WEEKEND BLOODBATH
12 DEAD BETWEEN FRIDAY AND SUNDAY ACROSS PUERTO RICO
Twelve people across Puerto Rico died in suspected homicides between Friday morning and Sunday morning, according to police. Three separate murders were registered in Río Piedras, Humacao and the Hato Rey area of San Juan on Friday. The Humacao victim has been identified as 27-year-old Luis O. Fontanez López. On Saturday, one murder each took place in Toa Alta and in the Puerto Nuevo section of San Juan. In the Toa Alta case, three masked men in a white car gunned down Ángel Joel Vázquez Hernández age 34, killing him. The victim's 13-year-old daughter was also injured in the brazen attack. Later that day, a decomposing body was found in a field in Caguas, near Road 175.
On Sunday, two young men were executed just past midnight near the Liborio Ortiz housing project in Aibonito, while another man was shot to death less than two hours later at a basketball court in the Piñones sector of the town of Loíza. The victim was identified as César Orlando González Correa, age 32. He had just left a niece's birthday party at the court; several individuals followed him out to the facility's parking lot and shot him with various firearms, including an assault rifle, over 70 times. Another murder took place at 3:28 that same morning in Ponce, where the bullet-riddled body of Walter Sánchez de Jesús was found inside a car.
Daylight provided no respite from the parade of horrors, as a woman's body was found in a field close to 10:00 AM on the grounds of Maria Auxiliadora Church in Santurce's gritty Cantera neighborhood. The victim's body showed signs of head trauma, and a bloodied cinderblock was found nearby. Scarcely half an hour after this gruesome discovery, a bullet-riddled body was found inside a white Acura SUV in the Jardines de Country Club neighborhood of Carolina. The victim was identified as Eduardo Luis Mercedes Carrión, a 27-year-old man from San Juan. The murder tally for the year now totals 361, one more than at this time last year.
ECONOMIC CRISIS HITS MAYAGÜEZ ZOO
From Caribbean Business:
"The economic crisis afflicting Puerto Rico for the last decade has also taken a toll on the island’s only zoo, with critics saying it is sorely understaffed and struggling to care for its animals on a limited budget..."
EPA PROPOSES CLEANUP FOR UTUADO SUPERFUND SITE
From News Is My Business:
"The U.S. Environmental Protection is proposing a cleanup plan to address sources of chemical contamination at the Papelera Puertorriqueña Inc. Superfund site, a paper and plastic goods manufacturer in Utuado, the agency confirmed..."
BOARD APPROVES LIQUIDATION OF GDB
From Reuters:
"Puerto Rico's financial oversight board late on Friday approved a plan to wind down the island's Government Development Bank (GDB), bringing the defunct fiscal agent a step closer to settling more than $5 billion in debt..."
