Puerto Rico's chief for natural resources shelves investigation targeting governor's in-laws

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico's new natural resources secretary has shelved an investigation into allegations of illegal construction in a protected area on the island's southwest coast, sparking an outcry.

The administrative order, published late on Thursday, comes after Gov. Jenniffer González, who was sworn in last week, called the investigation that began under the previous administration ''political persecution.''

The investigation targeted alleged violators, including González's in-laws, who are accused of illegally cutting mangroves and expanding and remodeling a platform or dock at their home at La Parguera, which was designated a natural reserve in 1979 and is known for its bioluminescent bay.

González and her in-laws — José Vargas and Irma Llavona — have denied the accusations.

On Thursday, González named Waldemar Quiles as Puerto Rico's new natural resources secretary. She said that the investigation was part of a ''political process'' that occurred last year before González's party's primaries, in which she beat former Gov. Pedro Pierluisi, who was seeking a second term. Pierluisi has previously denied that it was an alleged political attack.

Quiles's first administrative order was to shelve the investigation and, among other things, legalize the presence of homes in La Parguera via a fee that owners must pay every five years.

''That is illegal,'' said Pedro Saadé, a Puerto Rican attorney and expert in environmental law, who noted that there's a required procedure to grant concessions on public domain assets.

In a phone interview, he said that he worried that the order would set a precedent and roll back protections for other areas in Puerto Rico as it struggles with a growing number of illegal developments.

On Friday, the president of the Sierra Club's Puerto Rico chapter, Hernaliz Vázquez called on officials to rescind Quiles's nomination as natural resources secretary and criticized his order.

''This action is a direct affront against environmental protection and justice," Vázquez said. ''It is unacceptable that the secretary ... whose mission should be to safeguard our natural resources, uses his position to benefit the governor's in-laws.''

''Retroactively legalizing constructions that have negatively impacted a protected nature reserve is not only irresponsible, it is illegal,'' Vázquez added.

The first structures were built in La Parguera around the 1960s, with fishermen living in ramshackle houses that have largely been replaced by high-end homes that environmentalists say must be removed.

On Friday, Puerto Rico Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz wrote on Facebook that the Senate will ask Quiles to explain his administrative order. He wrote that remedies to avoid ''selective prosecution'' require ''caution, transparency and firmness so as to avoid falling into what could appear, be perceived or in effect be a selective benefit or privilege.''

In written statements made public Friday, Quiles said that his administrative order had been prepared by the previous administration and that it recognizes the acquired rights of those with homes in La Parguera and establishes responsibilities with which they must comply.