Guardian: Puerto Rico protests grow into general strike against governor

The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico saw a massive general strike Monday as calls of "Ricky Resign" was the island's response to embattled Governor Ricardo Rosselló's attempt to hold on to power by stepping down from his leadership in the New Progressive Party and announcing he would not run for reelection in 2020.

The Guardian reports that hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans demonstrated in the streets during the Monday protests organizers branded as "660,510 +1" in reference to the number of votes Rosselló received in the last election and his repeated insistence that he maintains a popular mandate following this election.

Puerto Ricans have been calling for the governor's resignation following a July 13th leak of text messages between the governor and 11 members of his inner circle that contained homophobic and sexist slurs aimed at political rivals and jokes about dead bodies following the destruction of hurricane Maria.

Rosselló's administration has been surrounded by controversy and corruption charges since Maria. Many of the individuals caught up in the text message scandal have already resigned and a number of other members of the government were arrested by the FBI just before the scandal broke.