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WORLD NEWS Friday 6 OctOber 2017

With traffic lights out, Puerto Ricans cope with road snarls

By MICHAEL MELIA ticularly in the capital, San “I believe it’s being man-
Associated Press Juan, which has seen a aged as well as you could
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) steady return of commut- expect,” he said of the
— As three lanes of traffic ers as it remains a hub for traffic.
sped toward him, Officer the island-wide relief effort. Hurricane Maria tore across
Ulises Villanueva held up On city streets still clogged the Caribbean island on
the palms of both hands in some areas by downed Sept. 20 with winds over
and blew a whistle, bring- tree limbs, intersections not 150 mph, killing at least 34
ing the cars to a stop be- manned by police officers people and devastating
neath a string of twisted, can resemble automotive the island’s antiquated
darkened traffic lights. games of chicken. electricity grid.
With most of Puerto Rico Islanders have devised At a news conference on
lacking power two weeks a range of strategies to Thursday, Gov. Ricardo
after Hurricane Maria cope. Rossello said power has
struck, hundreds of police “It’s better to walk,” said been restored to 9 percent
officers have been de- Fatima Arias, who was on of customers. The govern-
ployed to tame the snarls her way to a San Juan ment’s hope is to have the
of traffic. bank and to see relatives. power back on for a quar-
“The only thing that kills you “We are not very polite in ter of the island within a
is the heat,” said Villan- the streets. Everyone wants month’s time, and for the
ueva, clad in a dark blue to go first.” entire territory of 3.4 million
uniform from his cap to his Victor Serrano, who works people by March.
boots as he worked a 12- in San Juan as an educa- Elvin Feliciano, who lives in
hour shift at an intersection tion program coordinator, Ponce on the south coast,
on F.D. Roosevelt Avenue has been carpooling with drove across the island
in San Juan’s financial dis- colleagues from his home to San Juan for work on
trict. in the suburb of Guayna- Thursday and gave officers
Traffic is a part of life in bo, in part to conserve high marks for keeping the
the densely populated gasoline. He also adjusted Officer Ulises Villanueva directs traffic at an intersection in San traffic rolling.“Everybody
Juan, Puerto Rico, Thursday, Oct. 5 2017. Traffic lights are out
U.S. territory, but the out- his schedule to avoid the across most of the island amid power outages caused by Hurr- is cooperating,” he said.
ages have introduced new worst of the afternoon rush ricane Maria. “Ninety percent of the driv-
levels of congestion, par- hour. (AP Photo/Michael Melia) ers are respectful.”q
Lawyer for ex-Guatemalan presidents arrested

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — committed during his 1982- Aldana said Lima’s ex-wife
A lawyer representing for- 1983 presidency during the Alejandra Reyes shared
mer Guatemalan President country’s civil war. recordings with investiga-
Otto Perez Molina and ex- Chief prosecutor Thelma tors that suggest proper-
dictator Efrain Rios Montt Aldana said in a news ties owned by Lima were
has been arrested for al- conference Thursday that turned over to Galindo to
leged ties to money laun- Galindo’s arrest was relat- be put in his name. The
dering, officials said Thurs- ed to another investigation properties were allegedly
day. involving the ex-army offi- a form of payment from in-
National Civil Police cer Byron Lima. mates to Lima so that they
spokesman Pablo Castillo Lima was serving a sen- would be transferred within
said that Moises Galindo tence for the 1998 murder the prison system.
was put behind bars on a of Guatemalan Bishop Lima’s brother, Luis Lima,
judge’s order. Juan Jose Gerardi before was also arrested, accord-
Perez Molina resigned in he was killed in a prison riot ing to the U.N. anti-corrup-
2015 and is in jail as he last year. tion commission working
In this 2013 photo, Guatemala’s former dictator Jose Efrain Rios
Montt, left, talks with his lawyer Moises Galindo during his trial on awaits trial on corrup- Lima was also allegedly in Guatemala. Reyes is a
genocide charges in Guatemala City. Galindo has been arrest- tion charges. Rios Montt getting rich and gaining protected witness and was
ed Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017, for alleged ties to money laundering. is awaiting trial on geno- influence over the prison moved out of Guatemala
(AP Photo/Moises Castillo) cide charges for atrocities system while behind bars. for her safety. q