Puerto Rican justice officials on Tuesday were executing search warrants for the mobile phones of top associates of Gov. Ricardo Rossello amid a corruption scandal that provoked 10 days of protests demanding his resignation.
The sometimes-violent demonstrations, which drew an estimated 500,000 people to the streets of San Juan on Monday, and a federal corruption probe of Rossello's administration are just the latest crisis to rock the bankrupt island still struggling to recover from a massive 2017 hurricane that killed some 3,000 people.
A first-term governor in his first elected office, the 40-year-old Rossello has thus far resisted calls to step down as leader of the U.S. territory, though he said in an online video message on Sunday that he would resign as leader of his political party and not seek re-election in 2020.
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