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Loíza Mayor Julia Nazario Fuentes confirmed Wednesday that the Government Ethics Office (GEO) accepted the complaint she filed against designated Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER) Secretary Waldemar Quiles Pérez for alleged improper intervention in municipal matters related to coastal erosion.
She made the statements after attending a swearing-in ceremony in San Juan for new members of the governing board of the Municipal Revenue Collection Center.
“Yes, today I received the reply that they accepted the complaint we filed in Ethics against the DNER secretary, so from today on I will not make any more comments on this matter,” the mayor said. “That is how it is.”
Nazario said last week that she filed the complaint against Quiles “for improperly intervening in municipal work, trying to promote the hiring of a specific company for the management of coastal erosion in the area.”
She said the company in question “even visited the town to recommend a specific treatment for coastal erosion.”
The mayor described the situation as “unusual” and said it was something that “I had never experienced in all my years in public service.”
Nazario said the complaint filed with the GEO contains the details of the situation, which she hopes will be addressed “urgently.”
“In addition to the concern we have with coastal erosion, we also have to deal with this attempt at undue intervention, which of course, I did not accept,” she said.
Nazario’s communication reviewed incidents that have been recorded in Loíza’s seaside Parcelas Suárez sector since Jan. 11, when a strong wave event worsened coastal erosion, “drastically reducing the stability of the terrain and affecting sanitary systems, power lines and roads, which further compromised the safety of the families in the area.”
That day, the mayor ordered the closure of streets 3 and 10 in Parcelas Suárez, and contacted the designated DNER secretary to request that he visit the site, but Quiles replied that he could not come to inspect the area, because it was too far away from where he was, in Utuado, and instead he would send personnel from the agency.
Nazario said the DNER personnel “did not arrive either” and it was not until two days later, on Jan. 13, that Quiles visited the affected area, where the mayor let him know of her intention to “carry out a mitigation measure such as a ‘riprap’ [stone wall],” for which she needed authorization from the DNER, which had already been requested in December 2024 and had not been addressed.
