By Richy Rosario @RiiiichyRosario | April 5, 2018 – 12:49 pm
Carmen Yulin Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, has announced her campaign for governor of the island in its coming 2020 election. After months of denying her interest, she publicly announced her decision to run during an interview with Puerto Rican publication Primera Hora.
If Cruz wins the race for office, she will be the second woman in history to govern the island after Sila Maria Calderon who ruled the commonwealth from 2001 to 2005. Cruz said she consulted with her family and close confidants to make the decision. “My mom told me the other day, ‘What you decide you will decide with your heart. You’re not going to make a decision because of something else,’” she shared.
Additionally, she revealed her hopes for the island if she is put in charge, emphasizing that the territory needs reassurance that everything will return to better times. “This country needs hope,” she said. “And this country needs to feel that it owns its future and that it has the possibility of having someone in a place that represents its dignity. My aspiration was always to be the mayor of San Juan and I like doing it, but sometimes life isn’t what we want but what the moment calls for.”
On a political level, Cruz plans to expand Puerto Rico’s Popular Democratic Party (PDP) into “a movement that is more than just a political party.” Still, her decision to run has been met with opposition. A spokesman for the Senate, Carmelo Rios, compared Cruz’s burgeoning politics to President Donald Trump’s political dispositions.
“Carmen Yulin will be the Puerto Rican Trump” he said in a previous interview with NotiUno. “Donald Trump has divided the nation, Carmen Yulin will divide Puerto Rico. Donald Trump has crazy ideas, and Carmen Yulin has revolutionary Cuban and Bolivian ideas.”
