Critics pointed out that the U.S. pardon does not erase guilty plea or corruption tied to 2020 campaign.

Over the weekend, the Hostosian National Independence Movement and the Puerto Rican Independence Party rejected the pardon granted by U.S. President Donald Trump to former Gov. Wanda Vazquez, who was accused of violating Puerto Rico’s election law during her 2020 campaign.

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“Wanda Vazquez was charged and pleaded guilty to corruption. These are not political allegations or ideological interpretations; they are proven facts in federal court. The pardon granted by Donald Trump is yet another humiliation against the people of Puerto Rico,” PIP Secretary Juan Dalmau said, recalling that the same Trump “has been linked, by action or omission, to networks that cover up child sex traffickers.”

“Puerto Rico can no longer tolerate the colonial politics of silence by the submissive, which protects criminals while punishing the people. What is demanded here is moral clarity: either one stands with justice, or one stands with impunity,” he added.

During an appearance before the U.S. District Court in San Juan in August 2025, Vazquez admitted that she accepted campaign financing for her 2020 political run in exchange for using her political power to remove George Joyner Kelly, then commissioner of the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions.

Kelly had been conducting an investigation involving Vazquez, Julio Herrera Velutini, owner of Bancredito International Bank, and former FBI agent Mark Rossini. All three entered guilty plea agreements in cases in which they could have faced up to 20 years in prison on charges of conspiracy, federal program bribery and wire fraud.

According to the indictment, Herrera and Rossini paid more than US$300,000 to political consultants in support of Vazquez’s 2020 campaign. In exchange, the former governor fired the financial institutions commissioner who was investigating Herrera’s bank.

On Saturday, Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer Gonzalez recalled that Vazquez acknowledged guilt in a corruption case and criticized the presidential pardon.

“I recognize President Trump’s authority to issue pardons; however, that pardon does not change the reality we all know regarding the guilty plea Vazquez entered in the criminal case brought against her.- The granting of this presidential pardon does not erase the seriousness of the admitted acts, nor does it silence the echo of a period that proved deeply painful and shameful for Puerto Rico,” she said.

On Sunday, Judge Silvia Carreño denied a request to suppress the recommendation to eliminate Vazquez’s one-year prison sentence. Her decision came after the U.S. Department of Justice published the pardon signed by President Trump.

teleSUR/ JF

Sources: EFE –

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