Appellate Court Confirms Decision to Deliver Data on Short-Term Rentals

San Juan – Five judges have already ordered the disclosure of a list of all properties registered to operate as short-term rentals in Puerto Rico to the Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI in Spanish). The Puerto Rico Tourism Company has until Feb. 8 to provide the information to avoid being imposed a daily and indefinite fine of $300, as San Juan Superior Court Judge Alfonso Martínez Piovanetti ordered during a contempt hearing held in January. A panel of four judges of the Court of Appeals unanimously confirmed the San Juan Superior Court’s decision validating the CPI’s information request sent to Tourism, on Friday, Jan. 26.

CPI Sues Puerto Rico Health Department Again to Access Public Information

San Juan – The Puerto Rico Department of Health was sued again this past Monday for not providing public information and ignoring requests for data and reports related to its response to hurricanes Irma and María, the 2020 earthquakes, and Hurricane Fiona. This is the fifth time that the Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI, in Spanish) has turned to the court to order Health to comply with the right of access to information. “The CPI oversees and continuously monitors the effects and consequences of socio-environmental disasters, especially the public health response to serve populations that depend on electric power services to survive, and the Department of Health has not provided us the information, which we’ve been requesting since October,” said Carla Minet, the CPI’s executive director. The legal recourse for access to public information presented in the San Juan Superior Court requests that the Department of Health and its secretary, Dr. Carlos Mellado López, be ordered to provide the requested information in compliance with Article 4 of the Transparency Act (Act 141 -2019) and the constitutional principles on access to information in Puerto Rico. CPI journalist Eliván Martínez Mercado requested the information from Department spokespersons, which include reports, communications, and corrective plans that must be in the hands of the Puerto Rico Department of Health’s Biosafety Office, which is designated for public health readiness and response.

Guánica Bay

Local, Federal Governments Remain Mum About Substance Posing Carcinogenic Threat in the Guánica Bay

Even though the EPA recognized the risk posed by the consumption of fish from the bay after a  Center for Investigative Journalism’s investigation, neither the municipality nor federal or local agencies have taken measures to prevent recreational fishing and warn  the public about the risks of consuming species from this body of water.