Police superintendent, Joseph González, said that, in his opinion, former governor Wanda Vázquez Garced should not have escorts after pleading guilty in a criminal case.

He reiterated that he does not have the legal power to remove the assigned agents, but for the first time he expressed his opinion on the subject.

“I have to make sure that I am doing things right. I know I am doing it right within the framework of the law. I sleep peacefully. Now, if I would like to take it away, that’s another thing,” said González on Tuesday in an interview with Radio Isla 1320.

He added that “a person convicted of a crime, probably should not have an escort.”

Later, to the direct question of whether he would remove the former governor’s bodyguard, González replied: “That is so”.

Vázquez Garced entered a guilty plea in federal court in San Juan to a criminal charge of accepting an election campaign contribution promise from a foreign national.

The facts he admitted allege that Venezuelan banker Julio Herrera Velutini would contribute to his political aspirations in the 2020 primaries, reason for which the Federal Prosecutor’s Office recommended one year in jail.

The sentencing hearing is scheduled for October 15, but the former official’s defense has requested that it be postponed due to differences with the presentence report of the Probation Office.

Meanwhile, Gonzalez acknowledged that since the allegation of guilt, “the people are outraged” regarding the permanence of Vazquez Garced’s bodyguards.

However, he emphasized that the determination not to remove the agents is due to an analysis carried out by the Legal Division, which included a decision of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, following a lawsuit by former governors Rafael Hernández Colón and Carlos Romero Barceló, ruling that the escorts are an acquired right.

González insisted that the only way to change this rule of law is through legislation that amends the law.

“I know what I would like to do, but I have always said that we have to do things the right way,” the police chief said. “Nobody can take the law into their own hands, including me.