación (JP), Julio Lassús sostuvo que al presente no existe determinación del Tribunal

Supremo decretando la nulidad del Reglamento, pues la decisión del máximo foro se limitó a examinar la controversia sobre parte indispensable y no sobre la validez del reglamento en cuestión. “Destacamos que la puesta en vigor de la sentencia emitida por el Tribunal de Apelaciones implica solo efectos entre las partes de dicho caso salvo que el Tribunal Supremo emita decisión final y firme. Sin embargo, el resultado neto de las acciones del Tribunal Apelativo crea esta confusión y dista de la política pública promovida por el mandato legislativo”, explicó el funcionario.

Gobernador recomienda cambiar todas las contraseñas en sus equipos electrónicos como consecuencia del ciberataque a la página de la AAA

POR CYBERNEWS

SAN JUAN – El gobernador Pedro Rafael Pierluisi Urrutia dijo el lunes que los usuarios de la página de la Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados deben cambiar sus contraseñas para evitar cualquier robo de datos como consecuencia del ciberataque que sufrió la semana pasada la página de la agencia.

“Entiendo que se restablecerá el servicio en un futuro cercano, pero mientras tanto, tú puedes cambiar las contraseñas desde tus equipos electrónicos. Puedes cambiar tus contraseñas en las demás cuentas que tienes. En esa en particular, cuando la página esté levantada también podrás

hacerlo. Obviamente, paralizaron el uso del sistema como consecuencia del hackeo que se dio pero puedes cambiar tus contraseñas en el resto de tus cuentas”, dijo el gobernador en conferencia de prensa.

El gobernador le hizo un llamado al resto de las agencias para que sigan en cooperación con la Oficina de Innovación y Servicios de Tecnología (PRITS) para mejorar la seguridad de las páginas del gobierno de Puerto Rico.

“Que es la que tiene peritaje para atender asuntos de ciberseguridad y que tiene un convenio de colaboración con la agencia principal que tiene el gobierno federal para el tema de ciberseguridad “ sostuvo.

“La realidad es que esto es un fenómeno global y estamos teniendo este tipo de evento a nivel mundial. Lo importante es ir mejorando nuestro sistema como lo estamos haciendo para detectar estos hackeos pronto e ir mejorando nuestros sistemas”, añadió.

POR

CUD exige se ponga en vigor de inmediato un nuevo reglamento de permisos

After her Oscar win, will Michelle Yeoh get to lead again?

By KYLE BUCHANAN

We’re conditioned to think of an Oscar win as the endpoint to a journey. For some actors, holding that trophy is the realization of a dream held since childhood. For others, it’s the culmination of a well-deserved comeback.

But what happens after that win? In our eagerness to treat Oscar victories as career capstones, do we pay too little attention to the opportunities that are supposed to come afterward, yet often don’t?

I’ve been mulling that over since March 12, when Michelle Yeoh took the best actress Oscar for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” It happened at the 95th edition of the Academy Awards, the kind of big, tantalizing milestone that prods you to contemplate what has come before, and Yeoh’s win proved especially historic: The first Asian star to win best actress, she was greeted onstage by Halle Berry, the first Black woman to have pulled off that feat.

Asking Berry to announce the winner with Jessica Chastain (the previous year’s winner) was a gamble twice over. If Yeoh had lost to one of her four competitors — all of whom were white women — the ensuing photo op would have served as a stark example of a best-actress category that has been hostile to women of color for 95 years. And although Berry has returned to the Oscars several times since her 2002 win for “Monster’s Ball,” it has always been as a presenter and never as a nominee. To see her there is to be reminded that an Oscar win carries no guarantees when an actress is already liable to receive fewer scripts and career opportunities than her white counterparts.

So although Yeoh’s triumph was a long time coming, and I teared up as she addressed “all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight,” I also found myself worrying that it won’t be enough. The people in the Dolby Theatre looked awfully proud of themselves after Yeoh’s win, but if they really want to do right by her, they have to keep writing lead roles for 60-year-old Asian actresses; otherwise, it’s just empty

back-patting.

That, after all, was the real breakthrough of “Everything Everywhere,” Yeoh told me in October. We were at an awards event where, flanked by “Everything Everywhere” directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, she reminisced about a Hollywood career that had mostly been filled with supporting parts.

“Look, I’ve been very blessed. I’ve continuously worked, and I’ve worked with great directors,” she said. “But for the first time, I’m No. 1 on the call sheet, thanks to these guys. I do meaningful roles, like in ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ and ‘Shang-Chi,’ but it was not my movie.”

Yeoh said she hoped that “Everything Everywhere” would not be a one-off, but more than a year after the film’s release, it’s unclear when, or if, she will have another lead film role. Coming projects — including the big-screen musical “Wicked,” the third “Avatar” movie and an ensemble mystery, “A Haunting in Venice” — all consign her to supporting parts. Though she is a headline-making superstar who led hip studio A24 to its biggest ever worldwide hit, Yeoh is still too often treated as additional casting rather than the main event.

“Even you, Michelle Yeoh — on the top of the world — has struggled to find the right roles,” Kwan told her when we met in October. “I think that has taken a lot of people by surprise.”

Yeoh laughed ruefully.

“I read scripts and it’s the guy who goes off on some big adventure — and he’s going off with my daughter!” she said. “I’m like, no, no.”

Few Hollywood movies are conceived with a woman over 50 as the central character, and the ones that are greenlit tend to offer those leads to a triumvirate of white women: Meryl if she’s older, Cate if she’s younger and Tilda if she’s weirder. To ensure that Yeoh can be first on the call sheet again, filmmakers must think more creatively, as Kwan and Scheinert did when they revamped “Everything Everywhere” for Yeoh after conceiving the film as a Jackie Chan vehicle. (And while they’re at it, can they find something juicy for last year’s best supporting actor, Troy Kotsur, similarly a boundary breaker — with “CODA,” he became the first deaf man to win an acting Oscar — who has been seen in little since?)

As momentum in the best-actress race swung from “Tár” star Cate Blanchett to Yeoh over the last few weeks of awards season, I kept hearing a common refrain from voters: While Blanchett already had two Oscars and would surely be nominated again — she has eight nominations overall — this could be Yeoh’s only chance at gold. Though I understand the practicality of that argument, I hope those voters understand that their job isn’t done simply because of how they marked their ballot.

Yeoh’s Sunday night win is a big one, but the real victory will come when the lead roles that had long eluded her grasp start to become commonplace. If Hollywood can make that so, then instead of an endpoint, Yeoh’s historic Oscar will serve as a long-needed new beginning.

Michelle Yeoh, with her Oscar for best actress for her role in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” at the Governor’s Ball in Los Angeles, Calif., March 12, 2023.

Adam Sandler is awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

By AISHVARYA KAVI

Adam Sandler brought his trademark loopy but charming sense of humor to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday night, as he was recognized for three decades of writing, acting and directing with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

“As I look at this goofy award, I can’t help but think that one day it just might be the weapon used to bludgeon me to death,” Sandler said in his familiar silly cadence, during his acceptance speech.

He is the 24th comic to be awarded one of the industry’s top honors, which has annually celebrated a heavyweight in American comedy, from film and television’s greatest comedic actors to social critics and playwrights. Each, including last year’s honoree, Jon Stewart, has been recognized for having an impact on American society, according to the Kennedy Center.

Sandler, 56, thanked his friends and family for helping build his confidence throughout his career, which began performing stand-up five nights a week in New York City and led to leading roles in blockbuster comedies like “Grown Ups” and “Big Daddy.” Several of Sunday

‘65’ review: What on Earth?

By A.O. SCOTT

To paraphrase an old Monty Python sketch, nobody suspects the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction.

Certainly the poor dinosaurs didn’t, though for their more obsessive presentday human fans the fact that this movie is called “65” — as in million years ago — might count as a spoiler. When Mills the space pilot crash-lands on a muddy, reptile-infested Earth after his vessel is hit by an asteroid, you might have an inkling of the larger disaster in store.

I don’t mean the movie; that would be unkind. “65,” directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (two writers of the first “Quiet Place” film), is not interesting enough to be truly terrible or terrible enough to be halfway interesting. As Mills, Adam Driver does a lot of breathing and grunting as he runs a gantlet of familiar dangers. In addition to the T. rexes and other saurian menaces, he faces quicksand, large bugs, falling rocks, malfunctioning equipment and the withering judgment of a 9-year-old girl.

But let’s back up a second. Who are these people, and how did they get to our planet before (if I may quote the opening titles) “the advent of mankind”? The answer is that they belonged to an ancient extraterrestrial civilization, one sufficiently advanced to have invented not only space travel, but the usual array of futuristic sci-fi technology.

Their health care system was pretty bad, though. Mills’ adolescent daughter, Nevine (Chloe Coleman), suffers from a persistent, apparently life-threatening cough, and the only way he can afford her treatment is by taking on a high-paying “long-range exploratory mission.” He’s already grief-stricken when the asteroid hits, cleaving his spaceship in two and killing all of his cryogenically frozen passengers except one, a girl named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt).

The folks on their home planet, realistically enough, speak more than one language, so Koa and Mills — whose native idiom is English — can’t communicate very well. Also, he’s a grumpy, unhappy

night’s speakers, including comics and actors such as Judd Apatow, Steve Buscemi and David Spade, poked fun at the parade of Sandler’s films that were panned by critics in remarks that were as much a roast as they were a celebration of his career.

“To hell with ratings, you guys are my new friends now,” Sandler said to those in the audience.

A comic, actor, filmmaker and singer, Sandler starred in movies that have grossed more than $3 billion worldwide, and he has stacked up dozens of credits as a producer and screenwriter. He became a household name with a leading role 1995’s “Billy Madison” and later took on sports comedies and popular romantic comedies like 1998’s “The Wedding Singer” with Drew Barrymore and 2011’s “Just Go With It” with Jennifer Aniston, both of whom praised him onstage Sunday night.

Idina Menzel, another former costar, dressed as “Opera Man,” a character from Sandler’s days as a cast member on

man and she’s a moody girl, so we’re on familiar survival-story terrain. “65” is a little like “The Last of Us,” but with dinosaurs instead of mushrooms and no obvious sociological theme that would sustain a think piece.

Which would be to its credit, if it managed to be a simple, effective action movie. Or science-fiction movie. Or scary movie. Or something. Like Mills’ emotio-

“Saturday Night Live” in the early 1990s, to open the show and serenaded Sandler in much his own fashion.

The Mark Twain Prize has sometimes been seen as a cap to a long, successful career in comedy, but Sandler has won critical acclaim for his recent dramatic work, including 2022’s “Hustle,” a return to the sports genre that won him a Gotham Award last year, and 2019’s dark comedydrama, “Uncut Gems.”

Many of the night’s speakers praised Sandler for his unending work ethic. He is on an expanded leg of a sold-out stand-up tour across the country and has a sequel to a Netflix comedy special that is set to be released at the end of the month.

“It’s just a part of my life that I never expected to happen, and it’s nice that my family and friends get to say that goofy guy Adam won a Mark Twain award,” Sandler said before the ceremony, which will be broadcast on CNN on March 26 at 8 p.m. Eastern.

nal back story, the special effects seem to have been pulled out of a box of secondhand ideas. Nor is the execution all that impressive. There’s little in the way of awe, suspense or surprise. Just a quickly hatched plan to get off this God-forsaken planet and leave it to its fate.

‘65’: Rated PG-13 (for dinosaur blood and prehistoric curses). Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters.

Adam Sandler became the 24th comic to receive the Mark Twain Prize For American Humor on Sunday night.

Adam Driver and Ariana Greenblatt in “65,” directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods.

When helpless fish need a hero, she answers the call

By SARAH MASLIN NIR

Construction workers have been at work demolishing an abandoned tuberculosis hospital in Queens, New York, over the past several months, dismantling the long-empty wards and carting off the bricks. But first, they had to figure out what to do with a school of goldfish that for unknown reasons had come to call the flooded basement home. Three hundred of them.

Their go-to goldfish rescuer? A beautician from the Bronx.

Brenda Prohaska, who teaches cosmetology at an alternative learning high school, had only a passing interest in fish when she joined a local aquarium interest group a few years ago. She just had some questions about how to treat ich, an illness that had wiped out her mollies. Then the pandemic lockdown began, and the fish club became a fish 911.

Messages poured in: There were sultan fish languishing in a closed acupuncture office in midtown Manhattan, a cluster of spike-topped apple snails forfeited by a Bronx family fleeing the contagion, and a nearly 20-year-old oscar fish in Co-Op City whose owner had died of the coronavirus.

“I thought someone else would answer the call,” Prohaska, 51, said in an interview in her house on City Island in the Bronx, over the burble of hundreds of gallons of aquarium water. Beside her, the foot-long sultan fish from the acupuncture office chewed a fresh earthworm she had plopped in his tank. “They didn’t, so I had to.”

Prohaska has since taken up a heavy mantle few — including herself — knew was there for the taking up: She has become the city’s on-call fish rescuer. The safe extraction of most of the mysterious goldfish from beneath the Neponsit Adult Home in Rockaway Park was just one of about 90 rescues she has undertaken in the past three years.

(Like any good fish tale, the goldfish caper gets bigger in the retelling: The Rockaway rescue effort included not just nets, traps and crusts of bread but a group of LGBTQ activists who frequented the beach nearby, a disabled construction worker from Pennsylvania and a woman

who asked to be known as a “fish fairy godmother” for privacy. But more on that later.)

The pandemic has ebbed, but Prohaska has not stopped. The fish need her too much, she said. The volume may be related to a post-pandemic phenomenon: giving away pets that were purchased as a lockdown balm. Small-animal intakes spiked by more than 12% nationwide in 2022, compared with the year before, according to Shelter Animals Count, which collects data from more than 6,000 shelters, though they still remain about 9% lower than before the pandemic. Via her Facebook page, NYC Fish Rescue, people alert Prohaska to their fish problems.

At first, she kept every angelfish, betta and gourami. She drove to save them in a beat-up hearse that she bought from a haunted attraction in Connecticut and that now serves as her fish rescue ambulance. (It is filled with fish gravel, aquarium filters and a terrifying clown mannequin from its previous life.) But the stress of cleaning multiple tanks and worrying about the creatures was too taxing, she said. She had to move one tank out of her bedroom because fretting over the cichlid’s happiness left her sleepless.

“It’s taxing. I worry about the fish,” she said. “It’s what drives me; I do it. But I don’t know if it’s good for me because it just causes me heartache and stress.”

Eventually, a man named Laboy Wiggins rescued the fish rescuer. Wiggins, 51, a disabled construction worker who lives in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, found NYC Fish Rescue on Facebook in 2020. The connection between the two fish sympathizers was instant, both said. Now, sometimes several times a week, he loads his Lincoln Navigator with the tools of the fish rescue trade — buckets and nets — and drives upward of three hours to New York City to rescue the fish to which Prohaska directs him.

Fish grew from a pastime to a solace for Wiggins, who took up the hobby when a car accident shattered his leg in 2009, requiring more than 30 surgeries, he said. Soon, it became an all-encompassing passion. “I just went berserk,” he said. “I went really crazy with it, but it’s a good kind of crazy. Fish is peaceful.”

He gets peace from the 700-gallon tank he installed in his living room, and the 500-gallon one upstairs, home to two Amazonian pacus that he rescued at Prohaska’s behest from a Long Island Rail Road depot in Queens. Their owner, a longtime railroad employee who was retiring, had kept them for more than a decade, Wiggins said, but could not take them home. They are huge.

In the next few days, Wiggins will receive a special delivery from New York

City: the last of the goldfish from underneath the tuberculosis hospital.

It is the end of a journey for the Queens goldfish, though their beginnings remain a mystery: Some theorize they were washed under the building after flooding from Hurricane Sandy scooped them from private ponds.

When the hospital’s destruction was announced, activists associated with the abutting beach, Bay 1 of Jacob Riis Park, a longtime refuge for LGBTQ and other marginalized people, began a grassroots effort to save the fish.

Beachgoers scooped out as many fish as they could and demanded that demolition wait until the whole goldfish school could be spared. In response, New York City Health and Hospitals, which owns the Rockaway property and oversaw the demolition, contacted the fish rescue.

In New York City parks, fish rescues are rare, according to Bonnie McGuire, the director of the parks department’s urban park rangers. Fish that are released in park waterways most often do not survive, she said. “Goldfish — or any other domesticated pets — don’t belong in parks. Do not release any pets into wild areas,” McGuire said in an email. “It’s not good for the ecosystem or the pet!”

Prohaska arrived in Rockaway with nets, but the subbasement was too deep to reach the goldfish, she said. She set traps loaded with Italian bread and caught more than 100; large ones went to a private pond in Mount Vernon, and 50 or so fry went to a woman in Scarsdale, who declined to give her name. (“I would like to be the gold fish fairy,” she said in a text message to Prohaska.)

The mission continued. Since September, a contractor working on the site has methodically fished them out with baited traps, according to New York City Health and Hospitals. It will end when the final fish are delivered to Wiggins in the next week. They will live in a pond outside a nearby Catholic church, he said — the ones he can bear to part with.

“It’s not every day you find fish at your construction site,” Manny Saez, the vice president of facilities at New York City Health and Hospitals, said in an email. “But we’re happy they found a safe home.”

Brenda Prohaska, who is a volunteer fish rescuer, at her home in the Bronx, March 8, 2023. Three hundred goldfish in a hospital basement, a suckermouth at the airport: When the city’s fish are in crisis, Prohaska and her sidekick ride to the rescue.

The origins of the COVID pandemic: What we know and don’t know

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG, BENJAMIN MUELLER and CARL ZIMMER

Long after the COVID pandemic emerged from Wuhan, China, the origin of the coronavirus remains a subject of intense scientific scrutiny and even more intense political debate.

A team of researchers has added fuel to the bonfire by presenting data at a World Health Organization meeting suggesting a wild animal known as a raccoon dog was sold at the same stall at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, where investigators found traces of the coronavirus.

The scientists suggested that raccoon dogs could have served as a so-called intermediate host for the virus, allowing it to spread through the market.

That development arrives less than three weeks after reports that the Energy Department had concluded — albeit with “low confidence” — that an accidental laboratory leak in Wuhan most likely caused the coronavirus pandemic.

Scientists who have studied the genetics of the virus and the patterns by which it spread say the most likely cause is that the virus jumped from live mammals to humans — a phenomenon known as “zoonotic spillover” — at the Huanan market, where the first cases of COVID-19 emerged in late 2019.

But other scientists say circumstantial evidence points to the virus having escaped from a lab, possibly the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which had deep expertise in researching coronaviruses. Lab mistakes do happen: In 2014, after accidents involving bird flu and anthrax, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tightened its biosafety practices.

Government agencies have been analyzing the origin of the pandemic since 2020, but they remain split about the most likely explanation. Most still favor a spillover. None of them changed their conclusions after seeing the Energy Department’s findings, officials said.

Here’s what we know and don’t know about the origins of the coronavirus.

Why is it hard to know for certain how the pandemic started?

It is often difficult to find the origins of viruses, but China has compounded that problem by making it very difficult to gather evidence.

By the time Chinese researchers arrived to collect samples from the Huanan market, it had been closed down and disinfected because a number of people linked to it had become sick with what would later be recognized as COVID. No live animals were left.

Some scientists also believe that China has provided an incomplete picture of early COVID cases. And they worry that a directive to hospitals early in the outbreak to report illnesses specifically linked to the market may have led doctors to overlook other cases with no such ties, creating a biased snapshot of the spread.

What have scientists done to investigate?

Experts have tried to work around the holes in the data. Scientists have examined cases of patients hospitalized before the call went out for doctors to look for ties to the market.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2021. The Energy Department concluded with “low confidence” that an accidental laboratory leak most likely caused the coronavirus pandemic. But new genetic findings hint that the virus may have originated in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan.

They have also mapped the locations of early COVID cases in Wuhan — including both people who were initially linked to the market and those who were not — and found what they say are signs that the virus started spreading at the market.

Some of those scientists have studied maps of where investigators found the virus in the Huanan market, including walls, floors and other surfaces, and found that those samples clustered in an area of the market where live animals were sold. The raccoon dog DNA came from one of those stalls.

And genetic analyses from the very early stages of the pandemic, some scientists have said, suggest that the virus spilled over into people working or shopping at the market on at least two separate occasions.

Other scientists have disputed that studies like those can indicate a market origin with much confidence. They believe, for example, that the evidence for two separate spillovers at the market could also be evidence of the virus evolving as it spread from person to person.

Some researchers have also argued that for all the attention being paid to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, not enough has been paid to a different research site in the city, the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That center is much closer to the Huanan market.

What’s all this fuss about raccoon dogs?

On March 14, some of the scientists who had published studies pointing to the Huanan market offered more data. They said their new findings were consistent with the spillover hypothesis.

Perusing a database in which genetic sequences of coronaviruses are shared, the researchers discovered that Chinese investigators had quietly uploaded data from their Jan. 1, 2020, search in the Huanan market — after a delay of more than three years.

The data included all the genetic sequences the investigators collected, not just those from coronaviruses. And it included

DNA from a wild species called the raccoon dog, the researchers told the World Health Organization.

That finding is at odds with claims from Chinese authorities that wild animals were not sold at the Huanan market.

Raccoon dogs are vulnerable to coronavirus infections. Two decades ago, they may have served as the so-called intermediate host for another coronavirus: the one that caused the epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.

The discovery of raccoon dog DNA at the market, if confirmed, would not be definitive proof that the animals were brought to the market harboring the coronavirus that started the pandemic. But the researchers found it striking that the raccoon dog DNA came from a stall that was also positive for SARSCoV-2, the virus that causes COVID.

After the scientists discovered the raccoon dog DNA, the newly uploaded sequences were removed from the database. It is not clear why that happened. The scientists are preparing a report of their findings.

Why do some people suspect a laboratory leak?

In October, Republicans on the Senate health committee published an analysis of the origins of the pandemic that argued it was “most likely the result of a research-related incident,” while acknowledging that the conclusion was “not intended to be dispositive.”

Many of its assertions were echoed by House Republicans, who held a hearing in early March outlining the case for the lab leak theory.

The Republicans’ report spotlighted what its authors described as holes in the natural origins theory, as well as “persistent biosafety problems” at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The report, though, relied largely on existing public evidence, rather than new or classified information, and did not produce evidence to show that the Wuhan institute stored any virus that could have become the coronavirus causing COVID, with or without scientific tinkering.

The lab leak hypothesis is bolstered, the report said, by the absence of any published evidence that SARS-CoV-2 was circulating in animals before the pandemic. Samples of virus collected on refrigerators, countertops and other surfaces at the Huanan market were genetically similar to human samples, suggesting the virus was shed by humans, not animals, it said.

But some experts said the inability to find an infected animal did not prove anything, because China shut down the market and killed all of the animals before they could be tested.

In 2018, before the pandemic, the Wuhan institute and its partners — including EcoHealth Alliance, a research group whose work has been financed by the United States — sought Defense Department funding to collect and experiment on coronaviruses with novel traits that would make them highly transmissible in humans.

The group’s project was never funded. But the Senate Republicans’ report noted that the coronavirus has traits similar to those the researchers were looking for. That has persuaded some scientists that a lab leak was possible. The report surmised that the virus may have escaped, perhaps by infecting a researcher who carried it outside the lab.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS

JUAN ANTONIO BONILLA

RAMOS Y RAMONITA

GARCIA FLORES Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA ENTRE

AMBOS

EXPARTE

Civil Núm.: CG2022CV03198.

Sobre: USUCAPIÓN EXTRAORDINARIA Y/O PRESCRIPCIÓN ADQUISITIVA; EXPEDIENTE DE DOMINIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LO ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: OTRAS PERSONAS O MIEMBROS DE SUCESIÓN DESCONOCIDAS, IGNORADAS, AUSENTES DE LA JURISDICCIÓN, Y/O CUYO PARADERO SE DESCONOCE, Y/O A QUIENES PUEDA PERJUDICAR LA INSCRIPCIÓN DE DOMINIO SOLICITADA DEL INMUEBLE, INCLUYENDO POSIBLES DUEÑOS ANTERIORES Y SUS HEREDEROS, QUE SE DESCRIBE EN DICHA PETICIÓN.

POR LA PRESENTE, se notifica a ustedes que se ha presentado ante este Tribunal una Petición Jurada sobre Expediente de Dominio, con el fin de justificar e inscribir a favor de JUAN ANTONIO BONILLA RAMOS y RAMONITA GARCIA FLORES y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA ENTRE AMBOS, el dominio sobre la propiedad que se describe a continuación: PREDIO DE TERRENO: con un área de dos mil trescientos cuarenta y ocho punto cero nueve seis seis metros cuadrados (2,348.0966

M.C.) o cero punto cinco nueve siete cuatro cuerdas de terreno (0.5974 CDA.) localizado en la Carr. P.R.-919, KM. 10.8 (Int.)

Barrio Valenciano Abajo, Juncos, Puerto Rico. Que los vecinos colindantes del predio de terreno, según el plano de mensura son los siguientes: Jesús

López López, Juan A. Bonilla Ramos, Mireliz Soto Martínez, Manuel Bonilla Ramos. Que el número de catastro del terreno es el siguiente: 253-022-564-

20. El inmueble antes descrito no consta inscrito en el Registro de la Propiedad. Se les notifica para que comparezcan, si lo creyeren pertinente, ante el Tribunal dentro de los veinte (20) días, contados a partir de la última publicación de este edicto, a exponer lo que a sus derechos convenga, en el expediente promovido por la parte peticionaria, para que se inscriba el dominio sobre la propiedad antes descrita, a favor de de JUAN ANTONIO BONILLA RAMOS y RAMONITA GARCIA FLORES y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA ENTRE AMBOS. Se les notifica, que deberán presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.poderjudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala de San Juan, y enviando copia a la parte peticionaria: Lcdo. Carlos J. Rodríguez Beltrán y Lcdo. Gabriel J. Pagán Sánchez, cuya dirección es: 10 Calle Teodomiro Delfaus, Juncos, Puerto Rico 00777, Tel. 787-734-7000; y correo electrónico: crodriguez@lawver.com y gabrielpagan.law@gmail.com.

Si usted deja de expresarse dentro del referido término, el Tribunal podrá dictar Resolución, previo a escuchar la prueba de valor de la parte peticionaria, sin más citarle ni oírle, y conceder el remedio solicitado en la petición, o cualquier otro, si el Tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, hoy 15 de diciembre de 2022. LI-

SILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL.

GLORISSETTE RIVERA REYES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE FA-

JARDO SALA SUPERIOR

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Parte Demandante Vs. GERARDO RÍOS

VÁZQUEZ y JULIANA

YOHANETTE AGOSTO

VIERA T/C/C JULIANA

YOHANNET AGOSTO

VIERA T/C/C JULIANA

AGOSTO VIERA

Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: FA2019CV01568.

Sala: 303. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente anuncia y hace constar que en cumplimiento de la Sentencia dictada el 10 de febrero de 2022, la Orden de Ejecución de Sentencia del 4 de abril de 2022 y el Mandamiento de Ejecución del 11 de enero de 2023, en el caso de epígrafe; procederé a vender el día 8 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LAS 1:30 DE LA TARDE en mi oficina, localizada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Centro Judicial de Fajardo, Sala Superior, Avenida Marcelito Gotay, Edificio 461, Esquina Barriada Jerusalén, Fajardo, Puerto Rico, al mejor postor en pago de contado y en moneda de los Estados Unidos de América, efectivo, cheque de gerente o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal; todo título, derecho o interés de la parte demandada sobre la siguiente propiedad:

URBANA: Solar Número Veintisiete (27) del Bloque “D” de la Urbanización Vistas de Luquillo, radicado en el Barrio Sabana del término municipal de Luquillo, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 299.00 metros cuadrados. Colinda por el NORTE, en una distancia de 13.00 metros lineales con la Calle Número Cuatro (4) de la misma Urbanización; por el SUR, en una distancia de 13.00 metros lineales con el lote Número Nueve (9) y Ocho (8); por el ESTE, en una distancia de 23.00 metros lineales con el Lote Número Veintiocho (28); y por el OESTE, en una distancia de 23.00 metros lineales con el Lote Número Veintiséis (26) de la misma Urbanización. Enclava una casa para fines residenciales. La propiedad consta inscrita al folio 25 del tomo 237 de Luquillo, Finca Número 11999, Registro de la Propiedad de Fajardo. La escritura de hipoteca consta inscrita al folio 25 vuelto del tomo 237 de Luquillo, Finca Número 11999, Registro de la Propiedad de Fajardo. Inscripción cuarta y última. Dirección

Física: Vistas de Luquillo, D27 Calle 4, Luquillo, PR 00773.

Número de Catastro: 23-120004-258-27-000. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta será de $89,964.00. De no haber adjudicación en la primera subasta se celebrará una SEGUNDA

SUBASTA, el día 15 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LAS 1:30 DE LA TARDE en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será

Tuesday, March 21, 2023 24

de dos terceras partes del tipo mínimo fijado en la primera subasta, o sea, $59,976.00. De no haber adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 23 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LAS 1:30 DE LA TARDE en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será la mitad del precio pactado, o sea, $44,982.00. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el tribunal lo estima conveniente. Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta es mayor. Dicho remate se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer a la demandante el importe de la Sentencia por la suma de $73,449.15 de principal, más intereses sobre dicha suma al 6% anual desde el 1 de junio de 2019 hasta su completo pago, más $111.43 de recargos acumulados, más la cantidad estipulada de $8,996.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, así como cualquier otra suma que contenga el contrato del préstamo. Surge del Estudio de Título Registral que sobre esta propiedad pesa el siguiente gravamen posterior a la hipoteca que por la presente se pretende ejecutar: Aviso de Demanda: Pleito seguido por Banco Popular de Puerto Rico Vs. Gerardo Ríos Vázquez y Juliana Yohannette Agosto Viera también conocida como Juliana Yohannet Agosto Viera y Juliana Agosto Viera (solteros), ante el Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala de Fajardo, en el Caso Civil Número FA2019CV01568, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, en la que se reclama el pago de hipoteca, con un balance de $73,449.15 y otras cantidades, según Demanda de fecha 26 de diciembre de 2019. Anotada al Tomo Karibe de Fajardo. Anotación A. Se notifica al acreedor posterior o a su sucesor o cesionario en derecho para que comparezca a proteger su derecho si así lo desea. 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 rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate y que la propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores tal como lo expresa la Ley Núm. 2102015. 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 27 de enero de 2023. DENISE BRUNO ORTIZ, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR #266, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE FAJARDO, SALA SUPERIOR. JORGE A. ORTIZ ESTRADA, ALGUACIL REGIONAL INTERINO #622.

LEGAL NOTICE

estado libre asociado de puerto rico tribunal de primera instancia centro judicial de fajardo sala superior BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Parte Demandante Vs. LA SUCESIÓN DE SANDRA IVELISSE

LÓPEZ CASTRO T/C/C

SANDRA LÓPEZ

CASTRO COMPUESTA

POR: DELFÍN JUAN

RIVERA LÓPEZ, VALERIE

LUCÍA RIVERA LÓPEZ, VERÓNICA VALERIE

RIVERA LÓPEZ, DELFÍN

GABRIEL ANDRÉS

RIVERA LÓPEZ, ANDREA

GABRIELA RIVERA LÓPEZ, FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS, DELFÍN ALBERTO

RIVERA VEGA T/C/C DELFÍN RIVERA VEGA, POR SÍ Y EN LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA, DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA POR CONDUCTO DE LA DIVISIÓN DE CAUDALES RELICTOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES

(CRIM)

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: FA2021CV01061. Sala: 307. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente anuncia y hace constar que en cumplimiento de la Sentencia dictada el 31 de marzo de 2022, la Orden de Ejecución de Sentencia del 20 de mayo de 2022 y el Mandamiento de Ejecución del 4 de enero de 2023, en el caso de epígrafe; procederé a vender el día 11 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 3:00 DE LA TARDE en mi oficina, localizada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Centro Judicial de Fajardo, Sala Superior, Avenida Marcelito Gotay, Edificio 461, Esquina Barriada Jerusalén, Fajardo, Puerto Rico, al mejor postor en pago de contado y en moneda de los Estados Unidos de América, cheque de gerente o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal; todo título, derecho o interés de la parte demandada sobre la siguiente propiedad:

URBANA: Solar radicado en la Urbanización Río Grande Estates, situado en el Barrio Zarzal del término municipal de Río Grande, Puerto Rico, con el número del solar quince (#15) del bloque GG. Área del solar: 325.00 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con el solar número catorce (#14), según el Registro de la Propiedad número 314, en distancia de 25.00 metros; por el SUR, con el solar número dieciséis (#16), en distancia de 25.00 metros; por el ESTE, con la Calle Número 31, en una distancia de 13.00 metros; y por el OESTE, con los solares número 34 y número 35 en una distancia de 13.00 metros. Enclava una casa. Inscrita al folio 259 del tomo 363 de Río Grande, Finca Número 22248, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección III. La hipoteca consta inscrita al folio 1 del tomo 442 de Río Grande, Finca Número 22248, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección III. Inscripción cuarta. DIRECCIÓN FÍSICA: URB. RIO GRANDE ESTATES, GG-15 CALLE 31, RÍO GRANDE, PR 00745-5077. Número de Catastro: 22-091085-409-36-000. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta será de $98,455.00. De no haber adjudicación en la primera subasta se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA, el día 18 DE MAYO

DE 2023, A LAS 3:00 DE LA TARDE en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será de dos terceras partes del tipo mínimo fijado en la primera subasta, o sea, $65,636.66. De no haber adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA, el día 25 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 3:00 DE LA TARDE en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será la mitad del precio pactado, o sea, $49,227.50. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el tribunal lo estima conveniente. Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta es mayor. Dicho remate se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer a la demandante el importe de la Sentencia por la suma de $70,511.78 de principal, más intereses sobre dicha suma al 7% anual desde el 1 de junio de 2017 hasta su completo pago, más $1,179.86 de recargos acumulados, los cuales continuarán en aumento hasta el saldo total de la deuda, más la cantidad estipulada de $9,845.50 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, así como cualquier otra suma que contenga el contrato del préstamo. Surge del Estudio de Título Registral que sobre esta propiedad pesa los siguientes gravámenes posteriores a la hipoteca que por la presente se pretende ejecutar: a. Aviso de Demanda: Pleito seguido por Banco Popular de Puerto Rico Vs. Sucesión de Sandra Ivelisse López Castro también conocida como Sandra López Castro compuesta por Delfín Juan Alberto, Valerie Lucía, Verónica Valerie, Delfín Gabriel 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.

Número 11,585, inscrita al folio 13 del tomo 536 de Yauco. Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección II de Ponce. Dirección de la Propiedad: B11 Amapola St. Villas del Cafetal, Yauco PR 00698. 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 $71,662.21 por concepto de balance principal del préstamo con interés al 3.25% anual, lo cual acumula un total de $90,814.01 a la fecha de 22 de noviembre de 2021, y que 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 de $9,500.00 equivalente al 10% de la suma principal original pactada, estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado; más recargos acumulados hasta la fecha en que se pague la deuda; más cualquiera suma de dinero por concepto de contribuciones, primas de seguro hipotecario y riesgo, así como cualesquiera otras sumas pactadas en la escritura de hipoteca, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura número 443 otorgada el día 27 de octubre de 2008, Cayey, Puerto Rico, ante el Notario Público Ana V. Piñero Pares y consta inscrita al folio 13 del tomo 536 de Yauco, finca número 11,585, Registro de la Propiedad de Yauco, Sección II de Ponce. 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 Secretary of Housing and Human Development, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $142,500.00, con intereses al 3.25% anual, vencedero el 11 de enero de

2096, constituida mediante la escritura número 444, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 27 de octubre de 2008, ante la notario Ana V. Piñero Pares, e inscrita al folio 14 del tomo 536 de Yauco, finca número 11,585, inscripción 4ta. Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta del inmueble antes descrito será la suma de $95,000.00 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 $63,333.33; 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 $47,500.00. 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 Ponce, Puerto Rico, a 7 de febrero de 2023.

JUAN R. CRUZ ROMÁN, ALGUACIL #965, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE PONCE.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE ARECIBO ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC, COMO AGENTE DE ACE ONE FUNDING, LLC.

Demandante Vs. EDGARDO TORRES COLON

Demandado

Civil Núm.: AR2021CV00680.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: EDGARDO TORRES COLONSABANA HOYOS, CARR 2 R632 KM 6.0, SABANA HOYOS PR 00688.

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

Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.

ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, la Lcda. Natalie Bonaparte cuyas direcciones son: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección natalie.bonaparte@ orf-law.com, edwin.serrano@ orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com.

EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Arecibo, Puerto Rico, hoy 23 de noviembre de 2022. En Arecibo, Puerto Rico, el 23 de noviembre de 2022. VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. JACQUELYNE GONZÁLEZ QUINTANA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

607-609

CONDADO ST., LLC.

Demandante V. AUGUSTO

BOBONIS LANG

Demandado LA SUCESIÓN DE CARMEN BELÉN ZEQUEIRA, COMPUESTA POR CÉSAR BOBONIS ZEQUEIRA, BELÉN

BOBONIS ZEQUEIRA, ELENA BOBONIS ZEQUEIRA, ISABEL BOBONIS ZEQUEIRA, MARÍA DEL PILAR

BOBONIS ZEQUEIRA, ANA BOBONIS ZEQUEIRA, AUGUSTO

BOBONIS ZEQUEIRA Y CARLA BOBONIS ZEQUEIRA

Partes con Interés Civil Núm.: SJ2022CV00829. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. DE AMÉRICA, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: AUGUSTO BOBONIS LANG.

Quedan emplazados y notificados que en este Tribunal se ha radicado Demanda sobre cobro de dinero por la vía

ordinaria en la que se alega que la parte demandada AUGUSTO BOBONIS LANG, le adeudan solidariamente a 607-609 Condado St., LLC., la suma de $14,046.44 por concepto de gastos comunes de mantenimiento adeudados a la fecha de radicación, las cantidades que se acumulen por concepto de mensualidades de gastos comunes, intereses, penalidades y recargos que se continúen acumulando, más las costas, gastos y una suma razonable por honorarios de abogado. Se les advierte que este edicto se publicará en un periódico de circulación general una sola vez y que, si no comparecen a contestar dicha Demanda dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del Edicto, a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https:// unired.ramajudicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia concediendo el remedio así solicitado sin más citarles ni oírles. La abogada de la parte demandante es la Lcdo. Alejandro Bellver-Espinosa, cuya dirección física y postal es: Cond. El Centro I, Suite 801, 500 Muñoz Rivera Ave., San Juan, Puerto Rico 00918; cuyo número de teléfono es (787) 946-5268, y su correo electrónico es: alejandro@bellverlaw. com. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día 10 de marzo de 2023. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA. MICHELLE RIVERA RÍOS, SUBSECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE GUA YNABO

ORIENTAL BANK

Demandante Vs. SUCESION DE PRIMITIVO RAMOS AQUINO Y SUCESION DE ELBA

LUGO QUINONEZ T/C/C

ELBA LUGO QUINONES

T/C/C ELBA LUGO

QUIÑONEZ T/C/C ELBA

LUGO QUIÑONES, COMPUESTAS POR

SUS HEREDEROS CONOCIDOS ROLANDO

PRIMITIVO RAMOS

LUGO, ALEX RAMOS

LUGO Y BARBARA

RAMOS LUGO; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O

PARTES CON INTERES EN LAS SUCESIONES Demandados Civil Núm.: GB2022CV01139. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS. A: SUCESION DE PRIMITIVO RAMOS AQUINO Y SUCESION DE ELBA LUGO QUINONEZ T/C/C ELBA LUGO QUINONES T/C/C ELBA LUGO QUIÑONEZ T/C/C ELBA LUGO QUIÑONES, COMPUESTAS POR SUS HEREDEROS CONOCIDOS ALEX RAMOS LUGO Y BARBARA RAMOS LUGO; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERES EN LAS SUCESIONES. URB. PARKVILLE 16-B CALLE ADAMS, GUAYNABO, PR 00969; PO BOX 3416, GUAYNABO PR 009703416.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los treinta (30) días de haber sido diligenciado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día del diligenciamiento.

Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Se le apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados que de no expresarse dentro de ese término de treinta (30) días, en torno a su aceptación o repudiación de herencia, la herencia se tendrá por aceptada. También se le apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados que luego del transcurso del término de treinta (30) días antes señalado, contados a partir de la fecha de publicación de este edicto, se presumirá que han aceptado la herencia del (los) causante (s)

y, por consiguiente, responden por las cargas de dicha herencia conforme dispone el Artículo 1,578 del Nuevo Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 11,021. Representa a la parte demandante, la representación legal cuyo nombre, dirección y teléfono se consigna de inmediato:

BUFETE FORTUÑO & FORTUÑO FAS, C.S.P. LCDO. JUAN C. FORTUÑO FAS RUA NUM.: 11416 PO BOX 3908, GUAYNABO, PR 00970

TEL: 787-751-5290, FAX: 787-751-6155

E-MAIL: ejecuciones@fortuno-law.com

Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, hoy 14 de marzo de 2023. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL II. SARA ROSA VILLEGAS, SECRETARIA DEL TRIBUNAL CONFIDENCIAL I.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante Vs. SUCESION DE CARLOS SANTOS MIRANDA, COMPUESTA POR

SUS HEREDERAS

CONOCIDAS AIDA LUZ SANTOS MIRANDA Y CECILIA SANTOS

MIRANDA; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS, DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERES EN LA SUCESION

Demandado

Civil Núm.: SJ2022CV09220. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS.

A: CECILIA SANTOS MIRANDA COMO HEREDERA CONOCIDA DE LA SUCESIÓN DE CARLOS SANTOS MIRANDA; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O TERCEROS CON INTERÉS DE DICHA SUCESIÓN. COND. VILLAGE AT THE POINT APTO. B-2, SAN JUAN, PR 00912. DIRECCIÓN

POSTAL: 610 CRICKET HOLLOW LANE EUSTIS, FL 32726.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los 30 días a partir de

la publicación de este edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Se le apercibe que conforme al artículo 1578 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. §11021, usted tiene 30 días para aceptar o repudiar la herencia desde la publicación de este edicto. A esos efectos, de no rechazarla, se tendrá la herencia por aceptada. Representa a la parte demandante, la representación legal cuyo nombre, dirección y teléfono se consigna de inmediato: BUFETE FORTUÑO & FORTUÑO FAS, C.S.P. LCDO. JUAN C. FORTUÑO FAS RÚA NÚM.: 11416 PO BOX 3908, GUAYNABO, PR 00970

TEL.: 787-751-5290, FAX: 787-751-6155 E-MAIL: ejecuciones@fortuno-law.com

En San Juan, Puerto Rico a 13 de marzo de 2023. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. BRENDA BÁEZ ACABA, SECRETARIA DE SERVICIOS A SALA.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC.

Demandante Vs. MAGNA LUISA CRUZ RODRIGUEZ; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA

Demandados Civil: CG2020CV00503. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: MAGNA LUISA CRUZ RODRIGUEZ (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 14 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 en-

terarse 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 15 de marzo de 2023. En Caguas, Puerto Rico el 15 de marzo de 2023. LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. SANDRA J. TRINIDAD CAÑUELAS, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR. SANDRA J.TRINIDAD CAÑUELAS, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA

TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE COMERÍO

REVERSE MORTGAGE

FUNDING LLC

Demandante V.

SUCESION JOSE

ALBERTO VAZQUEZ

PEREZ COMPUESTA

POR JOSE ALBERTO

VAZQUEZ ALVARADO, LOURDES MELISSA

VAZQUEZ ALVARADO, NANCY IVONNE

VAZQUEZ ALVARADO, LINNETTE MARIE

HERNANDEZ

VAZQUEZ, NELSON

DAMIAN HERNANDEZ

VAZQUEZ; JOHN DOE

Y JANE DOE COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; NORMA ALVARADO

COLLADO POR SI Y EN LA CUOTA VIUDAL

USUFRUCTUARIA; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES

Demandado(a)

Civil: AI2022CV00166. Sobre:

EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA.

NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTEN-

CIA POR EDICTO.

A: JOSE ALBERTO

VAZQUEZ ALVARADO, LOURDES MELISSA

VAZQUEZ ALVARADO, NANCY IVONNE

VAZQUEZ ALVARADO, LINNETTE MARIE

HERNANDEZ

VAZQUEZ, NELSON

DAMIAN HERNANDEZ

VAZQUEZ, JOHN DOE

Y JANE DOE COMO

POSIBLES MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION JOSE

ALBERTO VAZQUEZ

PEREZ.

(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 9 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 14 de marzo de 2023. En Comerío, Puerto Rico, el 14 de marzo de 2023. ELIZABETH GONZÁLEZ RIVERA, SECRETARIA. YARA

M. RODRÍGUEZ ALICEA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA

TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE PONCE -

SUPERIOR

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Vs PAGAN TORRES, SILVERIO

Caso: JCD2017-0022. Sobre:

EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA.

NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: FULANO DE TAL Y

ZUTANO DE TAL COMO

MIEMBROS DE LA

SUCESION DE SILVERIO

PAGAN TORRES PARA SER NOTIFICADOS POR

EDICTO P/C: LIC. ADELA

SURILLO GUTIERREZ. PO BOX 70212, SAN JUAN PR 00936-8212.

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 08 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 14 de marzo de 2023. Lic. Surillo Gutiérrez, Adela. adela.surillo@ gmail.com. En Ponce, Puerto Rico, el 14 de marzo de 2023. CARMEN G. TIRÚ QUIÑONES, SECRETARIA. EREINA AGRONT LEÓN, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

Parte Demandante Vs. AMJAD A AWAD HAMAD

Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: PO2022CV02723. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO.

A: AMJAD A AWAD

HAMAD - URB VILLA DE JUAN 714 CALLE

RIACHUELO PONCE, PUERTO RICO 007163519 / URB JARD FAGOT

C22 CALLE ALMENDRA PONCE, PUERTO RICO 00716-4018.

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

Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el reme-

dio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia al abogado de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. José F. Aguilar Vélez cuya dirección es: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección jose.aguilar@orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@orflaw.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO

MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Ponce, Puerto Rico, hoy día 16 de febrero de 2023. En Ponce, Puerto Rico, el 16 de febrero de 2023. CARMEN TIRÚ QUIÑONES, SECRETARIA. SANDRA GONZÁLEZ RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOT ICE

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

WILMINGTON SAVINGS

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

ACQUISITION TRUST

2019-HB1

Demandante Vs. HECTOR ANTONIO

RONDON NIEVES T/C/C

HECTOR RONDON T/C/C

HECTOR A. RONDON

T/C/C HECTOR A.

RONDON NIEVES T/C/C

HECTOR RONDON

NIEVES; ESTADOS

UNIDOS DE AMERICA

Demandados

Civil Núm.: AR2023CV00096.

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

A: HECTOR ANTONIO

RONDON NIEVES T/C/C

HECTOR RONDON T/C/C

HECTOR A. RONDON

T/C/C HECTOR A.

RONDON NIEVES T/C/C

HECTOR RONDON NIEVES.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al Tribunal su alegación responsiva a la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación de este edicto.

Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos ( SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente direc-

ción electrónica: http://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberé presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente.

Greenspoon Marder, LLP

Lcda. Frances L. Asencio-Guido R.U.A. 15,622

TRADE CENTRE SOUTH, SUITE 700 100 WEST CYPRESS CREEK ROAD

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 33309

Telephone: (954) 343 6273

Frances.Asencio@gmlaw.com

Expedido bajo mi firma, y sello del Tribunal, en Ciales, Puerto Rico, hoy día 7 de marzo de 2023. VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. JANNETTE GONZÁLEZ VARGAS, SUB-SECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

FIRSTBANK

PUERTO RICO

Demandante V.

SUCESION DE IRIS

LETICIA RIVERA RIOS

T/C/C IRIS L. RIVERA

RIOS T/C/C IRIS RIVERA

RIOS COMPUESTA POR

ANGIE RIVERA RIVERA

T/C/C ANGIE LAYNA

RIVERA RIVERA, ALANA

RIVERA RIVERA T/C/ IRIS

ALANA RIVERA RIVERA, ALBA RIVERA RIVERA

T/C/ ALBA KARINA

RIVERA RIVERA, FULANO DE TAL, FULANA DE TAL, SUTANO DE TAL, SUTANA DE TAL, A, B Y C COMO MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION; SUCESION DE ISMAEL VILLANUEVA

REYES COMPUESTA

POR FULANO DE TAL, FULANA DE TAL, SUTANO DE TAL, SUTANA DE TAL, A, B Y C COMO MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION; HONORABLE SECRETARIO DEL DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA DEL ESTADO

LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO Demandados Civil Núm.: ECD2016-0170. (702). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EDICTO DE SUBAS-

TA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: PUBLICO EN GENERAL. El Alguacil del Tribunal que suscribe anuncia y hace constar: A. Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaria del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Caguas, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor de contado y en moneda de curso legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América y cuyo pago se efectuará en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, todo derecho, título o interés que tenga la Parte Demandada en el bien inmueble que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar número 4 del bloque “K” en el Plano de Inscripción de la Urbanización Treasure Valley, radicada en el Barrio Bayamón del término Municipal de Cidra, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 286.37 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en 24.99 metros ( según plano 25.51 metros), con el solar número 5; por el SUR, en 25.44 metros, con el solar número 3 del bloque K; por el ESTE, en 7.62 metros, en curva con la Calle Argentina; y por el OESTE, en 12.54 metros, con finca propiedad de Angélica Rodríguez viuda de Martínez.

Dirección Física: Calle Argentina K 4 Urbanización Treausure Valley, Cidra PR. 00739-000.

Finca 6,816, inscrita al folio 260 del tomo 165 de Cidra, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección Segunda de Caguas. B. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado están de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables bajo el epígrafe de este caso.

C. Que se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematente 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. D. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para satisfacer a la parte demandante el importe de la sentencia que ha obtenido ascendente a la suma principal de $59,056.73, la suma de $2,405.60, que incluye intereses según pactados, cargos por demora y otros cargos, que se acumulan diariamente hasta su total y completo pago, más

la suma de 10% del principal, por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. La PRIMERA SUBASTA se celebrará el día 12 DE ABRIL DE 2023 A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA en la Oficina del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Caguas, por el tipo mínimo de $79,373.00. De declararse desierta dicha subasta se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 19 DE ABRIL DE 2023 A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA en el mismo lugar antes mencionado. El precio para la segunda subasta lo será 2/3 partes del precio mínimo de la primera, o sea, $52,915.33. De declararse desierta dicha segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 26 DE ABRIL DE 2023 A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA en el mismo lugar antes mencionado. El precio para la tercera subasta lo será 1/2 del precio mínimo de la primera, o sea, $39,686.50. Y PARA QUE ASÍ CONSTE, y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general y por un término de catorce (14) días en los sitios públicos conforme a la ley, expido la presente bajo mi firma y sello de este tribunal, hoy 16 de marzo de 2023 en Caguas, Puerto Rico. ALEJANDRO URBINA ROQUE, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR PLACA #997.

LEGAL

NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE MAYAGÜEZ LUNA RESIDENTIAL III

LLC

Demandante V. SUCESION DE GUILLERMINA CARABALLO CARABALLO

COMPUESTA POR JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS, CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES Y ADMINISTRACION

PARA EL SUSTENTO DE MENORES

Demandado(a)

Civil: MZ2022CV00703. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA Y COBRO DE DINERO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION DE GUILLERMINA CARABALLO CARABALLO.

(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 01 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 20 de marzo de 2023. En Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, el 20 de marzo de 2023. LCDA. NORMA G. SANTANA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIA. NILDA TORRES ACEVEDO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Parte Demandante Vs. JESÚS RODRÍGUEZ ORTÍZ, SU ESPOSA

CARMEN ROSA RODRÍGUEZ CRUZ

T/C/C CARMEN R. RODRÍGUEZ CRUZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: SJ2022CV6040. (604). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO; EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JESÚS RODRÍGUEZ ORTÍZ, SU ESPOSA

CARMEN ROSA

RODRÍGUEZ CRUZ

T/C/C CARMEN R. RODRÍGUEZ CRUZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS.

LA SECRETARIA que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 14 de marzo de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente

su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia al abogado de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. José F. Aguilar Vélez cuya dirección es: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección jose. aguilar@orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law. com. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Juana Díaz, Puerto Rico, hoy día 17 de febrero de 2023. En Juana Díaz, Puerto Rico,, el 17 de febrero de 2023. CARMEN G. TIRÚ QUIÑONES, SECRETARIA. WALESKA E. RIVERA TORRES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE YABUCOA ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC. COMO

AGENTE GESTOR DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC.

Demandante Vs MIGUEL A.

CORREA RIVERA

Demandado

Civil Núm.: YB2022CV00100.

Salón: 101. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. A: MIGUEL A.

CORREA RIVERABDA. MARTORELL, CARR. 3R 904 PARC 261, YABUCOA, P.R. 00767.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el reme-

dio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, la Lcda. Natalie Bonaparte cuyas direcciones son: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección natalie.bonaparte@ orf-law.com, edwin.serrano@ orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Humacao, Puerto Rico, hoy día 15 de febrero de 2023. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 15 de febrero de 2023. IVELISSE C. FONSECA

RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA

REGIONAL. ILEANETTE RIVAS SERRANO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA

TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN LUNA RESIDENTIAL III, LLC.

Parte Demandante Vs. JUAN CARLOS RIVERA

MARCANO, KARLA

MICHELLE RIVERA

MARCANO, CARLOS

IVÁN RIVERA MARCANO, COMO TITULARES REGISTRALES Y COMO MIEMBROS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE JUAN CONCEPCIÓN

RIVERA ROSARIO Y DE LA SUCESIÓN DE HERMINIA MARCANO

LÓPEZ COMPUESTA

POR FULANO DE TAL Y FULANA DE TAL COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS CON INTERÉS EN LA SUCESIÓN; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: SJ2022CV07659. (604). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO; EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JUAN CARLOS

RIVERA MARCANO, KARLA MICHELLE

RIVERA MARCANO, CARLOS IVÁN

RIVERA MARCANO, COMO TITULARES REGISTRALES Y COMO MIEMBROS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE JUAN CONCEPCIÓN

RIVERA ROSARIO Y DE LA SUCESIÓN DE

HERMINIA MARCANO LÓPEZ COMPUESTA

POR FULANO DE TAL Y FULANA DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS CON INTERÉS EN LA SUCESIÓN.

LA SECRETARIA 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 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 13 de marzo de 2023. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 13 de marzo de 2023. GRISELDA

RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. ELSA

MAGALY CANDELARIO CABRERA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL

GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN SEBASTIÁN

WILMINGTON SAVING

FUND SOCIETY FSB, NOT INDIVIDUAL BU SOLELY AS TRUSEE FOR FINANCE OF AMERICA STRUCTURED

SECURITIES

ACQUISITION TRUST

2018-HB1

Demandante Vs SUCESION ISRAEL

GUZMAN SOTO T/C/C

ISRAEL GUZMAN

COMPUESTA POR JOH

DOE Y JANE DOE COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS;.

GLADYS AROCHO

MARQUEZ T/C/C GLADYS

AROCHO DE GUZMAN

T/C/C GLADYS AROCHO

GUZMAN POR SI Y EN LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA;

ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO

DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICPALES

Demandado(a)

Civil Núm.: SS2022CV00341.

Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: GLADYS AROCHO MARQUEZ T/C/C GLADYS AROCHO DE GUZMAN

T/C/C GLADYS AROCHO GUZMAN POR SI Y EN LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA; JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE.

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 28 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 13 de marzo de 2023. En San Sebastián, Puerto Rico, el 13 de marzo de 2023. SARAHÍ REYES PÉREZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. IVELISSE ROBLES MATHEWS, SECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

Demandante Vs. SUCESIÓN DE ROSALIA BETANCOURT MATOS

T/C/C ROSALIA BETANCOURT COMPUESTA POR RAFAEL GILESTRA BETANCOURT; GRISELIA GILESTRA BETANCOURT; OSCAR MARTIN GILESTRA; NATASHA GILESTRA; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS, CENTRO DE

RECAUDACIONES

MUNICIPALES; OFICINA DE HERENCIA Y DONACIONES DEL DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA DE PUERTO RICO; Y A LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA

Demandados

Civil Núm.: KCD2015-1325. (0604). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

Al: PÚBLICO EN GENERAL.

A: SUCESIÓN DE ROSALIA BETANCOURT MATOS T/C/C ROSALIA BETANCOURT COMPUESTA POR RAFAEL GILESTRA BETANCOURT; GRISELIA GILESTRA BETANCOURT; OSCAR MARTIN GILESTRA; NATASHA GILESTRA; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS, CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES MUNICIPALES; OFICINA DE HERENCIA Y DONACIONES DEL DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA DE PUERTO RICO; Y A LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA.

Yo, EDWIN E. LÓPEZ MULERO, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, a los demandados, acreedores y al público en general con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, por la presente CERTIFICO, ANUNCIO y HAGO CONSTAR: Que el día 24 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 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 14 de marzo de 2017. 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 1 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudica-

ción, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 8 DE MAYO 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 Juan, en el caso de epígrafe con fecha de 28 de febrero 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 de su propiedad ubicado en: 956 Barbados St. Country Club Dev, San Juan PR 00924, y que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número 12 del bloque LB del plano de inscripción de la cuarta extensión, Primera Etapa de la Urbanización Country Club, situada en el Barrio Sabana Llana del municipio de Río Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 319.78 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el Norte en 23.57 metros con el solar número 11; por el Sur, en 23.30 metros con una forma de arco con la calle número 296; por el Este, en 8.92 metros en forma de arco con la calle número 296; y por el Oeste en 3.87 metros con una alameda; por el Sureste en 14.90 metros con pared medianera que separa este solar del solar y casa número 13. Enclava una casa de dos plantas de concreto para residencia de una sola familia. Finca número 9,817, inscrita al folio 116 del tomo 220 de Sabana Llana, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección V de San Juan. La subasta se llevará a cabo para satisfacer, hasta donde alcance, el importe de las cantidades adeudadas a la parte demandante conforme a la sentencia dictada a su favor, a saber: $156,177.41, incluyendo intereses y otros gastos acumulados hasta el 31 de octubre de 2016, y los cuales continúan acumulándose a razón del 5.060% por ciento anual, hasta su completo pago; más la cantidad de $25,800.00, equivalente al 10% de la suma principal original pactada, estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado; más recargos acumulados hasta la fecha en que se pague la deuda; más cualquiera suma de dinero por concepto de contribuciones, primas de seguro hipotecario y riesgo, así como cualesquiera otras sumas pactadas en la escritura de hipoteca, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura número 125, otorgada el día 31 de mayo de 2012,, San Juan, Puerto Rico, ante el Notario Público Francisco J. Biaggi Landrón, e inscrita al tomo Karibe de Sabana Lla-

na, finca número 9,817, inscripción 8va, Registro de la Propiedad de Sabana Llana, Sección V de San Juan. 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 del Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $258,000.00, con intereses al 5.060% anual, vencedero el día 20 de octubre de 2071, constituida mediante la escritura número 126, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 31 de mayo de 2012, ante el notario Francisco J. Biaggi Landrón, e inscrita al tomo Karibe de Sabana Llana, finca número 9,817, inscripción 9na. Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta del inmueble antes descrito será la suma de $258,000.00 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 $172,000.00; 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 $129,000.00. 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. De ser ello necesario, el Alguacil podrá diligenciar el Acta de Subasta que se expida en horas laborales, de día, los 5 días de la semana y podrá romper cualquier cerradura o candado que dé acceso al inmueble objeto de este desalojo. 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 Juan, Puerto Rico, a 13 de marzo de 2023. EDWIN E. LÓPEZ MULERO, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE SAN JUAN.

US breezes past Cuba and into World Baseball Classic final

— fans cheered and waved the flag. “US-A! U-S-A!” chants broke out in the first inning when Turner fielded a ground ball and threw to first base for an out.

“I’ve pitched in some big spots,” said Wainwright, who earned a World Series ring in 2006. “Never in front of a crowd like that tonight. That was the most crazy environment I’ve played in. Unbelievably blessed to have been a part of that game.”

Before the game, United States third baseman Nolan Arenado, who is of Cuban descent, said he had a long talk with his family about playing against Cuba.

“There’s a lot of anxious feelings,” he said, adding later, “If it wasn’t for the sacrifices my grandparents made to get here for my parents, I don’t know if I would have been the player that I am today. So there’s a lot of feelings I feel toward it. I respect them, I respect the players, but we have a job to do.”

playing good baseball right now so one more to go and hopefully those stats keep coming and that’s a good thing for Team USA.”

By JAMES WAGNER

It was a historic night, with the Cuban national baseball team playing in the city with the largest Cuban population in the United States, but the game itself was unable to match the intensity of the moment. Behind its star-studded offense, the United States dismantled Cuba 14-2 at loanDepot Park in Miami on Sunday and advanced to the World Baseball Classic final.

Trea Turner, the Philadelphia Phillies shortstop whose grand slam Saturday propelled the United States to the semifinal, homered twice against Cuba. He drove in four runs in all, as did first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. And Goldschmidt’s St. Louis Cardinals teammate, starter Adam Wainwright, led the United States pitching staff by allowing one run over four innings.

The United States, which won the WBC when it was last played in 2017, will now face the victor of Monday night’s semifinal game between Mexico and Japan. The final will be tonight.

“I haven’t hit a homer in spring training in like four or five years or something like that,” Turner said, referring to the fact that the WBC occurs during Major League Baseball’s preseason. “So it’s kind of funny how it works out, but I don’t ask questions. I just go up there and hopefully it continues on. We need one more win, so let’s get that.”

It was the Cuban team’s first visit to Miami since the communist revolution in Cuba in 1959 and the sellout crowd of 35,779 on Sunday showed the range of feelings about the presence of the team, which is viewed as an extension of the country’s government. Donning Cuban flags and shirts, fans cheered for the team after the national anthem was played before the first pitch or big moments on the field.

But throughout the game, many fans also sang opposition chants such as “libertad!” (liberty) or “patria y vida” (homeland and life), an inversion of the Cuban revolutionary motto of “patria o muerte” (homeland or death).

“We have heard that,” Cuba manager Armando Johnson said. “But I was not paying attention to that. We were focused on the job we wanted to perform. It didn’t go well for us.”

During the sixth inning, a protester with a sign that called for liberty for Cubans ran onto the field to applause from fans. He was tackled by security guards and taken off the field. Two more fans ran onto the field in the following innings. And late in the game, Cuban pitchers in the bullpen in right field signaled that something had been thrown into their area from the stands.

But there was also a lot of vocal support for the United States. With every run or hit — and there were plenty of both

Despite help from players in MLB organizations — a recent change in the Cuban Federation Baseball’s policy — the Cuban team was still no match for the United States’ squad. Because so many players had defected to play in MLB in the United States, the once-mighty Cuban team had faded on the international baseball stage. An injection of talent for this WBC boosted Cuba to the semifinals.

But a United States lineup of All-Stars and MVP award winners scored runs against all seven Cuban pitchers who appeared in Sunday’s game. Cuba jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning, an advantage that barely lasted because Goldschmidt clobbered a two-run home run in the bottom half of the frame.

“After the home run, the first thing he does,” Wainwright said of Goldschmidt, “he goes right to me and he says, ‘We got you.’”

Added Goldschmidt, the 2022 National League MVP: “That was one of my favorite home runs I’ve ever hit in my entire life.”

Their Cardinals teammate Miles Mikolas followed with four strong innings, allowing the United States lineup to keep scoring. Turner, the ninth and last hitter in the lineup, smashed a solo shot in the second inning and added a three-run blast in the sixth, capping his second straight game with four RBIs. And in two days, Turner said he hoped for more.

“I like playing baseball, competing and coming out on top,” he said. “We’re

WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC SEMIFINALS (loanDepot Park, Miami; all times Eastern)

SUNDAY USA 14, Cuba 2

MONDAY Mexico at Japan (7 p.m.)

TODAY’S FINAL (loanDepot Park, Miami) USA vs Japan-Mexico winner (7 p.m., FS1)

QUARTERFINALS

SATURDAY (loanDepot Park, Miami) USA 9, Venezuela 7

FRIDAY (loanDepot Park, Miami) Mexico 5, Puerto Rico 4

THURSDAY (Tokyo Dome) Japan 9, Italy 3

WEDNESDAY (Tokyo Dome) Cuba 4, Australia 3

Paul Goldschmidt and Team USA are headed to the WBC championship game for a second straight tournament.

Trea Turner (8) with teammates after hitting a three-run home run in the sixth inning against Team Cuba.

Houston and Alabama size each other up from the same arena

By BILLY WITZ

When the Houston Cougars trudged to the locker room at halftime of their second-round game in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, their shoulders weren’t the only things sagging. So were their national championship hopes.

On Friday night, they watched as Purdue, a No. 1 seed, was taken down by Fairleigh Dickinson. Earlier Saturday, another No. 1’s title dreams went kaput, as Arkansas rallied to oust Kansas, the reigning champion.

And here the Cougars were, trailing by 10 points on Saturday to feisty Auburn, which had a raucous homestate crowd behind it. After watching his defense get carved up, Houston coach Kelvin Sampson all but put his feet up at halftime and told his team — especially two of his best players, Marcus Sasser and Jamal Shead — to figure it out.

“Sometimes it’s not always about fussing and cussing, hollering and yelling,” Sampson said. “I didn’t holler or yell. I just said, ‘If we will play our defense, we will get back in this game.’”

And so the Cougars did, putting a vice grip on Auburn in the second half and running away to the Sweet 16.

Their victory and Alabama’s — which followed in Birmingham, Alabama, a 73-51 slog over Maryland — made for a rare opportunity for the top two seeds left in the tournament to eye each other before they, if they continue to win, reunite in two weeks at the Final Four in Houston, where the Cougars might finally enjoy something approximating a home-court advantage.

Alabama and Houston are not unfamiliar with each other, having played early this season and last (Alabama won both games). But the teams gained more data points simply by keeping their eyes and ears open this past weekend. They played and practiced on the same court, answered questions from news reporters on the same stages, and dressed and showered in locker rooms just a few paces

down the hall from each other.

So much of men’s tournament basketball is about matchups, grinding out victories by whatever means possible and taking your shot when it comes. The transfer portal, the lure of endorsement deals and an additional year of eligibility the NCAA granted because of the coronavirus pandemic have somewhat leveled the playing field — yielding to more runs by low-seeded teams such as Oral Roberts and St. Peter’s but also producing more teams that have a real shot to win it all.

Perhaps the best thing that can be said about Alabama and Houston is that they played well enough to move on and that they have a chance to get better — an opportunity that will not be afforded to Purdue or Kansas.

UCLA, miffed that it wasn’t awarded a No. 1 seed, was feeling similarly fortunate after surviving Northwestern and injuries to two starters, Adem Bona and David Singleton. It is unclear how much they will be able to contribute in a game against Gonzaga on

Thursday.

It is shaping up to be the type of wide-open tournament that many thought was possible. This is just the second time since 2004 that only two No. 1 seeds have survived the first weekend. Princeton, a No. 15 seed, is into the Sweet 16 and looking very much like it wasn’t an accident. The Tigers will be joined there by Florida Atlantic, which took out the biggest underdog left, Fairleigh Dickinson, on Sunday night. It seems like everybody has a puncher’s chance of moving on.

Arkansas to the Final Four? Gonzaga? Texas? Tennessee? Who says no?

“It doesn’t really matter your seed,” said Houston guard Tramon Mark, who had 26 points Saturday and carried the Cougars past Auburn in the second half, which Sasser and Shead spent mostly on the bench with four fouls. “It just matters if you’re ready to play and play hard. Anybody can be beat in this tournament.”

It doesn’t seem to hurt if you’re from New Jersey.

After a run by St. Peter’s to the East regional final last year as a 15th seed, Princeton is one victory against Creighton from doing the same.

Jahvon Quinerly, Alabama’s crafty point guard from Jersey City, New Jersey, shrugged at a question about Houston. But when he was queried about the state of basketball in his home state, his eyes lit up like a pork roll had been placed in front of him.

“Man, that’s a good question,” said Quinerly, who often wears a “Basketball Meets Jersey” T-shirt. He noted that he grew up not far from St. Peter’s and FDU, and that one of his former teammates at Hudson Catholic High School, Daniel Rodriguez, plays for FDU.

“Jersey’s just different in March,” he added.

Quinerly has had a quixotic journey since leaving Hudson Catholic. He decommitted from Arizona after documents in an FBI college basketball corruption probe suggested he took a $15,000 bribe from an assistant coach. He signed with Villanova but left after a year when he struggled to play in its exacting system. He tore a knee ligament in Alabama’s first-round loss to Notre Dame last season, and thought, at least for a moment, that his college career was over.

Quinerly was Alabama’s best player Saturday night with an efficient 22 points, three steals and two assists — which pained Maryland coach Kevin Willard, who while coaching at Seton Hall had offered Quinerly a scholarship in the ninth grade.

Willard knew Saturday that his team had a difficult task playing Alabama at its home away from home, so he was hoping that Auburn might be able to upset Houston and its fans would be so riled up they’d stick around to root against their own rival, the Crimson Tide, in a second-round nightcap.

The enemy of his enemy, Willard hoped, would be his team’s friend.

But if Auburn didn’t win?

“Then at 9:40 at night, knowing Auburn fans, they’re probably going to the bar,” Willard said Friday.

Houston is one of two No. 1s left in the N.C.A.A. men’s tournament, along with Alabama.

Sergio Pérez won, but Max Verstappen stole the show

By ANDREW DAS and JOSH KATZ

Maybe George Russell had it right. Almost as soon as Russell climbed out of his car early this month after the first race of the Formula One season, he declared the chase for the season championship over. Red Bull’s cars, he said, were simply too fast. “They have got this championship sewn up,” Russell said at the time. Red Bull, he said, might just win every race.

So far, that is just what it is doing. Sergio Pérez on Sunday breezed to Red Bull’s second victory in two races, capturing the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with a performance nearly as dominant as the one turned in by his teammate Max Verstappen the last time out.

That Verstappen did not win himself was only the result of a bit of bad luck: He broke the drive shaft on his car during qualifying Saturday, forcing him into a repair that left him starting 15th. It hardly mattered.

Pérez, who had started in pole position, lost the lead to Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin before the first turn, won it back by the fourth lap and slowly and methodically pulled away for his fifth career victory.

Verstappen, meanwhile, was picking his way through the pack behind him with ease. Told before the race of a prediction by a rival that his car was so fast that he would be “P2 by Lap 25,” Verstappen shrugged and said he would do his best.

But when the 25th lap arrived, that was right where he was: P2, or second place, with only his teammate Pérez ahead. By then, the Red Bulls were cruising, and the sense of resignation about their unmatched speed — a feeling that was palpable all week in Jeddah — was spreading.

“Red Bull,” Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc said before the race, “is on another planet.”

Max

Verstappen’s wild ride

Verstappen had played down his chances of victory from the moment a broken drive shaft ended his qualifying early Saturday and left him in 15th place. But that did not mean he had any intention of staying in the back of the field.

It took him only eight laps to move into 10th place, and only eight more to rise to fifth. By the halfway point of the race, and helped by the fortuitous arrival of a safety car that allowed him to make up even more ground, Verstappen was in second.

Some radio traffic between Verstappen and his garage suggested his mechanical issues may not have been over, but that was forgotten after he closed the race with the fastest lap of the day. That earned a bonus point, which was just enough to nudge Pérez out of the top spot in the season standings.

He and Red Bull remain, without question, the team to beat.

“I’ve definitely never seen a car so fast,” said Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes, a seven-time world champion.

“When we were fast, we weren’t that fast.” OK, read this slowly because it gets a bit tricky.

— Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin finished third Sunday to claim his second podium finish of the season and the 100th of his long career. Hugs were shared. Trophies were awarded. Bubbly was sprayed. Hooray!

— But wait! After he had accepted the third-place trophy, stewards ruled that Alonso, who had served a fivesecond penalty for lining up with his tires outside his box at the start of the race, had actually not served the penalty correctly during a pit stop during the race. (Formula One television’s Zapruder film breakdown of the stop showed that a crew member’s jack had touched his car prematurely.)

— Penalized for that illegal contact, Alonso was assessed an additional 10-second penalty, just enough to strip him of his third-place finish and elevate Russell of Mercedes, who had been fourth. Womp womp womp.

— Russell accepted the extra points, and the trophy, but said he was happy to cede the onstage moment to Alonso. “I’ll take the trophy for sure,” he said, “but Fernando and Aston deserve the podium.” He called the penalty “harsh.”

— Oh, but you thought that was the end of it? Heavens no. Even as Russell gazed at his new hardware and Alonso gave interviews, the stewards and Aston Martin officials were huddling and taking a second (or was it a third now?) look.

— Reversal! Formula One heard the Aston Martin appeal and decided — hours after the race, hours after the trophy ceremony, and on the strength of evidence that touching a jack to a penalized car is actually quite common — that Alonso could have third place after all.

“Having reviewed the new evidence, we concluded that there was no clear agreement, as was suggested to the stewards previously, that could be relied upon,” motor racing’s governing body, which oversees the apparently hazy rules, said in a statement. “In the circumstances, we considered that our original decision to impose a penalty on Car 14 needed to be reversed and we did so accordingly.”

Got it? Now quickly keep reading before they change their minds again.

What they’re saying

— “We will keep pushing. The important thing is we were the fastest car out there today.” — Pérez, after posting the fifth win of his career but failing to take the season points lead from Verstappen.

— “When they told me I had a five-second penalty, I said, ‘OK, I need to drive a little bit faster.’” — Alonso.

— “We are not where we want to be but we will get there.” — Hamilton, acknowledging that fifth place is better but still not good enough for him or Mercedes.

Next race

April 2: Australian Grand Prix, Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit.

Max Verstappen said he was not worried about a head-to-head battle with Sergio Pérez, above, for the drivers’ championship. “The best one,” Verstappen said, “will finish in front.”

Sudoku

How to Play:

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

Sudoku Rules:

Every row must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Every column must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

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

Crossword

Answers on page 38

Wordsearch

Aries (Mar 21-April 20)

As the Sun moves into your sign from today Aries, you’ll begin to feel more vital and upbeat. This can feel like a fresh start for you, especially if aspects of life have been unravelling before your eyes. Now you have the steering wheel firmly in your hands, the coming weeks could see you bringing creative and personal dreams to life with enthusiasm. Nothing will stop you!

Taurus (April 21-May 21)

The coming four weeks provide an opportunity for reflection and insight, as the Sun dips into a more secluded sector. The days ahead can see you questioning current beliefs and deciding that it’s time to make a few changes and resolve lingering issues. Ready to move out of your comfort zone? With the Sun forging a tie to Pluto, you may be compelled to pursue a bold idea, Taurus.

Gemini (May 22-June 21)

You may be involved in projects or discussions that could bring powerful change into your life, and this might take up a lot of time and energy, even if you’re happy to go ahead. It’s also why the movement of the Sun into your social sector can bring relief. Ready to enjoy yourself? The coming four weeks or so are perfect for spending time in good company and enjoying it, Gemini.

Cancer (June 22-July 23)

It’s time to embrace the spotlight, with the Sun entering a more prominent sector from today for a four week stay. And though you aren’t one to boast about your achievements, this isn’t the time to hide your talents but to promote yourself, especially if you’re looking to further your career or make the most of opportunities. Plus, someone’s insightful suggestion could delight you.

Leo (July 24-Aug 23)

Dealing with intense issues? The movement of the radiant Sun your personal planet into Aries and your travel zone, can help lighten the mood. While this influence inspires you to explore new terrain, it’s also an opportunity to learn a skill or get a qualification that could be very useful in the future. Could things be taking a new direction soon? If so, it helps to be prepared, Leo.

Virgo (Aug 24-Sep 23)

With feisty Mars in the last degrees of Gemini, your creative and persuasive skills are still in demand. Feel ready to pursue an idea or project that seems to have huge potential? With underworld Pluto also in the mix, things can go from strength to strength the more time and energy you invest. You could gain quite a reputation for your talents, so be prepared for this.

Libra (Sep 24-Oct 23)

Your relationships seem to be a high point, with lots of activity showing up due to the people you mix with and reach out to. The Sun in Aries from today, highlights collaborations, teamwork and a desire to spend more time with close ones. Still, a tie to Pluto hints at a realization that it’s better to cut ties with someone who is not on your wavelength, than to pretend that they are.

Scorpio (Oct 24-Nov 22)

As the solar orb moves into your lifestyle sector from today, this can be an opportunity to reflect on how happy you are with the way things are going. Keen to make life easier for yourself? This is your chance to do some reorganizing, Scorpio. Eager to take a bold step forward? It’s important to sort out your schedule, and carve out time for new tasks and fresh responsibilities.

Sagittarius (Nov 23-Dec 21)

You’ll enjoy more leisurely activities from today, and over the next four weeks you’ll be a lot more adventurous. If you’ve been busy with domestic issues, a desire to get out more can show up. Want to let off steam? If so, you might enjoy walking, hiking or anything that can burn up a lot of energy. This might also be a good time to invest in something important to you, Archer.

Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 20)

A powerful aspect comes to a peak, as the Sun aligns with Pluto in your sign. It suggests that if you want something badly enough, you’ll do your utmost to get it. This influence inspires you to take steps that bring dynamic change into your life. Plus, the Sun’s move into your home zone is a call to unwind and recharge. Have big plans on the go? Relaxing will set you up to succeed.

Aquarius (Jan 21-Feb 19)

You’re very engaging and pleasant to talk to, Aquarius. So, when the Sun glides into Aries, this quality will be enhanced. You seem to be full of big ideas, and keen to make them happen, and you’ll be ready to connect with others who may be able to help. Are you ready to take on board a challenge? You’ll need to be very persistent, but soon enough you’ll have this in spadefuls.

Pisces (Feb 20-Mar 20)

Your financial sector is sizzling with action. As the Sun joins key planets, you’ll feel more inclined to take a closer look at what’s going on, and make any necessary changes. And while there may be an urge to splurge, it can be liberating to pay off bills and get other matters sorted, Pisces. You might also be drawn to recycling items and selling anything you no longer need.

Speed Bump