(CNN Spanish) – The urban music singer Bad Bunny immersed himself in the electoral campaign for the general elections on November 5 in the United States by hiring billboards around his native Puerto Rico to criticize the management of the ruling New Progressive Party, an organization that promotes the island becomes another state of the American union.
In these elections, the positions of governor, mayors and members of the municipal and state legislative assemblies are chosen.
“Voting PNP is voting for Luma”, “Whoever votes PNP does not love Puerto Rico”, “Voting PNP is voting for corruption”, are the messages that are appearing in different places around the island.
Luma Energy is the private company that since 2021 has been in charge of the transmission and distribution of electricity in Puerto Rico and was hired by the current governor Pedro Pierluisi (PNP). CNN has tried to get a reaction from the company, but there has been no response so far.
On his official X account @sanbenito (formerly Twitter) the artist published a message confirming that he paid for the advertising guidelines: “Ad paid for by Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio. A Puerto Rican who does love Puerto Rico.”
This is not the first time that Bad Bunny has expressed himself against the island’s government on social and political issues. In 2022, he released the documentary “El Apagón,” in which he criticized the government’s action in dealing with the hurricane emergencies that have affected Puerto Rico since 2017. In 2019, he joined the series of massive protests that demanded the departure of the then Governor Ricardo Rosselló (PNP), and who later resigned on August 2 of that year.
Since Hurricane Maria in 2017, which damaged much of the electrical grid, the island has faced problems with electricity and power outages and blackouts have increased.
The PNP filed a complaint this week over the messages that appeared on the billboards and noted that they have “electoral purposes and violate applicable laws. The lawsuit states that the ads do not say who promotes them.
The Office of the Electoral Comptroller of Puerto Rico is evaluating the complaint.
In response to the singer’s publicity, several pro-PNP billboard ads appeared this week. “On November 5, We Sweep! “So that Benito _loves!”, reads the message that suggests, with double intention, that the artist surrender to the situation.
The promotional billboard was financed by Thomas Rivera Schatz, a member of the Senate of Puerto Rico and one of the political leaders of the PNP. The message appears on the billboard: “Political advertisement paid for by the Rivera Schatz Committee.”
