Wanda Vázquez washes her hands of the controversies generated by the pandemic

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“I am a person of law and order.” That phrase has suddenly become the mantra of Wanda Vázquez Garced, a lawyer and former prosecutor turned governor, as she navigated the rough sea of ​​the COVID-91.

Vázquez Garced won praise when, early in the emergency, he decreed what, at the time, was one of the strictest quarantines in America. Thousands locked themselves in their houses understanding the moment. But since then, setbacks have been piling up like weeds in a park left unused due to quarantine.

There are the enormous difficulties the government has been facing in procuring testing and tracing contacts to find out who may have the virus without knowing it. The recent revelation that the Health Department didn’t even count the cases and the entry of the Institute of Statistics to help you be.

And finally, the monumental controversy related to his administration’s attempt to buy more than a million tests from companies with no experience in this field, but well connected to the New Progressive Party (PNP), a heated controversy whose ardor has been felt even in La Fortaleza and that led to the medical group that Vázquez Garced appointed to help her on this issue.

In the face of the storm, the governor responds by washing her hands, handing out blame and holding on to a strict interpretation of the law to say “I am a person of law and order” and to state that it has no responsibility for the great difficulties that the Puerto Rican response to COVID-19 has faced.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and other health organizations have established guidelines for countries to reopen their economies. Three main criteria are sustained reduction in new cases, contact tracing, and abundance of evidence. Puerto Rico meets those criteria. Are we ready or on the way to returning to normal?

We have not yet determined that Puerto Rico is ready to reopen. We will examine the phased recommendations of the economic task force. But they all have to be in accordance with the medical “task force”. For me, the most important thing that it will have is that we have the tracking of contacts, tests and that we do not have a curve that has stabilized or is already declining.

There is a business campaign, whose motto is “we are ready”. Do you agree or feel any pressure from that group?

“I don’t feel pressure.” I have seen the campaign and my message is that we are going to listen to all of them. But it is important for them to know that the priority is the safety of them, their relatives and the Puerto Rican people.

We have been in quarantine for more than a month. People accepted this order because they understood that it was their responsibility. But we hoped that the government would also comply with case counting, contact tracing, and evidence. One has the impression that the government did not comply.

—The Biosecurity Department of the Medical Center is working to track contacts. That is being done. Perhaps not in the way we would like. We can go to different states in the United States where everyone has the same problem.

There are challenges around the world, but such basic things with contact tracing are being done.

“What happens is not something so simple.” On that, it is working.

What I am saying is that society responded by staying at home, but the government did not do its part.

“I think it has been answered.” It is an unexpected situation.

How can you explain that, more than a month after this emergency, the Department of Health only realizes that it is not counting cases well?

—It was corrected, although many people do not want to accept it.

How do you explain that it has been more than a month to correct it?

“What answer do you expect to be given in this?” It has worked.

One of the reasons we don’t have enough evidence was because of that failed deal with the Apex construction company. You responded by suspending contracts. However, no assertiveness has been seen with the people who participated in this transaction from the government side.

– (Shows a piece of paper). Here is a circular letter. Every Health Department purchase had a procedure and I have to assume that people followed this procedure. If someone violated that process, because obviously Fortaleza does not intervene in that process, I have always been a person of law and order. Let the last consequences be reached.

What are you doing to find out?

—An investigation is ongoing in the Justice Department. The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and the United States Inspector General as well. We welcome all of them.

The Health Department purchased from the company 313 LLC, which was also inexperienced, 101,500 tests at $ 36 and $ 45 when those tests are less than $ 3. Half of that order has also not been delivered. We are facing another transaction that was not optimal either. What is your reaction to that?

“Must be explained by the Health Secretary.” In that case, there was the secretary Concepción Quiñones de Longo, who authorized these purchases. Everyone wanted to have the tests for Puerto Rico. And everyone tried their best to have those tests.

They are scarce and on top of that we want to buy them from inexperienced people. Don’t you think someone has to answer for that?

—In terms of economic resources, the people have not lost.

Do you think it was wise, having companies with extensive experience, to do business with those companies?

—The experts in this matter are the doctors and the Department of Health. If they endorsed those purchases, they will understand and explain why.

Testimony after testimony in the investigation into this in the House of Representatives point to people from La Fortaleza, close to you, as involved in the purchase and selection of these companies. His assistant Marisol Blasco and the Deputy Secretary of the Interior, Lillian Sánchez. Have you held those people accountable?

“I haven’t been aware of the views.” But Marisol Blasco’s pure role was to follow up on people complying. At no time has she instructed him to sign contracts. Here, there has been no illegal action.

In that follow-up process, weren’t you informed of these companies from whom you purchased these tests?

– (Shows the paper again). At no time do they have to come to Fortaleza. That is not my function. I am a person of law and order.

Did the Secretary of the Interior, Antonio Pabón, also have no knowledge of that transaction?

—Fortaleza does not intervene in purchases. It is the officials with the ‘expertise’. (Shows the paper). Tell me here, in this document, where it says that they have to come to Fortaleza. Nowhere does he say so.

With all due respect, it is difficult to understand how such large transactions are made and you are never told in any meeting that they are buying a million pieces of evidence.

‘It could have been explained that arrangements were being made for the tests. But the determination of the purchases does not correspond to the governor.

At other recent times, the government has found it difficult to dispose of aid money coming from the United States. What steps have been taken to ensure that the money that arrived on Wednesday is not stuck in the bureaucracy as it has been before?

—We will do it in a transparent way so that the people of Puerto Rico can see how it will be distributed.

People to whom you delegated, for example, the subject of the tests, failed you. Aren’t you afraid that with the people to whom you delegate the distribution of these funds things will happen again that are difficult to explain later?

“We are going to do it in a very responsible, very rigorous way.” I am a person who has always been carried away by regulations and by law.

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