The handpicked successor to disgraced Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello, lawyer Pedro Pierluisi, was sworn in on Friday after Rossello stepped down, but Pierluisi said his term might be short because the island's Senate still had to ratify his position.
At his first news conference as leader of the bankrupt U.S. territory, Pierluisi said Puerto Rico's Senate would meet on Wednesday to vote on whether to confirm his position as governor.
Pierluisi, a lawyer who formerly advised the despised, federally created board supervising Puerto Rico's bankruptcy, was sworn in even though his appointment had not yet gone before the Senate for a vote. Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz, who calls Pierluisi "the lawyer for Puerto Rico's No. 1 enemy," termed the controversial move "unethical and illegal."