By The Star Staff
New Progressive Party (NPP) gubernatorial candidate Jenniffer González Colón presented her campaign team on Wednesday.
“My campaign belongs to the people; it is the people who establish the issues, those who present their concerns, their ideas, those who mobilize, because they will be the priority in my government,” González Colón said at a press conference at her campaign committee headquarters on Loaiza Cordero Street in San Juan. “My candidacy represents a movement of change, led by the communities to build the Puerto Rico that we all want and aspire to as a people.”
Among the key members of her campaign team, González Colón, who is in her second term as island resident commissioner in Washington, D.C., has included figures such as Dr. David Figueroa Betancourt, a candidate for an at-large seat in the House of Representatives who suffers from quadriplegia as a result of a diving accident, as liaison with people with functional challenges; Juan Manuel Gaud Pacheco, who will serve as liaison with the faith communities; and businessman Juan Antonio “Tony” Larrea, representing the private sector. Enid Inalbis Ortiz Rodríguez, who has served as deputy administrator of the State Insurance Fund Corp., will be the voice of public servants, and Natalia Catoni, a national delegate of the Puerto Rico Young Republican Federation, will focus on the interests of youth.
The team is completed by Dr. Yolanda Varela, who will focus on the challenges of older adults; Cecilia La Luz, who specializes in the development of public policy for the LGBTTQI+ community via the Legislature and the executive branch, will work on defending the rights of that community; and Tatiana Pérez, a municipal legislator in Camuy running for an at-large House seat, who will team with Gurabo Mayor Rosachely Rivera to lead on issues related to women in the campaign.
Mabel Vélez, a municipal legislator in Guaynabo and a Senate candidate for the Bayamón district, will also be part of this latter group.
Attorneys Veronica Ferraiuoli and Oriol Campos, who will also continue as director of finance, will be in charge of the government platform with input from the aforementioned nine spokespersons from the representative groups of society, while attorney Aníbal Vega Borges is the electoral director and Orlando Pagán is in charge of field operations.
Francisco Domenech will direct the campaign, while Ángel Cintrón will act as political director and spokesperson.
González Colón, who also serves as NPP vice president, reiterated that she seeks the inclusion of ideas and solutions, experience and youth in her campaign.
As part of its structure the campaign also has a body of advisers made up of the mayor of Bayamón Mayor Ramón Luis Rivera, former mayor of Manatí Juan Aubín “Bín” Cruz Manzano, Carlos Bermúdez, former senator Orlando Parga and former House Speaker Zaida “Cucusa” Hernández.