San Juan, PR – Given the lack of response from the Department of Public Safety (DSP, in Spanish) and the Bureau for Emergency Management and Disaster Administration (NMEAD) to a request for the government’s Electric Service Outage Incident Plan, the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) filed a legal action on the San Juan Superior Court on Thursday, under the Transparency and Expedited Procedure Act for Access to Public Information.

Since June 2, 2025, CPI journalist Eliván Martínez Mercado has requested, via email, Annex P of the Puerto Rico All-Hazards Plan, also known as the Electric Service Outage Incident Plan — a key document in the context of the blackouts that have occurred in recent months and the beginning of the hurricane season.

The request was addressed to Exel J. López Vélez and Mariana Cobián, press officers for the DSP and NMEAD, as well as to the DSP’s transparency officers. To date, none of these officials has responded or provided the requested document.

“The people of Puerto Rico have a right to know if the government, as it should, has a plan to address major electric service interruptions, and whether that plan has been followed. We also want to know if the agencies are prepared to handle prolonged outages, especially as we approach the peak of hurricane season,” said Carla Minet, executive director of the CPI.

Martínez has spent several years investigating the consequences of the lack of electricity and recently published the book “Los estragos del apagón” (“The Ravages of the Blackout”), which recounts the dramatic testimonies of the families of victims who died because of the longest power outage in the history of Puerto Rico and the United States, following Hurricane María.

“It’s unfortunate that officials fail to comply with the Transparency Law by not responding to information requests and then force the government to spend time and money only to lose in court,” Martínez added. “Our mission is clear. We’re reporting on the island’s preparedness to save the lives of the most vulnerable, because since Hurricane María, we’ve learned that blackouts are deadly.”

This request has reached the court because the government has ignored Martínez’s petitions, as well as those of the CPI’s executive director, who also requested the Emergency Plan multiple times from La Fortaleza, the house of government, without receiving a response.

“The lack of transparency and timely access to public information compromises citizens’ well-being and the ability of journalists to hold the government accountable and ask essential questions. This administration’s silence in response to these requests reflects a policy of opacity that we have been denouncing and that is deeply concerning,” added the CPI’s executive director.

In this case, the journalistic organization is represented by the Legal Clinic for Access to Information of the Inter American University Law School, led by attorneys Luis José Torres Asencio and Steven P. Lausell Recurt.