Puerto Rico's top officials are asking for federal help amid a 'crisis of violence'

Puerto Rico.
(Image credit: Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

Puerto Rico has already seen 19 homicides so far this year, continuing a so-called "sense of impunity and lawlessness" that Resident Commissioner Jennifer González-Colón wants to end.

In a Wednesday letter to Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker and Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen, González-Colón detailed a longstanding history of "drug-related murders" in the U.S territory. As the island's only non-voting House representative, she is asking for increased "technical assistance and law enforcement resources" to curb the problem, she said in the letter.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.