Proactive Consumer Protection
Lawmaker Moves to Stop Businesses from Using Tariffs to Hike Prices
2 GOOD MORNING
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.
Secretary of state-designate asks House panel not to address past gender-based violence incident
By THE STAR STAFF
Designated Secretary of State Verónica Ferraiuoli Hornedo asked lawmakers on Monday not to ask her questions about a past incident of gender-based violence involving her husband, designated La Fortaleza Chief of Staff Francisco Domenech, during her confirmation hearing in the island House of Representatives.
“These events occurred when I was not a public figure, more than seven years ago,” Ferraiuoli Hornedo said during the hearing, in the presence of her daughters. “We are imperfect people who have made mistakes and have always had the strength to fight for our marriage, our daughters, our family, and to forgive each other.”
The designated official asked for respect and that the personal matter not hijack the purpose of the hearing.
“With the utmost respect and humility, I request that this personal
matter not be the focus of our discussion today,” she said. “It is important to me that this day not be tarnished by malicious questions, whose sole purpose is to rekindle a situation that is long gone from our lives.”
The appointee also addressed recently disclosed allegations about a supposed effort made before the Physicians and Surgeons Association to favor a friend, which she described as false.
“I categorically deny that I have requested any action from the Physicians Association for or against any candidate” Ferraiuoli Hornedo said in her statement. “That allegation is false.”
Ferraiuoli Hornedo appeared before the House Government Committee in a public hearing held in the hearing room known as Room 1 of the Capitol, as part of the confirmation process for her appointment as secretary of state.
The appointment requires the approval of both the House and the Senate, as stipulated in the Puerto Rico Constitution.
Bills filed to address climate crisis, promote use of recycled tires
By THE STAR STAFF
Sen. Ada Álvarez Conde filed a package of legislative measures on Monday to address the economic impact of natural disasters, analyze the current mitigation plan, and demand concrete actions to address the climate crisis in Puerto Rico.
“The island faces tangible and growing threats from climate change: coastal erosion, heat waves, biodiversity loss, and the vulnerability of our agricultural, fishing, and tourism industries,” Álvarez Conde said in a written statement.
The measures introduced include Senate Resolution (SR) 101, which requires the Legislative Assembly Budget Office (OPAL) to assess the economic impact of natural disasters over the past 15 years; Senate Concurrent Resolution 7, which mandates an analysis of the mitigation plan presented by the Experts Committee; and SR 103, so that the plan can be subjected to a macroeconomic analysis by the OPAL.
In addition, Senate Joint Resolution 40 directs the Department of Economic Development and Commerce to design a plan to promote tire recycling and establish asphalt production plants with recycled tires on public lands.
“These resolutions seek to ensure that the government
acts responsibly, with clear data, and a sense of urgency,” the senator said. “We cannot continue improvising while climate change puts lives, infrastructure, and the country’s economy at risk.”
Álvarez insisted that the relevant public policy must consider the cost of inaction in the face of the climate emergency, including the loss of lives and the collapse of essential economic sectors. She vowed to continue promoting legislation that fosters resilience and sustainability in Puerto Rico.
Designated Secretary of State Verónica Ferraiuoli Hornedo
Sen. Ada Álvarez Conde
Lawmaker moves to stop businesses from using tariffs to hike prices
By THE STAR STAFF
House Judiciary Committee Chairman José “Che” Pérez Cordero announced on Monday the introduction of a comprehensive joint resolution that aims to curb the potential exploitation of tariff-related price increases by businesses.
The action comes in response to growing consumer apprehension as businesses are unjustly using the Trump administration’s recently implemented tariffs as a rationale for inflating prices on various goods and services, the lawmaker said.
The joint resolution, filed on Monday, specifically directs the Department of Consumer Affairs (DACO by its acronym in Spanish) to formulate and enforce the necessary mechanisms that would effectively prevent unjustified hikes in consumer prices. The proactive measure is intended to address the concerns voiced by consumers who fear that certain businesses may leverage the ongoing tariff situation to enhance their profit margins at the expense of consumers.
“In recent days, we have received a considerable number of complaints and grievances from consumers who are worried about the misuse of ‘federal tariffs’ as
a pretext for increasing prices unjustly,” Pérez noted.
He emphasized that there is no valid reason for prices to rise at any point -- whether today, tomorrow, or in the foreseeable future -- regarding items found on store shelves or services provided. “This resolution is fundamentally designed to safeguard consumers from the actions of a minority of businesses that might seek to exploit the situation for their own financial gain,” Pérez said.
On April 2, President Trump officially declared “Liberation Day,” which marked a significant increase in tariffs on imported goods entering the United States as part of a broader strategy affecting international trade relations. Since that date, tariffs on products from various neighboring countries have surged by percentages ranging from 10% to 34%, contingent on multiple factors such as the type of product, its country of origin, and various criteria delineated in the executive orders issued by the Trump administration.
Pérez acknowledged the economic
implications of the tariff increases, noting that they are likely to exert upward pressure on the prices of goods and services across the board.
“The operational logic of our market’s supply chain dictates that as business operational costs rise, so too do the prices of products and related services,” he noted.
“However, it is critical to stress that this anticipated increase is not immediate; it will not occur within the next week or even the following week. It is entirely unacceptable for businesses to attempt to bolster their revenues based on unfounded fears of price hikes that have not yet come to pass.”
Furthermore, Pérez clarified that DACO possesses the authority to regulate and intervene in cases of any price increases deemed artificial under Regulation Number 9158 concerning commercial practices, which was established on Feb. 6, 2020. The regulation equips DACO with the necessary tools to ensure fairness in pricing and protect consumer interests in the wake of changing economic conditions.
After femicide in Adjuntas, the island’s 7th this year, governor stresses prevention
By THE STAR STAFF
Gov. Jenniffer González Colón reacted earlier this week to the femicide reported in Adjuntas.
“One is worrisome, but this is the seventh, also through a painful scenario that impacts us, with so many children involved in that scene,” the governor said at a press conference on Sunday. “That’s why the rapid
response of the police superintendent, the family secretary, the child welfare department, and the women’s advocate. And the reason is the following: Obviously, the victim went to a municipal [police] station, not a state station. So they are reviewing what happened there, what the protocols were. That’s why the police superintendent went directly there, because that shouldn’t have happened.”
González Colón noted that bills were introduced to standardize the response in situations of violence.
“There’s another initiative that should be launched in the coming weeks, which is an advertising campaign against violence, seeking to encourage women to seek help early,” the governor said. “She [victim Caroline Boe] had already been the victim of physical assault by her partner. So it was foreseeable that there would be another attack. And those are the things we have to avoid: that cycle of, if it’s already happened once, we have to prevent the next attack from being the occasion of death, in this case, of a woman.”
“But what about those children and those who may have witnessed this?” González Colón added. “This is an experience that will change their lives and will leave a lasting
impact on the mental health of these minors. And that’s why the government of Puerto Rico is there. We’re obviously looking for family members who can take care of the minors, who can immediately receive the resources of social workers and psychologists to manage this and lessen its impact. So those are the coordinations we’re going to be making.”
“I think the most important thing is the campaign against violence and what we’re going to be doing in public schools to provide emotion management courses, so we don’t have to resort to this use of violence,” she said.
A man killed a woman at around 4:58 a.m. Sunday morning in the Valle Verde residential area in Adjuntas.
According to the police report, a call was received about an incident of gender-based violence at the scene.
When authorities arrived, they found the body of Caroline Boe, 34, at the scene. Her partner, Alvin Torres Alvarado, 35, fled the scene but was arrested in the Capáez neighborhood.
The incident occurred in the presence of seven minors.
As the governor noted, the slaying was the seventh recorded case of femicide in Puerto
Rico this year.
There are tools for victims of gender-based violence, a pattern of abuse, or mistreatment. They can call the police, as well as the Office of the Women’s Advocate if they are or know of someone experiencing a similar pattern. They also can contact the police confidentially at (787) 792-6734 or (787) 343-2020, as well as the Office of the Women’s Advocate at (787) 722-2977.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman José Pérez Cordero (Facebook via José Che Pérez Cordero)
Gov. Jenniffer González Colón
Caroline Boe was 34 years old. (Social Networks)
Planning Board projects moderate economic growth for 2025 & 2026
As part of the analysis, the Planning Board established alternative scenarios. The optimistic scenario projects growth of 3.2% for 2025 and 1.6% for 2026. The pessimistic scenario estimates contractions of -1.0% and -0.4%, respectively.
By THE STAR STAFF
Planning Board Chairman
Héctor Morales Martínez on Monday projected moderate economic growth (“Real Gross Product”) of 1.1% for fiscal year (FY) 2025 and 0.5% for FY 2026 in Puerto Rico’s economy, reflecting an economic slowdown without entering negative territory.
As part of the analysis, the Planning Board established alternative scenarios. The optimistic
scenario projects growth of 3.2% for 2025 and 1.6% for 2026. The pessimistic scenario estimates contractions of -1.0% and -0.4%, respectively.
Alejandro Díaz Marrero, director of the board’s Economic and Social Planning Program, noted that the projections will be updated as indicators such as the labor market, inflation, oil prices, and public and private investment change.
Miriam García Velázquez, director of the Social Analysis
PDP continues with refoundation project
By THE STAR STAFF
Aguada Mayor Christian Cortés Feliciano, who has been assigned by Popular Democratic Party (PDP) President Pablo José Hernández Rivera to engineer the institution’s refoundation, announced that as part of the efforts aimed at 2028, he presided over the first public meeting with around 100 young people in Caguas this past Saturday.
“At this initial meeting, we gathered the leaders of Juventud Popular, along with the organization’s president, Swanny Enit Vargas Feliciano, who is also the current at-large representative,” Cortés Feliciano said. “We discussed various topics, including
improvements to the organization’s structure, key issues facing Puerto Rico, and youth communication strategies. Structuring the leadership academies is another priority we are addressing.”
Cortés Feliciano noted that young people have high expectations for the refoundation because they believe that the PDP is the party that prioritizes the needs of the people and Puerto Rican society over ideology. That is reflected, he said, in Hernández Rivera winning in all eight senatorial districts last Election Day, capping his successful campaign to become the island’s resident commissioner.
The mayor also announced that the next public hearing will take place on Saturday,
April 12 at the Ponce PDP municipal committee, located at 37 Calle Mayor in the city center. Starting at 11 a.m., Mayor Marlese Sifre and Juan “Veguita” Vega Quiñones, the president of the Organization of Municipal Public Servants, will welcome all interested parties.
In February, the PDP president stressed that the concept of refoundation represents a transformation of the party, aimed at consolidating it as an electoral force capable of winning elections and governing responsibly.
“Christian Cortés is an exemplary public servant with the ideal combination of experience in municipal administration and knowledge in law and engineering,”
Subprogram, emphasized that the model used includes variables such as exports, personal consumption spending, oil prices, and U.S. economic policy, including the potential impact of measures taken under the Trump administration.
For FY 2024, the island economy grew 2.1%, reaching a gross domestic product of $69.869 billion, driven by solid consumption, increased exports, and a total domestic investment of $14.294 billion.
Aguada Mayor Christian Cortés Feliciano (Facebook via Partido Popular Democratico)
Hernández Rivera said. “His leadership will be key to reestablishing the PDP’s structure and ensuring that the party aligns with the needs of the people and the challenges of the future.”
By THE STAR STAFF
The Puerto Rico Department of Economic Development and Commerce (DDEC by its acronym in Spanish), led by Secretary Sebastián Negrón Reichard, has announced a significant investment of $5.9 million from Viant Puerto Rico Inc., a prominent manufacturer in the medical device sector.
The expansion at the Vega Baja facility will create 80 new full-time jobs, increasing the workforce from 168 to 248 employees.
“Viant’s expansion not only boosts our economy but also reinforces Puerto Rico’s
competitiveness as an investment destination for the medical device industry,” Negrón Reichard said. “This project supports our reshoring strategy by bringing manufacturing operations back to the island and enhancing our productive capacity. The relocation of these operations demonstrates the capabilities and efficiency of our workforce.”
Gov. Jenniffer González Colón also emphasized the positive economic impact of the investment: “Viant’s expansion reaffirms businesses’ confidence in Puerto Rico as a hub for innovation and advanced manufacturing. We will continue to work
toward attracting more investments that create high-paying jobs and strengthen our industrial ecosystem.”
Viant’s investment underscores its commitment to bolstering the island’s economic growth and job creation. The company has initiated three new projects, which include expanding injection molding manufacturing and updating facilities to produce combination products -- an essential category within the medical device industry. The enhancements will streamline processes, boost production capacity, and meet the increasing demands of global customers.
Migna Fontán, Viant Puerto Rico’s director of operations, highlighted the strategic significance of the expansion.
“Our investment in technology and manufacturing capacity will enable us to provide high-quality products more efficiently,” she said. “The support from the government and the DDEC team has been crucial for achieving this expansion and ensuring the success of our operations in Puerto Rico.”
As part of the initiative, DDEC has offered incentives totaling $822,600 for the acquisition of machinery and equipment, as well as for job creation.
8, 2025 5
Trump weakens US cyberdefenses at a moment of rising danger
By DAVID E. SANGER and NICK CORASANITI
When President Donald Trump abruptly fired the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command last Thursday, it was the latest in a series of moves that have torn away at the country’s cyberdefenses just as they are confronting the most sophisticated and sustained attacks in the nation’s history.
The commander, Gen. Timothy D. Haugh, had sat atop the enormous infrastructure of American cyberdefenses until his removal, apparently under pressure from the far-right Trump loyalist Laura Loomer. He had been among the U.S. officials most deeply involved in pushing back on Russia, dating to his work countering Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election.
His dismissal came after weeks in which the Trump administration swept away nearly all of the government’s election-related cyberdefenses beyond the secure NSA command centers at Fort Meade, Maryland. At the same time, the administration has shrunk much of the nation’s complex early-warning system for cyberattacks, a web through which tech firms work with the FBI and intelligence agencies to protect the power grid, pipelines and telecommunications networks.
Cybersecurity experts, election officials and lawmakers — mostly Democrats but a few Republicans — have begun to raise alarms that the United States is knocking down a system that, while still full of holes, has taken a decade to build. It has pushed out some of its most experienced cyberdefenders and fired younger talent brought in to design defenses against a wave of ransomware, Chinese intrusions and vulnerabilities created by artificial intelligence.
“At a time when the United States is facing unprecedented cyberthreats — as the Salt Typhoon cyberattack from China has so clearly underscored — how does firing him make Americans any safer?” Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Thursday night after Haugh’s ouster.
Warner was referring to an operation in which Chinese intelligence bored so deeply into U.S. telecommunications networks that it had access to the Justice Department’s system for lawful interception of calls or text messages and could listen in on some conversations, including Trump’s during his campaign last year.
Trump’s embattled national security adviser, Michael Waltz, has not yet announced a new cyberstrategy, but he has argued that the country needs to go on offense more.
“We’ve been playing a lot of defense, and we keep trying to play better and better defense,” Waltz told Breitbart before the inauguration. “If you’re putting cyber time bombs in our ports and grid,” he added, the United States must show that “we can do it to you, too.”
‘Somebody lowered the drawbridge’
In his first term, Trump and his top aides fortified cyberdefenses: He signed legislation creating the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the White House started publicly naming countries that were attacking the
A discarded name card on the ground in Congress that reads “Rep. Waltz,” for Michael Waltz, now the national security adviser and formerly a congressman from Florida, in Washington on Jan. 14, 2025. Waltz, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, has argued that the United States needs to go on offense more with its cyberoperations. (Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times)
United States.
As the 2018 elections approached, U.S. Cyber Command conducted counterstrikes on Russian hackers and intelligence agencies. Haugh was deeply involved in that effort as a leader of the “Russia Small Group,” a joint operation between the NSA, the nation’s premier cyberespionage agency — with 32,000 employees, it is nearly 50% larger than the CIA — and Cyber Command, its military cousin.
But Trump has moved in the opposite direction in his second term. For four years, he nurtured deep resentments about CISA, which had declared that the 2020 election was one of the best run in history, undercutting his false claims that he had been cheated of victory. Weeks after taking office this year, he began a campaign of dismantlement.
Federal programs that monitored foreign influence and disinformation have been eliminated. Key elements of the warning systems intended to flag possible intrusions into voting software have also been degraded; the effects may not be known until the next major election. And contractors who worked with local election officials to perform cybersecurity testing, usually with federal funding, have found the deals canceled.
In early March, CISA — which is nested inside the Department of Homeland Security — cut more than $10 million in funding to two critical cybersecurity intelligence-sharing programs that helped detect and deter cyberattacks and that alerted state and local governments about them. One program was dedicated to election security, and the other to broader government assets, including electrical grids.
In some counties around the nation, these two programs were the only ways that local governments stayed on top of mounting attacks.
“It’s like somebody lowered the drawbridge, and there’s no guards,” said Adrian Fontes, the Democratic secretary of state in Arizona, who has written letters of protest to the
White House, the Department of Homeland Security and his congressional delegation. “This is incredibly bad.”
CISA’s election-security program had helped identify not only cyberattacks but also risks to key infrastructure like voter databases. The program shared information between election officials and federal agencies to prevent attacks.
In Arizona, the program helped Fontes and other officials learn on election night in November that 15 bomb threats they had received were a hoax originating in Russia, a realization that allowed voting to go largely uninterrupted in the battleground state.
In Colorado, the program helped Jena Griswold, the Democratic secretary of state, alert her counterparts across the country, as well as CISA, about an orchestrated break-in by a local election official in 2021.
CISA’s leadership has maintained that election officials will have “access to the same CISA support,” which includes “cyber and physical security services and incident response.”
Cuts and canceled contracts
Similar but less severe cuts have hit the country’s broader cybersecurity defenses, at a moment when ransomware attacks are becoming more sophisticated and efforts to deter state-sponsored attacks have largely failed.
The innovative Cyber Safety Review Board — based on the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates transportation accidents — was created by the Biden administration to extract critical lessons from major breaches. It was dismantled soon after Trump took office, even as it was in the midst of examining Salt Typhoon and trying to figure out how China’s intelligence agencies pierced deep into the American telecommunications system.
Because the first line of defense is often in the private sector — Microsoft was the first to find Salt Typhoon — the impact of this retrenchment may take months or years to understand.
Jason Healey, a cyberexpert at Columbia University with long experience in government, said that the cuts “to secure elections or fight misinformation are least likely to get reinstated.” But he predicted that new leaders of Trump’s cyberdefense programs were “likely to rebuild others once they realize, like every team before them, they need outside advisers and mechanisms to better coordinate and share information across government and with companies in critical infrastructure.”
In a reflection of the administration’s effort to bring cybersecurity more within the government, CISA canceled contracts in March that affected more than 100 cybersecurity experts with a range of specialties. Some, for example, led “Red Teams” that hunted for vulnerabilities that needed to be sealed off to intruders, a practice known as penetration testing. And there are reports of more looming cuts at the agency, though the timing remains unclear, and the agency declined to comment.
Administration officials argue that the nation’s cyberdefenses remain robust, and they have defended the cuts as eliminating duplicative work. “CISA has taken action to
Trump administration aims to spend $45 billion to expand immigrant detention
By ALLISON McCANN, ALEXANDRA BERZON and HAMED ALEAZIZ
The Trump administration is seeking to spend tens of billions of dollars to set up the machinery to expand immigrant detention on a scale never before seen in the United States, according to a request for proposals posted online by the administration last week.
The request, which comes from the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, calls for contractors to submit proposals to provide new detention facilities, transportation, security guards, medical support and other administrative services worth as much as $45 billion over the next two years.
ICE does not yet have that much money. But if funded, the maximum value would represent more than a sixfold increase in spending to detain immigrants. It is the latest indication that President Donald Trump and his administration are laying the groundwork to rapidly follow through on his promise for a mass campaign to rid the country of immigrants here without legal permission.
The request to contractors was posted last week with a deadline of Monday. In the last fiscal year, DHS allocated about $3.4 billion for the entire custody operation overseen by ICE.
ICE is already expecting a large windfall from the GOP budget plan, which Senate Republicans approved Saturday. That measure lays out a significant spending increase for the administration’s immigration agenda — up to $175 billion over the next 10 years to the committees overseeing immigration enforcement, among other things. The $45 billion request to contractors would put ICE in a position to more readily spend those funds.
The request also invites the Defense Department to use its own money for immigrant detention under the same plan.
“This is DHS envisioning and getting ready to unroll — if it gets the money — an entirely new way of imprisoning immigrants in the U.S.,” said Heidi Altman, the vice president for policy at the National Immigration Law Center.
Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, has insisted repeatedly that a major part of raising deportation numbers will require, among other things, more detention beds
and funding. The request is the first concrete step toward ICE being able to quickly scale up detention.
Immigrant detention is already above capacity, and reports have emerged of overcrowded facilities. Last year, Congress provided funding for ICE to detain a daily average of 41,500 people. As of March 23, the detained population was about 47,900.
The stopgap spending measure Congress passed last month allocated an extra $500 million to ICE — increasing the agency’s budget to nearly $10 billion this year — though the funding fell far short of the agency’s request for an additional $2 billion to continue enforcement at its current level.
Lower standards and military detention
The government’s request included several changes to how immigrant detention currently operates, including an invitation to the Defense Department to use its own funding to play a role in detaining immigrants. Previous administrations have held some immigrants temporarily at military bases as a backup, but the Trump administration has hinted at plans to establish a nationwide network of military detention facilities for immigrants.
“DHS takes its commitment to promoting safe, secure and humane conditions for those in our custody very seriously,” a senior homeland security official said in a statement. “We will continue to make sure those in our custody are housed in facilities that adequately provide for their safety, security and medical needs.”
Facilities under the contract will not have to meet the standards for services and detainee care that ICE has typically set for large detention providers. Instead, they can operate under the less rigorous standards the agency uses for contracts with local jails and prisons. These facilities typically do not include comprehensive medical care, such as access to mental health services, nor do they offer access to information about immigrants’ legal rights.
Homan had previously said that he was seeking to lower detention standards, and that he would do away with some of the government oversight and inspections intended to ensure compliance.
Even under existing standards, government inspections for years have found evidence of negligence at private detention facilities, including lack of access to medical care and unsanitary conditions, and problems that may have led to deaths of detainees.
A tent city not far from the airfield where a cargo plane brought about a dozen migrants to Guantánamo Bay, Feb. 7, 2025. The Trump administration is seeking to spend tens of billions of dollars to set up the machinery to expand immigrant detention on a scale never before seen in the United States, according to a request for proposals posted online by the administration last week. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
Trump weakens US cyberdefenses at a moment of rising danger
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terminate contracts where the agency has been able to find efficiencies and eliminate duplication of effort,” the agency said in a statement this month. It added, “CISA’s Red Teams continue their work without interruption.”
Fears about future voting security
Around the country, election officials in both parties are worried.
Al Schmidt, the Republican secretary of state in Pennsylvania, sent a letter last month to Kristi Noem, who as the
homeland security secretary oversees CISA, listing four instances last year when federal cybersecurity programs being targeted helped his state hold fair elections.
In August, for example, CISA helped ward off an attempted cyberattack on Pennsylvania voters using text messages disguised as reminders to register to vote. And in September, CISA warned that envelopes containing white powder were being sent to Pennsylvania election offices.
“Put simply, withdrawing CISA’s support for local election officials will make elections less secure,” Schmidt wrote.
Private companies were already gearing up
The government’s request is staggering not only for its size and scope, experts said, but also for the speed at which submissions were due. Vendors were initially given just three days to submit proposals.
Private detention contractors were most likely not caught off guard. On an investor call in February, Damon Hininger, the CEO of CoreCivic, said the company was in daily communication with the administration.
Several private detention operators had already signed new contracts since Trump took office. Last month, CoreCivic signed a five-year, $246 million contract to reopen a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, and Geo Group announced the reopening of a 1,000-bed facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, for a 15-year, $1 billion contract.
Representatives for CoreCivic and Geo Group did not respond to requests for comment on the government’s proposal.
His letter brought up another point: Many election officials can no longer seek outside funding to pay for the cybersecurity programs that the federal government is now cutting.
Pennsylvania and 27 other states have passed laws banning private donations to help fund elections infrastructure. The measures, known as Zuckerbucks bans, stem from conservative groups’ false claims that the billionaire Mark Zuckerberg helped Democrats steal the 2020 election with his large donations to election offices.
Trump says tariffs will stay until trade deficit disappears
By TONY ROMM and ANA SWANSON
President Donald Trump said Sunday that he would not reverse tariffs on other nations unless the trade deficits that the United States runs with China, the European Union and other countries disappeared.
His comments indicated that the steep import taxes that have panicked global businesses and investors would be in place for the long run.
“Hundreds of billions of dollars a year we lose with China,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “And unless we solve that problem, I’m not going to make a deal.” He added that he was “willing to deal with China, but they have to solve their surplus.”
Trump’s comments came just hours after his top aides raced to defend the president’s expansive global tariffs, which sent global markets into a tailspin last week. As Trump departed his Mar-a-Lago estate for another day of golfing at his club in Jupiter, Florida, his leading economic advisers dismissed the turmoil the tariffs have unleashed in financial markets around the world, insisting that the president’s trade war would ultimately improve the nation’s economic fortunes.
But they also sent mixed signals over the extent to which Trump sees tariffs as a negotiating tool, even as many of his aides said Sunday that they had heard from more than 50 countries looking to find a way out of the tariffs.
“The tariffs are coming. Of course they are,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Trump said he had spoken to officials in Europe and Asia and that they were “dying to make a deal.” He reiterated that Europe had treated the United States badly and added that “there’s no talk unless they pay us a lot of money on a yearly basis.”
The president wrote on social media Sunday evening that the only way to cure “massive Financial Deficits” with China, Europe and many others was with tariffs, saying that they were now bringing tens of billions of dollars into the United States.
“Some day people will realize that Tariffs, for the United States of America, are a very beautiful thing!” he wrote.
Trump’s 10% baseline tariff on nearly every trading partner went into effect Saturday morning. A second round of tariffs will snap into place Wednesday morning. Those levies, when added with tariffs the president recently imposed on foreign metals, cars and exports
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent waits in the Rose Garden before President Trump makes remarks and signs tariffs at the White House in Washington, April 2, 2025. The president’s top advisers acknowledged Trump’s sweeping tariffs could raise prices but said an economic adjustment that would ultimately benefit American workers was overdue. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
from Canada, Mexico and China, increase the tariffs the United States puts on imports nearly tenfold.
Trump has long seen tariffs as a cudgel to punish countries that he believes treat America unfairly and to push companies to make their products in the United States. But his efforts have triggered pushback from countries including China, which said it would match Trump’s plans to impose 34% tariffs with the same level of duties.
Beijing also appears to have pulled out of an agreement with the White House to separate TikTok, the popular app, from its Chinese owner, ByteDance.
The president told reporters on Air Force One that China “changed the deal because of tariffs.”
“If I gave a little cut in tariffs, they’d approve that deal in 15 minutes, which shows you the power of tariffs,” he said. Trump announced Friday that he would extend the deadline for TikTok to comply with a federal law that requires it to change its structure to resolve national security concerns.
Trump’s top advisers spent much of Sunday trying to reassure the public that the president’s plans would ultimately benefit Americans.
Kevin Hassett, head of the White House National Economic Council, said in an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” that he did not expect to “see a big effect on the consumer in the U.S.,” even as he acknowledged that prices “might go up some” as a result of the tariffs.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dismissed the steep declines in global markets last week as short term, while emphasizing the need for an economic “adjustment process” in the United States. He added on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that there “doesn’t have to be a recession,” as the administration works toward “building the long-term economic fundamentals for prosperity.”
“We’re going to hold the course,” he said. The reassurances come after Trump struck a defiant tone over his tariffs in recent days. On Saturday, as the 10% levy went into effect, the president told his followers on Truth Social: “HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic.”
Trump has maintained that his tariffs can reset trade relationships that he sees as unfair and detrimental to American jobs and indus-
tries by reviving domestic manufacturing. He also wants the levies to raise new revenue to help pay for the costs of his economic agenda, including a package to cut corporate and individual taxes.
But his trade policies have provoked substantial, widespread blowback, leading even U.S. allies to condemn Washington.
Last week, China announced a slate of aggressive retaliatory measures that raised the odds of a persistent and economically damaging trade war. Other nations have sought to negotiate lower rates: Vietnam, facing a 46% tariff rate that would be among the highest faced by any U.S. trading partner, is seeking a 45-day delay and proposed dropping its own tariffs to zero.
The market gyrations in recent days have spooked even some Republicans on Capitol Hill. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., predicted that deeper losses could persuade members of his party to support a bill that would help Congress reclaim some of its authority over tariffs.
“It’s time that Congress restores its authorities here,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
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Stocks
Wall Street ‘fear gauge’ flashes red as stocks extend selloff
Wall Street’s most watched gauge of investor anxiety jumped to a new eight-month high on Monday as U.S. stocks extended their selloff from last week on worries over the fallout from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff policy.
The Cboe Volatility Index - an options-based gauge of investor anxiety - jumped as much as 14.82 points to 60.13, its highest since August 5. The index, dubbed Wall Street’s ‘fear gauge,’ was last up 4.52 points at 49.83, after registering its highest closing level in five years on Friday.
The index rose as Wall Street’s main equity indexes opened sharply lower, with the S&P 500 close to confirming it is in a bear market - a drop of 20% from a record high.
The benchmark index recovered ground to trade up 0.7% in choppy price action after CNBC reported White House officials were not aware of U.S. President Donald Trump considering a 90-day pause in tariffs for all countries except China.
“The tariff episode has definitely rocketed VIX into panic territory,” Jim Carroll, portfolio manager at Ballast Rock Private Wealth, said.
“The big question now is when we recover and how quickly,” he said.
The VIX logged a record jump in August as traders rushed to hedge against market volatility during a global selloff fueled by U.S. recession fears. The index went on to mark a record retreat, however, as investors were quick to return to strategies that bank on low stock volatility.
“Tariff resolution is likely to be protracted, so I don’t think we see the rapid collapse of volatility that happened last August,” Carroll said.
Still, the VIX’s latest jump puts it at levels that in the past have marked a crescendo in selling that could at least result in a pause in the market’s slide.
“Readings of this magnitude are not only historically rare, but they also often overlap near major capitulation points in market sell-offs,” Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist for LPL Financial, said in a note.
BofA Global Research and Oppenheimer Asset Management on Monday became the latest Wall Street research firms to cut their year-end targets for the S&P 500 index to below the 6,000 mark in response to risks from a deepening global trade war.
Oppenheimer reduced its target for the benchmark index to 5,950 from 7,100 target, while BofA reduced to 5,600 from 6,666, making it one of the lowest on Wall Street.
The S&P 500 index slumped further on Monday and was down more than 20% from its all-time high, putting the benchmark index on track to confirm a bear market. [.N] Global stock markets have seen a bruising sell-off as investors bolt to safe-haven assets on fears that President Don-
MOST ASSERTIVE STOCKS
ald Trump’s tariffs could trigger a recession in the world’s biggest economy.
“At current levels, the equity market appears oversold in our view with uncertainty at levels investors find hard to embrace,” said John Stoltzfus, chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer.
The index closed at 5,074.08 on Friday.
Stoltzfus also reduced the earnings-per-share (EPS) estimate of the index by 3.6% to $265.
Oppenheimer, which maintained its “overweight” stance on U.S. equities, said its reductions of the index target and earnings projection “do not imply a capitulation in our bullish outlook towards equities but rather a need to set expectations reasonably
as to how fast and to what levels stock prices are likely to recover based on the degree of uncertainty”.
As a rout in global equity markets deepened on Monday amid tariff turmoil, the signs of stress across financial markets have started to flash brightly.
“It’s quite clear that the market is in a panic,” said Van Luu, global head of FX and fixed income strategy, Russell Investments.
The asset manager’s gauge of investor risk aversion, which incorporates pricing trends and sentiment indicators, was approaching levels last seen in September-October 2022, when global central banks started an unprecedented run of interest rate hikes.
April 8, 2025 9
Europe gears up to make its first countermove to Trump tariffs
Two workers treat vineyards for weeds on March 14, 2025, outside Épernay, France. European winemakers are concerned about potential damage to their export business. (James Hill/The New York Times)
By JEANNA SMIALEK
European Union officials are taking a two-part approach to President Donald Trump’s unfolding trade war, offering to slash tariffs on American-made cars and industrial products even as they prepare to retaliate imminently with wideranging levies.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU’s executive branch, said Monday that the 27-nation bloc would be willing to employ a “zero-for-zero” approach on products including cars, eliminating tariffs on the goods if the United States did the same. EU car tariffs are currently set at 10%.
April 15, the second a month later.
Officials did not immediately make the list public.
The tariffs would mark the EU’s first concrete reaction to Trump’s volley of recent trade measures. They would specifically respond to U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs that took effect in mid-March, and officials have said they would be only a first step. European policymakers are contemplating how to react to Trump’s subsequent moves, including his 25% tariffs on automobiles and the 20% across-the-board tariff on EU goods that he announced last week.
Trump administration toward the negotiating table could have big reverberations for the world economy.
If a deal is struck, it could foster more unrestrained trade flows between two of the world’s largest markets and most important trading partners. If the conflict instead leads to escalating tension and worsening relations, it could help fuel a trade war that causes painful fallout for consumers and companies on both sides of the Atlantic.
“We are fully prepared to sit at the negotiation table whenever our American partners are ready,” Sefcovic said Monday in Luxembourg. He had what he described as a “frank” two-hour meeting with his U.S. counterparts late last week.
“While the EU remains open to and strongly prefers negotiations, we will not wait,” he said. “We are prepared to use every tool in our trade defense arsenal.”
Officials took time to edit the first set of retaliatory lists because they wanted to take into account feedback from across the Continent.
Part of the list was originally meant to take hold on March 31. It was instead delayed for further refinement after Trump threatened his 200% tariff on all European alcohol.
Such a move would be crushing for French and Italian winemakers, and policymakers from those countries voiced alarm.
responding to tariffs. Countries across the Continent have different economic priorities and different appetites for hitting back at the United States.
Some Northern European countries have been adamant that the EU must be forceful in its response — even pushing for the EU to use a powerful new trade tool to erect trade barriers on services, potentially targeting big American technology companies like Google.
But other European leaders have been more reluctant to hit back so hard. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called the idea that Italy must choose between the United States and the bloc “childish.” She has also cautioned against harsh retaliation. Officials from across the 27-member bloc have been united on one point: They would like to negotiate. But part of the challenge is that the United States has shown little appetite for a quick deal.
U.S. officials seem to view the tariffs “not as a tactical step, but as a corrective,” Sefcovic said on Monday.
Nor are the ultimate goals entirely clear.
But at the same time, both she and the EU trade commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, made it clear that European officials were preparing to deploy tariffs and, potentially, other trade barriers to hit back at the United States if the two sides could not reach a deal. Those tariffs are set to begin within days.
The bloc’s first set of retaliatory tariffs was expected to be sweeping, though somewhat dialed back from what was originally planned.
Whiskey, which triggered that response, is now expected by many to be dropped from the final list. Stéphane Séjourné, an executive vice president of the European Commission, said during a radio interview Monday that he hoped for the “good news” that it would be cut.
Elon Musk, the technology entrepreneur and Trump’s close adviser, said Saturday, speaking during a videoconference appearance with Italy’s far-right League party in Florence, that he hoped Europe and the United States would move “to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free-trade zone.”
But Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser, on Monday urged the EU to drop its value-added taxes and restrictions on American meat that is produced with hormones or other chemicals.
“You steal from the American people every which way is possible,” he said. “So don’t just say we’re going to lower our tariffs.” The San Juan Daily Star
Officials had initially intended to hit about $28.4 billion worth of goods, and their preliminary list included imports like bourbon, boats, clothing and farm products.
EU officials circulated on Monday evening in Brussels a list of products they plan to hit with retaliatory tariffs, said Olof Gill, trade spokesperson for the European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch. Representatives from across the bloc’s member states are expected to vote on that list Wednesday. If approved, the fresh tariffs would take force in two waves — one on
But a senior EU official suggested Monday that bourbon might be dropped — it had emerged as a flashpoint after Trump threatened 200% tariffs on European wine and other alcohol in response. Sefcovic said the final tally of goods targeted would be smaller, after feedback from European member states.
Still, Europe’s gamble on simultaneously employing carrots and sticks to prod the
The episode underscored the challenge in maintaining a firm and united front in
Eyewitnesses recount deadly Israeli attack on medics in Gaza
By VIVIAN YEE and BILAL SHBAIR
It was still dark out when a group of ambulances and a fire truck dispatched by Palestinian emergency response services slowed to a halt in Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip, early on March 23. They had been sent to find their paramedic colleagues, who had headed out in an ambulance on a rescue mission earlier that morning before disappearing.
The convoy stopped next to the missing ambulance, which stood by the side of the road near some United Nations warehouses. When paramedics got out to look, Israeli soldiers about 50 meters away opened fire on them, according to two men who said they had witnessed the shootings.
The two men saw what happened, they said, because they were being held by the same Israeli troops.
One of the two, Munther Abed, 27, a volunteer paramedic, said he had been detained after surviving an earlier attack on the missing ambulance that killed two other crew members. The other man, Dr. Saeed al-Bardawil, 55, a physician, said he had been detained alongside Abed when he and his son were stopped by Israeli troops on their way to go fishing about 4:45 a.m.
The New York Times interviewed the two men separately in Gaza days after the United Nations said it had found the bodies of 15 rescue workers — eight from the Palestine Red Crescent Society, six from Gaza’s Civil Defense and one from the United Nations — in a mass grave. Their ambulances, their fire truck and a U.N. vehicle, which had been crushed, were half-buried nearby. The United Nations has accused Israel of killing the 15 workers, discarding their bodies and destroying the vehicles.
The two men’s accounts appear to support those accusations. Although their stories could not be independently confirmed, details they gave also matched the sequence of events in a video obtained and verified by the Times, discovered on the cellphone of one of the dead paramedics. That video shows an intense barrage of gunfire hitting the convoy just as dawn breaks.
“I wasn’t blindfolded — I saw everything clearly,” alBardawil said. “The medics got out to inspect the damaged ambulance. That’s when the soldiers opened heavy fire.”
The video and the witnesses’ accounts contradict the Israeli military’s initial explanation for the attack, which was that its forces had opened fire on the emergency vehicles because they were “advancing suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals. The video shows that the ambulances
and fire truck were clearly marked and flashing their emergency lights. Abed and al-Bardawil also said the vehicles’ headlights and emergency signals had been on and that they had stopped when the shooting began.
The killings have drawn international condemnation and scrutiny. On Saturday, an Israeli military official told reporters that the military’s initial version of events had been partly “mistaken.” The military said in a statement Sunday that the episode was “under thorough examination.”
Speaking anonymously under Israeli military rules, the military official said Israeli officials believed that at least six of the 15 dead had been Hamas operatives, but did not provide any evidence. The official declined to comment on whether any of those killed had been armed.
Abed said he had been a volunteer with Red Crescent in Gaza since 2015, working in his hometown, Rafah. He also owns a bookshop, he said. Red Crescent jobs have been something of a family tradition: his father is a Red Crescent manager; his brother Mohammed, 25, also worked for the humanitarian agency until he was killed in a drone strike in May 2024.
In the predawn hours the day of the attack, Abed recalled, his ambulance crew was dispatched to help evacuate civilians after an Israeli attack in Rafah.
As they drew nearer, Abed suddenly heard a barrage of shots hitting the ambulance, he said. Everything died instantly: the interior lights, the siren, the engine. Then he heard a sound he knew from experience — a death rattle, he called it — coming from his two colleagues in the front. One was a fellow paramedic, Ezzedine Shaath, and the other was the driver, Mostafa Khafaja.
Outside the ambulance, he could hear people speaking Hebrew, he said. Certain he was about to die, Abed began reciting the Shahada, a Muslim declaration of faith.
Then Israeli soldiers opened the door, and someone ordered him to strip naked and kneel, Abed said. The soldiers began hitting him on the back with the butts of their rifles, he said. They spit on him, cursed him and questioned him, he said, asking where he was on Oct. 7, 2023, the date of the Hamas-led attack on Israel that ignited the war.
Shortly after Abed was detained, two new people joined him in handcuffs: Al-Bardawil, a general practitioner, and his 12-year-old son, Mohammed, who were stopped by soldiers as they headed to the beach to fish, which al-Bardawil loved to do.
Whenever a car approached, al-Bardawil recalled, the Israeli soldiers lay flat on the ground and ordered the detainees to follow suit. The soldiers did not fire at any of those vehicles, he said.
Soon after the al-Bardawils were detained, the elder alBardawil and Abed said, the men saw emergency vehicles approaching. Abed recognized a fire truck and an ambulance from Gaza’s Civil Defense.
An Israeli officer was talking to soldiers in Hebrew nearby, Abed said, and as soon as he finished speaking, the soldiers opened fire on the vehicles. The shooting lasted for several minutes, he said.
As more red emergency lights approached, Abed was told to move to a place where his view was blocked — and then heard more gunfire, he said. Al-Bardawil, who described still
Munther Abed, a volunteer paramedic, in Gaza on Sunday, April 6, 2025. Abed says he survived an Israeli attack on his ambulance.
having a direct sightline, said the Israelis had been firing at oncoming ambulances.
As the sun rose, about 20 Israeli tanks and about 100 Israeli soldiers arrived on the scene, Abed said, and dug four large holes in the ground. Satellite images from this time obtained by the Times showed the four ambulances and Civil Defense truck clumped together toward the side of the road, next to where they were later buried. Three bulldozers, an excavator and Israeli tanks were nearby.
When it was fully light, he said, he saw an Israeli bulldozer, which he identified as a Caterpillar D9, crushing five ambulances and the fire truck and pushing them into one of the holes. He also saw a crumpled U.N. vehicle, he said. AlBardawil said he witnessed the bulldozer plowing the bodies into the ground along with the vehicles.
The Israeli military officer said the soldiers had buried the bodies to protect them from wild animals and that they had used heavy equipment to push the vehicles to clear the road.
Abed said he was relieved when the Israelis brought another Red Crescent paramedic, Asaad al-Nasasra, still alive, over to the group of detainees. In handcuffs and a blindfold, al-Nasasra, whispered to him what he knew about their colleagues, Abed recalled.
Two looked wounded, one of them seriously, he said alNasasra told him. And last he had seen them, al-Nasasra recalled, two others were reciting the Shahada.
One Israeli soldier sounded triumphant when Abed asked about the other ambulance workers, he recalled. “Your colleagues — all of them are gone!” he told him, mockingly, in broken Arabic, the paramedic said.
“May God have mercy on their souls,” Abed recalled replying.
Another soldier told him, also in broken Arabic, that God had taken “those terrorists” to hell.
Eventually, the soldiers led al-Nasasra, the other paramedic, away. He is still missing, according to the Red Crescent.
That afternoon, al-Bardawil and Abed said they were asked to help the soldiers by telling a large group of civilians who had gathered to evacuate the area. After they did so, they were released, they said.
(Bilal Shbair via The New York Times)
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL
A playbook for standing up to President Trump
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
In his attacks on law firms, universities and other American institutions, President Donald Trump is relying on an illusion. The illusion is that the institutions are powerless to fight back and that they face a choice between principle and survival.
These institutions do not have to capitulate to Trump. They have a realistic path to defeating his intimidation. Some law firms and others have begun to fight. In doing so, they have provided the beginnings of a playbook for standing up to his attempts to weaken core tenets of American democracy, including due process, free speech and the constitutional system of checks and balances.
For anybody who is skeptical of this idea and sees Trump as all-powerful, it is worth recognizing that law firms have already won court rulings that block his executive orders against them. Many legal analysts believe that higher courts will likewise reject the orders as illegal. It is also worth remembering the many legal defeats of Trump’s first term. Courts, including the Supreme Court, rejected his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election result; prevented him from adding a citizenship question to the census; and blocked his familyseparation policy at the southern border. A grassroots political movement helped defeat his effort to repeal Obamacare even though Republicans controlled both the House and Senate.
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Yes, Trump has adopted a more extreme approach to executive power in his second term. He has won some early policy victories, and he will win more. Nonetheless, he faces real constraints on his power. Indeed, the most likely path to American autocracy depends on not only a power-hungry president but also the voluntary capitulation of a cowed civil society. It depends on the mistaken belief that a president is invincible. Anybody who has dealt with a schoolyard bully should recognize this principle: The illusion of invincibility is often his greatest asset.
We understand why the leaders of major institutions are nervous. Taking on the president of the United States requires courage. This is a moment for courage.
The playbook begins with a recognition that capitulation is doomed. Some law firms and corporations, as well as Columbia University, have made a different bet, obviously. But the example of law firms demonstrates the problems with capitulation.
Trump has signed executive orders punishing several firms that have done nothing wrong. They have merely employed lawyers who represented Democrats, defended liberal causes or participated in investigations into Trump. The orders lack any meaningful legal argument yet contain severe punishments. They seek to bar the firms’ lawyers from entering federal buildings and meeting with federal officials, provisions that would prevent the firms from representing many clients.
One firm that was subject to an executive order — Paul, Weiss — surrendered and promised concessions, including $40 million in pro bono work for Trump-friendly causes. Three other firms — Milbank; Skadden, Arps; and Willkie Farr & Gallagher — proactively agreed to deals with the White House and made their own concessions.
A crucial fact about these agreements is that they include no binding promises from the White House. Trump can threaten the firms again whenever he chooses and demand further concessions. These firms are in virtual receivership to Trump. So is Columbia, which yielded to Trump after he threatened its federal funding. The university did not even win the restoration of that funding when it agreed to his demands; it won merely permission to begin negotiating with the administration.
Trump’s influence over the compliant law firms should be especially chilling to their clients. The firms have just signaled their willingness to abandon clients that have fallen into disfavor with the federal government. That does not seem like a quality one would want in an attorney.
“Once you make concessions once, it’s hard not to make them again,” Christopher Eisgruber, the president of Princeton University and a legal scholar by training, said when discussing the attacks on higher education.
The second item in the playbook is an insistence on due process. The American legal system has procedures to deal with Trump’s various allegations against these institutions. If law firms are behaving inappropriately, courts can punish them. If a university is violating students’ civil rights — by tolerating antisemitism, for instance — the Justice Department
In his attacks on law firms, universities and other American institutions, President Trump is relying on an illusion. The illusion is that the institutions are powerless to fight back and that they face a choice between principle and survival. (Illustration by Rebecca Chew/The New York Times; Photo by Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times)
can file charges. These processes allow each side to present evidence. They prevent abuse of power and establish ground rules that other organizations can follow.
Trump may well win some cases that follow due process, and that is OK. Some universities have indeed allowed their Jewish students to be menaced. But the appropriate remedy is not the arbitrary cancellation of unrelated research funding, potentially slowing cures for cancer, heart disease, childhood illnesses and more. Columbia managed to adopt the wrong strategy in both directions. It was too slow to fix its problems and then prostrated itself to Trump. Other universities should both get their houses in order and stand ready to sue the administration.
The three law firms that have filed suits to block Trump’s executive orders — Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie and WilmerHale — provide a model. So far, they are winning in court. Importantly, they have won the backing of many conservatives. As our counterparts on The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board wrote, Trump’s campaign against law firms “breaks a cornerstone principle of American justice.”
The Supreme Court is deeply conservative on many issues and favors an expansive definition of executive power. But it has defied Trump before, and conservative legal experts who share the court’s outlook are aghast at his assault on the legal system.
Any institution that stands up to Trump should be prepared to make sacrifices. Universities may have to spend more of their endowments, as they do during economic downturns. Law firm partners may lose some income. But they can afford it; partners at Paul, Weiss made $6.6 million on average in 2023.
Cámara de Representantes aprobara nuevos estándares de calidad para gomas usadas en Puerto Rico
POR EL STAR STAFF
SAN JUAN – La Cámara de Representantes aprobará el lunes el Proyecto de la Cámara 19, de la autoría del presidente de dicho cuerpo legislativo, Carlos ‘Johnny’ Méndez, y el cual persigue mejorar la calidad de los neumáticos recauchados que se venden en la Isla. La medida crea la ‘Ley de Estándares de Seguridad de Gomas y Neumáticos’, a los fines de reglamentar la venta y utilización de neumáticos en Puerto Rico, estableciendo unos estándares mínimos de calidad que deberán tener los neumáticos puestos a la venta.
Entre los articulados del proyecto de ley se encuentra la prohibición de la instalación y venta de los neumáticos que tenga una banda de rodamiento inferior a 4/32 de pulgada de profundidad, que presente fragmentación, protuberancias, nudos o chichones que evidencian separación o daños de la cinta, capa o banda de rodadura u otro material adyacente y que tenga expuestos los cordones de los neumáticos o el material de la banda como resultado de daños a la goma, que tenga más de seis años de fabricada o que haya transcurrido su fecha de expiración, lo que ocurra primero, entre otros.
Según la Exposición de Motivos de la medida, “es pre-
ciso reconocer que, en Puerto Rico, la industria de neumáticos usados ha crecido a grandes escalas durante la pasada década. La razón principal para ello es que los neumáticos usados son considerablemente más baratos que los nuevos, lo que se traduce en un ahorro significativo para el consumidor. Al presente, no existe ley alguna en Puerto Rico que regule la venta de estos neumáticos. Dicha desregulación representa un problema serio de seguridad pública, pues la data ofrecida por la Asociación de Fabricantes de Caucho (RMA, por sus siglas en inglés) refleja que muchos de los neumáticos usados que son vendidos, incumplen con los estándares de calidad mínimos que se necesitan para garantizar la seguridad del conductor”.
Para propósitos de transitar por las vías públicas en Puerto Rico, se prohíbe el uso de gomas o neumáticos, con una banda de rodamiento inferior a 2/32 de pulgada de profundidad y que no cumplan con los otros estándares de seguridad antes enumerados y por lo tanto estén en violación a las disposiciones de esta Ley
Están eximidos los vehículos que participan en carreteras de autos.
Siete estados están considerando legislación para implantar estándares de seguridad para neumáticos usados y
prohibir la venta de los que no cumplan con estos. Los estados de Florida, Georgia, Indiana, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina y Texas, se unirán a Colorado, que aprobó una legislación al respecto el año pasado.
Melwin Cedeño homenajeado en el BeHealth Bike Rally 2025
– En conmemoración del Día Mundial de la Salud, BeHealth celebró con éxito la quinta edición del BeHealth Bike Rally, reuniendo a 500 ciclistas en un recorrido de 22.9 millas por las calles de Ponce bajo el lema “La Ruta de la Salud”. Este año, el rally fue dedicado a Melwin Cedeño, por ser un pilar en nuestra isla, y rindió reconocimiento a Antonio Gil, ciclista comprometido que, a pesar de un accidente mientras pedaleaba, sigue
demostrando pasión y dedicación al deporte.
El BeHealth Bike Rally 2025 arrancó con gran entusiasmo desde La Guancha, animado por Pepe Calderón y Bebé Maldonado, quien más adelante se sumó para animar a los presentes. Los ciclistas hicieron paradas educativas en cuatro hospitales clave de la ciudad: Hospital Menonita de Ponce, Centro Médico Episcopal San Lucas, Hospital Metropolitano Dr. Pila y Hospital Damas. En cada oasis, se ofrecieron cápsulas informativas transmitidas por Facebook Live, donde los directores ejecutivos enfatizaron la importancia de la prevención, el autocuidado y la promoción de estilos de vida saludables en la comunidad.
La dedicatoria del BeHealth Bike Rally 2025 a Melwin Cedeño responde a su trayectoria como figura inspiradora en Puerto Rico, cuyo impacto va más allá del entretenimiento, tocando vidas a través de su compromiso social, cercanía con el pueblo y su capacidad de motivar desde la empatía y el humor. Melwin ha sido, sin duda, un pilar que ha fortalecido la identidad cultural de nuestra isla y ha promovido valores de unidad, bienestar y alegría. Asimismo, se reconoció a Antonio Gil, ciclista apasionado y colaborador constante del rally desde su primera edición. En 2024, Antonio fue impactado por un vehículo mientras pedaleaba, resultando en una lesión significativa. Aunque este año no pudo recorrer la ruta, su presencia en el evento fue profundamente significativa. Su
historia de superación, resiliencia y amor inquebrantable por el ciclismo lo convirtió en un símbolo de fuerza y motivación para toda la comunidad.
“En BeHealth, promovemos la salud y el bienestar a través de iniciativas como el Bike Rally, que en su 5to aniversario reunió a más de 500 ciclistas. Más que un evento, es una oportunidad para inspirar un estilo de vida activo y unirnos como comunidad. Este año, nos honra dedicar el rally a Melwin Cedeño por su impacto positivo en nuestra sociedad y reconocer a Antonio Gil por su resiliencia y compromiso con este movimiento,” expresó Ileana Santiago, fundadora y CEO de BeHealth.
El Municipio Autónomo de Ponce se hizo presente en el BeHealth Bike Rally 2025, representado por el Vicealcalde Edgar “Manolo” Avilés Almodóvar, quien igualmente reconoció e hizo entrega de unas proclamas especiales a Melwin Cedeño y a Antonio Gil. Por su parte, el director de la Secretaría de Recreación y Deportes, Héctor Ortiz, reafirmó el compromiso del municipio con la salud, el deporte y la comunidad. Destacó el rally como una iniciativa transformadora que ya forma parte de la tradición ponceña.
El BeHealth Bike Rally 2025 también contó con la colaboración de diversas organizaciones aliadas y la incorporación de Tony Chamorro como director técnico, quien aseguró una experiencia segura y bien organizada para todos los participantes.
POR EL STAR STAFF
ierce Brosnan, who stars in the Paramount+ series “Mobland” and Steven Soderbergh’s sleek new espionage movie “Black Bag,” in New York, April 1, 2025. Brosnan, now 71, is a longtime painter and art enthusiast. (Hannah Edelman/ The New York Times)
By ALEXIS SOLOSKI
On the last day of March, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, fans approached actor Pierce Brosnan every few minutes. Some addressed him as Mr. Brosnan, some as Mr. Bond, a reference to the four James Bond movies he made in the 1990s and early 2000s. (Brosnan has a face that demands honorifics.)
Dressed in chic monochrome — navy trench, navy pants, a navy ascot at the neck of a navy shirt — he was gracious with them all, if lightly evasive. (And yes, he is the rare man who looks plausible in an ascot.) At 71, he doesn’t often show the whole of himself. People see what they want. Mostly they see Bond.
“They miss a lot,” he said. “But it’s not up to me to show a lot. It’s not up to me to do anything but be pleasant.”
There has always been more to Brosnan than meets the eye, although what meets the eye is obviously very nice. “He is very fortunate in the genes department,” said Tom Hardy, his co-star on the new Paramount+ gangster series “MobLand.” Brosnan refers to it all as “the Celtic alchemy.”
A longtime painter and art enthusiast, Brosnan counts
April 8, 2025 13
For Pierce Brosnan, the world is just enough
“The Thomas Crown Affair,” a 1999 art heist caper, as the favorite of his movies, mostly because he got to keep the paintings. So when promotional duties brought him to New York — he splits his time between Malibu and Hawaii — he squeezed in a museum visit.
On arrival, he found the Guggenheim spiral closed for installation. (“That’s boring,” he said mildly at the ticket counter.) He contented himself with the works on display. “I love color,” Brosnan said, admiring some canvases by Brazilian painter Beatriz Milhazes. “Exhilarating. Captivating.” His speech has a casual lyricism — he’ll rarely use a single adjective when two or three will do — but he seemed to mean it.
In his acting career, Brosnan’s palette has been fairly particular. “It’s been part of my story as an actor,” he said. “Playing the hero, playing the mysterious man, playing the man that you trust.” But his recent roles (and some that he has taken before: “The Matador,” “The Tailor of Panama”) complicate that persona.
Conrad, the criminal boss he plays in “MobLand,” harbors brutality underneath his gentlemanly wardrobe. Arthur, the British spy chief he animates in Steven Soderbergh’s sleek espionage thriller “Black Bag,” now in theaters, has his complications, too. And yet, Brosnan is still and always Bond.
Walking out, Brosnan admired a Pierre Bonnard, a Paul Cézanne, several Picassos. He clocked a Wassily Kandinsky from all the way across the room. “Just makes you want to paint,” he said. He has fantasies of moving to Paris and apprenticing with some artist in an atelier. But he isn’t ready to give up acting.
“It’s a drug now,” he said. “I need it.” Though Brosnan is often very funny (“He’s got a wicked sense of humor,” Hardy said), it wasn’t clear that he was joking.
Certainly he hasn’t quit yet. He shot his role in “Black Bag” on a quick break from another film, “Giant.” He began work on “MobLand,” in which he stars opposite Helen Mirren, just after wrapping the movie “The Thursday Murder Club,” also opposite Mirren.
“Black Bag” returns him to the secret service. His character is a spymaster of oblique motivation. The movie pays homage to classic espionage films, which made Brosnan an attractive choice for the role.
“There’s a knowingness that is shared with the audience that’s very pleasurable, a shared secret,” Soderbergh said.
Brosnan knows this, too. “I was trusted to bring them in, to engage with the audience and then to dismantle that persona,” he said. (A further bit of dismantling: He asked Soderbergh for a mild prosthetic for his nose, which sharpens his face.)
He plays a similar game in “MobLand,” created by Ronan Bennett (“Top Boy”) and directed partly by Guy Ritchie. Conrad seems the consummate gentleman, but he’s not above kicking a man when he’s down — and wounded and bleeding from the mouth. As his wife, Maeve (Mirren) says, he is, beneath his dapper tweeds and Barbour, “a stone-cold Paddy killer.”
Brosnan’s portrayal makes that brutality engrossing.
“He has what they call ‘spell,’” Hardy said. “He casts a spell on the room.”
This is true of Brosnan off-screen as well. His gallantry is profligate, effortless. In our time together, he held doors; he helped me with my coat; he called me darling. I knew I was being charmed. I was helpless to it. To spend these hours with him was to feel rammed by a tractor-trailer of sheer charisma.
This version of Brosnan — the curated wardrobe, the way he politely asked to have his lunchtime Chablis cooled (“Give it some good ice, please,” he said) — seemed authentic to him. “I love clothes; I love style,” he said. “I love the beauty of life, of men, of women. The art of life, it feeds me.”
But it is also a pose he has perfected over the years, one rooted at least in part in a childhood in Ireland that included abandonment by his father and a long separation from his mother.
“I wanted to be an artist; I wanted to be a painter,” he said. “I had no qualifications. I was really behind the eight ball — without a mother, without a father.” But that freedom allowed him to create, he said, “this persona for myself called Pierce” that has become only more refined with wealth, fame and the realization of his artistic aspirations. Pierce is arguably his greatest role, and he has little ambivalence toward it or the celebrity it has afforded him.
“I wished it; I wanted it,” he said. “So I get on with it.”
Still, he admitted, he was looking forward to the week’s end, when he could be himself, not show himself. But what he shows, in person and on screen, it’s enough. For him, and maybe for the rest of us.
“I’ll keep playing it as long as it goes,” he said. “It got me this far. I’ll keep marching on.”
AVISO VISTA PÚBLICA
EL PERMISO ÚNICO VÍA VARIACIÓN NÚMERO 2024-601870-PU-368529 PARA ALOJAMIENTO SUPLEMENTARIO A CORTO PLAZO EN UN DISTRITO ZONA DE USO RESIDENCIAL DOS (ZU-R2) EN EL MUNICIPIO DE SAN JUAN
PARA CONOCIMIENTO DEL PÚBLICO EN GENERAL Y DE CONFORMIDAD CON LAS DISPOSICIONES DEL ARTÍCULO 8.6 DE LA LEY NÚM. 161 DEL 1 DE DICIEMBRE DE 2009, SEGÚN ENMENDADA CONOCIDA COMO “LEY PARA LA REFORMA DEL PROCESO DE PERMISOS EN PUERTO RICO”; LEY NÚM. 107 DEL 14 DE AGOSTO DE 2020, CONOCIDA COMO “CÓDIGO MUNICIPAL DE PUERTO RICO”; LA LEY NÚM. 38 – 2017, SEGÚN ENMENDADA, CONOCIDA COMO “LEY DE PROCEDIMIENTO ADMINISTRATIVO UNIFORME DEL GOBIERNO DE PUERTO RICO”, EL REGLAMENTO CONJUNTO PARA LA EVALUACIÓN Y EXPEDICIÓN DE PERMISOS RELACIONADOS AL DESARROLLO, USO DE TERRENOS Y OPERACIÓN DE NEGOCIOS (REGLAMENTO CONJUNTO), EL REGLAMENTO NÚM. 9473 DEL 16 DE JUNIO DE 2023, REGLAMENTO ZONIFICACIÓN ESPECIAL DE SANTURCE (RZES), REGLAMENTO NÚM. 6664 DEL 16 DE JULIO DE 2003 Y CONFORME AL CONVENIO DE TRANSFERENCIA DE FACULTADES SOBRE LA ORDENACIÓN TERRITORIAL DEL MUNICIPIO DE SAN JUAN RATIFICADO EN AGOSTO 2021; Y CUALQUIER OTRA DISPOSICIÓN DE LEY APLICABLE, SE INFORMA QUE LA OFICINA DE PERMISOS DEL MUNICIPIO DE SAN JUAN CELEBRARÁ VISTA PÚBLICA, SEGÚN SE DISPONE A CONTINUACIÓN:
SALÓN DE VISTAS PÚBLICAS OFICINA DE PERMISOS EDIFICIO TRILITO (4TO PISO), AVE. DE DIEGO #130 ESQ. CALLE 54 SE, URB. LA RIVIERA SAN JUAN, PR, 00921
ASUNTO PARA DISCUTIRSE: CASO NÚMERO: 2024-601870-PU-368529
DUEÑO DEL PROYECTO: DIENZO LLC CALIFICACIÓN: ZONA DE USO RESIDENCIAL DOS (ZU-R2) DIRECCIÓN DE LA ACCIÓN CALLE DELICIAS NÚM. 156, APT 1, 2, 3, 4 Y 5, PROPUESTA: SAN JUAN 00907
SE INTERESA DISCUTIR, PERO SIN LIMITARSE UNA SOLICITUD PARA PERMISO ÚNICO VÍA EXCEPCIÓN Y/O VARIACIÓN EN USO PARA ALOJAMIENTO SUPLEMENTARIO A CORTO PLAZO. LA SOLICITUD SE EVALUARÁ A TENOR CON, PERO SIN LIMITARSE A, LA SECCIÓN 33: EXCEPCIONES Y 34: VARIACIONES DEL REGLAMENTO DE ZONIFICACIÓN ESPECIAL DE SANTURCE, REGLAMENTO NÚM. 6664 DEL 16 DE JULIO DE 2003 Y LA REGLA 6.3.1, Y LA REGLA 2.1.10 DEL REGLAMENTO CONJUNTO REGLAMENTO NÚM. 9473 DEL 16 DE JUNIO DE 2023.
EXPOSICION DEL CASO: EN LA EXPOSICIÓN DEL CASO LA PARTE PROPONENTE DEBERÁ ESTAR PREPARADA PARA DISCUTIR LOS CRITERIOS APLICABLES PARA LA CONSIDERACIÓN DE EXCEPCIÓN, ASÍ COMO, PARA PRESENTAR EVIDENCIA DE CUMPLIMIENTO CON LAS DISPOSICIONES REGLAMENTARIAS APLICABLES. ASIMISMO, LA PARTE PROPONENTE INFORMARÁ SOBRE LOS ACCESOS VEHICULARES AL PROYECTO; EL IMPACTO DEL TRÁNSITO QUE PUEDA GENERAR EL PROYECTO SOBRE LAS VÍAS EXISTENTES EN EL SECTOR; LOS SERVICIOS PÚBLICOS EXISTENTES Y A PROVEERSE, TALES COMO: ALCANTARILLADO SANITARIO Y PLUVIAL, ABASTO DE AGUA POTABLE, ENERGÍA ELÉCTRICA, ETC., MÉTODO DE DISPOSICIÓN DE LOS DESPERDICIOS SÓLIDOS, ÁREA A SERVIR EL PROYECTO, EMPLEOS A CREARSE EN FASE DE CONSTRUCCIÓN Y OPERACIÓN; DISPONIBILIDAD DE TERRENOS APROPIADOS PARA EL USO INSTITUCIONAL, ASÍ COMO CUALQUIER OTRO TEMA QUE ESTIME PERTINENTE AL CASO. INVITACIÓN AL PÚBLICO: SE INVITA A VECINOS DEL PROYECTO Y A LOS PROPIETARIOS DE TERRENOS QUE RADICAN DENTRO DE LOS LÍMITES TERRITORIALES CIRCUNDANTES, ORGANISMOS GUBERNAMENTALES Y AL PÚBLICO EN GENERAL, A COMPARECER Y PARTICIPAR EN DICHA VISTA Y A SOMETER RECOMENDACIONES O COMENTARIOS. DICHOS COMENTARIOS DEBERÁN SER SOMETIDOS A LA OFICINA DE PERMISOS AL PO BOX 70179 SAN JUAN, P.R. 00936-8179 O A LA SIGUIENTE DIRECCIÓN ELECTRÓNICA: PERMISOS@ SANJUAN.PR. PARA MÁS INFORMACIÓN FAVOR DE LLAMAR AL (787) 480-4000 EXT. 3080. LOS PROCEDIMIENTOS PARA LA CELEBRACIÓN DE LA VISTA SERÁN LOS ESTABLECIDOS EN LAS SECCIONES 2.1.10.7 A 2.1.10.15 DEL REGLAMENTO CONJUNTO. SI UNA PARTE DEBIDAMENTE CITADA NO PARTICIPA O COMPARECE CON ANTELACIÓN A LA VISTA, A LA VISTA PÚBLICA O A CUALQUIERA OTRA ETAPA DURANTE EL PROCEDIMIENTO ADJUDICATIVO, EL FUNCIONARIO QUE PRESIDA LA MISMA PODRÁ DECLARARLA EN REBELDÍA, MULTARLA Y CONTINUAR EL PROCEDIMIENTO SIN SU PARTICIPACIÓN, PERO NOTIFICARÁ POR ESCRITO A DICHA PARTE SU DETERMINACIÓN SEGÚN LA REGLA 2.1.7 (NOTIFICACIONES), LOS FUNDAMENTOS PARA LA MISMA, EL RECURSO DE REVISIÓN DISPONIBLE Y EL PLAZO PARA EJERCERLO. EL OFICIAL EXAMINADOR QUE PRESIDA LA VISTA NO PODRÁ SUSPENDERLA UNA VEZ SEÑALADA, SALVO QUE SE SOLICITE POR ESCRITO CON EXPRESIÓN DE LAS CAUSAS SOMETIDAS, CON NO MENOS DE CINCO (5) DÍAS DE ANTELACIÓN A LA FECHA DE CELEBRACIÓN DE LA VISTA, EXPRESANDO LAS RAZONES QUE JUSTIFICAN LA SUSPENSIÓN O POSPOSICIÓN, ACOMPAÑADO POR UN GIRO POSTAL O UN CHEQUE DE GERENTE POR LA CANTIDAD DE $100.00 A NOMBRE DEL MUNICIPIO DE SAN JUAN. LA PETICIÓN DE SUSPENSIÓN O TRANSFERENCIA DEBERÁ SER RADICADA ANTE EL ÁREA LEGAL DE LA OFICINA DE PERMISOS. EL PROPONENTE NOTIFICARÁ COPIA DE LA SOLICITUD A LAS OTRAS PARTES E INTERVENTORES EN EL PROCEDIMIENTO DENTRO DE LOS CINCO (5) DÍAS SEÑALADOS. SI LA SUSPENSIÓN NO FUE MOTIVADA POR EL INCUMPLIMIENTO DE UN REQUISITO LEGAL, EL SOLICITANTE SE COMPROMETERÁ A PAGAR LOS COSTOS QUE CONLLEVE LA NOTIFICACIÓN DE LA SUSPENSIÓN Y ANUNCIAR EL NUEVO SEÑALAMIENTO MEDIANTE LA PUBLICACIÓN DE UN AVISO DE PRENSA. EL REGLAMENTO CONJUNTO FACULTA AL OFICIAL EXAMINADOR A IMPONER UNA MULTA DE $500.00 A TODA PERSONA QUE OBSERVE UNA CONDUCTA IRRESPETUOSA DURANTE LA VISTA, O QUE INTENCIONALMENTE INTERRUMPA O DILATE LOS PROCEDIMIENTOS SIN CAUSA JUSTIFICADA. EL EXPEDIENTE DE VISTA ESTARÁ DISPONIBLE PARA INSPECCIÓN DE LAS PARTES EN EL ÁREA DE SECRETARÍA DE LA OFICINA DE PERMISOS, UBICADO EN LA AVE. DE DIEGO NÚM. 130 ESQ. CALLE 54 SE, URB. LA RIVIERA, EDIFICIO TRILITO, PISO 4, RÍO PIEDRAS, PUERTO RICO.
AVISO VISTA PÚBLICA
EL PERMISO ÚNICO VÍA VARIACIÓN NÚMERO 2024-601862-PU-368538 PARA ALOJAMIENTO SUPLEMENTARIO A CORTO PLAZO EN UN DISTRITO ZONA DE USO RESIDENCIAL DOS (ZU-R2) EN EL MUNICIPIO DE SAN JUAN
PARA CONOCIMIENTO DEL PÚBLICO EN GENERAL Y DE CONFORMIDAD CON LAS DISPOSICIONES DEL ARTÍCULO 8.6 DE LA LEY NÚM. 161 DEL 1 DE DICIEMBRE DE 2009, SEGÚN ENMENDADA CONOCIDA COMO “LEY PARA LA REFORMA DEL PROCESO DE PERMISOS EN PUERTO RICO”; LEY NÚM. 107 DEL 14 DE AGOSTO DE 2020, CONOCIDA COMO “CÓDIGO MUNICIPAL DE PUERTO RICO”; LA LEY NÚM. 38 – 2017, SEGÚN ENMENDADA, CONOCIDA COMO “LEY DE PROCEDIMIENTO ADMINISTRATIVO UNIFORME DEL GOBIERNO DE PUERTO RICO”, EL REGLAMENTO CONJUNTO PARA LA EVALUACIÓN Y EXPEDICIÓN DE PERMISOS RELACIONADOS AL DESARROLLO, USO DE TERRENOS Y OPERACIÓN DE NEGOCIOS (REGLAMENTO CONJUNTO), EL REGLAMENTO NÚM. 9473 DEL 16 DE JUNIO DE 2023, REGLAMENTO ZONIFICACIÓN ESPECIAL DE SANTURCE (RZES), REGLAMENTO NÚM. 6664 DEL 16 DE JULIO DE 2003 Y CONFORME AL CONVENIO DE TRANSFERENCIA DE FACULTADES SOBRE LA ORDENACIÓN TERRITORIAL DEL MUNICIPIO DE SAN JUAN RATIFICADO EN AGOSTO 2021; Y CUALQUIER OTRA DISPOSICIÓN DE LEY APLICABLE, SE INFORMA QUE LA OFICINA DE PERMISOS DEL MUNICIPIO DE SAN JUAN CELEBRARÁ VISTA PÚBLICA, SEGÚN SE DISPONE A CONTINUACIÓN:
SALÓN DE VISTAS PÚBLICAS OFICINA DE PERMISOS EDIFICIO TRILITO (4TO PISO), AVE. DE DIEGO #130 ESQ. CALLE 54 SE, URB. LA RIVIERA SAN JUAN, PR, 00921 7 DE MAYO DE 2025
ASUNTO PARA DISCUTIRSE:
CASO NÚMERO: 2024-601862-PU-368538
DUEÑO DEL PROYECTO: DIENZO LLC CALIFICACIÓN: ZONA DE USO RESIDENCIAL DOS (ZU-R2)
DIRECCIÓN DE LA ACCIÓN CALLE DELICIAS NÚM. 154, PROPUESTA: SAN JUAN 00907
SE INTERESA DISCUTIR, PERO SIN LIMITARSE UNA SOLICITUD PARA PERMISO ÚNICO VÍA EXCEPCIÓN Y/O VARIACIÓN EN USO PARA ALOJAMIENTO SUPLEMENTARIO A CORTO PLAZO. LA SOLICITUD SE EVALUARÁ A TENOR CON, PERO SIN LIMITARSE A, LA SECCIÓN 33: EXCEPCIONES Y 34: VARIACIONES DEL REGLAMENTO DE ZONIFICACIÓN ESPECIAL DE SANTURCE, REGLAMENTO NÚM. 6664 DEL 16 DE JULIO DE 2003 Y LA REGLA 6.3.1, Y LA REGLA 2.1.10 DEL REGLAMENTO CONJUNTO REGLAMENTO NÚM. 9473 DEL 16 DE JUNIO DE 2023.
EXPOSICION DEL CASO: EN LA EXPOSICIÓN DEL CASO LA PARTE PROPONENTE DEBERÁ ESTAR PREPARADA PARA DISCUTIR LOS CRITERIOS APLICABLES PARA LA CONSIDERACIÓN DE EXCEPCIÓN, ASÍ COMO, PARA PRESENTAR EVIDENCIA DE CUMPLIMIENTO CON LAS DISPOSICIONES REGLAMENTARIAS APLICABLES. ASIMISMO, LA PARTE PROPONENTE INFORMARÁ SOBRE LOS ACCESOS VEHICULARES AL PROYECTO; EL IMPACTO DEL TRÁNSITO QUE PUEDA GENERAR EL PROYECTO SOBRE LAS VÍAS EXISTENTES EN EL SECTOR; LOS SERVICIOS PÚBLICOS EXISTENTES Y A PROVEERSE, TALES COMO: ALCANTARILLADO SANITARIO Y PLUVIAL, ABASTO DE AGUA POTABLE, ENERGÍA ELÉCTRICA, ETC., MÉTODO DE DISPOSICIÓN DE LOS DESPERDICIOS SÓLIDOS, ÁREA A SERVIR EL PROYECTO, EMPLEOS A CREARSE EN FASE DE CONSTRUCCIÓN Y OPERACIÓN; DISPONIBILIDAD DE TERRENOS APROPIADOS PARA EL USO INSTITUCIONAL, ASÍ COMO CUALQUIER OTRO TEMA QUE ESTIME PERTINENTE AL CASO.
INVITACIÓN AL PÚBLICO:
SE INVITA A VECINOS DEL PROYECTO Y A LOS PROPIETARIOS DE TERRENOS QUE RADICAN DENTRO DE LOS LÍMITES TERRITORIALES CIRCUNDANTES, ORGANISMOS GUBERNAMENTALES Y AL PÚBLICO EN GENERAL, A COMPARECER Y PARTICIPAR EN DICHA VISTA Y A SOMETER RECOMENDACIONES O COMENTARIOS. DICHOS COMENTARIOS DEBERÁN SER SOMETIDOS A LA OFICINA DE PERMISOS AL PO BOX 70179 SAN JUAN, P.R. 00936-8179 O A LA SIGUIENTE DIRECCIÓN ELECTRÓNICA: PERMISOS@ SANJUAN.PR. PARA MÁS INFORMACIÓN FAVOR DE LLAMAR AL (787) 480-4000 EXT. 3080.
LOS PROCEDIMIENTOS PARA LA CELEBRACIÓN DE LA VISTA SERÁN LOS ESTABLECIDOS EN LAS SECCIONES 2.1.10.7 A 2.1.10.15 DEL REGLAMENTO CONJUNTO. SI UNA PARTE DEBIDAMENTE CITADA NO PARTICIPA O COMPARECE CON ANTELACIÓN A LA VISTA, A LA VISTA PÚBLICA O A CUALQUIERA OTRA ETAPA DURANTE EL PROCEDIMIENTO ADJUDICATIVO, EL FUNCIONARIO QUE PRESIDA LA MISMA PODRÁ DECLARARLA EN REBELDÍA, MULTARLA Y CONTINUAR EL PROCEDIMIENTO SIN SU PARTICIPACIÓN, PERO NOTIFICARÁ POR ESCRITO A DICHA PARTE SU DETERMINACIÓN SEGÚN LA REGLA 2.1.7 (NOTIFICACIONES), LOS FUNDAMENTOS PARA LA MISMA, EL RECURSO DE REVISIÓN DISPONIBLE Y EL PLAZO PARA EJERCERLO. EL OFICIAL EXAMINADOR QUE PRESIDA LA VISTA NO PODRÁ SUSPENDERLA UNA VEZ SEÑALADA, SALVO QUE SE SOLICITE POR ESCRITO CON EXPRESIÓN DE LAS CAUSAS SOMETIDAS, CON NO MENOS DE CINCO (5) DÍAS DE ANTELACIÓN A LA FECHA DE CELEBRACIÓN DE LA VISTA, EXPRESANDO LAS RAZONES QUE JUSTIFICAN LA SUSPENSIÓN O POSPOSICIÓN, ACOMPAÑADO POR UN GIRO POSTAL O UN CHEQUE DE GERENTE POR LA CANTIDAD DE $100.00 A NOMBRE DEL MUNICIPIO DE SAN JUAN. LA PETICIÓN DE SUSPENSIÓN O TRANSFERENCIA DEBERÁ SER RADICADA ANTE EL ÁREA LEGAL DE LA OFICINA DE PERMISOS. EL PROPONENTE NOTIFICARÁ COPIA DE LA SOLICITUD A LAS OTRAS PARTES E INTERVENTORES EN EL PROCEDIMIENTO DENTRO DE LOS CINCO (5) DÍAS SEÑALADOS. SI LA SUSPENSIÓN NO FUE MOTIVADA POR EL INCUMPLIMIENTO DE UN REQUISITO LEGAL, EL SOLICITANTE SE COMPROMETERÁ A PAGAR LOS COSTOS QUE CONLLEVE LA NOTIFICACIÓN DE LA SUSPENSIÓN Y ANUNCIAR EL NUEVO SEÑALAMIENTO MEDIANTE LA PUBLICACIÓN DE UN AVISO DE PRENSA. EL REGLAMENTO CONJUNTO FACULTA AL OFICIAL EXAMINADOR A IMPONER UNA MULTA DE $500.00 A TODA PERSONA QUE OBSERVE UNA CONDUCTA IRRESPETUOSA DURANTE LA VISTA, O QUE INTENCIONALMENTE INTERRUMPA O DILATE LOS PROCEDIMIENTOS SIN CAUSA JUSTIFICADA. EL EXPEDIENTE DE VISTA ESTARÁ DISPONIBLE PARA INSPECCIÓN DE LAS PARTES EN EL ÁREA DE SECRETARÍA DE LA OFICINA DE PERMISOS, UBICADO EN LA AVE. DE DIEGO NÚM. 130 ESQ. CALLE 54 SE, URB. LA RIVIERA, EDIFICIO TRILITO, PISO 4, RÍO PIEDRAS, PUERTO RICO.
Director Oficina de Permisos
Director Oficina de Permisos
Earth’s 10 hottest years have been the last 10
By RONI CARYN RABIN
With the addition of 2024, yet another record-hot year, the past 10 years have been the 10 hottest in nearly 200 years of record-keeping, the World Meteorological Organization reports.
“That’s never happened before,” said Chris Hewitt, director of the WMO’s climate services division. It marks the first time since record keeping began that all of the 10 hottest years have fallen within the most recent decade.
2024 was the single warmest year on record, surpassing even 2023’s wide lead over other recent years. The planet’s surface was about 1.55 degrees Celsius warmer than its average during a reference period that approximates the preindustrial era, from 1850-1900.
The annual report from the WMO, a United Nations agency, includes input from dozens of experts and institutions from around the world and sheds further light on the recordbreaking heat of 2024 and places it in the con-
text of Earth’s long-term warming from climate change.
The extra energy in the atmosphere and the oceans helped fuel climate-related disasters worldwide. Extreme weather events like drought, storms and wildfires displaced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, the report says.
Atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases released from fossil fuel combustion continue to rise. In 2024, the concentration of carbon dioxide hit amounts unseen in at least 2 million years, according to the report.
Concentrations of two other important greenhouse gases, methane and nitrous oxide, reached levels unseen in at least 800,000 years. Homo sapiens, or modern humans, emerged around 300,000 years ago, so our species has never before experienced an atmosphere so laden with planet-warming greenhouse gases.
When countries signed the Paris Agreement in 2015, they agreed to try to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
“While a single year above 1.5 degrees C of warming does not indicate that the longterm temperature goals of the Paris Agreement are out of reach, it is a wake-up call that we are increasing the risks to our lives, economies and to the planet,” Celeste Saulo, secretary-general of the WMO, said in a statement.
The new report estimates that long-term warming has reached 1.25 to 1.41 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, although the margins of error for some estimates extend beyond 1.5 degrees. The report authors estimate that last year, El Nino and other factors contributed an additional 0.1 or 0.2 of a degree of temporary warming.
El Nino is a natural climate pattern that tends to slightly raise the overall surface temperature of the planet. Record warmth, however, continued into 2025, even through El Nino’s transition into the opposing pattern, La Nina.
“It’s been really quite extraordinary to see that warmth continue for so long,” John Kennedy, the scientific coordinator and lead author of the report, said during a call with reporters.
This warmth is especially apparent in the oceans, where key indicators of climate change are accelerating.
The oceans have so far absorbed around 90% of the additional heat trapped inside Earth’s atmosphere by greenhouse gases. The oceans’ heat content — a way to measure this warmth throughout different depths — also reached a record high last year. Over the past two decades, from 2005 to 2024, the oceans warmed more than twice as fast as they did from 1960 to 2005, according to the report.
Increased ocean temperatures have had devastating consequences for marine life. By April 2024, warm-water corals had been bleached in every ocean basin where they grow.
Global average sea-level rise also reached a record high in 2024, according to the report. The speed at which the seas are rising has also more than doubled in recent years: 4.7 millimeters per year in the past decade, from 2015 to 2024, compared with 2.1 millimeters per year from 1993 to 2002.
The World Meteorological Organization’s work depends on international cooperation among its 101 member countries, including the United States.
día 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. Además, se le apercibe que, en los casos al amparo de la Ley Núm. 57-2023, titulada Ley para la Prevención del Maltrato, Preservación de la Unidad Familiar y para la Seguridad, Bienestar y Protección de los Menores, entre los remedios que el Tribunal podrá conceder se incluyen la ubicación permanente de un (una) menor fuera del hogar, el inciso de procesos para la de patria potestad, y cualquiera otra medida en el mejor interés del (de la) menor. (Artículo 33, incisos b y f de la Ley Núm. 57-2023). Se le advierte de su derecho a comparecer acompañado(a) de abogado(a) en los casos que proceda. Se le advierte de su derecho a comparecer acompañado(a) de abogado(a) en los casos que proceda. De ser el demandado un heredero de una sucesión, se le apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados que de no expresarse dentro de ese término de treinta (30) días, en tomo 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 19 de marzo de 2025. Marisol Rosado Rodríguez, Secretaria. Luz María Guzmán Santiago, Sub-Secretaria.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE HATILLO UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE RURAL DEVELOPMENT A/C/C
LA ADMINISTRACION DE HOGARES DE AGRICULTORES
Demandante Vs. SUCESIÓN DE RAFAEL
LÓPEZ VELÁZQUEZ Y SUCESIÓN DE ANA ISABEL RAMOS
GARCÍA COMPUESTA POR FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERÉS EN AMBAS SUCESIONES Demandados CIVIL NÚM.: AR2024CV02169
SOBRE: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA (IN REM). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA. EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.
A: SUCESIÓN DE RAFAEL LÓPEZ VELÁZQUEZ Y LA SUCESIÓN DE ANA ISABEL RAMOS
GARCÍA COMPUESTAS POR FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O TERCEROS CON INTERÉS EN DICHAS SUCESIONES a. URB. MAR AZUL, H-9 CALLE 6, HATILLO PR 00659. b. NÚM. 63 CALLE MUÑOZ RIVERA, CAMUY PR 00627. c. BUZÓN 2635, BARRIO MEMBRILLO, CAMUY PR 00627. d. 54 GROVE ST. APT. #2, FITCHBURG MA 01420. e. 58 INTERVALE RD. APT. #12 RITCHBIRG MA 01420.
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://www. poderjudicial.pr/index.php/ tribunal-electronico/, salvo que el caso sea de un expediente físico o que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del tribunal y notificar copia de la misma al (a la) abogado(a) de la parte demandante o a ésta, de no tener representación legal. 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. Además, se le apercibe que, en los casos al amparo
de la Ley Núm. 57-2023, titulada Ley para la Prevención del Maltrato, Preservación de la Unidad Familiar y para la Seguridad, Bienestar y Protección de los Menores, entre los remedios que el Tribunal podrá conceder se incluyen la ubicación permanente de un (una) menor fuera del hogar, el inciso de procesos para la privación de patria potestad, y cualquiera otra medida en el mejor interés del (de la) menor. (Artículo 33, incisos b y f de la Ley Núm. 57-2023). Se le advierte de su derecho a comparecer acompañado(a) de abogado(a) en los casos que proceda. Se le advierte de su derecho a comparecer acompañado(a) de abogado(a) en los casos que proceda. De ser el demandado un heredero de una sucesión, se les 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 les 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 25 de marzo de 2025. Vivian Y. Fresse González, Secretaria Regional. Brenda Liz Torres, Secretaria Auxiliar.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL
GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS SALA SUPERIOR BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Demandante V. RICHARD PAGÁN FRANCO, SU ESPOSA
WANDA JOSEFINA
TORRES RIVERA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS
Demandados
Civil Núm.: CG2024CV03800. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y
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: RICHARD PAGÁN FRANCO, SU ESPOSA WANDA JOSEFINA
TORRES RIVERA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS - URB. HACIENDAS DE TENA, M11 CALLE MAJAGUA, JUNCOS, PR 00777; 90 CALLE MAJAGUA, HACIENDAS DE TENA, JUNCOS, PR 00777-3034. Por la presente se le emplaza y notifica que debe contestar la demanda incoada en su contra dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del presente 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://www.poderjudicial. pr/index.php/tribunal-electronico, salvo que el caso sea de un expediente físico o que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del Tribunal y notificar copia de la misma al (a la) abogado(a) de la parte demandante o a ésta, de no tener representación legal. 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. Además, se le apercibe que, en los casos al amparo de la Ley Núm. 57-2023, titulada Ley para la Prevención del Maltrato, Preservación de la Unidad Familiar y para la Seguridad, Bienestar y Protección de los Menores, entre los remedios que el Tribunal podrá conceder se incluyen la ubicación permanente de un (una) menor fuera de su hogar, el inicio de procesos para la privación de patria potestad, y cualquier otra medida en el mejor interés del (de la) menor. (Artículo 33, incisos b y f de la Ley Núm. 57-2023).
Se le advierte de su derecho a comparecer acompañado(a) de abogado(a) en los casos que proceda. Los abogados de la parte demandante son:
ABOGADOS DE LA PARTE
DEMANDANTE:
Lcdo. Reggie Díaz Hernández RUA Núm.: 16,393
BERMUDEZ & DÍAZ LLP
500 Calle De La Tanca, Suite 209 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00901 Tel.: (787) 523-2670 / Fax: (787) 523-2664
rdiaz@bdprlaw.com
EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y Sello del Tribunal, hoy, 12 de febrero de 2025. IRASEMIS DÍAZ SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARIEL CRUZ RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Demandante V. SUCESION DE MIGUEL PADRÓ RODRÍGUEZ COMPUESTA POR ALICIA MALDONADO VÁZQUEZ, POR SÍ Y COMO VIUDA, RICHARD PADRÓ
MALDONADO, MICHAEL PADRÓ MALDONADO Y LA SUCESIÓN DE PERRY JOSEPH PADRÓ MALDONADO COMPUESTA POR JOHN DOE Y RICHARD DOE COMO HEREDEROS
DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE PERRY JOSEPH PADRÓ
MALDONADO; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (C.R.I.M.) - PARTE CON INTERÉS
Demandados Civil Núm.: BY2025CV00309. Sala: 401. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO
POR EDICTO E INTERPELACIÓN. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, S.S. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO E INTERPELACIÓN DIRIGIDOS A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD DOE COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE PERRY JOSEPH PADRÓ MALDONADO. Queda emplazada y notificada, que en este Tribunal se ha radicado Demanda sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca de la que surge lo siguiente: Que se ha incumplido con las cláusulas de la escritura de hipoteca objeto de ejecución por haberse dejado de pagar las mensualidades vencidas desde el día 1ro de diciembre de 2023, adeudándosele a la parte demandante la totalidad de la deuda ascendente a $119,962.92 por concepto de principal; generando intereses a razón de 6.50% desde el 1ro de noviembre de 2023; cargos por demora los cuales al igual
que los intereses continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda reclamada en este pleito, y la suma de $17,362.70 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado; y demás créditos accesorios garantizados hipotecariamente. La propiedad hipotecada cuya ejecución se solicita tiene la siguiente descripción y localización: URBANA: Parcela de terreno en la Urbanización Estancias de Río Hondo, Segunda Unida de Planificación, localizada en el Barrio Hato Tejas del término municipal de Bayamón, Puerto Rico, que se describe con el número, área y colindancias que se relacionan a continuación: Solar número diez (10) del Bloque AD, con un área de cuatrocientos seis metros cuadrados, con doscientos ochenta y cuatro milímetros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en 23 metros con el solar número 11; por el SUR, en 25 metros 897 milímetros con el solar número 9; por el ESTE, en 21 metros 9 milímetros con los solares número 21, 22 y 23; y por el OESTE, en 2 metros 218 milímetros y un arco de 11 metros 166 milímetros con la Calle número 19 también conocida como Calle Río Guadiana. Contiene una casa de concreto para una familia, tomada de la inscripción 8va. Finca Número 181, inscrita al folio 20 del tomo 7 de Bayamón Norte, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Tercera Sección de Bayamón. Por la presente se le emplaza y notifica que debe contestar la demanda enmendada incoada en su contra dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del presente edicto. Además, en cuanto a la interpelación de los herederos del causante, a que dentro del término legal de treinta (30) días contados a partir de la fecha de la notificación de la presente Orden, acepten o repudien la participación que les corresponda en la herencia del causante conforme dispone el Artículo 959 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. §2787. De no expresarse dentro de ese término de treinta (30) días en torno a su aceptación o repudiación de herencia, se tendrá por aceptada. También se les APERCIBE a los herederos antes mencionados que luego del transcurso del término de treinta (30) días antes señalados contados a partir de la fecha de la notificación de la presente Orden, se presumirá que han aceptado la herencia del causante y, por consiguiente, responden por las cargas de dicha herencia conforme dispone el Artículo 957 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. §2785. 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/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio. Si usted deja de presentar y notificar 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. Los abogados de la parte demandante son: ABOGADOS DE LA PARTE
DEMANDANTE:
Lcdo. Reggie Díaz Hernández RUA Núm.: 16,393 BERMÚDEZ & DÍAZ, LLP Edificio Ochoa, 500 Calle De La Tanca Suite 209 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00901 Tel.: (787) 523-2670 / Fax: (787) 523-2664 rdíaz@bdprlaw.com
Expido este edicto bajo mi firma y el sello de este Tribunal, hoy 13 de febrero de 2025. ALICIA AYALA SANJURJO, SECRETARIA GENERAL. NÉLIDA OCASIO ORTEGA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE SAN JUAN ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC COMO AGENTE DE ACE ONE FUNDING, LLC
Parte Demandante Vs. RAYSA Y. PAULINO LOPEZ Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: SJ2024CV06928. 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: RAYSA Y. PAULINO LOPEZ - BO RIO SECT TOME CAM AVELINO LOPEZ CARR 834, GUAYNABO PR 00969; PO BOX 20054, SAN JUAN, PR 00928. 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:/// www.poderjudicial.pr/index. php/tribunal-electronico, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro 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, Natalie Bonaparte Servera cuya dirección es: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección natalie.bonaparte@orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@ orf-law.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, hoy día 21 de febrero de 2025. ALICIA AYALA SANJURJO, SECRETARIA. JERALICE CRUZ POMALES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE BAYAMÓN ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC COMO AGENTE DE ACE ONE FUNDING, LLC Parte Demandante Vs. ANA L. RIVERA FELICIANO Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: DO2024CV00167. 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: ANA L. RIVERA FELICIANOCOM ARENALES 817 CALLE PUNTA TUNA, DORADO PR 00646-6106. 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:/// www.poderjudicial.pr/index. php/tribunal-electronico, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro 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, Osvaldo L. Rodríguez Fernández cuya dirección es: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law. com y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com. EXTENDI-
DO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en BAYAMON, Puerto Rico, hoy día 24 de febrero de 2025. ALICIA AYALA
SANJURJO, SECRETARIA.
JERALICE CRUZ POMALES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO CENTRO
JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
NEPHTALÍ LÓPEZ ROSA
Demandante Vs. GUENDI LISANA
ANGULO PRETHEL
Demandada
Caso Núm.: SJ2025RF00057.
Sobre: DIVORCIO (RUPTURA IRREPARABLE). ESTADOS
UNIDOS DE NORTE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. EDICTO.
A: GUENDI LISANA
ANGULO PRETHEL.
El Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, dictó la siguiente orden: “ORDEN: VISTA la Moción Solicitando Orden para publicación de Edicto y teniendo este Honorable Tribunal evidencia de las gestiones llevadas a cabo por la parte demandante para contactar a la parte demandada, se ordena el emplazamiento de la aquí demandada, Guendi Lisana Angulo Prethel, mediante la publicación de edicto de acuerdo a la Regla 4.5 de las de Procedimiento Civil vigentes, disponiéndose que tal publicación se hará en un periódico de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico por sólo una vez. La secretaria del Tribunal expedirá el edicto de publicación. Dicha publicación se acreditará mediante la declaración jurada de publicación. Por desconocerse la dirección física y postal de la parte demanda, la parte demandante queda eximida de enviar a la parte demandada por correo certificado con acuse de recibo copia de la demanda y del emplazamiento. Se le apercibe a la demandada que de NO comparecer a contestar dicha demanda, radicando el original de la misma en el Tribunal con copia al abogado de la parte demandante, dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del Edicto se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia concediendo el remedio así solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, a 24 de enero de 2025. Se le requiere que en el término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación de este edicto, radique el original de la contestación de esta demanda en el Tribunal de epígrafe y notifique copia de dicha contestación a la Lcda. Miraisy Molina Ruiz, abogada de la parte demandante, cuya dirección es: Box 190002, San Juan, PR 00919-0002. Se le apercibe que
de no contestar la demanda en el término indicado se podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía y obtener el remedio solicitado, a saber, el Divorcio (Ruptura Irreparable), sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal para su publicación hoy día 24 de enero de 2025, en San Juan, Puerto Rico. Se le requiere que en el término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación de este edicto, radique el original de la contestación de esta demanda en el Tribunal de epígrafe y notifique copia de dicha contestación a la Lcda. Miraisy Molina Ruiz, abogada de la parte demandante, cuya dirección es: Box 190002, San Juan, PR 009190002. Se le apercibe que de no contestar la demanda en el término indicado se podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía y obtener el remedio solicitado, a saber, el Divorcio (Ruptura Irreparable), sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal para su publicación hoy día 24 de enero de 2025, en San Juan, Puerto Rico.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCI
SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA
VAPR FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
Demandante vs. GENESIS MARIA COLLADO JACA
Demandada
CIVIL NÚM.: CA2025CV00518
SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA. EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS. A: GENESIS MARIA COLLADO JACA
POR EL PRESENTE EDICTO, se le notifica que se ha radicado en esta Secretaría por la parte demandante, Demanda sobre Cobro de Dinero, en la que se alega adeuda la suma de $13,170.60 por concepto de deficiencia pendiente de pago del contrato de Venta al Por Menor a Plazos (Vehículos), intereses legales, desde que surgió la causa de acción de cobro el día 10 de enero de 2025 y hasta que se dicte Sentencia, en su día, gastos y costas y honorarios de abogado por el 5% del balance de la deuda.
POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los treinta (30) días de haber sido publicado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día de la publicación. 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: https:// www.poderjudicial.pr/index.
php/tribunal-electronico/, salvo que el caso sea un expediente físico o que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del Tribunal y notificar copia de la misma al (a la) abogado(a) de la parte demandante o a ésta, de no tener representación legal. 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. Además, se le apercibe que, en los casos al amparo de la Ley Núm. 57-2023, titulada Ley para la Prevención del Maltrato, Preservación de la Unidad Familiar y para la Seguridad, Bienestar y Protección de los Menores, entre los remedios que el Tribunal podrá conceder se incluyen la ubicación permanente de un (una) menor fuera de su hogar, el inicio de procesos para la privación de patria potestad, y cualquier otra medida en el mejor interés del (de la) menor. (Artículo 33, incisos b y f de la Ley Núm. 57-2023). Se le advierte que de no comparecer en autos dentro del término de los treinta (30) días siguientes a partir de la publicación de este Edicto, se le anotará la Rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado, sin más citarle ni oírle, debiendo radicar el original de su contestación en este Tribunal, enviando copia a la abogada de la parte demandante: Lcda. Adela Surillo Gutiérrez, Bufete Collazo & Surillo, LLC, P.O. Box 11550, San Juan, PR 00922-1550; Teléfono: (787) 625-9999. Para publicarse conforme a la Orden dictada por el Tribunal en un periódico de circulación general. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto que firmo y sello en Carolina, Puerto Rico, hoy 21 de marzo de 2025. Lcda. Kanelly Zayas Robles, Secretaria. Aixa M. Montes Morales, Secretaria Auxiliar.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA
LLACG COMMUNITY INVESTMENT FUND
Demandante Vs. SUCESION MINERVA
MARQUEZ QUILES T/C/C
MINERVA MARQUEZ
COMPUESTA POR JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; SUCESION PABLO GONZALEZ SERRANO T/C/C PABLO GONZALEZ
COMPUESTA POR JOHN ROE Y JANE ROE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES Demandados
CIVIL NUM. CA2024CV03350
SOBRE: EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA. INTERPELACION POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA. EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS. A: JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION MINERVA MARQUEZ QUILES T/C/C MINERVA
MARQUEZ; JOHN ROE Y JANE ROE COMO POSIBLES MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION PABLO
GONZALEZ SERRANO
T/C/C PABLO GONZALEZ
El Artículo 1578 del Código Civil de 2020, dispone: “Transcurridos treinta (30) días desde que se haya producido la delación, cualquier persona interesada puede solicitar al tribunal que le señale al llamado un plazo, para que manifieste si acepta la herencia o si la repudia. Este plazo no excederá de treinta (30) días. El tribunal apercibirá al llamado de que, si transcurrido el plazo señalado no ha manifestado su voluntad de aceptar la herencia o de repudiarla, se dará por aceptada. ”Por la presente el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, conforme al Art. 1578, supra, y el caso Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria vs. Latinoamericana de Exportación, Inc., 164 DPR 689 (2005), les ordena que el término de treinta (30) días, hagan declaración aceptado o repudiando la herencia de la causante MINERVA MARQUEZ
QUILES T/C/C MINERVA MARQUEZ y del causante PABLO
GONZALEZ SERRANO T/C/C PABLO GONZALEZ. Se les apercibe que de no expresar su intención de aceptar o repudiar la herencia dentro del término que se le fijó, la herencia se tendrá por aceptada.
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 Carolina, Puerto Rico, hoy día 20 de marzo de 2025. LIC. KANELLY ZAYAS ROBLES, Secretaria. Denisse Torres Ruiz, Sub-Secretaria. LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
SALA SUPERIOR DE TRUJILLO ALTO VAPR FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
Demandante Vs. ILLIANIS MARIE
SANTANA BETANCOURT
Demandada CIVIL NÚM.: TJ2025CV00086
SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA. EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS. A: ILLIANIS MARIE
SANTANA BETANCOURT
POR EL PRESENTE EDICTO, se le notifica que se ha radicado en esta Secretaría por la parte demandante, Demanda sobre Cobro de Dinero, en la que se alega adeuda la suma de $20,216.89 por concepto de deficiencia pendiente de pago del contrato de Venta al Por Menor a Plazos (Vehículos), intereses legales, desde que surgió la causa de acción de cobro el día 10 de enero de 2025 y hasta que se dicte Sentencia, en su día, gastos y costas y honorarios de abogado por el 5% del balance de la deuda.
POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los treinta (30) días de haber sido publicado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día de la publicación. 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: https:// www.poderjudicial.pr/index. php/tribunal-electronico/, salvo que el caso sea un expediente físico o que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del Tribunal y notificar copia de la misma al (a la) abogado(a) de la parte demandante o a ésta, de no tener representación legal. 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. Además, se le apercibe que, en los casos al amparo de la Ley Núm. 57-2023, titulada Ley para la Prevención del Maltrato, Preservación de la Unidad Familiar y para la Seguridad, Bienestar y Protección de los Menores, entre los remedios que el Tribunal podrá conceder se incluyen la ubicación permanente de un (una) menor fuera de su hogar, el inicio de procesos para la privación de patria potestad, y cualquier otra medida en el mejor interés del
(de la) menor. (Artículo 33, incisos b y f de la Ley Núm. 572023). Se le advierte que de no comparecer en autos dentro del término de los treinta (30) días siguientes a partir de la publicación de este Edicto, se le anotará la Rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado, sin más citarle ni oírle, debiendo radicar el original de su contestación en este Tribunal, enviando copia a la abogada de la parte demandante: Lcda. Adela Surillo Gutiérrez, Bufete Collazo & Surillo, LLC, P.O. Box 11550, San Juan, PR 00922-1550; Teléfono: (787) 625-9999. Para publicarse conforme a la Orden dictada por el Tribunal en un periódico de circulación general. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto que firmo y sello en Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico, hoy 21 de marzo de 2025. LCDA. KANELLY ZAYAS ROBLES, SECRETARIA. IDA L. FERNANDEZ RODRIGUEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR. LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY, AS TRUSTEE FOR GSAMP TRUST 2007-SEA1, MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2007-SEA1
Demandante V. BLANCA IRIS ROSA GONZÁLEZ; THE FEDERAL SAVINGS BANK OF PUERTO RICO; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL como posibles tenedores desconocidos de Pagaré Hipotecario Extraviado
Demandados
CIVIL NUM.: CA2025CV00505
SOBRE: CANCELACIÓN POR LA VIA JUDICIAL DE HIPOTECA EN GARANTÍA DE PAGARÉ HIPOTECARIO EXTRAVIADO EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA. EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS. A: FULANO y SUTANO DE TAL, como posibles tenedores de nombres desconocidos de un pagaré suscrito el 23 de julio de 1987 a favor de The Federal Savings Bank of Puerto Rico, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $20,710.00, con intereses al 9 1/2% anual, vencedero el día 1 de agosto de 2017, el cual
a su vez fue garantizado por una hipoteca constituida mediante la escritura número 108, otorgada en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el día 23 de julio de 1987, ante el notario público Michel Rachid Piñero, e inscrita al folio 293 del tomo 408 de Trujillo Alto, finca número 12,245, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección IV de San Juan, octava inscripción. En el procedimiento de epígrafe, la demandante Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, as trustee for GSAMP Trust 2007-SEA1, Mortgage Pass-Through Certificates, Series 2007-SEA1, alega que el mencionado pagaré se encuentra extraviado, que la deuda evidenciada por el mismo ha sido extinguida, y, por tanto, solicita la cancelación de la hipoteca antes relacionada. DIRECCIÓN
DESCONOCIDA DE: Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, as trustee for GSAMP Trust 2007-
SEA1, Mortgage PassThrough Certificates, Series 2007-SEA1 POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los 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), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramaiudicial.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. LCDO. JUAN C. SALICHS POU, Número del Tribunal Supremo 11,115 PO Box 195553, San Juan, PR, 00919-5553, Teléfono: (787) 449-6000, Facsímile: (787) 474-3892, Correo Electrónico: jsalichs@splawpr.com
EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y Sello del Tribunal, hoy día hoy día 25 de marzo de 2025. Lic. Kanelly Zayas Robles, Secretaria Regional. Denisse Torres Ruiz, Sub-Secretaria.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v DFRF Enterprises LLC, et al., 15-cv-12857-PBS (D. Mass.)
On March 24, 2025, the Court in the above civil action issued an Order to Show Cause (OTSC) directing those who purchased memberships in DFRF Enterprises LLC and/ or DFRF Enterprises, LLC during the period June 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015, or other interested parties, to show cause by May 5, 2025, if there is any, why the Court should not approve the SEC’s proposed plan of distribution (Plan). Submission should be made in accordance with Section II of the OTSC.
Visit www.DFRFDistributionFund.com to view the OTSC and the Plan.
Comisión de Valores y Bolsa de EE. UU. v DFRF Enterprises LLC, et al., 15-cv-12857-PBS (D. Mass.)
E 24 de marzo de 2025, el Tribunal en la acción civil mencionada emitió una Orden para Mostrar Causa (OTSC, por sus siglas en inglés) que instruye a aquellos que compraron membresías en DFRF Enterprises LLC y/o DFRF Enterprises, LLC durante el periodo del 1 de junio de 2014 al 30 de junio de 2015, o a otras partes interesadas, a que muestren causa antes del 5 de mayo de 2025, si la hubiera, de por qué el Tribunal no debería aprobar el plan de distribución propuesto por la SEC (Plan). Las presentaciones deben realizarse de acuerdo con la Sección II de la OTSC. Visite
www.DFRFDistributionFund.com para ver la OTSC y el Plan.
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
Sudoku Wordsearch
Spottier
In Hong Kong’s unexciting waters, surfers take what they can get
By ERIN MENDELL
For nearly two hours on a windy Sunday in February, Henry Hurren took a beating in the waters off a largely uninhabited island in Hong Kong, trying to surf a short wave for a few moments at a time.
The half-hour ferry ride there from the Chinese territory’s main island was bustling with day trippers. Hurren, 32, passed outdoor restaurants and families who had camped overnight as he hiked to the spot he paddled out from in a wetsuit.
But in the water, he was alone, trying to prove there are new places to surf in a city without a lot of them.
The wave off Tung Lung Chau is known as a slab, a quick one that breaks on a rock. It is not the kind you picture a surfer riding smoothly toward shore in a world-class surf spot like Bali. Over and over, Hurren caught it for a few seconds before tumbling back into the chilly water.
Many surfers never surf slabs, said Hurren, a nature guide who teaches surfing and shares some of the waves he finds on his Instagram page. “It’s like a really concentrated version of surfing,” he said.
The surf scene in Hong Kong — a territory that includes more than 250 islands in the South China Sea — is concentrated at a few beaches that lack consistent year-round swell. But those beaches are relatively accessible to a city of about 7.5 million people.
The best-known and easiest to access is Big Wave Bay on the east coast of Hong Kong Island, the main one in the territory. It is a tiny, imperfect stretch of sand next to a village that can be reached in about 20 minutes by taxi from the high-rises that dot the endless skyline Hong Kong is better known for. The waves there are usually not that big.
Surfer Henry Hurren on a wave off Tung Lung Chau island, Hong Kong, Feb. 2, 2025. In Hong Kong’s unexciting waters, surfers take what they can get; the scene in the Chinese territory is concentrated at a few beaches with inconsistent swell. One intrepid surfer says it’s all about “turning nothing into something.” (Billy H.C. Kwok/The New York Times)
with an illustration of a surfer shouting a Cantonese expletive after being hit in the head with someone else’s board.
Hurren has been going to Big Wave Bay since he was 5 but says he never felt entirely comfortable there and that it can be hostile to newcomers. Any secret surf spots he did not find himself were not his to share.
If he wanted more people to surf, he would have to find other places. Waves like the one off Tung Lung Chau are not for everyone, he acknowledged, but he has found about a dozen more spots suitable for a range of skill levels.
But Lai makes the most of it. In the winter, the main surf season at Big Wave Bay, she goes there three or four times a week. She tries to schedule her work around the forecast and trains to stay fit enough to last for several hours whenever the surf is good.
Other Hong Kong surfers go farther, venturing across the border to the Chinese province of Guangdong.
The beach is also used by swimmers and standup paddle boarders, and tensions can run high if too many people are in the water. Last year, the government began intermittently enforcing a rule against surfing at the beach, according to people who surf there.
One shop near the beach commissioned a sign explaining surf etiquette, complete
“The thing that makes Hong Kong surf so special is you have to believe in it for it to work for you and everyone around you,” Hurren said. “I’d say turning nothing into something is what our Hong Kong spirit is.”
The sport had such a low profile when Mavis Lai, 41, was growing up in Hong Kong that she did not even know she could surf there. She first took it up at a weeklong camp in the Canary Islands after she had moved away and was working in London.
After Lai moved back to Hong Kong in 2015, she worked as a surfing coach for a couple of years before becoming a sports therapist. She recalled going to Thailand and marveling at how good the local surfers were despite, like Hong Kongers, not having much surf all year. The waves were much better there, she said.
“Maybe in Hong Kong we have the worst conditions ever,” she said she remembers thinking.
Clark Wang, who runs a surf hostel and teaches surfing in the city of Shanwei, said by phone from Bali that he has noticed an influx of people from Hong Kong. In 2023, there were only one or two, he said. Now Wang estimates that Hong Kongers account for about a quarter of Shanwei’s surfers.
Rohan Rajpal, 27, who has spent the weekend in Shanwei at least six times since October, still surfs at Big Wave Bay during the week. Rajpal, who works in financial technology, said he thinks that the waves in Shanwei are fun but that the water is nicer in Hong Kong.
Hurren said it had taken him a decade to surf waves he had seen “just because I didn’t think it was doable.”
He said he first noticed the wave he was riding off Tung Lung Chau as a teenager but began surfing it only last year. Before that, he spent years paddling out to look for the rock it breaks on.
On that windy Sunday in February, an experienced surfer saw him carrying his board and stopped to ask where the waves were.
Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 21
