Ángel Abreu Valentín, a businessman operating short-term rentals in the northern region of the island, asked an acquaintance to film him. Then he put one of his hands down his pants and defecated in front of the guard booth at the Oceanía Condominium in Arecibo. He then spread his feces on signs posted at the gates that read: “No short-term rentals allowed.” The video was sent via WhatsApp to the condominium’s security guard, Joel Mercado López, and a neighbor, Héctor Mercado Rivera.
“I took a dump. This is a peaceful strike. This is how it’s done in Europe,” said Abreu Valentín in the video sent last February 24 to his neighbor and the guard, showing him smearing the PVC signs at the entrance gates.
That day, Mercado Rivera was peacefully in his home when he received the disturbing video from his neighbor, which he later reported as disrupting his peace.
“If I’m at home, the last thing I expect is to receive something like that,” testified Mercado Rivera during the trial against Abreu Valentín held on August 27, where Judge Vidal Vélez Díaz of the Arecibo Superior Court found Abreu Valentín not guilty of disturbing his neighbor’s peace. Two other complaints against the businessman for damaging the signs and disturbing the guard’s peace had already been dismissed as no probable cause was found in the Arecibo court.
Photo provided
The Abreu Valentín family owns at least four corporations in short-term rental and other property businesses along the northern coast. Their construction activities in the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone (ZMT, in Spanish) in the Islote neighborhood of Arecibo have sparked protests, neighbor complaints, legal suits, and interventions from the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DRNA, in Spanish) and the Puerto Rico Planning Board (JP, in Spanish).
However, an investigation by the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) found that the complaints filed for environmental and criminal violations against Ángel Abreu Valentín, his brothers Carlos and Roberto, and their corporations have seen no repercussions in Puerto Rico’s administrative or judicial courts.
A Pattern of Irregularities and Impunity
Abreu Valentín is at odds with several Oceanía Apartments neighbors, including Mercado Rivera, because although the condominium bylaws prohibit renting units for less than six months, he and other owners were engaged in such commercial activities. A court order on July 11, obtained through a provisional injunction, has temporarily halted these practices. The lawsuit seeking a permanent remedy is still ongoing.
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According to his statement to the CPI, Abreu Valentín manages six apartments in Oceanía.
According to data provided to the CPI by the Puerto Rico Tourism Company (CTPR, in Spanish), by the end of June, the Abreu Valentín family had 24 short-term rental properties registered with the agency under Northern Properties Corporation (NORPRO). The Tourism Company could not explain why some of these properties in Oceanía Apartments were in its Host Registry, despite the requirement for hoteliers to provide evidence that the condominium boards approve short-term rentals. This evidence was not found in NORPRO’s file, which the CPI reviewed.
The Abreu Valentín family has long-standing ties to the New Progressive Party (PNP, in Spanish), of which they are donors and regular attendees at political events.
Documents in the CTPR showed that by early 2018, the Abreu Valentín family had over 200 short-term rental units registered with CTPR through NORPRO in Arecibo and Hatillo, both oceanfront towns in the North coast.
Sending the video was not Abreu Valentín’s only incident with individuals at the complex. In May 2023, he was accused of slapping Raudah Zarwi in the face while at the condominium. The Police withdrew the complaint because the victim, who speaks English, needed an interpreter, and the prosecutor’s office did not arrange for one in time for the arraignment, according to police records. The case was supposed to be rescheduled for September 2023 but was never brought back to court, as per the records.
The most recent incident occurred on May 31, when environmental activist Lauce Colón live-streamed a verbal and homophobic attack from Carlos Abreu Valentín, Ángel’s brother, while denouncing the Abreu Valentin family’s new construction in the ZMT. In the video, Colón, who later announced his candidacy for mayor of Arecibo for the Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana (MVC), asks Carlos about permits for a pool being built in the ZMT. Carlos does not directly respond but says, “If you’re looking for men, look somewhere else. Not here,” and slaps Colón’s phone, yelling, “Stop being such a faggot.”
Carlos and Ángel recently posted photos of their participation in the fundraiser for gubernatorial candidate Jenniffer Gonzalez. The donation for the event on August 23 was $250 for regular admission or $2,500 for special or VIP treatment. There, they were photographed with the Resident Commissioner, Rep. Johnny Méndez, and other party members. In March, Ángel also gave a $500 cash donation to the committee of PNP Senator Thomas Rivera Schatz.
Ángel Roberto Abreu Valentín, far right, attended the birthday party fundraiser of Commissioner Jenniffer González, center, at the San Juan Hotel in Isla Verde, where the candidate's husband, José Yovín Vargas Llavona, far left, and Rep. Carlos “Johnny” Méndez were also present. Photo taken from Facebook
Brothers Ángel and Carlos Abreu Valentín, far left, in the photo with PNP San Juan Region Director Ángel Cintrón, second from left, at the party. Photo taken from Facebook
Brothers Carlos and Ángel Abreu Valentín have supported the PNP with donations to its candidates. Photo taken from Facebook
The MVC mayoral candidate filed a complaint against Carlos Abreu, alleging that he also “threw a motor vehicle on him,” hit him, pushed him, and threw him to the ground.
The prosecution filed a charge of disturbing the peace and another of assault in its less severe form. Judge Cyndia E. Irizarry Casiano, who Gov. Pedro Pierluisi nominated last year to preside over the State Elections Commission but was not confirmed in the Legislative Assembly, did not find cause for arrest against Carlos for aggression and disturbing the peace, and the prosecution did not appeal.
Colón filed a complaint with the DRNA about the allegedly illegal construction. In early September, the CPI visited the area and found two workers moving ahead with construction.
Carlos Abreu had a conviction in 2012 for animal abuse when he grabbed a dog by the neck, threw it into the air, and then into a cage, according to court records the CPI obtained. For these less serious offenses, he paid a $100 fine.
Despite attempts to reach Carlos Abreu for comment regarding the allegations, he did not respond to the CPI’s calls or messages.
Development in the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone
A CPI investigation published in December revealed that the Abreu Valentín family has taken over abandoned structures located in the ZMT along the Islote neighborhood in the North coast. Although this area is classified as a “Scenic Route,” the DRNA has not intervened in the illegal coastal constructions. The CPI documented another tactic used by the family: acquiring properties through irregular processes.
“Why should we allow our coasts to have properties that are practically public nuisances?” Ángel told the CPI after leaving the Arecibo Superior Court, following a favorable ruling in his case for disturbing the peace in August. “Why don’t we let someone improve them?”
Scott William Teuber, a neighbor of Islote, told the CPI that Ángel Abreu Valentín occupied his home in 2023, and he had to travel from the United States to reclaim his property.
After the hearing, Ángel admitted to the CPI that he had taken possession of and modified Teuber’s property without permission.
“The property was abandoned. No one was there. I went in, threw everything out, fixed the property, made it nice, and then Mr. Scott came and took his property back,” he argued. “The truth is that if you were a neighbor of a public nuisance, where drug addicts come in, where there are rats, you shouldn’t be exposed to a health problem,” said Ángel, who lives in Oceanía Apartments, a little more than 2.5 kilometers away from the residence he had invaded.
Nine months after the CPI reported the incident between Ángel and Teuber, the short-term rental administrator admitted that he removed Teuber’s car from the property “with a tow truck, it was fixed, and it was returned” without Teuber’s authorization. Abreu Valentín did not agree to speak with the CPI for the initial investigation into his family.
For these incidents, Teuber filed a police report against Ángel for allegedly destroying and looting his property and vehicle. None of the charges for auto theft, breaking and entering, or stealing a vehicle were successful. The prosecutor’s office did not appeal either.
Teuber was preparing to sue Ángel for damages. However, in January 2024, he returned to the United States after three armed individuals entered his house on the night of December 30, kidnapped him in his own car, and, after beating him, left him abandoned near his home in Arecibo. Officer Wanda Vázquez, Police press spokeswoman in Arecibo, confirmed to the CPI that the investigation was in the hands of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. FBI Press Officer Diana Rosa neither confirmed nor denied this. Another source informed the CPI that the case was referred to the federal agency.
This practice of occupying other people’s properties was also evidenced in the Manatí Superior Court when Judge María A. González Cardona ordered the eviction of Gladys Y. Abreu Valentín, sister of Ángel and Carlos, in November 2021 for occupying an uninhabited residence in that municipality. Another lawsuit is underway in Arecibo against Ángel over the legitimacy of the alleged purchase of another property in the Islote neighborhood.
Roberto Abreu Valentín, a physician and brother of Ángel and Carlos, also claims to own a house on the Islote coast in Arecibo, allegedly left to him by a patient who died while living in an elderly care center where he said he had placed her through the Department of Family Services after Hurricane María. As the sole evidence of possession, he has an affidavit from his medical office assistant stating that the patient donated the house to him, as Roberto admitted during a 2022 court hearing on unrelated matters.
Roberto’s medical office, which practices geriatrics and general medicine, is barely a mile from the Police Headquarters in Arecibo. He has also lived in this municipality and previously in the nearby town of Manatí. However, from 1995 to 2021, there was an arrest warrant against him for alleged domestic violence against his ex-wife, without the police reportedly apprehending him. The warrant remained active for almost 26 years despite him being in the police’s jurisdiction.
The ex-wife accused Roberto of a “pattern of constant physical force or psychological violence, intimidation, or harassment,” according to the complaint filed in his absence at the Arecibo Superior Court. The forum found probable cause for two counts of violating Act 54 (domestic violence), imposed a $25,000 bond, and ordered his arrest, according to court records.
Roberto was never arrested for these charges. At that time, Roberto, whose email username was “aubin4ever,” lived in Manatí, where his sister’s husband, Juan Aubín Cruz Manzano, was mayor for 40 years. Additionally, the family was well-known in the municipality as owners of the educational center Instituto Irma Valentín. In 2007, several directors, including Carlos and Roberto Abreu Valentín and their mother, Irma Valentín, were implicated in fraud related to Pell Grants.
In March 2020, during a process to close “historical cases,” Judge Heidi Kiess Rivera summoned this domestic violence case for a hearing attended by then-prosecutor Roberto Osoria and agents Carlos Colón and Joel Maldonado from the Special Arrests Division. Neither the agents nor the prosecutor could locate the accused or the victim.
The pandemic interrupted the closure of the Act 54 case. Still, it resumed in 2021, when Special Arrests agents only confirmed with the Demographic Registry that Roberto Abreu Valentín did not have a death certificate. Since they could not locate the complainant, prosecutor Ramón W. Ayende dropped the case, the court filed it, and the arrest warrant that had been in effect for 26 years was nullified.
The press spokeswoman for the Police in Arecibo told the CPI that the officer in charge of making the arrests didn’t remember the efforts made to locate the doctor, recommending that a report be requested from the General Headquarters in San Juan, where it is kept. As of press time, the Police had not responded to the CPI’s inquiries about the actions taken by their officers and what prevented the arrest.
The CPI attempted to contact Dr. Roberto Abreu Valentín by calling his medical office.
“Limit your reporting to matters not involving personalism and our private life. We are ending all communication with you,” read a written statement sent to the CPI by Yelena Montalvo, who identified herself as Roberto Abreu’s sister and office assistant.
Continued Violations of Administrative Orders
Since 2022, Construction & Health, Integrated Services, an Abreu family corporation dissolved in 2019, owes the DRNA $10,000 in fines for building a terrace in the ZMT and causing environmental damage, as the CPI reported last year. The DRNA’s press officer, Joel Seijo, confirmed that the fine remains unpaid. The agency also ordered the terrace built at the business El Alcázar de Colón to be removed and the area restored to its original state, but no action has been taken. The agency spokesperson said they have “no confirmed information” about compliance with the demolition order. The CPI visited the site a few days before this publication, and the terrace was still there.
“The DRNA’s Legal Division will soon file a motion to demand payment. If the payment is not made, the necessary legal procedures will be initiated in court,” said Seijo.
The JP also filed two legal motions last year against Ángel Abreu and NORPRO after receiving complaints about two Islote neighborhood structures allegedly operating as short-term rentals without the necessary permits. The JP later dropped one of the cases due to procedural errors.
In November 2023, the agency also took NORPRO to court because a property in the Islote II neighborhood, rented out short-term, did not have the required use permits. The JP is demanding the demolition of the constructions made on the property and a $500 fine. The agency requested a full trial since agreements made with Ángel Abreu Valentín, on behalf of the corporation, to legalize their actions, were not fulfilled. The court set the hearing for October.
Marisol Luna Díaz, special assistant to the President of the JP, confirmed to the CPI that they have received at least six complaints against members and corporations of the Abreu Valentín family.
Transparence et éthique