Appointed to the Comptroller’s Office asks lawmakers not to consider their tweets and messages on Facebook

Puerto Rico’s appointed comptroller, Kermit Lucena Zabala, defended his expressions on social media on Sunday, some of which were racist or sexually vocabulary, stating that he made them a “private citizen” and asked lawmakers to have charge their evaluation that they are not taken into account.

“These expressions on Twitter and Facebook were made under the framework of a private citizen. I am not a government official at the moment. I am conservative in nature and when I see things that are not akin to my thinking as I wrote them and I retweeted my character as a private citizen “, Said Lucena Zabala in a telephone interview with The New Day.

Asked if his comments on social media can disqualify him for the position that should be evaluated by both Senate as per the House of Representatives, Lucena Zabala, asked to see them within the framework in which she made them.

“I hope they don’t take this position because it’s a position of conservatism. Obviously I have to tell her – two weeks ago – I wasn’t in that process. I came to meet the governor (Wanda Vázquez Garced) Last Monday. That’s when she told me I was one of the possible candidates (in charge). As a civil servant things change. I already represent the office. It’s something else. He is not a private official “, He stated.

“I would ask legislators to see it in this context, which are expressions of a citizen in his day to day life. At no point is it my intention to make anyone look bad. It is my expression on certain issues of the American nation and our country, “he added.

Minutes after Lucena Zabala was appointed by the governor for the position of comptroller of Puerto Rico, the tweets and messages she posted on her social networks began to spread.

In one, Lucena Zabala joins those who criticize the governor’s decision to maintain total confinement amid the pandemic while “lawmakers and public employees continue to charge.”

In another he retweets an English comment that says “why can’t you find a black man when you need him.” This specific tweet was shared by the popular legislator, Rafael “Tatito” Hernandez, who charged against Lucena.

Another of Lucena Zabala’s posts is under the term “Sexflix”.

“That was because Netflix pulled a series about non-prostitute girls, but minors doing a series of dances and stuff that was criticized by a lot of people,” the appointee told that medium.