Role of Networks in the Resignation of Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Roselló
Sources:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/02/us/puerto-rico-rossello-father-son-legacy/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/us/puerto-rico-rossello-profile.html
The articles above speak how, on June 2019, the former governor of Puerto Rico Ricardo Roselló faced backlash over the leaks of more than nine hundred pages worth of messages of a group chat he shared with other politicians that supported him. In such conversations, there were offensive, misogynistic, and homophobic comments about other politicians, Puerto Rican celebrities, and journalists (Sanchez, 2019). What shocked the media most, however, were the conversations between them seeming to mock the growing piles of corpses of the victims of Hurricane Maria. After hearing about these messages and learning about the corruption of numerous amounts of politicians, Puerto Ricans from all around the island began to protest against the corruption within the government . After more than a week of uproar, Roselló made a public announcement regarding his resignation. The events that occurred this summer had a connection to that discussed in class since it contains situations that could be explained by using the subjects of negative and positive relationships and game theory.
Before these messages came to light, Puerto Rico was very divided on the support for Roselló. Some people were not convinced of his ability to be the leader of the island due to him being the son Pedro Roselló, former governor of Puerto Rico. Others saw him as the new hope for being able to become the fifty-first state of the United States. However, after the messages between Roselló and his peers were leaked, the majority of Puerto Ricans stopped their support for their leader. This is similar to how quickly the edges of nodes can change from positive to negative due to a particular event, weakening their relationship. The hatred that the residents of Puerto Rico shared, however, seemed to have made them come together despite their differences. This is similar to how, when two nodes have a mutual enemy, it is more likely to strengthen their bond.
Another way in which the protests in Puerto Rico can be linked to the content discussed in class is that of game theory. Seeing how the crowd and the authorities were so quick to turn against the governor, his peers needed to make a decision. In class, we discussed how players in a game have different strategies on how to behave. His supporters had to determine whether to support the governor publicly and face the hatred of the media or choose to avoid any more scrutiny from the press and abandon their leadership positions in the New Progressive Party. The players then have to decide based on the payoffs of each strategy. As a result, Roselló’s followers concluded how, since the second option contained the best payoff, they would be better off if they cut any ties with the ex-governor (Mazzei and Robles, 2019). Roselló, now facing both the loss of support from the island and his peers, was isolated and was very unlikely to continue a successful leadership as governor of Puerto Rico.