NewsTracker Answers for week of July 29, 2019

Q: Gov. Ricardo A. Rossello of Puerto Rico announced his resignation last week, saying he could no longer credibly remain in power after widespread protests and the threat of impeachment. Where is the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico?

Circle the area on this map


Q: Rossello was already reeling from allegations of corruption when when revelations of obscene online chats mocking women, gays and hurricane victims set off the protests. Puerto Rico is a U.S. . . .

A. Autonomous dependency

B. Colony

C. Federal district

D. Territory


D. Rossello is the first governor to resign in the modern history of Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory of more than 3 million American citizens. The territory’s residents elect their governor and legislature but do not vote for U.S. president.. They also elect a non-voting representative to Congress called a Resident Commissioner.


Q: When Rossello announced he would resign on Aug. 2, protesters on the streets of territorial capital broke into celebration. What is the capital of Puerto Rico?

A. Christobal

B. Columbia

C. San Juan

D. Santo Domingo


C. In 1493, Christopher Columbus named the island San Juan Bautista, in honor of Saint John the Baptist, while the capital city was named Ciudad de Puerto Rico or "Rich Port City". Eventually traders and other maritime visitors came to refer to the entire island as Puerto Rico, while San Juan became the name used for the main trading port and the capital city.


Q: In 1898, the United States took over hundreds of islands around the world including Puerto Rico. Which of those island territories was NOT acquired in the Spanish-American War that year?

A. Guam

B. Hawaii

C. Philippines

D. Puerto Rico


B. The U.S annexed Hawaii in an 1898 treaty with a government set up by American businessmen who overthrew the Kingdom of Hawaii five years earlier. The U.S. ambassador to Hawaii had helped those coup conspirators with an invasion by a company of U.S. Marines. The United States gained the other islands in the Treaty of Paris with Spain.


Q: That war with Spain was triggered by the explosion and sinking of a U.S. warship visiting the largest island in the Caribbean Sea ...

A. Cuba

B. Hispaniola

C. Jamaica

D. Puerto Rico


A. Cuba is the largest Caribbean island followed by Hispaniola, Jamaica and Puerto Rico. Hostilities between the United States and Spain began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana harbor, leading to U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence.