Puerto Rico governor maintains innocence

Puerto Rico governor Anibal Acevedo Vila indignantly denied allegations of wrongdoing and gave no sign he would abandon his re-election effort, despite being charged in a campaign finance investigation that could send him to prison for 20 years.

Mr Acevedo, a superdelegate to the Democratic convention, accused US prosecutors on Thursday of overstepping their authority with a politically motivated indictment accusing him and a dozen others of conspiring to illegally pay off his campaign debts.

“I am going to defend my rights and protect the dignity of my family and of the people of Puerto Rico who support me,” the governor said in a statement hours after the FBI arrested most of those named in the indictment in San Juan, Philadelphia and the Washington DC area.

“I want to assure the people of Puerto Rico that I have never solicited nor accepted a contribution in exchange for a government contract, never permitted the illegal use of public funds nor acted illegally,” he said.

“I know very well several of those accused today and I am convinced that they never accepted a bribe or stole a single cent.”

After a late-night meeting with members of his Popular Democratic Party, Mr Acevedo agreed to do anything necessary – including resign as governor – to keep the investigation from harming the organization, former party leader Miguel Hernandez Agosto said.

“That, to me, is a very serious, important and patriotic declaration,” Mr Hernandez said. “You cannot be more clear.”

Mr Hernandez and other party members declined to say whether they had asked the governor to resign. Mr Acevedo left the closed-door meeting without answering reporters’ questions.

Mr Acevedo cancelled public events and remained sequestered all day Thursday in the island’s powder-blue colonial governor’s residence with his wife and two children. He said he would turn himself in later today.