SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans filled miles of a major highway in San Juan on Monday in protest against the island's governor, demanding he resign over chats with his advisers on a messaging app.
The Americas Expressway teemed with people who carried Puerto Rican flags, waved protest signs and chanted to demand the removal of Gov. Ricardo Rossello.
Monday's protest paralyzed San Juan, although it was not clear if organizers had reached their goal of drawing 1 million people -- about a third of the island's population -- to the highway. The island's largest mall, Plaza de las Americas, closed ahead of Monday's protest, as did dozens of other businesses. The upheaval also prompted at least four cruise ships to cancel visits to Puerto Rico.
As the crowd on the highway thinned in the afternoon, people packed the street in front of the governor's mansion.
Monday was the 10th consecutive day of protests against Rossello after the publication of 889 pages of a leaked group chat from the messaging app Telegram.
The messages the governor and his closest aides sent each other were laced with obscenities and mockery of constituents, and they revealed a cozy relationship between the governor and former staff members who now represent special interests.
The crude messages were the final straw for Puerto Ricans who have suffered for years because of economic austerity measures and the devastation of Hurricane Maria in September 2017.
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"Finally, the government's mask has fallen," said Jannice Rivera, a 43-year-old mechanical engineer who lives in Houston but was born and raised in Puerto Rico and flew in to join the crowds.
"The people have awakened after so much outrage," added 69-year-old retired nurse Benedicta Villegas. "There are still people without roofs and highways without lights. The chat was the tip of the iceberg."
Rossello said Sunday that he would not seek re-election in 2020, but that he would stay in office through his current term. Rossello's secretary of public affairs, Anthony Maceira, was asked who was advising Rossello to stay in office, and Maceira replied that the governor was speaking with his family, and "that carries a great weight." Rossello's father, Pedro, was governor from 1993 to 2001.
President Donald Trump, asked Monday whether the governor should step down, focused his attention on San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, who criticized Trump's handling of the Hurricane Maria aftermath.
"I think you have an even worse mayor of San Juan," Trump said during an appearance with the prime minister of Pakistan. "She's horrible. I think she's horrible. I watched her -- my people did nothing but complain about her when we helped them with their hurricane problem. The mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, is a horror show. She's incompetent. Grossly incompetent. At the same time, the governor is not good."
The president cited his experience holding the Miss Universe pageant twice on the island as evidence that he has had "tremendous successes" there.
"I'm the best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico because we did a great job in Puerto Rico," Trump said. "I have many Puerto Rican friends. I have a real understanding of Puerto Rico."
Trump warned that leaders in Washington were wary of sending aid to Rossello's administration -- a reason some members of the governor's own party have cited to demand his resignation.
"The senators are not happy about it, and Congress is not happy about it," Trump said. "Because you really do -- you have incompetent, totally grossly, incompetent leadership at the top of Puerto Rico. The people of Puerto Rico are great. And the people of Puerto Rico like me, and they should, because nobody has given them what I give them. But the leadership is corrupt and incompetent."
Many Puerto Ricans agree that their government is flawed, but some have said they consider Trump's comments offensive.
Rossello appeared on Fox News on Monday afternoon, where anchor Shepard Smith pressed him on his lost support: "You're a man on an island by yourself. How long can you stay there?"
"My commitment is to follow through on some of the efforts that I established for the people of Puerto Rico," Rossello said in his first one-on-one interview since the political crisis began.
Asked to list the people who still back him, the governor mentioned only the mayor of rural San Sebastian, Javier Jimenez -- who later said Rossello was mistaken. Jimenez wrote on Facebook that he has not asked for the governor's resignation only because he backs the Legislature taking steps toward impeachment.
Rossello argued that his administration has already taken steps to fight corruption.
"We need to fix the system," he said.
But El Nuevo Dia, Puerto Rico's largest newspaper, published a rare front-page editorial arguing that for Rossello, it was too late.
"Governor, it's time to listen to the people," read the above-the-fold headline. "You must resign."
Information from this article was contributed by Frances Robles, Alejandra Rosa and Patricia Mazzei of The New York Times; and by Danica Coto of The Associated Press.
A Section on 07/23/2019